A number of years ago, I was
in a village in Mexico, and the people next door to where we
met, we met in a semi-outside place. They were getting ready
to make mole. And they make a type of mole
in that part of Mexico they call relleno, not relleno, but negro,
black mole. And they were burning the peppers. And that wind was blowing the
smoke over to where we were. And I had to give up. I just couldn't speak. I mean,
if you I felt bad while ago, I couldn't speak. I thought,
I'm getting allergic to this pulpit, it seems like. It seems
like it hits me when I get up there. But I hope that's not
the case. But I don't know why, but I remembered
that night. I never have forgotten that.
That smoke was just such that I couldn't breathe, couldn't
talk. Let's open our Bibles, if you will, with me again tonight
to John chapter 17. John chapter 17, and let me begin
our reading in verse 20. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their that
they all may be one as Thou, Father, art in me and I in Thee,
that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe
that Thou hast sent me. And the glory which Thou gavest
me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one. I in them and Thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one. and that the world may know that
Thou hast sent me and hast loved them as Thou hast loved me. Father,
I will, that they also whom Thou hast given me be with me where
I am, that they may behold my glory which Thou hast given me. For Thou lovest me before the
foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world
hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee, And these have known
that thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto them thy name,
and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved
me may be in them, and I in them. And we've come tonight to the
last part of this prayer that we call our Lord's High Priestly
Prayer. And we've looked at the three
divisions, the three parts. In the first part, the first
five verses, the Lord Jesus makes requests, especially with reference
to himself. And then from verses six through
19, for the 11 disciples who were there with him that night
as he prayed. And then the last part, beginning
in verse 20, that we are looking at tonight for the universal
church. William Hendrickson, in his commentary
on the Gospel of John, he drew a diagram and he said, and I
quote, the best, not perfect, But the best way to represent
the relation of the parts to each other is by means of three
concentric circles. The contents of the inner circle
equals verses one through five when our Lord is making requests
for himself. And then the second circle equals
his request for the 11 disciples, verses 6 through 19, and then
this outer circle for the universal church, does the Lord Jesus pray. And I think it's best for you
and I, for those of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ tonight
as our Lord and Savior, to always keep this in mind. The high priest,
in the Old Testament, the Old Dispensation. Paul tells us in
Hebrews chapter 10 that the law had a shadow of good things to
come. And that our high priest, when
he went into the holy place to minister, and this is a picture
of our high priest in heaven, in the true tabernacle, ministering
for us in the holy place. that upon his breast he had the
names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, as well
as their names upon his shoulder. The high priest bore upon his
breast and upon his shoulder the names of the nation of Israel. And as we think of the Lord Jesus
Christ, our great high priest, denied as he stands and ministers,
let us remember And when we look at this prayer, always let us
remember that he has our names upon his heart and upon his shoulder. Our names being placed upon his
heart, of course, reminds us of his love, his love that he
has for each and every one of his children. You know, this
began in John chapter 13 when he said, or the scripture says,
having loved his own, which were in the world, He loved them unto
the end. And we know there is no end to
His love. And then our names upon His shoulders
reminds us of the strength, the strength that He gives us day
by day to live for Him, for His glory. Now, if you will, let's
look through these verses one by one this evening, beginning
in verse 20. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. Do you see he was praying for
you? Do you see that tonight? Isn't that comforting? Isn't
that good to know? The Lord Jesus Christ, you believe
on him through the word of the apostles. If you believe on him
tonight, you believe on him through their word. With these words,
it is as though the Lord Jesus scans the centuries. Now it's
been 19, 20 centuries since the Lord prayed this prayer here
upon the earth. And it seems as though he scans
the centuries and presses to his heart all A-L-L, all of those
who were given to Him in that everlasting covenant by the Father,
and all of them who were given to Him do come to believe on
Him. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also, all them, all of them, all of them that
believe on Me through their word." When John in the book of Revelation
saw a number, he said it was a number that no man could number. Now it's a finite number, we
recognize that. The number of God's elect, the
number of his children. It is a finite number, but it
is a great number. It is a great number of children. that God gave unto His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And six times, you know, in this
prayer, our Lord makes reference to the fact that He is praying
for those that the Father gave unto Him, those who were given
unto Him by the Father. And each and every one of them,
not one more, not one less, shall believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And the means we see here that
God uses in bringing men to know Christ is the Word, the Word
of God. Look at the text. Neither pray
I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on
me through their word. A man must hear the gospel to believe. Someone asked me one time, how
much do you believe that those Old Testament saints knew? And
of course I couldn't answer that. I don't know how much they knew. I know this, we know more about
what they believed from the New Testament than we do from the
Old Testament. But this I do know, everything
that they did believe, they believed because of the Word. The first
word was the word that God spoke to Satan when he told him that
the seed of the woman shall bruise your head. And then Adam called
his wife Eve, the mother of all living, and then we find out
that their two sons, Cain and Abel, knew that the way to approach
God was by way of a sacrifice. Of course, one of them knew better
than God, and he thought he'd come with a sacrifice that was
not a blood sacrifice, that was not the life of an innocent
victim in the state of the guilty, and he was turned away. His offering
was rejected. But Abel came bringing a lamb. And we know that the scripture
refers to him as being just. And then we follow on in the
book of Genesis and we come to chapter 12 and we find that God
chose Abraham and told him of your seed. All the nations of
the earth shall be blessed. And we know who that seed is.
