Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to the Gospel according to John,
and chapter 14. John chapter 14, and reading
for our text, verse 19, the latter part of that verse. Verse 19, the latter part, because
I live, ye shall live also. Reading from verse 18, I will
not leave you comfortless, I will come to you, yet a little while,
and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me. Because I live,
ye shall live also. Our text ends with the word or
so. There is a link between Christ
and between His people. This is set forth right through
the Holy Word of God. John especially sets it forth
in his beautiful relation of Our Lord is the Shepherd in John
chapter 10. the shepherd and the sheep. What
a beautiful and a vivid illustration of a link that is between the
shepherd and between his sheep, and that between Christ, the
good shepherd, and his people that are his sheep. Then we have
also the picture that is set before us in Paul's epistle to
the Ephesians. where we have the marriage bond,
the husband and the wife. Husbands, love your wives even
as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. And we have that beautiful link
that is typified in the marriage bond between Christ and his church. The apostle says, I speak this
great mystery which is the Lord Jesus Christ as the Heavenly
Bridegroom and His Church as His Bride. We have, of course,
the link, the joining between the Saviour and sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ, given
the name of Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. You cannot have a Saviour without
there being sinners to save. You cannot have saved sinners
without there being a saviour. And so the two, they go together,
they're joined together. We think of in John 15, that
follows the chapter where our text is, and we have the picture
of a vine, a vine and its branches, and they are joined together. The Lord says, I am the vine,
ye are the branches. The branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, except it abide in the vine, neither can ye, except
ye abide in me. And so again, there's that link,
there's that joining. The also that is in our text,
joining the two together, And so we have it as well in our
texts, the life, the life of the Lord and the life of his
people. Because I live, ye shall live
also as well, because there is a joining together. And may we think of this, those
things that join, the Saviour joins the people of God to Him. Truly it is an everlasting union
that is brought about by God's grace, that a people should be
partners with Him in His throne, that they should share in that
inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled and reserved in heaven
for us. So I want to Look this morning
at the link, the joining that is so beautifully set forth in
these words, because I live, ye shall live also. So it's three
things that we need to look at to realise the beauty of this. And the first is this, I live,
a living saviour. And then there is that which
joins the two together. In the second place, because
I live. It's one thing to have the Lord
living, but what flows out from that? What is joined to that? What is the also? Because I live. And then thirdly, Ye shall live
also, a living people. Ye shall live also. Well firstly, the living saviour,
I live. I want to look at this in four
ways. Firstly, eternally living. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
eternal Son of God. In the beginning, there was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Our Bibles begin, the Word of
God begins, in the beginning, God. God living, and God the
risen, why anything else lives. And so, a living God, a true
and a living God. This was the thing that was the
dividing thing, if you like, even amongst the people of God. You think of upon Mount Carmel,
where the children of Israel had turned away from the true
and living God, and they had served Baal, an idol, a figment
of their imagination, rising from their own wicked hearts.
