All right, let's go back to John
17. I have in mind to preach through
this prayer, and it's 26 verses, and I want to kind of break it
up so that we can glean the spiritual food and the encouragement that
I believe every sinner saved by grace can have. and should have, by hearing an
awesome, perfect prayer, prayed by our sovereign Savior, who
is our intercessor. I just entitled these messages,
The Lord Prays for His People. And that's an amazing thing.
I pray for you. I hope you pray for me. But there's
nothing like hearing our Savior pray, the Lord of glory. for
his people, he is there. It's a beautiful prayer. And
throughout this, going through John 17, I'm hoping that we'll
say a lot more about prayer. You know, people say the Lord's
Prayer, and they usually think of Matthew 6, our Father, which
are, that's really not the Lord's Prayer, that's the model prayer.
That's when the disciples would say, Lord, teach us to pray.
This is the Lord's Prayer, John 17. It's Christ's intercessory
prayer, or what we might call his high priestly prayer, for
his people. And that's who he's praying for.
Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to let this message
be kind of like an introduction to what I call the intercessory
work of Christ. And then at the end of this message,
I'm gonna read through these first five verses and give you
my outline for next week. Lord will and so we'll but this
this is something I think that we really need to get hold of
and the Bible says there's one God and one mediator between
God and man the man Christ Jesus now what does that tell you that
tells you there's no other mediators Mary the mother of the human
mother of the humanity of Christ is not a mediator We do not pray
to Mary or through Mary. There's one God and one mediator
between God and men. The Pope is not a mediator, he's
a false prophet. And anybody who claims to pray
through the saints, the saints are not a mediator. There's one
God, one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
And so here's what we learn from the mediatorial work of Christ,
the intercessory, where, you know, the Bible says that Christ,
after having finished the work of salvation, the work of redemption,
he ascended, after he arose from the dead, he ascended unto the
Father and is seated on the right hand of God, ever living, to
make intercession for us. What does that mean to us? What
is that about? Let me give you these points
as sort of like a primer on the mediatorial offices and work
of Christ. Number one is this. In order
to approach the Lord God of heaven, in order to approach a holy and
just and righteous God, we must have a mediator. We must have
a mediator. To go unto God on our own, is
certain death, certain condemnation. Now why is that? Well, number
two, the reason we must have a mediator is because God is
just and we're not. God is righteous and we are not. We're sinners, see? And God cannot
commune with sin. That's right. He cannot receive
and accept sin. Does he save sinners? Yes. Does
he accept sinners? Yes. But not on their own. Not without a mediator. You see
what I'm saying? We're sinners and God cannot
commune with sin. God, let me put it to you this
way. Mark this down in your mind. God must punish all sinners to
whom sin is charged. Do you see that? God must punish
all sinners to whom sin is imputed, charged, accounted. Sin demands
death. That's the penalty. Condemnation. And that's why the psalmist David
said this in Psalm 32. He said, blessed is the man to
whom the Lord imputeth not, chargeth not. with iniquity. So the reason
we have to have a mediator is because God is holy and we're
sinful. This begs the question that was
posed back in the book of Job, which is said to be the oldest
book of the Bible. In Job chapter 9 and verse 1,
Job was answering one of his friends who were called miserable
comforters. That's what religion is, you
know that? That's another name for man's religion, miserable
comfort. It may give you comfort for a
while, but it won't last. But here's what Job answered
one of his friends. And he said in Job nine and verse
two, I know it is of a truth. It is so of a truth. But how
shall man be just with God? How shall a sinful man or sinful
woman Be righteous. That's the same word, just and
righteous. Be made right with God. How's
that possible? And you say, well, when I get
to God, I'm going to plead my cause. Well, Job 9 in verse 3
says this, if he will contend with him, if the sinful man will
plead his cause with God, That man cannot answer God one of
a thousand. You might give one reason, Lord,
this is why I deserve to be in heaven. God will give you a thousand
reasons that you don't deserve. That's how bad this is. And you
know, the word thousand in the Hebrew way of thinking is not
literally a thousand. It's a Hebrew, what we call a
Hebrew idiom. It means numberless. It's like infinity. That's why when people go into
the scriptures and they talk about the thousand years and
all this, a lot of times it's thousands plural. But it doesn't
mean a literal thousand. It means a number that only God
knows, put it to you that way. You can't know it. And that's
what Job is saying. If I go before God's court of
justice and state my cause and give one reason why I should
be blessed, why I should be eternally blessed, God's gonna come back
with a thousand reasons why I shouldn't. Well, Job, down in chapter nine,
verse 29, he says this. Realizing the futility of such
a pleading your own cause, which it is, it's futile. Realizing
that, Job said this in verse 29, he said, if I be wicked,
why then labor I in vain? In other words, it's like, I
can't clean myself up. I can't put away my sins. I cannot
make myself righteous. It's labor in vain. He says in
verse 30, listen to this. He says, if I wash myself with
snow water and make my hands never so clean, yet thou, shalt
thou plunge me in the ditch and mine own clothes shall abhor
me. He says, for he is not a man
as I am. God is not a man as I am, that I should answer him.
