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336.
Behold.
By the Lord's grace, considerable amount of opportunity this weekend to enjoy.
The glory.
And.
What makes the glory the glory, the Father and the Son?
I would suggest that.
For our encouragement that we take up this afternoon and a reading format.
The Lord's Last Prayer in John 17.
What's before me in it is the thought that.
The Lord Jesus is there in the glory.
So honored God and his This prayer is his own request of the Father to bring us there.
And that's the thought of it before my soul that here we are, we're still on earth, and yet the Father and the sons intent and this prayer of the Lord Jesus that might encourage us to to know that what's our future. I know in the difficulties of the way there was a brother walking along the road with another and he said to him, thinking of the problems among the people of God, he said, where's it all going to end?
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And the answer he was given in the glory.
What a wonderful thing to realize that for each one of us in this room, here we have the Lord Jesus who prayed for us.
To the end that this glory we have spoken about, which we are to share with them, will be realized, and can I say we have the confidence this afternoon that this prayer, as we meditate upon it, is one that is going to be answered to our eternal blessing.
I would suggest we read the chapter. I was thinking particularly of starting with verse 9 as a place of meditation.
John, Chapter 17. These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour has come, Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may 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.
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God. And Jesus Christ, whom thou has sinned, I have glorified thee on the earth. I finished the work which thou gave us me to do. And now, O Father, and glorified thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Dying they were, and thou gavest thou me.
And they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. 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 did send me. I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou has given me. For they are thine, and all mine are thine, and all thine are mine, and I am glorified in them.
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thy own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in my name. Those that thou gave us me I have kept, and none of them is lost but the Son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joyful filled in themselves.
I have given them thy word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou should us take them out of the world, but that thou should keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. 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 also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word, that they may all be one, that they all may be one, As thou father art in me, and I and thee that they also may be one in US, that the world may be believed. That thou has sent me, and the glory which thou gave us to me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one.
I and them, and thou and me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that Thou has sent me, and has loved them as thou has 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. I've declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, That the love where with thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
Back before us this weekend in the enjoyment of that which is spoken of in the of the Lord Jesus, and this prayer to the Father in the first few verses of the chapter.
And he tells the Father, I finished the work which?
Gave me to do.
We know that work was finished on the cross.
But He is a divine person, could speak of it is already accomplished.
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We know that the Lord Jesus spoke these words to the Father, perhaps in the presence of the disciples the night before.
He went to the cross.
To accomplish the work in actuality.
And his apostles are with him.
And he has been instructing them.
In view of the fact that he was going to leave them, he was going back to the glory, but they were going to remain here on earth, in this world.
And so they are given, and it's recorded for us to have these, this last communication between the Son and the Father concerning those who were going to, as in one sense will say, remain behind.
And so when he says in verse nine, I pray for them, it's specifically the apostles. There are those present that were mentioned there. But the prayer in spirit, and in fact later down in the prayer, includes you and I in this room this afternoon. He says in verse 20, Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word, well.
We in this room are in that company. We have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ through the Word passed down through the word of the Apostles is given to us in the word of God. And so the Lord was in his heart thinking about us, gathered here in Crystal Lake, and realizing that there would be that day when he would be in the glory.
You might say safe in that sense and waiting.
To have with himself.
Those that have been given to him as a gift.
By the Father.
And so we have a little ahead in the chapter, the fact that you and I.
Are a gift of the Father to the Son. What an immense thing it is to think that God gave us to his Son as a gift, and the Son loves us as He appreciates this gift that the Father has given to him.
And so he says, I pray for them. And so here we have just to enjoy this afternoon the words, the thoughts we expressed, the requests that he makes to the Father on our behalf.
You mentioned that were given to him by the person of the father, and that's mentioned several times in this chapter.
What a marvelous thing it is.
That we've been given to the Lord Jesus.
While I was in the world.
I kept them through thy name.
Those that thou gave us me.
I have kept.
And none of them was lost, but the son of perdition.
And now come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy.
