All right, brethren, John chapter
16. John 16. The Lord had been speaking that night,
nearing the end of His message to His apostles. And He knew
that they didn't understand what He was saying. He said in verse
28, I came forth from the Father, and am coming to the world. Again
I leave the world and go to the Father. His disciples said unto
him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now
are we 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. Jesus answered them, Do ye now
believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea,
is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own,
and shall leave me alone. And yet I am not alone, because
the Father is with me. We see in the Lord Jesus true
faith, perfect faith, and we see what the essence of faith
really is. True faith believes God is with
me. That's what true faith really
believes, God is with me. He said, the hour cometh, yea
is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own,
and shall leave me alone. And yet I am not alone because
the Father is with me. Scripture says he that cometh
to God must believe that he is. Faith believes he is everything
this book declares he is. And faith, personal faith that's
given by God believes he is with me. with me in covenant grace,
with me in redeeming grace, with me in regenerating grace, with
me in keeping grace, with me in resurrecting grace, with me
in glorifying grace. He's with me. That's what faith
believes. God is with me. Now, we're not
going to spend much time on the apostles. I'm almost tempted
to skip over this part of my notes. And we won't be too critical
of them because we see ourselves in them. But maybe it'll help
us to see Christ's faith, to see a little contrast here. We see in the apostles' faith
which has much wrong with it. It seems that there was a lot
of pride involved in the reason they said this. The Lord had
said that after he accomplished redemption on the cross, he was
going to the Father, and he would send the Holy Spirit. And he
had said back in John 14, 20, at that day, in that day, you
shall know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you.
And then in John 16, 23, he said in that day, you shall question
me nothing. You won't have these questions.
I'm going to speak no proverb. I'm going to speak plainly to
you. And that's when he spoke, and he said, I've come from the
Father, I've come into the world, and I'm going to the Father.
And they said, oh, now we believe you. Now we believe you. Now we know. They had been with
him three years. They had heard him declare this
many times, and they'd heard him declare it many times that
night. And it seems a little bit like saving face, a little
bit like, oh, we believe you now. We believe you now. A lot of pride mixed with that.
And they didn't seem to see the problem was in themselves. They didn't say that was the
problem. They didn't ask the Lord for faith and ask him to
help their unbelief. The problem, they said, was him. He wasn't preaching plainly enough.
They said, verse 28, he said, I came forth from the Father
and I'm coming to the world, and again I leave the world and
go to the Father. And his disciples said to him,
Lord, now speak us now plainly and speak, now you're speaking
plain, now we understand you. If you should have just been
speaking clearly, we'd understood you, we'd believed you from the
beginning. That's never the problem. He spoke like no man ever spoke.
The problem is not with Him speaking to us. The problem is always
with us believing Him. And then they were seeming all
along to vault in their faith, to have confidence in their faith. They had assurance in their assurance,
faith in their assurance. They said in verse 30, Now we're
sure that Thou knowest all things, and it is not that any man should
ask Thee. By this we believe. But they only said they believed
part of what He said. Verse 28, He said, ìI came forth
from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave
the world and go to the Father.î Thatís the mystery of godliness. Verse 30, they said, ìBy this
we believe thou camest forth from God.î Thatís not all He
said. They said they believed he knew
all things because he knew they were questioning him without
them asking it, and he knew it in their heart, and he answered
them. And they said, now we know you know all things. Think of
what they had seen him do. Think of all the miracles and
the things he told them that came to pass before they ever,
you know, he told them ahead of time. And now they're saying,
now we believe you know all things. The Lord said, do you now believe?
