These words spake Jesus, and
lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, Thou art kind. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son
also may glorify Thee, as 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. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And
now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, and 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 that I came out from thee.
And they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them,
I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given
me, for they are thine. 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 to thine own name those whom thou hast given
me, that they may be one as we are. one as we. 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 scriptures 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
takest them out of the world, but thou shouldest keep them
from the evil. Now I'm going to bring a message
God willing here in a little bit from verses 11 and 12. If you want to keep your Bibles
turned up. I hate missing services. When
you miss a service, it gets you all out of pocket. It does me.
It really does. And then, you know, they said
it's going to snow at 6 o'clock. It didn't even start until 9.30.
We could have been here and been home and had something to eat. But oh boy. that I'm thankful that we're
able to meet this morning. I look so forward to being here,
and I know you have, and some of you all haven't been here
because of the weather. But it is a blessing. It's always
a blessing. You know, sheep go in flocks.
And if a sheep's out by itself, a wolf will get him. But do they
go in flocks and they got a shepherd, you know, that's what deal with
Sunday, Wednesday night. The Lord is my shepherd. And
I tell you the shepherd is going to take care of his sheep. And
he going to keep them all together. But I want you to look here in
verse 11 and 12 and I want to hopefully say something here.
Now it says, Our Lord Jesus Christ praying for us, 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. 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. I don't know, I know this, we'll
never fully, fully, know fully what it is for our Lord Jesus
Christ to intercede for us. This prayer he prayed for us
is still being answered today. for those who are going to believe
through the word. How many times has His intercession
for us protected us from evil that awaited us? We don't have
any idea. As He interceded for us, how
many times do you reckon He spared us from some catastrophe that
could have happened? Or kept us back from some horrible
sin? And how many times has His intercession
for us kept us from following, fully following our fallen nature. All the difference that's made
in us and the world is Christ made the difference. That's all.
And here we have our blessed Savior praying for us, and He
prays for us for the Father to keep us. He says, Father, these
are in the world. I come to thee that through thine
own name that you've given me, that you'll keep these people,
that you'll keep them. Now he's praying for his father
and for us to be kept by his father. And I know this, that
we need keeping. You know why we need keeping?
Because of where we are. He says now, he says here in
verse 11, And now I am no more in the world, but these are in
the world. That's why we need to be kept. And why he prays for the Father
to keep us. Because we're in the world. We're
living in this world right here. And when he's talking about the
world he's talking about this earth that we live in right here.
And the world system that we have to live under. The world
system that's against God. The world system that don't know
God. Don't want to know God. God don't
enter their thoughts at all. In fact Paul called it this present
evil world. And John says the whole world
lies in wickedness, wickedness. And the world doesn't know God.
Look what our Lord said here in John, in verse 25 of John
17 here. O righteous father, the world
hath not known thee, but I've known thee. But the world don't
know him. The world don't know God. I've
often said it like this, if they met God in the middle of the
road, they wouldn't know Him no different than they wouldn't
recognize Him at all. They wouldn't know God from a
goat, most people wouldn't. They really wouldn't. And in
fact, our Lord Jesus Christ says, I pray not for the world. I don't
pray for the world. I'm not in the business of praying
for the world. Who are you praying for then,
Lord? For those that you gave me. For those that I laid down
my life for, for those that I did the work for, for those that
I came into this world to do something for. And our Lord said
down up here in verse 11, now I'm no more in the world. This
is why he prayed for them. This is why he prayed for them.
I'm no longer in the world. This is going to be about the
first time that these dear saints, these dear children of God were
going to be left alone. Their master had always been
with them. John, the beloved disciple, leaned on his breast
often. They always had questions for
him. How many times did he save them? How many times did he rebuke
them? How many times did he talk to
them about their little faith? And all their master had always
been with them. They could always turn to Him
in their need and ask questions. Ask questions. And our Lord said,
the hour has come. The time of my departure is here.