Fulfilled in themselves, we have a song. We sing We joy in our God, and we sing of that love. 135 I believe it is so sovereign and free. Which did His heart move? We join our God. Well, that's the joy that the Lord Jesus is Speaking of here. That my joy He joined in His Father, and He wants us to joy too.
That my joy be fulfilled in themselves. What a marvelous thing that we can have the the same joy as the portion of the sun.
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We joy in our God.
Be more specific as to what is the nature of that joy, the cause of that joy. We have that same expression in Chapter 15.
It says.
Verse 11 These things I've spoken to you that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. When he says my joy, what specifically is the nature and source of that joy?
I think the key to it is the previous verse to what you read, John.
John 15 verse 10.
If you keep my commandments, you shall.
You shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love.
These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may remain in you.
The Lord Jesus himself.
Found his joy in this world.
In complete and perfect submission and obedience to the will of the Father.
And the joy that we will experience as we go on home toward the glory.
In a practical way, depends upon.
The same basis that his joy was, he says. My joy.
And his joy was to do the will of the Father.
In complete obedience.
And the only happy Christian is the Obedience 1.
You'll never find a Christian who is truly happy, who is walking in self will.
If I think I'm going to discover my own path of happiness in this world, and then because I've trusted in the Lord Jesus as my savior when I have to leave it, then I'll depend on God to make me happy in heaven.
I'm going to have a very unhappy life.
But if I find my joy in the same way, the source, the basis in which he found his, then I can go through this world with joy, and coupled with it just to make a comment about it. In the the Lord Jesus on the day of his resurrection said went into the room where the disciples were, and he said my peace.
I give unto you, not only is joy, but he was also saying to them my peace I give unto you. And that peace is not the peace of sins forgiven. He didn't need such a peace. He didn't have any sins of his own to forgive. So when he speaks about my peace, he's not speaking about something like the peace of with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
That is we what the what we find in Romans 5.
But his peace was the peace of circumstances in passing through this world, in perfect, unbroken communion with the Father.
And that's the same piece that he desires that we enjoy in our lives.
The peace that flows from an unbroken walk in fellowship with God our Father. Why is that a peace? Because God sits upon a throne today, and nothing that happened today disturbed him.
Nothing was a surprise to God today. Nothing happened in the world today that suddenly makes him change his plans for tomorrow.
Or disturbs the peace of God on his throne in his glory. And the reasons as a man walk through the world in the enjoyment of that fellowship with God, you might say, at the throne of peace.
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And stability. And He wanted the disciples. When He was with the disciples, they could, as it were, turn to Him, because He was physically present with them, and enjoy His comfort and His taking care of every circumstance. And so on.
But he realized that when he was away from them, they were going to face trial and rejection for his namesake, and so on. And so, in addition to his joy, something else that he desires for us as we go on home to himself is his peace.
I think that's excellent, and I would add another reference that I have enjoyed in that same connection. And we don't need to turn to it. We all know the verse in Hebrews 12. It says who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross. I suggest there that it is as an example for us and the joy there as well.
Was the joy of doing the Father's will. And so the Lord wants to bring us into that same enjoyment, that same joy, that he had, the joy every moment of his life, of having the conscious sense that He was doing the Father's will.
I do always those things that please my father.
So there's a.
This is an interesting culmination of of God's thoughts and purposes.
The Trinity was.
In unison and in fellowship, and in.
We shall say in a completion or an eternity what we commonly call eternity past.
And there was has already been mentioned there was something that that was wanted as the object of affection and creation came in.
God created, but the creation was external to himself. It was apart from.
This this communion that was enjoyed, Father the Son of the Holy Spirit.
And one proof that it's external to God is, of course that the creation failed.
But there was interest purpose of God to to bring something close to himself in a way that that could not fail in a way that was not or the Godhead, but that could have a free fellowship and discourse with.
On an eternal scale.
And of course.
That's through redemption. And he finished that work and he's going to be bringing that that redeemed those redeemed ones to himself. And we have some some remarkable verses about that one that I thought was quite interesting Revelation 21 That we referenced to earlier today about the city and the city, It comes from God and yet the city is a dwelling place.
