I'm going to do primarily a review, based on the scriptures that we're going to look at today, of a certain idea in John. So hold that, keep that in the back of your mind. As we look at it, we're going to look at John 17, just three verses, 7, 8, and 9. Now they have known that all things whatsoever Thou hast given Me are of Thee. For I have given unto them the words whose Thou hast made, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send Me. I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them whose Thou hast given Me, for they are Thine. Amen. The Word of God. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day which is new, this new opportunity to worship in your Word. Lord, we want to see you and understand you more today, afresh. You are the I Am, you are alive, now, presently, in a new day. Help us, Lord, to know this as a repeat of many times when you sat, sometimes in the same seats, sometimes in the same we might be carried away in contention over. Let's look at that one first, and let's consider it for a few minutes. It says, I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Last night, we were talking about a verse that was added in Sorceress this morning, and that was in Jeremiah, where it says, therefore, pray that not thou for those people, neither lift up thine eye nor pray for them, neither make intercession to me, for I will not hear you. He was talking about a time and place of people that were against God's people. He goes on to say, for they have gone, they have destroyed these various things, these cities, and even holy places. But God has the right to say that. I say that again, God has the right to say that. God knows who are His. that I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Now who here can tell who is God and who is not? Raise your hand if you can tell by looking at someone or by meeting someone. None of us can. So Jesus' observation here to the Father about who he prays for is about Jesus. Now there's two primary points here. The first we'll get to in a minute. But the second is that Jesus doesn't stop praying for his own. Don't forget that. In your prayer, there's one who's perpetually modeling prayer next to the Father, always making intercession for us. This means that prayer is vital. If Jesus is doing it, who has all power in heaven and earth, if Jesus is doing it, who sits at the right hand of the Father, if Jesus is doing it, who never sins, who obeyed the Father from the beginning until now, if Jesus is doing it, who's been with the Father from eternity past, we ought to pray. We ought to pray, especially for one another. Paul is going to urge them about this exact subject. He says, I exhort, therefore, that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made. So these are kind of different types of categories of speaking with the Father about this world. One of them is prayer. Not even all four of them. So supplications, meaning petitioning God and desiring that He would hear what we have to say about something, and then prayers, and then intercessions. for all men. Believers, we ought to be careful of the doctrines of this world. Another subject we were talking about last night was how we ought to be very aware of God's Word and God's people, so that when we're out in the world, the lies and confusion aren't even an opportunity for us. If we spend time studying, I'm not saying to be ignorant of the wilds of the devil, but not to study the wilds of the devil, not to study the ways of this world, or to be concerned with them and being in one of the primary ways this world operates, is to a vicious, envious, bitterness. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods. This is the first commandment thou ever givest, because in our hearts a desire that we would at least look better, right? That our accomplishments, our life would look better if everybody else did worse, right? Which is nothing but evil continually. We're called to pray for all men. You're not just called to pray for all men, you're called to love your enemies. Now if you're called to love people that are furthest from you, whether it be in worldview, whether it be in the things they love, or whether it be in their interest to you, the people that are furthest from you in the world, how much more would you love and pray for everyone as they get closer and closer to our service? The lazy way of the world might sometimes operate is to pray for people that are far away only. This is improper thinking. You see it play out in political and public spheres. But we ought to primarily concentrate first on praying for the people that we know. We should pray according to understanding. And then continue to pray for all men. He doesn't stop there, though. He doesn't say it's just for the people that interact with us in our lives. He says, and remember all the ways he said to pray, for supplications, prayers, intercessions, even giving of thanks. authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty. Now, it's not always easy. Right now, there's a turning of the tide that many people feel positive about, that fear God. But whether that's going to be the case or not, we can't say. We don't know what tomorrow will bring, what will happen to the hearts of our rulers. That's in God's hands. But literally, it's on the finger of your citizen. It's in the heart of the king. It's in the hand of the lord. And he turns it, whether so ever he will. And if that's true of the king, it's obviously true of every leader down to your local mayor. and your local laws. So God may harden the hearts of rulers and have them be allowed to go their own way and to turn away. Nevertheless, we're still supposed to pray for them, even give thanks for them. Now, have we ever done that? Have we ever noticed that we thought we were people? Of course we have. Because we are not Jesus. We don't know how to pray with people. It says that this is good and acceptable. Good and acceptable. We talked with the children a number of weeks ago about how a just way is to learn. And one of the things