Good morning, every one of you, and welcome to Grace Baptist Chapel. We are starting today, we are continuing our Sunday school lectures on prayer and meditation on the prayer. And in particular, we looked last week, we started John 17, that famous high priestly prayer of Jesus as he is in the garden and he's preparing for the cross. And if you remember, last week we saw that Jesus is praying for the glory. He says, Father, glorify Your Son with the glory that I had before the foundation of the world. And we were meditating upon the fact that this glory passes through the cross. The cross is the... a path to glory, and it's not a parenthesis. We saw how, therefore, our prayer needs to follow this Trinitarian model, like having in mind, you know, the Trinity as we approach God. We saw how prayer works through the mediation of the Son of God, in particular the fact that He grants us eternal life. And then we saw also that prayer can be received by the Father only through the obedience of the Son. Because Jesus was obedient in all that He did, then He can receive our prayers. And so today we will look instead... we're moving in this... progression from the Son of God praying for Himself, now we move to the Son of God praying for the disciples. And in particular, we will look at the Word of God. As this Word of God is received by the disciples, which is a proof of their being chosen before the foundation of the world. And next week we'll look at that same Word of God sanctifying the disciples. And as we said, John 17 can be compared to a holy of holies of divine revelations. Imagine the Son of God in priestly sacerdotal garments as He approaches the Father. in prayer. And while praying for himself, now he's praying for the disciples in verses 6 to 10, which will be the focus today. And we also looked, as you remember, on John Owen, this Puritan writer and theologian who has this little book called Communion with God. And in that last Sunday School class, we looked at a definition of communion with God as a mutual communication. of good things, as wherein the persons holding that communion are delighted. Good things and delight. But there is a further definition that Owen gives us in his book, Communion with God. He calls communion as a mutual resignation or making over of persons one to another. And again, he follows the analogy of marriage and relation within marriage. as mystically, so to speak, as looking almost as a type, as a figure of what is the relation of the Church with Christ. And this does not just find root in the Trinity, as we saw last week, but also in Christ. Anyone remembers what was the main idea of this whole John 17? What was the main focus of this prayer. Why is Christ praying? What is the common thread to the whole chapter? He prays for elements and communion within Himself and the Father to be then extended to the disciples and ultimately to all those who will believe through the disciples, which includes us. And yet, While first he was praying for the glory of the Son, remember last week, now he involves the disciples and Owen says that once we as disciples discover the excellency and sweetness of Christ, we are instantly overpowered and cry out to be made partakers of the fullness of such communion. It's like we have a little taste of the communion with God, And the saints just have a drawn and the Savior is aware of this and he prays that this communal may be lavished upon us. We contemplate Jesus and we say, like the wife says to the husband, His banner over me is love. There is this glory of Jesus, which is displayed in the salvation of the disciples. And we come into the picture of this glorious communion. Not in the sense that we can somehow partake in the Trinitarian communion, because we are not God. And yet, again, there is a desire from the Son to make us commune with Him. And John Owen says that this communion is possible, as we will see today, through knowledge. And how do we get knowledge is the question. How do we get that knowledge of God, which is, as we said last week, is the chief end of man? Well, Owen says, there is no real knowledge of God except that which comes through our Lord Jesus Christ. Neither wisdom nor knowledge is present apart from His Word. Now, this does not mean that Owen is saying that somehow unbelievers have no knowledge, general knowledge. knowledge of things concerning this life and common grace. What is after is the as I think it was Ruben last week reminded us the meaning of the term knowledge as an intimate connection. The unbeliever has no communion with God and in that sense he has no knowledge of God. In fact, as he approaches the only thing that is present in knowledge, which is the law of God written in their heart, he cannot approach God because looking at that he knows there is somehow at every step There is no possible communion because that law condemns him. And so, Owen speaks of even philosophers of old, like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. They had admirable discoveries, yet their light is still spiritually, but darkness. Because there is no true light but by Christ. And what Owen is after is not the right use of, the true use of that knowledge. which could be present even among pagan philosophers, but the abuse of it, and the fact that, again, whatever discovery of truth we make