Open your Bibles with me to John
17. I'm continuing preaching through
the Lord's Prayer. And this is His high priestly
prayer, standing as a representative of His people, having been made
the surety of His people, having come and done the work as a substitute
for His people, all that He accomplished on Calvary in our stead, the
ones whom God had given him, and as the redeemer of his people. As he died, was buried, arose
again the third day, and he's ascended unto the Father. He's
speaking in anticipation of this, his going unto the Father. And
he sat down, the scripture says, at the right hand of the Father
and ever lives to make intercession for his people. And what we have
here in verse 17 in the Lord's Prayer, in chapter 17, the Lord's
Prayer, is his interceding, his being a mediator, his going to
the Father for his people, for his chosen people. I started
this section uh... last week and i knew i'd have
to divide i figured i would have to divide it up because there's
some things mentioned here that are that are difficult for people
to grasp he starts off where i started was verse eleven when
he says i am no more in the world he's speaking in anticipation
of his going to the cross dying, being resurrected, and then going
to the Father, that he would not be in the world. His bodily
presence would not be with his disciples. He says, but these
are in the world, his disciples. And he said, I come to thee,
verse 11, Holy Father. And remember what I told you
about that God is the only one who can biblically and rightfully
be called Holy Father. Don't call anyone else, no man,
Holy Father. God is the Holy Father. And he
says, keep them through thine own name, through thy glory,
that's what that means. In other words, saving his people
and preserving his people is a matter for his glory. It's
a matter of His grace, isn't it? It's a matter of His power.
It's not your glory or my glory or our power or our goodness. It's all of God. That's why I
had Brother Jim read that psalm back there, because that's a
short psalm, but boy, it's full of assurance and peace for God's
people. He says, keep them, keep them. And at the end of that, he says,
as for such as turn aside into their crooked ways, The Lord
shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity, but peace
shall be upon Israel. And I believe he's talking about
God's chosen people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation,
Jew and Gentile, all who believe in Christ. If you don't believe
in Christ, what are you doing? You're turning to your own crooked
ways. Because He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by Him. Every other way is
a crooked way. That means it's a way of death.
It's like the broad road that leads to destruction. So back
here in John 17, 11, he says, keep them through thy name, those
whom thou hast given me. Now he's talking about a people,
a specific people whom the father gave to him. And the Bible teaches
us that the father gave these people to him before the foundation
of the world. And he spoke of that. Back up
here in the first part of the prayer, look at verse two. as
thou hast given him power over all flesh, now he's got power
over the whole thing, everybody, in order that he should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Over in John
6, 37, he mentions them, all that the Father giveth me, how
do you know that I'm given to him? He says, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. They're gonna believe in Christ.
If you don't believe in Christ and you live your life out that
way and die in unbelief, you weren't given to him. That's
what the Bible teaches. Whether you like that or not,
that's what the word of God teaches. It's what it says. And so they
were given to him and they're gonna come to him and then he
says, keep them. Not only are we gonna believe
in him, we're gonna persevere. Continue because he's keeping
us. Keep them through thine own name,
verse 11. those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one
as we, or as we are. And what I believe he's talking
about there is the glorified state. Every true believer is
one with Christ right now. You're one with him because he's
your representative. You're one with him because he's
your surety. Your sins were charged to him.
You're one with Him because you're justified by His righteousness
imputed to you. You're one with Him because you're
sanctified, set apart. You're one with Him because He
redeemed you. When He died, I died. I didn't die personally, but
I died in the person of Christ. When He was buried, I was buried.
When He arose again, I arose again. That's what baptism, water
baptism, the confession is all about. You're identifying to
be one with Christ, expressing your faith in Christ, the true
Christ. You're not just going through
the motions if you're a believer. And just to be ducked, the waters
of baptism, you're saying when you're baptized, the waters of
baptism does not wash away your sins, but the blood of Christ
cleanseth us from all sin. You see the difference there.
