Now that the presidential election is over, the news cycle, much of the news cycle, has been taken up with his appointments, what we expect to see starting next year after he takes office. Well, imagine, if you would, the unlikely scenario, perhaps, that you were to receive a phone call and you were appointed as an ambassador to a foreign nation. You might have some choices as to which nation. If you were to start thinking about that, you might say, well, I might want to go here or here. And there might be some good places that you have in mind. But you would have to keep in mind as an ambassador that you are going as a representative. You can't get too comfortable wherever you're going. That's because you don't represent yourself or the interests. that you might have, or even the interests of that people that you're going to, rather you are representing the interests of this country as an ambassador. Your mission is not to assimilate in that culture, but to faithfully represent the interests of this one. And that would be something that you would have to think about as an ambassador. But as Christians, we are ambassadors. We are ambassadors of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5.20 says, as much. Though we live in this world and we comprise the citizenry of various nations, of course in this room we are of one nation, We are actually of two nations. We are actually of a second nation. We are representing a better country. We are representing a king. We are set apart for a purpose, and this is a purpose that was given to us when we believed the gospel, when we believed the good news, and we were thereby transformed. We are set apart for this purpose. And that idea of being set apart is an idea that comes straight from the Old Testament. It's an idea of being sanctified or consecrated would be another term. You're being set apart for a holy purpose, a purpose for the Lord. You have been taken from the world, and now you have a new citizenship. And as a citizenship of that kingdom, you still live in this country as a representative of that new kingdom. We have to think through what that means. We are representing not our own truth, not what is popular in culture today. We are representing Christ's truth. We have to remember that as believers. And this, of course, I hope you see, does not just refer to foreign mission fields. We're not saying this applies only once you leave from here and you go out somewhere else. No, this applies right here. In this country, as you go out from these doors, you are ambassadors for our Lord Jesus Christ. We are sanctified for a purpose. Sanctification is something that is foundational to the Christian life. We have talked about sanctification before, and we'll briefly touch on it again as we're going through this text. But there are many ways in which we are sanctified. And we see that arising as we are reading the high priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ here in John chapter 17. We see Jesus praying here for his disciples. And then the verses that we just read, his prayer then turns to the fact that they are sanctified for a purpose. They are set apart for God's holy purpose. And that includes us as well. Again, once we get to verse 20 here, he says, I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but also for all. who believe, for anyone who would come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, he is also praying for you as well. And so this applies to us here in this moment. And so we learn how sanctification in this passage equips us for a particular work. And we are seeing three truths coming up from Christ's prayer in this section as far as how sanctification is calling us to a particular work. How is that being done? Well, the first truth that we see here is that we are sanctified by God for Christ's mission. We are sanctified by God for Christ's mission. And that's gonna be in verses 13 and 14. Then we'll see that we are sanctified from the world for Christ's mission. We're sanctified from the world. So not just by the word of God, but we're actually sanctified from something else. We are set apart for God, but that means that we're set apart from something else, right? And that's what we'll get into in verses 15 and 16. And then finally, we'll see that we are sanctified by the truth for Christ's mission. So not just by the word, but also by the truth for Christ's mission, verses 17 through 19. And so let's look at each of these and the various ways in which we would understand each of these. First, we'll look at verses 13 and 14 as we consider the fact that we are sanctified by the word for Christ's mission. Verses 13 and 14, but now I come to you And these things I speak in the world so that they may have my joy made full in themselves. I have given them your word. And the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Now, what is Jesus getting at here? In the previous verse, if you'll look back to verse 12, Jesus said, while I was with them, I was keeping them in your name, which you have given me. And I guarded them. And not one of them perished, but the son of perdition, so that the scripture would be fulfilled. As long as Christ walked the earth, he took care of his disciples, he protected his disciples from temptation, from the enemy, from the Pharisees, from the Sadducees, from all that they may face, but he is leaving, he's returning to the Father here. He's returning to the father and that's why the translation here in verse 13 starts with but but now I come to you and so now. His mission on earth is coming to a close, and His disciples need prayer. And we talked about this a little bit last week, that He is asking the Father now to protect them. He is asking for the Father's blessing upon them. And Jesus is aware of the fact that He is returning to the Father, meaning that they need protection. And so with that said, He is now directing their attention as He prays out