It's the seed of the woman. And then through Abraham's grandson,
Jacob, he tells Judah, he's going to be of your seed. And then
to David, and what we're following down through the centuries, the
revelation is progressive, no doubt about it. And more and
more is revealed about the coming one. But what did they believe?
They believed in a Messiah who was promised to come. and that He would reconcile them
unto God. I know they believe that. And
they believe that through the Word. And you and I are more
responsible, men and women who live in this day no doubt are
much more responsible than those who lived in the Old Testament
dispensation when the revelation was not near as great as it has
been since the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into this world. And you know this is true. You
can go to Walmart, you can go to Kmart or any of these discount
stores, maybe a dollar store, I'm not sure, and buy a Bible
for just a little bit. Everyone can, for the most part. And yet people have no interest,
many people at least. Thank God some of us do. And
the only reason we do, God's given it to us. Look with me
in 1 Peter. Our Lord prays for those who
will believe on Him through their word. 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 23. We read, being born again, not
of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and
all the glory of man is the flower of the grass. That doesn't say
much for us, does it? A grass springs up in the morning,
grows and cut down in the evening. And the glory of man, some grass
has a few flowers. And I tell you what, I've got
a weed in my backyard that has a flower on it. But that's man, just like the
grass of the field. Our life is but a vapor, isn't
it? We're here for a little while. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever. It endureth when age after age
and age after age pass away, God's Word still is settled forever
in heaven. It's not going to change because
it is the Word of Him who changes not. And this is a Word, notice,
and this is a Word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. John Gill described true faith,
that is, believing on him in this way. This is how he described
true faith. It is a spiritual sight of him,
a spiritual sight of Christ. We're not going to see Him with
these eyes until we pass over to the other side. We see Him
by faith. It is a spiritual sight of Him,
of the necessity, of the necessity. Do we see that? Do we see our
need? Do we have a need of a Savior? And we have a need of a Savior
that only Christ can be. Because we need a Savior who
can lay His hand upon God and His hand upon us. And He's the
only one. A spiritual sight of Him, of
the necessity and the fitness. Do we see the fitness of Christ? How that His blood, because of
who He is, God, man that he might bleed, man that he might die,
but God that he might satisfy. Do we see that? The fitness,
the suitableness of him as a savior. No one else could be our savior.
And a going forth unto him. Going forth, not with walking
down an aisle or signing a decision card or anything like that, but
of going forth to Him, laying hold of Him, and depending upon
Him for life and for salvation. Not for most of our salvation.
