Last time I was here speaking we looked at the righteousness of God. Eternal life, according to the Lord Jesus Christ in John 17.3, is to know God. This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. To know God, and that word knowledge so much in the scriptures, involves notions of intimacy and notions of love. It's not just knowing about Him, it's being in a love relationship with Him. But let's turn to verse 25 and let's look at what the Lord here brings to our attention today, and may He be the teacher. He says, O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me. I want to look at what it is for the world to live in active opposition to God Almighty. The world hath not known thee. It's an active, active activity of this world. I love how extraordinarily comprehensive John 17 is. I've loved studying it, I've loved reading it, I've loved meditating on it, I've loved how it is so comprehensive. It speaks of the glory of God. It speaks of what was going on before the world began. There was a union, there was a communion between God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit before the world began. This prayer spans all of time. And we know what God was doing before there was a twinkling star. We know that there was a glory that they had, a glory in union, a glory in communion, a glory in love. We know that there was a covenant entered into before the world began, that there was a promise made, there were a people given by God the Father into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ as the surety, the one who was fully responsible for them, fully responsible to bring them back into union and communion with God Almighty, to live and to dwell with Him. We know that there is a God who has a purpose in all things. that this creation is not a random set of events. This creation is a creation that is going and is ordered and all things are ordered exactly as our God declares them to be. This prayer speaks of all humanity. All humanity is laid out here before the all-seeing God. It speaks of the power given to the Lord Jesus Christ to exercise everything to do with His covenant. Don't you love verse 2, isn't it? Thou has given him power over all flesh. It's a pretty simple statement, isn't it? But how profound is it? He has power over all flesh. Thank God that he has power over the flesh of his people. He says, they will be willing, my people shall be willing in the day of my power. When he exercises his power, his people are made willing. His people come, his people bow. His people come in love, they come in repentance, they come in faith. But they come because he exercises all power. Don't you love that? Why are we here today? because he has exercised all power. Why aren't we in other places where all sorts of things are being said about God which are contrary to John Chapter 17? If you hear such a comprehensive prayer, I often think of how wonderful Paul's prayer for the Ephesians was and how comprehensive it was. If you turn with me to Ephesians Chapter 3, it's lovely to be in prayer with the praying people in the Scriptures. But Paul's prayer is similarly comprehensive and it speaks in such extraordinary ways, isn't it? He says, for this cause, let's begin in verse 1 because it's so beautiful. For this cause, I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, God has exercised a power over all flesh, including the apostle Paul's flesh. The prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given me to you would, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote in a few words, whereby when you read you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed under his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. Whereof I was made a minister. Paul didn't put himself in the ministry. No one puts themselves in the ministry. God puts his people in the ministry. He makes them ministers. According to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, this grace is given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery. which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now, unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus. and the Lord's Prayer in John 17 have so many similar markings, haven't they? In whom, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him. What's our reason for coming into His presence with boldness and confidence? Because He's faithful and He's done it all. God for his faithfulness. Whereof, wherefore, I desire that you faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my knees under the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do, exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. Unto him be glory in the church, by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Paul's prayer speaks, as the Lord's prayer in John 17 does, what is the breadth? The breadth and the length and the depth and the height. It's the breadth. It covers all the events of all people. The length, it goes from eternity past, for want of a better word, into eternity future. The depth, the foundation is on that rock, on that covenant God, as deep as God and eternal, and love as deep and secure as God. The height, the glory of God is the destiny of all of his people. The glory of God revealed, the glory of God given, the glory of God shared. and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Our God is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and our God in his and grace and mercy has granted for some of these people to know Him and to love Him. And in righteousness He has left others to not know Him. O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee. If you know God, it's an act of His righteousness. For the people who do not know God, this verse says that they are active in their rebellion and their rejection of Him, and God is righteous. You might hear, as I have heard so often, that I find it hard, as someone wrote to me a while ago, I find it hard to love a God, as I know that all the suffering and all the evil in this world is ultimately His responsibility. This verse says, please, please, please don't say that. And please bow. Our God is righteous. He's righteous. He's righteous. Essentially, it's His righteousness is essential to His very character. He's righteous eternally. His righteousness is the habitation of His throne. He's righteous