Come with me to the book of John.
The Gospel according to John, chapter 17. Let me read verses 19 through the
end of the chapter. And for their sakes, I sanctify
myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. That they all may be one as thou,
Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in
us, and that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me. And the
glory which Thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be
one, even as we are one, I in them, and Thou in me, that they
may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that Thou
hast sent me, and hast loved them. as thou hast loved me. 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, where thou lovest me
before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the
world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these
have known that thou hast sent me And I have declared unto them
thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. If you will turn with me to John
17. I want us to look at verses 25
and 26. This will be the last message
in the series I've been preaching on John 17. And I hope and pray
that all of these messages have been a benefit to you, but especially
this message. And I pray that it will be a
benefit for those who hear it for years to come. Our Lord says
in our text I have declared unto them thy name. Talking about
those who shall believe by their word, by the apostles' word.
Talking about us. Talking about those if the Lord, if he waits till a new generation,
or a generation after that generation, he's going to continue to declare
his word. That's what he's saying here.
I have declared it, and I shall declare it. What he hath begun, he'll continue
to make known throughout the gospel age. Our Lord now sits
at the right hand of God, we're told, at the right hand of majesty
on high, yet he speaks of continuing a declaration in his Father's
name. Now this tells me something about
his counsel and purpose in gospel preaching, does it not? He's
in glory. He personally is not standing
here preaching to you. But when he sent out his preachers,
he said, he that heareth you, heareth me. So he is in fact
still declaring his gospel through those he sends. And how shall
they preach, he said, except they be sent, Romans 10, 15.
This gospel declaration, or making known the Father's name, is by
way of the means set forth in the Word of God. The gracious
gift of the Holy Ghost poured out upon the church of the living
God, without whom we'd be lost in the maze of Scripture, just
as this world is from now on. apart from His Spirit. There's not a single word penned
in Holy Scriptures that's not inspired by the Holy Ghost. Now
I want you to think about what I just said. This is God's Word. This is not a bunch of men that
God called together and they counseled together and said,
here's what we're going to pray. These men spanned thousands of
years. They grew up in every kind of... They weren't all from
the same school. They weren't all from the same...
Some of them were shepherds. Some of them were tax collectors.
Some of them were doctors. They come from every kind of
background, and they come from all kinds of different ages.
And yet not a single word was penned that was not inspired
by the Holy Ghost. God hath revealed these things,
he said unto us, by his Spirit. And Peter said, holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. They were moved to
write. And I want to say something here
that I think needs to be said. The pouring out of God's Spirit
upon the church, the active presence and power of the Holy Ghost does
not eliminate the means that God is ordained in the preaching
of the gospel. The Spirit of God works with
the preaching of the gospel. Paul said this, he hath made
us able ministers of the New Testament, not in the letter. It's not just a man. Anybody
can sit down and read the Bible and read commentators and read
and study these things and get up and say something. Anybody
can. And they can talk about the various subjects in the Bible.
But they can't preach to the hearts and minds of God's elect
apart from the Spirit. And that's what Paul said. He
didn't just teach us in letter. I'm not just up here trying to
convince you that this is what the Bible says. But he said he's
made us able ministers of the New Testament, not in letter,
but of the Spirit, for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth
life. And I don't know the extent of
the Spirit's work. Men talk about it all the time.
I don't know that they know. I don't know the extent of the
Spirit's work within us except to say that It's effectual. Whatever
it is he does, ever how he does it, it's effectual. It's always
effectual. It leaves us with an understanding
and it produces faith in the heart. And preachers wrestle
over interpretation and they struggle to rightly divide the
word of truth. I do myself. Yet I know in the
end that it's God that worketh in us both to will and do of
His good pleasure. God, there's no way you can sit
down and look at a scripture and come up with some of the
things that the Spirit of God reveals to you. You just couldn't
do it. Listen to these verses over here
in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Paul said, now we have received
not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God,
that we might know the things freely given to us of God, which
things we preach. He makes known these things that
he's prepared for us, and we preach them. We preach them,
not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost
teaches, comparing spiritual things with spirit. And I don't know that we can
tell the difference between our thinking and reasoning and God's
Spirit working in us except by the results. That's how you know. Our gospel, he said, came not
unto you in word only. It came in power, it came in
the Holy Ghost, and it came with much assurance. And true understanding
and real gospel preaching opens to us the Scripture. That's what
it does, it opens, that's what he's talking about. Some of you here have heard me
say things from this pulpit, and I can see your face light
up, and I can see you shaking your head, and you know that
this is what that meant. Who convinced you of that? Me?