And God made them willing to put that on trial, and the whole
trial was, what was the true God? What was the living God? What was the God that could see
and hear and they could answer prayer and could send fire down
from heaven and kindle the sacrifice. The first thing, a vital thing
is then that we serve, we worship, we believe in a living God that
has always lived and will always live The Eternal God is thy refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms. He that hath no beginning
and no ending, because I live. And we would believe in that
set before us in the Word, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If you see me, you see my Father
also, I and my father are one. And he speaks of the joy, the
union that he had with his father before the world was. So a living God, we have a true
and a living God. Solomon, when he dedicated the
temple, he said, the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee,
How much less this building that I have built. But will God in
very deed dwell upon the earth? And Solomon had a very clear
view that God would be manifest in the flesh. Later on, as set
forth by his prophet Isaiah, Emmanuel, God with us, that should
be his name. The very first promise was that
it should be the seed of the woman that should bruise the
serpent's head. And so we must look then at the
second place, because I live, a living saviour, is that he
became a man, that he lived on earth. He truly took upon us
the seed of Abraham. born of a woman and made under
the law, he did truly live. How precious to really realise
that, to join with Simeon who lifted up the babe, Jesus, in
his arms. Lord, now that lettest thou thy
servant depart in peace, mine eyes have seen thy salvation. We think of Anna who pointed
all of those that look for redemption in Israel to Christ, to that
bay, that viewed him as the hope of Israel. The coming of our
Lord is told in two of the Gospels, traced right back is the kingly
line from Abraham, and the promises of Christ that Abraham, as our
Lord said, saw my day and he rejoiced at it. And those in
Luke that goes right back from Mary, right back to Adam and
to God. All proving this one point that
the eternal God was made flesh and dwelt among us. and how vital
that that is. John, in his epistles, he takes
up this point as a point that must never, ever be let go. He's not just believing that
there is a man that is called Jesus, but that he is truly God
and truly man. He says in his second epistle,
many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Whosoever transgresses and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ, it matters what we believe about
Christ. The doctrine of Christ is important. Mr. Philpott's day amongst our
churches, the controversy, the Eternal Sonship controversy,
and for the most part here in the UK, that is not something
that divides our churches now. It is variations of that era,
is held by some amongst us. But most churches, most Reformed
churches, hold very clearly that our Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus
of Nazareth, is true, eternal God. His existence did not begin
when he was born, but he was eternal. He is eternal. And yet his bodily existence,
the flesh, the body that thou hast prepared me, that did begin
in the womb of the Virgin Mary. The soul that he was given was
given in the womb by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. And those
truths are to be held most firmly There are those in America, as
I understood from a conversation with one just yesterday, there
are those that still are holding this error. They look upon the
Lord as just being born, His existence beginning when He was
born into this world, His eternal existence. And of course there
are those like the Jehovah's Witnesses that deny His Godhead
entirely. Just view him as a man. And so it is very important when
the Lord says, because I live, we think of the life that the
Lord lived here below. The Jews, they said that thou
who art a man has made thyself God. But the scriptures testify
that God made himself man. The Jews saw a very real man. The disciples saw the other side
of it. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. They saw a man that was asleep
in the ship, a man that then arose and stilled the waves and
the winds, and said, what manner of man is this that even the
winds and the waves obey him? They could see something same
with the Pharisees that were sent to the Jews, never man spake
like this man, or like the man that was born blind. If this
man were not of God, he could do nothing. And so, when we have,
because I live, our Lord truly lived here below. But then we have the third, I
live. And that is rising from the dead. And of course, if he is to rise
from the dead, then he must first have laid down his life, he must
first have died. And for him to die, he must first
live. Hence our second point. The reality
of his living, the reality of his death, the reality of his
life from the dead, rising again. Our Lord said, I have power to
lay down my life, I have power to take it again. A living saviour,
an empty tomb, that's which we remember and record this day
and really every First Lord's Day of the week when the Lord
rose from the dead. That's when he appeared to his
disciples, not just the first time, but then eight days later
when Thomas was with them, And that became as well the practice
of the New Testament Church, to meet on that day, as recording
that day, when the tomb was empty, when death was dealt a death
blow, when the first one ever, by his own power, should rise
from the dead. The Lord taking the sin of his
people, bearing that sin in his body on the tree, and then laying
down his life and taking it again, the fact of the resurrection,
recorded in history, recorded in the Word of God, witnessed
by those many witnesses as spoken of in 1 Corinthians 15, the beautiful
chapter on the resurrection, the certainty of the resurrection,
of the rising of the Lord from the dead, and what is in that
chapter, the joining together of Christ's resurrection and
the resurrection of his people. If Christ be not raised, then
are ye not raised. Those that have died asleep in
Christ, they also have perished. Our preaching is vain. Your faith
is vain. You're yet dead in your sins.
All of the apostle in that beautiful 1 Corinthians 15 links together
as being joined together with the rising of the dead of our
Lord, how vital God hath given assurance unto all men in that
he hath raised him from the dead. Because I live, behold, he said,
my hands and my feet, it is I, be not afraid, the same flesh
and blood that hung upon Calvary's tree, the same that was laid
in the grave, risen again. He is not here, said the angels,
he is risen. The fourth is this, an ascended
saviour, where he lives now in heaven. After 40 days, bearing
witness, 40 is a testing time, by many infallible proofs, showing
himself to his disciples. Then he ascended up into heaven,
where he sits on the right hand of the throne of God on high.