in His decrees. He's righteous in His covenant of grace and love. His blood is righteous blood. He's righteous in His mercy. He's righteous in giving a bride to His Son. He's righteous in all of the surety ships, the covenant engagement that Christ made to bring her back. Everything He does is going to be righteous. All of it is going to be righteous. He's righteous in all His promises written in Scripture. He's righteous in His coming. He's righteous in all the acts of His holy heart. He's righteous in hiding and he's righteous in revealing as he sees fit. And what he does is righteous. So this is such an important prayer, isn't it, that the Lord Jesus Christ prays here because it puts an end, I trust in the hearts of all of God's children, it puts an end to that argument that Paul brings so clearly in Romans 9. If God is absolutely sovereign and he's in charge of everything, how on earth can I be held responsible for what I do? That's the argument of Romans 9, and the answer in Romans 9, you can go and read it at your leisure, but the answer in Romans 9 is a wonderful answer, isn't it? Who are you, O man, that replies against God? Shall the thin form say to him that formeth, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter Power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour. This passage of Romans 9 begins in verse 14. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Is it unrighteous of God to say that He loves Jacob and He hates Esau? is not unrighteous and that's what the Lord Jesus Christ is saying here in his prayer, isn't it? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on him, I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on him, I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared. throughout all the earth. Therefore he have mercy on whom you'll have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth." I no doubt have told you the story before, but I came back from India and was asked to do a Bible study in one of the home groups in the church that we belonged to in those days, and I thought I'll just read Romans 9 with very, very little comment. And I read Romans 9 slowly, quietly, as clearly as I possibly could. And one of the men in the Bible study immediately remarked as soon as I finished, that is not the God that we have preached in our church. That is a different God. And he was right. We have to encounter, and we ought to be so thankful that the Lord does it in this glorious high priestly prayer, we are encountered with the fact of God's reprobation, God leaving people in the hardness of their hearts. And that man, like a multitude of others that I have spoken to over the years, went on in his religion, and stay in his religion. And I keep thinking, I hear people say things and you think, when is that going to come into their hearts with a conviction that just causes them to bow to God Almighty? One of the things I really love about traveling is that you have all of these random meetings with people and I had a I had more this trip than I've had on some of the other trips, and I've had long taxi drives. I had a long taxi ride in Los Angeles the afternoon I arrived, and the fellow had his crucifix up on his thing, and he was happy to talk about God. And we talked for 45 minutes, and we talked about the nature of God and the character of God. I talked about some of the things in John chapter 17 and he was absolutely stunned. And he asked me, he said, can you send me some messages? And so I got his number and I sent him a whole stack of messages. I think I sent him six or eight different messages and then I wrote to him. pleading with him to think. He said, I need to go back and talk to my priest about this. And I said, you don't need to go and talk to your priest. You need to go and talk to God Almighty. You need to go and deal with Him. But I keep thinking when I've had these conversations, I've had several more on long trips in Orlando and other places, and you keep thinking that that conversation just disappears into the ether, into sort of endless sort of history of the interactions of mankind in this world, but not in God's presence. And I keep wondering when these people come to me and say, well, I need to hear more about that. That's nothing like the God I heard about. I read scriptures to him and he was absolutely horrified. He said, why wasn't I ever told this? Why hasn't my priest told me this? And there's a very simple reason. His priest doesn't know God and his priest doesn't want him to know God. When it comes to this issue that the Lord raises here for us. We just are confronted with the fact of the depravity of man and the depth of the fall of man. And the Lord summarises it in John chapter 3 verse 19, this is the condemnation, this is the crisis, this is the judgement, that light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. If someone comes to the light, it is the work of God Almighty. Be thankful. When we see the depth of the depravity of mankind around us and we see the depth of the lostness of people in religion, it's extraordinary how merciful God has been to his remnant people in this world. There is just one God. There is one glorious, righteous, holy God. The world that he speaks of here is the world that he has told us about in many other parts of this particular prayer. In John 17 verse 9, it's a shocking verse to so many people, isn't it? I pray for them, I pray not for the world. The world here is the unbelieving, the non-elect. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Verse 14, I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them. Why do they hate the children of God? Because God has given them his word. The word made flesh, the word revealed. In verse 15, he says, I pray not that thou should take them out of the world, but thou should keep them from the evil one. This evil one who rules over this world under the sovereign hand of God Almighty, the evil which is in them to which they're enslaved, the evil nature they acquired at the fall. In verse 16, he goes on to say, these ones that you give me, they are not of the world. Their origin is not of the world. even as I am not of the world. We've got to remember that the Lord Jesus Christ here is speaking about a religious world. He's not speaking about what we see as the pagan, immoral world out there. He's talking about the greatest immorality and the greatest darkness in this world, and that's the darkness of religion. The darkness of false religion. And throughout the Old Testament scriptures they are warned again and again and again the people of Israel. Psalm 81 verse 11 says, But my people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me. And what's the end result? So I gave them up under their own hearts' lusts, and they walked in their own counsel. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God. God is not all in his thoughts. The world hath not known me. It's an active not knowing. It's an active turning from the light. You know those verses in Romans 1. It's a great description of this world, isn't it? We think the world is ignorant and we think the world has an excuse. Listen to what God says in verse 18. They are suppressing the truth in unrighteousness all of the time. It's like being in a swim swimming pool and having three soccer balls, isn't it? You're trying to keep them down all the time, they keep popping up. God keeps revealing something of himself in creation, not enough to save people but enough to cause them to know that there is a God. And what do they do? They suppress it and they suppress it and they suppress it. Listen to what he goes on to say. They hold the truth in unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them. Did he show it unto them? He says he did. They're holding it down in unrighteousness. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man, unto birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore, listen to what God says. Wherefore, as a result of this, God gave them up. God gave them over. God, righteous God, left them. Three times there in the rest of that passage of scripture he talks about how he gave them up. Then the Lord Jesus Christ is saying, O righteous Father, the world, in its active unbelief, has not known you. He's not making an excuse. He's making a statement of fact and a lived reality. It's an evidence of a crime against light, against holiness, against righteousness. It's a crime against God Almighty committed in His state. It is a state from which nothing within a man can remedy it. That's why you would think the simplest word that you could ever explain out of the scriptures was what it is to be dead. Spiritually dead. Dead to God. Unable to see how glorious he is. Unable to hear how wonderful he is. Unable to taste and see and feel. Dead. Dead. And yet, mankind thinks that the solution must be that man needs more information, man needs more knowledge, man needs more of whatever it might be. This state of these people is a salutary reminder to us that salvation is all of grace and entirely of grace and we need to be thankful to our God. This is a righteous activity of God to leave these people in this state. You've got to remember that these people we're speaking of here, that he's speaking of here, are the people who had seen three and a half years of the most extraordinary activities of God Almighty. They had seen prophecy after prophecy, hundreds of prophecies fulfilled. They had seen God Almighty in human flesh standing in their midst, claiming to be God Almighty, doing the things that only God Almighty can do. They had seen Him throughout those three and a half years as an agent of the most remarkable mercy. He went to the outcasts and the lepers and the hearts and the helpless and the hopeless and the miserable. and those in need, and he showed the most extraordinary grace and love to every single one of them. And yet, to the religious leaders, all of what they did caused them to hate him even more. Religion, God is righteous. and man is responsible for his sin and his unbelief. God is righteous in leaving people in their sins. It's right for God to leave men to their own wills, and they do exactly as they wish, and God does them no injustice whatsoever. Mankind is neither innocent nor ignorant. and his man-made religion does absolutely nothing to help him whatsoever. In fact, it just adds to the darkness. We know that we are of God and the whole world lies in wickedness. 1 John 5.19, and we know that the Son of God is coming and given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. And these men, these religious men, as the religious people throughout the ages have done, they'd rather defend their own righteousness than come and bow and adore He who is all of mercy and all of grace. Mankind goes about to establish his own righteousness. The Lord here is simply declaring that it is a righteous thing for God to leave them, just as it is a righteous thing for God to reveal himself to his own. God is holy, God is righteous, God is true. He leaves men in the sins that they love, John 3.19, and he does no injustice to them in leaving them that. We are, as the Lord told Nicodemus, flesh gives birth to flesh. Mankind can never rise above what it is his nature to be. A fish can swim in the sea all day long, but it can't fly to the mountains. Man needs a saviour, and we have a glorious, glorious saviour in our great and glorious Lord Jesus Christ. God is righteous. God is righteous. Just in this last five minutes I just want us to turn to a parable that the Lord spoke in both Matthew's gospel and in Luke's gospel. If you turn with me to Matthew chapter 11. The Lord, if you read the rest of this chapter when you have opportunity when you go home, you will see that the Lord Jesus Christ is talking about the revelation of John the Baptist's coming and the revelation of his and John the Baptist's work and the judgment that falls upon the cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida where the Lord Jesus Christ had done many miracles. And he says that people are better off in Sodom and Gomorrah than they were in the towns where the Lord Jesus Christ performed His miracles. That's an extraordinary thing to think of, isn't it? That on the Day of Judgment the people of Sodom, in all of their wickedness, in all of their evil, are going to be worse off than the people who hear the gospel and have the gospel witnessed to them. It's more tolerable. Then he says in verse 25, I just want to look at this very briefly. At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hath revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, so it seemed good in thy sight. God