[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alpharetta, Georgia. This is the next message in our series on the book of John, entitled, Jesus is God.
[0:14] Amen. What a wonderful song. Let's start with the word of prayer this morning. Heavenly Father, we've come here to adore you. As this song was just sung, Lord, we thank you for it being possible, our knowledge of you, by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our risen King.
[0:31] We love you. We came here to behold you, your glory. You are King. And we love you so much, Lord. I sincerely ask you, Father, to remove me from the equation this morning so people can get a clear glimpse of you.
[0:44] We'll see very little of me, and they will see all of you, Lord. I desire to make much of Jesus from his word today. We came with hearts and affections given wholly and totally over to you because you are our King.
[0:56] And we came here to adore you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. If you will turn back with me to John chapter number 17. This will be the last sermon in John 17.
[1:08] And we're looking at this prayer together. John Knox, which was famous for saying, Give me Scotland lest I die, who had a great heart for Scotland and all those countries, he on his deathbed had John 17 read to him at least once a day.
[1:24] And it was believed that it was the last words that he heard before he went on to heaven. And as we've studied John 17, we begin to understand why that is. It's such a wonderful passage to hear Jesus praying for us.
[1:37] This King that we just sung about and heard sung about, that he would spend time in prayer for us, that the Son would speak to the Father on our behalf. And what a wonderful love that we see.
[1:49] Miss Ruth Basham's here today. She came to see Claire, not to see Philip her Lord, but she came to see her grandbaby. And she understands a love towards Claire. And I'm sure she would love all the babies in the nursery, but there's something special about Philip's child there, because it's her kid's kid.
[2:05] And so there's something special there. And now we are the people that Jesus Christ came, and he won, and he died for on the cross. He gave us the Word of God. And now there's a love.
[2:16] I love that as we see in John 17, we don't find Jesus convincing God of anything. When he speaks of his will, he speaks of the Father's will, because they've always, from the beginning of the time, had this plan to redeem us.
[2:29] And it's so exciting. So I want you, if you will, follow along here. Take your finger and go to John chapter number 17, verse number 1. Because we've spent so much time here, I want to give a quick review. But put your finger on verse number 1, and I want to give you some things of review before we looked at the last of the big three prayer requests.
[2:46] One being for his glory, for his disciples, and then all of those that will come to know of the knowledge of the Father through the Word of the disciples. So first of all, let's look at what the Father gave unto the Son.
[2:58] Verse number 2, we find that he gave him authority to give eternal life. Verses 2, 6, 9, and 24, we find that he gave the Son people out of this world. Verse 4, we gave him a work to accomplish.
[3:08] Verse 8, he gave him words, that every word spoke of Jesus were the words of God. Verses 11 and 12, he gave him a name. Verses 22 and 24, he gave glory.
[3:20] The Father gave glory unto the Son. Then in verse number 2, we also find that the Son gives unto the believers, me and you. He gives us eternal life. He gives us the Father's words.
[3:31] He manifests the Father's name for us, and he gives us glory we'll look at today. In verses 1, we find that the Son asked some things of the Father. He asked that he will glorify him.
[3:42] He asked that he'll keep believers in the Father's name, that he'll keep believers from the evil one, that he'll sanctify the believers in truth, and that he will make these believers one in the prayer of the day.
[3:53] Jesus and the followers of the world. Here's some things we learn about us. That we're sent out into this world, in verse number 18. But verse number 11 tells us we're not of this world.
[4:03] And that we're not in verse number 16. And because we're not of this world, but because we're of the Word, and that we belong in Christ, that the world will hate us. And in verse number 21, where we'll start at, is there is unity with each other, and union with God may cause the world to believe that the Father sent the Son.
[4:21] That he prays for this oneness. And all the prayer requests are given. As he's closing this prayer, he prays for a oneness among us as believers. That would be like the oneness that the Father and Son have.
[4:32] And he does it for a divine purpose. Not just so that our lives are more enjoyable, because we're not fighting among ourselves. But he does it for a purpose, so that the world that hates us, will learn of the love of the Father has for us.