Do you now believe? He knew that this was, he knew
they believed him. He gave them the faith to believe
him. But he knew this was very, very weak faith. And the Lord
graciously declares to them, it wasn't wise to have faith
in their faith. It wasn't wise to have faith
in their assurance. Now we're sure. The Lord said,
Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that you shall be
scattered, every man to his own, and you shall leave Me alone. They didn't really believe they
were going to do that. They said they wouldn't. They
told Him they wouldn't. Their confidence was too much
in self. Their sureness was too much in
their faith. They were sure and confident
they would not deny Him. They had said that. You know
what was happening? He said, the hour is now come. They were already being sifted
by the devil. They were already being sifted. And they were going to deny the
Lord, deny they even knew Him, and very soon go their way and
leave, and leave, leave Him alone. True faith, brethren, is not
in our faith. True faith's not faith in our
faith. True faith's not faith in... Now we're sure because
you told us this or you told us that. People will come and say, well,
I believe the doctrine of election and I believe the doctrine of
particular redemption. Faith is believing Christ. Faith is believing He's with
me. He's with me. Our Lord makes this simple statement,
and this is the essence of true faith. He said, you're going
to leave me alone. He said, verse 32, yet I am not
alone because the Father is with me. That's Christ's perfect faith
by which we're saved. And that faith did not waver
at all, never, not even when he was on the cross. And that's
Christ's perfect faithfulness to us to give His child faith
and to keep us believing Him. Just like the Father was with
Him, He's with His people. Always has been, even when we
didn't know He was with us. He was with us. We were on His
breast. You know that faith is all of God. It's all given of God. It's sustained
by God. It's grown by God. We're kept
believing by Him. Do you now believe Him? If you
do, it's because He's with you. Been with you from eternity.
Came into this world with you on His heart. Went to the cross
with you on His heart. Was with you when you were yet
dead in your sins. Came to you and brought you the
gospel because He was with you. Gave you faith because He was
with you and He's with you now. And He'll be with you to the
end. This was his perfect faith in the Father, and this is the
faith by which he's going to save his people. And if you're
his, this is where we need to be brought. We need to be brought
to the place where we can say this ourselves. Though all leave me alone, I'm
not alone. Christ is with me. No matter
what comes to pass in this world, Christ is with me. Faith believes
Christ is with me. He's my salvation. Now, I want
to look at this first of all. I want to see Christ's faith
and how perfect it was knowing the Father was with Him, though
all left Him alone. This was His perfect faith that
the Father was with Him, though all left Him alone. Verse 32,
He said, The hour cometh, yea, now is come, that ye shall be
scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone. Yet
I'm not alone, because the Father is with me. And we know that
to redeem His people, for Him to get all the glory, for God
to get all the glory, for Him to redeem His people and make
us the righteousness of God in Him, the Lord Jesus had to tread
the winepress alone. He had to do this work entirely
Himself. In fact, for salvation to be
beginning to end all of the Lord, He has to get the glory for every
aspect of our salvation. Now, he had to do this in perfect
faith unto the death of the cross. Now, we see why we must not trust
in ourselves. We see why we must not trust
in ourselves. The apostles were strong men.
You think about what they had gone through with the Lord. And
they had faith. They believed the Lord. They
were with him for three years. But when the fire became too
hot, They denied knowing him, and
they left. They left him alone. You think
about that. Think of what they had seen,
what they had been through with him, and when the fire got hot,
the pressure became intense. They denied knowing him, and
they fled. Each to his own. They were looking for their own
safety. They're trying to save themselves
from death. That's basically all it was.
And they did it because they feared man. They feared man. It's hard to stand with a brother
when men are against him. And everybody was against Christ.
Everybody was against him. Our sin nature is to fear man.
Our sin nature is to seek honor that comes from men. That's our
sin nature. And these are hindrances to faith.
