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Lord, thou had drawn after him, I'll let him cry.
My grandmother's come from the beginning, but I fell by her whole thighs falling in his eyes, and I left her. Yes.
All right.
Make you feel like a while I'm a wonderful day in the business you know everything depends on.
Everything.
I think it's like a.
And.
I've been to any hearts in the world.
I can learn her to spill her extremely.
And, well, it's about the same on every great fire.
Reach on 17 together.
John's Gospel.
Chapter 17.
These words speak Jesus. And lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come. Glorified thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee, that thou has given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many.
Hast thou hast given Him, and this is life eternal, that they might know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work which Thou gave us me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thy own self, with the glory.
Which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested Thy name unto the man which Thou gave us me out of the world thine they were, and Thou gave us them to 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 has given me. For they are thine, and all minds are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now.
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I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to the Holy Father. Keep through thy own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are, 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 song of perdition, such a scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to Thee. And these things I speak in the world, that I might have my joy fulfilled in them, in themselves. I have given them Thy word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world. Even if I am not of the world, I pray not that Thou should 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. And as Thou hast sent me into the world, Even so have I also sent them into the world. And for that, for their sakes, I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
But for them also which shall be leave on me to the world, that they all may be one, as Thy Father are in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in US, that the world might believe that our standing and the glory which thou giveth me, I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one.
I in them endow in me, that they may be made perfect in one.
And not the world we know Thou hast sent me and have loved them as Thou has loved me. Father, I will that they also whom Thou has given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which Thou hast given me. For Thou loveth me before the foundation of the world. All righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee.
We have known that thou has sent me, and I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love will win. Thou hast loved. Thee may be in them, and I in them.
When a marvellous unfolding.
Of the heart result we have here. And uh, it has been said, I preach the prayer of the Lord just on the threshold of his return to the glory and, uh, bringing before us, uh, his intercession for us.
In all our weakness down here.
The provision that he has made, the object that we have in a glorified stripes.
A divine light, a very light of the Lord Jesus. The Lord said, as I said, the intersection of the Lord for us, our oneness with him.
In testimony.
Communion, glory, all of these things.
Unfolded in such a marvelous way in this day.
Prayer of the Lord.
So I have a a question. This, umm, glorifying the sun that the sun might glorify the Father is in connection with verse two and the giving of eternal life. It's not the work of the cross glorifying the Father on the cross, but glorifying him.
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In the sun, giving eternal life.
That's how I take it. So would we draw from this?
That eternal life was not something given or known until after.
The sun was glorified.
I suppose we could say it was not known by us or by man in.
First John. John's first epistle in the first chapter may be one of the earliest, uh, references to eternal life.
In verse 2 The life was manifested and we have seen it.
And bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, manifested unto us.
So.
When we read John's gospel, we read early on, and him was life, and in the character of eternal life it was in him exclusively. All others were not in possession of it until the work of Calvary was accomplished and then what joy to.
The father and to the son to have that life now able to be communicated.
And the epistle, John's first epistle, takes up the manifestation of that life in you and me.
Where it says which things are true of him and of you.
And and lo and behold, when that life is manifested in you and me, what does it look like?
Looks like that one that walked here and was always the delight of his father.
So people are confused about.
Life as it was possessed by Old Testament Saints.
They had faith and therefore they had life. But until the incarnation of God's beloved Son and the work he accomplished on Calvary's cross, I'm not sure we could ever say that a man or woman from Adam's seed possessed eternal life.
Now you and I will put our trust in Him, a fellowship with the Father and with the Son, and we enjoy eternal life.
I was just going to look at the same verse. I'm glad you mentioned that, Bruce, that life was with the Father.
So what has happened now is that?
As Paul tells us, life and immortality have come to light in the gospel, so light is shed on that eternal light that was with the Father from the beginning.
I was noticing in that, John.
Chapter 10.
And 1St.
10 down, 1010.
The Lord Jesus, He says to thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.
I am calm that they might have life and that they might have it.
Abundantly, I see Mr. Darby leaves out the word more.
So we see apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is no life.
You could say I am the life. He that hath his Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. It's so simple. So apart from Christ there's no life. And he was manifested.
