Look here in verses 20 and 21. I dealt with them last week,
and we'll try to deal with them again this week in a different
way. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which
shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one,
as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may
be one in Us, that the world may believe. Thou hast sent Me,
Those we shall believe. I told you I believed when I
started this chapter that this particular prayer of our Lord
Jesus Christ, High Priestly Prayer, is broken up in three ways. Verses
1-5, our Lord Jesus Christ prays for Himself. In verses 6-19, He prays for
His disciples, those that were present there at the time that
He was praying for them. And then in verses 20-26, He
prays for all believers of all ages, for all believers of all
ages. And this is the longest recorded
prayer of our Lord Jesus in His earthly ministry. It's the longest
recorded prayer. And in some places, there's a
couple places it says where he went onto a mountain and prayed
all night. And when he went into the Garden of Gethsemane, oh,
how he prayed there, prayed earnestly there. Oh, how he prayed there
and he prayed so earnestly that his sweat that came from his
body was as it were drops of blood falling to the ground. And he asked his disciples just
to watch with him for an hour and they couldn't. that oh our
Lord Jesus Christ, how many times did He go apart and pray by Himself? How many times did He pray while
the disciples were asleep? How many times did He sit at
a table with believers and pray when He was in the home? God
only knows, but this is the prayer that's recorded that He prayed
for us. And it's His high priestly prayer
and it's offered in the presence of His disciples Right after,
he got up from offering the bread and the wine, and saying, this
is my body which is broken for you, and this is the wine which
is my blood which is shed for many. They just got up from taking
the first Lord's Supper, what we call the Lord's Table. So
this is a very special occasion. When they got up, he had the
Lord's Supper, he washed his feet, and he got up. And he starts
praying. He starts praying. And this is
the utters of the mind and the heart of the God-man, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And it's in the very hour, the
very hour he came into this world to accomplish a work that God
gave him to do. And it's in the immediate prospect,
when our Lord's praying here, that he's going to get up from
here and go into the garden. Cross the book of Kedron and
go into the garden. And it's in the immediate prospect
of Him completing by the sacrifice of Himself, by His own offering, and make Himself a sacrifice
to God and finish the work the Father had given Him to do. How
full of grace is our Lord Jesus Christ! How full of truth is
our Lord Jesus Christ. And here is His words, and they're
full of this grace. They're full of this truth. And
our Lord Jesus here, He is calm as He prays here, and this hour
coming upon Him. He's clear in His mind. He's
clear in His thoughts. He knows what's coming upon Him.
But here He is in His presence, in His work, and in His character
as a mediator Our Savior prays as He starts praying for us who
well shall believe. Here's the Eternal Son, the Eternal
Son now in the form of a servant, being found in fashion as a man,
in the form of a servant. But here He is, our Mediator,
praying for us. And I want you to keep John 17,
and look over here in Job 9, talking about a Mediator. Look
in Job 9.33. Talking about our Lord being
a mediator. Job 9.33. And oh, our Lord is
a mediator. And here He is, and He's mediating
between us and God. He's asking for those which shall
believe. And Job said here, you know,
in verse 32, for God's not a man as I am, that I should answer
Him, and we should come together in judgment. How? Me and God,
we can't come together in judgment. And look what he says there now.
Neither is there any daismen between us, betwixt us, an umpire,
a mediator, that might lay His hand upon us both. Who's going
to lay their hand on God and who's going to lay His hand on
us? Who can span that gap between God and man and mediate between
the two? And God doesn't need a mediator
in the sense that He has to be something wrong with Him that
we have to make something right with us, but we're the one that
needs a mediator. We're the ones that need a mediator.
God is one. We're a bunch and we need a mediator. And our Lord is our mediator.
Come down and make His, as our high priest, made His Father
known unto us. He came down and made His Father.
We would not know the Father had our Lord Jesus Christ not
come and made His Father known unto us. We wouldn't have known
His will had He not made it known to His disciples. They wouldn't
know nothing about the counsels of God unless He had opened them
to them. And now, now He comes to deal
with the Father on behalf of believers and He presents their
cause to them. You know Moses, Moses was the
mediator between God and men. When God brought Moses up on
the mountain, He says, now you go down and you tell them what
I said. And when he came down off the mountain, this is what
they said to Moses. You speak to us for God. Because we don't want God to
speak to us. You tell us what God said. And
that's what Moses comes down and he takes what's wrong with
the people and he goes to God and says, this is what's wrong
with them. Mediates between them. And our Lord is still praying
for us here. And He's our only mediator. But I'm going to tell you something.
