Let's begin this morning in Matthew
chapter 6, Matthew the 6th chapter. We'll be getting to John 17,
the text we read earlier in just a moment. The title of my message
this morning is the Lord's Prayer. I want us to begin in Matthew
chapter 6 because that which is commonly called the Lord's
Prayer is not the Lord's prayer at all, but rather the disciples'
prayer. Let's look at it for just a moment.
It's given with slight variation here in Matthew chapter 6 and
again in Luke chapter 11. Really, this is given by our
Lord Jesus as a model of how we ought to pray continually,
how we ought to seek the Lord's face and the things by which
we ought to be motivated and guided when we pray. Let's begin
in verse six. But thou, when thou prayest,
when thou prayest, God's people pray. They pray because they
know they need his grace. Enter into thy closet. Prayer
is private business. People who talk about their prayers
and, well, I've got to, I can't talk now, I've got to spend my
morning time in prayer this morning. I can't talk now, I've got to,
I've got some time for us to go pray. Go visit somebody and
if that, well, we can't visit right now, we're time to pray.
No. Prayer is a private business.
Enter into your closets. And when thou hast shut the door,
shut out the world, shut out the cares of this world, shut
out the influences of this world, and yes, shut out the people
of this world. Now talking about literally having
a prayer closet is talking about being private. Pray to thy father
which is in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward
thee openly. That is, he will answer your
prayer openly. But when you pray, use not vain
repetitions as the heathen do. Hail Mary full of grace. Or how do the prayers go? I've forgotten
the little ditties that they teach children to pray. Now I
lay me down to sleep. Don't teach your children to
say prayers. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't
ever say to me, say a prayer for me. I'm not going to do it.
I'm not going to do it. I will, if God will enable me,
pray for you. I do pray for you. There's a
big difference between saying prayers and praying. The big
difference between just repeating words and praying. Use not vain
repetitions like a bunch of barbarian heathens. for they think that
they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be you not therefore
likened to them? For your father, you don't have
to behave like the heathen do. They worship a God who can't
hear much less do. But your father knoweth what
things ye have need of before you ask them. Verse 9. After
this manner, therefore, pray ye. That is, follow this pattern. Our Father which art in heaven.
And then the Lord Jesus makes seven specific petitions. Petitions
that give us direction as to how we ought to pray. Pray like
this. Hallowed be thy name. Pray for
the glory and the honor of God's name. How our lust compete with God's
honor. How our personal ambitions compete
with God's glory. How our individual wants compete
with God's glory. Father, whatever it is that I
mention with these lips of clay from this heart of sin, and beg
you to do or to give, I fence that request about with this
desire, glorify your name. Do it for your glory, only for
your glory, and if it's not for your glory, God, don't do it,
because I don't know how to pray as I ought. Thy kingdom come. Save your people. Gather your
elect out of the four corners of the earth. Thy will be done. Not my will. Not my will. You ask and you ask abyss that
you may consume it upon your own lust, James says. That's
the reason things you seek aren't done. Thy will be done. Thy will be done. Only God knows
what is best. Thy will be done in earth as
it is in heaven. Oh, but Brother Don, I thought
God's will is always done in the earth as it is in heaven.
It always is, but we're not always bowing to it. This is a bowing of your will
and my will to his will. Nevertheless, not my will, thy
will be done. Forgive us our debts. Luke calls
them trespasses. Our sins are debts. Our debts
are trespasses. As we forgive our debtors, forgive
us. Confess, or I'm sorry, verse,
before that it says, give us this day our daily bread so that
we come to God seeking our daily needs, our daily bread. What
supplies us? Not praying that God will make
us rich. You don't need that. Not praying
that God will give us a bigger house. You don't need that. If
you did, you'd have it. Not praying that God would give
us a financial security. You don't need that. If you did,
you'd have it. What? Our daily bread. God, give
me what I need. Give me what I need. Just what
I need. What I need to serve you. what I need to sustain me in
this world, what I need that I will use for your glory. Forgive
us our debts, forgive us our sins. Prayer ought to always
arise from a conscious acknowledgement of sin. Forgive us our sins as
we forgive those who trespass against us. And here's the sixth
plea, lead us not into temptation. God, don't take me in the place where I'm susceptible
to temptation. Don't let me go hungry lest I be tempted to
steal. Don't give me too much lest I
deny you. Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from evil. Deliver
us from the evil one, Satan. Deliver us from the evil thing,
our own hearts, sin, the temptation around us. Deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and
the power and the glory forever. Amen. Now that obviously is not
our Lord's prayer. That's the disciples prayer.
