Welcome to our program. Now today
I'm going to continue preaching on the subject, the Lord's Prayer,
from John chapter 17. And this is the account of our
Lord praying his high priestly intercessory prayer on his way
to the cross. He and his disciples had left
the upper room and they were on their way to the Mount of
Olives, to the Garden of Gethsemane, and he prays this prayer. This
is a prayer for His disciples. It can be divided into three
parts, as I said last week. The first five verses, where
I'm going to pick up today, has to do with the Lord praying in
relation to His Father. His relationship of Himself to
His Father as the appointed and sent Savior and Redeemer of His
people. He subjected Himself unto the
Father. And then in verse 6 we'll begin
studying the passages of his prayer, in which he prays specifically
for the disciples that were with him in that day. And then in
the last part of the prayer, beginning at verse 20 to the
end of John 17, he prays for the whole church, all of God's
elect out of every tribe, kindred, tongue and nation, who were given
to Christ before the foundation of the world, whom he redeemed
and justified on the cross, and whom he sends his Spirit to apply,
give them eternal life, spiritual life in the new birth. That's
spiritual Israel, if you will, those who are the spiritual children
of Abraham whom Christ redeemed. Now, in verse 3 of John 17, he
says, this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. And I brought
this out last week briefly, how eternal life is not a span of
time. Eternal life does last forever. It can never be taken away. There
are many people who say that you can be saved and then lost
again. If that's true, then the salvation
that they have is not eternal life. Because eternal life, once
given, can never be taken away. But most of all, that cannot
be true because salvation is by grace and not by works. If salvation is something you
can gain by your works, then obviously it would be something
you could lose by your sinning. And you would have to gain it
back by your works. But you see, that's not biblical
salvation. That's no salvation at all. That's
false religion, false gospels that build up the works and the
pride and the self-righteousness of man. Christ is the Savior,
and if He saves His people from their sins by His power and His
grace, they will stay saved. He not only saves us, but He
preserves us. He's seated at the right hand
of the Father on high, ever living, to make intercession for his
people. And as long as he's seated at the right hand of the Father,
as long as he's ever living to make intercession for his people,
they can never be lost. So this is eternal life. And
he says it's a quality of life. It is a knowledge of the true
God. Now, there are many dead gods,
there are many false gods, but there's only one true and living
God. And He reveals Himself through
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So He says that they might know
Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. Now, how did the Father send
the Son? He sent Him into the world to
be made of a woman, to be made under the law, to redeem them
who were under the law, that they might receive the adoption
of sons. So there is no sinner for whom
Christ died who will ever end up in hell. God the Father sent
him to be the redeemer of his people. And then he says in verse
4, now listen to this, here is the foundation and the basis
of all of salvation. He says, I have glorified thee
on the earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. Now, as I said last week, Christ
is speaking there in anticipation of the cross. He said on the
cross, in John 19 and verse 30, he said, it is finished. And
somebody said, well, it was finished before it was finished. Now,
listen to me. God has created time and he has
purposed and set things in the span of time in their proper
order according to his will for his glory and the good of his
people. And we must not deny that or
argue with it. But listen, when God purposes
to do something, it is as good as done because he's God, he's
sovereign. You see, there's no conditional probabilities with God. He speaks
of things that are not as though they are, and things that are
as though they're not. You see, God is God. And Christ
is the surety. Now, Christ had to actually come
in time and finish the work. But he speaks of it as if it's
a work already done. Now, technically, in time, it
had not been done. But he speaks of it as it is.
But you know something? Isn't that a common way of God's
revelation? The whole Old Testament speaks
of redemption by Christ as if it were already done in the past
tense. Isaiah chapter 53, for example. That great passage concerning
the substitutionary work of Christ is all in the past tense. But
let me show you something here. You know that the New Testament
was originally written in Greek, the ancient Greek, and I've told
people at the church I pastor, and I may have mentioned it here
on television, that you don't have to be an ancient Greek scholar,
or a scholar of ancient Greek, rather, in order to understand
the Scriptures. But realizing that it was written
in that ancient language, the original language, by inspiration
of the Spirit, it does tell us we've got to be careful here.
