Greetings and welcome to White's Run Baptist Church. My name is Pastor Eric Newcomer and we'll be looking today at a sermon I call Praying for Keeps. It's in John chapter 17 verses 6 through 19. And what we're looking at in John chapter 17 is a very special prayer of Jesus that he prays in the presence of his disciples the night that he was betrayed and arrested. And as he prays his prayer in the presence of his disciples, it's revealed to us in his prayer that he's not only praying for them, he's praying for all that would come to believe after them. And so that would include us. And this makes this a very exciting prayer and a very beneficial prayer because we have it in the inspired word of God, what is the will of Jesus for us? That's important because we're told by Jesus that whatever we ask the Father in his name, the Father will give to us. So if we ask according to his will or in his name, those things are answered in the affirmative. And so what we have in his prayer is a revelation then of his will, a revelation of what to pray in his name. And when we pray these things, we will have answers to these things and we will be greatly encouraged and we will know the priorities of Jesus Christ for us. And indeed, we will have great joy. So let's go to the text in John chapter 17. We're going to start in verse 6. And what we're going to learn today is a powerfully important lesson that we see here in John chapter 17. And we're going to see Jesus continuing his prayer. He opened his prayer speaking of glory, the fact that he had been glorified and was going to be glorified more by the Father, and speaking of course of his crucifixion. And what we're going to learn in these verses 6-19 is simply this, that we should pray for the Father to keep us in Jesus Christ so that we will not fall away. So look for that theme here as we read, beginning at 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, 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. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the Son of Destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake, I consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth. Let's pray over these scriptures. Father God, we praise your name this day, and we ask you, Lord, to be glorified in this, the reading, and the exposition of your scripture. Make yourself known through it. Reveal your will to us so that we can pray rightly, and that we can obey your word, and we can glorify you more on this earth, indeed as you're glorified right now in heaven. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we have here a very important word. There are imperatives in prayer. Now, as you know, an imperative command is a an imperative is a statement of command. In other words, if I say, go sit down, that would be an imperative. It might be two imperatives, go and sit down. Well, Jesus here has some imperatives in prayer, and we do say imperatives in prayer, not that we're commanding God to do things, but it is also a way of requesting. Jesus gives an imperative here, and it's shown right there in verse 11 when he says, keep them in your name. Now this word keep is very important. It means to keep or guard or protect. It can also mean to observe or obey. So in the Bible this is used to mean someone is literally being guarded in prison either for their safety or because they are a prisoner. Or it is used sometimes that the Word of God is kept, that is obeyed or observed. And in other times, it is used to speak of us believers as we are kept by God, and that means protected. So in applying this particular word here, Jesus is asking for the disciples for protection. But the first question that we have to think of is this, protection from what? And so we wanna go to an outline here, keep us from what? Protect us from what, Lord Jesus? From the world and its difficulties? Well, if we take a look back there at chapter 17, verse 15, he says this. He says, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. And so indeed, it's not that he would have us taken out of the world. So no, it's not the world he wants us protected from. In fact, he tells us in chapter 15 that the world would hate us because it hated him, and the world would persecute us because it persecuted first the Lord Jesus. In fact, he says in 1633, in the world you will have tribulation, but I have overcome the world. And so Jesus is not praying for protection from the world. Jesus has overcome the world, and the world indeed can do nothing to believers in Jesus Christ. Yes, the world can take our health and our freedom and even our very lives, but nothing of significance compared to God. The world is not worthy of our fear, but God is worthy of our fear. Jesus said in Matthew 10, 28, he says, do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him who can destroy both the soul and the body. hell and so we are to fear God we're not to fear the world with us in Jesus Christ the worst thing that the world can do is send us to be with Jesus in heaven so indeed the world is not what he is praying for protection from is he praying that we would be protected from the evil one well again I'll refer you to the scripture here in 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 so yes indeed He is