Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
Father, we ask this afternoon that we might continue to be guided in our thoughts.
Of thy beloved Son, as we talk about his glories, we ask in his most blessed and worthy name, Amen.
John 17.
Perhaps start with verse 6.
Verse 5.
And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with unknown self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest them 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 didst send me. I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given me.
For they are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them.
Now I am no more in the world that 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 thy 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 joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them.
Because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst 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 all may be one says, 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 gaveest 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 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.
God had made himself known to man.
To some extent, from the time of creation, he would come down and visit with Adam in the garden, and they would have fellowship together. He made himself known to Abraham in a special way and to the children of Israel.
But the Lord Jesus coming into the world was the perfect, full, complete.
Revelation.
Of God to man he made himself known.
To man in the person of the Son. And so in verse six I have manifested thy name.
00:05:02
And he manifests who he is, the Lord Jesus.
Constantly insisted that if a person received him, he received the Father that it was one and the same, because he could say I and my Father are one, and for one to reject him was to reject the one that had sent him. The one that he was a perfect revelation of. He was the word become flesh, and so it is insisted upon in the Word of God that.
If we are to have God, we have the Son. If we don't have the Son, we don't have the Father. If we don't have the Son, we don't have life. If we don't have the Son, we have no relationship with God. But if we have the Son, then we have the Father also. And the Lord Jesus is speaking to His Father now in preparation for leaving and going to ask Him for certain things concerning those that He has made Him known to.
That are the fathers, and that are his.
I ask that we read verse 5 before. I know it's not part of that second section, brethren, because I don't know that we touched very much on it, but it is an interesting thing when we deal with the truth of the glories of the person of Christ. We are treading on holy ground and we need to be careful and with our expressions. And here he says, Glorify thou me with thine.
Own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
Evidently his God had glory, His essential glory that he had.
With the Father. And He never ceased to be God in every sense of the word, even when he was a man, but in an outward way he took, as it says in Philippians chapter 2.
The form of a servant.
Being in the form of God, he was in the position of command.
God commanded and it was done.
The angels are at the command of God, but when he became a man, he.
And in a way, veiled his glory. There's different expressions that we use.
And hymn 27 it says.
Oh, what love, wondrous love and mercy Thou didst lay thy glory by. I suppose that's the way we express it. I like the term that the the glory was veiled because there was times when his glory shone out of that human vessel, that human form that he took it. He was when he was in the garden and they came to take him.
He said I am and they fell backward to the ground.
It was his title as Jehovah, the Old Testament. Think of the majesty of that person that was standing there. They had come to take him, to bind and to crucify. O brethren, we don't grasp the glory of his person. He never ceased to be God over all things, blessed forever, but he took the form of a servant.
And as a servant, he learned obedience. In other words, he was never in that position before.
But as a man, he was perfectly obedient. His ears were opened and he walked in obedience to God his Father. So in a certain sense, while he was down here in this world, he.
Veiled His glory, or as the hymn puts it, He laid aside His glory. Now he says, since the work is finished, He says, now Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. I still enjoyed that, and I would appreciate if anyone can correct if I not expressed it properly.
Perhaps just for simplicity sake, it's helpful to recognize that the word glory.
00:10:01
When Jim gave up a more full definition of it earlier this morning. But one sense of what the word glory means is the display of excellence.
And God at different times has displayed the Excellency of His own nature and being in different ways.
And so the Lord Jesus, when He was a man here on earth, did not display all of the excellencies that belong to His person.
And in that way that you get the expression they were veiled or they were hidden. Some excellencies of his person could never be hidden.
He couldn't be less than he was, and so when he was here on Earth.
His moral character had to always be what it was, regardless of the circumstances.
In which he found himself as a man, and so that glory displayed itself as necessary.
Because of who he was, but His glory, for example, in an what we sometimes say an official way.
As the coming king and as the king that was being rejected.
Was not seen the display of that Excellency was not seen among men. And so it is that we look forward to seeing Glorious mentioned later in this chapter that have not even yet been made known to us. When he says, Father, I will, that they may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory later in this in this prayer, we look forward, brethren, to seeing.
Further expressions of the Excellency of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Father's house that have not yet been made known to us, that are perhaps not appropriate for us or we wouldn't be able to enjoy them in our present state of being. But when we are called into the Lord's presence in the Father's house, and that's part of why he says he wants us there, because the Father has given him glory, that.
