Nothing written in the book of
God more sacred, more instructive, more comforting, more spiritual,
and more useful for our souls than the 17th chapter of John.
We have before us John's inspired record of the Lord's Prayer.
We read it in its entirety just a little bit ago. And what a
blessed, blessed portion of scripture this is. Here God the Father
beheld the perfect, pure, absolute devotion of his Son as the God-Man,
our Mediator. Here the disciples had the privilege
of hearing the most intimate expressions of our Savior's love
for them and for the Father. They had the privilege of hearing
him speak to the father as he carried their needs before the
throne of grace upon his heart to the father's heart to their
father's heart. Now here you and I are allowed
to hear the Lord of Glory, He who loved us and gave Himself
for us, as He makes intercession for us according to the will
of God, and makes intercession for us based upon a plea of perfect
obedience and perfect satisfaction. So that that which he asked here
from the Father on our behalf, he most assuredly will have for
these two reasons. One, he is the Son of God. And
two, he has perfectly obeyed God as our representative and
therefore fully deserves that these things should be granted
him. Now this 17th chapter of John is unique in many ways.
The things spoken here by the Son of God are spoken into the
ears of the Father and yet they were spoken for the hearts of
his people. They were spoken for the hearts
of those disciples standing by so that they might hear and be
instructed by his prayer. Now there's something to be said
there concerning public prayer. You men who are called upon to
lead the congregation in public prayer ought always to be aware
that as we are speaking to God in prayer, yet at the same time
we are leading the congregation of God's saints to the throne
of grace, so we ought to speak in such a manner as to be heard,
distinctly heard, and speak in such a manner as to carry the
burdens of the congregation and the needs of the congregation
before the throne of God. Our Lord spoke these words to
the Father in prayer and yet he speaks them for the benefit
of those disciples who stood by and for our benefit that we
might learn and profit and be comforted by those things that
are here spoken. So what was spoken here was spoken
for our hearts and souls edification in the knowledge of our dear
Savior. That which is written here is written in the language
of prayer. But this is a prayer like no
other prayer. When you and I pray, we pray because we have sinned
and because we're sinners. We come before the throne of
God as sinners in need of mercy, grace, and forgiveness. Our prayers
are carried before the throne of God with hearts that blush
before Him, with hearts of contrition, of brokenness and confession.
Our Lord Jesus comes and offers His prayer to the Father based
upon perfect compliance in everything with His Father's will. The prayer
that we are now looking at is replete with righteousness. Every
line bursts with the goodness, grace, and glory of God in Christ. It shows forth the perfect obedience
of God the Son to God the Father, but not as God the Son. Rather, it shows forth his obedience
to God the Father as the God-man, our mediator. And that which
is spoken, he speaks as our mediator and representative before the
Father. There is, in this Gospel of John,
a very special revelation of the unique relationship between
the Father and the Son that's explained here just simply by
showing it to us. The Lord Jesus refers to God,
our Father, His Father, as the Father repeatedly. As a matter
of fact, He does so in the Gospel of John, that is, as John records
what transpired. He does so more often than in
any of the other Gospel narratives. In chapter 14, 23 times, he speaks
to God and says, my father, 23 times. In the 15th chapter, he
does so 10 times. And in the preceding chapter,
in chapter 16, 12 times, he calls the father, my father. And here,
six times, he speaks to him as the father. In the verse 11,
the son prays to the father and asks that he would preserve his
people. Look how it speaks, and now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father. What a word, Holy Father. Holy Father, keep through thine
own name those whom thou hast given me. So the basis of my
plea that you will keep and preserve my believing people, the basis
of my plea that you will keep my people and your people is
your holiness. And in verse 25 he says, O righteous
Father, The world hath not known thee, but I have known thee,
and these have known thee, and known that thou hast sent me.
And I have declared to them thy name, and will declare it, that
the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and
I in them. So he calls upon the Father on
the basis of holiness in his character, on the basis of righteousness
in his character, as it is fulfilled and represented in himself as
our mediator. And he says, Father, now because
of your holiness and your righteousness on the basis of my perfect compliance
with holiness and righteousness, I ask all these things for my
people. What a prayer of intercession. I read through this passage,
and yesterday, the day before, as I was preparing this message,
I read the whole chapter several, several times, and I picked up
things each time I read it that I had never specifically noticed
before. Notice as we went through the
passage, I would just ask you to mark them as we go along.
