Let's turn to John's Gospel,
Chapter 1. The Gospel of John, Chapter 1. John opens his Gospel by immediately
presenting Christ, not as the Son of David or as the Son of
Man, but the Son of God. He's the life and the light.
The sun is shining, but who knows it but believers? He came to
open the eyes of the blind. If you're blind, you don't know
if the sun is shining or not. John's Gospel, Chapter 1. The same came for a witness to
bear witness of that light, of the light, that all men through
him might believe. He was not that light, but was
sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light,
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was
in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew
him not. He came unto his own, and his
own received him not. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name." And then the margin there, it says
that word power, the right or privilege. Can you imagine having
the right to become the son of God? Which were born, and this
is why we believe right here, which were born not of the blood,
nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full
of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and
cried, saying, This was He of whom I spake. He that cometh
after me is preferred before me, for He was before me. And
of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the
law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father,
hath declared Him. If you read verse 1 and verse
14 together there, let's read those again. It says, In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. He
is our gift of God and the hope of this believer. Let's pray. ...to John chapter 17. Pleasantly,
pleasantly surprised Paul and Mindy coming in. Read these first
six verses and just comment on them and then get to my message
tonight. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify
thy son that thy son also may glorify thee. as thou hast given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And
now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. That sixth verse is what I want
to deal with tonight, but our Lord Jesus Christ in this prayer,
he first prays for himself before he utters a single word for his
people. And our Lord Jesus Christ in
praying for himself before he prays for his people, he shows
that in all things he has the preeminence. And he sought his
own glorification that the Father might be glorified in his glorification. I want you just to glorify me
so that I'll glorify you. And I finished the work that
you gave me to do. And as we look at the pleas for
our Lord Jesus' own glorification, there's seven of them before
I get into my message. First of all, he sought his own
glorification because of his relationship with God. He called
him Father. Glorify Thou me with Thine own
self. Thine own self. That wonderful
relationship. If He glorifies the Father and
the Son glorifies the Son, the Son glorifies the Father and
the Father glorifies the Son, they both get all the glory.
And that's the whole point of the Gospel. That's the whole
point of this Word, is that God and His blessed Son gets all
the glory and everything that's said and everything that's done.
And secondly, because of the appointed time had arrived. He
says, Father, the hours come. The hours come. That time has
come. That time has come for me to
go back to where I was before. Time for me to go through this
awful hour of suffering and pain and agony and death. That hour
has come. And the third reason why he sought
to glorify himself was because of all the authority God had
given him over all flesh. God had given him all authority
and he said that's why he sought his own glorification. He says,
thy has given him power over all flesh. They'd been given
to him. This authority, this power, this
right had been given to his blessed son. God did it on purpose and
God did it by promise because he promised all that he had been
given to him and all that he had power over that he is going
to give them eternal life. He wasn't going to try to, wasn't
going to make an effort at it, going to try to make a way to
save them. He said that he would give them eternal life to God's
elect. And that giving of eternal life
had been given to him, been promised to him. You give me the people
and I'll give them life. You give me power over them and
I'll give them life. And you know who I'll give life
to? As many as, as many as thou hast given me. And this eternal
life was given to him. And by giving eternal life to
the elect, he would bring them to a knowledge of the Father.
Ain't that what he said there in verse Three by giving eternal
life to the elect he'd bring a knowledge of God to them This
is life eternal that they might know they the only true God when
it says the only true God that excludes every other God That
excludes every other title to be worshipped that exclude God
is exclusive in this business. There's a message I heard by
Jeff Somebody up in, if I can think of his name, but anyway,
he's up in Indianapolis. And he preached a message on
the exclusivity of God. God's exclusive in all of His
power, all of His glory, and all of His Word, and all of His
promises, and all of His purpose. God's exclusive and puts salvation
in His Son, exclusively in His Son. Exclusively, Christ is the
Savior. Exclusively, Christ is the sacrifice
and only sacrifice and only sin offering. And He exclusively
is the only one who can save a sinner. And He exclusively
makes them to be sinners. And that's what He's saying here,
that they might know Thee, the only true God. And so in giving
to her life, He makes them to understand and gives them a knowledge
of the Father. And the sixth reason why he sought
to own glorification before he prayed for his elect is because
he had glorified the Father on the earth. He said in verse 4,
I have glorified thee on the earth. This is where God was
dishonored, this is where the fall took place, this is where
men fell away from God, this is where God's got to be honored,
where fellowship has to be restored, and men must be reconciled on
this earth. And he glorified him on the earth.