I'm very thankful about in the world we live in is when you go to the supermarket and you buy something at the deli counter, there are machines there that are so precisely measured that God is delighted with that. Because you get exactly the amount of pounds that you say you're going to get. office of judgment, weights and measures in the government is something that God takes delight in them doing their job justly, right? But that is smaller when it comes to your day-to-day, but the way you pray to God, the way you seek Him, and try to intercede for people, and intercede even for your enemies, but especially for those that are close to you, it is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior. It says in the last verse in the rig here, it says, What this is talking about is not God's action, but God's goodwill towards men, to borrow the phrasing from the angels. And sometimes people get confused about this and think it means the whole world, but here Jesus is saying that he prays not for the whole world. But it does show when Jesus said, come unto me, he says he invited everyone in the world freely to him. Because God is not willing that any should not. It's just that all the world is enemy to him, as we believe. I don't mean to digress too much into that most excellent subject, but we ought to be glad for the way that God thinks. God operates with a good will. God freely opens himself to the whole world, and there are men and women who sin against God, and sin against his glory. God does not return bitterness, or idle anger, or envy towards the men that he created that are at war with him, and have sinned against him, himself, and have persevered in his creation. So this teaches us a little bit about Him, and so we should also have that right, good, goodwill toward all men. If God is working in our hearts, a natural life factor that would have to be, just as love is a fruit of the Spirit, that we would love even our enemies. And love in the Scriptures, as we looked at last time, is not a matter simply of good feelings, but it's a desire to grow in understanding and knowledge. A man that loves a woman desires to understand her depth and beauty as it applies not just in the card way, but in her inward person, always right, and why the dreamer dream is to know more about people, not just to enjoy them for our own sense and taste. And so if we begin to love our enemies, love those who are in power, we will understand more, and more rightly, give some appreciation to God, Father, and Heaven. Paul here exhorts that, and I want to exhort you this morning, that therefore, that first of all, and there's a therefore there for a purpose, you'll have to go back to reading But it says, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. Again, that's a distinction. Paul is urging you, Paul, who was given to you as a guide by Jesus and picked as one to use the right to the Gentiles and to go increase the gospel to the Gentiles, to be the first to do that. So that you could know exactly what to do in a war where you weren't brought into it. Separate both by time, distance, and language, and many other things. You weren't brought into the place where you went to the temple and saw what it meant to raise intercessions to the father, to make sacrifices on your family. Sacrifices of thanksgiving, sometimes sacrifices of intercession. You didn't live that life. But here Paul is urging you, and I'm going to urge you, you would do the same thing for all men. In the beginning of Samuel, it says, this is Samuel speaking, Moreover, as to you, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord and cease me to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and the right way. He is the prophet of Israel at this time. He says, God forbid that I should cease to pray for you. He's talking to the whole people. And we know that it says, of that group of people, that they are not all Israel, that are Israel. We know that there were those who were not to be saved. that we do not know what God knows about the hearts of men. God knows, however, completely about the hearts of every man. You, every single one of you here, he knows everything about your heart, more than you do. Those little things you might tuck away and hide away for good or ill, those things about us that we're just learning and may learn tomorrow, he knows. Your whole history, your whole past, everything. How much more is your life than the things that you've gone through? So he knows everything about you, but the most important thing he knows about you is whether or not you are one of his, whether you will be with him in eternity, whether he sent his son to die for you, to teach you, to give you his words. That's the second thing we've got to look at. But as we look at that first, we want to be careful not to be bitter. Jesus prays enough for the world, and that teaches us about Jesus, but we don't have the right. We pray for the world. We pray for the world decently. A little bit, right? Not only, but we want to pray specifically for kings and all that are in authority, and it gives us reason for ourselves, but also for all that. We're told in many other places how much prayer for those close to us, and I don't want to go too far down that. We could only look at that, but we might be skipping a couple verses here, and that's what we're really going to concentrate on this morning. Now they have known all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. Now that's an important thing, isn't it? He doesn't just say, now they know who I am. He doesn't just say, now they know who you are. He doesn't just say, now they know the words that I've given them. All that doesn't make it relevant what he's saying here. Now they have known, past tense, as in completely understood, now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them. And they have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. Pray for them. So he's praying for them on a particular context, that everything that Jesus had to give them, they know came directly from the