And let's begin reading in verse 15 through the end of the
chapter. I do not ask that you take them
out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify
them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent
me into the world, so I have sent them into the world and
for their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be
sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only,
but also for those who will believe in me through their word that
they will, that they may all be one just as you father are
in me and I in you, that they also may be in us so that the
world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have
given me, I have given them, that they may be one even as
we are one. I in them and you in me that
they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that
you sent me and love them even as you love me. Father, I desire
that they also whom you have given me may be with me where
I am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved
me before the foundation of the world. Oh, righteous Father,
even though the world does not know you, I know you and these
know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name
and I will continue to make it known that the love with which
you have loved me may be in them and I in them. and it'll take us a couple of
weeks to get through that because I'm verbose and scatterbrained. Lord willing. As a parent of five children,
I have done a good job in my own eyes in certain seasons. I've done a wonderful job in
other people's eyes in every season. But in my own home, It's
very easy to be honest, isn't it? And as a father, and for
you fathers in the room, and I'm not going to speak for you
mothers, but you know, I know that it's different, but it's
the same in some sense. We often find ourselves self-deprecating. We think that we're the worst
of the worst of parents because there's those seasons where we
try the loving approach. No, no. Don't speak that way.
No, no. Don't act that way. Oh, would
you? You're better than that. Let's act this way. You know,
this positive approach of applying just great praise. And that goes
well when we're in a good mood. You know, that works. Everything's
great. I just want to parent rightly.
Most of the time it's, what is wrong with you? Have you lost
your mind? Do you know I could kill you? I mean, you know, stuff like
that. And then there's every now and then, which I think is
probably the most heinous of parenting styles, is the guilt
trip. You ever fallen on one? It's like falling down a flight
of stairs, but it's so easy. It's so easy. Robin and I talk
about this often. This is the easiest way to parent. We could really just wear ourselves
thin trying to parent positively. and just become very bitter trying
to parent negatively, but the guilt trip is almost self-fulfilling. It's just satisfactory in some
sense. You don't see how much I love
you? And you treat me this way? Oh, you know. And it's just,
it's easy. It's easy. It is the first thing
that comes to my mind. How dare you speak to me, your
father, that gives you life and liberty in the pursuit of happiness? And then you get angry, right?
Because you're justified in that. I've just really been thinking
about that as a failure in my own life for 22 years now as
a father. And I'm thinking to myself, thank
the Lord above that my Heavenly Father is not that way. And we
see that here with the Lord Jesus Christ when He's teaching His
disciples and He's showing them what they cannot see. He's revealing
to them what they could not otherwise apprehend. or perceive. And He's patient. He's patient
and He's caring and He's concerned. If I were Jesus, we'd all be
condemned. I've been three and a half years
with you guys and you still don't get it? What is wrong with you
people? I came from heaven to help you
and this is how you repay me? Sell me out for 30 pieces of
silver? You say that I don't exist? You weren't there? You
don't know me? Oh, you don't know me, Peter?
Okay. Well, we'll see how you like this. Poof! And we just
go and everybody's condemned. I mean, isn't that the way the
human heart thinks? But yet if there is one in the
world, in the cosmos, that entered into creation, that deserves
and would be justified in such a thought, it would be the Lord
Jesus. Yet, that is not why He came. He came to reveal Himself
as the revelation of the fullness of God. And we see God in redemption. We see God in long-suffering. We see God in the life and the
death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We get to know
God because God sent Jesus to those He knows. And there's no guilt trip. There's
nowhere in the Bible, even in the apostolic writing, I mean,
we're going through Galatians midweek very quickly, even with
Paul and his passion for the Galatian church, he doesn't ridicule
them, he doesn't bash them, he doesn't make them feel guilty. He affirms them. He affirms them
as children of God who have been saved by the mere mercy of the
Father. who have received the gospel
and its fullness of understanding, not the veiledness that all the
Old Testament saints had. It was always veiled. They knew
it was imputed righteousness, but how? How is God going to
satisfy my sin debt? And they never would really see
it until they saw the Christ alive. Abraham, as he died in the flesh,
rejoiced to see the day of the incarnation. And that caused the Pharisees
to want to kill Jesus. Beloved, I want you to be encouraged
in John 17. I want you to be fulfilled in
the joy of Christ here, not looking at how we do and how we operate
and how well we live out Christian life. Because even in my home,
I'm worthy of judgment. And I will suggest that all of
us are. Work, school, life, we complain in our spirit. I read
Psalm 55 in the beginning of the service this morning, and
it was a royal complaint session of David. Whiner, whiner, pants
on fire. You know, it doesn't rhyme, but
I just wanted to do something funny there. Just whine and moan. As a matter of fact, the text
says, I moan. And I complain. And I think that's evidence of
how often times we are, but yet instead of approaching God in
our moaning, we pretend that we're not moaning. We approach
God with the high brow King James prayers as if we just stepped
out of the Holy of Holies without blemish. And then we're honest
to a fault with God. I know that I'm a sinner. Oh,
Father. And David just said, God, I am
upset and I'm sick of these people. Kill them, please. Oh, God, kill
them all. But I'll trust in you. I mean,
do we have that sincerity? Do we have that honesty? Do we
have that understanding that we approach God as Papa? Do we
approach Him as Dad? Do we approach Him as our Father?
