Let as many servants as are under
the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the
name of God and His doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that
have believing masters, let them not despise them because they
are brethren, but rather do them service because they are faithful
and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and
exhort. If any man teach otherwise, and
consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he
is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes
of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,
perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute
of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from such
withdraw thyself. But godliness with contentment
is great gain. For we brought nothing into this
world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having
food and raiment, let us be therewith content. But they that will be
rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish
and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the
root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have
erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many
sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee
these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith,
love, patience, meekness. fight the good fight of faith,
lay hold on eternal life, whereinto thou art also called, and hast
professed a good profession before many witnesses. I give thee charge
in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ
Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession,
that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until
the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his times he
shall show who is the blessed and only potentate, the King
of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling
in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath
seen nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting.
Amen. charge them that are rich in
this world that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain riches
but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy
that they do good that they be rich in good works ready to distribute
willing to communicate laying up in store for themselves a
good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold
on eternal life Bold Timothy, keep that which is committed
to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions
of science, falsely so called, which some professing have erred
concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen. John
17. John 17. And look at two verses of scripture
this evening. John 17. Verses 11 and 12. John 17, 11 and 12. Our Lord Jesus here. And now
I am no more in the world, and I come to thee. 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. Here our Lord Jesus, I've mentioned
it so many times, is praying for us, he's interceding for
us. And we'll never, never know fully what it is for our Lord
Jesus to intercede for us. How many times by his intercession,
Have we been protected from evil? How many times through His intercession
have we been spared from catastrophes? How many times through His intercession
have we been kept back from some horrible sin? Kept back from
following our fallen nature? Oh, His intercession. His intercession. He entered into the holy place
for us. And there He intercedes for us. Ever lives, ever lives
to intercede for us. And here He is interceding for
us. And here we are, blessed saviors, praying for us to be
kept, to be kept by his father. He said in verse 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. And I tell you, let me deal with
this business. We need to, he said, he prays
for us to keep, be kept by his father. And we need to be kept. We need to be kept because of
where we are. Look what he says, these are
in the world. We certainly need to be kept because where we are,
we're in the world. We're in a world and the world
is a system that's against God. The world is a system that's
not interested in God. The only thing they're interested
in is the things of the world. Pride and ambition and honor
and recognition, wealth, materialism, all of these things. And Paul
called it in Galatians 1.4, he called it the present evil world.
And John says that the whole world lies in wickedness, in
wickedness. And the world does not know God.
Look what he says down here in verse 25 of John 17. Oh, righteous
father, the world has not known thee. The world has not known
thee. The world doesn't know God. They
don't know God. And our Lord Jesus Christ, in
verse 9, He said, I pray not for the world. I pray not for
the world. So you see, He said, we need
to be kept because of where we are. We're in the world. We're
here in this world. We have to live in this world.
And we have to have some dealings with it, financially, economically,
socially. But our Lord Jesus Christ said
this, He said, I am no more And now I am no more in the world.
Our Lord said, I am no more in, I'm no longer in the world. I'm
no more in the world. And this is why he prays for
them. They were about to, for the first time, be left alone. Our Lord Jesus Christ told them,
I'm going away. Started in John 14, I'm going
away. I'm leaving here. I'm going back where I come from.
I'm going back to my father. I'm leaving you. I'm going to
leave you, but I won't leave you by yourself. I'll send the
Holy Spirit. But here he's praying for them
because he said, I'm no longer in the world. I'm no more in
the world, but I'm going to go back to the father. And they
were the first time going to be left alone. Their master had
always been with them. They'd always been with their
master. They could always turn to him and ask him questions.
They could always sit and listen to him preach. They could reach
out and touch him. They could sit down and eat a
meal with him. They could always turn to him in their time of
need. But the time of his departure is here, the time for him to
return to his father. And he has these few sheep, these
weak, Weak people. These weak disciples. And they're
not going to go to heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ now. And
that's why he said in John 14, he says, I'll go away. I'm going away. I'm going to
leave you here. And that's what he's doing. You
can't go where I am. You can't come to be with me
where I am. Lord, let us go with you. You can't. You can't go
now. You can't go now. And these people
are left alone in a wicked, cold, persecuting, God-hating, Christ-rejecting
world. Christ-rejecting world. And our
Lord here speaks of Himself as having already died, already
risen, already ascended, and yet He hasn't, because He's already
said, I'm no more in the world. He's speaking in things that's
already done. You see, He calls things which
are not as though they already were. Now that's the way He is.
