The Lord had said in verse 22,
He said, And you now therefore have sorrow, but I will see you
again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from
you. And in that day you shall ask
me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, He will give
it you. Hitherto have you asked nothing
in my name. Ask, and you shall receive, that
your joy may be full. These things have I spoken unto
you in Proverbs, but the time cometh when I shall no more speak
unto you in Proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father.
At that day you shall ask in my name, and I say not unto you
that I will pray the Father for you. For the Father himself loveth
you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came
out from God." The Lord Jesus is declaring here why it was
so much better for the apostles and for us, that He went to the
cross and accomplished redemption for His people, then ascended
to the Father and then sent the Holy Spirit. It's so much better
that He did this. Went to the Father, having accomplished
the redemption of His people and sent the Spirit. And this
is what He's declaring here. This is why it's so much better
for His people. If we summed it up, Believers
now have understanding, We have fellowship and communion with
the three in one, with God our Father, in his son Christ Jesus,
through the Holy Spirit. We have a clearer understanding,
we have fellowship, we have communion with God, and that's what he's
declaring here. This was the benefit of him going.
This is the full joy, really, of every believer. This is the
joy he was speaking about that'll never be taken from you. It's fellowship with God. It's
communion with God. It's having an understanding
and being able to draw near to our Father in the name of Christ
through the Holy Spirit and know we're welcome and he will receive
us and he will answer our petition. And this is by him going to the
Father and sending the Spirit. It's what John wrote about in
his first epistle. Just what our Lord's declaring
here. He said, that which we've seen and heard declare we unto
you that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, and these things
write unto you that your joy may be full. This is the joy
the Lord is saying we would have, a clear understanding of Christ,
fellowship and communion with the Father in Christ, and this
by the Spirit. Now let's look first of all at
understanding. He says here in verse 23, And in that day you shall ask
me nothing." Now this word ask is a different Greek word than
the next word when he starts talking about prayer. Here the
word is question. You'll question me nothing. You
won't have these questions anymore. They had asked so many questions,
so many questions to the Lord. And he said, in that day when
I've sent the Spirit and I've given you this clear understanding,
he said, You won't ask me. You won't have these questions.
I'll answer your questions for you. Look at verse 25. This goes
with it. These things have I spoken unto
you in Proverbs, but the time cometh when I shall no more speak
unto you in Proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of the Father. That's what he's saying. Some
of you have come here and, you know, folks will come and start
hearing the gospel and they have a lot of questions. Just start
wanting to question and question and question. But if you sit
and listen, you sit and listen to the gospel, Christ answers
the questions. He answers, he speaks plainly
through his gospel and answers questions. And he makes some,
he makes some effectual in the heart. So we know, we know he
speaks plainly in the heart. And this is what he does because
he's gone through the father. Now, every preacher and teacher
can learn from Christ here the importance of repetition. This
is his last sermon when he was in his body in this earth bodily. This is his last sermon. And
he has repeated this over and over and over. We need to hear
it over and over and over, don't we? Make a statement, repeat
it, repeat it in a little different way, repeat it in a little different
way, but keep repeating it. Don't take for granted We've
heard it, we have to have it repeated. Go back to John 14,
16. He said, and I will pray the
Father, John 14, 16, I will pray the Father and he shall give
you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. He
said he'll abide with you forever. No man's going to take this joy
from you, he said. 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." Right then
they had the Spirit in a measure. And He shall be with you. They
would have the Spirit in greater measure when Christ ascended.
This is the same thing He's declaring. Look at verse 25. 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, whatsoever I've said unto you. Look at John
15, verse 26. Still speaking the same message
to him that night, he says, When the comforters come, who I will
send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which
proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. Then John
16, verse 12. He said, I have yet many things
to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when
he, the spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.
He shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear,
that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. He shall
glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto
you. All things that the Father hath are mine. Therefore said
I that he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you. He
keeps speaking of the Father, of himself, and of the Spirit.
He's showing us we're going to have communion and fellowship
in Christ with the Father, by the Spirit, and the Spirit's
going to teach us plainly. That's what he's saying, by him
going to the Father. So he said there in verse 22,
Right now you have sorrow, but I'll see you again, and your
heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man takes from you, and
in that day you shall question me nothing." You won't ask me
these questions. He said there in verse 25, And
when that time comes, I'll no more speak to you in Proverbs.
I'll show you plainly of the Father. This is what He's declaring. This is why it was necessary
Christ go to the cross, then ascend to the Father, that He
might send the Holy Spirit, and He might give us a clearer revelation,
a clearer understanding of what He's done, who He is, what He's
done, what He accomplished for His people, where He is now,
what He's doing now. so that he answers our questions.