But in John chapter 17, we have our Lord's prayer. This is our
Savior's prayer that he made to God the Father on our behalf
as he was leaving this world about to ascend into heaven with
his own blood there to obtain eternal redemption for us. As
Aaron the high priest on the day of atonement went into the
holy of holies with the blood of the lamb and sprinkled the
blood on the mercy seat thereby Making atonement for the sins
of the people and then came out and blessed the people the Lord
blessed thee and keep thee Our Lord Jesus, who is here fulfilling
the Aaronic type, as our great High Priest, is about to go into
the Holy of Holies in Heaven itself with His own blood to
obtain eternal redemption for us. And as He does, He makes
this prayer. As far as I can tell, this is
the only prayer our Savior uttered of which we have the full text
recorded for us in Holy Scripture. Here we have the full text of
our Savior's great high priestly prayer. And in this, he gives
us a picture of the intercession he now makes on our behalf before
God our Father. He who is our great high priest
is at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for
us. Hebrews 7 25 it says he is able
to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for us. So this is the prayer
of our mediator who makes intercession for us at God's right hand as
our mediator. Now the fact that he does so
is used by the apostle in Hebrews chapter 4 to inspire us to pray. Since we have a great high priest
who's entered into heaven, Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant,
who is able to be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
It says, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of
need. We ought to be inspired to pray by our Savior's intercession
for us. There is one at the right hand
of the majesty on high in our flesh who is touched with the
feeling of our infirmities, interceding on our behalf all the time. Let
us therefore come freely to God and pour out our hearts to Him.
Prayer doesn't change God and it doesn't change God's will.
It finds the will of God. Prayer not only finds the will
of God, it bows us to the will of God. Prayer rejoices in the
will of God and changes us. causing us to know and to follow
God's will as we make our sojourn through this earth. If our master
prayed, certainly his servants ought to pray. Now, back in John
chapter 16 and verse 28, the Lord Jesus summed up his life
and ministry, his person and work in three plain, simple statements. Look at them just briefly. John
16, 28. I came forth from the Father. Who is this man? This man who
declares that he came forth from God the Father. That declaration
certainly indicates at least these two things about who he
is. First, if he came forth from
the Father, he must have been with the Father and in the Father. I came forth from the father's
being. I came forth from the father
as one with the father, with the father from everlasting in
the beginning was the word. And he who is speaking these
words was at this very time with the father and in the father.
He is God, the eternal son. And second, if he came forth
from the father, he must have been sent by the father for a
specific purpose. He shall save his people from
their sins. Lo, I come in the volume of the
book, he said. It is written of me to do thy
will, O God. I delight to do thy will, he
said, by the which will we are sanctified. We are made holy
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all,
once with finality, so that now there is no need for anything
else to be done or anything else to be offered. We are sanctified
by the one offering of Jesus Christ, our great high priest,
who came forth to do the will of the Father. Look at the second
statement he makes. I am come into the world. He's not of the world, but he
came into the world. He came into the world by the
miraculous work of God the Holy Spirit forming in the womb of
the Virgin Mary a holy human body in which he could perform
all the will of God for the saving of his people. The word was made
flesh. The Lord Jesus assumed into union
with himself. Now, understand me. He assumed
into union with himself. All that we are, sin alone accepted. so that he who is God became
a man. He never ceased to be God, and
God did not make himself less than he was, but he who is God
became a man. He became a man that by his obedience
and death, he might offer to God a sacrifice, a righteousness,
a satisfaction that God himself would accept. Again, he says,
Leave the world and go to the father With those words he states
for us again What he said in the earlier part of John 16 when
he convinces the world of righteousness because I go to the father I'm
leaving the world. I'm going to the father because
I finished the work the father gave me to do I The apostle Paul
began the epistle of Hebrews with very much the same words
in chapter one. God, who at sundry times and
in divers manners spake in time past under the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by his son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made
the worlds. who being the brightness of the
Father's glory and the express image of the Father's person
and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had
by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of
the majesty on high. Now, with those words in John
16, 28, our Lord Jesus summarizes all his person, all his work
as our Redeemer. He, the Son of God, is our sin-atoning
sacrifice and substitute, by whom redemption is accomplished. And on the basis of that redemption
accomplished, he makes intercession for us. He prays that God will
do things. And the basis of his prayer is
what he has done. Understand this. He prays that
God will do some things. And the basis upon which he makes
that prayer, the plea he urges as to why God should do these
things is his finished work of redemption. And in this 17th
chapter, we have before us the claims of our sovereign redeemer. He makes four distinct claims. In verse 5, he says, Father,
glorify me. In verse 11, he says, Father,
Keep my people. And then in verse, uh, uh, verse
20 is his father saved my redeemed ones. And in verses 24 through
26, father, give me my reward. You remember in Psalm two, The
Lord God, the triune Jehovah says to Christ, his servant,
ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance.