That's a stumbling block to faith, to trust Christ. And that was
so for the apostles that night. Now we know the Lord had to tread
the winepress alone, but listen to what the Lord said. Let me
read you this from Psalm 69. This is the Lord speaking. He
said, I have become a stranger unto my brethren and an alien
unto my mother's children. This was the loneliness he suffered
when he was going to the cross and when he was going through
all the arrest and when he was on the cross. This is the loneliness
he suffered. I've become a stranger to my
brethren, to the Israelites. I'm an alien to my mother's children.
to his countrymen. But then he said this, Psalm
69, 20, he said, Reproach hath broken my heart. I'm full of
heaviness. I looked for some to take pity,
but there was none. And for comforters, but I found
none. Now, when he needed pity and
help, there was times he went off to be alone when he was praying
to the Father. But when he needed help and he
needed pity, His apostles were not there to help. He took them
to the Garden of Gethsemane and he took three of them with him
and he said, watch and pray with me. My soul's in agony. Pray
with me. And he went forth and he bowed
down and he began to pray. And he came back to them and
they were asleep. They left him alone in the Garden
of Gethsemane. And then there were some that
were near the cross. There were some disciples that
were near the cross when he suffered on the cross. But brethren, he
was lifted up alone and he was suffering all alone. There was
nobody to help him. There was nobody suffering with
him. And God the Father forsook him when sin was found on him,
when he was made the sin of his people. So he's forsaken of God
and man. I want you to think about this.
When God forsook him there, God was forsaking him as God the
judge because that He's the one man representing his people,
and sin, he's bearing the sin of his people. He's been made
the sin of his people, and God is judging him instead of his
people. So he's bearing that forsaking
of God. He cried out, my God, my God,
why has thou forsaken me? He's alone in those three hours
of darkness on the cross. And this was perfect aloneness. Perfect aloneness, being alone
in perfection that had to be in order to satisfy justice.
Now, why did he have to suffer alone? Sin separates. Sin separated us from God when
we sinned in Adam. Sin separates us from man. Sin separates. Sin is what is
the great divider. Sin is. Hell will be a place of strict
justice. That will be the ultimate place
of God's justice. And I want you to think about
this. There'll be a lot of people in hell, but there will be not
one friend in hell. It will be suffering entirely
alone. There will be gnashing of teeth,
everybody blaming everybody else. And it'll be a perfect forsaking
of God, the judge. That's what justice demands because
of sin. Now whenever God made Adam in
the garden, Adam was made after the image of Christ the man. He wasn't in bodily form in eternity,
but he was made in the mind and purpose of God after the image
of the perfect man. Let us make man in our image. And when God made Adam, he said
it's not good for man to be alone. But we'll make a help meet for
him. And that's a picture of Christ
and his bride. But in order for Christ to make
that perfect oneness between God's elect and God the Father
in him, in order for him to make that perfect oneness, he had
to suffer this perfect aloneness that judgment poured out on him. He's the perfection of manhood.
Christ is the perfect man with a perfect love for his Father
and a perfect love for his people. So when he suffered this alone,
we just can't enter into how lonely this was for our Redeemer. He's forsaken of everybody. And
that's what justice demanded. He was forsaken of God, the judge. He was forsaken of all men, including
his own people. They left him alone. But he had to do that to fulfill
the will of God his father for his people. And in that sense
he was not alone. He knew what he was doing was
for God his father as his father. He was fulfilling his will, his
covenant purpose for his people. He knew that and he knew in that
sense he was not alone on that cross. though God forsook him. He knew when he finished that
work, God would justify him. He had to tread the winepress
alone. He had to be able to say, I tread
it alone and of the people there was none to help me. And somebody
will say, well, but now justice demands death to the sinner.
What else is death than to be forsaken of God and completely
divided from men? That is death. That's what hell
will be. That's what Christ bore on the
cross. It's a living death. And he bore that for three hours
on the cross, and he satisfied God the judge. And he did it
for God the Father. And in that sense, he knew, I'm
not alone. When I finish this work, the Father will raise me.
Now go with me to Isaiah 50. I read this Sunday, but I want
to read it again because I want you to see Christ's faith. And I want you to hear what he
says to us. Now listen to every believer.