And the seventh reason was because he says this, I finished the
work. I finished the work. God's the only person that can
say something's been done before it's ever been done because it's
going to be done. And as far as God's concerned,
it's already done. And only they can speak like
that. And these are the reasons why the Lord Jesus Christ asked
the Father to glorify Him. These things He did, The things
that were given to him in covenant as our sheriff and as our mediator,
he fulfilled them, he finished the work. And the second part
of our Lord's prayer here is he prays for his disciples. He
starts in verse six, and he ends down in verse 19. Verse six says,
I've manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me
out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest
them me, and they have kept thy word. The last thing he prays
for them is this, And for their sakes, I sanctify myself. Now
listen to this, that they also might be sanctified through thy
truth. So that's where he starts praying
for his disciples. And here our Lord Jesus is praying
for living disciples, men that were there with him then, then
people who heard him pray. And he had a lot of people who
followed him at that time. He's praying here for the apostles. But the apostles are representative
of all believers. the representative of all believers,
what he pleads and prays for, for them is common to all believers. I read tonight about a common
salvation. It's common only to the scriptures. It's common only to the Lord's
people. There's nothing common about it as far as a common salvation,
but it's common to us. We all got the same thing. We
all believe the same thing. And so he's what he says, though
I'm praying for the apostles there. The apostles are representative
of all believers and what he pleads and prays for them is
common to all believers. And he first describes the ones
he's about to pray for. And he don't ask a blessing for
them. Here's the thing about it. He don't ask a blessing for
them. We think, you know, and he will ask blessings and he
does pray for us. But our Lord Jesus Christ don't
start out asking blessings for us. That's not what He does.
The first thing He does is says, I've manifested thy name unto
them thou hast given me. And our Lord here comes before
our Father and before the Father as our intercessor. He comes
before the Father and presents His own along with Himself. He said, I and the children that
thou hast given me, He comes along with them Himself. Look
with me in Exodus 28. As our great high priest, and
that's what this is. God lets us listen to our high
priest pray here. And our Lord Jesus Christ, and
look in Exodus 28, 29. And our Lord Jesus, He presents
His own and He brings Himself. He comes along and He brings
Himself with those that are His own with Him. And He said here
in verse 29, showing you when our great high priest went before
the Father. And Aaron shall bear the names
of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon
his heart. When our Lord Jesus Christ went
into the presence of the Father, why did he have us where he had
us at? In his heart, in his heart. And when he goeth into the holy
place for a memorial before the Lord continually, when he goes
in the presence of God, he goes with our names on his heart.
And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the
Thummim, and they shall be upon Aaron's heart. when he goeth
in before the Lord, and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the
children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually."
And that's what our Lord Jesus Christ here is doing as our Great
High Priest as He goes into the presence of the Father here now.
Our names are upon his heart as he enters into the presence
of his father. And what in the world makes this
possible that he goes there as our intercessor, as he goes there
and takes our names upon his heart? What makes that possible? He said he finished the work.
It's based on a work that's finished, a work that's accomplished. He
said, Father, I finished the work that you gave me to do.
And so he can do that because the work's done. He can bring
us with him. And if he don't bring us with
him, we don't get to come. And if he don't have us on his
heart and don't have our names on his heart and our names on
his breastplate, we don't get to come. But when he goes into
the presence of holiness and goes into the holiest of holies,
he takes us right along with him, right along with him. And look what he says here. In
verse 6, I have manifested thy name unto the men that thou hast
given me. And what he's telling us here
is that he made known the Father's name to more than just these
11, than just the 11 that were with him where he took the Lord's
supper with. He had made known, he said, I manifested thy name.
But more than just to the 11, he made Mary. Remember Mary and
Martha? They both knew the Lord Jesus
Christ's name. Mary fell at his feet weeping. Martha, you know, tried to tell
the Lord, said, listen, I'm working here and I'm doing all kinds
of things. Why don't you get Mary up here and help me? said,
oh no, we're going to leave Mary right where she's at. So he manifested
his name to Mary and to Martha and to Lazarus. Don't you think
the name of the father was made known to Lazarus when our Lord
Jesus sat and ate with him after he raised him from the dead?
