Those words in that song, my
true father. God is our true father, beloved
we who are his people. He's our true father. He's our
true father. The name of the message tonight
is kept, kept. Turn with me in your Bibles,
if you would, to John chapter 17. We'll continue our study
in this wonderful chapter. Tonight, for the context of our
text, we'll read verses 6 to 17. To see the verse that we'll
be looking at tonight, which will be verse 11. Verse 11. John
chapter 17, verses 6 to 17. Our Lord Jesus Christ is praying
a high priestly prayer, and he says, 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 knowing surely that I come 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 tonight's verse,
which is John 17, 11, And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world. And I come to thee, Holy Father.
Keep thou thine own name. Those whom thou has 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 come I 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. Tonight's verse is all about
being kept and how the Father keeps us. We see in verse 11
that our Lord Jesus Christ is praying to God the Father. in
asking him to keep those who were given to him in eternity. He will soon go to Calvary. He
will soon shed his precious blood to redeem their eternal souls,
all those who the father gave him. He's soon going to die in
their room and place and suffer God's wrath in their room and
place so that God's wrath will not touch any of us. because
it'll be satisfied in the sacrifice of Christ. In verse 10 last week,
we saw that we are the Father's and the Son's possession, and
that we glorify God for our salvation. In praising Christ and praising
God for our salvation, praising the Holy Spirit for regenerating
us, we are bringing glory to God. We're glorifying God. We don't add anything to His
glory, but we're glorifying Him with our lips, which we saw is
what we're going to be doing in heaven, too. Singing, worthy
is the Lamb that was slain. We're going to be singing with
all those blood-washed saints, beloved. And as I said, the only
thing different between us now and those in heaven is they have
no sin. They have no sin. We have all spiritual blessings
right now in Christ, beloved. We have justification before
God. We have sanctification before God in Christ. We have redemption
through the precious blood of Christ. The only difference when
we get to heaven is we're going to be sinless, just like the
saints up there. And we're going to be praising Him without sin.
It'll be absolutely wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. And all
this comes to us through the perfect sin-atoning work of the
Lord Jesus Christ when he died on Calvary's cross as our great
substitute, purchasing again our eternal souls with his precious,
precious blood. And what do we say? Praise his
mighty name for that. Praise his name, he's so wonderful.
So let's read verse 11 again. And we see Christ Jesus our Lord
praying for his disciples. And look at how our great Savior
is mediating for them. We know He's the mediator between
God and His people, right? He's the only mediator between
God and man, the only mediator between God and His people, the
only one. And look how He's mediating, even before His death, for His
people here. And who's He mediating with?
God, the Holy Father. Look what it says here. John
17 11. And now I am no more in the world.
So he's going to he's going to go to the cross. He's going to
die. He's going to be buried. He's going to rise again and
he's going to send up into heaven to be seated at the right hand
of the father again. But these are in the world and I come to
thee. So he's talking about his disciples here. But this illustration
of his disciples can be said of the whole church too as well.
We're in the world right now. Our beloved brothers who are
spoken of here, they're in glory right now. When they died, they
went right to glory. When we die, we're going right
to glory. And this prayer is still being answered. Even today. He says, I am no more in the
world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. So he comes
to the Father as our mediator. He comes to the very one who
sent him. And again, I was reading some old timer messages this
week, or today, and they kept saying, he's on a mission, he's
on a mission, he's on a mission. That's exactly what he was. He
was on a mission to save his people from their sins. That's
why he came. That's why he came. As long as
God gives me breath, I'm going to just keep proclaiming about
that mission. Christ came to save sinners, of whom I'm chief,
of whom I'm chief. And He did it by the giving of
His life and the shedding of His precious blood as our substitute. And look what He says here. Holy
Father. What a title. What a title. Holy Father. Remember what we
just sang. We only have one Father, beloved. Now we had a Father
in the flesh, but this is our true Father right here. The Holy
Father. Holy. He's our Creator, isn't
He? And Asher, he's our Redeemer, he's the Lord Jesus Christ. And
the Father sent him, the Holy Father sent Christ to this world
to save us from our sins. And so he says, Holy Father,
what a title, what a fitting title, the Holy and Righteous
God of the universe. Perfect and pure. Totally righteous. And how do we know that? How
do we know that? Well, look down at verse 25. Look what the Lord calls him
here in this prayer. We're going to get to that down the road.
