Us Against The World (John 17:11-19 Jeff Kliewer)

Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. Things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Where justice and the Son are measured in you.

Over there, overjoyed. You can see them shouting, jumping. Oh, look at how they are excited. This is the first time those children are receiving their shoeboxes.

They are so happy. Every box is important because every box is an opportunity to tell a child about God's love, about His Son, Jesus Christ.

If you get the heart of the child, you will reach the heart of the parents, you will reach the heart of the family, and then you will touch the community. That gift box is the beginning into their hearts.

Isn't it incredible how these gifts touch the lives of these children? Every year, we see tens of thousands of children discipled, and we couldn't do this without you, so thank you for packing the boxes, thank you for praying for these children around the world.

God bless you, and keep packing those boxes.

Christmas Child is an amazing ministry. It also can provide you with an opportunity to perhaps be with your neighbors. If you were to take a couple of extra boxes, and maybe you have a neighbor that you know, they don't perhaps go to a church or whatever, and you say, hey, we're doing this opportunity to bless children around the world, give them a, for some reason, people are willing to do something like that for kids, and it could open up a door for you to talk to them about the Lord.

So if you're taking a couple of boxes for yourself, take a couple of more extras, and intentionally go talk to your neighbors. I'd like to open us up in prayer in Proverbs 10, verse two, verse 28. The hope of the righteous brings joy.

The hope of the righteous brings joy. For those of us who know God, those who are his child, those who have come to him following God, there is a future hope that we have that cannot be destroyed, that cannot be defeated.

It's a guarantee by God. Now, the world is gonna be pushing you in a lot of ways, and in one of the ways, when the world is pushing you, it's trials, it's temptations, it's difficulty. There's no trial, there's no temptation that Satan or this world can lay at your feet that will defeat you.

You are a child of God. We have righteousness that brings joy. Keep your eyes on God, that's our challenge. And remember Solomon's encouraging words, the hope of the righteous brings joy. That's who we are.

Couple of announcements. You come into church, and you come into the foyer, you can do a handful of things. Talking and fellowshipping, great thing to do. I encourage that. Picking up a whole bunch of Operation Christmas Child boxes.

I encourage that. And then on the table is the sign-up for our Thanksgiving fellowship dinner. We're gonna be having our Thanksgiving fellowship dinner on the 18th, the Saturday before Thanksgiving. And so on the table, there are two sign-ups, two sign-ups, not just one.

One is we're gonna come, your family name and how many people, so we have an understanding of how many people will be here, how many chairs and whatever. But on the other side is a sign-up for things that you would be willing to bring for the buffet, whether it's turkey, gravy, or whatever.

So please pick up the boxes and sign-up for the Thanksgiving fellowship. There's also a sign-up for church cleanup. We do need people who are willing to participate in that. And tonight, I really encourage you to come back at six o 'clock for our time of prayer.

Prayer for Thanksgiving, Church Fellowship, and Israel

Let's turn to prayer right now. Lord, we do turn to you as the author of all truth as the source of all righteousness, as the creator, the sustainer of all, as the one who loves us, as the one whose son died on the cross for our sins.

Help us, we pray, O Lord, to deny the temptations of the world and to be focused on your righteous blessings. And as Solomon proclaimed, the hope of the righteous brings joy. So we turn to you, we surrender to your will, we seek your wisdom.

Lord, we continue to pray for your people, Israel. We pray you would protect them. We pray that you would restrain the forces of evil. We pray that your glory would be shown in all the world as you stand up for your people, Israel.

Be with our pastor, that your words would be in his heart that your spirit would empower him and prepare our hearts to hear. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. With me.

Be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Most high. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Most high. Glory to the name of the Lord. Glory to the name of the Lord. Glory to the name of the Lord. Most high. Most high, glory to the name of the Lord. Glory to the name of the Lord. Glory to the name of the Lord, most high.

The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it, and they are saved. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it, and they are saved. Holy is the name of the Lord.

Holy is the name of the Lord. Most high is the name of the Lord. Holy is the name of the Lord, most high. The name of the Lord is... the name of the Lord... is a strong tower. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord Most High. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord Most High. Amen. Yahweh is our strength and our rock.

He is our fortress. Let the name of Yahweh be blessed forever and ever. Let his glory fill the earth. Let's continue to sing together. With streams of abundance flow. Blessed be your name. Blessed be every blessing you pour out.