He has loved us with an everlasting love and given His own Son for
us. We have no condemnation before
Him. We won't even get a time out.
There won't be a pop on the hand. There won't be a, you can't have
your dessert today because you didn't eat all your food. We
await the day when we can see face to face our Savior and there
will be no answer about our flesh given to Him because He answered
our flesh. He answered our debt. He answered
our sin. He answered our judgment. And
it is finished. It is finished. We saw last week
as we looked through this text, and I started reading into last
week's text, but he says, I do not take them out of the world,
verse 15. I don't ask that you take them
out of the world, but you keep them from the evil one. And then
verse 16, they are not of the world just as I am not of the
world. 17, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. And we close with that idea.
That we are set apart by the story of Jesus, by the Word of
God concerning His testimony of Jesus the Christ. We are set
apart by the power of God the Holy Spirit for God before the
foundations of the world to be fulfilled in the time that God
desires for us to know and to see. And we are kept. We are kept. If I were to go back and if those
of you who like to read a lot of different things when it comes
to the synoptics as you're going through John's Gospel, you'll
know that the synoptics give not a different story but a different
perspective of the story. A different perspective of the
story of this Last Supper and the dialogue. And in Matthew
26, When he's talking to Peter, remember
over there where he tells Peter he's going to deny him in chapter
13? And he says to Jesus, Lord, where
are you going? And Jesus says, where I'm going
you can't follow, but you will follow afterward. And Peter said,
why can't I not follow you now? I'll lay down my life for you.
I'll die for you. I'll give up everything for you. And Jesus
said, yeah, you surely will lay down your life for me. Or he
asked, you really will lay down your life for me? Then he says,
amen, amen, amen, amen, amen. It is true, it is true, it is
true, it is true. It is true that before the sun comes up,
that's the point of the rooster crowing, right? Before the sun
comes up tomorrow, you will have denied me three times. Matthew records it. And when
they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives, and
they said to them, You will all fall away because of me this
night. Jesus says to them, You will all fall away because of
me this night. For it is written, I will strike
the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But
after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee. Peter
answered him, Though they all fall away because of you, I will
never fall away. And Jesus says, truly, I tell
you this very night before the sun comes up, before the rooster
crows, you will deny me three times. And Peter said, even if I must
die with you, I will not deny you. And all the other disciples
said the same. So see, we often put the emphasis
on Peter. Peter was just a special agent. Notice, Peter was the
loud mouth. Peter was the expressive one.
Peter said what everybody else was thinking. Peter was the spokesman. Like in my household, there was
always a spokesman when they were younger. The one that spoke
for everyone. And it was the oldest, yeah. Well, what do you want for breakfast?
She wants this. Okay, no. Nine years old, still can't talk,
because nobody's ever had an opportunity. Peter spoke for
them. And if we look at the other places,
and we look at other of the aspects of the synoptics, and we see
that same dialogue, and we look, and we start to interact with
what's really happening, it's an exposition of the fact that
these people could not fathom that what was going to happen
to them was going to happen to them. They could not see. If God gave us that, remember
the magic eight ball, you asked it a question, it gave you an
ambiguous answer? I'll close in the question to
give you the strength, maybe, so possibly. Who knows? Yes,
no, not going to happen. Am I going to live till tomorrow?
No. Oh, great. I'll die. Thank the Lord we don't put our
hope in a black round level with an eight on it. What if God were to give us a
taste of the future? What if he were to tell us? We've often
said that before. The Lord would just give me a
picture or an idea or a little bit. Just tell me how this is
going to end, Father. What am I supposed to look forward
to? We won't believe Him anyway. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not
going to make that mistake. Oh, no, I'm not going to do this.