He speaks to us plainly. Plainly. Right now we know our
triune God in Christ because this is the promise of the new
covenant that he gave. He promised this in the covenant.
That covenant's written in Christ's blood. Look over at Hebrews 8.
This was the promise. This was the promise. He made
this promise back there to Abraham that he would give us the spirit
and teach us. And here's what he's done for
us. Hebrews 8. He said, He said in verse 8, Behold, the
days come, saith the Lord, when I'll make a new covenant with
the house of Israel, with the house of Judah, not according
to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day when I took
them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because
they continue not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith
the Lord. For this is the covenant that I'll make with the house
of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. And you know here when
he says the house of Israel, he's talking to all his elect,
Jew and Gentile. That's who make up the house
of Israel. He says, here's the covenant
I'll make. I'll put my laws into their mind.
He's talking about the doctrine of Christ, the law of faith,
the law of love, the law of righteousness, the law of liberty. It's called
the law of Christ in places. It's the law of love. It's the
law of faith. He said, I'll write it in their heart. And I'll be
to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And they shall
not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the
greatest. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins, and their iniquities, I will
remember no more." You see there? They're going to all know me,
he said. This is what he's saying in our text. This is why it was
necessary he go, because he's going to make his people know
him clearly. He's made some of you sitting here to know Him.
You know Him. You know Him better than the
apostles knew Him that night. You say, how can that be? They
saw Him. Yeah, but this is greater and greater revelation by the
Spirit. If He hadn't have gone to the
Father, if He had just stayed here in body, we would have kept
trying to walk by sight rather than faith. We'd have tried it. We try it now, but we'd have
tried it even more than we do now. But this is far greater
that he went to the Father and sent the Spirit, because he's
going to make his people know him in spirit and in truth by
the Spirit, so that we walk by faith. So that we walk by faith. This John said, we know, this
is John's favorite word, we know. He kept saying that over and
over in 1 John. We know. We know that the Son of God has
come and has given us an understanding that we may know him, that is
true. And we're in him that is true, even in his son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. This is what he's made us know.
We've received not the spirit of the world, Paul said, but
the spirit which is of God that we might know the things that
are freely given to us of God. What's he made us know? What
has he made you know that he's freely given to you? Well, the
first thing he makes you to know he's freely given to you is faith. He gives you faith, and he makes
his people know. When he gives you faith, he makes
you know that faith wasn't of you. He does it in such a way
you know faith was not of you. That's what his people know.
You won't find his people boasting in our faith, because we know
by grace are you saved through faith, and that's not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God. You know that. He freely gave
you that. If he's going to bring us into
this clear revelation and make us know what he's done, he has
to give us this gift first. And he gives us faith. And then
through faith we know that he's freely justified us. He's freely
justified us. This is what they knew after
he went to the cross and accomplished it. He sent the Spirit and made
them know this was their joy, the clear revelation he gave
them, that he had accomplished the justification of his people. Paul said in Rolands 3.24, we're
justified freely by his grace. He's made us know the things
we freely been given by God. He justified us freely by His
grace through the redemption that's in Christ. Through the
redemption He accomplished is through faith in His blood, Him
whom God set forth to be the mercy seat, the propitiation.
And it's not just justification from one sin or a few sins. It's free justification from
all our sins. Listen to Romans 516. It says,
this free gift's not as it was by one that sinned. So is the
gift. The judgment, the condemnation
was by one offense. Adam committed one offense in
the garden, and we were condemned because of that one offense.
But this is not how this free gift of justification is. He
said, the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. We came into condemnation because
of one offense, Adams, but we've committed a bunch of offenses
ourselves and will, but Christ has freely justified us of many
offenses, all our offenses. He's made you know this. He keeps
making you know this. He went to the cross, and by
sending the Spirit, He made us to know that He's freely given
us eternal life. He's freely given us eternal
life. Listen to Revelation 21 6. He said to John, it's done. That's our gospel. It is done. He said, I am Alpha and Omega. I'm the beginning and the end.
