back into our study here, and
this will be the conclusion of our portion on the gospel that
Jesus preached, or no other gospel, I think that's what we named
it, right? No other gospel, no other gospel. John 17, now, again,
remember, he's been teaching his disciples, this is after
the Lord's Supper was instituted. He'd been teaching his disciples
stuff now for three years. Matter of fact, I may go back
at some point and preach a sermon on the vine and the branch thing. Bearing fruit, there's a nice
Old Testament link to the Old Testament there. Jesus was making reference to,
but forbear doing that today. John 17, Jesus is going now,
as he's teaching these men, The Bible says that these words spake
Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven. And he said, so he
goes right in from teaching these men all these things that he's
been teaching them right after the Lord's Supper. And he goes
into this prayer to the father and he says, father, the hour
has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee as thou has given him power over all
that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given
him. So here again, we see that Jesus
has made it very clear that number one, he is sovereign. The Bible
says here that he has been given power over all flesh. Okay. Now we'll see that Jesus also
says that he has been given authority in heaven and in earth, that
all power has been given into him in heaven and in earth. But here it says that he has
been given power over all flesh. Okay. Now, so we don't need to
break that up and try to make it more than it's not. Okay.
There's one passage of scripture that says that, you know, that,
uh, that, uh, he's been given all power in heaven and in earth.
Uh, that was in Matthew 28, remember? Um, But here he says he's been given
power over all flesh. So he's talking about this specific
power. He's got power over everything.
But specifically here, he's drawing in that he has the power over
all flesh to give eternal life. Okay, he is the only one who
has the prerogative to give eternal life. No man can bring eternal
life in and of their own. So any notion or any gospel that
teaches that eternal life comes by any condition that you do,
then it's not the gospel. Because the gospel preached by
Jesus, taught by Jesus, shown by Jesus, written down by the
Holy Spirit here, is that Jesus has power over all flesh to give
eternal life. It's up to Him. And he says here,
he quantifies this statement. Does everybody understand what
I mean when I use the term quantify? Okay, you know the term quantity? We have a quantity. How many
of y'all have shopped on Amazon? I don't have a computer either. Sister Howard says, or Sister
Louetta, Sister Howard. Sister Howard too. Sister Howard,
Louetta. Sister Howard, Louetta, or Sister
Carlson. You know, all of us that's ever
purchased anything online, you know, you go and you see the
thing that you want, and out the side it has QTY or quantity,
and then it has like a one, or you can change it to however
many you wanna buy, right? Okay, so there is a quantity. Well, to quantify something,
that means that what Jesus has done is he's saying, I'm setting
a amount or a limit on who is being talked about here. So whenever
we quantify something, we are setting a parameter, setting
a limit, setting a number to this, and Jesus says, or quantifies
the statement that he has power over all flesh to give eternal
life, and the quantity is this, as many as thou hast given him. Now, this isn't new to Jesus'
teaching, right? Remember back in John, chapter,
was it chapter six, that Jesus taught that all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me? that no man comes to the Father,
but by me, he just said that a little bit ago, okay? So Jesus
here is quantifying the statement that he has power over all flesh
to give eternal life, but he can't give eternal life even
though he has been given power, okay? He's been given power over
all flesh to give eternal life, but it's not just to everyone.
It's only those who have been given to him. And you notice
that it says here, that Thou hast, the Father has given Him. He's praying to the Father, talking
to the Father, okay? In essence, He's talking to God
and saying, Thou hast given me these people. That's the only ones that I'm
allowed to give eternal life to. The quantity that Jesus has
been given power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many
as. Now, he could give eternal life
to anybody else that he wanted to, but it has only been designated,
it has only been allotted to as many as the father had given
him. That's who receives the eternal
life. That, by the way, is the definition of whosoever will. That's the definition of John
3.16, that for God so loved the world, the world of who? The elect. The world of those
that have been given to the Son by the Father. The world of those
who have been in Christ Jesus, that have been given to Him.
That whosoever, who's the whosoever? the whosoever that believeth.
