Let's read 20 through 23 from
a subject this evening. 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
that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest
me I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one,
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one,
and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved
them as thou hast loved me." In these verses that I read,
our Lord gave two gifts to His people, two gifts And as our
Lord prayed for the needs of His people, He prayed for their
needs while they were in the world. But in 20, verses 20 through
26, He looks forward, looking forward now to the time they
won't be in the world any longer. He said in verse 24, He said,
Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with
me where I am. And by faith we are right now.
We're seated with Him in the heavenly places. But this is,
He's talking about the future. He's talking about when we go
to glory. Be with me where I am. And He told us, He told us, He
said that I'll come and get you and take you to be with me where
I am. So wherever He is, that's where
we want to be. And he says this, that they may
behold my glory which thou hast given me, and listen to this,
for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. So our
Lord, He's praying now for the things that's to come, praying
for the future. And there'll be a time where
we'll be where He is now. He prays that they be unified,
prays that they'll be glorified, prays that they may be satisfied
but look here's the first gift that our Lord gives his people
in verse 20 he said he's praying for his disciples here the ones
that are with him and they hear him pray and he said neither
pray I for these alone but now listen to this but for them also
we shall believe on me through their word he's praying for folks
that's never believed yet, and He's praying for people that
will hear the Word and will believe through that Word. That's you
and me that He is praying for here. That's you and me. We can't
imagine the love that's in His heart for us yet unborn, and
yet He prays for us before we ever were. Before we ever existed,
He prayed for us. The Scriptures tells us that
we were in His will, we were in His Testament. And a will
has no power, a Testament has no power until the man who has
the will in the Testament dies. And when he dies, that's when
the will goes into effect. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ,
we're in His will, we're in His Testament. And not only did He
leave us in His will and called us to be in His will, But he
ever lives to see that his will is carried out perfectly in this
world, that his will is going to be done. And so we receive
the blessing of the promises. You know, these blessings that
our Lord gives us, you remember when Jacob came and his mother
put the goat skins on him and told him to go in and prepare,
she prepared this food for her father Isaac, for his father
Isaac, her husband Isaac. so that he would get the blessing.
Because Jacob, I loved, and he shall have aid. Well, he came
in and he came to his father and says, Father, do you have
yet a blessing for me? Just one blessing left for me.
He says, My son, I don't. I don't. But all the blessings
that God gives His people, he said, I pray for them which shall
believe on me. And the prayer of our Lord Jesus
Christ ensures We won't be late for the blessing like Esau. The
Father has blessings for us. He prays here for God's Jacobs,
for God's loved ones. And those he prays for have an
identifying mark. And you know what it is? Faith
in Christ. Faith in Christ. Ain't that what
he says here? Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also
which shall believe on me. Believe on me. And this identifying
mark that he has, his people have, is the faith that they
have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's where faith is. I
mean, faith is in Christ. Shall believe in me. John 10,
verse 14. Oh, I tell you, this idea that
there's some other way to get to God, some other way of acceptance
with God, some other way to be saved. And faith, faith is something
that is peculiar to the Lord's people. He said in John 10, 14,
I am the good shepherd, and listen to this, and know my sheep, and
am known of mine. My sheep know me. Oh, when David
was out with his sheep, he'd call them, and they'd come to
him. They wouldn't go to a stranger.
I could have went out there and called David's sheep and said,
come here, come here, come here. They wouldn't have paid any attention
to me. But David goes out there and speaks to them, and here
they come. And Christ goes out here and speaks to His people,
and they're coming. And they know Him just like He
knows them. And then He says down here in
verse 27, Here's what we're talking about.
My sheep hear my voice and I know them. I know them. They hear
my voice and they shall follow me. And what is the warning? He says, "...shall believe on
me through their word." And that's the warning. What's the warning
of our faith? When we face the Lord Jesus Christ, when we face
Him now and we face Him in eternity, What in the world is going to
be our ward of faith when we say, why are you doing here?
How did you get here? And you know what we're going
to be able to say? I believe your word. I believe your word. I believe it was Your Word. I
believe it was the Word that You spoke. And I believe it was
promises You gave to me. And if I perish believing You,
perish believing on Your Son, then there's something wrong
with Your Word, something wrong with Your promises. But oh no! My faith stands on a solid rock,
on His blessed Word. And that's what we do, beloved.
