Please return your seats. We need to be putting on church discipline the ones that do the projections of hymns for quenching the spirit of God's people when they are singing. I wish I could say let's memorize them but again the problem is There are those of us who've memorized some hymns. I noticed earlier on when we were singing, come we that love the Lord. If you're like me, I know it has six stanzas. So now when there was a fourth one introduced, ah, I was confused in my mind. So I'm not sure which one. Memorize or discipline? Both, aye. Now let's turn our Bibles to John chapter 17. We'll read the first 10 verses. John chapter 17. We'll read the first 10 verses. We'll consider verse 6 through to verse 8 this morning. I commence reading from the English Standard Version. When Jesus had spoken these words, He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. Since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I have glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you have given to me. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. I have manifested your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you have given me, and they have received them, and they have come to know in truth that I come from you, and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours all mine are yours and all yours are mine and i am glorified in them amen we continue studying the gospel of john and two weeks ago we began looking at chapter 17 and we considered the first five verses In those verses, we looked at the jubilant prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. And from that, we learned that this was a passionate prayer, as we noted in verse one, when the Lord Jesus Christ was praying. But also we noted from verse one and verse two, that it was also a personal prayer, as he was praying that he will be glorified but also that he's been given authority over all flesh to give eternal life to whom you have given him. And then we also saw that it was a priestly prayer from verse 2 to verse 5 as he was praying that all may come to know him and the Father who sent him. And this morning as we continue in chapter 17, that prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ, we come this morning to consider that portion of the scriptures which is crucial and it highlights that those whom Jesus was praying for are those whom the Father had given Him And the crucial explanation that the Lord Jesus Christ gives in his prayer is that they are those to whom the Father has given him and he was given in eternity past. And he says those to whom you have given me. Now obviously this raises the question as to who is the Lord Jesus Christ referring to? Who are these whom the Father had given him? And how can we come to know who they are? And the Lord Jesus Christ does answer that question in his prayer. And in answering that question, he highlights certain marks or certain characteristics of these people to whom the Lord Jesus Christ is praying for. And as we consider those marks of Christ's people, you need to ask yourself the question this morning whether that is true of you or not. You may have been coming to this church, but if these marks are not true of you, then you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and you are not one of His own. And therefore you need to wrestle with this and make things right today by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sin. And so we open up verse 7, verse 6 through to verse 8 as we look at the marks of Christ's people or the marks of Christ's own, the ones to whom he was really praying for. And the first mark of the people of Christ or Christ's own is that they know God's name. It is those who know God's name. And this is very clear in the first part of verse six as the Lord Jesus Christ is praying. He says, I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. I have manifested your name to the people whom you've given me out of the world. And so the Lord Jesus Christ is saying here, that as he's praying, and you remember the occasion, soon he will be hanged on the cross. And as he's praying, he's saying there are those to whom the Father has given me. The Father knows them. Christ knows them and is praying for them. But how are we to know them? The Lord Jesus Christ here says, it's to those whom He has manifested the name of God. God chose the people and He gave them to Christ. And those people will be brought into a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. They'll be brought into a relationship with the Father and with the Lord Jesus Christ. And this was the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the reason he came. He came into this world to die for those who are his. And you notice in his prayer, he says, yours they were and you gave them to me. And he continues to say in verse six, and I have manifested your name to them. When you look at these words, it's also the fulfillment of Psalm 22 and verse 22. In Psalm 22, you see the first verse in that Psalm, it's the words, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? They're the words of David, but those words also are prophetic, pointing to what the Lord Jesus Christ was going to say on the cross. And in that same Psalm 22 and verse 22, the Psalmist says, I will tell them of your name. I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation, I will praise you. And you see also John, He's highlighting here that those words spoken in Psalm were actually pointing to the very mission of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here he says, I have manifested your name to them. And the word manifested just gives us this idea of to reveal or to make known And what he's really saying here, the Lord Jesus Christ as he's praying to the Father, he's praying that I have made known your name to those whom you gave me. I have revealed you to them. And the idea is that the sum total of God's character. His attributes are bound up in His name. And so when the Lord Jesus Christ is saying, I have manifested, or I have revealed, or I have made known your name, the name of the Father, He is declaring that who is declaring to us who the Father is. His essential being. what the Father is about. And the Lord Jesus Christ is saying here that I have revealed the character, the nature, and the attributes of God the Father and those who are His. One of the things that is true of them is that they've come to know God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Leon Morris in one of his commentaries writes In biblical times, it was widely held that the name in some way sums up the whole person. And to know the name of the person was to