For salvation. One hundred percent. Verse 21. that they all may be one as thou,
Father, art in me. Now he's praying this for you
and me. That we might be one as thou, Father, art in me and
I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world
may believe that thou hast sent me. He prays for unity. between those of us who believe
on Him, which is founded, as we see, on the oneness, the oneness,
the unity which exists between Him and the Father. The unity
of Him and His Father, and the unity of believers that He prays
for. This unity is not exactly the
same, but there is a resemblance, a resemblance. And I would illustrate
it in this way. There's a unity between the father
and the son in every attribute. Every attribute characteristic
of the father, the son also has that same characteristic, that
same attribute. For instance, love. the attribute
of love. The Father loves and the Son
loves. So it is in us as believers loving
one another, loving one another, that this unity that He prays
for is brought into expression that the world may see. And I say that because, let's
look back just a few pages, In chapter 13, verses 34 and 35, when he said,
a new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another
as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that
you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. And then also in chapter 15,
in verse 12, this is my commandment, that you love one another as
I have loved you. And verse 17, these things I
command you, that you love one another. The unity as the father
and the son both have the same attribute of love. So the unity
that exists between us as believers resembles that oneness as we
love one another. Verses 22 and 23, And the glory
which thou gavest me I have given them. that they may be one even as
we are one, I am them and thou and me, that they may be made
perfect and one and that the world may know that thou hast
sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Now what
is this glory? And the glory which thou gavest
me I have given them. Well, it's not a shining around
their heads like all those painters in the Middle Ages, you know,
they painted the saints, they all had a halo around their head
or something like that. That's not the glory. That's
not the glory. What is the glory that the Lord
gave unto them, gave unto his disciples and has given unto
us? Well, I believe it is is not
His essential glory as the Son of God. That glory cannot be
shared by men. I believe we are to understand
it with His words. The glory which He gave unto
them, gave unto us, His words. Look back in verse 8 in this
prayer. For I have given unto them the
words, which thou gavest me." The words, the gospel. That's
the glory that he's given us, the gospel, his word. Paul calls
the gospel the glorious gospel of the blessed God in 1 Timothy. And this gospel was given to
the apostles, it was given to the ministers, and it's been
given down through the ages, to ministers, to all of God's
children. And God uses it in bringing His
people to the unity of the faith. And we see that in Ephesians
4. I remember reading when we studied
church history. There was a time when one page,
now get this, one page of the Epistle of James sold for a wagon
load of hay. That's how precious the translated
word was. One page in English, in English,
for a wagon load of hay. One page of the Epistle of James. during the Dark Ages. Why was
it called the Dark Ages? Because the Word of God was not
given out like it has been. The Dark Ages. If there was a Bible, you know,
Martin Luther, when he went into that seminary, now he had studied
to be a lawyer. And when he went into the seminary,
cemetery, some people call them, the seminary, They put him to
begging. That was his job, begging. He'd
go around the town and beg for bread to help to feed the people,
the monks. There was one Bible in that seminary. One Bible. And it was chained. It was chained. Think of that. I have given them Thy word, the
glory that the Lord has given us, the word of God. And he's
continued to give, continued to give. Some of the best reading you'll
ever read. Young people here tonight, you
young teenagers, listen to me now. Get you a book about William,
William Tyndall, John Wycliffe, William Carey. Some of these
missionaries, some of these men who gave their lives so that
their countrymen might have the Bible in their language. Don't
put some poster of some so-called rock star up on your closet. That's nobody to emulate. Get your parents to get you a
good book, a good biography of some of these men who have stood
for the faith and suffered for the faith and been a testimony
to the Lord Jesus Christ. They're someone to emulate. At an armed judgment, I read
just again the other day this story. After he'd been in Burma,
I think for 30 years, and my, he suffered there. His first
wife passed away there. I think he had a child there
that also died. I'm not sure about that. But
when he came back to England, he was speaking at a place. I
read the other day it was in England. Before, I've always
read it was here in the US. I'm not sure. But they walked
out to the meeting place, and it was packed with people. And
on the way home, the man who had walked with him told him,
Mr. Judson, people were disappointed
tonight. He said, what? He said, yeah,
they were disappointed. He said, why? Because they expected
to hear you tell some exciting story, some great story about
what you have suffered and experienced in the years you've spent in
Burma." And he said, you know, he said, I've told them the greatest
story that I know, the story of Christ. The story of Christ. Maybe, maybe we become gospel
