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.... They are not of the
world, even as I am not of the world." John 17:14,16.

=They kept the word of God.= "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. 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."--John 17:6, 8.

=They belonged to God.= "I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. All mine are
thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them."--John 17:9, 10.

This was the spiritual condition of the eleven before Pentecost
testified to by Jesus himself. It is certainly a blessed condition--born
of God, their names written in heaven, not of the world. They belonged
to God, and they kept His word. Would that every professing follower of
Jesus were in this blessed state. It would produce a revolution in
Christendom. Does not this signify all that can possibly be comprehended
in justification?

Then after the blood of Jesus had been shed and the ransom for sin paid,
he opened their understanding (Luke 24:45) that they might understand
the scriptures, how he should suffer and rise again from the dead. We
see that they believed in him the Redeemer, and now understood the
object of his suffering and death; but there was still a glorious work
of grace awaiting them, to be inwrought by the Holy Ghost, the
sanctifier.

=They were not yet sanctified=, and for this reason Jesus prayed for them
as he did. He well knew that they could not be kept from the evil of the
world in a manner that would prove satisfactory to themselves and the
Father, unless there should be accomplished in them more than had yet
been done. Therefore he prayed, "Sanctify them through thy truth, thy
word is truth."--John 17:17.

=They had not yet received the Holy Ghost.= "And, behold, I send the
promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem,
until ye be endued with power from on high."--Luke 24:49. "For John
truly baptized with water: but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost
not many days hence."

=This promise was fulfilled.= "And when the day of Pentecost was fully
come, they were all with one accord