And here the Lord Jesus asked that the father would give him
that which he promised upon completion of his obedience. All right,
here's his first request. And now, verse five, and now,
O father, glorify thou me. Now watch this with thine own
self. with the glory which I had with
thee before the world was. Father, give me publicly. Give me in a manifest way so
that all men may see and understand that I am your servant and I
have fulfilled your will and I have redeemed and saved my
people. Glorify me with the glory I had with thee before the world
was. He was accepted, Alan, as our
Redeemer before the world was. His obedience was accepted as
finished and the Father turned over to the surety, the reigns
of the universe. And now the Lord Jesus says,
Father, give me that glory manifestly. Glorify me. And that's what the
Father did. Joel spoke of it in Joel 2. Peter
said it's fulfilled in Acts chapter 2. He said the Lord Jesus, God's
Son, the Messiah, the King is seated on David's throne and
God's given him power over all flesh. This is the request he
makes as our substitute and mediator. It's not just a personal ambition
for personal exaltation. It's a prayer for power and dominion
as a man. that he may bring about the salvation
of chosen men. And the basis of his request
is the fulfillment of all the stipulations of the covenant
given him and specified in the first four verses of this chapter.
Look at it. These words make Jesus. The words
he spoke to his disciples in the preceding chapters, beginning
in chapter 13. And lifted up his eyes to heaven and said,
Father, The hour is come. Remember he told his mother,
my hour is not yet come. And the disciples wanted to make
him a king. He said his hour had not yet come. What hour?
The hour of his crowning glory. The hour when he would finish
his work. The hour when he would offer
himself a sacrifice for sin. He said, now the hour is come. The due time, the appointed time
has come. The hour is come, glorify thy
son, that thy son also may glorify thee. Verse two, as thou hast
given him power, thou hast given him. The father loves the son
and has given all things into his hand. This is not something
that the father was going to do. He said, as thou hast given
him, he had power from everlasting over all flesh as our mediator. Not he is going to have it. He
had it. Now it is given to him manifestly
when he's ascended up in heaven and pours out his spirit on the
day of Pentecost. But the Lord Jesus says, thou
hast given him power over all flesh for this purpose, that
he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. The father has given his son
total sovereign dominion and authority. It's his by decree. It's his by creation. It's his
by purchase. He bought the right to rule the
universe and dispose of it as he will for the saving of his
people. Oh, God help you to grasp this.
He who rules the universe, He who governs the thoughts of every
man, He who manipulates every rear of the fiend of hell, is
God my Savior. Ron Wood, he loved us and gave
himself for us. That ought to teach us to say,
Lord, do what you will. That ought to teach us to bow
to his will, never to murmur at his will. It ought to teach
us to surrender to his will, never to complain at his will.
It ought to teach us to put our necks under his yoke willingly
and find rest unto our souls. The Lord Jesus here refers to
his people as those whom thou hast given him. That's important. He uses that phrase in this one
prayer six times. Six times he identifies us as
the people the Father has given him. The people the Father trusted
to his hands. The people the Father gave him
to save, the people the Father united to him, the people the
Father made one with him, the people for whom he stood as surety
from everlasting. Verse 3, And this is life eternal,
that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent. Eternal life is knowing God in
Christ. It's not knowing about God, it's
knowing God. It's not knowing about Christ,
it's knowing Christ. Multitudes have much knowledge
about God who have no knowledge of God. Much knowledge about
Christ with no knowledge of Christ. Brother Don, don't you think
a fellow ought to have, or must have, a certain knowledge in
order to be saved? I wish you'd tell me what. I wish you'd tell me what. The
disciples were confused about almost everything, but they knew
Him. Years ago, a fellow wrote an
article, said the apostles were all lost until after the resurrection.
