If you have your Bible, turn
with me this morning to the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John.
John chapter 17. A very familiar passage. We'll just read one verse at
the opening here this morning. Look, if you will, at verse 15.
The Lord Jesus is praying, I pray
not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that
thou shouldest keep them from the evil. My heart was brought to this
verse this week, where our Lord Jesus says, I pray not that thou
shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest
keep them from the evil. If you will notice in this prayer,
our Lord Jesus Christ prays for His own, and I think one of the
precious things about this promise here that we have in this verse
of scripture is the very fact that each one of us has an enableable,
I can't get that word quite out, interest in this very faithful
promise. And if you will notice in the
prayer of our Lord what honor he always puts upon God the Father. He ascribes to God everything
the taking of the disciples out of the world or the keeping them
from the evil that is in the world. He says it's the Father
who does these things. And I hope that we will never
neglect to look for God's hand in all things that happens in
this world to the saints of God, that we will remember that we're
not to look at things as the world does, look at the outward
appearance but we're to believe God and we're to look with a
believing heart toward the Lord in all of the events that fall
out and happen to the saints of God. When we die, according
to what the Lord Jesus is saying here in this prayer, it is not
by chance. He ascribes here to the Father,
He says, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the
world, recognizing that the Father could take them out of the world
at any time and does take his people out of the world. We sometimes
look upon death as being an independent being who comes at his own will
to carry us away when he pleases. In fact, it is not true that
death does take away the Christian alone. God alone can remove his
children from this world. and the harvest of the righteous
is reaped by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Christ is the reaper
who cuts, as we might say, his own corn, and he will not trust
even an angel to do it. We're very clearly taught here
that believers do not die by chance. They die when God takes
them out of the world. That is the doctrinal inference
of the text. Believers fall asleep in Jesus
neither before nor after the predestined time. No disease
or accident can cut short the lives of God's people and it
would not be possible to prolong their existence beyond the time
that is appointed by the Lord. We believe this, do we not? Now,
beloved, there was an old man one time that was asked about
dying. And someone said to him, how
do you feel about this? You're an old man, and you're
going to die very shortly. And the old man, being a believer,
said that, he says, if I live, it makes no difference to me
whether I live or die. Because if I live, he will be
with me. And if I die, I will be with
him. That's in the Lord's hands, is
it not? And Mr. Spurgeon one time said,
before a man's time to die, 10,000 demons could not put him in the
grave. And when it is our time, 10,000
angels cannot keep us out. I believe that wholeheartedly. All must come and last and end,
the poet said, as shall please my heavenly friend. Plagues and
death around me fly, till he bids I cannot die. Not a single shaft can hit till
the God of love thinks fit. Our lives are entirely, are they
not, in the keeping of our loving Heavenly Father. You can see
that clearly in this text. Our lives are in His keeping.
I look upon God as being my Heavenly Father. And I trust Him with
all events and the outcome of all things. And this text makes
it clear that our lives are in the hands of the Father. This
fact should make us cease to be anxious about when or how
that we shall die. And it should at the same time
reconcile us to the time and the manner of the home going
of any whom we love, those that we love most dearly in this world. They were not snatched away by
the robber death, they were taken out by the hand of our gracious
Father. Job said concerning his loved
ones, the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the
name of the Lord. Was he wrong in his doctrinal
beliefs? I don't think so. I believe he
was right on the money. The Lord gave and the Lord hath
taken away. See also how that our Lord Jesus
honors the Father by ascribing to him the keeping of the saints
from evil. He says in the latter part of
this verse, he says, but that thou shouldest keep them from
the evil. And so he prays that the Father
would enable them to escape from the evil. And our escape from
evil at the first was by the Father's grace. I would invite
you to turn with me to the first chapter of the book of Galatians. There's a couple of verses I'd
like to share with you, and if you would turn with me to Galatians
chapter 1, I want to read here verses 3, 4, and 5, where Paul
says to the church at Galata, he says, Grace be to you, and
peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who
gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this
present evil world according to the will of God and our Father,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Now in that fourth
verse you see, beloved, very clearly how that God has, just
according to the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ, delivered
us from this present evil world. We've been delivered by who?