He's God's only mediator. There wouldn't be a mediator
unless God gave us a mediator. And God appointed that. There's
one mediator between God. That's the first thing it says.
One mediator between God and us. He's God's mediator. He's God's appointed mediator.
He's the one that God set up. We couldn't approach God if we
didn't have a mediator. We couldn't approach God if we
didn't have a high priest that went into the presence of God
and offered a sacrifice for us and come out from behind the
holiest of holies and God accepted his sacrifice. And that was done
once and for all. But God appointed us a mediator
between us and God. And that mediator is the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you, beloved, and
thank God we got one. How would you like to deal with
God on your own? How would you like to be the
mediator between you and God? How would you like to deal with
God in your own person? Deal with God in your own words?
Deal with God in your own word? Deal with God in your flesh? I would not want to deal with
Him in my best spiritual moment that I've ever had. So our Lord here is still praying
for us, still our mediator, and now we come here to this last
section, verses 20 through 26. And our Lord prays here for the
union, the oneness, that perfection, that glory that is in Him, and
that all the church shall one day be brought to this. But I
want to look here in verse 20 for a few minutes and see what
He has to say. He says, neither pray I for these alone, but for
them also which shall believe on me through their word. Now
in His presence right now, there's only 11 disciples. Only 11. Judas is not there. Judas is
gone. He's gone to betray the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's off getting his 30 pieces
of silver. But our Lord Jesus Christ is
not praying just for the 11, but He's praying for them which
shall believe on Me. And He's not praying for another
company of saints, another company of disciples than those He's
been praying for. He's not praying for Old Testament
saints. He's not praying for a company of disciples over here
in this town or that town. No, no. He's praying for those
who shall believe. All those that believes through
all generations. And that all believers, as far
as God's concerned, He considers all believers as one from eternity. God's viewed all of His church
at one time. He's viewed all of His people
as one. And I'll show you, look what
it says here in Acts 13.48. Look in Acts 13.48, this is what
I'm talking about here. And that's the same thing he
said in Romans 8. He said, for whom I did foreknow, them also called. And look what he said in Acts
13. This is who he's praying for here. And when the Gentiles
heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord.
And listen to this. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life, what did they do? They believed. And I, Lord
Jesus Christ, said, I pray for them which shall believe. And
I'm ordained to eternal life. That's why I believe. I didn't
get life because I believed. God ordained me to life and then
I believed. Does that make sense to you?
Ain't that what He said? That's what He said here. No,
He's praying for those, beloved, which shall believe. And He said,
and look what He says here now. In verse 20, again. Neither pray
I for these alone. I'm not just praying for these
here. Peter, James, and John, and Matthew,
and Nathanael, and Philip, and Andrew, and I'm not just praying
for them. I'm not praying for them alone. And though I do pray for them, but
He said, I pray for them which shall believe on Me. And if He
prayed for saints that's not yet been brought into existence,
shouldn't you and I pray for those that's going to be in our
family? Saints unborn yet. And pray for
future believers? I'll tell you something. Here's
why Armenians got no reason at all to pray for their children
until they're 12 years of age. Because they have an age of accountability. And so there ain't no sense praying
for your children before they're born, no sense praying for them
while they're babies, because they got an age of accountability
they're going to rise to. But for those who know something
about the grace of God, and know something about their evil nature,
know something about being shaped in iniquity and conceived in
sin, just as quick as we find out somebody is going to have
a child, They immediately start praying for that child. They
pray for that child in the womb. They pray for that child all
the time. God, please don't leave that
child to itself. God, please save that child.