[4:45] And that they will glorify him as well. Our number one thing that we see in verses 20 and 22. He prays that we will stand together in oneness, through his word and for his glory.
[4:58] Verse 21, that they may be one as the Father. Who is it that he's praying as one? It says in verse number 20, but them that which shall believe on me through their word. How many of you are like that today?
[5:09] Have believed on Jesus Christ through his word? That's every believer in here. So there's a oneness that the Father and Son enjoy. This is so much more than any external, practical thing that we might just get along, and that we agree about the color of our carpet, or as Miss Betty would say, the color of our wall.
[5:27] It is so much more greater than this inside of the church. Of a shallow, just very practical, external oneness that any organization could have. But we have something so much deeper.
[5:38] All of us in here as believers, we have the same mission, the same heart, the same desires. It's his glory. And we do this by sharing the gospel. There's nothing in here that you could disagree on that would be bigger than the fact that we are all one in Jesus Christ.
[5:55] We find this in his holiness and his love. A holiness and love that can only be found there in the Trinity. And he says, with that same love that me, we have together, I want it to be found inside of my church.
[6:09] He prayed for our one that is not as something we need to get, but as something he has already provided for, that we should continue and grow in. We see in the Bible how he took that middle wall down, he took the junior to town, and he brought us together as one people.
[6:22] There is a oneness that we get to enjoy. And speaking of the apostles here, Ephesians 2, 18 through 20 tells us that we built upon the foundations of the apostles. For though we both have access by one spirit unto the Father, now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.
[6:49] We don't worship the apostles today, but they were people that God gave the word, and they recorded it, and we get to read it today. And if you're a believer in here, it's because he recorded their word, or their preaching passed from generation to generation.
[7:03] I know maybe Brother Chuck was led to the Lord by one of the apostles in here, but most of us, none of us in here met the apostles, not even here to offend himself. We weren't around with apostles, but they shared the word with their generation, and it continued to the day, and it continued, and my sister heard the message, and she shared it with me, and I continue to share it, and we are thankful for it, but we know Jesus is the chief cornerstone, and none of this would be possible if it wasn't the message of Jesus that they were sharing.
[7:32] So we see this wonderful oneness that's unlike any group in the world can have, and we find that it's possible through the word. Verse 20, Neither I pray for these alone, but for them which also shall believe on me through their word.
[7:45] So it isn't a oneness that we're fighting for our unity, but he tells us that it's in the word that we are going to find a oneness. So many people try to get together, and they would say that unity is the ultimate goal, that if all of us will strive for unity, if we all get along, then the byproduct of it will be God will be glorified, and we will be in the word, but that's not the case at all.
[8:05] We are all here together for one purpose, which is his glory, and we do that through knowing him in his word. So if you want to be unified in your marriage, in your family, in any relationship you have, do you know where you begin to agree?
[8:18] It's on the word of God. The unity doesn't come by stopping the not disagreeing, but it's agreeing upon something. And it's not my opinion or my wife's opinion, but we say that the word of God is the final authority, that we agree that what it says is what we believe, and that creates a unity.
[8:36] Inside of our church, the word provides an incredible unity among us, because it's this book that dictates what we live, and our purpose, and our mission. And if we desire to be one, and to grow in that oneness, we do it by growing in the word.
[8:50] Who holds the word of God written by the apostles in their hands today? We all come at the same way, hearing of Jesus from God's word. Our entry point into Jesus came from faith in the word that we heard, and so oneness happens at the point of salvation.
[9:06] So he's going to create it when he goes to the cross. He's going to provide it for us, and we grow in it. How did you become a believer in here today? And every one of us that are believers would answer the same way.
[9:17] We are saved by believing in Jesus. Acts 16, 31. And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And what is it we believe about our Lord Jesus Christ? We believe, as the apostle said in 16, verse number 30, that he was sent from God, and that he is going back to God, that he lived a perfect sinless life, that he went to the cross to pay for our sins, which makes us have to acknowledge the fact that we are sinners.
[9:42] Jesus does not pay for, you cannot believe he's paying for sin, if you do not believe that you have sins that need to be paid for. So none of this makes sense to anybody who doesn't understand that they're not a sinner. And then we believe that he rose again, overcoming death, hell, and the grave, and that victory that he gave was secured for you and for me.
