Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'll continue preaching in the Gospel of John,
chapter 14, beginning with verse 18, or verse 19, rather. And the title of the message
is Christ Manifested. Christ Manifested. And that word
manifested, as you may know, means revealed, brought to light,
to where we understand and believe in Him. God manifesting himself
to his people in Christ. And he'd been talking to the
disciples about his going away. He's going to the cross, he's
going to die for the sins of his sheep, be buried and raised
again the third day, and then later on he would ascend unto
the Father. And they were distraught about that. They're human. We're
human. And they had human frailties
and sins. If you're saved, you're still
a sinner saved by grace. But He comforts them by telling
them that He's not going to leave them as orphans. He's sending
a comforter, the Holy Spirit, who would come in a special way.
And I said last week, the Holy Spirit has always been working
in the world. as he came from the Father and
the Son to reveal Christ to his people, even in the Old Testament.
If somebody in the Old Testament was born again, it was by the
Spirit of God. And the Spirit of God indwelt
that person all through, as he does. But here he's talking about
the Spirit coming in a special, powerful way in the New Covenant
ministry. because the gospel was going
to be spread throughout the world. I urge you to get last week's
message if you didn't hear it, because I've explained all that.
But here he says in verse 18, now I end with this last bit,
he said, I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.
Now he's coming to them in the second coming of Christ. but
he's coming to them in a special way to manifest himself to reveal
himself and he says in verse 19 yet a little while and the
world seeth me no more now the world he's talking about there
is the unbelieving world the unregenerate world the evil world
and he said it will see me no more but you see me his disciples
the elect of God The Bible says over in the book of Hebrews that
when we when we consider The promises of God and all that's
going on in the world It seems like to our naked eyes our physical
eyes that the world's going to hell in a handbasket This world
is such a mess But he assures us the writer of Hebrews assures
us that in reality. He says this in Hebrews chapter
2 We do see Jesus We see the Lord Jesus Christ. We see Him
by the power of the Spirit as He reveals Christ to us in His
Word. And we know this, Christ is in
control. He controls this world. He's
the sovereign of the universe. There's not a molecule out of
place in His world. And I know not everybody believes
that, but it's true. He does his will. God is the
God who works all things after the counsel of his own will. And he says, but you see me,
here in John 14, 19. And because I live, you shall
live also. You're not gonna, listen, they're
going to die physically. And he told them that. Like later
on, he tells Peter, you're going to give your life. for me. But you're not going to die eternally. You're not going to experience
the second death. Eternal damnation. Eternal death
and damnation. You're not going to experience
that. And so he says, you shall live also. In Christ there is
life. Because in Christ there is righteousness. Now righteousness demands life.
The Bible says the wages of sin is death. but the gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ my Lord. The Bible says
in Romans 5 21 that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might
grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. If I am justified before God,
which means I'm forgiven of all my sins by the blood of Christ,
if I'm declared righteous in his sight, which means he has
imputed, charged, accounted Christ's righteousness to me, then I'm
going to live forever. This body is dying, I'm getting
older. I have ailments, I have pains,
just like all the rest of you. Believers are not above all the
sicknesses and the pains of the world. Some of these false preachers
who preach what I call the health and wealth gospel, which is a
false gospel, They don't know what they're saying. They don't
have the word of God behind them. They take things that are applied
only to eternal salvation by the death of Christ, and they
apply them to physical life here on earth. For example, in Isaiah
53, it says, by his stripes, you are healed. That's not talking
about physical healing. That's not saying that those
who believe in Christ are going to be healed of all physical
diseases. that's that's talking about eternal
life the healing spiritual healing from the disease of sin spiritual
death and depravity that's what that's talking about so he says
because i live you shall live in verse twenty he says at that
day you shall know that i am in the father and you and me
and i in you now there's the oneness of the father the son
even the spirit and his people one in christ The believer's
union with Christ is one of the most fundamental principles of
gospel truth. That Christ is my representative. I have a representative union
with Christ. The Bible says God chose his
people whom he would save before the foundation of the world and
he gave them to Christ. And he is my representative.