Please protect that child. You know why? Because we know
what they'll be and we know what they are. And that's why we should
pray. If you've got any children, little
babies, and you find out one of your children or grandchildren
or great-grandchildren is going to have children, start praying. Start praying. And He says, I
pray for them which shall believe on Me. Well, how are they going
to come to believe on Me? What did our Lord say? How are
they going to come to believe on Me? Through their Word. Through their Word. You know
Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost? 3,000 people became
believers that day through their word. Preached again over in
Acts, I think it's chapter 5, somewhere then there's 5,000
became believers. And oh, I tell you, through their
word, through the preaching of the word, faith cometh by hearing,
hearing by the word of God. And our Lord Jesus said here
in verse 17 of John 17, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word
is truth. And then not only that, beloved,
it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. And not only through their preaching, but through
the written word. We're reading John. John, who
was that disciple whom Jesus loved. He kept this record. And he said, there's more things
that our Lord Jesus said that I suppose all the books written
on the earth could not contain. And that's who's wrote this here,
through their written word. And then He prays for this union,
this oneness. He says in verse 20, excuse me, verse 21. I wish ye
shall believe on me through the word that they all may be one. That they all may be one. I pray
for these, my disciples, and on these who shall believe and
become my disciples, that they may be one. Now what in the world
is he talking about? That we may be one. That they
may be one as we are one. And so when he prays for us to
be one, he prays that we may all be of one mind. One mind. And that's the mind of Christ.
One mind. One mind, the mind of Christ.
The mind that loves God, the mind, the heart, the mind and
the heart is one and the same in the Scriptures. That we all
may have one mind. We have the same purpose, the
same goals, the same aims, the same desires. That we may be
of one doctrine. One doctrine. And that's the
doctrine of Christ. We believe, you know, one doctrine. You can't have people in a church,
one believes one doctrine on this side of it, one doctrine
over on this other side. One doctrine! He says that there
may be one doctrine. that we may know and believe
and trust the one true teaching of what our Lord Jesus Christ
Himself said. That doctrine is called the doctrine
of Christ, the eternal Word, the eternal God, the eternal
Savior. And oh my, that we may believe
that there's no other way in the world that we can be saved
other than through our Lord Jesus Christ. No other way that God
can consider you and I apart from our Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing
else can take away our sins but His precious blood. Oh, that's
what that doctrine we're talking about. And oh my, and oh, we
may be all of one opinion. We ain't got different opinions
about God. We ain't got different opinions
about His Word. We don't have different opinions
about how we're to worship God. We don't have different opinions
about what sin is. We don't have different opinions
about how God saves a sinner. We don't have different opinions
about those things. We may have different opinions
about different things out in the world. But when it comes
to the things of being one in Christ, we all have the same
opinion when it comes to God, to Christ, His Word, and what
we are. Is that not right? And all He says may be one heart.
One heart. One heart. Beat as one heart.
Come together as one heart. And all of us have one practice. And that practice, beloved, I've
told you all this before, that I'm never going to tell you how
you ought to live. That's not my position. That's
not what I'm called to do. I'm called to preach Christ and
Him crucified. And the shepherd's responsible
for the sheep. And when I come across Scriptures
that'll deal with how your character is or your conduct, I'll deal
honestly with them. But after you leave here, you
can do whatever you want to do. Christ will have to take care
of you about it. My responsibility is to tell you that we all may
be one. And that we may be one and join
together as you and your Father. Look with me over in Acts chapter
2 with me. You know Jude talking about this Acts 2.41. You know, this is talking about
union, being one. One mind, one heart, one doctrine,
one practice. One practice. We don't have two
different ways of ministering to the Lord's Supper. We don't
have two different ways of practicing anything that we do. Look what
He said here in verse 41. Acts 2, Then they that gladly
received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added
unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of
bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul,
and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles." And listen
to this, and all that believed were together, were together,
one, and had all things common. That means they had all... You
know, Jude said this, I've written unto you concerning the common
salvation which was once delivered unto the saints. A common, in
our belief, We all have this in common. We have this doctrine
in common. We have this truth in common.
We have this faith in common. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God, one Father of all. One
Lord Jesus Christ who gives us all things through His grace.
Now look in Philippians 1.27. Philippians 1.27. Look what he says about this
oneness. This is what we're talking about here, being one. And our
Lord prays that we might be one. Look in Philippians 1.27. He said, "...only let your conversation..."
