In Chapter 17, verses 1-5, Jesus prays for Himself. His prayer is that the Father and the Son be glorified. The glory [esteem] of the Father is that He gave a people to the Son and that the Son gives eternal life to as many as the Father has given to Him. In His finished work, the Son returns to the glory that He had with the Father before the world was created.
John 17:6-19 Jesus Prays for the Eleven Apostles
6 "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
7 Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You.
8 For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.
9 "I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.
10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.
11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.
12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
13 But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.
14 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.
15 I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.
16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
The message of verses 6-19 is that these men, who were chosen by Jesus to be His ambassadors on the earth, have believed the Word of God and they know that Jesus of Nazareth is the Sent One of God.
Jesus has authority [power] over all flesh [humanity] and it is entirely up to the Lord Jesus Christ as to whom the truth will be revealed [Matthew 11:27].
God chooses to work through weak human vessels of clay. It is not a question of what choices God may have had but what He chooses to do. Those who deny that God uses means to call out His chosen people through the preaching of the Gospel are willfully ignorant of the Word of God.
And so Jesus has chosen the Twelve, knowing that one of them will betray Him. The eleven standing here listening to the Lord’s High Priestly prayer and later Saul of Tarsus will be called and changed to the Apostle Paul, and they will be the means by which the Gospel will be preserved in written form.
As we study verses 6-19 we must see the emphasis given to the Word of God. Your Word is truth.
The Word has been revealed [manifested] to them. They have kept the Word in that they believe that Jesus is the very One that the OT prophets wrote about that would come into being as a Man and redeem His people by His death on a cursed tree.
The twelve are selected according to a sovereign choice, not grounded on any particular personal qualities, gifts or graces - for Judas is among them. Thomas is there with his doubts and Peter with his infirmity of devotion. Men greater than most of them were still to come - Paul, Barnabas, Apollos. But the original twelve were chosen deliberately and purposefully to illustrate the power of God in the weakest of men. Let no man glory in His presence. [Charles Alexander]
“Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.” (John 15:16)
Notice that it is Jesus Himself who has made known the “name” of the Father to them. You should know that the “name” of God does not mean a label or just what God is called, but His essence and characteristics. What is it that makes God, God? That is His name. God is holy, just, sovereign, longsuffering, love, wrath, and more.
When and how did Jesus make the Father known to these men? Among several times and places we find:
John 14:7-11
7 "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him."
8 Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us."
9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.
11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.
Salvation and eternal life will always be limited to the true knowledge of Jesus Christ as God the Son, who entered this sinful world as a True Man, and finished the work of saving His people.
Let me be clear on this. Jesus finished the work of redemption on the cross. But unless and until you, as a guilty and condemned sinner, confess your faith in Jesus Christ as the only Lord, you cannot correctly hope that you are a child of God. Repent and believe in the Gospel!
Jesus reveals the Father by revealing Himself.
The words given to Jesus by the Father that Jesus has given to these men is the gospel that is in the OT. Jesus revealed the Gospel to those two on the Road to Emmaus when He preached from Moses and the prophets and the psalms all the things concerning Himself. Their response was, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us when He opened the Scriptures to us?” [Luke 24]
Does your heart burn within you when you see Christ in the Scriptures?
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17
The prayer of Jesus is for the Father to watch over these elect men and keep them. It is my understanding that Jesus means for them to be guarded and guided until they have completed the mission He set out for them. They were not exempt from persecution. These men all died as martyrs for the truth except the apostle John who was kept alive until the final Revelation was given to John on the Isle of Patmos.
The choice of Jesus was His own sovereign choice and He prays for them.
Jesus does not pray for the world. The word “world” from the Greek word cosmos means a make up or a set of something. Women and some men use cosmetics or make up. There is the make up of the created universe that is called the “world”. There is the planet earth that is called the “world”. There is the set of the “world” of believers. There is the set of the evil “world” of unbelievers.
We must be very careful and study the context of any passage where the word “world” is used in order to discover which set of something is referred to and not overlay the passage with our preconceived notion of what the word “world” must mean. Sometimes the word “world” takes on different meanings in the very same verse.
Do you really know what “For God so loved the “world” … means?
Whatever Jesus means by “world” here in John 17: 9, it has to be seen that He prays for one set of men and does not pray for another set of men.
Jesus is going to leave the physical world when He goes back to the glory that He had with the Father before the world [creation] was.