He is my surety. I talked about that last week.
All my sins were imputed to Him, charged to Him. And He willingly
took them upon Himself and agreed to do what was necessary to put
those sins away and save me from those sins. So that's my legal
union with Christ. And He took all the responsibility
agreed to meet all the conditions of my salvation. That's why I
say often on this program that the gospel is not salvation conditioned
on you or me at any stage, to any degree, in any way. It's
salvation conditioned on Christ who fulfilled all those conditions
100% to ensure the entire salvation of all for whom He died. There's
not going to be anybody in hell for whom Christ died. If Christ
died for your sins, your sins are put away. You're righteous
in God's sight. Now, how do I know if Christ
died for me? Well, at some point in time, the Holy Spirit is going
to bring you under the preaching of the true gospel, and He's
going to give you ears to hear and eyes to see. You're going
to be born again. You're going to be brought to
faith in Christ and repentance of dead works. And you'll continue
in Him. Now that won't happen under a
false gospel. Why? Because as I said last week,
the spirit is the spirit of truth, not a spirit of a lie. But if
you're under a false gospel now, if you're one of God's chosen
people, at some point in time before you die from this world,
God is going to providentially bring you under the truth out
from under that lie and bring you under the truth and he's
going to give you life from the dead you see the gospel is the
power of God unto salvation not a false gospel well that's Our
legal union with Christ is He's my surety, and then He's my substitute. He came and took upon Himself
the likeness of sinful flesh, but without sin. And then He
went to the cross. That's my redemptive union with
Christ. He died not for Himself, He died
for me. He died for His sheep. He died
for those whom the Father gave to Him before the foundation
of the world. and he brought forth that righteousness that
God had imputed to them legally. And then there's a spiritual
union with Christ that takes place when you're born again.
That's when you're brought from death unto life, spiritually. That's when you're brought from
unbelief of the truth and to belief of the truth. That's when
you're brought from unrepentance to repentance, you see. And He
gives you, as I said, eyes to see and ears to hear. You remember
Christ told His disciples in Matthew 13, blessed are your
eyes for they see, blessed are your ears for they hear. And
He said, He told them the same thing here. He says, verse 19,
yet a little while and the world seeth me no more, but you see
me. you see the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. And so then he speaks of that
union, verse 20. At that day, you shall know that
I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you. They already
knew it, but then they'll know it in so much better. I know
whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that he is able to
keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. I
know Him. Christ said, this is life eternal,
that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom Thou hast sent. And I know Him. And if you're
a sinner saved by grace, you know Him. But think about how
you're going to know Him in the future. Oh, you'll grow in this
life in grace and in knowledge of Christ. But when He comes
again and takes us up into glory, oh, how we'll know Him. We'll
know Him perfectly. We'll know, as Paul said, as
we have been known. We'll see Him as He is, without
any hindrance of the flesh. What a glory that will be. We'll
look at verse 21 of John 14. He says, 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. Christ manifested. Now I talked
last week about this thing of keeping his commandments. when
he says, he that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that
loveth me. And how people normally when
they see the word commandments, they go to the Decalogue, the
Ten Commandments. But what he's talking about here
is the commandment to believe in him and to follow him as my
Lord and Savior, as the Lord my righteousness, realizing that
I don't measure up in myself, but I only measure up as I stand
before God washed in His blood, clothed in His righteousness,
and it is seeking to follow His word, to be like Him. Realizing
all the time that I do fall short, my salvation is by grace, grace,
grace. Grace when it began, grace when
it continues, and grace in the end. And if at any time, I make
this statement all the time, and I take it from passages like,
I think it's Psalm 130 in verse three. It says, Lord, if thou
Lord shouldest mark iniquities, who would stand? And this is
what I mean by that. If right now, I've been a believer,
for maybe 40 years now. I don't know the exact time I
was converted. I know just about when it was, because I know when
I first started hearing the truth. But anyway, that doesn't matter.
