Alright brethren, let's turn
to John chapter 17. John chapter 17. Last time we
saw that the first of four requests that Christ made out of John
17. Today our subject is Christ's second request. We find it here
in verse 11. 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 through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that
they may be one as we are one. The Lord Jesus intercedes for
God to keep his believing people. To keep his believing people. Now, who are Christ's believing
people? Most everybody claims to be a
believer, but who does Christ say the believer is? There's
a number of things here in John 17 that describe a believer. This is how we know if Christ
is interceding for us to be kept, by what he says here. Am I a
believer? Here's how we know. First of
all, the believer is one to whom Christ has manifested the name
of God. He says back up in verse 6, I
have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me
out of the world. Now it's Christ who manifests
the name of God. He's the one who's going to make
His people to know the name of God. He said no man has seen
God at any time. God's invisible. Nobody has ever
seen God. The only begotten Son. which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. This is
one reason why Christ took flesh, that we might actually see God,
we might actually see who He is. And then He said this, All
things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth
the Son, but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save
the Son. And He to Whomsoever the Son
will reveal Him. So it's Christ who manifests
the name of God to His people. Now God's name is His character. That's who He is. That's what
He does. That's His attributes. And His name is, we're told in
Scripture, I'll give you these briefly. We're told His name
is Jehovah Jireh. That is the Lord will provide.
And that's what I need. Is that what you need? I need
the Lord to provide. That's His name, Jehovah Jireh,
the Lord will provide. His name is Jehovah Rapha, the
Lord that healeth thee. I need to be healed. This is
what we hear when Christ manifests His name to us. We see our need,
I need to be healed. His name is Jehovah Rapha, the
Lord that healeth thee. His name is Jehovah Nisi, the
Lord our banner. We need a point. A banner is
a flag. We need a point to rally to. We need a point to, when you're
on the battlefield, to look and see the flag and to flee to that
banner. Christ is our banner. He's Jehovah
Nisi. He's Jehovah Kadesh, the Lord
that sanctified thee. I need to be sanctified, set
apart, made holy. He's the Lord that sanctified
thee. His name is Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our peace. We need peace. We had to have peace. We had
to have peace with God. We were the enemy of God. He's
the Lord our peace. He's Jehovah Raya. The Lord is
my shepherd. He guides His people. He feeds
His people. He leads us, protects us. He's
our shepherd. He's Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord
our righteousness. We have no righteousness of our
own. He is our righteousness. And then He's Jehovah Shema,
the Lord is there. He's always there for His people. He's faithful God. Now this is
the name of God that He manifests, that Christ manifests to His
people. You behold His name by your need. You behold His name
by Christ's provision of that need. You behold all these names
of God in Jehovah Jesus. That's where we see the name
of God. So, believers are those who believe
because Christ has revealed Him. And we believe God as He's revealed
in Christ. We believe that. We believe God
as He's revealed in Christ. And we call on His name. And
He said, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. No ifs, ands, or maybes. They shall. They call on the
name of the Lord. We're saved by the name of the
Lord. Alright, here's the second characteristic of believers.
Believers are those separated out of the world by God the Father,
by divine election, and given to Christ. Again there in verse
6, He said, These are the men which thou gavest Me out of the
world. John 17, 6. He says, The men
which thou gavest me out of the world. Now watch this. Thine
they were, and thou gavest them me. They were given to Christ
by God the Father. He said, Thou gavest them me. He said, Thine they were, and
thou gavest them to me. You see, those that are given
to faith to believe were not God the Father's merely by creation. Because everybody in the world
is His by creation. And that wouldn't make them His
particularly, and then He gave them to Christ because God created
the world and all things in it by Christ. So this, when it says,
Thine they were, that means they were God the Father's in a particular
way that applies to Him alone. And that means it's by divine
election because that's of the Father. He chooses His people
unto salvation in Christ. That's His peculiar act that
He does. And they're chosen to be His
peculiar people and they're given to Christ. They're chosen unto
salvation in Him. Chosen through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. So those who are believers,
now He says here, they were given to Me out of the world. He said,
you gave them to me out of the world. Now pay attention to this.
When he speaks of those believers here, that's who the world is
that God loved. That's the world that God loved.
When the scripture says, God so loved the world. that he gave
his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish
but have everlasting life. It's that world. He said you
gave to me out of the world. But now God doesn't save his
people in the world. He doesn't save his people with
the world. He saves his people out of the
world. Do you understand that? He saves them out of the world.