We won't look at these, I'll just give them to you and move
along. But notice how our Lord refers
to you and me. It's interesting, Larry, whenever
we speak to God in prayer, we must never speak to him without
acknowledging our sin. Never. But not once does he mention
our sin. He has come to put away our sin.
And He speaks to the Father in such a way as to declare to the
Father, now because of my perfect obedience, because of my satisfaction
of justice, because of my life and my death, these people now
in me are worthy that you should receive them and deal with them
on the basis of all that I ask. He doesn't even mention our sin,
but rather He speaks of us as a divinely given people in verse
2. He speaks of us as those who were given to Him in the covenant
of grace in electing love before the world began. So that God
the Father took us His elect and put us in the hands of His
Son and trusted us to the hands of His Son as our surety to redeem
and save us. In verses 11 and 12, he speaks
of us as a divinely kept people. Kept by the power of his grace.
Kept in Jesus Christ. Kept in his hands. Kept in the
Father's hands. Kept by the seal of his spirit.
In verse 14, he describes us as a divinely taught people.
I've given them thy word. I gave them your word. Therefore
the world hated them. Because they are not of the world,
even as I am not of the world. And then in verses 17, 18, and
19, look at this. He describes us as a divinely
sanctified people. And I want to pause here for
just a minute, every time I get a chance to, and let you understand
clearly that throughout the word of God, our sanctification, like
our justification and our regeneration and our redemption, is spoken
of not as something that we do, not something dependent upon
us, not something accomplished by us, but rather that which
is accomplished by God himself. The Savior says, Father, sanctify
them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Now somebody
looks at that and says, now you see, the Lord is here praying
that we would presently, progressively be made sanctified. Well, read
on, read on. As thou hast sent me into the
world, even so have I also sent them into the world, and for
their sakes I sanctify myself, that they might be sanctified
through the truth. Now whatever sanctification is,
it's exactly what our Lord Jesus as a man experienced. In the
passage before us, it's talking about us being set apart by God's
grace for Him. And our Savior says, I set myself
apart now continually for God. It is thus being set apart as
God's people, peculiarly His treasure. It doesn't have anything
to do with some imaginary progressive righteousness by which men, God
gives them a little seed of righteousness, a little seed of holiness, and
they just gradually get themselves more and more holy as they go
along. That's not it at all. Oh, no. Believers are men and
women who are sanctified by God's decree in election, sanctified
by Christ's blood and redemption, sanctified by the Spirit's call
and regeneration through the Word set apart for God. More and more continually set
apart from this world. More and more continually devoted
from these things to God himself and his glory according to the
will of God by the word of God. More than that, we're described
in verses 20 and 21 as a divinely united people. The Savior says
in verse 21, I'm asking all these things that they all may be one. And I want to tell you something
about God's people. All God's people. All of them. All God's
people. They're one. They're one. They're one. Now, I'm not talking
about all religious people. That's another story. Religious
people hung our Savior on the tree. I'm talking about God's
people. They're one. They got one heart, one mind,
one will, one purpose, one body of truth, one Lord, one faith,
one baptism. They're one. We grow in this
oneness, but if we're in Christ, we're one in Christ. Read on. He speaks of us as a divinely
blessed people in verse 22. He said, the glory which thou
gavest me, I've given them. I'll say more about that in a
minute, Lord willing, but we're a people who have been blessed of God, blessed in his
purpose, blessed in his providence, blessed with his grace, blessed
of God with everything God can give in Christ. And then he describes
us as a divinely perfected people. Verse 23, I in them, thou in
me, that they may be made perfect in one. We've already been made perfect
in God's sight. Understand that? Every regenerate
man, every believer has already been made perfect before God
and Jesus Christ. We are perfectly righteous before
Him. Our sins put away. We have been
given a perfect nature in regeneration. That holy thing which is in us
is born of God and cannot sin. But what about the fact of our
sin? we're not perfect yet, not by
a long shot. This flesh is always flesh and
always sin and therefore corrupts everything we are but one day
soon we shall drop this robe of flesh and stand before God
in perfect communion with Christ. Oh God I perfect consecration to the Son
of God. In perfect commitment to our
Redeemer. Won't be long now. Won't be long
now. We're described in verse 23 also