We stand on His precious Word. And then that's what He says,
"...which shall believe on Me through their word." And I'll
tell you, our Lord Jesus Christ here is praying only for believers. He's not praying for the world.
He's not praying for everyone. Look what He says down in verse
9 of John 17. This is so hard for religious
people to understand and believe is that the Lord Jesus Christ
did not die for everyone, did not pray for everyone, did not
shed his blood for everyone. And that's what he says here.
I pray for them. I pray not for the world but
for them which thou hast given me for they were yours. So he's
praying strictly here for his people. He prays for them. for whom He suffered. He prays
for them for whom He died. And I tell you, the prayers and
intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ would be in vain, would
be in vain if He prayed for us and His prayer
didn't have effect to it, wasn't effectual. His merit by which
He saves His people would be in vain if He were to pray for
unbelievers and one of them perished. If one soul for whom Christ died
for, one soul for whom Christ prayed for, one soul for whom
Christ suffered for, one soul for whom... These people He prayed
for right here in John 17, if they're not believers now, they
will be. And how many believers have went
on before us? How many believers out of this
congregation have went on before us? And He says, I pray for them
which shall. Shall. Believe on me through
their word. And look in Romans 8.33. This
is what I'm talking about. This is it. Our Lord Jesus, He
said here in John 8.33. This is what He said. He prays for these. He said,
I pray for them which shall believe on me through their word. And what's the Word he's talking
about? He's talking about the Word that these apostles are
going to preach, that preachers are going to preach. "...and
shall believe on me through their word." John 8.33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Romans 8.33. What did I say?
Did I? It's not the first time. Did
I say Romans 8? Did I? Romans 8, yes. Romans 8. And we're all on the same page
now. Oh my. 8.33. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? The ones He's praying for. For
His Jacobs. for those that were given to
him, for those that he prayed for. Paul has not yet a believer
at this time. And he became a great enemy of
the Lord Jesus Christ, but he says, they shall believe on me
through their word. And when he heard the apostles
preaching, God saved him on the Damascus road. And I tell you,
and he goes on to say this, and I mean, listen, before we ever
were, who's going to lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It's God that justified them. And what it is to be justified,
that means that God Himself says that they're not guilty, they
don't have any sin. When you go in a courtroom, and
you know that you're guilty, you're guilty of every crime
you can imagine, and you go in a courtroom, And you've got an
advocate, you've got a lawyer. And this lawyer will not take
any case but the worst. You've got to admit your guilt
before he can take up your case. And our Lord Jesus Christ is
our advocate. He went before the judge, the
Lord God, the God of heaven and earth, and he says, Father, these
people belong to you. They were yours. And you gave
them to me. And you gave me a work to do
for them to put away their sins, put away their shame, put away
their guilt, to bear all their burdens, to bear all their cares,
to bear everything that's wrong with them. Me, I'm to do that. And he said, and here's the reason
why you've got to justify them. Look at my prince on my hands.
Look at the side on me, the blood that's been shed. That's why
God justifies us. He has to justify us because
we have nothing against us. Christ took it all out of the
way. And they said, it's just as if I had not sinned. It's
a heapsight more than that. Not only is that I have not sinned,
but it means that you never had any sin. God justifies you to
the place where sin never existed in your life. You're perfect
in the blessed Son of God. And then he goes, that's why
nobody, who's going to lay anything charge of God's elect? Come on,
law, charge me. Come on, sin, charge me. Come
on, holy angels, and charge me. Come, God's blessed book, and
find the fault in me. If you do, God says, oh, listen,
you can't do that. That's mine. That's my little
egg. Then look what it goes on to
say. Who is He that condemns? Who's going to condemn us? Who
is going to condemn us? Why, it's Christ that died. Died
to do what? To save us from our sin, to reconcile
us unto God. This is that prayer He prayed.