Don't deal loosely with the Word of God. And the actual tone of
this verse, this word here, finished, is really a timeless word. It
could refer to things that had been done in the past, It could
also refer just as well to things that are being done right at
the present, and it could refer to things to be done in the future.
So the issue of time here is no issue at all. Christ came
to finish a work in time, and he finished it on Calvary. And
he's speaking of that work right here. He said, I've glorified
thee on the earth. How had he glorified the Father?
He had done the will of the Father perfectly. Christ knew no sin. He did no sin. He never became
a sinner. Christ had the sins of His people
laid upon Him, charged to Him, accounted and imputed to Him.
He bore their iniquity. He suffered down in His very
soul the very pains and horrors of the punishment of sin and
the wrath of God against sin. But sin was never infused into
him. Sin cannot be infused. We were
never infused with sin. We were born in sin. We were
born spiritually dead. And that manifests itself or
evidences itself in our sin, which is transgression of the
law. But Christ was made to bear all the sins of his people in
his own body on the tree. All of God's elect, their sins
were laid and accounted upon him. And he walked this earth
as a sinless person in himself. He never had a thought of sin.
He never had a thought of unbelief or rebellion or hatred. He is love incarnate, holiness
incarnate, and he glorified the Father in everything that he
did. The ultimate glory of the Father would be shown at Calvary.
as God the Father would be enabled to be both a just God and a Savior.
And he says it this way, I have finished the work which thou
gavest me to do. That word finishing is an interesting
word. It's used all over the New Testament. For example, it's used in John
13 in verse 1, when it's said that Christ loved his own unto
the end. That word end there is the same
word that's translated finished here in verse 4. In other words,
Christ loved his sheep so much that he went to the cross and
finished the work. Now, he said that in John chapter
10. He said, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep,
and he's going to bring them the glory. It's the same word
that's used in Romans chapter 10 and verse 4 when it says,
"...for Christ is the end of the law," the finishing of the
law, "...for righteousness to everyone that believeth." In
other words, Christ is our righteousness because He kept the law perfectly. He satisfied the justice of God
perfectly. He is the righteousness of His
people. And He's the only righteousness
of His people. So he says, I finished the work
which thou gavest me to do, that is, to die for the sins of his
people and establish an everlasting righteousness of infinite value
whereby God could justify the ungodly. Verse 5, he says, And
now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was. Now there's another
verse that shows us that God purposed all of these things
in salvation. in Christ before the world began. But what he's speaking of here
is the glory that he has as God. Now, he's God-man. And when he
came to this earth and was born and became incarnate and was
born, it's not that he stopped being God, but the outward manifestation
of that glory was veiled for a time in his human flesh. The
Bible says he was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. That in
his appearance he had no comeliness, the scripture says in Isaiah
53, that we should desire him. When you looked upon him, I know
sometimes in these movies and in pictures they'll show the
baby in the manger and they'll have a glorious light all around
him, maybe a halo on his head. None of that stuff happened.
The Bible says he had a very, very poor birth. And in his human flesh, he appeared
just as a man. The Bible says the Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us. And then John went on to say
in verse 14 of John 1, we beheld his glory. That was a revelation
from God. You see, his glory as God was
veiled for a time in human flesh. But in his death on the cross
and in his resurrection from the dead, that glory that was
in him by nature as God would come full force into view. Remember when he gave up the
ghost, the sun darkened, the earth shook, and many of those
who had died were raised from the dead, just like Lazarus.
That was a manifestation of His glory as God, but mainly, mainly
at His resurrection. When He was raised again the
third day because He had redeemed and justified His people, it
was manifested to His people then that He is God in human
flesh. And then again at His ascension,
all of this, He said, now, upon the finishing of this work, He
would be glorified as God-man. Now, in verse 6, He turns to
pray for his disciples who were in the world with him at that
time. And we have some very instructive things in this prayer from this
point. He says in verse 6, now listen
to this, he says, I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou
gavest me out of the world. That's his disciples. He manifested
the name of God. Now the name of God there is
not just a title or a label. The name of God is the actual
revelation of who God is in his truth so as to identify him and
distinguish him from idols. You see, Christ said in John
chapter 16, when he was talking to his disciples, talking about
them going out into the world and preaching the gospel, and
he said, they will throw you out of their synagogues. that
is, out of their religious services, and he said there will come a
time when they will kill you, actually murder you, thinking
they're doing God's service. But he said in verse 3 of John
16, the reason they do this is because they neither know me
nor my Father. And what he's saying here is
this, to his disciples he had manifested who God is through
himself. I have manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world." And these
men were given to him by the Father. They were chosen of God,
the elect of God. And he said they were chosen
out of the world. These men were not chosen and
given to him because they were special in and of themselves.