When the dark place closes in, Lord. Still I will say. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your glorious name. Shining down on me. As it should be.

Blessed be. When the darkness closes in, Lord. Still I will say. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Who's to say? Blessed be your name. Who's to say? Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your name.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your glorious name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your glorious name. Amen, amen. Lord, we come before you because you are worthy to be praised.

Let us praise your name, Lord Jesus. For your name is above every name. It is to be exalted. And your splendor is above the earth and the heavens. Of heaven. Starry high. Lights of the evening. Dancing in sighs.

Brilliance of voices. Name. Let all his wondrous works. Declare his praise. Mightiest man. Peaceful play. Fire. Thundering ocean. Waves. Kings and their works. Declare. All his nameless works. Declare.

His majesty. All things made by his decree. Hear creation's melody. Praise him. Praise him. Everything with life and breath. Peace to everyone. Praise him. Angels echo the refrain. Jesus, lamb for sinners slain.

Name above all. Praise him. Praise his name. His wondrous works. Declare his praise. Let all his wondrous works. Declare his praise. His wondrous works. Declare his praise. You may be seated.

The Blood of the Lamb and the Great High Priest

Gracious Heavenly Father, your word has told us without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. We want to thank you for the blood of the lamb. Thank you for our great high priest, Jesus Christ, who came to the Holy of Holies, not bringing the blood of bulls and goats, but bringing his own blood shed for sinners like us.

We thank you that we are forgiven through faith in his precious blood. A spotless lamb that was slain for sinners like us. And God, we thank you that Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us. We have a great high priest behind the veil, who's anchored for us the way of salvation.

And so, Lord, this morning, let all that is done be in the name of our great high priest, Jesus Christ. And we pray that the priest, Jesus Christ, would open our ears to hear his word, that you would help us, intercede for us, to sanctify us in your truth.

Your word is truth. In Jesus' name, amen. Abram was called out of Ur of the Chaldees. There in Ur, they worshiped a god called Sin. The moon god was called Sin. If you worship a god that's called Sin, you have the wrong god.

He was called out of Ur of the Chaldees to go to a promised land to be blessed. But if God himself had not gone with Abraham, the world would have chewed him up and spit him out. The world would have chewed Abraham up and spit him out.

Abraham did not have, Abraham at the time, did not have the resources within himself to overcome the world. When he arrived in the promised land, there was a famine, and he had to go to Egypt. Because of his own cowardice, he told the Pharaoh that Sarah, his wife, was only his sister.

Now, in fact, she was his half-sister. They had the same father, different mothers. And so Abraham surely justified his lie by saying, you know, I'm only telling half the truth, I'm not actually lying.

But what he was truly doing was giving his wife over to protect himself, thinking they will see her beauty and they'll kill me to take her. And so to protect himself, he gave his own wife over to the Pharaoh.

Now, God, I think, preserved and protected her and gave her back to Abraham. And by the grace of God, he went back, coming out of Egypt. I have called my son, a picture of the future Exodus and a picture of Jesus having a time in Egypt, out of Egypt.

I've called my son, he comes back to the promised land. This particular sin would become a pattern in Abraham's life. Even when he had encountered God and interceded for Sodom and seen the fire of heaven fall on Sodom and he knew the power of God, yet there came a time in his life where he was forced to sojourn again south of the promised land in the Negev, that wedge of land between Egypt and Israel and the southern territory of Moab.

He went down to the Negev and seeing the king there whose name was Abimelech, he told Abimelech, this is my sister, Sarah. And Abimelech took Sarah into his home but did not sleep with her. That night, God showed up to Abimelech and said, you're a dead man.

And Abimelech said, what did I do? And God told Abimelech that this Sarah is actually the wife of Abraham. And so Abimelech calls Abraham, why did you lie to me? Why didn't you tell me the whole truth here?

And of course, Abraham had been afraid for himself and in that cowardice, he had fallen into sin. But God tells Abimelech, I did not let you touch her. In other words, it wasn't Abraham's great faith, although he is the father of the faith.

In fact, when Hebrews recounts the story of Abraham in Hebrews chapter 11, it doesn't tell the stories of his falls. It only focuses on his faith and his good works because at that point, all of this is under the blood.

But they are recorded for us in Genesis for our encouragement and for our instruction. Abraham did not maintain his own standing in the world. He stumbled and would have been chewed up and spit out if it were not for God.

