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[0:00] that reveals his all-consuming passion for the glory of God. We noticed this emphasis the last time in verses 1 to 5 as he prayed first for himself in those verses.

[0:13] Verse 1, Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son that your Son may glorify you. Verses 4 and 5, I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.

[0:27] And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. So glory and glorifying is very much the center of the first five verses.

[0:40] And when Christ is glorified, we saw that the Father is glorified. Indeed, as Jesus said earlier that evening in chapter 13 and verse 31, now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him.

[0:58] So glorifying God was a controlling passion of Jesus' life. He organized his life and ministry around that passion. And it's that passion that would hold him to the course of intense suffering and death that was just hours away.

[1:16] He'll go to the cross to glorify his Father. But then as Jesus continues to pray, we see another passion in his heart.

[1:27] And this is the second passion. His deep love and concern for the well-being of his own disciples. As I thought about that, you know, it's only in Christ and in his salvation that these two ever would coalesce together.

[1:47] What glorifies God and what is good for his disciples. And that's what our Lord reveals in this prayer. The passion to glorify God and his love for the well-being of his disciples.

[2:03] So at verse 6, his prayer takes a new direction. No longer is he praying for himself, but now he turns to prayer for his disciples. And especially the 11 that are with him there.

[2:15] But not just for the 11, but for us who are his disciples today. As verse 20 tells us, my prayer is not for them alone.

[2:27] Not just the 11 there. But I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message. That would be you and I. How have we come to believe?

[2:38] Well, it's through their message. We have heard their testimony, their eyewitness account of the resurrection, the death and resurrection of Christ, and have come to believe.

[2:50] And so, the Lord is here praying for them and for us. Is that not encouraging to know that the Lord is mentioning your name to the Father and the throne that rules the universe?

[3:10] It reveals his deep, deep love for you and for your well-being. Now, what is Jesus praying for you? Are you ready to listen in and hear him praying for you?

[3:22] Just like the 11 were listening in as Jesus was praying for them. The first thing that strikes me about his prayer for us is that there are no petitions made for the first five verses.

[3:37] Our text tonight, verses 6 through 10. There's not a petition in it. He's just talking with his heavenly Father about us, but he's not yet asking anything for us.

[3:52] He'll get to that. But I wonder if we can learn from him that prayer is not all petition. That indeed, much of it is just fellowship with God.

[4:05] Communion with our heavenly Father. Just talking to him about life, about people in your life, people that you love, telling him whatever's on your heart as you would talk to a friend.

[4:19] Pouring out your heart to him. Well, that's what Jesus is doing here. I wonder how much of your praying is not asking God for anything, but just talking with him.

[4:32] A privilege. A blood-bought privilege for us. Well, what Jesus says about his disciples is also full of lessons for us because it reveals the true identity of his disciples and what makes them so precious to him.

[4:53] Though Jesus is talking to his heavenly Father, he's conscious that his disciples are listening as well. And I can't help but believe that what he says to the Father about them is as much for their sakes as it was for the Father's sake.

[5:17] I wonder, have you ever had someone pocket dial you on their cell phone? They have their cell phone in their pocket and have bumped it in such a way that it's called you without them knowing it.

[5:31] And so you pick up and you hear voices, but they don't hear you. Suppose they sit down at the supper table and start talking to one another about you.

[5:46] Well, you're listening. They don't know you're listening. You hear what they really think about you. You'd get the whole truth, wouldn't you? The unvarnished truth.

[5:57] Now, in this prayer, Jesus is talking to his Father about them and he knows they're listening to him. And what he says about them is some of the most encouraging things that they could hear.

[6:13] And know this, that Jesus can say the same things about you, his disciples today, that we're going to see that he says about them. These who are about to witness something that would shake their faith to the core.

[6:30] It would make them say, you know, we had hoped that he was going to be the one to redeem Israel. But our hope is gone now, now that he's dead. They're about to go through that earthquake for their faith.

[6:44] And we see Jesus here encouraging them with his own thoughts about them, revealed to them as he's talking to his Father. Doesn't the Lord Jesus know how to prepare us for trials?

[6:58] As he speaks his precious words to us. Well, what are those encouraging things he says about them? Two things. First of all, they're a love gift from the Father to the Son.

[7:11] You see that in verse six. I've revealed you. He's talking to the Father. I've revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours.

[7:22] You gave them to me. And then verse nine, I pray for them. I'm not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. Now, this isn't the first time in Jesus' prayer that he's referred to his disciples as those you have given me.

