Let's turn in our Bibles again
this evening to John chapter 16. Look at the last words in this
chapter. John chapter 16, beginning in
verse 25. 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. I came forth from the Father
and have come into the world. Again I leave the world and go
to the Father. His disciples said unto him,
Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest
all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee? By this
we believe that thou camest forth from God. Jesus answered them. Do you now believe? Behold, the
hour cometh, yea, is now come, that you shall be scattered,
every man to his own, and shall leave me alone, and yet I'm not
alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have
spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world
you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome
the world. In these words that I've read
tonight, they conclude what may be called our Lord's parting
words to his disciples. This discourse began when Judas
went out from among them. If you turn back to chapter 13,
it begins in verse 31, a long discourse. The scripture says, therefore,
John 13, 31, therefore, when he was gone out, that is Judas,
when he went out, Jesus said, now is the Son of Man glorified. In just a very short time, he
would be glorified. Speaking, we know of his death. And the question is asked, how
was he glorified in his death? He was glorified in his death
in the sense that he finished the work which the Father gave
him to do. He conquered all the enemies,
his enemies, they were actually our enemies, but they became
his enemies, that is, sin, death, Satan, the world, he conquered
them all. and he obtained eternal salvation
for all of his people. J.C. Rowe said, this discourse
began with solemn words, so it ends with solemn words. Be of
good cheer. I have overcome the world. There
are four things that I want to point out to us in these verses
tonight. First, the Lord Jesus seemed hear that word. The Lord Jesus
seemed to his disciples to have spoken in parables. He said,
these things have I spoken unto you in proverbs or parables as
it is in the margin. Now, when we read through this
message, his words seem plain. They seem easy enough to be understood. He spoke of heaven under the
figure of His Father's house. He said that He is the only way
to the Father. Those words are very clear, very
explicit and plain. He spoke of manifesting Himself
to them, but not unto the world. And we know He does that through
sending the Spirit, God the Holy Spirit. And he spoke of his coming
as a comforter. I will not leave you orphans. That word could be translated,
but I will pray the father and he shall send you another comforter. And he spoke of the union which
exists between himself and every believer, every child of God.
He said, I am the vine, you are the branches. He spoke of the sorrow. that
they would experience by his leaving. We looked at that last
Sunday evening. Just a little while, he would
leave and they would be filled with sorrow, but the world would
rejoice. But then in a little while, they
would see him again and their sorrow would be turned into joy. And he did use the example of
a woman when it's time to be delivered of a child, as to illustrate
that the sorrow would be for just a short time, but then there
would be joy when the baby is born. To the 11 disciples, maybe,
maybe because of their sorrow, and we know they were filled
with sorrow, we read that in chapter 13, They were filled
with sorrow because He told them that He was going to leave them.
And He told them where He was going. They could not follow
Him now. So we know they were filled with
sorrow. And it's possible that it was this sorrow that made
them think that He was speaking unto them in parables or in proverbs. Proverbs, not easy to be understood. In other words, they did not
clearly understand. You read this passage of scripture,
I read this passage of scripture, and it seems clear enough, but
because of the sorrow, I believe, in their hearts, they were not
able to follow, they were not able to understand. But he promises
them a time when he would show them the Father. He would show them the Father.
If you look in Luke chapter 24, just a moment, I wonder if this
is what he has reference to when he tells them that he will
show them the Father. In Luke chapter 24, Now remember,
this is on the day of his resurrection, verse 44 and 45. He said unto them, These are
the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning
me. Now notice, then, then opened he their understanding that they
might understand the scriptures. He showed them the Father as
He appeared to them raised from the dead. He showed them the
Father as He who is just and justifier of those who believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
took the sins of His people in His own body and bore them on
the tree, He satisfied God's justice and God justified Him,
God raised Him from the grave. He would show them the Father,
how it is that the Father, that God who is infinitely holy, might
receive a sinful being as all of us are, and that is through
the atoning work of His Son. He would show them the Father
also who is well pleased with his sacrifice, with his propitiation. All of those sacrifices that
he had ordained, that God had ordained, lamb after lamb, bullock
after bullock, all of those years, and with none of those sacrifices
was God ever well-pleased. But with his son, his sacrifice,
yes, he's well-pleased with him. He's well pleased with His sacrifice
and with Him honoring His holy law. So that's the first thing
I'd point out to us tonight. The Lord Jesus seemed, it just
seemed to His disciples that He was speaking to them in parables. It doesn't seem that way to us,
but remember we have 2,000 years on the disciples. And not only
did they have great sorrow that night, but they had a lot of
prejudice. A lot of prejudice in the sense
of what they thought the Messiah would do. How they understood
the Messiah would set up his kingdom, and it did not include
suffering and death. Their idea of the Messiah would
be to set up a kingdom by force, by power. and reign and rule
and conquer his enemies by physical power. And they were concerned
about sitting on the right hand or on the left hand. And so it
could have been just the prejudice they had. They did not understand
him. It seemed like he was speaking
unto them in parables. Now, the second thing I want
to point out is The Lord Jesus commends what must be described
as little faith. I don't know of any other way
to describe their faith but to say they had little faith. Notice in verse 27, for the Father
himself loveth you because you have loved me and have believed. You have loved me and have believed. There's their faith. that I came
out from God. The Lord Jesus commends what
can only be described as a little faith. And don't misunderstand
His words. Their love did not cause the
Father's love. No, it was the effect. Their love for Christ was the
effect. The cause was the Father's love. We love Him because He first
loved us. Their faith. Now notice he said,
you believed. You believed. They had faith.
But their faith would soon be shown to exist with a whole lot
of unbelief. Think about that. They believed,
but at the same time, we see by what takes place after this,
that in that same heart, that same person who believed, who
had faith, At the same time, there was much unbelief. There
was much unbelief along with their faith. The Lord commends
their love and their belief, their faith, but yet in just
a few hours, every one of them would forsake Him. In just a
short time, every one of them would forsake Him. Yet, as one
writer pointed out, As weak as their graces were, they were
real, they were true, they were genuine. As weak as their graces
were. You know, Isaiah prophesied of
the coming Messiah, the Savior, and he said this about him. He
said, a bruised reed shall he not break. You know what a reed
is? It's one of those plants that
grows on the side of a lake or around the water and it's just
a very tender plant and you walk through the area and you step
on one and they're easily bruised and they bend over, but the Lord
Jesus Christ, he would not break a bruised reed. And he would
not quench a smoking flax, just a flax that just puts out just
a little smoke. And we see in these disciples,
he commended their faith, he commended their love, but yet
their love was small, their faith was little, and yet the Lord
Jesus Christ commended it. Sometimes God's people, and I
speak from experience, and maybe I'll touch someone here tonight,
maybe you can identify with this, But sometimes God's people are
so cast about that concerning our love for Christ, that all
we can say are the words that Peter said when he said, Lord,
thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.
May not appear that I do, but Lord thou knowest all things.
And sometimes concerning our faith, I don't know about you,
but this is so of me. I must borrow the words of that
man who brought his son to the Lord. And the Lord told him,
if thou canst believe, all things are possible. And he said, Lord,
I do believe. Help thou my unbelief. In other words, in the same person,
there's faith and there's unbelief. Same person, there's love. And
it's small. But the point is, the Lord Jesus
Christ, he commended their love. It's not how much faith we have. It's the object of our faith.
We must always remember that. It's the object of our faith.
A person might have faith to remove mountains. But yet, if
he has not love, then where's that love going to come from?
It's going to come from Christ. If he has not love, he's just
nothing more than a tinkling cymbal. That's it. May be able
to understand all mysteries. No, it's not the amount of our
faith. It's the object of our faith. And Christ is a great Savior.
No matter how small our faith may be and how weak our faith
may be, thank God it's in a great, strong, mighty Savior. Amen? The third thing I would
mention, the Lord warns His disciples here about their overconfidence. You notice in verse 31, He asks
them, Do you now believe? Now, if you look at the two verses
before this, you see that they speak very confidently. They
said in verse 29, Lo, now, now, thou speakest plainly, and speakest
no proverb. Now are we sure, and we've got
a lot of confidence, now, now we are sure that thou knowest
all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee. By this
we believe that thou camest forth from God. Do you now believe? Our Lord warns them about overconfidence. I don't doubt that they believe
what they said, but they did not recognize what was in themselves. They didn't know what they were
capable of doing, and neither do any of us. We don't know. I'm here to tell
you, tonight, apart from the grace of God, we do not know
what we are capable of doing. Do you now believe? They did
not know what they were capable of doing under the right circumstances
and the right temptation. They didn't recognize that they
were going to run every man to his own place. They were going
to turn. One was going to deny him three
times, deny, and he was the most vocal, at least as far as we
know in the word of God, of what he would do. And what he would
do, he said, he would go even to die with the Lord. But he's
the one who, as far as the Scripture tells us, denied the Lord Jesus
Christ, but every one of them forsook him. At this point, if the Lord had
told them what they were going to do. If the Lord had looked
at Peter and said, now Peter, in just a little while, you're
going to deny me. And all the rest of you are going
to, you're going to deny me, Peter, with an oath. Now I'd
already told him he was going to deny him, but you're going
to deny me with an oath, deny that you even know me. And the
rest of you are all going to run for your lives. You're going
to flee. Now they may have argued with
him, debated with him, But they would soon find out, by their
experience, this is what they would do. One writer hinted,
they were like soldiers just out of boot camp. I was thinking
back when I was in boot camp and, you know, they taught us
how to march, that was one thing for sure. And they gave us all
uniforms, you know, we had all kinds of uniforms, and they taught
us how to dress. out of line, this, your shirt
up here, this little thing that comes off with your pants and
how everything has to be just straight, you know. And one writer
said, these disciples, they were like men who just came out of
boot camp, but as far as fighting, as far as being in the battle,
they didn't know much about that yet. And that's only learned
on the battlefield. J.C. Ryle made this comment. He said, the true secret, you
may want to remember this, the true secret of spiritual strength
is self-distrust and self-humility, deep humility. The true secret
of spiritual strength is self-distrust and deep humility. And Paul said
that. In 2 Corinthians, he said, when
I am weak, then I'm strong. And the reverse is true. When
a believer feels strong in himself and does not recognize that we
are as weak as water in ourselves, that our strength is the Lord
Jesus Christ. You know, the psalmist, he prayed
this. Hold thou me up. and I shall be safe. That's a
good prayer, isn't it? I think of, just hold me up,
hold me up, and I'll be safe. But if I must depend upon myself
to hold myself up, I'm not going to be safe. Hold thou me up,
and I shall be safe. And the last thing, the Lord
Jesus alone gives peace. He says that in verse 33. He alone gives peace. In the world you shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer. These things I have spoken unto
you, that in me you might have peace. In me you might have peace. He doesn't tell his disciples
that they will not have tribulation in this world. In fact, just
the opposite. He does tell them that we should
be of good cheer. Well, why is that? Because he
overcame the world. We should be of good cheer because
he overcame the world. And the reason we should be of
good cheer is that we were in him. We were in union to him. And he's the head and we're members
of his mystical body. And so in him, we overcame the
world. In Christ, we died. In Christ
we were buried, in Christ we rose, and in Christ we are seated
tonight in the heavenlies in Him. Be of good cheer, for I
have overcome the world." I trust the Lord would bless
these few thoughts to us here this evening. I'll ask the man, if you will,