And so, even though it's from God, it is also the dwelling place of of Christ.
And so, yes, it's produced through God's purposes. And yet it is of such a nature that the Lord can dwell there and have that that fellowship that that was, that he was interested in. We go back to the.
Of verse, and again it's in.
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John 14.
At that day ye shall know in verse 20 that I am in my father, and ye in me, and I in you.
I in you the the joy of of of accomplishing this.
Impossible feat.
Of those members of the Godhead having.
Of fellowship which was, which was going to end up being eternal with other than.
Themselves.
And we get that not only hinted at the rather.
Startlingly placed or put, in my opinion, in Ephesians chapter one. At the end it says.
And as good all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church which is his body.
The fullness of him that filleth all things. How can you add more to somebody that fills everything already?
And yet that is what redemption has accomplished, is that now there is the church. There's God's people.
There will apparently be others in relation with them, but the Church in particular, that is the fullness of him that filleth all things, and filleth All in all, and So what?
What a prayer where where all these things are are committed in a way back to the Father and and with the glory and view that those people, the church were going to be there in the glory and.
Humanly would say this isn't something that God would say, but humanly we'd say it worked.
And there is a tremendous joy that forever, and this was also brought out earlier, Christ is going to have that opportunity of spending with His bride forever something that.
That would be almost unthinkable from our point of view, that God has done it, and through the Lord Jesus Christ, through his work and the joy.
Of that fulfillment of God's purposes must be immense the.
If a man is a great architect.
And he builds or designs a beautiful structure among men.
Others look at that structure and it.
You might say displays the glory of the architect.
The man accomplishes in this world a great work.
The result of that work is to his honor.
Is credit.
And here the Lord Jesus in verse 10, when he says, Father, you've given them to me.
They're mine. They're yours.
You might say in one sense we share them together because everything that's mine is yours. And then he goes on to come and he says I'm glorified in them.
Been speaking about the glory and when we see what the Lord Jesus has done at the cross and as a work result of that work is able to take a bride to himself. And then when he gets into the glory to have that bride there with himself. And when he is honored in the whole creation in the millennial glory.
Then she is right there with him as his bride at his side, and that work of his.
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Is to his glory what a wonderful thing that we are in that way.
Enhance or bring out the glory of the one that has redeemed us.
It's not of ourselves, it's not something we have done, but what a joy to be in heaven.
Just because.
It brings glory to him.
It takes us out of ourselves and what's in it for me? I'm going to heaven. I'm going to have this, I'm going to have that. That's all right to a point, as long as it's not selfish. But it's kind of 2nd.
To the 1St and primary thing is.
The arjoy is in his glory and that which he accomplishes and displays for himself to his glory. And so the Lord Jesus you might say, having thought about that and against, expressed that thought to his Father, He then says in verse 11, Holy Father.
Remember the character of the one with whom we have been brought into relationship.
Through salvation through New Bern, through eternal life is holy.
And consequently, part of this prayer is Holy Father. This is the plan. This is the program. But my own are still on earth.
Keep them in the character that is honoring to us.
And so it's an important prayer of the Lord Jesus, and it ought to be a real exercise and desire of His practically as we leave this room today.
And go forth, awaiting the Lord Jesus. That we would have a sense that the Lord is praying and has prayed for us and is working. That we might hear on earth as we await the moments of what this prayer ends, to end the glory, to have a life that's holy, a life that honors.
The dignity and the place to which we have been brought.
And so he says, Holy Father, keep him through my name.
Father, their name, My name is identified with them.
Were when you and I go out of this room and we go back to our work, in our classrooms and so on.
In a certain way, you might say right on your back you see a lot of sweatshirts and T-shirts that say this and that, identifying somebody with a particular school and so on. But in a moral way, it's like on your shoulders as you walk to work, there's going to be the name Jesus.
Written on you because you and I are identified with him.
And so he is thinking about that, you might say, and talking to the Father about it for us. And he says Holy Father.
Key.
Keep them.