as a divinely loved people. Look at that. Thou hast loved
them as thou hast loved There's more there than I can
say now. I preached a message on it a year or so ago, maybe
a couple years ago. Get the tape and listen to it. Thou hast loved them as thou
hast loved me. I just spotted James Rankin sitting
back there. This is too good, too great,
too magnificent for us to get a handle on, James. But the Lord
God Almighty loves you and me from eternity, exactly as He
loves Jesus Christ our Savior, for the same reasons, to the
same degree, to the same extent. Thou hast loved them as thou
hast loved me. And in verse 24, He describes
us as a divinely wanted people. He says, oh, father, I will,
that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am,
that they may behold my glory. Ron, he wants us, he wants us
with him to behold his glory forever. I frequently preach from that
text when preaching a believer's funeral. Why are they taken from
us? Because the Savior wants them. He bought them. They're His. He says, I want them, and have
them He will. All right, I could go on for
a long time and just touch the surface of these things, but
I want us to focus in now on verse 8. I want to look at this
passage here, just this eighth verse, and let me Let me call
your attention to that which is here revealed, and we'll look
at it line by line, word by word, just exactly as it's given in
the text here by the Spirit of God. May God the Holy Spirit
be our teacher and take the things of Christ and show them to us.
For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me. And they have received them and
have known surely that I came out from thee. and they have
believed that thou didst send me. Now the first point is the
first word for. That word for refers us back
to that which immediately precedes the statement. The apostle tells
us, or our Lord tells us in verse 7, they have known that all things
whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. My people, these
whom I have called, these whom I have taught, they know that
everything you've given me comes from you for, because I've taught
them so. I've instructed them in this
matter. This is exactly what the seventh verse is teaching
us in this connecting article here for. For thou hast taught
them. You've given them a special knowledge,
a God-given knowledge. You see, God-taught sinners are
meaning women who know the Son of God by special revelation. They know it. Some folks talk about faith and
say faith is a leap in the dark. You know, faith is just, you
get somebody and you buttonhole them and you get them to believe
in Jesus and they don't know what they believe. Oh, no. Oh, no. Faith
is not a leap in the dark. Faith is walking in the light.
There's a huge difference. Most people are leaping around
in the dark. Believers walk in the light. And the light they
walk in is the blessed knowledge of the Son of God. They have
known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. Faith, you see, is based upon
knowledge revealed in the book. That's where it is. I talk about
men and women being believers who don't know God, don't know
the things of God, don't know the truth of God, don't know
the gospel of God, just believe in Jesus. I met a bunch of fellas
named Jesus down in Mexico. They bunch up down there. Every
mother's son calls her boy, is called Jesus. To believe in Jesus,
you just as well believe in one of those fellas, as to believe
in your imaginary thoughts of Jesus. We believe in the Son
of God as He's revealed in the Word of God, being taught of
God. Now knowledge alone will never
save you, but faith without knowledge is not saving faith. How can
they believe in Him whom they've not known? For Paul said, Some
of you here without faith. I trust you're interested in
the things of God. You have some concern about your souls. But
I'm telling you, you will never know God. You will never know
the things of God. You will never know spiritual
truth. You will never grasp life eternal in Christ, apart from
the hearing of the Word of God, so that you may know the Son
of God. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. Yes, sir. But how shall they
call on him whom they've not believed? How shall they believe
in him whom they've not heard? How shall they hear without a
preacher? How shall they preach except they be sent? It's written
faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. You see this
is God's ordained means. He takes the things of Christ
revealed in the Word and shows them effectually to chosen sinners
and those to whom the Holy Spirit shows the things of Christ. Lord,
they know them. Our Savior said, they know everything
you gave me came from you. They just know it. Believers
are taught of God. They have ears in tune with the
things of God. Well, I know Christians who don't
believe the things you preach. Oh no, you don't. Oh no you don't. You know religious folks who
don't believe things taught in this book. Believers believe
the things taught in this book. The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear him and he shows them his covenant. You see the
grace of God to bring salvation is effectual teaching grace.
