I want you to turn in your Bibles
to John chapter 16. I want this second part of our
service to be shorter but also to be in preparation for our
coming together around the Lord's table. And so we come to that
table with hope and we come to that table and in going to that
table and eating Worthily of the Lord we're actually proclaiming
to each other the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and we're proclaiming
the glories of that death until he comes back again. But we're
also preparing ourselves for going out into this world and
here before us in John chapter 16 we have this remarkable verse
of scripture that I want to focus on. This is the Lord's final words,
his final conversation as it were, final salutations to these
disciples and you know well what is heading their way in just
a very, very short space of time and what will happen to him that
night and the next day. the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that will follow. But listen to what the Lord finishes
this before he comes to pray to his Father. He says, these
things have I spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. And here's the Lord's antidote
to the sufferings of his children in the midst of the tribulations.
You're either in tribulation, you've been in tribulation, or
you're going into tribulation. That's just life here in this
world. But here is the Lord's antidote. He says, these things
I've spoken, that in me you might have peace. These things he's
spoken that you might by these words. And here's the
Lord's message of peace in the midst of tribulations. And I want us to look at what
these things are and what it is to have peace in Him. He's basically commanding and
suggesting to us that there's enormous benefit in going back
to John chapter 13 if you like, but especially John 14, 15 and
16 and read them again. If you have a Bible program on
your phone as I have, each chapter is about three to four minutes
long. I listened to them this morning
while I was wandering around doing some things in 12 minutes.
He says, I've spoken these things there is in this world is the
peace that's in Him. The world gives a peace. Satan proclaims a peace. In the
world you shall have tribulation. There's a promise of tribulation.
But also, he says, be of good cheer, because I have overcome
the world. The world is not the friend to
the child of God. And the world is overcome by
the Lord Jesus Christ. And our peace in this world that
brings so much tribulation, our peace is in him. Now just to set the context straight,
the disciples are told in verse 27 that the Father himself loveth
you because you have loved me. We love him because he first
loved us and there really is a love for the Lord Jesus Christ
in the hearts of his people. They love who he is, they love
how he says, they love his word, and they hate what stands opposed
to it. In every way at all, their love
is expressed. in them loving Him. If you want
to know how the Father looks upon you is how you look upon
His Son. If you love His Son, as He's
declared to be in the Scriptures, the Father loves you. You've
loved Me and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father
and I've come into the world and again I leave the world and
go to the Father. Heaven in this passage of Scripture
is being with the Father. He never mentions going to heaven.
He never mentions going to the new creation. If you go to the
Father, if you're with the Father in Christ, all of those things
are going to come necessarily to you. I'm leaving the world,
I'm leaving the world via the cross and I'm going to the Father
via the cross and via the term. Verse 29, and the disciples respond. These are part of these things
that the disciples need to learn to have the benefit of these
extraordinary promises at the end. The disciples say to him,
unto him, lo, now thou speakest plainly and speak no proverb.
No, hard saying. 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. He had been telling
them they'd come forth from God for three and a half years. John
the Baptist had said it. This is the Lamb of God. This
is the Lamb of God's origin. The Lord Jesus Christ then asked
a question. He answered there in verse 31.
Do you now believe? Why is he asking the question? Because their faith that's based
on And their faith that they're
now boasting in, like Peter's supposed bravery and all the
rest of the apostles in John 13, is going to be tested in
this very short space of time. And they'll be made to see what
faith they have because they can perceive with their eyes,
that's what that word means, they can perceive with their
eyes, they can perceive with the human senses. The faith of
God's elect is a faith that comes by the Spirit of God illuminating
the Lord Jesus Christ to us in the scriptures. The only reason
he asks the question is because this faith is deficient faith
and it'll be seen to be deficient faith. I love what he said to
Peter. He says, your faith will fail
not that night. And everything about Peter's
activities that night, you would think, well, his faith did fail.
