Okay, John 14, verse 22 and 23. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot. And it's very interesting that
obviously there needs to be a distinction between the Judas that is speaking
here and the Judas who, as these words are being spoken, is just
down the road plotting with the religious leaders how he could
betray the Master, and they could do it with subtlety, and they
could do it in such a way that they could cause the greatest
ignominy to the Lord Jesus Christ possible. You've got to remember
the context to this is the Passover week in Jerusalem and there's
a city just swirling with people. The Lord Jesus has come in triumphantly
into Jerusalem. Everyone in that city would have
known about him. He was the talk of town. And so enraged were the religious
leaders against his claims to be God, his claims of absolute
sovereignty over all things. His declaration that their religion,
their so-called Christianity, was nothing other than hatred
of the true and living God. And they were incensed against
him. as all people are incensed when
God comes to challenge their religious righteousness. And
that's exactly what he's doing. And so Judas asks this wonderful question,
not Iscariot, There is a separation here, isn't there? This is a
night of separation, this is a night of distinction, this
is a night where the reason this world was created by God was
for this night and the events of this night and the next day
to unfold. And so all of these questions
and all of these words that are so poignant at this time are
just so extraordinarily significant. Lord, how? How is it that thou
wilt manifest thyself unto us and not unto the world? Judas is aware of the fact from
John's gospel, from all of the other gospel accounts, that the
Lord Jesus Christ is not manifest to all the world. He wasn't manifest
to all of that religious world in his day. In fact, in Matthew
11, the Lord Jesus Christ thanks His Father that that is the case. He says, I thank Thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes. The hiding of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the hiding of the glory of God, the hiding
of the Word of God from people who have it in their hands and
have memorised it. Even so, Father, it's so is good in the sight of God.
In Matthew, turn over the page in Matthew 13, the disciples
asked, why do you speak to these people in parables? These parables
are very, very simple stories. They're simple stories about
everyday life around us. Verse 10 of Matthew 13, why do
you speak in parables? He answered and said unto them,
because in the sight to know the mysteries of the kingdom
of heaven, but to them it is not given. To them it is not given. For whosoever hath, whosoever
has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance. But whosoever hath not, from
him shall be taken, even that he hath. The little that he hath
of the knowledge of God in creation, the little that he has in the
knowledge of God in history, the little that he has of the
knowledge of God And think about the knowledge that these people
had. They saw God Almighty walking
in their midst, performing the most remarkable miracles publicly
before their eyes. They had the greatest of all
the prophets declaring to them, behold the Lamb of God. They had the Word of God speaking
the Word of God in their very presence and declaring himself
to be God. And it was taken from them. I don't know what your response
is when we are confronted with the absolute sovereignty of God
and the particularity of his revelation. my plea for myself
and for you. Lord, have mercy upon me. Lord, have mercy upon me. There is so much in me, in what
I have done, in what I have My only hope is your mercy. My only hope is your grace. My only hope is in your dear
and precious son. Lord have mercy upon me. Well, let's turn back to John's
Gospel. This is a theme we have to just acknowledge that God
is saying, On this night of all nights, he is saying that he
reveals himself to some people and he hides himself from other
people. And if you're in John chapter
14 with me, you go back to verse 17. He says, even the spirit
of truth, the spirit of truth, the comforter is the spirit of
truth who's coming, he's being sent by the Father as the request
of the presence of the Son. It doesn't mean that he's anything
less than God Almighty, the Holy Spirit. But listen to what the
Lord says about him in John 14 verse 17, the spirit of truth,
whom the world, what's the next word? Cannot receive. The world cannot receive, because
it seeth him not, neither know him, but you know him. John 15 verses 18 and 19 says,
if the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated
you. If you are of the world, the
world would love it so. And if you're of the religious
world of this world, the world would love you. But because you
are not of the world, and I have chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hateth you. The servant is not greater than
his master. The Lord is just reminding Judas
and the apostles and all of us of a constant theme throughout
the Gospels. He says in verse 7 of John chapter
7, the world cannot hate you, but me it hateth. And why? Because I testify of
it, that the works thereof are evil. Please don't think that
he's talking about what's going on in the social sewers of the
