The following sermon is brought to you by Capitol Community Church, located in Raleigh, North Carolina. Capitol Community Church is a people awakened to a holy God. If you are searching for a new church home, or from out of town, looking for a church to worship with, or simply seeking for answers, please join us for worship at 1045 a.m. every Sunday morning, and six o'clock p.m. for our evening service. If you have any questions, please email us at info at CapitalCommunityChurch.com. We pray this sermon will help you grow deeper in your walk with Jesus Christ. I invite you to open your Bibles to John 17. We are continuing our study of the high priestly prayer, and as you're turning there, let me pray for us. Heavenly Father, we pray for our time. We pray, Lord, that you would encourage us, that you would convict us, that you would empower us to obey your word. We pray, Lord, if anyone does not know the living Christ, that you would regenerate them and bring them to a knowledge of the truth. I pray, Lord, that you would speak through me now in the power of your Holy Spirit, in Christ's name, amen. If you would look at verse six, I'm gonna read to verse 16. Jesus says, I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were and you gave them to me and they have kept your word. 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. 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. If you're just joining us this week, this passage of scripture that we're studying in John 17 is called the High Priestly Prayer. Sometimes it's called the True Lord's Prayer. Because the disciples are given an opportunity to hear our Lord pray. The context is it's Friday night before Jesus is going to be arrested. This takes place either in the upper room or as they're walking across the Kidron Valley to the Garden of Gethsemane. And Jesus allows his disciples to listen in to this Trinitarian prayer between him and the Father. We've said it's kind of like that moment where you're standing behind the wall and you hear your parents in the kitchen and they start talking about you and you just stop. And you're interested to hear what they're going to say exactly about you or what you're involved in, and you listen. Because now you know you're going to hear the truth. And that's what Jesus is doing here. If you look at John 17, verses one to five, are Jesus praying for himself. And he prays for his own glory. Verses six to 19 are him praying for his current disciples. He says, I'm not praying for the world, I'm praying for my disciples, those who presently believe. And then verses 20 to 26, he's praying for you. He's praying for all future believers for 2,000 years. He says, I'm not praying for these only, I'm praying for all those whom will believe. So verses six to 19, he's praying for the disciples. And I said last week, if you look at verses six to 19, you see 16 mysteries that are revealed. 16 mysteries that the disciples learn about their relationship with God, about themselves. The first four mysteries have to do with the identity of the disciples, and we covered those. The first is that the disciples know God's name, they have the knowledge of God, that Christ has revealed God to them. The second mystery is that they are the Father's people, that they belong to God before the foundation of the world. And that's true of you, by the way. That's the doctrine of sovereign election, that these disciples belonged to the Father before the world began. The third mystery, Jesus says, is that obedience is the outward sign of discipleship. If you look at the last part of verse six, he says, they have kept your word. They have kept your word. The mark of every true disciple is that there is an obedience, a desire to obey the word of God. And then the fourth mystery, I call it the four apostolic convictions. That's in verse eight and nine. or seven and eight, I should say, and that's where they understand the deity of Christ, that Christ was sent from the Father, that Christ spoke the word of God, and they have come to believe in Jesus, they've come to trust in Jesus, and then the future subsequent death and resurrection. And that, by the way, is the difference between a Christian and a cult group. The cult groups all deny the deity of Christ. The Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, they all parse the divine nature of Christ. Or they say that we can become God. The Christian says, no, only Christ is God and I believe him and I trust in his name. All right, so those are the first four mysteries. Where we pick up in verse nine and the rest of the prayer for the disciples is really about one thing with another thing added. And what it's about is the eternal security of the believer. the eternal security of the believer. What's the doctrine of eternal security? The doctrine of eternal security is that once you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, he gives you a gift. And that gift is eternal life. That you can know in an instant where you stand with God, that you will spend eternity with him in heaven. And once you have received that gift, does God ever take that gift back? No, he does not. Once you have eternal life, can you lose it? No, because then it wouldn't be eternal life. Once you possess eternal life, you will never lose eternal life. So this passage, what Jesus is praying about is the eternal security of the