Why don't you turn with me in
your Bibles to John Chapter 14 and you'll see why the echoes,
as I read earlier, the echoes of what we saw in Zechariah are
revealed in such glorious simplicity. John 14 is the most remarkable
message from our Lord and I love the fact that it's a message
purposed for the comfort of those disciples, those apostles, those
eleven men there. He is now for the first time
in the company of his church without there being anyone other
than his church. And this should remind us and
cause us to think that this is a foretaste of what heaven in
the midst of his church and in the midst of his church he reveals
himself in his glory and he speaks peace and comfort to his people.
And I love the fact that in John chapter 17, the comforter in
John 16, he says, I will pray the Father and he will give you
another comforter that he may abide with you forever, even
the spirit of truth. whom the world cannot receive
because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but you know him,
for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. 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. And there's a day. At that day,
when life comes, at that day, when spiritual life comes, You
shall know. These are things that the children
of God know because they are taught by God. They shall all
be taught of God, says our great God. And great shall be the peace
of those who are taught by God. You shall know. You'll know three
things. In that day, when the Spirit
of Truth comes, when the Comforter comes, you'll know three things.
One, I am in my Father. If you've seen me, you've seen
the Father. And ye in me. That's just remarkable, isn't
it? These words are just, and I in you. There is a resurrected life that
comes. It's a life from above that comes
to the children of God. And I'm so pleased that he says
you'll know these things. He doesn't say you'll understand
all of it. Because it's too deep, isn't it? Isn't that the most
remarkable thing, that God himself, in human flesh, says to his church, you're in me. And on in you. If you turn with me down to verse
26 of John 14, because I just love the order of this. Because
the Comforter comes, this Comforter, this One who stands beside us
as an advocate, the One that comes and takes the things of
the Lord Jesus Christ and reveals them to us. takes all of his
glory, all of the glory of his finished work, all the glory
of his person, and he reveals them to us. The Comforter which
is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name. The name of course is not just
Jesus, it's not just Jesus Christ, it's not just Lord Jesus Christ,
it's all of the character of God revealed. all of it, his
holiness, his sovereignty, his justice, all of his character. He'll send in my name, he shall
teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance
whatsoever I have said unto you. How reliable are the scriptures?
as reliable as God Almighty. As simple as that. We don't have
to defend them, we just proclaim them. We don't have to argue
about and argue with people who don't believe them. They are,
for God's children, the very words of God Almighty and their
truth, don't they? But listen to it. So the comforter
comes and he brings words and the words are the words that
we are reading here today. And then he says, see when the
words come, peace comes. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. See the words come. The words come revealing the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the words come revealing
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is our peace. He is our
peace. He is all of our peace with God. He's all of our peace in this
world. He's all of our peace with regard
to the sin that I am and the sin that I commit. Not as the
world giveth. The world gives always to take. The world always gives with one
hand and takes in one way with another hand. Not as the world
give I unto you, let not your heart be troubled, neither let
it be afraid. And he's, in verse 29, he says,
he's told you all these things, all the things that the Holy
Spirit has recorded. He's told them to them all before
it comes to pass that you might believe. He says at the beginning
of this sermon, doesn't he, let not your heart be troubled. You
believe in God, believe also in me. The Spirit of Truth. The Spirit of Truth comes as
a comforter. Another comforter, one exactly
like me. In fact, it's extraordinary,
isn't it? Verse 17, He'll dwell with you
and shall be in you, and then you'll know, because He dwells
with you and is in you, You'll have this life in verse 19, and
then you'll know that I'm in the Father and you in me, and
I in you. And I love the fact that the
Lord Jesus Christ repeats these words in his high priestly prayer. And he says, in praying for us
here today and to his church until he returns, he says, neither
pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe
on me through their word, the word of these apostles, the word
that has been recorded perfectly and faithfully and delivered
to us. that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in me, and
I in Thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world
may believe that Thou hast sent me. And the glory which Thou
gavest me I have given them. Man seeks things to boast in
and things to glory in. God's children are given the
very glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in our union with Him,
that they may be one even as we are one, I in them. Sometimes we just need to stop
and contemplate the magnitude of what God is saying. This is
God Almighty in human flesh speaking about what He will do in the
hearts of His people. I in them, and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Father, I will. that they also,
whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory which thou hast given me. For thou lovest me
before the foundation of the world, O righteous Father. The
world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these