rest of the world. He's talking about what's going
on in religious Jerusalem and religious Israel. He's talking
about people who claimed in that day to be Christians. John chapter
17 verse 6, just hurry through some of these but I want you
to see that this is not something that is a surprise to us and
it's something that God repeats again and again that we might
know. In John chapter 17 verse 6 he
says, This is his prayer to his father. I have manifested, he
has revealed, this same manifest word, I have manifested thy name
unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they
were. They were yours. They've always
been yours. And thou gavest them thee, and
they have kept thy word. John 17 verse 9, while you're
there, he says, I pray for them. Let me remind you, if God, the
Lord Jesus Christ prays for you, you are saved. If God loves you,
you are saved. If the Lord Jesus Christ died
for you, you are saved. His prayer is always answered. He says, I pray not for the world. He's not praying for the world, but for them which thou has given. me, for they are thine. All mine are thine, and thine
are mine, and I am glorified in them." Our Lord Jesus Christ
came with a mission from his Father, and he came to a particular
people, he came for a particular people, he came to reveal himself
to a particular people. He is God Almighty. If he had
wished, could he have revealed himself to everyone? Why didn't
he? Because it wasn't his purpose. I want to remind you that the
next part of this evidence that he brings, this answer that he
brings, if any man love me, he will keep my words. If any man
loved me, he will keep my words. He'll keep all these words I'm
reading now. He'll hold fast to them, he will guard them,
he will treasure them, and he will defend these particular
words. John 17, verse 14, 15. from the evil. Again and again,
throughout the scriptures, throughout the Gospel accounts, we have
this particularity, this salvation manifest to particular people. How precious it is to have the
Word of God. To hear the word of God, how
precious it is to be given this time when we might still pray
and call out to God. Have mercy upon me and reveal
yourself to me. Be pleased to manifest yourself
to me. So let's go back to our text
again, John 14 verse 1. 23, he said unto him, if any man
love me, love me as I'm revealed. To see Christ, to see Christ
manifest is to love him as he is manifest. And to love all
about him, to love him as he's revealed. To love him is to be
loved of the Father. My Father will love him. Our great God has a particular
people in this world and he has a love for those people and that's
a particular love. It's extraordinary isn't it that
here we are 2000 years after these words are spoken and the
most common verse in all. of Christendom and the most common
verse in all of evangelism is John 3.16. And the extraordinary
thing is that in the rest of the context of all the scriptures,
and in particular in the rest of the context of John's Gospel,
God goes to the most extraordinary lengths to show, a, that he doesn't
love everyone, and b, that the world in John 3.16 is not all
of humanity. It couldn't be plainer, could
it? And so this love is a particular love, isn't it? God's children
love God because he first loved them. And they love his word. They are loved by him. That love is a reciprocated love. We are loved by the Blessed Holy
Spirit who brings the truth of God to us. We're loved in the
new birth. It's a work of God's Spirit.
You must be born again to see and you must be born again to
enter. You must be born again to see
the Word of God. You must be born again to have
Christ manifest to you. You must be born again to love
Him. The natural mind, the natural
man is enmity against God. The natural heart of man is enmity,
hatred against God. They have no hatred for a God
of their imagining. They've got no hatred for a God
of their creation. They've got no hatred for a God
that can be manipulated by them. The hatred of humanity is to
the God revealed in His glorious sovereignty. We love his gospel. God's children love his gospel. I love the fact that everything
is so perfectly suited in the work of our Saviour for the sinners
that we are. that we live in, for the enmity
that is against us, for the sin that remains in us, we have a
gospel. That's why he says peace at the
end of it. I'll give you peace. My peace
I leave with you. His peace, not the peace that
man can give. This is a peace that comes from
God. Don't we just love Don't you love salvation by eternal
electing grace? That God put a people and gave
to his son before the foundation of the world a people. What extraordinary
love was in that transaction before the foundation of the
world. What love in giving, what love in receiving. How precious are they in his
sight? It's just so comforting to know
that my salvation, and the salvation of all of God's elect, was finished
before the foundation of the world. And it's so precious to
think that the Lamb is the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. We just love that Gospel. We
love the fact that in this Gospel the Lord Jesus Christ covenant of love and a covenant
of mercy and a covenant in His blood that He would take absolute
full responsibility for all of those that the Father gave Him.