believer. My son Charles asked me this morning, he said, dad, what's your sermon about today? And I said, well, it's about Jesus praying about the eternal security of the believer. He said, oh, well, that's part two then. I said, what do you mean by that? He said, well you preached that months ago in John chapter 10. And I said, you're absolutely right. John chapter 10, you don't need to turn there, but listen, Jesus says, I give them eternal life and they will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all. And no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand. That is the fact of eternal security. John 17 is the how of eternal security. This is Jesus giving an insight into how eternal security works. Why is the Christian soul eternally secure in this dark, crazy world that we live in? So that's the first thing that Jesus is going to pray about in this prayer for his disciples. If you look at verse 11, look at verse 11. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. Verse 15, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. It is a prayer for Security. It's the conservation of the Christian. And then the second thing, I said it's about one main thing and then something else. We're going to look at the something else next week. But it's about the consecration of the Christian in the world. Consecration means to be set apart. Jesus says, sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. You are going to consecrate these believers so there's going to be a distinction between them and the world. They're going to be conserved, that's this week, in the midst of the world. Next week they're going to be consecrated from the world. Y'all see it? So how does Jesus conserve us? What is this all about? Well, one thing that's fascinating, and you see this picked up in the New Testament, is that the Christian life of faith is compared to a race. Paul says in 2 Timothy 4, 6, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race. I have kept the faith." Bunyan picked up on this. Have you ever read Pilgrim's Progress? He compares the Christian life like a journey from the the city of destruction, all the way to the celestial city. And it's a journey that we have to go on, and the journey is fraught, like any epic journey is, the journey of the Christian life is fraught with many dangers, trials, toils, and snares. That's verse three of Amazing Grace. There's challenges along the way because we have an enemy. We fight against the world, we fight against the flesh, and we fight against the devil. Peter says, be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Paul says, Ephesians 6, 11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. If you ever read The Hobbit, That is somewhat what the Christian life is like. You are asked to go on a journey, there and back again, and unbeknownst to you, you're gonna face trolls, you're gonna face orcs, you're gonna face... whatever Gollum is, and you're gonna face a dragon. There's going to be challenges. That's what the world is. You are left in the world, Jesus is going to say, but along the way, you are going to be conserved. Ultimately, your soul is going to be protected in this dangerous journey that you're on. The question is, how? How does God conserve your soul in the midst of this world? Well, Jesus gives us insight into this. This is mystery number five. Jot that down next to verse nine. Mystery number five, the exclusive priestly ministry of Christ. The exclusive priestly ministry. Look what Jesus says. He says, I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world. In other words, I am praying only for my disciples. He says, those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine. So one of the ways that Jesus preserved his disciples, Peter, Andrew, James, and John, and Jude, and Thaddeus, and Bartholomew, and Mary, and Martha, and the women that followed him, the way that Jesus preserved them is by praying for them. He specifically prayed for them and he says, I did not pray for the world. I'm not praying for everybody, I'm praying for them. In the Old Testament, the priest, let me ask you a question. When the priest would go and make the sacrifices at the tabernacle and then the temple, was he making sacrifices for everybody in the world? The Jebusites, the Philistines, the Egyptians, the Babylonians? Who was he making the sacrifices for? The people of God. He was mediating for the people of God. And that's what Jesus is saying he's doing here. I am mediating on behalf of your people, those whom you gave me. We covered this last week in talking about the covenant of redemption, that before time began, the God, the Father, this is high doctrine, this is the doctrine of the Trinity, gave to the Son a people that he would redeem. Look at verse two. of chapter 17, he says, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. So the father gives these people to the son, and then verse six, I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world, yours they were, and you gave them to me. So these people, these disciples are given from the Father to the Son. The Son says, I am praying for them and I am not allowing them to be lost. When you have the doctrine of the Trinity, you have unity because the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one in essence. It's three persons, but there's one Godhead. And so there's one divine will. There is a unity of purpose. And that's what the son is saying here. I am praying for those whom you gave me. So when you look at the ministry of Christ and you look at the disciples, and yes, the disciples, floundered in many ways, but what you see is you see Christ sustaining them through his prayers. After the feeding of the 5,000, the disciples get in their boat. and they go across the Sea of Galilee, what does Jesus do? He goes up on the mountain and He intercedes for them. And then the storm comes, the water is choppy, the waves are roaring, the wind is roaring, Jesus comes to them walking on the water and saves them. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says to Peter, Satan demanded to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you. I have prayed for you that your faith will stand. So Jesus says, look, I have been in a ministry of intercession on behalf of these disciples to keep them from falling away. What do we mean when we say fall away? I'm not talking about just committing a sin. We all sin, John says in 1 John. We all sin in many number of ways. Falling away is apostasy. When you renounce Christ, and you turn from him, and you deny the Holy Spirit, you deny the deity of Christ, and you walk away from the truth, Jesus says, I am keeping them from doing that. Does Jesus do that today for us? for the Christian. Yes, Jesus ascended, he is now at the right hand of the Father, and now his ministry is that of intercession. Hebrews 7.25, he always lives to make intercession for them, for the Christian. Paul says in Romans 5.10, for if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, Much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. Listen to this quote from J.C. Ryle. He said, the spiritual intercession of the Lord Jesus is one grand secret of the believer's safety. He is daily watched and thought for and provided for with unfailing care by one whose eye never slumbers and never sleeps. You ever think about that when you're just facing a real difficult time in your life? a diagnosis or the loss of a parent, the loss of a child, that in that moment, the Lord Jesus Christ is praying for you, if you're a believer, that's the truth that we're talking about. So, if Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is praying for you, will you fall away, ultimately? No. You will not fall away because the prayer of a righteous man availeth much and he is the son of God. He is perfectly righteous. So Jesus is upholding us. You remember when the children of Israel were fighting in the valley and Joshua was down in the valley? Where was Moses? He was on the mountain holding up his hands and Aaron helped hold up his arms. The battle was won with Moses on the mountain. The battle for the Christian life is won by Christ in our session. What I'm saying is, is that the reason why we don't fall away is because of His grace. I once heard MacArthur say, if you could lose your salvation, you would. If it was up to me, if it was up to you, you would apostatize. You would say, I'm done with this, it's too hard, I'm done. I'm going with the way of the world. I don't wanna be an outsider anymore. But it's grace. John 1 16, for from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. His mercies are new every morning. Every single day you wake up, there's more grace waiting for you. Christ sustaining you with his outstretched arms lifted up. That's mystery number six, that Christ is praying. Here's mystery number seven, and this would probably surprise them. This probably was, shocked them to a degree. Mystery number seven is that they're staying in the world. They've been so close to Jesus, they've followed his every footstep. At times they were waiting for Him to establish a kingdom in Jerusalem, and Jesus is saying, guess what? I'm leaving. Look at this. He speaks about this in the present tense, verse 11. I am no longer in the world. It's as if it's already happened. Of course, He's going to be crucified, raised from the dead, and then He's going to ascend 40 days after the resurrection, so all of this is gonna transpire over the next month and a half, but Jesus speaks about it as if he's already gone. I'm no longer in the world. But then he says, but they are in the world. They are in the world. These disciples are in the world, and I am coming to you. Now the word world, it's the Greek word cosmos, and it has just a vast array of lexical meaning. It can mean a lot of different things depending upon the context. It can mean the world of people. It can mean planet Earth. It can mean the destructive systems of evil that are here, that Satan controls. Satan, Paul says, is the god of this world. So the word world can mean a lot of different things depending upon the context. If you look at verse 16, I think he's talking about the world of evil, because Jesus says they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. The disciples are not of the world, just as I'm not of the world. So Jesus says, I'm leaving them in this world, and the world is a fallen place. In John 12, 31, he says, now is the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out. I am leaving these disciples who will become holy, in the world. What a fascinating thing to say. It's kind of like saying I'm going to leave an Aggie in Austin. I'm going to leave them in the place of degradation. Or, what does John say in Revelation? What