I want you to take your Bibles
and turn with me to the book of John chapter 16. We're going
through the book of John, but I have something on my mind. And so, Lord willing, we'll go
back and take up where we are in the book of John. But this
morning, I would like to look at one verse of Scripture. John 16, verse 23. And in that day ye shall ask
me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Our Lord was soon going to the cross. And his time was drawing nigh. And he spoke to his disciples
about the trials that they were going to be, had been, were,
and were going to suffer. He told them how religious bigots
were going to persecute them and mistreat them, and even think
that when they killed them, when these religious bigots killed
them, that they would think they were doing God's service. But
the Lord was not going to, and never does, leave His sheep without
comfort. He promised to send the Holy
Spirit. He said in verse 1 of John 16,
These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.
They shall put you out of the synagogues, yea, the time cometh
that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God a service.
These things will they do unto you because they have not known
the Father, nor me? But these things have I told
you, that when the time shall come you may remember that I
told you of them. And these things I said not unto
you at the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go
my way to him that sent me. And none of you asketh me whether
goest thou. But because I have said these
things unto you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell
you, The truth is expedient for you that I go away. For if I
go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart,
I will send Him unto you. And when He has come, He will
reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment,
of sin, because they believe not on Me. Of righteousness,
because I go to My Father and you see Me no more. of judgment
because the prince of this world is judge, 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. For 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 of mine. Therefore said I, that he shall
take of mine, and shall show it unto you a little while, and
ye shall not see me, and again a little while, and ye shall
see me, because I go to the Father. Then said some of the disciples
among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us a little
while? And you shall not see me. And again, a little while.
And you shall see me. And because I go to the Father,
they said, therefore, what is this that he saith? A little
while. We cannot tell what he saith.
Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them,
Do ye inquire among yourselves of what I said a little while?
And you shall not see me. And again, a little while. And
you shall see me. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice,
and ye shall be sorrowful. But your sorrow shall be turned
to joy. A woman, when she is in travail, has sorrow, because
her hour is come. But as soon as she is delivered
of the child, she remembers no more the anguish for joy that
a man is born into the world. And ye now, therefore, have sorrow,
but I will see you again. And your heart shall rejoice,
and your joy no man taketh from you." And then he said, verse
we read, "...and in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my
name, he will give it you." Now that passage intrigued me. And I've entitled this message,
Asking and Receiving, in the name of Jesus Christ. He had
promised that the Spirit of God, the Comforter, the Lord Jesus
himself in his Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, would come and would
reprove, would convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and
of judgment. He said that when He went away,
the Lord Himself, the Spirit of God would come and convince
the world of God's elect concerning the guilt and the curse of sin. And He Himself must be made a
curse to deliver us from the curse of the law. And that He
would teach, that is, the Spirit of God would teach them in heart
through the preaching of the gospel, their need of mercy and
grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. And that they would be
taught that the only righteousness that Almighty God accepts is
the righteousness of His dear Son, Christ Jesus the Lord, the
One that obediently walked before God and served Him, as we've
said many times in word and thought and deed. He would convince them
not only of sin and of righteousness, that man is guilty, that Christ
alone is the righteousness of God, but thirdly, he would also
convince them of judgment. That is, that the believer is
not under God's judgment. That he is cleared by the blood
of Christ, that Christ has borne his guilt in his own body and
put away the debt of his sin. and that the Lord Jesus Christ
has destroyed the power of sin and death for His people, and
that they have nothing now to fear. There is therefore now
no condemnation to them that be in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Now concerning their
doubts and their fears that they were having, concerning his departure. He left them with this wonderful
word of hope. Verse 22, he said this, But ye
now therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your
heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. He was getting ready to go to
the cross. And he was going to be separated.
Many times we read in that passage of Scripture, how many times
did he say, just a little while. Just a little while. A little
while. He was going to go to the cross. He was going to die. He did. And for three days, he
was in the grave. Three days later, according to
the Scriptures, He was raised from the dead, and He did appear
unto His disciples again. Just a little while. Three days.
