John 17:17

INTRO

What is the loudest voice in your life? Where do you find motivation for your day? Where do you find truth? … Coach/Parent/Family Member,

RECAP

In John 17, we continue to examine the High Priestly Prayer… where Jesus reveals his heart for his people, for the world, and for the Father… and this morning, we look at verse 17… a plea to see something happen among the people of God based on the Word of God…

TEXT

John 17:17

Christ’s prayer calls for sanctification (a setting apart of his people) for truth… but where does truth come from? Jesus says, “your word is truth.” In Psalm 119:160, the psalmist says, “the sum of your word is truth.” In 2 Timothy 3:16, Paul writes that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” … This morning, I want us to consider Christ’s words about truth, Scripture, and sanctification… How does God’s Word make us a distinguished people for God’s purposes? How does it give us truth for life?

MAIN IDEA

God’s Word sanctifies us with truth for life and mission

1. One All-Inclusive Truth

- What is truth? We live in a world and culture that encourages us to live by “our truth” … for many, truth has lost it’s objectivity and become more subjective… it is dependent on your experiences in the world and is personal to you and how you perceive life and the world… everyone has their independent truths that they live by… but Jesus asserts that there is One all-inclusive truth… and it is the holy Word of God… and it’s not just a part, the red words, the New Testament, but the whole of Scripture… the very Bible that you hold in your lap or the Bible app you scroll to on your phone contains divine Words from a righteous, sovereign, good God… what is Scripture?

The Only Way to Know God

Scripture opens from the very first sentence introducing to us the Almighty… “In the beginning was God.” … and it goes on to tell of his sovereignty, eternality, power, and goodness through creation… He forms everything in creation, and it reflects the goodness of his character… In the fabric of creation and nature, God has revealed specific truths about himself… but people have rejected the Creator and denied the awareness of the true God…

JM Boice says, “we have [changed] the knowledge we do have [about the true God] into superstition. As a result, the world, for all its wisdom, does not know God and so lacks knowledge of itself also.” What will we do then? If this world isn’t sufficient to know God, how will we?

God, the source of all truth, has given us His Word to know him and know truth! Every page from the first clause in Genesis 1:1 to the last word in Revelation 22 reveals who the true God is, and it does it because your chief good in life is to know God

Every time you open your Bible, you are meet with truth… you meet the God who is “not of this world” as Jesus says in John 8, but the God who, as Matthew 11:29 says, is “gentle and lowly in heart, and [brings] rest for your souls.” And there is no other way to know this God truly than in the Bible he has given you

The Incorruptible Word of God

What is Jesus’ doctrine of Scripture? In John 10:35, as he is pointing to his own divinity, Jesus says that “the Scripture cannot be broken!” Jesus says to the Jews ready to kill him because he’s claiming to be God that the Scriptures say it and they are true! He implies that every single word in Scripture is completely true and reliable

Revisit what Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16 … “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” … Scripture was written by many different human hands, but the Spirit guided each and every person to convey the heart of God for his people… these words are God breathed — the origin of Scripture is God, and therefore, all of it is profitable for you! In a range of ways — to teach you, to reprove/rebuke you, to correct you, to train you in righteousness… God’s Word is incorruptible, inerrant, infallible — it cannot be broken & every word is true and reliable

It is this Word timely for you today… while your situation may not be exactly worded in the pages of the Bible, the Lord has given you all you need to live the abundant life in his Word. It contains all the truth you need, and its truth is unchanging… would you humble yourself to let this inerrant Word teach you how to be a husband/wife, a father/mother, a son/daughter, an employee/boss, a coach/athlete, a student, a friend… would you let this Word that holds more authoritative power than anything else in this world, would you let it shape all that you are and all that you do?

The Sufficient Truth of God

Is God’s Word enough for us and for life? Yes! There has always been question against whether the sufficiency of Scripture… but in Jude 1:3, Jude writes to the Christians who are facing such opposition, “Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” In Colossians 2:8, Paul assures the church, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” … but the authority of Scripture is doubted & questioned often

ILLS: I remember hearing in my US History class in school about the Jefferson Bible… where Thomas Jefferson took his Bible and just began clipping out anything that disagreed with his experiences, his views, or simply he just removed whatever he didn’t like… Jefferson became his own god by, in essence, rewriting Scripture to say what he desired and felt comfortable with rather than what his heart and life needed.

ILLS: This is what the Reformers in church history centuries before Jefferson fought for! The Catholic church had weakened the authority of the Bible… They declared that only Popes, councils, & priests could understand God’s Word and communicate it, and they exalted human traditions as necessary for salvation — Men like Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin restored the authority of the Scripture alone to guide us for life by holding that the living God speaks to his people directly and authoritatively through its pages!

Scripture alone is sufficient truth for you and for your life… We need nothing more, and we need nothing less… Our Bibles are sufficient to guide us into truth for life! We need God’s Word to give us life, feed our souls, and to bring light to a dark world

Our understanding and belief about God’s Word has serious implications for our life…These truths matter for the church today… They guard us from believing lies about who God is, they assure us that God is unchanging and his nature is one that is good, merciful, and just, they are enough for life

Jesus says, “your Word is truth” … would you hear this truth and the author of Hebrews this morning as he pleads, Hebrews 3:7–8 “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts,”

2. Set Apart for God’s Purposes

Jesus says, “Sanctify them in truth, your Word is truth.” … truth comes from the Word of God, but what is the sanctifying work he’s talking about? What does Scripture do to and for us?