have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto
them thy name. He has declared and revealed
the very character of God. And if you want to know where
you see the character of God, best you go to the cross of Calvary. He was hung there, naked, between
heaven and earth, that we might have revealed to us, His people,
all of the attributes of God. His absolute sovereignty, His
absolute holiness, His absolute justice, His extraordinary love
for His people. His extraordinary love for the
glory of His Father, His perfect obedience to the law of God,
His perfect righteousness, His perfect holiness. And I have declared unto them
thy name, and I will declare it. And that's exactly what happens
in the preaching of the Gospel. We are just bearing witness to
who the Lord Jesus Christ is. We're just saying this is what
He says. That's what he says. He's made the promise, hasn't
he? He's the one that did the living. He's the one that did
the dying. He's the one that did the rising
from the dead. He's the one that sits on the
throne of heaven and all of his people are one with him. I have
declared unto them thy name and will declare that the love wherewith
thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them. Let's go back to John Chapter
14. Don't you love the fact that
this is the Comforter's words? And the Comforter is declared
in verse 17 to be the Spirit of Truth. The Truth is the Lord
Jesus Christ. As we read in Romans Chapter
8 last week, to have Christ in
you is to have a glory. To have Christ in you is to have
the Spirit in you. And to not have Christ in you
is to be declared by God to be none of his. to be none of his. They that
are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in
you. Now if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his, and if Christ be in you, the
body is dead because of sin. But the Spirit is life because
of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that
raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ
from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies that dwell
by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. The truth is the Lord Jesus
Christ, the truth that sets us free only in knowing Him are
we free. We are free from the lies. the
lies of this religious world that lies to us about God and
His character, lies to us about His Word, lies to us about man
in his fallen nature, man in what it is for man to get right
and to be born again. They believe that it's the work
of man. They do believe it's the work of man, don't they?
They believe that when the Lord Jesus Christ said, it is finished
from the cross at Calvary, they turn around and immediately say,
no it's not. because I have to add something of my work to his
work to make his work effective. What did he say? It is finished. All, all of the holiness that
is required of all of my people to live with me and for me to
live in them is finished. All of the sin that separates
us from our God is gone and finished, and they do not exist anymore. That's why he can speak in such
extraordinary terms of this amazing, eternal, everlasting union. And we know it. He's promised
that we'll know it. He's promised that we'll know
it. the spirit of truth. And this
is a discriminating truth, isn't it? Verse 17, the world cannot
receive. The world does not receive these
truths because God says they cannot receive these truths.
These are truths that God reveals to his people. Everything that
God does is particular and discriminating. The world cannot receive because
it seeth Him not. To receive it is to see Him,
to see Him in His glory. And it doesn't know Him. But
you know Him. How do we know Him? For he dwelleth with you and
shall be in you. I'm not going to leave you comfortless. I'm coming to you. It's a glorious thing, isn't
it, that our comforter is the spirit of truth. God has chosen his people. It's interesting we quote the
first part of 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13 often, but we really
need to read on because it's just so glorious. He makes a
big but in 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13 and he's speaking of this
world and antichrist and free will works religion and he talks
about the deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they
receive not the love of the truth. They might have known an awful
lot about the truth and they might have been able to write
about it and declare it and defend it and all those things, But
they received not the love of the truth. And for this cause
God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe the
lie." The lie. The same lie that was told in
the garden. It was perfectly effective there and it just needs
to be retold by Satan. And men, fallen men, believe
it and love it. You shall be as gods. That's
what it is, isn't it? Did God really say? Hath God
really said? Is his word really true? You should be as God's. God's
judgment is unfair. He has no right to be God, but
you do. That they all might be damned
who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
But we, but But it's the glorious word of the gospel, isn't it?
What a contract. We are bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. He's bound to give
thanks. When he looks out on his brothers
and sisters, even those from a distance, he's bound to give
thanks. He's caused by the glory of what
God has done in saving sinners like him. He's bound to give
thanks when he sees God at work in other people. Because God
has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through the
sanctification of the Spirit. and belief of the truth. The truth that we've just been
reading about. The sanctifying, the setting apart work of the
Spirit. But listen to what he goes on
to say. Where unto he called you, God calls you, the Son calls
you, the Spirit calls you by our Gospel to the obtaining of
the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. To the obtaining of the glory.