must be held captive to Christ under His righteousness. Owen says, He cannot but be of no purpose of seeking for wisdom in anything else below. We must set the crown of this wisdom on the head of the Lord Jesus. And how do we find this wisdom available to us every day? In the Word of God. And that is the point of verses 6-10 of John 17, which we'll look together. If you have a Peel Bible, it's page 757. We will look at verses 6-10 of John 17. Keep in mind this wisdom, this knowledge, which is available to us through the Word of God, and that now has been received by the disciples. So, who wants to read verses 6-10 of John 17? Any volunteer? Go ahead. Thank you. I have revealed to you the those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours. You gave them to me, and they obeyed your word. Now they know everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me, and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I'm thankful to them. I'm not thankful to all, but to those you have given me. But they are yours. Amen. Thank you. So, as we see here, the communion with God is possible through that Word of God which has been received by the disciple. And the Master is saying, because of that reception of the Word of God, these are indeed proving to be among my people, the elect, the chosen of God. First he was praying for himself and the glory, but now he's looking at the disciples, and he's thankful for the divine work on them, and he's praying for the growth. As he has to go to heaven, he has to be ascending into heaven, and he's praying for them and not for the world. Those are the things that we will look at together. But keep in mind, once again, that today we look at how prayer is a way in which we communicate, commune with God, but also the Word of God is the two-way street of our communion with God, and how this applies even in this prayer. Verses 6 through 8. What does it say at the second part of verse 6? And they have kept your word. These disciples understood that Christ was not some sort of self-appointed leader of the first century, but He came from God. They, therefore, became a trophy, a living trophy of the mission accomplished by Christ to save His own. They were given to the Son by the Father, and they have kept. What does kept mean? This keeping of the Word, this watching over. preserving and treasuring that Word. Think of all the knowledge that has been kept through the centuries in those libraries, through the dark ages, as the whole world was living in ignorance of them, and yet they were kept and preserved through millenniums. And the Word of God survived all sort of persecution, and the disciples, Christ rejoices over that. And so, in connection to this, John Owen says that the teaching of God in His Word is the real communication of all and every emanation from God unto the saints by which we are made partakers of communion with God. So, the way we can commune with God is through His Word. And John continues to use this term, world versus the Word. He kept saying, he who loves me will keep my commandments. If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. Didn't he say that? And now he's rejoicing because they indeed are saved. And so what do we see in this prayer? We see that prayer must be rooted upon the scripture. If we try to separate the Word of God from our prayer, it is like a lame man who can't walk, because he misses one of the two legs that are so crucial. Remember, Christ Himself is that Word. John said in John 1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was made flesh. And that Word, in that Word, in believing in that, they believed that He came from the Father. And therefore, again, in the prayer that we... Continue to approach God. What do we do? I know that if you're like me, sometimes we may struggle in our prayer. Some of us may be struggling. Actually, we find it very hard. And maybe we love reading the Word. Some of us are very strong in that. But we're not as strong in prayer. And we find it somehow boring. And yet... The possible reason of this is because maybe we are not keeping that balance. In prayer, the Word of God does not disappear. We can start by reading and meditating upon Scripture or reading a psalm before we go into prayer. And we saw last week, you know, the Trinity. And, you know, we don't just jump in prayer, whether it's in a public prayer or in private prayer. We don't just jump with a list of things. We look at this triune God. We worship Him in all of His beauty. And then, again, the Scripture helps us to transit through prayer. And that is the way, or I think of that little book called The Valley of Vision, some of you know. Get some of these helps, and especially scripture and a psalm, and then you go through prayer. And you will see that your heart is far more warmed and able then to start this communion with God. Because, I mean, we hear of models of prayer. I grew up in Catholicism, and there's mystical prayers and some sort of The Orthodox had a way of just beating their chest so that the inner light may come upon them. We hear of models of prayers in tongues, models of prayer that are spontaneous, completely disconnected from the Word of God. Models of prayer based only, not that it's not important as I said last week, on lists. God do this, do that, and you know, it's