The will of God and our Father. The will of God and our Father.
He has delivered us. So initially, when we were converted,
brought out of our sin, brought into a saving relationship with
the Lord Jesus Christ, Him becoming sin in our place, in our stead,
we becoming the righteousness of God in Him, we see that this
was all the work of the Father. And our persevering in righteousness
until now, since our conversion, we've been on a pilgrimage. And
we've been persevering in the way. And this persevering is
wrought in us by the Father's hand through the Divine Spirit. And this day, if we have not
denied the faith and proved a traitor, to the Lord Jesus Christ, we
must ascribe it entirely to the free grace of God. Beloved, our
faithfulness is because of His faithfulness, and we must always
look to His hand. There's no ability in us to be
faithful. The power is not in us. The power
is in God and His faithfulness to keep us from evil. Now then,
first of all, let's think just a little bit about this prayer
of our Lord that thou shalt not take them out of the world. I
pray not that thou should take them out of the world. Now some
would think that right after a man is converted would be a
very good time for God to take them out of the world. You know, at first sight, that
seems almost unkind on our Savior's part that He would pray, I pray
not that thou shouldest take them out of the world. It seems
a little bit unkind. Somebody says, the Lord Jesus
was going out of the world, why should we remain in the world? Has Jesus now entered into His
glory? Let us be where He is that we
may behold His glory. What could be better than to
be taken out of such a cruel world as we're living in? What is there to hold us here?
Do we not desire with Paul the Apostle to depart and to be with
Christ? Do we not mean it when we say,
On Jordan's stormy banks I stand, and cast a wistful eye to Canaan's
fair and happy land where my possessions lie, filled with
delight, my raptured soul can here no longer stay. Though Jordan's
waves around me roll, fearless, I'd launch away. And so, my friend,
but the Savior prays, I pray not. I'm sure, therefore, that
it is a better thing for us to stop here. until our appointed
time than it is for us to be taken out of the world. Our Lord
loves us too much to ask anything but the best thing for us, so
this, my friend, has to be the best. I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the world. Well, how is that? What is it
that the Lord, why would He let His people stay in the world
after they receive of His regenerating work and the principle of divine
grace in their heart, why would He leave them here in the world
when they have become part of His body, even of His flesh and
His bones? Well, first of all, if we who
are Christ's people were taken out of the world, then the world
itself would perish. The Bible says that ye are the
light of the world, speaking of God's people. And he said
also that ye are the salt of the earth. Now, beloved, the
reason why there's not Egyptian darkness that covers this world
today is because God's people are here. And the reason why
that there's not more putrefaction and corruption visible in the
world than what there is today is because the salt of the earth
is still here. God's people are still here. Now you can look back to Noah
and his wife and his three sons, Shem, Ham, Japheth, and their
wives, and they were the only family on earth that feared God,
and we see what happened when they were taken out of the world.
And the same about Sodom and Gomorrah. There was one good
man who lived there, only one, and the angels led him out of
the city, and the sun was risen on the earth when Lot entered
into Zohar. Then the Lord rained brimstone
and fire from heaven, and the Lord overthrew those cities.
And I would like for you to turn with me. I'd like to read these
verses. They were a blessing to me out of Luke chapter 17
verses 26 through 30. Luke chapter 17 verse 26 through
30. And listen to these words. And
as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days
of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they
married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that
Noah entered into the ark. And the flood came and destroyed
them all. Until the day. Until the day
that Noah entered into the ark. Everything continued up to that
day. And but when Noah entered into
the ark, all hell broke loose. And the judgment in the flood
came and destroyed them all. Destroyed them all. And then,
listen, likewise also as it was in the days of Lot. They did
eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they
built it. They went on with their lives
just like ordinary people. But, the same day that lot went
out of Sodom, the same day, it rained fire and brimstone from
heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the
day when the Son of Man is revealed. In that day, in that day, And
we need to keep in mind that the only reason why there is
still grace and mercy to be had and that the day of salvation
is still here is that God has a people that He's saving out
of this world. And it's the elect of God that
preserves this world and keeps it intact until the appointed
time when God will bring the judgments that our brother talked
about here this morning. So may the light still burn and
the salt still preserve a little longer. God is at work. And we need to be aware of that.
