John 17, where we'll continue
in the gospel there. Start reading together again
in verse 6 down through verse 19. I have manifested Your name to
the people whom You gave Me out of the world. Yours they were,
and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now
they know that everything that you have given me is from you,
for I've given them the words that you gave me, and they have
received them and have come to know in truth that I came from
you, and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for
them. I'm not praying for the world,
but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine
are yours. and yours are mine, and I am
glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world,
but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father,
keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they
may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept
them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded
them, and not one of them has been lost, except the son of
destruction, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I
am coming to you and these things I speak in the world that they
may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I've given them your
word and the word has hated them because they are not of the world.
Excuse me, the world has hated them because they are not of
the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that
you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the
evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the
world. Sanctify them in your truth. your word is truth as
you sent me into the world so I've sent them into the world
and for their sake I consecrate myself that they also may be
sanctified in truth now we're going to deal with verse last
week we dealt with verse 10 in a more specific way today we're
going to look at the following verses in that context we will
not get all the way through that section but as it is one thought
I want you to hear it that way I want you to hear it that way
As we know, Jesus is praying. As we know that Jesus is about
to be betrayed. He is about to be arrested. He
is about to die. And His earthly ministry in His
incarnate state is soon to be over. It's not easy to apply narratives
like this to our lives because of, and I know I talk about this
a lot lately, because of how we have been taught scripture. It's not easy because we've been
taught, if you will, that the preacher pastor gets a word out
of that sentence and preaches an hour on that word that's not
in the context of that paragraph. And we think to ourselves, how
are we, the quote, lay people of the world who work real jobs
and work hard and don't have time to look at the Bible and
study this way, how are we to get this truth? And that's why
I believe that exposition within its context is the biblical manner
in which it should be understood. As a matter of fact, I think
that hearing the word of God as it is written, is the intention
of God. Not parting out all these different
things that could be there or that are approaching here, but
it also requires us to walk together in the exposition of this gospel
for 130 weeks. But it's not new. We're not learning
something new today. We're examining something new
today within the context. So as you read the scriptures,
you are hearing them as God has given them. You are understanding
them as God has intended for them to be understood. We don't
need to use the Bible in verses. You hear sometimes people call
or use the term proof texts. You should never listen to someone
who says, I have proof texts. Unless they are using an entire
parallel teaching in context someplace else. Typically what
that means in error is that someone has a verse or sentence or half
of sentence or a few words or phrase that gives the verbiage
that fits their philosophy. Versus in context. Now there's
a lot of things in context here, but more importantly than what
Jesus prays, no, not more, as important are the words of Jesus. Jesus'
words are just as important as the implications of Jesus' words.
That's what I'm trying to say. So the very fact that Jesus prays
is important. Think about that for a minute.
Jesus is praying for His disciples, not for Judas. We see that. Jesus
is praying for those who are His, who have been given to Him
out of the world, not just these, but those who will believe, those
who have been given and will come to faith, but not those
who have not been given. Because Jesus does this, we see
that Jesus in His humanity submits and surrenders his entire success
of his ministry to the work and the will and the power of God
the Father. Yet he is truly God. He is truly God. And Jesus prays for his sheep. Jesus is praying here, and you
need to understand, and I might have said this last week, if
I did, forgive me, it's worth repeating, but His work as High
Priest, as Lamb, as Propitiation, is finished. Jesus is not in
heaven pleading in a physical, real time sense for us. He pleaded for us on the cross.
He bled and died for us on the cross. He rose again from the
grave because He was not personally guilty of sin. So the wages of
sin was not His to bear. So He substituted Himself for
His people alone. And only His people. And then
He prays for His people. This isn't the last time Jesus
prays. This isn't the first time Jesus prays. But here, before
the cross work, this is His last earthly prayer before His disciples.
This is the last time they'll see. Now, there are, we see in
the Synoptics, the praying of the Garden of Gethsemane. But
we do not see His disciples in there. As a matter of fact, they
weren't even consciously aware of what He was doing. Now I've
had people ask me before, just a little side note on defending
the scripture, how did John and Peter and James, how did they know what
Jesus prayed if they weren't in the garden with Him and they
were asleep? Good question, right? Because
they wrote it down perfectly. Because He's already prayed.
