We're continuing our study this morning in the New Testament Scripture in John chapter 17, the Gospel of John in chapter 17. We're making our way through this chapter, all 26 verses of the chapter, most of the time taking just one verse as our text each morning, although last week we spent, last couple of weeks, we spent two weeks on verse 11. We'll take verse 12 as our text here this morning, but we'll begin our reading in verse 1, give us a little bit of context again of what is taking place. In John chapter 17, beginning in verse 1, we read, These words spake Jesus, and he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and he said, Father, the hour is come. Glorify thy son, that thy son may also glorify thee. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self. with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. I have manifested thy name to the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words that thou gavest me, and they have received them, and they have known surely that I came out of thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine, and all mine are thine. and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come unto thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou has given me, that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition that the scriptures might be fulfilled. We're ending our reading right there at verse 12, trusting the Lord to add his own blessing to his own word for his own namesake. In the last couple of weeks we, as I mentioned, spent a couple of weeks looking at the part A and part B of verse number 11 in this passage. And in that passage of scripture I mentioned that Christ had first spoken about the eternal prospect of the people of God. That was his first focus in verse 11 there, that the people of God have this tremendous prospect before them, that there are all these promises that will be fulfilled in the people of God. He then, in the part B of verse 11, he also spoke about their earthly preservation as well. So not just their eternal prospect, but their earthly preservation, the here and now, if you will, of the Christian life, In other words, he was saying that one day they will be carried to their final resting place in glory, but this day they will be kept from falling from grace. So both of those two elements, that is what Christ described in the first part of his petition, both the prospect of the people of God and the preservation of the people of God. And I mentioned last week that those two doctrines are the keys to victorious and joyous Christian living. This is what we find mentioned in the scriptures. And I talked about that idea of joyous Christian living is not just some phrase that I attached there, but Christ brings that out in this passage as well. He says in verse 13, that he's spoken these things while he was in the world, that their joy may be, or his joy may be filled in them, fulfilled in them. And so this is the key to it. In this verse, Christ then continues that same theme He further expounds the idea of their preservation while they are here upon the face of this earth. And in this verse, specifically, he addresses the protection of the sun. And as part of that preservation that is taking place, he speaks about the way that Christ has and is and will protect his people. And so this is what we see in this passage. There's just three simple points that really just fall right out of this text. It's very easy to see these things there, but first is the protection of Jesus, second is the perdition of Judas, and the third is the perdition of the Scripture. All three of these terms or these titles for each one of these points really, I think, falls pretty naturally out of this text. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, and that the scripture might be fulfilled. And so first of all, let's look at this notion of the protection of Jesus. We could hear some of the themes associated with the Lord protecting his people in the psalm that Mike read here is the call to worship scripture. It's a theme that we not only find in this passage of Scripture, but we find throughout numerous passages in both the Old and the New Testament Scripture. But Christ very specifically says here twice in this passage that he has kept the people of God. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. and those that thou gavest to me, I kept them and none of them was lost." So twice in that first part of this passage, Christ refers to the fact that he has kept them. Now in this verse, Christ begins by pointing to his faithfulness and carrying out the commission that was given to him by the Father. He is giving an account to the Father at the end of his life and in that account he is saying to the Father that I have faithfully done the work that thou has given me to do. Part of that work was that he would keep or care for the people of God. And so Christ is saying in the state of humiliation at a time when his physical presence was with his people, Christ fully demonstrated his ability to keep his people from defecting from the faith. That's his point here in making this. Now that the time of his departure is at hand, when his corporal or his bodily presence will be taken away from his people, Christ goes on to show his ongoing concern for his people by then commending them to the custody and the care of his father. in the previous passage we saw that, but as I mentioned, he's carrying on with that same theme, that same discussion here, and he showed there his continuing care for his people by handing them over or commending them to the care of the Father. Now he says here specifically, while I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. What he means by that is that he kept them by way of precept and by way of power. That's what he's describing here when he says that he kept them. Precept meaning this, that he actually taught them the things of God. that throughout the three-and-a-half ministry or three-year ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ after he had selected the twelve unto himself and brought them to himself of course one of them was a devil we find out here and we'll talk about that in just a minute but the eleven He taught them the things of God repeatedly throughout that life, and so Christ is mentioning this. He is saying, I have done what you have told me to do. You put a people under my charge. You gave me a responsibility. You sent me on this mission, and I have faithfully done that mission that thou has given me to do. Not only though did he teach by way of precept, which is certainly instructive to us as well, that this is part of the mission that we have been called to do, but in Christ's case, he also fulfilled this role by power. In other words, he graciously upheld them by his omnipotent power. He had authority from God, and he is none other than the Son of God himself, and so the words that were delivered unto them, they came with the manifestation of God's power as well. The words were effectual to the heart that he shared with them. They made a difference and changed the hearts of the disciples, conforming them more and more into the image of himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, Christ is saying that he kept them in faithfulness to the commission of the Father, and he kept them in faithfulness to his love and concern for the flock. Both of these two elements come into play as Christ is thinking about keeping them. Now what did he keep them from? He kept them from being overcome by the enemies that were round about them. The enemies in scripture are often listed under three headings to the people of God. The world, the flesh, and the devil. Those are the three great enemies. That is the unholy trinity that is working against the progress of the people of God. We have the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit working for us, but we have this unholy trinity. Spurgeon referred to it as the three-headed dog at the gates of hell, this three-headed trinity that is working against us. Well, we find that, and we talked about this previously, that the world is a dangerous place for the people of God. Christ is rightfully concerned about leaving them here in this world, and as he reflects upon that, he is saying here that he kept them while he was here, and now he's got this ongoing concern that they will be kept as well when he is gone, when his physical presence is taken out of this world. Now, when we think about these enemies, I could just flesh this out a little bit or develop it a little bit. He saved us or saved his people from the distraction of the world. There are so many things that would call for us to follow after them in this world. For instance, In Luke 6, verse 26, he says this, And so it's easy to be knocked off course in our progression with Christ and to follow after distractions that come up in this world, even the acclamations and the acclaim of those of the world. We want to hear their applause more than we want to hear the applause of God. I like to say that when I preach the message, some people say, well, you know, I didn't particularly care for what you said, or maybe on a radio program, I get an email and somebody says, you know, well, I didn't agree what you said there, but I'm always thinking that In one very real sense, I am preaching to an audience of one. I am preaching before Almighty God. And it's whether or not He is pleased with what is being said that matters. Not that the people, per se, are pleased with what comes out. The Old Testament prophets spoke about whether they hear or whether they forbear. We'll preach the Gospel message. The truth remains the same. And so Christ saves His people from this distraction from the world, being men-pleasers, being concerned with what other people think about us and these types of things. He saves us from that. Also, He saves us from the deception of the devil. It was said of this the Lord said this to Simon Peter. He said Simon Simon behold Satan has desired to sift Desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not You remember it's Satan's attack. They're using Peter to bring this attack about. Here was Peter doing a number of things. One, first of all, he tries to talk Christ out of going to the cross at all at one point. Christ rebukes him. He later, in his own strength, tries to stand up in opposition to the enemies that are coming against Christ. And so Christ plainly says that this is the devil that is at work in Peter, causing him to look at other things, to go a different way, to sift Peter, as it were, as we put Christ assures him that I have prayed for you in this passage. And so Peter is sustained throughout this temptation. Although he falls to the temptation here in the end, he does not finally fall. He's not driven to despair at the end of it. He falls and then is brought back and restored back into fellowship with God. He saves us from the disillusionment of the flesh as well. We read this in John chapter 6 in verse 65 and 66. And he said, therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto me except that were given him of my father. And then it adds this from that time, many of his disciples went back and they walked no more with him. Isn't that interesting? at what point and what is said to the people that causes them to say, that's it, I'm out of here. They're disillusioned by what Christ is saying. What is he talking about? He talks about the sovereignty of God. and that salvation is all founded upon God's sovereignty. And it's at that point that people say, you know what, if there's nothing in this for me, that if I can't earn my own salvation, if there isn't some way that I can cause myself to have a relationship with God, then they walk away. Well, here, Christ is saying, I kept them. I kept them from any such disillusionment of the flesh. All three of these ways I could, and many more, we could go through where Christ has said to keep us, to keep us in the faith. Now what are the applications then when we look at this first part that Christ mentions