Good morning, brethren. Let's
turn in our Bibles to John 14. John 14. Verse 7, the Lord Jesus said, If you had known Me, you should
have known My Father also. And from henceforth you know
Him and have seen Him." He knew the hearts of His disciples. He knows the hearts of His people
and He knew they were troubled. He knew their hearts were full
of unbelief. And so the Lord comforted them
with the good news of who He is and of His works. That's what
he used to restore faith in them and strengthen the faith they
had. He declared to them that he's
God. He is God. He said, if you've
seen my father, you've seen me. Or if you've seen me, you've
seen my father. He declared to them he's God,
one with the Father. When we know Christ, we know
God the Father. And that's what he's declaring.
And he said, verse 8, Or Philip saith to him, Lord, show us the
Father, and it sufficeth us. You know these words, had to
grieve the Lord. This had to grieve Him. We can
grieve Him with our sin and our unbelief, and this had to have
grieved our Lord. It was the same as saying, if
you'd show us the Father, then we'd believe you. Then we would
believe you are who you say you are. And Jesus said to him, have
I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me,
Philip? Just think how tender that word
is in the face of just total unbelief. And he says, he that
hath seen me hath seen the Father. And how sayest thou, show us
the Father? Believest thou not that I'm in
the Father and the Father in me. That rhetorical question
is a statement of fact. Philip didn't believe. He says,
believest thou not, and that was a statement of fact. He didn't. Unbelief is the worst sin. It is the very worst sin there
is. If we don't believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, if we don't cast all our care on Christ, or if
we never really believed him and end up leaving, forsaking
the gospel, there's no more sacrifice for sin. This is why unbelief
is the unpardonable sin. There is no more sacrifice for
sin. And yet, we see ourselves in
Philip and these other apostles, unbelieving, knowing so little,
and we have to say, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. And yet,
our Lord forgives our unbelief. and saves his people even from
our unbelief. And so the Lord declared to them
the one message that cures our unbelief. He said, believe me. Believe me. Believe me when I
say he that has seen me has seen the Father. Believe me when I
say I'm in the Father and the Father in me. He gave God the
Father the glory for the words he spoke. The words that I speak
unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father. That's who's
given me the word. That's who's speaking through
me. He gave God the glory. And notice how he connects his
words with his works, because our Lord's works that he works
in his people, he does through his word, through speaking the
word. He said, believe me that the
Father, dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. He's given the Father
the glory. The Father that dwelleth in me,
he doeth the works. So he says in verse 11, Believe
me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, or else believe
me for the very works sake. Now when we are troubled and
we're having difficulty and we're in our unbelief and worried and
all the nice names we give to unbelief, This is the cure. The Lord said, believe me, believe
me, or else believe me for the very works sake. Think about
the works Christ has worked. Think about the works he's worked
in you who believe from the first day till now. Think about the
works he worked for his people at Calvary. So I want to concentrate
this morning on the works of our Lord. I want to just first
get right to They're all important work and that's His work of redemption.
His work of redemption. And when you think about the
Lord being able to work in your heart and in your life and save
His people, remember this. Think on this work right here.
God who is Spirit, the Son of God, one with the Father, the
Father one with Him, He came down and took flesh and was formed
in the womb, a body, and took this body that was conceived
in the womb of a virgin of the Holy Ghost. That ought to just
make us say, is anything too hard for the Lord? Great is the
mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
If he did that, nothing else is impossible for him. All things
are possible with God. His people had to be perfect
from conception It wasn't enough that you just come out of the
womb and start serving God. We had to be perfect in the womb.