Stephen, the first martyr, when he was dying, he looked up into
heaven, he saw the Lord standing to receive him. The apostle Paul,
had the Lord appeared to him on the Damascus road, Saul as
he was known then, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And
again, a link between the Lord and his people. Saul was not
persecuting the Lord himself personally, but his people. But
the Lord said, He that heareth you, heareth me. He that heareth
me, heareth my Father. He that is fighting against or
speaking against and persecuting the people of God, are persecuting
the Lord. He that toucheth you toucheth
the apple of my eye. And the ascended Saviour then
gave that witness when He ascended. I will pray the Father, He will
give you another Comforter which shall abide with you for ever.
Tarry at Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. And so that witness was given
on the day of Pentecost, 10 days after the Lord ascended, or 50
days after Passover, after his death, equating to the 50 days
from the time the children of Israel had the Passover and left
Egypt and then arrived at Mount Sinai. They came to where the law was
given, and Christ ascended up into heaven, the law fulfilled,
and to live and appear there in the presence of God for us. We do not worship a dead Christ,
but a living Christ, and we would always remember that. So when
we read in our text, I live, we think of the eternal God,
we think of God manifest in the flesh, We think of he that died
and rose again, and we think of the ascended saviour living
in heaven to carry on his people's cause there. I live, because
I live, ye shall live also. But secondly, this word because,
I live. There is a link, there is a joining,
there is a reason why he's not unconnected between the life
of our Lord and the life of his people. He has given that assurance
unto all men that he has raised him from the dead, in that there
is an expectation that there is a blessing attached. There
is a benefit that flows from it. There's an expectation that
there is something for us in what the Lord has done. It's
not something we're just viewing as an interesting event and something
that does not concern us at all. It does, and the scriptures make
sure that we know it does. not for his own sin, but for
the sins of his people. Thou hast laid on him the iniquity
of us all. His rising from the dead proved
that that sin that he died for, died under, was put away, was
blotted out, the debt was paid. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. There was the shedding of blood,
the shedding of the blood of the Lord, the Paschal Lamb, the
Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And so,
what has been done? The debt has been paid, justice
has been satisfied, the law of God has been fulfilled, a righteousness
has been wrought out to be able to give to the people of God,
A place is being prepared in heaven for them. I go to prepare
a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you,
I'll come again and receive you unto myself. Where I am there
you may be also living. And we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, one who took the sins
of his people, who dealt with them, And then who speaks, appears
in the presence of God for us, who speaks for our good. We think
of the beautiful types in the Old Testament. Joseph, did not
he speak for the good of his father, his brethren? Did not
he nourish them with him in Egypt? You think of Mordecai, Mordecai
in Esther's time, how that he was. ministering to all of his
seed and speaking peace to them. And what a help, right next to
the King, Mordecai was for the people of the Jews. They had
one of their own. They'd had one in Queen Esther
who made intercession. But then we have it with Mordecai
as that beautiful account in the Book of Esther finishes. And it is a beautiful time of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Because I live. Who lives? It's a near kinsman. Again, a
beautiful type in the book of Ruth. Because Boaz lived. Because Boaz lived, he could
redeem Ruth. Because he had might and power,
he could take her to be his wife, that he could redeem her. A near kinsman with right to
redeem. Because I live. He lives to make
intercession. He lives as proof that the wrath
of God had been extinguished against his people. He lives
to carry on his people's cause above. Because I live, there
is a reason why the next part is set forth. ye shall live also. It is because the Lord lives
and because of the benefits that have been brought forth from
his death that then a people shall live, his people shall
live. I want to look lastly at these
words, ye shall live, a living people. There's an expectation
here, a beautiful expectation, and maybe those of you that are
seeking the Lord, those that desire an interest in his precious
blood, those you feel how dead you are, cold you are, those
you feel that you're so far off, maybe even as if you were dead
in sins and trespasses and have no spiritual life at all, Maybe
you have professed the Lord, but now feel so low and so far
off as to have no life at all. But the words of our text, they
say this, ye shall live also. It doesn't just say ye live also. There's something that is true
now and happening now, but something that shall happen that shall
come to pass, ye shall live also. Because I live, because I live,
then there will come a time that ye, and the Lord is talking to
his disciples, really is speaking to all that shall come after,
he's speaking To the whole household of faith, those for whom He died,
for whom He laid down His life, I lay down my life for the sheep. Ye shall live also. Who shall
give them life? The Lord shall give them life.