God said, I did not let you, Abimelech, touch her. It was one with Abraham, invisible to him, that was keeping him. When there was strife between the herdsmen of Lot and Abraham, Abraham had a gracious spirit.

The priest that was with him was helping him to be a peacemaker with Lot. And it was Lot, though, who cast his tent towards Sodom, which ultimately would be to his own demise. God was with Abraham in that conflict.

Pressures within and pressures without. In fact, it was Abraham who had led his wife Sarah into temptation by requesting of her, instructing her even, to say that she was only his sister. Conversely, there was a time when Sarah became a stumbling block to her own husband.

Seeing that they were childless, she proposed to him that he would go into Hagar, the slave girl, to bear offspring by her. And because I think of Abraham's sexual temptation at that point, he was all too ready to accept that idea.

And he fell that way, sexually, with Hagar. Ishmael was born of this relationship. And by God's grace, God would even bless Ishmael and protect him and make him a nation as well. But it was not Abraham's faith and obedience that was keeping him.

It was the intercession of God. A priest was praying for him, even in his stumbling. There were physical threats around him. Did you know there came a time when four great kings, Chedorahmar and Ariok and Tidal, they came against some allied peoples.

Lot was living in Sodom, Gomorrah, and these five kings. There was a massive war in the Middle East. Four kings against five. One group wiped out the other and took Lot captive. In his own strength, this little tribe of Abraham could do nothing to rescue Lot.

But Abraham was not alone. Giving chase by a supernatural work of grace, he was able to rescue Lot and his family and bring them back. When Abraham was sent out of Ur of the Chaldees into the world, he did not have in himself the resources to overcome the world.

But we see in Genesis 14, verses 18 to 20, a brief encounter that Abraham had with God. If Melchizedek is Jesus pre-incarnate, then he's encountering Jesus himself. It could be, however, that Melchizedek was a regular guy who was only a type of the coming Messiah.

But in Genesis 14, Abraham encounters a priest. This is very important. If Abraham had gone alone out into the world, the world would have chewed him up and spit him out. But all the while, he had a priest praying for him.

Praying for his forgiveness when he fell sexually. For his cowardice when he fell that way. His lack of leadership with his wife. And praying for him in battle, that he would come back victorious. He encountered this priest in Genesis 14, 18 to 20.

Mysteriously, a man named Melchizedek appears to Abraham after the battle in which he rescued Sodom and Gomorrah and all of these people. Melchizedek, his name means King of Righteousness, but he is identified as priest.

Priest of the Most High God. He brings bread and wine. Abraham tithes to this man and this man blesses Abraham. In all of this, we have a prophetic picture of Jesus Christ, the Great High Priest. Jesus is that King of Righteousness.

Jesus is the priest of the Most High God who comes from Salem, City of Peace, Jeru, Salem. Jesus is the true Great High Priest who does not bring merely bread and wine to refresh Abraham after a difficult battle that he was in.

Our priest Jesus brings the bread of his broken body on the cross. The wine of his shed blood for sinners like us. He blesses us and he keeps us. That promise of Genesis 12, 1 to 3, that you will be blessed and everyone who blesses you will be blessed, that is utterly dependent on the Great High Priest blessing Abraham.

And Abraham tithes up to him, which indicates that this one is greater than Abraham and therefore greater than Levi who comes from Abraham. This is the Great High Priest. He has no beginning because he comes out of nowhere.

The text doesn't introduce him. He just appears out of nowhere and Abraham is tithing to him. He has the power of an indestructible life because after that event, you never see him again. He ever lives.

Prophetic of Jesus's eternal ministry. This to say, Abraham would have been chewed up and spit out by the world, but he ever had a priest. Turn with me to John 17. This passage is the high priestly prayer of Jesus.

Like Abraham, if we had to go it alone to face this world with temptations within and struggles without, we would be defeated. It is only because we have a Great High Priest who ever lives to make intercession for us that we are more than conquerors, that we will overcome, that we will not fail.

There are those who will tell you that salvation can be lost. They will say that you can lose your salvation. That is a school of theology. But I tell you by the word of God that if you could lose your salvation, you would.

You don't have the power to keep it. The forces of the evil one and the world and your own flesh would overwhelm you and eventually your faith would fail. Peter was told that Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith would not fail.