Grace gives us an education, an education that fits us for
communion with God, our holy and righteous father, both now
and now and hereafter. And it is grace that teaches
us to worship and adore him as the God of all grace. Now look
at the next two words. The Savior says, for I have. Oh, how I love those words of
finality. When our Savior speaks about
that which he has done, he does not say, I wanted, or I tried,
or I desired, but I have. I have. James, the son of God,
did something while he was here. He did something. He didn't come
to try to do something. He didn't come to make it possible
for something to be done. He did something. He said, I
have. I have. It'll do our souls good
to just look over this chapter and see what our Savior says
I have done. We'll kind of pick them up a little at a time, but
these two words are used together 10 or 11 times in this chapter. Let me call your attention to
just a few of them. Now come, my soul, and fall down at the
feet of this all-glorious Savior and worship Him who says, I have. In verse 4, he said, I have glorified
thee on the earth. No other man ever did. No other man ever could, except
because he did. He says that we are those in
whom he's glorified in verse 10. But the only way he can be
glorified in us is because he glorified God for us, and we
glorify God by trusting in him. He said, I have glorified thee
on the earth. As a man, what an example he
set. What a standard he set. So that from the cradle to the
grave, from the time he came forth from his mother's womb
speaking truth, to the time that he left this world speaking truth,
the Lord Jesus Christ looked back over his life, and he said,
Father, I've glorified you. I've glorified
you. When our Lord Jesus was just
a boy, He went about doing his father's business. And even his
mother and father, who were themselves believers, didn't understand
what involved, or what was involved in him doing his father's will. And Bobby, most of the time,
nobody understands what's involved in us doing the will of God,
except us and God. Nobody else. Lindsey was teaching
this morning about Abraham and that birth of that son, how he
believed God. And then my mind just automatically
went to that trial of Abraham's faith. God came to Abraham and
said, now Abraham, you take this boy Isaac and you go to a mountain.
I want to tell you about three days journey and offer him as
a sacrifice to me. I just have one child. And of
course Mrs. Fortner just has one child as
well. And I can kind of picture what would be going through my
mind if I was sitting there for three days thinking about sacrificing
my child because God said do it. Well not only am I going
to kiss her goodbye, I'm going to kiss you goodbye too. Because
she ain't going to understand this. There's no way in the shining
sun I can explain this to her. God didn't speak to her, he spoke
to me. God didn't tell her what he wanted me to do, told me what
I must do. Now the responsibility is mine. What am I going to do? Don't know, but I got to obey
God. Our Lord Jesus did his Father's will even as a boy. When he was
tempted, he sought his father's will. When he was in Gethsemane,
he sought the glory of his father. When he was about to die, and
his soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, he said, not
my will, your will be done. He said, Father, glorify thy
name. And the father said, I have glorified
it, and I will yet glorify it. Look in verse four again. The
Lord Jesus says, I have finished the work. which thou gavest me
to do. I got to look into that and I
thought, I've never finished anything
in my life. Nothing. I quit a few things. I put the last nail in and said
I'm not going to do anymore, but I never finished anything
in my life. For something to be finished, Rex, is not just
that you ship it out the door, but you ship it out the door
exactly, perfectly as it's supposed to be. I have never done that. I have
never done anything in complete symmetry, in complete harmony,
in complete perfection, in complete absolute truth before God Almighty. But the Father gave His Son a
work to do from eternity. And the Lord Jesus, when he walked
out of this world, said, all right, I've done it. What was he to do? Go into the
world and live as a man in perfect
obedience to God to bring in an everlasting righteousness
of infinite value so that my people Being robed with that
righteousness shall be completely worthy of heaven's glory. You know what did, Lindsay? It did it. It did it. Throughout the days
of his life on this earth, the full age of a man for 33 years,
he was with his hands weaving a garment of perfect righteousness,
which he would clothe his people with forever, the robes of salvation,
pure and white, with which we shall be arrayed forever before
God. And our Lord Jesus, two chapters
later, when he had suffered all the terror of God's wrath and
justice. I said, it's finished. It's finished. What's finished? All the sins of my people, they're
finished. All the wrath of God, it's finished. All judgment, it's finished.
All the terror of the law, it's finished. All the types and pictures,
prophecies and ceremonies, it's finished. I've done it all. When he had taken the cup of
God's wrath with one tremendous draft of love for the people
for whom he suffered and died, he drank damnation dry. It's
finished. You know, our Savior tells us
in verse six, I had manifested thy name to
the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Now verse 6 clearly talks about
God's election. It never has been, never was,
is not now, never shall be the purpose of God to save everybody.
