The Gospel of John: Our Lord’s High Priestly Prayer (3)

Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the

Father in the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood, may grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you had been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the

Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober -minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.

Since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. And if you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you are ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God.

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God.

For all flesh is like grass and its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the

Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

Let's pray. Our father, we are so grateful for the word of truth.

We're thankful that this word was proclaimed to us and that we were saved. We're thankful,

Lord, that now we have an inheritance that is waiting for us, that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.

An inheritance that is reserved in heaven for us. And Lord, help us to remember these truths.

Help us to remember that even though we live here on earth, we are exiles. Our citizenship is in heaven.

Everything that we have is in heaven, and we're to look forward to those things. We thank you,

Lord, for this tremendous gift, the gift of our salvation, the gift that was accomplished through the work of Jesus Christ.

And we pray, Lord, that we would live in these truths. So, Lord, we pray that you would help us to understand these things.

Help us to understand them better. We pray, Lord, that as we go to the word now and as we open up the gospel of John, help us,

Lord, to be encouraged as we see these truths. Help us to internalize these truths.

Help us to live them out. Lord, we're so grateful for this morning. We're grateful for our church.

We're grateful for the preaching and the singing and the giving and the reading of Scripture.

We pray, Lord, that all that we do would be done for your glory. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, let's turn in our

Bibles, please, to John 17. We'll continue our study of this

Lord's Prayer. It seems to be the days of knee reconstruction or knee surgery.

And Thais understands Julianne's having her knee operated on when?

August 27th, was it? When? 7th? Okay, so it's just shortly.

She tore her knee a couple weeks ago, and so that's coming up soon as well.

I'd like us to read, before we begin here, the verses that we'll be considering today.

And this is John 17, verses 6 through 12. Lord willing, we'll be able to work through these.

Again, Jesus is praying to his Father. It's a high priestly prayer, and the

Holy Spirit has allowed us to be able to hear this voice, voice prayer of our

Savior. And so Jesus is praying to his Father, John 17, 6.

I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were.

You gave them to me. They have kept your word. And now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.

For I have given them the words that you gave me. And they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you.

And they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me.

For they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I'm 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.

Not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction that the scripture might be fulfilled.

And we'll stop there at this time. And so we're presently working through this high priestly prayer of our

Lord Jesus, and this is the third Lord's Day, giving our attention to this. Last week we began to consider the second major portion of this prayer that begins with verse 6.

Verses 1 through 5 we considered how Jesus first prayed for himself, and then beginning with verse 6,

Jesus begins to pray for his apostles in particular. And of course it has application to us, but he was prayed specifically for his 11 apostles, and that's what we have before us.

Now long after, of course, his 11 apostles, because Judas had just departed from them to betray the

Lord, the 11 would appoint Matthias as a replacement for Judas Iscariot, which would restore their number to the necessary and essential 12 apostles.

And the reason there needed to be 12 is because they were to be the leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel.

In other words, the remnant of Israel, and we would, of course, reason or argue that this speaks about New Testament Christianity.

The apostles, of course, were the leaders of restored or reconstituted

Israel after the Lord Jesus rested his people, those who have salvation, from the leadership under the

Jewish corrupt leadership, and he entrusted them to faithful shepherds, his apostles.

And so here we have him praying for them. So let's consider now in more detail how

Jesus prays for his apostles, verses 6 through 19. We've already considered verses 6 through 8 last week.

We'll just rehearse these a little bit to bring us up to speed. Jesus rehearsed before his father his efforts to glorify him before his disciples.

He's describing his earthly ministry before his disciples. In all that he said, all that he did, he attempted, and was successful, of course, to present his father to his disciples.

He declared to his father that in all that he did before his apostles, in all that he had taught them, he had set forth his father before them, teaching them and directing them to understand and obey his father's words.

And so he did not draw attention to himself only, but always directed his apostles to see the father working through him.

And so through their relationship with Jesus, the disciples believed that Jesus had come forth from the father, and they had believed that the father had sent him into the world as the promised

Messiah, the king of Israel. And so here once again are verses 6 through 9 that we first want to consider.

I've manifested your name to the men whom you've given me out of the world. They were yours.

You gave them to me. They've kept your word. Now they have known that all things which you've given me are from you.

For I have given to them the word which you have given me. They received them, and have known surely

I came forth from you, and they have believed that you sent me. And so the

Lord Jesus had always set forth his father before his disciples. Where his own wonderful words and works would have perhaps brought credit to himself very easily, of course, and readily,

Jesus continually placed the father before them as the source of it all.

Jesus could say to his father, I've manifested your name to the men whom you've given me out of the world.

And so although his divine glory, the glory of the Son of God, was hidden from view before all, he disclosed or manifested the glory of his father to his apostles through his earthly ministry that would perform and in their presence.

Jesus gave them special instruction, and the Holy Spirit must have granted them illumination to understand these matters.

Not everybody was pointed to the father by Jesus, but his apostles were, and he did so consistently and faithfully throughout his ministry with them.