And he is delight. And how wonderful that we're talking here about not simply a quantity of life. You know, we think of eternal life perhaps as being dead.
Which goes on and on and on.
It's forever.
With respect to quantity, but here we have quality because it tells us here in verse three, what is this eternal life? It is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ.
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Who he has said now wonderful that you and I would have the privilege.
Two.
No, God, I had a man asked me one time.
It was at the town dump and I helped him put his trash into the bin and he said to me, do you know God?
I said I know God and he looked at me and thought, do you know what you're talking about?
Well, you know, you and I by grace have been brought to know the only true God and.
The wonder and the beauty of it, it just goes on and on and on forever.
To become better acquainted with God. And it's through the Word of God Bible that we come to know God and Jesus Christ who he has sent. So the Lord Jesus Christ is, I believe, God in human form.
The perfect expression of the fog.
The Lord Jesus could say that I've been given a commandment what to say and what to speak. He didn't speak from himself, but He spoke what was giving Him to say the message.
From Father he brought it here to earth, and not only the message, but the very words to convey the message, word for word.
He spoke the words that were given him of the Father. We have the perfect expression of the Father.
In his son, the Lord Jesus.
And maybe if we are delight, I'm better acquainted with the Father and with the Son. There's an encouraging verse in Jeremiah. Chapter 9 doesn't go to the same full extent that we have here in John 17, but verse 24 of Jeremiah says, But let him that glorious glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me.
That I am the Lord. And then it goes on further. It tells us something about Him. It says which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these things I delight, saith the Lord.
I believe this chapter in in the Lord's Prayer, they are in the expound more to us. We put redemption truly is sometimes we look at redemption work as in a one phase of our salvation. I I'm just going to point out the highlights. I know others can expand on this better. We find there are perhaps seven different things in regard to our redemptive work that the Lord has mentioned in this book here. So we find in the, uh, third verse there, it seeks of our salvation. So we just finished talking about the eternal life.
In regard to our salvation.
That we find in verse six there there is a little thing called manifestation and a manifest thy name unto the man. That's part of redemption work, isn't it? That he manifests our name unto the world. Then we'll find the third thing. It speaks of redemption. We see that in verse nine. He pray not for the world, but for them that the Lord that God has given me and for the design. Now it's interesting too. You see the word.
We were live in the world, given and uh, uh, the word.
Words in past and present tense and you can look at the words more carefully. And the 4th, So I mentioned one was salvation, the second was manifestation.
Earnest retention. The 4th we find in the 11Th verse is identification, that He can say we are one with Him, we can be identified with Him, and he want us.
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To be with Him as He is. And then we find that we know that we are here. Part of the redemption work is in verse 12. That's the fifth thing that we know that He prays for us. That's the preservation, isn't it? That He prayed that we will be kept, kept by this word. And then the 6th would be further down in verse 17. Verse 17 to 19, we find that.
He speaks of sanctification. We have been set aside to incentivize and then towards a lot of part of the chapter from verse 24 on this glorification.
So I can sum it up. I know sometimes people accuse us for saying things so quickly that it will get what all these things are. So the first one is salvation, the second one is manifestation, the third is redemption.
The 4th is identification to be one with him, the 5th is preservation, the 5th specification, and the 7th is glorification.
So we don't have a lot of time if we just are gonna have this reading on John 17. So it's jumping ahead, but another question.
Oftentimes in connection with.
The truth of being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
John 17 has been referred to that the Lord prayed that they all might be one, and yet I don't think John really takes up church truth. So in what way is oneness taken up in this chapter?
And how is it different than how Paul takes it up in the truth of the church as one body, many members united to Christ in heaven?
The simplest answer to that is.
And of course this prayer of Jesus was answered. You often hear people, uh, saying, oh, if only Jesus prayer was answered, that we all might be one leave Paul and Paul and John and John, as you're saying, uh, this prayer has been answered. Jesus asked that that spirit by which he did everything that he did on earth might be the intimate possession of every member of his body.
And until there was a man in the glory, the Spirit could not be given to come down to earth to indwell his body. The moment there was a man in the glory and Jesus request was heard, I will ask the Father and he shall give you that spirit. That spirit came and that united head in heaven, body on earth, so that when the head thinks they thought you get it, you get it. I get it if I'm listening.