If I did, somebody else would take it away from you. But if
God the Holy Spirit convinces you of it, nobody can take it
away. through understanding and real
gospel preaching, opens thus the scripture, it finds and declares
hidden mysteries, makes spiritual comparisons. For this cause,
Paul said, thank we God without ceasing, because when you receive
the word of God, which you heard of us, you received it not as
the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which
effectually worketh also in you that believe. That message was
of God. Huh? Oh, listen to the disciples. They were walking along and here's
this man and he's a stranger to them and they don't know who
he is, though he'd been teaching them and walking with them for
three and a half years, but he didn't make himself known. This
was after his resurrection. And they're all down in the dunks
and he said, old fools and slow of heart to believe all that
the Scriptures have declared about me, all that God has done. And he started at Genesis and
all through the Old Testament he just kept taking something
here and something there and something Jeremiah said and something
Ezekiel said and all through there. And he showed them the
things concerning himself, that he had to go to that cross, he
had to die, he had to be raised from the dead and ascend into
glory. Preach substitution to them. And then he vanished out
of their sight. And when he did, they said, boy,
didn't our hearts burn within us? As he talked with us along
the way. Now listen, and open to us the
Scriptures. Huh? You know when God opens
to you the Scriptures. Boy, it'll go straight home,
won't it? It'll go straight home. Now listen to what our Lord says,
O righteous Father, the world hath not known you. They talk
as if they do. Don't you know folks talk like
they know God? That's what the Israelites said
to Jesus. We'd be not born of fornication.
God's our Father. We know God. They talk like they know Him.
They're quick to tell you that they know Him. They sing about
heavenly prospects and talk about a heavenly future. Paul said,
I bear them witness they have a zeal of God, but it's not according
to knowledge. The world hath not known thee,
Christ said. They don't. But I have known thee. who knows God. I mean knows God. He's one with God. That's the
Son of God. He knows when he opens his mouth
to speak, he knows God. And I'm going to tell you something.
You can't tell what you don't know. You just can't do it. You
can't do it. But Christ said, I've known John
the Baptist said, what he has seen and heard, that he testified. That which he knows, that which
he sings. Whom God has sent speaketh the
words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto
him. John 3.35, the Father loveth
the Son. and hath given all things into his hand. I have known thee,
and these have known that thou hast sent me, verse 26. And I
have declared unto them thy name, the saving character of God,
the uncompromised name of God, none other name under heaven
given among men, whereby we must be saved. Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. He said, I've declared
it to them, and I will declare it. To what end? To what purpose? Now listen to this. It's in verse,
the last verse. That the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. Now here's the heart of God's
message to us today, the love wherewith he loved his son. Let
me give you several things to think on and perhaps muse over
after a while. First and foremost, God's love
is in Christ. Would you know the love of God?
Would you know something of the true love of God? Would you like
to understand and know what God's love truly is and where God's
love is? It's in His Son. That's where it's at. It's in
His Son. That the love wherewith thou
hast loved me. And this is the heart of what
I'm saying. God's love is in Christ. There's
not a more ungodly statement that I've ever read than that
smiley face bumper sticker that says, smile, God loves you. God's love is in His Son. This world's been in a debate
from the very beginning trying to show that God loves everybody.
God's love is in His Son. Paul said to the saints at Corinth,
I'm persuaded. By what? By the Scriptures, by
the Spirit of the living God. I'm persuaded that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God. Are you
listening? which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord. Where's it at? It's in Christ.
It's in Christ. What brings assurance
to the mind and comfort to the soul is not so much that God
loves you as it is that God loves His Son and made you accepted
in the blood. Huh? I'll see if I can illustrate
what I'm saying. When I think, I think in terms
of God's love. If I think this way, in terms
of God's love for me, I see a thousand reasons for Him to not love me. If I'm going to think that way.
