All right, let's turn to John
chapter 17. As I've said, this is the third
message on the Lord's Prayer, and I'm just gonna go through
the whole prayer, 26 verses, and so I've sectioned it off,
and today we're gonna begin at verse six. Christ, in his prayer,
had laid the foundation of a right relationship with God, of salvation
itself, and how all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
come to his people through his substitutionary meritorious work
on our behalf. He finished the work, he said,
that the Father gave him to do. That's the foundation, the ground
of our salvation. We read it in Romans 10 in verse
four. For Christ is the end of the
law. That word end is an important
word. It means the finishing. Remember
when he said in John 19, it is finished. What was he talking
about? His work, his keeping the law,
his satisfying its justice, his washing away of our sins, paying
our debt to God's justice for our sins imputed to him. His
satisfying that justice to the point of bringing forth a righteousness. that answers the demands of God's
justice. That's the righteousness of God
that Paul spoke of in Romans 10, that the Jews would not be
submitted to. Why? Because they were intent
in their self-righteousness of working out one of their own.
They, against the clear declaration of God's word, they insisted
on claiming that they could do well enough good enough by their
attempts to keep the law, to make themselves righteous in
God's sight. To do enough, to be good enough,
to be righteous enough. But the Bible's clear that no
man can do that. There's none righteous, no not
one. And so when Christ prays for his people here, he prays
upon the basis as he said in verse four, I have glorified
thee on the earth, I have finished the work, which thou gavest me
to do. He finished it. You see, that's
the difference between the true gospel and false gospels. The
true gospel preaches salvation conditioned on Christ who finished
the work. False gospels preach salvation
that Christ started and that sinners finish with their choice
or their works or whatever. The true gospel speaks of a work
done. The false gospels speak of you
do the work. You seal the deal. That's the
difference. And so here beginning at verse
six, he continues his high priestly prayer. That's what we call it.
He is our great high priest. He is our surety. If you're a
believer, Christ is your surety. What does that mean? Well, you
know if you go to the bank and borrow money, and you don't have
good credit, they say, well, you've got to have a cosigner,
right? That cosigner's your surety. The difference is this, that
cosigner says he'll pay the debt if you can't pay it. In Christ,
our surety, there's no possibility that we could ever pay the debt.
Never has been. He is our surety. He engaged
himself under the Father's appointment to pay the sin debt of his people
before the foundation of the world. That's what the scripture
teaches. That's when he was made our surety. He's a covenant surety. And in order to pay that debt,
what did he have to do? He had to come to earth and take
into union with his deity a perfect, sinless humanity, God-man, because
he had to die. The wages of sin is death. That's
the payment. And he died as a substitute for
his people. And his death is our redemption,
redeemed by the blood of the crucified one. That means the
debt's paid. If the debt's paid, guess what?
You don't owe it. If it's paid, I don't owe it.
And so that debt is paid. That's the finished work of Christ.
And so he continues his high priestly, what we might call
his intercessory prayer, by praying first for his disciples whom
he had called to walk with him in his sojourn on earth up to
the cross. And there were 11 of them. He
said, well, no, weren't there 12? No, he's gonna deal with
Judas. We're gonna talk about him later on. There were 11 of
them. And then later on, he's going
to expand his prayer to include all the elect of God, all whom
the Father had given him before the foundation of the world,
all whom he gives eternal life, the whole election of grace.
He shows who they are in this prayer. Who are they? You ever
had anybody ask you that? Well, who are Godzilla? Who are
the ones for whom Christ died? Who are the ones for whom he
stood surety and became substitute and redeemed by his blood? Who
are they? Well, he's gonna identify them
right here. They are those to whom he reveals the gospel of
God's glory in him known by their testimony, their word. Now think
about the apostles. Think of John, Mark, Peter, and
all of them, Paul included. I believe Paul was the 12th one.
But we'll talk about that later. But the apostles were those godly
men, and understand now who they were. They were sinners saved
by the grace of God. That's who they were. They were
used of God mightily. to usher in the new covenant
age, the last days, the establishment of the new covenant church. And
it's important that we understand about these apostles that they
were not called and used of God because of their natural qualifications
and talents. That's not the reason. It wasn't
because of their natural goodness. They were sinners. It was and
is all of grace. Take a man like Matthew. You
know what Matthew was before the Lord called him? He was a
publican. Not a republican. He was a publican. You know what a publican was?
He was a Jew who hired himself out to the Roman government,
the empire, to collect taxes from the Jewish people to give
to Caesar. And they were known Most of the
publicans were known because they always skimmed off a little
for themselves. Remember Zacchaeus, the publican? That's what Matthew was, a publican.