asking for protection from the evil one. But the question becomes, what exactly does he mean by that? This is a difficult phrase because the phrase can either be translated as the evil one or simply evil. It has a definite article, but sometimes evil is used in this way just to speak in general of evil, the evil. So is it speaking of the evil one? Well, certainly. Satan is in view because if this is a general request to be protected from evil, he would be part of that evil. Another part of the evil could well be the kind of things we harbor inside and the sin that we have. This could be a prayer for us not to be overcome by that. Indeed, He prays for sanctification in those verses. And so that would be a further setting apart and that would imply holiness. That would imply putting evil away and getting the evil out of us and replacing it with the good that God has for us in us. So either is really true. Is it the evil one or is it evil? Yes. Concerning Satan, Jesus says a couple important things. He says in chapter 14, verse 30, so in the same conversation with the disciples here, he says that Satan has no claim on me. And that's important because in the New Testament, believers are described as being in Christ. They were also described as being his body. So if indeed believers are in Christ and they are his body, then if Satan has no claim on Jesus Christ, he has no claim on his people, the church. And so this is a very important piece to put together. Also in John 12.31, Jesus says, as he is approaching the day of his crucifixion, he says that the ruler of this world is cast out. And in John 16.11, when he speaks of the coming Holy Spirit, he speaks of the judgment of Satan, the fact that the ruler of this world, or Satan, is judged. So this is a prayer to protect us from the evil one, or evil. And this is consistent with the Lord's Prayer. When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, part of that prayer is, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And it's the same form of, with the definite article, as it is here, the evil, or the evil one. So in the prayer, however, he says, lead us not into temptation, but, and so he pairs it right away with this, deliver us from evil. So what Jesus has in view here in this protection that God is to give us is to protect us indeed, yes, from the evil one, Satan, but also from temptation in general. Because we know that sin happens when we are lured and enticed by our own desires within. And so it's our very own desires that betray us and lead us into temptation. So this is a powerful and important prayer. So he is indeed asking for protection from the evil one. But he's also asking for us to be kept from falling away. Look at verse 12 here. In John 17, verse 12, he says, 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. So we have to explain something very important to get to our point here. At the last half of this verse, he points out that not one of them has been lost. So that is the criteria for success that Jesus puts as this keeping. I kept them in your name, and not one of them's been lost. So that would mean that they haven't fallen away, that they haven't stopped following Jesus, that they haven't moved on to the next thing. Indeed, that they are still with him and still following him. But this question comes up about Judas. The son of destruction here is indeed speaking of Judas. It was Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus, and he betrayed Jesus to the fulfillment of scripture. I won't go into that now, but you can look it up in a good study Bible with cross-references, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. Judas here, therefore, is not an example of a genuine believer falling away. Judas never did believe. He was a false convert, and he was hanging around, seemingly for his own selfish reasons, and eventually sold out Jesus for some silver. Now afterwards, he regretted it, and he tried to return the money, but it was too late, and Jesus ended up being crucified anyway. But in John chapter 6, and I'll give you the cross-references. I won't go there, because that would take us a lot of time to look at. But in John chapter 6, verses 60 through 71, So Jesus starts to teach some difficult things. Some people stop following him and he has a conversation with the disciples. And in that conversation, he reveals that Judas was in fact never the real deal because he said, I chose one of you, but that one's going to betray. And so the question comes up often, people will ask the question. So does that mean that Jesus chose Judas to betray him and then he made Judas betray him. No, not at all. Judas betrayed Jesus of his own will and inconsistent with his own desires. So Jesus didn't force him. Jesus chose him as the betrayer. He knew he would betray him. He knew he would not hold through to the end. And so indeed, Jesus is able to say in John chapter 17, verses 12, to his father in prayer, I've kept them all. I have not lost one of them. And so indeed, Judas is already in the act of betraying him, and Jesus well knows it. So to keep us from falling away is what Jesus has primarily in view here in this prayer, in this section of it, where he asked the father, keep them in your name. because success was none of