Listen to this now. This is his faith. This is Christ
speaking. Hearken unto me, verse 4. I'm
sorry, let me get verse 4. He said, The Lord God hath given
me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak
a word in season to him that is weary. He wakeneth morning
by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. As man, he's God, but as man,
representing his people, when he walked this earth, the Lord
Jesus Christ gave God the Father all the glory for giving him
faith. and for keeping, for wakening his ear morning by morning and
giving him the tongue of the learned. He gave God all the
glory for that. That's not what the apostles
were doing that night. When they were saying, now we
believe, now we're sure. That's not what they were doing.
He gave the Father all the glory. He said, the Lord God hath opened
mine ear and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. All
his apostles turned away back. You and I waver. That's all there
is to it. He did not waver. He didn't turn away back at all. He said, the Father's with me.
He believed the Father. Look at this. I gave my back
to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the
hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. This was
his faith, for the Lord God will help me. The Father's with me.
Therefore shall I not be confounded? Therefore have I set my face
like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He's
near that justifies me. Who will contend with me? Let
us stand together. Who is my adversary? Let him
come near to me. Behold, the Lord God will help
me. Who is he that shall condemn me? Lo, they all shall wax old
as a garment. The moth shall eat them up. Now
hold your place right here. By that perfect faith right there,
that's the faith he had when he was on the cross, forsaken
of God and judgment. That's his faith. He knew when
he finished that work, God would justify it, raise him from the
grave. And he satisfied that justice. And because he satisfied
that justice and suffered that ultimate perfect being alone,
he promises he will never let his people be alone. Get that
now. He will never let you who are
His be alone. He will be with you. He suffered
that forsaking and that being alone so that His people will
never, ever be left alone of God our Father and Christ our
Lord, ever. Now here's His word. Sometimes
we're alone. Sometimes we're alone in a crowd.
Sometimes we're alone with no one around. Sometimes we're in
darkness, we're in sorrow. We just don't feel like we have
faith. We don't feel like we have ever
even known the Lord. You ever been there? What's his word to you when you're
in that place? He knows it. He knows what it's
like to be alone. But listen to what he says in
Isaiah 54 10. Now this is his word after showing
us his faith. Listen to what he said. Who is
among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his
servant, that walketh in darkness and has no light? Let him trust
in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God. Turn back to Isaiah
41. Why trust in the Lord when you're
in a darkness and you feel alone? Why trust him? Because this is
his promise to you. This is his promise to you who
believe. Listen, Isaiah 41 verse 9. He
says, this was God's word to Christ, our Israel, and this
is his word to us because of him. He says, thou whom I've
taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief
men thereof, and said unto thee, thou art my servant, I've chosen
thee, and not cast thee away, fear thou not, for I am with
thee. Be not dismayed. I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. Yea,
I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. That was Father's word to Christ
by which he trusted the Father, and that's Christ's word to you
who trust him. Look here, verse 13. I, the Lord
thy God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear
not, I will help thee. Fear not, thou worm, Jacob, and
ye men of Israel. I will help thee, saith the Lord,
and thou redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Now, what if you're
alone for the same reason as the apostles? Go back to John
chapter 14. What if you're alone for the
same reason as the apostles? They denied they knew the Lord. left and would have left the
gospel if he hadn't recovered them. What if you're alone for
that reason? Who's going to save you? The
Lord had came to them and he had given them faith, but then
they fled and would have left. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love.
Or do you say, oh, I'm sure my faith is strong. I won't deny
you. What happens when that's the
case and you're alone? The Lord came to them after his
resurrection, and he restored them, because this is what he
promised his people. Verse John 14, 23, Jesus answered
and said unto him, to Thomas, if a man love me, he will keep
my words, and my father will love him, and we will come unto
him and make our abode with him. That statement makes some believers
afraid, and those who are false use that statement to try to
make fallen brethren afraid. They're so puffed up. That's
not why Christ gave that statement. He gave that statement to comfort
His people. Why did you believe Him in the beginning? Why did
you keep His word to believe Him and love one another in the
beginning? Because He came to you and He gave you faith. When you're where they are, did
they look like they were keeping the word of the Lord? They left
Him. How come they continued in faith?