Now, John and James and Peter, they were no better off as far
as any goodness in themselves. They were sinners saved by grace.
What these men were, they were by the grace of what they are
now. They are by the grace of God. They're called apostles
because that word means messenger. They were ambassadors and messengers
of Christ, and they were called upon to witness the gospel of
God's grace in Christ to a lost and hostile world. And I say
hostile, and Christ warned them about that. Listen to this in
Matthew chapter 10, or chapter five, rather. when the Lord was
preaching to them and others in his Sermon on the Mount. And
listen to what he tells these men. Now think about this. He
says, verse 10 of Matthew 5. He says, blessed are they which
are persecuted for righteousness' sake. Now he's not telling them,
blessed are those who are persecuted because they're trying to be
good people. That's not what he's saying, folks. To be persecuted
for righteousness sake is to be persecuted for preaching that
Christ Jesus is the only, one and only way of salvation. The one and only way of righteousness.
And without Christ, there is none righteous. I don't care
how religious you are, I don't care how you grew up, whether
you were a good boy, a good girl, or a mean little imp. There's
none righteous, no not one. I don't care how good you're
trying to be. As good as you try to be, you
still fall short of the perfection of righteousness that can only
be found in the person and work of Christ. That's it. And without that, what are you?
You're lost and on your way to a sinner's damnation. Now that's why they were preaching
that. They weren't the moral majority. just trying to get folks to behave.
They were preaching the gospel. And that's what he means, blessed
are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. He said in verse 11, blessed
are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall
say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. This
is what he's telling these men. You're going out and you're,
listen, When God brings you to see Christ, to know his gospel,
that's the greatest message that you will ever hear. It's the
best message you'll ever hear. But the world hates it. Now that's
right. He said down here in Matthew
520, he said, accept your righteousness, exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the
kingdom of heaven. Now how do you think the scribes
and Pharisees heard that? Oh my, that's a sweet, no, no. No, they hated him. They hated
him. John chapter three, verse 19,
this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world
and men love darkness and hate the light because their deeds,
what they claim as their goodness, is in reality evil. That's what
the message of righteousness, the message of Christ says. He
said in John 15, 18, he said, marvel not if the world hates
you. Hated me before it hated you.
He said, they'll throw you out of their synagogues when you
preach Christ. They're preaching the law. They're
preaching salvation by man's good works, by man's choices. When you come in and say, oh
no, that's not the way it is. That's a false gospel. That's
the broad way that leads to destruction. Huh? He said, they'll hate you. And what Christ does in this
prayer over in John 17, he prays for their safety. Keep them,
Father. Preserve them. He prays for their
sanctity, their separation from the world. Keep them separate.
from any message that would lead sinners to eternal damnation. Sanctify them by thy word, he'll
say. And they'll need both to fulfill
their calling. But look at it, verse six, listen
to what he says here. John 17, six, this is number
one, the revelation of his name. He says, I have manifested thy
name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Who's
he talking about? Talking about his disciples.
How do you know they're his disciples? Because he manifested, he revealed,
he made known his name, the Father's name. Thine they were, he says. They belonged to him. And thou
gavest them me. Now, when did the father take
possession of these and give them to his son? You know what
the Bible teaches? You wanna know what the Bible
says about that? Or do you wanna just get around and let's discuss
it and everybody give their opinion? Well, I don't wanna hear your
opinion. And you don't wanna hear mine. You know when the
father gave them to him? Well, he said it right back up
here. He said, verse two, as thou hast
given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. You know when the Father
gave him to him? Before the world began. Now that's
what the Bible says. You know, there's a lot of people
who claim to be Christian who don't like that. Oh no, no, God
looked down through a telescope of time. What scripture is that
in? Anybody know? I know it's not
in any scripture. That's man's concoction because
it's a way that he can give himself some glory. It's a way that he
can give himself a pedestal upon which to boast of some inherent
goodness that he believes he has in himself, evidenced by
his free will choice. It's not in the scripture. He said, I've manifested, how
do I know that I was one whom he gave to him? I have manifested
thy name unto the men. Thy name. Doesn't the Bible say,
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved?
Exactly, yes sir. You know what? Here's the fact
of the matter. Anyone, any sinner, who desires
to be saved, now listen to this, put these two words in capitals.
Any sinner who desires to be saved God's way shall be saved. Well, then what's the problem?
Doesn't everybody want to be saved? Doesn't everybody want
to live free? Yes, but they want to be saved their way, not God's
way. They want to be saved through
their idea and not through God's. What is God's way? Well, we read
it. It's through the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's by His grace, which worked by Him in Christ before the foundation
of the world. What this manifestation of His
name, the Lord's name, you know what the Lord's name is? It's
His glorious character. It's His attributes. It's His
nature revealed in two ways, who He is and what He does. You know, if you know some famous
person or someone of human nobility who has a name, and that name perks up people's
ear, oh, we know that name. You might say the name in today,
the name Kennedy, for example. Here's a Kennedy from Massachusetts.