There is mutual ownership of these men stated in verse 10. They belong to God the Father and they are given to God the Son. The union of the Son and the Father; the Son and His own is stated in 11. These men belong to both the Father and the Son because you cannot separate the Godhead. Even though the Father gave them to the Son they still belonged to the Father.
These men will continue in the world [evil world system] and they will be hated because they are no longer a part of the evil world system. Jesus does not pray that they be removed from danger and persecution but that they be protected from the power of Satan [the evil one].
Just try insisting that “world” must mean the entire human race and this passage becomes nonsensical.
The notion that men and women can escape sin by going into monasteries and nunneries is foreign to the words of Jesus. Sin is what we are and they take their sin with them into their cells.
Believers are in the world but are no longer slaves to the evil world system.
Among the twelve men who were chosen there is an exception, the son of perdition (damnation, destruction, hell), who was never one with them in spirit. The man not included in this prayer for the Father to keep is Judas Iscariot. Judas has gone away to betray Jesus. He has already made his deal with the Jewish leaders and will very soon lead the detachment of troops to the garden to arrest Jesus.
Four reasons why Christ refers to Judas:
a) No failure in His keeping those whom the Father had given Him.
b) To assure the disciples of this so they will not be staggered by what Judas will do. Judas was trusted by them and kept the money bag.
c) To show that Christ is not surprised by Judas.
d) To declare Gods eternal purpose in it, “… that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”
Psalm 41:9
9 Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted,
Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me.
Psalm 109:8
Let his days be few, And let another take his office.
Thus the traitorous conduct of Judas has been represented and illustrated by that of Ahitophel, and the rebellion of Absalom against his father David.
That these Psalms refer to Judas is confirmed in Acts 1:20:
“For it is written in the Book of Psalms:
‘Let his dwelling place be desolate,
And let no one live in it’;
and, ‘Let another take his office.’ ”
In verse 13, Jesus prays out loud for the instruction and comfort of His disciples. They are not only secure in eternity, but are happy now.
“How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith, in His excellent word.”
We come now to the main trust of this passage in verses 17-19.
17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
18 As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
Sanctify
Are you a “saint”? You are if you are a believer in Jesus Christ. The word “saint” like some other words has been high jacked of their meaning by Rome.
The word “sanctify” means to “set apart” or to “consecrate” for a religious purpose. Thus a person or some physical item may be said to be “sanctified.”
Exodus 29:1-29; 40:13; Leviticus 22:2-3 are about sanctifying [consecrating] Aaron and his sons to be priests. Offerings, utensils, altars could all be sanctified or set apart for the worship of God.
Sanctify means “set apart.”
Sanctify never means the sinless perfection of a believer.
By His life of perfect obedience to the Law and then to the cross, Jesus sanctified [set apart] Himself freely and voluntarily [19].
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is Truth.
Are you sanctified?
Do you believe that you have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ? Or, ask the question this way.
Do you believe that you have been born again by the Holy Spirit through hearing and believing the Gospel of grace? Or, to ask the same question another way.
Do you believe that you have been justified by the blood of Jesus shed for sinners on the cross?
All of these questions are asking the same thing. Saved, born again [regenerated], and justified all refer to that initial sovereign judicial act of God as He calls out those people whom He chose before the foundation of the world and whom He gave to the Son before the world was and for whom the Son voluntarily gave His life on the tree of Calvary as He finished the work that the Father gave Him to do.
Is that your testimony? Be very careful as you must be honest before God. You can fool me and you can even be deceived yourself but you cannot lie to God and get away with it.
Why this interrogation Jim? As a preacher of the Gospel I am bound to be true to your very soul. And so now I ask the question to which only a positive answer supports the claim to be saved.
A person may answer “Yes” to all of these questions and still be lost. Saying that you believe and believing are not always the same. Did not Jesus warn, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven….” [Matthew 7:21-23] Jesus is talking about people who claimed to believe in Him.
Ready? Okay. Are you sanctified?
No one is saved or justified or born again who is not being sanctified.
Justification is a one-time reality. Sanctification is a life-long process.
Be very careful now. There is no justification without sanctification.
But you are not justified through sanctification.
That is the error of the Roman Church. They call it imparted [infused] righteousness. But the Bible teaches imputed righteousness.
We do not become personally righteous. We have the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed [charged] to our account. So we are not seen for what we are personally in our sin but what we are by declaration in Jesus Christ.
We are not righteous, we are declared to be righteous.
Now to repeat the question; Are you sanctified?
Are you being set apart by the Word of God?