[9:59] But how did you hear that story? As you think about it in here, I believe, Brother Steve Morgan, I was going to ask you before, I believe you heard, you began to grow in your faith, you got saved from hearing radio ministry was vital in your life.
[10:11] Miss Betty was at Shorter College, and a college ministry. Some of you might have got saved during vacation Bible school. I got saved in my closet at home, and in different places, all of you would have got saved, but it all came from hearing the word of God.
[10:26] We're indebted to the word of God. Romans 10, 17, So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. In Acts 4, 12, it tells us that no name is given among men, whereby we must be saved, but Jesus Christ.
[10:41] And so there's no way to get to know the knowledge of the Father, except through Jesus, and there's no other way to know of that knowledge, except for this word. So it's hiding in this word that we will find that one, there's no other book that contains this.
[10:57] Isn't it amazing how the world likes to pick and choose? They say, I believe in heaven, but I don't believe in hell. I believe in Jesus, but I don't believe it was perfect. I believe in this, but I don't believe in that.
[11:07] But all those truths that you heard about are only found here in this word. It is in this word that we learn about the heaven, where Jesus Christ is at. It's in this word that we learn about Jesus, and that we learn He is sinless.
[11:21] He has made provision for us in His word, and we heard the gospel. No matter where you're at, it happened because of the word and the faith put in it. How do we hear the word? It has been sent to us.
[11:31] Romans 10, 14, How then shall they call on Him, and who they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him, who they have not heard? And shall how they shall hear without a preacher? So not only are we saved through the word, but the word has been sent to us.
[11:44] The word placed in your hand today, fill it. It's holding there in your hand. If you don't have a Bible and you would like one, and our closing prayer, when the person beside you is praying, just take their Bible.
[11:56] I promise you they won't mind. They want you to have their Bible. If you don't have one, if you want a Bible, let us know. But the word that was placed there was meant to go somewhere. It is on a mission.
[12:07] I do not have a tracking device on this Bible by UPS. I don't know where its destination is, but this word is supposed to go to the heart of man. And if all of us agree upon this, as we should, then we will be one in the mission that God has given us to the word.
[12:23] As I read it and it changes my heart, I know that it has the same power to do it in anybody's life, regardless of the circumstances. And so your Bible, it should not have just a shelf life.
[12:33] It shouldn't have a shelf life. It should, you should spend time in it and you should spend time in it with other people. We find the oneness, we find his word. And also it speaks of his glory. Verse 22, and the glory which thou hast gave us me, I have given them that they may be one, even as we are one.
[12:49] So the glory, remember he came in Philippians, we learn that he was obedient to the cross, that he set aside things so that he could take on a robe of flesh and that he submitted himself to the father and the father gave him glory.
[13:00] But he says that he gave that glory to us. Isn't that incredible? 2 Corinthians 4, 6 and 7 tells us, we have his glory shining through us. For God who had commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
[13:18] But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of earth, not of earth, us. Psalm 67, 1 tells us, God, it's a prayer.
[13:30] It says, God be merciful unto us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us that any goodness that you could see in me today or I could see in you is the glory of God shining upon us.
[13:44] And he gives that to us. As his creation, he allows us to reflect that in worship. And I get to see it. As they sing, behold our God, those of us as believers in here, we want to see that.
[13:56] We search the scriptures learning more about our God. We live this life out and we say, we want to see you. We want to see your glory. And the disciples, they got to see it as it was veiled to them.
[14:07] But we get this. 2 Peter 1, 4 tells us that we are partakers of his divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, that we are partakers in that, that he has done something wonderful in our lives and that we could not live this Christian life in ourselves unless he was living it through us.
[14:25] Verse 23, I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou has sent me and has loved them and has loved me. That the world should see us working.
[14:37] In our adult Bible fellowship today in the book of James, David said it so well that we could not live this life unless he was living through us. Not just sustaining our lives, but you cannot live the Christian life. You cannot show to this world the love that the Father has for you unless you're allowing him to live in and through you.