That life shall come from Him, and He shall give it. He shall
give it to them when they weren't alive. He shall make them alive. And so I want to look at the
several ways in which God's people live. And again, there's six
ways. Firstly, they are created. The
same as our Lord was born and came into this world, they were
created. not brought into this world,
but their first existence began with them being born, but yet
they were known and chosen in Christ from the foundation of
the world, foreordained and predestinated to live in this life and to be
what the Lord would have them to be here below, that during
this time of their life here they would be called by grace,
they would be blessed, but first They are created. Man is being
created. Man is born. This is how the
apostle began with those at Mars Hill. He says, in him we live
and move and have our being. This is the difference between
your idols and all of your unknown gods. And this true and living
God that I declare unto you, he is the one in whom we live
and move and have our being. He gives us our breath. He maintains
our life. He is the reason why there is
any life on earth at all. We can bring it right back to
Genesis and the forming of life. The gospel must be viewed as
a whole world view, not just of one part, not just of Christ
to add on to idols and to other thoughts. If we have right thoughts
of God and of His plan of salvation, and of who he is and what he
has done, it must go from Genesis to Revelation. And any supposed
one that would say they are Christian, that undermines the literal six-day
creation, a young earth of 6,000 years is taught in the Bible,
is not a Christian and is undermining completely the whole revelation
of God. Deceivers. The Word of God is
true and pure from Genesis to Revelation. And many blind leaders
of the blind that are cutting about the Word of God. But man,
we come from God. He created us. He formed us. He gave us the laws. He gave
us our life at the very beginning. Again, we could take that with
the genealogy of Mary going right back to Adam. and then from Adam
to God. So that is the first, ye shall
live. Also, we do live, we have lived. But the promises of God are for
a people that shall yet be born. Promises unto you and your children,
even as many as the Lord thy God shall call. So the second
thing, is the calling, is the quickening, is being born again,
is being converted. Our Lord said in John 3, ye must
be born again, ye shall live also. That is the first resurrection
from spiritual death to spiritual life, from being dead in trespasses
and sins to be made alive unto God, be given a new nature, a
new spirit, New ears, new eyes, new heart will I give you. That is the work of God, to create
a new, a new nature, new creatures in Christ. Old things are passed
away, behold, all things are new. By grace, I say, through
faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. The Lord
is the author and finisher of our faith. He begins it, our
conversion, and it is then ended at death when it changes to sight,
when we shall see the Lord. So, the second way that we shall
live also, the people of God, they shall live spiritually,
they shall be quickened into spiritual life, and it's vital
that we do. It's vital that that life is
of God, as He began it. He which hath begun a good work
in you shall perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. But the third life is a life
of Christ in us and us in Christ. We have the type, we've already
mentioned it, of the vine, but as it's close to the chapter
where we are now, in chapter 15, we have the union there that
is set forth in verse 5. John 15, verse 5, I am the vine,
ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye
can do nothing. And all the time he's speaking
of that abiding, that life of God in us, of Christ in us and
us in Him. And it is a living people because
Christ dwells and lives in them and they live in Him. If he says, ye abide in me and
my words abide in you, He shall ask what he will and it shall
be done unto you. And it is this union, this life
of God in the soul, a life that is given, a life of faith and
prayer. And that is also this union is
spoken of. If you go back to John chapter
six, And having in verse 56, 55, my flesh is meat indeed,
my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me and I in him, as the living Father has
sent me and I live by the Father. So he that eateth me, even he
shall live by me. And this life is, There's a whole
link from the eternal God to Christ, to the people of God
and what they eat. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. In verse 63 of John 6. Now we have in John 14 where
our text is in the next verse. At that day you shall know that
I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. At what day? When ye shall live. The Spirit
bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God,
the spirit of adoption, the union to another, a living people. But then we have in the fourth
place, a life of faith and of prayer. A life that is carried