He can call things that are not as if they already were. He declared
the end from the beginning. And what our Lord's here, He's
praying, saying, I'm no more in the world, but these are.
But he was still here. He hadn't left yet. He's not
going to die till the next day. But he's talking about as if
he's already died. He's already been risen, already
ascended, and already gone to be with the Lord. Yet he hadn't.
He calls those things which be not as though they are. And he
said, I'm no more in the world. I'm no more in the world. I'll
no longer be able. I'll no longer be here to guard
them. I'll no longer be here to watch
out for them. I'll no longer be here to walk with them and
talk with them. I'll no longer be here in this
world to guide them. I'll no longer be here to personally,
personally care for them. And they're going to be left
here and going to be exposed to the world, going to be exposed
to men who despise them and hate them and hate Christ and despise
Christ. And if you think I'm not telling
you, if you think that's not true, you go to talk to any Anybody
that's just in religion, you just talk to them about Christ.
Talk to them about grace. They'll talk about works. We
won't talk about grace. They want to talk about going
to heaven. We want to talk about being done
with sin. They want to talk about doing
works and being accepted of God. We want to talk about we've already
been accepted of God. But he's going to leave us in
this world And they said, we're exposed to the world. He had
been ever present with them. He had been their friend. He
had been their protector. He upheld them in their infirmities. He even told Simon Peter what
he was going to do. And he upheld them in their infirmities. They would ask him, they'd argue
over who's the greatest, and our Lord Jesus Christ would talk
to them, and then they would Rejoice over something didn't
mount anything. They want to call down fire from
heaven They won't do all kinds of things and our Lord bore with
their infirmities ain't you thankful ain't you thankful? I know it's
not good grammar aren't you thankful? That the Lord Jesus Christ Deals
with us and keeps us in our impermanence. Oh Helps us. Well, oh my goodness
you talk about an infirm. Hmm. Oh My upheld them in their
weaknesses and protected them from evil. Protected them from
evil. And what does He do with these
dear saints of God, these sheep of God, these sheep that He has?
You know what He does? He commits them to the charge
of His Father, into the hands of His Father. That's what He
said. And now in verse 11, I am no more in the world, but these
are. And I come to thee. And look what He says. Holy Father,
keep through Thine own name these, these, But oh my, he commissed
them into the hands of the fathers. But he says, Lord, these are
in the world. I tell you, God could took every believer to
glory the day they believed if he had a will to do it. The moment
they believed, he could took us to glory. That dying thief,
our Lord Jesus Christ said, today you're going to be with me in
paradise. He got to go be with the Lord Jesus that day. And
He could have took us, He could have saved us by His grace and
then took us straight to glory if He had the will to do that.
But for reasons of His own, He leaves us in this world. He leaves
us here. For reasons of His own, and He
leaves us in this world. He leaves some of us longer,
some of us shorter. But He leaves us in this world.
Look what He said in John, in verse 15. I pray not that thou
shouldest take them out of the world, but thou shouldest keep
them from the evil. And now some he leaves here longer,
and some he leaves here shorter. Some he takes as babies, some
he leaves here till they're a hundred, and every age in between. But
he leaves us here, and I'll tell you one reason why I believe
he leaves us here, is that he gets more glory by leaving us
here than he would any other way. You know why? Because we
have to be kept. And who's going to keep us? He
didn't say, keep yourself. He said, I'm going to keep you.
Father, you keep him. He gets more glory by leaving
us here. You know, remember when Paul says, you know, he said,
he said, God, he said, the Lord sent a messenger of Satan to
buffet me. And I asked the Lord three times,
three times. I went and prayed three times.
Here's a man that when he could raise a dead man, he could cast
out demons. But he had an infirmity that
God sent him. And he asked the Lord three times
to take it away from him. And you know what the Lord told
him? And this is exactly what he tells us why he leaves us
in the world. I want you to know that my grace is sufficient for
you. And my strength, my strength,
not yours, my strength is made perfect in your weakness, in
your weakness. And oh my, His power is made
perfect in our weakness. And He leaves us here that we
might learn daily that we are what we are by God's blessed
grace, that we have nothing whatsoever to glory in. in our flesh or
in anything we do in this world. By the grace of God, we are what
we are. And that's the way it is. Who
made us to differ? What have we got that God didn't
give to us? And he leaves us in this world
to let us know That He has to keep us. He has to prevail. And He wants us to understand
that His grace has saved us. His grace has to keep us. And
His grace is sufficient for anything we go through in this world.