That word, conversation, means your manner of life. Not what
we talk about. No, no. When you find that word,
conversation, that's what it means. Your manner of life. How
you live. only let your manner of life
be as it becometh the gospel of Christ that whether I come
and see you or else I'm somewhere else and I'm absent and I'll
hear of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit with
one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel." One mind, one faith. Going one
direction, striving together for one thing. And I'll tell
you, as we are of one mind, and one will, and one purpose, and
one message. Now we can't literally attain
to the union between the Father and the Son. But yet, we can
attain to a union here that the Gospel produces. We can do that. And then look what our Lord says
there in verse 21 again That they also if father
are in me and I and thee in verse 21 that they also may be one
in us one in us And we all we become joined to one another
as we're joined to the father in the son That's how our union
comes our union comes together because we have one father We're
joined to the father And I'll tell you, John 15, look over
here in John 15, 5. You know, as we're joined to the Father
and the Son, we have a union with the Father. As by one Spirit,
we're all joined unto the Father. He that is joined to the Father,
or joined to the Lord, is one Spirit. And truly, our fellowship
is with the Father and with the Son. And so he says, I want them
to be one as you and I are one. That they may be one as we are
one. Now our fellowship and our union
is based on our union with the Father and our union with the
Son. And if we don't have a union
with the Father, and if we don't have a union with the Son, there's
no way in the world that you and I can be as one. Can we? Can't do it. Look what he said
in John 15, 5. I'm the vine, you the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, now listen to that, the same bringeth forth much fruit.
Now look what he says, for without me you can do what? Nothing. You know what nothing
is? That blank piece of paper. I've used that illustration before.
Get a piece of paper and start drawing zeroes on it. Draw three
zeroes and hold it up. What's three zeroes? Put six zeroes. What's six zeroes? Still zeroes, ain't it? Go ahead
and make nine zeroes. You got nine zeroes, but boy,
you put a one in front of it. And then it's got some value
to it. And that's what we are. We're just nothing but a bunch
of zeroes without Christ. Ain't that right? Without me,
without me, what can you do? Can you come to the Father? Can
you be saved? Can you be sanctified? Can your
sins be gone? Can you be accepted to the Father? Can you be one of the elect?
Can you have any fruit? What can you have without me? What can you do? Bless His holy name. I don't
want to find out. I don't want to find out. I don't
want to find out. Do you? And then look what He
says. I'll say, verse 21, that they
all may be one. Oh, one in will and mind and
heart and purpose. One message. Oh, one desire. One pressing on. And that they
also may be one in us. And then look what it says, "...that
the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." "...that the world
may believe that Thou hast sent Me." What a glorious, glorious
reason our Lord gives for the union, the oneness of believers. I want you all to be one. "...that
the world may know You sent Me." What in the world is He talking
about? That Christ would make believers out of every kindred,
every tribe, and every tongue. And I say, look, you keep this
and look in Galatians chapter 3. Galatians 3. In verse 26. That the world may
believe that you sent me. What a glorious, glorious reason
our Lord gives for us to be won as believers. for us to have
a oneness, let's have a unity, let's have a striving together
for the unity of the Spirit. And when He prays here that the
world may believe that He's going to make believers out of every
kindred, tribe, tongue, and nation under the sun. Verse 26, Galatians
3, For you're all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you have been
baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Now listen to this,
in Christ there's neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither bond
nor free, there's neither male nor female, listen to this, for
you're all one in Christ Jesus. You know, you think about that,
bond and free, people that were slaves, people that were free,
male and female, Jew or Gentile, people so diverse in their nature,
so diverse in their constitution, so diverse in their abilities,
so diverse in their education, so diverse in their stations
in life, so diverse in their financial status, that Christ
would take all these people that are so diverse in so many ways
and bring them all together and make them one. He's the only
one who can do that. He's the only one who can do
that. And what our Lord said, when the world sees my people,
my lead, my saints, those people that I sanctify through my Spirit,
by my Word, when the world sees my people not quarreling, not
divided, not fussing and fighting among themselves, have to call
out the high sheriff if you have a business meeting, But they're
not divided, but they're one in judgment. One, and they all
have the same judgment when it comes to the things of God and
His Word and Christ and how the church goes. One in the heart,
same in the heart, same in their life. And when he sees the Lord's
people being one, living together in unity, living together in
peace, living together in quietness, enjoying the gospel together,
then people say, Christ is in them people right there. Christ
is in them people. Huh? Christ really came into
this world. Look at those folks. Huh? I don't
know. Every once in a while, just every
whiff that you'll see a new place opened up. They'll rent a little
old storefront somewhere. They'll enter a building and
get empty and they'll start a church in it. There's churches all over the
county. You know how they start? Most of them start with two people
in a building, or three. And one of them says, well, I'm
a better preacher than them. Them folks like me the best.