I see a thousand reasons for Him to ignore me, cut me off,
and send me away. But when I think of His love
for His Son, I see every reason for it. I see every reason for
its continuance and for its unending preservation. I can't find any
reason why God would not love His Son. And the truth is, He chose us
in His Son that we might ever be before Him being loved. Is that right? Christ prays that the love wherewith
His Father loved Him be in us. That's what will bring joy to
your heart. He loves His Son, and I'm in His Son. That the love wherewith His Father
loved Him be in them. Now listen, he don't stop there,
and I in them. Look back at verse 23 of our
text here in John 17. I in them, that's key isn't it? Christ in you, that's the hope
of glory. I in them, thou in me, that they
may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. God seals his love for his children
in the person of his son. He does that, that that love
might ever be. There can be no discontinuance
of his love. I don't care what you do. I don't
care what you do. That prodigal son wasted everything,
didn't he? Anything that you could do wrong,
he did wrong. And when he come back, he wasn't really thinking
in terms of love. He was thinking in terms of the
servants at my father's house got better than I do. Maybe if I go back and plead
with him, maybe he'll just make me a place with the servants
out there. And I'll be happy. I'll be happy. I'll serve him.
But that's not what he did. The father saw him a great way
off and come running, put his arms around him, and kissed him.
You don't kiss people you don't love. Oh, He seals His love for His children
in the person of His Son. It says, The Father loveth the
Son, and hath given all things into His hands. What things? Mercy, grace. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Justice, long-suffering, righteousness. Of God are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. And when we think about God's
love, we must begin here, this love of God is in His Son. So
here's the question, not whether God loves me or not, is Christ
in me? Because that's where the love
of God is. We're told that love is manifested
in the giving of oneself, and so His love is commended to us
in the giving of His Son on the cross. Love is of God, it's who
God is, and this love is revealed in His Son. There's no other
way to see it, there's no other way to believe it, and there's
no other way to find comfort in it. It's in His Son. It's
manifested by Him, demonstrated in Him, and preserved in Him. Herein is love, John wrote, not
that we love God, but that He loved us. He loved us and sent
His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now let me show
you something over here in 1 John chapter 4 verse 17. Let me show
you something about this love. Is it important to know something
about this love? Oh my soul, 1 John chapter 4 verse 17. Herein
is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day
of judgment, standing before a holy God who sees everything. Walking in a world knowing that
one day we'll appear before God. He can see the thoughts and intents
of your heart. He knows everything. He knows
things that you do wrong that you don't even know. Herein is our love made perfect,
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because
as He is, so are we in this world. How is He? He's at the right
hand of the Father. Fully accepted. Fully loved. Eternally loved. Love locked
in Him. And we're in Him. You see that? We have boldness in the day of
judgment because as He is, so are we in this world. Is He loved
of God? Well, He's crowned and sitting
on the throne beside Him. God has given to us his Son into
whose hands are committed all things, and he has by divine
election made us one with his Son, so that full provision is
not only purposed and provided, but it's truly given and received. God's love for us is sealed in
his Son, preserved, distributed, made effectual in his Son. And secondly, God's love is particular. He said, I pray not for the world,
but for those which thou hast given me. When he talks about
his love, he's not talking about a love for the world, he's talking
about the love he has for his elect. God's love is particular. God established this in type
and symbol, even in the very nature of men and women. Huh? Imagine, you can't even
imagine. Your wife comes running to you,
you come home, you've been gone for two or three days, and she
comes running to you, and you go running to her, and you throw
out your arms, and you hug her, and you say, honey, I love you
just like all the other women in the world. I pretty much guarantee you that
ain't gonna go over. Huh? He built it into the very
fabric of our being, hadn't he? We're made in God's image. Particular
love. Love is particular. It's particular
in this world. And it's particular especially
when it comes to God's love for us. There's no such thing as
universal love. Husbands love your wives like
Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. And universal
love is as ungodly as it is hypocritical. He said, Jacob have I loved.
You can't get more clear than that. Or why'd he say that? That the purpose of God according
to election might stand, not of work, but of him that calleth. You know who I love? The one
I tell who I love. Huh? Is that right? That's right. When you say, I love you, They
know who you're talking about. God makes it personally known
whom he loves, don't he? Jacob had all of them. God loves his elect. He never
expresses his love to any other. God's love cannot fail in those
who insist that God loves those who ultimately perish. They reduce the love of God into
a fickle, frustrated, hopeless passion. And such preaching leaves
sinners with a false hope. God's love is not in a perishing
world, it's in the ark. You can't even... Take that bumper
sticker and put it on the outside of the ark. Smile, God loves
you. Oh, they're out there drowning. Dying. Suffering the wrath of
God. God's love was not in the company
of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. It was with Moses and the children
of God. God's love was not in the ashes of Sodom and Gomorrah.