I wrote to him, I said, you mean to tell me the Lord Jesus told
lost men their names were written in heaven? He gave lost men the
keys to the kingdom of heaven? He gave lost men power over demons
of hell? What nonsense! What nonsense! Oh no, no, no. The apostles were
confused about much, like you and me! But they knew the Redeemer. They knew Him. You quit trying
to decide who's saved and who's lost. It ain't none of your business. Did you hear me? It's none of
your business. That's his business. His business
alone. See if I can illustrate it. My grandson knows me pretty good. He's nine now. But I remember
back when he was four, I think he was, I got to go to Dad's
and Donut's days when he was in kindergarten. Doug couldn't
be there, so I got to go. And we walked in, and you know
what that boy thought? You know what he used to think?
He used to think I hung the moon. Now he's learning better now,
but he used to think I hung the moon. He thought I could do anything
and whip anybody. We were standing together, me
and another older man, about my age. Oh, it's hard to say. Older man, about my age. We were
standing together, and Will looked at that fella, and he looked
at me, and he looked at his buddy, He said, you his grandpa? The
old boy said, yeah. And he looked at me, he said,
my grandpa's bigger than you. And the fellow said, I bet he
can whip me too. Will said, yeah. He didn't know much about me,
but he knew me. Do you understand the difference?
You can know, you can read any record, find out when a fellow
was born, where he was born, who his parents were, where he
lived, where he was educated, what he did when he was a boy,
if there's a record of it, how he learned in school, what kind
of grades he had, when he got married, who his wife is, who
his children are. You can learn all the facts and never know
the person. Salvation is not knowing the
facts about the Redeemer. It's knowing the Redeemer. And
you know him only as he is revealed in you by the power of God's
omnipotent grace through the preaching of the gospel. We know
that the son of God is calm and that given us an understanding
that we may know him that is true. And we are in him that
is true, even in his son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God
and eternal life. Look at verse four. I have glorified
thee on the earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. Now, no man could ever make such
a statement except the God-man, Christ Jesus. Here is a man who
literally loved, obeyed, and honored the eternal God all the
days of his life. In his life and in his death,
he glorified God's law, God's will, God's justice and God's
grace. He did it for us that God might
be just and the justifier of all who trust the Lord Jesus.
When our savior says, I finished the work, thou gavest me to do. I have no doubt that he's referring
to three things. He's saying I have brought in
everlasting righteousness by my obedience to you. Brought
in righteousness for my people as their representative. He's
saying I am going now to Calvary and by my blood I will redeem
my people. I will satisfy justice. I will put away their sins. I
will obtain by a just payment and a just sacrifice for sin
everlasting life, eternal redemption for them. And he is talking about
that which he will yet finish, the kingdom that shall at last
be finished when he's given eternal life to every one of his ransomed,
to everyone the father has given him. And he will present us to
the Father and say, Lo, I and the children that God has given
me, then cometh the end. Then everything is done as it
was agreed upon in the covenant of grace. All right. Look at
verses six through 19. Here's the second claim. And now I am no more in the world. But these are in the world, he
says in verse 11. And I come to thee, Holy Father. Keep through thine own name those
whom thou hast given me. That they may be one as we are. His first claim is the claim
of glory for himself. His second claim is the claim
of preservation for every believing sinner. He says, Father, keep them. Keep
them through your name. Keep them, those that thou hast
given me, that they may be one as we are. I can't go through these next
verses in detail. Let me give you the highlights.
The Lord Jesus here gives us 12 things that are true of every
believer. Let me just read them to you,
and I'll pause a little bit, so if you want to jot them down,
you can. First, believers are men and women to whom God Almighty
has made himself known. If you believe, it's because
God revealed himself to you. You could not and would not otherwise
believe. I have manifested thy name, he
says in verse six, to the man which thou gavest me out of the
world. His name is all that he is, his whole character. Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Those who
call on the name of the Lord worship God as he's revealed
in Christ. We believe him because he's made
himself known to us. Second, verse seven. Believers
know that the man Christ Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, as he was
called, is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now they have
known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. We recognize that the Father
and the Son are one. We know that everything that
Christ did and said and everything he shall yet do is of God the
Father, for you cannot separate the two. This is the confidence
we must have and the confidence we do have. When Christ died
at Calvary, God was in Christ, reconciling the world of his
elect to himself. When it comes in judgment, God
will judge the world by that man whom he has ordained and
that man whom he's approved, Christ Jesus, the Lord. Number
three, look at verse eight. Believers are people who receive
the word of God. God's people receive his word. You show somebody what this book
says and they'll bow to it. if they believe God. If they
believe God. Whether they understand it or
not. Whether at the time they like it or don't. If they believe
God, they'll bow to it. It's what God says. It's what
God says. You wonder why folks Arguing, fuss, and fume, and
fight when you try to teach them something in the word of God.
