Turn with me in your scriptures
to the Gospel of John. Before I did, just in wrapping
up something of what we were looking at before. There's a
wonderful description of gospel preaching in Ephesians,
in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3, and it says, In such trust have
we through Christ to God would, not that we are sufficient of
ourselves to think anything of ourselves, But our sufficiency
is of God. My sufficiency is of God. Your
sufficiency to hear is of God. My sufficiency to be faithful
to everything is of God. who also hath made us, this is
his creative work, these are his Ascension gifts being poured
out on his church, he's made us able ministers of the New
Testament. Not of the letter, but of the
Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the
Spirit giveth life. In John 14 we're looking at life. It says at the end, there's a
wonderful verse at the end of 2 Corinthians 3, in verse 18
it says, But we all with open face beholding as in a glass
the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory
to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. How do we be like the Lord Jesus
Christ? Look, behold Him and then keep beholding Him and keep
beholding Him in His glory. That word New Testament in verse
6 of chapter 3 is the word for covenant, new covenant. The new
covenant is the eternal covenant. It's the covenant in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a much, much older covenant
than the Mosaic covenant. And everyone who has ever been
saved or ever will be saved is going to be saved by the glory
of the provisions of that covenant in the Lord Jesus Christ. So
let's go back to John chapter 14 and we're looking at Christ
being made manifest here. I just, as I've said so often,
the more I study John 14, the more amazed I am about it, and
the more, as I said to Shanine earlier, everything we do is
distant to pale from a human point of view. We're so thankful
that God says that these are His words and they will cause
His Son to be glorified in the hearts of His people. He says
in verse 15, if you love me, keep my commandments, and I will
pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter. A comforter is one that comes
alongside, an advocate, as 1 John 2 verse 1 says, that he may abide
with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot
receive. because it seeth him not, neither
knoweth him, but you know him, for he dwelleth with you and
shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will not leave you without
someone to come to your side in all of the trials of your
life. I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world
seeth me no more, but ye see me because I live Ye also, ye shall live also. At that day, that day when life
comes, new life comes, resurrection life comes, new birth life comes,
in that day you shall know That I am in my Father, and ye in
me, and I in you. That's something the children
of God all are promised to know. I'm glad he says we know it.
I'm glad he says we could believe it. I'm glad he doesn't ask me
to explain it other than what it just simply says. He says
it in simple words, doesn't he? I am in my Father, ye in me,
and I in thee. I in you. You'll know those three
things. In verse 21, I wanted to have
a look at these next few verses here today. He that hath my commandments
and keepeth them He it is that loveth me, and he that loveth
me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will
manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot,
Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us and
not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto
him, if any man love me, he will keep my words, and my father
will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with
him. He that loveth me not keepeth
not my sayings, and the word which ye hear is not mine, but
the Father's which hath sent me. These things have I spoken
unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which
is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall
teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance,
that whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you,
my peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, giveth
I unto you. Let not your hearts be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. Christ made manifest. The first thing I want us to
notice that Christ being made manifest is a manifestation a revelation of Him and it's
only by revelation. He reveals Himself to His people
and He says to a particular people. And verse 15, those particular
people are the ones that love Him. In verse 16, the ones that
are given another Comforter who abides in them forever, this
particular people. This Comforter is called the
Spirit of Truth. They will be comforted by the
truth of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. He is the truth itself, and
he speaks the truth, and we are reading his truth. That spirit
of truth is known by his abiding in them, this particular people.
In verse 18, they are a particular people that Christ comes to. In verse 19, they are a particular
people that see Him. In verse 19 also, they are a
particular people who have life, a particular life. the life of
God in the soul of man. Nothing less. Verse 20. These particular people know
the indwelling of God with God and Verse 21 that we want to look
at briefly is, he that hath my commandments and keepeth them
loveth me and is loved by the Father. I want to have life in God. In verse 21 I want us to be reminded
of one of the lovely things about the King James Version of the
Scriptures is that it says, hath, th, it means to possess continually. keepeth. It means to guard and
protect and to cherish continually. and they love Him continually. These are the fruit of God's
love to His people. So as I said, the word hath there
means to hold. These are the commandments of
God. We hold the commandments of God. It means to hold them
fast. It means to keep, to have in possession. It means to To
wear, to be closely joined to the he that hath my commandments
and keepeth them. It means to guard them, to attend
carefully to them, to take care of, to watch, to hold fast. If you love me, You keep my commandments. I loved of God, love his commandments. And people want to immediately
say, well, what about the, what are the commandments? And what
are the commandments? I just love how the commandments
of God are all the promises and all the precepts of God throughout
all of his scripture. This is the gospel. And this
is the commandment of God. And this is the testimony. In
verse 22, verse 23 speaks of, he will keep my words. words of these words as we have
before us. They're the words of God. They're
the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're the words of the Blessed
Spirit. And the Ten Commandments are just loved by the people
of God. I love the Ten Commandments. You just listen to these. He
says, I am the Lord thy God. which hath brought thee out of
the land of Egypt and out of the hand of bondage. I am the
God who has redeemed and rescued his people. Thou shalt have no
other gods before me. Don't you love that? Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven images. or any likeness of anything that
is in heaven above, that is in the earth beneath, or that is
in the water under the earth. Don't you love these commandments?