All the fleshly faith that Peter had failed enormously, just like
these men's faith will fail. What is the faith that didn't
fail? The faithfulness of the Lord
Jesus Christ didn't fail that night. He, he and he alone and
his promises, we are sure. Do you now believe? The Lord
asked the question in Luke's gospel, when the Lord returns,
will he find faith on the earth? The only possible reason he would
ask that is because to find true faith on this earth will be a
very rare thing when he returns. Of course he'll find faith on
the earth. He'll find faith wherever he is and wherever he brings
that faith. He says, behold, verse 32, Behold,
the hour cometh, yea, is now come, and you shall be scattered,
every man to his own, and you shall leave me alone, yet I am
not alone, because the Father is with me. So this, these are
the things, isn't it? The first things that people
are going to find comfort in is the fact that their faith,
their faith is made to look very, very perilous indeed. And the
faith of the faithful one is going to be exalted. He's faithful
unto death and his faithfulness is our faithfulness, brothers
and sisters in Christ. And that faith doesn't fail. So the first thing of these things
we see here is that as he did with Peter and all the other
apostles when they bravely said that we are going to be there
with you right to the end, we'll die with you, is that we need
to know that our fleshly confidence needs to be put down. That's
the first of these things, isn't it? Your claimed knowledge and
belief will be tested. The claims of faith and loyalty
based on what you do and what you see and you perceive is going
to be tested and they're going to be seen to be empty words. God in love will strip all fleshly
confidence from those he loves. God in love will expose his people
to themselves. so that all of their faith and
all of their hope rests in another and not in the things of themselves
or the things of this world. He's saying that the promises
of Zechariah, Zechariah chapter 13 verse 7, speaks of the cross. Away goes sword against my shepherd,
against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite
the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. I will turn my
hand upon the little ones. I'll turn my hand of love and
grace upon the little ones and I'll gather the little ones to
themselves, to myself. These things, having dealt with
the frailty of human flesh and the frailty of our supposed ability
to comprehend the things of God, or to act in ways like Peter
and the other apostles which are going to commend themselves
by their courage and their bravery, That's got to be stripped from
us. But these things, I want us to go back in John chapter
14 and 15 and 16 and have a look at these things, because these
things are the things that cause the child of God, according to
the Lord Jesus Christ, to find peace in Him. That's where the peace is, isn't
it? He is our peace. He has made peace by the blood
of His cross. In me you might have peace, these
things, these things. There are so many, I can just
pick a few out of them all, but if you go back and read them
you'll have a list that is very, very long and extraordinarily
special. And may the Lord's promise be a promise that comes full
in your life. He begins this Upper room discourse
and this time together with his apostles by taking the place
of the lowliest servant, doesn't he? And he washes their feet
and he declares to them, you're all clean. You're all clean by
the word that I've spoken to you. You're all clean, but in
this world, your feet will need washing again and again and again. That's what the Gospel does.
We are washed in the blood and we're robed in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says to his disciples,
you go and do likewise. You go to your brothers and sisters
in Christ and you wash their feet. Every time they step a
step in this world, their feet are dirty. Every time and all
the time there is a need for them to hear the Gospel, to hear
how glorious the Lord Jesus Christ is. But I'll skip over some of
those in John 14, but I want us to remember that the basis
of all of what he's talking to these disciples in these last
four chapters after Judas has gone out is on the basis of his
eternal union with his people. I am the vine, you are the branches. John 15, 5. I am the vine, you
are the branches. There is a union. He says, abide
in me. Abide in me. And my words abide in you, you
shall ask. There is an eternal covenant
union between the Lord Jesus Christ and all of his people,
a union that cannot be broken, a union in him, a union which
is the basis of our peace. The branches receive all of their
nourishment from their union with the vine, and we receive
all of the blessings by virtue of our union with the Lord Jesus
Christ. He gives the faith to believe
in His name that we receive out of His fullness, grace for grace,
all the time, grace for grace. He communicates His presence
to His children. He continually reminds them that
in Him. in him they're in him by the
gift of the father they're in him by his glorious marriage
union to them they are bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh does that bring you peace he
says these things you might have peace. In John
15 16 he says to these disciples that he has chosen them you have
not chosen me. But I have chosen you, and ordained
you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit
should remain. The fruit that remains is the
fruit of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It comes from union
with Him, but also it comes, that union is expressed in the
electing love of God the Father. God's children love the election
of God, because they love the one that God describes All of our blessings flow from
that eternal union. There is no grace and there is
no gospel proclaimed without election being proclaimed. Their
election is eternal, their being participants in His grace. with
him in glory are all founded on that eternal union. He says in verse 13, he speaks
of his love, verse 13 of John chapter 15, these things are
written, these things are recorded by the blessed Holy Spirit that
in him we might have peace. In the midst of the tribulations
that are promised to come to each and every one of us on a
regular basis, he says, Greater love, verse 13, hath no man than
this, that he lay down his life for his friend. What an amazing thing that the
God of all glory, the infinite God, His love for them was so
great that He would shed His own blood for them, that there
would be a fountain open for cleaning, that they might be
washed in that fountain, they might be set free from guilt,
they might be set free from the filth of what they are, and they
might be set free from sin and iniquity, For there is in Christ
no need for the child of God to feel guilty because all of
the sins of all of God's people are laid on him and he bore the
sins in his own body and he bore the guilt of those sins. Peace. What peace there is in the blood
of the Lord Jesus. What peace there is in having
him call you a friend. He says they're not servants,
they're friends. He's not there as a harsh master,
but he's there in our lives as a kind and tender-hearted friend. He's a friend who sticks closer
than a brother. He goes on and he says to them,
he says in John 14, he says, on the way, you come to God by
me. I am the truth, and you'll be
secured from all error. in your union with me and I'm
the life that life from him flows into our souls to revive us.