And we should come together in judgment. We're not on an equal
plane with God. You know, Paul stated something
like that in Romans 9. Who are you to think that you can argue
and debate with God? There's an old poem that I used
to read, and I don't know anything about the man who wrote it. I
don't know what he believed or anything, but he had one good
line in that poem. He said, your arms are too short
to box with God. And that's the way it is. And
Job went on to say in verse 33, neither is there any daysman
betwixt us that might lay his hand upon us both. There's no
mediator. If you go to God before you're
on your own to plead your own cause based on your works, and
that's what, listen, when a sinner expects to be judged by God based
on his works, that's what he's doing. He's going before God
without a mediator. And that's what Job is saying
here. If I go to God like that, pleading my own cause, there's
no daisman. That word daisman, one old translation, translated
as an umpire. But it's a mediator. There's
no mediator that might lay his hand on God and on the sinner
and bring them together. That's what he's saying. So number one, we have to have
a mediator. Number two, the reason we have
to have a mediator is because we are sinners, and sin demands
death. There's none righteous, no not
one. There's none that doeth good, no not one. I've heard
people say, I've had two people say this to me, when they have
to hear me preach the gospel, they say, well, they'll say this,
they'll say, I'm not perfect, but I've not done anything to
deserve hell. Really? What does God's word
say? It says that by nature and based
on our works, we all deserve hell. Do you believe that? Right now, based upon our best,
what are we? We're sinners. But now here's
the third point in this primer on mediation. And I'll begin the third point
with a question. What kind of a mediator do we
need? We need a mediator. You go to
God on your own. You're a sinner. I'm a sinner.
That's death. That's eternal damnation. Well,
thirdly, what kind of mediator do we need? Well, here's what
we need. First, we need one who is qualified. You've got to be qualified. Can't
be just anybody. Somebody said, well, I'll choose
one. No, no. One who is qualified. Job said there's no days man
who can lay his hand on both and bring them together. We need
one who can lay his hand on God and lay his hand on us and bring
us together. He's got to be qualified. He's
got to identify with a holy God who's been offended and sinful
man who has offended. And then secondly, he's got to
be one who is appointed by God himself. You see, God is the
offended party here, isn't he? God is the one against whom we've
sinned, so he is the one that's gonna appoint a mediator, whatever
kind he needs. He's not gonna come around and
take a vote. Who would you choose? It doesn't
matter who you, it's who God chose. So we need one who's qualified,
we need one who's appointed by God himself, and then we need
one who is able to do what is required. He's gotta be able to establish
some ground of peace between God, a holy and just and righteous
God who was offended and is offended, and man who offended him, man
who fell. He's got to bring them together.
He's got to be able to do that. And then there's another requirement.
Not only does he need to be qualified, not only does he need to be appointed
by God himself, not only does he need to be able to do what
is required, he has got to be willing to do it. If he's not willing, what good
would it do us? You say, well, man's got to be
willing. No. Man's not willing. Man's will is not free, folks. Years ago, a fellow was talking
to one of our members who's dead now, the member. He told him this. He said, I've
got this whole thing figured out, the man said. I'm always
leery when somebody says that. I've got it all figured out.