And as you've seen in John 17, for those who have continued
to read it, everything that I've ever taught, the Spirit of God
will bring to you. How is it that Paul was not a
part of the earthly ministry of Jesus, yet he knew all things
concerning the gospel? Because God, the Holy Spirit,
gave him all revelation of this truth. He was able to see it,
to perceive it, to believe it, and to proclaim it. And the only
people who have ever been given that in a divine way, apart from
the written word, were the apostles. And now, we too, as the apostles
were given the revelation of Christ, we too get the revelation
of Christ in equal manner, except we do so through the written
word of the apostles. We sang that this morning. What
else is there for him to say that he's not already said? concerning
the gospel. What else is there for us to
hear that we have not already heard? Beloved, read this text. Read this text. And we have not
forgotten about Colossians. Keep reading it. I promise you
it's going to come together one day and you're going to go, wow,
I'm glad I stuck with this. But read the scripture. Literally
read it. It's so weird because Four or
five years ago, I remember being extremely involved in ministry
and more than just ministry, ministry training. And I remember
being taught one of the best ways to read the Bible is with
a pencil and a notebook. Let me ask you a question. When
you read a story, do you take notes? When you watch a movie,
do you pull out your pad and your pen? Cross-reference that later. Stop
reading your Bible like that. Don't read your Bible with a
note pen. Note pen. Don't read your Bible with a
notepad and a pencil or pen. Don't write in your Bible and
color it. Don't look at keywords. Don't
parse out this thing. Don't put the sentences in a
structure and start diagramming the syntax. Stop! Read it! Just read it! There's no such thing as biblical
inductive Bible study. Now it may be exciting for you,
but it is sterile. And the only way that that sterile
practices come alive is when you start digging into things
that aren't necessarily in the text. The things that you and
your mind must dig and dive for. And then you get really excited,
but that's not being taught by God, see. I always get tickled
when people start to expound upon the Hebrew meaning of a
word. You know the cool thing about the Hebrew people? They
would have a billion meanings for one word. And it changed
with the culture. The dictionary is a collaborative
affirmation of what people say a word means at the time it was
printed. You realize that? And the collaboration
is from the level of academics down. Have you ever gotten a
survey in the mail? What do you think the word Google
means? Please fill in the blank. No, you're just told what it
means. Because someone used that numerical
word as a way of expressing their company's desire to have a list
of everything. We don't learn from dictionaries.
We don't learn from thesauruses, thesauri. We don't learn from
all the other tools and resources that are at our fingertips. We
learn from God the Spirit. And we learn through reading.
Now I am not knocking different approaches to certain things
in scripture, but beloved, unless we are getting 95 to 99% of our,
let's just be hyperbolic, 99% of our bread and butter from
the written word itself, we should not spend one second in peripheral
literature. Because that will inform you
of who Christ is rather than God informing you of who Christ
is. Jesus is praying. And that tells us a lot about
Jesus. That tells us a lot about us. As parents, and Brother Jesse
and I were talking about this this morning, you know, our children
exist by our will. We give them everything, we provide
for them everything, we encourage them, we teach them, we equip
them, we protect them, and then when they get a certain age,
they act as though everything they have, they got on their
own. and there's just some rewiring
of the teenage brain. It's just like they get up one
morning and there's a metal spoon or something that shouldn't be
in their bedroom that's on the floor and it arcs and it fries
their brain and then all of a sudden they think they're like a self-made
man. And they forget. And we forget. But ultimately at the end of
it all, We take care of our children, we give them everything, and
even when they despise it and don't understand it, we still
love them, we care for them. And beloved, God is going to
care for us and keep us and train us and teach us. Even when we
forsake the very means through which He's promised to do so,
He will do it. And that's the ultimate end of
what this prayer does for us. But this prayer, if you'll keep
in mind, was Jesus praying so that we could learn His prayer? Jesus was praying to God the
Father because this prayer is answered by the power of God.