Folks who talk like that just simply haven't read the scriptures.
The scriptures declare here, thou has given me a people out
of the world. That's a plain nose on your face.
Sitting here in this congregation, there are some folks whom God
has given to his Son out of the world. I trust it should be true
of you all. But the fact is there are some
whom he passes by and leaves in the world. And our Savior
says now concerning those whom thou hast given me out of the
world, I manifest your name to them. The Lord Jesus Christ is
the revelation of the Father. He is the one in whom and by
whom alone God Almighty is known. And when the Son manifests the
Father's name to chosen sinners, he assures us of our adoption
as the sons of God. He makes us to know. He comes
and speaks to our hearts and causes us to know that God is
our Father. Oh, behold what manner of love
the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the
sons of God. He is our elder brother. The Holy Spirit is our
divine comforter. This word is God's word to us. Heaven is our final home. I've
manifested your name to those whom you've given me out of the
world. And this is what comes about in the practical experience. And the Lord Jesus comes in the
power of His Spirit. Oh, Son of God, come so today. To chosen, redeemed sinners.
And speaks to them the words of life and grace. And manifest
Himself in men. He calls as you, who came through
those doors just a little while ago, knowing yourselves to be
children of wrath, even as others. to walk out those doors singing,
I'm a child of the king. God's my father. Christ is my
brother. The spirit is my comforter. Heaven
is my home. I'm God. Now preachers everywhere
try to do that for you. And that's the reason folks are
going crazy. Religious folks have no peace. No satisfaction
cause peace they got, they got it from a preacher. A preacher
who told them they were God's child. A preacher who told them
God had saved them. A preacher who told them they
had peace with God. And they didn't get any peace.
Some of you live in constant torment because you live upon
a profession of faith made by yourself under the influence
of some slick soul winning deceiver who calls himself a preacher
and he told you you're saved and everything's alright. And
you've been living under that delusion all your life. Let me
tell you something. Until Christ manifests his name to you and
in you, you'll have no peace. You won't have any. You won't
have any. No matter what the preacher says.
Won't have any. Now look at verse 12. Those that
thou gavest me, hear those words again, I have kept. And none of them is lost. The
son of perdition was lost. How come the son of perdition?
Because scripture had to be fulfilled. Scripture had to be fulfilled.
Judas, the son of perdition, must be lost. He was the son
of perdition. He's not called son of God. He's
one who was given to Christ in profession, but not given to
Christ in reality. Given to Christ in his own word
as one who professed to follow him, but who never knew him.
He was always son of perdition, Larry, and he's gone. I've seen lots of sons of perdition. come, make a profession, take up the
name of Christ, look like they're going to follow Christ with great
zeal, but they're gone. How come? Scripture's got to
be fulfilled. This is what John said, Merle, they went out from
us because they were not of us. If they'd been of us, they'd
have stayed right here with us. How come the left didn't know God?
How come the world finally got them? Sons of perdition. How come the cares of the world took and pulled down that giant
redwood tree in this weak stalk of wheat still standing? because that weak stalk of wheat
is kept. God won't let him go. He's got to be kept because he's
son of God and scripture must be fulfilled, must be fulfilled. Knowing the glorious efficacy
of God's grace in Christ, those who are the objects of his grace
who have experienced his grace, who walk with him in faith, ought
to be able to sing with joy, in every state we are secure. The apple of his eye. All is
well while life endures, and well when called to die. Kept, kept. I give unto them
eternal life, and they shall never perish. Well, that means that they'll never perish as long
as they do right. No, they recognize they never
do right. That means they'll never perish. That means they'll
never perish as long as they don't sin anymore. No. No, everybody
who's born of God knows that everything he does is sin. Means
he'll never perish. How come they can't? I'll give
them eternal life. They'll never perish. Look at
verse 14. I have given them thy word. Now,
in just a minute I'm going to say a little more about this,
but when our Lord uses the word word here in the singular, he's
talking about the whole revelation of God. The whole thing. When he uses the word words plural,
He's talking about all the parts of the whole revelation. So he
says, I've given them thy word. He's saying, I have given to
your people the whole revelation of God given in scripture set
before them right here in me. So that he says to Philip, you've
seen me, you've seen the father. You've seen me, you've seen everything
God is. You heard me, you heard everything
God says. You watch me, you watch everything
God does. Because I am the father of one.