And now He has ascended into heaven. And we don't see Him
now physically as they did, but He said, I will see you again. They saw Him again three days
later. But I'm going to tell you right now. We're going to
see Him again. He's going to return. The trump
of God is going to sound. Dead in Christ are going to rise.
We which remain upon this earth, whoever's here, whatever believers
are here, we're not going to precede those that are in the
grave. They're going to rise first and meet the Lord. And
that we that are on the earth shall be raised together with
them. So shall we ever be with the Lord. But He's promised something. He promised, He said, that I
will be with you. No man takes your joy away from
you. I want you to look at Matthew
28. When our Lord was given His apostles, that great commission,
I want you to look at the wording of this. Matthew 28, verses 19
and 20, and teach all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end
of the world. Amen. I'm with you. I'm with you. Now, I know that
we believe and we know that when He ascended into heaven bodily,
He was separated from His apostles, from His people. But He said,
I'm going to send the Comforter. The Comforter is His Spirit. The Spirit of Christ. God Himself. There can be no separation. We
never separate. Remember, we don't worship three
gods. There's one God. Great mystery
here. Set forth in three persons, Father,
Son, and Spirit. But God Almighty is never separated. The Father is not separated from
the Son or from the Spirit, or the Spirit from the Father. He
is ascending into heaven. There is no separation between
us and Him. He, according to His Word, dwells
in His people by His Spirit. He said, I am with you. That's
what He told them. Now let me ask you this. If He
said, you go and you preach the gospel. Go into all the world
and preach the gospel. You baptize them. Hello, I'm
with you. I am with you until the end of
the world. He is with His people. Now, verse 23, He said this verse
right here that I'd like to look at for just a minute. In that
day, in that day when the Spirit of God comes upon you, in that
day, you shall ask Me nothing. Why? Because you'll understand. The Spirit of God Himself teaches
God's people why did He die. Do you know why? First of all,
do you know how you understand? It's because the Spirit of God
teaches you. The Spirit of God teaches God's
people why He died. To put away our guilt. To satisfy
God's law. To honor God's law. Why did He
die? He died to redeem His people. Why did He rise? Why? They didn't understand these
things. He said, I'm just going to be gone a little while. And
they said, what does He mean? I don't understand. He said,
there's coming a day where you won't have to ask me. You'll
know. You'll know. Why did He rise from the dead? Because God accepted His sacrifice. God accepted His Son. And He
raised Him from the dead because God had justified us eternally,
freely, by grace. And what the Lord Jesus Christ
did, God Almighty in the person of His Son accepted us. And we came out of the grave
with Him. Why did He ascend into heaven? Because He is the victorious
Redeemer, the great High Priest of His people, ever living to
make intercession for them. Why is He coming back? To receive
us unto Himself. That where He is, there we may
be also. He says in verse 23, in that
day you shall ask Me nothing. The Spirit of God teaches God's
people. And now, verily, verily, I say
unto you, whatsoever you shall ask in my name, now I want you
to look at the wording of this, He will give it to you. He will give it to you. Here
our Lord sets forth, as we are taught by the Holy Spirit, what
and how to ask the Father. Before Almighty God calls us
out of darkness, we know nothing. After He calls us out of darkness,
under the preaching of the gospel, the teaching of God's Word, the
Spirit of God teaches us God's truth. We know. How many times? We know. We know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
called according to His purpose. Our Lord says, verily, verily,
trustworthy, trustworthy, surely, surely, truly, truly, listen
to what He is saying, I say to you, Listen to who is speaking
the truth Himself. I say to you, to you His people,
to you who are taught by the Spirit of God, in whom Christ
dwells, you who are His elect, His bride, His love, His church,
whatsoever, whatsoever, you shall ask the Father, now here's the
key, here's the key. in my name." Now, if we ever
get a handle on what that means, we'll understand the Scripture
right here. See, we read that right there, and I'll tell you
what our carnal mind thinks. Whatever we ask for. Whatever
we ask for, the Lord's going to give it to us. If I want a
new car, if I want a house, No, we didn't read it right. Whatsoever
ye shall ask the Father in my name. What does that mean? Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father
on my account, for my sake. When He came into this world,
when He says, in my name, that is concerning who He is We just
looked at a few minutes ago. Who He is? What did He do? Why did He do it? And where is
He now? When He says, Whatsoever ye shall
ask the Father in My name concerning who I am from the Father, what
I did on this earth in perfect obedience and at the cross, concerning
why I did it and where I am now, whatsoever request you ask the
Father that honors the Lord Jesus Christ as God's Redeemer, as
God's surety, surety for the sheep, whatsoever you ask concerning
what He has procured, for His people by His obedience and by
His blood whatsoever you ask concerning God's will in the
redemption of His people and the salvation of their eternal
souls whatsoever you ask concerning Him sending His precious Son
into this world as the Redeemer and Savior of the people. Whatsoever
you ask the Father in my name concerning their eternal good,
not temporal, their eternal good, my Father will give it to you.