Well, we know him. We know that name. Well, does
that tell you anything about the individual? Well, what does
he do? Well, he runs liquor from Canada
into the United States. Well, that gives me a little
lower view of that name. How about that? Or he's a pervert. You see what
I'm saying? Well, God makes his name known
by who he is and what he does, his actions. Who is he? I'll tell you who he is. He's
whoever this book says he is. If the book says he's sovereign,
guess what? He's sovereign. What is a sovereign? Somebody who's in control. The
Bible says he works all things after the counsel of his own
will. None can stay his hand or say unto him what doest thou.
Who are you to argue with God? Who are you to debate with God?
Who do you think you are? God's high above us. And we're
nothing. We're sinners who deserve nothing
but His wrath. God is holy. He is just. God is love. God is mercy. He's grace. But you see, who
he is tells us something about that. He cannot show mercy, love,
and grace apart from his sovereignty and his holiness and his justice. He must be both. That's the great
question of questions. It's asked several times in the
book of Job by Job himself and once by one of his friends. How
can a man, a sinful, depraved man like me, how can such a creature,
be just, righteous in God's sight? How can man born of woman, a
fallen sinful man, be clean and made right in God's sight? That's
the question of questions. You know, I grew up in so-called
religious churches and never even considered that question,
never heard it preached. That article in the back of your
bulletin written by Brother Jim Byrd, it answers the question.
It's by God's grace through Christ. Grace reigns through righteousness
just to satisfy unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. It's his righteousness imputed.
The gospel is the revelation of the righteousness of God.
That's his name. God chose a people, that's what
he did. In the Bible, the term name is
a Hebraic expression which refers to everything that a person is.
And with reference to the name of God, it refers to all that
he is, both in his being, his attributes, and his actions.
And the greatest manifestation of his name is in how he, the
sovereign Lord of this universe, chose, redeemed, and gives life,
salvation, to sinners. That's the greatest manifestation
of his name. In creation, God revealed who
he is. He's the creator God. He's the
prime mover, isn't he? He's the eternal God. In providence,
God reveals his name. He's the one who works all things
after the counsel of his own will. That's recognized all through
the Bible. There's no such thing as luck
or happenstance or chance. You know that? Oh, I know we
say it sometimes, but we who know the name of the Lord, we
know better, don't we? You say, oh, that fellow was
lucky. No, he wasn't. That's just what God determined
to do. But especially in salvation,
God reveals his name. This is the revelation of the
glorious person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Second Corinthians 4.6, for God who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give unto us, to
show unto us, to shine unto us the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. The person of Christ. You want
to see the greatest manifestation of the name of God that shows
forth every attribute of his nature and his actions, honored
and magnified? Look to Christ, the crucified
one who was buried and arose again the third day, the one
who satisfied justice, the one who brought forth righteousness.
The gospel is the revelation of the righteousness of God.
That's Christ. Look unto me and be ye safe,
for I am God and there's none else. How did God identify himself
before that verse in Isaiah chapter 45? He said, I'm a just God and
a Savior. He's not just a Savior. He is
a Savior. But not just a Savior, he's a
just God too. That means he must be a righteous
judge as well as a loving father if salvation is to come to me. Now how can he do that? If I
come to God and he shows me nothing but justice, what am I gonna
get? Damnation, that's what I deserve,
that's what I've earned. But if I come to God and he's
both a just God and a savior, what am I gonna get? What Christ
earned for me, eternal life and glory. That's the difference. To whom is this name revealed?
Well, he says it in verse six, men given to him out of the world.
That means before he revealed his name to him, what were they?
They were of the world. The unbelieving, fallen, sinful
world. As all to whom he reveals his
name, God chose them, gave them to Christ before the foundation
of the world, but they all fell in Adam and they were all born
spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. They were all by nature
of the sinful, unbelieving world. But you see, they had already,
before God ever created this world, been marked out as vessels
of mercy, which he had afore, or before, prepared unto glory.
Romans chapter nine. They're identified in the scriptures.