And you don't have to claim this prayer for yourself. You don't
have to believe this prayer for yourself. You don't have to act
on this prayer for yourself. Do you know what you don't have
to do when God works? Anything. He will work. And God, in this way, just like
we do in our human sense, imperfectly, to train our children, to care
for our children, God perfectly prepares his children for his
presence. And we talk about sovereignty,
we talk about omnipotence, all power, we talk about God being
God, you know, the highest of all things. Yet the way we live
our lives, if we are truly evaluating our hopes and fears, it's falling
short. And a well-tuned American pulpit
could take that theme right now and just never look at the Bible
again and just charge all of us with getting our acts together. And here are 14 ways, with 9
sub-points apiece, you can get your act together for the Lord
Jesus. Write them down. Proof text after proof text after
proof text after proof text and before long you'll be well on
your way to being a Jew. A Pharisee. Believing in a false God and
a false Christ and a false gospel and a false interpretation of
scripture. Also known as a cult. But that's not the point of this
prayer. Well, let me ask you this. If Jesus, who is God the
Son, prays, should we not also pray? And if Jesus, who is God,
depends upon the Father's work and power to secure His people
for Himself, does that not mean that we are secure? But where
is it that Jesus has taught us to pray? This is a side note.
Remember the Lord's Prayer that we so passionately from childhood
from rote memory, recite at ball games. What's that going to do
for us? What is that? I mean, what in that prayer has
anything to do with sports or athleticism or spelling bees
or trips? As a matter of fact, it is not
a prayer. It is Jesus saying, and when
you pray, pray in this way. And he's talking to his people. teaching them the elements and
the promises of prayer. And there's one specific thing
in there that I want to make certain you understand. Jesus
says to pray that God would lead us away from temptation. Now that's a broad subject, isn't
it? What kind of temptation were the disciples under this very
moment? Jesus' point here to them is, I'm leaving you. And
their horror is, Jesus is leaving us. Now what are we going to
do? We're going to fall into a mess. And Jesus prays that
the Father would keep them. Do you pray that the Father would
keep you? Now, there's a difference. Jesus is praying the Father would
keep them in salvation. You don't even have to pray that.
It's done. But Jesus tells us, as His sheep,
to pray that the Father would lead us not into temptation.
You ever see yourself so overcome with your flesh and you just,
how often do you ask the Lord to lead you out of it? If you're like me, it's the last
ditch effort. You go, wait a minute, I haven't
even asked the Lord to help me here. And it usually ends up being,
God, take this away, take this away, take this away, versus
lead me away from the temptation of this. And I don't want to
talk on that. It's been preached about prayer
very well from this pulpit. I think Brother Jesse even preached
on it. Brother Trace preached on it. We know. But now here's Jesus
praying. And He's telling them. Last week
we looked at verse 10. Let's look at verse 10. All mine
are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. Now
we're going to pick up on this truth here. And then we're going
to see in verse 11 that the reason Christ is praying for them is
that he is leaving them. I am no longer in the world. Now, he was sitting with them
in the world, right? He still had a few more days
to live or die, live, come back. He was gone. But the point is,
Jesus, my time is done. I'm no longer in the world, but
they are in the world. You see. Jesus was going to ascend to
the father. Physically, he was not going to be with them any
longer. And it was good for them. It is good for us. Because the
point of Jesus coming, the point of the incarnation. Is to take
care of our sins. Is to satisfy the wrath of God
for our sins. But they're in the world, and
I'm coming to you. I'm leaving them, I'm coming
to you, but my sheep are staying in the world. Now that's a horrifying
thing. Just like children, if we were
to leave our children for just a few minutes, and they not know
why, where, or who they were left with, it would be a state
of chaos. You ever lost a child in a shopping
mall? Maybe you sort of knew where they were, but couldn't
put your eyes on them. The panic that ensues. But then
sometimes the children don't even know. Have you ever purposefully
lost your children so that they could feel the panic? Yes, I
have. And there's something incredibly satisfying in it. Daddy, oh my
God. You know, and they come running
and you duck behind the pants rack. How's that feel? Ha ha! You see. These disciples, we, I mean let's
be honest, do we often times feel like God is just nowhere
to be found? Like the spiritual stuff sometimes
just, it has no real bearing in our lives. We need to remember the prayers
of Jesus, specifically the fact that He prayed and He has left
the world and we are still in the world. And He went to the
Father. What does that mean? For Jesus
to be with the Father means what? That our redemption is secure. That our place with Him in glory
is certain. That the promises of God and
salvation are finished. We have great confidence. And
then here and only here we see this term, Holy Father, and Jesus
gives this request of the Father, keep them in your name. And just
in case we were forgetting who He's talking about, He reminds
the Father. More specifically, He prays particularly. which you have given me. Keep
them in your name. Now, that's not a phrase that
we're familiar with in our vernacular. That's not a phrase that we understand.