He said, I pray not for these. I pray for these who shall believe
on Me through Thy Word. And it's Christ that died. Listen
to this. Yea, not only did He die, but yea rather He's risen
again. Oh, that's something else for
somebody to die. But to rise again? And then actually
rose again, guess where He's at? He's sitting in God's right
hand. What's He doing? Praying for
me and you. And our Lord prays for these,
back over in John 17. Our Lord prays for these, and
I'll tell you something He didn't mention about us. Tell you something
He didn't mention about these people He's praying for. We shall
believe. We shall believe. It gives them faith. That's the
mark they have is faith in Christ. He prays for this, and I'll tell
you what He doesn't mention. He doesn't mention their love
to Him. He does not mention their obedience. He does not mention their steadfastness. He does not mention anything
about them but their faith, which shall believe on me. I'm going
to give them that faith that they'll believe on me. And where
everyone, anyone, enjoys the Lord Jesus Christ, where anyone
participates in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus,
One thing is always named when it's associated with Him, faith.
Why do I say that? Because this gift of faith that
God's grace gives us compels us. If you've got the faith that
our Lord is praying about you, that they shall believe on me
through their word. That faith that God gives us
compels us to look outside ourselves to something someone else did.
Now ain't that right? Faith never looks at itself.
Faith doesn't look at it's obedience. Faith doesn't look at how much
it loves the Lord. Faith doesn't look at how faithful
it is. Faith doesn't look at any work that it's done. Faith
that Christ gave here and He's praying for these people to have,
it always looks outside itself. It's object is the Lord Jesus
Christ. It always goes outside itself.
And oh, and I tell you, this faith that our Lord Jesus is
talking about, which shall believe on me, it's not some vague, it's
not some mystical, undefined thing. It's which shall believe
on me. I want to show you something
in Romans. You keep John 17. Romans 10. Romans 10. Verse 14. Oh, to enjoy and participate
in the death and resurrection of Christ? Only one thing is
mentioned, faith. Abraham believed God. Strong
in faith, giving glory to God. I said this morning, our Lord
told Martha, He said, I am not unto thee if thou should believe,
you would see the glory of God. Believe, and that's when you
see the glory of God. And this faith is not of ourselves,
it's the gift of God. But look what he says here. This
faith is defined. This faith that he talks about
is not vague and mystical. He said in Romans 10, 14, How
then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?
And he said, Oh, here they're going to believe on me. Over
there he said, They're going to believe on me. I pray for
these which shall believe on me through their word. Well,
how in the world are they going to believe in somebody that they've
never heard of? call on Him, and they never believe.
And how shall they believe of Him in whom they have not heard? You've got to hear something
about it. Faith is intelligent. I'm telling
you, faith is intelligent. What I mean by that is that faith
sees, faith understands, faith believes, and faith goes outside
itself. You know, our salvation was accomplished
completely outside of ourselves. It had absolutely nothing to
do. We contributed nothing to our salvation except fighting
God until He conquered us. All we did was fight, fight,
fight, fight, fight until He whipped us. Now that's right. You say, well He whipped you.
Yeah, He'll whip. You know what He does? He gets
a hold of a person, if you're one of his. And I'm telling you,
when you start out, he runs to this little idol he's got, God'll
snatch that away. He'll run over this other little
idol he's got, and he'll snatch that away. He'll run over some
work that he trusts in, and he'll snatch that away. Run over some
experience he had, and he'll snatch that away. He'll run over
to some work that he does, he'll snatch that away. He'll run over
to some faith that he's got, and he'll snatch that away. He'll
snatch everything away from you until you say, Lord, I give up.
I surrender. And that surrendering is when
you come to understand that everything you have was accomplished 2,000
years ago on Calvary's cross. And the reason it was done for
you, because God chose you in Christ, was given to Christ,
and Christ come here and did for you what you could not possibly
ever do for yourself from the day you're born to the day you
die. He's got to do it all. Huh? And then back here in Romans
10, let me finish that up before I rush off. How shall they call
on Him in whom they have not believed? You can't call on Jesus,
believe on Jesus. Well, who is He? What did He
do? Who did He do it for? What did
He accomplish? And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how in the world is the preacher
going to preach except they be sent? And how beautiful on the
might feet of them that publisheth peace. Peace. Not peace that's going
to come. Peace that's been established.