He came to them, and he restored them, and he renewed them, and
he kept them believing him. That's, brethren, how you first
begin to believe. That's how you're going to continue
to believe. That's how every day When you're
just doing your idle things during the day and working and going
about the cares of the world and have no thought of Him whatsoever,
and then a Word comes to you, and you remember Him. And you
go to His Word and you start wanting to look into His Word.
Just in an instance like that, how come you do that? Because
He keeps coming to you, and He keeps restoring you. And that's
what he did to them in a greater way that night. And that's what
he's going to keep doing for his people. And by that, he makes
you know our faith's given by him. It's sustained by him. It's
renewed by him. It's grown by him. And our faith
is in him alone. So that we can say with Paul,
I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but the life
I now live in this flesh I live by the faithfulness of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. They knew about
that. They knew about that. And so
do His people. Peter learned it, and he said,
Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. Don't boast about
what you're going to do. Don't boast about how you'll
never deny the Lord. I'm ready to die with you, Lord.
Don't boast about it. Humble yourself under the mighty
hand of God. Cast in all you care upon Him,
for He cares for you. He'll exalt you in due time.
Don't exalt yourself. Child of God, sometimes the Lord
in His providence may make it so you're absolutely alone. But
it's so the Lord can make you know you are not alone. Christ
is with you. You won't enter into that if
you're just in a crowd all the time. You know when you're going
to enter into that? When you don't have anybody else and He
makes you know, I'm with you. He said, John 14, 18, I will
not leave you comfortless. I will come unto you. That's
His word. That's what faith believes. He's
with me. Sometimes mother or father or
sister or brother or somebody you love, you try to preach the
gospel to them and they get angry and they hate you and they leave
you alone. Psalm 27, 10, the psalmist said,
when my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will
take me up. There's a friend that sticks
closer than a brother. There may be times when you feel
alone as if Christ has forgotten you. Oh, you got plenty of people
around you. You're sitting in the house of
God, but you feel like you're alone because you feel like Christ
has forgotten you. Troubles come, and all seems
to go contrary to his promise. You're not alone, child of God.
If he's ever given you faith to believe on him, He's with
you. He said this in Isaiah 49, 15.
Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have
compassion on the son of her womb? Yeah, they may forget. Yet I will not forget thee. I
have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. Thy walls are continually
before me. He said, when you're in that
darkness and you feel alone and you don't have any life, trust
my word. Trust him. He said, I'm with
you. God sent Joseph into a terrible trial and Joseph ended up in
a foreign land in prison with nobody around him that he knew.
Talk about being alone. But the Lord was with Joseph
and showed him mercy and gave him favor in the sight of the
keeper of the prison. The Lord's with his people. He's
with His people, just like the Father was with Christ. Christ
is with His people. God sent Moses and Joshua to
minister and to lead His people. That's a lonely place. That's
a lonely office to hold. There are things you can't tell
anybody. You can't tell your family, because
if you do, you're going to turn them from Christ and turn them
to look at others. You can't say a word. You have
to just keep it to yourself and talk to the Lord. And Moses and
Joshua experienced great opposition What was their confidence? The
Lord told Joshua, there shall not any man be able to stand
before thee all the days of thy life, as I was with Moses, so
I will be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake
thee. I know some brethren who the
Lord sent to minister. If the Lord speaks that to their
heart, that'll be a comfort to them. That'll be a great comfort
to them. He promises, I will be with thee,
I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. Christ came and he spake to them
and he said, all power is given to me in heaven and earth. It's
all his power. He has all the power. That very
one who was left alone, who knows what it's like to be alone, who
perfected justice because he was left alone, he's now risen
to the right hand of the Father and has all power in heaven,
earth, and hell. And he says, therefore, He said
to his ministers, to his servants, go forth teaching all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the
Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I've commanded you. And look, I am with you always,
even to the end of the world. He's with you. He's with you. Whenever that, sometimes he's
drawing one of his children. There's been brethren here that
have experienced this. He's drawing his children. Hadn't revealed
himself to you just yet, but he's drawing you. And you begin
to tell somebody in false religion about what he's done for you.
And there you are in the middle of false religion, and they kick
you out because of it. They did that to the blind man.
And when Jesus heard that they had cast him out, he found him. He said to him, Does thou believe
on the Son of God? He's with his people. The Apostle
Paul experienced being alone. He was in prison, and he experienced
it. He experienced being alone, and
he said at my first answer, No man stood with me, but all forsook
me. I pray God that it may not be
laid to their charge. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood
with me and strengthened me. What did the Lord prove by that?
He proved that he was the faith of Paul's faith. He proved he
was the power by which Paul stood. He proved he was the one working
through Paul. He proved he was the one calling his people. He
proved it was his church and it wasn't Paul's church. And
it wasn't anybody else's. It was his. That's what he's
doing. He takes weak things. He takes
nobody's foolish things that have no strength and have no
might and have no power. And he makes you to know, don't
trust in your strength and your might and your riches. Trust
the Lord. And he brings you to places where
you say, Lord, I just, I'm just alone. And he keeps letting you
know, I'm with you. Why? To make you know it's all
of Him. He's our righteousness. He is
our holiness. He is the one who separated us
and keeps us separated unto Him. You put confidence in your so-called
works of sanctification and your works whereby you've separated
yourself. When you're where those apostles
were, you're going to have absolutely zero assurance. And a good thing
it'll be. Because our assurance is Christ.
I will be with you. That's what he said. There's coming a day, the last
hour we're going to be on this earth. And you're going to find
out in that last hour, it's been this way since the first hour. Not the first hour since you
knew him. Oh, it's been that way since the first hour you
knew him, but it's been this way since the first hour he created.
We're going to come to that last hour, and we're going to draw
that last breath, and we're going to see just how much strength
we have had all along. We're going to see just how much
of this thing of salvation has been of us all along. And there
won't be anybody that can help you. There won't be a soul that
can offer a hand. You may have a lot of money in
your bank account. Maybe they'll bring you some
gold and lay it up beside you and say, won't this comfort you?
That won't be much comfort to you. Bring all your works and lay
them aside. Won't this comfort you? I'll tell you what's going to
be your comfort. Just like the bride in Solomon's song, you're
going to behold him come skipping across the mountains. Just like
he's made himself known now, so often. But you're going to
behold him then that day like never before. And he's going
to come skipping across the mountains. And he's going to say, my beloved,
rise up my love, my fair one, come away. I've been with you
from eternity. Now you're going to be with me
for eternity. He's with his people. He's with his people. Jesus answered
them, do you now believe? Do you believe this? Do you believe
Christ is with you? Do you believe He's with you? Christ knows. He knows. He's ruling everything. He knows. He made His people the righteousness
of God in Him. And if He makes us be alone,
it's to teach us to believe on Him alone. To trust His faithfulness
that He will never leave us. And no matter how bad it gets
in this world, no matter how men try to strike fear in us,
it probably will get a lot worse. Believe on Christ. He said, let
your conversation be without covetousness. That means be content
with such things as you have. Where he's put you, be content
right there. Right there. That's what he's
saying. How can I do that? Because he
said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. If you have
him, you have everything. If He's with you, you have everything. So that you can say boldly, the
Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man shall
do to me. Here's the sum of what I'm trying
to tell you. The psalmist said in Psalm 46, 7, the Lord of hosts,
that means the Lord who everything you see, everything that's ever
been created, He made it. He rules it. Everything. It's
all doing his bidding, everybody, everything with breath, everything. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. That's what he's teaching us
all the time. Amen. you