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[0:00] Let us begin our time together around God's Word. We'll begin with a Galic singing and we're going to be singing from Psalm 107. You can read these words as we have them first of all in English. Psalm 107 we can read from the beginning of the Psalm. Praise God for he is good, for still his mercy's lasting be. Let God's redeemed say so, whom he from the enemy's hand did free, and gathered them out of the lands from north, south, east, and west. They strayed in deserts pathless way, no city found to rest. For thirst and hunger in them faints their soul. When straits them press, they cry unto the Lord, and he then freeze from their distress. Them also in a way to walk, that right as he did guide, that they might to a city go wherein they might abide. O that men to the Lord would give praise for goodness then, and for his works of wonder done unto the sons of men.

[1:17] think y'all buch the gold and lion had the hyыс and pigs and following hands Mmmm say, not to the можете of thelement though, aайаний because man saw wood tal인데 there lasting s conveyed and love on it. And the lieu of sacrifice on the land of the Pit, and the family of people kept a lot higher, long flight, whilewenci blocking up one nation, or Tamron, come what Yongle Spallepich at doerag law, Kukoni hawn notar.

[1:58] We're going to sing four verses from verse three. As askach fair and askach cheer, Toch runnigig iat lesh. Toch runnig iat lesh.

[2:40] Toch runnig iat lesh. Thank you.

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[9:42] that no matter how uncertain things are with regard to them, how much of an uncertainty events produce within their hearts, no matter the troubles and the temptations that assail them, that they have a kinship with those who have gone before them and those who are in the world with them, that despite the way that they experience the storms of life as the psalmist whose words lead on to proclaim that they mount to heaven and to the depths they go down again and their soul may faint and melt away with trouble and with pain but the day will come when the storm is changed into a calm at your command and the waves which raged become quiet. That is the promise that your word brings to them in the face of so many trials and testings that they will ultimately conclude. And when we are today yet again facing the uncertainty that has been introduced into our experience by the reason of the current pandemic, that we are eyewitnesses to an ever-increasing damage being wrought by it, especially within the cities and the towns of our land, that we have many fears that these things may intrude upon our own good privileges here. We have many privileges, we have been spared many griefs and for that reason we are thankful and our thanksgiving should be to you because we know that as a community these things could easily easily assail us and create great havoc amongst us. And we are not worthy of the least of your measures and certainly we are not worthy to be spared of any of these things because we too have sinned and come short of your glory. And if these things are the result of our sins then who of us could believe anything other than that we are worthy of this at far worse?

[13:05] But if you are the result of our sins then who of us would be able to stand? And we confess before you the need that we have of mercy, the need we have of grace filling our hearts and our minds that would enable us to experience the penitence that is the right response to the things that are currently ongoing. We pray for our sins that are currently ongoing. We pray for your mercy and your grace and we pray for your goodness to accompany each of us all the days of our life.

[13:48] Remembering our homes and our families. Remembering our households, our communities, villages, towns and cities. Remembering our nations and those who govern us. Remember the nations of the earth and the uncertainties that assail us there.

[14:07] We pray for our lives, whether we pray for our children as we have the children of men.

[14:18] the trials assailing the children of men the natural disaster or the wickedness that is in the heart of man when one can go out and deliberately and purposely seek to take the life of others see that in the cities of our lands and we pray Lord that you would mercy for you, rule for good in these things that you would sanctify every visitation in providence to us that God would speak and that we would know that you are speaking and pray your blessing upon your word as it goes out that all who have been sent by you to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ that they may be impressed in their own hearts and minds with the certainty that they are doing you'd pity that they may look to the heavens to bless the seed zone and we crave a day of your power that no matter what agency you use that you have promised that the word will not return unto you void may we plead these promises and may we come crying out to you in Christ's name and do so knowing that there is no greater name that we can bring remember our churches those who are able to gather publicly those who are not we give thanks that the church of Christ is not contained within four walls that you have a people throughout the world some who gather in darkness some who gather in secret some who gather in caves and in places where they believe that they are unobserved but we give thanks that you observe all our gatherings you know the spirit with which we come you know the heart that we have for you whether it is genuine or not grant mercy for all of its sins and bless your word to it now as we read it and forgive us our transgressions in Jesus name