hardened. Maybe if we didn't have a church
on every corner and Bibles galore, the word of God would be more
precious. That's what it says in the days of Samuel, isn't
it? The word of God was precious. There was no open vision. That
means there was no word from the Lord and the word was precious. Ephesians 4 verse 11, what I'm
saying is he's given, he gives his word given ministers that
God might bring men to the unity of the faith. And he gave some apostles and
some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying, the building up of the body of Christ till
we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of
the Son of God. unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth
be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with
every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness
whereby they lie and wait to deceive. The Father, back in our text,
the Father dwelling in the Lord Jesus Christ and He That is,
Christ, through his Spirit, dwells in every believer, and we make
up the one, the one mystical body of Christ, of which he is
the head. This means that we are all, every
member of this body, we are all partakers of the riches in Christ. That's what Paul preached, the
unsearchable riches of Christ. Someone said, I get tired of
hearing about Christ. Well, I feel sad for you. I feel sad for you, if that's
your case. The unsearchable riches of Christ. That doesn't mean that a preacher
stands up in the pulpit and all he says is Christ, Christ, Christ,
Christ, Christ. You've heard me preach for years,
most of you, and I try to preach Christ in every message. That's
my objective. No matter where we're looking
at in the Bible, no matter where we're studying, we're going to
be looking for Christ. The Father dwelling in him and
he in us through his spirit. We all are made one and we all
are partakers of the riches of Christ. The riches such as pardon. He's pardoned me. He's pardoned
you if you're one of his children. His righteousness. He's imputed
his righteousness to you. He's imputed his righteousness
to me. without labor, without any work
on my part. I'm just, I was just like the
prodigal son. You know, when he was down in
that place suffering and hungry, the scripture said he came to
himself. He came to his right mind. How
many servants in my father's house have bread to eat? And
here I am, hungry, suffering. And he went home. And everything
that happened to him when he came home, he didn't do a thing. The father ran, put his arms
around him, and kissed him. Someone else put a robe on his
shoulders. Someone else put a ring on his
fingers. Someone else put sandals on his
feet. And someone else killed the fatted
calf and served it to him. He was a recipient. That's all. And that's what we are by the
grace of God. It's all of grace. It's all of
Christ. It's all God's work. Verse 24. Father, I will that
they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. that they may behold my glory
which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation
of the world. A literal translation of this
verse might go something like this. That which thou hast given
me, I desire that where I am also they may constantly be. that which thou hast given me,
I desire that where I am also they be constantly with me. That's awkward. That's an awkward
translation, but it's a literal translation. But it brings out
this point. As the high priest loved for
his own, first of all viewed as a unit, that, that which thou
hast given me, including everyone, that the Father chose and gave
unto his Son, but then individually they. That which thou hast given
me, I desire that where I am also they, individually they,
be constantly with me. It's like that verse in Isaiah
53. All we like sheep have gone astray. Collectively, all of us, at one
time, Adam, our representative, sinned. But that's not all. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way. That, collectively, all, as a
unit, that they that which thou hast given me.
I desire that where I am, also they, each and every one, individually,
may be with me. You know, the scripture tells
us that Christ, that his people were given unto him by the Father
in these relationships as his children, as his children, his
seed, as his spouse, his bride, as his church, as his sheep,
as his portion, and all were given unto him to be kept by
him. Father, I will that those whom
thou hast given me be with me where I am." That's not a petition
there, is it? It's a request, but it's set
in a form, I will. This glory given to him as a
mediator, he wills that his people one day be with him to behold. And I believe this is the way
we will see God. He is God. God is a spirit. And we will see God in Christ. and that will be that beatific
vision. That's the greatest blessing. You just count them, that's the
top of the top, at the top. The greatest blessing that God's
going to give any man or woman is a vision of himself in Christ. Nothing exceeds that. Verses
25 and 26, he closes his prayer acknowledging
that God is righteous, O righteous Father. God is righteous and will most
certainly apply all the benefits of His work, His saving work,
to those who were given to Him. He is righteous, that is, God
is righteous in all His purposes, all His promises, in all His
ways, in all His works of providence, and grace, and predestination,
redemption, justification, pardon of sin, and eternal glory. In other words, as Abraham said,
shall not the judge of all the earth do right? He will. He will. Whatever he does, it's
right. He couldn't do anything else.
He's righteous. Well, may the Lord bless these
thoughts and words to us here this evening. Well, let's sing
another verse of a hymn.