Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. And I hope and pray that this
program will be a blessing to you. If you'd like to follow
along in your Bibles while I preach, I'm going to be preaching from
John chapter 17. I've been going through the book
of John, the gospel of John. And I'm going to begin here in
verse 20. I'll give you some context for
this though. And the title of the message
today is Those Who Shall Believe. those who shall believe. Now
this is what I've stated throughout these messages in this chapter,
John 17, that this is the Lord's prayer. I've always continued
to emphasize that the model prayer found in Matthew 6, our Father
who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, that's the model prayer
where Christ was teaching his disciples how to pray. And it's
a great prayer, and there's nothing wrong with it. It's the Word
of God. And it's what the Lord stated to His disciples, teaching
them concerning prayer. But here is the Lord's prayer.
This is the Son of God incarnate, the Lord of glory, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Savior of His people, the surety, the substitute, the
Redeemer, the preserver of his people, praying to his father
on behalf of his people, which are the elect of God, the church,
he calls them his brethren, and they are those who will be brought
to faith, that's why I'm titling this message, Those Who Shall
Believe. And that's an important thing
because the way he prays here, And so he's, you know, the Bible
teaches Christ, that Christ is the mediator, the one mediator
between God and men. And that's important because,
you know, so many people, they think that there's other mediators
between God and men, and there's not. The Catholic church, they
say Mary is a mediator, or they'll say some of the old saints, the
apostles are mediators, but they are not. There's one God and
one mediator between God and men, the man, the God-man, Christ
Jesus. And to pray through anyone else
is blasphemy. And I don't mean to, I'm not
trying to be confrontational there. It's just true. And that's
what I'm here to do on this program, to preach the truth as it is
in the word of God. But he's been praying for his
people. He started out, he prayed for his disciples, the ones that
were there with him. And then he said he's not praying
for the disciples alone that were with him, but all of his
people, which God gave him before the foundation of the world.
That's the elect of God. God chose a people. and gave
them to Christ and put all the responsibility of their salvation
upon Him. And that's what the covenant
of grace is all about. All the conditions, all the stipulations,
all the requirements of salvation for the people of God are squarely
upon the shoulders of Jesus Christ alone, the Lord of glory. That's
what it means in Isaiah chapter nine, verse six and seven, when
it talks about how the government is upon his shoulders. That's
the government of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven,
the government of grace. And that's where the gospel is
defined very precisely. The gospel teaches salvation
for sinners. conditioned not on the sinners,
not even on their faith or their repentance. They will have faith
and they will be given the gift of repentance because that's
necessary, but not as conditions they must meet in order to attain
or maintain salvation. The gospel teaches that all of
salvation for sinners is conditioned on Christ, the Savior of sinners. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians
1.20 that all the promises of God, and that's all the promises
and the blessings of salvation, are in Him, that is, in Christ,
yea, and in Him, amen. So they're sure and certain in
Him. He's the surety of the covenant. So it's all conditioned on Christ. And so when He prays for His
people here, He's praying for those whom he identifies as those
whom the Father had given him. Back here in verse 17 of John
17, he says, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is true. They are going to be set apart
by the truth empowered by the Holy Spirit who brings them to
faith in Christ. And I've talked about that, sanctified
through the truth. People don't understand the biblical
concepts of sanctified, sanctification, and holiness. They're the same
thing. And both words mean to be set apart. to be brought out
from the world, let's say. And Christ, he was set apart. He said, I sanctify myself. So when we think about sanctification,
we gotta think about what is it, specifically in the Bible,
that sets God's people apart from the world? And it's the
gospel that they believe. It's not what they wear. Now
that doesn't mean that we can throw caution to the wind and
wear anything or whatever like that. But that's not what sets
a Christian, a true Christian apart from the world. The world
can get involved in that kind of stuff. Paul talked about it
in his epistle to the Colossians. when he talked about how taste
not, touch not, handle not, that's worldly religion. And the reason,
and are there things that believers should not taste and touch and
handle? Yes. But that is not what sets
them apart from the world. Worldly religion thinks that
taste not, touch not, handle not is their salvation, their
righteousness. They measure righteousness and
salvation by what they don't do. So, but that's worldly. And Paul called it that in Colossians,
I believe it's chapter two, that why as though like the world
are you involved in those things as if that's what sets you apart? Well, it doesn't. So what sets
God's people apart? It's the truth. And that's what
he says in verse 17, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word
is truth. Verse 18, as thou has sent me
into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
Christ sent his disciples into the world to preach the gospel. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel. He's saying, preach the truth,
baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. That's the confession. Baptism is not salvation. Water baptism, the ordinance,
that's the confession of salvation. New Testament confession. And
so he says, I've sent them out into the world. and to preach
the gospel. He didn't send his disciples
in the world to change the environment or to be a mission of charity. Now again, don't get me wrong,
does that mean that we're not supposed to be charitable people?