It was in Lot escaping the vengeance of God. And God's love is not
being demonstrated, manifested, and made known in antichrist
religion. It's in his church, in his people. He said he did all these things
that the world might know. That you love them. That's why
they hate you. And then thirdly, God's love
is unchangeable. Because His love for us is sealed
in His Son, it cannot be subject to change. Actually, God's love
for us eliminates all reason for change. Doesn't it? What
would you change? This is your hope. God loves
you because He loved His Son. What would you change? It eliminates
all reason for change. And these gifts, these high and
heavenly gifts that come down from the Father of Light, they're
neither shadow nor turning. No change in God. He's not changing. God's love is unchangeable. And
God's love is sufficient. What do you mean by that? What
I mean by that is His love brings with it full provision. God said of the heathen, this unwanted, castaway child
in Ezekiel 16, mother was Amorite, an Amorite and a Hittite brought
together, produced this child. And here it is, they didn't want
it, they threw it out in the sand, its navel wasn't cut, it
wasn't salted or swaddled, it was laying there naked in the
sand. And he said, when I passed by and looked upon thee, behold,
thy time was a time of love. He didn't just sympathize with
the child and go his way. Hope things worked out for you. He didn't just produce some provision. I know what I'm going to do.
I'm going to go home and make a, we're going to pass a law and
it's going to be, I'm going to make provision for all these
castaway babies. He didn't do that. He said, I spread my skirt upon
thee and covered thy nakedness. Who did that? God did. Who did
He do it to? That one child. Just that one. I covered thee with my skirt.
I covered your nakedness. I swear unto thee and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord. I washed thee with
water. I washed away thy blood from
thee. I anointed thee with oil. I clothed
thee with broidered work, and shod thee with badger skins.
I girded thee with fine linen, and covered you with silk. I
put ornaments upon thee. I put bracelets on your arm,
and a chain on thy neck, and a jewel in your forehead, and
earrings in your ears. And I put a crown on your head. I fed thee with fine flour and
oil and honey, and thy renown went forth among the heathen,
and your beauty was perfect through my comeliness which I put upon
you, saith the Lord. That's love, isn't it? It was thy time of love. What
did he do for you? He did the same thing. He did
the same thing. God's love brings with it full
provision. He withholds nothing. He that
spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely give us all thanks? God inspired the Apostle Paul
to write about love to the Corinthians. And he inspired him to use the
word charity. Not love. Charity. Charity is active Love, that's
what charity is. Love that carries full provision
is active love and distributes that provision to all whom he
loves. And then lastly, God's love is
from everlasting. There was never a time when he
didn't love his elite. Never a time. How can that be? Because he loved us in Christ. It's everlasting. People get
all upset about preaching eternal justification and they argue
and debate and write books about it. Is God eternal? Then everything he does is eternal.
He don't do things in time or he's not God. He declares the
end from the beginning, doesn't he? Why is it so hard to imagine
that an eternal God eternally justified a people in His Son? God's love is the great wellspring
out of which everything has its beginning. And were it not for
this love, there'd be no need of a creation, a Savior, beings,
or beasts. Oh, let these wonderful words
find a place in my heart. that the love for with the father
has loved his son be in me and he in me. Wouldn't that be something? All that I could love like he
does, I never shall, never shall, but he does. And I'll tell you
the closest thing to it. is if he gives you an understanding
of how the father loved his son and puts his son in you. That's
as close as you're ever going to get to it. And all the assurance
it brings to your heart. I have a loving father in glory
who controls everything that is. And his son, in his son,
he's made by his love for me. Oh, may the Lord teach us that. Cause us to walk in it. Cause
us, our relationships with one another to be governed by it.
The love of God constraineth us. You know what's it? Oh, we
don't need a little law, we need a little love, what we need.
That's what we need. May the Lord bless the reading
and preaching of His word.