And.
You've given them to me. Now we need to keep them.
What an encouragement to to us to realize that not only did the father give us to the son as a gift, but now he comes to the father and he says father keep him, keep him.
We don't want to lose anyone of them.
Made us an encouragement that I can go out of this room and go home and whatever is before us and say the Lord Jesus has asked God the Father to keep me.
In his name.
Interesting, isn't it along that line that Peter could say that kept?
By the power of God. And that's the only thing really, that takes the Christian through this world.
We walk by faith, that's true, but it's only the power of God that keeps us.
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And the Lord knew how difficult the path would be.
He knew that we would need keeping.
I have appreciated. I know others have too, that in this chapter it brings before us specifically that we are in the world but not of the world.
And the Lord knew how difficult that pathway would be. Of course, none but He.
Walked it perfectly.
But it was very quick after the apostles had passed away, had gone to be with the Lord, that that precious truth was corrupted.
In two different ways.
On the one hand.
Those who were in the world.
Tended practically more and more to become of the world.
At first it was with the honest and true desire to try and straighten things out in this world.
And we know, of course, that that tendency eventually brought itself to the point where, as we said the other day, Christianity was proclaimed as the official religion of the Roman Empire, and believers consequently placed in positions of responsibility and authority.
But it was a loss to the loss of their testimony.
And of course, being of the world, it wasn't long before they were taking part in not only seeking to better the world, but being drawn down to its level.
But then on the other hand, there were those that said this is no good, this is bad, We have to do something against this. And so they began to squirrel themselves away in monasteries and convents, and men started to become hermits, going and living away from all contact with society, even to the point in some cases. It sounds a bit ridiculous, but.
Building platforms on the top of poles where they lived for months and sometimes years at a time with people coming with.
Packages of food and other necessities, and it being.
Taken up to them by a rope or something like that. What were they doing? Oh, they weren't of the world, but for all practical purposes, they weren't in the world. And so they went to the other extreme.
And both can be done without much exercise, without much commitment, without much godliness before the Lord. Both would minister to man's natural self, whether to indulging himself or to his pride. But when the Lord says you and I are to be in the world but not of the world, that involves, as Dawn was saying, a moral character that answers to those who have been the gift from the Father to the Son.
And yet.
It is a testimony to this world. It is mixing with this world in our work and in our education and in our.
Relationships with them in such a way that there is a testimony rendered to the fact that we have been saved out of this world, but sent back into it as a testimony. And that requires a keeping power outside of ourselves, doesn't it?
I can't walk that path in my own strength. I can't walk it without dependence on the Lord and with His help.
Well, the Lord said in verse 12, he says.
I was with them in the world.
And while I was here in the world, I kept them.
Day by day, week by week, month by month, the Lord Jesus was keeping these apostles, these followers, disciples that were there present. He was watching over them and preserving them from the world.
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Now he was going to leave them and so he was concerned or?
I can use the word concern.
That they be kept and just add a word or two to what Bill just said. Important maybe for someone who's a little younger to understand that the world doesn't mean the earth that we're living on. He wasn't just saying keep him on this earth, but the world as he's presenting it to us is that whole system of things that man has built up for himself to live on the earth.
All his systems of entertainment and commerce and all driven by what's in himself, his own moral state with God. And so man at the time of Cain left God's presence and went out to build a world for himself, which left God out.
And God looks at it and he says it's dark. The world is a dark place as far as God's view is concerned. And in John chapter one when the Lord Jesus came into this Dark World.
He came as light. He was in the world. He passed through this world.
As bright light, and every person that his life came into contact with, that light shined on that person. That light exposed what they were before God. If it was a state of evil, the light revealed that if the heart wasn't right with God.
Then, because he was the word God manifest in the flesh, their reaction to him was the same as it was to God. We don't like you. We don't want you.
We just assumed murder you if we could.
Get out and so on. And then he goes back to heaven and.
And we're told in Ephesians chapter 6, you're the light of the world, he was saying to the Ephesian believers, the Lord is not here, but to us the responsibility is. We're one with the Father and the Son. We have the same life, we have the same character.