important, but we want to, again, the reverential aspect, the Scripture basis of our prayer, as model for our prayer. And we should begin again through the Word, because the Word of God helps us to focus. and take away distraction, meditating those Scripture promises, and make them our own until our heart again is warm. Owen says, we make our supplications according to the will of God, regulated by the promise contained in His Word. So, that must be the central piece, and this keeping the Word. of the disciple is what is imbued here. And so, are we keeping that word? Are we practicing? Are we keeping our mind close to the scripture, memorizing it, and sinking it in all of our person? Or are we just going through the surface in our meditations and quiet times? And this is more than an intellectual assent to what the Bible says. Yeah, it's true. I believe the Bible is true. Well, you think that demons don't? Look at the Israelites. They had to put the Word of God in the signpost of their house. They had to touch it. And you know, you see Jews today, they have to kiss that. They have to put it in their bracelet. They had to talk about the Scripture in their families when they were sitting down and eating. When they were standing, every moment of their life needed to be saturated by the Word of God. And so that needs to be our priority as well. John Owen comments on this saying that the word of Christ is sweet, savory, precious unto believers. Christ is set forth in such a word. And therefore, as we read the Bible, we look at Christ and we say He is holy, desirable, lovely in all His tender care to the point that as a bride commenting of the bridegroom, We look at Him, and He says, there is no end to His excellency and desirableness. He is indeed altogether lovely. Have you had those moments when you're just sinking the Scripture, take away all the scratching, and you find yourself in such a joy, and it's like honey coming at you. It's like, that needs to be our focus. And Scripture and prayer, as I said, are two ways. The disciple says, they have kept your word. Does that mean that we are completely perfect? Does that mean that we as disciples are completely flawless? No. Later on, they will all betray Jesus. Despite the fact of our failures and shortcomings, despite us being men of leader faith that at times just carry on prayers, and we can't, we are granted by Christ to persevere till the end, and they have kept Your Word, because they are kept by that same Word. There is nothing, nothing in us that makes us desirable to Him. Everything that makes Him desirable to us. And yet, He delights to come and commune with us. I mean, let us not find ourselves like that man of the five talents or one talent. And he said, I knew that you were an austere man, therefore I was hiding this. Right? Many of us work with the Navy or military. And what if they call you for deployment? And you just reject and you don't want to go there. What do you think the Master of the Universe will do? When He comes, realize that this is a blessing. And what does verse 7 say? Now they have known that all things which you have given Me are from you. They lived three years under the school of the Master. And they finally understood, and they will still understand, futurely, as the Holy Spirit enlightens them to see the Scripture. And they prove to be among God's chosen people. John Owen says, there is not anything in the heart of Christ that He does not reveal to us as His disciples. Jesus is depending from the Father, but not in a way that we depend from God in our prayer. He is equal with the Father, and we're not. And in verse 8 it continues, it says, For I have given to them the words which you have given Me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from you, and they have believed that you sent Me. You see this transmission of the Trinity that we saw last week is continuing in this Word of God given from the Father to the Son. And the Son has said in John throughout the Gospel, I am pronouncing only the things that the Father is saying to me. So, the disciples have received these words as the very word of God. What did Peter say? Whom shall we go? For you alone have the words of eternal life. We have nowhere to go. They received, they have understood that you have come from the Father? It's just chapter 16 and verse 30. It says, Now we are sure that you know all things, and have no need of anyone to question you. By this we believe that you came forth from God. This interconnection, as we saw last time, between the Father and the Son is crucial. And so it should be with us, like we sometimes may sing hymns of the past, to the Great One in Three, eternal praises be. We partake to this divine nature, united with the Father, who has chosen, as we saw last week, before the foundation of the world, in that covenant, which is called covenant of redemption, And in the Son, He has chosen us in the Son so that we receive Him. And in receiving Him, we receive His Word. And yet, this incarnate Word has been received. But even as believers, what is it that could hinder us? Once we receive this Word, once we receive and believe in Him, what is the only thing that could hinder us from such communion, if not sin? Sin hinders our prayer, and perhaps at times we feel God is distant from our prayer. And we need to ask ourselves, what is it that is causing this? Sometimes it's sin, sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's trials and temptations. And yet, it's like having a red light in your car. There's two things you could do. Some people fix that, or others just break the light and just continue as if nothing happened. And sometimes in the spiritual walk it's like this. Some people just don't want to deal with the problem, and yet they would like to have fellowship with God. John Owen says, don't do anything that may interrupt the communion that you have obtained with God. If you provoke Him to depart, if you lose Him, it may cost you many a bitter inquiry before you can find Him again. And He exhorts those who are in this condition. He says, Be impatient, be impatient for His absence. Rest not, if Christ is not there. No means should be left untried, whereby I may possibly recover communion with my Beloved. You know that Song of Psalms, you know the yearning of the bride. Where is my bridegroom? Can you find him? And in a way, that needs to be our yearning. for this fellowship with Christ. But we become, unfortunately, desensitized by our sin. And we are actually fine with our lack of communion with God. Why? Because we actually never experienced it in the first place. Others, however, may find themselves in a completely different camp. Like they feel excluded. They look at this high priestly prayer of John 17 and say, No, this is too high a lofty for me. I'm a poor sinner. And I'm telling you, don't judge this way. The same communion is granted to you. That same communion between the Father and the Son, He wants and He is willing to extend that communion to you. That you belong to Him, not as a creature, but also as His elect and chosen one. This is far greater. And though all other communions in our life may be hard and people may reject us, Owen says, my Father is tender and full of compassion. It is the gladness of the heart of Christ, the joy of His soul to take poor sinners into this relation with Himself. Let us receive Him with all His excellency as He bestows Himself upon us. The eyes of Christ are on you as a tender shepherd. So, this is our first point of meditation. That prayer must be rooted on the Scripture. Rooted on the Scripture. But secondly, prayer must be put in practice. Prayer must take away all the distractions from the world. And this is verses 9 through 10. I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. this intercession of Christ becomes more intense now. He's saying, I do not pray concerning this world. He prays exclusively for the church, for those true elect chosen, the bride of Christ. And this is a contrast throughout the Gospel of John, between the world and the Spirit, right? repeated this radical division between humanity, this present humanity, and then those who are from the Spirit. And this, for example, means that He is not praying for the son of perdition that is mentioned in verse 12, which is Judah. Judah was the betrayer, and his destiny was written from of old in the Old Testament. and despite his apparent belonging to the community and apparent enjoyment of that communion and fellowship. Or think of the Pharisees who thought to be believing in the Father. They thought to be sons of Abraham in the flesh through circumcision. But they refused the Son. They demonstrated to be actually sons of the devil. And because No one can have fellowship with the Father and with God without Christ. And so I pray for them, for the true disciples. By virtue that they belong to the Father already, they were chosen before the foundation of the world, before their conversion. All that is mine is yours. This is something that we can never say as creatures. And yet, Martin Luther says, there is a communion and reciprocal interest in all things between the Father and His Son, being the heir of all things. And that complete control over all universe. And yet, it leaves us kind of, some of us may be shocked that Christ is not praying for the world. I mean, no parent among us will have indistinct love for any child under heaven. No couple has an indistinct intimacy with any other person of the opposite sex. God does not glorify, justify everyone under heaven. But again, this specific communion shows us again that those doctrines that we hold in, which ultimately are grounded in God's election, must be consistent with that election. That's why Christ dies and has to die and shed His blood for His own people. He prays for His own. He dies for His own. He knows the ones who are His. He has a special care for them, like a parental love as opposed to a general love, which He still shows. Letting the sun rise upon the just and the unjust. But He doesn't pray for them. He doesn't pray for the chaff. He doesn't die for the unbelievers. He abandons them, actually drives them away. And like Judah, one can even partake into that fellowship to the Lord's Supper. you know, take the cash of the church like a deacon, like Judah was doing, and yet he was still dead in his sin. He experienced the silence of Christ in his prayers. John Owen says, put it all away, unbelief, as defiled thing, and cry out to the Lord Jesus as your only righteousness. Then your prayers will be heard, because the prayers of Christ don't go to the whole world indistinguishably. I remember