this? the protection of Jesus in our life, the way that he has protected us in our faith, and I would go even further. I would say also that he's protected our very life, that until God says otherwise, the people of God are invincible. There's nothing that can take our life until Christ says otherwise. Do you remember with the temptation of Satan upon Job? Satan went before God and he says, you have a hedge around him that I can't touch him. God had built up a hedge around Job and Satan was limited in what he could do or if he could do anything based upon the fact that God's hedge of protection was around his people, Job. And of course, God for his own purpose decides to open up that hedge and allow Satan some liberty there in Job's life. But until God says otherwise, the people of God are indispensable. We can't be done away with. We're invincible. Nothing can take our life until God says otherwise. It was interesting, the passage of Scripture where it is quoted about that none of these should leave from the Old Testament, that of all those that have been given to me, I have lost none. The passage of Scripture where Christ quotes that is when they come to arrest him in the garden and Christ pleads with them to let the others go and to just take him, himself, It's at that point that the passage is quoted that this was predicted in the Old Testament that those would be let go, that no harm would come to them, and harm would only come to the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's interesting, I think the case could be made that not only spiritually is Christ keeping us, which of course is the most important part, but Christ also protects us in this life as well. That doesn't mean that no harm will ever come until he says otherwise. For his own plan or his own purpose, whatever comes to pass, it is all prescribed by the power of God, by the purpose of God in our life. I think there's a couple of applications, though, that we could draw from this. Number one is this, that we cannot withstand the dangers of this world in our own strength. Christ says specifically here, I kept them. I did this. You know, we got all this going on about, you didn't build it. And the people are saying, I did build it. You know, this type of thing. Here, Christ is saying, I did keep them. I kept them. Teaching us that God is not only the author of the grace of our salvation, but he is the sustainer of the grace of our salvation as well. He not only initiates the work in the people of God, but he is the one who continues the work in the people of God as well. And so we therefore shouldn't look to ourselves for strength and encouragement to be able to stand up. This isn't a message about pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps. about looking to yourself. In fact, I would say the arm of flesh will fail you every time. We cannot rely upon the power of our own resolutions in this life. We see this graphically displayed to us every year at the first of the year where people make all of these resolutions. They make them on January 1st, and by January 2nd, they're gone. They've been broken in many cases. And so we can see we don't have this ability. Peter is the classic example of this in the scripture. He makes this bold pronouncement of his resolve to stand for Christ. He says, I don't know about these other guys, I'm paraphrasing, I don't know about the other disciples here, but I'll tell you what, I will never deny thee. I will stand up and I will die to the death with thee. This is his bold pronunciation, you know, his announcement to the rest of them, I'm not like these other people. I will stand up on my own and defend thee to the death. We find with Peter here, even the best resolutions that are made by the best of men, we find that they are the weakest temptation can bring them down. Here Peter says he will stand up against them, and he does for a moment in time. He stands up against the crowd that comes, over 500 people coming to arrest the Lord Jesus Christ, with torches and spears and staves in their hand, coming to arrest him. Peter takes out his sword and takes off Melchizedek's ear. He was actually trying to take off Melchizedek's head, but he misses. He takes off his ear, and so he's willing to stand up. But then what do we see? At a very small and a weak temptation, just a few moments later, he is defeated in his fleshly confidence. A little girl comes up to him and says, you were with him. And he denied, no, I wasn't. I tell you, I know not the man. And so he very powerfully denies the Lord Jesus Christ. Once we trust in self, we will find that our strength is not sufficient to bring about success. It's not good enough. There's not enough power there to be able to keep ourselves in the Christian life. We shouldn't look to ourself, we should look to him. Jesus said this in John chapter 15 and verse 5, great passage about the vine and the branches, but he adds this, he says, I am the vine and ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. And then he adds, for without me, Ye can do nothing. Put that on your refrigerator. Without me, ye can do nothing. Without our connection to Christ, we're hopeless. We can't keep ourselves saved for five minutes in this life. Nevertheless, considering 50 years of walking with Christ, he plainly tells us that we must be connected to Christ. We must look to him to sustain us. The Westminster Confession of Faith in section 17 and part 2 of that section says this, The perseverance of the saints dependeth not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father, upon the efficacy of the merit of the intercession of Christ. the abiding of the Spirit of God and the seed of God within them, and the nature of the covenant of grace, from all which arises, the certainty and the infallibility thereof." He says, don't look to yourself. Don't look to your weak and failing. There's no way you're going to be able to keep yourself in the things of God. Look to Him, to His eternal decree and the glorious intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ and His person and work and the upholding of all these things, and there you will find the strength for the certainty and infallibility of the salvation that has been wrought in your heart. The bottom line, I think, to what he is saying here is, we are safe in the hands of the shepherd. We don't have anything to worry about. Christ says in John chapter 10, another wonderful passage, John 15, he uses the illustration of the vine and the branches. In John chapter 10, he changes the motif or the illustration that he's giving there, and it's now the shepherd and the sheep. And he says in that passage, I know my sheep. He knows us. He embraces us. He keeps us. It's known with intimacy and affection. He will not let us go. He knows us. He knows us by name. John chapter 6 and verse 39 he said this, and this is the Father's will which has sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing. He won't lose a single one. Every single person who has come to Christ, you are safe forever. Once in Christ, in Christ forever, nothing from His love can sever. There's nothing, not even you, can sever the relationship that is there in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing can sever us from Him. 2nd Peter chapter 3 in verse 9, a verse that has often been a source of great controversy as people have argued about exactly what this verse means. I think it's crystal clear. It says this, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish. Arminian has said, well, wait a second, this is showing clearly that God is somehow in some sort of a sanctified wish. He is wishing that no man goes to hell. And so they speak about it in this passage. That is not what that passage is talking about at all. In that passage, where it talks about the any and the all in that passage, that is referring to a specific group of people. And that specific group of people are God's people. And none of those who have been given to Christ will truly be saved. None will perish. There is nothing that can take... God is not willing that they should perish. The actual force of those words there is that they will not perish. God will not allow it for them to perish. That's the force of that text there. No wonder why 2 Timothy 2 19 says this, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. He knows who they are. God's elect will certainly and eternally be saved. Those that have been regenerated can never completely fall from that state and be lost. It's impossible for that to happen. No man can pluck them out of his hand. We as the people of God, we may be outside of his physical presence right now, but we are never outside of his care. Christ is always caring for his people. We are always part of his custody. The hymn writer put it this way, I love this little portion of the hymn. The hymn is called Moment by Moment, but it says this, never a trial that he is not there, never a burden that he doth not bear, never a sorrow that he doth not share, moment by moment I'm under his care. You can't go through something in this life without the Lord Jesus Christ being there with you. He said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Although his physical presence has been taken from us, yet he is still with us in a much more powerful way than he was with those even when his physical presence was here upon the face of the earth. from conversion, all the way to consummation, all the way to glory, when we are the fullness of what we're going to enter into, he guides us and guards all the children of God under his care. It's his faithfulness that we're looking to, not our faithfulness. It is his faithfulness that's in view. In 2 Timothy 1, verse 12, no wonder why the apostle Paul can say this. He said, I know whom I have believed. And I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day. We have committed our very souls to the Lord Jesus Christ. As Bonner said, upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die, upon another's life, upon another's death, I stake my whole eternity. Everything is resting upon Him. And the passage is telling you, you've put your very soul in a very good place, because Christ has never lost a single one. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 11 and 13 portrays this to us. He says, For both he that sanctifyeth and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. in the midst of the church. I will sing praises unto thee, and again I will put my trust in him. And behold, I and the children which God has given me." He talks about us both together, that just as he was sustained by the Spirit of God in his mediatorial work, unto the completion of the work that he was given to do and eventually the exaltation for what he had accomplished, so we will be kept that way as well. And he will present both him and us together. I and the children of God will be presented in that final day before God. It's a tremendous truth. It's a tremendous comfort for the people of God as we look at this passage. I think that there's another point though that we should make from it is this way of application from this first part is this that we should not only look to Christ but we should be like Christ in his being faithful to our calling as well. He was faithful to his calling so much so that when he reached this time in his life when he was about to depart he could say with clear conscience I have kept them that were under my care. I have kept them in thy name." Well, we should hope to have that same level of faithfulness as well, so that when the time comes and that we're called away from those that are under our care, we can say with confidence, Father, I have kept them in thy name. And what are the applications to that? I mean, who is that applied to? It applies to all those who are in authority. I would say, first and foremost, fathers in here this morning and some new fathers and soon fathers to be. Fathers, as the heads of household, you are called to provide and to protect those that are under your care. You have a calling as a father. You