And if you're not careful and you do your little Bible study
too deeply and you start looking at word usage, you'll see a lot
of that in the prophets. In your name, by your name, for
your name, all of this. But what this means in a literal
sense is simple. God, in all of your power, because
of you, keep your people. Keep your people. That's a simple
explanation of it. Not by their will, not by their
sincerity, not by their power, not by their growing or maturity,
not by the strength of their faith, not by their desire to
follow after me, not by their obedience or their moral reform.
Don't keep them in this way. Don't keep them in that way.
Don't keep them in the world. Keep them as they are in the
world, but they're not of the world. Keep them by your own
name. Your name is at stake, Father. And by you and you alone, do
you have the power and the authority to keep them? Why? Because they
are yours. You keep them. You've given them
to me. I keep them. You see, this is.
This isn't something new, this is just Jesus depending upon
the father to keep his people. And think about this. If the
power of God keeps us. And God literally keeps us and
we belong to him and we belong to Christ, are we not with them? Are we not with our God? Or better
yet, is he not with us? He's with us. We've already seen
that in 16 and 17, the spirit, God, the spirit. Is with us. He empowers us. He gives us life. He is the seal
of our inheritance, the guarantee of our hope. Because God does not abandon
His people. It's not like when we travel and we leave family
and go and do and we get back together and have a reuniting
and it's all exciting. The presence of God with us is
never severed. In our culture, A lot of well-meaning
people think, well, how do I know the presence of God? We've got
to find some sign. Jesus rebukes people for looking
at signs. Jesus rebukes people for looking
at wonders. Jesus rebukes people for looking
at the signs of the time. Why? Because it takes our eyes
off of what Christ has already shown us. It takes our focus off of the
gospel of grace and puts it on the world in which we live that
we are not a part of, though we are in it. Those of you who are my relatives
in the room, you are all my family. You remember our grandmother
saying that has no eternal value. And it was always measured that
way. You break that antique dish,
it's okay, throw it away, have an eternal value. I'm thinking,
well, where was that attitude when I was a little child? That
switch had eternal value. But ask yourself, in the sermon
73 on the reading of Romans series midweek a couple of months ago
on obedience, do you good to go listen to it again if you
haven't heard it? But if we were to look at our
lives and ask, you know, what eternal value does everything
we have and everything we do, what is the eternal value of
it? What is the ultimate end of it all? Of all of our growth,
all of our savings, all of our pursuits, all of our closet space? I mean, what is it for? And see
how you have to be very careful because you can get very radical
and throw everything away and think that you're honoring the
Lord or you can get very cynical. But at the end of life, what
really matters is that we are found in Christ, not what we've
done for Christ. And I don't have time to go through
this thesis this morning, but many years ago, I came to realize
that the scripture teaches that the reward of heaven is Christ. That the crowns of reward is
my love for Jesus because of His love for me. And yes, we
are motivated because of God's love and because of His power
to do all that we do for His glory, for the name of Christ. But if we're to really measure
it, I mean, even our ministry, even our teaching, even our assembly,
what's the point? What's the point if it's not
eternal? It's just passing away. Now,
we can never get away from the temporal. Lest we become like
the Thessalonians that Paul rebuked for sitting on our hands and
just waiting for the Lord to come back. Not working, not getting
jobs, not preparing well, not being good stewards, not taking
care of business, not maintaining our homes and our children and
our hair. I mean, you know. But what's the point? I'm glad
you asked, because Jesus answers. Keep them in your name, which
you've given me, that they may be one. that they may be one." What in
the world? One what? Even as we are one. Context is important. We've already heard that God
has taken us out of the world and given us to the Son. So nowhere
in this context has anyone taught that we are God. Or that we are
ontologically like God. That means we have no beginning
or that we are divine. Or that we are set apart as God
is set apart in His righteousness, in His essence. But when we are found in Christ,
the whole point of last week that He is glorified in us is
first, That we are His people and that we are redeemed. Oh,
I know what popped in my mind a minute ago about parenting.