loud. Why do I say he prays out loud? Well, look at what he says next. These things I speak in the world. What things is he speaking? He's speaking this prayer. He's praying out loud. He is saying things to people while he's also speaking to the Father. This is why sometimes prayers, some folks will give thought to their prayers. When I was a younger believer, I thought that it was weird to see sometimes the men of the church coming up to give a prayer, kind of like the pastoral prayer that I gave a few minutes ago, and they would come up and they would have notes written out. Why would they do that? You should want to be spontaneous up there. You should want to just come up with whatever. Don't even give any thought to it. Just come on up and pray whatever pops in your head. And, you know, it's not that there's anything necessarily wrong with praying in the moment like that, but there's also not anything wrong with thinking through what you're praying out loud. As long as you're not doing it as a point There of course are people who would do that. I want to write a really good prayer So people go and all over my prayer, of course there are people like that But there are sometimes people who just come up with a with a prayer Maybe it's a good prayer like from the valley of vision or something that they want to read it out loud as and they are praying it but it's something that they've thought through something that they've thought about and And it's a good, it's a good prayer. They want to pray that prayer specifically. Jesus is praying a specific prayer for a specific purpose here. This is his high priestly prayer for them. And he is speaking out loud because even in his prayer, he is teaching. Even in this time of prayer, he is revealing things to them. And so he's praying out loud. Verse one, again, after he spoke these things, and he's lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the hour has come, glorify your son, that the son may glorify you. He is praying out loud. In fact, do I have, well, I have that, but I thought I had a quote here. I'll just read it to you. Jesus prayed out loud so that his words would comfort the apostles when they remembered that Jesus gave them into his father's keeping. And so this is not a private prayer. There's nothing wrong with a private prayer. There's nothing wrong with going into your prayer closet, as Jesus often talked about. Sometimes if you struggle with pride, that's the best thing to do, is to go into your prayer closet rather than pray so that other people can see you. There are other times, though, when it is important, when people are discouraged, to pray where people can see you so that they would be encouraged to also pray, to also lift up their hearts and their hands to the Lord. And so he, Jesus is praying here for the sake of his disciples. And he references his joy, his joy. And Christ's joy is a defining mark of sanctification that we have to see. And we have to see that it is important because obviously Jesus has this recorded here for us to understand that it is about his joy. Remember that joy is not a fleeting feeling. It's not happiness. Joy is not happiness. Happiness is based on happenings, happenstances. It's not something that's deep and abiding. It's like a tree. A tree might lose its leaves, but if it's got good enough roots, it's going to survive the winter. Joy is something that gives us roots in our soul so that we can weather the cold, so that we can weather storms, so that we can go through whatever we're going through with something that is victorious, something that overcomes the world, something that gives us assurance even in the midst of sorrow and trial. Remember, the disciples are about to go through trial. So he is reminding them about his joy so that they will see it. In fact, if we think about it, where is Jesus gonna go after this? After he's done praying, where does he go? To the cross. He's talking about my joy when he's about to go to the cross? He has joy as he's about to go to the cross? Yes, he does. He has joy in the midst of sorrow, in the midst of knowing something is happening, in the midst of knowing he is being betrayed by his friend. He has joy. The disciples need to see the same joy as they are going to go through their doubt over the next couple of days. as they are going to be struggling with their idea, their concept of who the Messiah is and what he was sent to accomplish, they need to see that he has joy and that he also supernaturally shares that joy to his disciples. He shares that joy to his disciples. Look at this, he says that they may have my joy, Made full in themselves. So it's not just about his joy. It's that he is giving this joy away He is giving this joy to his disciples so that they will have something in the midst of what they are going through this is a supernatural joy that that that he gives so that they could be so that they could have it fulfilled in themselves is another way that we could translate this and And this is a joy that can handle everything. It can handle how we, it can change, excuse me, it can change how we handle everything in our lives. It can change how we handle sorrow, trauma. It can change how we handle conflict within our hearts and our lives. In fact, just on that last point, take a look at Philippians 2 for just a moment, Philippians chapter 2. And I want you to note that Paul is actually gonna use similar language here as he is dealing with this. Philippians chapter two, verse one. He says, therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, If there's any fellowship of the spirit, if any affection and compassion, hopefully all of these things are true in the body of Christ. Paul says, make my joy complete. So Paul is talking about his joy here. He's talking about the fact that he has this deep and abiding assurance and love and compassion. He has all of this inside of his soul and he wants them to have the same thing through the spirit of Christ. He says, make my joy complete. How? By being of the same mind. Maintaining the same love. United in spirit, intent on one purpose. Now, just pausing there for a moment, this applies to the mission that we have. We are believers. We all want to see other people become believers. We have a mission together. So we're united that way, but think about this also. Division within the church, unity within the church. He says, verse three, do nothing from selfish or empty conceit. This is something we each have to consider within ourselves. You say, what about the other person? If you say, what about the other person? You are not thinking clearly enough about it with yourself. because we each have to have this within our own hearts. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. Ooh, sometimes that's easier said than done. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also the interests of others. Now you say we were just talking about joy. What does that have to do with joy? This is what joy looks like in practice. This is what joy looks like in practice. As you count others as more important than yourself, as you are seeking to be intent on the purpose of God and united with other believers in that purpose, where you are trying to maintain the same love and unity of the spirit, this is what joy looks like. Some people have given joy an acronym. I think it's a pretty good acronym. It's not that the word joy is in the original Greek like that, but it might be helpful for us English speakers to think about it like this. Joy, J, Jesus. Oh, others. And then finally, why, yourself, right? I put the interests of Christ above myself, I put the interests of others above myself. And yes, I do need to also look out for myself. But it is after I have looked at the other interests. This is where joy. comes in, this is where the joy of the Lord comes in. This is how joy is fulfilled within us. And that sometimes requires sacrifice, right? That sometimes means that we are sacrificing our own interests in order to make the joy of the Lord full in our own hearts. But Jesus did that, right? He sacrificed himself and he did that to death. He did that to death. And speaking of that, that's where he goes here in verse 14. I've given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. And so we see that comparison to what we're supposed to do and what Christ has done and what Christ is doing in that moment. Jesus taught them the words of the Father. He faithfully relayed all of that to them so that they would have that. And it starts with receiving that word. And by receiving the word, the disciples then have been called out from the world. They have been transformed from their former lives. They are not who they used to be. Jesus has taught on this already. If we go back to chapter 15 here, verse 19, chapter 15, verse 19, Jesus says, if you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this, the world hates you. There's a kind of sanctification there. He has drawn a circle around them. And he has said, you are not going to be there anymore. I'm going to pull you from the world. And now you are no longer of the world. This is hard to receive because We're we grew up in the world. This is what we're used to It's an important point for us You know how I know it's an important point for us to receive Because Jesus says it twice. He says it again in verse 16. I Guess really I just read it. So we say he said it three times but here within this prayer. He says it twice he says it here in verse 14 that we're not of the world and Verse 16, they're not of the world, even as I am not of the world. He repeats it for us, because we need to see it. We need to think about this, because if we don't, as believers, what we'll tend to do is default to how we were as unbelievers. We'll start to just liking the things that all the other unbelievers like. or that we liked as unbelievers and other unbelievers like. We might tend to hate or tend to fail to hate the things that God hates. Well, the world doesn't hate this, so why should I hate it? You know, I worship a God of love, right? So I shouldn't hate these things if the world doesn't hate them. You are allowing the world to dictate your loves and your hates at that point. you have to develop the taste that God has. We tend to think and talk like the people of the world do when we fail to realize that we have been called out of the world. Scripture tells us how we're supposed to think, how we're supposed to talk, how we're supposed to act. And you know, you can change your taste over time. You can. It is possible. It's possible to hate something and slowly acclimate to the thing that you hated. I mean, your adults in here mainly, some of the kids maybe even have experienced this where you may have not liked something when you were a child, but as you got older, you developed a taste for it. That just happens. That happens over time. My phone thought I was talking to it. It just popped up there. I'm not trying to change the taste of my phone, but I am trying to change my tastes. Music, you know, marketers know this. They know that they can put out a song that you don't like, but then they can they can market it everywhere, make sure that it's played at the radio stations, and it's played at the supermarkets, and it's played everywhere that you go. And at some point, you cross a transition in your mind, and they know that this happens with people. It's a transition point where it's like, okay, well, now I'm used to that song. And then I want to hear that song again, because you're hearing it everywhere. You didn't like it at first. What happened? Well, you were trained to like it. You were trained to like it. Now, we could talk about that and whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, but think about that with your own life. Can you train yourself to like certain things that God likes and train yourself to start hating things