the 11 being lost. So Jesus prays for us to not fall away. And likewise, we should pray for ourselves that we wouldn't fall away, and we should also pray for one another, that we shouldn't fall away. But the question remains, how does the Father answer this particular request? How does he keep us from falling away? What encouragement do we have Also, that the Father will answer this request. Well, as far as how it is that we are kept, I want to take a look at something else on the outline here. How is it that we are kept? Well, first of all, we're kept by the word of God. In verse six of the passage we just looked at, Jesus says about the disciples concerning them, they have kept your word. Now, Jesus said, I've kept them in your name I've guarded them, I've not lost one of them. But he begins this section by saying, I gave them your word, they kept your word. So Jesus gave the disciples the Father's words, they received those words, they believed those words. And that is still the pattern for everyone believing today, that we are given the word of God and it's by the word of God that we come to believe, and therefore by the word of God that we should continue in our faith and grow in our faith. In fact, he says explicitly in John chapter 16 verse 1, in this night as he's giving them these encouragements, he says, I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. See, it's the very words Jesus was saying was part of what would keep the disciples from utterly falling away. We know when Jesus was arrested, they scattered. They each went to their own place. They ran for their lives. But Jesus knew this would happen. However, they were still together after the crucifixion, and they were found to be together at the resurrection, and they saw the risen Lord. And so they stayed together indeed all the way through. We'll get to that momentarily. but it's the Word of God that keeps us from falling away. Closely related to this, we find also in John chapter 17, verse 17, a very important truth that we'll preach on later in this little series we're doing. But he says in verse 17, he says, sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. And so part of the process of sanctifying, which is being set apart The Word of God is primarily involved. Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. Now, it's important to understand this explains why the New Testament has many warnings in it. Some of the letters of the New Testament and even some of the teachings of Jesus in the Gospel are very straightforward to warn people not to fall away, to warn people not to walk away from the truth. And it is by this mechanism that God chooses to keep us in Jesus Christ. It is by these warnings and scriptures. It makes us hold fast to Jesus. It drives us to Him in prayer. It reassures us of His strength and His power and the value of staying with Him. It even reminds us sometimes of the dread wrath of God and hell if we don't follow through and remain in Christ. And so these warnings are there, but the warnings are part of the mechanism that God uses to keep his people. Another mechanism that he uses that's very important is the fellowship of believers. Look in John chapter 17, verse 11 here. He says, I'm no longer in the world. So they were losing Jesus, but he's saying, but they are in the world and I'm coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one." Unity of believers is a major theme of this prayer of Jesus, that we would be one together. Indeed, as the Father and Son are so completely one, that the people of God would be one together. It is this fellowship that's part of the mechanism of God keeping us in Jesus Christ. And indeed, we'll pursue this theme of unity entirely in another scripture. But this is not just a New Testament idea. The people of God have always been better off together. And in the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon writes some about this in chapter four, verses nine through 12, where he says, two are better than one. If two lie together, don't they keep warm? And then he says, a man might prevail against one who's alone, but two will withstand the robber. And then he says a great proverb, a three-fold cord is not quickly broken. It reminds me of a joke someone once told me. Because I'm a Baptist, people think it's funny to tell me jokes about Baptists. And, you know, sometimes it's funny and sometimes I kind of take it with a grain of salt. But the joke is this, why must you always take more than one Baptist fishing? And the answer is, well, you have to take more than one Baptist fishing, because if you only take one Baptist with you fishing, he'll drink all your beer. And it illustrates an amusing point and a very true point, the fact that together we are stronger than we are apart. Together we keep one another from sin, and we encourage one another in the right way, and we are encouraged and strengthened together. But even with these two things, the Word of God Himself and the Church, how can we be confident that we will take hold of this Word of the Fellowship and so stay in Christ? I'll answer that plainly. We cannot be confident in our ability, even given these two great benefits. Our focus and our action are indeed revolving around being in the word of God and