And Nicodemus, Nicodemus, he made his name known to Nicodemus. And Zacchaeus, come down. Salvation must go to your house
today. He manifested the name of God
to Zacchaeus, that Gadarene maniac that nobody could tame. When
our Lord closed him and set him at his right mind, you know what
he So he made his name known to
the Gadarean maniac. And I'll tell you something,
he's manifested the name of the father to all of us who believe
right now. His father, thrice holy God. There's more than apostles had
been given to Christ. Ain't that what he said? I've
manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out
of the world. More than apostles had been given
to Christ. More than the apostles has kept
his word which as they kept thy word. And when He says, I have
manifested thy name, and what that means, beloved, is to make
the Father's name, and it means to reveal the Father, reveal
Him, to manifest His character, to display His attributes, to
make people see God in all of His perfection. Look with me
in Psalm 22, in verse 22. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He came
to reveal the Father. In fact, I said it last week
where the Lord Jesus Christ, when Philip said, show us the
Father. And that'll satisfy us, that'll be sufficient for us.
We won't worry about nothing else if you'll just do that.
He said, Philip, have I been with you such a long time and
you've not seen me? He said, he that has seen me
has seen the Father. So everything about the Father's
name and His perfection and all of His attributes were manifested
in His Son. Look in verse 22. This is what
our Lord Jesus said here. I will declare thy name. Unto who? My brethren, I and the children that thou
hast given me. In the midst of the congregation,
I'm going to praise you." And that's what our Lord Jesus Christ
did all the time He was on His earth. You know where God's perfections
were seen more than any place else on this earth? In His blessed
Son. God's character, you want to
know something about His wisdom, His holiness, and His power,
and His grace, and His judgment, and His holiness? Everything
about God was displayed in His blessed Son. Every attribute
of God was seen in His Son. If you see Jesus Christ, you've
seen all you're ever going to see about God. And what Christ
teach you about the Father and manifest His name, that's all
you'll ever know about God, is what He Himself teaches you about
His Father. Oh my, listen, everything was
manifested, the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily.
And how did He manifest our Lord, the Father's character? And how
did He manifest His name unto His people? By using His words. He says, the words that I speak,
they're not mine. They're not mine. They're my
father's who gave them to me. He told me what to speak. He
told me what to say. He put these words in my mouth.
I'm not just down here saying things just because I want to
say something. Things that come out of my mouth,
they got power to them. They got grace in them. They
got judgment in them. They got truth in them. And he
said, and listen, he manifested God's character and holiness
and attributes in the words that he said. And that's what you're
talking about, that word, just capitalize, word, word, word. God communicates by words and
God communicates with man by one person. That's the Lord Jesus
Christ, His blessed Son. Huh? And then by his miracles,
who could do? He done miracles only God could
do. Nobody ever raised the dead like our Lord Jesus Christ did.
There's men that did it in the Old Testament. They'd lay on
a man. Elijah laid on one person. But when Jesus, our Lord Jesus
Christ, he just spoke to the dead. Just spoke. Lazarus, come
forth. And he that was dead came forth.
Who could walk on water but God? Who could take a maniac that
nobody could, with chains around him and everything, nobody could
do anything for him? When the Lord Jesus Christ come,
he got in his presence, that man got just as calm as he could
possibly be. They didn't have to go to a psychiatrist,
didn't have to take any pills. No, no. He got in the Lord's
presence and he just bowed down. Just bowed down. He saw who it
was. Oh my. And in His teaching, oh,
what teaching our Lord taught us! What blessed teaching! And
oh, my! I've often wondered what it would
have been like to sit when our Lord was sitting in a boat or
sitting on a hillside and listen to Him teach, listen to Him teach.
And every situation He'd be in, somebody would come and say something
or do something and interrupt Him, and He would take that opportunity
to teach them something. Brought the woman in adultery,
He used that opportunity. He was sitting there teaching
one time, they brought a fellow and let him down through the
roof. He used that to teach that only God can forgive sins. Everywhere
he went, whatever was done, he manifested God, clearly seen
as God. And oh my, so as to reveal him,
to make the Father's name, to manifest his character. But I'll
tell you something, but only those given to him were able
to receive this. John said it over, 1 John 2.13
says this, you don't need to look at it. He says this, he
said, little children, you have known the Father. How do you
know the Father? I taught you about Him. I manifested
Him to you. And that's what he said, little
children. And then look what he says here again in verse 6.
I've manifested the name unto the men which thou gavest me.