I'm not going to do that. It's not going to work out that way.
Let me tell you what it's all going to work out for, to the praise
of His glory. That's what it's all going to work out for. What
do you want? To the praise of your happiness
or to the praise of the glory of Christ? Because the glory
of Christ is truly our happiness and that's what's at stake here
in the closing prayer of Jesus. It's the fact that the intimate
unity of the Father and the Son and the Spirit are an exact picture
of the intimate unity of the church ultimately to be found
in Him. And that's where we see That's
where we see the hope. That's where we see the apostles
teaching in the letters to the body and how we are to consider
one another all the time. How we're to be working to the
end of each other's joy and serving and finding out how we can help
one another with needs and with counsel and with prayer and with
encouragement. That good works in themselves
almost holistically are to serving one another, period. If you think about what Dr. Luke
says concerning the denial of Peter, he says in Luke 24, I
mean, excuse me, Luke 22, verse 31, he goes, Simon, Simon, behold,
Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat.
But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again,
strengthen your brothers. Peter said to him, Lord, I'm
ready to go with you both to prison and to death. And Jesus
said, I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows this day, you
will deny me three times. You will deny that you even know
me. But I find that that aspect of that encounter, there's something
that Jesus says there that gives me great hope. He says it already
in John, in the dialogue, in the long lengthy monologue if
you will, I will not leave you as orphans, I will not fail you,
you will not be lost. And he prays to the father, don't
lose any of them, except the one that was intended to be lost,
the son of perdition. Jesus says, I've prayed for you,
Peter, that your faith may not fail. Now think about it for a second.
Jesus is praying over here, do not take him out of the world,
Father, but protect him from the evil one. The evil one wants
to sift Peter, wants to take him away from Christ, but he
can't. It's not possible. But just to show the reliance
upon Jesus the man on the Father's power and will, he prays positively
and assuredly that God the Father would keep Peter in the faith.
And yet Peter in the faith looks like, I don't know Jesus, I don't
know who you're talking about, I told you I don't know him.
That's what faithfulness looks like for Peter. You see the problem we have?
We measure assurance and security and joy on what we can do and
how good we feel about where we are in Christ rather than
what is promised to us and the power of God to sustain us. This
is a nightmare in America. And I've said this a lot. But
I'm going to say it a little bit more boldly in the weeks
to come. This is the most dangerous doctrine in the evangelical church
to date. Actively happening to date. Now there are a lot of other
damnable things that are just absurd. Don't worry about that
absurdity stuff. I'm talking about with the sheep
of Christ. I'm talking with true born-again believers who are
being taught over and over and over and over again that you're
just not quite there yet, you probably might not be in Christ. This is a problem. Because it's not for us. Saving
faith is believing in the last hope of anything we have, that
Christ alone is our Savior. and being taught and understanding
the witness of God the Father and the Spirit through the scripture
of who he is and who he saved and how he accomplished, how
he justified, listen to this, how Christ justified the, what,
the forgiveness of sinners according to the righteousness of God.
So we put the idea of justification on us too much. The death of
Jesus is justification of God as just. He's called us to life. He's forgiven our sins, never to hold them against us. Moses
was justified through the death of Jesus. Abraham was justified through
the death of Jesus. Adam was justified through the death of
Jesus. But they were forgiven long before then. But God is
just. God is not stuck in time. God
is not waiting around for the world to spin in the right location
so He can say, Oh finally, I finished my work. God is eternal outside
of the time that He created. But in this time, when the time
was right, God sent His Son to finish the work of righteousness. To finish the work of justice.
To finish the work of justification. And now He's showing us here
in this prayer, this is what is in view. Christ is about to
be the Christ. He's about to finish saving His
people from their sins. He is going to seal the everlasting
covenant with His own blood. Forevermore. And when your faith is weak,
His faithfulness is strong. Don't take Him out of the world,
keep Him from the evil one. Your faith will not fail you,
Peter. That's an example of that. But we look at Peter as a failure.