If right now God were to judge me based upon my best efforts
to be good, to keep His commandments, I would be damned forever. You
understand that? Because my works, while on this
earth, my works will always fall short of the standard of God's
righteousness, which can only be found in Christ. And that's
what Christ manifesting Himself is all about. He shows us that
He is the only righteousness that we can have before God.
It's His works, His death, His merits, indicated by His resurrection
from the dead. There's nothing good in my flesh, but Christ has manifested Himself
to me. And God, that's the whole point.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died. Rather, yea, rather He's risen again, seated at the
right hand of God, making intercession for us. He is my righteousness
before God. I don't have any in myself. Now,
when I leave this vile body behind and go to be with the Lord in
physical death, then I can say I'm righteous in myself. I'll
be perfect. But not until then. And that's,
if Christ has been manifested to you, you'll agree with that.
Look at verse 22. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot,
now this is another Judas, who was among his disciples, not
Judas Iscariot, said, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest
thyself unto us and not unto the world? Now that speaks of
the election of grace. He's gonna manifest himself to
his disciples and not to the world. Well, verse 23, Jesus answered
and said unto him, if a man love me, he will keep my words. Now again, he'll believe on Christ.
He'll repent of dead works and idolatry. He will admit that
he has no righteousness in himself and cling to Christ for righteousness.
And he'll seek to follow Christ in all that Christ commanded,
realizing the whole time that in himself he'll always fall
short, but he seeks to attempt and try and make an effort out
of love, grace, and gratitude and thank God that he has a righteousness
that answers the demands of God's holy law and justice, the imputed
righteousness of Christ. And he says, if a man loved me,
he will keep my words and my father will love him and he will
come unto him and make our abode in him. We will come to him and
make our abode with him. Now that's not saying that the
father will love you if at first you love him, because by nature
we don't love him. Now God has loved his elect for
an eternity, with an everlasting love, and it's an unconditional
love. Romans 5 makes that clear, that
even when we were enemies, God loved us and sent his son to
die for us. 1 John 4, 10 said, here in his
love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and gave his
son to be the propitiation for our sins, the sin bearing sacrifice
that brought satisfaction. So God's love for His people
is not based upon their love for Him. But if you do love Him,
as indicated by your faith in Christ, not by your perfection,
because you don't have any, and I don't have any, but if you
love Him, indicated by your faith in Christ, that's an evidence
that God loves you. Now God doesn't love everybody.
The Bible doesn't say that. I know when it says the world,
but it's not talking about the world of everybody without exception.
It's talking about God's elect all over the world, Jew and Gentile,
not just the Jewish people who believe, but the Gentiles too
who believe. And that believing is an evidence
of God's love for them and Christ's love for them. And it's an evidence
that God the Father and the Son makes their abode with them. That is, we are in fellowship
with the Father and the Son and the Spirit. We eat at their table,
as was a common metaphor of fellowship. Verse 24 of John 14, he says,
He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings. You have no evidence,
first of all, if you don't believe in Christ, and repent of dead
works, and plead Him as your only righteousness before God.
You don't love Him. Now, none of us love Him by nature.
We only come to love God and to love Christ as we're born
again by the Spirit, and Romans 5 said, the Spirit sheds abroad
the love of God within our hearts. That's God's love for us, and
that's what creates our love for Him. And so we do love God,
not yet perfectly, but we do love Him. So He that loveth me
not keepeth not my sayings, and the word which you hear is not
mine, but the Father's which sent me. Now, the Father and
the Son were all one in the truth. But what Christ is saying here
in His mediatorial subjection to the Father is that He's not
just speaking on His own here. What he is speaking is from the
Father who represents the authority, the sovereignty of the Godhead. He's telling these people, what
I'm telling you is from God. It's not just from a mere man
whom you see standing before you. In flesh, though it was
sinless flesh, but still in flesh. He still was subject to the sinless
infirmities of the flesh. He grew tired. He hungered. He wept. When they nailed His
hands to the cross, it hurt. And His feet, when they laid
the stripes on His back, that was painful. They put the crown
of thorns on His head. All that was painful, but it
was sinless infirmities. But He's telling them, He says,
what I'm telling you comes directly from the Father. Now it comes
from Him too, and the Spirit. So he says, in verse 25, these
things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. I'm
telling you this while I'm with you. This is not some aberration,
you see. But verse 26, he says, 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 have said unto you. The Spirit
teaches the same thing and he's going to bring to remembrance
to a lot of these people the things that Christ said while
he was with them that were from the Father. And what is he going
to do? He's going to manifest Christ.
He's going to drive sinners to Christ. I hear people say all
the time, you know, they'll see somebody who's troubled with
their sins, for example, or they've done some bad things and they
feel guilty. I used to have a man here at
our church who would always say when somebody came in and listened
to maybe one or two times, he would say this, he'd say, I believe
the Spirit's dealing with that man. And I would tell him this,
I'd say, well brother, the only way you can know if the Spirit,
the Holy Spirit, is dealing with that person in their trouble,
in their search, is where they end up. If they end up under
the truth of the Gospel, the true Gospel, believing in Christ, calling Him the Lord their righteousness,
repenting of their dead works, turning from self to Christ. If they end up there, then you
can know it's the Holy Spirit dealing with them. But if they
end up somewhere else, let's say under a false gospel, a false
gospel can give false assurance and false peace. And if they
have peace and assurance under a false gospel and cling to that
false Christ, it wasn't the Holy Spirit dealing with them, it
was an evil spirit. You see, Satan blinds the minds
of those who believe not, lest they see the glorious gospel
of Christ. Satan would rather have you in
a church somewhere where a lie is preached, feeling good about
yourself, feeling comfortable, feeling assured. That's where
he would rather have you than anywhere else. Because that's
his deception. But God the Holy Spirit can overpower
Satan. Bring you out of that, under
the truth, and give you eyes to see and ears to hear. And
Christ will be manifested to you. You'll see the true Christ. And you'll see the difference
between the true Christ and those counterfeits. You remember Paul. Spoke of that in 2 Corinthians
11. He spoke of those who preach another Jesus. Another of a different
kind. A false Christ. This Christ that
they say loves everybody and came to die for everybody and
just waiting for you to make the right choice. That's a counterfeit,
my friend. I know people don't like to hear
that. But it's true, it's a counterfeit. He's a counterfeit. The true
Christ didn't come to save everybody. He's not pleading with you to
make the right decision. The true Christ said, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. If you come to Christ, you will
be received because that means you're one whom the Father gave
to him. And he said you shall come to him. He won't turn you
away. People talk about the doctrine of election. They say, well,
that means if I'm not elect, if I come to Christ, doesn't
matter, he won't receive. No, if you're one of God's elect,
you'll come to him and he will receive you. He said, this is
the will of him that sent me that of all which he had given
me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up against the last
day. And the Holy Spirit will come
and He will teach you. He will give you life. He'll
give you a new heart, a new desire, a new knowledge. He will manifest
Christ. He'll make Christ known to you
to where you'll turn away from that counterfeit. Turn away from
your sins and yourself, your own work. And you will come submitting
to the righteousness of God in Christ. And that's what He's
talking about. He'll teach, whatever I said,
He'll come to you. In verse 27, He says, peace I
leave with you. My peace I give unto you. You don't make peace with God,
He gives you peace. Not as the world giveth. The
world can give you peace. Oh, it can be the peace of riches.
It can be the peace of drugs. It can be the peace of false
religion. But He says, my peace, my peace. I give unto you." What
is His peace? Well, He's the Prince of Peace.
And He brought peace through the blood of His cross. Peace
between God and sinners. Not peace among nations on earth.
Not even peace among the world. Now there's peace in God's people,
the fellowship of faith, but it's his peace that he gives
and he says, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be
afraid. You've heard how I said unto
you, I go away and come again to you. If you love me, you would
rejoice because I said, I go unto the father for my father
is greater than I. Christ subjected to the Father
to bring peace to his people between God and the Father. And
he says, I go to the Father. How's he going there? By way
of the cross, by the way of death. And then he's ascended to the
Father. Hope you'll join us next week for another message from
God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2-3. Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia
31707. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.