The Gospel of John: Our Lord’s High Priestly Prayer (5)

First Baptist Church Leominster

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1 Peter chapter 3. Like wise wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct.

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Do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry or the clothing you wear, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.

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For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed

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Abraham by calling him Lord. And you are her children if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.

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Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.

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Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

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Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless.

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For to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.

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Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the

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Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

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Now, who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed.

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Have no fear of them, nor be troubled. But in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

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Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.

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For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.

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For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey when

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God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.

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Baptism which corresponds to this now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven, and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

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Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, again, in this passage, we're reminded of the attitude that we are to have as Christ Jesus had, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth.

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While being reviled, he did not revile and return. While suffering, he uttered no threats, but he kept entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

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And, therefore, wives are to respond in a certain way, and husbands are to respond in a certain way, and all of us are to have a unity of mind because of what

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Christ Jesus has done. And, Lord, we thank you for his example. We thank you for his pattern, and we pray,

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Lord, that we would walk in his footsteps. Lord, we ask that you would reveal to us the areas of our lives that are out of line with this passage.

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We pray that we would examine ourselves, that we would see ourselves as we are, and that we would humbly repent of these things, and that we would align ourselves with the

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Word of God. And we pray, Lord, that as we continue our study in John, that we would live these truths out.

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We pray that we would be mindful of what we need to apply and how we need to apply it, and we pray,

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Lord, that in the power of the Spirit, we would do these things. So help us, Lord, now as we listen to your

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Word being proclaimed, and we praise you and thank you for it. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Well, let's turn to John 17, please. Today's our fifth Lord's Day dealing with this high priestly prayer of Jesus.

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Today we arrive to the third division of this prayer. The first portion of the prayer involved

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Jesus praying for himself, verses 1 -5. And then verses 6 -19,

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Jesus was praying for his apostles, although there is application for us, of course.

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And now, arriving with verse 20 -26, this third division, we read of our

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Lord Jesus praying for all those who had come to faith in him through the witness of the apostles. So he prayed for himself and his apostles, and then those who become

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Christians due to the apostolic witness. And so these verses, verses 20 -26, have direct application for all

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Christians, for you and me in Christ, all Christians who have lived and truly believed in the

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Lord Jesus Christ since those early apostolic days. And I might just say, when Christ died and rose and ascended into heaven, we would say that all those

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Old Testament believers were brought into the same blessing of grace that we enjoy as well.

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Now, this portion of Scripture has some difficult matters to understand clearly, and with a number of different proposals of meaning given by good men through history.

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And so, we'll be somewhat reserved in our assertions at one point, but this portion of our

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Lord's Prayer also contains great and blessed promises for Christians, blessings that our

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Savior secured for us through this prayer. Of course, all of the prayers of the

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Lord Jesus were answered by our Father, and so with this in mind, let us read verses 20 -26, in which

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Jesus prayed to his Father, I do not pray for these alone, that would be the apostles, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they all may be one, as you,

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Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me, and the glory which you gave me,

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I have given them, that they may be one just as we are, I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them as you have loved me.

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I think that is the most amazing verse in the Bible, in my thinking, as I contemplate that last clause, that the

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Father has loved Christians, as the Father has loved his

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Son. Amazing. Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.

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O righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you sent me, and I have declared to them your name, and will declare it, that the love with which you love me may be in them, and I in them.

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As we concluded last Lord's Day, we were addressing verses 17 through 19, in which

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Jesus prayed that his disciples would be sanctified by the Father through the means of the truth.

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And so here again is that petition of our Lord, directly for his apostles,

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Jesus prayed to his Father, sanctify them by your truth, your word is truth, as you sent me into the world,

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I also have sent them into the world, and for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.

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We pointed out that this reference to sanctification in verse 17 is not referring to the work of progressive sanctification in the life of a

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Christian, an understanding of sanctification with which we are most familiar.

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In other words, our Lord was not praying here that his disciples would grow in holy behavior and demeanor, becoming over time more like Christ through the work of the

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Holy Spirit. That's what progressive sanctification is, and there are many places in the scripture where that is advocated, but not here.

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To sanctify, of course, means to set apart, and Jesus was praying that the

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Father would sanctify or set apart his apostles for the office and work of proclaiming the gospel to the fallen world to which they were being sent, and the following verse, verse 18, makes this interpretation very clear,

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I believe. Jesus said to his Father of them, as you sent me into the world,

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I also have sent them into the world, and so he was praying that the Father would set them apart, sanctify them for this purpose, sending them out into the world.

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Jesus prayed the Father would set them apart, equipping them and committing to use them as his apostles to proclaim to the world the saving gospel of Jesus Christ, and so that's what sanctify means in this context.

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In verse 18, we see that the mission of Jesus and the mission of the church are quite alike. Here Jesus had prayed, as you sent me into the world,

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I also have sent them into the world, and yet even though there's a common mission between Jesus and his people, there, of course, is a great distinction between them as well, and here this distinction in our common mission with the

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Savior was stated well. The prayer of Jesus reveals that the mission of God involves not only the sending of the

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Son by the Father, but also the sending of the church by the Son. Although the

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Son and the church participate in the one mission of God, their roles can be distinguished by the noticeably different senders.