that God hates? Yeah, you can, you can. And so this is what the Lord wants of us. He wants us to see that we are not of the world anymore and that we do not need to have the same likes that we used to like. One study notes this, as believers share Jesus Christ, everything in the world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes. Oh, you know what? I have this up here. Here we go, as believers share Jesus Christ, everything in the world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does, loses its attractiveness. A believer's commitment shows the world's values to be trash or dung. Therefore, the world hates the exposure of its sham values. Let me tell you, the world has values and they are a sham. They are a sham. You scratch beneath the surface, there's nothing to them. Every single thing that the world says it values If it means a different political, or different politic, or just a slightly different situation, a different identity of whoever is being involved in the situation, all of a sudden, all of those values just flip. And the world doesn't see a problem with that. We should see a problem. We should see a problem. We should see a problem when we are not being consistent. The Lord says he hates unequal weights and measures. We should hate when the scale is being tipped to one side or the other. We should hate that. We should see the need for something that's more even-handed. But the world does not. The world has values that are just self-serving. And when they see a Christian being consistent, When they see a Christian who, say, rises above the fray, that makes people in the world mad. That makes people in the world mad. They don't like that. They don't like the fact that you have consistent values. And if they can connect that to Christ, they hate it even more. They hate it even more. And you'll start to see that as people will ask, well, are you a Christian? Well, you just believe that because you're a Christian. You just think abortion is wrong because you're a Christian, for instance. That's one that gets thrown out there a lot. You just think homosexuality is wrong because you're a Christian. And then what does that do? That's a temptation. It's a very subtle temptation, because what you naturally want to do in your flesh at that point is to say, well, no, it's not just because I'm a Christian. Murder is wrong. I think we can all agree that murder is wrong, and so abortion is wrong. Or, you know, homosexuality, well, you know, it obviously does not tend toward homosexuality. procreation, you know, so it doesn't, it's not a value for us as a people, as a species. So, you know, you don't have to be a Christian to see that. That's the natural inclination. What you should do is say, yeah, I'm a Christian. The Lord tells me what to like and what not to like. And I'm not ashamed of that. I'm not ashamed of that. Because that's how we should think. That's how we should think. We are called out from the world. We're separated. Now this separation should not lead us to despair, it should not lead us into being dour people or anything of the sort, because remember, we're also talking about joy here. There's a certain joy in this. There's a joylessness, there's a joylessness in following after the world. We don't have, the world might talk about joy, but it does not demonstrate it. It does not demonstrate it. We should have joy in being separate from the world, as we see that we don't have to be slaves to the tensions and temptations that are all around us. And this is actually what Jesus says next. Not only are we sanctified by the word for Christ's mission, we are also sanctified from the world for Christ's mission. So we've already been talking about this really, but let's get into this. Verse 15, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of. the world. And we have been sanctified by the word here. But this may lead us, as we think about our holiness, as we think about our separation from the world, this may lead us to two extremes in our thinking, two extremes. The first extreme is isolation, isolation. This is where you think, okay, well, I need, as a believer, I need to get away from people. I need to stay away from anyone who might tempt me to do wrong. And this is something like what the desert monks thought. They had to get away from society. They had to go out somewhere. You know get out There's plenty of places out here where you could get out and get find a cave somewhere Live away from people right and and just just be separate Well, our Lord says be separate. So I'm being separate. I'm getting away from people But that's not what our Lord has called us to do in that way. He doesn't mean be separate in that way Why because people need to hear about Jesus you can't take Jesus and and hide him away in a cave with you You're putting your light under a bushel at that point. You're taking your talent and burying it in the sand until the master returns. No, it's not, that's not what we're called to do. We're not called to be isolationists. That's one extreme. The other extreme is assimilation. Assimilation, you know, when people come to this country. Hopefully if they have come for the right reasons and they've come legally and they've come as they should have come There's a process of assimilation where they say, okay. Well, we've left one culture. We've left one country behind Now we are coming to a new country and we need to get involved with the culture of this country We need to learn the language of this country It's the same thing if we go and we visit a foreign country. We can't just get mad at people. Well, you don't speak English? Well, no. Why are we expecting that they would speak English? And they have different road laws. We can't go to England and get mad at everyone for driving on the left side of the road and say, well, no, I'm an American. I'm going to drive on the right side of the road. I'm doing it my way, right? Well, no, you're