He will display to us and that we will see.
Those are acquired glories, aren't they? Whereas this in verse five is is essential glory, that glory he always, that always was his.
There are glories that you and I can be occupied with by faith this afternoon that the disciples didn't have the privilege even of being occupied with as long as the Lord Jesus was here in this world with them. As was already alluded to, there were times when there were flashes of those glories, and not only so, but the three of the disciples had the privilege of having a little millennial preview of those glories when they saw the Lord Jesus.
On the mount of Transfiguration and Peter says we were eyewitnesses of His Majesty and so on.
But brethren, we can look up by faith this afternoon, and we can be occupied with the Lord Jesus, not as he was.
Not as the man, the lowly man of grace, walking in this world. Not at the end of his pathway, crowned with a crown of thorns hanging on a cross of shame.
Good to always go back to those things in our souls. But we look up by faith and we behold the Lord Jesus where he is now as a glorified man. And so it tells us in the end of Second Corinthians chapter 3.
We all with open face, beholding us in a glass, the glory of the Lord.
Are changed into the same image from glory to glory and isn't a wonderful thing that we can look up. We don't see him physically the way the disciples saw him John said our eyes have seen and our hands have handle of the word of life. Wonderful privilege. You think oh tremendous to see the Lord Jesus walking here and to observe first hand those moral glories that radiated from everything he said and did and.
His perfect spirit and attitude, and those little flashes of glory that were even beyond that, and so on. But brethren, we have something even far greater. We can look up and be occupied with a glorified man at the right hand of God.
We don't see yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor and where he is now. God's Amen to the work of Calvary. God has honored His Son and glorified the one who glorified him on the earth.
00:15:11
Now the question is, in a practical sense, how much are we occupied with the person of Christ and those glories? And then to think that when we see Him another day, we're going to see Him not as He was, brethren.
But first, John Three tells us we're going to see him as he is. And when he comes back and heaven opens up, He's coming back and all heaven and all earth is going to see him. But we're going to see him and be like him because we're going to see him as he is again, not as the lowly man here, but we're going to see him as the glorified man and there unhindered, be occupied with those glories. But he wants us to be occupied with those glories now and in this next section.
As we mentioned this morning, in the measure in which we are occupied with Christ as to where He is now, and those glories that are his and the glorified man at the right hand of God, in that measure there will be something of the glories of Christ reflected in your life and mind, that others might see Christ in US.
Absolutely.
Bruce, do you have a thought on that?
It's our, uh, our acceptance in in Christ, is it not as he is now before God?
And and that position of acceptance and enjoying the favor of God upon him. So are we down here in this world because we're accepted in the beloved and that's.
Beyond judgment, yes. Beyond judgment as much as Jesus is beyond judgment, yes. And the fact that he has been accepted back there as the glorified man is the proof of our acceptance before God.
And the assurance that we're going to be there in the glory. I sometimes said the the resurrection, the ascension and glorification of Christ are God's. Amen to the work of Calvary. And if you and I ever doubt that we're accepted before God, just look at what He has done in glory, raising his Son and glorifying him at his own right hand. If he could not accept us now, he would have to reject his own beloved Son.
That is impossible. Just like to read that verse that Brother Clem refers to. 1St John 417 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment like you say it. We're beyond judgment because as He is, so are we in this world.
As we go on to this next section and as we said this morning, it's really the, uh, Christ, uh, glorified in the, uh, glorified in the Saints. It's a very searching thing, isn't it? To realize that all that this world is going to see of Christ today is what manifested in the believers life is what's manifest in your life and mine. When the Lord Jesus walked here in this world, as we said, those moral glories shone out, emanated from him.
With every step and every breath and every word.
But the Lord Jesus isn't here in this world the way he was, as we mentioned this morning.
The hour has come that He has departed out of the world unto the Father. It was in anticipation here.
But a moment did come when his feet left the Mount of Olives. The cloud received him out of their sight, and they saw him no more.
But, brethren, you and I have been left here to represent Christ in this world.
00:20:02
And has the world seen something of Christ in your life and mine today?
I know it's a little different but just turn to a verse or two in Philippians chapter 2.
Philippians chapter 2 and verse 15.
That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life.