does he say the world is like? What's the word he uses? Babylon. What was Babylon for the Jew? Exile. I am leaving you in exile. I am leaving you in a place where you are in isolation to a degree. In fact, he doesn't just say I'm gonna leave them. Look at verse 15. He says, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. He's just basically saying I want you to leave them in the world. Why would Jesus do this? I mean, don't you, is there an aspect of your desire where when you become a Christian, you're like, Lord, translate me now? Give me the path of Enoch of the Old Testament, or give me the chariots of fire of Elijah. I'll be out shopping with my friends. We'll get some Chick-fil-A, one last final meal, and bring the chariot down and bring me up. Has anybody ever been there before? You say, Lord, I'm done with this world. I am ready to go. Take me now. Why doesn't he do that? Why are we here? Do you remember what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5? He said, you, talking to the disciples, are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. You are a city on a hill. You are the manifestation of the glory of God in this present darkness. That's why God has you here if you're a Christian. You are the light in the darkness. You are the representation of Christ on this earth. And that's why I think the desire of the Christian is not retreatism. We were up in Pennsylvania a couple weeks ago, and you're around all the Amish people. And the Amish have taken that strategy. They said, look, this world is dark, this world is decadent, and it is. It's very pagan, it's very secularized. And they said, we're going to retreat out of the world. We're gonna cut off all lines of communication, technology, we're done. It's our holy huddle in our horse buggies. The monastic communities, what do they say? Look, the world is evil. The world is secular. The world tarnishes us. Let's go live in a cave somewhere. Let's go get in our little abbey and there we're gonna stay and we're gonna block off the world. Well, guess what? That's not why you're here. You're not here to retreat from the world. You're here to be a light to the world. In fact, Jesus says, I send you out into the world. You will be my, what? My witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth. You are to go as the light of the gospel and you are to proclaim the mysteries of man made new in the glory of Christ in the gospel that Jesus' arm is not too short to save. That's the Christian life. You're here for a reason. He leaves you in the world. That's mystery number seven. Mystery number eight, second part of verse 11, that you are kept by the Father's power. Kept by the Father's power. Holy Father, he says, keep them in your name, which you have given me. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me. Now this is a fascinating way that our Lord addresses God. Fascinating. Holy Father. It's the only place that those two terms are used together in the Gospels, and I think in the New Testament, but for sure in the Gospels. Jesus addresses God as holy, describing his transcendence. Holy speaks to the fact that God is other, that God is unlike everything else that's created, that God is above the line, if you will, in Schaeffer terms, that he's in the second story and everything else is below him, everything else is created, and that means that God is omniscient, that God is omnipotent, which means all powerful. There's nothing that God cannot do. But then that word Father speaks to the fact that God is a personal God. It's not like Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson and the deists said God created the world and then what did he do? He walked away. And it's just the world is just on a theological clock. It's just ticking that God wound it up and now it's just going. Jesus says God's not like that. He's personal. He is a Father who knows you, who knows them. And Jesus prays, Holy Father, keep them, keep them in your name, which you have given me. So the request is that they would be kept. That Greek word, tereo, means to be guarded. He says, Father, guard them. In your name. Now, look at that phrase, in your name. In your name. Interesting phrase. Now, we've looked at the understanding of the word name. Name means the character of God. That's a Hebrew idiom. The name stands for the character of God. So, is Jesus saying, keep them by your character, or keep them in your character. Really, it could go either way, and it's probably both. He's saying you keep them by the power of your character, Holy Father. and you keep them in your character. In other words, you keep them on the straight and narrow. You keep them in orthodox faith. You keep them in the knowledge of the truth. That is the sphere in which they are to operate. When we lived in Texas, we had this huge side yard, and one day there was all this commotion, and I go outside, and the neighborhood kids, they used my side yard as basically the neighborhood playground. football games, all sorts, no asking, we just show up. And I walked out, and they had all these giant plastic balls. And they looked like a giant hamster ball, where the kids would be inside of them, and then they would be running in these balls, and these balls would bump into each other, and kids would be flying around. I'm thinking, I'm not sure I want this liability right now, but it was an