Father, from outside. Now this matters because, first off, of the people he's talking to. These people They go back a few hundred years and they know their own history. That God spoke to them from heaven. God saved them with a strong right hand. This is what made them special. I love that you could use those exact same words about your life. What was done to the Israelites has been done to you, but not just your out-and-out, but the in-and-out. Just as the Israelites were all baptized under the sea, we all have come forward desiring to be baptized unto Jesus. We all have been saved from slavery, preserved and brought out through the desert, but most importantly, we all have God's Word revealed to us from heaven. Now I'd like to look at how many times Jesus says this. We're going to look at that passage and see that time that God appeared unto the Israelites and gave his word unto them. One of the last times it would happen until Jesus came. Yes, they were coming to the prophets, but God himself appeared physically in the cloud on the mountain, and it shook, and that was a place of giving of the word. God's word is either perpetually challenged or often forgotten. Perpetually challenged or often forgotten. People think of Christ as a good teacher. Very few people have much to say bad about him now, but when he was on the earth they had plenty of things to say. Now they say a lot of bad things about believers or professing Christians, which are not the same category. Professing Christians include believers and non-believers. We have to at least be honest with ourselves about that. But we don't always know. We have to judge by the fruits and then act in our lives accordingly and speak to God accordingly. Gandhi is attributed with a quote where he said, I like your Christ, but not your Christians. I wish they were more like the Christ. about how we appear in the world, but more importantly, it's a reminder that some people, like in the prophet we know, Prophet Isaiah, are like seven women who cling to one man, who say, we'll make our own clothes and make our own bread. You just let us have your name, right? But we, we eat the food that Jesus gives us exclusively. We bear the righteous clothes of the Father. He is our food. He is our clothing. We don't want to be like that. We don't want to be like those in the world who take His name and use it in vain. So, we ought to desire to know that Word that He has given. And what's being said here about my disciples, on Jesus, to the Father, that he gave was preserved for you today, the moment when he was praying to the Father, this intimate conversation that happens on this same soil that we walk on, where he says, and then prioritizes this simple fact, that they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. Beloved, this is a matter of belief. It is a vital matter of belief. But he has taught again and again that he makes our belief. But he doesn't just do it through the work of the Holy Ghost. And again, I don't want to discount that. That's a whole wonderful series of messages But we know that our belief comes from the Holy Ghost. But Jesus does it by teaching again, and again, and again, and reminding us again, and again, and again of this simple fact that whatsoever thou hast given me are thee. That Jesus says that whatever he got from the Father was actually from the Father. Right? This is something Jesus is telling the Father and he's vital. Well, the Israelites had gone back once and had seen what this meant and what it was like a long, long time ago. There was no way that any of the Israelites could deny that the Father had given the Word of God unto them. It was not possible. Let's look at the circumstances and see what happened. And bear in mind that these people are about to, in very short order, start worshipping a golden calf. And you might think to yourself, oh, I had a great enough experience with God. If I had a wonderful and strong enough experience with God, I would never sin again. Well, let's see what these guys saw here, and maybe it'll remind us to be a little bit more careful about our own hearts. But more importantly, we'll begin to see a bit more about how it looked the last time that God had himself fully revealed from heaven on earth. This is in Exodus chapter 19, starting in verse 10. Exodus 19, verse 10. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. And be ready against the third day. For the third day the Lord will come down and decide all people upon Mount Sinai. Now remember Moses. He was called the meekest of men. Have you ever heard anyone else refer to him as meek? Jesus himself. Moses was a wonderful picture of Jesus. A very full and a thorough one. Indeed, he even got angry at men. He had a zeal that was like unto Jesus and many other wonderful adjectives. He was a sinner like us and needed a Savior, but he is a picture of Him. And see here now, Jesus is telling him to prepare the people for His Word to come to them. It says, And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves that ye go not up unto the mount, nor touch the border of it. Whosoever touches the mount shall surely be put to death. These stakes are pretty high. says there shall not a hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through. Whether it be beast or man, it shall not live. When the trumpet soundeth long, it shall come up. to the mountains. This is very scary. These people had just been dragged through the desert, through the ocean, with a mighty army following them behind. And here they are now, in the middle of the desert. And this is some very tough people, right? They've been slaves in the old world for a long time. Now they just flee into the middle of nowhere, into the desert, where there's going to be no food, theoretically, no water, in theory. There's going to be no way to survive, and they continue to go ahead. If you ever think you've taken steps of faith, I would strongly consider looking at this picture and how much these people went through. And now, they're surrounding a mountain that they're told they