Where if you, I believe the real thrust of this word like is illuminators. And an illuminator is something that has no light of itself. It reflects the light of another. The word the moon is an illuminator. It reflects the light of the sun. And just by the way, it only reflects the light of the sun in the measure in which the earth, the world does not come between it and the sun. And that's a good practical lesson in another subject, but.
I just want to point out that you and I are called on to shine in that way in this world.
That is to reflect something of the glories of Christ in your life and mine.
And what is it that's going to cause us to reflect those glories? It's to walk through this world as a sanctified people.
In obedience to the truth of God, occupied with Christ and His glory.
And Christ and where he is now. Yes, we need to go back to the Gospels.
He's left us an example that we should follow in his footsteps and so on. But we also need to look up, brethren, and we need to see where he is now, not the man walking in this world in lowliness and grace, but to see Him as a glorified man. And if you and I do that in the measure in which we do, there will be the unconscious reflection of Christ in your life and mind. And the so others look on and they see Christ.
When the early disciples were in the presence of the Lord, they came out and it says they took knowledge of them.
That they had been with Jesus. It's searching, isn't it, as we embark on this section.
To search our own hearts and say, in what measure have you and I?
Reflected something of the glories of Christ. This section, I say again, is Christ.
Glorified in the Saints were still in this world and were here to be a reflection of the glories of Christ.
And so he wants us to know that. And the Lord Jesus prays if we're going to have such a responsibility in this world, we need to be prepared for it. And we can't really prepare ourselves by something we within ourselves can generate. I can't generate light. I can't generate love within myself. But if I am to manifest as a child of God what God is to my fellow man.
I am to express what he is light and love.
That's why, for example, in Revelation chapter 2 when it speaks of Ephesus it and he tells them he said you've left your first love. Why does he say that to them? Because they were a Candlestick with the responsibility to display what God was in the world.
And if they themselves did not have within them.
That love of the Father and of God, they couldn't display it to somebody else.
And as a consequence, he warns them to repent, because if they did not, then they could not fulfill their responsibility as a light bearer, and he would put them aside. And in fact, that will be the end of the Christian testimony on earth, because it has not been a responsible witness to God of his light and of His love, but.
John's first epistle.
Teaches us that when we are occupied with the Lord Jesus and with the Father.
Then the love and the light of which God is the source flows into us and can be displayed from us. And so when it says, for example, in first John, herein is the love of God perfected in US, we're not the source of divine.
00:25:17
Love, but we are a channel of it, we are a recipient of it, and as it flows into us, so it can be displayed from our lives. And the Lord Jesus here was speaking to the Father.
In preparation for his own to receive, they had received from himself that which they would have to make known to others. I can't make something known to you that I haven't received already myself.
We have to receive it from God and then it may be displayed to another.
Was the Lord Jesus walking in the.
Consciousness of his Father's love that made this world completely unattractive to him. There's nothing that appealed in this world to him. Why not? Because he had been in the Father's bosom from all eternity. He knew that love which you mentioned this morning, Don, about the love of the Father and the love of the world. Let's read that in second John or second chapter first John.
Because I think that's such a practical point for us all in connection with the world we're passing through. You know that there are things in this world that attract your attention.
Young people, older people too let's not exempt ourselves in it we all there are things in this world that are attractive to us why do they attract us notice in first John two and.
Verse.
16.
All that is in the world, the lust.
Excuse me, it's verse 15. Love. Not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
Any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Either you enjoy the love of the world or you enjoy the love of the Father in the Lord Jesus. We see one who walked down here in this world completely in the enjoyment of His Father's love and how he passed through this world. It's just as amazing to me, brethren, how little things materially he had.
Only thing I can come up with when I think of what the Lord possessed materially as his clothes.
Which they took away when they cruised, when they crucified him. But why didn't he have a house? Maybe he did have a house to live in a certain time of his life when he was a Carpenter. But he doesn't say he had his own house. He didn't have any animal to to ride when it came to fulfilling the scriptures to come into the, uh, city of Jerusalem on a Asus coal to fulfill the scriptures, he had to borrow 1.
Why didn't we have anything?
There was a man who was a perfect stranger down here. What made him a stranger down here? It was his father's love, the enjoyment of his father's love. He'd been up there in his father's bosom and he was down here now, and he displayed, like you said, on the Father's love. And oh, if we would enjoy that more. Brethren, we are loved with an everlasting love. Nothing can ever change that love towards you and me.
Our enjoyment of that love varies.
