Let's ask the Lord's blessing. Father, we ask that you would
Give a message to our pastor this morning while he's in Missouri
preaching to the people there. Lord, we ask that you would bless
the messages here this morning. Lord, we ask that you would please
keep us in Christ. that our words that we preach
would be your words. Father, we don't want to hear
the words of a man. We need to hear your life-giving
words. Lord, please bless all the messages,
all the preaching that is throughout the churches this morning. Please
keep us safe in Christ. In Jesus' name, amen. if jesus were here right now
and he was praying for you how well do you think you would listen
if he was petitioning the father to preserve you praying for your
eternal salvation would that not fill you with hope would
you not hang upon his every word wondering what he would say next
well our lord has prayed such a prayer and All of his apostles
heard it. The prayer of our great high
priest is recorded in John 17. Let's turn there. And with the same rapt attention
that we would give if we were to actually hear him praying
for us, we ought to give this prayer. Because if you're a believer,
this prayer is for you. And while I covet the prayers
of God's saints, I can't do without his prayer for me. And while
it's good that we pray for each other's salvation, my prayers
for you won't save you and your prayers for me won't save me.
But if we don't have his prayer for us, we will be lost and we
will be damned. If Peter didn't have Christ's
prayer for him, Satan would have done far more than simply sift
him as wheat. He would have held his soul in
bondage. So here we see Christ laying
his heart bare, pouring out his soul to the Father, For the elect's
sake, this is God praying to God, and even the manner in which
he prays is different from man's. You remember that publican, he
prayed standing afar off, he smote upon his breast. He wouldn't
even so much as lift his eyes to heaven, he makes a good example
of how we ought to pray in humility, begging God for mercy. But when
Christ prays, he prays as one equal with God. These words spoke
Jesus and he lifted up his eyes to heaven. As he prayed this
prayer, he had one particular thought on his mind the evening
that he was betrayed. One thought that weighed heavy
upon him. He said, Father, The hour is
come, that is the hour of his death. The hour, this was an hour that
he waited an eternity for and it was almost upon him. The Lamb
of God slain from the foundation of the world came into this world,
and he was about to go to the slaughter. What a heavy thought
that must have been, so much so that after he prayed this
prayer, he sweated great drops of blood when he was in agony
in the garden of Gethsemane. This was a sad hour for him,
but it was a happy hour for us. The hour of his death was the
hour of life for us. The hour of his condemnation
was the hour of our reconciliation. The hour of his rejecting, my
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, was the hour of our accepting. He hath made us accepted in the
beloved. and wrapped up within this one
thought were necessarily two others. There were two things
he was going to accomplish at that cross, the glory of God
and the salvation of his people. He says, glorify thy son that
thy son may also glorify thee. Christ's mission in this world
was to glorify the Father and everything he did was to that
end. But notice he says, glorify thy
son. Was the Father going to glorify
his son through his son's own death? Absolutely. Without a
doubt. While we don't think that dying
is anything glorious, when the Son of God laid down his life
for his friends, it was nothing but glorious. The writers to the Hebrews says,
he despised the shame of the cross. There was no shame in
his mind, but all honor in going to the cross, perfectly obeying
his father. And in Luke 9, we learn that
his death was an accomplishment. And even if it didn't explicitly
state that it was an accomplishment, we would know it's still to be
true. There was never a work like his
work performed in which a multitude of people had their sins put
away so that when they were, he could say, it is finished.
Oh, what glory the son of God earned for himself through his
own death. In this one act of dying on the
cross, both the father and the son were glorified. Glorify thy
son that thy son may also glorify thee. As thou hast given him
power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as
many as thou hast given him. He has power over the believer,
the unbeliever, the saint. He's got power over the righteous,
the unrighteous, the Jacob's and the Esau's. But to the one
and not the other, he is giving eternal life. He's giving eternal
life only to the elect. He says in John 10, I'm the good
shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. I lay down my life for the sheep. The first thing that a sinner
comes to understand about his salvation is that it's got to
be given to him. He is without strength to obtain
it for himself. Salvation is not man's for the
taking, but it is of Christ's for the giving. And 15 times
within this prayer, Jesus uses the words gavest and givest and
given. If whatever Christ has is given
to him of the Father, all that the Father hath given me will
come to me. Then you can be 100% certain that all that we have
is given to us of Christ. I give unto them eternal life
and they shall never perish. A man can receive nothing from
God except it is given to him and not earned. That the Lord
would remind us again this morning that eternal life is a thing
given and that he would teach us of what eternal life consists. Verse three, and this is life
eternal. that they might know thee the
only true God and Jesus Christ to whom thou hast sent. The most
important knowledge that anyone can possess is knowing God. And you can't know the only true
God apart from knowing how he purposed to save sinners, which
is how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
According to the scriptures, he washed us from our sins in
his own blood. According to the scriptures,
he was made sin for us. According to the scriptures,
he was manifested to take away our sins. To know Christ is to