have a charge, I would even say, to husbands. You have a charge in your life with your wife as well in that situation. That's why I like to ask fathers and husbands, Is your wife a better Christian because she married you? She should be because you have a charge before Almighty God to sanctify your wife. You have one that is under your authority in the home. That's not a cause for you to strut around in that authority and act like some sort of potentate there in the house. That's not the idea. The idea is, is your responsibility of this awesome responsibility before Almighty God. And so certainly as fathers, we need to be able to say at the end of our life, when God, our time on earth is gone, that I have done the work that thou has given me to do with a clear conscience. I think elders in the church, we have the same thing in the authority in the church. We have to be able to say at the end of the day, I have kept them in thy name. I have given them thy name by precept. I have taught the things of God. In fact, all ministry workers in general need to say this. We should keep a careful watch over the souls that God has put under our care as those that must give an account one day of what we did. We need to say, this is what you've put into my hand. What did you do with what I gave you is going to be the question that is posed to us, and we need to be able complete confidence to say I have done the work which thou has given me to do you know I think when Christ is doing this in this passage where he is speaking about giving this account to God this is exactly what Christ is going to do on the final day he will receive and give an account of all those who have been given to him and then we'll see here in just a moment he'll reject those who have not In fact, let's move on to the second point. Not only do we see the protection of Jesus, but we also see the perdition of Judas in this passage as well. He says this, "...while I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me have I kept, and lost none of them, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition. And when you read that phrase and you read it according to what it says just previous to that, some people interpret this phrase as being an exception statement that is being made. But it's not an exception statement that's being made here. It is an adversative statement. You know, when you look at conjunctions, conjunctions can be used in different ways. The conjunction that we have here before us in this text, or this portion of the text, is the conjunction but. And many people automatically think that this is an exception that's being made. It's not. The but is not being used as an exception. It is being used as an adversative. It indicates Opposition and contrast. That's what it is doing. And we could go to many scriptures to see in the Word of God different ways that that word is used that way throughout the scriptures. But here's what it is saying. It is not saying that all those given to Christ were kept except Judas. It is not saying that. and all those that were given to Christ were kept except for Judas. It is saying this, it is saying that all those given to Christ were kept but Judas was not given to Christ. That's the emphasis in the passage and that's how you read it then as an adversative in opposition and contrast rather than as an exception statement. So he's saying not that all those that were given to Christ were kept except for Judas, but rather he is saying all those given to Christ were kept, but Judas was not one that was given to Christ. John 13 and verse 18, Jesus said this, to the 12, he said, I know whom I have chosen. And shortly thereafter, he says, and one of you shall betray me. He says this numerous times actually throughout the scripture, the New Testament scripture, throughout his ministry. He says, you know, I've selected you twelve and yet one of you is a devil, he says in one passage. In fact, if you follow them through the number of times that he mentions this in the scripture, he seems to ratchet it up more and more and to define it even more and more narrow every time he mentions it. So much so that one of the last mentions of it is at the Last Supper, where he says, he that dips his hand with me in the sup is the one that will betray me. And so he's very clearly talking and describing, he knows that all of these aren't his. He knows that one of them is the devil, one will defect, as you were, if you will. He understands this from the very beginning, that this is what is taking place. So the defection of the disciple Judas was not out of any weakness or carelessness of Christ. Rather, Judas went out from among them because he was never of them. He was never part of the 12. He was never part of the true believers. Let me put it that way. He was never part of those that were given to Christ. He was always outside that scope. He was never one of the people of God. The son of perdition, this idea of perdition actually means this. It means the son of destruction. means the it speaks of ruin the person of ruin or wrath abiding upon them the idea of something that is perishing so when he calls him the son of perdition he is highlighting the fact that he has brought destruction upon himself that he is perishing in his current state that he is ruined because he is outside of a relationship with Almighty God. Now that subject, when we think about what is taking place here with Judas, it introduces to us a theological subject that I just want to take a moment to make sure you understand. The theological doctrine that is being conveyed here is the doctrine of reprobation, That's the idea in this passage, and let me explain it to you. Reprobation, first of all, is tied to the larger doctrine of predestination. We hear all this talk about predestination, and half of the time when it's presented, it's not even presented in what the Bible actually says about predestination. You'll hear a lot of people talk about once saved, always saved, and to tell you the truth, they are not giving