But you are kept here because you are the preserving influence
in this world. And that's the reason that we've
not been taken out. When the Lord takes His people
out, then shall come these dark days and the earth shall know
the terrible vengeance of Almighty God. Now the second reason is
that the righteous must stay in the world a while that they
may be the means in the hands of God for the salvation of that
people that he's calling out of the world. In verse 20 of
this chapter 17, Jesus said, neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. There is a commission to be carried
out. You remember that our Lord gave
to His church the commission and said, you go into all the
world and you preach the gospel, you make disciples of men and
women, and you baptize them in the name of the Father and the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. And do you not remember that
our Master Himself said, that I have come here into this world
to seek and to save that which was lost. And do you not also
remember that He said, as the Father sent me into the world,
even so send I you into the world. God's people are here to spread
the Gospel, to preach the Gospel of redeeming grace. And there
are those in this world that are lost. And we ought to be
very grateful to the Lord for praying as He did. He says, I
pray not. It is more needful for sinners
that Paul should stay here in the flesh, though he himself
has a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far
better. He said, it's more needful for you that I stay here. I would
like to depart. And so the Lord Jesus is praying
that His people would be able to stay here, that they might
be able to spread the gospel and preach the everlasting gospel
of the kingdom to the end of the earth. And so that's the
second reason why he prayed as he did. The third reason is the
Lord keeps his people here that he may exhibit in them the power
of his grace. That he may exhibit in them the
power of his grace. Like Job, for an example of patience,
angels will adore throughout eternity the patience and the
endurance of God's people. And they only endure by divine
grace and divine strength. They're only able to put up with,
to stay under the loads in life, and to bear up under the trials
of life by the grace of God. Well, they're a spectacle to
the whole world. Let the world dump on the people
of God what they would dump on the people of God. Let them go
on, but God will sustain His people, and they will endure. The grace of God is sufficient,
and they will stand up under whatever stress and pressure
they must stay under until the Lord's time of taking it off
their shoulders. The Lord will do it. Let the
devil and all men see what His grace can do. What saints He
can make out of those guilty, hell-deserving sinners that we
talked about last Sunday morning. And this will be to the praise
of the glory of His grace. Beloved, there's no need of patience
and strength in heaven. No need of it there. There's
no need of it. We're with the Lord. The former
things are all passed away. All tears are wiped away. And
we're with the Lord for all eternity in safety and security. No need
there to fight the battles of life and to stay under the load.
that the Lord leaves His people here so that everybody will know
that's a child of God. That's a person of faith. That's
a person who trusts Me. They know that they can only
do that as they stay on the Lord. And the Lord, fourthly, by keeping
us here means to show us more of His wisdom and power and truth. Now, beloved, the experiences
that we have had here in this life, some very trying, some
so trying that they feel like they're going to pull the very
flesh off your bones. But these experiences are not
for sale. I told an individual who was
under great burdens the other day that not even God could lift
up a man who is not down. Not even God can lift us up if
we're not down. Job said, you say unto them who
are cast down, there shall be lifting up. And we learn in our
times of heartache, and separation, and difficulty, and in the time
of bereavement, we learn something about our God. And we experience
something that people in other situations cannot experience. Oh, my friend, what has God taught
us through our experiences? We wouldn't have missed it for
anything. To have been blessed by God, the Lord having drawn
near, the Lord having revealed Himself, the Lord having made
Himself known. to creatures of earth, to those
who are sons of Adam, fallen sons of Adam, God, the eternal
God, the God of heaven, the holy God, manifests Himself and draws
near in a way that He does not draw near to the world. And so
what have we learned? My friend, these experiences
are not for sale. Let them come as they will. Because
we need to know our God. And we need to experience our
God. We need to experience His tenderness
and love. You want to get to heaven and
you never experienced any of God's grace and tenderness and
mercy and kindness? You never felt His hand underneath
holding and supporting you? My friend, you've been left here
that you would experience God in your life and His faithfulness. And then next, a little scale
on earth, I believe, will make heaven all the sweeter. It'll
make it all the sweeter. Nothing makes rest so sweet as
labor. Hard work. If a man works hard,
he lies down, And He rests. He takes His rest. He takes His
rest. And someday after all of the
labor and the trial and the work of this world, we shall all take
