We're going to be looking at
John 17, but first of all I'd like to read two verses from
Leviticus 16. Leviticus 16. When the Old Testament
high priest, when the high priest of the Old Testament entered
into the holy place with the atonement once a year, you know
there was a tabernacle in the wilderness where God met men
where men met God, which is a type, a picture of Christ. And in that
tabernacle there was a holy place and a holy of holies separated
by a veil. And in the holy of holies there
was a mercy seat and an ark of the covenant in which was the
broken law. And once a year on the Day of
Atonement, the great high priest, representing the people before
God Himself, not only for their sins, but for His sins. That's
where He's not like Christ, because Christ, our High Priest, has
no sin. But He would go once a year into that Holy of Holies
and take the blood and put it on that mercy seat which covered
the broken law. And that was called the Day of
Atonement. That was the Atonement. He did something as he went under
the veil, and before he went under the veil, and when he did
go under the veil, into the Holy of Holies. And you'll read it
here in Leviticus 16, 12, and he shall take a censer full of
burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord, and
his hands full of sweet incense, beaten small, and bring it within
the veil. And he shall put the incense
upon the fire. You get the picture? He's got
the censer with the hot coals. He's got the incense in his hand.
He shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord that
the cloud of the incense, the odor of it, the smoke of it,
may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony that's
over the broken law, that he die not. There's nothing deep
about that. In all of its implications, it's
profound. In all that it represents, it's
profound. And let me tell you this. The preachers of today may prance
up and down the pulpit and talk about heaven and talk about meat
and mother and talk about praise the Lord and talk about all.
We need to get down into this book and find out what all this
means. We need to find out what it means.
And this man, this high priest here, is a picture of Christ,
our high priest. The things on this earth, the
tabernacle and the priesthood and the atonement and the incense
and the altar and all these things are pictures of what takes place
in heaven. The Bible tells us that. I'm saved. Well, how do you know you're
saved? Well, I just know I am. I feel it. That's dangerous. You ought to be able to give
an answer to every man that asks you a reason for your hope. Who represents you? How does
he represent you? Is it the way God ordained you
to be represented? Is your atonement, do you have
an atonement, do you have a mediator? All the ridiculousness of what's
going on with this silly so-called holy father running around all
over our country is pathetic. He's pathetic, and what he's
saying is pathetic. And God's not in it anywhere,
not the living God. The false idols of religion are
in it, but not the living God. There's only one holy father,
and he reigns in glory. There's only one Mediator and
he's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not Mary or any representative
of Maryology. And we need to cry out against
it. Brethren, the picture here is this. It's a picture of Christ. And when that great high priest
had the blood, the atonement to put on the mercy seat on the
broken law, God will in no wise clear the guilty. We've got to
have a sacrifice. We've got to have a blood atonement.
Sin's got to be paid for. It's got to be punished. It's
got to be atoned for. It's got to be cleansed. It's
got to be forgiven. It's got to be dealt with in
justice and righteousness. And so when this high priest
would go there into the Holy of Holies, the first thing he
did was to take a censer. I don't know what it was shaped
like. I can imagine him holding in his hand a metal container,
maybe with chains hanging down, and on that censer he would get
fire from the altar before the Lord. Even that has to be sanctified,
and put it on that censer, and then take this incense in his
hand. And as he went into the Holy
of Holies, he put that incense on that hot coal, and the aroma
and the smoke would fill the place and cover the mercy seat. The smoke of it would, and the
odor of it. What is that? That's the prayers of Christ.