But that love never varies. Just like the sunshine, it always shines. Sometimes the clouds get in between and we don't enjoy the sunshine. The sun is always shining. And so it is with the love of the Father. He and we need to learn to walk in the enjoyment of that love. I fail so often. Does He still love me? Yes, He always loves us. Sometimes He cannot manifest His love towards us.
00:30:03
But he still loves us just the same. Oh, brethren, that's the kind of God we have been brought to know.
Through the Lord Jesus.
Like to say this too. It's very important I believe, and that is in scripture the Father and the world are set in opposition to each other. Why it's over the sun?
The world says we will not have this man. The Father says he is mine, I will have nothing else. And consequently the Father and the world are set in opposition. And you and I make choices in our lives concerning that matter. Do I take the side with the Father and say I want the Son? Or do I take the side with the world that says we will not have this man who doesn't even recognize him as the Son?
Just this man, and consequently it teaches us like in Two Corinthians.
If you want to have the Father says, come out from among them, and be ye separate, sayeth the Lord, and I will be a father unto you. Why the separation? Why the sanctification between the two? Because I'm either going to choose to have my fellowship with the Father in my life here and with his son, or I'm going to choose to have my fellowship with a world that will not have him.
And we make that choice in a practical way. Young people, middle age-old people, all of us are making the choice practically. Do I want the father's fellowship or do I want the world's fellowship?
And it's a matter, it's an issue that is well though I go with the Father and have the Son, or will I go with the world and not have the Son in my practical life? So positionally we couldn't belong to the world and the sun both. And that's what he's going to take up here, this positional sanctification. There are several things that characterize those that the Lord Jesus prays for here.
One is that they know the Father. We took that up at some length this morning.
The other one is that they've been drawn out of the world. And so he takes that up in this sixth verse where he says, I have manifest thy name unto the men which thou gave us, me out of the world. And so we were part of this world, brethren. We followed the course of this world at one time as we get in another portion. But brethren, we don't belong to this world anymore. They are not of this world even as I am not of this world, he says later on.
We have been completely detached from this world in every way other than the fact that we are still physically here on this planet.
But in every other way, as now having been belonging to the Father and having been given by the Father to the Son, you and I have been sanctified or set apart, detached from this world in every way. And it's important to understand that positionally, if we're going to act on it practically, why is it so often our hopes and our goals and our aspirations are centered in this world?
Why is it so often we become worldly minded Christians? Perhaps it's because we don't really realize that in belonging to the Father and having been given to the Son we are, our goals are aspirations.
Are not connected with this world. We do not belong to this world. We are a heavenly people set aside ultimately for His pleasure and glory.
And I think sometimes we forfeit the enjoyment of the Father's love because of a desire to enjoy in some little measure perhaps that we don't think too evil the love of the world. You, you cannot do that. It doesn't work. You will not enjoy the love of the Father and the measure that you are enjoying in some little facet, the love of the world.
Those two things are mutually exclusive.
If we find that quite clearly represented, don't we in verses 13 to 19?
00:35:43
It's wonderful and we're going to pray for somebody to be able to pray for them in their connection with.
The Father with our God.
Speaking to a brother this morning and.
Uh, the question of children came up and teenage children, which the brother has at the present time and uh, recognition as a father and certainly those of us that have had teenage children recognize love very completely.
In imperfection as a as a parent, but it's wonderful when we are going to bring our children before the Lord, that we bring them before him.
According to the greatness of his love and care for them.
Not on the basis of the amount that we have for them, but on the basis of their relationship and his love for them. Do I depend on my love for my children or do I depend on God's love as the basis for the blessing of my children? And so the Lord Jesus here, when he is going to speak about the disciples and then about us, who would believe what laid her down? In the chapter, he says they're dying.
And their mind. And so he brings before the father the common relationship.
That they have with respect to the ones that He prays for. And so, brethren, how precious that is for our sake. But it's also a pattern for us as well to recognize that when we care about something and someone and some need, that when we are going to bring it before our God as our Father, we can bring it as a common interest and having a common relationship.
Concerning that need and that person, and we can do so with confidence.
So to the parent, just in the same sense, and he speaks to the Lord, he says, umm, verse 9 for them which thou hast given me.
In our chapter losing that well for a parent.
Lord, you have given me this child to raise for yourself. Can we not approach them the throne of grace on that foundation and say, Lord, this is one that you have given me. They came from you and so in that way they're from you and you might say draw upon the we share together in this matter and have confidence in the love his love.