somehow know the person. And he goes on to say, to know the name of God is to possess a way of salvation. And to know the name of God is to know God and the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. And this is true. To know the name of God is to know God. And you recall Solomon in Proverbs chapter 18 and verse 10 writes, the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and are safe. the name of the Lord. And as Solomon is writing to him, the name of the Lord cannot be divorced from the character of God, from the attribute of God. And when he says the name of the Lord is a strong tower, he's basically saying God is the strong tower. The righteous run to him and are safe. When he prays that I've manifested your name to them, he's basically saying We know God because His name has been made manifest to us by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ's mission was to reveal the Father, and He did so in a way that the disciples had never dreamed of. And as He enlarged, as He revealed the Father, the disciples came to have an understanding of the very nature of God. As they related with the Son, as they saw the Son praying to the Father, casting out demons, and now eventually He's about to hang on the cross. He came to reveal the Father. And those who come to know the Son, come to know the Father as well. In Matthew chapter 6, when the Lord Jesus Christ is teaching His disciples to pray, He constantly would say to them, when you pray, say this to God as our Father. And He urged the disciples to do likewise, to pray to God as our Father. And after the resurrection, in John chapter 20 and verse 17, when Jesus meets Mary Magdalene, and He says to her, Go tell the brothers that I'm ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. And there the Lord Jesus Christ was basically saying, You've come to know Me. And because you know Me, You know my Father, you know my God, because you know me. And the emphasis the Lord Jesus Christ is saying, or is giving, is that He came so that we may come to know the Father. And there's nothing more important for us than to know God as is revealed in the pages of scriptures and as special as is manifested to us in Christ Jesus. The only way of Christians to live in faith, in hope and in love is to know God the Father. And we come to know God the Father because the Son has revealed Him to us. The only comfort that we know is God is sovereign. And because God is sovereign, because God is love, because God is powerful and holy, and because we've come to know the Son, therefore, we know a God who's sovereign, because the Son has revealed Him to us. Knowing God must be a priority for all of us. Knowing the name of God must be a priority for all of us. And the Son has revealed the Father. The knowledge of the Father is a mark of the people of God. We don't pray to an unknown God. We don't offer prayers in hope that somehow, if there is a God, He will hear us. The knowledge of God's name is revealed only to God's people, and the knowledge is a mark of the people of God. is that when God's people come to faith in Christ the Lord Jesus Christ opens up their spiritual understanding and they come to know God has revealed to us in the pages of scriptures by the Son of God himself and therefore when we come to him and say our Father who art in heaven, is a person, is a being we know, a God we know, a Father we know, because of the Lord Jesus Christ, He has revealed Him to us. And if you do not know Christ, you do not know God. And if you do not know God, You are not one of His. The Lord Jesus Christ is saying, I have manifested your name to the people. That's the mark of a true Christian, that he's come to know the name of God. But second, we see that the second mark of the people of Christ is that they are separated out from the world. They are separated out from the world. Again in verse 6, I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. And you've seen I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. And then Lord Jesus Christ is saying that those who are Christians are those who are no longer of the world. And the implication there we see is that once upon a time all believers were part of the world. They lived in the world by the dictates of the world, the values of the world systems. But they've been separated by Christ from the world. They live a different way, a different life, by a different power, with a new purpose and meaning to life. There's this great divide. in humanity. The divide is not geographical, it's not race, it's not colour or tribe, it's whether you are of the world or you are no longer of the world. Whether you belong to Christ or you do not belong to Christ, that's a divide. And here we see that those who are Christian, one of the marks that we see is that they are separated out from the world. And this means that once upon a time, as I said, all of us, Christians and non-Christians alike, once upon a time, we all belonged to the world. And we needed someone to rescue us from the world. And then a rescuer came. in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And without this rescuer, our lives were doomed to hell. We were all fit candidates of hell because we lived in rebellion against this God. We lived by the values of this world, the dislikes of this world, the likes of this world, the passions and the drives of the things of this world. And there was nothing in and of us that was worthy or more desirable than other men. There was nothing in us that moved God to save us. It was out of God's good will and pleasure. It was His right, according to His will, according to His own good pleasure. In other words, God did not give you that choice ahead of time. He gave the people to His Son as a gift to His Son. And God did not leave that choice with you. The Father didn't leave something as important as this in your hands to choose whether you believe in Him or not. It's so important a matter. that the father wanted to give the people to his son. He chose and he gave them to his son. He did not leave that choice with you. You know why? Because if that choice was in your hands, you will not believe in the son. And therefore, the father will have no gift to give to his son. If it was up to you and I, will have nothing to do with the Son. You will never choose God. You will never believe in Him. The story of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ would have seemed foolishness to you. And if you are a Christian this morning, You are rejoicing in the resurrection of Christ because God has shined his light of knowledge into your dark heart, your depraved heart, your broken soul. And he has done a work in your heart that when you think of the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, you don't see foolishness, but you see the power of God. You see, a wise God who has this eternal plan to achieve glory for himself, and this will be through the death of his son, And through the death of His Son, He was to gather a people for Himself from every tongue, tribe and nation. And those people would be a gift to His Son, for having accepted the plan of the Father, coming to this earth and dying the cruel death on the cross. And therefore, those who believe in the Son, they see the death of the Son. as the wisdom of God. One cannot be a Christian without first being separated from the world. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I've manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. You gave me and have thus set them apart from sin. They no longer have a relationship with the world, the passion and the desires of the world. They formerly belonged to the world, but not anymore. And listen to what Sinclair Ferguson says, and I quote, they belong to a new family in which sin is not the order of the day. Instead, righteousness, peace, and joy mark the family life of God's people. End of quote. They've been separated from the world. And they are experiencing a test for being delivered from the reign of sin. which will be consummated at the renewal of all things when the Son of God returns again. The power of sin in them is destroyed. The penalty of sin is destroyed. Yes, there is indwelling sin, but God each day is slowly sanctifying them and making them more and more like His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. They've been separated from the world. Yes, they are in this world, but they are different from the world. Why? experience the power of the risen Christ, having been saved from their sins, their heart is changed, their mind enlightened, and when they read the Scriptures, they see God's Word, they take it as God's Word, they believe God's Word, and when they think of the death of Christ, they know it was for them that Christ died. person who lives for the things of this world, money, pleasure, fame and prestige at the expense of their soul. They are living for themselves, however religious they may claim to be, and they are not true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. True followers of Christ have been separated from the world. And they are living as salt and light in this world. And their desires are for another world, not of this world, the world that is yet to come. And if this cannot describe you, if this is not you, You may be religious, you may be even here this morning, but if there's been no that moment when you are set apart from the world by the power of God, the Holy Spirit, as you came to faith in Christ, you are still very much part of this world. You have never come to know the name of God. For to know the name of God is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is to be separated from the world. And the third mark of the people of Christ is that they have received Jesus Christ as the Savior sent from God. they have received Jesus Christ as the Savior sent from God. Verse seven and eight. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them, and they've come to know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. they have received Jesus Christ as Savior sent from God. You see the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 7 there is saying everything that you have given me is from you. And now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. And what the Lord Jesus Christ is saying there is is the same as saying, I have fulfilled this part of my mission. You gave me your words. I had a mission. I came into this world and the side of my mission I have fulfilled. And now they've received me, have sent from you, and they know everything that you gave me. And you need to stop for a moment and just ponder what the Lord Jesus Christ is saying. Consider the seriousness of the fact that the words of the Lord Jesus Christ recorded for us here were made known to him before the foundation of the world, before this earth came into existence. And as we read them, we are reading the mind of God, the very words of God, the words that God himself spoke to himself within the Godhead way back in eternity. And we're seeing them being fulfilled in the life of Christ on the cross. And as Christ ascends, he sends his Holy Spirit. But all these words were spoken way back in eternity. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. And you see verse eight, for I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them. In verse six, Jesus says, they have kept your words. And then in verse eight there, Jesus Christ speaks in the sort of equivalence. And see with me in verse eight. This is what Jesus Christ is saying. They have received your words. And they have come to know in truth that I came from you. And they have believed that you sent me. You've seen that they, they, they, or and them, they've received them and they've come to know in truth. And the Lord Jesus Christ is basically emphasizing the same thing. And all this can be underlined by that word, they have believed everything that I said to them. What you wanted me to communicate, I have done. and they have believed. And what is it that I am the Savior sent directly from you? And the implication is that it is impossible to claim that you know God the Father while denying the Son of God. You cannot be right with God the Father while rejecting the truth concerning the Son. The Son's mission was to make the Father known. And so you cannot claim that I'm worshipping God and rejecting the Son. This is all connected. Jesus is divine. The Son of God sent from God. And His words are of God. They are from God. And since the words of God are given to the Lord Jesus Christ, we must listen to the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you listen to the words of God, you will be convinced of the truth And you will keep the truth because you've come to know that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had a mission. And this mission was given to Him by the Father. And He's accomplished His mission. And therefore, as He ascends to His Father, He gives us the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, who lives in us and reminds us of the very mission of the Lord Jesus Christ. Assurance concerning the deity of Christ comes as you listen to the Word of God, the Bible. And those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ are convinced that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is God and He came in this world. to save sinners from their sins. There's so many people who say so many things about the Lord Jesus Christ. They tell us he was a good teacher. He was a good example. He was a great philosopher. While all that may be true, but that was not his mission. was to reveal the Father and to let the world know that He was sent by the Father as the Saviour of the world. And seeing the Father revealed to us in Jesus Christ is coming to faith and in repentance in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Pharisees thought that they were keeping God's word. With their radical observance of the law and all the add-ons onto the law. They actually thought they were keeping God's word and therefore they knew God very well. And the Lord Jesus Christ would challenge them that this was not the case. This was not true. They would search the scriptures, but the scriptures themselves spoke about the Lord Jesus Christ, pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ would challenge them, that if you truly, you knew the scriptures, you will know that they speak about me. Understanding the Bible correctly. will reveal that Jesus Christ was the prophesied Messiah. Going back to Genesis 3, when sin entered the world and God said, the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. And every generation from that point lived by faith, looking forward to the fulfillment of that promise. And so when Abel and Cain are born, and the parents were thinking perhaps one of these two is the promised seed. Could it be Cain? It becomes clear it's not. He kills his brother. And then Seth is born, and you'll notice in Genesis 4 towards the end there, and the moment Seth was born, people began to call upon the name of the Lord. So perhaps there was something about the birth of Saith that reminded them of God's promise in Genesis 3. And as the population was increasing, you get to Genesis 12 and you find now the seed narrows down to that of Abraham. Which of Abraham's children? Isaac? You see that Isaac also was not the promised seed. Isaac has two as twins. And then, is it Esau or Jacob? No, it's Jacob, perhaps. Jacob has 12 sons, and which of those 12 is the promised seed? And you'll see that each generation was looking forward to the fulfillment of this promise. And you get to Genesis 37, and you see that the promise now narrows down to Judah. with all his character, when you read Genesis 37. And surely, from the human point of view, none of us would have thought Judah will be the line through which the Messiah would come. All of us would have settled for Joseph. I mean, he sought into Egypt. Surely, he should be the line through which the Messiah would come. But God, who works out all the details, ensured that Joseph is sent to Egypt. to begin the preparation for the progression and the preservation of the seed that will bring about the Messiah. And so Israel moves to Egypt because in Canaan there is starvation and they move to Egypt and therefore God in His wisdom ensures that the preservation of this line of the seed is preserved. The nation grows. Judges tells us there is evil. Everyone is doing as he pleases. The nation is taken as slaves. And still they are looking forward to that promise. Isaiah tells us that the promise will be through the seed of the virgin, but which one? No one knows. By faith, looking forward. And then Micah now tells us that seed will actually be born in Bethlehem. Now we know the birthplace, but we still do not know that seed. and then Matthew chapter 1 after 400 years of silence between Malachi and Matthew where there was no non-prophet at the time and Matthew begins with the gospel of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham. Any Jew would take their minds back to Abraham and look at the promise in Genesis 12. Then they'll look at the promise of God to David, that there will always be someone on the throne. And as you read through Matthew 1, you begin to see the family tree, names that they've probably heard before, as they looked at the development of the nation of Israel. And now, in Matthew 1.8 we are told, who that seed is. First, the Virgin is Mary. The seed is the Lord Jesus Christ. Emmanuel, God, is with us. And so when you look at the scriptures, you see that they're all pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. And those who belong to Christ have come to receive Him as the Savior sent by God. He's not just a philosopher or a teacher or a good example. He is the saviour of the world. There will be no other apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you read in Hebrews, we are told, everyone, they lived by faith, looking forward to the coming of Christ. And we are looking back by faith to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what we see here is that those who belong to Christ have received Him by faith as the Saviour sent from God. And the question that you ought to wrestle with this morning as we close is this. Have you come to know this Jesus Christ as a Savior sent from God? Have you been brought to that realization when you look at all the accounts in the Bible and they lead you to the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you come to a point where you not only see your sin, but you see yourself as one living in darkness, who cannot understand the things of God and take them as God's Word? Do you have these marks? You cannot have one without the others. True Christians, God's people, have all these marks. In John chapter 6, you'll recall verse 28 and 29. When they asked the Lord Jesus Christ, what must we do to be doing the works of God? And Jesus Christ answered them, this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom He has sent. Faith in God is a gift of God. Just as the people whom God has given to Christ are the gift to His Son, faith in Christ is a gift from God. And therefore, ask that the Father may grant you that gift this morning, and that you may come to Him in faith and in repentance. Because that's the true mark of a Christian. They've come to know the Father. They've been separated from the world. And they've received the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior sent from God. And if this is not true of you, ask the Father that he may give you that gift of salvation. that it may bring you to your knees in faith and in repentance in the Lord Jesus Christ. So that you can sing with us in closing, Jesus my Saviour from Bethlehem came, born in a manger to sorrow and shame. Oh it was wonderful, blessed be his name, coming for me, for me. Jesus my Saviour shall come from on high, And oh, it will be wonderful. Why? Because it's coming for me and for me. Amen.