These men were not chosen and given to him because they deserved
to be chosen and given to him. These men were not chosen and
given to him because they had earned it by their dedication
or their works or even their believing. We see so many instances
of their unbelief that it would be foolish for me to say they
were chosen because they believed. No, sir. They believed because
they were chosen. It's not that they were chosen
because they believed. Listen to me. None of us are
chosen of God based upon our believing. If that were true,
none of us would be chosen because we are by nature unbelievers. It takes a work of the Holy Spirit
to convince us of unbelief. And that's what he said back
in John chapter 16. These men, as do all who believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, believe because God chose them. Christ died for
them, and the Holy Spirit gives them life. So these men were
chosen out of the world, the ungodly, unbelieving, sinful,
depraved world. Now what does that tell us? That
tells us that what Paul wrote, that this is a faithful, sane,
and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. My friend, the only
difference between a sinner lost in his sins and a saved sinner
is the sovereign grace and mercy of God in Christ. You have nothing
to boast of but the cross of Christ, the sovereign grace of
God. And he says, I've manifested
thy name. Who God is is a just God and
a Savior, the God of all grace. unto the men which thou gavest
me out of the world. He says, Thine they were, and
thou gavest them me." What does he mean, Thine they were and
thou gavest them me? Well, God the Father chose them
in unconditional divine electing grace And in choosing them, he
gave them to the Son. He put all of the responsibility
of their entire salvation, even their faith, even their believing,
all the way unto glory into the hands of Christ. Salvation is
conditioned on Christ. And he says, "...and they have
kept thy word." In other words, they didn't leave Christ. Do
you remember, and we studied this in preaching to John, There
was a time when the multitudes who had followed Christ turned
and left. They began to see something of
the strangeness of what he was saying. They began to see something
of the danger that those who would follow Jesus of Nazareth
would be in with the Roman government, with the Jewish leaders. And
they turned and they left him. Many of them followed him just
for the miracles, for the healing of the sick and the loaves and
the fishes. But they didn't follow because they trusted in him and
loved him and believed in him and honored him. And so they
began to turn away from him. And then Christ turned to his
disciples, the very ones of whom he's praying here, and he asked
this question. He said, will you go away also?
And Peter, who was considered to be the spokesman for all the
disciples, he turned and he said, to whom shall we go? you have
the words of eternal life." Now, there were many instances in
which they manifested unbelief. You know, the Bible teaches us
that those whom God saves and who are born again by the Spirit
are not in a state of unbelief. That is, unbelief is not their
way of life now because God saved them out of that. But they still
have unbelief in them, and it's a warfare, it's a struggle. We
all have moments of unbelief, and these disciples did too.
But one thing that those whom Christ redeemed, who are born
again by the Spirit, will never do, they will never completely
leave Christ. They will never turn away unto
damnation. They will never be lost again.
They will keep his word. And the reason is because he
keeps them, and he says they have kept thy word, the gospel. And he says in verse 7, he says,
Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given
me are of thee. Now at this time the disciples
had come to a complete realization and assurance that Christ was
the one sin of God and that all that he had and all that he was
and all that he would do. Philip was of the Father. You
remember Philip told him, he said, show us the Father. He
said, Philip, have I been so long with you? Have you not seen
the Father? You see, their knowledge and their understanding was developing
here. He was revealing himself to them.
He told them back in John 16, he said, I have many things to
say to you, but you can't bear them now, but you're going to
come to a knowledge of it. They knew the gospel. They knew
how God could be just and justified. Now they're seeing all of these
things work out before their eyes. And he says, he said, "...now
they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me
are thee." Verse 8, he says, "...for I have given unto them
the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them,
and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have
believed that thou didst send me." Now, it's the same thing.