Turn over to Revelation 5. I want you to see this. You're
going to see this all through John 17, but look here at Revelation
5 and verse 9. I quote this a lot, but I want
you to pay attention to these words. Verse 9, they sung a new song,
saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, to open the seals thereof,
for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood
out of..." You see that? Out of every kindred and tongue
and people and nation. He didn't say that he saved every
kindred, tongue and people and nation. But He saved us out of
every kindred tongue people and nation. Those were the, Christ
said, those are those who gave me out of the world. And they're
going to all come to Christ. And when they come to Christ,
He's not going to throw them back out into the world. Christ
said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. He'll never do
that. Alright, here's the third thing.
A believer are those who believe God's Word. He says there at
the end of verse 6, they've kept Thy Word. Believers don't believe
our own Word. We don't believe our own Word.
You know, you talk to them and they'll say, well, this is what
I think. Well, we believe what God says. Not what we think,
not what we've imagined, we believe what God says. We keep His Word
in our hearts. And we keep His Word by defending
His Word. We keep His Word by publicly
professing His Word. We keep His Word by not corrupting
His Word. We keep His Word. These are those
who Christ prays that the Father will keep. This is who a believer
is. These are true believers. Now,
here's the question. Are you a believer? Am I a believer? Well, so far I can say yes, this
description is a description of who I am by His grace. Can
you say that? Are you a believer? Do you fall
under these descriptions? Alright, let's see. Here's the
fourth one. Believers know that the Lord Jesus that walked this
earth is the Christ, that He is God, that He is the Son of
the living God. Look at verse 7. He says, Now
they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given Me
are of thee. That means He's God. That means
He's God. The confidence of every believer
is that Jesus Christ is God. And He is the eternal God. He
and God are one. That's our confidence. That's
our hope. That's our salvation. We believe He is. The words He
spoke are of God. He said, I didn't come to speak
in my words, I spoke the words of God. That doesn't mean that
they weren't His words, it just meant He and God are one. He said the grace and truth that
He brought to us is of God. That's of God. The grace is of
God. The truth is of God. 2 Corinthians
5.18 All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself
by Jesus Christ. and hath given to us the ministry
of reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and
hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we,
as ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by
us, We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For He has made Him sin for us,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. God was in Christ. All things
are of God. God and Christ are one. This
is our confidence, brethren. Alright? Here's the fifth thing.
Believers know Know who Christ is because we
receive the Word of God from Christ Himself. Now this is a
little variation of one of our points we saw already. We keep
His Word, we have His Word, but we know that He's God. And we know He's true because
we receive the Word from Christ Himself. Look at verse 8. John
17, 8. He said, 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." Christ gives the words of
eternal life. That's the words he's speaking
about. And he gives those words irresistibly, invincibly. by His power, making His people
willing. But we do receive the words.
We willingly receive the words. And that's what receiving means,
is to have them given to you so that you receive them. That's
what it means. And that's what every believer
does. And hereby, he says, we know surely that Christ came
out from God and we believe that God did send Him. So, when a
sinner objects to Christ, and he objects to Christ being God,
and he objects to Christ accomplished redemption, and he objects to
the truth of the Gospel, all he manifests is that Christ has
not come to him personally and caused him to receive the Word.
Else he would say, that's true, I believe. But it's only because,
that's all he manifests. He doesn't have faith given to
him by Christ. Now, are you one who's received
the Word? Are you one who Christ has made
to receive the Word? Do you know, surely, that Christ
is God? And that this salvation is wrought
from God for His people? All of these things I've been
telling you, you believe this is so? We do by God's grace,
by Christ revealing it to us. Alright, here's the sixth thing.
Believers are those for whom Christ prays. Believers are those
for whom Christ prays. Now, this was our beginning point
right here, verse 9. He said he was praying for them,
but now look what he says in verse 9. He says, I pray for
them. He's been talking about who are
believers. I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me. I pray for them, he said. I pray
not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me. Now
this is that world that God so loved. This is the same world
that God so loved. It's not the world for whom Christ
would not pray. That's not the world that he
loved. He said there's a world that I pray not for. It's not
that world that he loved. But he prays for them which God
gave to Christ. That's who he prays for. Now
understand this, whenever sinners speak of God's grace and speak
of God's love and of it being toward the whole world, all men
and women without exception, they make the intercession and
the love and the grace, even His precious blood, to be meaningless. To be meaningless. You see, love
with God is not like love with us. Love with us is a passion. And it's conditional. It's based on somebody doing
something for us. Love with God is in Christ Jesus. And it's just. It's just. He cannot love someone who is
unjust. He cannot love someone who his
law demands be condemned. His holy character demands being
condemned. He can't love them. Well, then how could He love
me and you? Because we were that way. Because from the very beginning,
before sin ever entered in, He chose us and put us in Christ
Jesus. And we stood in His surety, in our surety, before the world
began. So that when sin entered in, the believer was never under
the wrath of God. We were under Christ, in Christ
from the beginning, accepted in the Beloved from the beginning.
You understand that? And so Christ's blood wasn't
shed in vain, brethren. He won't fail. His blood wasn't
shed in vain. Listen to this. Now once in the
end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. That's what He came to do and
that's what He did. He put away sin. Now whose sin did He put
away? Christ laid down His life for
them which thou gavest me. That's what He said. Listen to
this. As the Father knoweth me, even
so I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. That's who Christ laid His life.
He purged the sins of a particular people. I'm going to give you
ladies a challenge. You know, When you have a stain
in a shirt, you purge that stain out of a shirt. You purge it.
That's how you get the stain out of a shirt. Go home today
and try to purge a stain for nobody in particular, for no
shirt in particular. Try to see if you can do it.
You can't do that. You say, that's absurd. It would
be absurd to say Christ just went and died for sin, but He
didn't die for anybody's sin. He just died for everybody's
sin. But you see what I'm saying? Listen to this. When He had by
Himself purged our sins, He purged somebody's sins. Then
He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. It's
the same ones for whom Christ intercedes in prayer. Right here,
in John 17, the same ones that He intercedes for in prayer are
those He interceded for on Calvary's cross. The very same ones. Christ
said, it's those the Father gave to Him. Verse 9, read it again.
I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which
Thou hast given Me. Everything Christ does in providence
as well as grace is for them. Look here, Romans 8, 29. I'll
just read it, you know it. Romans 8, 29. Or Romans 8, 28. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose. That's who things work together
for good for. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called. And whom He called,
them He also justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. What shall we say then to these
things? If God be for us, if He's for us, who can be against
us? Well, preacher, how do I know
if I'm one? How do I know if I'm one that
Christ is for? Do you believe Christ? This is
what I'm trying to show you from the Scriptures who a believer
is. Not this idea that the world
has and that modern Christianity has of who a believer is. Who
does Christ say a believer is? Christ manifests God's name to
them. That's who a believer is. They're
separated by God in election. That's who a believer is. They
believe God's Word. They know and believe Christ
is the Son of God, one with the Father. We know the Gospel is
true because we receive the Word from Christ Himself. And we rejoice
that Christ intercedes for us. All of these truths, the believer
rejoices in. That's how you know you're one
for whom He died. As long as you stand there and
say, I'm not one of them, you're not one of them. You're not one
of them. The only way that we know we're
one of them is when we find ourselves believing this truth, this gospel. Alright, here's the seventh thing.
Believers are the possession of God the Father and Christ
His Son and Christ is glorified in them. They belong to another. Look at verse 9. He says, For
they are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine,
and I'm glorified in them. That means that we're His purchased
possession, brethren. That's what He said over there
in Ephesians. He said we're His purchased possession. He's going to return one day
for His purchased possession. Paul said the church of God which
He purchased with His own blood. He bought us with His own blood.
We're not our own. We're bought with a price. where
the servants of God bought with the price of his precious blood.
And Christ is glorified by working grace for us and in us. You see, there's another Jesus,
Paul said, but that other Jesus is not glorified by those he
saves because they helped him save them. But our Jesus, the
true Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, is glorified in those He saves
because He does everything. He redeemed us. He purged us. He justified us. He made us righteous. He sent the gospel to us. He
sent the Holy Spirit to us. He quickened us. He gave us faith.
He gave us repentance. So we have life now because of
Him. And therefore Christ is glorified by us through faith,
praise in Him, and through obedience to Him. We sing to the praise
of the glory of His grace wherein He has made us accepted in the
Beloved. Christ Jesus, the Beloved. We'll
praise and glorify Him for eternity. See, heaven's not going to be
this place of hedonism where people just exercise their lusts
without any kind of restraint. Heaven's going to be where everybody's
going to be glorifying Christ for all eternity. Glorifying
Him. Alright, here's the eighth thing.
Believers are kept united in Christ. kept united in Christ. Verse 11, Now I'm 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. Keep them, he said, that they
may be one as we are. Brethren, that's oneness, that
they may be one as we are. Christ said. Now look, 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.
Believers are kept by God's grace. That's the only way we're kept.
