Today, I shall read in full the Lord's Prayer
of Consecration as recorded in the 17th chapter
of John. This will be our last heart -to -heart
talk on this chapter. It's been a very sacred
time. It has been so sacred that... Often when
I have spoken with you regarding portions of
this prayer, I have felt like whispering rather
than speaking loudly. It was just as though you
and I were sitting in silence and listening to
Jesus talking to the Heavenly Father. We come
now to that part of the prayer that means so
much. That 15th verse, I pray not. And always,
I feel that when Jesus said, I pray, he meant
it in the sense of, I desire. And he's saying
here, and he's talking about you and he's talking
about me, he's talking about his own. For in
this prayer, he's not talking to the Father about
the unregenerated, the world. He makes a distinction.
He says that you and I are in the world, but
we're not a part of the world. I pray not, I
desire not that thou shouldest take them out
to the world, Keep them from the evil. I'm just
human enough that I'll admit to you that many
a time in my life at the close of an altar service
and I've stood on the stage or on the platform
and I've seen men wiping away the tears from
their eyes and I've seen the glorious joy of
salvation on their faces. I've heard them as
they've stood there with uplifted hands, having
just found this beautiful new experience of regeneration.
Their hands uplifted, singing, I surrender all.
And I've just been human enough to have wanted
to pray. Wonderful Jesus, take them home to glory
right now. You know, because... you almost felt
that it was such a good moment for them to go,
you know? Many a time I wished that we could
have had the rapture at that moment. And their
salvation was so assured. When we gave the benediction,
it was almost like sending them out into the
world and like little babes. I felt like the
mother standing there and I would have given
anything in the world if I could live the life
for them. If in that hour of temptation, I could
stand in their place and fight the evil one for
them, you know? I suppose that's the way a mother
feels about her child. A daddy feels about his
son. They'd give anything in the world if they
could fight the child's battles for them. And
I think the most unkind thing that a parent can
say is, I don't want my child to go through what
I went through. Because the thing that you went
through were the things that made you strong,
that helped you to grow. Turning back the pages
of my own life, I would have been very much of
a spiritual weakling today had I not had to go
through the deep waters. How in the world could
I have helped you or anyone else who had troubles?
How could I know what it felt like to have a
broken heart if my own heart had not been broken?
How in the world could I comfort someone when
death comes? in that family if I too had not
experienced the death of a father, of a mother.
You know, don't shrink from the hard things.
Don't seek an easy life. Because, you see, as
someone says, it's pilots, great pilots. are
made in the times of storm. And it's in an hour
of crisis that you really realize what you're
made of. What you really have on the inside of
you. These are the things that help you to grow.
No. Jesus. Asking the best for his own. Now remember,
we were his children. His heirs. He's talking
about those who are joint heirs with him. He
is talking about a precious gift now that the
Father had given him. And we are that gift that
he was talking about. We're his possession. We're
his bride. The Bible likens us to his bride,
and he's the bridegroom. And he's asking the
very... best of the Father for us, for you and
for me. And in asking the best, he said to the
Father, I desire, watch it, that thou shouldest
not take them out of the world. Don't keep them
from sorrow. Don't keep them from heartbreak.
But that thou shouldest Keep them from the evil.
Oh, that's glorious. I think I've read that over
and over and over again. That's so beautiful.
They're not of the world, even as I am not of
the world. Lee says, I'll tell you, Father, what
I desire. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy
word is truth. He's made every provision for
you and for me to go through anything that happens
in our life and come through victoriously. It
will stay with truth. Thy word is truth. Oh,
to me, this is thrilling. I pray not that thou
shouldest take them out of the world. Their business
is in the world. Sanctify them. Separate them
through thy truth. And then, that there might
be no misunderstanding, in the lengthening years,
he said, thy word is truth. He goes... Further
than that, I want you to see something that to
me is so very remarkable. He was not only praying
for those who were so close to him as he prayed
that he could reach out and touch them. He was
not only praying for you and for me, but he goes
further than that. Neither for these only do
I pray, but for them also that believe on me
through their word. Pause just a minute. There
will come a time when we come to the end of the
time of the Gentiles, and the Holy Spirit will
be taken out of the world for the time of great
catching up. is the time the Holy Spirit leaves
and he takes the church along with him. Then
comes the seven years of great tribulation. The
Holy Spirit will not be here. There will not
be the convicting power of the Holy Ghost. And
yet, as you read the book of the Revelation,
John saw, he gives us the word through the Spirit,
that during the great tribulation when Antichrist
rules and reigns, there will still be literally
thousands upon thousands thousands who will not
take the mark of the beast. There'll be thousands
who will not bow the knee to Baal, who will not
accept the rule and the reign of the Antichrist
of Satan. There'll be literally thousands during
the tribulation who will be saved. And how will
they be saved? Through their word of testimony.
And Jesus, looking down through the telescope
of time, remembered them, even as he expressed
his desire to the Father, that they too might
inherit that which he had made possible for them.
Neither for these only do I pray, but for them
also that believe on me through their. Word.
It's all inclusive. Now, we come to the grand
finale. I will. I determine. In other words,
he's saying, this is my will. This is my determination.
This is my decision. That where... I am, they
also may be with me, that they may behold my
glory. Where was that? Go back to what he was
saying about himself. He was going to the cross
and through the cross to the glory. My determination.
My will. concerning my own, is that they shall
have fellowship with me in the glory of the cross,
and so in the glory that results from the cross.
In time, with me by the way of the cross, and
in the cross, and in the ages to come, with me
forever. and ever in the glory that is yet to
be revealed. In other words, the best is yet
to come. Now, for the very first time, I'm going
to read the entire 17th chapter. Sit there in
silence. Whatever you're doing, just pause for
just a moment. It's a sacred thing. We're listening.
It's Jesus talking to the Father. These words
speak Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven
and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify
thy Son. that thy Son also may glorify thee.
As thou hast given him power over all flesh,
that he should give eternal life to as many as
thou hast given him. And this is eternal life,
that they might know thee the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. I have
glorified thee on the earth. I have... Finish
the work which thou gavest me to do. And now,
O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self,
with the glory which I had with thee before the
world was. I have manifested thy name unto the
men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were. and thou gavest them me and they have
kept thy word now they have known that all things
whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee for
i have given unto them the words which thou gavest
me and they have received them and have surely
known that i came out from thee and they have
believed that thou didst send me i pray for them
i pray not for the world but for them which thou
hast given me for they are thine and all mine
are thine and thine are mine and i am glorified
in them. And now I am no more in the world, but
these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy
Father. Keep to thine own name those whom thou
hast given me, that they may be one as we are.
While I was with them in the world, I kept them
in thy name. Those that thou gavest me I have
kept, and none of them is lost but the son of
perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled.
And now I come to thee, and these things I speak
in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled
in themselves. I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them. because they are not
of the world, even as I am not of the world.
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out
of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them
from the evil. They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. 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 neither... pray i for these alone
but for them also which shall believe on me through
their word that they all may be one as thou father
art in me and i in thee that they also may be
one in us that the world may believe that thou
hast sent me and the glory which thou gavest
me i have given them that they may be one even
as we are one i in them and thou in me that they
may be made perfect and one and that the world
may know that thou hast sent me and that loved
them as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that
they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me
where I am, that they may behold my glory, which
thou hast given me, for thou lovest me. for the
foundation of the world. O righteous Father,
the world hath not known thee, but I have known
thee, and these have known that thou hast sent
me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and
will declare it. that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them and i in them the
greatest prayer ever prayed when literally the
divine son of god as much as though he were not
deity and divinity. Only hours before being crucified,
before two thieves, talks to the father, his
father. And to me, that sacred part, of this
prayer. Oh, how he must have felt within himself.
Oh, the glory, the thrill in knowing that he
had completed the work that he'd been sent to
do, that he had not failed when he said, I have
finished the work. which thou gavest me to do.
One of these days, when life is over, I will
have preached my last sermon. I will have led
my last man, or woman, or perhaps a young person.
to the saving knowledge of Christ. I will have
wiped away the last tear. I will have given my
last radio message. I will have made my last
telecast. I will have had my last miracle service.
prayed my last prayer. I pray to God that I can
stand in his presence and say, I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do.