He would take full responsibility for all of their sins. He would
take full responsibility for all that righteousness, and He
would take full responsibility for all the revelation of that
in the lives of His people when the Blessed Holy Spirit comes.
God looks to his Son for everything that he requires from me. God looks to his Son for my obedience
to the law of God. God looks to his Son for my requirement
to love God with all my heart, all my soul, all my strength.
God looks to his Son for my love for my neighbour. Not that I
don't have a desire in my heart to do those things and to grieve
when they are not a living part of my life. But we love the Gospel. The Gospel is a person. We are, in declaring the Gospel,
we are describing God Almighty manifest in human flesh. To see Him is to love Him. To love Him as He is, to love
His Word, to love His Gospel, to love His work of grace. To
love Him is a heart work. God sees the hearts of people. It's a new heart that He gives
His people. Oh, how much love there is. How much love we to His love. Here in His love,
not 1 John 4.10, here in His love, not that we love God, but
He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins. I love how this Upper Room evening
began, having loved His own, John 13.1, having loved His own
who are in the world. He loved them to the end. He
loved them to We love him. And the second part
of this is we keep his words. To keep his words is to love
those words. To keep his words is to guard
those words. To keep his words is to hold
fast to those words. How many? It's a silly question, isn't
it really? It's an embarrassing question, isn't it? believe all
of them. That doesn't mean that we don't
understand them. But he that loveth his words
and keeps them. So keeping, how do we keep his
words? Well, keeping begins with hearing, doesn't it? How can
they believe in whom they have not heard? We must hear. We must
hear from God himself. He says in John 8, 43, you cannot
understand my speech because my word has no place in you. Lord you must speak. Secondly,
we keep his words by believing his words. We just believe. We believe his words. I love
what the centurion said in Matthew chapter 8 when he asked the Lord
to come And then he realized who he was actually speaking
to in Matthew chapter 8. In Matthew chapter 8 verse 8,
the centurion answered and said, Lord, I'm not worthy that thou
should come under my roof. Listen to what he said. This
is a glorious, glorious description of faith. Speak the word only
and my servant shall be healed. You just speak the word only. To keep his words is to hear
them, is to believe them, is to believe them as good news. To believe them is to believe
them as the words which are spirit and life. People keep wanting
to see evidence and Judas is asked about evidence and the
Lord takes him back to the fundamental things, isn't it? You will receive
my word if you are my children. If you are my children, you'll
love me. Good news is good news received. Received and embraced, and that's
what that word keep means. How do we keep his word? We keep
it as precious. We keep his word as precious.
We keep his word as describing his son as a precious word. Throughout the scriptures, as
John chapter 7 says, there's a division among the people because
of him. And there's a separation throughout
the Gospel accounts, there's a separation between him, his
people and himself. And the separation occurs when
he reveals himself as he is. The people of this world, the
religious people of this world, find, like they're so apparent
disciples in John chapter 6, They said, when they heard this,
they said, this is a hard saying. And the Lord says, does this
offend you? The sayings of the Lord offend
the natural man and they offend the religious man. In John 6,
29, he says, that this is the work of God that you believe
on him whom he has sent. Faith alone in the Lord Jesus
Christ is the gift of God alone. In John 6.37 he says, All that
the Father giveth me shall come unto me, and him that cometh
unto me I will know, wise, cast out. Here we have divine election. These are the words that these
people in John 6 found offensive and they went back. In John 6.39
he says, And this is the Father's will which has sent me, that
all of which he has given me I should lose nothing, particular
redemption. He can't lose any of the sheep. If he loses any of the sheep,
his glory, the honor of who he is, is diminished. In John 6.44
he says, No man can come to me except the Father which has sent
me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. You can't come. You can't come
and you can't love and you can't keep unless God the Father has
done a work in your life. John 6, 56 and 57, he that eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him.