So.
We are intimately connected to Jesus and we are one. There is one body. That's Paul's ministry. But there is a connection here, and I'm glad you're bringing this up.
Perhaps I can use up for the illustration. I'm thinking the younger ones here and perhaps they can appreciate this. I don't know if you remember there were times that you've done something terrible and your parents say to you go to your room and perhaps you might even go to the extreme that no suffer so at the.
Dinner table, not one who stay in the room is not present at the table to be part of the family, to be put away, as it were, set aside to his room. And we know that they are part of the family. In fact, as parents, I'm sure that afterward we still go up there and say to that wayward child that we love him and that he is part of the family and the discipline is part of the process, isn't it? So we are one. There is the one body.
One truth that one of the one of the many truths that the apostle Paul.
Run out. As part of this doctrine, there is one body with no denial of it. Would every member of the body walk the same way? Perhaps not, but it doesn't change the fact that there is one body guided by the one Spirit.
And serving 1 Lord.
Paul teaches that the Spirit of God-given by the ascended Christ unites the children of God together into one.
We're not united merely because we have faith. Old Testament Saints had faith, but they weren't united in the way you and I are.
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The Spirit of God-given to us when we believe the gospel of our salvation is individuals, we're sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise and we're united together into one body of which Christ is the is the head. That's Paul's doctrine. But in John it's more of the display of what has come down from God himself and displayed here in this world. And so similarly the life that we possess now and the oneness in answer to your question, I think.
Is that we possess the life and nature of his son. And so the oneness there is like the oneness I see looking across the little hallway here. I see some oneness there because there's family connection. You're you're one and we've been brought into God's family and we share that nature. Peter says we've been made partakers of the divine nature. And John communicates that that corn of wheat having now fall into the ground, it doesn't abide alone anymore.
It's bringing forth much fruit. You and I are part of that fruit, and the fruit reproduces according to its kind, and the kind that is reproduced in you and me is Christ.
That eternal life shown now in myriads of men and women and boys and girls all over this earth, different languages, cultures, countries. And this is for God's glory, the proof of the value of his finished work. One of the proofs, as I'm digressing just a little bit, if the Lord leave us here tomorrow morning, we have the privilege to remember him. And often we use the phrase we'll go to meetings. Well, it's more than that, isn't it? We go to remember the Lord.
But that's also the expression. We know where to show his death. But then on that table there was one loaf.
Expression of the one body is the testimony that we believe there is one body. But you say, well, there are certain Christians that we we're not in fellowship with. Well, the expression is there, isn't it? That is still represented there. We believe there is one body. So some we may not be able to show the fellowship with. But then there's the other aspect too. Who's watching it? It's not a public world display to show them to brag about what we believe and know. It's a quiet testimony.
But yet in the meantime, someone else is watching too. The Lord is watching. It's a Thanksgiving. We have to return back to God. What do we come and do it? Because by doing so, we have a special blessing. You know, it's a Thanksgiving from our heart. That's why we ought to be there. But most of this one body, someone else is watching. Why do the sisters have head coverings on? Well, we know if that's because of the angels, do you think they too are watching? Yes, they are.
Which angels are watching? The good, the bad, the fallen? Oh, I believe they're all watching. That's a testimony to the power of darkness as well that we believe is 1 by.
We just had two to say. As far as the question that you asked Steve about this being used in connection with, umm, the truth that there is one body, well, the truth of being gathered to the Lord's name.
I think it's been brought out pretty well that this isn't the UMM.
Speaking of the body of Christ here, but the family of God instead, and it's very parallel in that regard and can be used.
The diverse that's here in verse 23, we're really starting verse 22 and the glory which thou gave us, 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 that the world they know.
Thou had sent me, and this loves them, and Thou has loved me. Now if that's Speaking of family oneness, it's, it's been brought before us and I believe it is.
Certainly that was the intent, wasn't it?
There was to be a testimony that arose from that, that this family would appear before the world as one, and in that family oneness it would be a testimony that the Lord Jesus came from the Father would be a demonstration of the power of Christianity.
