Come back to John 17. Often, often our Lord prayed. Sometimes
He prayed all night. One place it said He went up
to a mountain and prayed all night long. This one who knew no sin prayed
more than any man ever walked on this earth. Last night when I was looking
over this, I thought, we are the ones who ought to be praying
all night long. But he prayed all night long at times. But here we are allowed for a
little while to hear. It's like we're allowed to come
in and sit down and listen to him speak to the Father. To listen. to listen in on this holy communion
that's going on between the high priest, our high priest, and
God the Father. And what a privilege, what a
privilege that we have to be allowed to do this, to be allowed
to come in here this morning. As I said in my prayer, thank
you for allowing us to come here this morning, and thank you for
allowing us to get to listen in on this this morning. If I
don't do anything but read His Word, God has promised to bless
His Word, not all my words. I can get wordy, but He promised
to bless His Word, and I pray He'll do that this morning. And
it says in verse 1, these words speak Jesus. Now, He's referring
here to the words of comfort that He spoke in the last three
chapters. Here He is about to go and die. He's going to suffer. He's going
to be in sin. He's going to die. And just before
he does this, he speaks words of comfort. He comforts his disciples. He comforts them. And then it
says, Then he lifted up his eyes toward heaven. I tell you this,
he is the only man that's walked this earth that could truly lift
up his eyes toward heaven. That publican It says, he could
not so much as lift up his eyes toward heaven. And you and I
know something of what that is. Unworthy to be in his presence. Unworthy to call upon God. But
here is one who knew no sin. Here is one who is absolute perfection. This is the embodiment of perfection. And he can look, lift up his
eyes to heaven and speak to God face to face. This man could
do that. It says he lifted up his eyes
toward heaven. And even though God is everywhere,
he's omnipresent, yet in heaven his glory is most manifested. So he lifts up his eyes to heaven.
And he says this, the hour has come, the hour that was appointed
before the world was. When I read that yesterday, I
thought of When you have a wheel, you have
the hub, and everything surrounds that hub. Have you ever seen
an old wagon train wheel, all those spokes coming out from
that hub? There's the hub. This hour is the hub of all hours,
of all things that exist. Here's the center of it. Right
here's the center. The hour has come. The hour that
was appointed before the world was. The hour to suffer for sin. our sins, the sins of His elect. The hour to redeem, the hour
to, and we can't comprehend this, to be made sin, that hour has
come. The hour to glorify Thee, to
glorify the Father, the hour to depart out of this world and
go back to the Father, having obtained eternal redemption.
He said the hour has come. Now he says, glorify thy Son.
Notice what he asks for here. Support and sustain me. Support and sustain me through
this great event that's about to happen to me. That's what
he's saying. That's what he's asking for.
I wish I could get a hold of this when trouble comes my way. Lord, support and sustain me
through this. Glorify thy Son. And here's the reason. that Thy
Son may glorify Thee. Support and sustain me through
this great event so that I may glorify Thee. I may glorify Your love, Your righteousness,
Your mercy, Your truth, that I may glorify Thee. The Father and the Son and the
Holy Spirit are all glorified in our redemption. Glorify thy
son that thy son may glorify thee. Help me. And he says in verse 2, as thou
hast given him power over all flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ
as the King of kings and Lord of lords has all power. He doesn't have some power. That
would be useless. I mean, we have some power. We
don't have much of it. He has all power over all flesh. He has all authority. The government
of the universe, the government over the angelic world, the government
over all devils, the government over the human race is in the
hands of Jesus Christ right now. Thou has given him power over
all flesh. The Father gave Christ to people.
I want you to get a hold of this. He gave him a people out of every
nation. And for Christ, for the Lord Jesus Christ, to successfully
save every one of them, he has to have power over all flesh. He has to have power over all
things. I thought of an example. I've known people in business
over the years. I've known some that go into
business and try to make an honest effort at it, and they You know
why? They don't have power over all
things. They didn't have the power to
make it work. Things happen. The economy falls out. The bottom
falls out of the economy. You have no power over that.
You can't control that. In order for Christ to save His
people from their sins, He has to have power over all flesh. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power." You and I would never be willing to be
saved if He didn't have all power. To make you willing, if He didn't
have all power, we wouldn't do it. We wouldn't be willing at
all. He must have all power in order to accomplish His Father's
will. And Christ shall give eternal
life to all those given to Him by the Father. He'll give eternal
life. I don't know how in the world,
I know how, but people can read this and say, God did not choose
a people. As thou hast given Him all power,
and given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal
life to as many as will accept Him as their personal Savior.