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The Son performs the Father's assignment, whereas the church receives the assignment from the

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Son. Thus, the church does not duplicate the mission of the

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Son, for example, in his sacrificial death, nor can it, but is instead both a result and extension of the mission of Christ to the world.

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The church is not only created by the mission of God, but facilitates it by becoming a living testimony of God to the world.

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For this reason, Christ, just moments before completing his mission on the cross, offered a prayer of consecration for his church, dedicating it to God the

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Father for his purposes and protection, and entrusting it to the persevering presence of the

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Spirit, or Pericle. Christ dedicated himself to this very purpose, verse 19, and offers the disciples that God is an extension of his own purpose and work.

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The mission of God, therefore, is neither an option for the church, nor an add -on to its already established purpose and program.

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The mission of God embraces the church, and this pericope, in other words, this portion of scripture here, exhorts the church to live sent, like Christ himself.

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This whole passage has to do with mission. Our desired design should be for the mission to the world.

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The Father sent Christ into the world on this mission, Christ sends the church into the world on this same mission.

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And then in verse 19, Jesus explained further that he was requesting that his Father would sanctify them in the same manner that he sanctified himself.

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And so obviously, he's not talking about increasing in holiness, is he? Jesus Christ cannot increase in holiness, he's infinitely holy.

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But he was praying to the Father that the Father would sanctify his apostles in the same way the

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Father sanctified him, that is, set them apart for this purpose of mission of reaching the world.

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And so the truth to which they were to bear witness set them apart for the very meaning and purpose of their lives.

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Upon the Lord Jesus departing from them, returning to heaven to his Father, they were to devote themselves fully and wholly to make the gospel known to the world.

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It follows, therefore, that Jesus would then pray for the ones who would receive salvation through that gospel, that his apostles would proclaim and record.

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And so that's what we have in verses 19 through 26. He prayed again for his apostles to be sanctified, set apart to reach the world, and now he's going to pray for all those who come to faith through their word.

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And that's all of us who are Christians. All the redeemed of all of history, actually, but more directly, of course, those who heard the apostolic witness either directly in the first century or their witness that is recorded for us in the

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New Testament. We continually believe on Christ through their witness.

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And so we enter now into verses 20 through 26, this third section of this high priestly prayer in which

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Jesus prayed for all true believers. Jesus included in his prayer all who've come to faith and all who will yet come to saving faith through the word of the apostles.

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This prayer offered up by Christ just minutes before his arrest, perhaps, was designed to encourage his disciples.

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That's why he did it in their hearing, so they would hear him and be encouraged and instructed in these words.

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He prays for the union of his people with one another, as well as with himself and with his father, that we're all one, which results in great blessings being conferred upon them.

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And so let's consider these words and the encouragement that they bring to us as Christians.

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We first read that Jesus specified in his prayer those for whom he was praying.

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He was praying not only for his apostles, but for all who would believe through their word that they may be one, verses 20 and 21.

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I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they all may be one as you, father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that, and it's a purpose clause, so that the world may believe that you sent me.

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Now let's consider what distinguishes or establishes the identity of these ones for whom he was praying.

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Jesus said that they are those who will believe in me. What ultimately distinguishes and identifies these people is their faith.

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This would involve the fact that they all believe, subjective faith, they were all believers, and that what they believe, in other words, the subjective thing, the faith that they are believing is the same for all of them.

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They all believe and they all believe the same thing, basically, same essential things.

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Here in John 17, 20, Jesus is referring to subjective faith, the fact that every one of them are believers.

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This is what distinguishes us from the fallen world, who are unbelievers. And of course, there are numbers of verses that we probably, most of us have committed to memory, that contain blessed promises for those who believe,

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John 3, 18. Whoever believes in the Son, and that's a present tense verb or participle, by the way, is not talking about a one -time act of faith, it's talking about a life of believing.

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Whoever believes, present tense, in Christ is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he's not believed in the name of the only

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Son of God. The same with John 3, 36, you have a present tense verb or participle,

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I forget whether it's a verb or participle. Whoever believes, that would be a participle, in the Son has eternal life.

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Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

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Again, this is a life of believing. And then Hebrews 11, 6, and without faith it's impossible to please him.

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And so faith is absolutely essential. Of course, we understand, and we confess as Reformed folks, that saving faith is due to the grace of God operating upon and within the soul of the one who is a true believer.

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Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, which so many people quote, but it seems they don't understand.

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Paul declared, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.

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And there's the argument, of course, what does that refer to, grace or faith? The Greek grammar suggests it's referring to everything here.

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The whole matter of salvation, grace and faith, it's not of yourselves. Faith didn't come out of you, but rather it was a work of God in you, the work of God's grace.

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You've been saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God and out of works, lest any man should boast, lest anyone should boast.

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Saving faith is not the product of a man's understanding and will apart from the grace of God. We believe through the grace of God.

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Saving faith is the product, even the outworking of God's grace in the soul. And so we might say that God saves his people through faith, not because of faith.

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And that's a common misunderstanding on the part of people. They actually make faith a work because you believe

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God does this for you. No, rather God saves us by his grace and he employs faith as the means to do so.

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He saves his people because of Christ alone. Because of Christ, not because of faith.

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He saves us because of Christ through faith alone. And so God, by his grace, uses faith to bring his people to receive the blessings of Christ as Lord and Savior.