That's the intercession of Christ. It comes up into the nostrils
of God. Our presence stinks. Our persons stink before God. Our flesh is putrid. Our very presence, in our flesh
dwelleth no good thing. In the flesh no man can please
God. We've got the aroma of Christ's
prayers and intercession that's got to go up before God, yea,
ceaselessly, even before the atonement was made. And here
in John 17, before our Lord went to the cross, before our Lord
went to the altar, before our Lord went yonder to Calvary to
shed his blood for the remission of our sin, he prayed for us. The incense, the sweet odor of
our Lord's intercession came up into the nostrils of God before
the atonement was made. And this prayer stands preeminently
in the Scripture as the Lord's prayer. I love David's prayer
and Solomon's prayer and all the other Paul's prayers. And
I hear preachers often say, now we'll stand together and recite
the Lord's prayer. No, you won't either. No, you
won't either. You may stand together and recite
the prayer that the Lord gave the disciples, our Father which
art in heaven. They said to him one day, teach
us to pray. He said, well, pray like this, our Father which art
in heaven. But Christ didn't say, our Father. Look at verse
1. He lifted his eyes to heaven. And I'll tell you something else
here. The publican, you say, why don't we lift our eyes to
heaven when we pray? We bow our heads and we smite
upon our breasts like the publican because we're sinners. Our Lord
had no sin. He could look right into the
face of God. He could, the Father, He could
look right into heaven itself. He could look right at the holy,
pure throne of God without blinking an eye, our great high priest
could. He lifted his eyes. The publican
would not so much as lift his eyes to heaven, and that is,
he wouldn't even lift his hands. That was generally the custom,
to lift the hands. But he wouldn't even lift his
eyes, let alone his hands. But our Lord looked right into
heaven, and he said, not our Father, Father, special relationship. He's a son in which, in a way,
we'll never be sons of God. He's the only begotten, well-beloved
son of God. Father, glorify thy son that
thy son may glorify thee. And here, my friends, you have
the proper order, and you'd better learn it. I'd better learn it.
Glorify thy son that thy son may glorify thee, he that honoreth
the Son honoreth the Father, and he that honoreth not the
Father honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father that
sent him." And you may try to make a way into God's presence
for those who do not worship Christ, who do not honor Christ,
who do not glorify Christ, but there's no way possible, Father.
It doesn't matter how sincere How devoted they are, how devout
they are. No man cometh to the Father but
by name. Glorify thy Son, that thy Son
may glorify thee. All things are delivered into
the hands of the Son. Glorify thy Son, that thy Son
may glorify thee. I'll tell you something we need
to learn here. I need to pause just a moment. You and I will
learn the proper motive in prayer right here, if we'll stay there
a little Father, bless me that I might bless Thee. That's the
true motive of prayer. Father, make me well that I may
glorify Thee. Father, save my husband or wife
that I may glorify Thee. Father, prosper me that I may
glorify Thee. That's the motive of prayer.
Any other motive of prayer is a waste of time. You see what
I'm saying? Glorify thy son in order that
thy son may glorify thee. And that's the way I need to
learn to pray. Otherwise my prayers have no value. Bless me that
I might bless thee. Now if there's any portion of
Scripture that should be more dear to the heart of a believer
than any other, I would say that it would have to be this prayer
of the Master before he went to the cross. If there's any
portion of the Word that should be and might be dearer to the
heart of a believer, it's this personal prayer of our Lord.
This is holy ground. This is awesome. This is the Son praying to the
Father for me. and for you, and for every one
of his elect. And six times in this prayer,
he identifies those for whom he prays by calling them, those
that you gave me. Look at verse 2. Let's look at
them just a moment. Verse 2 says, Thou hast given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as Thou hast given him. And verse 6, he said, I have
manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest me. And
verse 9, he said, I pray for them, I pray not for the world,
but for them which thou hast given me. And verse 11, he said,
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world. I
come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thine own name those
whom thou hast given me. Verse 12, he said, While I was
with them in the world, I kept them in thy name, those that
thou gavest me I kept. In verse 24, Father, I will that
they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. So my outline this morning will
be those six requests that our Lord made for his elect, our
Lord prays for his own. First of all, he says in verse
2, I have all authority, now listen to this, I have all authority
over all flesh. and the reason for that authority,
that I might give eternal life to those whom thou hast given
me. I have all power over all flesh." The Lord Jesus Christ
has all authority. Turn to Hebrews 2, verse 8. In your Bibles, look at Hebrews
2, verse 8. Now listen to this carefully,
Hebrews 2, verse 8. Thou hast put all things in subjection
under his feet." Now, hold it right there just a moment. The
picture that we today get of Christ I don't think is a very
good picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. The picture that's presented
of Christ to the average congregation is that he's to be pitied. We're to feel sorry for him,
that he's frail and weak and that he really, he needs our
help, he needs our assistance. But the picture that the Scripture
presents of Christ is this, a conquering, reigning king with all authority. He said, all authority, all power
is given unto me in heaven and earth. The picture I get of Christ
from the Scriptures is one who is confident and conquering,
one who is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high,
expecting, waiting till his enemies become his footstool. A reigning,
conquering king of kings and Lord of lords. And this verse
says, Thou hast put all things under his feet. For in that he
put all in subjection unto him, he left nothing that is not put
unto him. But now we see not yet all things. We don't see the evidence yet
of it, but it's been put under his feet. Death is still present. The last enemy that shall be
destroyed is death. Satan is still out yonder going
about seeking whom he may devour. There's evil in the world, but
all of these things have been conquered by Christ. He is the
conqueror. He is victorious. These things
are under his feet in subjection to him, the day of God's fullness. And the day of God's purpose
has not come when that shall be fully manifested and fully
evidenced, but it's so anyway. You see what I'm saying? And
it's already been put in subjection. And so he says here in verse
2, Thou hast given me authority, power, over all the most stubborn
thing of all, flesh. He has power over all fallen
men as fallen men, to pardon whom he will. There is no creature
from pole to pole, regardless of his rank or station, his race
or nation, that is not under the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is not a creature from pole to pole encircling this
globe. There's not a living or a dead
creature that's not under the authority and the power of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what He's saying there.
All things have been put in subjection under Him. He has all authority
in heaven and earth. In order that He might give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given Him. Listen to this. As
a result of the gracious arrangement of the mediatorial kingdom of
Christ, a fallen race is permitted to exist. Without Christ's mediatorial
office, the world would have already perished. What I'm saying
is this, when Adam fell, when Adam sinned, when the world sinned
against God, had it not been right then for the mediatorial
office, atonement, intercession, suretyship of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the world would have been cast into oblivion right
then. It would have been wiped out.
That's so. Thou hast given me authority
over all flesh, absolute power, over all flesh, that I should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given me." Now let
me give you some illustrations of that. Our Lord came to redeem
His people, but the whole world profits from His coming. Our
Lord came to save His elect, but even reprobates profit by
His coming. For example, when Joshua was
standing out there overlooking the battle, and the sun was going
down. And he knew that to prevail in
battle, he had to have more daylight. So God enabled him to have power
to make that sun and the moon stand still, according to the
Word of God. And they had more daylight by which to conquer
the enemy. But now wait a minute. That same
sun was shining on a wicked farmer over here Many, many miles away,
hundreds of miles away. And he was out in the field trying
to get in his wheat. And the sun was going down and
he was cursing God. He said, he just cursed the sun
and cursed God and cursed everything else because he didn't have time
to get his wheat in. And he had to get it in while he had the
laborers in the field. The next day he couldn't get
it in at all. Suddenly the sun stood still. Huh? And he had
time to do his work as well as Joshua had time to fight his
battle. Why did the sun stand still?
For that farmer to get his willy in? No, sir. For Joshua to defeat
the enemy, for God's elect. That's why that sun stood still,
for God's elect. But a lot of other folks went
about their evil ways, profiting by it. Another illustration of
Syria. The wicked country of Assyria
came against Judah to do battle. And Hezekiah prayed to God. And
God destroyed Assyria. He wiped them out. He totally
destroyed them. Do you know what country he saved
by destroying Assyria as well as Israel? He saved Babylon.
Babylon was an evil country, a wicked, no good, low-down bunch
of people. But when Assyria was destroyed,
their enemy was destroyed. And Babylon sent Hezekiah, the
king of Judah, a letter and thanked him for saving them from Babylon. And later Babylon conquered Assyria. Why? Why did God destroy Assyria
to save Babylon? No, sir, he didn't save Judah.
But Babylon profited by it. Another illustration. Our Lord
was out with his disciples on the sea one day. And the sea
was raging. The waves were tossed in that
little boat. And the disciples became concerned. And they said,
Lord, don't you care if we perish? And the Lord stood and said,
peace be still. And the whole sea settled down.
There was a pirate ship back here that was after another ship. They were thieves, and they were
going to catch this boatload of men and fish and steal from
them. And they were about to turn back
because the waves were so high and the water was so rough. Suddenly
it calmed down, and they went on and did their dirty work.