This is our doctrine. His grace. That's our doctrine. His grace is sufficient for us.
Saving us and keeping us. That's our experience. And His
grace. This is our blessed hope. that
I'm going to get up tomorrow and He's going to keep me. I'll
fall flat on my face, but He's going to keep me. I'll commit
sins, but He's going to keep me. I'm going to embarrass Him
and shame Him, but He's going to keep me. I'm going to fail
you a thousand ways and have a thousand ways. I've failed
you in every way a preacher could possibly fail a congregation,
but He's going to keep me. He's going to preserve me. He
sent Jacob down into Egypt so he could reveal his power by
bringing him back up out of Egypt. He sent him down there just to
let him see how much power he had in bringing Jacob back up
out of Egypt. And he left us in this world
to show how much power he has in keeping us and upholding us. He left us here to be tried He
left us here to be tested to prove that the excellency is
of the power of God and not of us. We have this treasure. Oh, what a treasure it is. What
a treasure it is. Christ, grace, love of God in
Christ. We have this treasure, but it's
in a clay pot. It's in an earthen vessel. And
I know this, I could show you this, but you can see it yourself
in 1 Thessalonians 3, if you want to look at it when you get
home. There is an appointed measure of suffering for every one of
us on this earth. There's an appointed amount of
sufferings for every single one of us. God's got a measure that
he measures the amount of suffering that we're going to have in this
world. And I tell you, there's no way in the world that we're
going to get away from receiving our share of suffering, are we?
And I tell you what, that's why I tell folks, laugh every chance
you get, rejoice every chance you get, and enjoy yourself every
chance you get, because just as sure as you live, you may
rejoice today, tomorrow, that God may turn out the sun. That's
just the way it is. You know what, though? I don't
care how long it rains and how much cloudy it is, the sun's
still behind it and one of these days it's gonna come out again. Ain't it wonderful when the sun
shines after it's been dreary for a few days? Oh my, so wonderful. And it's through much, much tribulation
that we enter the kingdom of God. And another reason he leaves
us in this world is to make us look more forward, more forward
to our Lord Jesus Christ coming in His glory and us going to
glory to be with Him. The longer we'll be here, the
more we want to see. Oh, when Christ who comes in
His glory, then shall we also appear with Him in His glory.
That's another reason He leaves us here. And look what our Master
said here again. In verse 11, He said, Holy Father,
keep, keep to Thine own name. And oh, you see how He dresses
His Father? Holy Father. Righteous Father. Holy Father. And this describes
His character. This describes His nature. God
is holy. He is high above all. He's pure. He's holy. And look with me in Psalm 113. Look at this with me. Let's look
together at this. Psalm 113. And start in verse
3. You know, Revelation says this.
The Lord God is holy. high and lifted up. And He's
to be worshipped and to be feared. And the titles of God in the
Scripture are suited to the request made by Him. O Holy Father, keep
through Thy Name. Now look what it says here in
verse 3 of 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,
and His glory above the heavens. Who is like unto the Lord our
God, who dwelleth on high, now listen, who humbleth himself
to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth. Oh my, my, my, what a description
of God. And that's why it says Holy Father.
That's your name, that's your nature, you're holy. And oh my,
He calls on the holiness of God, the nature of God, the character
of God to keep us. And all the titles of God in
the scriptures are suited to the requests made of Him. He's
the God of peace. Now the Lord of peace give you
peace by all means. And He's the God of patience.
And oh, what patience He has with us. And He says, Holy Father,
keep. Keep. He's letting them know
that's here in him who it is that he's asking to keep them.
He don't ask anybody to take care of his sheep. He didn't
say to the holy angels, keep my people. He didn't say to the
preachers, keep my people. He said, holy father, you keep,
you keep them. He's asking him, the holy father,
to keep them, to keep us. and He is holy, and He will do
according to His nature. Oh, you reckon that He would
ever fail when the Lord Jesus Christ asked Him to keep us?