God’s Word Exposes & Understands Us

The Bible introduces us to a good, sovereign God who has created all things including us… but it takes little time until the heart of humanity is exposed…

After questioning the motives & heart of God in the garden, the first man and woman hide themselves from God because of their sin… and ever since that day, we’ve been trying to hide our problems, imperfections, immorality… just like Adam & Eve, we want our brokenness to be secret… but its not, Scripture exposes us for who we really are and it exposes what its done between us and God… it exposes us as sinners

Scripture puts us each on level playing field… but in relation to the Creator, we are living in rebellion to God… As Paul would say in Ephesians 4:8, we’re wandering in the dark in our understanding — we’ve refused to know & live for the One who is true, right and good…

But sometimes being exposed is good for us… ILLS: Hard conversations — DTR w/ Claud… Convo w/ father-in-law… reveal our blindspots… they show us what we couldn’t see for whatever reason… that’s where I’d say the Bible understands you in a way no other book or person could… Though we may try to hide our sin, Scripture shows us portraits of people who are flawed, broken, and inadequate… admired men like Abraham, David, Paul… and it shows us that we’re not very different… It understands us — it points us to the purpose we were created to live in!

John Calvin says that there is a peculiar power to Scripture. “It will deeply affect you, so penetrate you heart, so fix itself in your marrow… the Sacred Scriptures, which far surpass all gifts and graces of human endeavor, breathe something divine.”

Let the Spirit guide you as you read the Scriptures! Let it open your eyes, let it expose your heart and what you would desire to be hidden, and let it reveal how God & His Word understands you, your situation, and your greatest need

God’s Word Guides Us to Salvation

When we begin to read the Bible, the Spirit works in us, the living God is made known to us, and we begin to see the abundant life only found in Jesus!

This is what Jesus tells us when he says in John 15:26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.”

Every page of the Bible is guiding us to Jesus… Christ is there in creation as the Word of God forming all that exists… He’s pointed to in the garden (Gen 3:15) as God assures Adam & Eve that Satan & sin will be crushed… The Old Testament shows a world for centuries and millenia plagued by sin & brokenness, but the resounding cry is of David’s in Psalm 51… “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love and abundant mercy… create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me!”

The mercy of God is chiefly seen in a redeemer & a savior, and his name is Jesus! All of Scripture is showing us that life apart from God is futile, dismal, and hopeless… but it is also showing us that life with God is only possible by faith in Christ!

The Word of God guides us to a loving God who sent the Son to die for our sins and take our punishment… ILLS: The leper & Jesus — the point of the story is much deeper than the healing… Jesus heals the leper and tells him to tell no one, fully knowing he would… the leper becomes clean, … the leper runs free in the street, Jesus is mobbed and hated… the leper

Soften your heart to the One that Scriptures points to! Worship the Savior who took the consequence of sin & brokenness of all humanity, who went to the cross & rose from the grace! Let the Scriptures guide you to worship of Jesus daily!

God’s Word Sanctifies Us

Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

What is the purpose of God’s truth? Sanctification… to be set apart for holiness, godliness, for God’s purposes… the purpose of your sanctification is to glorify God and enjoy him forever… it’s a lifelong transformation and changing… Scripture is filled with ways that we should live out our faith (James, Ephesians - Husband/Wife, 1 Peter - As Exiles)… Paul sums it in Romans 12

Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

If your faith is in Jesus Christ, you have been freed from the bondage of sin & temptation to walk with Jesus… the fits of anger, the allure of lust, distasteful language, lack of love for people, fill in the blank… it only holds you captive if you let it… by the power of the Spirit, choose to honor Christ — to not be conformed but be transformed… to let the Word, the truth, take root

Christ has given you the power in the Holy Spirit to be markedly different than the world… your sins have been forgiven, you are reconciled to God, you are kept in Christ, you can put to death the lusts & temptations of the body… not for the goal of merely holiness, but for the goal of loving God, enjoying God, and walking through life with him every day

If this is Scriptures goal in your life… Make time in God’s Word a priority… Three steps to live a set apart life from the Word…

Begin your day with the Bible — hear God’s voice first and no one else’s… let him speak first

Meditate on the Scriptures — let the Word, the truth find root in your heart and mind… like steak, chew on it, savor it, delight in it, and let it nourish you… linger over God’s goodness in his Word

Prayerful Approach God — don’t immediately hit a prayer list but let your meditation set how you pray… let it guide how you pray for others, yourself, and the world

The purpose of the entirety of Scripture is to sanctify us for the purposes that God has placed on our lives… what is God’s purpose for your life? That you would glorify him (1 Corinthians 10:31) & make him known (Matthew 28)… wherever you go whatever you do, be set apart for the mission God has for you

 MAIN IDEA

God’s Word sanctifies us with truth for life and mission

CONCLUSION

What is the loudest voice in your life? What is the basis of truth for you? “What a man thinks is what he is.” – DA Carson … My hope is to let God’s Word be what I think on… to let it be the truth that guides my life… We must realize the truth about God, the truth about ourselves, and the truth about what Christ has done for us… and it can only be found in God’s Word

Christ has placed a calling over our lives… to be “sanctified”… and its not a calling that we are capable of in and of ourselves… but it is possible for those who walk with Jesus in faith… will you let your life be set apart?