Well, I'm going to begin reading
at verse number 1, and I'll read about 16 verses here. These words beg Jesus, and lift
up his eyes to heaven, and say, Father, the hour is come to glorify
thy son, and thy son also may glorify thee, as thou hast given
him 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. I have glorified thee on earth,
and 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, 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 known surely I came out from thee, and thou, and
they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine, and all
mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world. And I come to thee, Holy Father. keep through thine own name those
whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. While
I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those
that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost but
the son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now 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." I want you to notice that 16th verse. They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. Now, throughout this chapter, and
particularly throughout these 16 verses that I read to you,
the word world is mentioned in relationship to his people several
different times. And this 16th verse that I read
to you is our text. He is advancing a reason here
to the Holy Father to keep his people from the evil, he says. Keep them from the evil. Keep them from the devil, keep them from that evil thing,
keep them from this evil world system. All of that is involved
in that or in the evil thing. Now, I say he is advancing here
a reason to the Holy Father why they should be kept from
this evil thing. or this evil world. He said,
because they are not of this world. And that's the reason
that he prays for them in this respect. Keep them from the evil
because they are not of this world. There's a difference between
them and this world. There's a difference between
the people of God and the people of this world. Now, God keeps
his people. Now, He keeps us. Now, He has
many ways of keeping us, but they can be reduced to two ways. He keeps us by the power of His
Spirit, and He keeps us by providence. Now, by the power of the Holy
Spirit, we mean He restrains the evil that's within us. And
there's a good illustration of this in Genesis chapter 20. We have the story of Abimelech,
I believe it was. Yes, Abimelech, the king of Gerhard,
who took Sarah, Abraham's wife. And God came to Abimelech in
a dream by night, and He said, Abimelech, you're a dead man.
You're a dead man for the woman which thou hast taken. She's
a man's wife. But you go on down here to verse
number 6 now, Genesis chapter 20 and verse number 6, and you'll
see what I'm talking about when I say that God has many ways
of keeping us. And one of the ways that he keeps
us is by the power of the Holy Spirit. That is, the evil within
us is restrained by God's power. In this 6th verse, it says, God
said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in
the integrity of thy heart, for I also withheld thee from sinning
against me. Therefore suffered I thee not
to touch her." So that's a good biblical illustration there of
what I'm saying, that we're kept We're kept from the evil. We're kept from the world by
the power of the Spirit of God restraining the evil that's within
us. And then we're kept by the providence
of God. By that I mean he removes occasions and objects out of our way whereby
ordinarily, if they weren't removed, We would yield ourselves to.
So we're kept by the Spirit of God and we're kept by providence.
Over here in the book of 1 Corinthians. Let me read a verse there. 1
Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 13. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse
13. Keep in mind what I'm saying. I'm saying that he has many ways
of keeping us from the evil world, the principle, the system, the
devil himself, many ways of keeping us by the power of the Spirit
of God and by providence. Now, in this thirteenth verse,
he says, ìThere hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common
to man.î Listen to this. But God is faithful, who will
not suffer you to be tempted above, that ye are able, and
will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye
may be able to bear it." Now, what he said here is what I've
already said, that he saves us and keeps us from the evil system
of this world and from the devil himself by the power of his spirit,
restraining, sustaining the evil that's within us, and secondly,
by removing occasions and objects to sin from our pathway. He's able, and he will not permit
anything upon us to come upon us that we're not capable or
able to bear. by the grace of God. And whatever
comes upon us, he'll provide, he said, a way of escape. Now,
in this sixteenth verse, he said, They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. Now, the truth of this verse
applies to you and I in a sevenfold in regard to what this 16th verse
says. Believers, or Christians, are
different. Now, that's all they are to us.
They're different. And if they're not different,
then somebody's got a problem. If we're not different than those
that are in the world, then we've never been delivered or separated
from the evil of this world. That's all they are to him. There's
got to be a difference. If there's no difference in you
and your neighbor who's lost, in your objects, your pleasures,
your appetites, and your desires and satisfactions, then there's
no difference in your state or standing before God. There's
got to be a difference. He says here, they are not of
the world. Who is he talking about? He's
talking about those that he praises. I pray for them. I pray for mine. I pray for the blood-bought.