Concerning God's character as our sovereign. Concerning predestination,
election, particular redemption. The sure salvation of God's elect
is irresistible grace. I can't stand that! I won't have
that! I know, I understand. I understand. You don't have to explain it
to me. You're blind. I don't expect anything from
a blind man. Except blindness. You're lost. I would expect a
lost man to believe God. Believers bow to the Word. They
receive the Word of God. I have given to them the words
which thou gavest me. And they've received them. And
known surely, as surely as you receive what God says, you know
surely that I came out from thee. They've known surely that I am
God come in the flesh. And they have believed thou didst
send me. Here's the fourth thing. Believers
are sinners chosen of God, chosen in eternity, given to Christ
as our surety, and redeemed by Christ at Calvary. Look at verse
9. Look at verse 9. Next time somebody tells you
God loves everybody, Christ died for everybody, he won't save
everybody, just If you care, if they're interested in hearing
what God says, turn to John 17 verse 9 and read it to them.
Just read it to them. I pray for them and everybody
else in the world. Did anybody read that? Did anybody
read that? I pray for them and all other
people in the world. That's not what it said. I pray
for them. I pray not for the world. His love is for a specific people. His intercession is for a specific
people. And those people for whom He
makes intercession are the people for whom He died. When Aaron
offered the blood of the Lamb upon the altar and took the blood
and sprinkled it on the mercy seat, As he made sacrifice, he
wore the names of a specific people, the 12 tribes of the
children of Israel. In fact, when the Passover was
instituted, God told Moses and Aaron, speak this into the ears
of the people. He said, don't tell Pharaoh anything
about it. Don't tell the Egyptians anything about it. This is just
for my people. Aaron offered the sacrifice for
God's Israel and God's Israel alone. And he went in and sprinkled
blood on the mercy seat for God's Israel and God's Israel alone.
And the blood made intercession on the mercy seat for God's Israel
and God's Israel alone. The blood of Jesus Christ is
shed for those people for whom he prayed. And it is beyond ludicrous
to imagine that he would die for people for whom he refused
to pray. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Everything
Christ has done, everything he is doing, Everything he shall
hereafter do, in grace and in providence, is for his people.
Here's the fifth description of God's elect. Believers are
those men and women in whom the Lord Jesus is glorified. Verse 10. All mine are thine
and thine are mine and I am glorified in them. Isn't that amazing? Merle Hart, the son of God, says
he's glorified in you. He's glorified by his operations
of grace in you and his operations of grace for you. He's glorified
by the gift of his faith working in you, your faith in him. He's
glorified by your obedience to him. He's glorified by our final
consummate salvation and everlasting glory. Three times we're told
in Ephesians 1. The Lord Jesus died for us. God
predestined us. God sent his spirit to call us
to the praise of his glory. To the praise of the glory of
his grace. For the praise of his glory. Everything he's done is for his
glory. He said, for my own namesake
I saved you. The reason he called us by his
grace is that he may glorify himself in us. Look at verse
11. Believers, number six, are kept
in life, kept in grace by faith in Christ, faith that God alone
sustains. Now I'm no more in the world.
But these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that
they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me, I've
kept, and none of them is lost but the sin of perdition. Why
have we mentioned Judas? Why did he have to bring that
up? To make you understand that this perishing of Judas, the
betrayal of Judas, the reprobation of Judas, that too is according
to the purpose of God. None of them is lost but the
son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled because it
was written of Judas what he must do in Psalm 69. And look
at this. God's saints are here described
as a people in the world, in hostile enemy territory. United
as one body in Jesus Christ, one with Him. Kept by God's grace
and God's power. Kept. More secure was no one
ever than the loved ones of the Savior. What keeps you? Free grace. That's all. Number
7, verse 13. Believers are those people who
shall have Christ's joy fulfilled in themselves. And now I come
to thee and these things I speak in the world that they may have
my joy fulfilled in themselves. The joy of his grace. John speaks
of it in 1 John 1. Fellowship with the Father. and
with his son and with one another. Oh, what joy! Here I am, a man
who spent his youth like that prodigal in utter rebellion to
God. And now I live in the sweetest
company imaginable all the time. I live in communion with God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And I live in communion and fellowship
with God's people, you who are my family and God's children
scattered all over this world. Oh, how rich, how delightful,
how joyful. I have some privileges, many
privileges that You don't have traveling like I do. I get to
meet so many people, have friends all over the world. Do you know
I'd be hard-pressed to drive a hundred miles in any direction
in this country? I'd be hard-pressed to drive
a hundred miles and not walk into a house where the folks
there wanted me and my wife to stay with them. Wow! What a rich treasure of grace! We walk together in the fellowship
of God's saints. And we will have the joy of his
salvation. Our Lord Jesus says, your sorrow
shall be turned into joy. And he took those whom he strips,
those whom he wounds, those whom he slays, and he clothes them
and he heals them and he makes them alive and turns their sorrow
into joy. Number eight, look at verse 14.