Church, your salvation is kept by the intercessory ministry of Jesus Christ. John 17 is his high priestly prayer where he is interceding, mediating between a holy God and sinful men. And it is this work of the priest that keeps us.

Now, to review, in verses one to five, we see that the world does not revolve around us. This priest is the center of the story. John, I love what you've coined that term, the glory story, because the Bible and the story of history and all of the universe is the story of his glory.

It's not really about us. We're not the center of the story. And so the first thing that Jesus prays in John 17, one to five, is for himself to be glorified. Now, if you know someone, maybe a baseball player, a basketball player, a football player, who makes a great play and he invites the praise of the people, there's something ugly about that.

It's great that he's being cheered for because he did well. But there's something ugly when people glory in themselves. Boasting, I mean. Boasting is, it's ugly and it's repulsive because we're not made to be the center.

But listen, Jesus prays for his own glory and this is good and right and beautiful because he is the glorious center of the universe. It's right for him to want to be glorified because he deserves it.

And he is the center point. It is only beautiful that he prays to be glorified. And this is why I say this is the Lord's prayer. Only he can pray it. We don't pray, Father, glorify us with the glory we had with you before the world began.

That is alone his prayer to pray because he is the eternal son. Next we saw in verses 6 to 10 that we do have a part in the story of his glory. We talked about the ordo salutis, the order of salvation as given in verses 6 to 10.

The first point being foreknowledge that God has predestined. That is to say, he has a people, in verse 6, who he then elects or gives to the son as a treasured possession. And then he will call this people by the preaching of the word, the calling and the drawing of the spirit in order that they would believe.

And it says, verse 6, they will keep your word. The word goes out as an effectual call. They then will keep that word. We learn that this is faith which produces perseverance. And finally, the last step in the ordo salutis, of course, is glorification.

Verse 10, I am glorified in them. So we pick up in verse 11, seeing that there is a people that God is preparing for salvation and has saved. He will ultimately glorify them that they would be eternal worshipers of the son.

And now we move into verses 11 to 19 and the subject here becomes sanctification. Sanctification. To sanctify means to set apart. God is set apart from his creation. He's distinct from it, above it, better than it, over it all.

He's separate. He's holy. That's what it means. To be sanctified is to be set apart from the world, to be made holy. Your feet washed, no longer muddied by the dirt of this world. It's being made like Christ.

It's a process. It's in that ordo salutis near the end and it results finally in glorification. Make sense? So let's read it. Verses 11 and 19. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you.

Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost, except the son of destruction, that the scripture might be fulfilled.

But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

And for their sake, I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. In verse 11, Jesus begins by saying, I am no longer in the world. But does that phrase strike you as strange? He's praying in the presence of the 11.

Judas has gone out from them. He's praying in the world. He's still here. He has not yet died and risen and ascended to the right hand of the Father. And yet he prays, I am no longer in the world. What do you make of that?

Well, I think the first easy answer is that in John 13, he finishes his public ministry in the world. That is, he closes it down. He pronounces judgment, according to Isaiah 6, that their hearts would be hard, they wouldn't receive.

And now he's come out of the world into that sacred space, the holy place, with his disciples, and he's teaching them. So in that sense, he's come out of the world. I think that could be the answer. But I think there's one deeper level as well.

Jesus knowing that these words would not be written until the 90s AD. And then we would have the Gospel of John for all of church history to read these words. They are spoken with reference to us. I am no longer in the world.

As we reading these words, remember that he said that, we know where he is. And sometimes prophetically, a prophet will speak in a past tense, although something has not yet happened in time. So it's anachronistic, it's out of time.

But if you read Isaiah 53, the prophet is speaking in the past tense, yet the Lamb of God has not yet come. The point being, it's as good as done. It's written, it will happen. And in the same way, Jesus speaks here as if he's already seated at the right hand of the Father.

It's a certainty, what he will do on the cross, that he will raise, that he will ascend, and he's giving us a glimpse of what his high priestly prayer looks like. So truly, we are in the Holy of Holies when we look here.

We're seeing him pray for us. Now it's specifically for the apostles, but I'm saying to you, I think he's speaking with reference to us. So you would see him in the Holy of Holies. I am no longer in the world.

Picture him there. He's at the right hand of the Father. He'll pray for us in that way. But here, technically, they are in the world and I am coming to you. So he's looking forward to being at the right hand.