you the biblical doctrine of what once saved, always saved really means. A lot of people today feel that once saved, always saved means that they can walk an aisle, sign a card, or make a decision for Christ, and then they can live however they want to live afterwards. that they bought some sort of fire insurance, and because they have that fire insurance, that is going to save them throughout the rest of their life. That's what they're talking about with predestination. That is not what the scripture means when it talks about that subject. Predestination teaches that from all eternity, God has ordained all things that whatsoever comes to pass. That's what it means in its general sense about predestination. In the broad sense, it is actually synonymous with what we call God's eternal decree. Decree is singular. God makes one decree as to what will come to pass, and everything that happens after that is all in accordance with that decree. In this general sense, when we speak of our predestination, that's what's being highlighted here. Now for our purposes, and most often when people think about predestination, they are normally talking about, specifically speaking about, I should put it that way, the counsel of God concerning fallen men. In other words, how does predestination play or how should it be applied to what happens with men upon the face of the earth? One side of it is the sovereign election of some men, and the other side of it is the righteous reprobation of others. Those are the two points, and there's only two. Notice there's no purgatory in the mix. It's either saved or lost, and we're tying that to the predestination of God. Now, an election When we think about election, it has no other basis than the good pleasure of God. It is not conditional. There is no condition there that is applied in order to bring about the election of a man. It's unconditional. It does not involve any foreseen act on behalf of the individual. You know, you often hear some people try to get around the brunt of it by saying, God looks down the tunnel of time, and he knows that someone is going to believe, and based on the fact that they're going to believe, then he predestines them in a certain way. That's not predestination. Anybody could do that. If you knew what the outcome was going to be, he predetermines what the outcome is going to be. That's the idea. And actually, the faith that is in them, is not something that causes them to be elected. The election faith is actually part of the blessing that flows from election. The fact that their election then results in them having faith later on. So that's the sovereign election. Reprobation though is slightly different. It also has its basis in the good pleasure of God. However, while election is sovereign in that it takes into no account into the merit of the sinner, reprobation does take into account the demerit of the sinner. It's judicial in its basis. God's justice is at play, and he does consider then that the sinner has sinned against him, that he has committed these awful acts of rebellion against Almighty God. So it is not unconditional the way election is, it's conditional. He is taking into account what man has done. The Westminster Confession of Faith puts it this way, speaking about just the reprobation part, it says, the rest of mankind God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of his own will, whereby he extendeth or withholdeth mercy, as he pleaseth, for the glory of his own sovereign power over his creatures, to pass by, and to thus ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the praise of his glorious justice. So here is all mankind, is all going away from God, willfully and wickedly having sinned against God, obstinately holding to the fact of our sin and not wanting anything to do with God. And God in His marvelous mercy and grace reaches out in His mercy and says, I'll take this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one. He selects them unto himself and he keeps them and cares for them. And the rest are allowed to go in the way that they were already going. Now all we like sheep have gone astray. We have all turned our back and went against him, went in our own way against him. And God in his reprobation allows some to go in that way. This is what's brought out in this passage. It is God's sovereign prerogative to do so. God does not owe anyone anything. You can never, no one can ever argue against the righteousness of God passing over some and leaving them in their own sinful self-determination. You can't do that. You can't raise a legitimate argument against God and say, well, God should have done this. Who are you to question the Almighty? Who are you as the creature to question the Creator and say that something is right or wrong that He should do? He can do whatever He deems to be right to do. And for His own sovereign pleasure, this is what He has done. As a result, and the recompense of their sin, God withholds his mercy from these men. He passes over a portion of his creation, thus ordaining them to dishonor and wrath for their sins. Now what should we do in applying this? Some people say, well, that's just theological point. It has no bearing on the way that we live our life. I beg to differ. I think, first of all, it should cause us to praise God for His mercy. It is only of His mercy that you are saved. It's not because you were smarter or more ready to repent than anybody else or more receptive to the gospel than somebody else. It is only because of His mercy that you are saved. He has extended mercy to you. We should just cry out in praise and thanksgiving, thank you for saving my never-dying soul, for reaching out and saving me from myself and from the consequences of my own sin. Thank you should be the constant cry. It should also teach us to not be so troubled over the defection of hypocrites that are round about us. I can't get over the fact of how so disconcerted so many Christians become when somebody walks away and they say, wow, you know, this one, I thought that this one, you know, if there was anybody that I ever thought was saved, it was this guy. And so they almost allow the fact that a hypocrite ends up walking away to destroy their belief in the doctrine of preservation of the saints. They say, well, I know this person was saved, you know, by what they said. Listen, look at what Judas did here. Judas was right here with Christ and did a lot of things. And so, you know, we shouldn't allow the fact that hypocrites walk away and they end up defecting from the faith to be used of the devil to destroy this glorious doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. And I certainly think that it shouldn't, it should warn us not to despise the many advantages that have been given to us. As I mentioned, it's remarkable when you recount the number of advantages that have been given to Judas. Here is one who spent a great deal of time in the very presence of the Savior, and yet he perished. So much for this church leadership philosophy that says, if we only do the right things, if we only say the right words, if we only script the service in the right way, if we only give away so many prizes during the service, people will come to Christ. So much for that knowledge. So much for that idea. Here was somebody who was right in the very presence of the Almighty. He saw what he had done firsthand. He saw the holy life of Christ on display on a daily basis for three years, and it made no impression upon his soul. It made no good in the salvation of his soul. He heard Christ in all of his great discourses, constantly opening up the scriptures and pointing to what the real meaning was behind these things, and yet it made no difference. Christ had just recently washed his feet Talk about servitude and bowing down and washing the feet of one that he knows will betray him. Christ has washed his feet and yet he despised all of these advantages and he willfully and wickedly, obstinately departs from Christ. He will not have anything to do with him. Christ said this in other passages. He told them, he said, you will not come to me that you may have life. He told them all about how to have eternal life. He said, come, come unto me. All ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And they said, we will not come. We will not do it. They obstinately stood up against Christ. This should be a warning to us with Judas here. Judas was the great pretender. He wore a mask. It speaks of hypocrisy. He pretends to be a friend of the Lord Jesus Christ when all along he betrays the Lord Jesus Christ. Think about it. He betrays Christ with a kiss. He kisses him all the while knowing that this is the moment that he is actually betraying him. It says this in Acts 1, verse 17, when they were selecting someone to take Judas's place, it says, he was numbered with us and obtained part of this ministry. This is what Judas was exposed to. And yet here is Judas as that great pretender. The mask is taken off in the end. I don't want to get too graphic here on what happens to Judas at the end, but I think even the way that he dies is extremely instructive about this whole idea of hypocrisy. He ends up hopeless and without any help, he's in despair. He hangs his own self and even the rope breaks and he goes down and then as he breaks open, the scripture says, he crashes upon the rocks afterwards. He was shown for what he truly was. That despicable part on the inside was revealed. is the picture, I think, that's being portrayed there in that passage. It goes into detail to actually describing the way that he dies. The mask is lifted. The real Judas is made known in this passage. And where does it lead? Here he thought that it was going to lead to something good in his life. It leads to hopelessness and despair as he goes to the end of his life. Judas, he sold the Lord Jesus Christ for a very small amount. It speaks about, warns us against covetousness, 30 pieces of silver. And in the end, he didn't even enjoy them. When he got back, you know, he threw the money in the temple there and said, I've made a mistake, but it was too late. What he had done was done. And now those that were once partnered together with him are laughing at him and won't even, you know, put up with them being in their presence there. He was greedy of gain, and he was willing to sell his own soul in order to get that gain. That should warn us. We did a long study about covetousness, and for good reason. We live in a covetous age, and we should take this warning very, very carefully here. Jesus warns us about these things. Let me just say this on this point and move on to the next, the last point. No man's place or name in the church nor his privilege and his opportunity that is given to him, nor his profession or external performances that he does will save him from ruin if his heart is not right with the Lord. You can do all those things. He did it all. Even the other disciples didn't know who Jesus was talking about. When he said the one, he told them plainly. They were like, you know that famous picture of the Last Supper? That is a picture that the artist painted depicting the moment where Christ said that one of you will betray me. And you look at them all and they're all going like that. Judas himself says to the Savior, Lord, is it I? Talk about, you know, just the hardness of heart, knowing full well what he is about to do. Even to that point, he is still trying to wear the mask of hypocrisy. That should scare the daylights out of us, to examine our own heart, to make sure that we are in the faith and not just going through the motions. the final point and this will be quick here in closing this morning he has a little statement at the end in our text here the very end of the text he's the full text says well i was with them in the world i kept them in thy name those that thou gavest me have i have kept and none of them is lost but the son of perdition and then it adds that the scripture might be fulfilled The sin of Judas was foreseen by God, and it was foretold by God in the Word. The