And He says, and Father, I come to Thee. I'm coming back to You. I was with You. I left You. I came here. And now it's time
to go back. That's what I said, Father, I
come to Thee. I come to Thee. And He said,
Oh, Father, these few sheep, these few sheep, these weak,
weak disciples, they are going to heaven with me. They're not
going back to be with you like I am. They're going to be left
in a wicked, wicked, wicked, cold, persecuting, God-hating
world. And our Lord speaks here as if
He has already died, buried, and rose, and ascended. And yet
He hadn't. But His hour has come. When He
got through with this prayer, He walked over the brook and
went out into the garden of Gethsemane, and they come to get Him. They
came to get Him. His hour had come. His hour had
come. And he speaks, but he calls those
things which be not as though they already were. It's just
like us in preaching the gospel. God's got sheep in this world
and we don't know who they are. And that's why we preach the
gospel. We know everyone for whom Christ died will one day
believe the gospel. One day we'll hear it and they
will believe it. Why? Because Christ said they
would. Christ said they would. And I
tell you, He can tell those things as though they really were. And He said, I'm no longer in
the world. I go. I come to thee. I'm no longer in the world. I
won't be here to guard them. I won't be here any longer to
guard them. I won't be here any longer to
guide them. I won't be here in the world any longer to personally,
personally care for them. They'll be exposed to the world. He had been their present, present
friend. He had been their protector. He had upheld them in their infirmities. He upheld them in their weaknesses.
He protected them from evil that was around them. Oh, how many
times did He save them from their weaknesses, protected them. When
they even thought that they were going to perish and He didn't
care enough for them to perish, He got up and He saved them.
He got up and He saved them. What does He do? Because He's
not going to be in the world and because these are left in
the world, what's He going to do? He says, Father, keep, keep
through thy name, these whom thou hast given me. I'm going
back. Now, Father, while I'm gone,
you keep them. I'm fixing to go to the cross.
You keep them. I'm fixing to go back to glory.
He said, it's your right hand. You keep them. You got big hands. You got a
strong arm. You got all power. You got all
the grace. Oh my. But these, he said, these
are still in the world. You know, God could take every
believer the moment he believes. He could take them right to glory.
If he will to do that. He could take him right to glory.
He did that dying thief. He took him right to glory with
him. He took Enoch. Enoch was out walking one day
and didn't go home. His wife wondered where in the
world he was. He was not, for God took him. He didn't go back
home. God took him. Translated him
and carried him home. Elijah, he said, Elijah, he said,
listen, I'm going to send a great big chariot and he's going to
come down and about the time he gets there, I'm going to just
have it pick you right up and have it bring you right up to
me. He could take us all just like
that. But for reasons only known to
himself, he leaves us in the world He
leaves some of us longer, some of us shorter. And why does He
leave us in the world? Why does He leave us here? And
why does He say, Father, keep them? I'll tell you why He does
it. He gets more glory by leaving
us here You know that he gets more glory for himself by leaving
us here and by keeping us. When Paul says, you know, there's
another time that Paul prayed three times, Lord, this thorn
in the flesh, you send it to me. And it hurts, it really hurts. And he asked him three times,
take it away from me. God just said, no, I'm not going
to do it. You know what Paul said? He said, well, I'll tell
you what. He said, His strength is made
perfect in my weakness. I'm absolutely weak, but He's
got all the strength and I have none whatsoever. And I tell you
beloved, His power is made perfect in our weakness. We learn daily. We learn daily, I am what I am
by the grace of God. We learn that every single day. That's what we learn. And He
leads us in this world. My grace is sufficient for you.
Is it never not sufficient? Is it never not a time in your
life where God's grace hasn't been sufficient? When you didn't have no answers,
was His grace not sufficient enough? When the doctor gave
you bad news, was His grace not sufficient enough? When your
marriage was in a rough spot, was grace not sufficient enough? When someone you loved is dying,
was His grace not sufficient enough? Oh, His grace is sufficient. It's never once, never once,
never once failed anybody who knows Christ. It's never failed. There's not been a moment in
your life since God saved you by His grace that He has not
had enough grace for you for every moment of every day of
your life. You say, I need grace for this.