Turn over to Hebrews chapter two. Look at this. They're identified in the Bible
all through, but I'm gonna give you one passage where they're
identified so many times. In verse nine, of Hebrews chapter
two. He says, we see Jesus. Now he's
talking about believers there. Talking about believers, you
know, when you look at this world, to the human eye, it seems like
it's out of control, doesn't it? I mean, you know, we talk
about it and we'll jest about it. We say the world's going
to hell in a handbasket. All you gotta do is turn on the
TV and look at the news. People going nuts. And I know
we've been spoiled, but it's pretty much always been that
way in certain parts of the world. So we look at it in our physical
eye, and it looks like it's out of control, but it's not. How? Verse nine, we see Jesus. who
was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace
of God, should taste death for every man. Now the word man there
is not in the original. It should be every one, every
one of who? He's not talking about all without
exception. If he tasted death for every man without exception,
then every man without exception is gonna be saved, folks. And
you mark it down. The debt's paid and you don't
owe it. But who is the everyman here? I've got a whole sermon
on that. Who is everyman? Well here they are, verse 10.
For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all
things in bringing many sons unto glory. They're the elect
of God, the sons. To make the captain of their
salvation perfect through suffering. Christ was always perfect in
himself. Let's talk about the completion of his work. Verse
11, for both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are
all of one. That's Christ who was set apart
from the foundation of the world to be their savior and those
who were set apart in him. For which cause he's not ashamed
to call them brethren. How do you know if you're one
of his brothers? Look at verse 12, saying, I will declare thy
name unto my brethren in the midst of the church will I sing
praise. And he's going to declare his name in the preaching of
the gospel, wherein he is revealed in his person. God manifest in
the flesh. That's who he is. Every attribute
of God belongs to him, but he's also man without sin. That's
who he is. And what did he do? He obeyed
the law even unto death, the death of the cross. He finished
the work. He satisfied justice. He brought
in righteousness for his people. That's what he did. And he identifies
them even further through there, but let's go back to John 17
now. How did he reveal his name and
call them out of the world? Well, they've been brought by
God to believe the gospel. They've been given the gifts
of faith and repentance and perseverance all by the grace of God. You
see, those to whom He has manifested His name and brought them out
of the world, they're the ones who have, in verse six there
it says, have kept His word. Now think about that. In a few
hours, the Lord is going to be arrested, going to be tried,
and then he's going to go to the cross. Every one of these men, and I
believe including John, at that time, they fled and hid. They went into hiding. That tells you what? They're
sinful, weak men who are saved by the grace of God. Kept by
the grace of God. And the success of the kingdom
was never conditioned on them. But it was the power and grace
of God in Christ that stood behind it, even in their perseverance.
And you remember, he brought them back. He brought them back. He showed himself to them after
his resurrection. And then he commissioned them
to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Now look at verse seven, here's
the second thing, the realization of the fullness of Christ. He
says, now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast
given me are of thee. Verse eight, for I have given
unto them the words which thou gave me, and they have received
them, and they have known surely that I came out from thee, and
they have believed that thou didst send me. Now as I said,
you cannot know You cannot know God, saving His name apart from
Christ. He said in verse three, this
is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. When God brings His people
to faith in Christ, here's what we realize. We realize that Christ
alone, singly, simply, singularly, is the merit, the strength, The
assurance of our salvation. It's all in Him. That's why Paul
wrote that in 2 Corinthians 11, how he feared that as Satan beguiled
Eve through his subtlety, your mind should be corrupted from
the simplicity that's in Christ. Don't look anywhere else for
salvation. Don't look anywhere else for
assurance. Look unto Jesus, the author and
the finisher of our faith. He was sent of the Father, and
all the Father's glory is in Him. He came out from the Father. There's one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. He is the way, the truth, the
life. No man cometh unto God but by
Him. That's what he's saying. And
then the objects of his intercession, look at verse nine, this is the
third point. I pray for them, pray for his
disciples, his apostles. I pray not for the world, is
that clear? I'm not praying for the world,
not for everybody without exception, but for them which thou hast
given me, for they are thine, and all mine are thine. and all
thine are mine, and I'm glorified in them." How is he glorified
in them? When he brings them to faith in Christ. They're the
elect of God. They're the objects of God's
love whom he came to save by his death on the cross. Christ
intercedes for his chosen people, not for all without exception.
If he intercedes for them, they cannot perish. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies.
Who can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
is risen again and seated at the right hand of the Father,
ever living to make intercession for us. True believers are those
in whom Christ is glorified by revealing to us and in us his
operations of grace for our justification, our right standing before God,
and for our sanctification, our being set apart from the world.
God-given faith in him pleads his blood alone. My hope is built
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. God-empowered
perseverance and obedience to him that keeps us looking to
him and clinging to him our whole lives. God bringing us to final
consummate salvation and everlasting glory by his grace and his power. He never leaves us on our own. He continues to pray for them
in these next verses, but then he expands it to all, not just
the apostles, but all of his children whom he redeemed with
his precious blood.