You reckon our Lord Jesus didn't get from His Father what He asked? Oh, my. Keep through Thine own
name, through Your name. Oh, my. Father, I love these. I love these. I've loved them,
and I'll love them to the very end. And Father, I lay down my
life for them. I shed my blood for them. And
I'm giving them over to you. And you keep them. Because I'm
going away. You keep them. You keep them. And oh my. Listen. What value. What value our Lord
must place upon us. What value are we to our Lord
Jesus Christ that He places upon us. to ask His Holy Father to
keep us. What value He must put upon us.
Why does He esteem us so highly? Well, I tell you, I know this,
that He doesn't esteem us highly for anything in us. You know
why He esteems us highly? Because, Father, they were Yours,
and You gave them to me. And I'm no more in the world,
but they are. So please keep them. Our Holy Father, keep them.
They were given to Him as a gift from His Father. And he wouldn't
have just anyone, such as an angel or self or anybody else
to ask to take care of him. John 3.16 says, God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son. John 3.16 tells
of the Father's love to us. And John 17 tells of the Father's
love to His blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. and what he's
going to do for his blessed son. God, in his blessed love, he
gave him a people of the Lord Jesus Christ, a people. And one
of these days he means to have every single one of us conformed
to his image. And all through eternity means
for us to show forth his praises. And he says, Father, preserve
them. You gave them to me. I'm giving
them back to you. Now you keep them and preserve
them. Till I come and get them. Till I come and get them. And
He's going to do that. Oh my. Father, they were yours. You gave them to me. Now I'm
going to turn around. I've got to go. And they're left in the world.
And I want you to watch over them. I want you to protect them.
I want you to preserve them. And you know how we know that
this has happened? He sent forth the Spirit of His
Son into our heart. And we turn around and say, Our
Father. And then look what He says here. Keep through thine
own name, verse 11, that they may be one as we are. That they
may be one as we are. And that's what he's praying.
He's praying for our unity. He's praying that our unity with
one another is what he's praying for. That we may be, they may
be one as we are. Our unity with one another is
what he's praying for. And he's praying for a unity,
a oneness of personal knowledge and fellowship with the Father.
Father, you and I have this wonderful fellowship. We have this intimate
acquaintance with one another. We know one another. And what
he's praying for is that you all, we all would be one in a
oneness of our personal knowledge of God and our fellowship with
the Father and with the Son. He's praying that we may have
unity and oneness in spirit. In our spirit, we're all one
in spirit. We're all one in affection. All
one in one goal, one aim. And that's what Paul said to
all the Philippians. He says, you know, we have all
one goal, one aim. Going in all, going in one direction.
And you know, according to the scriptures, we're all one. We
are one. We're all made partakers of the
divine nature. And you know what that makes
us? You know why He gave us His divine nature? So we'd agree
with Him. So we'd be holy. To make us in
agreement with Him. To know Him and to have fellowship
with Him. That's why He gave us this divine
nature, this holy nature, this new nature that He gave us. And
He prays, Father, not only keep them, but make them one. Make
them one. Now there's lots of differences
in God's people. Lots of difference in God's people.
Lots of difference in us. Yet those who know Him, know
the Lord Jesus Christ, who know God, they are one and salvation
is of the Lord. Every one of us here agree in
that one thing that salvation is of the Lord. Is that not right? Every one of us agree to that.
We're one in that. We're one in truth, in this truth
that salvation is of the Lord. From beginning to end. And we're
warned in this, you know, the scripture said over in Acts 4.32
that they have all things in common. And we're all warned,
we have a blessed unity of believing God's word. Every one of us believe
this is God's word. Everyone should believe that
this is God's word. That it's inspired by God himself. That
this is God's, if our Lord was here to say something today,
he would not say any more than what's already written down right
here. Our Lord would absolutely say nothing more than what's
already been said. He would not add to it. He would
not take away from it. And oh, listen, we have a blessed
unity of believing God's word. Inspired. We have this blessed
unity in believing that this is our final word of authority. We don't have to go to an ecclesiastical
board. We don't have to go to some headquarters
somewhere to find out what we believe. We don't have to have
to preach what we're supposed to believe. We've got God's Word
to tell us, and that's the final authority. When it says it, that's
it. You know, people said, he and me said this years ago, and
it's true, he says, people said God said it, and that settles
it. No, and I believe it, God said it, and that settles it,
whether anybody believes it or not, it's settled. His word is
forever settled in heaven. And we all agree to that, that's
one. I agree to that, every single one of us believes that. I'll
tell you something else we're one in. We're one in believing
and trusting in the glorious person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, we believe Him, we trust
Him, we know Him. We've been washed in His blood.