I pray for them. I pray not for the world. I don't
pray for the world. But for them which thou hast
given me, for they are thine. They are not of the world. Jesus
said we are not of the world. No way are we of the world. He has many ways of keeping us
from the world. He keeps us from the world by
the power of His Spirit and by providence. Now, if we're not
kept from the world, evidently we're still in the world. Now,
that's the sum and substance of it. If we're not kept from
this world system and this world's pleasure and this world's objectives,
this world's principles, if we're not kept from these things, Evidently,
we are still in the yoke of bondage and in the gall of bitterness
and still in our sins. Now, I mentioned some of these
things before, but let me mention them again in regard to this
world. So, we might get some idea of
what we're talking about when we talk about the world. Now,
the world is The world that I'm talking about here this morning,
the system, this principle, is not too much disturbed by the
religionists of our day. They don't disturb the world
very much because they're so much like the world. And that's
what I'm trying to say here this morning, that there ought to
be a difference. And I think that the reason why
the world is not disturbed very much by today's religion is because
there's no difference. There's no difference. We leave
the world alone and the world leaves us alone. Isn't that right?
We leave the world alone and the world leaves us alone. They
don't pay any attention to what we say because most of us aren't
saying anything. Now that's right, isn't it? Most
of us is not saying anything. They leave us alone. In fact,
we spend all of our time, most of us spend our time answering
questions that nobody's asking. Nobody's interested in what we've
got to say. We pretty well conform to the
worldly customs. We talk like them, we dress like
them, We look like them and have a respect. We go where they go.
We join hands with them. We brag a lot on the flesh through
a sickly, sissified, compromising ministry. We are to them, nice
people, a little ignorant, a little ancient or antiquated, perhaps
unstable and emotional. but not at all dangerous or troublesome. That's the way they regard us. Sad, isn't it? We have our religion and the
fellow next door has his. You have your religion and I'll
have my religion. And he can't see any great or
vital difference in his religion and my religion. Now, there's
got to be a difference, brother. That's what I'm saying this morning.
There's got to be a difference. If there's no difference in his
religion and your religion, then we're still in the world. That's
all there are to it. We're still in the world. We
haven't been delivered from the world. If we know in our hearts there's
no difference, we need to seek the Lord. We
need to seek Him and ask Him to come and visit with us and
speak to us. I told you here the other night,
conversion was not the changing of churches. That's not what
conversion is. It's not the changing of doctrines.
It's not even the changing of lifestyles. Conversion is what? It's the changing of masters. Renouncing one and submitting
to another. than we serve the same master
that the world serves. Well, now listen. Christians, the people of God,
those that the Lord Jesus Christ was praying for, the they, now
they have a different standing from those who belong to the
world. They have a different standing
altogether. I'll tell you how they stand. They stand in Christ. Those that are blood-bought,
that have been purchased by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
they stand completely in Christ, not partially in and partially
out. No, but they stand body, soul,
and spirit from the top of their feet to the crown of their head,
every fiber of That's their standing. And if
you're a believer here this morning in Christ and you've truly been
converted, you stand in Christ. You stand in Him, quieter than
the driven snow. And your standing in Him is going
to produce something in your daily life. Your relationship
to God is going to that is by way of state and standing is
going to produce something in your everyday life. There's going
to be a difference. There's going to be a difference
in the way you talk. There's going to be a difference
in the way you act and react under certain situations. You're
going to bear and forbear. You're going to forgive. You're
going to love in spite of. You're going to do these things
because it's that God principle, it's that God image that has
been implanted in you. You're going to be faithful,
you're going to be faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ. You're
going to find out that there's not going to be any burden, any
burden or any command that's going to be too heavy, too burdensome,
too difficult. Why? Because of your relationship
to him in Christ, because of your standing in Christ, because
your sins have been forgiven freely by the grace of God in
Christ Jesus through his true and proper offering he offered
himself in our stead, and God poured out his unmitigated gall
and wrath upon the Lord Jesus Christ that he paid it all. standing in Christ that makes
you accepted in the Beloved. And as I heard a preacher say
not so long ago, and I didn't necessarily like the way he said
it, but it was true nevertheless, you're as much, you're as sure
of heaven right now as if you had been there 2,000 years or
a million years if you're standing in Christ. Faithful, faithful. See, there's a difference. There's
a difference. He said, They are not of the world. They're like
I am. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I'm
not earthly. I came from the Father. I'm not
of this earth. Our text said, They are not of
the world. He advances this reason why he's
praying for them, why they should be kept. He said, They are not
of this world, even as I am not of this world. All right, there's
a difference. Christians have a different standing
from those who belong to the world. Ours is in Christ Jesus
and theirs is in Adam. Ours is in the second Adam and
theirs is in the first Adam. Everything that is in Adam, God
has condemned. Do you know that? There is not
a single solitary thing in Adam that God has not utterly condemned. He has condemned everything in
Adam because everything in Adam is polluted. In Adam, all are lost. If we
never get out of the first Adam into the second Adam, we'll die
and go to hell, every one of us. We've got to get out of the
first Adam. God has condemned the first Adam. He's condemned
the flesh. That's where the world stands.
They stand in Adam. God's condemned Adam. They stand there. All right, secondly, God can
say a whole lot more about this, but we've got too many possess a different nature than
they who are of the world. Believers are born of the Spirit
of God. They're born of the Spirit. They've
experienced the new birth. Except a man be born again. Except a man have the Spirit
of the Lord Jesus Christ, he's none of His. You see, they have
a different spirit. They're born of the Spirit of
God, but they that are in the world, they're born of the flesh. And that which is flesh is flesh,
and that's all it ever will be is flesh. They have a different
nature. We're born of the Spirit, and
they're born of the flesh. And partly, they serve a different
master than you and I do. They serve their father, the
devil. Those in the world, now, you
know, this is hard here for the average religionist to get a
hold of. It's hard for him to submit to. He's so lawless himself. He's
so lawless that yet he's religious, but he's lawless. And he's satisfied, you know,
in his little petty religion, and he's satisfied in his sin,
and if you tell him that he's of his father the devil, he's
shocked and offended. But actually, everyone who's
in Adam is of the flesh and They are of their father, the devil.
Their father is the devil. They can't pray, Our Father which
art in heaven. I know they have these great
big public meetings and they think it's a religious thing
to do to call upon some pious member of this particular body
to stand up and lead us all in the Lord's Prayer. Our Father
which art in heaven. Where was it? I was at some place
in the The preacher asked me, he said, would you stand, he
said, at the outset here. It was a mixed congregation.
There wasn't a half a dozen Christians in the whole bunch, I don't suppose.
Made no pretense of being Christians. And the preacher asked me if
I would take part in the service. He said, would you lead them
in praying the Lord's Prayer together? And I thought, boy,
I'm in a hard place. What am I going to do? So I said,
well. All right, so I just took the
Bible and I said, well, all of you repeat with me and we'll
read this together. We're not going to pray it together
because there's too many there that couldn't say our Father.
And I wasn't going to acknowledge that they were. No, they are of their Father
the Devil. That's who they are. We serve
different masters. Jesus said here, He said, Now,
they are not of this world, even as I am not of this world. Well,
if that's so then, we serve different masters. They have for their
Father the devil, and the Scripture says the desires of their Father
they do. But we serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
We serve our Father which art in heaven, hallowed and sacred
and holy and gracious be his name. And fifthly, now, we have
a different citizenship. Their citizenship is right here
on this earth. Everything that they own and
possess and everything that's dear to them is right here on
this earth. Their property, their wealth,
their children, their ties, their bonds, All of their relationship
is wedded deep, anchored firm and deep right here on this planet
Earth. That's their citizenship. They
think, actually, that this is their final resting place. They
believe that this world is their home. But we believe that this
world is not our home. We're just passing through. Our
citizenship is in heaven. We look for a country. We look
for a city. not made with hands. We look
for one that was built and founded and made by God Himself, eternal
in the heavens, Paul said. We have a different citizenship.
Ours is not on this earth. We're not concerned about how
much money we can pile up. We're not concerned about how
many hours a day that we can work in order to pile up more
resources to enjoy at some other time. We're not concerned about
that. We're concerned about heavenly things. We're concerned about
the cause and the claims of the Lord Jesus. He's our captain,
the captain of our salvation. He's our elder brother. His honor
is at stake. We're concerned about him. We're
concerned about preaching the gospel. We don't preach the gospel. Primarily to win somebody to
Christ? That's not our goal in preaching
the gospel. Our goal in preaching the gospel
is for the glory of God, that God might be glorified. Certainly if God wants to save
people through the preaching of the gospel and that's how
he saves them, well, that's his business. But that's not our
primary purpose for preaching the gospel or doing anything.
Everything that we do, every thought that we have should be
brought into captivity and brought under control, ought to be for
the glory of God, for God's glory. Why? Because that's where our
citizenship is. That's where we're going to spend
the eternity of the forevers. We're just passing through. This world is not my home. I'm
just passing through. Here's your time, that's all.