in that country, you gotta do it their way, right? Well, assimilation is something that we're tempted to do, too, as Christians, where we say, okay, yes, the Lord has saved me, the Lord has changed me, but I'm still going to look as much like the world as possible so that I don't stand out. Because if they think I'm weird, they might think my Jesus is weird. Well, Jesus is not of this world. They do think he's weird. So you might as well be weird too, right? Paul says we're fools for Christ, right? We might as well just be out there and be foolish. That's who we are. We're not of the world anymore. And it's not what we're called to do as ambassadors. Assimilation, that is. It's not what we're called to do as ambassadors. Consider Daniel and his friends. They were captured. by Babylon. That was the Lord's will, by the way. The Lord had decreed 70 years of Babylonian captivity. Daniel and his friends were part of that captivity. The Lord had them captured. The Lord had them taken. This was all within his providence, I should say. He didn't tempt people to do evil, but In his providence he allowed it to happen because this was part of his judgment upon the nation Well, how do they live in pagan Babylon Do they just do everything that they're told to do some of the Jews did? Some of the Jews did right? Some of the Jews were brought forward, and they ate the king's meat, and they, even though it was sacrificed to idols and mingled with blood, they did that. Whenever the king made his huge statue to his ego and said, everybody, when you hear the instruments, you're all gonna bow down, they didn't bow down. They didn't bow down. And some of you, I hope you've read the biblical story. It wasn't a chocolate statue, it wasn't a big bunny. I know some of you got your theology from that. It wasn't a big money, but it was a big golden statue, and they had to bow down to it. What did Daniel and his friends do? They did not participate with that. They understood where the line was. Now other things, we remember his friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that wasn't their original names. Those were the names given to them by this pagan government. They understood that there would be some things that they had to endure, being in a pagan world, being in a pagan nation. So it wasn't that they were isolationists, but they also didn't assimilate with everything either, did they? When the king said bow, they said no, even if it meant their deaths. This is a good example to us where we say, okay, there are certain lines we don't cross. Because we might be in the world, but we are not of the world. We are in the world, but we are not of the world. And this, again, is where Jesus' prayer is just so important to us. He prays for our protection and even our deliverance from the power of the evil one. Why? Because who is ultimately at the head of the world system? Yeah, Satan, the prince of the power of the air, the God of this age. That's a G with a lower, that's a lowercase G, right? That's a lowercase G, lowercase G God. He's the God of this age. In other words, he's the ruler of this age, of this world, of the system. We need protection from him. We don't wanna be Ephesians two just following after the spirit of the age, after this world. We need deliverance, we need safety. Our Lord's prayer, he even taught us, he even taught us when he taught us to pray, he said, say this when you pray, say, our Father who art in heaven. And what did he include in there? Deliver us from evil. Deliver us from evil. We pray that for ourselves because we understand we need God's protection. He prays that for us as well. He says, I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. He wants us protected as we go through the world. His desire is not to just rapture us out of here. I would love that. I would love that. And you know, that rapture can happen at any time. I'm happy with that, right? Maranatha, come quickly, Lord. But obviously it's not his will to just remove everybody. There is coming a time when he will. But we've gone through a lot of church history so far. It obviously was not his will through the vast, vast majority of church history. His will was for us to be in the world, to go through the world and to come out the other side, but come out the other side protected and delivered from the evil one, not having fallen prey to the evil one. And so he calls for our protection here, protection from the devil who seeks to destroy believers. I have a quote, look at that. The devil who seeks to destroy believers, as with Job and Peter, and in general, but God is their strong protector. That's actually from the MacArthur Study Bible there. He wants us to see that God is our strong protector, that God will protect us. We don't have to fear. As a young believer, I got afraid because Well, some of you know I was in a very fundamentalist church growing up and everything, everything was an opportunity. You might invite in a spirit, a demon by accident almost because you did something or performed something. that you didn't know, that you didn't realize, and then the spirit follows you home kind of thing, and that spirit might then trouble your family. That kind of stuff kind of worked on my mind as a young believer, as a teenager. I was like, oh, I don't know. Maybe there are some things that I've done that could invite in spirits and everything like that. We need to see that God can protect us from Satan and his minions. We need to trust that greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. God can protect us from evil. He can protect us from evil. And we don't have to constantly live in fear of what the devil can do. Yes, we have to be on the alert. Yes, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, but he's toothless. We have to see that too. We have to see that the God who could deliver Daniel from the lion's den can deliver us from Satan. He can deliver us from the roaring lion who's seeking someone to devour. Jesus tells us this so that we are not afraid in this world. We are not afraid that the gates of hell will prevail against us. We don't need to be afraid of that as we are in the mission, on the mission in this world. We have been called from the world. We are protected from the prince of this world. We need to know that so that we understand our calling here. We have been called, and Jesus reemphasizes that calling in verse 16. They are not part of the world. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. or as the NET net Bible renders the second half of this verse here, just as I do not belong to the world. We have to see that we are connected to the Christ who is holy, who is exalted, who is transcendent. If he is not of this world, then we need to see ourselves the same way if we claim to be Christians. If we're disciples of Christ, we need to see that we are not of this world either. We have to live differently. If you've ever wondered about all those Old Testament laws that are just a little on the weird side. I don't mean like, thou shalt not murder. Okay, that one's obvious. Yes, okay, we shouldn't do that. But what about like, you can't wear clothing with mixed fabrics. Why did they do that? You can't. You can't have certain foods. Why did they do that might say well some of it may have been safety some of it may have been this but there's some laws don't trim the the edges of your beard what why would he have a command for them like that because they're to look different and They are to look different. They are to dress differently than the world. They are to act differently than the world. They are to eat differently than the world. They are not to be like the world. They're to be separate. They're to be sanctified. They're to be whole. That's what all that was about. And I'm not saying that because you have to start eating kosher or you have to start wearing your beard a certain way or anything like that. I don't even think I'm wearing my beard that way. So, so I'm not advocating that, but what I am saying is this, we need to think through how we eat, how we dress, how we do all of these things so that we can make sure that we are doing what we're doing to the glory of God. Right? This is why ladies and men, by the way, dress modestly, right? We don't want to dress like the world dresses. We want to dress differently. We want to dress appropriately. When we eat, we don't just pig out. We shouldn't anyway, right? But we don't want to eat like we're serving the God of our bellies. Now, that's something I sometimes struggle with myself, especially if tacos are on the menu. I can go through some tacos. I can go through some tacos. Okay, but we have to think about that and say, okay, as a Christian, I should have self-control. I should at some point be able to say, okay, that's enough. We drink differently. Christians don't get drunk. We shouldn't anyway. Unbelievers might go out to the pub and do a pub crawl and, you know, get plastered or whatever else. They might do that, but we don't do that, right? We don't get drunk because we believe that it's important to have sober minds. Eventually, the world's looking at us and saying, you guys are a little strange. You guys stand out. We talk differently, too, right? We try to keep our language clean. Sometimes some of us struggle a little bit more than others with that. We are not of the world, though. We don't talk like the world. We talk like believers. We're set apart for a purpose, and we represent the interests of our kingdom, of the kingdom of Christ, not the interests of the world. I'm not talking about just having a pietistic attitude. Obviously, there are certain things. I'm speaking to you in the language that the world uses, English. I'm not speaking to you in a language that only Christians have. We are using electricity that is provided by the world. The world uses electricity. The Amish have very strict beliefs about that. We are okay with using electricity. We're okay with having gas come in so that we can heat the building. Some of you say, well, you need to be a little bit more okay, because it needs to be a little bit warmer in here. That may be, but we do use things that the world uses. We use tools. I'm using a tablet here. That's something that the world uses. We're not talking about never doing anything that the world does, but there is something that is different. That's because we are sanctified from the world for the mission. Finally, we are also sanctified by the truth. for Christ's mission. We're sanctified by the truth for Christ's mission. Let's look at verses 17 through 19 now. Sanctify them. There we go. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify myself. that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. Now, when we talk about sanctification, I mentioned this at the beginning, there are different categories of sanctification that scripture addresses. And I don't want to go too deep in each of these categories, but there are, for instance, positional and progressive sanctification. positional or sometimes it's described as immediate sanctification or sudden sanctification. This is where God sets us apart for himself. And we're not just talking about election. We're talking about at the moment of salvation when we exit being of the world. We are set apart. Positionally now we are with God, we are sanctified, we are cleansed. It's almost like he has gone in the mud and he has dug in the mud and he found a frog and he pulled it up and he, We cleaned it off. Now that frog is his frog. You know, that's us, right? You say, that's not the best picture right there. I think I'm better than a frog. Listen, you need to be honest about your sin. You need to be honest about your sin. It's like he has pulled us up and he has cleansed us off. Now we're God's frog. Now we are his own. Okay, that is positional sanctification. We now have a new life. We're not where we used to be. That happens at the moment of salvation. First Corinthians 1, 2 talks about that. But then there's also progressive sanctification. Now this is an ongoing work of the spirit. This is where you still have perhaps some struggles that you had coming to Christ. Maybe there are some things that you are still battling in the flesh. Maybe some things that you thought that you had taken care of that are still there. Maybe some things that you didn't realize were there are now coming to light. You walk through the woods, you find a large tree branch that's on the ground. You roll it over and you find all kinds of insects and life underneath that tree branch that's there as the tree branch has been rotting into the soil. This is what we find in our lives sometimes. Someone may come to Christ and he's an alcoholic, but then he deals with that. He is now practicing a God-given self-control, and he stops drinking like that. He's not a drunkard anymore, as scripture would say. But what does that reveal? Well, that log has been overturned. He realizes, oh, I was engaging in this behavior because I was covering up. a need in my life, or I was covering up, you know, maybe pain, maybe I was dealing with stress in this way, and now I have to learn a new way to deal with these issues in my life. The log has been overturned, and now there are other things. This is progressive sanctification. This happens over time. And as Christ is applying his word to our hearts, we begin to see just how we should live differently. Now, with all of that said. I thought it was important to go over that, but this is not exactly what we're talking about in this passage, neither one of these. We're not talking necessarily about positional sanctification. We're not talking about progressive sanctification. We're talking about consecration. We're talking about a person being set apart for a purpose, for a reason. There is a reason we have been called out of the world. And as we read the Word of God, we start to see that reason. As we see, okay, we're supposed to put others' needs above our own. We start to see that. We start to see all these one another commands. We start to say, okay, well, I have to serve other people. The other people aren't just in here. They're also out there. They're also out there. We have to share Christ with them. We have to be ambassadors. We have to go into the world. Oh, I just got out of the mud. I don't want to go back into it. But you're not going back into it like you used to be, though. You're not going back into it in terms of temptation or anything like that. You're going back into it because you know other people need to be rescued. You know other people who are stuck where they are, and they need to come out. Sometimes Christians forget this. We get really comfortable in church, and then we start getting people who are a little less polished in the church, and we don't like that. I was dealing with this with jail ministry. One of the things that we tried our best to set up was a network of churches. Once a person got released from jail, And there had to be some churches where we said, you can go to this church and you'll be okay. Now, we had some criteria. We're not talking about sex offenders. We're not talking about violent offenders. They had their own requirements that we had to meet. Some people just can't be anywhere where there'd be kids or something like that. For them, they had their own special areas that we had to put them. But for everyone else, you know, maybe they, you know, got one-to-meet traffic tickets, or maybe they weren't paying child support, or, you know, things that are non-violent in nature, but still worthy of incarceration. As they get out, they need to know, Can I be someone? Maybe it's someone who had committed a little bit of a higher level crime, but he needed to be somewhere. We tell them, you need to be in church. Well, what church can I go to? Once they find out I'm a criminal or that I've been in jail, they won't let me be there. And I couldn't say, well, that's not how Christians act. Because you know what? Some Christians do act that way. I don't want to sit next to someone who's been in jail. No, that's dangerous, no. Why would we have that? So I would have to talk to the pastors of these churches and say, is this person going to be welcome here? Are you willing to offer a second chance to a person? I'm not talking about a business, and we did have a list of businesses, too, like felon-friendly businesses kind of thing. But are you willing to let this person be in church? Are there people in your church who would come around this person and not shun this person, but be a friend to this person, maybe someone who's older in the faith, who's willing to be a mentor to this person, who's willing to disciple this person. And we would get a few churches that were willing to do that. But out of, say, a network of, you know, maybe 70, 80 churches that supported our ministry, only about four or five churches were willing to let folks who got released from jail come into their church. They were fine funding the efforts in the jail, but that's where they wanted the people to stay. They didn't want them in church with them. But we have to see, okay, we are sanctified by the truth. We are called for a mission. Sometimes that mission requires us to do uncomfortable things. Sometimes that mission requires us to put up with unpolished people, let's put it that way. people who haven't grown up in church, people who are not necessarily checking all the boxes that we would like to see them check. And I understand that. We have to see that Jesus has called us to a cleansing, but he calls us to greater cleansing. And we have to see that there is more that can be done here. This passage is about mission. We are removed from the world's hole. We are now taken by Christ and put into his hands for his purposes. There is a problem that we see with