But look at this. Oh, righteous Father. Oh, that's
what he is. He's righteous, isn't he? He's
righteous. He's holy. When the demons saw
Christ, we said, we know who thou art, thou holy one of God. Ah, they knew who he was. They
knew. The devils believe in tremble,
don't they? They tremble. They know who he is. My, they're
smarter than we humans that way, aren't they? Oh my, I'll tell
you why. You know, the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and
instruction, don't they? Oh yeah, and that's a reverent
fear, that's not a slavish fear, that's a reverent fear. Holy
Father, Righteous Father, King of the universe over all, the
self-existent One, Elohim, the Great and Strong and Mighty One,
Jehovah-Jireh, Jehovah-Sekindu, the Lord our Righteousness, Jehovah-Shalom,
our Peace, That's who this is. Holy Father, keep thou thine
own name, those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one
as we are one. Now that's not one in nature,
because we'll never be like God. God's God. But that's one in
thought, in mind, in the sense that we praise God for Christ
Jesus our Lord. for his will, for his purpose,
don't we? We praise that we're included.
We're included. He included us in the great number
that no man can number whom Christ redeemed at Calvary's cross.
We praise him for that. And one in the sense that he's
the head and we're the body, beloved. But he is the head. He gets all the preeminence,
doesn't he? We're just the body. We're the redeemed ones, but
we're the body of Christ. That's just amazing. My, the
Holy One of God, the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to the Holy
Father. And we know the Holy Spirit is
the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost. The three in one, the Holy One,
God. So here's the Holy One of God,
God, the Word incarnate in the flesh, speaking to the Holy Father,
mediating mediating with him, speaking for his people that
are going to be left in this world, the disciples and the
other believers that are going to be left in this world, speaking
for them, mediating for them. And notice this too. I noticed
this study in this verse. This is wonderful. So the Father
gave us to Christ. And we're going to see, he watches
over his people, right? Now He's giving us back to the
Father saying, watch over my people, Father. Watch over all
those you gave to me. And you know, we're kept by the
power of God. By God the Father, He keeps us,
beloved. He keeps us. It's absolutely
wonderful. And so He's mediating for His
people, those who are still gonna be left on this earth when He
goes to the cross and dies and rises again and ascends up into
heaven. Seated at the right hand of the
Father. He prays, he prays that the Father will keep him. And
he prays that eventually there'll be one when they die. And this
is another thing, when it says, one is we are, Hocker brought
out a great point. He said, we're being conformed
to the image of Christ. That's what we're, we're being
conformed to his image, beloved. He's the head and we're the body.
We're being conformed to the head. as the body. It's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. And take note of the love expressed
here. You can just hear it in these words, can't you? The love
that's expressed here. This whole prayer, this whole
chapter, I can hear the love of our Savior come through in
these words as He's mediating for us before the Father's throne. the tenderness that he has for
his people, the love, the care he has for his people. Notice
again the tenderness of his words in verse 11. Let's read this
with that in our minds, the tenderness of Christ. And now I am no more
in the world, but these are in the world. And I come to thee,
Holy Father, keep thou thine own name, those whom thou has
given me, that they may be one as we are. What tenderness our
Savior has for us. What love he has for his people. And again, he's speaking about
the disciples here, but several commentators said we need to
look at that as an example of how he feels for the whole church,
because that's how he feels for every one of us, beloved. Every
one of us that are part of his body. His love is the same for
every single one of us. Isn't that amazing? It's unchanging. It's unchanging. It's just spectacular. This is just incredible. And it's evident the love that
Christ has for his people. That love is evidently being
brought forth here. And remember, this is not only
true of the apostles, but this is true of all the elect of all
the ages. If you're a born-again, blood-washed
saint of God, this love and tenderness that he's speaking of is what
he has for you and I. We say, well, we're undeserving,
but it pleases Him to do so. We were a gift to Him by the
Father. A gift. He treasures us, beloved. He
treasures us. The scripture says, we'll be
the jewels in His crown. We who are sinners. My, so let's read this verse
again. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world. And I come to thee, Holy Father,
keep thou thine own name. Keep thou thine own name, those
whom thou has given me, that they may be one as we are. Again,
note the affection in these words, note the love in these words
for his church. manifested to the apostles here
in this verse, again, who are representatives of the whole
church. Representatives of the whole church. Note the care and
kindness of our great Savior's words. The concern comes from
the depths of his soul, beloved, for we who are his people. We're
his bride. And note the concern. He knows
he's going to depart from this world. He knows. And note the
concern that he has for them. offering them up to the Father
and saying, Holy Father, please keep them. Keep them. Oh, my, before he departs out
of this world. And that love, concern, and affection
is how he cares about every one of his sheep. Now, we say, well, My, he loves
me that much. Don't let our own pride get in
the way. Yes, he loves us that much. Yes,
even though it leaves us in awe, embrace it and rejoice, beloved. He's not like our earthly fathers. Whether you had a loving father
or whether you had a father who didn't treat you right, God the
Father is nowhere like him. He's the Holy Father. He's the
ever-loving Father. And he loves us because we're
in Christ, beloved, because he gave us to Christ and we're in
him. I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Remember
what we looked at? On Sunday for Sunday school,
oh, we're crucified. And marvel at this, the Holy
One of God, the Son of God, the Holy One of God, the God-Man,
manifests right here before us His love, His care, His concern,
His affection for you and I, with these precious words before
us. And the Holy Spirit, now remember
too, the Holy Spirit had John penned these words that we'd
read them here 2,000 years later. And what comfort they bring us.
What comfort they bring we who are the people of God. I was
just marveling in this today as I was putting this message
together. Just marveling in this great love and these beautiful
words of the Savior for his people. God the Son, manifest in the
flesh, right here mediating for poor, wretched sinners. Bankrupt
sinners who were given to him by the Father. whom he loves,
and here he's praying for them. He's praying for the apostles
who will be left on this earth. And you can know that he's praying
for us too. He's mediating for us right now
with the Father, but he also, these words apply to us too,
beloved. to all the elect of all the ages. Well, we're in
this world. His prayer has been answered,
hasn't it? He keeps us, doesn't he? God the Father keeps us.
And we say that when the Lord saves us. We say, it ain't nothing
I've done. And it continues to be nothing
I've done. It's the Lord who's keeping me. It's the Lord who
keeps me clinging to Christ. Praise his mighty name. Praise
his mighty name. And he's soon going to be reunited
with the Father. He's soon going home, beloved.
He looks up to heaven. He's looking up homeward, praying
this prayer. He's soon going home. And he
prays that the Father would maintain the same care for his sheep as
he's maintained for them. that the father would ever be
watchful over his sheep just like he was ever watchful over
them while he was on this earth. My. And notice here the name. Notice here. Holy Father. There's
only one true Holy Father. Therefore we should never call
a man who wears a collar backwards the Holy Father. No priest That's what those Catholics
say. And I used to be a Catholic.
I used to be one. And they call them priests that.
That's blasphemy. That's utter blasphemy. To call
a man Holy Father. There is only one Holy Father.