Who calmed the sick? The Lord. Did He do it so those
thieves could steal the fish? He did it for His disciples,
with their property. You see what I'm saying? Also,
Paul and Silas were in jail in Philippi. The Scripture doesn't
say that Paul and Silas' chains fell off. It doesn't say that
at all. It says that everyone's bands
were loosed. That's what it says in Acts 16,
26. Everybody's bands were loosed. Look at the Reformation. Martin
Luther and John Calvin and Zwingli and these other men fought for
freedom to worship God. And as a result of that, this
nation, America and a lot of other nations, those men were
practically the fathers of freedom. We profited by it. All men have
profited by it. But what was the primary purpose
of the Reformation? To save his elect. So my friends,
it says here in verse 2, our Lord's praise, thou hast given
me authority. God preserved the world to redeem
his elect. God sent his Son, and when Christ
comes to the world, with him comes peace, and with him comes
joy, and with him comes blessing. For a wicked world? No, sir.
For his elect, for his sheep. Thou hast given me power, authority
over all flesh in order that I should give eternal life to
as many as Thou hast given me. I barely believe God has blessed
towns. I'll tell you this, if the elect
in this town have good jobs, the wicked will have good jobs
too. If God blesses this town with a fruit, if the elect of
God, if their gardens grow, the other folks' gardens are going
to grow too. And you can extend that anywhere, to a whole nation,
to a whole world, if God is pleased to deliver his elect, then all men will profit to some
extent, by His mercy and by His grace. And when our Lord Jesus
Christ assumed the charityship of His own and God preserved
the world and held it intact and permitted men to go on in
their sins in order that He might give eternal life. What is eternal
life? It's to know God. It's not the
length of it. It's the quality of it. It's
the life of God. It's divine life. It's a living
God living in you. Let's go to the next part of
the prayer, verse 6. You see that, verse 2, our Lord
said, Thou hast, in His prayer, Thou hast given me authority
over all flesh, over all flesh, that I might give eternal life
to as many as Thou hast given me. Verse 6, I have manifested
Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest me out of the world. I
have manifested Thy name. unto them. Look at verse 26,
the last line, the last verse, I have declared unto them thy
name. I want to focus your attention
on two words, thy name, thy name. Everybody has a God. The world
is full of gods. Everybody has an idea of God,
my God, my Lord, you We make God like we want God to be, or
like we think God ought to be, or like we expect God to be,
or want God to be. But here the Lord Jesus said,
I have manifested to them thy name. Now, by the name of God
is meant God himself, the true God. I have revealed unto them
the true God, the living God, that's called by that name. I
am. You know, our Lord said this,
he that has seen me has seen the Father. The words that I
speak are not my words, but the words of him that sent me. Paul
wrote in Hebrews, he is the brightness of God's glory, the express image
of God's person. I have manifested, I have declared,
I have revealed unto them thy name, the name of God. Who is
God? Who is your God? I know we use
the word God, we use the word Jesus, we use the words Father,
but who is your God? Can you identify your God? Can
you identify the God who's been revealed to you, who's been declared
unto you, who's been manifest unto you? The Old Testament identifies
God by name. Let me show you some of them.
First of all, Genesis 22. Genesis chapter 22. And I'm saying this, I'm saying
that Christ, he's saying in his prayer that he has identified
the living God. He has manifested to these that
the Father gave him the name which is God himself. He has
declared unto them the true and living God. David cried, as the
heart panteth for the water brook, so panteth my soul after thee,
the living God. Our Lord Jesus said eternal life
is to know the living God. John said in 1 John 5, 20, He
has come and given us an understanding that we may know Him, the true
God. All right, here's the first.
Now, if these scriptures aren't underlined in your Bible, they
ought to be. Genesis 22, 14. And Abraham called the name of
that place Jehovah-Jireh. Jehovah-Jireh. Have you got a
little number one there beside Jehovah or A or B or something? Look out to the marginal reference.
What does that mean, Jehovah-Jireh? The Lord will see, the Lord will
provide. That's who he is. I am the Lord that will provide. Now what was this all about?