And there's no question that in the coming day, the world will see this.
And I think there's no question that in the early days of the church they did see it. But by and large in church history, the world has not seen this. At least I don't believe this has been apparent in the world. Those who take upon them in the name of Christ have not looked very much like one family times we have. But there's been much failure in this. And no doubt Satan went to work to attack this as quickly as he could so that this outward visible unity would not.
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Remain among believers and so the practical implications of it are very important for every one of us. How do we act towards one another?
While perhaps that family unity has been broken up and the church testimony has been ruined, maybe looking more at the body side, the outward appearance of the family side is life wise. Not as the Lord had prayed here, not as He desired. And.
We can't do anything about that corporately, but we can do something about it individually and the exercise about it. And so I do think it's a valid point to take up.
In uh, John chapter 13.
A read verse uh 31 and 32. Therefore when he was gone out, Jesus said, now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him? If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him.
Part of the fruit.
Of the work that the Lord Jesus has done to glorify God will be seen in a future time, not only in heaven, but on earth. And the Old Testament prophets spoke about this and in Psalm 110 comes to mind. Sit down with my right hand.
Done the work, sit down my right hand until I make thine enemies the footstool of my feet.
Until we read in Hebrews, we see not yet all things put under, but we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor. And so we're in this interlude, you and I living in this.
Piece of time between the sufferings of Christ and the glory that you follow. But is the Lord Jesus just? Is it just total suspension of activity? No, He's on high and he's now glorifying God. God has glorified him. In response, He's going to glorify God. How is he doing it?
Received the Spirit and given him down to man and we've received the Holy Spirit of God has different ramifications in our life practically and in reality. We're members of one body. We're part of God's family. That life is being reproduced in you and me hour by hour.
Sometimes hidden underneath a lot of other stuff and that's what's happening.
And so it's good to be mindful of this, that there's this ongoing work, this quiet work of fruit for Christ's glory. You know, it's you just think back the Spirit of Christ in in, in Psalms and the prophets. I've spent my strength for not I've labored in vain.
Their hands are nailed.
Call to your God, see if they'll help you.
And he did cry, and the heavens were his brass. Oh my God, I cry. And now answer is not. God is answering today. He's not answering with the manifestation of power in this world like he will in the coming day when every eye shall see him, the rising of the sun to the going down of the same. His name shall be great among all the nations because of Christ's work for God's glory. But in the meantime, he's on high and he's reproducing.
Out of a remnant, out of Israel and out of the nations.
A people for his name, that lo and behold, share his life and nature.
It it's this is a wonderful thing that's going on now. And yes, we have failed in our responsibility and testimony.
But we shouldn't fail in the manifestation of that life that we have. That's individual and can be collective too.
The brother may go somewhere that I don't go, and I go somewhere he doesn't go on the Lord's Day.
But, uh, it's the it's the guy down the hall sees him and knows he's a Christian and knows he's a Christian, and he sees a certain sameness in our attitude and character and the way we deal with others.
That's a testimony that we're part of the same family, the family of God, hopefully displaying that for his glory.
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While we're on the way home.
Like the base? Just a couple of general comments on verses 4:00 and 5:00.
Sometimes hear the expression, expression views, uh, acquired glory and essential glory. And I think that we have both of these pictured in these two verses. In verse five, we have the essential glory of the Lord Jesus.
And it says, And now our Father, glorify thou me.
Uh, with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world. And in connection with Joseph in Genesis chapter 37, we see Joseph's father providing him a coat of many colors that would speak of the very glorious and I believe the essential glories of the Lord Jesus. But if we go back to verse 4.
When the Lord Jesus says I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do, I believe that that would bring in the other aspect the acquired glories of the Lord Jesus and we have that answer to and Joseph and Genesis chapter.
UH-45 when Joseph gives instructions to his brother.
He says in verse 13, And ye shall tell my Father of all my glory in Egypt. So I believe that answers to the acquired glories of the Lord Jesus.
And wonder of wonders in Second Thessalonians chapter 2.
Sometimes young people say I'm saved. I know I'm saved, but now what? I just kind of.