Given to us, imparted to us by eternal life. And so as you go to school, as you work, as I do.
We shine. Our responsibility is to be the light.
Of the world for the Lord Jesus.
There our lives should reflect or should display the glory of God that we have in our hearts that we had in 2nd Corinthians 4 yesterday. It should shine out.
To those about us.
And if it is shining, the response is not always going to be proper. Say it may be painful rejection, or envy or other things against a true shining out of the light, but the Lord was concerned for these believers just.
As he says in verse 15, Father keep them from the evil.
That's what overcomes so easily in us, because they're still flesh that is attracted to this world, and that flesh if allowed to work in us, then we are easily overcome with the evil that operates in this world. And the Lord hears coming to the Father for us and saying keep them from that evil.
I suppose the.
Practical picture that would demonstrate this would be an ambassadorship limit.
A great country sends an ambassador to another country and he.
Absolutely has no part in that country.
He doesn't do anything there that would disrupt what goes on in that country.
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He's responsible to whoever the country is or the leader of the country that said it, and that's you and me.
We don't. The Lord Jesus could say I came not into this world. Who made? Who made me a divider amongst you? The one that came to him and said speak to my relative that we divide the inheritance. I didn't come for that.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. He was not of this world, and he could say to Pilate, if my Kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight?
But he was not of this world.
You and I are not of this world.
We don't take any.
I better rephrase that we shouldn't take any part in it. It's politics.
Its activities. Now there's another part to this and that is the Apostle Paul told those.
There's very great wickedness in this world. There's a lot of it.
And.
If you were to completely divorce yourself from everything, then you need must go to this world. So what he was saying was this, You have to go to work, you have to go to school, but you don't have to be part and parcel of the activities that this world operates under. And we had it the 1St morning of the reading, The God of this world. Our brother was just saying what this world is. It's man's world and who's behind it.
The God of this world, he runs the whole scene. Now it's true that God is behind the scenes and he moves them, but Satan is the God of this world. You join what this world is and you've joined Satan system of things.
The Apostle Paul was very clear. If he needs to get totally out of this thing, you need, must be out of this world. But we're not out of this world. And so that's why we find this, keep them, keep them in this world.
Listening to the Lord saying that the Lord had kept them and none of them was lost. And then just an hour or two later an angry mob comes at them with swords and torches. And then we read they all for soak them and fled. She wondered, Well, why would they flee? They just heard the Lord say that. Well, they forgot. I think that the Lord said that he had kept them, and we can do that too. We can become fearful about circumstances of life, but if we can just remember who it is.
That has us. We belong to the Lord of glory and thought it be a comfort to us to know we don't need to be fearful.
In reality, the world is a great big lie.
And it's good for us to know that.
The God of this world is the Father of lies and that which he has developed as a world system.
He takes on his own character. It's.
One great big lie. It says I can make you happy. No, it can't. It says I can give you what you want.
Yes, at the cost of your soul.
Satan.
Takes the world as his greatest tool.
To drag souls to hell.
And consequently.
Because we have sinful nature still in us, there is that in the world which attracts us. The law of Satan can gain interest in into. Inter can't find an entrance into our hearts and lives.
If we are not kept and one of the things, the keys to our preservation, the Lord Jesus speaks of when he asks the Father in verse 17, He says sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth.
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Sanctified, it means set apart.
Set them apart, Father, by Thy word. Thy word is truth. We hold in our hands the preserver of preservation of our souls in a world that is a big lie, because in our hands we have something that positively gives us what is true.
What is the truth? And if we believe it, we're preserved from the lie of the world or the many lies that are presented to us of the world.
And the Lord Jesus prays that we might be set apart by that truth in our lives, and so may the Lord help us, may the Father.
As it were the prayer be fulfilled in us in our daily lives, that we would recognize the supreme importance of the book in our hands.
And always, always trust it. Believe it. Whenever something is presented to us, test it by the truth.