He's the author and finisher of our faith. He's the perfect
faithful one by whose faithfulness we've been made righteous and
accepted of God. I'm the Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He's given you freely eternal
life. The gift of God is eternal life,
and this life is through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the
record God's given to us, eternal life, and this life's in his
son. It's not in your hands, not in
my hands, it's not in a preacher, it's not at the front of the
church, it's not in a baptismal pool, it's not in the works you
do. Life is in Christ Jesus. He's our life. Believe Him. Trust
Him. He's our life. And there's something
else He's freely given us that He makes you know. You've proven
this, you've seen this, and He's made you know this over and over. Because Christ has come, he's
accomplished redemption, he's gone to the Father, he's sent
the Spirit, and he's made you know this. He's made you clearly
see this and know this. Just like Christ promised, he's
freely giving you all things that you need in this life. Everything
you need, he's freely giving it. We don't have anything but
what we received of him. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely
give us all things. Everything we need, He's providing. Everything. So this is why it
was necessary that He go to the Father. This is the joy, He said,
no man will take from you. When He gives you the Spirit,
gives you faith, gives you free justification, gives you all
these spiritual blessings in the heart and makes you know,
clearly know Him and know Him fully. He says, like Paul, I'm
persuaded He's able to keep that which I've committed unto him
against that day. He makes you persuaded, and you know, and
he says to you, no man will take this from you. This is the joy
that we have. I know when we come into trouble
and it's painful, that we don't think of joy, you know, in trouble,
because you have sorrow. But even when you're in sorrow,
You still have joy. It's not as the world gives,
and it's not what you think about when you think of worldly joy. It is that in your heart of hearts,
knowing. I'm his, and he's mine. He has
got me in the palm of his hand, and it's a big hand, and he has
already delivered me. His blood's too precious. He
will not let you go. He will keep you, and he will
provide. This is the joy he gives you,
the joy he gives you. Now, secondly, I want you to
see this. Am I talking loud? Not really. Both my hearing aids are out,
so I'm deaf as I can be right now, and I can't tell. I can't
even hear my own self. All right, here's the second
thing that he. He teaches us. We have fellowship
and communion with the Father through Christ's name. Now, look
at this next word in verse 23, John 16, 23. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name,
he will give it you. Now, we could speak here on prayer,
and you could dive into this and talk a lot about prayer,
but get what our Lord's teaching here. He's telling the benefit
that we're going to have from Him going to the Father and sending
the Spirit. The Spirit, when He's created
us anew in righteousness and true holiness, and made you see
it's Christ's righteousness and Christ's holiness that you're
accepted of God the Father, He gives you welcome access to know
God as your Father, And he gives you access, welcome into the
holiest of holies to come to him and pour out your heart to
him and make your petition to him. And he says, and he will
give you what you need. That's communion. That's fellowship.
He's saying you're going to have a greater fellowship, a greater
communion with the father. You're going to be able to come
into the holiest of holies because of what I'm doing. Verse 23,
this is his promise now, he said, verily, verily, I say unto you,
whatsoever you shall ask the Father, now here the word ask
is a different word, it means whatever you, the petition you
make, it's not questioning, it's coming to God and asking God
for a blessing. He said, whatsoever you shall
ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Hitherto
have you asked nothing in my name. Ask and you shall receive
that your joy may be full. The blessing here is that we
have free, welcome access to God our Father. In Christ's name
means we come in Christ's merit. When the Spirit has come and
made you know Christ is all your righteousness, and that you have
Christ your high priest seated there at God's right hand, your
advocate with the Father, And you know Christ is teaching us,
just like he taught them that night. You can come to the Father
in my name. That's coming through faith in
Christ. With no merit of our own, trusting God to receive
us for one reason, Christ only. Christ only. And you know that by the Spirit,
He's your Father. God is your Father. You know
this in your heart now, in the new man, you know He's your Father.
He said that because you're sons, God sent forth the spirit of
his son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. This is through
the blood of Christ. This is through him going to
that cross. They were saying, no, we don't want you going to
the cross. You're not going to be with us
anymore. It's going to be so much worse if you go. We're going
to be here on our own. Christ said, no, it's going to
be far greater. Your questions are going to be
answered. I'm going to accomplish redemption for you. I'm going
to send the Spirit in. You're going to understand. And
not only that, you're going to know God is your Father and you
have access to the Father in the holiest of holies. That was
the first time they began to really understand what that holy
of holies meant in the Old Testament. Christ is saying, you're going
to have access to it. Before, you had to have a man
go represent you. You're going to be able to come
now, Christ said. I'm your high priest, Christ
said. I'm going there for you. And you're going to be able to
come there and ask God whatever you will. And he will give it
to you. Look at Romans 8 with me just
a minute. Here's what he's showing us. Romans 8. He sent the Spirit to you, so
you cry, Abba, Father. You know He's your Father. In
Romans 8.15, you've not received the Spirit of bondage again to
fear. He's not giving you a spirit
where you have to fear and be terrified of God, but you've
received the spirit of adoption. He's made you know you're the
child of God, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit itself
beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
And if children, then you're heirs. You're heirs of God. Think
about that. You're the heir of God. Somebody
might have wealthy parents, and you'd be the heir of a wealthy
parent or grandparent or something. I guarantee it's not as wealthy
as God's children. It's God our Father, and His
children have an inheritance awaiting. You're heirs of God. You're joint heirs with Christ.