Believers, because of their faith, are the objects of the world's
hatred. I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. The gospel we believe, the Savior
we serve, the God we worship, is despised by this world. There's
no need for you to ever imagine that as you proclaim this gospel,
this savior, and this God, things will be any different for you.
Number nine, look at verse 15. Believers are left in this world
to preach the gospel amid much evil and under the relentless
assault of the evil one. I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them
from the evil. I saw Cody looking at me just a
minute ago. God saved you by his grace, young man. Why didn't
he take you home? He left you here to serve him.
That's all. To preach the gospel of his grace.
I pray he'll make a picture of you. But if he doesn't put you
in the pulpit preaching the gospel, the highest honor any man on
this earth can have. It's still your honor and privilege
to carry his gospel into all the world. All right, number 10. Look at
verse 16. Believers are sinners who've
been sanctified, set apart and distinguished from the world,
sanctified by the word and truth of God. They are not of the world,
even as I'm not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth.
Thy word is truth. Look at verse 18, number 11.
Every believer, every child of God, no exception, is sent into
this world as the servant of God Almighty to do his will,
to glorify his name, and to serve the interest of his kingdom.
As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent
them into the world. Later on, we'll read how he pulled
Lindsey Campbell and Larry Brown and Don Fortner aside and breathed
on him. Said, receive my spirit. As the Father has sent me into
the world, so send I you. He sent us here for the same
reason the Father sent him here, for the saving of his elect.
Bill Raleigh, that's our mission. That's our task. That's the reason
we live on this earth, is for the gathering of God's elect
into his kingdom. Number 12. You and I, God's elect,
sinners who trust the Lord Jesus, are the special objects of all
that Christ came to do. Look at verse 19. And for their
sakes, I sanctify myself. Lord, my God,
my Father, the Savior says, I sanctify myself that they also might be
sanctified through the truth. All right, here's the third claim
of our sovereign Redeemer. Verses 20 through 23. Our Lord here turns his attention
specifically to you and I in this day. His people who were
yet to be saved when he made this prayer. This is his prayer. Father, save my redeemed ones. Save my redeemed ones. Come back
to Psalm 28 for just a second. Psalm 28. Verse 9. Save thy people. Bless thine inheritance. Feed them also. And lift them
up forever. To that work, I devote myself
again today. And I call on you to do the same.
The Lord Jesus says, Father, Save my people. Verse 20. Neither pray I for these alone.
I'm not just praying for Peter, James and John. I'm praying for
Martin and Merle and Don and Larry and Bob. I'm praying for
those who 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. that the world may believe that
thou hast sent me, and the glory which thou hast given me I've
given them. Wow. That they may be one even
as we are one. 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. And then he makes one more claim.
He says, Father, give me my reward. Verse 24. Father, I will that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. Bring my redeemed home to glory
that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me for
thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. Oh, righteous father,
the world has not known you. But I've known you and these
have known that thou has 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. I turn to Revelation
21 and I'll wrap this up. Soon our Savior's prayer shall be
fully answered. He shall be glorified. His people
kept and preserved into eternal life. Every redeemed sinner called
by his grace and all the reward of his soul's travail with him
in glory. Revelation 21, verse 3. They
in our joy shall be full. I heard a great voice out of
heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. and he will
dwell with them, and they shall be his people. And God himself
shall be with them and be their God, and God shall wipe away
all tears from their eyes. And there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain,
for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the
throne said, behold, I make all things new. And he said unto
me, write. For these words are true and
faithful, and he said unto me, it is done. I am Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the end. I will give to him that is a
thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that
overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God,
and he shall be my son. Amen.