I love how jealous God is about His glory and His name, and how
jealous He is about the worship of His people in spirit and truth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them. For
I am the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of
the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation
of them that hate me, showing mercy to thousands. unto thousands
of them that love me and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not
take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will
not hold him guiltless to taketh his name in vain. Remember the
Sabbath day to keep it holy. And of course, we go to these
laws and these commandments of God, and we rejoice to see them
in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we rejoice that the
Lord Jesus Christ, when he declared it is finished, all of these
were perfectly kept. He is the Sabbath. God's children read the Sabbath. person who ever kept a Sabbath,
he's the only person who ever perfectly rested in God for all
of his provision on that Sabbath day. He is the manna that feeds
his people on that Sabbath day. And when he kept that law, everyone
in him kept it as well. So how do you keep the commandments? Romans 3 makes it so abundantly
clear. We do not treat the law of God
at any point with anything other than the greatest respect. Do
then we make void the law through faith, Romans 3.31. God forbid, yea, we establish
the law. That doesn't mean we cast it
to unsought, do we? Honor thy father and thy mother,
that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God
giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt
not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness
against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
house. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's
wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox,
nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour's. And I just
love the order of God's declaration. These were given to a people
who were proud and they said to God, you just tell us what
to do. It's a piece of cake. It's a piece of cake obeying
God and serving him. three times or four times they
said that to him. But I love what he talked about
coming into the presence of God. If you're in Exodus chapter 20,
down in verse 24, it says, An altar of earth shalt thou make
unto me, and thou shalt sacrifice thereon thy bird offerings and
thy peace offerings, thy sheep, thine oxen, in all places where
I record my name, I will come unto thee and bless
thee. I want to be in a place where
God records his name, where God declares the glory of his name
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if thou wilt make me an altar
of stone, thou shalt not build it out of hewn stone, For if
thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. On the
altar, you're not to add anything. You're not to add anything to
the perfect finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews
13 says he is an altar, he's our altar. He's our altar. Neither shalt thou go up by steps. You don't come to God on the
basis of progressive sanctification, getting better and better and
better and working yourself closer to God. You don't come that way.
Neither shall thou go up by steps upon mine altar, that thy nakedness
may be discovered thereon. And then immediately the Lord
Jesus and blessed Holy Spirit tells us the story of the servants
of God. And there is one servant, isn't
it? Behold my servant, the Lord Jesus Christ. It speaks of this
servant. If thou by and Hebrew servant, six years
shall he serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he
shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his
wife shall go out with him. If his master has given him a
wife, and she hath borne him sons or daughters, the wife and
her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. He's free to go. He's paid his
dues, and if the servant plainly say, listen to these words of
our Lord Jesus Christ, I love my master, I love my wife, and
I love my children, I will not go out free. Then his master
shall bring him unto the judges, and he shall also bring him to
the door and unto the doorpost. And his master shall bore through
his ear with it all, and he shall serve him forever. It's a glorious
description of the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? And that's
exactly what Isaiah, I think it's Isaiah chapter 51, says.
He has opened mine ear, I wasn't rebellious. How does the Lord
Jesus Christ serve? How does he obey? How does he
obey the commandments of God? He loves his master, he loves
his wife, and he loves his children. And I will not go out free, I
am bound, I am bound in covenant love and mercy to these people. He that hath my commandments. I love reading even the books
of Leviticus which people find boring. I love reading the extraordinary
comprehensiveness of the law of God and the commandments of
God and they cover every aspect of life, sleeping, waking, what
you did, what you did in war, what you did in work, what you
did with your clothing, what you did with your animals. It
covered all of life, which is a glorious picture, isn't it,
of the Lord Jesus Christ keeping his people in all of those things. He that hath my commandments,
and keepeth them, and keepeth them. To keep the word of God,
to keep the commandments of God, is to guard it. to attend to
it carefully, to take care of, to watch, to preserve, to hold
fast. What would you want to change
in the Word of God? Is there anything you'd ever
want to change? Is there anything you would want to change about
the character of God revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ? Is
there anything you'd want to change about the way He saves
sinners? Is there anything? We keep them,
don't we? We have them. We have them by
revelation. We have them written. We have
them in our hands. And we have them preached to
us. And we have them and we keepeth them. We watch over them. Jeremiah is told, you preach
my word and you diminish not a word. When Satan comes to deceive,
He wanted to tear the Word of God apart and break it up into
little bits so that the whole looks good and then he can attack
one little bit of it. How much yeast do you need to
put through a whole batch of dough? Very, very little. How much poison do you need in
a cup? Isaiah chapter eight, verse 20
says, to the law and the testimony. He that hath my commandments
and keepeth them. We in charity might want to say
that these people speak a lot of truth. If they mix a lot of
truth with a lie, If the light that's in them is
darkness, how great is the darkness that's in them? He that hath my commandments.
What an extraordinary privilege to have the very word of God.
What an extraordinary privilege it is for us to be here as those
who keep them, as those who stand guard, as it were, over the word
of God and say, we're not diminishing a single word. And if that means
that people find the glorious things about God that we love
offensive, then there are plenty of places to go. I met the pastor
some years ago and he was encouraging someone that I love very much
to go off and he said, you can worship God in any church in
this town. And I turned to this pastor and said, if I go to such
and such a church, I have to deny the sovereignty of God. Do you want me to go and deny
the sovereignty of God? If I go to such and such a church, I'll
have to deny what happened to the Lord Jesus Christ on the
cross. Do you want me to go there? He was embarrassed. and didn't
know what to say. And it was a good thing that
the Lord kept him quiet. It was an even better thing that
the Lord shut down his church within a few months of that so
that he wasn't doing that. But he's still going on doing
the same things. They speak not according to this
word, there is no light in them. God's children love the Word
of God because the Word of God declares the glory of the Word
of God who was made flesh and dwelt among us. 1 John 2 says,
But whosoever keepeth his word in him truly is the love of God
perfected. Hereby know we that we are in
him. God circumcises the hearts of
his people, Deuteronomy 13, to love him and to obey the voice
of the Lord and to do all of his commandments. This is love,
he says, that we walk, 2 John 6, this is love that we walk
after his commandments. Blessed are they that do his
commandments. They have the right to the tree
of life and enter into the gates of the city. If you turn over
the page to John Chapter 15, the Lord makes these remarkable
promises about him being in the vine and him purifying his people
by the word that he spoke unto them. But in verse 9 he says,
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye
shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments,
and abide in his love. Revelation is necessary for the
manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is pleased to
manifest himself to a people. O Lord, come again and again
and reveal yourself to us. The spirit of truth must come
to keep those commandments and they become the possession of
God's people. and a new commandment, John 13,
34, a new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another. The spirit of truth comes with
life from above, with revelation of Christ in trinity and in unity
with his people. Spirit of truth comes and brings
loving submission. Do you want to live any other
way? I want to live I love what Paul
says about how he wanted to live his life in Philippians chapter
3. But what things were gained to
me, I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. And I
do count them, but done that I may win Christ and be found
in him. not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may
know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship
of his suffering, being made conformable unto his death. if by any means I might attain
to the resurrection of the dead. I want to finish before we have
the Lord's Supper and be reminded of the commands in John's Gospel,
and they're glorious commands. What's his first command? That's what he says, doesn't
he? He says, come and see to those disciples. You come and
see. He says in John 1.41, follow
me. He says his commands are not
burdensome. He says at that feast where he
manifested his glory, you fill the water pots and you draw out
and you take to the governor of the feast. And what a glorious
picture it is of the completeness of his salvation. He made the
water wine. It didn't just look like wine,
it was wine. And it's a glorious picture of
what he does in the hearts of his people through his work,
isn't it? That he makes us not to look like we're righteous,
but to be really righteous, to be the very righteousness of
God in him. He doesn't make us to look like
we're the best wine, he makes us to be the best wine, doesn't
he? That's what our God does. He
manifests his glory. He says, to the woman at the well, give
me to drink. If you knew the gift of God and
who it was that speaks to you, you would ask and he would give. I do love the story of the nobleman
in John chapter four, verse 50. That nobleman came a long way
with a dying son, a long way away. And the Lord Jesus Christ
said to him, having rebuked him, as he must rebuke us for wanting
to see signs and wonders and things. And then he says, you
go your way, your son liveth. That man, who was a nobleman,
I don't doubt that he had the opportunity to get down to Believe, be not afraid. This is the work of God that
you believe on him who he has sent. While you have the light,
believe in the light. Let not your heart be troubled. believe also in me." What's your
warrant for coming to God in Christ in faith? He commands
it, brothers and sisters. He commands, come and see, follow
me, love one another. love one another. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we do thank
you for the manifestation of your dear and precious Son. And we thank you, Heavenly Father,
that the culmination and the zenith of all of that manifestation
is your Son bearing our sins in his own body on the cross
of Calvary. We praise you, Heavenly Father,
for who it is that bore our sins, the infinitely holy, eternal
God in human flesh. And in infinite mercy and in
infinite love for us, he bore infinite wrath that only the
Son of God could bear. O our Father, we thank you. I thank you for a broken body,
and we thank you for a shed of blood, and I thank you for his
command that you are to eat and to drink. in remembrance of him. Heavenly Father, cause us to
know him and to love him that we might be caused to remember
him again and again. For we pray in his name and for
his glory and for the good of your people here in this world.
Heavenly Father, bless us for Christ's sake. Amen.