Live my life. I'm peaceful. I have happiness to some extent. What, what, what, what now?
2nd Thessalonians 2, verse 13.
We are bound, Paul writes to the Thessalonians, newly converted. I believe we are bound to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you by our gospel. To what end? To the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren. And then there's some exhortation. Think of it.
He hasn't just saved us to deliver us from misery and stress and confusion here, but our destiny.
Is is to he's sharing the glories that he won as a victorious man. Those acquired glories he shares with us.
Perhaps you just a little quick note, this chapter is not what the Lord telling us, but we ought to do or what things are. This is him talking to the Father.
His prayer, that high priestly prayer as we mentioned, so we look at it from that perspective, we may see a little bit different results from that and talking to the Father concerning His own us.
Sometimes we insert ourselves too much, don't we David?
You know, we're like the family album comes out and the little child, he's looking at all the pictures. Is that me? Is that me? Is that me who wants to see himself? And we do that too much. In the Scriptures in Genesis 22, it says that Abraham left the servant and they went both of them together.
There's an aspect in all of this in Calgary in particular, where?
It's the Father and the Son. It's God and the man Christ Jesus, nobody else. I know there were other people there and we read of their response, but there's a certain part of it that we can just blur out of our vision at times and just see those two.
The one glorifying the other, the other. How do I respond to this?
The father looks down and sees all that his son has done.
And what does he say? He's raised them out from the among the dead by the glory of the Father, causes him to ascend, and puts him as man on his own throne.
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And you know, it's interesting, in John's Gospel, there are these things woven together where the sun and the majesty of his person has the right and authority to do certain things.
And that theme is you can trace that through John's gospel. I have power to lay my life down, and I have power to take it again. But then what is it? This commandment have I received from my Father.
And so we see him here and those things are woven together and even in these passages here as as Bruce has brought out so nicely. Verse five. And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
Didn't he have a right to just take that glory back, to pick it up again as he laid it down, as he veiled it? Really.
He leaves that to the Father. He the Son glorifies, not himself, we read in Hebrews, but he just presents himself, and God does it.
Beautiful. Perhaps with that in my case, with that view in mind, I'd like to restate this chapter again. We mentioned that his prayer to the Father for the chapter in a sense, if we divide it up into five different sections, may help us understand it a little bit easier because it it is a rather long chapter and some of the words seems to be repeated. But once we understand each section or the subsection is easier. So we just finished perhaps going through the 1St 5 verses. That's the first subcategory as if it were he talked about.
It's finished work, finished work that we have finished or about to finish. So that's what what he's mentioning to his father. And then from verse six to verse 10, we find that the Father's name is mentioned. So that's another topic by itself, the Father's name and the Father's gift. So we find that if we divide that, it makes us understand it a bit more. And then from verse 11 to verse 16.
You'll find that now He's thinking about us, He's praying to the Father concerning us, saying that we're not of the world, but we're to be kept while we are in this world. Or how precious that even before the suffering, these are just hours before His passion, that He still have us in mind. And then the fourth section would be from verse 17 to verse 21. You'll find that.
He sanctifies Himself so that He can sanctify us, and then from verse 22 to the end of the chapter that he mentioned about the glorification process.
It was helpful to me years ago, Brother said.
And Paul's ministry.
We're one body with Christ, united to Christ in heaven. But in John's ministry where one plant with the Lord, to me, that was just a little key that unfolded the difference between John and Paul's ministry. And so as members of the body of Christ, every one of us is unique and different. Everyone has a different gift. Everyone has a different function to supply to the whole.
That the body might be a display of Christ, our head in heaven here on this earth.
But in John's ministry was already referred to the Lord Jesus is seen as that corn of wheat falling into the ground to die, but springing up and bearing fruit. And what is on that stock of wheat?
Rows of wheat corns or kernels that are identical to the one that went into the ground. They each have life, but they only have life because they're attached to the stock. They grew up on it. They have the same life.
As the corn of wheat that fell into the ground and died and they look exactly like, and I know I'm touching on things already mentioned, exactly like the one that went in. And so in John's ministry and the one that's presented there is that we're all the same.
But Paul, we're all different.
But John, we're all the same.