He's bound to give thanks because this is the end result. And that's
exactly what the Lord was praying, wasn't it? The glory that I've
had. I'm giving them my glory. They're going to be one with
me. They were one with me in eternity. They're going to be
one with me now. There's a love of these truths that comes with
the life that he says they will have. Because I live, you also
shall live. This is resurrection life, isn't
it? It's discriminating. It's just
to a particular people. It's not to this whole world.
That's exactly what he's saying. The world cannot receive it.
He cannot, he cannot receive it because it sees him not. Salvation
is seeing him and knowing him and him revealing himself in
you. That's exactly how Paul said,
who was a pattern, he says, when it pleased God, that's when salvation
comes, Galatians 1.15, when it pleased God who separated me
from my mother's womb, and allowed me to be a self-righteous,
legalistic, zealous, morally upright, Bible-quoting dead. had not drawn him closer to God
one little tiny bit. All of his extraordinary knowledge
hadn't brought him any closer to God. All it had done is drive
him further away. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
is revealed, he just rose up in hatred and anger and he couldn't
get his hands on the Lord Jesus Christ. So he went wherever he
could to gather the people of God and bring them back to Jerusalem
and have them put to death and rejoiced in his religion. Listen to what he says. When
it pleased God. That's when salvation comes.
That's when this life comes that we're reading about in John 14.
When it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb, all
the events of all of God's children are all purposed of God to bring
his children to the place where they are brought to a revelation
of the glorious union that they have with the Lord Jesus Christ
from before the foundation of the world. There are no accidents
in our God's purposes. Every tiny thing is under his
glorious hand of sovereignty and grace. Listen to what he
says. He separated me from my mother's
womb, and He calls me by His grace. The call of God to His
people is a call of grace, and that's exactly what we're reading
about here. He gives, He gives, He gives, He reveals, He does
it all. That's what grace is, isn't it? Grace is sovereign grace, grace
is eternal grace, grace is saving grace. And listen to what he
goes on to say, to reveal his son, where? In me. Now Paul says in 1 Timothy 1.15,
he's a pattern to all those who will believe. that I might preach
him among the heathen. Immediately I conferred an oath
of flesh and blood. He doesn't need to go and see
what men say about this. He doesn't need men's opinion.
He doesn't need to go to religious people. Because God has done
this work that we read about in John 14. You'll see me. You'll see me, says the Lord
Jesus Christ. And because I live, you shall
live also. In that day you shall know that
I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. God, Spirit of Truth, comes and
births his people into the truth, the truth of who God is, the
truth of how God saves sinners, the truth of who we are in our
glorious union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you fearful of being a liar? I used to have sleepless nights
in India because God said, If you leave one of these little
ones astray, and all of God's sheep are little ones, all of
God's sheep are vulnerable little ones. Because Mark Chapter 10
says that if you leave one of these little ones astray, you're
better off having a millstone around your neck and being a
corpse on the bottom of the Sea of Galilee. We, the spirit of
truth, causes the people of God to be passionate about the truth
of who God is, causes God's people to be passionate about the truth
of this word, causes God's people to find anything that denies
it and challenges it and perverts it and causes it to be compromised
and causes it to be anything less than the words of spirit
and life that we're reading about here. God's people rise up by the Spirit of God against
those things and they just stand and say, we're just going to
stand here. We're just going to stand. Let the world do as
it likes. We don't need the applause of
men or the opinions of men. The Lord Jesus Christ was not
seeking after numbers when he came. In John Chapter 6 he just
simply declared himself to be who he was, and a huge crowd
goes away and he didn't chase after them. The night that these
words, while these very words are being recorded for us and
these events are being recorded, Judas left. Judas had gone out
and Judas was now plotting with the Pharisees and the religious
leaders in Jerusalem just down the road to put the Lord Jesus
Christ to death. Did he go after Judas? He'd already
said what he needed to say Was he a witness to their scheming
and plotting for three and a half years? God's truth is precious. Someone said long ago that no
honest person ever goes to hell. It's a good thing to contemplate,
isn't it? All liars go to hell. You listen to what the book of
God says about that. In Revelation chapter 21 it speaks
of those who inherit and then but the fearful,