When Peter's flesh, just like our flesh, just like every flesh,
just like Abraham's flesh, just like everybody's flesh, whoever
lived in Christ, is failing. What's the bigger sin? Robbing
your neighbor or doubting Jesus? Thank God Jesus cannot deny Himself. They're not of the world. I'm
not of the world. We understand that. Sanctify
them in the truth. Your word is truth. We are set
apart. This is where I was. And for this sake I also set
myself apart. I consecrate myself as the Lamb. to give myself for
them that they may be set apart in truth. And Jesus has already
said, I am the truth. But verse 20, which is where
we are today, I do not ask for these alone. I do not ask for
these who are believers alone. I ask for all those who will
believe in me through their word. So Jesus is praying for you.
So the very thing, this is where the context of how we understand
and interpret scripture or any written document, who is the
audience? God is the audience in this prayer. John wrote it down for the church,
for the believing ones, period. and you are a believing one and
the context of this prayer in itself specifically to this point
has been talking about the 11. Now Jesus shows that he's been
talking about you also. We can't do that with everything.
We can't go to the Old Testament and look at a narrative. We can't
go to Joshua and say, oh, the Lord promised this. The Lord
didn't promise that. Except that it's fulfilled in
Christ and then he did promise it. We go to this, we go to that,
we need to be careful. Here, we don't have to guess,
do we? We don't have to deal with all of the historical nuances
of placing ourselves in the audience's shoes. And the temporal promises
which were shadows of Jesus in the Old Testament. Those promises
are done. They are fulfilled in the incarnation
of Jesus Christ and they are satisfied and the condition of
that covenant is ratified in the blood of Christ. So there
is no promise that God has given to any human being that will
ever, ever be fulfilled again that is not in Christ. Let me
put that a different way. God owes nobody nothing. And that's poor English, but
you know what I mean. He doesn't owe a thing to anyone. He doesn't
owe Israel anything. He doesn't owe Syria anything.
He doesn't owe America anything. And he doesn't have to do anything
else because he's done it. It is finished. The promise of
Christ is the fulfillment of every shadow, of every temporary
promise, of every promise of property, of every promise of
prosperity. It's all Christ. And I, Jesus
says, as you sent me into the world to fulfill all the promises
for your people concerning life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,
so now I send them into the world that they may show all those
who will believe because I'm praying for them as well. They
will be the ones through whom my word comes to my people. So
that, verse 21. Why is this important? Let me
tell you what we do in evangelism. We think evangelism is all about
salvation. Nope. The gospel is all about
salvation. The gospel is the word of life. Jesus Christ has done the work
of salvation. God the Spirit grants faith as
He chooses through the hearing of the words of Christ. Conversion
is all of God. Evangelism is all of God, but
through the means of the mouth of humanity, men, women, and
children, we share, we teach, we instruct concerning the Christ
and the fullness of the revelation of Jesus is ours to hold and
to keep and to understand. But here we are here, so that they may all be one. Think about that for a second.
that they may all be one. So if evangelism was all just
about getting the sheep to believe, then why does Jesus and the apostles
always emphasize then the oneness and the unity of the faith? Is Jesus a different entity than
the Father? Is the Son a different entity?
No, He's the same being. He's God, but He's a different
person. In the same way we have one God and three distinct eternal
persons of the Godhead, we have one body but each of us individual
members of it. Now that is a metaphor there.
That is imagery on a physical sense. But spiritually speaking,
we stay in the world but not of it. so that we may be together
to do that which God has called us to do and to have the intimacy
with one another as God the Son has with the Father. Ecclesiology
is just about absent in our culture. What's that mean? The study of
the church, the doctrines of the church, the teaching of who
the church is, what she is. The very way we do our assembly
is just a direct relationship to cultural distinctives throughout
history. And we try hard, but we still,
we're never gonna purify the method of assembly. But beloved,
we must purify the purpose. We must purify the purpose. And
that is that we glorify Christ in our unity. But in our world
today, well, you know what, I just want to attend another church. We've all been there. But I'm
telling you, beloved, as I study the Word of God and as I grow
in my understanding of what it means to be a shepherd of God's
people, we've got to move that mindset away. It's not about
finding the right place to go. It's about finding the right
people who are centered on the right truth, who want to be intimate
with one another. It's a big difference. It's a very big difference. When I speak to young pastors
weekly and all around the country, matter of fact, all around the
world, for some strange reason, you know, you get your inbox
here, that, well, how do you do this, or what do y'all think
about that? And I'm glad to be able to say, well, back in the
megachurch days, these things were this way, but in the true
church, why don't you think this way? And it's always reforming and
changing who we are and how we live according to the scriptures.