The Lord then expressed in his prayer the words of verse 7, now they have known all things which you've given me are from you.

And so in the hearing of his disciples, Jesus had declared to them, my teaching is not mine, but his who sent me, way back in John 7, 16.

And so our Lord had set forth his father so consistently and frequently that his disciples had come to understand that they were receiving instruction from God the

Father through him. When they heard Jesus speaking, instructing, they recognized that they were the words of God the

Father being disclosed to them, very significant. And then our

Lord prayed to his father these words in verse 8, for I have given to them the words which you have given me, and they have received them and have known surely that I came forth from you, and they believe that you sent me.

All that Jesus said and all that he taught during his earthly ministry were words that his father had given him to speak.

The disciples had grown in their understanding of this vital relationship between the father and his son, and their confidence and dependence in Jesus was shown forth in their faith in God his father.

Well Jesus described his disciples through three verbs in verse 8, give attention to those three verbs, they received, they have known, they believed, is how

Jesus described his disciples and their faith. Although these disciples are commended by Jesus before the father for their response to him,

Jesus affirmed it was due to the grace of God that they had done so. Jesus declared I have given to them the words which you have given me.

Not only did he proclaim to them the father's words, but he had so worked grace in their souls that they had received his word.

That they'd come to know that he'd come forth from the father and represented him, and that they believed that he was indeed the promised

Messiah, the one sent forth from God. And so those three verbs go together, and we would say everyone with saving faith would be characterized by receiving his word, knowing who

Jesus is, is coming forth from the father, and believing indeed that he is the promised Christ, the promised

King that the father would send into the world. And so what set these men apart from all others was not due ultimately to their own responsiveness for having received his words, or their own deductive reasoning in order to know what he'd come that he'd come forth from the father, or even due to their own faith in the father to believe on him.

They had been an object of God's work of grace in their souls to incline their hearts to receive his words.

They wouldn't have done so if it had not been for the work of the grace of God illuminating their minds, inclining their hearts to receive his word, inclining their souls to believe on him as having come forth from the father.

And so clearly these apostles were all who they were, and they had arrived to this station just before Christ was crucified, to their understanding because of the grace of God operative in their lives.

Jesus declared he had delivered the father's words to his disciples. It was God the father who had sent his,

Jesus his son, to be his prophet. Jesus was prophet, priest, and king.

He is prophet, priest, and king, but he was sent by the father as a prophet in order to communicate the words of the father to his people.

And if you go back to the Old Testament promise of God sending the prophet, you see this very thing.

God told Moses back in Deuteronomy 28 18, I will raise up for them a prophet like you, like Moses, from among their brethren.

And notice, I'll put my words in his mouth and he will speak to them all that I command him.

This is what Jesus is the prophet did and does. The father gave him the words he was to speak and then he spoke those words.

And so Jesus Christ is the prophet through whom God the father speaks his words to his people.

God the father gave the words to Jesus. Jesus spoke these words to his disciples. His disciples believed that the words

Jesus spoke were words of God the father. They loved Jesus. They loved to hear the words of Jesus.

They loved to hear the words of God the father spoken to them through Jesus. And so it should be with us by way of application.

We who believe and desire to hear and learn from the Holy Scriptures, the words of God, when we hear the

Holy Scriptures taught or proclaimed or read, do we hear the words of God proclaimed to us?

Not just the words of a man. When we properly give forth the true understanding and meaning of the

Scriptures, we know that it's God proclaiming to us. If I didn't believe that,

I'd quit the ministry today and I wouldn't continue onward. This is a sacred responsibility and a sacred privilege that we have to hear the words of God and to be able to understand their meaning and significance.

Perhaps we love God's words most because they reveal him to us. God the father's revealed to us.

His son is revealed to us. Again as the Holy Spirit instructs us, illuminates our minds to the truth that's in Jesus Christ.

Now last Lord's Day as we were wrapping up, I sought to draw a contrast between Christians and non -Christians with particular attention to their desire for an attitude toward the

Holy Scriptures. And so we emphasize that disciples are ones who love the word of God.

True Christians, disciples, take to heart our Lord's teaching in which he declared, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Where the true Christian loves God's word and delights in hearing and understanding his words, the non -Christian has no love for God's word as his word.

The Bible is generally a matter of indifference. To the non -Christian. But having said that and in light of what we said last week, we don't want to convey the idea that every

Christian will love the word of God to the degree that he should or she should. And that there's and that every true

Christian is always characterized by an intensity of affection and desire to know God's word because that's simply not the case is it?

It varies from Christian to Christian and it varies within a Christian from time to time.

The fact is our love and delight in the word of God varies. It varies in degree.

Love for the word of God should always be present and it should always be quite acute in one's soul but it's not always the case.

And every one of us who's a Christian can testify to that. Love for the word of God can increase or diminish due to any number of factors.