[16:40] Amen I am going to read from the New Testament Scriptures and we are reading from Paul's epistle to the Philippians and we will read some verses from chapter 2 from the beginning down to verse 18 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others let his mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father wherefore my beloved as he have always obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure do all things without murmurings and disputings that ye may be blameless and harmless and the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perversation among whom ye shine as lights in the world holding forth the word of life that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain neither laboured in vain yea and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith

[19:17] I joy and rejoice with you all for the same cause also do ye joy and rejoice with me and so on may the Lord at his blessing to this reading of his word and to his name be the praise I'd like us now to turn to the gospel of Jesus Christ according to John chapter 17 and we can read at verse 17 John chapter 17 at verse 17 sanctify them through thy truth thy word is truth as thou hast sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world and for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth and so on do you know what it is like to be prayed for

[20:26] I may not know who is listening to this sermon but I do know that whoever you are that you have been prayed for even if you are the most wicked of God's creatures who has aimlessly and accidentally strayed upon this sermon site and you have never uttered a prayer on your own behalf during your lifetime you may have never asked for prayer indeed you may even have forbidden prayer yet I can say with certainty that you have been prayed for perhaps not by name as far as you know but then again many of God's people pray for those they know even without revealing the fact that they do so but even if you have not been prayed for by name you must certainly have been prayed for by many because you do not know Christ and if you do not know Christ you are lost and if you are lost

[21:36] God's people have prayed for you so that you may come to know Christ and be saved and all the time you may have been unaware of the fact that you are being prayed for it is a great privilege to be prayed for as indeed it is a privilege to do the praying but the prayer we are considering is the prayer of Christ for his people the prayer for himself for his disciples and for his people and is it not the greatest of privilege to be prayed for by Jesus a prayer he says that is not for the world but for the ones given to him but as we can see the prayer can have general petitions in it as well as very specific there are a couple of things before us in the verses that we last read which I would like us to think about first of all what Christ is praying

[22:41] God the Father for on behalf of the disciples he is praying for their sanctification and he is praying for their sanctification by means of the word and following the example of Jesus then again we are told that he is praying for the sending of the disciples into the world and Christ is as God sent him so I sent them so what do we think of in the words that are before us here what is Christ praying for he is praying that his Father may sanctify the disciples that his Father may sanctify the disciples if you compare the various translations

[23:47] Bible translations we have it may bring to our attention the wealth of meaning that is contained in the words of the passage that shows us something of what Jesus is seeking in verse 17 and 19 in the authorized version the word sanctify appears three times if the version we use is the ESV the word sanctify appears in verse 17 and 19 but also in verse 19 the translation we have is for their sakes I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified slightly different translation of one word instead of sanctified there is consecrated in the new English translation study

[24:47] Bible it has the following translation set them apart in the truth and again I set myself apart on their behalf so that they too may be truly set apart now there may be a difference in the wording and the nuances contained are highlighted so that they show to us something of the sense that the words may carry Don Carson the preacher teacher has a helpful section in his own comments he writes at its most basic level of meaning holy the word holy is almost an adjective for God he is transcendent other distinct separate from his creation derivatively things people that are reserved for him derivatively things or people that are reserved for him are also called holy whether a censor for an altar in the temple of the old covenant or a man set apart to be the high priest the prophet

[26:10] Jeremiah and Aaron and his sons were all sanctified that is set apart for sacred duty reserved for God the moral overtones in our English words holy and sanctification emerge only at that point i.e.

[26:27] ideally if someone is set apart for God and for God's purposes alone that person will do only what God wants and hate all that God hates so i think it is possible to think of the prayer to be seeking sanctification and consecration while not quite the same you cannot have one without the other what Jesus is praying for is the sanctification of the disciples in order that they may be be able or do whatever God commands them we dare not underestimate the importance of sanctification to the believer all have sinned and come short of the glory of God they will remain God's enemies until they are made right with God they need to be justified their sins removed the guilt dealt with in the cross of

[27:30] Christ as Paul writes it is by being justified by faith that we have peace with God the person who exercises such faith is the person who is born again by the Spirit of God that person is also regenerated they have new life by the Holy Spirit imparted to them but the third thing which is what Christ is referring to at least in part and that is sanctification as theologians describe that the Lord Jesus Christ in the words of Bishop Ryle has undertaken to not only deliver his people from the guilt of their sins by the way of his atoning death but from the dominion of their sins by placing in their hearts the Holy Spirit not only to justify them but also to sanctify them now remember