There's no other way to God except by him. He then goes on to tell those
disciples who've been reminded of how frail they are and how
Peter will deny them, and he says, let not your heart be troubled. I'm not going to leave you without
a comforter. Verse 18, I'm going to send a
comforter. I'm going to send And what will the comfort of
the comforter be? John chapter 16, he'll take the
things of the Lord Jesus Christ, his peace, his glory, the glory
of his finished work, and he'll reveal it to you. It will be
something that is a very part of the reality of your life. He's not gonna leave them comfortless.
In John 14, 19, he says, because he lives, he lives. As you know well in
John chapter 14 he says, I'm going that I might come back
again. I've got a mansion. I'm going to prepare mansions.
I've gone to prepare a dwelling place, a place of abode for you. When I come, I'm going to take
you to myself. What a remarkable promise. Do
these things bring you peace? These things I've spoken unto
you, and there are many, many more in those few chapters. Peace. There's no peace in self. There's no peace in this world. There's no peace in sin. There's
no peace in the self-righteousness and boasting of supposed strength. There's no peace in false religion. They had peace that night. The Pharisees were glad when
Judas came to them to betray the Lord Jesus Christ. There
was peace in that meeting down there where they were gathering
to plot the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the place of
false religion can be taken away. The only time in all the scriptures
the Pharisees are recorded as being glad is when Judas came
to betray the Lord to them. There's no peace, says God, for
the wicked. I remember being at a function
up on the high island some many years ago and this lady had come
out of some spiritual meeting where there was a sort of gathering
of all these sort of spiritual people and she was telling me
about how wonderful her peace was. And I don't know quite how
our conversation, very, very short conversation went, but
I said, we need to be mindful that Satan preaches peace to
people and his servants bring peace to people. And I've had
lots of reactions from many, many people over the years, but
hers was so ferocious and so extraordinary. She could almost,
she could have, she would have killed me. She was just absolutely
furious. So the peace of this world's
people and the peace that religion gives these people is taken away
from them by the declaration of our peace. Isn't it? You've seen it again and again
and again. My peace I leave with you. My
peace I give you. There is no peace for the wicked. And we know, we know that how
often and how long and how persistently our lives are like. People in
a trouble see that we're continually far from peace. We have anxious thoughts. We
have doubts and we have fears and we just live in this body
of flesh which stands opposed to us all the time. We have peace when he says, but
in me, in me, in my eternal union, in our eternal union with Christ,
there is peace. In the faith that he gives us
to lay hold of the promises, we have the joy and peace of
believing. We have the joy and peace of
communion with Him. We can talk to Him. We can lay
out our life before Him and say, these are the circumstances that
are what they are, and I can't fix it. I've boasted like the
apostles did. And so we have in this promise
from our God to bring us peace, that in him will have peace.