Thine they were, and thou gavest them me. This is the sovereign,
sovereign election of God is what this is right here. He says
they were thine, you gave them to me. This is a special company
given to the Lord Jesus Christ to procure your people. They're
His in a special way. How were they His in a special
way? God gave them to Him. He gave them to Him in a covenant
of grace before the world ever began. Ephesians 1.4 says that
we were given to Him before the foundation of the world. Chosen
in Christ before the foundation of the world. Ain't that what
it says? And so we were eternally His. And this is something that
I love about God. And love, and I'm thankful that
God taught me this, is that since God is an eternal God, that everything
he does is based on eternity. Life is eternal. Purpose is eternal. Promises are eternal. So everything
he ever purposed to do from eternity, once it starts happening and
when he carries it out, it'll last through all eternity. There's
no time with Him. It's all eternity. So He had
me eternally chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world. I didn't know it until God crossed my path with the
gospel. And then when He crossed my path with the gospel, I started...
God taught me these things. That's what we're saying. He
manifested to those that was given to Him. and I've learned
about election. I learned about being chosen
in Christ before the foundation of the world. I learned about
being justified even before I believed because everything that you find
out about God is always in the past tense and if it's in the
past tense that means it's going to happen and it's already happened
as far as God's concerned. But that's why we preach the
gospel. There's a whole bunch of folks out there that's chosen
in Christ for the foundation of the world. Somebody's got
to tell them. Somebody's got to tell them about God's sovereign
election. Somebody's got to tell them about
Christ and His glorious perfections and His attributes and His blessed
person. And they not only were given
to Him eternally before the foundation of the world, but by God's immutable
purpose, they were always His. Look in Romans 9.11. This is
the perfect illustration of what I'm saying, scriptural illustration
of what I'm saying. In Romans 9 and verse 11, you
know, God has an immutable purpose. And we're just talking about
that. For whom he did foreknow, that's who he called. Them he
called, what did he do for them? He justified. Them he justified,
what did he do for them? He glorified them. So what shall
we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Look in Romans 9, 11. For the
children, being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, sovereign
election, thine they were, thou gavest them to me, might stand
not of works, but of him that calleth. Children hadn't been
born yet. God said, I've got a purpose
of election. I'm gonna love Jacob. I'm gonna
love Jacob. Esau I hate him don't want him
in my presence don't want nothing to do with him. I hate him But
I love Jacob over here and that's what our Lord said those that
they were thine thou gave us them to me and as they heard
him pray It says thine they were they were always his and he says
thou gave us them to me And here's another thing that means beloved
when they were given to Christ they became his responsibility
They became his responsibility. You know, if we, you know, people,
I remember a fellow coming to my house years and years ago.
Oh, Hefner, you remember brother Hefner? He come to my house years
and years ago. And he said, you know, he said,
I understand, you know, where you're going with this election
and sovereignty and grace and all that. He says, you go ahead
and preach that. Said, I'll deal with the other
side of it, human responsibility. You know where our responsibility
begins and ends? S-I-N. That's all we got that
belongs to us. And we don't have enough power,
enough ability right now to do anything, anything of ourselves. If God don't do it, it won't
get done. We want Him to do it. We pray for Him to do it. We
desire for Him to do it. We want to submit to Him in everything
that there is. But bless His holy name. The
minute he took me upon his heart in the eternal covenant of grace,
and I brought me to faith in Christ, he became responsible
for me that day to see me all the way to the end. Responsible
for me to believe, responsible for me to keep on believing,
and responsible to get me all the way to glory. And you reckon
he'll get the job done? Oh my, what comfort, what assurance. And he says, thou gavest them
to me, given to him as sheep to a shepherd. If David, if David,
just David, took care of the sheep out there on the sheepfold
and him just a child, if he slew a bear and slew a lion just to
protect his sheep, what do you think the son of David's gonna
do? You think there's anybody that could possibly whip him
and take one sheep away from him? He said, I give them eternal
life and no man's able to pluck them out of my father's hands.
