John chapter 17, verse 23, we
come to the end of our Savior's great high priestly prayer, this
prayer in which he seeks benefit for our souls, which most certainly
we shall possess. That which the Son of God seeks,
God always performs. He asks nothing that he doesn't
receive, desires nothing that he doesn't perform, wills nothing
that he doesn't accomplish. But while this great high priestly
prayer tells us of our Lord's intercession for us, it is also
a passage of scripture that is full of blessed gospel instruction. I want us to look just at verse
23 this morning. And I want you to just hold your
Bibles open and let's look at it word by word. Here are things
mysterious beyond comprehension. Mysterious beyond our ability
to understand, beyond our ability, at least here, to have any real
comprehension. But blessed, oh, how blessed. this is I in them and thou in
me that they these people you have
given me these people I have redeemed these people who are
called by my grace and born of my spirit these who trust 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, I in them. I in them. The Lord Jesus declares that
he is in each of his own. He is in every saved sinner. He is in you and in me. Now, obviously, he is not saying
I in them as the omnipresent God. As God omnipresent, he's
in all men. As God omnipresent, he's in all
the world. As God omnipresent, he's in everything. There's nowhere where he is not.
He is not saying, I in them, as God the creator is in them. Now suggesting that, in that
sense, he's in all men, in all his creatures. His creative hand
is present among all. He's in all men, giving all men
light, light of conscience, by which all are found guilty in
their own consciences and condemned within themselves. As the incarnate
God, as the God-man, he was once in this world in the flesh. But
that's not what he's referring to. All of these things he spoke
of, or John did, back in John chapter 1. Turn back there for
a minute. Hold your hands in our text. John chapter 1. Verse
one. In the beginning was the word.
In the beginning, before time began, before God spoke the world
into existence, in the beginning was the word and the word was
with God. Face to face with God, equal
with God, one with God. And the word was God. The same
was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him.
All things made by Christ, the mediator. Read Genesis chapter
one, and you will see that John is giving us exactly what Moses
gave in Genesis one. God created all things and God
created all things by the mediator. Now hear this and understand
it. God, the triune God, does nothing. but by the Mediator,
Christ Jesus. God, the triune God, does nothing
except by Christ, the Mediator, the Word, in whom and by whom
he makes himself known. Read on. All things were made
by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. and the
light shines in darkness and the darkness comprehended it
not. Verse 9, John chapter 1. That was the true light which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Every man comes
into the world has the light of creation, the light of conscience,
the light that God gives him by nature so that you hear folks
talk about being atheist, I don't believe in God and all that stuff.
They're lying. They're lying to you and lying
to themselves. They may not even know they're
lying, but they're lying. I know because God says he's
the light that lights every man who comes into the world. They
hold the truth down. They hold the truth, suppress
the truth in unrighteousness, screaming, no God, no God, no
God, because their consciences scream, God, God, God, you will
meet him soon. Every man has that light. Read
on. Verse 10. He was in the world and the world
was made by him and the world knew him not. He came into his
own, his own people, his own things, his own creation and
his own received him not. Verse 14, the word was made flesh
and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace
and truth. But here in John 17, 23, the
Savior says, I in them in a unique way. In a different way, different
than he's in all creation, different than he's in all men, different
than he's in the flesh. I in them by a marvelous, distinct
act done for no one but them. I in them by divine regeneration. I in them by the new birth. This is what God does when he
saves a sinner. Christ comes in you. Christ comes
in you. He doesn't knock at your heart's
door and ask you to let him come in. He comes in. He comes in
and makes you partaker of the divine nature. He comes in and
makes you what He is by His grace, making you new in Him. So He who is holiness comes in
and He makes you holy. He who is truth comes in and
makes you true. He comes into the redeemed soul,
possessing it by his grace as a king in his kingdom, as the
head and his members, as the master in his house, because
he who is light is in you. You walk in the light and you'll
never walk in darkness because he who is life is in you. You have eternal life and cannot
perish and cannot come into condemnation. Because Christ is in you dwelling
in our hearts now He shall dwell in us forever in everlasting
glory Watch this I in them and thou in me I in them and thou in me Making clear that he's drawing
an analogy between God, the eternal God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
being in Him, the God-Man, and Him, Christ our Mediator, being
in you. Do you mean Christ is in me as
God is in Him? That seems to me to be just what
He's saying. I in them and thou in me. God, the father is in
Christ, not only as one with him in the Holy Trinity, but
as our God man mediator. The father is in the sun, communicating
all grace to chosen centers by the sun. The father, the son
and the Holy Spirit are in Christ in all the fullness of the divinity. Christ. possesses everything. In him, that is in Christ the
God-man, in that man seated yonder in glory, in him dwelleth permanently,
immutably, perfectly, fully, all the fullness of the triune
God bodily. Now I told you, these things
here, they're mysterious beyond comprehension. God is incomprehensible
spirit. God is everywhere. The heavens
cannot contain him. But in that one man, yonder in
glory, who died in our stead at Calvary, dwells all the fullness
of the triune God in a body. All him. and you are complete
in him. So that all the fullness of God
dwells in Christ and all the fullness of Christ dwells in
you. That's called grace. Free, sovereign,
eternal grace. I in them and thou in me that
they may be made perfect in one. Because God was in Christ, all
his people were made perfect in justification when that man
who is God died as our substitute at Calvary. When he died under
the penalty of sin, he paid our debt for sin, satisfied the justice
of God against sin, and we were made perfect in free justification
when he died. Every sinner for whom Christ
died stands before God justified, and there's no possibility of
anything else. Talk about the death of Christ
as though somehow it was a crapshoot. He just rolled the dice and now
he doesn't know how things are going to turn out. Wonder what's
going to happen in the end. What stupidity, what blasphemy,
what nonsense. If Christ died for everybody,
that everybody is saved or his death is meaningless. You don't
have any alternative. The scriptures declare that Christ
laid down his life for his sheep. And every sinner for whom Christ
died was justified when he died. Because this Christ in whom is
all the fullness of the Godhead, because he dwells in us, we are
made perfect in sanctification by him dwelling in us. He has
made us holy and righteous, partakers of the divine nature, so that
that holy thing that's born of God is in every regenerate soul,
that holy thing that cannot sin because it's born of God. The
believer is a person with these two distinct natures, flesh and
spirit. But we are created in the new
birth in righteousness and true holiness. That's the language
of Scripture. Christ has made us new creatures
by indwelling us by his grace. Because Christ is both in the
Father and in us. Because he's in glory. Because
he is within the veil. Because his blood speaks there
on our behalf. We shall soon drop this robe
of flesh and dwell with him in glory. Then we shall be perfect as he
is perfect. Oh, we're already perfect in
him. Perfect by his obedience. Perfect
before God. Already have his perfection in
us. But there is still dwelling in
us this old man of flesh. And soon we shall drop this body
of flesh. And we shall rise in resurrection
glory in the perfection of Christ himself. possessing the very
glory the Father has given the Son as our mediator. And when that's done, because
this great, glorious, gracious, omnipotent Christ is in us and
we're in him, the number of the saved shall in glory be perfect,
not one missing. Now, what's this next thing?
that the world may know that thou hast sent me. When I was younger, we used to
sing a chorus. Everybody ought to know. Everybody
ought to know. Everybody ought to know who Jesus
is. And I'm going to tell you something.
When he gets done, everybody's going to know. Everybody will know that he is
the Christ, the sent one of God, God almighty. God's given him
a name above every name that at the name of Jesus, every knee
shall bow and every tongue shall confess he's Christ to the glory
of God, the father. He's the Lord. He's the master.
Everybody will understand that we're his people. He came here
to save his people. He accomplished the salvation
of his people. and all the damned shall forever
recognize that he is Lord and Christ. Now, watch this. I in them and 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. Imagine that. Imagine that. Imagine that. Soon the world will know what
we can't begin to fathom. Soon the whole world will know
what we would not dare speak with our lips were it not written
right here in this book. Soon the world will know what
we would think it blasphemy to think if it weren't revealed
right here. Don Ranere, God's going to show
all hell that he loves you just like he loves his son. that thou hast loved them as
thou hast loved me. I promise you, I wouldn't think
that were it not written right here. I wouldn't dare speak it were
it not written right here. But here it is written, written
for our consolation, written for our instruction, written
that we might walk in the light as he is in the light. What can
this mean? Does the son of God here plainly
assert. That God, the triune God, father,
son and Holy Spirit. Loves every same sinner. every chosen center, every redeemed
center, exactly as the triune God loves Christ our mediator. Let's see. That the world may
know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast
loved me. God the Father loved Christ as
his own son and loved him as our mediator from everlasting.
He loved him when he assumed our humanity and came into this
world to redeem our souls. He loved him. While he walked
on this earth, he said twice from heaven, this is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. All the days he lived on this
earth, the father loved him as the God man, our mediator, even
when he was made sin for us and bore the wrath of God in his
body, bearing our sins in his body on the tree when he was
forsaken by the father in strict justice. Yet even then, the father
loved the son and here He declares to us that he loves us as he
loves his son. The demonstrations of the father's
love for the son are marvelous to behold. Because the father
loves the son, he put all things in his hands and under his feet. Because the father loves the
son, he has given complete complacency and delight to the father from
everlasting. The father looks upon the son
with a constant smile of approval, with unceasing complacency, with
unending delight because he loves his son. And the Lord God here tells us this infinitely gracious fact,
glorious beyond the highest imagination. The father loves his people exactly
as he loves his son. He doesn't love us merely as
his creatures. Some people have an idea that
somehow there's a There's a universal love of God who loves all men
as a creature as well. If it gives you some benefit,
some help, some consolation to imagine that God loves you like
a man loves his dog. Okay. I'll give you that. But
I just can't find any consolation in the thought that God loves
me like I'd love a dog. I just, I can't have any, I can't
find any consolation in that. Those folks have the idea that
God loves man as his creature, loves all men, special love for
men once they believe, but he loves all the sons of Adam as
his creatures, like a man would love a dog. But that's not what
the text here declares. The text speaks of a people whom
God loves just like he loves his son. of people God loves, just like
he loves his son. Do you ask how does God display
such love for us? Behold, how he loves his son. What manner of love the Father
hath bestowed on us. Does he indeed love us as he
loves his darling son? Let's see. Did he choose Christ
as our mediator? Isaiah 42 says he did. So he
chose us. Did the father make a covenant
with his son? Psalm 89 says he did. So he made
a covenant with us. Jeremiah 31 declares it. Did
the father raise the son from the dead, freeing him from all
sin? So he has raised us up from the
dead, freeing us from all sin. Does the father supply the son
with all things, daily providence giving him everything while he
walked on this earth? So he supplies us. Did the father
send his spirit and his angels to minister to his son while
he was on this earth during the days of his temptation? So he
delivers us out of all our temptations. Does the father perform all things
for his son? So he performed with all things
for me. Does the father love the son from everlasting? So he loves us. Does the father
accept Christ? So he accepts us. Does the father
love the son with utmost pleasure, delight and satisfaction? So my God loves me. Near, so very near to God, nearer
I cannot be, for in the person of his Son I am as near as he. Dear, so very dear to God, dearer
I cannot be, for in the person of his Son I am as dear as he. What can be more comforting?
more encouraging, more challenging to our souls than this declaration. God loves us as He loves His
Son. And when God's finished, everybody
will know. Now look at that little word,
as. Circle it. As. Thou hast loved them as Thou
hast loved me in the same way, to the same degree, for the same
reasons, with the same results, as thou hast loved them as thou
hast loved me. First, then, there's a similarity
of cause between God's love for Christ and his love for us. God
loves us in Christ. God loves us in Christ. Two of the dearest people in
this world to me are sitting right there. My grandson and
my granddaughter. Two of the dearest people in
this world. Now you two listen to your pop. Listen to me now. You have no reason to dream that
God loves you until you trust his son. I know everybody says God loves
you and has a wonderful plan for your life. The book of God
never declares such to men. Never. Find me a place in this
book. Find me any place in this book
where anyone is ever given any indication that God loves them
outside Jesus Christ. Find me a place. The wrath of
God is on you. without his son. The wrath of
God is on you. Those who without faith in Christ
are under the judgment of God, under condemnation, and you know
it so. You have a sense of guilt that
terrifies your conscience. You know that hell is your portion. If you die without the Redeemer,
you know that. Let no man deceive you. He that
believeth not the Son of God hath not life. but the wrath
of God abideth on him. Don't take my word for that,
please. Turn back to John chapter 3. John chapter 3. Verse 36. You got the book of
God right there in front of you, don't you? He that believeth on the Son
of God hath everlasting life. Oh, God gives you faith in Christ. If right now you trust the son
of God, if God would open the windows of heaven and drop his
grace in your soul and you suddenly find yourself believing on the
son of God, it's because you have life. He that believeth
on the son of God hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not
the son He that believeth not the Son. No, I won't believe
him. No, I won't bow to Christ. No,
he will not be my Lord. No, I will not have him. All
right. He shall not see life. He shall
not see life. But the wrath of God that fuels
the fires of hell forever abides on him. And you know it. So that by nature,
all men are children of wrath, even as others. God loves us
in Christ, only in Christ. And for Christ's sake, we're
accepted in the beloved. Accepted in the beloved. When the angel came to Mary and
announced to that sinful woman, that fallen, depraved, sinful
woman, that woman whose heart was as full of iniquity as a
sewer is full of filth, a sinful woman, just like you, just like
me. He said, Mary, God's chosen you. And you're going to be the mother
of God's own Messiah born in this world. That holy thing formed
in you is by the Holy Spirit. And you know what he said? He
said, thou art highly favored of God. Bob, that's the same
word Paul uses in Ephesians chapter one about you. You're highly
favored of God. Highly blessed of God He's blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus from eternity accepted in Christ loved in Christ Loved
of God the triune God Just as his son is loved of God the triune
God For the same reason turn over to John chapter 10 John
the 10th chapter John chapter 10, verse 14. I am the good shepherd, and know
my sheep, and have known them mine. As the Father knoweth me,
even so know I the Father. And I lay down my life for the
sheep. I'm the good shepherd. I lay down my life for goats
and sheep. No, I lay down my life for the sheep. Always that
distinction. And other sheep I have. Sheep
who haven't yet come into the fold. Sheep who haven't yet been
born. I hadn't been born yet. Had you?
Other sheep I have. They're already mine. They were
given to me by my father as the shepherd before the world was.
Them also I must bring. These other sheep, I must bring
them. I'm the shepherd. I'm responsible for them. And
they shall hear my voice. And there shall be one fold and
one shepherd. Now look at this word. Therefore. Therefore, therefore doth my
father love me, because I lay down my life for the sheep, that
I might take it again. Do what? The father loves him because
of his obedience, but didn't he love him before? He says,
therefore doth my father love me. because I laid down my life
for the sheep. The father loves him as our mediator,
Bill, because of his perfect obedience. Understand it. He loves him as the good shepherd
because he, by his obedience, has merited the father's love
as the good shepherd, as the mediator. It's not talking about
his love for the son as his son. It's talking about his love for
him in this covenant relationship, in this covenant responsibility.
Therefore doth my father love me because I have obeyed him. I lay down my life for the sheep.
Do you understand what our Lord's teaching us? God's love for us
is free. And at the same time, Fully deserved. It's free. And at the same time. Fully deserved. Fully deserved. God says I will love them freely.
But he loves us. For Christ's sake. Be you kind
one to another tenderhearted forgiving one another even as
God. for Christ's sake hath forgiven
you. I told you in the beginning,
everything God does, he does in and through and by Christ
the Mediator, even to the creation of the world. And everything
God does for sinners, he does in and through and by the mediator. And he loves his people in Christ,
for Christ's sake, freely, because Christ has fully deserved his
love. And he did so from everlasting,
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, so that the Father
looks on us and loves us for the same reason as he loves his
son. And he loves us in the same way
that he loves his son. Thou hast loved them as thou
hast loved me. The father loved Christ the God-man
as the express image of his own person. And the Savior says,
thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me. So he loves us
freely and he loves us affectionately. Tenderness. He that toucheth you toucheth
the apple of my eye. What a word. He that toucheth
you toucheth the apple of my eye. The Lord God says, don't
fret about anything. Don't worry about anything. You
have no reason to be concerned about any enemy on heaven or
the hell. You have no reason to fear anybody. He that toucheth you toucheth
the apple of my eye. And so he loves us affectionately.
And God loves his elect immutably. Unchangeably His love for us
did not begin yesterday His love for us is without beginning and
without end He loved us in Christ our covenant surety before the
world was smiled on us Accepted us blessed us called us his own
made us his own and nothing ever happens in time to change that We can't even begin to imagine
that. Doug, I love you and I love my
daughter. I love those two children. But
we can't begin to think about that love never changing. It
increases all the time and sometimes it even grows cold. Sometimes a father can be indifferent
to the object of his dearest passion. A husband can be indifferent
to the object of his love. A wife can be indifferent to
one she loves dearly. Not God! God never changes. He shows his displeasure with
our sin, but he never shows displeasure with his own. Never, never. When David took
Bathsheba and murdered Uriah, Nathan came and said, thou art
the man. And David said, I've sinned against the Lord. And
Nathan said, the Lord has already forgiven thy sin. He forgave
it before you ever committed it and surely before you confessed
it. This is done in Christ from eternity. But the thing that
David did displeased the Lord. And that displeasure must be
made manifest, and God made it manifest to David and to his
family and to Israel and to us. But God's love for David never
changed. When was he nearest God? When was he nearest God? When
he was bringing the ark of God up out of the house of Obed Edelman,
leaping and dancing, bringing the ark of God to Jerusalem,
and his wife looked out and despised him. He said, he said, I'll make
myself more vile, for God chose me. Was that or when he was in Bathsheba's
arms and plotted Uriah's murder? When was David more accepted?
When was he closer to God? When was it? Answer and you'll
reveal exactly what you know about substitution. He was accepted
of God and as near to God and loved of God and the object of
God's favor as much in his coldest, most calculated evil. as in his most devoted service
to God. Our acceptance with God, Bob
Duff, is not in us. It's in the substitute. It's
in Christ, our mediator. God smiles on his own in Christ. Oh, you can't say that. If you
say that, that'll just open the floodgates to sin. Nobody thinks
like that except somebody who knows nothing about what I'm
talking about. Nobody. Nobody. Brother Larry sent me
a note this morning, somebody wanted to know if I promoted
that evil doctrine of antinomianism. And you know what I plan to do
with it? Ignoring. Well, how do you keep people
from behaving wickedly? How do you get people to do good
if they don't have a law, they're not afraid of being punished?
If that's how you think, you're still under the law and you better
pay attention to it. That's exactly right. It's exactly
right. Not God's people. God accepts
us and loves us immutably as he loves his son. Thou hast loved
them as thou hast loved me. And the results are the same
too. The results are the same. See him? The father has put all things
in his hands. The father had put all things
under his feet. The father has subjected the
world to Jesus Christ, his son, and exalted him with glory beyond
imagination. And the glory the father gave
him. He's given us. And soon, soon,
soon, God's going to put the whole
world under my feet. And yours too. And as the world
was made to know that this is the son of God, because of his
obedience unto death, by which he has now been raised from the
dead. In that day, when he raises us
from the dead, The whole world shall know that we are God's
sons, the objects of his everlasting love. I beseech you, therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto the Lord. God will accept these lives of ours, these lives of which we are most ashamed. Our gifts, our services, which
make us blush, our faith, which we acknowledge so much
unbelief, our repentance of which we repent, he accepts it perfectly
in Christ. For two reasons, for two reasons. First, because of the merit of
Christ, because of Christ's merit. The second, because of this special,
wondrous relationship that's ours in Christ. We're the sons
of God. We're the children of God. I've
told you this before, I'll tell it again. I'm not sure Faith
has ever heard it, so she needs to hear it. I never did anything
to try to please my daddy. Only two times I remember ever
doing anything to try to please him. I've got scars I can't show you
from trying to please him. I messed up bad. I messed up
bad. He beat the tar out of me, and
I deserved it. I messed up bad. Only two times
I ever tried to do anything to please him. One day, I'd been
gone for a while. I'd been preaching somewhere.
I used to have the CB radio, and I called home, got to the
top of the mountain, told you I was coming home. Faith was,
oh, three, four, five years old. And I drove up in my truck, and
she was sitting down on the front porch. She had, right on the
stoop of my office, she had picked a whole fistful of dandelions.
Whole fistful of them. And she came running out there
to greet me, just smiling. And those dandelions blowing
in the wind, and all the seeds were gone. And she got to me
and held those out, and bless her heart, she just broke in
tears. It started balling because those dead vines looked so ugly.
Nothing but just the stems. I'd give $1,000 for one of them
right now. How come she did it just for
me? Just for me. And God Almighty,
our Father, for Christ's sake, receives what you do in the totality
of your life just for Him, as though His Son had done it perfectly. You know why? Because He did. He did perfectly! And the Father
loves us and accepts us and rewards us in the Son as one with the
Son. Thou hast loved them as thou
hast loved me. Oh, Brother Todd, I'd do anything
to know that love. Would you? Would you? I'm sure
you would. Would you do nothing? Would you
do nothing? Nothing. The knowledge of this love is
shed abroad in the heart to every sinner who believes
on the Son of God. Mark Henson, the love of God
made perfect in me. I am perfectly loved, perfectly
loved. perfectly loved of God and perfect
love cast out all fear.