We're kept by the power of God. We couldn't keep ourselves. We
have to be kept by the power of God. We have no strength.
We have no strength. We've got to be kept by God.
And we're kept united together That means you and me who believe,
we're united, we're one. We're one. We're in one body
and we're one. How one are we? How one are we? He said even as Christ and the
Father are one. Listen to Ephesians. There's
one body, one spirit, even as you're called in one hope of
your calling. There's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God
and Father of all who's above all and through all and in you
all. We got the same spiritual heartbeat. The same God abides
in all of us. They believe. That's true of
every believer. Alright, here's number 9. I got
12 of these. I'm going to have to hurry. 9.
Believers are those who have Christ's joy fulfilled in us. We have Christ's joy fulfilled
in us. Look at verse 13. He says, And
now come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world,
that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. That they might
have my joy fulfilled in themselves. We have the joy of His grace.
He said in 1 John 1-2, John said the life was manifested. Don't
you love that? That's Christ. The life was manifested. Eternal life is a person. The
life was manifested and we've seen and bear witness and show
unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and then
was manifested to us. And just like they saw, I've
seen by faith and I'm trying to manifest to you, declare to
you like they were declaring to their brethren. And he says,
that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you
also may have fellowship with us. That means that you might
be united with us like we just saw. And truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. There is the
tie that binds us. Now watch this. And these things
we write unto you that your joy may be full. You have no greater
joy than when you hear the works accomplished. That Christ has
finished the work. That Christ has made us accepted.
That Christ has made us complete. That Christ is keeping us. God
delights in us, that we've been translated into the kingdom of
His dear Son. When you hear, when you're under
bondage, under the bondage of your sin, the bondage of will
works religion, the bondage of this world, and Christ makes
you to see, He set you free, made you accepted, and He's going
to carry you into glory, then brethren, you have joy in you. And we have this through hearing
of Him. His grace, the joy of His grace,
and then the joy of His salvation. One day we're saved, we're being
saved, and we shall be saved. One day He's going to completely
deliver us. And He said this right back in John 16, 20. He
said, Verily, verily, I say unto you
that you shall weep and lament. You shall weep and lament. And
that's true of all His people in the world. He said, you're
going to have tribulation. But the world shall rejoice. That's the world that he said
he doesn't pray for. The world shall rejoice. And
you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. He said in Isaiah 66, 5, Hear
the word of the Lord, you that tremble at his word, you that
believe, your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my
name's sake, They said, let the Lord be glorified. I've never
been rejected by a man that didn't do it, claiming to do it in the
name of glorifying the Lord. It's always in the name of glorifying
the Lord. And what he's rejecting is God
getting all the glory and him not getting some. But he's doing
it because he wants God to be glorified. That's always the
case. He said, they rejected you saying, let the name of the
Lord be glorified, but He shall appear to your joy. And they
shall be ashamed. Now we have joy right now in
all this great glorious gospel we have in Christ. But brethren,
you just imagine. Have you ever sit and just think
about the joy that we will have when we see Christ face to face? We don't even know what joy is.
We don't. I've had some pretty good times.
I've had some things that I've rejoiced over. I don't even know
what joy is. I don't have any idea. We're
going joy, brethren, joy. Alright, here's number 10. Believers
are the objects of the world's hatred because we trust Christ
and we're not of this world. Now verse 14. Now watch, watch
how you have the world and then you have Christ's people. You
have the world that he prays for and the world he doesn't
pray for. You have the world and his people. Watch this now,
verse 14. I've 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 or from the world. You see how there's the world
and then there's his people? The world hates us. Why? Why does the world hate us? We
don't try to be different. We don't try to purposely dress
different or act different or speak different. But there's
a difference. There's a difference. Because
we're not of the world. They hate us because of how we
are not of the world. How are we not of the world?
This grace I've been preaching. The carnal mind hates God and
hates grace and hates salvation to be all of the Lord. And so
they hate us for believing it. And God our Savior was and is
hated by the unregenerate world. Our Savior is hated. He is a
man despised, it says. That's who He is. You know who
it was that crucified Him? The unregenerate world crucified
Him. That's who crucified Him. We
once were that world, brethren. We were in that world and we
hated God, His Word and His people. Go over and read Titus chapter
3 sometime. That was us. We hated Him. But now we rejoice. Isn't that
amazing grace? Isn't that amazing grace? Thank
God that He keeps us from the evil. Behold, they shall surely
gather together, He said. There are going to be folks gathered
together against us, but not by Me. He's saying there, I'm
not going to gather anybody against you. He said, and whosoever shall
gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. That's what God says to His people. Now that's who a believer is.
Why would anybody not believe on this God? Why would they not
cast their care in His hand? Why would they say, I don't want
any of that. All goodness, no bad. All riches, no poverty. All grace, no labor and heavy
burdens. All eternal life and no condemnation. No, I don't want any of that. I don't know what to call that.
I don't know what to call it. Here's 11. Believers are kept
set apart from the world by the truth of God. That's how we're
kept from the world, the truth of God. Verse 16. They're not of the world, even
as I'm not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is true. That same word
that separated us in the beginning, in regeneration, when the gospel
is preached to us, that's the word that keeps us separated.
This word just is not what the rest of the world
believes at all. And it's working in our heart,
and it's making us to abide in Him, and it's making His words
to abide in us. His Word is truth, and there's
no other truth but the Word of God. His Word's truth. Buy the truth and sell it not,
the Scripture says. Lord, to whom shall we go? Here's
why we don't go anywhere else. Here's why we're kept separate
from the world. Thou hast the words of eternal life. We could sooner do without our
earthly bread than we can do without these words. We have
to have them. He keeps us separated from the world. Alright? Here's
the twelfth thing. Every believer... Now catch this. Listen to this carefully. Every
believer is sent into this world as the servant of God to do His
will by spreading the gospel of Christ. Verse 18. As Thou
hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them
into the world. If you're here today and you
don't yet believe on Christ, if you hate what I've been preaching
to you, this point right here ought to make you listen up carefully,
very carefully. Just think about this. He said
believers are not of the world. We're not of the world. We're
hated by the world, He said. And yet, He sent us into the
world. Why? Why would He do that? Christ said this, Other sheep
I have, which are not of this foe, not of Israel, them also
I must bring. I must bring. And they shall hear My voice. And there shall be one foe and
one shepherd. That's what Christ said. Now
pay attention to verse 20 right here, and we're going to look
at this next time for the third request, but you need to see
this. Watch this. If you don't believe,
look at this right here. Verse 20. Neither pray I for
these alone. He's saying for these believers
that he made to believe. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. That's who else he prays for.
Do you see that? He's making intercession for
them. That's why we preach the gospel. He's got a people who
are lost in this world. He sent us to that people and
He's going to save them through this preaching of this gospel.
They shall hear His voice. And He's going to come and make
Himself manifest in them like He did in us. And He's going
to do that through the gospel. And He said, now you go preach
it. And He said, I'm making intercession for them. They must come and
they shall come. That's why we go preach the gospel.
That's the reason. They're going to believe on Him.
There's no doubt about it. There might be some here. I hope
there are some here. I pray there's some here. Jonah said, when a man rejects
the gospel, he's forsaking his own mercy. Forsaking his own
mercy. Alright, here's the last thing.
The ones Christ prays for, He knows he intercedes for it. Here's
a believer, the last mark. They're the objects of everything
Christ came to accomplish. Verse 19. He said, For their
sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified
through the truth. For their sakes. The Son of God
set Himself apart in eternity. He set himself apart when he
walked this earth. He set himself apart and went
to the cross to willingly make himself a sin offering to God
for his people so that they would have this truth of accomplished
redemption that's been accomplished for his people. He says that his people might
be sanctified, and they are, by one offering. perfected for
ever them that are sanctified. And that is, people might be
sanctified by hearing and believing this truth. Galatians 3.13 says,
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us. For it's written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a
tree. That, here's the reason, that the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. That we might receive
the promise of the Spirit through faith. That's why I did it. When
the fullness of time has come, God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law. Why did He do it? That we might
receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your heart, crying,
Abba, Father. So you're no more a servant but a son, and if a
son, an heir of God. That's what it is. That's who
Christ prays for. That's who shall be kept, because
Christ did all this for them, and he prays now to the Father.
Father, keep them. Keep them. Keep them through
thy name. That's security, brethren. His
name's attached to this. As somebody said, he loses more
if he loses one of his people than his people lose. His name's attached to this.
I pray He'll make you one of His believing people that He
intercedes for. Amen. Let's stand together. Father, we thank you for your
word. We pray that you'd bless it. Pray that you'd make us see
how clear and how true your grace is toward your particular people.
Make us cast all our care on Christ. Lord, thank you for interceding
for us. Thank you for keeping us. And
we're thankful that we have an advocate with the Father, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Forgive us our sins, Lord. We
ask it in Christ's name. Amen.