[7:38] He said that in verse three, that he had been given authority to give eternal life to all those that you have given me. He's going to say it again in verse 24.

[7:50] I want them, Father, that you've given me to be with me where I am and so on. And now here, three more times in this section, he speaks of them as those you have given me.

[8:03] It stands out as Jesus' favorite description of his disciples in this prayer. He's wanting this identity to sink into them. That out of all the people in the world, the fallen people in the world, as God viewed them from eternity past, he chose them out of the world and gave them to his son as a love gift.

[8:30] And they were given to the son that he might come and live and die for them so as to save them so that they become the reward for his suffering.

[8:44] Do you think of yourself in those terms? The reward for his suffering. Now, there's something strange going on here. I wonder if you noticed it.

[8:54] Though they are the father's love gift to his son, yet they still belong to the father. Now, usually when you give something away, it's no longer yours.

[9:09] But if you're united to someone, say in marriage, for instance, then what you give them remains yours because everything that is yours is theirs and everything that is theirs is yours because you're one with them.

[9:27] And that's why husbands can give some strange gifts for Christmas to their wives like chainsaws and hedge clippers and fishing gear, anything, because in giving it, it remains theirs.

[9:44] And that's what we see here. Notice how verse 9 ends. I pray for them. I'm not praying for the world. But for those you have given me, for they are yours, not were yours, but they still are yours, even after you've given them to me.

[10:01] And that's true because God the Father and God the Son are united so that all that is Christ is the Father's and all that is the Father's is the Son's.

[10:11] And therefore, verse 10 is true. As Jesus says, all I have is yours and all you have is mine. And so as one God, they possess and share everything, including this motley group of disciples, fishermen, tax collector, and others who'd spent three years with Jesus.

[10:38] And now they hear him talking to God the Father and say, these are mine and these are yours.

[10:49] Do you see the faith-building encouragement that comes from these words of their Savior about them? These are his own peculiar people, a people belonging to God.

[11:04] So let's soak in that rare privilege that is ours of belonging to the Father and the Son, of being the Father's love gift to his Son out of all the people in the world, and to know that the one in heaven hearing Jesus' prayer regards us as so special that he gave them to his Son as a love gift.

[11:28] And, you know, we are going to hear, as they heard, some real petitions made for them. And can you see how this would encourage them to know that the one praying for us cares about us because we're his, but also the unseen God in heaven who's hearing and answering those prayers cares about us because we're his as well.

[11:51] So that's the first thing they hear Christ say about them to the Father. Father, these are a love gift from you that you've given me.

[12:03] And then the second one, the last one for tonight, is they hear him say that they are a glory to Christ. Verse 10, the last part of the verse.

[12:16] Jesus says, glory has come to me through them. And I wonder if at that point the eleven started looking around for who Jesus might be talking to or about.

[12:34] Who has glorified Jesus? But they're the only ones present. And remember who these eleven are. Earlier in the night, what were they doing?

[12:45] They were proudly arguing about who of them was the greatest. No one was humble enough to bow down and wash the feet of each other. No, they were too proud for that.

[12:58] They were so out of touch with the gracious ministry of our Savior that James and John on one occasion wanted to call down fire from heaven to burn up a Samaritan village that had not welcomed them.

[13:09] And you remember Peter totally misunderstanding the mission of Messiah. That when Jesus began to speak about his death, he pulls him aside and rebukes him.

[13:22] This is Peter rebuking the Son of God. This will never happen to you. Messiah can't die. These are the men there that evening as Jesus is praying.

[13:40] They're dull in their understanding of his mission and of the kingdom of God. They're so slow of heart to believe everything that was written about him in the scriptures, both the sufferings and the glory that had been written.

[13:54] Their faith was so weak and faltering and their remaining unbelief so strong. As J.C. Ryle says, never did a master have such weak servants as Jesus had in these 11 men.

[14:09] And yet with joy, Jesus clearly says to his father, father, glory has come to me through them, through them.

[14:20] Now, if he says that of these 11 very imperfectly sanctified disciples, then I can find encouragement in that. And I want you to find encouragement in that.

[14:32] No doubt they did too as they heard him pray it to his father. There is a people on earth, not yet fully sanctified, still sinning every day and needing to pray, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

[14:48] And yet, they are bringing glory to their master. There's a cross reference here, you don't need to look it up, but 2 Corinthians 8.23, Paul talks about, as he writes to the Corinthians, he talks about our brothers who are the representatives of the churches who are bringing this offering to Jerusalem for the saints there.