All should be and we have the life to be exactly like the one who died and rose again. And so we come to 1St Corinthians chapter 12 and the gifts. And they say as we come to that gift called help, we can all be a help. No, you can't all be a help in Paul's ministry. That's a specific gift. Not everyone has it.
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We can all be helpful. That's right, that's John's ministry. We should all have that display of the life of Christ. We should all be helpful. You see the difference? That helped me a lot to see the distinction between Paul and John. One body with Christ have remembered different John, one plant with the Lord, everyone the same.
Now I have a question. I wanna go back to your questions please. Is this chapter the Oneness referring to the Church of?
The Lord's people and by distinguishing that may help us because we see him mention how he says the one that has been given to him, he prays that they may be one. So I believe that we're given these of those that he was working with at that time. And then we'll find toward the end, uh, of the chapter, umm, uh, in verse 20. I pray for, not for, I pray for these alone, but.
For them also, which shall believe on me through their work. So my question is the one, is it the Church?
I don't think so, although those that are contemplated certainly form the church and so this in that way there's an overlap, but that's not the intent of this chapter to take Paul's ministry up for that subject. So the first one that we get.
Is uh in verse 11.
Where he says, Holy Father, keep through thine own name those that thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are.
Who is he speaking about? He's speaking about the men that have been given to him out of the world. He's Speaking of the apostles specifically.
He was going to depart and they were going to be here and they were going to have to be one in their thoughts and their aims and their purpose, just as God the Father and God the Son were one. If there was going to be a testimony for Christ in this world, they and remarkably look at the apostles.
Outside of the the occasion where we read of Paul having to rebuke Peter because he was kind of getting off and he received it in Galatians, they remained one and their thoughts and their aim and their purpose and their devotedness to the Lord raped to death every single one of them. They never diverged from one another.
And so we turn over to 1St John in connection with that and the first chapter.
This is already referred to as well. Verse 2. For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard, we the apostles have seen and heard. Declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us, the apostle, and truly our fellowship.
Is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. That takes us to the next unity that you mentioned, Brother Dave, in verse 21 of our chapter. Those who would believe on the Lord through the word of the apostles.
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 has sent me, so there's the purpose of united testimony. But what is the oneness here?
There is a oneness between the father and the son because they have common appreciation and interest in one another. There is a appreciation and fellowship and and I know my words just fall so short.
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Of that life eternal, that is from a past eternity in the Godhead of mutual appreciation and love and delight in one another. And now the apostles are brought into it through their word. It spreads out. We are brought into it. We're brought into the enjoyment of life eternal, this fellowship and communion in the Godhead that always was. And so they are one in each other and their appreciation.
For each other and that love of the Father and the Son. And so he wants us to be one, He says in us. He wants us to delight in him. He wants us to enjoy his love for his Son. And the Son wants us to enjoy his love for the Father. And he brings us into this circle of love and fellowship through believing what the apostles preach. How important then the apostles doctrine.
John says if you go beyond this, you spoil it all.
Ruin it all and then the last Unity looks on to the future.
Verse 23.
I and them, and Thou and me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that Thou hast sent me and hast loved them as Thou hast loved me. The first one was.
A testimony that's going out now, but this is the future glory.
This is oneness and the perfection of coming glory and display before this world. God's going to bring us out. And I know it's a misapplication of Scripture, but behold, I and the children whom God hath given me.
So oneness in intelligence and Communion, oneness in testimony.
It's beautiful and and for you know, we have this saying in American slang that we'd be on the same wavelength. I don't wanna speak irreverently about these things, but God the father and the son they wanted to expand it that we might be quote on the same wavelength. We can appreciate the things that they appreciate. We at our measure they in fullness. We see something, we see some action.
We see some word. We see some alleged piece of wisdom.
We look at it and we think about it and we respond to it just the way they would. God desires that and in order that we can participate that way, sins put away, life communicated that we could be partakers of that life and enjoy those things that pertain to that life. In John's Gospel, it's it's striking that the sun is alone so often with people think of it.
John one, he, he's there. He he says. I knew you when you were under that tree.
He caught him when he was alone. He he communicated at a.