Well, Abraham had been told by the Lord to bring his son Isaac,
his only son, whom he loved, and put him on an altar and sacrifice
him as a sin offering. And he brought the boy in obedience
to God, believing God, put him on the altar, bound him with
ropes, and would have slain his son. And the Lord spoke and said,
Abraham, touch not the lad. And Abraham turned and saw in
the thicket a ram caught by the horns, a suitable sacrifice. And he took Isaac off the altar
and put the lamb in his place, in his stead, and sacrificed
the lamb. And he called the name of that
place Jehovah-Jireh. These Old Testament saints raised
memorials and wrote the name of God on these memorials. And
here at this place, Abraham said, this is the name of my God. This
is the name of the living God. This is the name of the eternal
God. He will provide. He will provide. He will provide himself a lamb.
He will provide himself as a lamb. He will provide to himself a
lamb. He will provide. Now, our Lord
Jesus Christ is the Lamb. He came as the Lamb of God and
He revealed, He manifested. That name the Lord will provide. He manifested it to His disciples. He declared it to His own. And
we see in Christ what Abraham saw in that ram. Don't you know
when he saw that boy was on the altar and his heart was like
lead. It was pressing down in his innermost
being. His mind was heavy with despair
and distress. He was about to kill his son.
He couldn't live hardly. And then he saw that lamb and
put that ram in the place and took his son off. But you know
he leaped with joy. He was thrilled with joy. Praising
God, God will provide. That's our God. I am God, Jehovah,
who will provide. All right, turn to Exodus, chapter
17. Here's another name, and I can't
spend that much time on all of them, but you mark them. This
is the name of God. Our God will provide. In Exodus 17, 15, He's Jehovah-Neesa,
Exodus 17, 15. Mark this. And Moses built an
altar and called the name of it Jehovah-nissa. What does that
mean? The Lord our banner? The Lord to whom our allegiance
is due? The Lord who reigns over us?
Jehovah-nissa. The Lord our banner? Our king? Our sovereign? Our eternal Lord? That's our banner. That's the
kingdom of which we are a member. That's the kingdom of which we're
a citizen. We're just living here temporarily. Our home is
in glory. Our King is the Lord Jesus Christ,
and our ensign, our banner, is Christ who reigns over us. Turn
back to Exodus 15. Here's another name of the Lord
in Exodus 15, verse 26. Underscore this, the last line
of Exodus 15, 26. I am the Lord that healeth thee.
That's Jehovah-Raper. Jehovah-Raper. He was wounded
for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement
of our peace was upon him. By his stripes we're healed.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, all that is within me. Bless his
holy name, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth
all thy diseases. I am the Lord. Life and death
are in his hands. Death and hell are in His hands.
Heaven and glory is in His hands. All things are in His hands.
I am the Lord that healeth thee. And He revealed Himself as the
Lord that healeth. He went about giving sight to
the blind and hearing to the deaf and making the lame to walk. And then over in Judges, turn
to Judges. In Judges, Chapter 6, verse 24. This is the Lord, the living
God. Christ said, I've manifested,
I've declared, I've revealed your name, who you are. And God's
name is God's attributes and character and what God will do,
who God is. We go by name. We go by name. There sits Joe
Wilson. When I say Joe Wilson, he may
not be sitting there, you may not see him, but all of these
characteristics come to mind when the name is used. You won't
get Joe and Stan mixed up. I say Joe, you don't think of
Stan, you think of Joe. I say Stan, you think of Stan,
you don't think of Joe. You see, that name identifies
who he is, his personality, characteristics, all of these different things,
abilities, gifts. And Christ said, I've declared
not just a God, I haven't just come telling these men that there's
a God. He said, I've manifested your
name. They know who you are. And knowing
who you are, they know what you are. They've seen me, they've
seen you. They've heard me, they've heard
you. They know me, they know you. You see that? In Judges 6 verse 24, Then Gideon
built an altar and called it Jehovah Shalem. Jehovah Shalem,
the Lord our peace. He's our peace. He's our peace. This world's not our peace. Feeling,
materialism, success, the Lord's my peace. There may be fightings
and fears within, without, but He's my peace. He's my peace. The Lord our peace. All right?