That's the way they translated it. From the pulpit, that's where
it comes from. Not God's man. It doesn't say
that. It does not say that. That he
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Now that's successful. That's exactly what he did. And this is life eternal. that
they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent." You know, everybody wants eternal life, and their
understanding of it is the length of it. Well, everybody's going
to live forever, somewhere. Every soul that's ever been on
this earth is going to live forever somewhere, either in God's presence
or cast out of God's presence in punishment. But not everyone wants Christ. People want to live forever.
I watched a documentary last night. It's called Chasing Life. How to live longer. How to live
longer. Here's eternal life. that they
might know thee." It's a person. Eternal life is to know, not
know about. I know about Abraham Lincoln.
I know about George Washington. Eternal life is to know Jesus
Christ. It's to know Him. I mean, not
just some facts, not just some doctrines that He's given. but
it's to really lay hold of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a real
heart experience. It is the life of God in the
soul. That last verse, in verse 26,
I don't know that I'll make it through all these, but he said,
I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it that
the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, listen,
and I in them. Now, I cannot dissect this to
where we're all going to just comprehend it easily. You can't
comprehend what I'm talking about. But I'm telling you the truth.
Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ is in His people. He's
in you. I in them. It is the life of God in the
soul. And it comes by knowing Him. Knowing Him. Now He said, I have
glorified thee on the earth. How did He do that? I'll tell
you this, He's the only man that ever did that. Truly. That ever
truly, perfectly glorified God. The first Adam didn't do it.
And none of His children have done it. But this one did. This
one did. How did He do this? By doing
the Father's will perfectly. He said in one place, my meat
is to do the will of Him that sent me. I wish that I loved
and desired to do God's will, my Father's will, as much as
I like to eat. That's why he's saying it. He
said, my meat, my food, that which sustains and drives me,
is doing my Father's will. And then, secondly, it was by
perfectly keeping the law that God gave. I mean from the heart. He kept it from the heart. He
loves every precept. I've been reading through Deuteronomy,
and I'm telling you, I would hate to be under all that. I
mean, to keep all these do's and don'ts. You would find that
to be a burden. This flesh would now. This flesh
would find this to be a burden. But our Lord never found any
command of His Father ever, in the least amount, to be grievous.
He loved to do it. He got up in the morning and
loved to do it. He magnified the law and made
it honorable. That can only be said of Jesus
Christ. And then thirdly, he willingly
gave up his life for the sheep. I read that to you in Isaiah
53. He laid down his life. He laid it down and was glad
to do it. He was happy, glad to lay down
his life for the sheep. Glad to suffer for them. Glad
to do it. And then he glorified him on
the earth by finishing the work. that was given to Him to do. When He was hanging on the cross,
the last thing He said was, It is finished. Perfectly. Our salvation, our redemption
is finished. We don't have to add to it. We
don't have to bring anything to the table. It's finished. And he finished it. He finished it. Now it says here in verse 5,
And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with
the glory which I had with thee before the world was. There are two important things
to consider here in this verse. First of all is this, that Jesus
Christ is God. Don't ever let that just go over
your head. Jesus Christ is God Almighty. You want to know who
God is? You want to know what He's like?
Study Him. You want to know what the Father's
like? You want to know who He is? Study Christ. Study the Lord
Jesus Christ. He was with God and was God before
the world was. There's His eternality. And his
delight was to return back to his father's presence. I can
imagine that would be so, being in this place. I tell you what,
I've done a little traveling. I'm not a traveler. But when
I get home, first thing I always tell Vicki, I say, man, it's
good to be home. It is good to be home. And I don't know how
to relate all these things, but I know this. His delight was
to return home. It was to return back to the
Father. And then the second thing to consider here is that Christ
returned to the Father's presence, listen, as a man, the incarnate
man, the Son of Man. There is a man, a real man, bone-flesh
seated at God's right hand. He returned back to the Father
as a man, perfect man, second Adam. The second Adam sits at
the Father's right hand. He did what the first Adam couldn't
do. He did it. The man Christ Jesus, the mediator,
the forerunner, the redeemer has gone back to glory. He's gone back home. And he prays to return to his
former state of glory, to be received and seated at the Father's
right hand. And he says in verse 6, But now
I have manifested thy name unto the men. Christ came into this
world to reveal the Father. He didn't come into this world
to teach us how to live right, straighten men and women out.
He came to reveal the Father. That you would know your Heavenly
Father. That you would know who He is.