“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”
To anyone that would try to make this statement apply only to the eleven, verse 20 says, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word.”
These men will preach the Gospel and more and more of God’s chosen ones will believe in Jesus. More and more will believe and be sanctified by the Word of God.
But let me try to wrap this up.
All those who are justified are necessarily being sanctified. And sanctification is through a life-long process that is evidenced by commitment and submission to the authority and sufficiency of the Word of God.
The Lord Jesus Christ and the writers of Holy Scripture make it plain that genuine believers have a desire for the sincere milk of the Word. The image is that of a new born baby hungry for his mother’s milk; so is the child of God hungry to know and abide in the Word of God.
John 8:31-32
31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.
32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
John 8:51
51 Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word
he shall never see death."
John 10:25-30
25 Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me.
26 But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you.
27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.
30 I and My Father are one."
John 14:15
"If you love Me, keep My commandments.
Romans 8:1-8
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Please do not think that I am preaching some form of legalism.
The legalist performs his religious acts and thinks, all right I have obeyed God, and now God is obligated to save me. One group calls baptism “obeying the gospel.” And by that they teach that you must be baptized “in order to” be saved.
What I am saying is that a believer’s conscience is guided by the entire Word of God. When the evil world system says all religions are equally valid, the believer will say, “No, that is not what my Lord Jesus Christ said.”
Now we must be aware of what Jesus said. Do you know where that is in the Bible? Do you know where Jesus made the claim to be the only way to the Father?
For example, recently when a silly female Youth “Pastor” told a group of college students that the Bible does not condemn a homosexual lifestyle, the believer will know that she is ignorant of what the Bible actually says.
When a man or boy is tempted to find the pornographic vomit that is easily available on the Internet, his born again spirit will warn him and he will be given a way of escape.
1 Corinthians 10:12-13
12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
But pastor, you may say, I believe what you preach and I still fail. And so does this preacher fail.
Here is the difference, at least to my understanding, in the believer and the religious man who is on that “broad way that leads to destruction.” The believer truly strives to obey the Word of God and he is reading it and praying over it enough for the Word of God to be in his conscious thoughts.
He has found the time between ball games and sitcoms and work and family to read his Bible.
The man who is deceived will shake off the pangs of conscious and continue in his bosom sin.
Peter warns us in 2 Peter 2:18-22
18 For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.
19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.
20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.
21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.
22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: "A dog returns to his own vomit ," and, "a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire."
Oh brothers and sisters the struggle against sin is not easy but struggle with sin we must. The joy that Jesus speaks of comes through submission to His Word. We must not trust our obedience as far as merit before God, but we must obey.
In a word, obedience is sanctification.
“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”
Now I will finally close with this article that came to me via email yesterday.
The sins of the godly and the ungodly
(William Plumer, "Backsliding" 1864)
"No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God." (1 John 3:9)
He who regards sin with so little abhorrence as willingly to commit it, cannot be walking in the way of holiness. He who allowedly and habitually departs from God, proves that sin reigns in his mortal body, and that he is the slave of corruption.
The sins of the godly and the ungodly are unlike in several particulars.
When the wicked depart from God, they cry, "Peace and safety."
When the righteous no longer maintain a close walk with God, they say,
"Oh that it were with us as in months past."
In their wanderings, the wicked call themselves happy. Having forsaken God, the righteous lose enjoyment, and are filled with sadness.
The wicked sin perpetually.
The righteous err from God's ways--but only for a season.
The wicked are bent to backsliding. Hosea 11:7.
The righteous are betrayed into sin.
The wicked are as the sow wallowing in the mire.
It is their nature to work iniquity.
The righteous are as the cleanly sheep.
If they are in the slough, it is their calamity.
The wicked fill up their sin always. They cannot rest until they have done some mischief. They dig into hell.
The righteous is not so. When he falls, he shall rise again. When he sits in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto him. A just man falls seven times, and rises up again. All his backslidings are healed.
We preach the Gospel and we call on sinners to trust Jesus Christ. We do not know nor do we need to know how the Holy Spirit uses the word of the Gospel to convict of sin and brings sinners to repentance and commitment to Jesus Christ. But this I do know, that you are called on to confess Jesus Christ in a public manner and to follow Him in believer’s baptism.
The method that this local body of Christ believes to be closest to the order of the Bible is that a person should meet with the elders of the church. This meeting is not an infallible way to determine the genuineness of a person’s confession but it is surely better than what is done today in most Baptist churches in America.
Amen
Sola Scriptura 