And then we're one with him in his people, the fellowship of
his people. We become partakers of the divine
nature. That means we're brought into
fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit through
Christ. And one day, When we leave this
world or when he comes back again, we're gonna be brought into his
kingdom and given a new body, a spiritual body, glorified body,
and we'll be one with him, with the Father and the Son and the
Spirit, as he is with the Father now. That's what he's praying
for. So he saves us, he keeps us,
he'll bring us to glory. You know what that means? That
means it's all of grace. It's never conditioned on me
or on you. If it is, it's a failure. You
say, well, not with me. You think more highly of yourself
than you ought. Verse 12, he says, while I was
with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. His bodily
presence was in preservation of these men, the disciples,
then the apostles, Those that thou gavest me I have kept. Now he kept everyone whom the
father gave him. He preserved them by his grace. And none of them is lost. He's
not gonna lose even one of them. And then he says, but, there's
an exception, but the son of perdition, that the scripture
might be fulfilled, the word of God. Now that's something
that we need to think about. Now think about this first, though. Let me give you some facts from
Scripture, what the Bible teaches. The Bible tells us, very plainly
and often, that any sinner and every sinner who desires salvation
God's way, and they put that in capital letters, God's way
of salvation. Any sinner who desires it, every
sinner who desires it, God's way shall have it. God has never turned away any
sinner who desires it his way. He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh me I will in
no wise cast out. Come unto me, all ye that are
heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. If you're seeking salvation,
God's way, you'll have it. But here's the second fact. No
sinner by nature, that is as we are naturally born, as fallen
in Adam and spiritually dead, no sinner by nature desires salvation
God's way. The Bible teaches that. The natural
man, 1 Corinthians 2.14. Is that talking about somebody
else, some blithering idiot or raving lunatic? No, the natural
man, mankind in his natural state, man, woman, child, the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. That's
what the Bible says. That's the essence of total depravity.
I know depravity includes the immoral thoughts and actions
of people, but the essence of it, the heart of it, is we won't
receive that which glorifies God in Christ if left to ourselves. You see, when people talk about
free will, well, what is the will free of? I often use the
analogy of a wolf and a sheep. If you build a pen in a green
pasture, you put a wolf in there and you put a sheep in there,
okay? What's the sheep gonna eat? Well,
what he of his own free will chooses to eat. No, he's gonna
eat grass. Why? Because he's a sheep. That's the nature of a sheep.
Now, what's the wolf gonna eat? Well, he's got his choice, the
green grass or the sheep. Which one's he gonna eat? The
sheep, because he's a wolf. Which one are we gonna choose?
If presented with those things in salvation that glorify God,
if God leaves us to ourselves, to our own choice, we'll choose
the crooked way. That's what we'll choose. Now
you say, not me. Well, you're better than the
rest of us. No, you're not. You just don't
know it. But now here's another fact from
scripture. And you may be sitting there
or people may be hearing me and they say, well preacher, I just
don't like that. Well, okay. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the spirit of God. The Bible teaches that God chose
a people before the foundation of the world and gave them to
his son to save. And he's going to save them.
He's going to save them. You may say, well, that doesn't
seem fair. That doesn't seem right. However you react to it.
This is what the scripture teaches. I even had a woman ask me one
time, she said, well, why do you have to preach that? I said,
because Christ did. And I'm a disciple of Christ.
I don't have the authority to say, well, I'm going to leave
that one alone, that truth alone, and just preach what people want
to hear. You know what that is? That's
a false prophet scratching the itching ears of his hearers. Christ taught it. Somebody says,
well, you're hateful if you preach that. Well, Christ preached it.
He wasn't hateful. He's the embodiment of love.
