This prayer is a standing, everlasting monument to the affection of our Lord Jesus for his people, and it shall stand forever as his determination to do everything for the glory of God. Here we see our Savior as the mediator We see him as the intercessor. We see him pouring out his heart to the Father in prayer, addressing God as his Father six times. In chapters 14 through 16, he dealt with men on behalf of God. And now he deals with God on the behalf of men. In chapters 14, 15, and 16, he preaches to his people of the things of God. Here in John chapter 17, he offers this intercessory prayer for his disciples. Here are two tremendous things that need to be learned right from the beginning. Number one, the importance of preaching. Because in chapters 14, 15, and 16, our Lord is preaching. He has instituted the Lord's Supper at the end of John chapter 13. And then he begins to speak to his men. These 11 men. Oh, they're sinful men. They're men who are going to forsake Him. They're men who are going to crumble in the time of trial. But they're His men. He chose them unto salvation. He is now praying for them. They're the men that He's going to save along with all of His chosen people. And He preaches to them. Oh, how much valuable time we ought to devote to these three chapters and hear our Lord's words to His followers and learn the importance of preaching the gospel Because we read in 1 Corinthians 1 and pleased God that by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. It's when a man stands before people with a message from God. A message that has flooded his heart. A message that has affected him. And he pours out that message before people. That's how God instructs His children. And that's how the message of redeeming grace, the gospel of Christ, is set forth through the preaching. The foolishness of preaching, not foolish preaching. We have far too much foolish preaching today. But what men call foolishness, the foolishness of preaching. Men today would rather have a song service, quartets gathered together, Let's have a choral group from every church join together to sing songs. Men would rather do that, cooperate across denominational lines in gathering together. and blending their voices together singing. They'd rather do that than hear the preaching of the gospel of the free and sovereign grace of God. But that's what God uses, not singing. Singing is important, and don't misunderstand me. It is not a prelude to worship. It is part of worship. It's an important part of worship. But it must never, never take the place of preaching. Paul said, we preach Christ crucified. I know a lot of people like to have testimony services. I had a family left one time because I refused to have what I called a bragamony service. Because usually a so-called testimony service begins with I and ends with me. And I just don't want to hear that. We've got to set forth Him who is the Word of God, who is the incarnate God, the Savior of sinners. We must exalt Him and follow His teaching, follow His own preaching example. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Me. And if you would have God, if you desire God to do something for your heart, listen to the preaching of the Gospel. That's how God still speaks to people. He uses the very power of this word. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I'm not ashamed of it. He said, it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. If you truly desire God to do something in your heart, to save you by His grace, listen with all the hearing that God gives you to the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. That's the message that God uses. And so the first thing we're confronted with in our Lord's last hours before His betrayal, before His arrest, and before His crucifixion, is the preaching of the word of God. And the second thing is from preaching he turns to praying. After we have spoken the word of God to men, let us speak to God concerning men. I would never ever imagine getting behind what the old Puritans used to call the Holy Desk. That's what they called it now. They called it the Holy Desk. I could never imagine speaking to men on behalf of God without speaking to God on behalf of men. And after I preach, I go home and upon my bed, I pray unto God Oh, God used the word that was preached. And I always ask God, put a filter over my mouth lest I say something or present something in a way that I shouldn't present it. No preacher is perfect, of course. We all make errors, blunders, Sometimes between my mouth and your ears, something happens. And it don't come out and you don't hear it exactly the way I want it to come out. But I ask God to take the words that I say and may they never bring any reproach to the cause of Christ. And I'm thankful for this. None of us are big enough to do any damage to the eternal purpose of God. I'm so thankful for that. See, Mr. Spurgeon said, it's a credit to the faithfulness and the grace of God that his church has survived her preachers. We're just men who are sinners saved by grace, trying, as God enables us, to brag on the Savior and to direct the attention of our hearers to that one who is God of very God, that one born of a virgin robed in human flesh, who came into this world to save his people from their sins by his sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. Our Lord now turns to prayer. And may I say to all of you that before every service, I always covet your prayers. Many, in fact, have said that one of the keys to the power of Charles Spurgeon preaching from the pulpit was that down in the basement there were 500 men praying for the power of God to come upon their pastor. Can you imagine 500 men praying for the service and for the preacher? I hope I've got five of you who prayed. But more