Neglect of regular times in the word of God will result in growing apathy and indifference in the heart of the

Christian for the scriptures. However, feeding upon and even meditating upon the word of God, and I underscore that word meditating, we are to reflect upon and think upon the scriptures day by day.

This will cause an increasing intensity of desire and appreciation for the word of God. And we speak about meditation on the word of course it's completely different than the meditation that the world would advocate for us.

You know Eastern meditation and so much of meditation today is basically the effort to empty your mind of all truth and somehow this brings you into connection with the spirit out there in the universe.

The Bible says we're to meditate upon the scriptures to fill our minds with truth, not empty our minds to be receptive to some kind of mystical experience.

We're to meditate upon the word of God and if we do so faithfully as we read and meditate upon the word, our love for the word will increase and and grow and become perhaps like it should be in every one of our hearts.

And so may the Lord help each of us be true and faithful to our Lord. May we be like the psalmist who wrote,

I will delight myself in your commandments which I love, my hands also I will lift up your commandments which

I love, and I will meditate on your statutes. May that be each a resolve of each of us.

You neglect the word of God and it won't be long and you're gonna you're gonna have some serious spiritual issues to deal with.

Now in the verses before us take notice of the positive manner in which our Lord Jesus spoke of his disciples to his heavenly

Father and I forget if I emphasize this last Sunday or not you know reading over the notes and writing them and whatnot

I sometimes I forget did I emphasize this or not I usually ask my wife and I didn't here however but it's important so I want to rehearse it even if I did happen to speak about it last week.

Jesus spoke highly of them, he commended his disciples to his father, he spoke of them as being teachable, understanding, committed, and ever faithful to him and to his father.

Of course there was much that was defective and deficient about them but Jesus did not bring up these deficiencies or defections to his father but rather he speaks of them in glowing terms to his father and this reflects how

God regards his elect that are justified before him through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.

The Lord Jesus speaks well of you because he thinks well of you as a Christian before his heavenly

Father as Robert Trail once wrote as quoted by J .C.

Ryle. Christ tells all the good he can of his disciples and he covers their failings, in other words he hides their failings.

How poorly had they received Christ's word, how weak and staggering was their faith, how often

Christ reproved them sharply for their unbelief and their faults yet not a word of all this in Christ representing them to his father.

This is the constant gracious way of our high priest. He makes no mention of Israel's faults in heaven but for their expiation, in other words the removal of their sins.

Man alas, in contrast man with Jesus Christ, man alas does the very contrary of all this.

He talks of his neighbor's faults but not of his graces and I think that would be a good lesson for us.

Let's be more like the Lord Jesus and so we who are in Christ should receive encouragement from our

Lord Jesus seeking our good and presenting us before the Father in the best possible way.

Consider the words of Thomas Manton, this was out of one of its 45 sermons on John 17.

Observe how ready Christ is to take notice of the good that has wrought in us. He watcheth for an occasion to commend us to God.

Satan and his instruments they watch for our halting, in other words our failing. Jeremiah 20 verse 10, all my familiars, in other words those close to me, watch for my halting, peradventure he would be enticed.

They were looking to see me stumble as it were. Let us watch say they, we may have a matter against him.

The devil is a spy that lieth upon the catch that he may frame an accusation against you before God, even accuser of the brethren.

Some evil gesture, practice, wherefore to accuse us. So his instruments watch to defame you in the world, in other words his people, unbelievers.

But now Jesus Christ looks after the matter of praise and commendation. Now we know verily and believe and Christ presently tells his father of it.

Oh what an encouragement should this be to press us to grow in knowledge and to abound in every good work.

You furnish your intercessor with matter of praise and you give your advocate advantage against your accuser.

Christ watcheth for a good action as a devil doth for a bad. He is a swift witness not only against his adversaries but for his people.

Malachi 3 5, I will come nearer to you in judgment and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and the godly have a witness in heaven too.

And so Job 16 20, behold my witnesses in heaven and my reward is on high.

And he's a swift witness. We reap the fruit of many actions as soon as they are performed. A continual experience we have of this disposition of Christ in the speedy answer of prayers

Isaiah 64 and it shall come to pass that before they call I will answer and while they are speaking

I will hear. He is more ready to answer than we are to crave. Certainly God delighteth in the graces of his children when he does so readily notice the first act and exercise of them.

And we should understand that this is how Christ views us, this is how God the Father views us, and this is how

Christ represents us before the Father that is we who are in Jesus Christ.

How different from those churches denominations that present

Jesus Christ as some rather austere unapproachable Savior and that you need his mother you know to appeal to him to gain favor for you.

That is so unlike the scriptures. The Lord Jesus Christ is your high priest and he stands before the

Father on your behalf if you're a Christian and he speaks good things and positive things for you commending you to his

Father and this is all done of course because of the grace of Christ as well as his work on our behalf.

And so if you're a Christian because of your faith in God as Father and your faith in him his son he's not ashamed to own you.