That you would know Him. You know, I have an earthly father. And I know Him. Most of you don't
know Him. I mean, you've met Him here,
but you really don't know Him. I know Him. I can sit down and
talk to you for a long time. I know Him. And this is what
He's saying. He's saying that I have manifested
Thy name, I have revealed Thy name to them. They know you.
They don't know that just you exist, but they know you. They know you. No man knows the
Father except the Son, and He to whom the Son will reveal Him.
Christ said in one place, If you have seen Me, you've seen
the Father. Philip says, Show us the Father.
If I've been such a long time with you and you still haven't
seen me, you still don't know me. I read that verse and I think,
boy, I don't want to. I'm sure it can be said of me,
but I don't want it to be said of me. Have I been here so long? Have I been in your presence,
been preached to you so long, and you still don't know me?
Christ said, if you know me, you know the Father. Christ revealed
the perfect nature of God. Nothing else could do that. Nothing
else could reveal the perfect nature of God but Jesus Christ. He's the only one that can do
that. He revealed the love of God, the grace of the Father.
He revealed it. He revealed His redemptive will. I can read that to you back here
in verse 2. As thou hast given Him power
over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given Him. There's His redemptive will.
There it is. Not throwing it out like chicken
feed. Whoever pecks it up can have it. He's giving it. He's giving life to those given
to Him by the Father. Who are they? They're a multitude
of sinners that the Father gave Him before the world was. A bunch
of ungodly wretches. And He's going to give to them
eternal life. And that just means this. He's
going to give to them Himself. How many times, going through
this, does he say, I in them, thou in me, that we may be one? That's what salvation is all
about. Salvation is all about being made one again with God.
We lost that in Adam. We have it perfectly. We have
it in a way in Christ that we couldn't even have it in Adam. Now let me see where I'm at here. He revealed the Father, and He
revealed this to those who were given to Him before the world
was. This chapter is full. It is absolutely full of God's
electing grace. If you want to talk to someone
from the Scriptures about election, just take them to John 17. It's
full of it. Thine they were. We have always
been His sheep. God does not turn goats into
sheep. There's two types of people in
this world. There are the goats and there
are the sheep. Two types. He's not turning goats
into sheep. They've always been his sheep.
And these, he said, the Father gave to me. He gave to me. Thine they were, and they have
kept thy word. They have believed thy word.
They believed it. He said, my sheep hear my voice,
and a stranger they'll not follow. And they have known, God has
so powerfully, He has so powerfully put His stamp of approval on
all that Christ did, that those who saw Him, those disciples,
they believed and they knew that He was the Father, that the Father
sent Him. That's what revelation, that's what happens when God
reveals the gospel to you. It's so powerful that you can't
help but believe it. You really can't. You can't help
but believe. They have known, he said, they
have known, there in verse 7, and I have given them thy word,
or I have given unto them, he said, the words which thou gavest
me. Everything he spoke came from
the Father. When he spoke, it was the Father
speaking. And they have received them, they have believed them,
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." Peter said, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the
words of eternal life. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. What he spake was from the Father.
The gospel message, as it's called in Isaiah, the report, is the
testimony of truth from the Father, and He has sent it to you. He
has sent it to us. And His elect have received it,
and they receive it gladly. The gospel makes everybody mad
except those whom God saves. It will make everyone mad except
those whom God saves. If you preach it as it is now,
if you don't water it down, if you preach it as it is, it will
make everyone mad except those whom the Lord saves. And then he says in verse 9,
I pray for them. Isn't that a comfort? We just heard and read, we just
read this. Over in verse 20, neither pray
I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me
through their word. Neither pray I for these alone,
but I pray also for Mike, Frank, Doris, I can go right on through
here. That prayer's for us. And it's
still heard. It's still heard. I pray for
them. What a comfort. What a comfort.
I want you to pray for me. You know, Spurgeon always said
that was his strength in preaching. The church prayed for him. They
had such a desire for him to preach the Gospel, and they prayed
for him. But here's our great comfort.
Here's the one that's always heard. Here's the one who doesn't
waste any words. There's probably a lot of things
I've prayed that you can take a lot of the thought away. Wordy. But everything he prayed for
was heard. Everything he prayed for was
absolutely perfectly according to God's will. Everything. I prayed for them. And God the
Father always hears his prayer. I pray for their good. But I pray not for the world.
Why? How some men handle that. I pray
not for the world. Why does he not pray for the
world? Because he didn't die for everyone in the world. I
pray for them. Specifically. Particularly. I
pray for them. And then secondly, he didn't
pray for Because he knew he'd be praying against the will of
God. That's why we pray, and at the end of it we say, Thy
will be done. I don't know God's will perfectly, but He does. He does, and that's the way He
prays. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine. In purpose
they are one. In ownership they are one. And
I am glorified in them. I'm glorified in their redemption.