our rest in the bosom of Jesus. We'll take our rest. The Lord
Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you. Now, I don't know what
there was to prepare, seeing that He said, It is the Father's
good pleasure to give unto the little flock the kingdom which
has been prepared from the foundation of the world. I don't know what
there was for Him to prepare, but He said that I'll come again
and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there you'll
be also. I would ask you, are we prepared
for it? Will you feel like a stranger
when you get to Heaven? A stranger, I say. Or will you
go in having learned in life, experienced in life, so tested
and tried in life, so been cast upon the stones of a hard way
in life, so joyful when you enter into
glory and you will know what it means that the Lord has brought
you through the way that He brought you. in order that you might
really be able to enjoy the bliss of heaven. The more trials, the
more bliss. The more depression, the higher
the exaltation. What shall heaven be against
the background of earth? No angel could teach us what
our trials and tribulations have taught us. No angel. If you had a private tutor, an
angel that'd come and sit next to you, he could not teach you
what the way teaches the people of God. God's people have left
in the land a poor and an afflicted people. They trust in the Lord,
and God blesses them. These are God's people, and I
know there's people in this world, turn thumbs down on them, on
account of their trouble and their problems and their tests,
they'll turn thumbs down and say, don't want anything more
to do with you, you're just, you're just, there's something
bad wrong with you that you're having all these troubles. My
friend, those people are not a half inch deep when it comes
to the things of God. They know nothing about experiential
religion. They know nothing about it. And
so God's people will enjoy heaven a whole lot more because they've
been left here in the world. And then, sixthly, He knows that
we shall be taken to heaven at the time appointed of the Father.
That's why that he left it. The Lord Jesus, he leaves it
with the Father. He says, I pray not that you
take these out of the world. When I leave, and he was leaving,
he said, I just leave them with you. And Father, you take them
whenever you would be pleased to take them. Now in due time
we shall be gathered over on that other shore. There shall
be a great meeting of the saints of God in that time. The Lord Jesus is coming back
and the dead in Christ will rise first and they which alive and
remain will be caught up together to be with the Lord in the clouds
and we shall be with him forever at the appointed time. Daniel
said at the appointed time the end shall come at the time appointed
of the Father. It is clearly our duty to leave
ourselves wholly and unreservedly in the hand of Him to whom belongs
the issues of life. It is our duty to leave ourselves
in the hands of the Lord. Now, I wanted to spend a little
time on the positive prayer, but I'm not going to be able
to do that. I think that what I will do is that I will pass
on to some of the lessons that I have learned through all of
this and come back some other time and talk a little bit about
this being preserved from all evil. I will make this one observation
that when it talks about Jesus praying for them that they would
be kept from the evil, I think that one of the points we should
make is that whatever happens in this world, whatever happens
in your life or my life, and however we brush shoulders with
the evil of the world, and however much we have to deal with temptation
and the difficulties of this life, there's one thing about
it that the Lord will never ever abandon us to such evil as would
condemn our souls to an everlasting hell. There is no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. There is no believer who can
commit a sin that is so bad that the Lord Jesus Christ will abandon
him and send him to hell. There is no sin that a man can
commit that will thwart the purpose of Almighty God. It cannot be
done. And so God will keep his people
from that measure of evil that would result in their having
a charge laid to their account in heaven. He will keep them
from that. He will not allow that. And so
I wanted to add that this morning. That has to be inserted into
this message this morning. Now there are three things that
I learned from this text that I want to share quickly and briefly
with you. Number one is that we never have
any encouragement previously to ask God to let
us die the teachings of the scripture that as a believer believers
are always you know we meet them when they're in difficult straits
and we see them when they're reeling from the trials that's
come upon them and oftentimes they're asking the Lord to die
they would just like to die and to be able to get out of this
world. They say it is because they want
to be with the Lord. But it's not because they're
planning to be with the Lord. They just want to be rid of their
trouble. They want to get out of their trouble. They did not
want to die when everything was quiet and prosperous. But now
they want to go home, not to have the Savior's company, but
to get away from their troubles, trials, and hard hard work. I one time illustrated something
like this by saying that when I was a boy, we had a young fella
nearby, a friend, that he always liked to come down and play.