Jesus Christ is proud to boast that you belong to him as we read in Hebrews for he who sanctifies those who are being sanctified are all of one he's one with us for which reason he's not ashamed to call you his brother his sister saying

I will declare your name quoting the Old Testament to my brethren in the midst of this assembly

I will sing praise to you in the assembly of his people Jesus Christ is singing praise to the

Father and he rejoices to do so in our presence and again I will put my trust in him and then again here am

I and the children whom God has given me. He's proud to own you if you're a true believer in Jesus Christ and he speaks well of you before the

Father. Well now let's give attention to verses 9 through 26 this is a subdivision of this larger section that began with verse 6 through 26 and here we have the content of Jesus's prayer for his disciples and by the way

I think I made a mistake I think that should be 9 through 19 as I look at it in verses 6 through 8

Jesus brought before his father his disciples commending them for their receptivity of him their understanding and responsiveness to his word and their faith in him and in his father and these were the reasons in verses 6 through 8 commending them this is why father you ought to be gracious to them and answer my prayers on their behalf.

Well now beginning with verse 9 Jesus became direct and specific as to the content of his prayer on our behalf and so verses 6 through 8 father you ought to hear and bless them because of these reasons and then verse 9 he begins to get specific this is what

I want you to do for them. Here the Lord Jesus first specified to his father for whom he was praying

Jesus declared in verse 9 I pray for them Jesus in his high priestly prayer prayed for his own they belong to him for the father had given them to him speaking about the father's election and giving those elected to his son as gifts but Jesus also made it clear for whom he was not praying we also read

I do not pray for the world but for those whom you have given me for they are yours take note as Matthew Henry once wrote there is a world of people that Jesus Christ did not pray for it's a terribly mistaken notion that somehow

God is trying to save every human being in the world no he is in his justice bringing condemnation to most of the people in the world but he's purpose to show forth his love and his mercy and grace and saving some out of the world and here he's saying

I'm not praying for all those that are in their sin and who are going to their just condemnation

I'm praying for the ones that you've given me father he prays only for his disciples at this juncture he's praying for them for he's concerned for them and for the glory to the father that they would bring to him but he prayed for them for he also knew that his father also had great care concern and care for their well -being after all they belong to the father who had then given them to his son for him to be their

Savior and so Jesus stated forthrightly that he was not praying for the world and here the world would be the non -elect those whom the father had passed over purposely to leave them in their sin to their just condemnation nobody's going to go to hell unjustly it's a just punishment of God upon sinners the father had not chosen them and not given them to a son now you and I cannot pray in identical ways as our

Lord Jesus did here we are not as he is knowing from the beginning who were his and who are not his just as God has a general benevolence to all mankind the elect and non -elect alike so we are to also have that general benevolence a genuine concern for the well -being of all human beings we should pray for all everywhere and yet our special concern and attention should be for the elect of God Paul says for this reason

I labor that the elect may also come to faith in Jesus Christ and so how does this look on our part well we may pray for all indiscriminately as did our

Lord from the cross father forgive them for they know not what they do but ultimately our prayers are directed to the father on behalf of the elect we were to pray for this one or that one that the father would be gracious to save him or her from sin but at the same time we may pray generally that God may conquer and destroy his enemies both ideas are conveyed in the scriptures aren't they so when

Jesus declared overtly to his father I pray not for the world he is speaking of as John Gill wrote the inhabitants of it the carnal unbelieving part of the world which lie in sin and will be condemned as he died not for them so we prayed not for them for whom he is the propitiation he is an advocate and for whom he died he makes intercession and for no other in a spiritual saving way

Jesus said father I'm not praying for the world I'm praying for the ones you gave me out of the world he's praying for the elect the words of verse 9 that Jesus prays may be paraphrased in this way

I pray for none but those which thou has given me not for obstinate persecutors and perverse rebels but for thine own thy charge put into my hands if I had prayed for any which belong not to the purpose of thy grace thou mightest deny me but I pray not for the world but for thine

God has a people and his purpose to save them and God be praised that he included you and me in that group by his grace because we're better in any way of course not you know we're often the worst of a lot but he said his love upon us and he did so from eternity and it's a wonder to us

I don't think we'll ever quite figure it out now of course we offer

Jesus Christ indiscriminately to all people everywhere any sinner anywhere at any time may be saved through repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ and we tell any sinner anywhere that blessed promise of God in the gospel but we know only those who believe will be saved and people believe savingly only through God's grace which he bestows upon his elect which he does because his son has prayed on their behalf and here

Jesus prays for them here in verse 9 Jesus declared that he was not praying for the non -elect of the fallen world later however we'll read of Jesus prayed for the elect out of the fallen world down in John 17 20 and 21

I do not pray for these alone and he means these Apostles these 11 or 12

Apostles alone but also for those who will believe in me through their word that includes you and me as Christians that they all may be one as you father in me and I and you that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that you sent me here we read that he prays for all those who would come to faith through the witness that is the preaching and the writing of the

Apostles here we see ourselves as believers to be the subjects of our Lord's praying he prayed for you and me in this high priestly prayer so long ago