I've got this whole thing figured out. He said, salvation is like
a big chocolate cake, and anybody who wants a piece of it can have
it. And the member of our church told him, he said, well, now,
do you want me to take that illustration and make it biblical? The man
said, well, go ahead. He said, well, first of all,
everybody in the world hates chocolate cake. You see, the Bible teaches us
that anybody who wants salvation, God's way will have it. Isn't that right? God has never
turned away any sinner who comes to him his way, God's way. But by nature, none of us want
salvation God's way. We want it our way. That's the
problem. We're willing to come to God
on our terms, not his. So we need a mediator who's willing
to do what's required. Well, I quoted it earlier. First Timothy 2.5, for there
is one God and one mediator between God and men. There's one person
who fits all of these qualifications. One person who's appointed by
God. God appointed one person. There's
one person who's able to do what's required. There's one person
who's willing to do what's required, and it's the man, Christ Jesus,
who is God and man in one person. Now here's the fourth thing in
this primer on Christ's mediation. His intercession. God can only
receive and accept sinners on the basis of righteousness or
justice satisfied for them by this one mediator. That's the
ground of it. You see, Christ could not come
before the Father and say, Father, now save them all and let them
go just because I love them. No. Does he love his own? Yes, he does. God loves his people. But God could not just simply
say, well, because I love you, I'm going to just forget all
that. No, no, no. The penalty has to be satisfied.
The ransom price has to be paid. Justice has to be satisfied.
Righteousness has to be established. So this one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus, He's got to be able to pay the
price. And that's what He did, isn't
it? On the cross. We're redeemed. By what? By the
love of God. Yes. But not just pure love. We're redeemed by the blood of
Christ. And that's the love of God. Herein
is love. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us and sent his son to do what? To be the propitiation,
the satisfaction of his justice for our sins. You know, that
was pictured back in the Old Testament For example, in the
mercy seat. Remember the mercy seat in the
holiest of all? The holy of holies? Let me read
you this, Exodus 25, verse 21. God telling Moses what to put
in the tabernacle. And in the holiest of all, he
said, thou shalt put the mercy seat upon the ark. And in the
ark, thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee, which
was the broken law. In verse 22 he says, and there
I will meet with thee and I will commune with thee from above
the mercy seat from between the two cherubims which are upon
the ark of the testimony of all things which I will give thee
in commandment unto the children of Israel. You remember what
happened to that mercy seat on the day of atonement? The high
priest came in and what did he do? He sprinkled over that mercy
seat the blood of the slain lamb. And God said, now that's where
I'm going to meet with you. You know, he'd already taught
that lesson to Cain and Abel. I'll meet with you. I'll accept
you on the basis of the blood of the lamb. That's what he said,
which was a picture of the lamb. And Cain said, well, I'd rather
come my way on my terms. I worked hard. I've sweated over
these crops. And look how beautiful they are.
Look how great they taste. I know God will accept that.
So he brought the works of his hands. And what happened? He
was rejected. But what did Abel do? As a sinner
saved by grace, he brought the blood of the Lamb of God. And God received it. That's it. Well, here's the fifth thing.
Let me tell you about the mediatorial offices of Christ. There are three. Christ is our
great prophet. He is the embodiment of the Word
of God. In beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God. The Word was God. Christ speaks
to God for us, for his people. That's what he's doing in this
prayer as our prophet. And he speaks from God to us. He's the revelation of God. He's
the revelation of salvation, the gospel. which is the revelation
of the righteousness of God. What is that? That's the entire
merit of his work. He pleads that here when he says
in verse four in chapter 17, I have glorified thee on the
earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. Well,
what did he do? He died for my sins. If you're
one of his own, evidenced by God bringing you to faith, he
died for you too. He didn't die for everybody without
exception. You think he would die for everybody without exception,
but not pray for everybody without exception? He said, I pray not
for the world. So he's the prophet. Moses prophesied
that that prophet that was going to come to seal up all prophecy,
and that's Christ. Secondly, he is our priest. This
is the high priestly prayer. As our surety, as our substitute,
as our redeemer, Christ stood in our place, having our sins
charged, imputed to him, our debt imputed to him, and he satisfied
God's justice for us, and now he's ascended unto the right
hand of the Father to intercede for us. We have a great high
priest. who is passed through into the
heavens. There's no man on earth who is
a high priest today. Christ is the one high priest.
We as believers are priests unto God, meaning that we have free
access to God. Our way has been paved, but we
didn't pave it. We didn't work it. Christ, our
great high priest, did it for us. He went in the holiest of
all, but not without blood. Whose blood? His blood. And then,
as prophet, priest, he's our king. He's our sovereign Lord. He's the one who rules over all
things, disposes of all things, controls all things for his glory
and the good of his people. And he lovingly conquers his
people. and makes them his willing subjects,
bondservants of Christ. And speaking of this issue of
free will that's so rampant today that men actually worship, thinking
that they themselves make the difference between heaven and
hell. A preacher asked me once, he said, are you telling me that
God brings his people to himself against their will? And I told him, no. What God
does as the king, the conqueror, he changes our will. How does
he do that? Under the preaching of the gospel,
which exposes our sin and depravity, he gives us a new heart, a new
mind, a new spirit. He gives us eyes to see what
we didn't see before. He gives us ears to hear things
we didn't hear before. Boy, I tell you, that's so ingrained
in me and my experience, I can remember sitting and when I first
heard the gospel, I literally hated it. The true gospel now,
not the gospel that elevates man and gives him some glory.
