If you have your outline in your
bulletin and you have your Bibles open to John chapter 17, I want
to quickly advise you that John 17 is real holy ground. There's no way that you can even
begin to understand the magnitude of what's taking place in John
chapter 17. But if God would be pleased to
just give us just a little bit of the importance of the conversation
that takes place between God and God, we might
be able to learn something. Holy ground is John chapter 17. What a burden it must have been
for the Lord Jesus Christ from the time that He was born to
the time that He died that He had to bear all His life the
conscious awareness of the burden of sin. I'm not talking about
the consequences of sin in the temporal sense in which you and
I bear the consequences of sin If you ever say to yourself,
I'm bearing the burden of my sins. Say I just lied. Because you have never bore the
burden of your sin. But but what what? What a burden
it must have been for Christ to have lived all his conscious
life. Aware that he. Was sins burden
bearer. He alone was sin's burden bearer. And he was the one who was consciously
aware that the wrath of God was not only waiting for him, but the wrath of God
was waiting exclusively for him. weight of conscious Christ must
have had from the time that he was aware of his human nature
and all that that entailed for him to live as a child and to
grow up and to interact with human beings and to know his
heavenly father and to know the will that his father had laid
upon him and to know that he was actually the lamb. and to know that he was the bearer
burden of sin, to have to bear that on his conscience and to
be aware that not only was he the object exclusively of the
wrath of God, but that every day the sin was abounding and
increasing daily on him. And what a tremendous tremendous
relief. It must have been for him to
cross over into that place of resolve and settled state of
mind that all that his father had called him to do, he did. So that in this text that you
and I are dealing with, you're looking at a man who actually
has finished his work. How many of you have finished
anything? So that you could say, I'm done,
it's resolved. I never have to look back on
that again. The state of mind that Christ
is in at this moment must be phenomenally satisfying. After all, the proverb says,
a desire or a purpose accomplished is extremely satisfying to the
soul. At this moment, the conversation
that God the Son is having with God the Father revolves around
Christ having lived perfectly obedient to all of God's law
from a child to this moment. meticulously keeping all of his
father's commandments, never violating one precept one time
for one moment. What a relief that must have
been when the Son of God realized that part of his work was done. So that in this prayer, that
God is praying to God. He can now change the form of
his dialogue from what was always a subordinate role of only and
exclusively doing the father's will. He didn't say anything, but that
his father taught him. He didn't do anything but that
his father showed him. He never once stepped outside
of the will of his daddy to even remotely let the world know that
it was about him. He did his father's will. He
accomplished his father's work. He glorified his father while
he was on the earth at all times. And there was a point in the
mystery of the Godhead where the son realized that what was
necessary to qualify him as the object of God's wrath was now
done so that the prayer that he is praying now is the prayer that is rooted
in his own will. Hence the title of our message.
Not the will of Him that sent me, but this is the will of Him
that was sent. You're listening to 26 verses
describing the will of the Son. and you want to regard what he
requests of his father. Now he's here as the high priest
of all his people, and generally the high priest stands as an
intercessor and mediator on the behalf of others. So that the
primary work of a priest is to stand in the gap and to address
the issues and interests of somebody else. You need a high priest. You need somebody to stand in
your interest. You need someone to stand between
you and this glorious being called God and address your needs and
speak to your interests and engage himself with omnipotence concerning
your need. That's why we need a high priest.
Am I making some sense? And so a high priest stands daily
ministering in the behalf, on the regard, in the stand for
those people who have so much infirmity they can't get to God
themselves. It is therefore common for us
who pray intercessory prayers and mediatorial prayers to pray
to the Father concerning others. John chapter 17 is about Christ
and his own desires. Fortunately, the man who is praying
to his father cannot but also by virtue of his being our surety,
pray for us as he prays for himself. And I want you to follow this
line of thoughts as they proceed from the mouth of our savior
and ask the question, am I so blessed to have a mediator like this? Point number one in our text,
I'm done. And I want to come home, Father. I'm done. And I want to come home. Listen to the son. Make it plain
to his father. That he's ready to come home. Father. The hour has come. Glorify your son. That your son
may also glorify you. And as you have given him power
over all humanity, that he should give eternal life to as many
as you have given him, and this is eternal life, that they might
know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
Father, I have finished glorifying you on the earth. I have finished
the work which you gave me to do. Here it is. And now, this
here is an imperative. It's a command given to the father
based upon his accomplished work. And now, father, watch this now. Glorify thou me. With thine own
self. With the glory which I had with
you before the world was. This is God talking to God. And
this is God talking to God about God-like things that you can
never ever begin to contemplate. This is God talking to God about
wanting to return back to his God-like designation. that he
had before he took on the role of mediator and substitute and
surety and high priest and brethren of his people. He's saying, Father,
I want to go back to that place where I was with you before the
world began. You go visit some place and you
enjoy that for a season, but there is no place like home. And if you were to draw out with
all of your intellectual powers, what it means for Christ to have
left his pre-incarnate glory and entered into this world,
what it cost him, what he had to let go, what he had to divest
himself of to come into this world and to live for 37 odd
years. of his essential glory that he
had with his father before the world began. See, I want you
to get this now. For him to come was an enormous
condescension. For him to come into this world
was for him to abandon the highest position that the son could ever
possess. It was for him to divest himself
of the role of being the object of the Father's exclusive glory
for which everything was created. Before the world began, Christ
was the Father's joy exclusive joy the effulgence of his affections
and glory the relationship between god the father and god the son
was such that they delighted in themselves all three persons
in eternity past when there was nothing else made it was such
a sense of self-satisfaction and thrill and glory in self-existence that the Father and the Son and
the Holy Ghost decided to make a universe that would reflect
their glory. And let me help you just in case
you don't know. It was the Father's good pleasure
to make a universe that was designed to honor the Son. That's how much the Father loved
the Son. That's how glorious the Son was
in the presence of the Father when it was just God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The beauty and splendor
and effulgence of Christ as the object of the Father's love was
such that all three persons said, let us make a universe in dedication
to the Son. Everything that was made down
to our smallest particles was made by him and for him I'm talking
about the whole of the universe was made for Jesus Before he
came As an honor to his essence and a testimony to the love of
the father to the son for just being the son And when the text tells us here
that he is requesting to be re-situated in that place of preeminence,
he's asking to come alongside of and be seated with an equality
though distinction with his father. Glorify thou me alongside of
yourself with the same glory that you have. Do you understand
what that means? That means when Christ came here,
the whole of his life was divested of that glory which was rightly
his. When you contemplate Jesus in
his incarnation, you are not seeing the God who was before
time. He had wholly veiled his glory. And he had every right to ask
to be restored to it. That's his prayer. He's ready
to go home. He's ready to return to the place
where the proverb says, and I was one who grew up with him. And
I was daily my father's delight. It was the reason for which my
father said, let us make man in our image and in our likeness.
It was the reason for which God says, let us create the heavens
and the earth, the stars and the galaxies and everything therein,
because he saw his son so gloriously. And now his son wants to go back
to that place. Are you hearing me? This is a
conversation between God, the Son, and God, the Father. And the insight into this request has everything to do with us. But the privilege to hear it
is our blessing if we will. You and I have never finished
anything in our life. You have four or five marked
events in history that testify to the fact that when God starts
a thing, he finishes it. You know, you can get in trouble, but you can't get out of trouble. You can start a problem, but
you can't fix it. Am I making some sense? One of the troubles of our soul
is that everything we touch we break, but we can't fix the thing. And when we lay down our head
on our pillow at night, the dread is that we gotta get back up
tomorrow to face the same thing all over again. Because we have never solved
anything for which we can say, It is finished. When God created
the heavens and the earth, he could say in Genesis 2 verse
what? Six days the Lord created the heavens and the earth, and
on the seventh day God rested from all his work which he had
done. He had finished that. Isn't that what he said? He could
say concerning the tabernacle in the wilderness when he had
given Moses the blueprint and all of the people of God were
engaged in it. Great type of what the church should be. All
of the people of God, not spectators, were engaged in the work. And
when they brought all the material to Moses and he erected it, the
text said, and Moses had finished all the work that God had given
him to do. You know how God crowned it?
The Shekinah glory came down, inhabited itself over the tabernacle
with the fire of God's glory. to say Moses finished it the
devil tore it up and Nehemiah had 57 days to rebuild the wall
you know what the text says and he finished it he finished it we get to read
in John chapter 20 I'm sorry John chapter 19 around verse
30 when Jesus is hanging on Calvary and he bows his head and says,
it's finished. When God starts, God finishes.
But this finished work that Christ is now entering into will be
culminated or capped with a request on his part that has everything
to do with you and me, who are his people. He wants to return
back to his glory. He has a right to, doesn't he?
If anybody has a right to be restored to their place of dignity
and worth and preeminence, it's the son. He's done all things
well, hasn't he? Who can do what he did? He's
glorious in his work. And now as he returns, he has
another utterly stupendous statement to make that has had me paralyzed
for the last week. You know what he said to his
father? This is God talking to God. You know what he said? Over in verse 24? Father, I will. Do you see that? My will and my desire is that they also whom you have
given me Be with me where I am. Do you see that? You mean, Pastor? Christ wants
me. To be with him. In that ultimate state of glory,
which really only rightly belongs to him. Now this is God talking to God about what God the Son wants
for me. The Son of God's high priestly
prayer is rooted in His desire to be glorified by everything
that He made, including His people. Now this is of such important
magnitude that he has to ask his father to do it. So I know you are soundbite people
and you can't handle more than 10 minutes, but stay with me
now. This message you're gonna have
to stick in your pocket and maybe God will bless it to your soul
20 years from now. How important Is it for me, who
is the object of God's mercy and grace, to land finally in
the presence of the triune God and the bliss that's prepared
for me for all eternity? How important is that for me?
The son has to request it of the father. That's how important
it is. And the only thing more important
than me being there with Him is that He desires it. Now stay with me now, because
this is God talking to God about God things. We boast of our position in Christ
rightly so because we have been placed in him who believe on
him by God the Father before the world began so that positionally
everything that Christ is we are in everything that he has
we have and where Christ is we are do you believe that here's
the challenge on the one hand is true on the other hand it
still must manifest itself And if you are a logical thinker
and a rational thinker and not someone that's lazy in terms
of hearing and reading and comprehending propositions, here's what you
know. Infinite God who knows all things, with whom nothing
can fail, whatever He does, He accomplishes, could not be asking
the Father to do something for Him that was already done. He is not asking the Father about
our position. The position of God's elect is
that they are already glorified together with him in heavenly
places, seated in Christ Jesus positionally. Am I making some
sense? God knows this better than you
do. We preach it, but it's so with God. How come then is the
son praying to the father that the father would do what the
son requests and bring us glory. It's because there is a process
that must be worked out for which if the Godhead does not stay
involved every step of the way you and I would perish. We are observing an insight into
the way that God has chosen to work in the redemption of sinners.
This thing of salvation is not about you. It's about God. It's
about his son. And it's about his spirit. You
and I are simply benefactors, beneficiaries of a blessed scheme
of redemption and purpose on God's part. Am I telling the
truth? The word grace simply means God has chosen to do something
for you that you can't do for yourself. But that he would allow
human ears to listen in on a mediatorial prayer by a high priest who can't
lie, fail or change, open his heart to his Father and say,
Father, I desire all those you have given me to be with me.
Now bring them to me. So now watch this as I get ready
to deal with these 10 points. Everything that I go through, God is using to bring me to himself. Everything that's going on in
this world, God the Father is using to bring
me to himself. Are you hearing me? All the hell
I'm going through, all the trouble and suffering that I'm enduring,
the darkness and the pits and the obstacles and the conflicts
and the setbacks and the trouble and the darkness and the setbacks
and the trouble God is using to bring me to himself. This is how much the son loves
me. That he says, father, I know
in a minute I'll be with you, but it's going to take 2000 years
from now for Jesse to catch up with what I've done for him.
And then it's going to take some other short odd years of you,
father, keeping him. until he leaves this world and
takes his rightful seat with me in glory. So here's what I
need you to do, Father. I need you first to manifest
your glory to him. I need you to take what I have
accomplished in terms of our eternal redemption and place
it in a message called the gospel. meet him in his crisis and reveal
your glory to him so that he might experience eternal life
verse 3 and this is eternal life do you see and this is eternal
life that they might what know you and the only true God and
Jesus Christ whom you have sent. It can be really stated this
way. And this is the only way to eternal life. There is no
other way to eternal life. There is no alternative life. The only way to life is through
a knowledge of God. Now, I have already been given
power to raise men and women from the dead. Have that authority. I won that authority by my crown
righteous Savior Christ said now father save Jesse Save him Knock him down off of
his proud self-righteous horse Lay waste him so that he's prostrate
on his face and giving up on his agendas and his schemes and
his plans and machinations and his arrogance and assumption
that he can breathe one breath without you. And then manifest me through
the gospel to his soul. Have somebody preach Christ to
him. And make it so that when he sees
my glory, he loves everything about it. So quicken him from
the dead. Raise him from the dead. Open
his mind. Open his heart. Change his affections. Cause him to see that Christ
is glorious. And turn him around. Give him
a 180. Save him by your grace. Through the foolishness of preaching.
Make the gospel reasonable to him. Not only reasonable, necessary. desperately necessary, and then
set him on a track for glory. And when you do that for him,
Father, you're going to have to do something else. You're going to have to keep
him. Look at it. Point number four. keep my people whom you gave
me. Now, children of God, will you
hear me? If the son says to the father
in a command voice, keep all those whom you have
given me, the last little brain matter
that you have up here, must be used to draw this conclusion.
If I'm going to be kept, God has to keep me. And if the Son requests that
I be kept, being kept is important. Do you hear me? Father, show
Him my glory. Reveal to Him my splendor. Show
him what I've accomplished for him. Make me known to him and
make yourself known to him while you do it. And then as he heads
towards his destiny, keep him, guard him, protect him, watch
over him. Because this I know. This I know. If God does not keep you, you're
going to hell. You cannot keep yourself. You
don't even want to. You don't even want to. You play
church and you play games with God. You lie to him. You seek to manipulate him, coerce
him. You give him a half heart. You don't worship him as he ought
to be worshipped. You pay more attention to the
devil, the world, the lust of your flesh, your idols. than
you do the God that laid down his life for you. Am I telling
the truth? So now, Father, since I know
Jesse better than he knows himself, in spite of his insanity, to
want to spurn the grace that I revealed to him in the gospel,
keep him anyway. See, I can make this good. The
proposition is not ludicrous. It's not exaggerating anything.
The father, hundreds of you in here, there's not one of you
in here that can really come to me and tell me that you love
God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. You don't
even try it. And there's not one of you that
can tell me you are here today since the day that God saved
you by his grace on your own strength. There's not one of
you in here that can say that you have accrued the benefits
of virtue and power and grace to keep you up to this moment.
That you are so smart and so wise that you've been walking
with God so closely, you and Jesus. That you're running on
the steam of your own strength and consistency. Here's what
I know. It was only by the grace of God
you made it here today. Because most of you didn't want
to be here. How important it must be for
the son of God, who in a few hours will be betrayed by the
whole world, hung high, strapped wide, abandoned by his father,
before that occurs to pray for you, that God would keep you. You know how I know this is good?
And do you know how I know that this is rooted in this incomprehensible
thing called the love of the son for the father and for the
children whom the father had given him? He had 12 men who
were with him. 12 who for three and a half years
he had to keep. All through their little three
and a half year journey. Every day Jesus had to keep those 12
knuckleheads. They were always getting in trouble.
They were always missing the point. They were always striving
with pride and self-righteousness and wanting to sit on his right
hand and on his left and looking critically and superficially
and suspiciously at their brethren. Some of them were boasting about
being superior to the other. the good shepherd who knows how
to keep his sheep, corral those knuckleheads all the way up to
this point of prayer. And he said, father, I've been
keeping them. I have kept them in your name. Am I telling the truth? How did
he keep them? He kept them by his word. He
kept them by praying for them. Peter, I prayed for you. He kept
them by admonishing them, correcting them, chastising them, rebuking
them, explaining the gospel to them, protecting them when other
people would have ripped them off. That's called a good shepherd.
He led his sheep all the way to Calvary. And now he has to
take a short journey away from them by himself to the darkest
parts of the universe. But before he goes, he says,
Father, I need you to keep these 11 men. Because these are the ones you
have given me. Whom you have determined would be the ones
who turn the world upside down. But now, Father, you know them
like I know them. In a few minutes, they're getting
ready to scatter to the four winds. Because they actually
think they have strength in themselves. to stand with me when the power
of darkness rushes in on me, and they don't. And when they
scatter to the four winds, Father, I will need you to gather them
back and huddle them up and cause them to wait for you to do the
work of keeping them on the other side of Calvary. And by the way,
not only keep them, Keep all those you have given me from
the foundation of the world to the end of time until I meet
with all of them in glory. Keep up because they're just
like these 11. Don't think you're not. Don't
think you're not. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have all turned each and every
one of us to our own way. And it's remarkable that God
doesn't let us go over into the cliff, into the pit. It's remarkable. It's remarkable. Well, here's
the reason why it doesn't happen, because He's keeping you. And
He's keeping me. And we have a high priest who
ever lives to make intercession for us. And he prevails with
God. He prevails with God. Keep them, Father. Keep them
by your word. Keep them by your gospel. Keep
them by your spirit. Keep them, Lord. Keep them. Keep them from the world. Keep
them from the devil. Keep them from the lust of their
flesh. So you know what Jesus said here?
Father, I'm coming to you. But these, they've got to stay
in this world. I'm concerned about that. I have
to talk to you, so just sit down, be still and listen. Our master
was concerned that this world would swallow you up and send
you to hell. I'm no longer in the world, but
these are. See, that's ground zero, that's
the place where the battle is, that's where the warfare is,
that's where the conflict is, that's where the danger is. Father,
I'm no longer in the world. I've been through this thing
for 37 years. I know that the world hates you.
It hates me and it's going to kill me in a moment. I know that
the world is subtle. I know that the world is deceitful. I know that the world is alluring.
I know that the world is damning. I know that the world is destructive.
And listen, if God doesn't keep you, the world is going to send
you to hell. Paul said it like this in 2nd
Timothy chapter 4 concerning Demas who used to preach the
gospel. Demas has forsaken me having loved this present world. John said it in 1st John chapter
2. All that's in the world is the lust of the eye, the pride
of life, and the lust of the flesh. It is not of the fathers
of the world. You and I have to be kept from
the world because the world will swallow you up and send you to
hell. Am I making some sense? It's our struggle. It's our daily
challenge. It's the idol factory that creates
idols that block us from the glory of God. It's the inebriating
drink that causes us to lose our passion for God. It's the
lying doctrines of this seductive world system that causes you
to believe that you can worship God half-heartedly and He's pleased
with it. Whoa! How deceitful this system
of whom the Bible depicts as a harlot can be. And see, right
now, the blessing of being under the gospel is this. For a moment,
you get to think clearly. You and I know how often we are
drunk with Babylon's wine so that we are utterly ineffective
when it comes to the glory of God in Christ. And yet and still, here is what
I say, God must keep us. Pastor, how is he going to keep
you by the next request that he lays out? Father, sanctify
them. Verse 17. Sanctify them in thy truth. Thy
word is true. That's the next imperative that
he gives after he says in verse 15, I have kept them. I need
you to keep them, verse 11. Verse 17, how will we be kept? Through sanctification. You know
what that means? The process of God keeping us
is not God merely putting boundaries around us, but Him actually working
in us. You know the thing that keeps
you from doing what you want to do that you don't do by the
grace of God? It's the work of the Spirit of
God through the truth. bringing a conviction in your
heart that this thing doesn't honor God. Am I making some sense? See, and so what he's saying
is if God the Father is going to keep them in the process of
their journey and excursion to glory, he's going to have to
do a work of sanctification in their life. And that's done by
the word of God. What keeps us is the truth. What
keeps us is the gospel truth. You see, Paul put it like this
when he said in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13, that you and I are
kept through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. How are we kept? By the preaching
of Christ, by the gospel of his glory, by the work of the spirit,
bringing the word of God to bear on our heart and mind, reminding
us that we are his and he is ours. Am I making some sense?
God has to sanctify you. He has to wash you in the blood.
He has to affect that will by which we are sanctified forever
and bring us into the covenant blessings. These are what we
call the unconditional promises of God towards his elect. There
are things that on God's part, he will do. Can I tell you why?
He must do it. Because if he doesn't do it,
you're gonna perish. If God doesn't make you a new
creature in Christ, you won't think for one moment God's thoughts
after him. If he doesn't raise you from the dead, you won't
have one divine thought or one pleasant thought about the glory
of God in Christ. And if he doesn't sustain your
growth in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, you
will minimize Christ and maximize yourself. You will minimize his
objective and maximize your objective. You will place Christ as a very
inferior and unnecessary thing and you will maximize everything
you are doing as most important if God doesn't sanctify you.
If he doesn't change your mind, if he doesn't transform you by
the renewing of your mind, if he doesn't change your database,
if he doesn't take that old ram out, put in a new ram, if he
doesn't change your whole process of thinking, if he doesn't fill
you with such a love for Christ, you're going your own way. And
we know this because he lets you do it for seasons. to help
you understand you are still in yourself corrupt and vile
and by nature a traitor just like Judas Iscariot. How much
does the son love me that God would pray to God to
keep me and then work in me to sanctify me by your spirit through
your gospel Now, here's the objective. Here's the objective for which
the son prays to the father. That he would have us ultimately
to be with him. In that place that right now
your brains aren't even able to come on now, you know, you
don't think about heaven. You don't think about it. You
don't think about glory. You don't think about the perfections
of being with God that will be your ultimate liberation from
all the troubles in this life. So what that tells me is that
we have a very morbid and twisted and dysfunctional relationship
with this life. That's what this tells me. What
this tells me is I have been told about the lover of my soul.
And he has revealed to me through the word the great and precious
promises he has for me, of which great and precious promises I
have not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered into the
heart of man. But he's been pleased to reveal them to me through
the gospel. And I'm supposed to be excited about it. And I'm
supposed to be living in hope, hope for those things that are
coming. We live in hope of the what? Glory of God. That's what
we say. But we don't spend five minutes
thinking about glory. We spend most of our time thinking
about how we can manage this life to the fulfillment of our
own selfish gratification. Father, keep them. Father, sanctify
them. Now, if you keep them and you sanctify them, here is what
it's going to amount to. I want you guys to be able to
check yourselves out here. This is the next request. that is
adjacent to and connected to all the previous requests. Look
at what he says over in verse 20. Neither pray I for these
alone. But for them also, which shall
believe on me through their word. Verse 21, here's the first line.
Here it is that they all may be one. Do you see that? His request to return to glory
and to have us with Him is an ultimate experience of unity
with God that you and I right now can't engage in because it's
beyond our capacity to think about. The unity between the
Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost is the unity pattern of which
Christ says that they might be unified like we are unified.
Isn't that what it says? That they might be one even as
father you and I are one that's crazy That's ridiculous That's profound
In your own time just think for an hour what it means For god
the father god the son and god the holy ghost to coexist together
And then say This is the son's desire For me. Here's what I know. When it talks
about this kind of oneness or unity, it's something that you
and I don't know. There is nothing in you and me
that has the ability to produce unity. God has to produce that. Can
I keep talking to you? Everything you do, if it's not
God's mercy, divides. It severs. It separates. It threatens relationships. It
produces conflicts. It doesn't unify. And here's
the horrible thing. It's a scheme of high treason
against your God. You and I don't have the ability
in ourselves to cohere. We don't have the ability to
come together. And the superficial coming together
that this silly world applauds is really a false coming together,
a false ecumenism that is really hostility and treason against
the glory of God. because it is not based upon
a need for God. It's not rooted in a commitment
to Christ. It's not based upon the truth
of God's Word. Listen to me, that we all may
be one. Are you kidding? There is no
unity to be ever experienced by all the individual atoms called
human beings. Listen to me. Because of your
sinfulness, until God adheres us, coheres us, brings us together. Are you hearing me? I must say
this again. When Christ says that they might
be one, it's in what we call a subjunctive future verb form,
which means that is his desire, but it is not yet altogether
realized, which means we are not talking about our position
of oneness in Christ. We're not talking about the security
of our oneness in Christ in glory. We're talking about the manifest
oneness that Christ wants down here Stay with me The disciples weren't one They were dividing all the time
each one of them were seeking to erect their own selfish pagan
idol Even after Christ went to glory, the whole of the New Testament
epistles, the whole objective and effort of the New Testament
writings, watch this, is to sustain and manifest the unity that we
have in Christ. Are you guys hearing me? The
whole of the effort of the New Testament epistles. The one thing
that shocks the apostles is as soon as they preach the gospel,
the devil comes in and wreaks havoc and the saints are spread
all over the map and brethren are rising up against brethren.
Am I making some sense? How important is our oneness?
Christ has to pray for it. It can only be done through sanctification
of the Spirit. It's a consequence of God keeping
us. Are you guys hearing me? Now watch this. We have oneness
in Christ. But that oneness must manifest
itself in this life for God's glory because of two things.
Watch this now. First and foremost, witness to
the world that Christ has come. The text says that the world
may believe that you have sent me. Are you hearing me? That
the world may believe that you have sent me. I am praying that
you would keep them, sanctify them, and make them manifestly
one. Now pastor, how is that going
to work out practically? I'm glad you asked. You and I
don't have unity in just because we feel like we do. Unity is not gathering together
and putting on the facade that we all love Jesus when our views
of Jesus are diametrically opposed to one another and the Word of
God. Unity is not a sort of show in the flesh that we're all one.