And he'd be glad to stay as long as you were playing. But whenever
there was work to be done, he had to go home. And there's a
lot of people that way, whenever there's a real test comes up.
I mean when the pressure is on and the fire is burning, that
people want to get out of it. They just say, well I don't want
the trouble. I don't want to do this. There's no place in
the scripture that teaches that we have the right to do that.
We do not have the right to do that. Do not be afraid to go
out into the world and to do good. Tackle life. I know I'm sometimes like Jonah
myself. Sometimes, you know, you'd like
to jump the next ship out and just go on down the road. But
my friend, we're not to murmur. We're to do what we can. We must
not be afraid to live. And we must not be afraid of
duty and obligation that's been placed upon us. We must never
be afraid. This is a time whenever we need
to gather together in strength and stay on the Lord and press
straight ahead. Press straight ahead, believing
God, trusting God, and honoring God by not being afraid to do
our duty and to do what we're obligated to do as believers
and stop this running around crying around that all we just
go out of the world we just leave the world we'd like to go home
to be with the Lord my friend as long as God leaves you here
he means for you to act like a man and means for you to stand
up for the truth and to persevere and to be what you want to be
you have no right to slack your duty or to back off and say,
well, everybody else is. Well, you cannot run from the
battle. You must go on. The enemy's out
there and you must go on. You cannot run back, tuck tail
and run. You cannot do it. Pray that God
will not allow your afflictions to make you, to turn you into
a coward. that you'll stand your ground
and you'll be what you ought to be. The songwriter said, must
I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease while others
fought to win the prize and sail through bloody seas. And so I've
learned by this that we must persevere and that we cannot
be crying and carrying on about getting out of the world. We've
got a job to do and if God has left us here and left breath
in our lungs and the ability to be up and about then we must
go on and press on to the glory of his name. Amen? Amen. All right and then Let me say
this, I've learned this, that it's for the glory of God that
you're kept here. And you must believe that. You
say, I can't see that my being here is for the glory of God. I can't see it. Well, my friend,
you don't have to see it. God has a reason. If He's left
that breath in your lungs, then you're here for His glory. And
you must believe it. You must believe it. It's a matter
of faith. God, you have left me here and
you've enabled me to be able to do and to be about. And so
it must be for your glory that I'm here. So cast yourself upon
the Lord. and believe Him and trust Him
and the Lord will deliver you. The Lord is the head of the church
and He will deliver the church. He said that the gates of hell
would not prevail against it. Persevere on and stand your ground. Be faithful unto God and believe
that it's for His glory that you've been spared and been left
into this world And so press on. And the Lord knows the way
through the wilderness. And the songwriter said, and
all you have to do is follow. All you have to do is follow.
Well, I'm going to leave it off there. I felt impressed of the
Lord to bring these thoughts to you. And I hope that they
will be encouragement to you. And we mentioned Tim in our prayers. I hope that these scriptures
this morning and this subject would be a special blessing to
him, encouragement to him. And Tim is going away. And Tim,
would you stand and just tell us what you could about your
trip, your upcoming trip, and when you're expected back, and
so on? OK. Well, a lot of you probably
already know. There will be about 200 people from the International
Guard going. We've got a few people over there
right now. The rest of us will be here next
week. We should be back probably...