Love incarnate, as one preacher called him. He just told the
truth. So how am I going to react to
this? How should I react to this? I'll tell you how you react to
it. Do you want to be saved? Do you want salvation? Well,
now here's God's way. Now you seek the Lord. Well,
what if God didn't choose me? That's not your business. Those
are the secret things that belong to God. You don't walk in that
realm. The revealed things belong to
us. And what has he revealed? Seek ye the Lord and you'll find
him. But seek him in his word. Don't
seek him in the opinions of men. Don't seek him by your works
because you won't find him. He's not there. He's the God
of all grace and mercy. Well, that brings me to this
son of perdition. You know who he's talking about,
don't you? He's talking about Judas. Judas. Judas is a tragic figure, isn't
he? Most of the time when people
write stories or make movies about Christ and the crucifixion,
they always paint Judas as a sympathetic figure. Somebody who was like
a victim of his circumstances. But you know, Christ didn't speak
of him that way. Not at all. He says he's the
son of perdition. What is perdition? Destruction. He's not a son of God. Let me
tell you about the sons of God. Look over in Galatians chapter
four. Now here's a description of the
sons, the children of God. And when he says sons, he's talking
about man and woman, God's chosen people, redeemed by the blood
of Christ. And look what it says in Galatians four and verse four
about the sons of God. It says, but when the fullness
of the time was come, God sent forth his son, that's Christ,
the second person of the Trinity, the son of God, made of a woman,
that's his humanity without sin, that's his incarnation, the word
made flesh. made under the law. That was
his accountability to die for the sins of his people. And the
law was brought down on him. The penalty of the law was brought
down on him because the sins of his people were imputed to
him, charged to him. So he had to keep the law. He
had to satisfy the justice of the law. Verse five, to redeem
them that were under the law, he was redeeming the people who
by the law were worthy of condemnation, that we might receive the adoption
of sons. Our sonship in Christ is an adoption,
the adoption of grace. And look at verse six now, here's
the sons of God. And because you are sons, by
election, by adoption, by redemption, God has sent forth the Spirit
of His Son, the Spirit of Christ, into your hearts. crying, Abba,
Father. Now has the Spirit of God been
sent forth in your heart so that you cry, Abba, Father? What does
that mean? That means that the Spirit of
God has come and given you life from the dead, a new heart, a
new mind, new affections, new will, and brought you to faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ and repentance of everything else,
all dead works. And that Abba Father means a
special, close relationship with God Almighty. That's right. That close relationship that
you didn't have without Christ. You draw near unto God through
Christ. That's it. By His blood and righteousness
alone, isn't that right? Abba Father. One old writer said
it's like saying Papa, Papa. It's not being disrespectful. to God, like some, not calling
Him the man upstairs or the big daddy, no, no. It's a reverence
for God that you understand that I have no footing on which to
stand to be saved, to be blessed, to be accepted with God. But
Christ, crucified and risen from the dead. His blood alone, worthy
as the lamb that was slain. His righteousness alone. That's
it. That's the children of God. Is
that what you believe? Is that what you cling to? That's
the children of God. But back here in John 17 now,
if that's what you believe, if that's what God by His power
and grace and goodness has brought you to, brought me to, He's going
to keep us. That's what He's saying here.
He's not going to let us go. He says none of them is lost. But one is lost, the son of perdition. Now a lot of people say, well
now there's Judas there, he was saved and then he became lost.
No, he's the son of perdition. The son of destruction. He was numbered with the apostles
in name only. But we know he was false. Look
back at John 12. And look at verse 1. of John 12. Read a little bit
of scripture here. It says, Then Jesus, six days
before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which
had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. You remember the
story of Lazarus in John 11. Verse two, There they made him
a supper, and Martha served, and Lazarus was one of them that
sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment
of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and
wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with
the odor of the ointment. Then saith one of his disciples,
Judas Iscariot, now listen to this, Simon's son, which should
betray him, why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence and
given to the poor? Now doesn't that sound noble?
Doesn't that sound charitable? The world would look at Judas
and say, Amen, Judas, we agree with you. Let's start a church. Think about it. But look at verse
six. This he said, not that he cared
for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the bag,
the bag of money, and bear what was put therein. Now, The disciples, the other
11, they saw what Judas did. That should have been sold and
given to the poor, but they didn't know Judas' heart. But Christ
did. He knew it. The disciples had no idea when
Christ revealed, and we'll look at some more scripture. Look
over at John 6. Just think about this now. And
what's important here is how are we to react to this? You
say, well preacher, do you think you understand all this about
the ins and outs and everything? No, I don't. I know what this
book says though. Look over at John six and look
at verse 64. He says, now look here, he's
talking about, Believing, he says in verse 64, John 6, 64.
He says, there are some of you that believe not. Now this is
his hearers, preaching to an audience. For Jesus knew from
the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray
him. This didn't take him by surprise,
but I'll tell you who it did take by surprise, the other disciples.
You remember when Jesus, when Christ revealed it to them as
a group, you know what every one of them said? Lord, is it
me? There wasn't anything in Judas outwardly that betrayed
him or revealed his heart. But Christ knew it, and he knew
it from the beginning. Let me show you another one.
Look at Matthew chapter 26. Matthew 26 and verse 14. It says Matthew 26 verse 14, then
one of the 12 called Judas Iscariot went unto the chief priest and
said unto them, what will you give me and I will deliver him
unto you. Now, if you've ever seen any
of these movies that they make about the crucifixion of Christ,
just about all of them have Judas being sympathetic toward Jesus,
and almost act like he's doing it, this would save him. But
look at what the Lord says. He says, the first thing he said
to the chief, what are you gonna give me? What do you give me? And they covenanted with him
for 30 pieces of silver. I saw one movie where Judas first
turned it down. Oh no, I don't want that. That's
not what the word of God says now. And from that time, he sought
opportunity to betray him. You see that? Look over at verse
46 of this same chapter. Christ said, rise, let us be
going. Behold, he is at hand that doth betray me. He's near. And while he yet spoke, lo, Judas,
one of the 12, came, and with him a great multitude with swords
and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now
he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I
shall kiss, that same as he, hold him fast. I'm gonna kiss
this person, and you hold on, you grab him. And forthwith he
came to Jesus and said, Hail, Master, and kissed him. And Jesus
said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Why have you come?
Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him. And behold,
one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew
his sword, and struck the servants of the high priest, and smote
off his ear." That's Peter. He drew his sword. Then said
Jesus unto him, put up again thy sword into his place for
all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my father and he shall
presently give me more than 12 legions of angels? But how then
shall the scriptures be fulfilled? That thus it be." This is all
according to God's word, God's plan. Wow. Somebody asked me one time, said,
what kind of God do you serve? I said, I serve a sovereign God,
who knows a whole lot more than me, who's got a whole lot more
wisdom and a whole lot more compassion than I could ever even imagine
to have. I serve the God of the Bible. Judas was never one of the elect
of God, nor one who was given to Christ. He was a reprobate
from the beginning. And Judas, like all enemies of
Christ, you know what they do? You know what the enemies of
Christ do? They do whatever their evil hearts devise, whether it
be in religion or in breaking the law. But in all things, here's
what I know. Let this sink in. What if they're not going to
stop or thwart or even hinder the almighty purpose of God to
save his people? In fact, God's gonna work his sovereign
will through them. You say you don't believe that?
Well, then rip Acts chapter two out of your Bible. Peter said to the people there,
You crucified the Lord of glory. We crucified the Lord of glory
with wicked hands. But we did no more than what
the Lord before determined to be done. You say, well, I'm going
to charge God with evil. Bible says you can't do that.
Well, how do you figure that, preacher? I don't know. I know
two and two is four. You say, well, I don't understand
all that. Let's make badges. We'll all wear them. Join the
club. I know it's true. I know that God is glorified.
I know that God is not the author of sin. He overrules everything,
even sin. If He didn't, we'd be goners.
All of this. But there's Judas. Now here's
the question I want you to consider. Now there were 12 men here, including
Judas. 11 of them were kept. by the power of God, Judas was
the son of perdition from the beginning. Judas left, Judas
betrayed. He wasn't a victim of circumstance,
he wasn't a sympathetic figure, he was tragic. Anybody who dies
in a lost state is tragic, isn't that right? Judas had this, he
heard the same words that Peter and James and John and all of
them heard, the same gospel, He didn't believe it. What do
we know about that? Well, he wasn't one to whom the
Father gave Christ. He wasn't one for whom Christ
died. He wasn't one of those who was
regenerated, born again by the Holy Spirit. How do you know
that? He perished in unbelief. Were these other disciples, this
11 disciples, were they better than Judas? Now that's a question
we ought to ponder. I'll give it to you even more
personally than that. Am I better than Judas? Are you? And the answer the Bible gives
us is this, no, not by nature. Somebody says, well, I didn't
do what Judas did. Yes, you did. When you fell in Adam, and as
you were born dead in trespasses and sins, not believing in Christ. Oh, you weren't there to actually
do the betrayal and take the 30 pieces of silver, but my friend,
we're sinners. And we don't deserve anything
but condemnation if we're saved, if we're kept. If we enter glory,
it's all of grace based upon the blood and righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. If we believe, it's
because God has sent his spirit into our hearts and brought us
to see our sinfulness and our depravity, our Judasness, if
you will. and drove us to Christ, begging
for mercy. Have mercy upon me, oh God. If left to myself, I'd been no
better than Judas. Same with Peter. And if it were
not for sovereign mercy of Christ, we would do the same thing. Think
about it. What keeps me from doing what
Judas did? Well, we're saved and kept by
God's grace and power in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. And
think about this. What did these other 11 men do
after Christ was crucified? They ran like scared rabbits.
Peter even denied him during the trial. Peter denied him three
times publicly and threw in some cuss words just to put a little
icing on the cake. Was Peter better than Judas?
No. But God brought Peter to salvation by His grace. You say, well, you know, God's
mercy is upon whom He will have mercy. The Bible says that. He'll
be gracious to whom He'll be gracious. That's His glory, He
said. That's His glory. You know, that was the answer
to the question Moses asked. Show me Your glory. Well, here
it is. Well, what am I to do then? If
He hadn't chosen me, I'm not going to seek Him. Again, the
secret things belong to God. You don't live in that realm.
You live right here on this earth, and here's the Word of God, and
you're commanded to seek the Lord. That's it. The secret things belong to God,
the revealed things belong to us. That's what I'm accountable
for. That's what I'm responsible for. Look back at John 17 now. He says in verse 13, now come
I to thee and these things I speak in the world. Here's Christ appearing
before the Father, speaking these things, that they might have
my joy fulfilled in themselves. What was his joy? Well, Hebrews
chapter 12 tells us that the joy that he had was the glory
of his father and the salvation of his people. And that's our
joy. Isn't that right? When God is
glorified and when God's people are brought into the kingdom,
we experience that joy and that peace that comes in believing. It's a special thing. And he says in verse 14, I have
given them thy word. Oh my soul, when he gave us his
word. That can mean a couple things. That means he revealed himself
to us and that means he's faithful. He'll keep his word. He's not
gonna go back on his word. He said, and the world hath hated
them. The world hates this truth, this gospel. Why? John 3, 19
and 20, because his deeds are evil. You see the preaching of
the gospel of God's grace. offends those whose refuge is
elsewhere. If your refuge is in anything
but Jesus Christ and Him crucified and risen, His blood alone, His
righteousness imputed alone, if your refuge is anywhere but
there, it's dead works, it's a false refuge, it's evil deeds. What I preach to you about God's
elect and Judas and others, people hate that because it offends
their pride. It offends human wisdom. It goes
beyond human understanding. And they hate it. And he says,
the world hath hated them. And he says, because they are
not of the world, even as I'm not of the world. We're in this
world. We operate, we live. We have
our families, our jobs. But this is not our home. We're
citizens of a heavenly kingdom. We're headed for eternity. In
Christ, verse 15, he says, I pray not that thou shouldest taken
them out of the world, but that thou should keep them from the
evil or the evil one. He had a purpose for them to
stay in this world. What was that purpose? He used
these poor, pitiful, sinful sinners saved by grace to inaugurate
and bring in the new covenant. Establish the church, preaching
the gospel. This was God's means of saving
his people all over the world. That's what the word world means
when it comes to salvation. God has a people given to Christ
before the foundation. They're all over the world. And
this gospel's gonna be preached. He said when they all hear that
gospel, that's when he's coming back. When they've all been brought
to repentance, that's when he's coming back. And he sent these
men out to get it started. And he had a 12th disciple, his
name was Paul, 12th apostle, who came later, there were 12.
And they preached the gospel. Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. He even had, think about it,
he even had some of his elect among old Gentiles. And so he says, keep them from
the evil one. Keep them from Satan. That's
what that is. Don't let Satan deceive them.
He says, verse 16, they are not of the world even as I am not
of the world. Again, we're citizens of a heavenly
kingdom. Verse 17, sanctify, set them
apart through thy truth. That's how God saves his people.
He sets them apart through the preaching of the gospel, the
revelation of the righteousness of God. Thy word is truth. In verse 18, he says, as thou
hast sent me into the world, Even so have I also sent them
into the world to preach the gospel, and for their sakes I
sanctify myself. How did Christ sanctify himself?
He set himself apart for the salvation of his people through
their redemption and through their regeneration, conversion,
and the preaching of the gospel. He is set apart for us. And he says that they also may
be sanctified through the truth, that we also might hear and believe,
be set apart by our gospel. That's what sets us apart from
the world, our gospel, our message. You say, well, our lives should
set us apart. Well, they do, but you can't
tell that by looking. It's our gospel. that which the
world hates about us. They don't hate it when we go
out and try to be responsible, moral citizens. But boy, you
preach the gospel to them. Tell them the truth. I know because
I was there. When I first heard it, I hated
it. But God brought me to love it by his power and his grace. All right.