Not according to history, not according to the traditions of
our ancestors or the pulse of the local culture. Jesus is praying
for all of us. He's praying for all His sheep,
all that have been given to Him, all that He died for, all that
will believe that we may all be one just as You, Father, are
in Me, and I in You. They also may be in us. Eternal life is being found in
Christ. Eternal life is being found in
the Father that we are in Him by His authority, by His power. He has satisfied all the requirements
of the promise of life. Period. And the reason that this is important,
then it goes back to the first point that I made in this Sub-point
here, you don't know what my points are, they come and go
as the clock ticks. But then evangelism does become
about believing. But without the church being
unified, there's no true arm of evangelism. That's why it's
so easy for the last 125, 150 years of American Christianity, that's
why it's so easy for us to just get in these methods. Well, let's
just do this, say this, come there. Look at all these people
that made decisions for Jesus. That's the most unbiblical phrase
that's ever uttered out of the mouth of a person. The implications of that alone
are blasphemous. Because if we look and we see
evangelism in the scripture, it is for the sake of the body
of Christ as we live in the world, but not of it. Do the work of
an evangelist, first and foremost within the church, that means
to continually share the truth of Christ. That's why exposition
must always be about the gospel. Because that's what the Bible
is. And there are a lot of people in our culture, beloved, who
love to claim that Christ is theirs and they are His, but
they cannot stand to continually learn the gospel of free and
sovereign grace because they want to get to the how-tos. How
am I supposed to live my life? How am I supposed to think? How
am I supposed to dress? How am I supposed to act? How am I supposed
to love? Give me a list of things to do and I'll do them. And they
argue, well, let's go to the part of the recipe in the Bible
that says, take out of oven and serve. And they've never put it together.
They've just got a bowl of slop and they go in there and just
start eating it. Why are these eggs raw? Why is this flour in
here? This is terrible. I don't want
that. Give me something else. Because they never read it all.
Here it is in Ephesians. You get to Ephesians 5. Ephesians 4 and 5, you begin
to get some instruction, don't you? Speak the truth in love.
Love each other. Do this, do that. Act this way.
Think this way. Don't do this. Do not let the sun go down on
your anger. And so on and so forth. And you see it in Philippians.
And you see it in Colossians. You see it in Romans. You see
at the end of all these letters, while I got your attention, and
while I've reiterated the grace of God for you in Christ, let
me give you a little bit of instruction to help live together as Jesus
the Son is one with the Father. You be one with each other because
you're one with them. Could you imagine if the truth
of who our God was was akin to the mythology of antiquity? That God would fight with Himself
and argue with His Son? And there would be a battle and
then somebody would get upset, slam the door. Spent off on the
gold street, put rubber on the gold street. Oh, just spent off
on my street, boy. I mean, could you imagine if Scripture revealed
God that way? Divided? humanistic, He's not
divided. That you may be one as we are
one, so that the world may believe that you sent me. I just all of a sudden wanted
to take too much time on that phrase. But I've taught it already. The Word has already taught it
already. What's wrapped up into that? Verse 22 is really the point
of all this in my mind. Because when we hear these things,
we can get real turned up. We can get real excited. We can
get very passionate. Or we can get very frustrated.
We can get passionate because we're glad to hear of the gospel.
And we can get frustrated because we don't feel like we're really
that intimate. And when we're not really that
intimate with each other, guess what it means? According to Jesus'
teaching over in 13, 14, 15. We're not really walking in intimacy
with Him. When we're not friends with each
other, we're really not friends with Jesus. Thank God that being
intimate with Christ in a personal level and friendly with Christ
and loving Christ in our lives is not a condition of our eternal
life. Whether the actions of our intimacy
together as the body of Christ, empowered by the gospel, our
glue is the gospel, Jesus Christ is everything that holds us together.
It's almost like having a jello mold and you just put a whole
bunch of junk in there, right? And when it sets, that stuff's
in there. Just... Jesus is the jello mold and all
the junk is the church. There's your visual image. Wonder
what that sermon title is. Jesus is a Jello Mold. How's
that sound? We're in Him. And when we're in Him, we are
serving and loving and working. It's hard. So that practical
instruction is only empowered, this is what I was talking about,
is only empowered by the power of God. And the power of God
is only illustrated and given to us through the Word of God. And I don't know about you, But if it is not, if we are not
praying and actively engaged together for the sake of the
faith, then we're going to fall into a place where we're just
like Peter, and we're gonna, not that we would say we don't
know him, but we're not even considering him anymore. We're
not considering Christ, we're not thinking about Christ. Oh, Sunday, ugh. I've got to go to church. See
how wrong that phrase is in itself, what it says? How about, I haven't had legs
all week and I really want to walk. That's too personal for
some of us, isn't it? And I really want to walk, I
need to go be with my legs. I haven't had ears to hear all
week. I need to go be with my ears.