Listen, we need grace 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 60 seconds
in every minute. And if I ever find myself not
needing grace, I'd prove that I just never had it to start
with. I mean, listen, what would we
do without it? What will we do? I am what I am by the grace
of God. This is our doctrine. This is
what God told us. This is our experience. Grace
is our experience. This is our hope. This is our
hope. I was listening to Brother Henry
pray the other day, or listen to him preach the other day,
and he said, listen, if God got us right, right to the portals
of glory, and we had but a half a step to walk through and get
in, we still couldn't make it. If you could take the last step,
you could take the first one. But if you can't take the first
one, you can't take the last one. Ain't that right? Oh, bless His name. He sent Moses
into Egypt to reveal His power in Pharaoh. And we're left here
to be tried. We're left here to be tested.
That the excellency might be of the power of God, not of us.
Look over here, 2 Corinthians chapter 4. I want you to see
this. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. He leaves us here that he gets
all the glory. He gets all the glory. Look what he said here in verse
7. But we have this treasure. Oh,
what a treasure we have. Treasure of Christ. Treasure
of His blood. Treasure of His righteousness.
Treasure of forgiveness. Treasure of justification. Oh,
treasures. Oh, we've got treasures. Oh my. The world think it's got
treasures? We got real treasures. But this
treasure, look what it says, it's in earthen vessels, pots,
clay pots. I look at you and we're just
clay pots, dust. But all the treasure that God
put in you, Christ in you, faith He put in you, grace He gave
you, Hope He gave you. Oh what treasures. When I see
you and you see me, we're just clay pots. But oh the treasure
that's in them clay pots. That's why we enjoy being together
so much. You got treasures that I want
to hear about. I want you to talk about. Tell
me about. And look what He goes on to say. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels. Why is it this way? That the
excellency of the power of keeping that gold clay pot and that treasure
in that clay pot, the excellency of the power may be of God and
we don't have nothing to do with it. Oh my. And I'll tell you something
else. There is an appointed measure
of suffering that God's got allotted for each of us while we're in
this world. He's got a measure of suffering for each of us.
And we all got to get to share that He means for us to have. You know Philippians 1.9.29 says
this, not only is it given you to believe on Christ, but also
to suffer for His name. Now I tell you, I don't know
how much suffering I'll have and I don't know how much you'll
have, but I know that God's got us a measure. And I'm glad man
don't measure it, I'm glad God measures it. He knows just how
much to put on you, and when He puts it on you, He knows just
how long to let it go. And why does He do that? to make
us understand that we have no strength and we got to have Him. Oh my! It's through much, much,
much tribulation that we enter the kingdom of God. Another reason
that He leaves us in this world is to make us look forward to
when Christ comes to get us. That's another reason he does
it. Lord, come quickly. Even so, come Lord Jesus. But
he says we look when Christ who is our life shall appear. You know what he says next? Then
shall we appear with him and be glorified together with him.
Oh my, what a blessed hope we have. Sue Thacker, I don't know how many of y'all
remember Sue Thacker. Did any of y'all know Sue Thacker?
The Lord called her home last Sunday evening, Sunday afternoon. And when I heard the news, I
said, oh boy, thank the Lord for that. That's what I said,
thank the Lord. Her son said, oh, She's gone
home. This world's not her home. Oh my. Oh my. I'm going to tell you
a story and I don't want to make anybody feel uncomfortable or
anything but the night that Mary died, I called Dewey and told him. I
said, your mom is gone. You know what he said? He said,
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. No more suffering, no more pain,
no more heartache, no more sorrow. That's what we're talking about.
Going to be with Christ. Going to be with Him. Paul said to be absent from this
body. is to be where? Present with the Lord. And He
leaves us here so that we're looking forward to that. Some
days, I mean, some days you want Him to come so bad you can't
understand it. And other days you say, you get so busy you
don't even think about it. We're a mess, ain't we? We're
a mess. Then look what He says here now.