And we're one in our view of the work of Christ. Our Lord
did not fail in what He came to do. He came to save His people
from their sin. He came to die for His sheep.
He came to give His life a ransom for many. And everyone for whom
He died is sure for salvation because God said it and Christ
said it. And oh my, and we're all one
in this, that we rest our souls, rest our very souls, repose our
souls in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're all one in this, that
there's only one righteousness and we only have that garment
of righteousness. The only righteousness we're
dressed in is the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
we're all one in this. We all want God and aim for God
to get all of the glory in this world and in us and in this congregation. We want God to get all the glory. And I'll tell you something else
we're all worn in. All of us long for the time when
we shall forever, ever be with the Lord. Our Lord said, worn
as we are, the union that he prays for his people is divine,
is spiritual, it's intimate, it's invisible, and it's unbreakable. Unbreakable. And then look what
he said in verse 12. While I was with them, notice
that, while I was with them, not just everybody, 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. While I was
with them, I kept them. And he commits them in whose
name he had kept them while he was here. And those, he says,
those whom thou gavest me, I've kept them. I've kept them. I've
kept them. Now you keep them. And look what
he says. And those thou gavest me, I have
kept. I have kept them. I've done just
exactly what you gave me the charge to do. Just like the shepherd
keeping his sheep. You know David, he was a shepherd,
and he was just a boy, but a lion come trying to get one of them
sheep, he killed the lion, took sheep out of his mouth. A bear
come, wanted to kill some of the sheep, he slew the bear.
So if David, and he's a type of our Lord Jesus Christ, if
that's what David did, imagine what Christ slew so that we could
be kept. If David's gonna go after one
little old sheep out of the mouth of the lion, you imagine what
Christ gonna do to keep us! And oh my, none of them is lost. And oh, he said, I've kept every
one of those that God gives me, but watch what he says. And none
of them is lost, but the son of perdition. What a contrast
here between the sheep, those that were given to Christ, and
those who weren't. And it says, none of them is
lost save the son of perdition. That's Judas he's talking about.
Did our Lord Jesus Christ fail here while Judas was lost, the
son of perdition? Did the Holy Spirit fail here
and not bring him to Christ? No, no. You know why it says
that? The son of perdition that the
scripture might be fulfilled. Scripture might be fulfilled.
And this is the fulfillment of Psalm 41. You see, Judas wasn't
given to Christ to keep. Judas wasn't given to Christ
to die for. Judas wasn't one for whom our
Lord shed his blood for. He was a son of perdition. He
is a son of sin. He was a son of iniquity. He wasn't a child of God. And
oh my. And to see such a one who was
so false, so false, Spend such a long time with the real, with
the real. This just magnifies the grace
of God more in keeping those that were given to him. Here's
all these people gathered around him. He was so false and he dwelt
so long among the real. And nobody knew who he was but
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ know
exactly when the time was coming and how much he'd be sold for.
And who would come and kiss him? And he says, but I kept everybody
else. But this one, why didn't you
keep him? He wasn't mine. He's a son of
perdition. But I kept all the rest of them. Even though there's falseness
among them. And oh, I've kept them. I have kept them while
I was in the world. Only us. an almighty, omnipotent
person could keep us and keep them. And he said, and I've kept
them from the world. Look what he says down in verse
14, 15 again. I kept them from the world and
I kept them from the flesh and I kept them from the devil. I've
kept them. Don't take them out of the world.
I've kept them in the world. And I tell you what, he's going
to keep us while we're still in this world. But I tell you
what, it won't be as long as it has been. It won't be as long as it has
been. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed,
holy, glorious name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, thank
you for allowing us this evening and this day. Thank you for your
word. Thank you for your grace. Thank
you for keeping us. And Lord, I pray that you would
indeed make us as one. Tear down every barrier, every
wall. Tear down everything that's so
contrary to you and your grace and your love and your mercy.
Oh God, forgive us of everything that's so unlike you. Thank you
for being the God of peace, the God of patience. Preserve us
and keep us. Oh Lord, we want to be kept and
we thank you that you prayed for us to be kept. Thank you
that you turned us over to the Father and he's kept us all these
years. Not one for whom you've died
ever been lost, not won. We thank you for that, for that
blessed truth, that blessed hope that we have. God bless and keep
you dear saints here, for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen.