Our Lord Jesus Christ is about to go to his crucifixion. And the Holy Spirit has had this
recorded for us, for our learning. These are the words of Christ,
spoken. Now, he prayed many times, but
these are the ones that the Holy Spirit saw fit to have recorded. And what words they are. What
words they are. My, our Lord is coming close
to His crucifixion. It's soon coming, the whole reason
that He came to this earth. To save His people from their
sins. By the shedding of His precious
blood. To redeem those who were given to Him by the Father. To
redeem them from under the law. to redeem them from under the
law, to give his life a ransom for his people. And here Sid
goes to the cross, but he's going to rise again, beloved. He's
going to rise again in three days. And then he's going to
ascend up into heaven. Then he's going to appear to
his disciples, too. And then he's going to ascend
up to heaven. Oh, my. And we see him here praying for
those he's leaving behind in this world. Those he's leaving
behind, his apostles and other followers, but more so in this
portion, his apostles. He's soon going to go to glory
again, beloved. Remember, he came down from glory.
He's the only one who's come down from heaven. And he's soon
to go and return back to heaven. Oh my. Back to the glory which he shared
with the Holy Father and the Holy Spirit. They're going to
be reunited, beloved. And he's coming back this time
as the God-man. Henry Mahan said he's returning
to heaven in a way that he was not before. He's the God-man. came down as the Word of God.
He's still the Word of God, but he's the Word of God incarnate.
Bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. My! And he's going back to share
that glory. That glory with the Father. That glory with the Holy
Spirit that he's had for eternity. But he's praying for his people
here. He's praying for the apostles. He's praying for those who can
be left behind. He prays that the Father would
keep them from the pollutions of this world, the evil of this
world. And he prays that the Father
will keep them from the evil one, Satan. He says, I kept them
while I was in this world, and now I'm giving them back to you,
Father. Keep them. Please keep them, Father. And
he knows the Father will. Because those are the ones the
Father gave him in love. He loves them. We keep the ones
we love, don't we? We die for the ones we love. My, and Christ died for the ones
he loves, didn't he? The ones he's loved for maternity.
He gave his life a ransom for them. Shed his precious blood
to redeem them. save them from their sins. He prays that the Father will
keep those who he leaves behind from the evils of this world,
the evil one, also Satan. He prays the Father, telling
them again, he's kept them while they were in the world and now
he's praying that the Father would keep them while he's gone. He is giving them back. to the
very one who gave them to him. And we're going to see later
on in this prayer, that includes you and I. That includes you and I, because
when we hit verse 20, look, neither pray I for these alone, but them
also which shall believe on me through their word. They went
out and preached the gospel, And the gospel, when they died,
there was others the Lord raised up to preach the gospel, and
others the Lord raised up all through the generations till
now. And as long as the Lord tarries, he's gonna raise up
preachers. The exact amount that he wants, we might think, well,
there's not many people preaching the gospel now. There's exactly
the amount of people preaching the gospel as God's ordained.
Rejoice, beloved. His sheep will hear his voice
through the preaching of the gospel of salvation in and through
Christ alone. He's going to make his lost sheep,
no matter where they are, to cross the path of a gospel preacher,
whether it be hearing them through the Internet or actually hearing
them in person. The gospel preacher can't save
anyone, it's the gospel he preaches that saves, isn't it? Faith cometh
by hearing, and that comes from the Holy Spirit, and hearing
by the word of God, right? How shall they hear without a
preacher? So God sends preachers. We don't know what the Lord's
doing with the messages as they go out on the internet, do we? We know they're getting downloaded
all over the world. And there may be one lost sheep
down there, Let's say Cambodia. We've had all kinds of downloads
from Cambodia. There might be somebody from Cambodia who downloaded
the message and the Lord saved him just like that. Yeah. And we'll never know. We'll never
know until we get home to glory. And then we'll give all the glory
to God anyways, won't we? Oh, it's wonderful, beloved.
Oh, so God's raised this church up right here in Elmont, Michigan
for the furtherance of the gospel, beloved. That's why we're here. My, let's read, with that on
our mind now, let's read, let's read verses 11 to 17 of John
chapter 17. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world. So he's talking about his apostles.
And I come to thee, Holy Father. Look at that title right there.
Ah, what a title for our great God. Holy Father. Oh, he's so
holy. That's a title of our King right
there. And we know that our Savior,
He's a holy God, isn't He? He's a holy God. He's Emmanuel,
God with us. He's holy. Keep through thine
own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one
as we are. When I was with them in the world, I kept them in
thy name. Those thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them
is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled.
So the one there, when we studied that verse, verse 12, we found
out that the son of perdition was Judas Iscariot. He was never
chosen of God. He was never one of the elect.
Now he was chosen as one of the 12, but he was never one of God's
elect, never. And now I come to thee, and these
things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled
in themselves. Note that, he's saying, I'm speaking
these things while I'm in this world. Our Lord was in this world,
beloved. He was in this world. Joe Feasus,
a Jewish historian, even mentions him. He was a real person. Some folks say, ah, he was not
real. Yeah, he was. Yes, he was. And he really was
in this world. He was in the world that he created.
Oh, I got to tell you this. I was listening to a message
by Tim James this week. I got to repeat this. I have
to repeat this. He said, there's more effort
in me picking up this piece of paper than it took God to create
the world in the universe by the word of his power. There's
more effort for me to pick this paper up than for him to just
create all the universes and all the world. Isn't that amazing? How powerful is our God, beloved?
How majestic is our God? That's the one who saved us. My, why do I ever fear? That's
the one who has me in his hands. That's the one who says that
no man can pluck me out of his hands. Lord, let that be real
to me. Let me live in the realization
of that each and every day. Lord, help my unbelief. When
I heard that I was just, I said, there's another moment where
Tim gives me, where I just got to stop and stop the recording
for a while and just chew on that for a little while. Oh,
it was so profound. I wanted to share that with you
because it was so wonderful. How powerful is our God. I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them
from the evil. They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. Here's our verse tonight. Sanctify
them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Verse 17 will be our verse tonight. We see that the Lord Jesus Christ
asked the Holy Father. Remember who he's speaking to,
right? He's speaking to the Holy Father. That those who will be
left behind The apostles in this case, and also applies to all
the elect of all the ages, that we are sanctified in and through
Christ alone. Scripture declares this of Christ,
of our sanctification. Who are we sanctified in? Are
we sanctified by anything we do? No. Can we make ourselves more holy
even after the Lord saves us? We can't, can we? Because we're
still sinners saved by the grace of God. So we can't make ourselves
holy. But who are we holy in? And sanctified
there just means in the Greek, we're going to look it over,
it means to be holy. Who are we holy in? Christ. In Christ
alone. Listen to these scriptures that
bring that forth. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification.
and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 1, verses 30 to
31. Then in Colossians 2, 9, and
10, it says, for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, and ye are complete in him. We're complete in him. We're sanctified in Christ. Now
this sanctification through the word is growth in grace, beloved. How do we grow in grace? Through
the word of God, through the Holy Spirit teaching us. And
this word here is truth, isn't it? And who else is truth? Who's called the truth? Christ
and him alone. He said that I am the way, the
truth, and alive. See, we're sanctified in Christ,
we're sanctified, that's where we're made holy, in him. And
then we grow in grace. through the word of God. But
it's not us growing ourselves. It's the Holy Spirit growing
us. Remember the fruit is called the fruit of the Spirit. Not
the fruit of Wayne, right? It's the fruit of the Spirit.
It's not my doing. See, when I was in religion,
I used to think it was my doing. That I could make myself more
holy. I can't make myself holy. I'm a sinner. But now God can
conform me to the image of the Son, and I grow in grace. But praise be to God, I am sanctified
in Christ Jesus." And we're going to look at that in the next two
weeks, or look at that, how we are sanctified in Christ, when
we look at verse 19. And it says, and for their sakes
I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through
the truth. We'll look at that more in two
weeks. of how we are totally sanctified
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now there's a need for us for
spiritual growth, isn't there? Just as a child, a child grows,
nourished, right? And then they grow. They grow. We need to be nourished. We need
to feast. This is sheep food. Right here. Desire the sincere milk of the
word, right? Desire everything about the word.
There might be things that we come to as we're reading and
we say, I don't understand that. Let us never say, I don't believe
that. But let us say, I don't understand that. And pray that,
well maybe next time I read it, pray the Holy Spirit will teach
you. And I'll tell you what though, the minute the Holy Spirit wants
you to know what that's about, guess what's gonna happen? He's
gonna light it up. He's gonna light it up, beloved.
And it'll be just what you need at that time. Even a preacher
might say something through the scriptures, and I don't even
know, I'm preaching the gospel, I'm just, and something might
just hit you and just bless you. That's the Holy Spirit revealing
that to you. That's not me. Isn't that wonderful? It's absolutely wonderful. It's just, oh my. Turn, if you
would, to Psalm 119. Psalm 119. Now, there's a need
for spiritual growth and development in love. We as believers, we
need to grow and we need to develop in love, and that love, again,
is the fruit of the Spirit, so it's Him working in us. That's,
again, one thing that Satan can't counterfeit is the love that
the brethren have for one another, that love in Christ. And as believers,
we're first born, we're babes. Then we become young men or women,
and later fathers or mothers in Christ, right? We grow in
grace and knowledge and truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. But
let us always, now this is key. Brother Gary Shepard and I have
talked about this. Let us always desire to have a teachable spirit. You know, that's what we preachers
desire, that we would have teachable spirits and that those we preach
to would have teachable spirits. Because when a person thinks
that they've hit the point where they can't learn anything from
a preacher or learn anything from the scriptures, they are
in a world of trouble. Well, I've told you this before,
there's not one preacher I've listened to, whether it be a
young, green preacher just starting out who the Lord called, or an
older preacher who's, there's not one preacher in between even,
who I've not been blessed by when I listen to the message.