In verse 11 again, He says, Holy Father, Holy Father, keep, keep
these. Holy Father, keep these through
thine own name, those whom thou hast given me. Keep them. And
when he calls him Holy Father, this is the only place in the
scriptures where Christ calls him Holy Father. Calls him Righteous
Father, Holy Father. Calls him Father, calls him Holy
Father. Why does he call him Holy Father? Because he's holy.
Because he's holy. This describes his character,
he's holy. This describes his nature, he's
holy. And he's high, he's so high above
all. He's pure, infinitely holy, gloriously
holy, eternally holy. And when you look at the titles
that God gives himself in the scriptures, They're suited to
requests we make to Him. We need peace? He's the God of
peace. We need patience? He's the God
of patience. We need keeping? Father, keep
these through Thy Name. You're the Holy Father. Would
anybody that's holy as God is, would He ever not do what He's
supposed to do? Would He never ever not keep
us? Huh? Oh my, when you talk about
God. Look, let's look together at
Psalm 113. Look what it says over here about our Lord. Look
what it says about our Lord. Psalm 113. You know, the God of all comfort,
the God of all grace, the Father of mercies, name after name after
name. And all to be called the God
of comfort, the God of patience, God of peace, established peace,
brought peace, gives peace. Look what he says right here
now. In verse 3, Psalm 113. From the rising of the sun until
the going down of the same, the Lord's name is to be praised
the Lord is high above all nations oh there are some awful powerful
nations and big nations in this world the Lord is high above
all of them and His glory is even above the heavens so we
ask this question who is like unto the Lord our God who dwelleth
on high now listen to this now who humbles himself to behold
the things that are in heaven Oh my, he has to humble himself
to look at things in heaven. Oh my. So if he has to humble
himself, imagine how humble it is for him to look down on things
on the earth. And look what else he does. He raises up the poor
out of the dust, lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, that
it may set him among princes. Oh my. Back over here in our
text. When he said, Holy Father, keep through thy name those that
thou hast given me. And when he says, Holy Father,
keep, he's letting them know who it is that's going to be
keeping them. Look who it is that I'm asking
to keep you. He's holy and he'll do according
to his nature. And he said, Father, keep through
thy own name. And why He said, Father? He said,
I love these sheep. I love these sheep. I laid down
my life for them. I bore their sins. And I loved
them. I come into this world because
I love them. I come into this world to do
for them what they couldn't do for themselves. Holy Father,
You send me. And what you gave me to do, I
did. And now I'm no longer in the world, so keep these. Keep these. What value, what
value our Lord must place upon us to ask His Father and pray
for His Father to keep us. How valuable, how precious, how
blessedly, how loved we must be of Him to Him to ask His Father
to keep us. Why in the world does He look
at us and ask these things? Why does He esteem us so highly?
Well, it's not because of anything in us. No, no. Because we were
given to Him. Oh where is a gift to him? Oh
my! And he wouldn't leave his sheep
to just anybody. Oh Gabriel is a great mighty
archangel. He ain't going to leave his sheep
to angels. Well there are some awful great
prophets in the world. He ain't going to leave his sheep
with prophets. Don't know. He said, Father,
I got some people that you gave me and I love them people. And I laid down my life for them
people. I gave myself for them. Father, I gotta leave them here.
Gotta leave them in this world. But you're holy, you're glorious,
you're faithful. Keep them. Keep them. Through
your own name. Oh my. Listen, you know John
3.16 tells of how much the Father loved us that He gave His only
begotten Son. And John 17 tells of the Father's
love to His Son. God's love gave Him a people
who will one day bless his holy name who will one day be conformed
to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ and all we sung that song
praise him praise him praise him tell of his excellent greatness
well that's what we will do for all eternity saying his praises
over and over and over and over again we'll stand around and
wonder I'm here. I'm here. I'm not there. I'm here. And he said, Father, preserve
them. Please preserve them. You gave
them to me. Now I'm giving them back to you.