They believe the gospel, his words. Remember one time he told
them, he said, my words are life. In the preaching of the Word,
we've seen this many times, Christ himself is the embodiment, the
living Word of God. And when he becomes incarnate,
the Bible teaches he is the incarnate Word of God. We've quoted it
before, the Word was made flesh and dwelt, or tabernacled, among
us, John 1.14. The Scriptures, the written Word,
speak of Christ. This is the Word of Christ. He
said in John 5.39, he says, "...these are they which testify of me."
When he arose and spent time with the disciples, it said he
opened their understanding to the Old Testament, Moses, and
the Psalms, and the prophets. the things concerning himself
and how he must go to Jerusalem and die and be buried and raised
again the third day and bring sinners to repentance, all of
that. And then, my friend, any preaching
that you hear that is worth anything is preaching Christ in him crucified,
the preached word. And the preached word is to be
based upon the written word which guides us to the incarnate living
word. So it's all Christ and Him crucified. And that's what he's saying,
that I've given unto them the words which thou gavest me, the
truth, those truths concerning who He is, the truth concerning
what He would accomplish and has accomplished, the truth of
salvation by God's grace. And so they were convinced that
the Father sent him into the world. Now listen to verse 9.
He says, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Christ
didn't pray for all without exception here. The world here represents
those who are in unbelief and who will continue in unbelief
and die in unbelief. He did not give Himself for those
who would never come to faith in Him. And here He prays for
His disciples. I pray for them, He said. His
prayers are directed unto the Father for His sheep, for His
people, and His people alone. There's a beautiful picture of
that in the Old Testament in the High Priest of Israel. The
High Priest not only was appointed of God, He was to be of the tribe
of Levi, the lineage of Aaron, who was the first high priest.
And he was to come into the holiest of all one time a year with the
blood of the sacrifice, because without the shedding of blood,
it's impossible for God to be just and justify the ungodly.
And he had an appointed vestige in his clothing and in the elements
that he wore. He had a breastplate. and he
had shoulder strappings. Now, on his breastplate were
written 12 names, and the names were the 12 tribes of Israel. And on his shoulder strappings,
on one side you had 6 names, and the other side 6 names, again
the 12 tribes of Israel, indicating that when the high priest went
into the holiest of all, he went there for a particular people.
The blood that he brought in was shed for a particular people,
the people of the nation of Israel. Now that was a picture of Christ,
the great high priest, who went into the holiest of all, the
very presence of God, after having died for the sins of a particular
people, representing a particular people, and he saved them from
their sins. Their names being upon the breastplate
represents their names being upon his heart. Christ loved
his own. Their names being written upon
his shoulders, on the strappings on his shoulders, represents
that all of their salvation was laid upon him by his power and
his goodness. But he said, I pray for them.
I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given
me, for they are thine. Do you think that Christ would
refuse to pray for those for whom he died? Absolutely not.
He prays for his people. Here he prays for his disciples.
Later on he prays for his church. Those are the ones for whom he
died. That doesn't exclude you in your mind from salvation. You exclude yourself by unbelief. You're to seek the Lord. As I
said last week, that leaves you with no hope of salvation but
in Christ. But he says in verse 10, He says,
"...and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified
in them." Now, that shows us those for whom Christ died, those
for whom he prays, are those whom the Father gave him, they
belong to the Father, and they belong to the Father by creation
and by election. God chose them, they belong to
the Son by redemptive purpose, the Father gave them to Him,
and by redemptive purchase He bought them. And that's what
He's saying, all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I'm glorified
in them. What He's saying there is that
Christ will be glorified in the hearts of His people. What does
that mean? That means all whom God gave
Him in divine election, all whom He purchased on Calvary, all
for whom He prays and intercedes, they will come to a saving knowledge
of Christ. They'll believe in Him. They'll
rest in Him. They'll trust in Him. Do you? Well, I hope this message has
helped you to understand the Gospel and the Scriptures more
clearly. If you'd like to get a copy of this message, listen
to the announcer as he gives you the details. The title of
the message is, The Lord's Prayer. This is part two, part one last
week. And I hope you'll join us next
week for another message from God's Word.