the unbelieving, the abominable and murderers and whoremongers
and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part
in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is
the second death. This is the very end of this
glorious book that John was inspired to write. And he speaks at the end of that
chapter in verse 27. And there shall in no wise enter
into it anything that defileth, whatsoever worketh abomination,
or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's Book
of Life. Verse 22. He said, Blessed are
they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the
tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city,
but without. Outside of the gates of this
city, this is hell, are the dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers,
and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh
a lie. Do lies matter? Do lies about
God matter? Do distortions of Thank God for the spirit of truth. Thank God for the revelation
of that truth. The truth that's revealed in
words that come from the comforter who takes the very words of the
Lord Jesus Christ and reveals them unto us. The truth, the
truth, the glorious truth that's going to be revealed. The truth
that God's children know. This is what you know, child
of God. The Lord Jesus Christ and his
Father are one. I am in my Father, and ye in
me, and I in you. We picture these glorious truths
when we joyfully and delightfully participate
in baptism. What's baptism saying? it's a
saying, isn't it? That when the Lord Jesus Christ
walked on this earth, I was in Him. I was in Him before the
foundation of the world. When He came and He lived in
this world, I was in Him. When He perfectly loved His Father
and perfectly loved man and He perfectly obeyed God's holy law
and word, every jot and tittle He perfectly obeyed, I was in He doesn't do anything as an
only by himself. He does it with his people. That's
why he said to John the Baptist when he was being baptised, become
of us. Who's the us? Him and all of
his church to fulfil all righteousness. And then, when he died, he died
with all of the sins of all of the elect of God on him. He was made sin, but
he also died with all of them in union with him, and that's
what we're saying in baptism, aren't we? That when he died,
I died. And baptism pictures the glorious
resurrection, doesn't it? When he rose, all of his church
rose in him and with him. And when he's seated in heaven,
where are we? We're with him. And when he comes
back, where are we? With him. Who shall separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus? You read
about it in Romans Chapter 8. There's nothing, absolutely nothing.
He lists everything that Paul can grasp a hold of and he says
absolutely nothing. He says in Galatians 2.20 I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. and the life which I now live
in the flesh. I've still got to live here,
I've still got to continue this journey until the Lord takes
me back to glory. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live. This is the life that the Lord
Jesus Christ is talking about. I live by the faith The faithfulness
of the Son of God, that's my life here, is the faithfulness
of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Don't you love that? I just love
thinking about those words. And that's what we do when we
have the Lord's Supper. We are saying that his body, his broken body,
is in me. and I am in him. And when he
shed his precious blood under the infinite wrath of God for
all of my sins, I'm one with him. And we take those elements
and they become one with us. You see, we're just picturing,
aren't we, in baptism and in the Lord's Supper, we're just
picturing that glorious, gospel declarations he made to those
apostles on that night. The world's not going to see
me anymore, but you're going to see me because I live in this
resurrected life. You shall live also in this resurrected
spiritual life. In that day, in that life, You
shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Let's pray. Again, in awe of these glorious
words, our Father, that speak such comfort to the hearts of
your people, in all the trials and tribulations of this life,
we thank you, Heavenly Father, that above it all sits on the
throne of glory, our glorious, successful, sovereign Saviour. who did it all, all long, long
ago. Oh, Heavenly Father, we pray
that you would grant us the simplicity of childlike faith that just
believes, and beholds, and believes, and sees, and rejoices, and is
so thankful, Heavenly Father, that these are written down preserved
and kept until this day so that we can go back and we can read
them again and again and just say Amen. All glory to our God
and our comforts in his glory. Bless us Heavenly Father as we
take these elements. Cause us to eat and to drink
worthily, cause us to eat and drink in faith, cause us to eat
and drink, acknowledging his broken body and his shed blood,
but also Heavenly Father, cause us to eat worthily and drink
worthily, proclaiming his death until he come again. Come, Lord
Jesus, come. We thank you, our Father, in
his precious name. Amen.