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But it's all of grace. It's a very sad and unfortunate fact, however, that there are multitudes who assume that any kind of believing in Jesus may be regarded as saving faith.

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And to me, this is the great error of the day among evangelicals.

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It's thought if a person believes, he's to be regarded and treated as a Christian. But the subjective faith, believing, that is of a saving kind is qualified in the word of God.

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This is why we must frequently refer to Christians as true believers, who exhibit not simply faith, but saving faith.

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Because there is a faith that doesn't save. There are many who are believers who are not true believers.

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And so what is faith and what kind of faith is it that God requires? What is saving faith like?

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Well, the Bible describes saving faith as the faith of God's elect. It is the faith that is produced and sustained by the grace of God.

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The scriptures teach that saving faith must have three elements or it's not saving faith. First, faith must be first based upon an understanding of truth.

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Therefore, there must be some knowledge of essential matters that precedes faith.

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Second, there must be an affirmation that knowledge is indeed true. Not everybody who has knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ believe it to be true.

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And then thirdly, there must be a trust and commitment to that truth.

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One must believe and act upon that truth. Faith has been described as like a three -legged stool.

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Remove one of these three and it is not faith. Saving faith has these three elements.

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But saving faith that is born and sustained by the grace of God has certain characteristics that distinguishes it from faith that does not save the soul from sin.

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And although we cannot be exhaustive here, we may cite a few of these essential qualities of saving faith.

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First, when one has saving faith, he humbly acknowledges his guilt for sin before God and that he is incapable of doing anything to remove that guilt or remedy his condition.

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Secondly, the one with saving faith has come to understand that if he's to have salvation, it must be to the mercy of God alone.

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For he believes rightly that he's deserving of damnation by the just and holy God who holds him accountable for what he does in this life.

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Thief on the cross, why are you blaspheming this man? We're getting what we deserve, not him. Third, the one who has saving faith has heard and believes it only through faith alone.

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In Jesus Christ alone as his Lord and Savior, can he receive salvation from God? In other words, there are a lot of people who say they believe on Christ, but they add something to that faith in Christ and they think between the two, they come up with salvation.

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That's not a true believer. And there are multitudes like that.

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He knows there's no amount of good works or intensity of feeling or sincerity that can atone for his sins.

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It's not the tears we shed, it's the blood he shed that saves us. It's not sincerity, it's not humility, it's not brokenness, although that will accompany saving faith.

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Fourth, the believing sinner knows and seeks to repent of his sin before God, knowing that his faith must be manifested in his turning from living in and for sin to live before God and Jesus Christ.

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There must be repentance, which is a turning from sin. There are many,

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I'd say about 50 % of evangelicalism believes that repentance is not turning from sin, it's just changing your mind as to who you think

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Jesus is. No, repentance is turning from sin onto God through Jesus Christ.

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Fifth, the true believer has come to see and believe that all he must know and believe regarding his salvation from sin is contained and set forth in the

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Bible, the Holy Scriptures, the inspired word of God. He doesn't look elsewhere, he dare not.

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In short, saving faith, one's subjective faith, okay, that we're believers, must be based on and informed by an objective faith, what it is that is believed, that objective faith that's set forth in the

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Holy Scriptures. So not all faith is saving faith. Again, subjective faith is that a person believes.

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Objective faith is what it is that person believes. So when the Apostle Paul wrote of the matters that Christians have in common, he referenced this objective faith.

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He declared there is one body, one spirit, just as you are called in one hope of your calling, one

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Lord, one faith. There it is, objective faith. This is not describing that you are believing, it's describing what it is you believe.

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We have one faith in common, one baptism, one God and father of all, who is above all, through all, in you all.

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These words describe what all Christians have in common. Namely, we have all received the initial effectual calling into a secure and settled hope of our salvation.

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We all have the same Lord, even Jesus Christ. We all affirm the one faith in that Lord, all of us confessing that faith in Christ through one baptism.

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And that's how we confess Christ, one way. But in addition to what we've said regarding these objective truths that the true believer embraces, saving faith is evidenced by other qualities.

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First, saving faith, of course, is an enduring and overcoming faith.

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Temporary faith is not saving faith. It is he who overcomes shall not be hurt of the second death, is what

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Jesus told the church, I think at Ephesus, in Ephesians 2. Might have been the next church,

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Smyrna, I forget. And Jesus said to him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

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That is to the church at Ephesus. This enduring faith is in contrast to those who believe only for a time, but then forsake

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Christ. Christ declared, the one who endures to the end will be saved. Again, it's not because they endure to the end.

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He's just describing those who are saved. They endure to the end. That's because their faith is created and born by the grace of God.

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You can't squash true faith in a true Christian because the power of God, the grace of God, underscores it and upholds it.

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Nothing can destroy true faith. It can be damaged, it can be weakened, it can be strained, but it cannot be extinguished because the power of God is working and sustaining that faith.

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1 Peter 1 makes that very clear. Secondly, saving faith is also manifested in the way of life of the true believer.

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Of course, hypocrites are those who profess to believe in Christ, but their lies show forth that they're void of saving faith.

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Titus 116, they profess to know God. See, they're believers. Ask them, they'll tell you.

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But in works, they deny him. Their life is not consistent with their lips. Being abominable, disobedient, disqualified for every good work.