Who are your ears? Who is your encourager? Who are
your hope-filled friends and family? I'll tell you who it's
not. It's not you by yourself. I'll
tell you who else it is. It isn't the religious of our
world, and it's usually not our families, is it? Most of our families, I'm not
talking about our own households, but most of our families are
lost. They don't understand. And many
of them do the little church thing, they do the little Christian
thing, they do the little Christ stuff, but they're not the body. That the world may believe that You sent me. Verse 22, the glory that You
have given to me, I have given to them. So you might say, well
how can we be one? How can we be one? Look what he says. The glory
that you have given me, I have given to them that they may be
one even as we are one. Now that is a pact statement.
And then there's a comma there in your English Bible going into
verse 23. A recapitulation. I in them, you in me, they may
become perfectly one so the world may know that you sent me and
loved me as you loved me, and loved them
as you loved me, et cetera. So what does it mean, the glory
that you've given me, I have given to them? Well, this entire
gospel starts with that narrative, doesn't it? Or with that picture,
that image. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was God, and the Word was with God. And the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory." Wow! We've seen this Word that was
with God from the beginning, in the beginning, before the
beginning, and who created all things, and in Him was the light
of the life of men. Here it is. We've seen this glory. What is it? Who is Jesus truly? What is He all about? That's
what glory is, seeing everything that there is to know and perceiving. God's glory is to see Him revealed
fully. And how is it that Jesus is revealed
that way? Glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace
and full of truth. In the introduction to this gospel,
it even tells us, He came to His own and His own did not receive
Him. But to those who did, that is, who believed in His name,
He gave them the right to become the children of God, not by the
will of the mind, the decision of the mind, the will of man,
the decision of man, the flesh or of blood, but by the will
of God. Now keep that in mind as you
hear this. And all the other places, for 132 weeks, this is
the 132nd or 3rd week we've been in John. And I'm ready to start over.
I don't know about you. All the glory of Jesus is to
reveal all the glory of the Father and all the people that the Father
has loved, He's given to the Son and all those that the Son
have, He died for them, not only past and not only in the present
tense where He was that day, but in the future tense of all
who would believe that He would cause to be born again to the
living hope of Jesus who is resurrected from the dead, 1 Peter 1. And that Christ is glorified
in the people because in the redemptive divine work of God
the Son, His people display that glory. Ephesians 3. The manifold
witness of God. That the powers and the principalities
of the present age know Christ is God because He saved His people
from their sins. And because there are a people
who are saved from their sins in a divine way, the fullness
of God is seen. And in an intimate future glory,
we will be like Jesus, never to sin, never having sinned in
that flesh that we receive. and we will be in the presence
of Jesus. We will behold Him, know Him more and more and more
without time. Worship Him, praise Him for His
glorious grace. He will forever be in the presence
of the Father and the Son and the Spirit and His body. All because of the love of God
before He created everything. That is what Christ shows you. And notice the words of Jesus
here. The glory that you've given me,
I've given to them. There's two ways in which that
works. Unless we dig and go into twelve
parts. But in this context it's very
simple. I, Father, am the direct imprint
of your nature. I am God. And all that I say
and all that I do reveals you fully and it reveals me as God. And I have given that to them. I've given that to them. What's
it look like? John 3. Truly, you are the one come from
God, for no one can do the things you do except God be with him.
Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you that you cannot see the
kingdom unless you have been born again. It is evangelistically viable
to preach, you must be born again. Matter of fact, it is concretely
and substantially good to include that. What must I do? You must be born again. For when we who have been given
the glory of Christ see, that's part of what we see. Christ has
saved us and given us the sight to see it, given us the heart
to believe it, given us the mind to perceive and to hold fast.
The trust of Christ, even when we say, I don't know Him for
the sake of the world, we will not be sifted. Christ,
though He emptied Himself for a little while for the sake of
the glory of God, He was not sifted. He returned to His glory. We've been given the promise
of glory. So the first part of that is that the glory that He's
given to us is the knowledge of Himself, the truth of the
gospel, faith to believe in the finished work that He has accomplished.