Notice how he addresses God in verse 11. Holy Father. Unless we understand that God is holy, sanctification will mean little to us. But when we understand that he is the separate one, in all glory and brilliance, brighter than the sun, and we recognize here we are on earth, we ought to let our words be few.

He is holy. And the problem is, sinful man and holy God are separate. But notice he doesn't just call him Holy God. What does he call him? Holy Father. Which indicates that this Holy One is a loving Father who will rescue and care for and provide for us.

The Holy Father is addressed, keep them in your name. Church, if you hear nothing else today, all attention. If you hear nothing else today, understand this, that if you had to keep your own salvation, you would lose it.

But you have a high priest who prays for you. His intercessory ministry, which is his shed blood in time, and his ongoing appeal to the Father, is what keeps you. I've often said that I can't even keep my abs into my 40s.

Now, I've told my kids sometimes, I actually do have a six-pack. Did you know that? It's just covered by a lot of insulation. So it can't be seen, but it's there. If I can't keep my abs, how would I be able to keep my heart pure before the Holy God?

Amidst all the temptations of this world, internal and outside of us, all the struggles of this life, the power of the evil one arrayed against you. As strongly as he opposed Job, he opposes you. Your own flesh still part of your nature?

You wouldn't keep it, but he keeps you. See him pray, verse 11. Keep them in your name. In your name here means identified with you, not falling away. In your name. Name is identity. What is the name of God?

His personal name in the Old Testament. He reveals it to Moses at the burning bush. What is his name? Yahweh, Jehovah. And then he says, which you have given me. When the virgin born child comes forth, they call him Jesus.

Yahweh is salvation. Yahoshua. Yahweh saves. Savior. His name is Jesus. This name is his identity. It speaks to who he is, the son of God, God in flesh, the Holy One dwelling among men. This is the name given him, the name of Jesus, and you are identified in him.

You are a Christian. We are Christians identified in Christ. We're not keeping ourselves here. He's keeping us from falling. And yes, we stumble, but as John, 1 John 1, 7 and 9, says if we do stumble, and if anyone says they don't have sin, they're a liar.

But when you do, you have an advocate with the Father. That advocate is a priest. He's a mediator, an intercessor. And you confess your sins, and he is faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

You have a priest. He's the one keeping you. It goes on to say in verse 11 that they may be one even as we are one. It's not you against the world. If it was you against the world, you lose. It's you with Christ in you, the hope of glory, resisting the world.

But the point here is it's not just even that. It's the church. Everyone who's named under the name of Christ together as one. We stand together as one. Us against the world. Thank you. And verse 12 and 13.

Notice, while I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them. And not one of them has been lost. And this is what we've been saying. He keeps his own. The good shepherd, John 10, he says not one of them will be lost.

And then there's a scary word inserted at verse 12, and that is except. Except. Oh, wait a minute. There's an exception. That's a problem. Except in the context here, verses 11 to 19 is a prayer for the apostles.

In verses 20 to the end of the chapter, we have us explicitly brought in to the equation. And of course, he is praying this way for us to hear and understand things about our relationship. But understand in verse 12, the apostles were called to walk with him.

And one of them, the exception, refers not to Christians losing their salvation, but to a promise of the Old Testament fulfilled in one who never was a son. How do I know that? Because he's called the son of perdition.

He's the son of destruction. He was never a son of God. Look at verse 12. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction. That the scripture might be fulfilled. Have you ever heard Arminian theology teach that you can lose your salvation?

Or perhaps that God wants to save everyone equally and there's no distinction in his eternal plan. And the problem is, according to Stephen Furtick, who espouses this, there's one thing that God cannot do.

God cannot override your unbelief. Think about that for a minute. Is that true of the omnipotent God of the universe? God cannot override your unbelief. If that were the case, then this verse 12 would go on to say, I tried but I couldn't override Judas' unbelief.

This is not what the text says. What does it say? Look carefully. Not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction. That the scripture might be fulfilled. What Judas did was absolutely scripted.

That is not to say he wasn't responsible because his real creaturely will was exerted against God from the beginning. He was of the world. And he never followed Christ. He always stole from the money bag.

He was the treasurer who was siphoning off money for himself. He was designing betrayal his entire life. He was a deceiver and never saved. John Newton was that slave trader who was given a new heart.