[15:10] And he says, they are an honor to Christ. The word is doxa. They're a glory to Christ. Even literally, they are the glory of Christ.

[15:22] There is such a people. They are his disciples. It's you and I now. And we need to soak this in for our encouragement. We feel our failures so keenly, don't we?

[15:34] We struggle with our lack of faith and our unbelief in the promises. And there's nothing we do but that after we've done it, we look back and we think, I should have and I could have done it better.

[15:49] And we always have sins to repent of, even in our best deeds. We know that the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

[16:04] But sometimes we may wonder, do we ever really accomplish that? Do we ever really glorify God in our living? Am I bringing Him glory?

[16:15] You know, there are even some preachers that would tell us that nothing we do glorifies God. Nothing we do pleases God. But Jesus says, oh yes they do.

[16:27] Glory has come to me through them. Through them. That would include you and me who are imperfectly sanctified as well. So in the time remaining, I want us to consider how glory came to Jesus through these imperfectly sanctified disciples of Christ.

[16:50] Well, it's in part because of what they did with what Jesus gave them. What did Jesus give them? Well, He gave them a clear revelation of God the Father. Verse 6. As Jesus prays, He says, I have revealed you to those you gave Me out of the world.

[17:06] Now, Jesus did that both by show and tell. He did it both by example and by word. He was giving to them the revelation of God the Father. The knowledge of God's glory is given in the face of Christ.

[17:22] 2 Corinthians 4.6. All of God's revelation to His people comes through Christ.

[17:33] He gave them God's words. You see that in verse 6. They were yours. You gave them to Me and they have obeyed Your word. Verse 7.

[17:44] Now they know that everything You have given Me comes from You. Verse 8. For I gave them the words You gave Me and they accepted them. So God the Father is the source of all truth.

[17:57] God the Son is the mediator of all truth to men. He is the great prophet of God who teaches us about God and teaches us the will of God.

[18:10] He's the one who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no man can come to the Father except through Me. John 3.34 For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God.

[18:22] John 14.24 He who does not love Me will not obey My teaching. These words you hear are not My own. They belong to the Father who sent Me. And so that's why John in his Gospel in the first verse refers to Jesus as the Word of God.

[18:39] What really are our words? They're the expression, the revelation of our hearts and who we are. How do you know Me? You know Me as I speak and reveal something.

[18:53] And Jesus is the revelation, the expression, the self-expression of God to man. He is the Word of God. He's the exact image of the invisible God such that He can say, so if you've seen Me, you've seen the Father.

[19:09] If you've heard My words, you've actually heard the words that the Father gave Me to speak. He is God in the flesh. And no one has ever seen God but God the one and only who's at the Father's side.

[19:22] He has made Him known. So Jesus came and He revealed the Father to these men. Matthew 11, 27, Jesus said, No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.

[19:40] And now He's saying to the Father, I've revealed you to these that you gave Me. But then what did the disciples do with that revelation? Well, that's what brought glory to God.

[19:55] They accepted that revelation. They believed it. You see it in verse 8. I gave them the words that I gave them the words you gave Me and they accepted them.

[20:06] They knew with certainty that I came from you and they believed that you sent Me. And when they did, glory came to Jesus through them. And how fondly He speaks of this to His Father about them.

[20:24] You see, they believed when the great majority of their countrymen rejected this teaching that Jesus came from heaven to give. They refused to accept it.

[20:36] They refused to believe His words. He came as the light of the world with the light to reveal the Father and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

[20:49] He came to His own and His own received Him not. They did not receive Him or His message or His words. Oh, they loved the miracles. They loved the multiplied bread.

[21:01] But they rejected His gospel message. You remember in John chapter 6 after He has multiplied the bread and fed the 5,000, He then begins to preach words.

[21:12] given to Him from the Father about, I am the bread of life. And it's by partaking of me by faith that you have eternal life.

[21:31] Five times in that sermon, He claimed, the Father who sent me. That was truth that they didn't accept.

[21:45] Seven times He said, I've come down from heaven. My Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life and I will raise Him up at the last days.

[21:56] And at this, the Jews began to grumble about Him because He said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. You see, the sticking point about Jesus was not His miracles, it was His words, His teaching.

[22:13] And they said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can He say, now, I came down from heaven?

[22:25] And they were offended by His words and would not believe. In fact, on hearing it, many of His disciples said, this is a hard saying, who can accept it and aware that His disciples, that is, not His apostles, but these disciples, these followers of His were grumbling about this.

[22:43] Jesus said to them, does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where He was before? Are you offended that I tell you I've come down?

[22:55] What are you going to do when you see me ascend back into heaven? And so, verse 66 of John 6, from this time, many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.

[23:11] Why? Because they did not accept and believe His words. And it was then that Jesus turned to the eleven and said to them, you don't want to leave two, do you?

[23:22] Or to the twelve, I should say. And Peter answered, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of life. We know and believe that you are the Holy One of God.

[23:37] So they have received these words of eternal life. They have received the message that He has come from heaven. They know it. They've believed it.

[23:50] And glory came to Jesus through their accepting and believing His word. Jesus said, I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them.

[24:05] They knew with certainty I came from you and they believed what you sent me, that you sent me. So the very thing that the world was refusing to believe, they did believe. You remember how He called God His Father and by doing so He was making Himself equal with God, John 5, 18.

[24:24] And that's what would get Him crucified at last. It was blasphemy to claim to be God and they knew that that's what Jesus was doing by calling God His Father. So when we see the Twelve's imperfect knowledge of Christ and His mission, we see Peter rebuking Jesus for saying He's going to die and that they're going to kill Him and He's going to suffer.

[24:52] We can easily criticize them for their lack of understanding and of Christ's words. But you know, it was amazing that they believed it all, these words of Jesus.

[25:09] You know, like every other Jew, these fellows grew up quoting the Shema. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. monotheism was bread in their bones.

[25:24] There's only one God. One God. One God. And now here's Jesus of Nazareth claiming to be God and yet talking about the Father being God.

[25:43] What is this heresy? Are there two gods He's proclaiming? Do you see how, you see, we look back, we were nursed on the doctrine of the Trinity, weren't we?

[25:56] From youth up, we were taught that God is one but three persons in one. Not these fellows. They were taught there's one God and now suddenly their whole world of thought has been, had a wrench thrown into it.

[26:12] I say, it's a wonder that they believed anything of the sort that Jesus came from heaven, that God was His Father, that He indeed was the Holy One of God.

[26:26] you know, that whole issue of who is Jesus would throw the church into all kinds of controversy for the first 300 years trying to define who is Jesus.

[26:42] We thought there was just one God and now you're saying Jesus is God but there's just one God. how does that work? And so it would be 325 at the Council of Nicaea before they would finally come to understand the Trinity or at least to state it and it was more to hammer out the Father and the Son and later they would have to deal with the Spirit.

[27:09] We're talking 325 and here's these fishermen that have been with Jesus three years but what they saw and heard they accepted and they believed and glory came to Jesus because of it.

[27:24] They believed when the world didn't believe. Well that was a Copernicum change to the Jews of Jesus' day and yet these unschooled fishermen accepted Jesus' teaching.

[27:40] Paul and Barnabas later were preaching in the Jewish synagogue in Pisidian Antioch in Acts 13 and they were preaching that Jesus is the Son of God the Holy One of God and that only by believing in Him could their sins be forgiven and they be justified and have eternal life and the Jews rejected the Word of God and so considered themselves unworthy of eternal life but the Gentiles were glad and honored the Word of the Lord.

[28:07] That's the text. They were glad and honored the Word of the Lord and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. You see it was by believing the words of the Gospel that they honored the Word of the Lord and by honoring the Word of the Lord they were honoring the Lord of the Word.

[28:27] They were bringing glory to the speaker of the Gospel to God Himself and that's what the eleven disciples of Jesus did. They believed His Word and that brought glory to Jesus and that's what happens when you believe the words of God.

[28:48] You bring glory to Jesus in a world where His Word is despised and rejected where the foundational teachings that we've been hearing in Sunday school from Genesis 1 to 3 are laughed at and scorned and mocked and you actually believe that in the beginning God just spoke and things came into existence.

[29:09] It's a glory to God a glory to Christ that you believe when the world around you doesn't. The world says that's a primitive thought.

[29:20] We're now past the age of enlightenment and yet when God looks upon your belief He says it glorifies Him.

[29:35] Who can make a man believe that stuff? Well it's the Lord Himself. That's why it's a glory to Him. It's not a reason as we heard in Sunday school for us to boast.

[29:47] We're never to boast but He boasts about us you see. And that's what Jesus is doing here. He's boasting to His Father. Father they have believed they have accepted and glory has come to me through their belief.

[30:02] But there's something else the disciples did with this word that brought glory to Jesus. They not only believed it look at the end of verse 6 they have obeyed your word. They've obeyed your word.

[30:18] So the Father's word was Jesus' word and Jesus' word was the Father's word and they obeyed whatever Jesus said. So Jesus said go take this gospel message and He sent them out as sheep among wolves.

[30:33] How do you like that assignment? Are you obeying? Okay. Go get them. They did. They obeyed. They went as sheep among wolves.

[30:45] Just days before Jesus' prayer here He was on His way to Jerusalem for the last time and He told two of His disciples go into the city in front of you and as you enter the village you'll find a colt tied there.

[31:00] No one's ever ridden on it. Untie it and bring it here. And if the owner asks you what are you doing just tell them the master needs it. That was the word of the Lord.

[31:16] Would you be obeying it? They did. And when they did glory came to Jesus through them.

[31:28] Their obedience whatever the command placed an honor upon Him it glorified Him as the King who has authority to be obeyed. That's how they treated Him and His word. And whenever you submit to the Lord's commands trusting that He knows best for you even when you cannot see or understand the reasons for His commands that you still believe and obey.

[31:51] Glory comes to Jesus. It was that way in Luke 5 three years earlier when Simon Peter first was called to become a disciple of Jesus.

[32:04] He and James and John had been fishing all night and they hadn't caught anything. They're mending their nets cleaning them along the shore and Jesus is there and a crowd keeps getting closer and closer to the shore pushing in upon Him and finally He gets into one of the boats and tells Peter push out a little way from the shore and he preaches from that floating pulpit so that the crowds could hear without pushing in on Him.

[32:34] And when He was done He said to Peter now put out into the deep and cast your nets for a catch. Last thing in the world Peter felt like doing. He was tired.

[32:48] The nets were now clean. He's ready to go home. And besides the fish just aren't biting. We've been at it all night. We might have said another day Lord.

[33:03] Not now later. But Peter said Master we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. Nevertheless because you say so I will let down the nets.

[33:22] I doubt his expectations were very high. Do you? If you'd been out all night caught nothing? Now you're just going right back out in the same place and throwing down the net. Perhaps much unbelief mixed in.

[33:39] But nevertheless he obeyed. And he obeyed the word because Jesus said it. Because you say so I will let down the nets.

[33:55] glory came to Jesus that day because a school of fish swam into the nets showing that Jesus is indeed the Lord of all creation.

[34:08] And so it is with you and me disciples of Jesus when we change our course just because of what Jesus says in this book glory comes to him.

[34:21] Whether we feel like it whether we understand why we should do it but because you say so Lord I'm going to obey. That's the kind of obedience that that pleases the Lord.

[34:33] So you're here this morning. You were here worshiping God. Why were you here? Just because there was a service here or or because God has called you here and has told you to gather with his people.

[34:48] Did you do what you did because he said so? You see that's the Midas touch that turns all to gold. Our obedience it's showing that we're not just going through this because it's the tradition.

[35:03] No we're doing what we're doing. We're living the way we're living because you have said so Lord. Oh that brings a whole other area into play doesn't it? That means you're my Lord.

[35:15] You're my King. You call the shots here and I do whatever you say because you say it and when we live like that Jesus says Father glory has come to me through them.

[35:32] Look how they're living and it's all because of our word that we've announced to them. well can we see something of Jesus heart for his disciples in this tonight then?

[35:57] You know when we read the scriptures we see all the flaws and foibles of the disciples don't we? We're given a true picture. It's not airbrushed.

[36:08] It's not covered. It's not kept silent. No it's there. It's the unvarnished truth of what happened. And we see all these sins and failures of these disciples.

[36:25] And yet the Puritan Manton says yet observe how Christ commends their weak faith to the Father. They have obeyed my word.

[36:38] They have believed the word that you gave me. Trail. Robert Trail the Puritan. Christ tells all the good he can about his disciples and covers their failings.

[36:50] How poorly had they received Christ's word. How weak and staggering was their faith. How often had Christ reproved them sharply for their unbelief and other faults. Yet not a word of all of this in Christ's representation of them to the Father.

[37:07] This is the constant gracious way of our high priest as he comes and presents us to the Father. He makes no mention of his Israel's faults in heaven but for their expiation.

[37:19] So again it's Ryle. He finishes the quote I quoted half of before. Never did a master have weaker servants than Jesus had in his disciples yet never did weak servants ever have a more gracious master than Jesus was to them.

[37:40] A master who focused more on their graces than on their sins. More on their obedience than their disobedience.

[37:51] More on their virtues than their vices. You know it's encouraging to hear and to read the Lord's commendations of his weak and flawed servants.