Who are the ones that are the, who are the whosoever that believe
is what Jesus told us that you believe not because you are not
my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and follow
me. We, we heard it last week. You
don't believe because my word is not in you. You believe not
because you have my, my word has no place in you. You believe
not because you are not of my father. The believers are those
who are gods. And the ones that are gods were
given to Christ. And the ones who are given to
Christ, He has the power to give them and them only eternal life.
That's why it's said in Acts chapter 13, verse 48. If you
want to turn there, you can. If not, just listen. That as
many as, and there's that phrase again, as many as, quantified,
right? as many as were ordained to eternal
life. So if there is an ordination
to eternal life, someone had to do the ordaining, right? Whenever
I was ordained as a pastor, who did the ordaining? You guys did,
right? Why? Because you had been given
power to ordain and to lay on hands by Jesus. Why? Because you're his church. You're
his assembly that he's gathered together and entrusted you with
the keys of the kingdom, the gospel and the service and ordinances. And so you had the power and
authority. So you could, in essence, if you want to use this phrasing,
you could have said that you have been given a power over
all the church to ordain such as those who are called and exhibit
the gift of passion, you know? Well, that's kind of what we're
seeing here with Jesus. Jesus has been given power over everything,
but in this case, he's been given power over all flesh to give
eternal life, but it's to as many as has been given him. Look at verse two. And 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 life eternal,
that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent." So, eternal, whenever we receive eternal life,
we're given eternal life, and then we're able to know Him.
That's what Jesus was talking about, that we spent so much
time gathering together all those verses, If you know me, you've
known the Father. If you know the Father, you know
me. Why? Because I testify in the Father,
the Father testifies in me. I'm the Father, the Father's
in me. We're the same. I'm God. If you've known God,
you're going to know me. And if you know me, you're going
to know God. And he said, those who didn't
believe him didn't believe him because they don't know God. And because they didn't know
God, they didn't know the Son. I have glorified thee on earth.
I have finished 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. See, that goes back up to what
Jesus said in verse two. And thou, the Father, has given
Him power over all flesh, that He, Christ, should give eternal
life to as many as Thou, the Father, has given Him, Christ."
Okay? And so that's what he's saying
here. I have manifested Thy name, Father, unto the men which Thou,
Father, gavest me, Christ, out of the world. Thine, Father,
they were, and Thou, Father, gavest them me, Christ. and they
have kept Thy Word." What does it mean, keeping Thy Word?
Does it mean obeying every command? Believing. It means believe. To keep His Word means to believe. Jesus equated that, remember? He said that My Word isn't in
your heart, that's why you don't believe. If you keep My Word,
David said, thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against
thee. Well, if the words of God were hidden in David's heart
so that he wouldn't physically sin against God, then David shouldn't
have ever sinned. But David surely sinned, didn't
he? Not just with Bathsheba. David sinned a lot. David was
a very sinful person. Matter of fact, he picked himself
right when he said, in iniquity did my mother conceive me. Okay? He was sinful. But what does
that mean? Thy word have I hid in my heart,
that I might not sin against thee. Well, there is a practical
aspect to that. The more we study God's word
and read God's word and understand what God's word says, the more
we understand what we ought to be doing. How we ought to live. But see, in the dispensation
of grace, The child of grace under the new covenant is given
that with it on his heart. It guides him and directs him.
As a matter of fact, in John, the Bible says we cannot sin
because his word abides in us. That seed abides in us. Did you ever think about that?
That you, the real you, The you from heaven, that life that we
just talked about, that was hid with God in Christ, but now has
been placed in this earthen vessel, cannot, does not, will not, has
never ever sinned and cannot sin. It has no ability to sin. That scripture that says that
doesn't mean you won't sin habitually. That's not what that means. I've
been taught that my whole entire life. Those verses that say that
because the seed remains in you, you cannot sin, I've preached
that, I've heard that say that it means you cannot sin continually,
sin habitually. That's not what that says. It
says you cannot sin. Why? Because that which is born
from above that is in you is born of God, is the life of Christ,
and it cannot sin. But your flesh... Paul made the
statement, O wretched man that I am. I want to do good, but I can't.
Why? What wants to do good? The mind wants to do good. The
mind wants to do good, but the flesh can't do it. So there's
this struggle, there's this conflict. between the flesh and the spirit.
The spirit wars against the flesh, the flesh against the spirit.
So that is what's called spiritual warfare. The spirit warring against the
flesh. It doesn't sin. It cannot sin. But the flesh,
all that it can do is sin. The flesh profits nothing. It
cannot please God. And so everything that it does,
even religious things, doesn't please God. It's filthy rags.
That's why Jesus said, that all of your righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. See, even whenever you do the
things that Christ tells you to do in your flesh, they're
filthy rags. So keeping those things doesn't
make you any better or any worse. Those things are filthy rags. What is the law and the rule
that we go by? Faith in Christ. We trust in
His words. And here Jesus says, I have given
life eternal to as many as thou hast received. He said, 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. Those men no more kept God's
word than anybody else has kept God's word. But what is it that
they have done? They've believed on Christ. they've
believed on him. Now they have known that all
things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. Okay, so they're
believing that the father has given the people to the son and
that they belong to him. For I have given unto them the
words which thou gavest me and they have received them and have
known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed
that thou didst send me. Okay, so they're believing the
testimony of who Christ is, where he came from, and what his mission
was, what he was there to do. Remember in Matthew, you shall
call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
And so what is it? How are they keeping the word?
How are they keeping his word? They're keeping his word by believing
on him, believing what is told about him, believing what was
done by him, trusting in him, for all of what they need. Verse
nine, I pray for them, I pray not for the world. Okay, now
that's a strong statement by Jesus. Jesus is praying to the
Father. He said, Father, I'm praying
for them that thou has given me. Those that you have given
me power to give eternal life to. I am praying for them, not
for the world. Well, I thought Jesus wanted
the whole world to be saved. Let me ask you, how can you reconcile
a free will, free offer, universal salvation with what Jesus just
said right now? I pray for them, I don't pray
for the world. How do you reconcile when Jesus
said, remember there's another time that Jesus prayed to the
Father. Whenever they wouldn't understand things, And then the
disciples did understand he was preaching in parables. Have you
ever, this just came to me, to remembrance, whenever Jesus preached
in parables, do you know, whenever they ask him, how come you preach
in parables? Do you know why the reason why he preached in
parables? So that the other people wouldn't
understand. You know what I've been taught my whole entire life
as a kid? stories so that you might understand better. Jesus
preached in parables to put it in layman's terms so that they
might understand better. But Jesus said, the reason I
preach in parables is so that they won't understand. But you
understand because it's been given to you to know the things
of God. That's what Jesus told him. And then he looked to heaven
and he said, I thank thee father, because thou has shown this unto
these babes. that has revealed it unto babes.
But what did he say? But you have not shown it to
the wise and the prudent, but you've revealed it unto babes.
Jesus prayed that there would think the Father that there was
some that would not see this truth. In Isaiah, whenever he
called Isaiah in Isaiah chapter six, and he said, who shall go
before me? And Isaiah said, hey, I'll go.
He said, all right, I'm gonna send you to a people and you're
gonna preach to those people and I'm gonna clog their ears,
I'm gonna shut their eyes, they're not gonna believe what you say.
As a preacher, there's a lot of
times I feel that, that I've been called that way, you know?