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And so there are ones who may claim to be true believers, but there are ones who refuse or fail to walk the narrow way of faithful obedience that leads to eternal life, and so Jesus spoke of them in this way.

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Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, broad is the way that leads to destruction.

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And there are many who go in by it, because narrow is the gate, difficult is the way.

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Living the Christian life is difficult. In fact, we'd say even impossible. That's why you need the grace of God, otherwise it's not gonna happen.

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But those are the ones that it leads to life, directs them to life.

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Life is at the end of that difficult way. It's a life of faith. It's a life of discipleship.

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There are few that find it, Jesus said. We may also consider what Paul wrote to the church at Philippi regarding hypocrites.

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Brethren, join in following my example, Paul said. And note those who so walk as you have us for a pattern.

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Those who so walk, he's talking about people who claim to be Christian, but their lives say something else.

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For many walk, he's describing the claim of a Christian. Many walk of whom

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I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping that they are enemies of the cross of Christ.

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Why? Because they're not denying themselves. They don't use the cross of Christ as the emblem of their life to show them how they're to live, to deny themselves.

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Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, their appetite, see their own lusts is what governs their lives, and whose glory is their shame, who set their mind on earthly things.

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Paul said, don't follow them, follow me and the example I'm setting for you. Because our citizenship is in heaven from which we are also eagerly wait for the

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Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to his glorious body according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things onto himself,

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Philippians 3. And so in this Philippians passage, Paul was not writing of unbelievers, but of professing believers who are not living as Christians.

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They were not characterized as ones who denied themselves, taking up the cross of Christ and following Christ.

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And then third, saving faith endures through trials and troubles.

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Peter wrote of this, we won't read this passage, I trust most of us are familiar with it. But Peter wrote, probably 1

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Peter was written to new Christians, maybe in preparation to their baptism.

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And he was telling them that they were going to go through some very serious trials because of their faith.

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And so he warned them, though now for a little while, if need be, if it's necessary, and the

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Greek language suggests here, and it is necessary, it's going to happen. You've been grieved by various trials.

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And why is this necessary? So that the genuineness of your faith is going to be evident, made known, not only to you, but to others as well.

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So that that faith tested by fire, that faith which is more precious than gold.

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You see the price of gold going through the roof, $2 ,800 an ounce, it's incredible.

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Silver, I should say, is going up $28 an ounce, but gold is way up there too, around a couple thousand dollars an ounce.

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It's incredible. Our faith is more precious than gold that perishes. You could have a pile of gold up here.

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You could have a pile 10 feet high, 10 feet wide. We wouldn't trade our faith for a moment for that, because our saving faith is more valuable than that.

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It has an eternal weight of glory compared to the wealth of this world. Yet how many people trade, you know, sacrifice their faith and living for faith because of the riches or the hope of gaining the riches of this world?

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We don't, because of the grace of God working within us. And on the day of Christ, that tested faith will be found to praise, honor, glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, at the second coming of Christ.

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And so that's who he was praying for, believers. But not just anybody who claims to be a believer, those who are true believers, as we've attempted to describe and define.

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Now, let us return to verse 20, in which Jesus stated, I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.

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Jesus then made the specific request to his father to grant believers in him this blessing, that they all may be one as you,

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Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us.

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That the world may believe that you sent me. This request is much like we read in verse 11.

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Jesus prayed the same words. But in verse 11, he was speaking about his apostles.

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Here in this verse, verse 21, he's speaking about all Christians.

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And so in verse 11, he said, no, now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, the apostles.

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And I come to you, Holy Father, keep them through your name, those whom you've given me, that they may be one as we are.

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But here in verse 21, he is praying for the same blessing to be conferred upon all those who come to believe on him through the word of the apostles.

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Same prayer, but for different people, the apostles and all who believe through their word.

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Now, back when we addressed verse 11, we mentioned how that verse, as well as the one before us, verse 21, has often been cited as an argument for the organizational unity of churches, the ecumenical movement.

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And those who promote this ecumenical agenda, the great sin of the times is all the various denominations of the world, the divisions and whatnot.

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And we need to get rid of all those, just be one in organizational unity.

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They say, this is what Jesus prayed to his father, that we should all be one. And look, we're not, just look at us, so many divisions.

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We need to work together toward unity so that we may be one, just as Jesus prayed. I don't know how many times

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I've heard and read that argument over the years. Then the world will believe. The reason the world's not believing is because of all of our divisions and differences, they argue.

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But this is a terrible abuse and misunderstanding of our Lord's request to the Father on our behalf.

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First of all, we should not presume our failure to comply with their stated claims, that is the ecumenesis, has resulted in frustrating

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Jesus from having his prayer answered by his father. The father answering

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Jesus' prayer is not contingent on whether or not you and I obey him, you follow what

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I'm saying? Jesus prayed to his father, the father granted him. We cannot thwart the

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Lord Jesus' prayer to his father because of what we do or fail to do. The whole idea is just a terrible abuse of the passage.

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The father of our Lord Jesus does not refuse or fail to answer the prayer of his son contingent on whether or not we choose to obey or conform to his will.

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And second, we would argue that every prayer of the son of God was answered by his father. Jesus himself suggested this when he prayed,

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Father, I thank you that you've heard me and I know that you'll always hear me, back in John 11, 14.

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And we would assert that the father granted this petition of his son. Jesus prayed this, the father granted it.

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In answer to the prayer of Jesus, we affirm that we are all presently one, just as the son and the father are one.

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That's a present reality. The reason that people throughout the world have believed the message of the gospel during these past two millennia is because the father granted this request of our savior on our behalf.

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All Christians everywhere are proclaiming the one gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ, and so people are being saved all over the world.

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What then does it mean for us all to be one as the father and the son are one? It means that just as the father and the son are one in purpose and intent to proclaim the gospel of Christ to the world, so we are one with them and in them, in this grand enterprise.

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That's what it was back in verse 11, that's what it is here at verse 21. We have a unity of intention and purpose to which we are all committed, even proclaiming the gospel, so that believers all over the world would receive eternal life that's in his son.

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We're one with the father, one with his son in this endeavor. Donald Carson wrote it well.

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Similarly, the believers, still distinct, are to be one in purpose. Various distinctive believers all over the place, but we're one in purpose, in love, in action, undertaking with, and for one another, in joint submission to the revelation received.

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More, Jesus prays to his father that these disciples may also be in us. Probably alluding to the union language of the vine metaphor back in John 15.

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They are in the father and his son, so identified with God and dependent upon him for life and fruitfulness, that they themselves become the locus of the father's life and work, in them.

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All of this is to the end that the world may believe that you sent me, as a display of genuine love amongst the believers attests that they are

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Jesus' disciples, so this display of unity is so compelling, so unworldly, that their witness as to who

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Jesus is becomes explainable only if Jesus truly is the revealer whom the father has sent.

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And so you pull a Christian, Pastor Prem, out of Southeast India, or Pastor Andrew in Western Kenya by, on the shores of Lake Victoria, or ourselves here in New England, or any

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Christian anywhere, and we are one in purpose and intent to make the gospel known.

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And this was the intention of the father and the son, and we are one with them in this. It's a unity, an agreement, in purpose, and intention, and desire.

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That is our intention. Now, we may next give our attention to our

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Lord's words in verses 22 and 23. Jesus prayed, and the glory which you gave me,

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I have given them, that they may be one, just as we are one, I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that you sent me, and have loved them as you have loved me.

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This is the hard part, all right? Jesus stated to the father that he, what he had done for his people, for those who believe on him, he said, and the glory which you gave me,

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I have given them. These are not easy matters.

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In fact, Donald Carson wrote, exactly what is meant by these clauses is much disputed.

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And then, G .R. Beasley Murray wrote of these words, unfortunately, the precise nature of that glory given to believers is uncertain.

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And we don't have time now, but I actually put in the footnote at the bottom of page five, and it runs on to page six, a whole series, or a number of different efforts to explain what glory means in this passage by noted men all the way, you know, through the last 17, 18 hundred years of church history.

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They think the glory is the likeness of God, the glory, John Gill says it's the gospel.

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I won't, I won't rehearse them, I think I mentioned a couple of them here. And so when one considers the many and varied opinions as to the meaning of glory in this verse,

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I'm less troubled at my own inability to be absolutely certain as to its meaning.

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Some have said that this glory is the name of God, and the words of God given to Jesus that are then given to his apostles, or his disciples.

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Others have said that this is eternal life. I've given them glory as imparted to the disciples who believe on him.

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Others have said this glory is the gift of the son of God himself, or the purpose of God that's shared between the father, son, and believers in Jesus.

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Again, this universal mission. Actually, throughout this passage, it's been revealed that we as believers are brought to share, along with the father and the son, the same purpose, love, and activity, but here

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Jesus speaks of shared glory that he had given to all his disciples.

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And a fairly recent commentator, Edward Klink, a good commentary by Zondervan Publisher, he wrote, this glory does not belong to the church but to God from whom it was received and with whom it's shared.

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Since glory is the manifestation, here he defines glory, glory is the manifestation of God's being, nature, and presence in a manner accessible to human existence or experience.

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Jesus asked the father to consecrate, set them apart, sanctify them, the disciples' participation in the fullness of God for the purpose of including them in the personal manifestation of God through Christ, which is again depicted as the great act of unification.

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I suppose if we were to attempt to put this in everyday language, we would say that Jesus Christ declared in his prayer to his father, that through himself, he had revealed the glory of God to his disciples.

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And through them, he secured the revelation of God's glory to all those who would believe through their word.

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And so, through such a share in the glory of God through their experience of the glorious presence of God in Christ, they would be able to manifest the presence of the glory of God in the world before which they were to bear witness.

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I would tend to regard the bestowal of this glory on his people to be regal honor and authority to fulfill their mission in the world.

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In other words, Jesus Christ prayed that the father would give them authority, just as the father gave him authority, glory, to reach the world.

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Jesus gave his church glory, regal authority. We're a kingdom of priests.

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We're kings and priests to take this word to the world. I would suggest that that's what glory is in this context.

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As Christians, we already enjoy a degree of glory that he's bestowed upon us. But God has promised that we will receive glory, it is coming, upon our resurrection, that surpasses our imagination to contemplate fully.

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You and I cannot contemplate the glory that each of us as Christians are going to receive and enjoy.

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Sometimes it's described as the glory of the adoption of our body, the glory of the children of God when it's conferred upon us.