I pray for them that are going to believe on you and me through the witness of the

Apostles and the New Testament of course is the record of the witness of the

Apostles and the fact is the reason we are Christians today is because Jesus prayed for us and the father answered him

I pray not for the fallen world but for those you've given me out of the world I pray for those who will believe because they've heard the witness of these

Apostles and so here we read in our

Lord's high priestly prayer how God's elect are distinguished from the fallen world his elect were the ones chosen by God the

Father to be recipients of God's love and gracious dealings true believers are the objects of Christ's mercy and grace in distinction to the world that is the mass of fallen humanity the non -elect these believers are set aside for blessing in several respects in John 17 we could look at John 17 alone and see these unique blessings given to the elect they're given eternal life verse 2 well the

Lord achieved supreme power over all flesh in his work he did not grant eternal life to all flesh only those previously marked out in the election of the

Father received salvation and so this ministry of Jesus was limited to his chosen ones this is discriminatory grace

God's not trying to save everybody find one instance in the entire

Bible where God attempted to do something and failed that's not the

God of the Bible everything God attempts to do he succeeds in doing otherwise he's not

God they're given eternal life they are the objects of his intercession as we see in verse 4 it'll be noticed that he says

I pray not for the world but for them which are given me that's verse 6 I think here is a selected group in a limited ministry it goes no wider than to those who've been individually and specifically chosen in election or perhaps that's verse 9 rather than verse 4 they are divinely kept verses 11 and 12 worldlings in the guise of believers are not kept from falling such as Judas he was lost but here again a limited but effectual ministry of the

Lord only his own are kept from falling and then they will be with him in glory verse 24 those who've been given to Christ by the

Father will behold his glory in heaven this is a guaranteed thing it's gonna happen one day we're gonna see the glory of God in fact we're gonna share in that glory however that is the mere professor though who claims to be a

Christian but is not a true Christian has no such blessed hope once again this is a limited ministry of Christ extended only to the elect the non -elect will not see his glory except in judgment how does the

Word of God describe divine election the divine election of his people unto salvation here's a definition commonly used consisted with the teaching of the

Bible God has chosen specific persons from fallen humanity to be recipients of his salvation having chosen them before creation in Christ not based on any foreseen condition or response of them but solely due to his own good pleasure according to the purpose of his will there was nothing special about you that he chose you but rather he purpose it is sovereign grace

I purpose to save him I purpose to save her I I purpose to love that one and I'm not gonna let him or her perish but I'm gonna save that soul from damnation from sin to Jesus Christ several words of clarification may be helpful first of course election but divine election follows the understanding of man's total depravity or total inability to come to God left on his own even after been instructed admonished persuaded pleaded with man will choose to reject

God's will and his rule over him for he spiritually dead he's both uncapable incapable and unwilling to do the things that God has commanded him was

Paul willing to believe and serve Jesus Christ as he was on his way to the road to Damascus he was hunting out

Christians to to enslave them bring them back to Jerusalem to kill them to disrupt and destroy the way he was converted on the spot on that Damascus road not because of anything that Paul was willing to do but it's what

Jesus Christ purpose to do with him and through him and it was the same thing with you and me our salvation originates in God's election and then

God takes action within history to save the ones he chose to say he summoned you he called you he gave you an interest a concern perhaps a fear he made you aware of his law and how you were transgressor and how you were damned before him that you needed salvation and then you probably made all kinds of efforts to reform hoping that that would amend your ways and somehow please

God didn't take a long hour to see how futile that was and then he revealed

Christ to you in the gospel as the only hope of salvation and you embraced him all due to grace second there's no indication in the scriptures of a reason that God chose the ones he chose passing over the others other than it was good in his sight and it was in accordance with his purpose to glorify himself in his grace he chose them purposing to love them with an everlasting love not because of any good thing in us not because of anything he foresaw in us that we would do could do might do want to do but it was solely due to his sovereign grace and then election is on to salvation the

Bible does not speak about people chosen to be damned and that's a false charge often leveled against us the whole world was damned and God chose

I'm not gonna let that world perish I'm gonna save a people out of that fallen world yes certainly

God's election of some means he passes over others hence a doctrine of reprobation nevertheless election in the

Bible is always presented positively on to salvation persons are not elected to damnation persons get justice in being damned they receive mercy and grace and being saved the first Baptist Confession of 1644 46 sets this subject of God's election we affirm these were seven churches of London that were

Calvinistic in their theology and they wanted to let everybody know that we're reformed we're not like those

Armenian general Baptists over there who believe in a general atonement were particular Baptist we believe that Christ died particularly for his people and they included this article in their confession we affirm that as Jesus Christ never intended to give remission of sins and eternal life unto anybody's sheep so these sheep only have their sins washed away in the blood of Christ the vessels of wrath as they are none of Christ's sheep nor ever believe in him so they have not the blood of Christ sprinkled upon them neither partakers of him and therefore have all their sins remaining upon them and are not saved by Christ from any of them under any consideration whatsoever but must lie under the intolerable burden of them eternally and the truth appears on to us by the light of these scriptures compared together and then a series of verses are stated and then in 1830s the