A lot of times. Why? Because God is sovereign
over who hears and who sees and who understands. But yet we have
to have that category. That is part of what is in the
gospel. The gospel is the good news to
those who are being saved. And one of the things of the
good news to those who are being saved, remember, the point of
the gospel is for those who are being saved to tell them their
good news. Yes, to the reprobate, it is
condemnation to them. It is a hardening to them. It
is causing them to even hate God even more. but to the child
of grace who the gospel was designed for, it's to tell them what has
been freely given them. And one of the things that's
freely given them is the fact that God has given you eyes to
see, given you ears to hear, given you a heart to believe
and receive and to love. God has given you something that
by nature, just like the rest of the reprobates, you did not
have. could not have done. But God
in grace has given that to you. It's to remind us of what we
are in our nature in Adam and to show us what has been brought
to us or given to us in our nature in Christ. And that is a free
salvation that didn't come by us. And so Jesus, yes, He prayed
and thanked the Father. for this gracious act of giving
some and not others, to showing this truth to those whom He had
been given. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit, the Godhead working together in bringing
glory to the Son in the salvation of His people. 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." That ought to bless your heart
that Christ is glorified in you. Because you're such a great and
wonderful person? No, He's glorified in you because
of the work that He did on your behalf. See, the fact that you
believe and receive and come and know and desire and love
each other and keep the commands that Christ has given us in the
local church to keep, the gospel to perpetuate, all those things,
you know what those are? Those are signs that He has given
us life. And because of that, He is glorified. And now I'm no more in the world,
but these are in the world, and I've come to the Holy Father
Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that
they may be one as we are. Okay, so he's praying for our
unity. He's praying for the unity with
them. But notice again, the quantifying
statement, whom thou hast given me. Again, Jesus is making a
statement that is not of the whole world, head for head. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name. So there's preservation right
there. Jesus is teaching preservation
again. 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. See, it was never intended that
Judas be one of the people of God. It was never intended that he
was to continue on being the apostle. It was always intended that Judas
be added among those who were called apostles so that he might
be betrayed. Because that was God's formation
beforehand. That was God's purpose. You remember
the Bible said that there are some that he has made and created
to be vessels of dishonor. He created Judas for that, just
like with Pharaoh. He raised Judas up that he might
show his power and his grace through Judas. He says, and now come I to thee. 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. We talked about
that a little bit earlier. We're not of this world. If you're
a child of grace, you're not of this world. Now, your flesh
is, because it's of the earth earthy. But your spirit, that which is
born from above, is not of this world. It's otherworldly. It's out of this world, man. 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 shouldst
take them out of the world, but thou shouldst keep them from
the evil. Okay? So even though we're not of this
world, we're still in this world. God has chosen to leave us here
so that his glory might shine forth, right? They are not of
the world even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them or set
them apart through thy truth. That word sanctify doesn't mean
to make more holy, okay? Sanctification isn't becoming
more holy. Sanctification is being set apart for the use of
God. A lot of times that's an error that's been taught through
Protestant teaching, is that sanctification is this ongoing,
progressive, getting more holy. But how many of y'all here on
the road have realized that you've not become any more holy today
than you was when you first started? Matter of fact, the more we go,
we find more and more areas of our life that are sinful that
we didn't know we had, if you're like me. And we do not progress
in holiness, okay? There's only one who's holy,
and that's God. We're holy in Him. Our account has been stamped
holy, but that's because we have a substitute. We have an imputed
holiness, right? Sanctify them through the truth
or set them apart through thy truth. Thy word is true. 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.
Neither pray I for these alone. Okay, so now he's like, okay,
here he is. We just seen in verse, what was
that again? Verse nine. He said, I pray not
for the world, but for them which thou has given me. And now he's
fixing to say, neither pray I for these alone. Okay. Because a lot of people, they
want to harbor on verse nine, whenever we start talking about
Jesus and his distinguishing prayer, or his exclusive prayer,
his particular prayer for only the elect, they'll say, that's
only talking about the disciples. You can't lump everybody else
in there either. He was talking about the disciples,
which thou hast given me, and he's talking specifically about
the disciples in all this whole entire prayer, it's about the
disciples. The disciples is only the 12,
the apostles. Those people are the only ones
he's talking about. Look here. Neither pray I for
these alone, but for them also, which shall believe. So it is talking about the elect
only. Only those who shall believe.
This prayer is not only for those specific apostles who was right
there with him, whom he had been given out of the world, who were
not of the world, that he had been teaching all this time.
Remember, remember, remember, he laid first in the church,
apostles. These apostles were the ones
that he spent most time teaching during this three and a half
ministry. And to hint about that little
sermon that I'm going to preach that ties back to the Old Testament,
the reason why is so that they might be made clean. He said
right here, sanctify them with thy truth. One of the other aspects
of sanctification is being made clean, right? To set apart or to be made clean
or to be separate for God's use. The priest had to be made clean
before he went in to make the the sacrifice. But think about
this, to be made clean, these men for three years have been
taught the truth by Jesus. Keep your finger there, John
17, but turn back to chapter 15. Let's see. It is in... I'm going to
have to skip over it. I can't remember what verse it's
in. Well, that's a good verse, though. All right, well, let's just ditch
this part of it, because I can't remember the verse that it's
in, I'll have to go back to it. However, he says here, and for
their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified
through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.
Okay, so he is coupling the disciples, or the apostles, yes, that's
who he was talking about, specifically at the beginning. But he said
this goes for everyone who will be brought to believe, 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. And the glory which thou gavest
me, I have given That's amazing. I in them and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that
thou hast sent me and hast loved them, and 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
before 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. The love wherewith thou hast
loved me may be in them, and I in them." So you see, the love
of God, the unity with God, all this thing comes because of Christ.
And it's only for those whom Thou hast given Him." Jesus preached a sovereign grace
gospel. And if we preach any gospel,
it should be a sovereign grace gospel. If we are to declare
any gospel, it should be a sovereign grace gospel. If we look for
any preacher, we should look for a preacher that preaches
a sovereign grace gospel. If we look for any church, we
should look for a church that preaches a sovereign grace gospel. Now there are other things that
we can go on to look and see on how this is affected and how
it works. and how Christ and God is sovereign
over all things. You know, Jesus in chapter 18,
just a few bullet points. You know, whenever he's talking
to Pilate, Pilate therefore said unto Jesus, art thou a king then? Jesus answered, thou sayest that
I am a king. To this end was I born, and for
this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto
the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. So here again, Jesus is saying
only those who are of the truth hear the voice of Christ. In chapter 19, Pilate again says
that I have power to crucify thee and have power to release
thee. And look what Jesus said. Thou
couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given
thee from above. The power that Pilate had to
do with Jesus as he did, was given to him from above. Pilate
didn't have no power to do anything. If heaven would have decided
anything different, Pilate wouldn't have been able to do anything.
The Jews wouldn't have been able to. You remember that song? Y'all
probably heard that song. He could have called 10,000 angels. If God would have ever changed
his mind, which we know can't happen because he changes not,
but if that was not his plan, If it was not his purpose that
Christ died, guess what? There is no principality or power
in this world that could have done to Jesus unless God had
already proclaimed that that was what was to be done. Of course,
we know that because Acts said that by wicked hands, you've
taken according to the determinant counsel of God. Pilate was doing
exactly what God ordained to be done. The Jews did exactly
what God ordained to be done. So Jesus here, whenever He speaks
and says that you have no power except it were given from above,
therefore, He that delivered man to thee hath a greater sin,
He is in an essence saying that this is all ordained of God and
you're only doing what God has designed for us to do. He is
preaching predestination there. This has been predestinated of
God. It's the predetermined design of God that I come to this point
in my life to be handed over to wicked men and by wicked men's
hands, I will be nailed to a cross, and I will die. You won't kill
me. I'll die of my own, but I will
die. Jesus is preaching predestination
there. We could go on and on. We could
go through some of the other Gospels and areas that I didn't
even hit on in John and see, but we see that Jesus preached
this doctrine. So whenever we ask, what is it
the doctrine of Christ that we are to look for and to receive
unto ourself and to preach only and no other? Well, it's that
doctrine of grace, that doctrine that is centered upon Jesus Christ
and his finished work alone that is not conditioned upon man or
anything that we do. All right, does anybody have
any questions at this time? Would you like to ask anybody? Any other statements or anything? Jesus is all in all. Jesus is
all in all, isn't He? By Him all things were created? By Him? For Him? Well, let's
see, how does that go in Acts? For of Him, and through Him,
and to Him are all things." All things. The good and the bad. The righteous and the evil. He
has made all things for Himself. Yea, even the wicked for the
day of evil. So nothing's out of His control,
nothing's out of His hand. And praise the Lord that we're
part of His salvation. Alright, let's bow and have a
word of prayer. Heavenly Father,