Jeremiah 33, 16. I want you to mark these or write
them down in your Bible somewhere. Jeremiah 33. And Christ says
the fulfillment. He said, I have declared. be
thy name to them." Christ is the prophet to reveal God. We
wouldn't know God except for Christ. The Lord said to the
religious people of His days, you don't know my Father. You
neither know me nor my Father. No man knoweth the Father save
the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him. And Christ revealed
God in all of these attributes. Jeremiah 33, 16. See the last
line? In those days shall Judah be
saved, Jerusalem shall dwell safely, and the name wherewith
she shall be called the Lord our righteousness." Jehovah Sidkenu,
T-S-I-D-K-E-N-U. That's right in the margin of
your Bible, Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our righteousness, our
holiness. He's my holiness. He's my righteousness. And then Ezekiel 48, Ezekiel
48. Verse 35, Ezekiel 48, 35, turn
over there just a moment. The last, Ezekiel 48, 35, the
last word in the book of Ezekiel, and here's Jehovah, Jehovah Shema,
S-H-A-M-M-A-H, the Lord is present. I'll never leave you, Christ
said. I'll never forsake you. All right, back to John 17. Our
Lord said, I have all authority over all flesh that I might give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given me. And Father, I've
manifested. They know who you are. I've manifested
thy name unto them. And then he said in verse 9,
I pray for them. I pray for them. Peter, I pray
for you. Our Lord prayed for his people.
He said, I pray not for the world. I don't pray for every fallen
son of Adam. I pray for my elect. That's what
I pray for. Now, there are many reasons why
Christ prays for his elect. He's our mediator. He pleads
his wounds. He prays that our faith fail
not. He prays that we may be accepted.
He prays before the Father, makes intercession for us continually.
But here are two reasons why he prays for the elect. And he
gives them. He said, I pray for them. I pray
not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me. I pray
for them because they're yours. That's the first reason. Because
they're thine. I pray for them because they're
thine. He prayed for them because they belonged to the Father.
That's why he prayed for them, they belong to the Father, they're
yours. And he says, watch this now, and because, here's the
second reason, and because they're yours, they're mine. And I have been entrusted, now
this is important, and I have been entrusted under charityship
engagement to redeem them, to deliver them, to sanctify them,
and to present them before you as the sheep are brought before
the great shepherd when they pass under the rod for the last
time. They used to, they told me that the shepherd's rod was
used not only to bring a shepherd back into the fold to fight off
the enemy, but to count the sheep and to make sure all his sheep
are there. In other words, when they'd come into the big sheepfold
at night, that he would, he would hold his rod out so he could
let them through one at a time, count them. There's this, when
he calls them by name, he knows his sheep. The good shepherd
knows his sheep. And there's, wait a minute now, wait a minute,
oh here he is, here he is. See, each one of them. And what
our Lord is saying here, I pray, I intercede, I call the name
of those you gave me, because they're yours, Father, because
they're yours. That's why I pray for them. And
secondly, because they're yours, they're mine. And I've been given
an obligation, a responsibility, that when all the sheep shall
come in in that great day and pass under the rod, not a one
of them will be missing. Each one of them will be there.
Listen to him. Six times he says in verse 9,
Thou hast given them to me, verse 9, they are thine, mine, thine, Thine, mine. He just keeps saying
that. You're giving them to me. That
person, they're mine. You're giving them to me. They're
thine, and thine are mine, and mine are thine. There are six
times, he says, in those two, but he just kept saying it. Thou
hast given them to me. I want to show you a beautiful
picture here. Turn to Genesis 43. Genesis 43, verse 9. Genesis
43, verse 9. Joseph had gone down into Egypt. You know the story. How that
Joseph, his brothers sold him into slavery and he'd gone to
Egypt and God had made him king over Egypt. And his father, Jacob,
his father thought that he was dead. And he wept for years over
Joseph, thought he was dead. These brothers went down in Egypt
to get corn one time, and they didn't know who Joseph was. He
knew who they were. They hadn't seen him since he
was a boy, and he was 40 years old now. They didn't recognize
him, but he knew them. And he said, if you've got a
brother at home, there were 10 of them. He said, you've got
a brother at home? They said, we've got a brother named Benjamin.
That was Joseph's. real brother, born to the same
mother. Joseph hadn't seen him in years. He wanted to see him.