Peace that was made by Christ on the cross. And now let me
show you something else. He gave us faith there in verse
20. Neither I pray for these alone, but for them also which
shall believe. First gift is faith. That's a
gift that He gives us. Faith. Shall believe on Me. And
the second one is glory. Glory. Verse 22. Oh, listen. And the glory. Father,
that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me, and the glory
which Thou gavest Me, I have given them. Now what in the world
kind of glory did He give us? What glory did He give us? The
glory you gave me, I've given them. What glory did He give
us? What is this glory He's talking
about? Well, I'll tell you what glory it isn't. It's not His
glory as God the Son. He had a glory as God the Son
that nobody else will ever have. He had that glory as God the
Son, equal with the Father, eternal, eternal Son of God, And this
wasn't gift to Him, that was His when He came into this world.
Before He came into this world, He had glory as the Eternal God. When He got into this world,
He had the glory as the Only Begotten Son of the Father. And
I tell you, it's not His glory as God-man. That personal glory
that He had, that glory that was veiled in His flesh. His
glory was veiled in His flesh. They'd look at Him and they could
not see. He didn't look different than anybody else. He did not
look different than anybody else unless He gave you eyes to see
who He was. And so it wasn't the glory that
was veiled in His flesh. And He is by virtue of His suffering
in death. He was the express image of God's
glory. And we don't have that. He was
the brightness of God's glory. We don't have that. So what is
this glory that He gives us? That was given to Him that He
gives us? Well, it's His glory as the head
of the body to whom He gives life to the church. That's the
glory He gives us. You see, the church... He's the
head of the church. He's the head of the body. And
He's the Head by whom we live. He's the Head by which we get
faith from. He's the Head by which He communicates
with us. He's the Head by whom we receive
all things. Now you look, keep John 17. John,
look over here in Isaiah 62. Isaiah 62. You know, He's the Head by which
He communicates to us. And the Father gave Him this
glory to be head over all things to the church. And this glory that He gave us
is by our union with Him, by being joined to Him. If He's
the head, then we're His body. And we're members of His body.
And we can't have a life apart from a head. The church can't
exist apart from the head. And God said, I'm going to give
you a church, I'm going to give you a people, and I'm going to
give you a glory, and then those people will be the head over
those people. And our glory that He gave us is by our union with
Him. If you're one with Him, whatever
glory He has, that's the glory we have with Him. He said here
in Isaiah 62 in verse 1-3, He said, For Zion's sake will I
not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest. until the
righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation
thereof as a lamp that burns. And listen to this now. And the
Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory, and
thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the
Lord shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of
glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand
of God. And so you see, the Father gave
him his glory to behead over all things to the church. And
He gives us this by union of our... Now, I'm going to show
you one thing before I move on here in Ephesians. I think this
would be the best way to express it over here in Ephesians chapter
1 and verse 22. Ephesians 1, 22. Here's what I'm saying. He said
in verse 22, This glory that He gave us, the
glory that we had by being in union with Him, our life from
Him. And this is what He says here
in Ephesians 1.22, God hath put all things under His feet and
gave Him to be head over all to the church, over everything
to the church, which is His body. which is his body, the church
is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. Now he's the one that's full
and he has to fill us. And so if he's full, it's like
when you go to the ocean, all these kids go to the ocean and
they got their little buckets and they'll go out there and
they'll get all that water out of the ocean and they'll come
up there and make sand castles and stuff and they took out the
fullness of that ocean and filled their little buckets. and didn't
take anything out of that ocean. Did that ocean ever know that
anything was missing from it? Well, we're in Christ and all
the fullness is in Him and He fills us up with all His fullness
and He's still as full as He ever was when He fills us. That's glory that He gave us. Oh, back over here now. He said, oh my, the Father manifested
Himself in His Son. And look what He says there in
verse 21. Oh, I'm praying for them that they all may be one. As you, Father, you're in me,
and I'm in you. And that they also may be one
who are in us. be in union with us, united to
us. As the father and sons united,
He said, I want them united to me and union with them the same
way. Then I have given them glory.
Christ manifested Himself in believers. He said, I'm in them.
Christ in you, that's the hope of glory. We sang that old song,
Christ only, always living in me. This is our glory, Christ
living in us. And if we're given His glory,
you imagine what the glory is going to be when we go to be
with Him. Like He said in verse 24. Now here's a prayer He prays
for us. We'll probably deal with this
next week. Father, I will. I will. You reckon when He says, I will,
that His will will be done? He said this morning, He said,
Father, I know Thou hearest me always. I know You do, but I'm
not praying because I know You hear me. I'm praying for those
around me that knows what I'm fixing to do. It's by Your power. And oh, listen, our Lord Jesus
Christ, what it's going to be when we're going to be with Him,
when Christ, who is our life, our life, Our life. How can it be our life and not
be in us? Huh? And then He says in verse
23, He said, Oh my, that they may be one. This is one thing
He wants us to do. This is the glory that He gave
us. This is the consequence of His
glory given. When believers are in Christ,
and Christ is in them, our spiritual union begins right there. Right
there. So what will it be like in glory?
