This morning as we try to bring you the eternal everlasting word of God, I'd like for us to continue to think about the Lord's last prayer, his farewell prayer in the 17th chapter of John. His work here is coming to close on earth. And just after this prayer, while he's arrested and goes into the trial, and he's praying for his disciples with He was fixing to leave behind you in this world. And this wonderful prayer goes on down to all that they would win in generations to come. And that includes you and me. And let me encourage each one of you to read this prayer over and over and be sure that you're in the right relationship with God and that you're included in this wonderful prayer. He's praying here to his Father. He looked up towards heaven and began to pray for his disciples that he's leaving here in this world as he goes back, pays a supreme sacrifice on Calvary's cross and goes back into eternity to live with his Father. And he's there this morning. sitting at the right hand of his father making intercession for you and me as we go down through this world like his disciple was going to have to do after he left them. Before he left he said, let me read you the first two verses, these words speak Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, thou hast come, glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee." You need to read this second verse over and over. He's talking to his father. He said, "...as thou hast given him power over all things." His Father had given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him. Can you imagine the Lord Jesus Christ going out and being arrested and being tried when He had power already given to Him? over all flesh. Can you imagine that? And that included the high priest up there at the temple. That included Pilate. That included all the elders and soldiers that was going to try him and crucify him. The Lord Jesus Christ, according to His word, His life was not taken from Him. They couldn't have had no power at all over Him unless He had allowed it to happen. He became a willing sacrifice to die on Calvary's cross, forsaken by God. that he might give eternal life to as many as his father had given him back in eternity. It's really something for you and me to think about. The Lord Jesus Christ is not some helpless creature. He wasn't helpless when he went out yonder and surrendered himself to be tried before Pilate, before the high priest. And the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the word of God, was back in eternity, and by him all things were created. The Bible said in one place, without him was not anything made that was made. My, we have a wonderful Savior. We have a wonderful God. And you need to get acquainted with God and with the Lord Jesus Christ. and know a lot about what his word says about them as we drift on out to the long ages of eternity. The Bible describes God as when he does a thing, he does it forever. It's something for you and me to think about. One of these days he's going to call us out into eternity and it's going to be forever. because it's appointed on each one of us to die without yonder in the judgment. And the Bible said this Lord that prayed this wonderful prayer is coming back King of kings and Lord of lords one of these days to judge this world in righteousness. And it said he's going to execute judgment when he comes back in all of his glory on all that know not God. So let me beg you to read your Bible and get acquainted with the God of the Old Testament and come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as praying this wonderful prayer here as he goes back into the presence of his Father. You say that he's coming back in all of his glory to execute judgment on all that know not God. and all that obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. If that is really true, it behooves you and me to find out something about the God of the Old Testament and to obey and serve the Lord Jesus Christ and obey Him as we go down through this world because I feel like He's soon coming back like that wonderful song that we just played to you, said in all of His glory. And it's Him that's going to execute judgment in this, when He comes back. Because in John, the fifth chapter, I believe it is, it said the Father turned all judgment over to the Son. And He's the one that's coming back to execute judgment on this world and all that know not God. and all that be not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe I'll start reading. I read the most of this wonderful prayer to you last Tuesday. It's the 14th verse this morning. He tells his father, said, I have given my disciples thy word, and the world hath hated them. My, this world is not a friend that grace never has been, never will be to the real children of God. If you accept the Word of God and receive it like these disciples and go out into the world to live to glorify God and not be conformed by this present world, the Bible says we need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. and put the Lord Jesus Christ and his kingdom and his righteousness foremost in this world. He said, in another place the world hates me and it will hate you. He said, I pray not, but thou should take them out of the world. He left his disciples and he left you and me to go down through this testing world. to live a life that would glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I pray that thou shouldst not take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil. In my view, a servant of the Lord, this morning you and me really need to be included in this evil world that we're going down through. The Lord Jesus Christ said if we were ashamed of Him before this evil and adulterous generation, He would be ashamed of us. So we really need the influence to be included in this prayer here. We need the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives day by day to keep us from this evil and sinful world. And that's what the Lord Jesus Christ asked his father to do for his disciples that he's fixing to leave behind. Sixteenth verse, he said, they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. The world couldn't mold a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Neither can it mold us if we stay close to the Lord Jesus Christ and live under the influence of the Holy Spirit that comes and dwells His children as we go down through this world that is full of sin and sorrow. The seventeenth verse, he asked his Father, says, Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. And you and me sanctify ourselves by studying the Word of God and putting it into practice and living it out day by day as we live in this present world. Because that's the way we can be sanctified is through His Word, because His Word is the truth. Now I want you to notice the 18th verse here. He said, As thou hast sent me into the world, Even so have I also sent them into the world." He tells his father, he said, you sent me into this world and I'm sending my disciples, and that includes you and me if we're children of God, I'm sending them out in the world. And He sent you and me out into the world to glorify His Son that died on Calvary's cross. The Lord said that He was the light in the world as long as He was in the world. But He told His disciples, He said, you are the light for the world now. And it's you and me, if we say we are servants of the Lord, one of His disciples, that the world's looking for, for light. in these evil days that we are living in. So we need to continue to study the eternal everlasting word of God and let our lives so shine out in the world that they realize that we are really children of God and that we are trying to glorify Him as we go down through this world. He said, Neither I pray for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word." And that comes on down to you and me. We are here upon the scene now, and He included us if we are true children of God in this prayer, and I'm so glad of that. Then He goes on to discuss the family of God, how we can all be one in the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to what the Word of God says, that they all might be one as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee. You notice the union that the Lord Jesus Christ had with the Father, and He had it from all eternity. that they also may be one in us, that you and me, if we are his disciples or his children, would be in this family with God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, because if you are a child of God the Holy Spirit is dwelling in your body according to the word of God. My, what a wonderful union he describes here in this prayer. That the world may believe that thou hast sent me. He wanted a complete union with us, the Father and the Son, that we might influence this world to believe. And that's the reason we are here. Verse 22, And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them. He had given them his Father's word. He said that I have passed it on to them, and it is up to you and me and our generation to pass the word of God on to the generation that we are going down through, that they may be one even as we are one. The family of God is still being built here, one after another, as we influence them to come to know the Lord. My, we ought to rejoice this morning if we belong to that wonderful family of God, the Father, Son, and His children that He is praying for here. He said, And the glory which thou gavest me, I gave them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, listeneth to the word of God, that they may be made perfect in one. And our desire for children of God is to be molded in made and conformed in the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me read this again. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know, listen, that we might influence this world again. And that ought to be our purpose here. that the world may know that thou hast sent me, that the world might realize that the Lord Jesus Christ has been sent into the world to pay the ransom yonder on Calvary's cross for all that sinned against God of the Bible and violated His laws, because the God of the Old Testament gave the laws of God for us to look at to see how we stand before the God of all eternity. And when we look at this perfect law, we realize that we've come short of the glory of God. And that will cause us to come guilty to the Lord Jesus Christ and ignore the name given under heaven among men whereby people can escape that awful guilty feeling of their conscience. that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me." And that's what we are supposed to be doing in this world is love one another because the Lord Jesus Christ commanded all of his disciples to love one another as he had loved us. And he said, By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you really love one another. And my, my time is about gone. I'll read the last verse. He said, And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. What a fellowship! It's the Lord Jesus Christ with us now, and if we're born into this family, this wonderful prayer includes us. And my, we can look forward to when the Lord comes back soon to receive us unto himself. Then we'll be with the family of God throughout all eternity in perfect union and harmony. In my prayer for H1 listeners, you may be included in this wonderful family that's going to assemble around the throne of God one of these days.