The Lord Jesus gave this word to the disciples, and they have given it to us. And you go to school, you, you hear something on the radio, and it doesn't agree with the word of God then.
There's only one thing to do. Don't accept it as true.
It seems to me that one of the most wonderful things.
And it isn't stated so much explicitly in the chapter, but it is here implicitly, and it's already been alluded to. And that is that in recording this prayer for us in His word.
God directs our hearts to that which is outside of ourselves.
If what is written here has its moral effect on my heart.
Then I realize that here is one who came into the world and who finished the work the Father gave him to do, and the cost was beyond human understanding.
And here is one who in consequence of that work.
Can take you and me to himself as the Father's gift.
Associate us with himself.
Bring us into the same relationship with the father as he has.
Point on the coming glory and tell us that we are going to share that glory with him.
We don't have to wait till then. The glory which thou hast given me, I have given them. We can bear that glory in one sense already down here.
Makes US1 with himself.
Says we that we might be one, that there might be the display of that oneness which we know exists in fact.
I say again, it takes me outside of myself. How could I ever say?
Well, what's the harm in it? Or but I want to do it.
But that is what is going to make me happy.
But I don't want to do that or that doesn't suit me or whatever it might come to.
I speak to my own heart how many times those questions arise in our lives when we face difficulties.
Whereas if my heart really had gotten hold of what is here.
Then my reaction would rather be I'm not here to please myself, and even if the pathway were so completely difficult that there wasn't one bright spot in it.
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I would say to myself it's well worth it in view of having the privilege of walking with my Savior and of being identified with Him.
So that it's his joy, not mine, that is before me. It's his interests, not mine, that are uppermost in my mind.
It's fellowship with him and all that he is that is important to me rather than some short term enjoyment of something down here.
Again, I say it's not expressed explicitly in this chapter, but I would suggest that it's here implicitly and this chapter, properly taken to heart, would have that effect on us, would it not?
I think in one sense that at least the truth of it is explicitly given to us.
In verse 19.
Bills just spoken about. For their sakes, I sanctify myself.
But they also might be sanctified through the truth.
He not only takes us outside of ourselves, but it takes the object of our hearts outside the world completely.
What a wonderful thing. That's when it says I sanctify myself. What's that verse means is I separate myself completely, literally, from the world to take a place in heaven.
That's what it means when he says I sanctify myself. He's saying I take my place out of this world for their sakes, and I put myself outside of the world in in the glory and the heaven. And what's implicit in that is.
He knew that the disciples hearts affections were centered in himself. That's what's assumed or implied in it. And so by taking himself out of the world he was taking their affections out of the world as well because they were centered in himself. And So what takes my heart, my heart out of the world is the if the object of my heart isn't in the world anyways.
If it's in the glory.
And so he says, I sanctify myself and sets us apart for himself because.
Our heart is already there where he is.
Because it's centered, the object of it is himself.
Tremendous power to preserve our souls, and it's his present work for us for their sakes, he says. I sanctify myself. And so the Lord Jesus, for our hearts sake, sanctifies himself, takes that place today with us for us, and then the Spirit of God would develop in our hearts that affection for himself.
That would take our hearts too out of the world, so that we might walk in the world to His glory, but truly in our hearts be outside.
Feeble illustration of it but.
Suppose.
A young man and a young woman court.
And maybe they're in the same city the time they're courting, but.
The young man perhaps has to go to another place to work for some time.
If her heart is really taken up in him, then her interest in her heart now belong to a different place. It's where he is.
And she longs to that day when perhaps they're going to be married and she's going to go to the place where he is. And that's the way it is to be with our hearts as well. Yes, we live here. We we are to be lights here. But where's our heart?
Hopefully not in the life safety, but in that which is really life, and though our Lord Jesus with the long true longing of our hearts to be where he is.
Lord Jesus when he was teaching could say that where your heart is.
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Where your treasure is, excuse me, there shall your heart be also.
Is the Lord Jesus our treasure?
Well, if he is, that's where her will be here.
We can be very thankful for that 20th, 1St can we not?
Either Pray for thee is alone. You've already mentioned it done.