For those that we love and their blessing and their good.
What a beautiful example.
A prayer for us as we see the Savior's prayer to the Father. And to go back just for a moment, I was thinking of first John chapter 2 and, uh, maybe 3 verses there just a, as a little appeal to our hearts. And we mentioned there's about 50% of us here that are young people too. And I think this will, uh, touch the hearts of so many of the dear young people.
As we look at these verses just in this light, verse 15 of.
First John chapter, chapter 2.
00:40:00
But to read this a little slowly, and perhaps seek to take it in a little bit. The plea here? Love not the world.
That's one thing neither the things that are in the world.
And then notice the next sentence here. If any man love the world, the love of the Father.
Is not in him all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes.
And then notice the pride of life.
Is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof.
But he that doeth the well of God abideth forever.
Need there be any comment beyond the perfection of scripture as we read these profound words?
But Brother Larry, could you break down just a little bit more as to the difference between what it is to love not the world and the things that are in the world? What is the difference here?
Perhaps someone can help us on that a little bit. Uh, I guess I'm thinking of, uh, loving the world as a whole. And, uh, it was the world that cast him forth as a little poem and saw him.
Crucified, put away, will not have this man to reign over us. But then if it's not the world as a whole that way, what about those things that may be innocent in themselves that can so take our time. We can make idols, for example, out of the our possessions, materialism that can so easily get a hold of us. And how sad it is when the things of this life have such a grip on our on us that.
We have little time to do that which is so necessary with each one of us, and that is the daily reading of His Word and prayer. These are very basic, simple, but precious important things with us.
Uh, I think of that verse, if any if except thou speak unto us, we be as those that go down to the pit and just in that simple way to see that we need that daily adjustment of the word of God to keep us from the uh.
From the things that are in the world as well as the world itself. Perhaps someone can help us with some more on that. Uh, I don't know if that answers part of it only.
World is that system that has been developed so that man can be comfortable and at ease outside of the presence of God. And it started with Cain when he went out of the presence of the Lord and built the city and equipped it so that he would not supposedly need God. The things that are in the world, they have often been suggested, and I think it is.
Something to consider that those 3 categories that are mentioned, the lust of the flash is sometimes what uh the enemy of our souls uses more in youth and the lust of the eyes more in mid age and the pride of life and and those who are older.
Although they all affect all of us, I'm sure we can say that there are things that are used to draw away, like you say, Larry, and to attract our hearts in a different direction than what attracts the heart of God. And it will not satisfy like it says, the world passes away and it's lust view, short ears. It'll all be gone, all be gone. But he that does the will of God.
Abides forever. I'm struck with the remark that and in the day in which we live, where we have.
Uh, recession and the, the problems with things as far as money is concerned. But there were three men that came to mind. One of them was, uh, Ernie Madoff and we probably know who that is. And then we think of, uh, Howard Hughes and I think another one was, uh, Getty, uh.
These men were all very wealthy men, but one day, uh, each one of them had a have a sad ending, very sad ending. And someone at a very rich man was, had passed away and the relatives were waiting.
00:45:02
With the lawyer to see how much was he worth. And they asked the lawyer that question, well, how much is he actually worth? What are we going to get? How much did he leave us?
And the lawyer wisely said he left everything. He left every. He left it all. And so it is with those things down here. We're gonna leave it off. And what a loss. What a grand larceny to our soul it is when the things of this world have a place in our hearts.
It might be helpful just to say without digressing, that the world in Scripture and in this chapter is taken up in three different ways, three different contexts. And it's helpful when you go through a chapter like this to notice the different ways it's taken up. Sometimes the world is referred to as the physical planet on which we live. And so the Lord Jesus was in the world. He came to this world. We read in another place. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
He came to this globe, this planet on which we live in incarnation.
But when it says in John three, God so loved the world, if I can speak reverently, he didn't love a planet.
No, it's the people in the world. And so sometimes when you read the word world, it has to do with the people that inhabit this planet. And sometimes has been said it has to do with a system of things that has been set up by by man in independence of God, of which Satan is the God and Prince. He's the God of this world religiously and he's the Prince of this world politically.
Just for sake of remembering it, if you can remember it this way, there is the planet, the people, and the program, and the world is taken up in those three different ways, and you get all three in this chapter.