Everything that belongs to Christ belongs to you, child of God.
And so when the Spirit makes us know this, and I go to Hebrews
10, when the Spirit makes us know this, Here's what Christ
is teaching us. Hebrews 10 verse 19. He's made you know your sins
and iniquities He's put away. He'll remember them no more.
There's no more offering for sin. You don't have to bring
an offering to God. Christ is the offering. And so
He says, Now, having therefore, brethren, boldness, liberty,
free access, welcome to enter into the holiest by the blood
of Jesus, by a new and living way which He hath consecrated
for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh, and having
a high priest over the house of God. Christ said, I must go
to the cross. I must consecrate this way for
you. I'm going to prepare a place
for you, and I'm the way there, and now I'm going to be your
high priest there. And he says, and having a high
priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true
heart and full assurance of faith. That comes from that understanding
he was talking about. I'm going to answer your question.
I'm going to give you assurance through faith that I'm yours
and you're mine and you have access. Come with full assurance
of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our
bodies washed with pure water. Why do we know this? Why do we
have this? Because Christ went to the cross.
Christ did just what they thought was going to be the bad thing.
They thought that was the devil doing that. Remember when Peter
said, Lord, you're not going to go to that cross. And the
Lord said, get behind me, Satan. That was the devil. He didn't
want Christ going to the cross. And that was this spirit that
was in them that was saying, oh, don't go to the cross. Because
all they could think about was themselves. It's just going to
be so bad for us. That's what they were thinking.
Well, what about all these people in generations to come? And Christ
is saying, but by me going, I'm going to give you the Spirit.
You're going to have joy in knowing me like you don't know me now. That's what he's given me in
you. And you're going to have this joy that you can come to
the Father and pour out your petition to Him, whatsoever you
ask, He'll give it to you. You know what that means. You
know that if we ask according to the will of God, we have the
petition we desire of Him. He's not going to give us what's
not good for us, but you come there and you ask, and He gives
you what you need. The fact is, we only really pray
by the Spirit. Paul said in Romans 8, the Spirit
helpeth our infirmities because we don't know what to pray for
as we all. It's just like that night. Our Lord that night, they
were sitting there with those questions. They couldn't understand
what he was saying and they were questioning among themselves
saying, we don't know what he's saying. Our Lord knew that was
in their heart. He knew what they needed before
they ever asked him. And he said, are you wanting
to know what I'm saying to you? You wanting to understand what
I'm saying to you? And he told him. Well, now that he's gone
to the father, he knows what you have need of when we're too
proud to ask him and admit we don't know, when we're in our
unbelief or we're in darkness and we don't even know what to
ask, he knows what we need. And the Spirit of God helps our
infirmities. The Spirit now, we have that
advocate with the Father in Christ, and you have an advocate in you,
the Spirit of God. That word comforter also means
advocate. He's an advocate in you. And
Paul said, and he helps our infirmities. We don't know what to pray for
us, we all. He said, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession
for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. Those groanings that
you groan when you just can't put into words, the Spirit puts
those into words for you. And God puts it in your heart
when you do pray. And makes you pray. Words, he
says, groanings which can't be uttered. And he that searches
the hearts knows what's in the mind of the Spirit, the mind
of the Spirit of God. He knows the mind of the Spirit
of God because he makes intercession for the saints according to the
will of God. People get, you know, worried,
I don't, I just want to make sure I pray it in the will of
God. You will. You will. It's just like everything
else about us. God only regards what he produces. He only regards what the Spirit
has put in the heart and what Christ is bringing to him by
his intercession for us. And it's only what we need. And
that's what God's doing anyway. Prayer's not to get God to turn
to you and give you your will. Prayer is God turning you to
him and making you submit to his will. And that's what the
Lord will do. And it's by the Father himself
giving to us because of the merits of Christ's righteousness. He
said there, at that day you shall ask in my name. I say not to
you that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father himself
loveth you because you've loved me and have believed that I came
out from God. It's not that Christ does not
intercede for us, but what he's saying is, God the Father himself
loves his people, and he hears his people. And because of Christ's
merit, he himself will give you what you need. Christ's intercession
is Christ being there, brethren. You know, I think maybe we have
this thought of Christ is there and God's angry towards his child,
and so Christ is trying to turn him from his anger and get him
not to be angry toward us. That's not it. That's not it
at all. By Christ's perfect righteousness,
God accepts his people. and being born of His Spirit,
He keeps you looking to Christ, keeps you trusting Christ, and
keeps you coming to God, asking, depending on Him, casting it
all upon Him. And the Lord here assures every
believer who believes Christ and loves Christ, He assures
us here that our believing and loving Christ is the evidence
that the Father loves you. It's not that we first loved
him. He said there, he'll give you what you ask because you
believe me and love me. It's not that we loved him first. He loved us first. Christ, he sent his only begotten
son to us and Christ went to the cross and sent the spirit
to us and it's by him loving us first that now he's given
us a heart to believe him and love him. And he said, and because
you do. The Father's going to give you
whatever you ask. He's going to give you whatever
you're His child. That's what He's saying. You
have communion with Him. You have fellowship with Him.
He loved you from eternity. He loved you by sending His Son.
He loved you by sending you the gospel. He loved you by giving
you a new heart and faith and love. He's going to give you
what you ask. He did all that for us when we
didn't know Him, when we didn't love Him. Now that he's brought
you to be reconciled to it, he'll give you what you ask. Now take
him up on this promise. Go to him, whatever you need,
ask him. If you don't know what you need,
ask him. He'll give you an understanding
of what you need. Whatever, go ask him. This is
the confidence we have in Him that if we ask anything according
to His will, He heareth us, and if we know that He heareth us,
whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we
desired of Him. So do you see this? I'm trying
just to sum up here what our Lord's teaching at the end of
this sermon. He's saying to us that this is what was so good
about Him going to the cross and accomplishing our redemption.
because now He sent the Spirit and He's given us a clearer revelation
of Him, a clearer understanding and knowledge of Him that they
didn't even have that night. Now we have it. They have it.
Now we have it. And not only that, He's given
you communion. He's given you fellowship. You
now know God's your Father and you know You know that he'll
receive you because Christ is your high priest. He's your acceptance
with God. He's your merit before God. And
you have this by the Spirit of God in you. That's communion.
That's fellowship. That's what the Father's done
for us through the blood of Christ. Here's what Paul prayed. Look
at 2 Corinthians 13. I'll end with this. And this
is just, I'm just reading this because it sums up what our Lord's
teaching right here. This is what we have because
He went to the Father and did this work for us and in us. Verse
14, 2 Corinthians 13, 14. This was Paul's salutation for
them, but this is what we have. This is what Christ is declaring
in our text. You have the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ with
you. You have the love of God the Father with you, and you
have the communion of the Holy Ghost with you. That's what we
have. That's what He's declaring. All
because He's given you a new understanding, a better understanding,
and communion and fellowship with Him. This is what John said.
Our fellowship's with the Father and with His Son, and we're declaring
this to you that your joy might be full. That's what Christ said
right before. This is the joy you're going
to have. Nobody's going to take it from you. And that's, so go
to him, you understand, you believe him, you trust him, you see,
have this revelation, you see he's your father. You have a
father in heaven. You have a high priest in heaven.
Go to him. Whatsoever you need, go to him.
He has provided everything. He is providing everything. He
shall provide everything his people need. Go to him. All right. Father, we thank you for this
word. Thank you for giving us this free access to come into
your presence in the merit of your dear son. How wise and gracious
you've been to send your son and accomplish this through his
blood and his righteousness. To give us this understanding
and to give us this access to our Heavenly Father. Lord, thank
you. We need grace. We need mercy. We need forgiveness. We need
continual reminding, Lord. that you're our father. Christ
is our righteousness. The Spirit is with us always.
Keep us knowing this. Keep us believing you. Keep us
looking to you every day. Lord, if you give us of yourself,
if you give us Christ and his blessings in him, this is what
we need. Whatever else you give us, we
thank you, Lord. We praise you for it. But Lord, we need Christ, and
we need to know him, we need to trust him. Lord, keep us knowing. We ask you, we beg of you according
to your promise. And Lord, whatever your people
need, we ask you by Christ, our high priest, that you'd hear
them, that you'd receive them, that you'd bless them with their
needs. according to your will. Lord,
help us now. Keep this in mind. Keep it constantly
in our memory. Forgive us, Lord, our sins. Thank
you for these things. Amen.