interesting thing. I've never seen anything like that before. And when I was reading this, that came to mind. Jesus is saying, look, Lord, guard them and guard them in the power of your name. That by the power of your character, you envelop them in the sphere in which they are to live and the sphere in which they are to operate is you. So in some ways, isn't that kind of a wonderful picture of the Christian life? Yeah, you're being bumped and you're being jarred by Satan and the world and everything, but you're protected and you're guarded in this sphere and you're kept from apostatizing and grievous sin and your soul being destroyed through persecution. You're kept by the Father's power. And as the Father keeps you, here's mystery number nine, Also verse 11, he says, as they are kept in the name which you have given me, he says, that they may be one even as we are one. The mystery is the unity of disciples. The unity of disciples. That as you are kept, guess what? All other true disciples are kept. You're kept in the Father's name. Every other true disciple is kept in the Father's name. And that means when you encounter a true disciple, you have something in common with them. We're all in these big, giant, hamster circles, okay? But there's a degree to truth to this. Whenever you encounter a true born-again Christian, you have certain things in common with them. I don't care if you've just met them before, they're on the other side of the world, wherever. They're going to believe the same certain things. They're going to have those convictions that we talked about, about the Lord Jesus Christ. They're going to have the knowledge of the truth about who God is. They're going to be preserved, conserved from the world. They're gonna be consecrated from the world. There's gonna be things that you share in common. You're gonna have the same worldview with them. And do you think that encourages us or discourages us along the journey? It's incredibly encouraging. It's so much easier to endure something difficult with somebody else. It's so much easier to, as you're running the Christian life, to look to your side and say, look, I've got some buddies with me. Or look ahead and say, look, I see somebody that's farther along than me. I can drag off him a little bit. Or look behind you and say, hey, follow me as I follow Christ. Paul said this. to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 7, 6. He says, but God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more. So Paul says, look, I was comforted by Titus, I was comforted by his report about you, And this greatly encouraged me in the Christian life. Luke records the early church. He says Acts 4.32, he says, now the full number of those who believe were of one heart and soul. That's Christianity. You look around you and you see other like-minded believers, and that is a means of encouragement, and by the way, that's one of the means by how the Lord keeps you going in the faith, and that's why you need the church. You ever talk to those people who say, I love Jesus, I don't love the church? You need the church. You need to be around other believers. You say, I'm fine. Well, guess what? One day you're not gonna be. One day you're gonna be in the pits. One day you're gonna be attacked and you need help. You need the church. God has called us together to encourage one another. This past week, I was at the Southern Baptist Convention and I went to dinner one night with a pastor up from Idaho named Jim Gregory. Never met him before. Never met him before. And I was telling him a little bit, this guy, he retires in two weeks. So he, you know, he's like one of those battle-scarred veterans, you know, he's just been around the block. He retires in two weeks, and I was telling him about our predicament with the building. Just saying, look, this is where we are as a church, this is our situation with Temple. If you didn't know, we're having to leave here in the next few months at the end of October. And I was telling him about all those things. The next day, he texts me and says, hey, I wanna talk with you. And so all this convention business is going on, I leave, go out in the foyer, and he says, hey, I wanted you to know I was up praying for you till 5 a.m. in your church. Prayed all night. And these are some things, by the way, I think that you could do. How amazing is that? How encouraging is that? And I just met that guy. But you sit down with somebody like that and you have infinite in common with them because of the grace that God has done in my life and done in his life. And that's what Jesus is saying is look, he says even as the father and the son are one, he's like, you're gonna be one. And don't get me started on, the ecumenical movement and saying we need to abolish all denominations and we all need to come around together with every other Christian group and sing Kumbaya together. That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about the oneness of genuine believers that we have with one another. That's what he's saying. So that's mystery number nine, the unity of the disciples. Mystery 10. And this is very similar to number five, where Christ is talking about intercession, but mystery 10 is kept by Christ's power. Kept by Christ's power. Look at verse 12. 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. Judas was never a true disciple. He never was. It's one of the most dangerous case studies in the New Testament, but he never truly believed. He always had the outward appearance of a believer, but never the inward reality. And it was prophesied in the Old Testament that Jesus would be betrayed, that there would be a Judas. Let me give you a couple of these cross-references. Psalm 41.9, even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his hill against me. Psalm 109.8, may his days be few, may another take his office, prophesying about the future abdication of Judas and Matthias taking his role. So all of this was prophesied in the Old Testament that Judas would apostatize. Jesus calls him the son of destruction or the son of perdition, the son of hell. And he says, he was lost, not that he ever was truly in, that the scripture might be fulfilled, but he says, while I was with the disciples, I kept them. Same word as we saw before, tereo, which means to guard. I guarded them in your name, in your character, I guarded them. He says, which you have given me, I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost. The word, guard that he uses the second time. First time he used the words kept, which means to guard. The second word when he says, I have guarded them, is philoso. Different word, and I looked that word up, it's an interesting word, it's the work of a sentinel. It's the work of a jail guard, literally, that's the verb. And if you think about a sentry, what does a sentry do? He stands watch. He stands watch. He doesn't go to sleep. He's watchful over what is taking place. He stands guard. And Jesus says, this is what I have done with the disciples. I have held a vigil and I have been on watch. If you turn over to John 18, turn the page to John 18. I really want you to look at this. Open up your Bible to John 18. You're gonna wanna see this. This is in the Garden of Gethsemane. when Judas is coming with the temple guard to arrest Jesus. When he sees him, this is verse four, Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward. So he rushes forward towards the temple guard and he says, whom do you seek? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. And Jesus said to them, I am he. And when he said that, that is the divine name. We talked about this last week. I am, Yahweh. When he says I am he, something supernatural happens in that moment. Look what he says. Judas who betrayed him was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, I am he, they drew back. In other words, they backed up. They drew back. And then it says they fell down. They fell to the ground. The word for fell is the same word that Jesus used to talk about the Tower of Siloam when it falls to the ground and crashes down. It's like the two towers crashing to the ground. That's what happens. They all fall down to the ground. This isn't, This isn't the, you know, I'm taking a break by the football watering hole and I'm taking a knee to kind of catch my breath. This is a divine supernatural pressing them to the ground. So they're pinned to the deck. And then Jesus says, okay, who do you seek? They say Jesus of Nazareth. And he said, I am he. And he says, you can take me, but you can't take any of my disciples. You can't take them. That's why they didn't arrest the disciples in the garden. That's why Peter, you're like, wow, how did Peter get so bold all of a sudden? Well, he just saw Jesus pin them all to the mat. He takes out his sword. He's kind of like one of those knights in Monty Python. He just runs forward, cuts off Malchus's ear. It's like, you know, Peter, come on, put away your sword. Don't you see that? I mean, in a moment, I could just obliterate everybody. I've got 10 legions of angels that I could call upon. I'm in charge. What's fascinating, what John says, look at verse nine of John 18. Look at verse nine. This was to fulfill the word he had spoken. Of those whom you gave me, I have lost not one. Jesus guards his disciples. God keeps his disciples. God is sovereign. And God is more sovereign than you are. We don't like to admit that. We're into, you know, I'm free. Guess what? God's more free. And the situations in your life, have you ever been in a situation where you're like, wow, this is, I'm not really doing well. I'm not walking with the Lord. I'm going down this wrong path. I'm with the wrong group of friends. This is a temptation that has been really plaguing me, and what happens if you're a genuine disciple? God just plucks you out. Christ guards you. Christ works in sovereignly through events. He works all things according to the counsel of his will. If it's a sin, you get found out. It gets exposed. You repent. You confess. If you're a non-believer, guess what? This is the scary thing. He just lets you go. That's the judgment, is he lets you go further in your sin. If you're a believer, he brings you to discipline and he exposes it, he brings you to the light. He propels you to walk in righteousness and holiness. He's like a sentinel, you're guarded. That's mystery 10. And here's the great thing, mystery 11. All while this is happening in the world, You have the joy in the knowledge of the truth. Write that next to verse 13. Mystery 11 is that you have the joy in the knowledge of the truth. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves." So while we're in this world, while we're on this journey, it's not something to be dour about, it's not something to be upset about. Jesus says, look, I'm giving you my joy. And notice how he speaks to this. He doesn't just say, I'm giving you joy. He uses the personal pronoun that you may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. Now, when the non-believer thinks about joy and happiness, what do they think about? I saw a famous model this week, and she said, I want to live as long as I can, and I want to live the best life that I can. That's what they think about. I want to live as long as I can, and I want to have as much pleasure as I can while I do it. That's, for the unbeliever, that is the epitome of joy. It's everything that Solomon exposes in Ecclesiastes. It's good food, it's pleasure, it's knowledge, it's maybe working on something and finding a degree of fulfillment in that. Solomon says about that, it's all vanity of vanity. In other words, it's all profitlessness. You go down each of those trails long enough and you're gonna find that you're not actually happy. Now, the believer, we can enjoy the gifts that God gives us because we know that we enjoy them while giving glory to Him, right? We can enjoy the things that God gives. In fact, Solomon says, Ecclesiastes 8, 15, I commend joy. For a man is nothing better under the sun, but to eat and drink and be joyful. For this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun. So you are to enjoy the gifts that God gives you, but giving glory to God. But that's really not what Jesus is talking about here. He's saying, my joy, my joy, I'm giving to them while they're in this world, that my joy might be fulfilled in them. What was our Lord's joy? Well, the Lord's joy was knowing the Father. Our Lord's joy was doing the Father's will. The psalmist says, Psalm 16, eight, I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices. My flesh also dwells secure. What Jesus is saying here is he's saying, I am praying these things, my disciples are listening, and they, with this knowledge of the truth, might have joy. So here's what he's saying. Are we all going to die? Yes. But the Christian knows something very important. That after I die, I go to be in the presence of the Lord. That I'm going to spend eternity with him in heaven. that I know that I stand on grace today, tomorrow, and forever. That I know that God has given me truth, revelation by which I can live my life. I know the truth, and the truth will set you free. In these things, Jesus had great joy. My food is to do the Father's will. You have joy in a clean conscience in which you live a righteous life before God. Yes, we sin in many number of ways, but we confess our sin and guess what? He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Isn't that amazing? So the Christian life has joy in big things. The main thing. In knowing God, in knowing His truth, in knowing the reality in which you live, in which He's placed you, that joy transcends anything that you can get in Vegas over a weekend. All of that is fleeting. God's joy lasts forever. So while you're in this world, it's not, you know, this world's not my home, I'm just passing through, I don't like to be here. Enjoy God, enjoy Him. The joy of the Lord is your strength. The joy is what, you endure hardship, but guess what? Paul and Silas, what do they do in the Philippian jail? They sing, they sing. Even my suffering are preparing for me an eternal weight of glory. The Christian worldview changes everything. And it brings so much joy to us. It's really remarkable. Well, I don't know if you noticed this, but I skipped one. I skipped one. And that's number six. I wanna go back to this, and I actually think it's good that we go back to this. This is, The latter half of verse 10, and this is what Jesus says about the disciples in the world. This is really a remarkable thing. He says, the lives of his disciples glorified him. Look at that. And I am glorified in them. Jesus says, my little band of disciples, the ones that I called from the fishing boats, the one that I called from the tax booth, this group of disciples glorifies me. He's saying this in the present tense. You know, you look at the disciples, and you get in a Bible study, we often make fun of the disciples. You know, James and John, they wanna call down fire from heaven on cities. And Peter questions our Lord and says, Lord, you should never go to Jerusalem and die. And Jesus says to him in Matthew 16, get behind me, Satan. So you see the fits and the foibles of the disciples. But Jesus says, despite all that, your faith and your obedience and your belief in me brings great glory and honor to me. And so while we're in this world, While we're being conserved, while Jesus is protecting us, we're a light to the world, but ultimately, this is the big thing. We bring glory to Christ. We bring glory to Christ. Just as the disciples did. The disciples brought great honor and glory to Christ, and after he left, they all suffered, and they all died martyrs' deaths on behalf of Christ. Christ, ultimately, because He is God, and listen very carefully to what I'm saying, the main thing, the main thing in all of this is His glory. You're preserved and you're kept for His glory, just as the disciples were. Their lives were pictures of the glory and transcendence of Christ. And by glory, I mean the worship of Him, that he's worthy. We, in American Christianity, Christ is brought down to our level. But in