This is our everlasting power and hope as Christ followers. I want you to think about that. The glory is given to us and
it also includes the promise as we see in the latter part
of this. Let's say three things now. The promise that we will,
what? Be one with each other as we
are one with Him as He is one with the Father and vice versa.
And that culminates at the day of glorification. Which by the
way will not be a day, will it? That will be the day that days
cease to exist. That's it. When we are glorified,
there will be no more time. That is the day of the Lord.
That is the end of all this creative, redemptive picture and work,
and we are promised to forever be as Christ is with Him in the
presence of the Father. And we are one. So, the praying
of Jesus now puts us in the place where He says that the reason
He's praying for them is so that they can interact and rest and
live in a way that resolves to that end. Not progressively,
not perfectly, sometimes seasons without, sometimes great intimate
seasons, but that's the point. We hold fast and we together
do this. We can all find affinity with
a good movie. I love good movies. If it's written well and the
acting is done well, I love it. If it's garbage, I won't even
remember watching it. Because I'm good like that. Not
remembering things. And we can all be together and
we can all agree, man, I love that movie. It moved me. It did
something to me. And we can talk about it for
months, years, or we can bring it up now and bring tears to
our eyes. Oh, you remember that scene? Remember when he said
that? Oh, it just moved my heart. Or we can laugh together. We
can have a song that we all have an affinity with and when we're
reminded of those things we can enjoy it or we can get upset.
Oh yeah, I remember that song. Or we can have a historical date
that we can all come together. The death of a loved one, marriage,
the birth of a child, birth of a nation, the destruction of
a nation, a terrorist attack. And we can stick together as long
as that is our focus, and when that wears off, we wear out with
one another. Beloved, that is not the same
relationship we have with the Gospel. We aren't to come here
as spectators to listen to here and go, hey, amen, we all say
amen together, and then we go about our lives as if we don't
exist. And that's primarily our job
as the elders, Now remember how I started today. Remember how
I started today talking about parenting and how it's easy to
parent harshly, guilt trip, but it's hard to parent in a way
that's affirming. So let me parent in a shepherding
way, in a pastoral way, and in an affirming way. I want you
to see that when I say these things and when Jesus prays these
things, He's not doing so so that we feel guilty. Oh, I'm
just a terrible Christian. I'm not doing it. We don't do
that. It's wrong. It's actually sinful for us to
be convicted and be brought under condemnation in our spirit and
conscience. When we hear the gospel and then
when we hear the glory of Christ in our unity, well I'm just not
as close as I should be. Of course we're not. Thank God
we're not measured by that. Thank the Lord we're not measured
that God doesn't have this book up there with my name in it and
like hangman every time I mess up he erases one letter. James Tippins was coming to heaven,
but now it's James T. And tomorrow it's going to be
James T. And then we're going to get in a jam and he's going
to be in a jam because he's only got three more strikes. You see? I mean,
it's not that way, so let's not come here as spectators considering
how we might feel when we get through. Let us come here as
worshippers, as one body, with one heart, with one mind, and
with one soul, and hear the glory of Christ through the gospel
of grace, that we might rejoice that no matter how good or bad
we're doing in it, He is our hope. And that, above all things,
will cause us to be closer. and we will forgive one another,
and we will work hard, and we will have problems, and we will
have sin, and we will work through it, we will lose people, we will
gain people in our lives, but ultimately who are with us today,
we are a body, and God is glorified with us, and in us. And the reason I know it certain
is because Christ prayed for it, and the Father answered it,
and the prayer was answered 2,000 years ago, and the fulfillment
of it is sitting around you right now. Did you hear that? So you're not just a hodgepodge
bunch of folks just getting together a couple of times a week. You
are a part of Christ. And you were found in Him and
the operative reality of that is God's love for you. So what
better way It's the promise of God for that
to be found in our love for Him and for each other. And I've
already given this answer. I always preach ahead of the
text. But verse 24, Father, I desire that they also whom you have
given me may be with me where I am. You see the promise of
that glory to see my glory that you have given me because you
loved me before the foundation of the world. So I'm not lying
or making it up. I just got ahead of myself. They know, even though the world does not,
they know. You know your Christ. You know the Lord because He
knows you. And beloved, that is an intimacy that no human
being can experience apart from the divine work of God. Consider this as you take the
Lord's table this day. Let's pray. We thank you, O righteous
Father.