Go back, if you would, to John
chapter 17. John chapter 17. This is the
Lord's Prayer. As you know, and in this prayer,
He prays concerning the glory of Himself. He prays that the Father will
give Him glory. He prays for His immediate disciples,
these eleven men who are listening to Him. And He also prays for
those who will hear the word of these men or who will read
the word of these men and then come to a knowledge of Christ
Jesus. Notice that he says this in verse
John 17, 20. He says, neither pray I for these
alone. That's an important statement
because he has before him 11 men. And He has been praying
for them. And we might well wonder, well,
is He praying for us? And isn't it interesting, by
the way, that here He's praying to the Father. And as our exalted
high priest now, he makes intercession for us. It doesn't say that he
prays for us now, but he makes intercession for us before God. But here he is praying for his
disciples, but not just for them. He says, neither pray I for these
alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their
word. You see, there are five of these
men who will be used of God to write the Holy Scriptures. And these men are still speaking
to us this evening. These five plus one more, the
Apostle Paul, who, if you believe he wrote the book of Hebrews,
which many do, that means he wrote over half the New Testament,
because there's only 27 books in the New Testament, and if
you believe he wrote the book of Hebrews, which most do, he
wrote 14 books in the New Testament. And we believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, we embrace Him, We love the doctrine of grace, the doctrine
of the salvation of God through the Word that our Lord's Spirit
gave to these men to write. And we believe on Him through
their Word. Do you believe on Him? Do you
believe on Him whom God has sent? Do you believe Him as being God? As being man? As being the one
who satisfied the demands of God's law? who obeyed every jot
and tittle of the just requirements of God? Do you believe on Him
who then died paying the penalty for us breaking God's law? The penalty being death. Do you
believe on Him? Do you cling to Him? Have you
cast your poor soul upon Him with all of its sinfulness, with
all your faults? Have you fled to the Lord Jesus
for life everlasting? Well, if you have, it's through
this Word. The Word that these men wrote
by the power of the Spirit of God. Now, I want you to notice
two things. Our Lord Jesus, He did pray for
all of those who would come to believe on Him through the Word.
That's us, and that's all the people from that point on to
the very end of time as we know it. He prays for all of us who believe on Him through their
Word. Let me point out two things.
Number one, He didn't pray for the entire world. He only said, I pray for these,
I don't pray just for these alone, but I pray for all who shall
believe on Me through their word. He prays for everybody who will
ever believe on Him. Which means, those who never
believe on Him, He doesn't pray for them. You say, are you sure? Yeah, look back at verse number
nine. The Savior says, I pray for them. I pray not, not for the world,
but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Understand this then, this is
not a universal prayer for everybody. He doesn't pray for everybody. He prays for his people, those
who will believe on him. He says very distinctly, I pray
not for the world. Here's a strong reason to resist
any notion of divine universal love. For people to say that God loves
everybody without distinction is a ridiculous statement. Because,
and I want you to think here. You know, our Lord said in Isaiah
118, He said, come now and let us reason together, saith the
Lord. Let's think about this a little
bit. Would our Lord Jesus, would He refuse to pray for everybody
if God loves everybody? That would be inconsistent. He
says, I pray for those that you've given me. Which means He doesn't
pray for everybody. There are some people He's never
prayed for. Because if He ever prays for
you, if He's ever prayed for me, if He makes intercession
for us now, it means we're the objects of His love. There would be disunity within
the Trinity To say that God loves everybody, and yet Jesus doesn't
pray for everybody. Well, that wouldn't even make
sense. And for Him to say, listen, I pray not for the world, but
I'll die for the world. Well, that would be foolish too. Or for Him to say the Holy Spirit's
going to try to save everybody in the world, and yet He refused
to pray for the world. These things are inconsistent
with the Scriptures. He prays for those the Father
gave Him in covenant grace. Now, somebody might be thinking, maybe
you're thinking, I don't know why you make a big deal out of
this. So, some people teach universal
love, some people teach universal redemption, some people teach
the universal efforts of the Spirit of God to save everybody. Why do you press this, Jim? And why do some other preachers
press this as well? Number one, because we've got
to be true to the Word of God. I don't have to be true to the
Baptist denomination. I don't even have to be true
to this congregation. But I've got to be true to the
Word of God. We gotta say things the way God says things. The Bible teaches God loves his
people. The Bible teaches Christ died
for the church. The Bible teaches the good shepherd
laid down his life for the sheep. That's what the Bible teaches.