[14:55] His indwelling serves as a cause of unity. In verses 21 through 26 we see that the Father is in the Son, the Son is in the Father, that believers are in the Father and the Son and the Son is the believer.
[15:09] Jacob, if you'll put that slide up there, what an indwelling that we have that seeing that the Son is in the Father and the Father and the Son. I don't know if you can read all this, but we have that the Father is in the Son, the Son is in the Father in verse 21, that believers are in the Son and the Father in verse 21 again and that the Son is in the believers that the Holy Spirit indwells us here.
[15:29] What a cause for unity that you and I are in the same person that the same person is in us. And that's what the Father is speaking here as the Father and Son are one that we should realize that we are in Christ.
[15:42] You can take that slide off because I see it's confusing some of my brothers and sisters here. I'll post it somewhere for you, okay? But do you see that oneness there that He is in us that the same person that indwells Brother Jeff Bush, the Holy Spirit, being the same person that indwells me, that Jesus has sent that and ought to be a cause of oneness.
[16:01] It's not that we have a common interest in soccer or we both like Mexican food, which I know He does, or He likes cookies, and I like cookies, I guess, okay? Not so much, but I'm making a point here.
[16:13] And so it's not those things, it's that Jesus lives inside of Him through the Holy Spirit and He lives inside of me and that indwelling makes us one. One, unlike anything in the world, and I hope you experience that as your brothers and sisters, and I know in the world that we live in, it sounds weird to say brother or sister.
[16:30] I've joked about before when I'm in Walmart and the teenagers and they yell across Walmart and they say, hey, Brother Trent, and everybody looks at me like, what makes him a brother? He doesn't look like a brother, you know, and they don't understand why we refer to each other as brother and sister, but there's a family, a oneness, that we're not strangers anymore, but we're now in the family of God and He indwells us and this is a oneness that's incredible, but it isn't manufactured and we can't make it just by having a lot of things in common and not even our morality can do it, but it's that we're one in Christ and the Word makes this possible.
[17:02] We share His glory. So what do we do with this? This is a wonderful gift, isn't it? His oneness, His Word, and His glory. Well, I'm glad you asked, Brother Mize, what we are supposed to do with all of this that has been given to us.
[17:14] So we say His first, in the prayer request, in verses 20 through 22, in summary, He says, He prays that we will stand together in oneness through His Word and for His glory, that it is this Word that we get together on.
[17:29] My wife spent some time on Saturday with a friend in Bible study together and she said, I felt closer to her than I'd ever felt before and she is somebody that I have a million things in common, but it is this Word that when people get together and they begin to talk about it, that it reveals that we're not like this world.
[17:47] That the people in the world can have things in common, but as brothers and sisters in Christ, we have something special in sharing in His glory and His Word and His oneness. So number two, in verses 23 and 25, we see that with this oneness, with His glory, with His Word, we are to take our knowledge of Him into all of the world.
[18:07] Verse number 25, O righteous Father, the world has not known Thee, but I have known Thee and these have known that Thou hast sent Me. He says it here and what a statement.
[18:18] He says, the world doesn't know You. This is Jesus leaving earth praying to the Father. He says, the world still doesn't know You. He says, I know You and these disciples know You because they believe in Me that I was sent from You.
[18:31] So I believe in You. I know You. These disciples believe in You, but the world still does not know You. Can I tell you that 2,000 years later that I know the Father through Jesus and you know the Father through Jesus, but this world still does not know Him.
[18:47] And even though we're in a church that talks about missions all the time, that when we come to it, we must recognize and remember the fact that they say that there's still 3 billion people that have yet to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, a story that we talk about and that you've heard so many times, that 3 billion people have yet to hear it one time and their language and have a presentation of it.
[19:09] Is that not unbelievable? Do you know that India grows by the size of Montana every 12 days? And that's a million people and the vast majority of those people will never hear the gospel.
[19:21] That in Scotland, that a church closes every week and those churches are closing and before they even close, they stop preaching the gospel. Many of them that I read this week and I hope it's not true, but they said that 44% of Baptists and Americans say that they are not sure that Jesus' death on the cross was sufficient for their forgiveness of sins.