Keep them. Keep them. And then look what
he said here. I've got to hurry off. He said,
while I was with him in the world, I kept them. But he says there
in verse 11, that thou hast given me that they may be one as we. One as we. He prays that they
may be one. Now when he's talking about that
he prays that we may be one, he's talking about the unity
between ourselves. That's what he's talking about.
Not our unity with the Father. He says, may they be one as we,
as you and I are. May those dear people that I
gave you, that those people that I laid down my life for, may
they be one as we. And our unity with one another
is what he's praying for. And I'll tell you something that
we're really warned about. I mean we really are warned about.
We have all, have everybody here that knows Christ. You know Him
for yourself. You have a oneness. We all have
one personal knowledge in fellowship with the Father and with the
Son. We all have the same Father, we all have the same Son, we
all have the same blood, we all have everything that God done
for us, He done for every one of us, but we all believe the
same thing. Huh? Oh listen, He says, we have
oneness in spirit, oneness in affection, oneness in aim. Listen, we're not all pulling
in different directions. No, no, we're here today as one. We're here over one knowledge
of God the Father, one knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and
our fellowship with Him. And we're one. You know why? Because we're made
partakers of the divine nature. I've said this over and over
and over again. I tell you, when God saves a man, He saves him
from top of his head to the sole of his feet. He saves his heart. He saves
his will. He saves his mind. He saves his
affection. He saves his heart. He saves
his understanding. He saves everything about him. He brings into existence a person
who never existed before. One day you rejoiced in sin and
you didn't even think about God and then the next day that's
all you can think about. What am I going to do? What am
I going to do? How am I going to get out of
the mess I am? How am I going to get out of the shape I'm in?
How am I going to get out of this miserable life that I'm
living? How am I going to get out of this? For God calls you to start seeking. And you start seeking, and you
start listening, and you start listening. And one day you'll
go someplace to listen to somebody, and that person will get up and
start telling you about a sovereign God. And about a Christ who bore
his sins in his own body on the tree. And about God's election
in those people. God's grace given to those people. Christ dying for those people.
And you say that's what I've been wanting to hear? That's
the remedy for me. Don't tell me that I have to
quit some sin before I repent. Don't tell me I've got to forsake
this, that and the other before I can be saved. Just tell me
who can save me. And when you find out that He
did it all, when you find out He did it all, That He ain't
never look to you for nothing and never will look to you for
nothing. You got to look to Him for everything. He ain't never
going to look to you for nothing. Oh my. And that's why we talk
about made for takers. And what He does is when He makes
these things, He makes us agree with Him. I agree with every
word He has to say. I agree with His will. I agree with His word. I agree
with His nature, I agree with His purpose, I agree with His
predestination, I agree with His election, I agree with grace,
I agree with His righteousness, I agree with God over everything.
And don't you? Huh? Oh, to know Him and have
fellowship with Him. Now there's a lot of difference
in God's people. All of us here are different
today. We're all different in a lot of different ways. Yet
those who know him know this one thing, salvation is of the
Lord. Huh? Ain't that right? Oh my. And there's a blessed, blessed
unity of believing God. May they be warned as we. May
all these be warned like you and I Father are warned. Oh my,
there's a blessed unity in us in believing God's Word. Believing
that it's inspired. This is our final authority.
And oh, we all look to Christ and His blessed person, His glorious,
glorious work. We do. Oh, we're all dressed. We all got the same clothes on. You know that? We all got different
clothes on today, but we all dress the same in God's sight. We all got the same clothes on. We all dress just alike. We all dress just alike. What
are we dressed in? The righteousness of Christ.
Pure and wide and spotless, unbringable and unreprovable. We all, every
one of God's people, aim for the glory of God. All of them
long for the time when they shall forever be with the Lord. And
so the union He prays for us is spiritual, intimate, invisible,
and unbreakable. And then let me hurry up and
say this. In verse 12, let me finish it
up with this. Our Lord said, you know Father,
I come and give these people to you, you keep them through
thy own name. He said, while I was with them in the world,
I kept them. I kept them. And I kept them
through thy name. And he commenced them to know
the name who he had kept them with and from, for, I mean. And those that thou gavest me,
I've kept. You notice that? Those that thou
gavest me, I've kept. He said, Father, keep them. He
said, I've kept them. Now you keep them. I've kept
them. You know, people say, I don't
want nobody to keep me up. Boy, I do. God, keep me up. I don't want nobody to keep me
up. Yeah, God, you keep me. Kept. He has kept them. And then
he says, none of them is lost. None of them is lost. Not a one
of them. Not a one of them. But then he puts that little
buddy in there. And here's a difference between
Christ, sheep, and those given to Christ, and those who weren't
given to Christ. When he says, and none of them
is lost, but the son of perdition. Did Christ fail here and lose
Judas? Did the Holy Spirit fail here?
No. It says that the scripture might
be fulfilled. Judas wasn't given to Christ.
Esau wasn't given to Christ. Ishmael wasn't given to Christ. Bruce Crabtree and I was talking
the other day, he said, Any of our children may be an Esau? May not never know God? Wouldn't it be awful? We used
to sing a song, DJ Ward taught it to us. I want to be a Christian
in my heart. I want to be a Christian in my
heart. I want to be a Christian in my heart. I don't want to
be a Judas in my heart. I don't want to be a Judas in
my heart. I don't want to be a Judas. Oh God, rip that heart open and
let it be exposed to you. And if there's something in there
that's not supposed to be there, God reach in there and take it
out. You said you kept me. Keep me
from everything that's unlike you. Rip it open. Rip it open. No, Judas wasn't
given to Christ. He wasn't a child of God. He
is a son of perdition. And here's the thing about it,
the false was with the real for three years and they didn't know
it. He didn't even know he was false
himself until he was put to the test. And you know what got him? Filthy lucre. Filthy lucre. And oh my, And I tell you what,
when you see the false spend so long time with the real, you
know what it does? It just magnifies the grace of
God more in Him keeping them that were given to Him. I've
kept them. I've kept them. Now Father, You
keep them. You know the only thing that
can keep us in this world is a power that's omnipotent. A power that we utterly and absolutely
depend on every day. A supernatural power. Even when
we're not conscious of it, He still keeps us. Huh? He still
keeps us. How many times have you been
driving along and somebody's pulled right out in front of
you? But the Lord let you have good
brakes on your car. I tell you, how many times has
he kept us? And I want to be kept, don't
you? I want to be kept. Father, keep
me. Please keep me. I want you to
be kept. I want you to be kept. I want
to be here when the Lord calls you home and I want you here
when the Lord calls me home. I want to be kept until then.
Not a minute longer. Our Father, oh, blessed, blessed
Father, how precious, how glorious is your gospel. Lord, who is
like unto you in power, and grace, and glory. Oh, Lord, what you
do for us. We come today because of your
will. We come because of your purpose. We come because of your word
and your spirit and our need. And Lord, you meet our needs. Oh, how you meet our needs. Blessed
be your name. Oh Lord, thank you. Praise you.
Keep us, keep us, keep us, keep us. Keep these blessed saints
of God. Keep them for Christ's sake.
Amen. Amen. Amazing grace, how sweet
the sound that saved a wretch like me. was lost but now am found was
blind but now I see t'was grace that taught me Oh, it taught us, it taught us.
Took those fears and relieved them. Oh, bless His name. Oh,
Lord. Through many dangers, toils,
and snares, I have already come. Peace hath brought me safe thus
far, and grace will lead me home. Bright shining as the sun. We know less days to sing God's
praise. It's still amazing, isn't it?
Grace is still amazing. So amazing. I love you. God bless you. God keep you.
We'll see you tonight, 6 o'clock, Lord willing.