Nobody's ever plucked them out of my hands. And you know what
that means? You're in the father's hand,
the son's hand. As old Tim James said, that's a double-fisted
salvation. He got you just like that. Oh
my, given to him as sheep to a shepherd, given to him as sinners
to a savior. Oh my, given to him as a sinner. to a Savior. Oh, what are we
going to call Him? Jesus? Why? Because He's going
to save His people from their sin. I'm not come to call the
righteous but sinners to repentance. given to him as being absolutely
responsible for. Our Lord Jesus, he said in John
6, 37, you all know this well as I do. Most of you could quote
it and me just shut up. But all that the Father giveth
me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I'll
not in any way under any circumstances ever cast him out. There's not
a believer in this building tonight that if God was ever going to
cast you out, you've done things, said things, went places, acted
ways that God would have cast you off that quick. But He ain't
never going to cast you off. He didn't cast David off when
he was with Bathsheba. He didn't cast Noah off when
he was drunk. He didn't cast Peter off when
he denied him three times. And we've all been, if we ain't
actually done it, we've all thought it. And bless his name, he said,
I'll never under no circumstances cast them out. And you know why? Not that we don't deserve to
be cast out. But because he finished the work,
the blood's been shed, satisfaction's been rendered, God's been glorified
in the Son since now at the right hand of the Father. And then
he says, and of all that you've given me, I haven't lost a one,
not a one, not a one. Will he be faithful to his Father
who gave them to him, who trusted them trusted us to his care,
will he be faithful? You imagine if one, if a single
one of God's elect were to perish, what would the consequences be?
You could not imagine the consequences in heaven if God was to let one
of his elect perish. God would lose his veracity,
he'd lose his power, he'd lose his glory, and people in glory
would always be afraid, something's gonna happen, get us out of here.
But listen, That ain't gonna happen. That's an impossibility. And look what he said here in
the last part of this verse. You gave these men to me, these
people to me, and listen to this, they have kept thy word. They've
kept your word. And what does it mean to keep
his word? It means to believe it. It means to believe it. You
have faith in his word, faith in what he says. Secondly, it
means to obey it. They've kept your word. They've
obeyed your word. And thirdly, it means this, to
keep thy word means to stand guard over it. Stand guard over
His word. We do guard His word, don't we,
Paul? We guard His word. His word's precious to us. The
truth is more precious to us than anything. And the truth
about our Lord Jesus, we stand guard over the gospel. We stand
guard over the people that God lets us preach to. We stand guard
over them. Guard over the truth so that
they can just hear nothing but the truth. And oh, these men
that He called, and He says, they've kept Thy Word. He called
them. When He first called them, you
know what the Scripture said? John and James were working under
a boat. And He said, just walked by and there was men in nets.
And He said, follow Me. You know what they did? They
quit men in nets immediately and got out of their boats and
followed Him. Faith and obedience. When He calls you, you'll do
the same thing. Huh? They left all. And they continued
with Him. They continued with Him. Look
at John 5.38. You know, our Lord Jesus, when
He was teaching, and He says, no man can come unto the Father
except the Spirit draw him. Nobody can come to Me. And many
disciples, they said, these are such hard sayings. We don't want
to follow Him anymore. And He turned to the 12 and said,
will you also go away? And they said, Lord, to whom
shall we go? You've got the words of eternal life. Look what he
said in verse 38, John 5. And here's the difference. We
continue with him by his word. He said, and you have not his
word abiding in you. For whom he hath sent, you believe
not. Now the opposite of that is his
word abides in us. And we believe him. That's what
he says. They have kept thy word. We've
continued with him. We've continued with him. And,
oh, beloved, I'm going to tell you something. He's speaking
here of these men keeping his word, following him and obeying
him and guarding his word without taking notice of their weak faith.
He never said anything about their weak faith. He said, I've
got lots of things to say to you right now, but you can't
get them. You can't oversee them. And their failure is to apprehend
the word, their unbelief. He never said anything about
that. They didn't understand it a lot of times, didn't apprehend
it, but he never said anything about that. You know why he says
they've kept thy word? He's presenting his disciples
before the Father in his perfection, in his blessed person, in what
he accomplished, in who he is. The only way we can come into
the Father's presence through our Lord Jesus Christ's obedience
through His love. And you know His love thanketh
no evil, thanketh no evil. He don't thank no evil. You know,
nothing but love comes from His heart for us. Satan accuses us,
the world condemns, but our advocate takes our part. And he says,
they know you and they keep your word. You know why I know? Because
I taught them. I taught them. I taught them. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord. Oh, what a blessed name. What
a wondrous name. Saving name. Comforting name.
Strong name. A name that calms our fears,
soothes our sorrows, drives away our fears. Oh, bless his name. Father, thank you for allowing
us this evening, the day that you gave us. Thank you for the
saints of God coming out to listen. We are so acutely conscious that
which treasure is just in an earthen pot, but it's the treasure,
not the pot. And Lord, who's sufficient for
these things? But Lord, we love to speak of
you, love to talk about you, and pray that you'd be glorified
in what we say and what we do. Preserve and keep your dear people
as they go their ways, go to their jobs, go to their homes.
Keep the children. And Lord, cause the gospel to
run well here among us. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen.