And it's not Mother's Day, of course, it's Father's Day. So happy Father's Day to all of you who qualify. Lord bless you. The text of Scripture I want to draw to your attention this morning is in John, chapter 17. And I suppose it's appropriate for us to come to this text of Scripture this morning, especially in the application that I'm going to draw from it. Now, we have, I hope, the Word of God open before us all. So, since we do, we want the Lord to speak to us from His Word. We talked about that with the children this morning in the Sunday school hour. Let's ask the Lord to meet with us and to speak to us from His Word, okay? So, let's all pray and ask the Lord to speak. Our gracious Master and our God, we come to Thee this morning, resting by faith in the finished work of Christ. We rejoice that He is the altogether lovely One. We rejoice that He is the Rose of Sharon. We thank Thee, Lord, that He is the Lily of the Valley, the Rose that never loses its fragrance, the Lily that never loses its beauty. We thank Thee and praise Thee that He is ours and we are His forever. the way, the truth, and the life. We rejoice this morning in the opportunity to look to the Word of God, to see something of Christ. We pray that Thou wilt lift Him up before our eyes today. We pray that our souls would be blessed and profited. We pray that Thou wilt prosper us in the things of God. Edify Thy people this morning, we pray, Should there be any out of Christ, Lord, we pray that Thou wilt save them. For Jesus' sake, for it is in His name we pray with thanksgiving. Amen. The text of Scripture that I want to draw to your attention this morning is in verse 8 and 9 of John chapter 17. For I have given unto them the words which Thou gavest Me, 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 which thou hast given me. For they are thine." We'll finish our reading there, and trust that the Lord will stamp the reading of His Word with His own divine seal of approval. Romans in chapter 13 deals with giving honor and obedience to those to whom honor is due. Now, it's talking in that particular passage about the government or those who are the officials of government. It talks about paying taxes and talks about paying custom and talks about giving honor then to those to whom honor is due. You can find that in the 13th chapter, as I said, of Romans. So, it's appropriate for us to give honor to those to whom honor is due. And in the society in which we live, there have been certain times set aside where we have elected to pick out a single particular group and to honor them in a particular way. For example, we have a day that we remember those who died in the fighting in overseas wars, those who were veterans, and we have a day that we honor them. And we remind ourselves and remember the sacrifice that it takes and requires for us to live in a free country. And so we honor those people to whom honor is due. We honor people in their offices. We honor the policemen. Recently at the congregation where I attend, they had a law enforcement day and they had a large number of police officers come in. And they gave to them honor. in a special and in a particular way so that they could express their appreciation for these law enforcement officers. Now, we do it on a regular basis. When we deal with them, we should give them honor, but it's appropriate for us to set aside a particular time for us to honor them. On Mother's Day, we remember those who are mothers, and today being Father's Day, as I understand it, It's appropriate for us to set aside that particular occasion to honor fathers, and I hope that all of you children had the opportunity perhaps to do that this morning, or sometime today. We'll remember to tell your father how much you appreciate what he does for you, because he does a lot, probably more than you really think. So, at any rate, when I was studying not long ago, I came to be thinking about this particular subject, not realizing that I was going actually to be preaching here in Kansas City on Father's Day because, of course, that was somewhat of a surprise that didn't rise up until about Friday evening. But I went to this passage of Scripture and I was looking at it in the context of contemplating fathers and what their role is in the home and what their responsibility is in the home. and how they may carry that out. Now, we look to the Lord Jesus Christ, and any time that I am going to preach, I'm going to do my very best under God to point you to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we look at Christ as our prophet. We look at Christ as our priest. We look at Christ as our king. And we look at Christ in those three functions of His mediatorial office as carrying out all the necessary requirements of a mediator to bring us to God. And He is all of those things. He is God manifest in the flesh, and no less than that. He is the only God-man. He is the only mediator between God and man. He is also, for those of us who are His, bought with the precious blood of Christ, an example of how one should live and one should behave. Now, in the passage of Scripture that we come to this morning in John chapter 17, it's the night before Christ is about to go to the cross. If you read the Book of John, you'll realize that it's different from the other three Gospels. You have four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and the three of them are called synoptic Gospels. That means sin, as in with, and optic eye, with the same eye. So the first three, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are looking with somewhat of the same view. John is a different kettle of fish. It's a different type of gospel in the sense that it is laid out differently. It emphasizes different things. And it's done that way with a particular purpose. Now, when we come to the Gospel of John, we find Christ presented as the Son of God. And in that passage, in the book of the Gospel of John, The Lord Jesus Christ does various miracles. The climax of His miracle doing we find in the 11th chapter where He raises Lazarus from the dead. Well then, the 12th chapter deals with Christ coming into Jerusalem. The 13th chapter deals with the night just before He goes to the cross. So you have a number of chapters dedicated to a very, very short space of time in the Gospel of John. Start in chapter 13 and by chapter 19, 18 and 19, it's only the next day. And of course, it finishes then in chapter 21. So that covers when Christ was raised from the dead and appeared to the disciples. So between chapters 13 and chapters 17, we have the events of really one evening. And that's important to understand what we're really looking at. And when we come to chapter 15 and 16, Christ is talking to his disciples, explaining to them what was going to happen, explaining to them about the Holy Spirit. Some of the largest and most detailed discourses about the work of the Holy Spirit come in this passage 15 and 16. And then when you come to 17, it's a prayer. So the whole of chapter 17 is a prayer, and it is a prayer by the Lord Jesus Christ for His disciples. He was praying for them at this time, and interceding for them. It's called, officially, the High Priestly Prayer of Christ. So then, Christ is here praying, and He's praying for His disciples, and in a larger sense, He's praying for the church, His people. Now, as I said, whereas Christ is our prophet, our priest, and our king, He acts as our mediator. He is also our example. And to his disciples, he became what we might term a spiritual father. Now, that's a very biblical term. You find that the Apostle Paul talks about Timothy as his son in the faith. That's because The Apostle Paul had been the person who had pointed Timothy to the Lord Jesus Christ and had actually had a lot of influence, really, more than anything else in the life of Timothy. So he called him his son in the faith. Now, Christ, in his relationship to his disciples, acted very much as a spiritual father, was very much in that role of pointing them to gospel truth, of discipling them, of leading them along in the faith. So then, we find here Christ praying for his disciples, and praying in a very specific way. And it sounds very much like a father praying for his children. And I want us to have a look at these two verses of Scripture because as I was contemplating this whole issue of a father and his relationship to his children and his desire to exercise to them a faithful gospel ministry, I came to these two verses of Scripture and as I began to look at them and break them apart, I realized that in The 8th and the 9th verse of John, in chapter 17, we find what really is a summary of a father's faithful ministry to his children. Now, you say, wait a minute, we're leaving the wife out. Well, no, not really. The reason I say primarily to his children is this, is that in the term father, implicitly, there is the idea that there are children. that really is the implicit meaning of the term. So, when we talk about fathers, we're talking about children. Now, fathers do not have children without wives, so obviously it's a community effort here, but we're talking about fathers and their relationships to their children. So, on this particular day, I want us to come to this passage of Scripture and look at this text, and I want us to contemplate it as it relates to fathers and their ministry to their children. Now, if I were in some churches, I could spend the next 30 minutes bashing the fathers over the head and telling them what they should be doing, and how little they were doing, and how much better they could be doing, and how guilty they ought to feel. I'm not going to do that because, first of all, I don't think it's appropriate, nor do I think it's really scriptural either. So I'm not going to do that this morning. But I want to look with you into this passage of Scripture, and I want us to contemplate this for a little while. Because I think it serves to point out to us where we are doing well as fathers, where we can improve, I think it also points out to those of you who are involved or related to a father, and we all are in one way or another, where your father has done well, is doing well, needs prayer, needs for you to support him, where if you're a mother and you're in a home with a father, you can say, well, here is something for which I, as a mother and as a wife, have to be thankful. I have a godly husband who is a father to my children who is prepared to do the things that a father should do in carrying out a faithful ministry to my children. I work in a steel company in Denver, Colorado. a welding shop and there are men that work there and women as well. One of the girls that works for us runs our press break and our shear and she's a lovely Christian girl. She has been in difficult situations over the period of years and she has a man in her life, and she looks at him as being the only suitable father for her children. When you deal with women, you realize that women having children, who have children, find it very important, find it very necessary, find it very valuable to have a man in their life who is a good father for their children. And in this particular case, I want you to see with me in this passage of Scripture, the summary of a faithful ministry of a father to his children. So let's look at this text and see how the Lord Jesus Christ acts as an example for us in this regard. The first thing I want you to see with me in this text is that a faithful ministry of a father to his children involves him being faithful to deliver God's Word to them. Look with me down to verse 8. Christ here is praying. He says, For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me. For I have delivered unto them, I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me. Now, there's a lot of wisdom that a father can pass on to his children. Some of that wisdom is just some of the practicalities of life. That it's important to pay your bills. It's important to pay them on time. That it's important to learn when you're wasting your time and not to bother with something anymore. Like I tell my boys about certain things. When you have people that don't want to listen to you, I tell them never try to teach a pig to sing. Waste your time and it annoys the pig. So, there's sort of regular sort of wisdom that you pick up in life and you can pass that on to your sons. However, above all, there is the wisdom of the Word of God. That is, that it is important for a father to pass on to his children the words which God has given him. The words which God has delivered to him. Now, you can't pass on the Word to your children unless you know it yourself. You can't deliver the Word to them unless you are walking with the Lord. You cannot be able to be an instructor unless you are yourself first instructed. And so it's important for a father to himself be a disciple, to sit under the teaching and the ministry of the Word of God, to examine the Word of God himself, to study, to show himself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. It's important for him. to understand the Scriptures, to memorize them, to hide them in his heart, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word, it says in Psalm 119. So it's important for those of us who are men to be in the Word of God, to speak to the Lord and to ask Him to speak to us with regard to what He desires for us to do and to be and to learn the Word of God so that we can pass it on. Christ here, as our example says of His disciples, His spiritual children, He says, I have given them the words which thou gavest Me. Passing on to your children all the worldly wisdom that you can will stand them in some stead, but it will not stand them in the best stead. We're going to deliver unto our children that which God would have us deliver. It involves us delivering unto them the word which God has given us. In 4 Columns, we have a group And in September, I go up. Beginning in September and twice a month, I go up there. And in the weeks that I don't go up there, another man goes up there. And we teach the Catechism. We have the Westminster Shorter Catechism. It's a series of questions and answers that starts, what is man's chief end? A man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And then it goes on through a whole a number of other questions and answers, all of which teach us what our duty is towards God and what God requires of us. And we go through that with our children with the intention and purpose that we should deliver to them The Word of God. It covers a range of subjects. Justification, sanctification, covers the Ten Commandments, covers the Lord's Prayer. It deals with all these various things. And it serves as a good foundation for us as fathers to be able to deliver to our children the words which God has given us. Now, it's not the only foundation or it's not the only means whereby we can communicate to our children the Word of God. It is a good foundation and a help. But every day, when we sit down, when we stand up, when we walk by the way, when we're sitting in our house, when we're abroad, we have the privilege and the opportunity as fathers to take the Word of God, which God has given us, and to deliver it to our children. And it's not so much taught as caught. You can say a whole host of things to your children about the word of God and about how they ought to live. But in spite of everything that you say, your children will continue to turn out to be just like you. And the reason that is, is because they're going to see how you do and what they'll catch will be more than what you've taught them. And so that's the reason why it's important for us not just to know the Word of God intellectually, but for the Word of God to have had such an effect upon our heart and upon our life and upon the way we speak and the way we think and the way we react and the way we do that our children will see in us the living Christ. The Word of the living God lived out in the way we live. they'll catch much of the Word of God which God has given us. If you are married to a man and this is his habit of life, rejoice in that. There are many who aren't. If you have a father who's prepared to take the time to care enough about you, to sit down and teach you the Word of God, be thankful for that because there are many who don't either have fathers or whose fathers are not anywhere remotely interested in delivering to them the Word of God which God has given. And so this morning it's important for us to begin here because this is in this passage of Scripture where Christ speaks about what He had done as a faithful minister. He had delivered to them the word which God His Father had given Him. Another part of this summary of a father's faithful ministry to his children is that he's faithful to evangelize them. Notice, if you will, with me in the second part of verse 2. And they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. What Christ is speaking of here is not just that He had taught them and delivered to them the Word of God, but that He had revealed Himself to them as the living Christ. Who might possibly remember with me in Matthew chapter 16? Peter's great confession, Christ says, Whom do men say that I am? And the disciples offered several opinions which they had heard about who Christ was. And then Christ says to them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter then made his great confession, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. That was His great confession. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. They believed that Jesus is the Christ. And they were right. Christ is the living Son of God. No man has seen God at any time. Jesus Christ is the only begotten of the Father. He has revealed Him. So therefore, it's right for us to believe that. Your Father does you a good turn. He does you the best service that He can do you when He teaches to you that Jesus is Christ. When He gives to you the gospel, when He evangelizes you, we as fathers have the blessed privilege of being able to deliver to our children the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And if you don't ever evangelize anybody else in your lifetime, and I hope you do, If you don't ever evangelize, anybody else in your lifetime never failed to evangelize your children. Don't figure that just because they grew up in your home, where there's a Bible and where the gospel is talked about, where we go to church on a regular basis, that therefore, because they grow up in that kind of environment, that surely they'll be saved. Somehow they'll just get it. You'll evangelize your children. You have that privilege. You have that opportunity. And when you think about it, When you enter into heaven, the only thing on earth that you would have called yours, that you will be able to take, will be your family. It's the only thing. Take your children, your wife, your family. No more. That's really it. Aside from your own soul, only your family enters into the kingdom with you. So it's important for us to remember that because it would be an awful shame for our children to have grown up and to have learned the catechism by heart, to have been in church and sat there from the time they were a babe in arms until they were old enough to go out on their own. It would be a crying shame for those children to have sat through all those services and heard all of that and yet go out into a Christless eternity. It is our privilege, it is our opportunity as fathers to deliver unto them the gospel, to evangelize them, and to point them to the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ said, and He stands again as our example. They have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee. They have believed that Thou didst send Me." Now, no one can save anyone apart from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has to grant regeneration and repentance unto life and give faith to believe. But for us, what we can do is to point them to Christ. We can point them to Christ and evangelize them. And those of you who are Listeners who hear the Word of God realize that when your Father sits down with you and points you to the Lord Jesus Christ, He is doing unto you not just temporary good, but eternal good. Now, He's prepared every day to go out and work and to provide so you can have clothes to wear and food to eat and a place to live. But when He sits down with you with the Word of God and says you must be born again, He is doing you eternal good, not just temporal good. And for every wife today, every mother today who can look and say, my husband, the father of my children is a godly man. I'm blessed today because He's not just prepared to teach my children about God, He's prepared to evangelize these children and to point them to Christ. It's the great example of Christ, our High Priest, that He had pointed His disciples to Himself as the Savior, and they had believed. The part of a faithful ministry of a Father to His children is to evangelize them, is to point them to the Lord Jesus Christ. And as a spiritual father this morning, here in the church, I would say to you this. You may have heard Bible stories all your life. You may have all your lifetime heard catechism discussed and all the rest of it. But if you have not yet repented and believed the Gospel, now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. Therefore, I would say to you, whoever you are, from whatever family you come, if you do not know Christ yet as Savior, now is the opportunity, now is the time for you to hear the Word of God, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. It's important for fathers to evangelize their children. It's important for me as a preacher of the Gospel to take every opportunity to point you to the Lord Jesus Christ. Something else I want to draw to your attention this morning in this passage of Scripture, and that is that it's part of a father's faithful ministry to his children to be faithful to pray for them. Look with me down in verse 9. Christ says, I pray for them. Then He goes on to add, I pray not for the world. It's very interesting that He says that. We're just going to pass over that with a brief comment. And that is that He centered in His prayer upon His people, His spiritual children. Now, it's fair enough at times for us to pray for other people. It's important for us to intercede for the brethren. It's important for us to pray for the lost that they might be saved. It's important for us to pray for various circumstances, for nations. We're told to pray for kings and for all that are in authority. But as fathers in the home, it is of paramount importance that we pray for our children. that we intercede for them. Christ here was interceding for His blood-bought people. He was seeking the face of God as Father. And He says, I pray for them. Now, I'll just tell you a little bit about me and my background. I grew up in a Christian home. My father's a minister. My mother's probably the godliest woman that I know and have ever known. It was my parents, it was my mother specifically that pointed me to Christ when I was very, very young. So, I have been a Christian for many years. I didn't always do the things that I should. I suspect probably some of you are the same. We don't always do the things that we should. We don't always say the things that we should say or think the things that we should think or live the way that we should live or do the things that we should do. But do you know what? The reason that I am standing in front of you today, the reason that I am a preacher of the Gospel, the reason I am today following the Lord Jesus Christ is mostly due, I believe, in human terms, to having parents who pray for me. All my life, my parents have prayed for me. My father, even to this day, We'll be out doing something, raking leaves or working around the house. And I know that He is constantly praying for me. I know that my mother, every day, slips out of her bed early on, gets down beside her bed and dies to self that she might live to Christ and praise for me. And I can put down any faithfulness in my life to any great degree as being the result of having praying parents. It's important for us to pray for our children. It's important for us to pray with our children. It's important for us to teach our children to pray. This is the blessed privilege and this is the opportunity which we as fathers have to teach our children to pray. That's the reason why family worship is very important. It's important for us to be able to pray with our children, not just to pray for them in secret, but to be able to pray with them so that they can hear us praying for them. So that they can learn to pray for their children who will follow after us. Because we as fathers have an access to the throne of God and a powerful reason to intercede for our children. Rejoice every time you as a family are able to gather together to pray. Rejoice on every occasion, wives, when you hear your husbands praying for you and for your children. Rejoice on every occasion, children, when you can look to your Father and say, I know that my Father prays for me. Because there's a lot of times in your life when that will be the thing that will trigger in the back of your mind something. that will help to keep you on the right track and to make the right decision. I know my Father is praying for me. And I know that this is what God would have me to do. Even though I'm tempted to do something else, even though I'm tempted to make a wrong decision, yet I will very often make the right decision because I'm aware of the fact that God has put my Father in this world and that He prays for me. And that before God, my Father is interceding. Christ said, I pray for them. We pray for others, yes, from time to time. We pray for situations that come and go and change. But as fathers, we have the blessed opportunity and the privilege and the responsibility to pray for our children, to pray with our children, and to teach our children to pray. Christ said, I pray for them. And then I want you to look with me to the last portion of this. He says, but for them which thou hast given Me, for they are Thine. For they are Thine. In this summary of a father's faithful ministry to his children, I think that one of the things that you find right at the end is that Christ commits them unto the Father. He says, for they are thine. So it's part of a faithful ministry of a father to his children to commit them unto God. I say this very often that it's important to remember that in order to lose control, you must once have had it. Never are you more aware of that than when you bring children home from the hospital. You bring children home from the hospital. We brought my daughter Catherine home on a Sunday from the hospital and we laid her on the bed and there she was sleeping away and I realized suddenly that I really was not in control at all. You can kid yourself and think, well, you know, I can do this and I can do that and I can do all the other things. And that's not an excuse for failing to take your responsibility. But the fact of the matter is that I could stand there and watch her every minute, but I couldn't make her breathe. She was going to have to breathe on her own. I had to go to work or I had to go to school or I had to do something else and I was going to be gone. I was going to be gone. And even if I had been standing right there, if something happened, I might or might not know what to do. And all your life, you're concerned about your children. You want them to do the right thing. And you try to send them the right direction. And you point them the right way. And you try to keep them out of trouble. And you try to keep them from doing completely silly things like jumping off the top of trees and buildings and that sort of thing. And you try to do sensible things and teach them to be sensible. But at the end of the day, you know what? You're not really in control. You never were. Nor am I, nor was I, nor will I be. You know why? Because no matter how much effort we try to exercise and exert, at the end of the day, God alone brought that child into the world. God alone can preserve that child. God alone can keep that child safe. That child belongs to God. We have them in charge. We have them in trust. We have them as a responsibility. We call them our children. But at the end of the day, really, they're the Lord's. And I can try to teach them and train them and pray for them. And I do all those things. And I'm sure that you men do as well. But at the end of the day, they are God's children. They are God's children first. They are God's children all their life. And the Lord alone is the one who can control all that has to do with them. And so, I remind myself when I come to the end of this passage, that after I have delivered the Word of God to them, and after I've evangelized them, and after I've prayed for them, and done all the other things that it's required of a father to do, I have to say at the end of the day, they are thine. These children belong to you. You knew them before the foundation of the world. You determined that they should be brought into my home. You were the one who has given them to me as a charge and a trust. But they, above all, are thine. And I want to remember that every day. Because that will drive you to the Word more. That will drive you to prayer more. That will cause you to be aware that after all else is said and done, these children are the Lord's. And He brought them into the world and He must bring them unto Himself. And He must keep them and preserve them and do all that's required in order to make them happy and healthy and holy. They are Thine. This was Christ's statement about His own children, spiritually speaking. They are Thine. It is part of the faithful ministry of a godly man to commit his children unto the Lord. Pray for them, pray with them, instruct them, but above all, remember, these children belong to the Lord. And all the exercise of control that we would like to exercise over our children At the end of the day, it comes down to this. I can be faithful and do everything that I can do, but it's the Lord ultimately who must control and take charge because these children are His children. They are dying. If you're a parent this morning, I know as a parent what you go through. I know what it's like to lose children. I know what it's like to see children grow up. My children at this point are 19 and almost 17 and 14. So, we have three teenagers in the household all at one time. I know what it's like to see your children make decisions sometimes which are not decisions that you would like for them to make and to suffer the consequences of it. But do you know what? Above all, I do know this. I know that God is sovereign and he makes no mistakes. And I know that God hears prayer. And I know that these children whom God has brought into my home, he has given to me as a trust and as those to whom I have opportunity to minister by the grace of God. So I desire to be a faithful minister. This summarizes that faithful ministry, that I give to them the Word of God, that I evangelize them, that I pray for them, that I commit them unto Him. For all of you this morning who have a father in your family, if this is your father's role and this is the ministry that he's exercising, by all means be thankful for it. And pray for him because it's difficult to be a faithful minister of the Lord Jesus Christ in your own home. More difficult than it is to be a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ faithfully in the church. It's harder to have a testimony in your own home than it is to have it any place else. Pray for him. If you have a godly husband who's a father to your children, pray for him. Be thankful for him. Uphold him. And if you or a child in a home and your father's exercising such a faithful ministry, be thankful that he's there. Because there are many children who don't have fathers, and other children who have fathers, but whose fathers are not faithful ministers unto them. If your husband is out of Christ, certainly pray for him, that God would make of him a saved man and a faithful minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. Give honor unto whom honor is due. And let the Lord point you continually to Christ, who acted on behalf of His spiritual children. as a faithful minister. Let us pray. Gracious God and our Heavenly Father, we're thankful today for the opportunity that we have to look into the Word of God. We praise Thee and thank Thee that Thou hast given us grace today thus far. We pray, Father, that Thou will undertake for us this afternoon. We pray that Thou will give us, we, fellowship in the things of Christ. And we pray that Thou will undertake for us that we might serve and worship Thee faithfully, be faithful ministers to our family, point them to Christ, see them saved, and go on well with Thee. As your heads are bowed and as your eyes are closed, let me just leave you with this invitation. If you're out of Christ today, I trust that you'll repent and believe the Gospel. If you know Christ as Savior, and if I can help you in the things of God in any way today, Whoever you are, I'm glad to serve you for Jesus Christ's sake. See me after the service or contact me, and I'll be glad to try to open the Word of God with you and point you to Christ and help you in the things of God in any way that I can. Undertake, Lord, for us now, we pray. Keep us in Thy fear, the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. Be with us, Lord, till all our wanderings cease. May we at our Father's blessed abode, safely, Arrive in peace. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.