And they start arguing. They start fussing. They start
fighting. And one of them decides, well, I'll just take my little
handful, and I'll go over here and start a church. And I'll
call it the Shining Lights. Believe them folks sitting over
there in their darkness. And now how many churches has
been started because some preacher got upset with somebody and went
off and started to work? I can name four right off the
top of my head right now that's just started around here in Crossville
in the last three or four months. Just drive by and see them. You know, and it's sad, and that's
what, beloved, how much damage has been done to the cause of
Christ by divisions, by divisions among churches, so-called churches,
by divisions among denominations. You know how the Camelot Church
started? A bunch of Baptist preachers got together and had an association
and one of them started talking about baptism, that baptism was
regeneration, and the other says, no, no, no, we're not going that
route. So five preachers went over here that were Baptists
and started Baptizing for salvation so that I would wash away your
sins and he's over here says no it won't And the whole church
come up out of that a whole denomination come out of that one thing And I'll tell you something else
you know, you know everybody here knows Rupert Reichenbach
years ago years ago He started preaching. God taught him the
gospel and he started preaching. Pastor of the great big Southern
Baptist Church. Huge, big Baptist Church. And
he started preaching and them deacons and everything started
finding out what he was saying. And they said, oh my, we can't
have this. And they all got together and
they was going to get rid of him. And boy, I tell you what,
it's harder to get rid of God's man than you think it is. And
old Rupert says, now wait a minute. Let me tell you something, what
I'm preaching is what started, that the Southern Baptist Church
started on what I'm preaching. And they, he said, I'm not leaving,
I'm not going to leave, you all leave, I'm not going anywhere,
I'm going to keep preaching this. And so they went to court. They
took him to court. And they called in witnesses.
And they, he proved that the convention started with five
men and that truly it was founded on what we call the doctrine
of grace or the Calvinism, whatever you want to call it. And he won
in a court of law because they took him to court. And the judge
says, you're not getting that building because that man's telling
what you all say you're supposed to believe. And he said, all
of you all got to go. And that's the truth. It didn't
happen that way. That's exactly the way it happened. That's what damage has been done
to the cause of Christ by splits and fights. When our Lord Jesus
Christ said, I want they all to be one. I want them to be
one. And let's ask God to make us
the same way. Make us pray for the same thing.
If He prays for us to be one, Let's pray. Let's pray together
that God make us all one. Make us all one. You know, make
us all one. First of all, I want to be one
with Him. I want to be joined to Him. I want to be joined to
Christ. But I want us, because of our
union with Christ, for us to be one together. For us to be
His one. One goal, one purpose, one aim,
one will, one desire, one message. God make us that way. Our Father, O our Lord Jesus
Christ, thank You for this Thy precious, precious Word. Lord,
do make us one in Christ. Oh God, create us. And I thank
You for the union You gave us here. I thank You first because
You have made us as one. Lord, it's amazing how You can
take so many people and bring them together and unite their
hearts, unite their spirits. Make them love the same message.
Make them love the same Lord. Create in them a desire. They
all have the same desires. To want to win Christ, be found
in Christ. Lord, continue to keep us as
one. Make this union to be stronger.
Make it to be more God-honoring and help us to glorify You in
this blessed union. Oh, Father, please help us to
honor Your blessed name. Create in us a love for You cause
our hearts to love one another even more than they do now. We
ask these things in our Lord Jesus' name. Amen and amen. There is a name I love to hear. I love to sing its word. It sounds like music in my ear. the sweetest name on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Why? Because He first loved me. See, Wednesday night,