[19:43] The people that attend the Baptist church, they don't know. They're of the world and they just simply do not know. Had a friend who's moving here to the south to pastor a church and my advice to him was preach the gospel to people who already say they know it and you'll still see lives changed because they don't know the gospel.
[20:01] We're surrounded by people who know the beginning of the story and the end of the story, but they don't know the content of the gospel. They don't know the faith that we believe. This world does not know. I can share so many stats with you and I make up 17% of the stats that I tell so I can make up a whole lot of stats for you, but it won't move you because people that you've never seen on the other side of the world, you will not be concerned for if you do not care for your uncle that you see at the family reunion at every year that you don't share the gospel for.
[20:29] And if your heart is not for the heart of Jesus, then these things will never propel you in the mission. Listen to this quote I read this week. Lack of interest in missions is not fundamentally caused by an absence of compassion or commitment nor by lack of information or exhortation.
[20:45] And lack of interest in mission is not remedied by shocking statistics, more gruesome stories, or more emotional and manipulative commands to obedience. It is best remedied by the intensifying people's passion for Christ so that the passions of his heart becomes the passion that propel our hearts.
[21:04] When you fall in love with Jesus and you see him going to the cross and praying for you and you say, I love that Jesus and I came today to adore him, then you begin to listen to what his heart is.
[21:14] And as we listen to it, and he's speaking it plainly here, he says, it's my desire that the world would know. And I want my church to be so much one that when they look at them, they see something.
[21:25] Our pastor says it many times, hurting people hurt people. Well, those of us who have been loved by a God of heaven, we should be loving people and they should see that about us. We should be holy people and they should see that.
[21:38] And he has sent us out into this world and there's a world that does not know and this should propel us out into this world to share this knowledge of him. What is this knowledge of him that we have?
[21:48] He said, in the words that it says here, we know that the Father, we know the Father through Jesus Christ. The world has not known them, but they have known thee and they have known that thou has sent me.
[21:59] We know the heavenly Father through Jesus. There is no way into the Father but by him. That their message was not only urgent but it's vital to the world. And here in verse number 23, that the world may know through our oneness.
[22:12] I in them and thou in me that they may be perfect in one that the world may know that thou hast sent me and has loved them and thou hast loved me. The gospel here in a nutshell and a summary that the world would know through the oneness inside of the church.
[22:28] Our holy lives should show a Savior who has overcame, has overcome sin. He works through our lives and through sanctification. It's saying that he'll be made perfect in one.
[22:39] The sanctification process by the word in our lives means that we will be people that are separated from sin but not separated in the sin just to nothing but separated in the sin to a loving Father.
[22:50] And people ought to say that. When we preach of a risen Savior who has overcome sin, they should see people that are living life and the power of the resurrection that have the power to overcome sin.
[23:02] So we preach of a sinless Savior who lived the perfect life who died for us and now he controls our lives and he leads us but as we say this, they say, I don't understand. If you worship a king who has power over sin, then why do you seem to be so powerless over sin?
[23:18] Our wholly separated lives ought to show people that we serve a perfect Savior. God is working mightily in us to perfect us. Colossians 1, 28 and 29.
[23:28] Whom we preach warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus whereby I also labor, striving according to his working which worketh in me mightily.
[23:41] Do you recognize him working mightily in you? As I said last Sunday morning, I hope my kids will learn to recognize my voice when they run to danger but more so I hope they recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit when he says, stay away from that, go here, don't go here.
[23:56] Do you recognize his work in you mightily because he's trying to show to this lost world something that is holy? He's trying to show them something and we're supposed to be demonstrating with our lips and our lives the love that he has for us.
[24:10] We do not find oneness by not disagreeing. We find agreeing on the right things by word and doctrine and the teachings of God. God, our holy lives have the purpose and that holy purpose is not to make us arrogant.
[24:22] Our holy lives should lead people to want to know more about Jesus and to not being feared, to be ridiculed. He said, I want you to live holy lives. I want you this word to work in you to be perfect and I don't want you so you'll take a stick and beat the world over the head.