And that's our Father in Heaven, beloved. That's it. There's only
one, one Holy Father. And there is no man on this earth Even Christ was called the Holy
One of God, because there's only one Holy Father, there's only
one Holy Spirit, and there's only one Holy Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we who are in Him are made
holy, aren't we? It's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. And
those priests, those priests, they're just as much a sinner
as you and I are. They need Christ just as much as you and I. Even
though they don't think so, they need Him. They're in desperate
need of them. And so are all the folks who
go there and speak to them, and they tell them to do 15,000 prayers
in their life that don't do nothing. That don't do nothing. Can't
gain the merit and favor with God. Can't earn them salvation. Prayer's just hitting the ceiling,
beloved. My, oh my. But God hears that poor saint. See that poor saint. You remember
the Pharisee and Republican? There's an exact representation
right there. God hears that poor saint that
cries out, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Can't even lift
our heads up, can we? And that's our cry for the rest
of our lives, isn't it? It really is. Lord be merciful
to me, I'm such a sinner. I'm such, and Lord said that
man went home justified. And the other one went right
to hell. The one who thought, well, I'm
not like that publican over there. I give every week, I do all this,
I do all these things. I, I, I, I, I. Remember what
I said earlier? We're servants of Christ now,
aren't we? We're servants of the Most High Beloved. And I
love that study in Galatians where it says, now we live for
Him. Now we live for Christ. We used to live for self, now
we live for Christ. And let us pray for those who
are in the Catholic Church, those who are stuck in that system. Let us pray for them. Let us
lift them up, that God would be merciful and save. We know
he has a people all over, right? And I'll tell you what, I was
in that church, and the Lord saved me, and I got out of that
church as fast as I could, because they'll come out of them. If
the Lord ever saves a Catholic, they're going to come flying
out of that church, because it's all works-based. It's all works-based. My, oh, my. Look at verse 12. Now, this is amazing. This shows
us that our Lord, while he was on this earth, was maintaining
care for his people, watching over them like a shepherd. And
then now again, back up to verse 11, he's giving us to the Father,
saying, please, Father, watch over them. Watch over those you've
given me. Look at verse 12. Look at this.
We'll look at this next week. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name. He kept them. He kept them in
thy name. Those thou givest me I have kept,
and none of them is lost but the son of perdition that the
scripture might be fulfilled. The only one was lost was the
one who was a devil, Judas Iscariot. Oh my. Turn if you would, turn
if you would. When I was looking at that verse
right there in verse 12, turn if you would to Luke chapter
22. And I know this is a verse that we've read before, but I
want us to look at this in light of how Christ keeps us and how
he kept his disciples while they were in the world with him. Look
at this. Luke 22 verses 31 to 34. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon.
He's talking to Peter, right? Behold, Satan hath desired to
have you. He's desired to destroy you. That he may sift you as wheat.
Just sift him. Just destroy him. But I prayed
for him. I prayed for thee. I prayed for
thee. Well, Christ is praying for us
in his prayer. So what happened to Peter? I
prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren. And he said unto him, Lord, I
am ready to go with thee, both into prison and to death. And he said, I tell thee, Peter,
the cock shall not crow this day. before thou shalt thrice
deny that thou knowest me." But he's already prayed for Peter.
He knew, he knew Peter would be in the depths of despair when
he heard that cock crow. And when he had denied, when
he had denied the Lord three times. But our great Savior said,
I prayed for you. I bled for you. Oh my, and he's praying for us
in John 17. If he prayed for us, will we
be kept? Yes, we will, by the Father, by the Holy Father. Oh my, this is just magnificent,
isn't it? What a blessed prayer. And take
note, again, that the title that our Lord uses in verse 11 of
John 17, Holy, Holy Father. Now let that sink in. Father. He's our Father, beloved. He's
our Father. And note here, it's God the Father
who keeps us. And I come to thee, Holy Father,
keep thou thine own name, those thou hast given me. Keep them,
Lord, please keep them. Keep them, Father. Holy Father,
keep them. And notice he doesn't use the
title Jehovah or Elohim, but both of those names would have
been fine. But he uses a personal name.