To prepare the disciples.
For the time of his absence, that they may be kept.
And be witnesses for him of his glory. It's interesting to see through the chapter, uh, a threat of things. First of all, in verse two, he gives them eternal life. And to quote James Harvey, he said that the eternal life is an out of this world condition of things.
And what he meant by that, as I understand it, is that eternal life gives us the capacity to enjoy things that the Father and the Son who are out of this world have enjoyed for all eternity.
And to have communion with those persons with regard to those things.
And so that is one of the things that is going to keep us a sanctified people in this world to enjoy the things that are in heaven that the Father and the Son enjoy.
Then secondly, we find that He gave them in verse four a perfect example. I have glorified thee on the earth. They walked with Him through those years when He was out in His ministry, and they saw a perfect example of how they should be.
As witnesses in this world. As strangers.
And then in verse six we find that He manifested the Father's name to them. The idea of the name is usually the thought of the character, the very character of the Father himself.
Was made known to them and his life and ministry.
And then in verse eight we find that he says He gave unto them the words which the Father gave to him, and they received those words and have known.
That he came out from the Father, and so he gave them.
The words, the truth, the various teachings that, uh, they heard from his lips. And then in verse nine, we find that he begins to pray for them now.
In, a number of requests are made with regard to them being kept.
But I just think it's beautiful to think of that, that the Lord has done the same for us. We have eternal life. We have the perfect example for us. We can read the scriptures and there His life is recorded for us.
We too have known the Father, and we also have his words.
And so he has fully prepared us for this scene. I think it's wonderful that we can, uh, have these things and then to realize that the, the elements that he we find here in the prayer for the disciples, of course, have every application to ourselves as we pass through this world as well.
00:50:21
Because we add 2, the one we have the world, especially in John's gospel. The great thought of it is it has to do with the rejection of the sun. Go back to chapter 16 for that.
In verse 8.
When he that is the spirit of God is come, he will reprove the world of sin. Verse nine of sin because they believe.
Not on me. That is the presence of the Spirit of God.
Brings the demonstration, brings to light three things that he's here in the world and the fact that the Spirit of God is here.
Bring his demonstration to this world of sin, because the Son is here no longer.
And the sun has been rejected. And so sometimes we take up this idea of the world as well. That's, uh, uh, drinking and carousing and all the rest. But we find has been mentioned the world system. What is so awful about it is the sun has been rejected. Be it lowlife for the highlight, it's the world and it's rejected the sun. And that's what the great sin of this present evil world is. We see in Cain's world a very wicked city that developed and built up that God brought down in judgment, but.
Today the world is seeing the rejection of the sun. I'd just like to read another verse.
I'd like to try to balance out my brethren, but one that might be a question in our minds in First Corinthians Chapter 7.
We're told not to love the world and we see that world system of things that has rejected the sun. But what about the things of the world? First Corinthians Chapter 7 and verse 33 But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world. How he may please his wife. It would be a sorry husband that never sought to please his wife and things that are in the world.
Because he cares for them. A husband that did not show his wife his kindness and consideration was is not a uh, and there's not a spiritual man.
He is a man that is not showing proper kindness and care. So there are things in the world and that we are to care for them. But here we have the displacement of the sun, whether it's the world or things that are in the world, irrespective, are they good? Are they bad? It's of the world that's rejected Christ. And so that's the, I believe the great point, especially in John's ministry, they rejected the Son and the Father.
On verse 11 he says I am no more in the world, but these are in the world. That is the Lord Jesus as Bob mentioned this morning.
Can speak of and does speak from the point of view that the work of the cross I have finished the work which now gave us to me to do, he says before. Means that he's looking at this point as the work of the cross is done and now he's returning to the Father.
And in this prayer. And so he says, I'm no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee.
Then it's to me, it's helpful for us to notice it says Holy Father.
He introduces that character of the Father. Holy Father, keep through thy own name. That is, he's going to make a request of a Holy Father to keep the children in that same position of separation and holiness from what they are going to face. And so again, we draw upon our God in our prayers.
On the basis of that which He has promised or provided for his people, and that's their position before Him. And so we may address him as a Holy Father and ask of him on that basis to do that which would preserve His people in that character that is consistent with Himself.
Like to mention, uh, thought that, uh, I enjoyed a number of years ago, this chapter was taken up and uh, in verse 9 when he says, I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me for they are thine.