on. It doesn't just happen at the
very start, but right the way through that person's life they
live a life of faith and prayer. The apostle says when he writes
to the Galatians, he says that I through the law am dead to
the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ,
nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. Not live on the faith or not
live by faith in the Son of God, but by the faith of the Son of
God, by the faith that He gives. Like our Lord said of Peter,
I prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. It is the faith that
was given, kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed at the last day. And what a beautiful promise
that that is. Some of us this morning, we may
feel very lifeless. Very little prayer, and faith
is really struggling. But to have this hope in this
word, because I live, ye shall live also. Live again, revive
again. We have the pictures, don't we,
of the people of God, like dear David, fallen with adultery and
in murder in a very low place. And yet Psalm 51, he's living
again. those living desires, those breathings,
those going out after God, it's going, you might look back and
you say, I remember the time when I really loved to pray,
had many hours with the Lord, loved to go into His house and
with His people, but now I feel so lifeless and cold and dead
and so carnal, and I'm struggling with many things that are happening
in my life, My faith seems to be almost extinguished. You shall
live also. Live again. There's a hope of
a tree. If it be cut down and a spout
and a scent of water, it will spout again, it will live again. The life of faith and prayer.
The Lord maintains it. The Lord will keep it again.
The Lord knows how to bring. those things into our lives,
those are to bring his word and to fan that flame that seems
almost to be completely extinguished up to a flame again. Ye shall live also. Then there is in the fifth place
in heaven, when the people of God die, Their soul returns immediately
to God. Well, all men do. But those that
die out of Christ, they descend into the pit. They're banished
from God. But the people of God, absent
from the body, present with the Lord. This day, the Lord said
to the dying thieves, shalt thou be with me in paradise, because
I live. Ye shall live also. A living
soul, you say, but all souls are eternal. All souls are living. But how can that really be? A
life that is a life that is eternally dying in hell, eternally shut
out from God, eternally in torments. But that life of a soul that
is redeemed, a soul that is with the Lord, that is life. The Lord
brings his dear people there in heaven. I will come again
and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be. The spirits of just men made
perfect. But then lastly, the sixth place,
there's the resurrection at the last day. Our Lord died and was
buried. He saw no corruption. He rose
again. But we shall see corruption.
We shall be laid in the grave. But dear Job, he says, though
after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I
see God, whom I shall see for myself and not another. He was
very clear of the resurrection. So was Martha. She says, I know
that my brother shall rise of the last day. The Lord was going
to raise him from the dead before that. but he still would die
in the end, that each one, that dust shall be raised again for
a new life given, a body given that shall be answerable to what
we have now, recognisable, a body in its prime. Our Lord was in
his thirties when he died, and so there shall be no old man,
no infant of days, but all shall be as in the prime of their life,
a body, a spiritual body, a holy body, not a body of death like
we have now, that's at conflict with our soul, but a body of
complete oneness with the Spirit and living forever and ever with
the Lord. We shall see Him, we shall be
like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. And so this word,
This Word has a beautiful prospect, a hope and expectation for those
that feel lifeless and dead, those that are looking for salvation,
those who feel their need to the quickening work of the Holy
Spirit, of the Lord's intercession, to quicken them, to pour fresh
life upon the whole. It's all bound up in the Lord
Jesus Christ, what He has done. His life, His resurrection, not
your life, not my life, not what we do. What power have we got
when this body lies in the grave? How can we quicken ourselves?
But the Lord will quicken us. He that hath begun that good
work here below, quickened us by divine grace, He will do so
at that last day. Because I live, ye, shall live
also. May the Lord grant us that great
delight and joy of the life of God within, so realising that
life and joy, that spiritual life and a union with the Lord
and that most blessed prospect of eternal life after death. have life, spiritual
life here, that's when eternal life begins. But that life beyond
the grave, may the Lord bless this to us then, because I live,
ye shall live also. Amen.