Father. Holy Father. He's our Father, beloved. What
do we pray? Heavenly Father, Oh, Father of
mercies, the God of all comfort, Father. And note here that Christ is
giving us into the care. He's giving the apostles into
the care. And again, the apostles are a
picture of the whole church here. He's giving the apostles into
the care of the Father, the Holy Father, God, our Father. So, who's the one keeping us? The only one who can keep us?
God the Holy Father. My! And who's He keeping? Those
who the Father gave to Christ in eternity. It's we who need keeping, isn't
it? I know what would happen to me
if He didn't keep me. Yeah, I'd be I'd be off. I know who I am. If he didn't keep us, like Donnie
says, we'd be gone, Jesse, we'd be gone. Running off. And even that hymn we sing, where
it talks about, I think it's Come Thou Fount, where it talks
about us leaving if he didn't keep
us. If He didn't preserve us, my
oh my. Keep us from what? Keep us from
discord, contention among each other. Keep us from error, right? Give us the grace and strength
to stand up to error. Keep us from sin. Keep us from our own self, causing
a mess. Oh, how we need God to keep us. How we need Him to keep us. And
He does, beloved. This is what's amazing. We fail,
we fail, we keep doing the same sin, and yet He keeps us. For
Christ's sake, right? For Christ's sake. because of
His great love for Christ and because of His great love for
us, as He gave us to the Son. And now here we see the Son giving
us to Him for protection, for our welfare. Give us strength, O Father. What's our cry to God? Well,
our cry is, O Holy Father, keep us from sin. Holy Father, keep
us from temptation. Holy Father, give us grace and
strength as we go through trials in this world that you've ordained.
Give us grace and strength. Keep us, O Holy Father, keep
us, or else we'll perish. That's our cry, isn't it? Because
we know what we are. But marvel at this. The very
one who prayed for Peter, and the devil wanted to destroy
Peter. He says, I prayed for you. The Holy One of God has prayed
for us, beloved. The Holy One of God is praying
for the apostles here. And we're seeing near the end
of this chapter, the Holy One of God prayed for us 2,000 years
ago and is still mediating for us right now, beloved, right
now. Take note also how this is a
prayer for our preservation. It's a prayer for the preservation
of the apostles, right? Until the time when they were
to be taken out of this world. He's saying, keep them, Father,
please keep them. And He doesn't commit their care
to each other, does He? Because they can't help each
other. Just like we can't help each other. We can pray for each
other, can't we? We can lift each other up before the throne
of grace, but I can't keep you from sinning and you can't keep
me from sinning. We can't keep ourselves. But
he commits us to the one who can keep us. Keep us from falling. Keep us from falling, love. We're
sinners, saved sinners, but he keeps us from falling away, doesn't
he? He keeps us from falling away. My. So this is a prayer for our preservation,
for all the elect of all the ages. And who's requesting that
preservation? God the Son, the Holy One of
God, is requesting that God the Holy Father keep us, preserve
us, through whatever we're gonna go through. Keep us from the
evil of this world. Keep us from sinking under temptations
and trials and totally despairing. Keep us. Keep us through the afflictions
of this life. We don't know what's coming tomorrow,
but he already does. Keep us. Keep us. My. And oh, God, keep us faithful
to Christ. Keep us faithful to Christ, Father.
Oh, keep us faithful to him. Oh, my, these words, these words
bring tears to our eyes, don't they? Holy Father. Holy Father. Keep them, keep us in unity.
Father, please keep us in unity. Again, keep us from error. Keep
us through or in thy name. Keep us in the doctrine of the
gospel, which is all about Christ Jesus, our Lord, the perfect
sin-atoning sacrifice. Keep us. Keep us in the worship
of the Lord Jesus Christ, our great Savior and our Redeemer. Keep us as a wall of fire about
us. Protect us, Father. Protect us, just like there was
a pillar of flames right by night. Protecting those Israelites in
a cloud by day, protecting them from the sun, scorching them.
He's ever with us, beloved. He's like that. He's ever with
us. He's ever with us. That's why I always say, don't
mess with God's people. Don't mess with God's church
or God's elect. Do not mess with them. God is
a jealous God. And He will protect His own.
He will protect His people. He's the only hope we have, right?
Christ is the only hope we have. We don't have any other hope
in this world. Let's read verse 11 again. And now I am no more
in the world, but these are in the world. And I come to Thee,
Holy Father, keep Thou Keep through thine own name those
whom thou has given me, that they may be one as we are. Keep
them, Father. This is the Son of God praying
this prayer to the Holy Father, praying to the one who sent him
to save his people from their sins. In marvel, as we see the
personal love that the Lord Jesus Christ has for the Father and
has for his people. So much love that he's pleading
for the apostles to the Holy Father. And he commits them to
the Father's keeping, just as he's committed us to the Father's
keeping, beloved. Now, if the God of the universe
is the one who's keeping us, Can anyone snatch us out of his
hand? Can anyone snatch us out of the holy son of God's hand?
Nope. My oh my. If God before us, who
can be against us? Or justify? God's the one who's
justified us, beloved, in Christ. Have you ever considered how
dear we are to Christ? Ponder that Sunday. If you're
at work or if you're at home, ponder how dear we are to Christ. We are so dear to Him that He
left heaven and came to this sin-cursed world that despised
Him and rejected Him. We are so dear to Him that He
lived the perfect life for us. We're so dear to Him that he
went to Calvary's cross and bled and died in our place. But before
he did that, we're so dear to him that he's praying to the
Father for us. We're so dear to him. We're so
dear to him that right now, he's seated at the right hand of the
Father, ascended up into heaven, risen from the grave by the power
of God, and is now mediating for us. in the presence of God
the Father. We're so dear to him. And here
he mediates for his disciples. He knew their nature. He knew
their weaknesses. He knew their corruptions. He
knew that soon the enemies of their souls would come against
them. That his enemies would come against them. He knew that. He knew the enemies who they
would encounter. He knew the persecution that they would be
exposed to now that he's going back up to heaven to be with
the Father. Marvel then at the love of Christ for his people
manifest here as he places them. He places them into the care
of God the Father. He literally places them. And
again, the disciples, you can look at the whole church in light
of the disciples there. He's placed all of us in the
care of the Father. My, what a Savior. He places
him into the care of God, the Father, who's God over all. The Immortal One, the Ancient
of Days, the Ruler over all. And remember the setting of this
wonderful prayer. Our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
He would soon die. He would soon go to the cross
and be crucified and die in our room and place, and not just
our room and place, but the room and place of all the elect of
all the ages, including the disciples. He would soon depart of this
world in which he had walked in for over 30 years. And while the Lord Jesus Christ
would go to the Father and enter within the veil as our forerunner
and sit down at the right hand of the majesty on high, his disciples would remain in
this world to preach the gospel, to preach the gospel, to be exposed
to evil, to be exposed to temptations, to be exposed to hardships. And we see in this verse that
the Lord Jesus Christ, his prayer is that the Father would protect
them, guard them, hedge them round about, keep them faithful
to the gospel, keep them in unity with him and with one another. And he prayed, we see at the
end of this verse, that the believers may be one in love, in purpose,
in message, and someday one in a greater way than we can now
imagine. Turn if you would, or actually
just look a little further down, Luke, or I mean, John 17, 23
and 24. With that in mind, that we'd
be one with him. Look at what it says here. I
in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.
and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved
them as thou hast loved me." Look at that. Christ just told
us that the love the Father has for the Son is the same love
the Father has for us. That is amazing. You know, when
you talk about make someone fizz out, Isn't that incredible? It's the words of the master. We believe them. It's the words
of the master. And he says, Father, I will that they also, that's
us, whom thou has given me, be with me where I am, that they
may behold my glory, which thou has given me, for thou has lovest
me before the foundation of the world. And if he's loved Christ
from before the foundation of the world, well, he's loved us
as he's loved him. My, oh my, they talk about a
great love that we can't even fathom. You can't plumb the depths
of that. There's no way to plumb that.
There's no way to find out how deep that love is, how wide that
love is. There's no way. This is eternal,
everlasting love. When the Lord saved me, I found
out that he loved me. But when I read this, I found
out that love is even more than I ever even thought of. And look at what he says, Thou
has sent me and has loved them as Thou has lovest me. My, oh
my. That's what drove Christ to the
cross, beloved. His great love for us. That's
why the Father sent the Lord Jesus Christ into this world
to die for our sins, because the great love He has for us.
Do you see how I said earlier that the Holy Father's love is
nowhere near any love that we ever received upon this earth
from our earthly fathers? He's nowhere like them. Nothing comes close. This is
the greatest love that a man or woman can ever receive. Think of how much we love our
wives and our kids. This is a greater love than that,
beloved. To be loved by God? To be loved by God as He loves
Christ? My, that's one I'm never going
to get over. And look at our Lord's earnestness
and his passion as he asked God the Father to keep we who are
his people. Remember, the apostles are representative
of all the elect of all the ages in this verse. So we see the
earnestness and the passion for his disciples. This is a picture
of his earnestness, his concern, his passion for we who are his
people, his bride, as he mediates for us. And just as the Lord Jesus Christ
has concern for his disciples, think of this, he equally takes
concern for every one of us. Well, sure, the apostles get
more consideration because they were the apostles. He loves all
his sheep the same. He's just as concerned for when
Paul was on this earth as he is for you and I on this earth. He knows our frame, beloved.
He knows we're but dust. He knows the weakness, how weak
we are. He knows the apostles are just
dust. He knows they need such attention
to be kept, because if they're not kept, they'd be gone just
as just like we would be. Off we go. Lord, I feel it, prone to wander,
that's the verse, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave
the God I love. Here's my soul, Lord, take and
keep it. Keep it for thy courts above.
Keep me, Lord, keep me, please. And he will not be less, he will
not be less regardful of us We who are His people right now
upon this earth, as He was for the apostles. Isn't that amazing? He watches
over us with the same care. God the Father watches over us
with the same care, because we're His people. We're in Christ. Wonder of wonders. No wonder
He said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you, because His
eye is ever upon us. ever upon us, ever watching us
with love, not looking to whip us, not looking to, well, you
made another mistake, Wayne, whack, no. Wayne, I love you. Dave, I love you. Annie, Anne,
I love you. Picking us up, putting us back
on our feet. Oh my, keeping us, keeping us
in the way. What love. ever watching over
us with the same care, the same regard as he had for the apostles
and all the saints of old. And let us never forget the regard
that Christ Jesus our Lord has for his church, his bride through
all the ages. and in every age of her warfare,
you can behold the Lord's tenderness, can't you? Even in us in this
church, we can behold, we can look back years and see the tenderness
of the Lord in keeping this work. And look what he's done, beloved.
Isn't it amazing? Isn't it amazing what our great
God has done? It's absolutely incredible. So let us remember
this week the tenderness and the love in this verse as we
go through this week. Let us remember that and let
us never forget that our Lord's tenderness never changes for
his people. His concern never changes for
his people. He's just as concerned for us
as he was for the apostles of old and the saints before them. Ever watching, ever taking care
of us. How do we know that? Well, because
he's unchanging, isn't he? He doesn't change. He's unchanging. Therefore, His love toward us
never changes. It never changes, beloved. And He's loved us from
eternity with an eternal love. And He loves us right now with
that same love, doesn't He? And that's going to go all through
eternity. All through eternity. His love and attention for us
is the same. It is the same and I'm gonna
close at this verse here and marvel at this great keeping
love Having loved his own which are in the world