New Hampshire Association of Baptists which included Baptist churches all over New England not just New Hampshire there were some that were very concerned about the encroaches of Arminianism in the churches and so they drafted a fellow named

Brown drafted this New Hampshire Baptist confession and it was adopted by the

New Hampshire Association of Baptist churches in New England in 1833 and so it was written to correct the errors of Arminianism coming into the churches and here is its article on God's purpose of grace we believe that election is the eternal purpose of God according to which he graciously regenerates sanctifies and saves sinners that being perfectly consistent with the free agency of man in other words he doesn't force people to believe everybody who becomes a

Christian does so willingly it's because God gave them the will to do so he put it in their heart to desire it and the will to do so they comprehends all the means in connection with the end that it is the most glorious display of God's sovereign goodness being infinitely free wise holy and unchangeable that it utterly excludes boasting and promotes humility and love prayer praise trust in God an active imitation of his free mercy and that it encourages the use of means in the highest degree you know we don't sit back

God's going to save who he wants to say without the efforts on our part no we use means and the gospel and every means possible to proclaim it distribute it that it may be ascertained by its effects and all who truly believe the gospel that it is the foundation of Christian assurance and that to ascertain it with regard to ourselves demands and deserves the utmost diligence and then a fourth matter of clarification on this matter to be precise in our speaking of God's election we should distinguish the doctrines of election and the doctrine of predestination they're not the same although they're often popularly used synonymously they're related but they're distinct predestination speaks about God's designs and purpose for the ones he chose he elects people and he predestines his elect on to certain things and so they only are his beloved as no one else is although he's loving to all because he's a loving

God but he predestined his elect that they would be conformed to the image of his son that's what stated in Romans 829 he predestined his elect that they become adopted sons of God Ephesians 1 5 and he predestined his elect that they would be to the praise of his glory

Ephesians 1 11 and of course there are many passages that speak about this matter of God's election we're not going to read those but they're so many it's just unimaginable to me any longer you know how people can read the

Bible and and draw some other conclusion the bottom line is if you understand sin and the gravity of sin and how helpless and hopeless and damned we are and how we deserve the eternal wrath of God it must be due to election how else could it be if God didn't act on our behalf we'd be hopelessly lost and justly condemned in our sin only the elect of God will believe for God only works his grace in them so as to regenerate them giving them spiritual life and this new birth places within them the desire the ability to believe

God's Word so as to believe on God's so as to be saved by God's grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone for salvation and so Christians are all that they have from God to a sovereign grace that he's purposed to bestow upon them from eternity and so if it were not for the reality that God has elected us unto salvation we would have been as all others remaining in our sin destined for our just condemnation and so if you're a

Christian you were you are a Christian due to God's work of grace on your behalf he overcame your ignorance your indifference defiance insolence your unbelief your resistance to his rule he overcame all that you were unqualified to enter his presence to be received by him and so he set out in history through his son to qualify you to share and what he's promised to all of his people you're gonna inherit all things we're joint heirs with Christ can you imagine

Christ owns everything in the universe and he says I'm gonna share that with my brothers and sisters we're joint heirs with Christ and that's what we're going to enjoy in some way in eternity and so it's all due to the grace of God we can't even comprehend now the measure of this grace and the

Bible tells us in Ephesians that through eternity he's going to be increasingly revealing the greatness of his grace to us he's an infinite

God in his infinite mercy and there's never going to be a time when we arrive that we've we've we've got it all understood because in Ephesians Paul wrote it's in the purpose of God that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus if you have a comprehension of his kindness to you now that's wonderful but you know it's just a it's you know minutiae compared to what we will comprehend in the future

God will be revealing to us through eternity the nature and the riches of his mercy and grace to us in Christ now the

Lord Jesus prayed for his apostles but by of course legitimate extension we can say he prays similarly for his all of his elect he didn't pray for the whole world of the non -elect he was sovereign of course knowing who and who not was among the ones the father given him but in our parade we're not sovereign knowing with certainty for whom to pray for and for whom we're not to pray you know the challenge was leveled the famous illustration that Spurgeon gave how somebody challenged him because he was

Calvinistic he believed in this matter well if I believe like you you know why would

I preach the gospel to everybody you know what's what's your motivation and he clearly said you know if you know if God identified all of his elect with a big yellow stripe down his back

I'd go down the sidewalk and lift up their people's coats and look for that yellow stripe and and then preach the gospel to him but since God has not identified his elect with a broad yellow stripe

I'm gonna preach the gospel to every creature and you know that's that's what we do and you know over the years

I've watched you know some people who weren't Christian I thought this person's coming this person's gonna be a bright convert and then they wash out and then there's somebody else who is the most defiant most sinful rebellious and God slays him and brings him into the kingdom it's all a credit to God's grace in the manner that he deals with sinners but the fact is you and I cannot of course be sovereign in our understanding for who to whom to pray for and whom to pass by however we would qualify that a little bit because in our praying