Here it is. And it's hard sometimes as a
parent to communicate to your children that they're really
not all that important. And they're really not all that
special. But yet we love them in a way that makes them important
and special. Because if you teach a child
the first thing, like they're God's gift to the human race,
then they're going to grow up conceited and entitled. But if you show them that all
that they are is just by the will of us, and that without us they
are nothing. Sound familiar? But because we
love them the way we do, they have great significance. That's
how we ought to see ourselves in Christ. God created the world
for His own glory, for the name of Himself. And in that creation,
He did so for the sake of His creation, seeing the light of
His glory. And He, out of creation, saved
and elect people to display that glory. So that in the construction
of it all, we look at it and we recognize our place in the
cosmos. as wholly insignificant, as completely
unworthy, as less than valuable. But being God in all of his glory
has done all these things for us in Christ because we are his
possession and he is glorified in us because of his work for
us, we have great value. Because of the love of God with
which He loved us, He gave His Son for us. God, because of His great love,
caused us to be born again. So the other side of glorifying
Christ as His church is that we are one. This is one of the areas. where
I could take and go extremely sideways for a couple of Sundays
and deal theologically deeper with that. And it would be a fun journey
for me. And it would be a fun journey
for some of you. And some of you would go, what
a waste of time. So I encourage you to consider
what you might want to do there. If you want to go down a rabbit
hole that never ends, then great. If you want to see the manifold
positions in which so many commentators and theologians may approach
that with, and the cults, you're welcome to do that. But if you
want to see it in its simplicity, Jesus is God. He is from God. He is the one true God. He is the Son of God. He became
man. God sent Him. He is truly God
and He is truly man, equally, eternally at the same time God,
but then temporally. And at a point in time, He became
man. all for the purpose of God's
name to be glorified in the heavens and on the earth and under the
earth eternally because of His grace, because of we who are
His beloved are found in Him. And so as we see Jesus, and when
we see Jesus in His humanity, all that He is, all that He says,
all that He does, and all that He effectually finished and accomplished,
we see the Father as the Father is. So in the same way, when
the people who are the children of God, who are the sheep of
Christ, are, are they not supposed to be one with Christ? Christ
is one with the Father. What this means is that we are
to be together. Not just, I don't know who said
it like this years ago, but not just a unity, but in unity. Matter of fact, I don't think
we should be a, I don't think that's in the text here. God's
word, Jesus is not praying for a collective block of sheep. the sheet block. I want them
all to be together. He's talking about intimacy.
Just as the father and the son are intimate, so shall the church
be intimate. I'm going to kick against the
American church for a second. If that's the case, and if we're
unable to escape as human beings the temporality of the worldly
maintenance in which we live, preparation for retirement, looking
to doctor bills, and all this other nonsense that one day will
be gone, praise the Lord. It's necessary. We all have a
gift and a service. We provide things for each other.
That's great. But it's all going to go away
one day. What's left? For the love of the name of Christ,
can we not, as the assembly of the saints, put away that worldliness
and just exist in unity with Christ? That is why we don't have time
for opportunities of worldly things with Christian icing. What is this building for? Whatever
we want it to be for. Bra and underwear have been sold
here. Wigs have been sold here. Weaves have been sold here. Books
have been sold here. Shoes. There used to be shoes
upstairs. I remember as a little boy going up there with my grandmother.
She'd go in through shoes for like six years. And what do we do? We gather
together and we hear the Word of God, we fellowship together.