00:55:11
It's in contrast with what will happen in the future day in the book of the Psalms, Psalm 2, he says.
The Father says to the son, Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. So that was what was due to him, since he came as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Was a claim to be the king of the Jews, but here he recognizes.
That the time had not come when he would ask for the world. He was asking for those that were given to him out of the world, his own people. And I think that is beautiful if we can.
See that? What is it that interests God in this world? It's His people and brethren. There's nothing that gives quite so much joy in traveling from 1 Country to another to meet up with the Lord's people to see how the Lord is caring for them and working with them and allowing trials in their lives. This is recently in South America and I went across the Andes range between Argentina and Chile.
You go by the highest point in the Western Hemisphere, Mountain Gaga. Very interesting to see it.
That's interesting, yes, but what really interests you, what really I enjoy, brother, is being with the Lord's people. There is nothing that compares with that.
Sometimes, you know, you take pictures and I have noticed.
That the pictures of scenery are pretty well passed over. Come to pictures of the Lord's people. There's where you find something interesting.
God's interests are in his people in this world.
And that's what it was with the Lord Jesus. He didn't pray for the world. He will get the world in a future day.
You will ask and it will be given to him, but here was not the time. He prays for his own.
The Lord Jesus never solicited the prayers of his own, did he? He prayed for them. And the other thing that's striking and noticing the times the Lord prays in the Gospels is he never prays with the disciples. He teaches them to pray, He prays for them, He prays alone. He went up the mountain alone to pray and so on. But he remains distinct and apart in that way. But here it's beautiful, isn't it, to see?
Something that seems overwhelming. There's no perhaps greater comfort than to hear someone say, I'm praying for you, I'm really praying for you. And you know, the hearts of the disciples on this occasion were troubled. You get that? In the 14th chapter, they thought of the Lord going away and leaving them in a wicked world and to face the situations of life as they thought alone and so on. And to hear him say, I pray for them, what a comfort that must have been. But brethren.
Far greater comfort than our brethren saying I'm praying for you.
Is to look up this afternoon and realize there's one praying for us. He's praying for us every hour of every day.
As we mentioned this morning, as our high priest, he's praying for us that we might be preserved in the path of faith and service. Is that a comfort and a consolation to us? Does that give us courage to face?
What may seem overwhelming on the horizon, I have no doubt there are brethren here, and your hearts are overwhelmed to think of what you're gonna have to face if the Lord leaves us here and we go home the first of the week, you say. Wonderful to have this little time and this little Oasis away from the world and all of it. But I've got to go home and face it. If the Lord doesn't come, remember, he's praying for you just as he was praying for the disciples whose hearts were very troubled.
01:00:07
So he's praying for you. Is your heart troubled? Is my heart troubled? Sometimes it is, But just look up and realize he's praying for us and he's there at the right hand of God. He's there at the place of power, and he has a continual priesthood.
And he's praying for us as our advocate, too. When we make mistakes, when we fall, he's there. He prays for us. Sometimes people get discouraged. They say I messed up some things so badly. Don't ever think that he's praying for you and he can lift you up again.
We see here too in the blessed Lord, the heart of the shepherd, thinking of the 23rd Psalm. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not walk and so on. But also we we read in Ephesians four of the uh.
Some, uh, profits, some pastors and teachers and so on there. I'm not quoting that quite correctly, but I was struck with something there that when it came to there's a semi colon in the King James Version between.
These different ones until you come to the pastors and teachers and I thought about a pastor's heart, a connection with a teacher to be an effective teacher, it seems that we must have a set have a a shepherd's heart, a pastor's heart. And we see that here with the blessed Lord. And so the apostle could say, Umm, ye there are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
And so the exercise might be there for the dear Galatians who perhaps, uh, boasted of spirituality. Uh, he could say to them either their spiritual restore, such a one is their restoration is there considering ourselves unless we also be tempted and often think of a little hymn, Uh, tell me the old, old story when you have cause to fear that this world's empty glory is costing.
Me too, dear. And so it is, beloved brethren, as we look at one another and know, as we sang that little hymn, prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. Do we tell the old, old story? Do we .1 another to Christ? Do we seek to restore a soul of one who is getting away from the Lord? And how precious it is with the we see the ministry of Christ and the effect that it has on us to separate us from this world, to sanctify us.
From a world that is trying away with them.
264.
264.