I've given them your word. Now, this is what he's telling
us. The believer, the man, the woman who is born of God, is
one who has been made to know the whole truth of God. Let that sink in. He's not telling
us that we know all the pieces of truth. No. This book is a
whole heap bigger than you and I. But this is what it's telling
us. We know the whole truth. And the whole truth is summed
up and seen in the person and work of his dear son. So that
the believer, while he does not know God entirely, he knows God
in the entirety of his being. He knows the character of God. We live in a generation of men
and women who worship totem pole God. We live in a generation
of men and women who have an idea of God that has been carved
from the dark forest of their own depraved minds and they don't
have any idea who God is. Talk about God's justice? His
what? Talk about that God must punish
sin? He must what? In fact, God Almighty is absolutely,
totally sovereign over everything, everybody, always. Stand there
and look at you like a cat looking at a new gate. Never heard anything like it
in my life. And they're heading. They're heading. The God they
know is no more God than pocket knife you carry in your pocket.
No more kin to God than your kin to God. He's helpless. He's
frustrated. He's defeated. He tries but fails.
He wants but can't achieve. He is one who has desires that
shall never be satisfied. Oh, but our Savior says, I've
given them your word. Your word. You talk to those
who know God about righteousness. And there's my father. You talk
to them about sovereignty. Yeah, buddy, my father's in control
of everything. You talk to them about justice.
They say, yes, sir. God must punish sin. And he must
save all for whom sin has been punished. It's exactly right. It's exactly right. Look at verse
18. As thou hast sent me into the
world, even so have I also sent them into the world. Our Savior
is here declaring that every child of God, every man or woman
born of God's Spirit, called by God's grace, washed in the
blood of God's dear Son, made to know Jesus Christ, is sent
of God into the world. I couldn't help but to observe
Our Savior does not say, I have sent them out of the world. People
get the idea that godliness and spirituality somehow is isolationism. I recall several years ago, some
fella came down, he heard some tapes, and he drove all the way
down from way up in the backwoods in northern Canada, down into
southern Tennessee, listen to me preach. And we talked a little
while, wasn't long, he started to tell me where he lived. And I said, you live where? He said, I moved my family. We
live, he told me how many miles it was before you see anything.
Just anything living except animals. It's just way out in the middle
of nowhere. I said, why on this earth did you move up there?
I wanted to get away from the world. Didn't want the world
to influence my family. Didn't want the world to influence
my children. That's not where our Lord sent you. What do you
mean God? How can you tell me God didn't
send me up there? I didn't. He did. He has sent them into
the world. You see, godliness is not isolation
from the people of the world, but isolation from the ways of
the world. There's a huge difference. He
sends us into the world to live soberly, righteously, and godly
in this present evil world for the honor of His name, for the
building of His kingdom, for the establishing of His word,
for the establishing of His righteousness, for the gathering of His elect.
He sends us into the world in the very teeth of darkness and
Satan, armed with nothing but His word and faith in Him. And He says, the gates of hell
will fall in front of you. As Jesus Christ was sent, the messenger
of God, so we are sent, messengers of Christ. As Jesus Christ was
sent, the representative of God in this world, so every believer
is sent of God, the representative of Christ in this world. Oh,
let us see that we represent him well. Now look at verse 22. And the glory which thou gavest
me, I have given them. Every time I read that text,
I think to myself, oh, my soul, that's just too
much for me to get hold of. But I sure do enjoy trying to
grab it. The glory thou hast given me, I've given them. It
means at least this much. In your mind's eye, picture if
you can, the Son of God sitting in human flesh, yonder upon the
throne of God, possessing in its entirety everything. By right. Everything. Everything. Everything. Now this is what it says. What the Father gave me, I've
given you." Everything. Everything that he owned, everything
he owns, everything he possesses, as the God-man I mediate for,
he says, I've given it to them. Given it to them. Oh, what a
Savior our dear Savior is. He honored his Father in all
things for us. himself faithful and true in
all things as Jehovah's righteous servant, the steward over his
father's house, the trustee of his father's will, and the shepherd
of his father's sheep. He has saved his people and he
will save his people until there are no more people for him to
save. He has supplied our need and he will supply our need until
we have reached glory land where there is no more need. Jesus
Christ says I have given to them the glory which you gave me. Now look at verse 25. I have known thee. Now you look at that statement
and it almost, it almost standing by itself just seems insignificant. I know he knows him. But He's
God the Son. You've got to know Him. He's
the Son of His Father and all things equal with the Father.