What else could we do? Whatever we want. But what are
we called to do when we gather? To be one in Christ. To be one in Christ. And all of you, you can do whatever
you want to do tonight. There's nothing wrong with watching
a football game. If you want to watch a football game, great.
If you all want to come in here and watch a football game, great.
Just turn the heater off when you leave. But that's not our job as the
body to do that. Though the body can do it. It's
not what we are here for. It's not what we're going to
try to spiritualize things. If we want to go part of a relay
for life, if we want to go run and do a 5K for cancer, great,
go do it. But it's not the call of Christ's
people collectively. We're supposed to be one in Christ. We're supposed to learn and to
grow and to more, and out of that, we're to be more in love
with each other. And take care of each other's
needs and pray for one another and teach one another the Word
of God. We are to be one. Beloved, that one has great implication.
It has great implication that we've already learned. There
is only one gospel message. There is only one means to salvation. There is only one truth. There
is only one way to the Father. There is only one God and Jesus
is His name. There are not multiple approaches
to Christianity. There are not multiple Gospels.
There are not multiple means to faith. If you are to believe,
it is because God has given you to the Son and you are His and
Christ died for you. We don't need methods and messages
and buttons and checkboxes and eye-walking and prayer-saying
and song singing, and all this other stuff, and tell people
they're saved. Well, now that you're saved, let's become the
party people. And I know this may seem strange
to you, and I'm not telling you that this, I don't want this
to indict you, but for me, I would rather be together with you in
the Word, and around the Word, even if we're doing something
else, than anything else in life. And I'd much rather be with you
in the Word away from this pulpit than here. Because this is, while
it's personal for me, because you all are individually on my
mind and heart in prayers, it's very impersonal for you. Maybe
it isn't, I don't know. Somebody asked that question
of me Wednesday. Why is there such a disconnect of intimacy
between the pastor and the congregation? And I'm like, I can see it in
the panel. See it here. I mean, I don't
I don't I don't feel that way, but I know what the man's talking
about. Because I do believe we live
together in faith. We go through hard times together
in the faith. We celebrate life in Christ in
the midst of death. There's only one. While I was with them, verse
12, while I was with them, Jesus says, I kept them. I kept them
by your power. I kept them by your authority.
I kept them by your name. I kept them by your work. I kept
them by your will. Who have I kept? Those you have
given me. You see, Jesus reiterates that
five times in this prayer that I've seen this far. And not one of them has been
lost. Now don't read into this, except
the son of destruction. Now what Jesus is not doing here
is going, okay, I was almost perfect in my keeping, but this
one I couldn't keep. This one was not given to the
son. He was just the religious guy on the peripheral. in the
proximity of the body, but he was just a cut-off toe. And I read Psalm 41 at the beginning
of our service, and we see David crying out, the very one that
broke bread with me has betrayed me. And when Jesus says here, except
for the son of destruction that the scripture might be fulfilled,
that is in view. Remember, the Psalms, though
David did not know it, were extremely Christological. They pointed
to Christ. Isn't that amazing how God can
work in our hearts and we can cry out and sing and pray to
Him from our hearts? And the truth of what we say
and pray is congruent with Scripture? How amazing was it that God used
these things in the life of King David? to become scripture. It was his intention. Just like
most of the prophets of the Old Testament, they did not completely
understand everything that was to be understood concerning the
word of the Lord to them. Abraham did not realize Messiah
was his destiny. He couldn't see past his own
son. but he rejoiced in the day of
Christ. Scripture is fulfilled. Beloved,
Judas did exactly what he wanted to do. Judas was guilty personally
and truly in his own will and desire of betraying Christ. But it was an eternal, decreed
purpose and plan of God. God purposed it completely. Scripture might be fulfilled.