God does from time to time lay upon the heart of a

Christian a special burden for an individual that God intends to save I had a lady's

Bible study in my hometown that set to praying for me for a year before I was converted

I was leading another prayer meeting in a church in the early 90s I mentioned my dad on one occasion and they began to pray for him weekly intensely surprised me that it was kept that I didn't keep it before them and a year later he was converted on his deathbed the fact is the

Lord will lay upon your heart perhaps the burden of salvation for a particular person and it's because he intends to save that person

Thomas Matten addressed this matter we feel sometimes a restraint upon our prayers

God by Oracle forbade the Prophet to pray for the people speaking about Jeremiah God told

Jeremiah therefore pray not for this people that was the people of Judah and Jerusalem they determined to destroy and take into captivity neither lift up crying or prayer for them neither make intercession to me for I will not hear when he was resolved to put his wrath into execution he would not have his people's prayers lost and still the same spirit stirs up to prayer to prayer searches out the deep counsels of God so that there is a kind of prophetical light in prayers

God suspended the fervency and actual assistance by which we carried on at other times he would not justify every private passionate conceit but yet we must look upon the

Spirit of God as the interpreter of God's counsel that he will not stir up prayers to no purpose yea sometimes we feel that after much striving we have no heart to pray for them which is a very great mark of God's displeasure upon any person when

God's people yea even after much struggling with themselves have no heart to pray for them and so it's very you know very common revivals that God has brought into history you know it's just about virtually always been born by the broken hearts of Christians and a burden for prayer a burden and concern for the lost and a desire for God's mercy and God laid it upon people's hearts and many times specifically specific persons are identified if you want to read a biography that illustrates this subjective element in prayer

I would encourage you to read the biography of George Mueller a friend of Spurgeon's George Mueller Bristol is the name of the book and the author is

A .T. Pearson who preached for Spurgeon on a number of occasions well we next read in our

Lord's words and I want to get through this in the next few minutes in John 17 10 all mine are yours yours are mine and I am glorified in them the first two statements of course reveal the equality of the persons of the

Father and the Son and the Godhead all mine are yours yours are mine there has to be an equality of the

Godhead there God the Father and God the Son all who belong to the

Lord Jesus at the same time belong to God the Father there's an equality of possession of the people of God to the

Father and the Son and we would include elsewhere in the Holy Spirit now in what sense did the elect belong to the

Son and the Father all mine are yours and yours are mine but are they do they belong to the

Father and they belong to the Son in the exact same way first consider the scripture declared that all human beings belong to God is equals 16 for all souls are mine by right of creation but that's too broad that's not what

Jesus is speaking about here elsewhere the Bible says all creatures all animals all living things belongs to God someone verse 10 for every beast of the forest is mine the cattle on a thousand hills

I don't think that's someone that's not correct but in 2nd

Timothy we read more narrowly nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands having this seal the

Lord knows those that are and let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity so here the

Lord knows his elect it's a finite people a special people and so there's a slight distinction in the relationship between God the

Father and his people and between Jesus Christ and the same people when Jesus said to his father and all mine are yours he was referring to the truth that they were the father's to his election of them but when

Jesus declared in years are mine he was owning them as to his redemption of them the father's election the son's redemption they're mine they're yours they're the same all the elect of the father are going to benefit from the redemption of the son and all the son redeemed belong to the father they were his chosen ones and of course all the elect were redeemed by the son are also sanctified or set apart by the

Holy Spirit pastor Jason earlier read 1st Peter 1 and in verses 1 & 2 we have the the same ministry of the blessed

Holy Trinity the elect of God the Father sanctified set apart by the

Spirit and the redemption the sprinkling of the application the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ and so here the

Lord Jesus is declaring they're mine they're yours and again by as we attempt to understand the nuance they're mine because I redeemed them they're yours because you chose them but they're one in the same people

Jesus declared to his father and I am glorified in them

God the Father honors his son as we his people also glorify Christ that's what we're called to do we don't just glorify the glorify

Christ in fact we've already considered the passage where Jesus said if you don't honor me you don't know the father who sent me nobody is honoring

God unless they're honoring Jesus Christ is what the scriptures declare and we desire we have a great desire and effort to glorify

Christ because he redeemed us you've already glorified him and believing in him for who he is and what he did you now glorify him as your

Lord you glorify him and your resolve and commitment to cleave unto him regardless of the cost or consequences to do so to read that very good statement that MacArthur put out the other day

John MacArthur and his church on Friday their strong stand against the governor of California that declared all churches cannot meet you cannot sing in churches they took a strong stand against that and they're going to probably catch some flack for it but I they were right in the stand they took

I would urge you to find that and read that it's a good statement with regard to a Christian's understanding of state and church and how the governor is not the