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You have glory now, it's hidden, just like people couldn't see the glory of God when they looked at Jesus.

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People, and probably we, cannot see the glory that we already have positionally. But on the day of the resurrection, when we stand before God, we go through that judgment pass through on the other side, that glory is going to be conferred upon us, and we are all going to be absolutely, incredibly amazed.

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How can this be? Paul wrote, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy.

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And he had some sufferings, didn't he? Are not worthy, not worth comparing with the glory that's to be revealed to us.

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Not just to us, but in us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing.

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In other words, the manifestation of the sons of God. I can't help to think that as unbelievers are confined and for everlasting punishment, and they're going off in degradation and shame.

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And probably even visibly they look so gruesome and offensive. Whereas the children of God are gonna be glorified in such a way that we just cannot fathom.

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The difference between those two groups of people are gonna be amazing.

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This glory and this honor, this authority is going to be granted to us to reign with him in the kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world.

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This is our inheritance as the children of God, even shared in the glory of Jesus Christ that he has given us.

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We're seated now with him in heavenly places, that means we're enthroned with him. We have authority that's been given to us.

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This authority is in the word, of course, and the Holy Spirit enabling us to proclaim the word. You know, he takes us who are weak and ignorant and errant so much at time.

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And he uses us to further the kingdom in the world. That's amazing, when you think about it.

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He uses us as instruments to, you know, to save sinners from their sin. There's glory there.

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We couldn't do it had the Lord not conferred this authority for us and upon us through the message that we proclaim.

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We read in John 1721, having Lord God revealed to us, manifested through Christ, result in us becoming one with the

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Father and his Son. Again, Jesus prayed, the glory which you gave me, I've given them.

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That they may be one as we are. There is a participation that all believers have in the life that is in and with God.

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This, of course, is not speaking about divinizing human nature. You and I don't become gods and goddesses like the

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Mormons teach. That's one of the reasons, major reasons, it's a cult. Mormons are not

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Christians. They teach you and I are gonna become gods and goddesses just like Jesus Christ is a

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God. That's heresy. But rather, we become one just as they are, because the glory of God has been given to Jesus Christ.

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Even the glory that he shares with his Father, were brought into the sphere of that blessing of true life.

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And so again, this glory speaks about authority. We are joint heirs with Christ.

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We're going to have a share in reigning within the everlasting kingdom of Jesus Christ. And there's a oneness of purpose, a oneness of unity.

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There's a connection. There's a fellowship that we have with God the Father and his Son that we can't fully appreciate or even experience at this time.

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And then in verse 23, we have an expression of this spiritual unity that all

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Christians share with the Father and the Son and the purpose for which this is manifested in us and through us.

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I in them, you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me.

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All true Christians have an unbreakable bond with one another, with their

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Savior, who has an indissoluble relationship with the Father. Here Jesus Christ is set forth as our mediator.

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He relates to us, and then he relates to the Father. Notice that, I in them, you,

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Father, in me, Jesus said. He relates to us, he relates to the

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Father. He is the bridge which enables the unity that we have with the Father. This is a perfect unity, which knows no defection or separation, which knows no end.

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And we are to bear witness to the world of the relationship of our Savior to the Father. We are to bear witness to the truth that the

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Father had sent his Son into the world because he loved his people and desired and purposed to save them from sin and damnation.

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Here we read what we may regard as one of the most mysterious and marvelous statements of Holy Scripture.

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Through our relationship with one another and through our Christian witness to the world, the world is to come to understand and acknowledge that God the

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Father had sent his Son into the world because the Father loved us, his people, with the same love that he loves his

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Son. I can't even imagine that, other that, other that, that he regards us and treats us as being in union with his

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Son. That's why he loves us. Not because we're more lovely than anybody else. That's certainly not the case. First, let us acknowledge that the

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Father's love for us was antecedent. That is, went before him sending his

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Son into the world to save us from our sin. We were loved from eternity. Not all are loved from eternity.

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The one Jesus was praying for were loved from eternity because he sent his love upon us.

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What God had revealed to his prophet Jeremiah can be said of every individual saved through the person and work of Christ.

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Jeremiah declared, the Lord is a period of old to me, saying, yes, I've loved you with an everlasting love.

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Therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn you. If you're a Christian, or one day you become a

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Christian, God loved you from eternity, and therefore, he determined to call you to salvation.

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He loved you. The eternal love of the Father toward us was not drawn out of him, because of who we are, or due to what we would become, but because in the sovereign purpose of God, he chose to love us.

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He set his heart upon us, which he purposed, and he purposed to save us from our sin, because he loved us.

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We sing of this in the hymn, I am his and he is mine, loved with everlasting love, led by grace, that love to know.

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I won't read the rest. This love was conferred upon us by God, not elicited by us from God.

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And this love is his everlasting love, as Jesus described it for us. It's the same love the

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Father has for him. The Apostle John, who heard and recorded these words.

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I mean, John heard these words. That's what we have in John 17. The Apostle John penned these words.

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He heard Jesus pray to his father. The Holy Spirit later gave John perfect recall to get down those words exactly.

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He would later write in his short epistle, behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God, and therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know him.

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Amazed, there's an exclamation there. Look at, just behold it, consider it. The world does not now know or acknowledge the love that God has for us, his people.

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And we may not know it fully, I suspect none of us do. One day, however, we'll fully recognize the weight of this blessing, and the unsaved world will also be convinced of this reality.

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Probably on the day of judgment. Again, we read the words of prayer of our

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Lord to his Father. I and them, you and me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you've loved me.

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It was said of this truth, behold it with faith and confidence as a certain truth, with joy and delight as a blessed privilege.

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As it is a certain truth, we should believe it more firmly. As it is an important truth, we should consider it more seriously.

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As it is a comfortable truth, we should improve it more effectually, to our great joy and satisfaction in all considerations.

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Certainly, God excelleth all temporal relations. Never, Father, had such bowels and affections.

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We were never in the bosom of God to know his heart, but the only son of God. They came out of his bosom, he had told us tidings of it, and bidden us come boldly and call him

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Father. This love that the Father has for us is due to our union with Jesus Christ.

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We were chosen in him before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1 .4.

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God the Father loves us with the same love he has for his son. He sees us in union with his son.

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But God loves us also because we're being conformed to the image of his son. In other words, he didn't love us because we're lovely, but he makes us lovely and therefore loves, manifests his love all the more.

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Which is amazing when you think about it. Thomas Manton wrote of this, likeness is another ground of love.

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God loveth Christ, not only as his son, but as his image. See, Christ is the image of God. He being the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person.

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So he loveth the saints, that is Christians, who are by grace renewed after his image, after Christ's image.

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That you put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him, and who thereby made partakers of the divine nature.

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We lost by Adam the image of God and the favor of God now. First his image is repaired in us, then his love and favors bestowed on us.

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Without this we could not be lovely in his eye, for we are amiable in the sight of God by reason of that comeliness or beauty he has put on us.

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You read about God's dealings with Israel, remember, as a girl baby who's cast out under the field.

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And her, you know, hadn't even been washed after birth. And was so despicable, and everybody cast that child off.

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But God, you know, showed pity upon this infant. And brought it into his home, as it were, the metaphor.

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And raised this child, and this girl became, of course, a mature woman, very beautiful.

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And the Lord clothed her, and she became very, very beautiful. And then, of course, he condemned the nation of Israel, because look what you did with that beauty.

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You went out and played the harlot. But this is what God has done for us.

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He took us out of that, out of that place of mire and defilement.

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And he has purposed to make us like Christ. And to the degree we are, and we'll fully be, of course, on the day of the resurrection, we're gonna indeed be lovely in his sight.

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Even though he loves us now for Christ's sake. Because God the

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Father loves his people with the same love he has for his son, we may state certain realities regarding God's love for us.

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Received and enjoyed with the right regard to anything of us or in us apart from our union with Christ. As one wrote, this would be

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Manton, I believe. So is God's love to us free and undeserved. His love is the reason of itself.

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He loved us because he loved us. That doesn't seem to make sense, but you think about it.

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Deuteronomy 7, the Lord did not set his love on you or choose you because you were more in number than any people, but because the

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Lord loved you. He loves you because he loved you. There's the last clause,

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God's act is its own law and reason. We can give no other account. Then Arthur Pink wrote of the free love of God for his people in his little classic book,

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The Attributes of God. That there was nothing in us, of us, do us, from us, that moved

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God to love us. We love him because he first loved us. God did not love us because we loved him, but he loved us before we had a particle of love for him.

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Had God loved us in return of ours, then it would not be spontaneous on his part.

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But because he loved us when we were loveless, it's clear that his love was uninfluenced. It is highly important if God is to be honored in the heart of the child established that we should be quite clear upon this precious truth.

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God's love for me and for each of his own was entirely unmoved by anything in them.

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What was there in me to attract the heart of God? Absolutely nothing.

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But to the contrary, everything to repel him. Everything calculated to make him loathe me.

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Sinful, depraved, a mass of corruption with no good thing in me. What was there in me that could merit esteem or give the creator delight?

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It was even so, Father, I ever must sing because it seemed good in thy sight.

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That's sovereign grace. But not only is the love of God free toward us, secondly, because God the

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Father loves us with the same love he has for his son. His love for us is tender and affectionate. The love of God may be illustrated by a father's love for his child.

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As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. The love of God the

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Father for his people may be illustrated by the love of a groom for his bride. As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your

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God rejoice over you. The tender love of God the Father for his people may be illustrated by the care and concern that a man would have for his own eye.

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For thus says the Lord of hosts, he sent me after glory to the nations that plungers you, for he who touches you touches the apple or the pupil of his eye.

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And then third, the love of God for us is infinite in degree and eternal in duration.

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It knows no diminishment of degree and no end in duration. The infinite love of God can be expressed best and most fully as the love that God has for himself.

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Of course, we understand this love to be manifested between the persons of the Holy Trinity. God the

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Father loves God the Son with infinite love. God the Son loves the Father with infinite love.

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The Father and the Son love the Holy Spirit with infinite love. And the Holy Spirit loves God the Father and his

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Son with infinite love. God loves himself supremely because he's infinitely good and is infinitely deserving of love.

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As one wrote, this is a, which was published last year. The love of God then begins with divine self love.

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As God himself is the greatest good, why wouldn't he love himself? The primary object of God's love is himself, says

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Edward Lee, for he taketh great pleasure in himself and is the author of greatest felicity toward himself, or pleasure toward himself, and then forth.

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Although in the present time we may contemplate and enjoy the degree of God's love for us in Christ, in heaven, in eternity, we will know and enjoy this love of God.

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Jonathan Edwards wrote a book, Charity, or old English word for love. Love and its fruits, charity and its fruits.

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In the last chapter, chapter 16, it talks about heaven, a place of love.

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There even in heaven dwells the God from whom every stream of holy love, yea, every drop that is or ever was, proceeds.

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There dwells God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, united as one and infinitely dear and incomprehensible and mutual and eternal love.

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There dwells God the Father, who is the Father of mercies, so the Father of love, who so loved the world as he gave his only begotten son to die for.

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There dwells Christ, the Lamb of God, the Prince of Peace and of love, who so loved the world that he shed his blood, pour out his soul unto death for men.

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There dwells the great mediator, through whom all the divine love is expressed toward men, by whom the fruits of that love have been purchased, and through whom they are communicated, through whom love is imparted to the hearts of all

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God's people. There dwells Christ in both his natures, human and divine, sitting on the same throne with the

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Father. And there dwells the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of divine love, in whom the very essence of God, as it were, flows out and is breathed forth in love, and by whose immediate influence all holy love is shed abroad in the hearts of all the saints on earth and in heaven.

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Have you ever experienced that, when the love of God just seems to overwhelm you, a subjective sense of it?

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That's gonna be the perpetual experience of us in heaven and eternity. There in heaven, this infinite fountain of love, this eternal three in one, is set open without any obstacle to hinder access to it.

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There's lots of hindrances, obstacles in this life. There, this glorious God is manifested, shines forth in full glory and beams of love.

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And there, this glorious fountain forever flows forth in streams, yea, in rivers of love and delight. And these rivers swell, as it were, as an ocean of love, in which the souls of the ransomed may bathe with the sweetest enjoyment, and their hearts, as it were, be deluged with love.

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I wanted to include this, because in heaven, then you and I are gonna really love one another as ourselves.

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We're commanded to do so now, then it will be a reality. And Edwards described this.

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What a wonderful fellowship this is. The saints shall know that God loves them, and they shall never doubt the greatness of his love.

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They shall have no doubt of the love of all their fellow inhabitants in heaven, and they shall not be jealous of the constancy of each other's love.

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They shall have no suspicion that the love which others have felt toward them is abated, or in any degree withdrawn from themselves for the sake of some rival, or by reason of anything in themselves which they suspect is disagreeable to others, or through any unconstancy of their own hearts, or the hearts of others.

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Nor will they be the least afraid that the love of any will ever be abated toward them. There shall be no such thing as inconstancy and unfaithfulness in heaven.

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To molest and disturb the friendship of that blessed society, the saints still have no fear that the love of God will ever abate towards them, or that Christ will not continue always to love them with unabated tenderness and affection.

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And they shall have no jealousy one of another, but shall know that by divine grace, the mutual love that exists between them shall never decay nor change.

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So the kind of love that we will have for one another, that we will enjoy in heaven, actually should be manifested now, shouldn't it?

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In this world, in this life, Jesus declared it back in John 13, a new commandment

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I give you, you love one another just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another, and by this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

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And so we're to show forth our love for one another that will one day be shown forth in glory.

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We should abandon suspicion and presumption of fault among one another. We should believe the best of our brethren and desire and seek the best for them without distinction.

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We are not to harbor resentment or bitterness, but truly and sincerely desire and pray for God's greatest blessings upon them.

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Rather than trying to put another out of our mind and put away from us, we are to take him or her to heart, make him the subject of our prayers to God.

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When we hear that a brother or sister is overtaken in sin, it should grieve us, not anger us. If proven to be true, it should move us to pray and seek his correction and recovery.

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We're not to denounce and demean, but to pray for and lovingly exhort one another before the Lord. We are to love other

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Christians as we love ourselves. We're to be as merciful to others as we would desire that they would be merciful to us.

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We're to be patient toward others as we would have them be patient toward us. We should pray for others as we would desire that they pray for us.

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For we know the manner in which we deal with others will be the same manner that will be dealt toward us.

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That is an unchanging spiritual law. May the Lord give us tender hearts and affections for one another.

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And may our Lord help us to grow and mature in these matters of true biblical love, true biblical fellowship.

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And all of this is wrapped up in our Lord's prayer here in John chapter 17.

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Thank God that we have it recorded for us. Let's pray. Father, help us, we pray.

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We pray the Holy Spirit would shed abroad your love in our hearts. We who truly believe on you.

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And Father, if there's anyone here that's a stranger to grace, we pray that you would just cause a desire to well up within that soul,

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Lord, to seek you and to know what we've been talking about experientially. That that person would come to true faith in Christ as the only savior of sinful man.

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We pray, our God, that you would help us not only understand your love for us, but may you increase our love for one another.

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And that that might be manifested for we know that this is a great witness in our fallen world, in a world so characterized by turmoil, confusion, and chaos.

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Help us, Lord, as a Christian society, as a church, Lord, to manifest the love that you have for us to one another.

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Bless our God, our efforts to make you known in this world. Help us to be true and faithful to the mission that you've entrusted us with in this day, for we pray in Jesus' name, amen.