cannot touch when something happens. It's going to become sacred. And there's going to be people set up to kill anyone close. Essentially, they should be run through, or they should be shot. So you imagine swordsmen, and spearmen, and archers ready to go after anyone who goes close to this, because it would be bad for the entire country if they don't obey this law. Right? God tells them to kill anyone who does this, and they disobey. God would deal with them a much worse way. From the mount, unto the people, and sanctify the people. And they washed their clothes. And he said unto the people, be ready against the third day. Come not, I be wise. And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders, and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount. And the voice of the trumpet was singing loud, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. Remember, I said, these are tough people. Some of them are very tough. And every single one of them quivered in fear of what they saw. and the lightness, you imagine, you can feel it in the very air around you and the earth beneath your feet, and there's a deep cloud. And you wouldn't think of the God of light, the Father of light, showing up in darkness, would you? Indeed, if you watch closely, you're gonna see Moses entered into the darkness, right? Before the people of Israel, in their darkness. But why is there darkness? Well, the reason for the cloud is to protect them from the glory of God. Because God is dangerous. For all the people that talk about God being loved, and they're not wrong, that God is also very, very dangerous and powerful. His very being is too dangerous for us to be in the presence of. That by itself, I think, ignores every unanimous character if he chooses to do anything of his own will. But I might be seeing what I'm seeing. It says, And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the nether part of the mountain. And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. And the smoke thereabout descended as the smoke of a furnace. And the whole mountain quaked greatly. Now the ground itself is shaking very much. It says, quaked greatly. You ever been in an earthquake? You ever felt one before? The most important thing is how surreal it seems. The ground, which is always in solid, now it's moving. It seems to shatter your inner heart, it's like, wait a minute, all the things you've assumed about life aren't working, now what can I trust? They're already scared. Now they're very frightened by the power that they seem to be in the presence of. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long and waxed louder and louder, and I wonder about this trumpet, by the way. He doesn't say that Moses had a trumpet blowing. I don't know who's blowing that trumpet, but it might be a heavenly being. It might be one of the people of Israel. If one of you knows that, please tell me afterward. It says that the voice of the trumpet sounded long and waxed louder and louder. Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. Beloved, God here now is speaking from heaven. The most important event that happens on earth is when God speaks on earth. There's nothing more important, no more important thing you're going to do, no greater pleasure you're going to take part in, no more fearful event you can see happening than God speaking from heaven. And the Lord came down from Mount Sinai, and on top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go down and charge the people, lest they break through. And you know, some of these people, despite not being afraid they are, would want to see. Simple human curiosity. As simple as rubbernecking, right? We've all experienced people who rubberneck on the road just to see something that's curious. God's not a curiosity. And to reach here would be terrible. So go down in charge of people, and let the priests also, which come here to the Lord's And Moses said unto the Lord, The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai without a charge, saying, Set bounds by the mount, and set it away. And the Lord said unto them, Away, get thee down, and thou shalt come up and err with me. But let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the Lord, lest ye break forth upon them. So Moses went down unto the people and spake unto them. And now he's going to deliver the Ten Commandments, and we're going to just go ahead and fast forward to the end of the Ten Commandments, starting in verse 18. And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoke. And the people thought they were moved and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, speak thou without some real fear, but let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said unto the people, fear not, for God is coming with you. And that his fear may be before your faces if you sin not. And the people stood far off. And Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was. The rest of it is the law. Why was it that God gave such a great shovel and a giving of His love? Because the people had to believe and know that this was the Word of God from heaven. It's not familiar to you? This is the same thing that Jesus gives rejoicing in seeing Him, that He is glad, He's showing the Father, telling the Father, now that the Father doesn't know, and by the way, this ought to be a reminder for you, that you ought to pray things even if you think God knows them. If they're on your heart, pray them, because believe me, the Father knew what the people knew. Now they have known that all things whatsoever Thou hast given me are of Thee. Moses could have said the same thing. that they will have to deal directly with God, because they're frightened of His real person, which, again, we all will be, and if you're not, I implore you to pursue Him, because eventually, you will be. Well, what happened? Moses left for Amman. What happens in Amman? He's with God, on the mountain, within their sight. The full display was no longer there. It wasn't quickening, or it wasn't perpetual thundering and lightning, but they were so proud of it. And it was evident that Moses was with God, and what did they do? So they rose up to play, and fornication, orgies, parties, the kinds of which were so incredibly wicked. And Moses came down in anger and destroyed those same tablets in their very presence. Because they have immediately violated one of the very things that was said. It specifically says in that passage in between the description of God's appearance, to not make a statue out of gold. You know what I mean? Then the next thing that he said right after that, is to not make something out of silver or out of gold to worship. And that's the first thing that he did. So, beloved, having heard the word of God, take heed yourselves, lest, don't believe. If you think you stand, take a look at yourself, lest you fall. Because, despite all that fear, they were physically afraid. And then it got worse. They were physically afraid before the ground started shaking, before God spake out of the mountain to Moses. And still, still, as soon as God wasn't there, what happened? They turned and directly followed him. However, there were those who didn't. Jolly good stuff. There were those who did not turn on Judah. Those who did not worship. I think the reason that they did not worship it was not just because of their own righteousness. I think that God preserved a portion of the country and kept them from falling completely into sin. And when that became the case, we now can be comfortable. Because this work that Jesus is concentrating on, that you would have proper respect for the Word of God, that you would see it God the Father, who appeared himself in heaven. See, he could have delivered the tablets unto Moses privately, couldn't he? He could have done that. It could have been similar to what Baha'u'llah said happened, that, oh, I got these things quietly, and then he gave it. And you can tell by the sincerity of the law that God gave, you don't need to have seen what happened on the mountain to know that that's the Word of God. It's so different from everything else. It's whole. It's pure. It's good. The commandments that Moses came down from the mountain Instead, he did something to reinforce that. He made sure that they fully understood that this was the Word of God. That there was no doubt about what was happening. The fear and the danger of the situation, even the threat of the people willing to kill anyone that dares touch the mountain because it was sanctified, because God was there, all of that would have resonated with them so deeply that you'd think it would have been a perfect threat. And indeed, these tactics do work to some degree. But they didn't. They didn't. of God, all turn from God as soon as we're out of his presence. Satan turns from God even in his presence. He fights with God about Job, remember? Directly in his presence. Don't you think our hearts can be half-hearted? Don't you think we can get that bad that we can be like Solomon and Gomorrah sitting in the very face of God? Israelites did it not too far out of their room, remember? Location-wise and time-wise, they had just seen the scariest thing that has ever been But I say this because now let's look at why this is so important to Jesus. This is a thing that God has done in the past that we've done with Jesus. Now let's look at how many times God has done this. that Jesus concentrates on making sure that they know that everything he did works, and most specifically, I gather everyone here, but I took some time and I looked at every time he said that the words he spoke were only from the Father, only in the Gospel of John. So I'm going to read through these now. I hope this isn't a distraction to you, but I would very much like if we can kind of just see how starkly this shows up in the Scriptures. So starting in John 3, where he says, and I'm not going to tell you every one, because it would be a distraction to have to keep going. Nicodemus at night, he says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and ye receive, not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you heavenly things? And no man hath ascended to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. So Jesus is telling Nicodemus, I'm telling you that I know this, there's no doubt about it, and I came directly from the Father, so what I'm telling you is absolutely true, because it came from God, this is the Word of God. It goes on, next chapter Jesus says unto them, my need is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work. Next chapter he says, my father worketh hitherto and I worketh. Speaking about the staff, therefore the Jews sought the Lord to kill him. because he not only hath broken the Sabbath, but also said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. Then answered Jesus, and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do. For what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth, and will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. Again, everything he's got is because his father told him everything that he knows. And by that I mean the father, everything the father knows. He freely shared with his son. It goes on, I can of my own self do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I ask not my own will, but the will of the father which sent me. Again, he's starting to sense a theme here. We're only a third of the way through the book. Jesus answered them and said, my doctrine is not mine, but him, his that sent him. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory, and he that seeketh his glory that sent him. The same is true, and no one righteously and yet none of you keep it for long. Why know you about to kill him? He points back right to that moment when Moses gave him the law directly from the father. Here he's reminding him again that everything he said is only from the father. Later in that same chapter he says, but lo, he Jesus in the temple, as he taught, saying, He both know me, and know whence I am. I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not. But I know him, for I am from him, and he hath sent me. Then said Jesus unto them in another place, When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then should ye know that I am He, and that I do nothing of myself, but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. Again, are we seeing a theme here? If Jesus is willing to repeat something this often, He doesn't repeat the commandment about loving the neighbor as much as He repeats this. This is the very foundation. goes on, I speak that which I have seen with my father, and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. He accused them of their father being a devil. Later in that same chapter, he says, but now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told me the truth, which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham, meaning Abraham, who had that record for God, whom he heard other people speak, such as Verse 42, this is a little longer if you are on time. said, Jesus said unto them, if God were your father, he would love you, for I have received forth and came from God. Neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do you not understand my speech, even because you cannot hear my word? Ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and a boat not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own. You hear that? You hear what Jesus is saying here? He's giving a comparison for him. Satan speaks. He speaks of his own, of his own history. Right? He being the father of lies. If any of them come as an emissary of his, the only thing they'll do is speak the things they heard from him, which are all lies. If I tell you the truth, ye believe not. Which of you convinces me of sin? If I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God, heareth God's words. Ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. What he's saying here is that because the words are directly from the Father, and he's very intense here with the last couple of verses to make the whole point clear and make it, you see why he wants this one. What he's saying is that because the words come directly from the Father, if they knew the Father, they would know that. It would be very simple, very clear. If, um, when my sons grow up and go into the world, if they meet someone that knew me when I was, uh, say around what their age would be, 18 to 20 to 25, somewhere in there, and they begin to speak about the things that are important to me now, someone will know that they are my son. Because they will speak in a way, if they love me and they honor me, they will speak in a way that I would speak. with him from forever, and he was sent directly, not abstractly into the world, but giving the words to speak that he spoke. So as that answered the Jews, he said unto him, Say ye not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? Jesus answered him, I have not a devil, but I honor my Father, and ye do dishonor me. He honors the Father. Every word comes out of his mouth. It goes down the same chapter in verse 54. Jesus answered, if I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my Father that honors me. You see, now it turns back around. Very similar to what we were talking about, how the Son glorified the Father and the Father glorified the Son. They both glorified the Spirit. The same thing is happening here with honor. Of whom ye say that he is your God, that ye have not known him, but I know him. If I should say I know him not, I am a liar, like unto you, but I know him and keep his saying. before we came, before the earth was ever founded. In the next chapter, chapter 9, it says, I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day. The night comes when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. So here he's saying he has to keep working, because why? Because he has words directly from God to deliver, work directly from God to do. Everything he does comes from one single source. You can't find it anywhere in scripture where he says, I do this because I have this bright new idea. I am God, by whom the worlds were made, and everything I say, you should listen to. He could have said that. He would be right to say that. He is God, and yet everything he says as a single source, it continues. He talks about when he lays down his life, he says, no man taketh it from me. This is the closest he's going to get, by the way, to what I was just implying. No man taketh it from me, speaking of his life, but I lay it down myself. I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again. So here, he sounds imposing, right? But he's telling the truth. It says, I power take it up again, it says, this commandment have I received of my Father. This commandment have I received of my Father. So even with the power of life in himself to lay his life down and then take it back up again, he has that commandment directly from the Father. All the power he has, all the things he can do, all the work that he is able to accomplish, he still uses every bit, every ounce of his strength to serve the Father in heaven. They'll later go on to say, I and my father are one, which is the central point. They're so close that men have taken a long time to come up with a philosophy and a way of speaking we call now the trinity, just to understand how tight they are. But that is a fairly recent way of trying to understand it. The history of the phrasing of the trinity as a way of understanding it is probably new. It took many men many years of studying and desiring God to use that. It's not supposed to be true. It is, I think, a very good tool to help us understand it. But that's how close they are. And we don't even understand it. We're not that close to anybody in our lives. And even if we were as close as humanly possible, we still wouldn't understand it. It multiplied by the depth and the wisdom and the beauty of God, and then multiplied by all the time that God spent together with the Father, with the Son, and with the Holy Ghost. So we can't understand just how close they are. And so the best way we can understand it is what Jesus is teaching here, that I and my Father are one. Meaning, the part of them that is one He says, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Why? Because everything the Father said was all that Jesus did. It's not done yet. Jesus in John 12, I see a lot of people trying to follow along. saith he that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him, the word that I have spoken. Why is the word judged? Why would the words that Jesus gave in teaching, or in admonition, be judged, until it is plain? The same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me. Ye are tired of that saying yet? We're getting reminded of how often He says it, how important it is to His ministry, how vital. I implore you to find anything else that He says so often is this, and this is only in the Gospel of John. I've spoken now to myself, the Father was saying, He gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment is life everlasting. Beloved, if there's anything you walk away with today, is that you know that everything that came from Jesus is from God, and that you know that His commandment is life everlasting. Whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak. He says, believe it's not, I'm sorry, believe it's now not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me. The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwells in me, he doeth the works. Believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me. Or else believe me, for the very work's sake. What's happening here? What does this believe me for the very work's sake? What does that mean? Why is he telling me, please believe me, what I'm saying? If not, at least believe me for the work's sake. Is that because the works are the most important thing? No, the works are the most obvious thing. The works are to prove that His words directly come from the Father. Here's all the begging of it. He's asking the question, right? Do you believe? He says, the words I speak unto you are not of myself, but of the Father welcoming me. And where do the works come from? He says, He doeth the works. This is why the ratio of the delivering the word of God through preaching to I preach to you now, and I tell you that every word that came out of Jesus' mouth was pure and perfect and came directly from heaven. And so now as I preach to you, it is humbling, and really, it makes you feel ashamed. That's why through the, what is it, the foolishness of preaching, we get to deliver the Word. Because when Jesus spoke, every word was so much more compact. If he spoke for five minutes, it's probably more of God's truth than all the preaching I've done in my entire life. Right? So I would submit that he delivered a lot more words of teaching that came directly from the Father than he did miracles. Even though he did so many miracles. Right? The ratio is much more on the side of the words give it. Because the words come directly from the Father. Because in the entire world, if you look at it, it's so important to us. All the physical things we've seen out of the physical is unimportant. I'm not trying to teach that nonsense. But the physical world came by his word. And so he's giving words from the spiritual world that are not part of this place. to all the more valuable, because it came from outside. Much of science, the scientific world as the so-called now, has to view the world as an enclosed space. Evolution is the only theory they can come up with, because there has to be outside influence. So therefore, things have had to continue to develop, nigh upon nigh, against all time and tide, that would have resisted things going from nothing to something. They say it must be conveyed, but we are convinced that the Word of God came from outside, and that God Himself came from outside the Heaven and the Earth, came outside of creation to be with us. Well, here is an example of that happening. Here is an example of the supernatural. Jesus is telling them, pay attention to these supernatural works, and you can see that the words I gave you, they don't have a flashy sign behind them, but they're the most important thing. These flashy works are there to point you to these words. And by the way, chapter 8 and chapter 14 are really rich on this, and it gets into the debate with them, and these are kind of the points for it, but I encourage you to read those if you'd like to. It says, Jesus answered and said to him, if a man loved me, he would keep my words, and my father will love him and will come unto him and make our vow with him. Now, beloved, I want to make very clear that he's not promising salvation if you keep his words, but what I'm saying is that the reason you will love his words is because he's already This is the way belief works. There's all these things that build up up high. And sometimes people get confused and think, well, if I can do this thing, then I can get this next step and get this next step. No. Once you put belief in us, everything else, these are the things that will have to come. But you're alive. And so he continues to encourage us and cajole us and push us to desire these things, to be with him. And so here I would desire you again this morning that you would desire these things that he says. If you love him, keep his words. Keep his words. And my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our vote with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings, and the word which he heareth is one. It is not mine, but the Father which sent me." Again, he says it. Again, it's not just the Father, it's the Father which sent him. Again, he's saying his obedience. He's declaring his obedience for all of us, and we can see where these things come from, and why he does them, and where his heart is. These things that I have spoken unto you, being yet present with you." That's important to him, and that's a whole other conversation, because he was going to leave them. He was going to come from heaven, live like us, die for us, and in between, teach us with words that are directly from heaven, and then leave us, and not add any more to what he