And so he wrote amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. He also wrote, if it were possible for me to alter any part of God's plan, I could only spoil it. God's plan is certain to unfold and ripen fast.

It unfolds every hour in the words of William Cooper. I want us to turn and just look at one of these prophecies. We could look at Psalm 55, but we'll go to Zechariah 11, verses 12 and 13. And just spend a few minutes here.

There's probably somebody here, maybe you're a young person, kind of debating this Christian faith that you've been raised with. Or maybe you're older and your faith is beginning to wobble. When we look at the prophecies of the Old Testament, which are fulfilled in detail in the life of Christ, your faith is shored up and your feet are set back upon the rock.

So pay attention. Zechariah 11 and 12. It's the second-to-last book in the Old Testament, not hard to find. There are a few prophecies of the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot. In Psalm 55, as I mentioned, the psalmist laments that he could have taken it if it was an outside enemy, like Hamas breaking in, or Cheder Loamar and Tito, these wicked kings conquering.

He could have handled that, but he says, but it was you, my trusted friend, my companion. We used to worship together. And Judas stabbed him in the back. A prophecy of Judas. Look at Zechariah 11, 12, and 13.

Zechariah is a prophet speaking of his own experience, but I'm saying to you, it's prophetic of Judas betraying Jesus. Then I said to them, if it seems good to you, give me my wages. But if not, keep them.

And they weighed out as my wages, 30 pieces of silver. That's written hundreds of years before Christ came. Then the Lord said to me, throw it to the potter, the lordly price at which I was priced by them.

So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter. The key thing I want you to notice there is the value that the people of Israel set upon their prophet. The prophet Zechariah was worth 30 pieces of silver to them.

Tell me what it's worth, this word from the Lord. What do you value my ministry at? 30 pieces of silver. Throw it to the potter. How valuable is the prophet, priest, king named Jesus Christ? According to Judas Iscariot, he's worth 30 pieces of silver.

That's the lordly price, the handsome price at which you value the Lord of glory. And Judas then with pangs of conscience goes back to the people that he had sold the Lord out to and tries to offer it back to them and they say, no, keep it.

The deal is the deal. So he throws it on the temple floor in accordance with this prophecy. Thrown to the potter. But who's the potter? In Zechariah, we don't know. In the New Testament, in the gospel we learn that those who take up those 30 pieces say it's blood money.

We can't just put it in our pockets. Let's buy the potter's field. Akkodama, field of blood. The prophets foretold the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot for the exact price, the unfolding of that event, the throwing of the money on the temple floor, what it was used to buy afterwards.

All of these things were written ahead of time. That's what Jesus is praying about in John 17. Church, do you think you can trust the word of God? The prophecies that are written and fulfilled, the specific details, we looked at one, but there are literally hundreds and hundreds of these in the Old Testament fulfilled in Christ.

And so here we are with faith because our priest has called us and we're believing the word, but next point, as you hold on to the word, it sets you at odds with the world who will increasingly hate you.

The degree to which you are sanctified by the truth will be the degree to which you're hated in the world. Jesus prays therefore. Let's look at verse 14 to 16. I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world.

Now notice the reason why Christians are hated. Listen, they don't hate you because you believe in Jesus. They could care less if you believe in Jesus or Muhammad or the flying spaghetti monster as the atheists like to mock.

They don't care who you believe in. According to the text, why do they hate you? Because we are not of the world. Peter will flesh this out. They mock you and they despise you because you do not plunge with them in the same flood of dissipation.

You're fine to believe whatever you want, but as you're sanctified in the truth, you're holding to the word and he's conforming you into the image of Christ. They notice the difference between you and them.

Noah was a preacher of righteousness who condemned the world, Hebrews 11. Not by being condemnatory, he was inviting them to come and yet they saw how different he was. He didn't do what they did. He was sanctified from that, separate from that.

When you separate yourself from the world, the world will notice that and begin to hate you for it. It's your sanctification that puts you at odds with the world. Does that make sense? And that's important to understand because you make a stand on the word of God.

It may just be your life. You might say nothing. They'll still hate you according to our text because the Bible says they are not of the world just as I am not of it. That is us. We're not of this world.

You know you're in this world and not of it. I do not ask that you take them out of the world. He's not saying that you should go become Amish and escape from the world. You shouldn't go live in a monastery and spend your days in asceticism.