I have a hiding place in Christ. There's a difference, you see.
There's a difference between the world and believers. They
have a different standing. Their sins are forgiven. and they have a different citizenship.
Heaven's their home. Jesus said, I go to prepare a
place for you. For who? I pray not for the world. I pray not for the world. Let
not your hearts be troubled. Don't be troubled about this.
I know that difficulties will come, but don't let your hearts
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's
house are many mansions. If it were not so, I wouldn't
have told you this. I go to prepare a place for you,
for you. Who? I pray for them. Father, keep them from the evil
because they are not of this world, even as I'm not of this
world. I go to prepare a place for you,
for you. In my Father's house are many
mansions. I go to prepare them for you,
and I'll come again, and I'll receive you, and where I am there,
you'll be also received." We're not of this world. We're
not of this world. Oh, no. That's the reason it
grieves my heart that I see men not concerned, professed to be
Christians, and not concerned about the cause and claims of
Christ. who will just make any flimsy
excuse to keep from joining themselves to the assembly. When the gospel
is being preached, and the songs of Zion are being sung, and fellowship
is sweet with the brethren, people will oft times make flimsy excuses,
not assembling themselves. I'm bothered, I'm worried, because
I believe, brethren, if a man's interested, and the
Lord Jesus Christ, if he's interested, boy, he's going to come where
he can hear him exalted and where he can hear the things of God.
If he knows his sins are forgiven for Christ's sake and he stands
wrapped in the wool of the lamb and that his righteousness is
as perfect as the righteousness of him who gave it to him, Why,
he's going to be interested. All the devils in hell wouldn't
keep him away. He wants to come and he wants
to take part. He wants to hear about the Lord
Jesus. He wants to hear about the captain
of his salvation. Why? Because he knows shortly
he must put off this body and flesh. He knows it won't be long
until he'll put it off. He'll go to be with his Lord
and forever he's going to be with Him to enjoy. to enjoy all
that's out there. I cannot tell. Neither has entered
into the heart of man all that God has prepared for those that
love him. I just don't know about it. I'd
be a fool to stand up here and talk to you about the glories
of heaven when I don't know too much about the glories of heaven.
I just know it'll be something that will stagger our very thoughts
and imaginations. It'll be something, the glory
of heaven. That'll be where Jesus is. That'll
be heaven. That'll be glory. That'll be
glory for me. All right. Serve a different
master. Serve a different master. Have
different citizenship. We even have a different aim.
Different aim in life than they do. Our aim is what? Our aim
is, I've already mentioned it, to please God. That's our aim. What is the aim and desire of
the worldly? Please self. Please self. That
was your aim one time, wasn't it? That was my aim. I've done
everything in this world to please myself, and you did too. Be honest. Be honest now. You've done everything
in this world to please yourself. Some of us haven't been weaned
from all of it yet. Some of us are still doing some
things to please yourself. But the Christian, the Christian,
the true believer now, the whole tenor and scope of his life,
going in one direction, that's to please God. I know that there's
some stumbling, and there's some falling, and all of that on the
side, and there's some resting, and all of that. But the whole
tenor of His life points in one direction, not to please self,
but to glorify God. And sixthly now, we have a different
life. We have a different life. Far
below the standard set before us, I know that. I know it. But no Christian, now you listen
to me, no Christian goes to the same excess of sin as the worldling
does. You can mark that down. No Christian. He don't enter into the depth,
to the wideness, to the excess of sin as the worldling does. He don't do it. He may fall into
it, but not into the depth of the excess of it as the worldling
does it. No sin. There's a difference
there. And also, brethren, we have a
different destiny. We have a different destiny.
You think of that now. We have a different destiny. What's your
destiny? Where are you going? I told you here a couple of weeks
ago that we're all travelers. We're all travelers. Every one
of us. There's no rest for the soul
of man's foot. We're going somewhere, upward,
downward. We're going one way or the other.
We're going. We can't deny that. We're here.
We're moving. We're getting older every day.
We're going to pass on beyond this veil of tears someplace.
We're going someplace. Where is it we're going? We have
a different destiny than the world. Jesus said, I pray for
them. I pray not for the world. We
have a different destiny. Where are we going? Well, I'll
tell you where they're going. I'll tell you where they're going.
I don't like to talk about this too much. I hate to think of
it. I hate even to remind men and
women of this. and women and boys and girls
that are unfaithful and ungodly and don't care, indifferent,
and only concerned about themselves and have never sought the Lord
Jesus Christ. They're just going their way.
I'll tell you where they're going to wind up. They're going to
wind up in hell. Oh, what an awful place. The
lake of fire. I'd be a fool again to try to
tell you about the awfulness of hell. Just the description
that our Lord used makes it bad enough. He said, the lake of
fire. The lake of fire. If a man's not saved, he's going
to the lake of fire. We have a different destiny than
the worldling does. He's going to live in this life
for just a few short years and he's only going to be satisfied
a few minutes, that's all, in light of eternity. He's going
to have an urge To do something in order that some animal-like
lust in him is satisfied and he'll yield to that temptation
and that'll be all the heaven that he'll ever know is the five
minutes or ten minutes or an hour or two or three hours of
some sort of a sensual pleasure that he gets. That's all he'll
ever have. Hell will be his home. You ever
wonder why it is that men and women, boys and girls, reach
an age of twelve, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen years
old. They're determined to do wrong. They're determined to have someone
else involved in alcohol out here, drinking some alcohol,
and they have an urge to do that. They have an urge, an unquenchable
urge to get involved in that. And they won't be satisfied until
they try. They won't be. All hell, unless
it's by the power of the Holy Spirit of God constraining them,
restraining them, they'll enter into. Whatever it is, they've
got an urge to do it, an urge to do it. They'll sell their
soul for a nickel. They'll sell their soul for one
bottle of beer. That's right. One marijuana cigarette. Sell their soul for it. That's
right. They've got an urge. Other kids
are doing it. sell their soul ten minutes later sell their
soul for ten minutes later well we got a different
standing if you got a different standing this morning you thank
God for it because it's not because it's not because you withstood
temptation or a lie that ain't the reason you know that well
as I do Oh, we have a different standard. Theirs is a lake of
fire, where the worm never dies, where the smoke of their torment
ascends above forever and forever. Listen, the world is a system
built up away from God. And from it, we've been taken. That's what Jesus said. From
this world, we have been taken delivered and separated from
me. And Jesus said here, Father,
I have given them thy word, and the world which we have been
delivered from and taken and separated, and the world hath
hated them. The world hath hated them. because
they are not of this world. The world has hated them, plots
against them, laughs at you when you make a fool out of yourself.
The world laughs at you. You know that? The world delights
in seeing you sin. The world delights in that. People
just clap their hands. There's a secret inward satisfaction
and joy that the world gets When they see you and I being unfaithful
to our Lord, they just clap their hands. They say, I knew there
wasn't anything to it. I knew it wasn't true. I knew put him
in a certain situation, under certain circumstances, he'd do
the same as I would. And they laugh. They laugh. But boy, when you stand true,
when you stand true, stand six foot tall and stand true and
say, I won't, by the grace of God, here I stand. And I will
not be moved. The world hates you for it. The world hates you. Jesus said,
Father, keep them from this evil, this world and its system. Keep
them from it. Keep them from it. Don't let
them become involved in it. Keep them from it because they're
not of this world. Because they have what? They
have a different state. They have a different aim. They
have a different desire. They have a different optic.
They have a different master. They have a different destiny.
All these things are different. Father, keep them from the world.
Well, the Lord keep us from the world. Keep us from the world. Keep us from the world. And use the love of God as the
means to keep us from the world. God's love to us. My, how He
loves us. He gave His Son for us. Who can fathom that? Who can
fathom? Who can understand the depths
of the love of God? God coming down into this world to seek and to
save that which was lost. What's involved in Jesus Christ
being a seeker? He sought you. He loved you when
you were unloved. He loved you when you didn't
love him. He loved you when you hated him. He loved you when
you were unloved. You couldn't be his rescue. You
couldn't be him, but he loved you. The Lord Jesus Christ set
his love upon you. He wouldn't be satisfied until
he got you, until he rescued you, until he delivered you,
until he took you out. Oh, may the love of God be the
means of keeping us upright and honorable while we're here in
this world for Christ's sake, for His honor and His glory. That's not asking too much out
of us, is it? No, sir, it's not. God can help
us to be faithful. Only God, by the power of the
Holy Spirit, can help us. Make us mindful. Make us mindful
of our duties, responsibilities. Make us mindful. Lest we forget. Lest we forget. Oh, ye forget. God help us. All right, stand
with me.