I'm glorified in their faith, I'm glorified in their conduct,
and I'm glorified in their final end in glory. When we all, the
whole elect of God's grace, stand before Him, when that throng
of people, that sea of people stand there, Jesus Christ will
be fully glorified. And we'll see it. He's glorified
now, we just can't see it like we're going to see it. But He's
glorified. Every one of His sheep are to
the praise and glory of His grace. And then He said in verse 11,
And now I'm no more in the world. He was ready to depart out of
the world and enter into the Holy of Holies. That's where
He's going. But the disciples had to stay here in this cruel
world, and they were hated They were hated by the religious people,
especially by those religious Pharisees. And he prayed that
the Father would keep them in this world and keep them from
the evil one. Oh, don't you know? You and I
have no idea how Satan would like to sink his teeth into us.
We've seen some parts of it. We've seen some of it. But he
would like to sink his teeth in. It's like he did Job. He
said, let me at him. You've got a hedge about him.
Remove that hedge and I'll show you what Job's made of. He said, I pray that you keep
them from the evil one. That they would remain, and this
is so important here, that they would remain as one. Even as we are one. Even as a father and a son. No
division. He said, I pray that you'll keep
them as one. He knew that the divider of the
brethren was always going about to see where he could come in
at. He said, while I was with them
in the world, I kept them in thy name. We don't keep ourselves,
do we? He keeps us. He keeps us. If he would withdraw his hand
for just a second. I'll tell you this. If He would
leave me alone, I'd leave Him alone. If God would leave me
alone, I'd leave Him alone. But I thank God He won't leave
me alone. He keeps the sheep. He said the
only one that is lost is the one that's always been lost,
Judas. He never was saved. He never was a believer, ever.
He's the son of perdition. He was never a son of God. And
now, he says there in verse 13, and now come I to thee. And these
things I speak in the world. I speak here while I'm in the
world. I speak them to the disciples that they might have my joy fulfilled
in them. They might have my joy fulfilled.
He's praying that their joy would not diminish. You ever have someone leave and
you just, I mean, you enjoyed, you had a good fellowship, You're
just having a good time with each other. And then it's time
to go. And you're just like, oh, wish this would go on for
a while. Wish this would go on for longer.
He's saying here, I pray that their joy might not diminish. Because I'm about to leave them.
I'm going to leave them in this world. And I pray that their
joy shall continue and even increase in the gospel of grace. That
their joy will increase We have a reason to rejoice in the Lord
Jesus Christ. You know why? Because He has
ascended back to His Father and our Father. He has ascended back to prepare
a place for you. And that ought to make us rejoice.
If He's preparing that place, my what a place that ought to
be. He said, I'm ascending back to
the Father and I'll make intercession for you and prepare a place for
you. And there in John 14, He said, if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself. I'll be
back. He said, I pray that your joy
will not diminish. I pray that you'll be joyful. And the more
we learn of Christ, who He is, His work, His person, where He
is, I'm telling you, the more that joy will be filled. We lose
joy when we take our eyes off of Him and we start going after
this stuff. There's nothing more joyless,
if there is such a word, than going after these things. He's our joy. And He says in
verse 14, I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated
them because of it. That's why. The world didn't
hate you before that. I had a young man say to me years
ago, I've said this before. Yes, I was about 20 or 21. Somebody I used to run around
with. He said, I wish you had never gotten saved. We used to run around together.
He was killed in a car wreck at 19. I'm glad the Lord did
save me. I'm glad I wasn't with him. But
he said, the world will hate you. I wish the Lord hadn't saved
you. We can't have fun anymore. That's
the idea of it. We can't go doing whatever we
were doing. Can't do that. Company has to
change, doesn't it? Your company, I'm telling you
this, People are, you are the company you keep. That's the
truth. You're the company you keep.
The company you enjoy, the company you hang with, that's who you
are. Who you are is not what's sitting here. It's who you are
out there. It's who you run with. It's who
you eat with. It's who you enjoy being with.
That's who you are. That's reality. That's truth.
He says, Because they are not of the world, even as I am not
of the world." Oh, he said, I pray, in verse
15, I pray not that you should take them out of the world, but
that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one. We're to stay
here and preach the gospel. You know, the only time we had
the privilege of suffering for Christ is now. When this life's
over, there's no more suffering. When this is over, it's over.