And I tell you, this unity that he's talking about, this unity,
is not a man-made unity. Not a man-made unity. I heard a preacher preaching
the other day. I wanted to hear what he had to say, and I turned it on and
listened to him for a little while, and he started telling
me that he just, this church is just one of a denomination. He named how wonderful this denomination
was and everything. But listen, this unity that our
Lord is talking about here, our being one with the Father and
one with the Son, this unity is not man-made. Only Christ
in you can make this union. Only Christ in us can make us
be one together. and the Holy Spirit, and only
God the Father and the Holy Spirit can produce that. And we become
partakers of Christ, Christ in you, the hope of glory. And we're looking at His image
and we'll be changed into the same image one of these days.
Now, Lee says there in verse 23, he said, I in them. Father, I'm praying that I'm
in them and You in me. Listen to this, that they may
be made perfect In what? We talked about being perfect
in love the other night. This is perfect in what? How
can we be made perfect in what? If you're in Christ, it's perfection. And if it's in Christ, our union
is perfect. Our union is perfect. And everything
that we've become, Christ has, as far as He is, is our head.
And all the riches that's in Him, we have it. pardon, righteousness,
love, joy, knowledge, wisdom. And it's not only a oneness of
faith that we have, a oneness of hope, a oneness
of love, but it's life itself. We all have life in Christ by
Him being in us and us being in Him. And then look, He gave
us faith and He gave us glory. Then look at His love for us
in verse 23. I in them, and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that
thou hast sent me, and listen to this, and hast loved them as you loved me. Now how much
did the Father love the Son? How much do you reckon the Father
loved the Son? Well, ever how much He loved
Him, our Lord said, here, you love them the same way. You love
them the same way. You love them just like you loved
Me. And this unity, this oneness,
this Faith, this glory, this being in Christ, and Christ being
in us, and the Father being in us, and us being in the Father,
and us being in Christ. This unity, this oneness is because
of God's love for His Son. And because of His love for us,
as He did His Son. And I tell you, this union, this
oneness that we have with the Father, and with the Son, It
can never, ever fail. It can't fail. It can't fail. And that's why David said, The
Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things,
and sure, this is all my salvation. And love them as thou hast loved
me. God loves us as He loves His
blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And loving us as He loves His
Son, We see the freeness of His grace, the freeness of His love,
and the reason for His love is found outside us, that's for
sure. That's for sure. And the glory
He gets to Himself in loving us as His Son shows us how great
His love for us was. When we were sinners, Christ
died for us. And what a blessed comfort for
us. If God loves us as He loved Christ before we were, even when
we were weak and frail and unlovely, shall He stop loving us? No. And love as Thou hast loved me,
as Thou hast loved me, shows us the likeness of His love.
The Father loves Christ as His Son. He loves us as His sons. The Father loves Christ as His
image. He loves us. We're going to be
made in the image of Christ. He loves the saints who renewed
after His image. He loves Christ tenderly. He
loves us as His dear children. He loves Christ eternally. He
loves us eternally. He loves Christ unchangeably.
He loves us unchangeably. Remember how He loved His Son.
Faith, glory, and love. Almighty. Oh, Father, for Christ's sake,
thank you for allowing us to meet here today, allowing us
another wonderful day of worship, reading your Word, looking at
your Word, believing your Word. And, O Father, we pray your blessings
upon these that's gathered here tonight, on their hearts, on
their minds. Keep them through the week. Keep
us all through the week, Lord Jesus. And, our Father, we pray
for those who are traveling on their way home. Please see them
safely here, safely to their homes, safely to their beds,
and a good night's rest. And, Lord, meet the needs. O
Lord Jesus, We cast our care upon You, for You care for us. We bless Your holy name. Amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look
full in His wonderful face And the things of earth will grow
strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace.