During the Sunday mornings of January, we are,
as you know so well know, having a
series of studies on the Church and the
world.
We have already noted some of the distinctive
emphases of our Lord's teaching, as well as
some of the apostolic counsel to the Church
on this all-important issue.
We've been in St. John's company and we've
heard him say, Love not the world, neither
the things that are in the world.
For all that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh, and the lust of
the eyes, and the pride of life, are
not of the Father, but are of the
world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust
thereof.
But he that doeth the will of God
abideth forever.
We have also lingered in the company of
St. Paul, as he speaks to this theme,
and we have heard him counsel, Be not
conformed of this world, but be ye transformed
by the renewing of your mind.
Our Lord had taught that conformity to the
world would be one of the greatest perils
the Church would face in the latter times.
And it's of this that the Apostle Paul
is warning the Church, with all the energy
of his flaming heart and burning pen, be
not conformed to this world.
Don't become conformed to the wisdom of this
world, or to the cares of this world,
or to the course of this world.
Let all suffer the Holy Spirit to renew
you in heart and in mind, so that
the entire spectrum of experience will come under
the floodlight of God, and you will know
his good and acceptable and perfect will for
you.
All this we have been noting, and now
today I want to draw near with you
to what must be regarded by us all
as the holy of holies of the entire
Bible.
And by that I mean, of course, the
seventeenth chapter of the gospel according to Saint
John, and our Lord's great high priestly prayer.
It is, of course, one of the most
remarkable elements of our Savior's life that he
prayed, that he prayed at all.
And yet he was constantly praying.
He was the strongest of the strong, and
yet he prayed.
Frequently we read this kind of saying, he
departed into a solitary place and there prayed.
It's obvious as we study the life of
our Lord that prayer was his vital breath,
his native air.
He would continue all night in prayer, and
then face the day with its rigorous demands
and perplexing hours.
And inevitably you and I must ask ourselves,
if he needed to pray like that, how
can we hope to get through without it?
Well, by the grace of God and through
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, there has
been preserved for us this wonderful great high
priestly prayer.
How it was preserved, we cannot tell.
Did John and some other of the disciples
share that holy season with the Lord?
And were his words as he lifted up
his eyes to heaven so burned into their
hearts as to become indelible forever?
Who can tell?
What is clear is that at this hour
of his agony, with Calvary so near, with
the bitterness of the cross already entering deep
into his heart, our Lord gives himself, gives
himself to prayer, gives himself to the ministry
of intercession, gives himself that he might pray
for his disciples with such a passion and
with such a holy earnestness and with such
a burning heart that at no point in
all this story of revelation and inspiration is
there anything so wonderful, so exalting, so humbling,
so divine.
This is holy ground, and perforce we know
it.
And for myself this realization is very intense
this morning, for as I have read and
reread and studied and meditated upon these gracious
words of our Savior's prayer, I have cried
out within me, who is sufficient for these
things?
What more can one add to the perfection
of this record so eloquently and graciously treasured
for us by the Holy Spirit?
What more can we say?
And is it not likely, the most likely
of all things, that in trying to see
anything we will mar the perfection of our
Savior's ministry?
We can only look to him and beseech
him to stand amongst us and to shine
upon the sacred page and to flood it
with the light divine and to draw out
all our hearts to himself in a holy
wonder and a fervent devotion.
Surely in such an hour as this our
prayer must be, Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
my sinful maladies remove.
Be thou my light, be thou my guide,
or every thought and step resign.
Now one of the very remarkable facts about
our Lord's great high priestly prayer is this,
that though he is so manifestly near to
the throne of grace, and though he is
so manifestly raised to that throne which is
on high, yet nonetheless the world is continually
before him.
And the relationship of his church to the
world is one of the sovereign subjects of
his intercession, fifteen or sixteen times no less.
In this great high priestly prayer our Lord
refers to the world and the supreme burden
of his prayer concerns the ministry and concerns
the witness of his own church, of his
own disciples, of his own believing band in
the world.
Let me remind you, I have manifested thy
name unto the men whom thou gavest me
out of the world.
And thus he speaks of his church, and
he proceeds, I pray for them, I pray
not for the world, but for them which
thou hast given me, for they are thine.
And further, now I am no more in
the world, but these are in the world.
Holy Father, keep through thine own name those
that thou hast given me, that they may
be one, even as we are one, and
yet more.
I have given them thy word, and the
world have hated them, because they are not
of the world, even as I am not
of the world.
And he goes on, I pray not that
thou shouldst take them out of the world,
but that in the midst of the world
thou shouldst keep them from the evil.
Perhaps that's enough to indicate that the world
is before him, and his church within the
world is his abiding concern.
And that certainly suggests to myself that the
nearer we get to God, the more clearly
will we see the issues between the church
and the world.
So that's what's happening here.
Drawing into the very secret place of the
Most High, our Savior sees in all its
stark reality the world and his church within
the world.
Cheap in the midst of walls, and yet
sent forth into the world to be the
extension of his incarnation, and to be the
ministry of his life.
To draw nigh to God doesn't mean that
we get our eyes off the realities of
the world around us.
On the contrary, it's only as we get
near to the throne that we really see
the world as it is.
It's only as we get near to God
that we really see the world and the
true ministry of the church in the world.
The dignity and the responsibility of the people
of God, of the church of Jesus Christ,
which he loved, in the world.
And if that be so, we might well
say that worldliness is manifestly godlessness.
But true godliness, the life that is lived
in the sight, and in the light, and
in the fear, and in the nearness of
God, that is the life that has overcome
the world.
For this is the victory that overcometh the
world, even our faith.
And all this, I suggest, our Savior shows
us here on this mountaintop of intercession.
He's praying for his church.
He's praying for you and me, those that
have believed on him.
And he prays for them in the world.
And there's a sense in which the great
burden of his prayer is that his church
should come to have the right kind of
relationship to the world.
That to his church they might be given
clear sightedness.
That they might know the responsibility, and their
dignity, and their glory.
That they stand for God in the midst
of a corrupt world, as a light in
a dark place.
The light of the world, and the salt
of the earth.
Very well then, having noted this, let's go
on to underline some of the special emphasis
of our Lord, as he prays for his
church.
First of all, I want to suggest that
we cannot but marvel as we hear him,
and hear him meditating on the mystery of
the gift of the church out of the
world.
And that is all important.
It's inescapable, it's decisive.
The gift of his church, out of the
world.
And our Savior meditates on that.
Listen.
Verse 2, As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given
him.
And the stress, you see, is this, as
many as thou hast given him.
The church is a gift of God, to
the Son of God.
And they are a gift out of the
world.
Because look at verse 6, I have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest
me out of the world.
Thine they were, and thou gavest them me.
Again it's the same stress.
Thou gavest them me, out of the world.
Yet again in verse 9, I pray for
them.
I pray not for the world, but for
them that thou hast given me.
You see, church is the gift of God
to his Son, and she is the gift
of God out of the world.
And this is fundamental.
Perhaps it would be true to say that
in our studies thus far, we have come
to nothing more fundamental than this.
Even though it be mystery, nonetheless, it is
absolutely basic.
The church is a called out company.
The church is a particular community, separated by
a decisive act of God, from the rest
of humanity.
And as such, given to his Son.
And you see, in this the will of
God is absolute.
There is no mistake.
Listen, all that the Father giveth me shall
come to me.
Could anything be more profound?
Could anything be more extraordinarily gracious and absolute?
All that the Father giveth me shall come.
And him that cometh unto me, I will
in no wise cast out.
It is the same emphasis.
The church is a gift of God unto
his Son, and a gift chosen out of
the world.
The church is a new creation of God,
out of the old humanity of the earth.
There is no continuity between the kingdom of
this world, and the kingdom of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ.
The church is elect, from every nation, and
yet one o'er all the earth.
And perhaps this is the lesson that we
all supremely need to learn.
We certainly need continually to be reminded of
this, of the true nature of the church.
Because in these days, when the dividing marks
twixt the church and the world have become
so obscure, and the fog has come down,
and it's so difficult to see just the
delineating lines of separation, is it not vital
that we get back to the Word of
God again, and hear what the Bible says
concerning this?
What does our Lord say?
Christian friends, the Bible says that God has
finished with this world.
The Bible says that God has nothing more
to do with this world, save to destroy
it.
That's the clear teaching of the Bible.
For judgment am I come into this world,
says our Lord, but out of this world
he is calling his own.
And God, having called, gives his called ones
unto his Son.
Here in this hour of exalted intercession, our
Savior prays, for them whom thou hast given
me out of this world.
Now I repeat that this is mystery.
This is the mystery of divine predestinating grace.
This is the mystery of electing grace.
This is the mystery of irresistible grace.
It's mystery, but O is absolute, them whom
thou hast given me.
And I can think of no more perfect
illustration than the illustration that Ian gave to
us so forcibly last Wednesday night, as we
came to the study of the book of
Joshua in the earlier chapters, and came to
the story of Rahab, and saw the city
of Jericho and the other side of Jordan,
and saw that great city standing right in
the way of the onward march of the
people of God into the promised land.
And there was a great city that was
devoted by God to destruction.
Nothing else had to happen.
It had to be razed to the ground,
and the memory of it erased forever.
And yet at the heart of that great
city there was one woman, and she was
a prostitute.
And to one woman God's grace came.
And out of that great city there was
one chosen of God as a gift for
his Son.
Can you understand that?
Of course you can.
This is mystery.
This is sovereignty.
This is God in action.
And who are we to question what God
will do?
Shall the clay say unto its Creator, What
doest thou?
It's the mystery.
The church are called out company, called out
of this world.
And therefore the church denies her own essential
nature if she tries to get back into
the world and to imbibe its spirit.
We're called to be different.
We are called to be separate.
We are called out of the world.
And that's the first great emphasis.
Our Savior meditates on the mystery of the
gift of the church out of the world.
Then here is a second great emphasis.
For as we study this prayer we see
that our Savior intercedes for the purity of
his church in the world.
Holy Father, Holy Father, keep through thine own
name them whom thou hast given me.
Keep them.
And again, sanctify them through thy truth.
Thy word is truth.
This prayer is repeated again and again.
It's the burden of his prayer that the
church might be pure, that those that have
been given to him out of the world
might be sanctified and made holy as he
is holy.
Holy Father, keep through thine own name them
that thou hast given me.
Do you recall how Paul lifts up this
same great truth when he writes to the
Ephesians in the fifth chapter?
Christ loved the church, he says.
Christ loved the church and gave himself for
it, that he might sanctify and cleanse her
with the washing of the water by the
word, and that he might present her unto
himself a glorious church, not having spot or
wrinkle or any such thing, but that she
might be holy and without blemish.
Not having spot, that she might be holy
without blemish.
And in his love Christ prays for this
here.
Holy Father, keep through thine own name those
that thou hast given me.
Because while he knew that the church would
be continually tempted to become soiled and stained
with the things of the world, and that
the only hope of remaining as a vital
instrument in his hand would be that she
be pure and to be holy as he
himself was holy.
And for this Christ prayed.
And Christian friends, let's bring it up to
the present.
For this Christ prays.
The work of our Savior there before the
throne is the work of intercession.
And this is the burden on his heart
this morning for us, that we too might
be kept from the evil, and that we
might be sanctified and made holy.
Praise for the purity of his church in
the world.
Now you and I must never forget that
we live in a fallen world.
You and I are pulling the bandages right
across our eyes if we forget that.
If we begin to think that this world,
after all, it's not so bad as God
says it is.
You and I live in a fallen world.
You and I are set in the midst
of a sinful world.
That's what God says.
And let God be true.
Listen.
Peter speaks about the corruption which is in
the world through lust.
What does that mean?
That means that the world all around us
is inimical to our best and truest and
highest interests.
That means that the world is continually trying
to come between us and God.
That means that if we listen to the
world as we all do by nature, it
will make us not only think less and
less about God, but even make us feel
that God is against us.
That means that the world is full of
things that will drag us away from God.
Things that will debase us.
Things that will lower us from the heights.
This world is a corrupt world.
This world is a world that is defined
by the apostle as a world of corruption
through lust.
Do I need to develop that?
For one could, but surely there is no
need.
We do not need to dwell this morning
on the kind of corruption that is in
the world through inordinate desire.
You and I need only to look around
us to see exactly what I mean.
You need only look at your newspapers to
see what I mean.
Why do they give these lengthy reports of
police court cases?
Why do they give these constantly lengthy and
increasingly lengthy reports?
One sometimes thinks of scandal cases.
Why is it that they give themselves to
the continual reporting of things that we would
in our own hearts know by God's Spirit
to be wrong?
The answer is that they know that that
is what people like.
The answer is that the lust and the
gloating and the peculiar interest in that which
is unclean, the morbid curiosity of the human
heart and mind and the like, all that
has to be met and that has to
be satisfied.
And this, look at the newsstands.
Think of the multi-millions in our generation
spent on pornography.
Think of the gutter levels of so much
so-called entertainment.
This year, 1961, is going to see the
presentation to this generation of more movies of
the class that ten years ago would have
been called the kind of movie that couldn't
be made, that dared be made.
Why?
Recently there were appeals made for more movies
of a family kind, that these were the
kind of things that this generation wanted.
But the simple facts are these, that the
box office doesn't bear it up.
There are some people still with some idealisms
in that industry who are prepared to produce
that kind of thing, but they simply don't
pay.
The kinds that pay are this other kind.
I know the facts of which I speak.
Of course, I daren't speak without having checked
fundamentally and basically on all this.
And this is the corruption which is in
the world through lust, and in the midst
of this is the Church.
And our Lord prays, oh listen, as he
prays for the purity of his Church, sanctify
them through thy truth, make them holy.
Holy Father, keep through thine own name those
that thou hast given me.
Thank God it's possible.
This isn't a council of the impossible.
Our Lord writes to the Church in Sardis.
Sardis, that ancient city where there was a
little church surrounded on every side by the
heaving seas of iniquity and corruption and lust
and sin.
And he says, there are a few names
there which have not defiled their garments, and
they shall walk with me and fight.
Dear friends, in the midst of the corruption
that is in the world through lust, it
is possible to live for God.
Not in our own strength, but through the
grace and power of our Lord.
But we must remember this, that we can
help our Savior answer his prayer.
Think of Lot and Abraham.
When the choice was given to Lot as
to where he would pitch his tent, Lot
chose the cities of the plain.
He pitched his tent toward Sodom.
You see, he hadn't reached the decisive rubicon
of his own experience where he saw the
separation between the Church and the world.
And he pitched his tent toward Sodom.
And I tell you, in the name and
by the authority of our Lord, that if
you who call yourself by his name set
your tents toward Sodom, you will soon be
in Sodom, as Lot was.
The only hope, I tell you, the only
hope is to live apart for God, to
have that sense of utter separateness.
We must conspire with our Lord.
We must help him.
What's the point in asking the Lord to
keep us from the evil if we deliberately
put ourselves in a place where it's hard
for him to keep us?
I would say, therefore, this, shun the uncertain,
shun the unclean, and choose the pure.
Because blessed are the pure in heart, they
shall see God.
Our Savior meditates on the mystery of the
gift of the Church out of the world.
He intercedes for the purity of the Church
in the world.
And will you note that he declares the
authority of the Church as she is sent
into the world?
One of the most remarkable verses surely in
all the Bible, as thou hast sent me
into the world, even so have I also
sent them into the world.
Now what do you think of that?
The same mystic ordination that rested upon the
Son of God as he was cradled in
Bethlehem, the same ordination that rested upon him
in power when he came into Galilee preaching
the gospel and saying, Repent and believe, the
same ordination that rested upon him as he
moved amongst men healing the leper, cleansing the
sinful heart, the same ordination that rested upon
him as he prayed and as through the
eternal Spirit he offered himself without spot unto
God, that same ordination rests upon his Church
as thou hast sent me into the world.
Even so have I also sent them into
the world.
Our Lord recognizes that attainment of purity and
unworldliness will never be by means ascetic, but
by means athletic, not by flight, but by
fight, not by indolent retirement, but by rigorousness
of spirit.
The only defense against ill contagion is exuberant
health.
It's the man who is run down who
most easily becomes the victim of pestilence.
And so in the Christian life, be strong
and of a good courage, says our Lord,
and then go ye into all the world.
You see, monasticism and the sense of fleeing
from the world and hiding in dens and
caves of the wilderness far, far away, that
is not the way of victory.
There is a place, no doubt, for men
and women who are called apart to pray,
and the Lord will so ordain it for
them.
Generally speaking, we must recall that our Lord
thrust his Church out into the world, and
he thrust them out believing that they could
be kept, that they could gain the victory,
that they could live for God in the
midst of the world, and that they could
there win through for God.
And I tell you, oh, young folks, listen
to me this morning, will you?
The only sure way to defeat the world
and the flesh and the devil is to
get yourself so busy about the life and
work and ministry of Christ's business that it
will be difficult, if not altogether impossible, for
the enemy of souls to get in.
That's what Paul means when he says, exercise
yourself unto godliness, get busy.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet
of them that publish peace.
And when our feet are shod with the
preparation of the gospel of peace, why then
we're in a way, we're in a way
in which, you see, the Lord can bless.
And when this happens, this is what transpires,
you will be in the world, you'll rub
shoulders with men, you won't partake of their
spirit, but you'll touch them, and please God
of his mercy, you will touch them savingly.
In your office, over there in your classrooms,
down there in the residence, on a hospital
floor, in the club, wherever you meet with
men and women, you will be a light,
you will be a light to the church,
and you will show the ministry of the
church, and you'll be truly the salt of
that community and the light of that particular
point to which God has sent you, sent
with authority and kept.
I'm sorry I've spoken so long, time is
gone.
Let me just say one thing else, we
must add it, just to complete the picture.
Our Savior meditates on the gift of the
church.
He intercedes for the purity of the church.
He declares the authority of the church.
And finally, he expects the unity of his
church.
And if you will read this prayer so
carefully, you will find it no less than
five times.
Our Savior prays that they all may be
one, that they may be one, as thou,
Father, art in me and I in thee,
that they all may be made perfect in
one, that the world may know that thou
hast sent me.
And our Lord expects and demands the unity
in love of his church.
Do you know one way in which the
spirit of worthiness is sometimes most shown at
the heart of a church?
By the spirit of disunity.
But where love is, where God is, there
is oneness.
May the Lord grant that his many prayers
for us and for his church will be
most wondrously answered, and that we will, while
yet there is time, determine that we will
live for God, for God alone, that for
us the time of vacillation and hesitation is
over.
We're going through with God.
Christ is going to have everything that there
is of us, and we're going to live
for him in the world, for his praise.
O Master, we beseech of thee that thou
wilt lead us.
We know that the day of march has
come.
We know that in the fields of conquest
thou art leading us.
O, we pray thee, lead us on.
We do not ask that we might be
taken out of the world.
We ask to be led right into it,
but with a pure heart and with that
holy separateness of spirit that will truly distinguish
us as an elect nation, a holy priesthood.
God grant it.
For thy love's sake.
Amen.