Pray Not For The World

I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. John 17:9

Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. Rom. 8:30

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Rom. 8:31

by Jerry Gentry

From the foundation for the world, the LORD God Almighty, Yahweh Elohim, made a plan for his creation. Within His creation, we find that God is selective. All things are NOT created equal. An Elephant is an elephant. A Lion is a lion. A Sheep is a sheep. A Goat is a goat and a Wolf is a wolf. There is no equality within God’s creation. Gorillas rule the forest. The strong rule over the weak. Elephants trample the ants. Goats butt heads with other animals. Lions and Wolves rule over and feed upon the sheep. How can we understand God's divine order for mankind and better understand how to pray?

When God created mankind, he also placed within mankind a supernatural divine order. Notwithstanding the doctrines of secular and religious humanism rampant today, all men are NOT created equal. Some men are loved and some men are hated, by their very Creator. Some men are destined unto salvation, and others are destined unto reprobation. When sin entered the world, death followed, for the whole creation.

Rom. 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

Rom. 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

Redemption became necessary, if any of God’s creation would survive. But which among men would he redeem?

Psa. 130:8 And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

Luke 24:21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.

Jacob became the father of all men who are called Sheep, in need of a Shepherd. It is to these Sheep we are commanded to preach the gospel. Who are the Sheep?

Psa. 79:13 So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will shew forth thy praise to all generations.

Psa. 95:7 ¶ For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,

Psa. 100:3 Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.  

Of these sheep, we read:

Luke 10:3 Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.

Matt. 10:16 ¶ Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

Is. 40:11 He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.

It is within the context of the Election of Lambs (not Goats, or Elephants, or Giraffe, etc), that Christ prayed:

John 17:6 ¶ I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.

John 17:7 Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.

John 17:8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.

Where will we find the Lambs God has chosen for the Election?

Heb. 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

John 17:9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

John 17:10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.

John 17:14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

John 17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

John 17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

John 17:17 ¶ Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

The Apostle Paul speaks of these Lambs:

Rom. 9:3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:

Rom. 9:4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;

Rom. 9:5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

Rom. 9:6 ¶ Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:

Rom. 9:7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.

Rom. 9:8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.

Rom. 9:9 For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.

Rom. 9:10 And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;

Rom. 9:11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)

Rom. 9:12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.

Rom. 9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

Rom. 9:14 ¶ What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.

Rom. 9:15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

Rom. 9:16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

Rom. 9:17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

Rom. 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

Rom. 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

Rom. 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

Rom. 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

Rom. 9:22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

Mal. 1:2 I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,

Mal. 1:3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.

Rom. 9:11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)

Rom. 9:12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.

Rom. 9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

So we see a different purpose and order for these two men and their progy. There is an election for some, and for the non elect there eternal hatred and reprobation. It is the Elect Christ prayed for in John 19, not the “world” or non elect. We must pray for the Elect, that God's divine will be done in our lives. We must not pray for the world, whose reprobation is sealed in the election of God from the foundation of the world.