That was okay with me. I was all right with that. Of
course, it was a false gospel. But when I heard the true gospel
of how God justifies the ungodly based upon Christ's righteousness
imputed, and that God saves whom He will, when He will, by His
way, I'll have mercy upon whom I will have mercy, and I'll harden
whom I hardeneth. When I heard that, boy, I hated
it. I made it my business to study the Bible to prove it wrong. And in that process, I call that
my Damascus Road. God revealed himself to me under
the preaching of the gospel and put me in the dust. Show me who
I really was and am without Christ. He makes his people willing,
loving, bond slaves of Christ. Coming to God without Christ
is eternal death and damnation. To approach God, there are two
requirements. This is what we learned from
the mediatorial, cross work and from the mediatorial work of
Christ to approach God, there are two requirements, neither
of which we can accomplish. We can't accomplish either one.
It's all conditioned on Christ. Number one, we have to be legally
justified. There has to be a ground made
that will bring both parties together. God must be just, man
in sin must be justified. Justice must be settled, righteousness
accomplished and applied to us. How is it applied to us? By the
glorious doctrine of imputation. That means God legally charges
it to our account. That's the ground upon which
God comes together with his people through Christ. You come washed
in his blood, clothed in his righteousness. You try to come
any other way, it's death. The second thing that must be
accomplished is our spiritual regeneration and conversion.
We must be born again by the Spirit. We must be given a heart,
a mind, affections, a will to come to God as sinners seeking
mercy. We have to take our place with
that old publican who cried out, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Somebody said, well, I don't
deserve mercy. Well, of course you don't. If
you deserved it, it wouldn't be mercy. Those who need mercy don't deserve
it. I don't deserve grace. Well, of course you don't. If
it did, it'd be works. You see, salvation with all of
its blessings has nothing to do with what I've earned and
nothing to do with what I deserve. It's all in Christ. My one mediator
between God and man. He's got to bring us to himself.
The Bible says in Hebrews 11, 6, without faith it's impossible
to please God. Well, what is faith? It's looking
to, resting in, clinging to the Lord Jesus Christ for all salvation. So Christ alone accomplishes
both for us and in us as our mediator, he appears before his
father on our behalf in the merit, the worthiness of his righteousness
that he worked out for us and imputed to us. Now with that
in mind, let me give you next week's outline. I'm just gonna
read the verse and tell you what I'm gonna be preaching in detail
next week. Here's John 17 in verse one. Verse one, we see
the goal of salvation. These words spake Jesus, lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify
thy son that thy son also may glorify thee. That's the goal
of salvation. It's the glory of God. Secondly, verse two speaks of
the success of salvation. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. That's the success of it. You
know, if Jesus Christ failed to bring one sinner for whom
he died into the kingdom, he would be a total failure. But
he didn't. He succeeded. And then verse
three, here's the revelation of salvation. This is life eternal,
that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent. That's the revelation of salvation.
God being just and justifier in Christ. Then verse four, here's
the ground of salvation. Remember I told you there's got
to be a ground accomplished upon which God can come and meet with
sinners. that they both can be brought
together. And here it is in verse four,
I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work
which thou gave me to do. That's the ground, his blood,
his righteousness. And then in the fifth verse,
here's the eternal nature of salvation. You wanna know what
eternal life is? He says, or verse five, the eternal
nature of, he says, And now, O Father, glorify thou me with
thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before
the world was. This is no afterthought of God. This is no plan B. It's not like
as some say, well, God tried it with Adam, that failed. Then
he tried it with Abraham, that failed. Then he tried it with
Moses, that failed. Now finally, I'm going to try
again. One last chance. I'll send Jesus in. No. This
was his plan all along. If we're saved by the grace of
God, we are recipients of a salvation that was given to us in Christ
Jesus before the world began. That's what Paul wrote. Isn't
that amazing?