is righteous. God is righteous. So there are three people spoken of here, aren't there? There's the wise and the prudent, and there are the babes. The wise that he's speaking about here are the religiously wise. The religiously wise are those that we see around us in multitudes of different forms throughout this world, where they want to introduce worldly wisdom into the things of God and to bring human reasoning to bear on God's truth. They want to stand in judgment using their wisdom and their intellect. Stand in judgment of God Almighty. From these people God hides divine realities. And the prudent, a prudent person is one who steers a path most consistent with his worldly interests. He's moderate. He wants to keep saying, surely we can agree on all the fundamentals. Let's not take this too seriously. Let's not be divisive. Let's not stand separate from all these people. Surely they're all sincere and good and we can all have fellowship together. Isn't it wonderful when all the so-called Christians all gather together, the Catholics and the Anglicans and the Presbyterians and the Pentecostals. We all join hands together and we can march down the broad road and everything's fine. and I won't have any problem at all, and no one will persecute me. I was told by a pastor some years ago, I can worship God in any church in this town. You have no right to be separated from all of them. He's prudent. Everyone's spoken well of him. They have ever since that time. He finds a way to preserve himself from persecution and finds his way to preserve himself from contempt, keeping his good opinion of himself in the eyes of the people of religion. That's a prudent man, isn't it? So a wise man uses worldly wisdom to achieve the things of God Almighty. A prudent man steers a path where there is no serious conflict. God hides these things. He says, I thank thee. In Luke's account, he rejoices that these things are hidden. And you have revealed them unto babes. What's a babe? A babe is someone who is dependent. A babe is someone who is helpless. A babe is someone who is in need of everything. He's in need of grace and mercy. A babe is someone who is teachable. A babe is someone who just says, Amen, when you speak. Abraham was a babe, wasn't he? When God said, you're 99 years old and your wife is 90. She's long past menopause and you're too jolly old. Next year, I'm coming back and you're gonna have a baby. Abraham, as a babe, said, he laughed with joy. My God can do that. My God can do that. He's a babe, isn't he? He believed. He believed when the only evidence was the word of God. Nothing added, nothing else needed. You say the word and it will be done. He's revealed these things unto babes. There are things hidden. What are the things that are hidden? Well, firstly, all the things that the babe rejoices in. Doesn't it? They're the things that are hidden, aren't they? The babe just rejoices in intimacy. Babies are designed for love and for cuddling. Babies are designed for nurturing, aren't they? You just want to hold them in your arms. Babies are designed to be protected by their families. There are things hidden. There are things hidden, there is, just the reality of who God is, is hidden from the wise and prudent. I've had a number of people tell me lately how much they love John chapter 17, and yet if you challenge them and ask them about the character of God revealed in John chapter 17, say, no, I won't have that God rule over me, but I love John 17, it's really nice. This is an extraordinary deep and profound prayer, isn't it? There are things hidden from the wise and prudent. There is a fear of God, a reverence for God as he is, that he has the right as a righteous God to hide himself and he has the right as a righteous God to reveal himself. We're in his hands and he's not in ours and he has the right as the potter to do as he likes with the lump of clay. There is hidden from these people the three fundamental things, isn't it? There's hidden from them the nature of what they really are as fallen sons of Adam. It's hidden from them that they are sinners, real sinners. It's hidden from them the holiness of God and the holiness and the spirituality of his law. And it's hidden from them the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. so many things are hidden everything that the babe needs is given everything that the babe has he has in and that's hidden from them. They just don't know God. They don't know God, and it is their responsibility, and God is absolutely righteous. God beholdeth the proud afar off, and he taketh the wise in their own craftiness. He's hidden from these people the power of his word as it comes into the hearts of his people with the truth that convicts them. This is true and everything opposed to it is false in every way possible. Not just false, if it's a lie, it's a demonic lie. God's children run like a little child into the arms of a father. The wise in this world, the religiously wise, always seem to know more than the babe. You've been in the presence of religiously astute and intellectual people and you feel inadequate in their presence, don't you? You think, dear, I don't want to debate with that person, he knows so much more than I do. Look at all the letters after his name and all the Greek and Hebrew and all the history. The prudent seem always, the wives seem to know more, the prudent always seem to be more successful than the babe. They'll tell you of all the things that they've done. They'll tell you of the triumphs that they've had in religion, the great numbers, the esteem of many, the many on their path that tell them and applaud them as they go on in their religion. The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. And the kingdom of God stands not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2.5. What's revealed to the babes? It's a who that is revealed. The babe cries out, God be merciful to me. I am in my helplessness, here I am in my ignorance, my nothingness, my sinfulness, the pollution I am. The babe looks up to the table and says, might there just be another crumb that might fall into my lap? Might I just have more time in your presence, glorying in who you are? May the Lord make us babes. May he protect us from being wise and prudent and protect us from the religion of the wise and prudent. Amen.