But now, look at verse 13. I'm coming to you. I'm coming
to you. This is really the occasion of
Jesus' fervent prayer. He is passionately pleading with
the Father to do that which the Father has promised. Jesus' prayers
are always answered. I've said this already. God will
keep you by His authority. Who can stand
against the authority of God? Answer the question. Name one
person who can stand against the authority of God. Who can
stand against the will of God? Who can stand against the power
of God? Who can stand before God and brag about anything? No one. So if we are kept by
the authority of God, we are kept by the will of God, we are
kept by the promises of God, we are kept by the power of God,
Jesus has prayed, we will be kept. Now you might think, and if you're
as honest as I sometimes want to be about your faith, you sometimes
probably have been in a place in your life where you felt as
though you didn't even believe anymore. That maybe you felt
as though there was never a time, maybe you've even thought, well
I must be reprobate. I must have just been a fake
believer and God is just sealing me for destruction. And I'd love to give you four
or five little things in your flesh that you could recognize
to show you that you weren't. Well, yeah, but, you know, this
was still here. Or, oh, well, were you thinking this? But,
you know, eventually this came back. Then where will your hope
be? Your hope will be on what your flesh recovers. God-given saving faith is to
believe in Christ, finish work alone through the promises of
God. And when everything in your cognitive
function, in everything in your mind, everything in your heart,
your feeling, everything is just sort of washed to the end and
there's nothing of substance left, God keeps you. I'm willing
to submit to you, beloved, that most of the times we find ourselves
in this faithless place or disturbed place is because we have been
trying in our flesh so hard to be assured. We have been working desperately to mold our life
in such a way where we could have an anchor. We have been ignoring the simple
grace of God and putting some type of toehold in the rock to
hold us in that position when we felt like we were about to
drop. And we're going through Galatians,
we're reading through Galatians on Wednesday night. And that's
what these Judaizers were doing. They were trying to put a toehold.
They were just a small little anchor, just a small little glimmer
of hope, just a small little tangible something that would
function as a safety net. Beloved, there is no safety net
in the gospel of grace. There's no safety net. There's
no praying a certain type of prayer that's a safety net. There
is no decision that you make that's a safety net. Those things
are of the enemy. And people are not saved in spite
of them. They are not saved because of
them. The Galatians had the gospel
perfectly. The Judaizers had the gospel
perfectly. And then they put a safety net
under it. The safety net was a hundred
feet deep. Sharks all around. Certain death. It was not going to save anyone.
It doesn't save anyone. The flesh doesn't save anyone. God saves
us. And if God saves us sovereignly,
He keeps us sovereignly. And whether our lives or joyful and pure and hopeful,
or whether we're battling with sin, depressed, and wondering
if we're going to make it through the day, it is only Christ and
His power that keeps us. I kept them in Your name, those You've given. But now I'm
coming to You And these things I speak while I'm in the world,
and I speak them into the world, that they, those you have given
me, may have my joy fulfilled in themselves." We are at joy again. And amazingly,
I've already preached about that, haven't I, this morning? Our
joy is ultimately found being in Christ. And that joy only comes through
assurance and security in the promises of Christ. And that joy only comes through
the Word of Christ that He speaks. And Christ's Word is spoken into
the world, the sheep of Christ hear it. You ever been in an airport?
I've lived in cities where English was a third language. But if
you've ever been in an international airport and you're waiting at
your gate, I have a hard time because of
my upbringing, if there is some other voice talking, I immediately
shut down. It's almost impossible because
I can't talk over it. interrupting things. So if I'm at my gate
and then a hundred yards down the way is another gate, boom,
about to Delta such and such, and watch it, watch it, watch
it, and I just have to stop. And I'm like, I have to listen to
it. I cannot tune it out. But when it's in Farsi, I don't
pay it any mind. I don't recognize it as language.
I know about 12 words. Dave, you might know more than
that. Cantonese, you get around people
that speak in Cantonese, I don't pick up that. I try to learn
John 3 in Cantonese. The pronunciation was so difficult
for me that I just quit. And I had a native speaker teaching
me. Song Thai, I'm going, Song, no, Song Thai, Song Thai, Song
Thai, you know, and I was like, no, you're not listening. Say
it correctly. I'm going, I am saying it correctly.