churches where they are not only comfortable just doing things their way, they are comfortable doing things the way the world does them. I remember reading a book on church growth. It said that as pastors, we need to look to McDonald's. McDonald's has been hugely successful over the years. It continues to grow. So many, what, billions of burgers served now. Well, we want to serve people Christ, so we need to adopt those worldly methods. We're not of the world. We're not of the world. We don't want to adopt those kinds of methods. Maybe that means our church is a little smaller. That's okay. As individuals, we don't want to adopt worldly philosophies, worldly methodologies, worldly ways and thoughts, psychologies. There's a lot of worldliness out there that we must avoid. We're set apart for the purpose of Christ, and that should be reflected in our message. When John the Baptist, Mark 1, when John the Baptist was arrested, Jesus went around Galilee. This is the beginning of Mark. You can turn there if you want to. Mark says that when John was arrested, Jesus went around Galilee, and he went around preaching the same message that John the Baptist preached. Repent and believe. Repent and believe. There are churches today who say we need to stop talking about repentance. Joel Osteen's church says that. We don't talk about sin, we don't talk about repentance. There have been other churches that I've known that have said the same thing. We don't talk about repentance. If you go out and share the gospel, don't tell people to repent. Bring him in here. And then the pastor says, I don't talk about repentance. Well, where are they going to get the message of repentance? You don't go out and tell them about to repent and the pastor's not going to tell them to repent. Jesus went around and he told people to repent and believe, not just repent, but also believe. Our message should be Jesus's message. Our message should be based on what he did, what he proclaimed. Think about this, he says, for their sakes, verse 19, for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they themselves may be sanctified in truth. He is preparing himself for a purpose. He is preparing himself to be the high priest who's gonna offer up that sacrifice, although he himself is also the sacrifice. He is sanctifying himself for his mission. We are to be sanctified In truth, and really the idea there is that we are to be truly or really sanctified, truly or really sanctified by the mission of Christ. If Christ is going to the cross and dying for the sins of people who repent and believe, then that's the message we need to go and spread. If you repent and you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, he has died for you, he has paid for your sins, he has given you new life, and this is a message of good news that is being freely offered to you. Freely offered to you. we should affirm his message. We should proclaim his gospel. We should teach what he taught. We should be as empowered for the same work of ministry as he is empowered to do. So as a result, we should be sanctified in truth and by truth for Christ's mission. Now what does this look like? Let's begin to wrap this up and I'll give you a couple points of application here. We need to see ourselves as ambassadors of Christ. We need to see ourselves as ambassadors of Christ who are set apart from the world by the truth of God, by the word of God, for his purpose. Now, if we are so set apart, then we should embrace the joy of sanctification that he provides here. I hope that you are not seeing this as a message of, oh, I gotta do, gotta do, gotta do. There is a certain joy in this. There is a joy that Jesus himself talks about, and he has promised to us if we are engaged in this mission, He is praying that this joy be made full in us. And so I hope that you will meditate upon this truth so that you too will experience the joy of sanctification and I pray that you'll embrace this joy. Don't be like the person who's going out and he is serving the Lord in his flesh. You will burn yourself out. You cannot serve the Lord in your flesh. Embrace the joy of the Lord as you serve the Lord. The second thing I want you to see this morning is that we should stand firm against the world. Stand firm against the world. We face a world system. that is insidious. It is something that is going to get into us. It is something that in our flesh, our sin nature is going to be drawn to. We have to recognize any worldly thoughts within us and put them to death. We have to put them to death. This is, again, something that's easier said than done, because sometimes we don't always see what is worldly and what isn't worldly. Sometimes we look to really easy things and try to get off of doing the harder work of going deeper. But we should see how scripture replaces our worldly thinking and allow that to happen. Romans chapter 12 verse two says, do not be conformed to this world, but be renewed in your mind, right? Be transformed, excuse me, by the renewing of your mind. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, by allowing the word of God to do this. So stand firm against the world in your own heart and in your life. And then finally commit to the mission. Commit to the mission. Sanctification here is for personal holiness, but it's not merely for that. I hope that you see that you have not just been saved so that Jesus can put you on a shelf somewhere in a closet and he just closes that door. You have been saved for a mission. You each know people who need to know the Lord. maybe even a lot of people. You also each are part of a church, part of a family of God. So we have this mission that we are called to. Let's commit to it. Let's make sure that we are all pursuing the same goal here. So let's live lives that reflect this calling with joy, with a grounding in the truth and with a devotion to proclaiming the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.