I was skimming through some post by a Christian on Instagram and it says, let's pray for the world. Well, of course, we are in one sense invited to pray for our governors, for all men, 1 Timothy 2, 1, 4. There is such a thing, however, again, as common grace. But the prayer of Christ teaches us to have the right balance. if God's concern for the world is in an indirect way, but He is directly concerned for His church, and He knows, and I wish you know, that this world will fade away, but the disciples are the pride and joy of the Son, like they are of the Father. They are His glory, the living proof that this work of Christ is completed. And the fact that we believe in Him, that we receive His Word is a living proof that such prayers are discriminatory. They're not intended for every man under the sun. The election of God's people is the foundation of His prayer. and setting us apart from this world, making us a special object of Christ's attention, so that we as Christians and believers, if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father. We can approach that throne of grace, we are accepted, but this is a particular and not universal model of prayer. He doesn't mediate for the world. He mediates for His people. He has no request to sanctify or glorify those who reject Him. In fact, like Judah's, they are doomed. Christ did not lose Judah, but Judah lost himself. And this is not because of a failure on Christ's part, but because it was foreordained in the Scriptures. He was never one of the elect. He's called the Son of Perdition. And while prayers of the saints, this is Owen, are incense and odors, those of unbelievers are howling, cutting off of a dog's neck, offering of swine blood, this is a very graphic language, isn't it? They pretend to go to God with their prayer, and God will revenge their carnal atheistical the 17th century, atheistical boldness which sinners out of Christ do use toward Him. Let anyone who names the name of the Lord Jesus depart from iniquity. And yet, this is not the destiny of those who are repenting of their sins and believe in Christ. Their prayers are accepted. from the first moment that you lifted your eyes, and you knew all of your sin, your unworthiness, and you said, I cannot. You felt, under conviction of sin, that God could have sent a thunder upon you and just get rid of you because of His holiness. And yet you said, Lord, I have mercy upon me, a sinner. And Christ receives you, and you will never be totally lost. And so, We conclude from this passage that this world is not our home. We are not from this world. This is something that we need to remember, and that through the Word of God, we find all of our wisdom. Christ is our wisdom. It says in Hebrews 1, long ago God spoke through the prophets, but now He has spoken through His Son. And we don't need any other revelation. We don't need anything else. Everything is complete in Him. And the question is, what is your relation to this world? Receive that world. Believe that world. And meditate upon that world, that we belong to Him. and we are exhorted by God Himself to find all of our joy in that Word, which is sweeter than honey. Even in our hostile environment, Christ rejoices over us, and we should delight in Him. It says in Isaiah 62, Christ rejoices, a bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over you. He rejoices over us with joys, with shouts of joys, we are told in Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 17. He delights in all parts of us. John Flavius says, if we scan all the doctrines, all the institutions, all the precepts, all the promises of Christianity, on which we boast as Reformed believers, we'll not each appear pregnant with matters of joy. We'll not yield A great reason and strong obligation to this joy. Rejoice evermore. Our privilege is immeasurable. Christ is glorified in us as we saw last week. He now dwells in us. He has given us His Word in which we find our delight. And sometimes, John Owen says, He can even send temptations for manifold uses. Holy and spiritual use of temptation to be made for them, so that we discover that there are still works that we'll see next week of sanctification needed in us. There's still bosom sin that we're hiding, and we say, oh boy, I didn't see this. We discover our secret sin that we are ignorant of. And this goes against, for example, what the Pope just declared, that we need to change the Lord's Prayer. Lead us not into temptation, no, actually... That's wrong. I decided, I decreed. No. Owen says, God can use even those things to then bring us to His Word on our knees. Such glory is manifested as He consecrates us even for His mission. Christ will not be satisfied until we are brought to Perfection. How do we grow in this? But by His Word. Until we realize that, as we saw, Christ is altogether lovely. He is extremely desirable. All His divine glory, it just leaves us without words. And listen to John Owen's exhortation here as we close. He's talking about you. He says, Is He dead? Christ is life. Is He weak? Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Had He a sense of guilt upon Him? Christ is complete righteousness. The Lord our righteousness. Many poor creatures are sensible to their wants, but know not where their remedy lies. Indeed, whether it be life or light, power or joy, all is wrapped up in Christ. is fit to save us. Our petition, our prayers are received through the mediation of the Son and take away all of our afflictions, our despair, our weight of sin. Christ is your all in all. Make Him your all in all, as His Word dwells continuously in your thoughts, in your daily life, everywhere you go, whether you sit down, whether you stand up, whether you teach your kids, whether you go to work. We proclaim the gospel of God. We must show people that this is not merely a belief. We are passing off what Christ has revealed to us and trusted to us in His Word to all people. The fact that Christ owns us and that He owns the entire universe, but yet especially, we are His beloved. We are His very own. He is interested in us. We are His joy, His crown. We are His pride. Just as the Father, think of this, just as the Father is the joy, find the joy in His Son. Because of this prayer and because of the reception of this Word. then we are the same. He is delighting in us. This double ownership. He owns us. He gave us everything. He bestows on us and receives us. And as in the Trinity, as we saw last week, there is this communion now. We have, through the Word of God, a participation through this Word. And so my challenge to all of us is meditate upon this work. make it a discipline. Sometimes we have to discipline ourselves, because in families, in all of our duties and things, Satan knows that the only thing he can attack is us. If he takes that sword of the Spirit out of your hand, as you lead your family, as you go through your life, he knows you've got no way of attack. There's no way you can resist. Again, this is part of our prayer, and therefore let's now pray. But before we do that, is there any observation? Anyone wants to share with us some thoughts about what I just said? If not, yes, we have one here. Yes. Yeah. You're right. Yeah, this is a very important point. And I pray that if these words are true of you, a person who claims to believe the Word, and sees this communion in us, and the way that we take it really deep into our hearts, that they will be challenged. I was just watching a video of this Anglican woman pastor, which was saying that, looking at those passages in the New Testament, and, you know, she mentioned things, you know, like very high and lofty things, you know, that, you may think, you know, she knows what she's talking about, right? But she was denying the Scripture. With all of her wisdom, As we started with all of her wisdom, with all her mention of words like from the Greek. She had no wisdom. She was denying Paul's clear teaching and the Word of God. And in some ways, we can counter that as we show our pure and heartfelt obedience. Think of Josiah when he heard of the law of God, he torn his clothes, and God says, you had a tender heart, you humbled yourself, because the word just nailed him. And if unbelievers can see serious Christians who take the word to heart, then much of our witness will be accomplished. Any other observation? Yes? When you think about who God is and how magnificent He is and all, and you realize God created the world, and then you think of the scripture that says that He knew us before the foundation of the world, and you think, in creation, Exactly. Exactly, absolutely. Amen. And we will go there in two weeks. But before we go there, and this is very interesting how this John 17 is ordered, we need to start with the Word, right? Today with receiving the Word, next week with sanctification in the Word. And then out of that, we can have unity, right? We will see that in the following weeks, but it's so crucial because today we talk a lot about unity, right? But it's the Word of God. He spends the first five verses talking about the glory of Christ. Then he goes to the Word of God for the next whole section. and then He goes to the unity. And so we will definitely explore that in the following weeks. Anyway, if there's no other comments or questions, we can turn in prayer because I think we need to get going. But if you have more, you want to talk, I'm here and I'm very glad to answer any question or talk about. Let's pray. Gracious Gracious Father, we thank You so much for Your Word. We thank You for opening our eyes. to the marvelous things that are contained in Your Word. We thank You, Lord, for opening us and leading us to the only book that can give us joy, the only source of all of our wisdom, the only source of all of our delight. Oh, Your Word is perfect, Lord, and we delight in it. As Psalm 119 says, Lord, that Your Word is as sweet as honey, as we delight in it. we pray that we will do indeed that our Christian walk will grow in such love and delight and reception of your word in all of its parts in all of its bits and pieces Lord and we pray that also for those who do not know and do not receive this word or claim to receive it but have not really internalized and submitted themselves under it oh we pray Lord that that that word may be planted like that seed in a good soil, O Lord Jesus. And we thank You again for Your prayer, Lord, and answering through our salvation, through our sanctification, and as we will see also through making us one in complete harmony. As we are contemplating Your Son, and we submit to Him in all things. It is in His name we pray. Amen. Thank you, everyone.