[24:35] I don't want the world to be feared being around you because they feel like you think you're better than them and no matter how we live that way, some of them will feel that way that we're saying that even when we're not but our holy lives should create an interest in their heart to want to know more about our Savior.
[24:50] If hurting people hurt then they ought to say, you act so loving. How are you so loving? Who loves you like that? Where did you love this incredible love? How did you learn to live like this and you have someone to point them to?
[25:03] It should create a oneness among us and not foster division. The union the Father and the Son has, that is our model and it should make our desires to be wholly separate from sin but we should also be loving with all of our affections given to God.
[25:17] Our love for one another should show them how much we are loved. Look how often he says in Scripture that he loves us. The love the Father has for the Son is the same love that he has for us.
[25:30] Verse 26, And I have declared in them thy name and I will declare it that the love wherewith thou has loved me may be in them and I in them. He says, Father, the love you have for me, your Son, have it for my disciples.
[25:42] And as I told you, he's not convincing the Father of anything. This is their will. John 10, 7, 18 says, Therewith does my Father love me because I lay down my life that I may take it again.
[25:53] The Father loves the Son because they've always have and they're in the Trinity and they are one but through the Bible in several verses it says that the Father loves the Son because of the mission he completed on our behalf.
[26:06] And the work he has done has changed my life. Paul says it so well in 1 John 3, 1 he says, Behold what manner the love the Father has bestowed upon us.
[26:17] I won't sing the song today but it is a great one when we sing those verses to say, Behold what manner the love the Father. How can we put words? Because the love that he has for Highland Valerie that God has for it is the love that he has for the Son because of our faith in him through the Word and he gave that to us.
[26:35] What an incredible love that he has shown us here and he shows us through spending time in prayer for us. Nothing more loving than declare the gospel to the lost world. He is declaring in verse number 25 and he says he will continue and he says, I have declared it and I will declare it that God is declaring his love to this lost world through us and living in oneness has a divine purpose that we will give glory that is due unto his name.
[27:01] We are not united to protect one another from the weirdos of this world. We are not united to have entertainment that is safe for the whole family that as a church we experience this oneness for a divine purpose and that is to show the world.
[27:15] So as we should be in the Word and experience this oneness we should also be in this world showing the oneness that he has provided and letting them see what he has done.
[27:27] We should love one another as he has loved. And then lastly and quickly verses 24 through 26 here we find in his closing prayer request he says we will behold his glory in heaven for all eternity that the disciples have seen a glimpse of his glory here on earth and we know of people in the Bible who Enoch who walked with the Lord and it said he was translated as a man who walked with the Lord who wanted to know God so much that he just allowed him he says you want to know me so much then come on up here and see my glory that disciples when they walked with Jesus even though they didn't recognize it was Jesus on the road to Emmaus it said that their heart burned with them the disciples saw his glory through a veil of flesh they saw it in spirit and in truth it says and that we are limited to the day through our flesh in seeing his glory 1 Corinthians 2 9 and 10 it is written I have not seen nor heard neither has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him but God has revealed them unto us by his spirit for the spirit searches all things the deep things of God by the spirit that has been awakened inside of me been quickened
[28:34] I get to know the father but my flesh cannot understand it that my eye and my ear and my senses cannot handle what I will one day see the best is yet to come and as we see the day in glimpses one day we will get to see him totally unveiled to us the quest is not based upon our goodness but because the father's love for the son from the beginning of time he says here he says behold my glory which thou has given me for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world he says father love them as you've loved me and let them someday come to heaven and see all of my glory and he doesn't say because they're good but he says do this because you have loved me from the foundation of the world and so we get to see that someday and what will we say I know exactly what we will say and isn't it awesome in Revelation chapter number 5 that we get to see what we do in the future that as we read in John chapter number 17 we got to see Jesus praying for you and I even though we were not there then we get to fast forward to the future and we get to see what we will be doing in the future the prayer of Jesus' death upon the cross in Revelation chapter number 5 verses 1 and 2 it says and I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the back side sealed with seven seals and I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof and no man in heaven nor on earth neither under the heaven was able to open the book neither the look thereon and I wept much this is John praying he's in a having a dream a vision here because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book neither look thereon but to Jesus that is praying for us in John chapter number 17 that Jesus that in John chapter number 18 will have Judas come forward and kiss him and that will betray him that same Jesus who went to the cross and that who died for my sins and he died for your sins who showed us his glory here on earth and who can't wait till the day to show us in heaven that same Jesus who is now there and there in heaven it says and one of the elders saith unto them weep not behold the lion of the tribe of Judah the root of David has prevailed to open the book and the loose to seven seals thereof saying with a loud voice worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessings and every creature which is in heaven and I will be in that number and on earth and under earth and such are in the sea and all that are in them heard