And here's the second thing. If universal love and universal
redemption and universal work of the Spirit, if those things
are preached, even though they are contrary to the Word of God,
then here's what that preaching does. It robs God of the glory
in salvation. That's a big deal. That's a real
big deal. You see, you've got to, and I
pray that God will impress this upon each of us, we've got to
come to an understanding and to a stable belief in our own
hearts about this. Who ultimately saves the sinner? And if you're one of those, and
there are lots of people who fall into this category, who
believe that God has done everything that He can do, He loves everybody. He wants the best for everybody. And if you're one of those who
believes Jesus shed His blood for everybody to pay everybody's
debt of sin, and you're one of those who believe that the Spirit
of God, He wants to save everybody if you'll just let Him, well,
that means the salvation is up to you. That means salvation turns, it
hinges on your will. And I'll tell you what that does.
That robs God of His glory. Do you remember in the book of
Exodus when Moses said to the Lord, show me a glory? God said,
I'll make my goodness pass before you and I'll be merciful to whom
I'll be merciful. I'll be gracious to whom I'll
be gracious. But if you deny that, you're
trying to steal God's glory. He's not going to allow that.
And that's certainly not going to go on here. Who is it that saves the sinner? I'll tell you who saves the sinner.
God does. And you know that the salvation
of the righteous is of the Lord. We embrace the doctrine, the
theology, the teaching of Jonah. He said, salvation is of the
Lord. I'm in a mess. I can't get out. That's what he's saying. I'm
down here in the whale's belly. I'm entangled. I'm in prison. There is no hope for me in and
of myself. Salvation is of the Lord. And
when that came, when that dawned upon him, when that came upon
his heart, then God told the fish, spit him out now. Because he's learned a valuable
lesson. And I'll tell you this about
everybody in religion, and as far as this goes, everybody in
the world. You'll either learn and love
and believe that this salvation of sinners, this deliverance
from Satan, deliverance from Satan, you'll either believe
and love that this salvation is all of God and all through
Christ Jesus and His work of redemption, or you're gonna perish
in your sins. That's just the way it is. God's
not gonna let you take any credit. Did not the Apostle Paul say,
by the grace of God I am what I am? And he even said, the things
that I do, it's the Lord working in me. You think you've ever
done anything for God to commend you? Any good thing you've ever done,
He did it through you. That's what the scripture says.
And He ordained you to do it. That's why it's a big deal. That's
the reason. We want to glorify God. And then
I'll tell you this, I said I want you to notice two things. First
of all, he didn't pray for the entire world. Here's the second
thing. He not only prayed for these
11 apostles, but those who would believe on him. So he's praying
for us. What will the Spirit of God used? What will He use to convey to
our minds and then to our hearts that God dwells in light, which
is unapproachable, and that we are vile, wicked
creatures, and that the Lord Jesus is the only Savior of sinners,
and He saved sinners substitutionary death upon the cross of Calvary.
What will the Spirit of God use to convey this threefold message
to our minds and to our hearts? It's the preaching of the gospel.
It's the preaching of the Word of God. He says in verse 17,
sanctify them through thy truth. Thy Word is truth. It is truth. It is true. It's an accurate
recording of the mind and purpose of God in all of the historical
events that God ordered to be recorded by holy men of God who
spake as they were moved of the Holy Ghost. Thy Word is truth. What is it that the Spirit of
God will use? The Spirit of God convicts a
person that they're spiritually diseased. We're sick. You understand that? We're sick with sin. We're spiritually
dead and we're dying physically. And we have no hope, we have
no help in and of ourselves. What is it that the Spirit of
God is going to use to teach us, not only of who God is, but
of what we are, the mess that we're in? And what is He going
to use to teach us that there's a great physician? Isn't that
good news? There's a great physician for
our diseases. The Scripture says He heals us
of all diseases. What does that mean? All of our
aches and pains and cancer and heart disease and all those things?
It's the disease of sin. We're healed by His stripes.
He didn't endeavor to heal us by His stripes upon the cross
of Calvary. He did heal us. Isn't that what
the Scripture says? Years ago, there used to be a
program on radio. Back then, I didn't have a grasp
of the truth, but it was called Back to the Bible. I bet you
remember it. Wow! Do we ever need that today? to go back to the Bible and see
what God has to say. He's not vague with His language. It's very open. And He has His
preachers who declare the very truth of God's Word. You see, this is a book. This
book, I should say, is the message from God for sinners who are
in a bad way. It's sent to sinful people. It's
a message of good news. The Bible is a message of good
news, of full forgiveness and righteousness, and the assurance
that the Lord is with His people, in His people, and He's for His
people. This is a message from the Father
to His children. Isn't it wonderful when you have
a loved one who's away from you, and you get a heart from them?
Or you get a letter from them? There's our youngest grandson. He's in the army, in basic training. He got a letter today. Oh, that's
good news! Guess who I got a letter from
today? Oh, and she sent us a copy of it, and we read it, and we're
all happy. Guess who I've heard from today?
God. And He sent me a message. He
sent a letter of good news. It's a joyful message. It's a
message that will comfort your poor heart. I don't know what
you're going through with, but all of God's people have difficulties
and trials and tribulations from time to time. Our lives are kind
of like this, aren't they? And lots of times we're having
some sicknesses or something's going wrong as far as we perceive
it. Well, what has God used to cheer
us up? Can you be cheered up even in
the midst of sickness and disease? Is there any joy anywhere? Oh
no, things are so bad and you're just wallowing in self-pity? And then I read this apostle
who wrote over half the New Testament, who was in prison, he writes
letters, he wrote to the church at Philippi, and he says, I've
learned to be content in whatsoever state I'm in. Well, I bet you're
in great shape there, the apostle Paul. Yeah, I'm in a dungeon.
I'm in a dungeon. There's no bathroom here. There's
nowhere for me to go shower. There are bones down here where
men have suffered and they've been in prison, they just died
here and nobody took their bones out. There's an awful, awful
stink here. And I don't have liberty to come
and go, but he said, I'm joyful. I wish I could know a little
something about that. And he told them, he said, I've
learned to be content now. One who taught him. And how did
God teach him? God taught him, and He taught
him through His Word. And that's how He's going to
teach you too. That's how He's going to teach me, if He is going
to teach us. And therefore, he wrote to the
people at Philippi, and he said, rejoice in your circumstances. He didn't say that. He said,
rejoice in the Lord. In the Lord who is your Savior,
the Lord who is your Sovereign, the Lord who is your Substitute,
the Lord who was your Sacrifice. Rejoice in the Lord who is the
one who governs all things that happens to everybody in the world,
most especially to His people, who measures out whatever trials
that we must go through. Rejoice in Him, and He said,
and I'll just say it again, And again I say, rejoice. Boy, how comforting it is when
we read in the book of God, we get discouraged, we get dismayed,
and maybe we feel our guilt sometimes more than at other times. You
just get convicted and you say, boy, I sure am glad nobody knows
my thoughts. I'm glad nobody knows my motive,
because my motive isn't always the glory of God. In fact, it
rarely is. And you feel guilty. You know
what it is to have a guilty conscience before God? All of God's people
do from time to time. But remember His Word. He said, their sins and their
iniquities will I remember no more. You mean God doesn't hold
them against me? No. He held them against His
Son. And His Son bore all of God's
wrath in our stead. That ought to give you some joy. And when you're convicted, You
hadn't done enough, hadn't prayed enough, hadn't read enough, and
listen, we hadn't done those things enough, and I'm not excusing
us at all. We ought to read more, we ought
to study more, we ought to pray more, ought to be more faithful. But in the midst of our many faults and failures, Can
you not rejoice in forgiving grace? Salvation's a joyful thing. I read a message the other day,
and this guy was saying, he said, you know, most Christians, he
said they look like a mule who's been chewing briars. I don't
exactly know what that looks like, but I do get the impression
it's somebody who's not happy. But we have every reason not
to be fleshly happy, but to be happy in the soul. To be joyful. And I'll tell you,
the more we can get into the book of God, the word of God,
the word of truth, the more we can appreciate what this book
says our Lord Jesus has done for us, the more contented we're
going to be, the happier we will be. I know we can get out of
sorts. All of us can from time to time.
But there's no reason for us to be out of sorts. There's no
reason for us to get aggravated and upset, not happy. Listen, our God rules all things. And our Savior, the one who bled
and died for us, who redeemed us with his own blood, he ever
lives. And I tell you, he's governing
all things. He's doing it to fulfill the
Father's everlasting purpose. And he's doing it to work all
things together for the good of his people. How do you know
that? Because that's what this book
says, and this word is truth. Can God lie? No. Say, God can do anything. He
can't do anything contrary to his nature. And scripture says
he can't lie. And he can't be unfaithful. In
fact, the word of God says, and this is what Paul wrote to Timothy.
He says, though we be unfaithful, though we be unbelieving, God
abides faithful still. Boy, that's good news. And His
attitude toward me is never going to change.