was doing. He basically said what was in Revelation, If this is how important it is for us to know that the Word of God came from God, then it ought to be something we should embed in God. That we should sing, if we wander, or if we sit in our palaces, or if we just consider the Word of God, we ought to think, wow, everything that Jesus said in the end, everything that came out from that, right? For people who had known Jesus' words, who then would, by the guiding of the Holy Ghost, add to the Scriptures, Paul, and Peter, James, Jude, and John and anyone I may have missed, they all were writing with these words as their guide. It's important to know that. It's important to be aware that Jesus' teaching was their guide even at that time for the rest of the scriptures to be written. So this is the central point. These words did come from God, but then what? Then Jesus left. Are we closed off from God now? Do we look at these sacred texts? You know, this was the time. Do we pray in hopes that maybe he'll hear and remember us? Was that the end of our communication with God? By communication, I don't mean our communication to Him, I mean a continual conversation. And if that's the case, if that's not the case, if that's not the case, God's, we still have access to communication with Him, is there any difference between that current communication and what Jesus had done? And I mean that particularly in this context. When we speak to God, how do we do it? We pray to the guidance of the Holy Ghost, and we listen. goes through our conscience, guides us this way or that. When he gives this urging to be here at church on Sunday, to be faithfully at the place where we know God's word and we share it, how does he do it? Well, last chapter we were looking into how Jesus said, how did he, the spirit of Jesus come, he will guide you into all truth. The way that Jesus came is the exact same way the Holy Ghost came. The communication with the Father is the same, even to this day. Jesus' complete obedience gives you comfort that you have all access to the Father, even though you should have no way to be able to speak to him. The Father. The comfort of the widows. who you are separated from by time, by distance, by metaphysics, and by your sin. You have access. How did he find a way around all these great faults? We're going to go forward now. I don't usually do this when I'm going to a book club, but I wanted to take one look at one verse, a couple verses, actually, in John 20, starting at verse 20. Then we'll have a proper view, a 20-20 vision, as it were, of the way that God will teach us even until this day. Because, beloved, it is through the perfect obedience of the Son and the Holy Ghost that you have a perfect vision, an exact reflection of the Father far away. John 20.20 says, And when he had so said, he showed them his hands and his side. Even though you may be sorrowing, you won't sorrow as much as the disciples did, and you're always going to be glad when you see the Lord. And you can see the picture now, that they've seen that Jesus is alive, and they saw his hands and his feet getting nailed. They saw him being nailed to the cross. They know exactly where it was. I mean, you can imagine those of you that are watching, when you're watching something that horrible, you're observing, you're paying attention. Every little detail becomes important to you. So if those foals were in a different spot, they would have noticed. They were in the exact same place where they'd seen their Lord, It says, they were glad because they saw the Lord. And then said Jesus unto them, Peace be unto you. As my Father has sent me, even so I send you. Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on, does that sound familiar? See, the Father sent him and he was completely in obedience. Now he's turning into the disciples. Beloved, he's turning to you. He's saying to you this morning that as he sends you into the world, it's exactly as he was sent. Maybe do it in complete and utter and total obedience to him. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said unto them, Receiving the Holy Ghost, whosoever sins we commit, they are remitted unto them, and whosoever sins we retain, they are retained." So, he goes and he shares how the Father said things from heaven that are vital for man. He reveals himself, you could say, back thousands of years ago to the Israelites by thunderings and lightning, by earthquakes, by great fire. It goes up like a giant furnace, a giant plume of smoke, miles wide, up into the heavens, reaching the upper atmosphere. And you can imagine it's starting to spill out, fill it. You've seen videos of volcanoes and things like that. You imagine this mighty and powerful sight to prove that these were the works of God. Then he sends his son. do the work of salvation for you and complete it. Those miracles and self-evident fact of what he teaches are there to show that he did nothing of himself. But instead, he reaches out to us as a man. He doesn't just clobber us with the power of God. He gently teaches us over and over again. The same thing he was teaching the Israelites back on that day. Then, as he leaves, he tells them, while I'm with you, then he sends in the Holy Ghost. He says, by the way, everything I said I did. I only did exactly what the Father said. I only said exactly what the Father taught me to teach. You receive the Holy Ghost in that yearning of God, and do the same there. Beloved, if you believe that every word that came out of Jesus' mouth came directly from the Father in heaven, you have the opportunity to be a continuing part of this. This is what he means when he says that he's going to glorify us as a part of it. You, if you now, be the mouthpiece of God on earth. Not by your own will, not by your own strength, not by your own righteousness, not that you don't have these things, but not by any of that. by the self-evident glory of God you can see around you everywhere, and most important, as I said, through the Holy Ghost working in you to this very day, that you might have...