No, we are supposed to be. But that's not the mission of
the church. The mission of the church is not to set up soup
kitchens. or homeless shelters. That's
not the mission of the church. Now, if people want to do that,
that's good. That's okay. But the mission of the church
is to be a light in a dark world, the light of Christ, the light
of God's word in a dark world. But look at verse 20 or verse
19. He says, and for their sakes,
I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the
truth. Now, what he's saying here, how did Christ sanctify
himself? Well, before the foundation of
the world, he set himself apart for the task that was given him
by the Father in the covenant of grace. And how does that work
out? Well, God, as I said, God chose
a people and gave them to Christ and put all of the responsibility
of their complete salvation on the Lord Jesus Christ. And the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second person of the
Trinity, agreed willingly to do what the Father gave Him to
do. He wasn't forced, but He did
it willingly. That's what we need for salvation.
We need a person who, number one, is appointed of God. And
number two, who is able to save us from our sins. And number
three, who is willing to do so. And Christ meets all three. He's
the only one appointed of the Father. Again, one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. No other
one was appointed. I quote a verse all the time,
Acts 17 31, which says that God has appointed a day in the which
he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath appointed. in that he hath given assurance
unto all men that he hath raised him from the dead." Christ, the
Lord Jesus Christ, is the only one appointed. The second person
of the Trinity, the Son of God, is the only one appointed by
the Father to be the Savior of the people whom the Father gave
to Him. before the world began and no
other one. So he was set apart for that
task and when he came to earth he was set apart for men. He
is God manifest in the flesh. That sets him apart. There's
nobody like him. People talk about Buddha, they
talk about Mohammed, they talk about Confucius, they talk about
all kinds of different religions led by men and women. There's
no one like the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God manifest in the flesh. He's set apart. And He's holy. Harmless. Undefiled. Separate from sinners. The holy
thing the angel called Him. That's not a term of derision.
That's just simply saying there's no one else like Him. He's set
apart. And He was set apart on the cross. He set Himself apart. You know,
Christ was not forced by men and women to go to the cross.
He wasn't taken by surprise. When Judas brought the soldiers,
the Roman soldiers and the soldiers who were in the Jewish Sanhedrin
court, when he brought them into the garden to take Christ, When
Christ looked at him, he said, who do you seek? And they said,
we seek Jesus of Nazareth. And he said, I am. And you remember
what happened? They fell backward. And then
he asked it again, whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus of
Nazareth. And he said, if you take me, let these go. And that's
how it goes with the salvation of his people. He was taken into
custody, tried unjustly in man's court. But he having the sins
of his people charged to his account, went under the wrath
of God, separated himself from man, and went under the wrath
of God to satisfy justice, put away the sins of his people,
all for whom he died, they shall be saved. And that's what he's
talking about here. He said in verse 19, and for
their sakes, I sanctify myself. I set myself apart to do this
work on the cross, to die and be buried and raised again the
third day for the salvation of his people. And the result of
that in verse 19, that they also might be sanctified, truly sanctified
through the truth. In other words, what He's saying
is that those for whom He sanctified Himself on that cross, those
for whom He died, they're going to hear and believe the truth. They're going to hear it and
believe it. And that's where we come to the title of the message. Those who shall believe, look
at verse 20. Now listen to this. He says,
neither pray I for these alone, that is for those disciples that
were with him, but for them also which shall believe on me through
their word. In other words, he's praying
for the whole election of grace. All the elect of God. every chosen
sinner whose name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life before
the foundation of the world. And their election and their
justification, that is being forgiven of all their sins by
the blood of Jesus Christ and being declared righteous based
upon His righteousness imputed, that justification and their
redemption by the blood will be evidenced by the Holy Spirit
coming in time and bringing them under the gospel, separating
them out and bringing them under the gospel and giving them life
from above. That's called the new birth.
Born again from above, they'll be given spiritual life. You see, by nature, we're all
spiritually dead. We fell in Adam into spiritual
death and depravity and sin. And by nature, if left to ourselves,
we will not believe on Him. The Bible teaches that, and John
chapter one talks about those who receive Christ. Not because of any physical connection,
it's not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh or the works
of the flesh, nor the will of man. It's not by the free will
of man, as people call it today. Man doesn't have a free will
in that sense. He can choose what he wants,
but the Bible says that by nature, all we'll want is the things
that deny the glory of God. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. The natural man, that's how we're
born naturally. But if we're one of God's chosen
people, for whom Christ died and for whom he's praying here,
interceding, At some point in time, a time that God has appointed,
Paul said it in Galatians 1, when it pleased the Lord to reveal
His Son in me. At some point in time, God's
gonna bring you under the preaching of the true gospel, not a false
gospel, but the true gospel, and the Holy Spirit's gonna empower
that gospel. to your salvation. The gospel
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. And
that's going to be evidenced by your believing that gospel. God's going to give you the gift
of faith, and it is a gift. For by grace are you saved, through
faith and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Not all have faith. God gives
faith to his people whom he gave to Christ and for whom Christ
set himself apart. So he says, verse 20, again,
look at it. Neither pray I for these alone.