scripture predicts the event, but it does not produce the event. That's what we need to be careful of thinking. God can't be charged with the sin that Judas commits. The sin is his, but the scripture foretold what was taking place. The product of that sin in actually fulfilling the prediction of the scripture was the sinful heart of Judas. That's where it came out of that. The statement, I think here in this text, highlights not the unrighteousness of God in sending a man who wants to do otherwise to hell. That's not the picture. It is not highlighting the unrighteousness of God, but rather the unwillingness of the sinner. That's what's being highlighted in this passage. It's designed, I think also, to turn our attention away from the perdition of Judas and to turn our attention upon the purposes and the promises of God. You know, the Scripture does this very often. It would be, if he left it off here, you know, it would be a very sad point to leave off in this passage. But he adds this, that the Scripture might be fulfilled in order to end it not upon Judas and what he did, but to turn our attention upon God and what he is doing behind the scenes. Twice in the New Testament scripture, it mentions this, Acts chapter 2 and verse 23, 22 and 23, listen to what it says. Ye men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, the man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourself know, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. It's so interesting because this word delivered is the same word that is associated with Judas. It says, then, Judas delivered Christ unto the men that came and arrested him. So it talks about Judas doing it. It talks about here that the people had done this. The people had delivered Christ and crucified Christ. But then he points to the fact that God had delivered Christ. Here's another passage. In this one, he talks about the rulers had delivered him. Acts chapter 4 and verse 27-28, "...of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou has anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done." So again, he focuses on the people, or the rulers, or Judas, all of these, and he says, and beyond all of those, all of this was done by the hand of God. God delivered him to this point. Now, this teaches us that we must look beyond the instruments, and we must look to the hand of God behind the instruments. Because it's only when we look to the hand of God do we actually find hope and salvation for our souls. If we just look to what man is doing here, we're not able to see the salvation. But God determined this, and God determined that this is what would take place. It took place through the sinfulness of Judas. Now, what this does for us is, it tells us this, that what God has promised in his word, he will perform. Whatever He has promised us, we can take great comfort. We're talking about the protection of Jesus over our life, that He will keep us. God has promised that to you in His Word. You can never be taken out of the care of Christ. You will never finally and fully fall away from grace in this life and be doomed. That will never happen. Jesus said, I am with you always, lo, even unto the end of the age. He says, he that has begun a good work in you will complete it unto the day of Jesus Christ. These promises and many more. You can be sure, he is saying by adding this little phrase, that this will be true. God values his word. And here's how much he values his word. Even those promises that were most difficult to God, he is honored in his word. The most difficult promise to God was the death of his son at the hands of a hypocrite. that a hypocrite would betray Him, would do this high act of treason upon Almighty God and betray Him, and yet God, being faithful to His Word, predicts that this is what is going to come to pass, and it comes to pass exactly as He predicted. If He did this, if He performed this prediction, you can be sure that He is going to perform the predictions concerning thy own soul. The glorious things to God, where you are conformed into the image of Christ, where you are brought up into glory and made one with Christ in the presence of the Father, He will do that great work in each and every one of us as well. So he's adding, by adding that little statement, this is what was fulfilled by the scripture, he's giving us another level of confidence that God will do this work in each and every one of us. We can trust him. There is no reason not to trust him and what he has said. Let's bow our heads in a brief word of prayer. Our Father and our God, we thank Thee for this passage of Scripture that, in just a few words, shows us such deep aspect of theological truths. We are kept by Jesus Christ. We are, even at this moment, in the protecting hands of our wonderful Savior. And we thank Thee and praise Thee for that mercy that has been shown to us, that even though we were in our own wickedness, yet that You saved our never-dying souls, that You regenerated our heart and enabled us to see ourselves for what we were, and to turn to Him, the only one that could save our souls, even Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank Thee afresh for this work, and we trust in Thee that now You have done, begun this work in us, You will complete it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Father, we thank Thee for Your tremendous power. We pray for all those that are in this room, if there be any that are still obstinate in their rebellion against Thee, even though You have shown them so much grace and mercy that it's all around them, the hand of God and what He is doing is evident all around them, just like it was with Judas. We pray that they would give up on their obstinate heart, that they would give up on themselves, and they would turn to the loving arms of the outstretched arms of a loving Savior. Father, save souls, we pray. Bring in the sheep. Bring in all the elect into the household of God. Do this great work, we pray. For we pray it in Christ's name, and for his sake alone, amen.