That's a facade. That's a manipulation. That's
a con. It is not true. Please listen
to me. To be unified in Christ is for us to agree with God concerning
who Christ is. Did you did you guys hear what
I just said? True oneness is based upon the work of the Spirit
of God, revealing Christ to us through the word so that we see
Christ the way God sees him. Are you hearing me? So when you
are sitting with somebody and say, we all agree in one. OK. Tell me what you believe concerning
the character of Christ, the nature of Christ, the work of
Christ, the accomplishments of Christ. I need to know, because
if you don't agree with the word and what your view is, is contrary
to my, even if we don't agree with God, we don't agree with
one another. We don't have unity. Are you hearing me? Are you hearing
me? So now watch what Christ was
praying for. He was praying that the gospel
would come in power and subdue the minds and hearts of His people
and bring them into that very saving knowledge of Christ that
He said in verse 3. And so unify them in an understanding
of Christ. that they are one based on their
knowledge of him so that we believe the same things and we love the
same things. Are you hearing me? And after
a manifest oneness based upon the truth of the gospel being
received by the grace of God, then we have what is called a
practical oneness to work out. You know what that is? Our elder
prayed for it earlier. That you and I would understand
that it is our privilege and blessing to be part of the
scheme of redemption by which we would want men and women to
come to know this glorious Savior like we do. See, he was first
and foremost praying for the apostles to be successful in
the preaching of the gospel. So that not only were they speaking
the same things and minding the same things, but those who would
hear their gospel would speak the same things and mind the
same things. And thus, the body of Christ, of whom He is the
head, would be brought together in unity in Him through the truth. Am I making some sense? Am I
making some sense? This is how much Christ loves
me. that he sees to it that the truth
is preserved throughout the thousands of years up to the year 2012
and the Spirit of God is operating in my life so that I can read
the Word and see what it says concerning Christ and hear it
preached so that I can believe on Him whom He has sent and thus
enter into the unity of the body which is Christ. Are you hearing
what I'm saying ladies and gentlemen? This is Christ's desire for us.
So unity is manifest by believing, and listen to me, unity is manifest
by our practical working together to get the gospel out. For this is the Father's glory,
that all men might see the Son and believe on Him. Are you with
me so far? So our oneness is a unity of
doctrine. It's a unity of conduct. It's
a unity of motive. It's not uniformity. It's not
mere outward superficiality. It's not the formality of the
flesh. Listen, but the diversity of the members of the body governed
by the same brain for the same purpose. Did you get that? Governed by the same brain. which
is the mind of Christ working by his spirit through the gospel
to keep our priorities clear so that God may be glorified
in the salvation of sinners. Let me help you. I'm done. I'm
almost done here. Please let me help you. I want you to get
this. He didn't save you to hang out by yourself. He didn't save
you to hang out by yourself. You doing your own thing does
not ultimately glorify the one who laid down his life for you.
Did you hear me? Did you hear me? When you wake
up in the morning thinking you are free and somebody bought
you with his own blood and owns you as their master and savior,
you don't have a right to simply carve out your own agenda. God help me. Help me. You don't have a right to carve
out, that's why you're not satisfied, because you're doing your own
thing. You're not satisfied because you're carving out your own agenda. You know what he says? Now I'm
praying this in order that my joy might be fulfilled in them. I want them to experience the
joy of doing the will of their father. He's the only archetype
Adam that ever did the will of his father. Thus, he has exclusive
rights to the joy that comes with it. And you know what he
wants? He wants you to enter into that joy. He wants me to
enter into that joy. He wants us to know that joy.
Are you hearing me? The joy of being sons and daughters
of God living for the glory of God, living for the honor of
Christ because this glorifies the father. Are you hearing me? Only a couple more points. So
when we talk about the oneness that Christ is asking, he's asking
for us to actually experience the outpouring of the oneness
that we have vertically in him in glory. Lord, would you pour
out the unity? that we the triune God have in
ourselves upon my people. How do I know this? The next
thing he requests is this. Look at it in your outline. Father, give them my glory. Do you see it? Give them my glory. Verse 21 and 22, in order that they all may be
one as father, as our father are in me and I in you, that
they also may be one where in us, that the world may believe
that you have sent me. Do you see that? Do you see what
his plan is? The unity of God's people in
Christ in order that the world may believe that Christ is who
he is. Now watch this. I already told you that unity
is unity of doctrine. It's unity of mind, it's unity
of heart, right? It's authentic worship of God.
It's not playing games. It's a real commitment to the
true and the living God as a consequence of being born again. What Christ
is saying is men and women are saved through an authentic relationship
between redeemed sinners and Christ. Oh, no one is saved apart
from the truth of the gospel that the world might believe.
How is the world going to believe the gospel unless we preach it?
unless we preach the truth that's in Christ. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? But you know what I know? The world is looking
for real Christians because they have a whole history of scams. They have a whole history of
crooks. They have a whole legacy of people who talk about, oh,
how I love Jesus. And so they're going to test
you with the acid test. They're going to try you. They're
going to persecute you. They're going to malign you.
They're going to ostracize you. They're going to test your love
even as they test Christ's love, even as they tested the apostles
love. This is what Jesus meant. Father, you got to keep them
because as they make their journey telling people they love me,
they're going to get tested. Am I making some sense? So what do we need in order to
actually successfully experienced the blessing of being kept and
sanctified and brought into union with Christ who is our head.
We need his glory. Do you see that? And the glory
which you gave me, I have given them. Do you see it? And the
glory that you gave me, I have given them. Now watch this. The
glory which you gave me, What glory is that? See, he's operating as our high
priest and he's operating as the Son of God. He's operating
as the mediator between God and man. He's not talking about his
essential glory that was his by nature. He's not talking about
the glory that he's asking to return to, which he had before
the world began. He's getting that all by himself.
He's not giving us that glory. He didn't give that to his apostles.
Will you listen to me? There is a glory that God the
Father gave God the Son in order that God the Son might glorify
God the Father on this earth when He lived His life. There is a glory that God the
Father gave to God the Son so that when God the Son began to
declare His Sonship to the world, people would know that He was
the Son of God. Can I tell you what that glory
is? The spirit of the living God. It's the spirit of God. Now, follow me. What did the
father do upon Jesus being driven, Jesus being called or exposed
to be the Lamb of God? He had him baptized and he opened
the heavens. And he told everyone, this is
my son. Remember that? And then from
heaven, the Holy Ghost came down and remained upon him without
measure. Do you remember that? And then
he went forth doing what? Glorifying his father. Glorifying his father. How? Preaching the gospel. healing
the sick, raising the dead, opening the eyes of the blind, fulfilling
His Messiahship. And this is the beginning of
the glory of God that was manifested to His disciples, King of Galilee,
when He turned the water into wine. Are you with me? He did that by the Spirit of
God. He did it by the Spirit And when Jesus prepared to leave
this world, you know what he said to his disciples? He breathed
on them and he said, receive ye the Holy Ghost and thus tarry
ye in Jerusalem until it be poured out on you so that you might
be able to do what I did. when I did my three and a half
years glorifying the Father, you will now be able to glorify
the Father if I give you my glory. So you read in the book of Acts
how the apostles are preaching and teaching and people are asking,
how is this done? In the name of Jesus, this is
done that God's Son might be glorified. Isn't that what it
says? Now watch how mutual and unified
the son is in his desire to be glorified in his request to his
father. Look with me at verse 24. This is where we'll
close. Father, I will that they also
whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory which you have given me for you loved me before
the foundation of the world. Do you see that? Because you
have loved me before the foundation of the world, I want those that
you have given me to behold my glory. He said over in verse
1 of John 17, Father, the hour is come. Glorify thy son. That your son also what may glorify
thee. You see, when Christ requests
the glorification of himself, he is also requesting the glorification
of his father. There is a mutual glory for all
three persons of the Godhead that takes place when any one
of them is glorified. So that his desire to obtain
the glory that he won by his crown rights and that he had
before the world began is not an exclusive focus of glory upon
him, but rather his father is glorified and he is glorified. Now watch this. His father is
glorified and the son is glorified and they are both glorified when
you and I, who are called the people of God, declare his glory
through the gospel. Are you hearing me? So I'm gonna
close it right here. I want you to get this. Somehow
in the magnitude of Christ's request, in his desire to go
back home, and his desire to have us with him, which is the
thing I want you to put in your back pocket. If you don't get
anything else today, put this in your back pocket. He saved
me to be with him. He saved me to be with him. I
know him by grace. I know him by faith. And therefore,
if he needs to tear up my whole world to get me to him, let him
tear it up. And especially if I'm not willing
to actually cooperate with his agenda now that it's been revealed,
take me out of here. He deserves that. He deserves
that. But Father, if it's your plan,
use me. Use me to glorify you. by glorifying
your Son. For if your Son is glorified,
then the Father is glorified. And this is how we know they
are glorified. When men and women from every
nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue hear the gospel of God's glory
and believes on Him whom He has sent. and every one of God's
elect are then brought into that unity that's in Christ. They
are brought into that oneness that are in Christ. They are
brought into that state of being kept in Christ, sanctified in
Christ, matured in Christ, and perfected in Christ so that Christ
might be all in all. You see, as profound as the statement
is, in Him, I'm in Him. I'm in him. Are you in him? I
want you to give one more very profound statement. Before you knew it, he chose
to be in you in order that you might be in
him. Isn't that crazy? Isn't that crazy that God would
talk in the council halls of eternity past. We're going to
make a universe. It's really designed to glorify
the Son, but the people go act a fool. So before they act a
fool, I'm going to place them in you. And you have to agree
to be in them. Are you hearing me? So that the
promise was given to the woman thy seed. Do you know what that
means? Him in us will crush the head
of his seed. And so from generation to generation,
the generation, the generation, God obligated himself to be in
us that we might be in him. Now, who gets the better of the
deal? What did it cost you? What did
it cost you to be in him? But do you know what it costs
him to be in you? I'm done.