This is the only time we have the privilege and the honor of
suffering for the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, I pray that
they'll stay here and preach the gospel, the church be edified,
they build up one another until he has fulfilled his purpose
in each one of us. When God Almighty has fulfilled
his purpose in each one of us, Then he'll take us home and take
us out. They are not of the world, he
says in verse 16. They are not of the world, even
as I'm not of the world. He says this again. They are
not of the world. We are of another world, aren't
we? Really and truly, the believers of another world, of another
kingdom. I live in the United States.
You live in the United States. But my citizenship, truly, Our
citizenship is in heaven. That's where it's at. Verse 17. Sanctify them through
thy truth. Even though we are perfect in
Christ, there is such a thing as spiritual growth. We grow in grace, we grow in
love, we grow in faith, we grow in hope, and we grow in temperance.
Sanctify them through thy truth. I sent them, he says in verse
18, as thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also
sent them into the world. But he can keep you. He's able
to keep it. He's able to keep it. We don't
have to be afraid to go out. He's able to keep the sheep.
He said to them in one place, go into all the world and preach
the gospel. Now he says in verse 19, I sanctify
myself. He's not saying that he's making
himself holy. He's holy. He was born holy. I mean, the
Scripture says that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall
be called the Son of God. Here's what he's saying. He's
saying this, I set aside myself as a sacrifice for sin in order
to make them holy. He has set aside, he was set
aside as a sacrifice for sin He might make us holy. We were
sanctified by the Father in election. We are sanctified by the Son
in redemption and sanctified by the Holy Spirit in regeneration. Sanctify them, he said. And I
sanctify myself. And neither pray I for these
alone. I pray for them also. Aren't you glad of that? I pray
for them also. That they all may... Here's what
he prays for. that they all might make it to heaven. No. No, that's kind of... I want
to say secondary. I don't know if that's the way
to say that or not. That they all may be one. One. Wouldn't it be something if we
were all of one mind here this morning? One heart? Worshipping
God? I mean, one perfect unity in
worship and in thoughts of God? Well, that's what he prayed for
and that's going to happen. It's going to happen. We all may be
one. Here's the purpose of it all.
That we all may be one. One, listen, one united family. One united harmonious family. There's nothing like having a
family that gets along. Nothing like having a family
that's one. And he said, that's what I pray
for. And that's what he'll get. He'll get it. And look here in verse 22, and
I'll hurry along here. And the glory which thou gavest
me, I've given them. Oh, we can't see it. We see through a glass darkly.
He said, I've given them that they may be one, even as we are
one. I in them, thou in me, that they
may be made perfect and one, and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. I can't comprehend this, and
you can't either. But God the Father loves me every
bit as much as He loves His Son Jesus Christ. Now you and I,
a lot of us here, have children. We don't love other children
like we love our children. Now do we? No, we don't. We like
to say we do, but we don't. He loves everyone He saves, everyone whom
God saves. Every one of His, that He makes
His children, He loves them every bit as much as He loves His Son,
His eternal Son, Jesus Christ. That ought to give us some comfort.
Now He says, Father, I will. Here is my will. Boy, He don't want you to say
that. I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me, Be with me
where I am, not where I'm going." He said, where I am. Where is
He? In the bosom of the Father, isn't He? You know what it says
in 1 John? He's in the bosom of the Father.
I wanted to be right there. Listen, we haven't even touched
this oneness, this union that we have in Christ. We haven't
even scratched the surface of it. Father, I will that they also
whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, that they may
behold My glory which Thou hast given Me. For Thou lovest Me
before the foundation of the world." He says, Father, I want
them to behold that glory. I want them to experience that
glory that I've experienced. I want them to see it. Have you
ever been somewhere and want somebody to see something? And
you say, man, I wish they could see this. He says, I want them
to see what I see. I want them to know what I know.
I want them to experience what I've experienced. This is my
will. I'm glad it is. O righteous Father,
the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee. He knows
the Father. He knows the Father perfectly.
And these have known that thou hast sent me. They know and believe
that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them
thy name, I have revealed it, and I will reveal it to them
again and again and again." Continue to reveal it. That the love,
here's what it comes down to. Look what it comes down to. That
the love, this perfect love, this love that passes all human
understanding. That the love wherewith thou
hast loved me. Now listen. Not that they just
may know it, but that the love wherewith thou hast loved me
may be in them. That this love won't be lip service.
That this love will be really in them. And I in thee. Boy, what a prayer. What a prayer. And the good thing is, he heard. He said, I know you always hear
me. I didn't even scratch what's
there. I did not scratch what's there. OK, Mike.