know exactly what he's done to save sinners. Now Paul told the
Corinthians, I determine not to know anything among you save
Christ and him crucified. Do you know Christ crucified? I know there's a lot of people
who say they know Christ, and they would probably say that
with the same casual attitude with which they would say they
know their next door neighbor or a friend, but I don't know
if they know Christ crucified. Proverbs 20 11 says, even a child
is known by his doings. Even a child who has hardly done
much of anything in his life to be known by, is still known
by what he's done. So how much more is Christ known
by what he's done? In what other way could we possibly
speak of knowing Christ that did not include him crucified? You show me a man who claims
to know Christ and yet says nothing of him crucified, or tries to
say he was crucified for everybody, which is tantamount to saying
he was crucified for nobody. And I'll show you a man who has
no idea who Christ is because he has no idea what Christ did. Jesus put away the sins of his
people in himself. That's what he did. Knowing that
is to know him. That is eternal life. It's knowing
what he's done. And now Christ tells us what
he's done. Verse four, this is the beginning
of the seven I have statements in this prayer. We'll probably
see about four of them. He says, I have glorified thee
on the earth. Was there ever a time that the
son did not perfectly bring glory to the father, whether it was
in deed or word or through his miracles or through keeping the
law? If there was, the father never
would have said, this is my beloved son, thou art my beloved son,
in whom I am well pleased. But the same reason he is pleased
with Christ is the same reason he's pleased with you. Christ
put away your sin. And for that he loves his saints
just as much as he loves their savior. Now, while Jesus had
not yet went to the cross, died, and shed his blood. He received
no rebuke from the Father when he said, I have finished the
work which thou gavest me to do. We know it was already as
good as finished. The man of sorrows was going
to the cross, and there was nothing to keep him from his mission
of bringing glory to God and salvation to sinners. Only Christ
has the right to tell the Father of what he's accomplished. I
don't ever want to be found telling God of anything that I've done
like those workers of iniquity in Matthew 7. They said, we've
cast out demons and we've prophesied and we've performed many wonderful
works, all in your name, we might add, as if that makes it better. But God does not want to hear
anything we've done, but I sure do love hearing of everything
that Christ has done. He can tell the Father all the
day long, I've performed many wonderful works. I've cast out
demons of unbelief and self-righteousness. I've prophesied your word, and
the Father gladly hears every bit of it." So he tells the Father
what he's done, and now he makes this petition. And now, O Father,
verse 5, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory
which I had with thee before the world was. Can we even begin
to imagine what that pre-incarnate glory of Christ must have been
like or what it might have looked like. You might recall when Moses
requested of God to see his glory, and God likening his glory to
his face said, no man can see my face and live. I've got to
put you in the cleft of the rock, Moses. If you're to see the glory
of Christ and live, you've got to be in Christ. God wouldn't have needed to even
do or say anything, just the sheer presence of his glory alone
would have killed Moses. That's the glory he's speaking
of here. And even the glory of Christ that Peter, James, and
John saw when they were on that mount and Christ was transformed
and his face shined like the sun and his robes were made whiter
than any fuller on earth could white them. That was just a snapshot
of his glory, but I doubt they wanted to leave that mountain
when they saw just how attractive even a fraction of the fullness
of his majesty truly was. So he makes this petition to
the father and he just resumes telling the father of even more
that he's done. He says in verse six, I have
manifested thy name. Now Christ was sent to manifest
the name of God and he did so through his life and through
his death. And these many centuries later, he is still manifesting
the name of the Lord through the preaching of the gospel. It is only through preaching
that the Lord is pleased to make himself known, that is, through
the preaching of Christ and him crucified. This is how the Lord
reveals himself to a sinner. Now, I'm grateful that the Lord
has given us the scriptures, and reading the Bible is a good
thing to do, but simply reading the scriptures never saved anybody's
soul. Simply reading the scriptures
and just trying to figure it out. To you and to me who believe
the gospel, this book is a revelation of Christ. Every page speaks
of Christ. But to those who don't know the
gospel, to those to whom his name has not been made manifest,
these words, they're dead words. They don't mean anything. I had
a girl who I once worked with tell me that she read the Bible
six times from cover to cover. And she said, I don't understand
a word of it. And I tried to tell her it was
all of Christ, she looked at me like I was silly, as if it
could just be that simple. But clearly the Lord had not
manifested his name to her through her reading of the scriptures.
So to whom does the Lord manifest his name? Jesus says, unto the
men which thou gavest me out of the world, This is God's eternal
act of election. They are the fathers through
his gracious election and they're the sons through his redemption,
through his particular redemption. Do you love being God's possession?
Do you count it all joy knowing that the father has entrusted
you to his son for your safekeeping? And what he says next is amazing. He tells, he says, of what the
elect have done. He says, they have kept thy word. I don't remember keeping your
word. When did we see you hungry and feed you? When did we see
you thirsty and give you to drink or naked and clothe you? When
did we keep your word? I don't remember doing that.