[28:34] Jesus is praying for the disciples so while we believe that he is not praying for their conversion or for them to be made right with God nor is he praying for their sanctification namely to have the Holy Spirit placed within their hearts because these things have already taken place these things must already be true of them but if it were not then even his petitions to his father to consecrate them to his service would be to no avail because you cannot serve God except it be as an act of faith for what is not of faith is sin and it seems that their sanctification is necessary in order for them to go out into the world he states clearly that the father has sent them into sent him into the world which you may imagine means from heaven to the earth to the world of men and women but it is not just that

[29:40] Jesus says as you have sent me even so have I also sent them what was true of Jesus in that first sense cannot be true of the disciples they are already in the world but if you think of what was true of Jesus why he was sent by the father then he wants us to understand that this is what must be true of the disciples we go to on caution again sent into the world points to Jesus entire mission as the father's emissary a mission culminating in the cross resurrection and glorification Jesus had a work to do so too have his disciples these are they who testify of me this is their mission from then on to speak of the Lord to others and the second part of this is also important sanctify them by the truth he says through the truth

[30:44] God's word we have told is the truth if holy living is the ultimate end of sanctification and if holy deeds and actions are the ultimate end of consecration there must be a stimulus to this if you remember that Jesus is revealed within the scripture as one that is dedicated to the will of the father he delights in it before he can delight in it he must know what it is and no one knew the will of God as well as the son let me again quote Carson in practical terms no one can be sanctified or set apart for the Lord's use without learning to think God's thoughts after him without learning to live in conformity to the word he has graciously given when Paul speaks of sanctification in

[31:46] Romans 12 he says be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God recently I was listening to a sermon and the preacher in passing spoke about the fear of God and the way many misunderstand what that really means but he explained it in these terms to delight in what God delights in and to hate what he hates that is what to fear the Lord is it seems simple but is made all the more simple by your familiarity with the word of truth Jesus in his life could not be more holy he was without sin he is the holy harness undefiled one separate from sinners but for their sakes

[32:48] I sanctify myself for their sakes I sanctify myself he does what Charles Ross thinks of the words of the good shepherd no man taketh my life from me but I laid it down of myself there Ross sees what Jesus is doing in response to the word in response to the will of God being revealed to him the love that he has for the church the real incentive for the cross that forbids any other interest even if there are none that we can think of Jesus set himself up before the disciples as the great example of God's servant he showed them the example when he washed their feet that passage that we read from

[33:51] Paul's epistle to the Philippians there Paul writes that Christ made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant he humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the cross the disciples had to learn what it was to serve they had to imbibe the word in its totality as indeed do we all all all all all all all if we are to learn this the most as you have sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world it was for them that he died but also for them that he demonstrated this obedience to the father that they are to follow in going to the world you remember his last words to the disciples as he took his leave of them to go into heaven go ye therefore he said and teach in the book of acts you shall receive power after that the

[35:04] Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the world you shall be witnesses to me when Jesus is praying to the father here he says as you have sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world we forget that much of what Christ is praying for in this prayer seems to arise out of the events that have yet have taken place but they are before him rather than behind him yet when he speaks he speaks as if as if they have been accomplished and his prayer is a prayer that is still being heard by the father as the great high priest said so he speaks to us he speaks to us and he prays for us that we may be his voice in this world speaking to those that know not who he is that they may come to know him to know his life eternal may the blessings of

[36:30] God accompany our short time of consideration of these words let us again pray Lord our God we give thanks that while our prayers appear to us to be ineffectual we ask for much and yet we ask for nothing in comparison to what the Lord asked for and he asked for the certainty and he asked with the assurance that you the God of heaven would hear him and answer him as you indeed continue to do we pray your blessing upon us this evening and upon all who are your people we remember the broken hearted we remember those who have lost loved ones we pray that you would visit them in mercy and open the eyes of the understanding that they may know that there is one who is able to act on their behalf may they look to him go before us now and bless your world who is cleansing from sin now may grace mercy and peace from God the Father the Son and the Holy

[37:36]  Spirit be with you all now and always Amen