Lord of the church Jesus Christ is and although you know we can follow you know a governor's prescriptions if we see them to be suitable for different reasons he doesn't have the authority to dictate this church to this church what we will do or what we won't do it's his responsibility to make the appeal perhaps and persuade us and we should give deference to that iteration but Jesus Christ is the head of the church not

Governor Baker not President Trump or anybody else Jesus Christ is and we have to be attentive and mindful of that Jesus Christ declared

I am glorified in them God the Father honors his son and we his people honor him and then on the top page 9 we read in verse 11

I'm no longer in this world but these are in the world I come to you Holy Father keep to your name those whom you've given me there's election again and they were given as gifts to a son that they may be one as we are this is a difficult verse the

Lord gives a given reason to his father why you should pray for his people here we begin to read his specific requests on their behalf keep them

Lord keep them safe keep them in you keep them in me Jesus speaks as though as trials and death were passed

I'm no longer in the world he hadn't yet been arrested but he's speaking so definitively as though it had already occurred he's leaving the evil world but he's having to leave his disciples in this evil world father

I'm not gonna be with them I can't watch over them protect them preserve them as I have these last three years you protect them please from this evil world and so he prayed that the father would keep them in faith and fellowship with himself he did not pray for their outward comfort wealth and health or ease and success in all their endeavors rather Jesus prayed for their spiritual well -being health and wealth gospel is not biblical it is contrary to the gospel he prayed the father would keep them from sin keep them in a fruitful state and bring them safely one day to enter into the presence of God and so he left us in the world it's a fallen world he prayed for us if we would be preserved and protected from the fallen world and again here the world is a reference to the evil sphere of wickedness in which we move and live in this world but then this difficult phrase comes up Jesus asked his father preserve them so that they may be one as we are what is meant by that there have been fanciful interpretations placed on this clause there are those who historically promoted an ecumenical movement

I remember reading hearing this all the time back in seminary in the 80s that somehow all

Christians all of the world are to get together in one big denomination and then the world will really know we're

Christians we're to be one as God and the Father are one of course it's not speaking about organizational unity at all and then there are others that actually would suggest that we will be one day brought into a state of divinity to be one as God is one

God and his son is one and so the cults commonly latch on to this verse suggesting that we're going to become divine one day

Mormons of course emphasize this that we're all going to become little gods and goddesses like Jesus Christ is terrible heresy of course and so we are to be one as we are what's he talking about he's talking about may his apostles be one in unity and purpose just as the father and son were one in unity and purpose and what they were attempting accomplished what they were accomplishing in the world he was praying that his twelve apostles would likewise be one in their desires and efforts to proclaim the gospel to the world it was important those twelve apostles be unified in this and of course these twelve apostles came to be known as the twelve they became viewed as being one entity as it were because they were one in purpose and desire and design and effort and this is what

Jesus was praying for help them Lord to be unified together in agreement with regard to the message and their desires and their efforts and so they moved as it were as a single entity just as Jesus moved and acted in this world in perfect conformity to his father's will so these apostles worked in unison with one another to further the purposes of God and then lastly verse 12 we arrive

Jesus said while I was with them in the world I kept them in your name those whom you've given me

I've kept none of them is lost except the son of perdition that this scripture might be fulfilled and so Jesus declared that he keeps his own he doesn't lose a one there's no biblical teaching that a true

Christian loses his or her salvation because God has purpose to keep us secure

Jesus prayed that this would take place you gave them to me

I kept them and he's praying that the father would keep them as well we are secure in Jesus Christ there is no possibility that a true

Christian can become lost he throws in one exception to these twelve apostles that being

Judas Iscariot and he declared this was in realization to scripture scripture had foretold it it wasn't because of Christ's failure and and it wasn't because God had decreed his fall as much as he announced it beforehand

Judas cooperated with the devil Judas did what he wanted to do in betraying his friend

Jesus and this was proclaimed in the Old Testament scriptures in Psalm 41 and also

Psalm 109 may the Lord preserve us unto his heavenly kingdom as he has promised to do we have the

Lord Jesus Christ as a high priest praying for us and all of his words of course that he prays are true and every prayer every petition he offered to his father was answered and is being answered and so what we have recorded for us in John 17 is a present reality isn't it and so as these twelve apostles could take and receive a sense of peace and stability and security from his word so can we because we have believed on our

Savior believed on the father through their witness through their word that was endorsed by the

Lord Jesus himself let's pray thank you father for your sovereign purpose in Christ we thank you our

God that you have purpose to save us by grace for we certainly know clearly we could not have saved ourselves in any way whatsoever but rather you refuse to let us our

God continue in our sin to our just destruction you arrested us stopped us and summoned us and regenerated us put it within our hearts

Lord to know you and to desire you and to love you and to love your words and we just pray our

God that this love for you and your words would intensify within our souls and help us our

God with a sense of fervency and concern make this word known to others about us for you have many just as you had in Corinth you have many in this fallen world yet to come to Christ apparently and help us our

God to be faithful and declared your gospel that we might see this realized for we do pray our father in Jesus name