being in a fellowship of believers, but the problem is our security is not rooted in our own ability. And if you really reflect honestly, you would find this, that if you had to trust in yourself to stay saved, you probably would have fallen away by now, and probably fallen away often. Like every other day, if we really want to be honest with ourselves, I have to be honest with myself in that way. I wasn't responsible for saving myself. I responded to what God showed me, and I repented of my sins, and I believed, and I made great effort and strove together with Him to walk in His ways, but I can't take credit for any of that. He changed my heart. He gave me new desires. He's the one that paid the price for my sins. He's the one that called me, that showed me His word. His Holy Spirit convicted me. It's all on Him. There can be no boasting on my part about anything that I did. The Bible says it very plainly. Nevertheless, I did respond. Nevertheless, I do strive together with Him in my salvation. Indeed, that's the testimony of believers. But how can we be confident? and staying in him. If we're left up to our own, we'll be in despair. We won't know, gee, how am I going to be able to do this? How am I going to carry on? How am I going to stay in Christ? Well, there's good news. He tells us many things here that show us indeed what our security is. And I want to show you a few of these right now. In what is our security? Well, the first thing that our security is, is in this, our security is in the gift of the Father. We are given to the Son by the Father. Jesus says this, he says, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. And then he told us in Chapter 17, verse six, he says, I've manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. And then he refers to us being given back here in chapter 17, verse two, since you've given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And so indeed, we see that we are given to the son by the father, and this is important We can rest in the security of that because the father knows what he's doing. And those that he gives to the son, the son gives eternal life and they will not perish. Jesus said this in John chapter 10, my father who has given them to me is greater than all. And no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand. We are a gift from the father to the son and a good father knows how to give good gifts. Also, we know that we can be confident that we will finish the race, the course that we have started in Jesus Christ by this. It's the request of the Son. At the raising of Lazarus, Jesus' greatest miracle that he did, and it was quite public, many people saw it, he says a prayer to heaven, and he says it out loud for everyone to hear, and he says, I didn't say this for my benefit. I know that you always hear me. So John 11, 42, Jesus says, I know you always hear me, And it's in that context that he commands Lazarus, Lazarus come out. And indeed Lazarus comes out. He's raised from the dead. Because Jesus is always heard by the Father. Always answered in the affirmative when he prays to the Father. And here in John chapter 17, Jesus is praying for us. He is praying for you and I. It is He who intercedes for us. In Romans chapter 8, Paul uses this point to make his pinnacle argument of the greatness of the gospel in Romans 8. He says, who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised? Who is at the right hand of God? Who is interceding for us? Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? And I think you know the rest of that passage. Would Jesus have been raised if he were a sinner? Would praying wrongly for us be a sin for him? Yes, I think it would be. So he never prays wrongly for us. He was perfect in every way. In Hebrews chapter four, It's argued that Jesus is the greatest high priest we could ask for for two very important reasons. Number one, he can sympathize with us because he went through all the difficulties we do and more. And yet he did it, secondly, without sin. And so not only can he sympathize, he can sympathize having gone through all that we do without sin. And it is in Hebrews 4, that we're told He intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father. And because of that, we should with confidence draw near to the throne of grace. In other words, our confidence in going to Him in prayer, going to the Father in prayer is because that one sitting at His right hand is there sitting there for us, for our benefit, interceding, and He will be heard because He can sympathize and He never sinned. Yes, Jesus. is heard by God and He's always answered by God and so we have the request of the Son Himself to assure us that we will indeed endure to the end. Now the word give is kind of a central word in John chapter 17. I want you to go through sometime this week and highlight everything in the chapter that's given. The word is given, believers given, lots of things are given. Mark who it's given from and who it's given to. and you'll learn a great deal about the position that we have in Jesus Christ. But this gift of the Son is what I want you to look at next. In verse 2, we have this gift. He says, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. So Jesus gives eternal life. And this phrase itself, eternal life or life eternal or everlasting life, as it is in some translations, the phrase itself indicates that this is a gift that is not going to be taken back. The very idea that is called eternal life says in and of itself that it is forever, that it begins once and ends never. But look at the scripture here in 17 verse 3. He defines eternal life for us. This is a central verse in understanding what it means to be saved and what the goal of salvation is. Look what he says here about eternal life. He says, this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. And so this is about a relationship, and this is about a relationship with the eternal son and the eternal father, knowing the son and knowing the father, And folks, this is something that we cannot un-know. This word, know, indicates a relationship. And this relationship is conditioned upon the grace of God. And God, as He is unchanging, and as steadfast as He is, and as permanent as His promises are, that is the power of this gift of the Son, this gift of eternal life. Now let's take a look at one more reason here, two more reasons why indeed we can have security in the Lord Jesus Christ. The glory of God. In John 17.10, he says about his disciples, I am glorified in them. And for that reason, we will persist in him to further glorify God. In Exodus chapter 32, it came to kind of a crisis in the people of Israel As they had just experienced this wonderful exodus from Egypt and all these miracles and everything else, Moses goes up on the mountain to get the laws of God, to bring out the details of the covenant with God, and the people of Israel fall into idolatry. They literally make an idol of a thing they used to worship, perhaps back in Egypt. Well, they make this gold idol, they start worshiping it, they start engaging in some very inappropriate behavior, God tells Moses, I'm going to wipe them out. I'm going to wipe them out, Moses. I'm going to start all over with you. But Moses knows this isn't right. He knows this isn't the plan of God. He sees this perhaps as a test that God is saying these things to him. And he says, Lord, why should the Egyptians say about you that you brought them out with evil intent to just kill them in the mountains and consume them from the face of the earth? Well, Moses interceded. for the people of Israel, like Jesus, intercedes for us. And in this intercession for the people, God then relents at the catastrophe that he said he was going to bring upon the people, and he gives them another chance. Though things are changed after that point, he does not utterly destroy the people of Israel at that point. God finishes what he starts. God finishes what he starts. In Philippians 1.6, Paul says this in the introduction of his letter there, he says, I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. What God has started in people, he will finish in people in Jesus Christ. God will keep his own and he will keep us for his glory to show how glorious he is, how wonderful his grace is, how great His mercy is, and for some of us, it's going to show the world how incredibly patient He is, that He will ultimately save us. Powerfully important points here. Finally, the name of God. In our security is the name of God itself. I want to take you back to the scriptures here, and I want to show you in verses 11 and 12, that Jesus says, I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I'm coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name. So very important phrase here, that he kept them in the name of the Father, that he would have us kept in the name of the Father from here on out. And in the Bible, name, carries with it the idea of reputation, but also, as we spoke of earlier in this chapter, to pray in Jesus' name is to pray in His will. In other words, if you're sent by a king, you can show up somewhere to do what the king has said, and you can say, I come in the name of the king. And that means you've come to do His will. If they oppose you, they oppose the king. And so this idea of being kept in His name means being kept according to His will, being kept in accord with His Reputation. And so in being kept in His will, in His reputation, we are being kept in the very nature of God Himself. The very nature of God. And look what Jesus says in chapter 17, verse 6. He says right here, He says, I've kept them, or I've manifested Your name. to the people whom you gave me out of the world." Now, he just means literally a name. The people of Israel already knew the name of God. They had too much respect to say it, but it was in their scriptures, and they knew that name, and that name we say it as Yahweh, or some say it as Jehovah. Israelite name, which is taken from Moses at the burning bush when God reveals himself, and he says, I am that I am. Tell them that I am sent you. Yahweh means I am. That's the name of God. But Jesus here is saying, no, I've manifested your name, meaning I have shown your very nature to the disciples. I've shown them what you are like. And this is in accord with what John says in chapter one. When he introduces his gospel, he says, we have seen his glory, glory as of the one and only begotten of the Father. And so this is powerfully important. He manifested the name, we're kept in his name, his reputation, his nature. What did the disciples learn as they walked around with Jesus? They learned that he's not fickle. They learn that he knows what he's doing. Jesus went everywhere with a purpose. In fact, when they were going to take what would seemingly, for most Jews, be a detour through Samaria, he says, it's necessary we go through Samaria. They go through Samaria, they meet a woman at the well, and they have a great harvest of people that day. In other words, a great number of people come out to meet him, to find out who he is, and they believe that he's the Christ. He knew what he was doing. Every step he took, everywhere he went, he manifested the nature of God in this. God knows what he's doing. He's in charge. He revealed his actions or by his actions in front of the disciples that he was powerful enough to do what he wanted that he was wise enough to do what he wanted, that he was able to keep them to the end. And indeed, think about this, did he keep the disciples to the end? Well, let's see, they all scattered the night that he was arrested, but they were all 11 together, even after the crucifixion. They were all together when Jesus appeared to them at his resurrection. And they were all together at the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon the believers for the first time. And they were all together as they proclaimed the gospel to the end of their lives, most of them being martyrs as recorded in our history. By calling you to Jesus Christ, God has staked his reputation on keeping you there. By calling you to Jesus Christ, God has staked his name, his reputation on keeping you there. Now let me address a very important point. Because with every good and helpful doctrine in the Bible, it can be overemphasized. And it can be elevated that other things be ignored. As you read through the New Testament, you're going to find something very interesting. You're going to find many warnings and many admonitions by the scripture to the people of God to hang in there, to hold on. Don't fall away. You stay in Jesus Christ and you follow it to the end and you obey God. And Paul gives many of these. There are many in the book of Hebrews. Some of them in the book of Hebrews are so strong that it makes people question this great doctrine. But the reason that why there are warnings in the scriptures is the warnings are part of how God is going to keep us. The warnings is part of his plan to encourage his church to keep them to the very end. So why are we encouraged then? Why are these warnings there? Let me give you two reasons. The first reason is simply that, what I said, that it is there to encourage us to hold on. It is there to help us to rely on God. It is there to guide us in prayers and to encourage one another that when we see someone else slipping or we see someone being controlled by their sins, we can encourage them and we can say, no, no, no, you hang on, you stay in there, you stay in Christ. And if they are in Christ, they'll stay. The second reason they are there is because as Jesus revealed from the very beginning in Jesus' parables, many of his parables show the truth that the church would always have unbelievers among them. In other words, that among the true church, there would be the false church. In other words, as you gather on Sunday, you look around, the chances are very, very likely that some of those people are not true believers. And it is very, very likely that you could have been in the church for years, that you could have been raised Christian, that you could be obeying all the rules, member of a good church, volunteer at every opportunity, give generously to the church, and not be saved. Now we know this is true because the scriptures tell us about it, that Jesus says in Matthew chapter 7 at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, scariest verses in the Bible, in chapter 7 starting about verse 21, he says many people are going to come to him on Judgment Day and they're going to say, hey Lord, we did all these works in your name, and some of the works I mention are miraculous. In other words, they were involved with the church. They did things in the name of Jesus, but Jesus is going to say, depart from me, I never knew you. And he uses that same word by which he defines eternal life in John 17, that they know God, that they know Jesus Christ, and they know the Father. John says in his first letter. Mind you, we're taking this from the book of John. Most of my cross-references today have been from John. John hits this truth the hardest, but listen to what he says in his letter in 1 John chapter 2. One of his purposes in writing his letter is that many false teachers had already had risen in the church by the time John wrote his letter and indeed his gospel. And he tells And he speaks to the people in the letter about some false teachers, people that were saying things about Jesus that weren't true, that they had left the congregation to which he was writing. And he says this about them, he says, they went out from us, but they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. See, false converts will always be in the congregation. It's just very clear that this is true. But these warnings are in the scriptures to call them to