As the living Father has set me and I live by the Father so
that he that eateth me shall live by me. We are preserved. We are preserved, living upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. Do these words offend you? They offended the people in that
day. They offended the people in John
chapter 6, and they all went back. Peter, don't you love what
Peter's answer is? The Lord obviously realised that
the disciples themselves were thinking that they might go back
as well, otherwise the Lord wouldn't have asked a question. Will you
go away as well? He says, there's the door if
you want to go away. And then Simon Peter answered him and
said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. To whom? It's a whom that you
come to, isn't it? He says, I will manifest myself
to Him. The Father will love Him. I'll love Him. He'll keep my words. My Father
will love Him. We will come unto Him. We will
come face to face with Him, is what they're saying. And we will
make our abode, we will make our home with Him, alongside
of Him. He that loveth me not keepeth
not my sayings. The word which you hear is not
mine, but the Father which has sent me. We keep by the grace of God of God and the power of the Blessed
Holy Spirit. We hold fast to all of his words. We hold fast to all what his
words say about the glory of his redemption. We hold fast
to these words which remind us and show us again and again that
we'll rejoice when he says he goes to the Father. I want to close by taking an
example which I think is just very poignant and has been very
poignant to me for some considerable time. In Genesis chapter 15,
there is a wonderful, wonderful example of what it is for the
child of faith to keep the Word of God. Abraham asked a great question
in Genesis chapter 15. He'd been given the most remarkable
promises, and sometimes it's good when the promises are so
profound. He says, you look up at the stars,
Abraham. You don't have a child at the
moment. You look up at the stars. That's how many of your children
will be. So shall thy seed be. And he believed the Lord, and
he counted it to him for righteousness. And he said unto him, Lord, Whereby shall I know? How am I going to know? How? How are you going to manifest
yourself to me? How are these promises that you've
made going to be my promises? How are these promises going
to be a reality in my life? He believed without any evidence.
The Lord in grace and mercy to him and to us allowed him to
ask this question. And the Lord says, you take the
sacrificial animals, you take the emblems of the Lord Jesus
Christ and you bring them here and you lay them out as sacrifice
before me. You bring my offering in the
blood of my son pictured in these animals. But I love what Abraham did in
verse 11. He did as God had said in verse
10, and then, and the fowls came down upon the carcasses, and
Abraham drove them away. What were the fowls picturing
there? The sacrifice was a sacrifice
ordained by God, the sacrifice was the glory of salvation in the
blood of a lamb. And the fowls represent that which
takes away from the completeness and the perfection of the salvation
of God in Christ Jesus. How do we keep His words? How
do we guard these words? How do we hold fast to these
words? We treasure the precious blood
and the one who shed the precious blood. And we don't allow, we
don't allow by the grace of God for there to be any diminishing
in our sight and in the sight of those who love us about the
perfection and the completeness and the success of the Lamb whose
blood was shed from the foundation of the world. He's washed us
in that blood. How is he manifest? He's manifest,
most of all, he's manifest on the cross where he was hung naked
between heaven and earth and bore the wrath of God Almighty.
God's children treasure those words. That's why he says at
the end of this chapter, he says, if you loved me, you would rejoice
that I go. If you loved me, you'd rejoice.
in what happened on the cross of Calvary and you wouldn't let
by any way the glory of that sacrifice to be diminished. And
it's diminished in our day so often by people saying that Jesus
loves everyone, he died for everyone, he tries to save everyone, he's
made salvation an offer for everyone. God doesn't offer salvation. We guard those words because
the words that we are holding on to in love for Him are the
very words that are the comfort of our souls. That He who spoke
these words signed these words in His own blood the next day
and rose gloriously from that tomb and reigns supreme of God's people and we love him
we love him and we hold on What else have you got to hold
on to for the sake of your eternal soul in this world other than
what God has promised and what God has done in his dear and
precious Son? My brothers and sisters, may
it be peace for us. May it be the comforters comforting
work in our lives. to declare an absolutely sovereign,
successful, substitutionary, sacrificial saviour who saved
his people from their sins. Every single last one of them. And we can rest. That's what
it is. We rest in who he is. to perform, he's looking to his
son and he sees him in glory now. Heavenly Father, please
manifest yourself, manifest these words. Send your blessed spirit,
Heavenly Father, that we might rejoice in who your son is and
what he's said, the glories of salvation by free and sovereign
grace. We thank you, Heavenly Father.