You know, no, you're not. Okay, I quit. We don't pay attention
to that. What's the point? What's the
illustration there? When we're not tuned into a certain language,
we pay no mind because it has no bearing on our ears. It's
just part of the noise in the background. But when something
we can understand is spoken, if someone calls our name, even
if they're not talking to us, we go, huh? Beloved, the Word of God. is
the call of God in your heart, in your mind, in your soul. When you hear the gospel, when
you hear the witness of God the Son from the Word of God, you
recognize it and it wakes your attention up. When the Word of God is preached
into the world, the sheep alone will hear it. The promises of salvation are
so secure in the power and the name and the authority of God
that even the means of salvation in the sense of saving faith
and the granting of that faith which is given by the Spirit
as He wishes through regeneration, which is what faith is, which
is a change of mind, now you believe something you didn't
believe before, which we use the term repentance. Then the means and the approach,
the message is all the same. It is Christ alone. I listened
to about an hour and a half of some open air. I don't know what
you'd call it. It said evangelism, but it wasn't
evangelism. For 37 minutes, this preacher
of the gospel of grace, supposedly, argued philosophy and science
with 70 people. And not one time did he ever
preach Christ. And he's a friend. And he's going
to hear it tomorrow. We fail to remember. We fail to remember. that the message of the cross,
that the message of Christ is for His elect. And then we can play the, oh,
it honors God. If it's not contextual, it doesn't
honor God. Can it segue? Sure. If the conversation
is about something, get to the gospel. Great. Nothing wrong
with it. Call it what it is. We had a
discussion on biology. Now we're talking about Jesus.
We had a discussion on cosmology, now we're talking about the gospel. We had a discussion on ethics,
now we're talking about the way, the truth, the life. It's okay
to talk about these things. The message of the cross, what
Christ has done for His people by His power, by the power of
God. These people in the world have
joy fulfilled in that promise, in that power, in that purpose. Isn't that ultimately what we
want as Christians? The joy of Christ? Do we want the fullness of God
within us? What is the fullness of God?
Do you think God sulks in despair? Do you think at this moment when
Jesus was so burdened in His flesh, right before He knew what
was about to take place, when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane,
when He told His disciples, those three, He says, please keep watch
and pray for my soul is troubled. I am in anguish. Have you ever
been in anguish? Have you ever cried so deeply
you couldn't take a breath in? Have you ever kicked the floor
wondering if you could just push the world down to get away from
it? Yeah, I have. And yet none of that is anguish
in comparison to the anguish of Christ. But yet even in the
midst of that anguish, Christ had the fullness of joy because
He was with the Father and the Father's purposes were in Him
and He was going to complete them for the sake of His people
whom the Father gave Him out of the world. And He says, I'm
glorified in them. You're seeking joy in anything,
but Christ is going to be a fool's errand. Every time you go, it's
going to be sold out if it's not Christ. Everywhere you look,
it's going to be worthless if it's not the finished work of
Christ for you. And just as a way of reminder,
beloved, we teach and preach to you, the saints, the elect
of God, those who are believers. We're not preaching this message to the masses. This service, this gathering,
this assembly, this family meeting is for us. For those that couldn't be here
with us today who will watch it later. So this instruction is for Those
who have been given to the Son. And when those who have been
given to the Son, who may not yet believe, hear through our
lives, through our evangelism, which is to share and to teach
the Scripture as we have occasion, by the will of God, to train
others, and to teach others what Scripture teaches concerning
this free and sovereign grace, God will call His elect home
to Him. He will call them to faith. He
will cause them to believe. And they will agree, and more
than agreeing, they will have hope in Christ. And their joy
will be full. See, it's oftentimes not joy
that is the outcome of most cultural faith. It is arrogant confidence. Well,
I know the truth. I've got the right understanding.
Well, that's what the Jews said. That's what the Judaizers said.
But yet they could not let Christ stand alone. They had to continue
to add a security net. Joy themselves. Look at verse
14. I've given them your word. And the world has hated them
because they are not of the world, just as I. And not of the world. And next week, we'll pick up
there. And we'll go to see verse 15. Sometimes we think joy is
when we get out of our circumstances, but look at verse 15. I do not
ask that you take them out of the world, but you keep them
from the evil one. So beloved, be encouraged, be
assured, be joyful in Christ. And if you are his, you cannot
be lost. And your joy is complete in him. Let's pray. We thank you, Lord.