[31:15] I saying blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the lamb forever and ever this same Jesus in his prayer his last prayer here he says father one day allow me to take these people that I love to heaven with me and abide with me for all eternity so that I can show him my glory so down here upon earth as we are standing together our oneness ought to be found as I'm with these guys and Ed if you guys will stand up and as we are spending time in this word in Acts it said that it said behold you men of Galilee why stand you here gazing that they were people they were staring up in the heaven and they wanted a glimpse of him and they said guys you have a work to do so we no longer stare up in heaven trying to get a glimpse of him but a oneness is found as we represent the church here as we study the word together and I'm saying Hazi look what I learned about our wonderful Savior of the day as I was reading it and as he as Alex would show me something from the word and there's an incredible oneness found in the word because we are people that desire to see his glory and we stand together in this word and we see his glory in his word but now that we have this with this oneness we take his word and we go out into this world you guys can be seated and so we go out into this world that hates us and we show him his glory and we show him the knowledge of the father that we learn by Jesus Christ in this world but the whole time we're here on earth they're going to hate us because of the message that we preach because we're in Christ and they hate Christ and then his last prayer there he says father when it's all done in their lives will you bring them home to me so they can live always with me and I will not see his glory through my flesh through veiled here and I won't see it in his word but I will gaze upon it for all eternity and if you're a believer in here and you want to see his glory that is such an exciting truth there's nothing more exciting to know that not only do we desire to see his glory but he desires to show it to us and if you're not a believer in here today you cannot even begin to understand what we are talking about that desire to see his glory that we find the oneness in his word and we go out into this world but someday we get to leave this world and we get to see him in person not just read about him but to know him and all of him and to see him in his glory and to spend all of eternity learning about our father and Jesus can I ask you believer in here today do you want to see his glory that desire to see his glory will create a oneness inside of our church unlike anything you could ever imagine and it will create a desire for this word unlike you can ever imagine and it should propel us out there to tell people about it are you still awestruck are you still amazed at the knowledge of all the people 7 billion people in the world 3 billion never heard the gospel you heard the gospel somebody brought you the gospel somebody was given the word and in their oneness inside of that church they came to you can ask you what are you going to do with the word that is in your hand your words on a mission your word wants to go out there and it wants to tell people the knowledge of God and that the community ought to see that they should see holy lives and separated lives that we live if you're not a believer in here can I ask you do not leave until you know of the knowledge of our loving savior from his word today there'll be no pressure for you to make a decision but there will be a presentation shown to you from the word of God and it will show you how you can know the father through Jesus that we can learn about him from his word and believers do you look forward to that day that our savior said that he can't wait to show us all these wonderful things he wants to show you his glory do you want to see it let's see it today let's look for it let's behold our God he's seated on his throne and we learn about him and let's charge this world as one people that have taken this word into this world and it's for his glory heavenly father ask that you be with us today lord we be we desire to behold you
[35:16] we desire to see you we come to adore you and we only do that because we now know you because of your son we thank you for your word and how it creates a oneness and mission and in purpose inside of our church now holy spirit i pray that you'll bring conviction in the hearts of those believers in here that will just simply say they have lost their desire to behold your glory and they have not desired to know you they've lost their desire to see you in your word and they have not been enjoying the oneness inside of a church because they have different desires and passions that are fighting for their attention i pray they will come and see your glory and spend time in your word this message was recorded at vision baptist church in alfred georgia for more information log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times location contact information and more audio and video recordings