Well, what's He mean? I know thee. I have known thee.
Well, He says that. He says, I know you. All your nature, perfections,
and glory. All your secret thoughts, purposes,
and designs. I know all your covenant promises
and blessings. I know your love, your grace,
and your goodwill toward your people. I know your whole mind,
your whole will, your whole purpose. I have known you. Now then, that
word becomes very, very powerful, very, very important when you
put it together with the next thing spoken in verse 26. I have
known thee, he says in verse 25. And I have declared unto
them thy name and will declare it. I've known you and I'm going
to see to it before I get done. They know you. Our Savior said this is life
eternal, that they might know thee. The only true God and Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent. I know him. And as surely as
Don Fortner is mine, before I get done with him, he's going to
know you. He's going to know you. Now go back to verse 8 for
just a minute. Our Savior says, I have given. Or have my needy soul delights
in those three words, What enriching words of grace
they are. He doesn't say, I have offered. He doesn't say, I have
proposed. He doesn't say, I have provided.
He doesn't say, I make this proposition. He doesn't say, I set this before
you as a decision for you to make. He says, with regard to
every aspect of God's salvation, I have given. Salvation, eternal life's the
gift. It's a gift of God. Back shortly after Christmas,
I told you, I think, I was watching the news or something one morning,
one afternoon, I can't remember, and this fellow over at Trinity
Hills Methodist Church, he came on, you know, smiling like a
possum eating briars, and he said, he said, I have a present
in my office. It's been wrapped, waiting a
long time for a very specific person. But they've never come
to pick it up. And now it's getting in my way.
And I have to move it here and there. It's an aggravation. He
said, now that's sort of like God's salvation. He has a present
just waiting for you to come pick it up. Oh no, he got a gift. And at his appointed time, he'll
give it. He'll give it. You don't offer
life to a dead sinner, you give it to him. You don't present
life to a sinner in need of life, you give it to him. You don't
just simply say here's life if you want it. Our Lord passed
by that man who'd fallen among thieves, left for dead, and the
good Samaritan picked him up, and he poured in the oil and
wine of his grace. Just as God from the beginning
breathed into man's nostrils and he became a living soul,
so the Son of God comes to chosen sinners and gives them eternal
life by his grace. I have given. Have? Look at it
again, I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me. Now let me show you a couple
of things here, very very important things. The words you remember I told
you are the parts, all the parts of the whole. The words, Lindsay,
are the doctrines of Christ. They're the teachings of Christ
that make up the whole revelation of God. And he alone is able to give
you those words. To chosen redeemed sinners, he
gives those words. graciously, effectually gives
them, gives them. And he says the words that I
speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. The word which
we preach, Paul wrote to the Thessalonians came to you not
in words of man's wisdom, but in excellency and in power and
in demonstration of the Holy Ghost. The words that we spoke
came to you as the words of God, given by God the Son, given to
you. And you'll never get them unless
he gives them. Never. I preach to you I prepare
with diligence. I study and labor seeking a message
from God for you. I call on God for mercy for you. You won't weep for your own soul
and I'll weep for you, but I can't give you the words of life. But if God the Spirit, sent by
God the Son, sent by God the Father, will take the words that
I preach, drive them home to your heart, they will be to you
right now words of life. And you'll see, you'll understand,
you'll grasp it, because you'll be taught of God. Little boy sitting and listening
to Mr. Spurgeon one time. He sat for weeks, Sunday after
Sunday, in that crowded metropolitan tabernacle right on the front
row. And he would sit and lean forward and cupped his hands
behind his ears like that. And Spurgeon got a little concerned
for him. One day he met him after service and he said, son, are
you having trouble hearing me? He said, oh, no, sir. I just
noticed you sit and lean forward and cup your head like that behind
your ear. How come? He said, oh, pastor, my mama
told me that if God speaks, he'll speak to me through your words.