I know what you're thinking about. And then he's alone with Nicodemus. He's alone with a woman at the well.
The infinite man on and on he's alone. And so in in John's ministry and in John's Gospel as the start of it, we see it's the sun with individuals. There is the word we in the Epistle of John and in John Gospel, but it's Christ with individuals. Paul is the one to whom a dispensation was given. And to unfold the mystery of the church in its collective aspect as one body, but John is John.
Paul is Paul and if you're a a reader.
And you have, uh, J&D's, uh, letters start at the back if you haven't read them before. And there's some letters that he wrote in response, very end of his life.
And someone asked him, Brother Darby, what are you thinking about at the end of your life? And he said some very sweet things and you can read them. But one of the things he said almost as an appendix was, Oh yes, one other thing. I should not like to see the brethren lose hold of John in their zeal for Paul. He said, if I can remember it more or less well enough to, to paraphrase it, the one.
Gives uh, I can't recall it at the moment, but Paul basically takes man up and shows how he can be accepted by God and glorified. The other, that which is displayed God comes down and displaying it in the life of the sun. But you can read it for yourself. You know, this is kind of a digression, but first Chronicles chapter 12. I want to.
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Promise it will be short First Chronicles.
Young brothers, you're starting to study the word of God. That's wonderful. Young sisters, too. All of us, young and old, should be students of this precious book. First Chronicles 12. Now these are they that came to David, to Ziklag, while he yet kept himself close because of Saul, the son of Kish. And they were among the mighty men, helpers of the war. They were armed with bows and could use both the right hand and the left.
In hurling stones and shooting arrows out of a boat, brothers and sisters, we should not be specialists. Somebody sent me an e-mail about a month ago on that very topic that we should read the whole word of God and not.
Uh, and not encourage ourselves to be specialists in just certain lines of truth, but we eat and individually to gravitate to certain things. You know, when you're young, if you're playing ball or you're playing soccer, or they want you to use your right hand and your left, you can only use one foot. You know, you can be shut, shut right down, right. Then we're right foot, left foot, right hand, left hand. And you know, God doesn't want us to just everything pull or everything, John.
Steven and I were young together in the same gathering and we, as John 17 would be taken up and we we listened to 50 minutes of Paul's doctrine.
From John 17 and we used to kind of chuckle about it. We don't want to be that way. We want to use the right hand and the left. Appreciate the beauty that's in John's gospel, John's ministry. I'd like to make just a couple of general comments that I've enjoyed in connection with some of the earlier verses of this chapter we have brought before us in the second verse. Wasn't too much said about it.
But thou hast given him power over all flesh. I believe that that also takes in dominion. And that's part of the glory too, isn't it? We see in the second chapter of Daniel that Nebuchadnezzar was given dominion over the field. He was given over dominion over the fowls of the air, but not of the fish of the sea. Well, we see in John's gospel the Lord Jesus.
Telling the disciples where to throw their net because he had dominion over the sea. He had that full dominion. He had that full, that complete power. So that I believe is connected with what we have in this chapter as well. Another thing that I have enjoyed and I've linked it with eternal security and that's the few words that we have.
In verse 6 and thou gave us them me. Well, when were we given to the Lord? I believe it's when we believe and we use the expression God is not an ****** *****.
God didn't give us to the Lord Jesus and take us back, did He?
This, I believe, also reinforces internal security. I may be wrong on that fact, but I like to look at it in that way.
Just like to make another comment connection with Paul and John's ministry.
Paul's last words, thinking of what was mentioned about Mr. Darby at the close of his life, and Second Timothy, one verse one all, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus. You know, we come to the end of his life. And he saw the ruin of the testimony that was coming in. And this verse in a certain sense, dovetails John's.
And Paul's ministry.
As if he sang, you know, in this day of ruin the hour testimony of the Church of God. If there's anything real, if there's anything that matters, if there's anything that's pleasing in a sight, it's when he looks down and sees the manifestation of the life of his son in his own in this world.
Look at the last verse of our chapter.
Now I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it. That's the love wherewith thou hast loved me.
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May be in them, and I am. Paul builds the house. He's a wise master builder and he gives us the structure, the foundation, the the building of the church.