I always get something. I always get something. I always
walk away going, oh my, well, because it's the gospel, right?
If that man's preaching the gospel, I always come away with something.
And if I don't, then the problem's with me, not with the preacher. And that's when I need to examine
myself and go, my goodness. Lord, please teach me through
your word, please. Continue to teach me. I desire
to grow. I even desire the sincere mouth
of the word, beloved. What I know is just scratching
the surface. what does old Scott Richard said?
He's been preaching for 40 years. He says, one of these days I'm
going to learn how to preach. Amen brother Scott. Oh my, oh
my goodness. Lord so good. So the sanctifying
work is done by God the Holy Spirit. He's the one who sanctifies
us. We're born again of the Holy
Spirit. We're set apart, right? We're set apart by God. We're
born again. And scripture says, wherefore
laying aside, and then when we're born again, wherefore laying
aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies,
and evil speaking, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk
of the word, that ye may grow thereby. See, just as a baby
drinks milk, and they grow, don't they? And then they get off baby
food, right? And then they're eating solids.
Remember when we started eating solids? And our kids started
eating solids. They started eating solids. And
then they get to a point as a teenager where they don't want anything
that's good for them. Right? My son was like that. I love
my boy, but he didn't like vegetables back then. Now he eats everything,
pretty much. He's doing amazing. But there was a time when he
lived on chicken nuggets. That's what he loved. He ate
those things all the time. You know? And not from McDonald's. We bought them from the store,
too, for him. But no, but see, And then, but as believers,
we go through these stages too, don't we? We desire, and then
we desire, the more we mature in the word, we desire the meat
of the word. But never forget, there's nothing
like a good glass of milk. Right? I know Dave doesn't, Dave
don't like milk. But there's nothing like, nothing
like a cold cup, just don't like it, nothing like a cold, nothing
like a cold cup of water, right? There you go. Yeah. So desire that right where to
desire those things. My oh my. And then it says if
if if it be so that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious
when we tasted that the Lord is gracious we just want to feast
on the word don't we? Just tell me about Christ. And
you tell me about the one who's been gracious to me. And I'll
tell you what I'm feasting then. I'm feasting, then. And that
comes from 1 Peter 2, verses 1 to 3. But, yeah, he came to
die. Amen. Turn, if you would, to
Psalm 119. Now, his word is infallible truth,
right? This word of God is infallible
truth. I told my son one time, I said, this is the only thing
that's true in this world. People lie, but this word is
truth. It's truth. The true author is
God the Holy Spirit. If this book says that killing
a baby is murder, then it's murder. Right? There's no way around
that, is there? If this book tells you that when
you kill a pregnant lady, that means you killed two people,
then that's truth, isn't it? And that's what this book says.
It says thou shall not kill, right? My oh my. It doesn't matter what
we think personally. This is what the word of God
says. And as believers, we bow our
knee to that, don't we? We have to. We have to. So it says here. In Psalm 119,
again, this word is infallible truth and our spiritual growth
depends. Think of this too, our spiritual growth doesn't depend
on feelings, does it? Not on feelings, not on visions
or dreams that people have, no. But on the ever increasing love
for and the understanding of and the embracing of this word. of what is clearly bought forth
in the scriptures here. In the word of God, and here
is Psalm 119, look at this passage here. First we'll read verses
nine to 16. We're gonna go three different
places in this psalm. Verse 9 of Psalm 119, wherewith
shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereunto
thy word. How do we keep from evil? By
clinging to this word. By taking heed to what this word
says. Right? My oh my, with my whole heart
have I sought thee. The believer does that, don't
we? Now I know some people who are nitpickers and stuff will
say, well, we don't fall the Lord with our whole heart. No,
we do with our new heart. We desire to. It's just the flesh
is weak, isn't it? But inside we desire to fall
God with our whole heart. We love him now when we never
loved him before. And we only seek Him because
it says, I sought Thee, only because He made us willing in
the day of His power. And then He says, Oh, let me
not wander from Thy commandments. How easy we can walk away from
the Word. How easy we can do that. But
this Word is a light unto our path, beloved. It tells us about
Christ our King. It tells us about who God really
is. An absolute sovereign. It tells
us of a wonderful, merciful savior who left glory to come to this
sin-cursed world to redeem sinners like me. Sinners like us. All because he loved us more. Think of this. He loves us more
than anybody in this whole world has ever loved us. I think about
my mom's love. Oh my, that's vast. I think about
my bride, how much she loves me, my kids love me. But it doesn't
come even close to how much God loves me. Isn't that amazing? It's absolutely
incredible. We can't really fathom that,
can we, for our little finite minds. It's hard for us to imagine
someone loving me with an unending love, an eternal
love. But it's true, beloved, because
the scriptures tells us that his love is an everlasting love. And that's for his people. And then look what he says here.
Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against
thee. My. Blessed art thou, O Jehovah,
teach me thy statutes. With my lips I have declared
all the judgments of thy mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of
thy testimonies as much as all riches. Think of this, think
of how much we rejoice in the salvation we have in Christ,
more than any wealth in this world. The richest man, the stuff
that a richest man has, the money, fame, popularity, doesn't even
compare to what we have beloved in Christ. And David, this is
David who would be king saying this. Probably at this time he was
king. And he says, I've rejoiced in the way of thy
testimonies as much as in all riches. I will meditate in thy
precepts. You know what that means? Keep
your mind on Christ. That's where I need to keep my
mind, is on Christ. You know, I flipped open the
news thing today, and I had it on for five minutes while I was
eating my soup at lunch, and I had to shut it off. I was done,
because I'm right in the middle of my message. I got half my
message done, and I'm waiting to do the other half after lunch.
I thought, well, I'll just listen to the news and see. I had to
shut it off, beloved. I had to. I was like, here we go again.
Same stuff, different day. Doesn't change. And I wanted to meditate on the
things of the Lord, not on what's going on in the world, because
that's going to get me upset. So I exercised the right to shut
the channel off on my computer. Oh my. And then it says, have
respect unto thy ways. Now we have respect unto the
ways of the Lord, don't we? We desire to walk in his precepts.
We desire to walk and to live a holy life, don't we? When we
never did before. Now we desire that. We desire
to have him uplifted in our lives. He's the great God and King.
And then look at this, so meditation too. Remember, we can meditate
any time on things. It's not doing the whole thing
that the, it's just thinking upon the things of God. You can
memorize a scripture and just roll that scripture around in
your mind and meditate on it for the whole day. It's absolutely
wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful to
do. And then he says here, for I will delight in thy statutes.
I will not forget thy word. Oh, Lord, teach us. Teach me
that. Not to forget thy word. To delight
in thy ways. Now turn, if you would, to the
same psalm, verses 33 to 34. Psalm 119, verses 33 to 34. Just
two verses in this portion. See, this is how we grow, beloved. This is how we grow in grace,
is through the word of God. The Holy Spirit taking these
words and teaching us. It says here, teach me, O Lord,
the way of thy statutes, that I shall keep it unto the end.
Give me understanding and I shall keep thy law, yea, I shall observe
it with my whole heart. Do you desire this word? Hey,
amen, we do, don't we? And when we meditate and think
upon it, and look for Christ in the Old Testament, it takes
our minds off all the things in this world. They just fly
away. They're gone. And then verses
65 to 72 of this psalm. Psalm 119, verses 65 to 72. Look
at this. Has the Lord dealt well with
us? Oh, amen, eh? Oh, amen. He's dealt so well with us. Look
what David says here. This is wonderful. Verse 65. Thou hast dealt well with thy
servant. And that's all we are. We're
just servants of the Lord. O Lord, according to thy word. And he tells us in his word that
he can take care of his people, doesn't he? We're now sons of God, beloved. He's going to take care of every
one of us. Every one of us. Teach me good judgment and knowledge.
I don't want to learn bad knowledge. I've already learned enough of
that in my life. I don't want to learn any more
of that. Lord, teach me good judgment. Teach me how to make
good choices. You know, people say, well, don't
judge. Judge lest you be judged, right? That's the famous line
of religious hypocrites. Because they don't want you to
question about what they believe. Do you know we make judgments
every day in our lives? We make decisions every day in
our lives. Did you decide what clothes you
wanted to wear today? What shoes you want to put on?
What you want to eat for breakfast? What you want to do during the
day? We make judgments all day long,
beloved. My. Teach me good judgment and
knowledge. For I believe thy commandments.
And that means I believe his word right here. I believe his
word. Do you believe his word? Oh,
by the grace of God, I believe. I believe by the grace of God.
Before I was afflicted, I went astray. But now I have kept thy
word. We have all in our walk wandered
at one time or another. But we've never wandered away
from the grace of God, because we can't. He's always got us. He may let
us wander a little bit, but he's going to bring his people back.
He's going to bring his people back. Thou art good. Look at that. What a statement. What a statement. God is good, beloved. In all
seasons, at all times, no matter what occurs in our lives, God
is good. And doest good. Everything he
does is good. Everything. He is not the cause
of evil, beloved. That's a sinful man. My, oh, my. He always do us good,
and he is good. Teach me thy statutes. In other
words, teach me thy ways, Lord. Teach me thy ways. That's what
we desire, isn't it? We desire to grow in the grace
and knowledge and truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at this. The proud have forged a lie against
me, but I will keep thy precepts within my whole heart. No matter
what others say, I'm going to keep your word in my heart, Lord. In my heart. They forged a lie
against me. They've conjured up this lie.
But Lord, I'm going to look to you, Lord. I'm going to cling
to you. I will keep thy precepts with my
whole heart. Their heart is as fat as grease. My, that's how we were in our
sin. Isn't that amazing? That's gross,
isn't it? Yeah. Fat as grease. Oh, my. My mom sometimes used to collect
bacon grease. My, oh, my. You accidentally
put your finger in that while you were putting the dish away?
It was awful. It was awful. Their heart is as fat as grease.
Wickedness. But I delight in thy law. I delight.
Isn't that amazing? We once were like that. Our hearts,
at one time, our natural hearts were as fat as grease. And then
the Lord gives us a new heart. And now we're like, oh Lord,
I delight in your word. I delight in what you say here.
That I'm a sinner, oh, but I'm saved by grace and mercy in Christ
Jesus my Lord. My, what a change God's wrought
in us. It is good for me that I've been
afflicted. Only a believer will say that.
Because we know that all things work, right, for God's glory
and for our good. That I might learn thy statutes.
It's in times of grief, I believe, that we become closer to Christ.
In times of sorrow, in times of affliction. The law of thy mouth is better
than thousands of gold and silver. God's word is more precious to
the believer than heaps of gold and heaps of silver. For what
shall profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose
his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange
for his soul? Nothing. All the gold won't buy
salvation in this world. All the silver, all the precious
minerals in this world will not buy salvation. It's all God's. He already owns it all. Folks
say, well, I got all this gold. Well, it's God's gold. It's not
yours. You got temporarily hold of it, but it's God's gold. He
gave it to you, but it's ultimately his. You don't need nothing from us,
does he? Nothing at all. So we see how clearly the word
of God is the source of true holiness of life. It teaches
us the statutes of the Lord, the ways of the Lord. It guides us in our life. It
points us. And you know what it does? It
points us to look to Christ. That's what it does. All those
sections we read, he's looking to the Lord. He's looking to
his word. He's looking to him. He's saying, God, you're so good.
You're always good. Who's taught him that? The same
one that's taught us that, God the Holy Spirit. Right? He's taught us that, too. Oh,
it's wonderful. Turn with me, if you would, to
1 Peter 1. We'll read verses 22-25 here. And we'll see that the Word of
God is also the seed in regeneration. Look at this, 1 Peter 1, verses
22-25. Seeing you have purified your
souls and obeying the truth through the spirit unto unframed love
of the brethren. Note, through the spirit, not
through our flesh, not through anything we've done. Through
the spirit unto unframed love of the brethren. See that you
love one another with a pure heart fervently. Now the new
heart does that. The new heart from God does that.
Loves the brethren. Being born again, look at this.
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. See, this word abides
forever. Heaven and earth will pass away,
but the word of God will abide, beloved. For all flesh is as grass. And
all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away. You see, we got flowers
now that come by hearing, and hearing by what? The word of
God. But the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is
the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Marvelous,
isn't it? Marvel, beloved of God, what
we see here. We who've been born again by
the Holy Spirit of God, by the incorruptible seed, it says here,
which is the word of God, we now belong to the same family.
Dave, you said you didn't know you're gonna get a little brother
at 60, right? Well, now you have one. We have the same father.
We have the same father. We have the same savior. We have
the same, it's incredible. We're born again by the same
spirit. And all of us, we're family. It's incredible. And as he says here, then we
ought to love the brethren, right? We ought to. And this glorious
birth is not a natural seed like we see here. It's not a man,
which only serves to corrupt us. We come into this world because
of our fathers and our mothers, because they're sinners. We come
into this world sinners, dead in trespasses and sins. But this
word here, this word is incorruptible. This seed is incorruptible. And
it's by the word of God. It's by the Word of God, which
lives and abides forever. So our first conception, our
natural birth, leads only back to the dust, right? But our second birth, being born
again by the Holy Spirit God, leads to life eternal. First
birth leads to the dust. Second birth leads to life eternal. And that second birth is by the
Holy Spirit of God. It's wonderful. And that's in Christ and Christ
alone. We know eternal life is only in and through Christ. It
is by the Holy Spirit or it is by the Holy Father that we believe,
for faith is a gift of God. It is by Christ alone that we
can approach God. It is by Christ alone, who is
the beloved one, that we are accepted in Him. It is by the
Holy Spirit, by revelation from Him, that we can know God. See,
therefore, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all involved
in our salvation, beloved. All of them. Therefore, we conclude
what? Salvation is of the Lord. It's
all Him. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
They get all the glory. And our Lord Jesus Christ is
our only representative with the Holy Father. There's no other
mediator with the Holy Father. No other man can be a mediator
because they're sinners. I can't be a mediator for anybody
because I'm a sinner. I need a mediator, do you? And
that's Christ Jesus my Lord. He's my mediator. And it's wonderful. He's my advocate. He intercedes
with the Father for me. And if you're a believer, for
you. Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. And he's
already won the battle. He's already won the battle.
The victory is in Christ. Victory in Jesus, right? We sing
that song. Victory in Jesus. It's in Him. Not anything we do. My oh my. And we're already seated in the
heavenlies with Him. That's what the scriptures declare. So let's read our verse again.
Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. Now the underlying
Greek word for sanctify there is defined in the Greek as to
make holy, to sanctify, to make clean, to render pure ceremonially,
to consecrate, to be holy, to sanctify. What are we set apart
for here while we're on this earth? for service to the Lord,
right? That's what we're here for. We
exist at this church as a gathered group of believers for the furtherance
of the gospel. We serve him just by coming,
just by sitting, just by listening, by giving. We're serving our
King, aren't we? It's wonderful. Is this service
burdensome? Not at all, is it? It's a blessing. It's a blessing. Oh, if others
only knew. May God reveal this wonderful
truth to them. That serving Christ is not a
burden. It's a blessing. It's a blessing. So we're set apart. And you know,
we're set apart for service to Christ. You know how? All by
the divine, all by the divine purpose of God. You mean I'm part of God's divine
purpose? Yeah, and so are you. If you're
a believer, isn't that amazing? God has purposed us to be here
so the gospel can go out from Mount Mount, Michigan. God purposed
David to go down and preach in Ecuador to be a missionary. He's
part of the purpose of God in Ecuador. Isn't that amazing?
That's absolutely incredible. Absolutely incredible. Just amazing. Now under Jewish law, the tribe
of Levi was ordained to the service of the Lord. Out of all the tribes,
Levi was ordained to the service of the Lord instead of the firstborn. And then out of the tribe of
Levi, only one family, Aaron and his sons, were sanctified
for the priesthood. And then there was a certain
tent that was sanctified. to the service of God, and hence
it became a sanctuary. And the vessels that were in
that tent, the fire, the bread, the oil, the animals, were all
sanctified. And none of these things could
be used for any other purpose. Isn't that amazing? They couldn't
be used for any other purpose. Our purpose here, beloved, is
to serve our king. And we do it with gladness. It's
not a burden. It's wonderful. And we marvel
that he's allowed us to be his servants, don't we? That he chose
us to be his servants. So none of those things could
be used for any other purpose than the service of Jehovah.
And beloved God, we're not the world's. We're not the world's. You know why we're not the world?
Else we might be ambitious. We're not Satan's, else we might
be covetous. We are not our own, else we might
be selfish. No, beloved, we're bought with
a price. were bought with a price, the
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we're the
Lord's. We're His. We're His by creation,
and we're His by purchase, and we're set apart by Him. We're
His workmanship, right? Created in Christ Jesus under
good works, which He has ordained. Why haven't we went to heaven
yet? Because He's not done with us here. He's not done with us here. My. And those who belong to the Lord,
to God, are separated from others. We're separated from others. We're dedicated to Him. Separated from the rest of mankind.
And we're showing this by Abraham. He was taken out of the land
of Ur, wasn't he? Separated from his people. He was made separate. The Lord bought him out of the
land of Ur. And then, think of Israel. They were separated from
Egypt. They were bought out of Egypt,
weren't they? Which is a picture of the world. They were bought
out of Egypt into the Promised Land. But they had to go through
that wilderness, didn't they? This earth is a wilderness, beloved.
on our way to Canaan. Oh my! You know, it's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. And the Lord said, this people
have I formed for myself. Let that sink in. I was talking
to some folks last night, telling them a little bit about my past,
and they said, man, you were a hellion. I said, yeah, I was
a bad, I wasn't good. But then I see a verse like that.
I see something like that and I marvel at God's grace. This
people have I formed for myself. We were formed by God for himself,
beloved. That'll keep your boat floating
for a long time, won't it? I'll tell you what, that's incredible. And before long, this secret
purpose is followed by the open call, come out from among them
and be separate. And we run to Christ, don't we? The Church of Christ is a chaste
virgin. It's a chaste virgin, beloved. Wholly set apart for the Lord
Jesus Christ. In his own words concerning his
people, they are not of this world, even as I am not of the
world. We see that. Look at verse 16. They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. We've been set apart, beloved, set apart by God. And those who are sanctified
in a sense have ceased to be unequally yoked together with
unbelievers. They have ceased to run with
the multitude to do evil. They are not conformed to this
present world. They are constrained and restrained
by God the Holy Spirit. And the word means Sanctify,
this word means sanctify, setting apart, made holy. And this can only be in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way a rotten sinner
like me can be made holy is in Christ. I can't make myself holy. We can't make anyone else holy,
can we? But Christ can make us holy. And He has for His people. He made us holy. How does our righteousness exceed
the scribes and the Pharisees? Remember the Lord said, accept
your righteousness exceed the scribes and the Pharisees? How
does that happen? In Christ! In Christ it does! In Him. Oh, isn't that wonderful? We look at that and go, oh, Lord,
my righteousness is like filthy bags in your eyes. But in Christ.
In Christ. Oh, my, my righteousness. Because
it's His righteousness. It's an alien righteousness.
It's Christ's righteousness. And we are clothed in that perfect,
spotless righteousness, beloved. Oh, it's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. My, oh my, it's imputed to us.
You know, the Father, the Father, oh, I love that story about the,
about the prodigal son. He comes, he runs, he runs to
that prodigal son. He says, bring forth the best
robe, the best. You know, we're clothed in the
best robe, the righteousness of Christ. And God the Father
put that on us, beloved. He put that, we didn't put the
coat on ourselves. We're like the prodigal, we're
covered in pig slosh. He put that rag over, that coat
over us, the best robe, and look at that. No one sees all that
slime and stuff anymore, do they? They see the righteousness of
Christ. You know when that, you know when he wove that coat?
When he lived on this earth, in total obedience to the Lord.
And if there's a stitch of our righteousness in that coat, then
it's not the righteousness of Christ. but they're not a stitch
of our righteousness. It's all the righteousness of
Christ. It's all Him, beloved. It's absolutely wonderful. And
now we live a life desiring to live and grow, to live for Christ
and to grow in the knowledge and truth of Him. To desire the word of God. To
desire to grow in this world. Let's read the verse again. Sanctify
them through thy truth, thy word is truth. Oh, all by the power
of the Holy Spirit of God. And this prayer of our Lord is
most necessary for without holiness, right, which is to sanctify,
no man shall see the Lord. Without holiness, none of us
would see the Lord. But we're made holy in Christ. And without
holiness, we're unfit for service for the Lord, aren't we? But
the scripture said, he's made us meet, which is fit for heaven. He's made us fit for service,
because when the God the Father sees us, he sees us in Christ. Oh, it's wonderful. And without
holiness, we cannot enjoy the sweetness of our faith, the sweetness
of our Savior. Just relish that this week. Relish
the sweetness of Christ, how he gave his life for us, how
he shed his blood for us, how he bought us with a price, and
how we're clothed in that perfect, spotless righteousness. That's
so sweet. I've never had honeycomb, but
I'll tell you, I've had some pretty sweet things in this world,
eating-wise, and they're nothing compared to the sweetness of
Christ. He's so sweet. You get encumbered with them
bags while we're running the race. I was telling Marcus about
that. His son's a runner. Dave came out with an illustration
a couple weeks ago. Now think about this. When you're
running a race, right, all you've got on is your shorts, a light
shirt, in shoes, right? And you're running that race,
and you're not encumbered by anything, right? But say somebody
comes along and says, well, you've got to run with this bag of rocks.
And they put a 50-pound bag of rock on you. And you start running
with those rocks, and oh, my goodness. And the other runners,
they're just blazing right by you, aren't they? Right? Well, see, some people put the
rocks of religion on you. Bags of religion. Oh, they just
weigh the runner down. He's just running with this bag
of religious rocks all around on top of him. Right? The bag of rocks of do's
and don'ts. Oh, put that on. Oh my gosh. Right? The bag of you must obey
the law of God along with faith in Christ. Oh my gosh, I'm just
way down to nothing now. But when all them bags are taken
off and shed off, what happens? You just start running again.
And we're running a race, beloved. Right? Let us not be encumbered
by those rocks of various things going on in this world either.
Let us just keep our eyes on Christ and just run. Run. Knowing He gives us the grace
and strength to run, doesn't He? It's Him. It's all Him. He's already cleared
the way. Do you know that the roads to
the cities of refuge were already cleared by the priest? Our great
cry priest, he cleared the way, hadn't he? We're just going through
Canaan land. And I don't need no bags of rocks
when I'm going through Canaan land, do you? Or through the
wilderness. No way. I want to be unencumbered. I want to just look to Christ.
I want to feast on the manner of his word. Right? Oh my. Yeah, no rocks. Don't give me
no rocks. My, I got enough of my own bags of rocks. Right? We have our own bags of rocks,
too, don't we? Yeah. Yeah. We have Christ the rock. He's our guide. He's our guide,
beloved. Oh, my. Oh, it's so wonderful.
What a great God we have. So we see here, too, who's Christ
speaking to? The Holy Father. The Holy Father. Remember that. Our God, He's
the Holy Father. Look at verse 11. And now I am
no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come
to thee, Holy Father. That's who He's speaking to,
Holy Father. My, my, oh, my. Let's read our verse again. Sanctify
them through thy truth, thy word is truth. Now we're sanctified
through truth. The word of God, who's the Lord Jesus Christ,
we're sanctified in him. And he's truth incarnate. He's
truth incarnate. He is the word of God. He's God
incarnate in the flesh. And also the written word. This
is the word of God too, isn't it? And we read the word of God
and we grow in the grace and knowledge and truth of the Lord
Jesus Christ. the written word of God, whose
true writer is God the Holy Spirit. The very one who illuminates
the scriptures for us is the very one who's the true author
of the scriptures. And his spirit, we're gonna see
in our study in Galatians when we get to chapter four, his spirit
is sent into those whom the Father chose in eternity, and those
who Christ redeemed at the cross, and now we cry, Abba, Father.
He's our Holy Father. Now in this, again, wonderful
verse here, our Lord is praying to Holy Father, Jehovah. And I like what Robert Hawker
said, he believes that this portion here is when Christ says to sanctify
them, he believes that for them to be, because we know it's setting
them apart, he believes it was to be set apart for their ministry
and that God would empower them for the ministry. Give them the
grace that they needed, give them the understanding of the
scriptures that they needed to preach and proclaim the gospel.
Because the only way a preacher grows, the only way any saint
grows is by the Holy Spirit giving us an understanding, right? Otherwise,
we don't know nothing. Everything we know about the
Scriptures come from God. We can't brag on it, but he believed
that The Lord is praying for them here for their personal
ministry. And later in this chapter, as
I said in verse 19, we're going to see we're sanctified in Christ. It's for their sakes I sanctify
myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
We know he's the truth. And we know from scripture that
we're sanctified in Christ. So he believed that We should look at this verse
as respect to their personal ministry and character, that
they're being sanctified through the truth, the word of God, that
they're growing in grace. Because we grow in the grace
and knowledge of truth, we're already made holy in Christ. We're already made holy in him.
We can't make ourselves more holy. We're holy in him. And so this is talking about
growing in grace and the knowledge and the truth of the Lord Jesus
Christ, to give them more enlarged views of who Christ is. And that's
what happens as we grow in grace, isn't it? We're like, Lord, I
didn't even know that about you. And it leaves us even more in
awe of how great he is. And all this occurs according
to the great purposes of God in the everlasting covenant.
and from being taught themselves in a more extensive manner, when
the Holy Ghost should come upon them in open display of His power,
which He did, giving them an understanding of the Scriptures,
that they may proclaim Christ as the only Savior of sinners.
And that's what they did. That's what they did, beloved. And the same holds equally true
for us now, for we who are believers now. When we're born again by
the Holy Spirit, The blessed and gracious covenant work of
the Spirit is a complete act. We are sanctified in Christ.
We're redeemed by Christ. We're justified in Christ. It's
all done by Him. And it's complete. Once for all,
we are complete in Christ. Can you add anything to complete?
You can't, can you? You see how religion has twisted
this all around? We're complete in him. If I'm
complete in Christ, then I can't add anything. And I'm glad, because
I'd mess it all up. Oh, the Lord's so gracious, isn't
he? He's just so gracious to us. My, oh, my. We've been bought forth from
the dead to the living. Spiritually dead to be spiritually
alive. And it's all the work of God
the Holy Spirit. He calls forth the one who's
dead and trespasses, and He gives them life. He brings them into a life of
righteousness, which is in Christ. See, we were going about trying
to establish our own righteousness before. Now we just rest in the
righteousness of Christ. Rest, that's the key. What's
the hardest thing for us to do? Just rest. just to sit down in
Christ and rest, not to take, be still, and know that I am
God, he says in the scriptures. Yes, just be still before our
King. See something going on in the
world? I'm gonna be still, and I'm gonna sit and wait for my
Lord. And you know how he speaks to us? Not in dreams and visions,
right? He speaks us through this word
right here. See, if the Lord's spoken to
you through the preaching of the word, that's God the Holy Spirit who's
done that for you. And I praise him. I give him all the glory
and honor and praise. If he's done that, it's wonderful.
It's absolutely wonderful. Because he's done the same for
me when I'm studying. I was ready about 2.30 to call
y'all and say, come on. We're going to have church early
today. My, oh my. It's wonderful. And you know what the scriptures
teach us to act daily, how to act too, isn't it? It really
does. It's a light onto our path. It tells us what's good for us
and what's not. It really does. I like what Vicky
said. We were out for lunch and Vicky
was saying about how sometimes we know that something's wrong. And the Holy Spirit's convicting
us it's wrong, and we just go ahead and do it anyways. Guilty. We're all guilty, right? We're
all guilty. That's the flesh. And that's
the battle that we continuously have. But this Word here will
guide us, and will direct us, and will keep us from that, beloved.
Will keep us from that. Oh, may God be glorified through
the preaching of His Word. What a wonderful Savior we have.
What a merciful Savior we have. He's so good, isn't He? He's
so good. Oh, my. I'll tell you why. I can't tell you. I can't even
explain to you how good He's been to me. I'll tell you, He saved my soul.
He's my only Savior. I'm a sinner to the core, but
Christ saved me. And if he's done the same for
you this week, rejoice, beloved. Rejoice! Not only do we get the
fellowship in this world, but we're going to get the fellowship
in glory forever and ever and ever. All because of what Christ
has done for us.