He will give it to you. When we ask anything according
to His Word, for Christ's sake, upon the authority of the Lord's
Word Himself, the Father is going to grant it in regenerating grace. The Spirit of God who revealed
Christ in us and to us, who drew us to Himself in mercy, When
we realize our need, we cry from the heart, Lord, Father, for
Christ's sake, and totally upon the merit of His precious blood,
totally upon the merit of His obedience, He who was broken,
that broken body and that shed blood, Lord, for Christ's sake,
according to Your eternal purpose in the choosing of Your elect
and giving them to the Son and the Son coming into this world
and living and dying, Lord, for Christ's sake, have mercy on
me. The Father gives it. For Christ's sake, He who predestinated,
who determined before, He who orders the steps of His people,
Lord, keep me for Christ's sake. He who paid my debt and put away
my guilt. Lord, for Christ's sake, because
there's no condemnation to me, for His sake, Lord, keep me from
presumptuous sin. Teach me of Yourself. Take not
thy Holy Spirit from me." The Father gives it. Psalm 81.10
says, Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. Oh, we talk about
things that we want in this life. And the thing about it is we
ask for things, but we ask amiss. We ask to consume them upon our
own lust. The Lord knows that we have need
of all these things. I need to eat. I want something
to put on. I'd like to have a shelter over
my head. I need the Lord to keep me. Don't
you know the Father knows that you have need of all these things?
Consider the lilies of the field. Look at the birds. They don't
sow and spend. Your Father feeds them. Are you
not much better than these birds? Believer, what shall the Father
withhold from those who ask concerning the honor of His Son? Lord, for
the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, for the praise that's due
unto Him alone. Lord, for His sake, not for mine.
Lord, I'm asking You for His sake. For His sake, in His name,
Lord, I'm coming to You, not on my own merit. Lord, I don't
have any. I'm a sinner saved totally by
the grace of God. I'm asking You, for Christ's
sake, for what He has done on my behalf according to Your will,
Lord, for Christ's sake, keep me. Lord, keep me. In the day of my death, Lord,
grant peace unto me for Christ's sake. Let my day, let my leaving this
world be settled. Lord, You said to Abraham, I
am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Lord, You gave
Yourself to those that You were pleased to give Yourself to.
The believer knows Christ to be God's wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. Lord, for Christ's sake, may
I be found in Him. Lord, for Christ's sake, that
I may know Him. You know, the day that the rain
started to fall, Noah, 120 years, been preaching. Preached 120 years. Almighty God was pleased to save
Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives and some animals.
That was it. But you know in the day that
the rain began to fall, Noah knew by faith that Christ was
his only hope. That his safety, security was
in that ark. That was a picture of the Lord
of glory himself. Here's the ultimate request.
Lord, give me Him. Lord, may I have
Him who has me. Lord, may I love Him for His
sake, for His honor, who has eternally loved me. Today, every
believer echoes the cry of the disciples. to the Lord Jesus
Christ when the waves started coming into the boat, Lord, save
us. We perish. And He saith unto
them, Why are ye so fearful, O ye of little faith? Then He
arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great
calm. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ask anything of my Father in
my name, for my sake, because of what I've done, whatever Christ
has done. You ask anything. According to
what I accomplished on your behalf, you ask anything. And my Father
will give it to you. Teach us to ask a right. For
Christ's sake. Amen.