Just like a house.
You know, there was a house in the 15th of Luke, and when one approached it, it was a House of love and light and song, as we have in that little hymn.
Paul gives us the structure, it's the house, but John gives us the life that shines out of the windows of that house.
He gives us the life that should fill the atmosphere of that house, and if it doesn't, it's a cold, dark display that shines out those windows. It's an empty shell.
So we need them both. We need the structure, we need the house, but we need the warmth of the light of the love of God active in the hearts of his own to shine out the windows of that house.
We have to remember too, that not only have we won, the Lord himself is one. We're being guided by 1 spirit. So the hand that Paul put down and put up on paper or parchment and John footage, they both are really guided by 1 Spirit. So they may have something to present differently, but it's saying author as if it were let let me express this at the end of our chapter, we talk about being glorified with him. You have his prayer, but what did Paul say? Let let's turn to Ephesians, uh, uh, Ephesians chapter, uh.
One, you know these verses very well. It it in Ephesians one in 10 it talks about the expansion of the bonus of times. We often refer to that as the key to the Bible. But I want to go down a little bit further. Verse 12 how he tells us about what what is this glory verse 12 That we should be to the phrase of his glory who trusted in Christ.
So he mentioned that not that the glory, but that we should be the praise of His glory. But hold, hold on a minute, it says we now this is what we have to distinguish things a little bit.
When the Apostle Paul and his epistle put the word we, I believe he referred to him as a Jew, and he's referring to the we as his steward rhetoric now and then.
Verse 13 tells us not a little bit more clearly, in whom ye have trusted. Did he trust it before we were saved? No. For his Jewish brethren, He said they are going to be the praise of his glory.
But what about us? Let's go down to verse.
Uh, further down in verse 13 in Phu also after ye believe, well, I believe that's us when you use the word ye because after we believe as a Gentile, it says you were a CEO of the Holy Spirit, a promise, uh, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchase procession. Alifra's time is short, but the end result is.
Unto the praise of its globe, so to the Jewish.
It will be to the price of his glory. What about us? And we too to be appraised of his glory. Actually, Bruce, approximately when you said about the end, we sometimes follow things systematically and then we diverge from it. Sometimes it's nice to look at the beginning and the end first. With the end in view, then it's easier to understand the path that leaders. So at the end of it all, we won't be to the praise of Mr. Morris.
You're being.
Very good with respect to eternal security. I'm noticing in this chapter that over and over the Lord Jesus speaks about those who the Father had given to him. We see it in verse two. We see it in verse six, those which thou gave us thee and so on. And two times in verse six, dying. They were in thousand avis them me verse 9.
I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given the verse 11.
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Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me. Verse 12. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gave us I have kept, and none of them is lost. Verse 24 Father, I will that they also whom thou has given me. So it's wonderful to contemplate the fact that you and I, we are a love gift.
Of the Father to the Son.
And the Sun placed his utmost importance on this gift because.
The sun, the lights to honor his Father and you could say I do always those things that please the Father. And so I believe as part of this love gift to the Father, we are in the most secure position. And the Lord Jesus said those that the Father gave me, I have lost none.
Lost not but the son of Petition.
Well, isn't it wonderful that you and I, we have this secure position in Christ?
We really have nothing to worry about with respect to eternal security, and to suggest that the sun might lose something of this gift, I believe, is a terrible insult to the glory of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Are you gonna say Bruce?
I was going to say.
That you, that you and me, being like Christ, glorified in heaven, is going to be an ongoing and eternal testimony to the value of the work of Christ and to the love of God.
We live in the South and the South that people are getting very ambivalent about these memorials that they have in the town square, you know, some Confederate soldier or something like that. And so they're all rethinking all of this, uh, history in the middle of the night. They go sometimes, you know, with a crew and a crane and they yank them out of there and throw them undercover somewhere and see controversy about looking at the past and the memorials of it. But God is going to have a memorial to the work, the fruit of his son's work throughout all eternity.
We're gonna be with him, like him, displaying his glory. He shall be admired in all them that believe.
330 and 330. What raised the wondrous thoughts, or who did it suggest that we the Church to glory broad should with the sun, unless in 330.
Three.