But for them, all she would show believe on me through their words, so that will go right down to the very moment.
That the shout is given.
That will cover every single St. that woman.
I remember being at a conference in Lawrenceville, IL. I suppose it was 10 years ago or thereabouts.
And this chapter was being taken up.
And we came to verse 22.
That was ministered on.
And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them that they may be one, even as we are one.
And it was pointed out, and I believe properly by more than one brother, that wasn't it a wonderful thing that we would share that glory in a coming day and that the Lord Jesus.
Was pleased to give us the glory that had been given to him.
As was properly brought out, there is a glory that we behold, and that is in the next verse.
But it was brought out that we would share that glory.
I well remember at the end Brother Clem Buchanan making the comment, he said.
But we have that glory now.
It says here I have given them, he said. I suggest there's more here.
Than simply what we will share in the coming day.
But the meeting was at an end and he didn't develop it.
I'd like to suggest a thought on that.
Because I enjoyed the comments that were made concerning coming glory, and I believe they're true.
But I would suggest that within the, shall I say, the meaning of this chapter, there is a sense in which you and I in walking through this world.
On the one hand, as sons of God.
With the absolute conviction and assurance of the position we have been brought into.
And on the other hand, walking through it.
In a volunteer, In a voluntary humility.
And.
We might say as those who are rejected and bear the reproach of Christ.
There is a glory.
That you and I have been given. In that sense, we have the privilege.
And it is a privilege of following the Lord in his pathway through this world. Was there a glory that shone out from him in every step of the pathway? Indeed there was.
And even those who were not saved could see it. Even those who didn't have any interest in them were forced to see that moral glory displayed in him.
You and I can bear that same glory down here. It's not a glory connected with pride, because all is of grace, But at the same time there is a special privilege in walking through this world, on the one hand, as reproached, as rejected, as hated. And we will be persecuted and disliked by this world if we follow Christ, but on the other hand, in all the conscious dignity of whose we are.
And where we're going and whom we represent, and the glory that we'll share in the coming day.
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I suggest there is a glory that can be displayed and that can only be displayed down here. It won't be able to be displayed in that same way up there. And I suggest that 22nd verse can be applied that way.
There is something that is expressed. People know that we're Christians.
And there's some.
Some.
It's not purposeful, but there is some influence that we.
Impose on our circumstances around us and it just seems to have come naturally, perhaps.
Or comes automatically, I guess the word and perhaps.
Not really connected, but perhaps it might have to do a little bit, that glory that is somehow manifest through us to simply being in this world.
Getting on towards the end of our time, I'd just like to comment one more thought in verse 24.
He says 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.
Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
I find this verse very touching to my soul and very humbling.
I think what's in the verse.
At least a little bit of what's in it.
Is the thought that?
The Lord Jesus.
Was conscious.
That there was a response in the heart of his own, there was an affection for himself.
In those that loved him.
That is, he could say, yeah, Peter, I know.
What's in your heart? And there is something in your heart, Peter. There is an attachment to me.
And it's based on that.
That, he says to the Father. I want them to be here in the glory.
Because.
They have that love and they will find an unselfish joy.
In seeing what you have done for me.
Isn't that wonderful for us to think that?
He counts upon our love that we would be there just so we could see his glory.
Because it would bring joy to our hearts.
Totally.
Unselfish, if you will, on our part.
And that's what he counts on.
It's not what's in heaven for me and how wonderful it's going to be for me. And I'm going to walk the streets of gold and I'm not going to be sick and I'm not going to be this and I'm not going to be that. Yes, that's all true. That's not what the Lord is talking about here. He's talking about an affection for himself. And so he says, Father, I want him to be here to see my glory.
And you might say, I know it'll make them happy.
You'll rejoice for my sake.
Not, you might say, for their own.
What is what? A confidence of love?
Has in US in that way.
And is it so? I shall be like thy son 18 in the appendix.
Is this the great key for me? Has won?
Father Glory thought beyond all thought.
In glory to his own blessed likeness, brought 18 in the appendix.