But he said, you go get him, and you bring him back here with
you, and I'll give you corn next time you come. But don't you
come without him. Don't come without him. So they went down,
and he kept one of the brothers. He kept Simeon, I believe, or
one of them, and said, I'll keep him. You fellows are spies, is
what you are. He knew that better, but he was
telling them that he wanted to see his brother. to the father, Jacob,
and they said, this emperor back there in Egypt says he'll give
us all the corn we want if we'll come back and bring Benjamin. And he kept Simeon, our brother,
and the father said, no way, I won't let you go. You're not
going to take Benjamin. Joseph's dead, and now Simeon's captured. Well, he said, I'm not going
to give another son. And things kept going from bad to worse,
and finally they didn't have anything to eat. And they came
back to Jacob and they said, let us go get some corn. Let
us take Benjamin and go get some corn. And Jacob said, no. And finally Judah, Judah stepped
out. And Judah is the tribe from which
Christ our Lord came. And Judah said in verse 9, Judah
verse 8, look at verse 8, Judah said unto Israel his father,
that's Jacob, send the lad with me and we'll rise and go that
we may live and not die, both we and thou and our little one.
I'll be the surety for him. of my hand shall you require
him, if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee,
I'll bear the blame forever." Isn't that beautiful? Judah,
that's a picture of Christ, our Lord, as He assumed the charityship
for everybody. He says, I pray for them because
they're yours, and yours are mine, and mine are yours, and
yours are mine. I'm not going to lose one of
them. I'm going to bring them home. He will bring them home,
too. There won't be one of them lost.
Not one of them is lost. He'll bring them home because
verse 11 and 12, and the key word here is K-double-E-P, keep. Verse 11 and 12. He says, And
now I'm no more in the world, but there in the world I come
to thee. Father, keep them. Keep them. Observe. Read on. those whom thou hast
given me. Verse 12, while I was with them
in the world, I kept them that thou gavest me. I kept them three
times. I kept them. Brother, we do need
keeping, don't we? We need keeping. You're given
by the Father to the Son, but you must be kept. You're regenerated
by the Holy Spirit, but you must be kept. You're redeemed by the
Son through the cross, but you must be kept. You have had an
experience of grace, but you must be kept. You have come through
many years, but you've got some years to go. You must be kept. Kept from what? Kept from error.
In many faults, Christ shall arise and shall deceive the elect,
if it were possible. Do you know what Scripture says?
I've got to be kept from error. I've got to be kept from Satan.
Our Lord taught us to pray, deliver us from the evil one. I've got
to be kept from sin. So many pitfalls about me. I've
got to be kept from falling unto him that is able to keep you
from falling. I've got to be kept from division and discord,
that they may be one as we are one. I've got to be kept from
indifference. Paul said less while preaching
to others, I become a castaway. I've got to be kept. All right,
last of all, let's close. Verse 24. Father, I will that
they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, to
behold my glory. to behold my glory." Two things
here. Heaven's greatest joy. He said that they may be with
me. There are the two words, with
me. That's heaven's greatest joy. He said to the thief, today
thou shalt be with me. To the disciples, he said, I
go to prepare a place of where I am. There ye may be. Apostle
Paul said to be with Christ. That's what I desire with Christ,
that they may be with me where I am. Wherever he is, that's
where I want to be. I'd look at the next line, that
they may behold my glory. Brethren, heaven's greatest joy
is to be with Christ. Heaven's sweetest employment
is to behold his glory. to behold his glory. John wrote,
he said, we shall see him, we shall see him, and he that hath
this hope, that he's going to see Christ and be like him, purified
himself. What is the glory we shall see?
The glory of his person? The glory of his grace, that
in the ages to come he might show us the exceeding riches
of his grace? The glory of his love, and now
about his faith, hope, and love, the greatest of these is love?
the glory of his righteousness. Peter said, we look for a new
heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. Father, you've given me authority
over this whole universe. And a surety-ship engagement
has been entered into in the council halls of eternity, that
I should give eternal life to as many as you've given me. And
the purpose of that mediatorial kingdom and that power and that
authority over all creatures, the purpose of it all is to find
that sheep, find that elect, and give him life. Oh, to be
used of God for that purpose. We're missionaries, we're witnesses,
we're preachers. Christ has authority over the
Yucatan and everybody down there. And we're down there trying to
find his sheep. The purpose for that authority.