biblical Christianity, you're taught to look up. And Jesus says, these disciples looked up, and they lived for my glory. I was up in Pennsylvania, as I said earlier, a couple weeks ago, and I stopped by the Banner of Truth Conference, and my friend, Burt Parsons, was preaching, and he was preaching on worship. He said, the American church has forgotten something about worship. He said, we show up on Sundays thinking it's about us. What do I get from this? What am I gonna learn from this? What am I going to apply? How is this gonna change my life? Worship is not first and foremost about us. This is for Him. It's for His glory. We come on Sundays, not just because we want to get something, though we do. We come because He's worthy of the worship. He's worthy of the honor. Grace Ann and I were watching that interview that Ben Shapiro did with John MacArthur, I don't know if any of y'all, you've gotta go watch that. Go watch that, most recent one. And Shapiro, Shapiro's Jewish, this is fascinating. He asked MacArthur, he said, what's the thing that's missing from the churches today in America? And MacArthur said one word, transcendence. That people have lost sight of who God is. that He doesn't weigh heavy upon us. Christ is keeping you in this world so that you will have a big view of God. And in so doing, you will be a light to the world for His name. That you are here, this simplifies things. You are here to bring glory to Him. You're not here to live as long as you can and enjoy what you can. You are here for one reason. That's the first catechism question. The chief end of man is what? To glorify God and enjoy him forever. That's the cheat code for all decision making. Ask yourself, does this bring glory to God or does it not? If it does, do it. If it's two things that both bring glory to God, do the one that you wanna do. If it doesn't, don't do it. But you are here for His glory, and as long as you have breath in your lungs, as long as Christ is preserving you, you are to be a light in the world, and you are going to be here for His glory. And guess what? One of the commentators I read said something fascinating about this. He said, this is how you know if you are truly one of his own. Does that resonate in your heart? We say, yes, Lord, I wanna live for your glory. I wanna make you huge to the world. He said, if that resonates in your heart, then you know that you're one of his. And if it doesn't, that's dangerous ground. Because you're saying, I just want God as a means to me. That's the prosperity gospel. That God is going to serve you and give you what you want anyway in your sinful flesh? No, no, no, no, no, no. Jesus says, my disciples, earlier, kept his word, they glorified me. So friend, is that your heart? Do you desire to give glory to him, to live for him, to live for his honor? Well, if you do, take courage in this, take heart in this, that Christ is keeping you. He's guarding you. And more than that, I wanna close with this illustration. This is Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress. And as he begins, as Christian begins the journey, he goes to this house called the Interpreter's House. And the interpreter gives him, I can't remember how many visions, but he gives him, six or seven visions about the Christian life. And each of the visions is an allegory where he sees this vision in a dream and then the interpreter comes and explains what he saw and says, this is what you are to learn about the Christian life. Well, as Christian sees, the fourth vision is this. He sees a fire in a room and there's a man pouring water on the fire, but the fire does not go out. And the interpreter says this, the fire represents the grace of Christ in your heart that it burns. The man pouring the water on the fire is the devil trying to quench the grace of Christ in your heart. And as much as the devil tries, he cannot quench the grace of God in your heart. And then he takes him around to the other side and he sees a man, another fire, and a man is pouring hot oil on the fire and the flames are getting hotter and hotter and growing bigger and bigger. He says, that man is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's fanning into flame the grace of Christ in your heart so that it burns hotter and brighter than it ever has before. all unbeknownst to you. That's the Christian life. You're striving, you want to glorify God, you want to keep his word, and Christ is fanning the flame of your heart so that you will not renounce him, you will not fall away, you will not apostatize. Praise be to God. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for this wonderful truth that you prayed for your disciples, that they would be kept that they would be kept from all the dangers, that they would be kept from the evil one, that you would guard them, that Christ guards us, that Christ intercedes for us, that you give us friends along the journey, that you give us your joy in the midst of the journey, that you give us your truth, that you keep us in the truth, Lord, what powerful realities that you reveal to us in this high priestly prayer. We thank you for them, Lord. We pray, Lord, that we would live for your glory. We pray, Lord, that we would keep your word. We pray all of this in Christ's name, amen. Thanks for listening. For more sermons, information, and events, check out our website at capitolcommunitychurch.com.