And I sure don't want to miss God speaking. I'd like to preach to every one
of you just like that every time I get up here to preach. Oh God
now speak, speak, speak. But I want to tell you something
else about this. To those who believe not, the
words of Christ are judgment and condemnation. It's worth observing that our
Lord gives By effectual, irresistible, saving grace, He gives, sovereignly
gives His words to His people. To the unbelieving and reprobate,
He merely speaks His words. But oh, what a word that is. The Savior says, you're gonna
hear me now. You don't understand what I'm saying now. But when
the Son of Man is lifted up, then you're gonna understand
what I said. You're gonna know who I am. It'll be too late. Our Lord told the Jews that which
they would not hear and that which would be to their everlasting
torment and destruction, that which would only aggravate their
damnation, and yet he spoke as God's faithful servant that which
he was sent to speak, knowing full well that it would bring
more torment and more condemnation to those who heard him and believed
not. Now I really doubt, seriously,
any of you who sit here in unbelief understand anything about what
I'm talking about. Our Lord said, I don't judge you. He said, there's
one that judges you. Rex, he said, my word will judge
you. My word. The apostle Paul said,
we are always, always triumphing in God. He causes us to triumph
for we are to one a savor of life unto life and to the other
a savor of death unto death. Now I tremble, I tremble at the
prospect of being to you a savor of death unto death. But I take you to record this
day. I've told you God's truth. I frequently write letters to
people just like this. Some of you've gotten them. I've told you God's truth and
I want to meet you in the day of judgment and I will speak
reason why you should either be saved or damned. And the reason
is this. He believed the word that God
said. He wouldn't believe. And I'll tell you what I'm convinced
of. You're going to see this ugly preacher's face and hear
this gravely coarse voice forever. Forever. And you'll know I told you the
truth. God, shut it up! No, no, you'll never shut it
up. You're gonna hear it forever. That's the heavy, heavy, heaviest
burden I can imagine any human being walking through this life
carrying. If I speak to you in the power
of God's spirit, nobody will hear me speak in vain. Nobody. Now you get up here and preach
tonight. If God will enable you to speak in the power of his
spirit, it'll either be to the saving or damning of everybody
who hears you. There, let me wrap this up. I'll save the rest of it for
another time, but look at verses, the last lines of verse eight. Here's the result when one is
taught of God. Oh, here's the result. If today the Savior causes you
to hear his words, you'll receive his words. and
you'll know him, and you'll believe. I have given unto them the words
which thou gavest me, and they have received them. Not receive them like this. That comes later. That comes
immediately later, but it comes later. This means to receive
gladly, willingly, lovingly, because you want it. This means
to receive because you're thirsty. This means to receive so that
you take it with a hand of faith and you say, all the life-giving
fountain of the word of God, receive it. But that's not what
the word means here. This word means To receive like
the ground out there that's been plowed and harrowed, broken up
and disc and fertilized and now you cast the seed into it and
it receives the seed. It didn't have a thing to do
with it. Totally passive reception. This means to receive like the
thirsty, dry, parched, hard ground receives the dew of heaven. When
God speaks, sinners receive his word. Receive it by his effectual grace,
so that there's nothing here about creature works, or creature
abilities, or creature powers, or sacramentalism, or priest
craft, or anything the preacher does or the sinner does. We receive
the word that he speaks to our hearts. And they have known that I came
out from thee. Those who have received the word
by the power of God's grace know who Christ is. They know where
he came from. He came from the Father. They
know what he came to do, he came to save sinners, to save his
people by the sacrifice of himself. And they know what he did, they
know, they know. And then he says, and they have
believed that thou didst send me. Those who receive the word, being
taught of God, know the Savior. And believe him. Believe him. Can you now, where
you are, where you sit, believe on the Son of God? Can you believe? If you can, it's because you
have been taught of God. You've heard and received His
words because He gave it to you. He called you to know Him. He
made Himself known to you. And He gave you faith to believe
Him. I believe I can. I believe I
can. I believe I can. Yes, sir. I believe him. I believe him. And now I sing. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now
I'm found with blind, but now I see. Because he called me to
receive his words. and to believe him who is made
known in his words. Thank God for his grace. Amen. Let's sing How Firm a Foundation,
number 268. I'll ask you to stand together
as we sing.