than that, I believe I have a savior who prays for us. and he's touched with the feelings of our infirmities. I would say to the men who fill in for me, if you would be successful in speaking to men of the things of God, and if you would have God to bless the words that you speak, be certain that you water the word that is preached with intercessory prayer. Because without Him, we can do nothing. You remember in the book of Acts, the Lord's apostles They were criticized because some of the widows weren't getting the attention that they needed to get. They weren't receiving the assistance, the financial assistance that they required. And that's when the apostles said, choose you out some men to be deacons. And we will give ourselves, the scripture says, we will give ourselves to prayer and the preaching of the word. We know that our Savior often prayed, but as far as I know, this is the only prayer that was ever recorded by the Holy Spirit, exactly everything that he prayed. We have many of His messages. There's recorded many of His miracles. We have many of His parables. But this is the only prayer recorded in full. This is the prayer of our High Priest, of our Mediator, which He is. And He prays for His people. He makes intercession for the eleven and for all of His people. Romans 8.34 says, Who can condemn us? It's Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, and also ascended, and makes intercession for us. Hebrews 7.25 says, He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." So this is the prayer of the great high priest, the one mediator. You see, in the Old Testament, the duties of the high priest included intercessory prayer for Israel, and the offering to God of the sacrifice that covered the sins of the nation for another year on the day of atonement. Behold our great high priest. He intercedes for his people. He prays for us. Not only for the 11 disciples, but for all of his people. Look at verse 20 of chapter 17. Neither pray I for these alone. Who's he talking about there? The 11 apostles. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. And that's us. That's all of the church of the redeemed. That's all of the elect of God. He's praying for us. He's making intercession for us. He is the mediator. He is our great high priest who speaks to God on our behalf. The high priest prayed for the people. And secondly, the high priest on the day of atonement offered the sacrifice that covered the sins of his people. Behold our great high priest. He prays. Then he offers himself to God, himself to God, not an animal, not a lamb, not a bullock. He offered himself. He laid himself down upon the altar of his own deity and presented that sacrifice of himself to God. and thereby redeemed and saved and reconciled and made righteous all of those in whose stead he died." This is our great high priest. Here he prays for us. And in a couple of chapters, we see him laying down his life as he said in John 10 that he would do. I have the power to lay my life down. and I have the power to take it again. No man takes my life from me. The Romans didn't take his life from him. The Sanhedrin didn't take his life from him. The Pontius Pilate didn't take his life from him. Nobody could take life from him who is life. He laid it down of himself. the willing sacrifice, the substitute of His people. He laid down His life. And the Father was well pleased with His sacrifice that satisfied justice as the Savior died in the stead of all of His chosen people. And God said, it's enough. It's enough. And the Savior said, it is finished. And He bowed His head. and gave up the ghost, he laid down his life. And then he took it up again. He said in John 10, this commandment have I received from my father. Here is a prayer. of a man of whom it was said, never a man spake like this man. Well, that being true, then never a man prayed like this man. In fact, as I've been studying this and thinking about this all week, I hardly think my prayers deserve the word prayer. Here's a prayer. Here's a prayer. Let us learn how to pray from studying our Lord's prayer. And see how he's always seeking the glory of God. Glorify thyself and glorify thy son as thy son has glorified thee. I don't know how much we know about prayer anyway. People say prayer changes things. No, it doesn't change anything. Because that which comes to pass is according to the will of God, and that is God's everlasting will. Your prayer's not gonna change a thing. But maybe, maybe as you pray, God will change you. And bring us to bow to the will of God, because we tend to buck the will of God. We tend to be dissatisfied with the will of God. We tend not to be happy with the will of God when it goes against our grain. Our Savior in John 17, we see Him bowing to God's will, submitting to God's will, glorying in the will of God. And I hope prayer does that to us. Now, where this prayer was prayed, that's not important. As you can well imagine, I consult several writers about this prayer, and it's amazing how some say, well, he prayed in such a place, and others say he prayed in another place. That's not important. But I'll tell you what is important. What was prayed? Not only that, when this was prayed. Just after his message to the 11 and just before his betrayal and the denial of Peter and his crucifixion, this is when this was prayed. Verse one says, he lifted up his eyes. These words spake Jesus. And those four words, these words spake Jesus, that's a reference to his message that he had just finished. These words spake Jesus. And then, Having finalized his message with verse 33 of chapter 16, these things have I spoken unto you that in me you might have peace, in the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. Don't let it get you down. I have overcome the world. These words spake Jesus and then He lifted up His eyes to heaven where the Father is. And He said, Father, the hour has come. What hour? The hour of redemption. The hour that our Savior pointed to and looked forward to from eternity past. From the everlasting counsel of grace, the covenant of peace, the Lord Jesus has been looking forward to this hour. In fact, he told his disciples before he instituted the Lord's Supper, he said, I've looked forward to this Passover. Why did he look forward to that Passover? Because after that Passover, the true Passover Lamb would lay down His life for the salvation of His people. He said, the hour has come. The hour has come. He lifted up His eyes to heaven. And I'll just say a word or two about that. I'll tell you what prayer is. It is the elevation of the heart to God. It's when from your heart, from your innermost being, you look up to God from your soul in worship, in praise, in thanksgiving, and in petition. David, when he prayed in Psalm 25, said, I lift my heart to Thee. And he later said, bow by heavens, O Lord, and come down. I lift my heart to Thee. That's true prayer. And as you pray, you ask God to come down, here, Receive my petition, receive my worship, receive my thanksgiving. One writer said, the Lord comes down in as much as your heart is raised up to him. Make sure you understand a heartless prayer is a vain prayer. And I wonder, concerning myself, how many of my so-called prayers have been heartless. Aren't you thankful the Lord is full of mercy? He receives us always for Christ's sake. because none of us enter into prayer as fully from the heart as we ought to. That's just a fact. We're sinners. We're sinners. Years ago, I remember one of the professors in school, he said, before you call upon the Lord in prayer, stop and think about who it is you're talking to. Well, that's a good idea. Stop and think about who you're talking to. You're not talking to your next door neighbor. You're not talking to your spouse. You're talking to God. And the amazing thing is God is always anxious to hear what we have to say. Oh, how gracious He is. It's like the Lord has His ear cupped. What do you have to say? Hey, there are a lot of times nobody's interested in what you got to say. Hate to break that to you. Nobody's interested. People don't want to know. Well, let me tell you about my rheumatism. Oh boy, there he goes again. But you know what? Your Heavenly Father is always ready and willing to hear what you've got to say. That's so sweet, isn't it? That's how gracious He is. He knows there's nothing to us. He knows that. I've got nothing to offer Him except the blood of the Son of God. That's all I've got to offer. I come to Him through the Savior, just a sinner saved by grace. And He's always interested in what I've got to say. Oh, this is the hour of redemption decreed from eternity. And I just figured out something. I'm not gonna get to the message I prepared for you tonight. So I'm gonna have to retitle this. Maybe we'll call it the introduction to the Lord's Prayer. But I know this hour This hour that he said has come was the hour appointed and decreed in the covenant of grace. And it happened right on schedule. In fact, everything does. Everything happens right on schedule. Nancy was talking to her sister a few days ago, and Nancy had taken a little bit of spill, fell, and she told her sister, she said, well, I'm glad that's over with. It had to happen. And I'd say to our dear organist, whom we all love and we miss her, That fall she experienced going right up this aisle this morning, that's appointed by God. Now I don't know what his purpose is other than to remind all of us to be careful. But the things that happen to you and to me are not by accident. They happen on purpose. to fulfill God's will. And our Lord Jesus, after He offered this prayer, and then He goes across the brook Kidron, and then the band of soldiers and officers and priests and Pharisees, they all come after Him, and Judas plants a kiss of betrayal upon His cheek. They all did exactly what God had purposed to be done. And when they beat the Savior, every lash that came across His back, from the cat of nine tails, ripping the flesh, they were all appointed by God. And that death that He died, That was the hour of his death marked out in the covenant and counsel of peace. Because that's the only way God could be a just God and a savior, by the death of the Son of God. He said the hour has come. I believe Abraham saw that hour. Christ said, he saw my day and rejoiced. That preacher who stood over outside of Jerusalem and said, if I'd have been here, then I never crucified my Lord, that man's a fool. He didn't know anything about substitution or salvation or redemption. The sins that our Savior bore were our sins, they were real. As a real weight upon Him. When all of our iniquities were made to meet on Him. But that was all according to the purpose of God. That's the only way we could be saved. Christ said the hour has come. The hour has come. He said, glorify thy son that thy son also may glorify thee. And I tell you what, God glorified his son and raised him from the dead and gave him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow of things in heaven, things on earth, and things under the earth. And every tongue's going to confess that Jesus of Nazareth is Lord, and he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Well, the Lord willing, next Sunday night, I'll get into my message. That's just the introduction. But I hope and pray that God will use the words that I've said to magnify the Savior and to help you and to help me as we look to the Lamb of God, the only Savior of sinners. Let's get our songbooks and we'll close by singing 454. What a wonderful Savior. What a wonderful Savior. Hymn number 454.