[38:08] You read Hebrews 11. What do you read? You read about their faith and they're praised aren't they? They're being praised for their faith.

[38:21] You don't read all the garbage that was part of their lives do you? Like Noah. He had some stuff in his closet.

[38:34] You don't read about it? By faith Noah. He believed the word of God. Abraham. He went obeying the word of God not knowing where he went.

[38:49] It's interesting Romans chapter 4 says that without weakening in faith Abraham believe that God was able to do what he had promised.

[39:01] Weakening in faith. Hmm. You read anything in the Old Testament about his faith maybe wavering a notch or two like taking Hagar to raise up a seed through her?

[39:14] Don't read about that in Hebrews 11. Don't read about that in Romans 4. No, they're praise for their faith. Their obedience to God.

[39:30] And then there's David. After Saul, David was a great king, wasn't he? In fact, he becomes the standard by which every king thereafter is judged.

[39:42] And when you read the summary of those kings' lives, he walked in the steps of his father David or he did not walk in the steps of his father David.

[39:53] And so when his son Solomon was placed on the throne, God says to Solomon in 1 Kings 9, 4, as for you, if you walk before me in integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws.

[40:15] Did David do all that he commanded? Did he not break any of his laws? Or is what we're seeing the blessedness of the man whose transgressions are forgiven and whose sins are covered?

[40:36] Blessed is the one of whom the Lord does not impute sin. That was David in Psalm 32. And is that what we're reading as the later account comes in on David?

[40:51] He did repent, didn't he? He did confess his sin. Could it be that the blood of Jesus has forgotten all of that stuff?

[41:03] And so he's able to present us to the Father without bringing up all the faults. God's God's love. Even in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1, you've got David in that and then Solomon.

[41:19] David was the father of Solomon whose mother had been Uriah's wife. He could have said a whole lot worse, couldn't he? I think we see it in Job as well.

[41:35] When Job finally repents and puts his hand over his mouth and confesses his sin and dust and ashes to God, God says to the three friends, I'm angry with you because you've not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has.

[41:57] He said it twice. You've not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has. You read Job lately? Not everything he said about God was right.

[42:12] But he had confessed his sin and God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And so when he would represent Job to the three, Job has spoken right.

[42:25] of me. Where's those sins? Oh, they're under the blood. We heard about it in Sunday school. Applied retroactively to the Old Testament saints by faith, just as it is to us as we look back to Christ, they look forward.

[42:42] Well, all this just to say there's a gracious heart in the Son of God. And he's talking to his father about these disciples. Oh, they're a love gift. Thank you, Father.

[42:52] Do you have anything that has sentimental value? Maybe a knife or something. It's worth nickels or dimes, but because it was your grandfathers or your parents, it's a special thing.

[43:03] These people were special to Jesus because the Father had given them. And they were special to Jesus because his glory was shining out through these men as they lived their lives.

[43:16] They were a trophy of Jesus' salvation and of his grace. and you and I have the privilege then to not only of making it our goal to please him, not only making it our goal to glorify him and to enjoy him, but to know that Jesus Christ does receive that which we sincerely offer to him, even though it is not perfect.

[43:43] Our confession of faith, I'll close with this. Since believers are accepted by God through Christ, their works are also accepted through Christ.

[43:54] Not as though they were beyond reproach in and of themselves, but that God looks upon them in his Son. He looks upon your belief and your obedience in his Son, and so he's pleased to reward that which is sincere, even though it is accompanied by many weaknesses and imperfections.

[44:13] What a master we have. A master to serve. This week and every week, but let's remember that as we serve for the General Assembly.

[44:25] He is one who speaks well of us to his Father. Glory has come to me through them. Let's sing that song, in my life, Lord, be glorified, knowing that he does take these things that we do, believing his word, obeying it, and accepts it as glorifying to him.

[44:54] Stand and sing with me. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for letting us listen in to your talking with the Father about your disciples. Thank you for the heart that we see in your Father, the heart that we see in you, to have given us to you, to be a part of that reward of your suffering, to know how special we are to you, that the petitions you put up for us come from a heart of love and enter into the ears of the Father and a heart of love in him.

[45:32] Thank you, too, that the works that we do as we offer them up in Jesus' name and do them as unto him and through him, though they be weakened by many, much unbelief and imperfections, yet you smile upon them and you know that it is your workmanship and so you can say glory has come to me through them.

[45:56] Help us then this week to serve such a master with joy, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[46:11]  Amen. Amen.