Well, Do you believe the gospel? Do you rejoice to hear Christ
preached? If you do, the Lord has placed
his word in your heart. Now, we won't turn here, but
in Jeremiah 20, There is a scene in which Jeremiah is suffering
persecution at preaching the word, and he says, I don't want
to do this anymore. I'm done with this. This preaching
is causing me too much trouble. But it says the word was in his
heart as a burning fire, and he couldn't help but preach. The same is true for believing. Who has tried to not believe
the gospel? It seems that's about all I try
to do. And yet you find yourself unable. Well, you can't help but believe
because the Lord has placed his word in your heart. So it's not
so much our keeping of the word, but it's the Lord keeping it
for us. Nevertheless, Christ says they've kept it and now
they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me
are of thee, does it give you great satisfaction to know that
all that Christ has, all that he said, all that he did, all
that he will do is of God? Do you rejoice knowing that the
Father has committed all things to Christ? One aspect about this
prayer that particularly struck me is the orderliness, the carefulness,
the deliberateness in which God works, in which he saves his
people. The Father has chosen a people,
the Son has redeemed them. The Father has given them to
Christ, and Christ gives them eternal life. Do you rejoice
knowing that all that Christ has is of God, and all that we
have is of Christ? He says, here's the next I have,
for I have given unto them the words which thou hast given to
me, and they have received them. Do you remember in John 6 when
Jesus was preaching to the Jews and he says, he says, all these
wonderful gospel truths, all the father which have given me
will come to me. No man can come to me except
the father which hath sent me draw him. I'm the bread of life,
but the Jews could not hear it. They could not receive his words.
But when he asked the apostles if they would go too, Peter said,
to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal
life. The apostles did receive his
words. They have received them and have
known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed
that thou didst send me." Can you say with Peter, we have believed
and we are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living
God. If you believe that, you know that God sent him. and not
just as another messenger, but as the message itself. Christ,
in this prayer, is often speaking of himself. He is the message.
He's the content of this prayer. Yet he's directing his prayer
to the Father. But if there's any doubt or any
confusion as to whom he's praying for, he says, I pray for them. And verse nine, I pray for them
and them alone. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, the elect, for they are thine. You know, I need Christ's prayer
to keep my soul just as much as I need His shed blood to cover
my sin. This prayer is for the elect
and it's not for the whole world. The whole world is not graced
with a prayer of intercession for Christ because the whole
world does not share in God's favor. And I know men hate that
and they'll rail against that. But men will sooner cry blasphemy
if you tell them that God does not love everybody. Then if you
were just to say salvation's by works, they might accept that.
Salvation's by works, yeah, I believe that. But God doesn't love everybody? Christ didn't die for everybody?
He didn't even pray for everybody? I don't believe that. That's
blasphemy. But think about this. What was the reaction of that
woman to whom Jesus said, it's not meat to take the children's
bread and cast it to the dogs. Truth Lord. Truth Lord. What was the response of that
centurion when Jesus said he would come into his house and
heal his servant? He said, I'm not worthy. I'm
unworthy that you should come under my roof. What did blind
Bartimaeus cry when he heard that Jesus was passing by Jesus
thou son of David have mercy on me. They all three might as
well have said, I don't have the right that you should do
this thing for me, but I'm glad that you do. I don't have the
right that you should love me, that you should die for me, that
you should even pray this prayer for me, but I'm glad that he
did. The world can rail all it likes, but it only has themselves
and their own unbelief for not coming to Christ as those three
needy sinners did. God will do as he pleases." He
prayed for his elect. He tells his father, "'For they
are thine, and all thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. To someone who truly believes
himself a sinner, it's a remarkable thing that Christ could say,
I'm glorified in you. Perfection glorified in imperfection? Holiness glorified through infinite
corruption? How is that even possible? If
there's anyone who could look at this, who could read that
and say, yeah, that makes sense to me. I can see how Christ would
be glorified in me. Well, you don't know yourself
as a sinner and you don't know Christ as your Savior. If the
Lord is glorified in you, it is because he has done something
in you. He has put away your sin, and
He has implanted in you a new heart. He's given you His Spirit,
the new man. If Christ is glorified in you,
it's due to nothing that we've done, but to everything He's
done, His work of grace in you. Now, I want to mention one last
thing that Christ said here. So, seven times He says, I have,
I have, I have. And in verse 24 he says, I will,
I will. Father, I will that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. You just want
to be with Christ. Mephibosheth just wanted to be
with David. When David was in exile, Mephibosheth
was lame and he couldn't get to David. But all the pleasures
of that palace could not quench his longing to be with the one
who showed him mercy when he deserved none. He would rather
have suffered in the wilderness from threats of the enemy, from
hunger, from the elements, if it meant being with his king.
And by the grace of God, none of these fleshly delights that
this world has to offer can keep the saints from longing for their
King. Every believer wants nothing
more than to be with Christ. He says that they may behold
my glory. If you're a sinner saved by grace,
Your chief desire is to be with Christ where He is and behold
the glory of the one who prayed this prayer for you. Congratulations.