salvation. Do you see the kindness of God that he puts into his letters and he gives the preachers going through the scriptures the opportunity to bring these things up and say, look, just because you're sitting there and you're interested in the things of Jesus doesn't mean that you're going to heaven. Please search your heart and know that you're going to heaven because He has made it so that you should know. And if you have doubts, now is the time to know for sure, to put the doubts to rest. And so my invitation to you this day is follow the example of Jesus. Pray for keeps. Pray that He would keep you in Jesus Christ. Pray that you would not fall away. Pray for your fellow believers and the people in your church pray that they be kept in Christ that they not fall away Because as you pray that you may be praying a prayer of salvation for them you may be praying that they initially be saved because they haven't and If they are truly genuine believers Genuine believers even face the difficulty they might fall out of church for a time and folks Let me tell you when a genuine believer leaves church for a period of time, they're miserable. So pray for one another that you don't do such a thing because the Lord Jesus Christ wants more for you. He wants joy for you. Look at joy in these chapters 14 through 17 and how it keeps coming up. He wants you to have joy. He wants you to have full joy. So pray that you would be kept in Jesus Christ. Pray to keep from falling away. Pray to stay diligent in the ways in which He keeps us. Pray to stay diligent in the Word of God, constantly reading it and learning from it and studying it, especially in groups with one another or in pairs with your wife or husband or your kids. Pray to stay diligent in prayer and in praying for these things. And pray to stay diligent in the meeting together I know we live in strange times in which we're not meeting together in the ways that we're accustomed to. Nevertheless, you can meet, be it by phone, be it by web, be it however you're going to do it. Meet together, discuss the Word of God, and encourage one another. And if you haven't yet, repent of your sins and trust in Jesus Christ to save you. Think about what it is that you're trusting in. Answer this question. If you showed up in heaven today and someone were to ask you, how is it that you came to be in heaven, what would your answer be? Would your answer be because of the good works that you've done? Would your answer be because you were a member of a church? Would your answer be because you confessed and you prayed a prayer of salvation and you repented of your sins? Let me assure you that if those are what you're truly trusting in for your salvation The chances are you won't have opportunity to answer that question in heaven Because Jesus Christ has made the way Right answer to the question is Jesus Christ alone. The only reason I can dream up that I would ever be saved, a sinner like me, is that Jesus Christ gave his life for me, that he secured something for me, and he's in heaven interceding with the Father to keep me in. And indeed he will if I'm the true thing. So, wrestle with this today. Work out your salvation with fear and tremble. And again, I encourage you to talk to somebody about this. If you're not absolutely certain of these things, talk over it with somebody and contact us. I'll put our contact information at the end. But for now, let's close this in a word of prayer. Father God, we praise you this day and we thank you so much for this plan of salvation in Jesus Christ. We thank you for your great wisdom. to call a great multitude to yourself from every tribe, tongue, nation, and language. Lord, you are assembling a beautiful thing, and it is beautiful because it reflects your glory. It shows your great kindness that you would save us, your grace that you would grant us salvation, your mercy that you would take the wrath of God upon yourself and not put it on us. Let us be in wonder of these things. And I pray that all of us that are listening, Lord, that you keep us in Christ, that you keep us to the very end, that you make us glorify you even more, and as we're going to see later on, that you would sanctify us, that you would set us apart more completely, and that, indeed, we would stay in this world, that we would be a greater and greater testimony to you. Lord, I pray this day that these words have been helpful. I pray that your Holy Spirit will help and that your church will guide, and that your word will do all that you've asked it to do. Lord, I pray these things in the name of Jesus, knowing full well you are able to answer, and indeed that he is willing to intercede. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I invite you to contact us. You can find more about us at WhiterunBaptist or Whiterun.org. You can email us at WhiterunBaptist at gmail.com. And please email us, and if you have any questions whatsoever, even if you have criticisms of this message and would like to engage in a conversation about that, we will gladly respond, and we will respond personally. And we will not send you a lot of annoying offers and emails that you don't ask for. So now, may the Lord go with you, may you be blessed mightily in his word, and may God be glorified in you.