There is a linking together, isn't there, of the things that
he's said and the promise of his peace and the tribulations
that have come to us. That word tribulation means oppressing. It does feel like that, doesn't
it? When the things and the circumstances
of this world and that which breaks our peace comes Raging
upon us from a place that we hadn't expected it. And we find
that we're pressed, aren't we? We feel crushed beneath it. the children of Israel at the
Red Sea. There's a sea in front of them
that's 10, 15 kilometers wide, and there's no way forward. And
behind them is an army pursuing, and there's nowhere. And we need
Moses, our great redeemer and deliverer in the way of the Lord
Jesus Christ, picturing him to come to us and say, you stand
still. You stand still in the midst of circumstances which
are way beyond you, you stand still and you'll see the salvation,
you'll see the glory of the Lord. Tribulation, peace in Him and
tribulation in this world are promised. The world is overcome
by the Lord. The world, this world lies life under his captivity in this
world the child of God is promised we've promised tribulation within
and without. We have promised persecution,
we've promised that we're going to have trials in the closest
of our relationship, we've promised that we're going to have trials
in the closest of our relationships in the church. We long for it
not to be, but it is. The tribulations, and the tribulations
come from God. David in Psalm 119 prayed that
in faithfulness you have afflicted me, that I might learn to trust. I might trust. True love for the brethren and
true love for the Lord Jesus Christ will bring much, much
tribulation to the children of God. I was talking to Norm about
Pilgrim's Progress a little while ago. It's amazing, isn't it,
that Pilgrim went from one small place of comfort to a trial and
to someone who followed along and there was some sense in which
that person might be someone who would walk with him all the
way. to heaven's glories and they just peeled off and they
peeled off and he went from one trial to another trial. It's
a picture, isn't it, of our journey in this world. But the Lord makes
this world to be a poor and empty thing to the child of God, a
wilderness. We want comfort and the world's
not gonna give it. The world is actually going to
take away our comfort. We want the assurance. of the
love of God to our souls and the world. And our flesh in this
world so often takes away that promise. And we're caused to
look into ourselves, and when we look in, we're always in the
same situation. But this is a promise from God,
and I want us to go from here today, holding on to this promise,
I want us to go from here today, looking at the things that he's
spoken and finding peace in what he said. The Lord gives us a
view by faith of who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what he's
come to do, what sweetness and power there is in these words. These things I've spoken unto
you that in me you might have peace. a branch in a living vine, in
an eternal union with the Lord Jesus Christ, an eternal union
that brought him to this world and brought him to the cross,
an eternal union that brought him in resurrection glory into
a place of communion with his people. He's in us, Christ in
you, the hope of glory, that we are a friend of his. in the
midst of all this tribulation, that He has shed His precious
blood for my redemption. He sent the Blessed Holy Spirit
to be a guide into all the truth, but also to be a comforter, to
take the things of the Lord Jesus and comfort His people. He's
the Spirit of truth and He comforts by truth. These things, that because he
lives, he lives everlastingly and he lives eternally, we also
shall live. Does that bring you comfort,
these things? That he will come and he'll make
himself known to us. That he'll come as the way, the
truth and the light. He'll come and he'll take us
in himself and by himself into the very presence has prepared he's gone to do
all this he prepared a place for us and he's coming again
he's coming again to take us to himself blood brought promises. All these
things come to us by God who cannot lie. May these things,
may these things be our joy and comfort as we go out into this
world and face the trials that he will send by a good hand of
love and care and providence into your life. and he'll be
the comforter. He'll be the comforter. Let's
pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you that your dear and precious Son trod the paths that your
saints, your children in this world will tread in so many ways. He was a man of sorrows and familiar
with suffering. He had no place to lay his head. He was despised and rejected
of men. And we praise you, Heavenly Father,
that in all of the circumstances of our lives, we have a Savior
who can come to us and say, I know, I know how you feel. I know the trial. that you now
have and I know that beyond this trial and above this trial is
me who loved you everlastingly and has brought you into communion
with myself and I'll use these trials for your good and for
my glory. O our Father, we pray that we
might find the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ yet again precious,
precious in bringing us peace, precious heaven Father in seeing
that all the promises are sealed with his blood and are sure,
sure to all of your children. Cause us Heavenly Father to walk
in this world in simple childlike faith trusting and resting in
the bosom of your dear and precious son who loved us and gave himself
for us bless your words to our hearts heavenly father give us
the peace that is only in him for his glory and for our comfort
in this world we pray these things in his precious