I'm not just praying for Peter and James and John and Andrew
and the other disciples. There were the 11. Judas has
already been exposed. And there's the 11 apostles.
And then I believe Paul eventually was made the 12th apostle, so
12 apostles. But some say that Matthias, whom
they chose, but that's not an issue for us to argue over or
divide over. But he had those 11 disciples,
but there were more disciples there. There were more. And so, now in the upper room,
there were just those 11 and Judas left. But I'm talking about
disciples that were in the world, in Judea there. There were others. For example, there was Stephen,
just to give you, there was Philip. So we could talk about others.
But he says, I'm not just praying for these 11, I'm praying for
all of them. who shall believe on me through
their word. And look at verse 21. He says
that they all may be one, united, see, together. One faith, one baptism, one spirit,
one church. Not 50 different denominations
who believe different things. But they all may be one, united
in Christ, baptized into Christ, believing the same gospel, that
gospel wherein the righteousness of God is revealed to his people. What is that righteousness? It's
the merit, the worth, the value of the obedience unto death of
the Lord Jesus Christ as the surety, the substitute, the redeemer
of his people. It's His righteousness imputed
to them, charged to them, accounted to them. And they'll hear that
word and they'll believe it. And they'll be made one, united
in the faith. And he says in verse 21, that
they all may be one as thou father art in me, united the father
and the son in union. And we can say the spirit too,
he's the third person of the Holy Trinity. Father, son and
spirit are in union, united. John wrote in 1 John 1, he said,
our fellowship is with the Father and the Son. And how does that
come about? By the Holy Spirit bringing us
to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works and idolatry. And
he says, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that's the
union of the Father and the Son, that they also may be one in
us Again, our fellowship with the Father and Son, that the
world may believe that thou hast sent me. Now, when he says the
world there, he's not talking about everyone without exception. You know better than that. Because
everyone without exception does not believe in him. They're not
one with the Father and the Son. It's only believers. But these
believers, they exist all over this world throughout time. from the very first believer
that's mentioned, I believe Adam was a believer, but Abel, all
the way to the last one who will be brought into the kingdom just
prior to the second coming of Christ. And they're all over
the world. They're not just Jews. God has
a chosen people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. And when he talks about the Spirit
coming to convince the world of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment, the world there refers to God's elect who are
all over this world. Asia, Africa, North America,
South America, wherever, wherever you find them. That's why Christ
said when he was talking about the end times, he said the gospel
must be preached in every nation. And if it hasn't already, it
will be. With our modern technology, I
believe that it's already taken place. But God has a chosen people,
and he says they will believe on him, those who shall believe. And their believing it is a guarantee
because of what Christ has done. And let me show you that. Look back over in John chapter
six. Now we've already gone over this,
but just as a reminder, and you think about what he's talking
about here, he's revealing himself as the, he already revealed himself
as the water of life back in John four. Now he's revealing
himself as the bread of life. But there were so many who heard
him preach to God and they walked away in unbelief. They didn't
believe it. Now that's the way all of us
would be apart from the grace and power of God. It's God who
gives faith. He gives life to the dead. He
gives faith. He grants repentance to his people.
And so Christ said in verse 36, well look at verse 35 of John
6. Jesus said to them, I am the
bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. Just like he said back in John
four, he that cometh to me shall never thirst. I'm the water of
life. He's both. So he says in verse 35, he that
cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall
never thirst. But look at verse 36. He says,
but I said unto you that you also have seen me and believe
not. Most of them didn't believe.
And as I said, man left to himself will not believe. If you're a
believer today, and I believe I'm a believer. If you're truly
a believer, you're saved by God's grace and power, not your own.
It's by God's will, not your own. Even God makes his people
willing in the day of his power. But He changes our will. See,
our will is against God. Our natural will is against the
true and living God. Now, it's not against false religion
and works-based religion and salvation conditioned on ourselves.
We like that because that gives us room to glory. But our natural
wills are in opposition to God's gospel and His way of salvation. But the Bible says that in the
new birth, by the power of the Spirit coming out from Christ,
God makes his people willing in the day of his power. So he
says, you all see me and you believe not. But look at verse
37. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. That's those who shall believe.
And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Now a lot of people when they
hear about election or they hear all that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, they will reason and sinfully so because they
hate the doctrine of election. They hate the doctrines that
glorify God. They might say something like
this, well, then it doesn't matter what I do. I don't have to seek
the Lord if I'm not one of His elect. I can come to Him and
He won't save me. That's a lie. Anybody and everybody
who comes to Christ seeking salvation God's way will find it. Christ has never and will never
turn any sinner away. And those sinners whom he receives,
that's God's elect. That's what he said. Him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Well, that's those
who shall believe. And that's what he teaches. And
we'll continue this thought because it's so important for us to understand
that if we're saved, it's only by God's grace. It's not because
of what we did or decided. It's of God in Christ. I hope
you'll join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, Write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us
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today and may the Lord be with you.