We had to be perfect from conception, conceived of incorruptible seed. And so He was. And He came forth,
not like us. We come forth sinners, conceived
in sin, speaking lies, and going after a false God all our days. He came forth perfectly holy
before God. He walked this earth, and he's
the only one who can make this statement. He said, I always
do those things that please the Father. Now that is not some
exaggerated statement when our Lord says it. He always did those
things that please the Father. And then at the appointed time,
the law has no claim on him. He's without sin. And yet at
the appointed time, our Lord Jesus Presented himself to the
father as he had promised from eternity And here's the law he
sees his people condemned He sees his people worthy of the
curse and condemnation and the fierce fury of God's wrath He
sees us in that place And our Lord Jesus said I Will bear their sins everything
the law demands of them. Let them go. Let them go free. When the very law was ready to
pierce his people through unto eternal death, our Lord said,
pierce me and stepped in the gap and stepped in the room instead
of his people and bore our sin and bore our curse on that tree. And He arose from the dead. Oh,
you want to talk about nothing being impossible with God? He
came, took flesh like His people. He's Spirit, but He's going to
save sinners who are flesh. So He took flesh like His brethren,
but He's going to make us spiritual. As well as in a glorified body,
but to do that, He came and took flesh and redeemed His people
and accomplished it. I mean accomplished it. And He
so fully bore our sin and our curse. Do you ever wonder if
He really was made sin for His people? If He really bore the
curse for His people, did He really die? How else could He? He's sinless in Himself. There
was no other way He could die. than to bear our sin and our
curse. And he did that. And yet, he didn't stay in that
tomb. He came out of that grave. He
came out of that grave. Remember we saw one time how
that Joseph's coffin, his sarcophagus, was in Egypt. And it was there
all the time. And they could look to that and
remember God's promise that He's going to bring us out of here.
Because God, because Joseph made a promise, carry my body out
of here when you leave. God's going to do this. And they
could look at that body and remember that promise and remember that
promise of God that he's going to deliver them out of bondage.
We've got something way better than that. We've got an empty
tomb. Christ came out of that grave. He went to the Father.
And that's where he sits. And that's where you sit, believer.
You are there. asked me last week, you know,
when we die and the time that goes by, you know, and where
are we going to be at that time? We'll be there with spirit, but
then our bodies will be raised and all that. And I know all
of that is presented to us in scripture. You'll be with the
Lord in spirit immediately, and then our bodies will be raised.
But that's given to us in the realm of time, and we're thinking
about time, and he's explaining it to us in terms of time. When we get there, we're going
to be in eternity. Time's going to be no more. It'll
be done. It'll be done. You'll be with
him. You'll be perfect. And all his
people will be with him. Perfect. We'll be time. Time will be no more. It's hard
for us to grasp that, because we just think in terms of time.
All this he did for his people. Now, if we've been given faith,
or if you've never believed him, believe him now. Believe Him
for the works sake and if you do have faith, He's given you
faith. If you're troubled or whatever you're facing, believe
Him and think on His works and believe Him for His works sake.
He did this when you didn't know Him and you didn't have a part
in it. He can save you, whatever you're going through. Then believe
Him for His miraculous works. That's probably what He's specifically
speaking of here is the miracles He had worked that they saw Him
work. But remember this, when you look at those miracles, remember
all those miracles he worked. We look at these physical miracles
and these miracles in nature and we think those are just amazing. How could anybody work that?
They all typify something far, far, far more miraculous than
any of that. They picture his work of grace
in his people. That's the miracle. That's the
miracle. How so? Well, you remember the
first work that he did? At that wedding, he turned water
into wine. You can look back at John 2,
that's where it is, John 2. And it says in verse 6, there
were set there six water pots of stone after the manner of
the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.
It was the pots that they used to put water in that they used
to purify themselves, to wash themselves before they eat. And
you remember how superstitious they were, if a man don't wash
his hands, he's going to defile himself. And yet all their washing
could never make them pure, none of it. And they brought, he had
them bring those water pots to him and Jesus said, fill the
water pots with water. And they filled them up to the
brim. Those water pots, picture his people, we are earthen vessels,
as dead as those water pots. And the Lord Jesus has to empty
us of all our self-confidence. And the way he does it is he
fills his people with the water of the word. just like they filled
up those water pots, and by Him making us hear Him and see Him,
He turns that water into wine. He makes us see His blood, and
He purges our conscience by making us behold the accomplishment
of His blood at Calvary for us. And when He does that, the wine
of His blood cheers your heart like that wine cheered them.
That's when you say He's brought forth the best wine. He creates
a new nature in you, completely new that was not there And that's
the purity we have to have and it's only Him that can create
it. Now believer, if you believe Him, if you sit here today and
you believe Him, think on that work because that's the only
reason you do. You know there was a time you didn't believe
Him and you couldn't believe Him and you couldn't make yourself
believe Him. And He worked this work and now you can't do otherwise. He raised the dead. He came to
Lazarus and said, to his tomb, and he said, Lazarus, come forth.
He said, I'm the resurrection and the life. He that believeth
on me shall never die. And though he dies and goes into
the grave, he won't die, he'll live. And he came to that tomb
after four days and said, Lazarus, come forth. And Lazarus came
out of that grave. That's exactly what he did for
us. He came to us, dead in our sins, and spoke and said, come
forth. And you were quickened to life
and given life and came forth. Yes, we have a lot of grave clothes
and we'll be all our life with Him shedding us of those grave
clothes, but you came forth alive. And that's the work of our Lord.
Think on those works. Think on those works. Go over
to Mark 5. I want you to see this one. This
so illustrates His work of grace in us. illustrates us and his
work of grace. Mark 5 verse 3. He came across that sea and he
came right to Gadara. He came right to the place. He
purposed to go there because there was a man there he was
going to save. And when he got there, he came
to this man who had an unclean spirit. Verse 3 said, who had
his dwelling among the tombs. Mark 5 3. He had his dwelling
among the tombs, that is in the cemetery. No man could bind him,
no, not with chains, because that he had been often bound
with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder
by him, and the fetters broken in pieces, neither could any
man tame him. And always, night and day, he
was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself
with stones." That's every sinner that Christ saves by grace, that's
us by nature. We were living among the dead,
amongst other dead sinners, some in religion, some out of religion,
living amongst the dead. False religion tried to tame
us, put chains on us, but it was all legal chains of bondage
and we just broke them. And we were often cutting ourselves,
trying to make our lives better, trying to make ourselves acceptable
with God, cutting and cutting and cutting. We were under the
power of the prince of the air, the bondage of the devil, just
like this man. And our Lord came there and what
did He do? He spoke. He said, the Father,
He speaks these words. He works these works. The Father
in Him, Christ speaks the word. And He said, come out of the
man, thou unclean spirit. He said it there in verse 8.
And those legion of devils came out of that man. Well, the townspeople
heard about it and they came out to see. Verse 15 says, When
the people came, they saw him that was possessed with the devil
and had the legion sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And this man wanted to go with
the Lord. He wanted to go right in with the Lord. The Lord said,
You go tell your brethren what things I have done for you. That
is a picture of what Christ does for His people. He comes and
He speaks the word and He makes the devil flee and all the unclean
spirits flee. out of His people. And He, when
He gives you the mind of Christ, He makes you be in your right
mind. Makes you sit down at His feet, clothed in His righteousness
through faith. And you just want to go with
Him. I want to be with Him. Be with Him. All these miracles
are pictures of His works that He's worked in you who believe.
He gave sight to the blind, People that had never seen, never had
sight. They asked him, who's seeing
that this man was born blind? He said, it's not his parents.
He said, he's born blind that I might work the works of God,
that they might be manifest. He said, I'm the light. I'm the
light. And he gave that man sight. And we sing it, amazing grace.
I was blind, but now I see. He gave us ears to hear. We could
not hear the gospel before. We could not hear the good news
of this word and rejoice in it. And He gave you ears to hear.
He took paralyzed people that had never walked, never used
their limbs, and He made them use those limbs. And this is
what He's done for His people, made us leap for joy. And you
know when John the Baptist, now you think, if anybody, if there
was ever a man, who wouldn't have a problem with unbelief,
surely it would be John the Baptist. Scripture says, the Lord said,
there is not a greater man born than John the Baptist. And yet,
after he had served the Lord, after he had preached the gospel,
after he had said all the good things he said, and faithfully
proclaiming the personal work of Christ, he was put in prison. Some trouble came. And he sent
his disciples to the Lord. And this was nothing but unbelief.
And he said, Are thou he that should come, or do we look for
another? That's what Philip was saying.
Are thou he that should come, or do we look for another? And
you remember what the Lord sent word back to him to strengthen
him? He said, Go show John again. That's why we come here. We've got to be shown again.
Go show John again. Go tell him again. Those things
which you do here and see. That blind receive their sight,
and the lame walk, and the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear,
and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached
to them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me."
You know what that said? Blessed is he that believes me.
What did he use to strengthen his faith? He showed him all
them miracles. Because that all pictures what
he's done in our heart, what he's done in John's heart. And
our Lord stilled the storm. You remember that? You want to
talk about the works He's done. We see troubling things happen
in this world. That awful tragedy again with
these children that died this week down there. And news that
comes to our brethren and to you and it just breaks your heart. Our Lord, He sent His disciples
into a storm. And they were so troubled. They
were so troubled. And this is what happened. He
said to them, Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? And then he arose, and he rebuked
the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And they believed. They said, This is the Christ,
this is God, this is our Savior. Nobody ever did anything like
this. The Lord Jesus knew they had
little faith. He knows when you and I have
little faith. He knew it. So what'd he do? He sent them out onto that sea
and he sent the storm. He sent it. He sent it. And he waited until they were
crying and fearful and, Save us Lord! And he said to them, gently told
them what the problem is, you have little faith. And then he
stopped the storm, he spoke and calmed the storm. Why did he
do all that? So they'd believe him. And they
did. Why did he send you the storm?
Then why does he calm it? Why does He calm it in your heart?
So that you're shown again the works of our Lord, and you believe
Him, and you know Him, and trust Him. That's why He sends the
storm. Believe me, He said, or else
believe me for the work's sake. Anything too hard for the Lord?
Anything? But then you come to our most
troubling problem of unbelief, and that's the cares of this
world. our day-to-day provisions. You know, we find out how much
money is our salvation and how much we really depend on it.
Because you let that money start dwindling and we get so fearful. And the moment it goes back up,
calm as can be. Everything's fine. That money's
not our salvation. You didn't come in with any and
you ain't going out with any. What's our salvation? Go over
to Luke 12. Again, he spoke of little faith
and listen to what he said. Luke 12, verse 22. He said unto his disciples, I
say unto you, take no thought for your life, what you shall
eat, neither for the body, what you shall put on. The life is
more than meat and the body is more than raiment. He's not saying,
don't provide. He's not saying, don't go to
your job and earn a living. He's saying, worry is nothing
but unbelief. That's all it is. He said, don't
do that. Why not? Consider the ravens. He said, believe me, for the
work's sake. Now he's going to let us consider the works. Consider
the ravens. They neither sow nor reap, which
neither have storehouse nor barn. They don't have a big bank account,
store it up for a rainy day. They just depend on God to provide
every day. Look, how much more are you better
than the fowls? He feeds them. Which of you,
with taken thought, by worrying, can add to a stature one cubit?
If you then be not able to do that thing which is least, why
do we think that's the greatest thing? Because it's what's right
here on us. It's what we're facing every
day. We think that's the greatest thing. This is where we have
the most trouble with unbelief right here. He said, this is
the least. This is the least. And if you
can't provide for the least, why take yourself for the rest?
Consider the lilies, how they grow. They toil not. They spend
not. Yet I say unto you that Solomon
in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God
so clothed the grass, which is today in the field and tomorrow
is cast into the oven, how much more will He clothe you, O ye
of little faith? Seek not what you shall eat or
what you shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations
of the world seek after. And your Father knoweth, He knoweth
you have need of these things. Isn't that what unbelief is?
It's saying God don't know. God won't provide. That's what
unbelief is saying. He said He knows. He knows what
you have need of. But rather seek ye the Kingdom
of God. Seek Christ. Seek the King. And all these things shall be
added to you. Fear not, little flock. It's your Father's good
pleasure to give you the Kingdom. Now go back with me to John 14.
I want to briefly show you something here, really. Real quickly, and
we'll be done. Believe Him for the work's sake.
If you believe Him, just believe Him. And if you can't believe
Him, believe Him for the work's sake. Look at what He's wrought
in your life. Now, if you feel like you got
to where you are today because of something in you, that's just
total unbelief. That's not even believing Him
at all. But if you believe He worked everything to bring you
to where you are, remember that. and believe him for the works
sake. Now look at this, verse 12. Verily, verily, I say unto
you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do, shall he
do also. Through faith in Christ, he that
believes on me, and through faith in Christ, God imputes all Christ's
works of righteousness to you, believer. That's what the imputation
is. All the works of righteousness
Christ wrought from being conceived holy all the way, always pleasing
the Father, bearing the wrath and justice of God unto death
and coming out of that tomb. Everything Christ did in perfect
righteousness, God says to His believing child, you did that. You did that. Yes, after he went to the Father,
Through the apostles, the Lord worked a lot of miracles. He
worked a whole lot of miracles. It wasn't for the miracles sake.
He was showing people that He really had accomplished redemption,
really gone to the Father, really poured out the Spirit, and the
gospel they preached was true. He was confirming the word they
were preaching. That's what He was doing. That's
what all those miracles were about. But all those miracles
typified Christ working the miracle of grace, through the gospel
they preached and through the gospel we preach. And He's using
you and me who believe to declare His Word right now. Right now. Right now. I'm not the only one
preaching. We're all preaching. We're gathered
here. We've all supported this gospel.
We're all preaching this gospel. It's going forth into the world
right this second. And He has worked this same miracle
of grace in others right here. And he's worked it in others
in other places. And that's what he's talking about here. And
look at this next word, verse 12. And greater works than these
shall he do, because I go to my Father. Because he went to
the Father, because he sent forth the Holy Spirit, greater works
than these has his believing people done. You say greater
works than what Christ has done? How can that be? Here's what
he's talking about. He walked this earth. He only
called out so many when He walked this earth. And since He ascended
to the Father through the preaching of His Word, He has called out
a far greater number than He called out when He personally
walked this earth. And that's what He's talking about. Everything
He did through believing Him, God says, you did it, believer.
And not only that, using you to preach His gospel, He works
this miracle of grace in the hearts of His people And He has
saved, from the time He went to the Father to now, He saved
a far greater number than He did when He walked this earth.
That's what He's talking about. That's why we're here to preach
the Gospel. And each one He saves is a miracle
of His grace. See, He's saying here that He's
one with the Father. And what He's going to tell us
and what He's saying to us here, He's about to say it plainly
in another message. We'll see this. We are one with
Christ, with the Father. Christ prayed to the Father,
I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. And when our Lord tells us here,
I and my Father want the works I'm working, the Father is working
them in me. The words I speak, the Father's
working them in me. He says to you, and all the works
I've worked, you've worked them in me. And all the work you're
going to work, It's going to be by me working in you, and
you're going to preach my word, and I'm going to bless it in
the hearts of others and call them, even in a greater degree
than I did when I walked this earth. I say unto you, he that
believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater
works in these shall he do, because I go to my Father. And yet knowing
the oneness that we have with Him, But we say what He said,
don't we? It's not I. It's the grace of
God with me. He said these words I'm speaking,
the Father's speaking them. These works I've worked, the
Father's working them. And that's what we say. Not unto us, O Lord,
not unto us, but unto Thy Name give glory. Because that's how
one His people are with Him and the Father. And one last thing. Think of the works he's worked
through prayer to him. He said, whatsoever, verse 13,
whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the
Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything
in my name, I'll do it. John later wrote in his epistle,
he said, this is the confidence we have in him. This is the confidence we have
in him. You want to find out where all confidence really should
be. Just listen to men pray. Even
men who believe, trust themselves, when they really get in trouble,
they start confessing, He's the only one that can help them. And this is the confidence we
have in Him. If we ask anything according
to His will, He hearth us. And if we know that He hears
us, Whatsoever we ask, we know we have the petitions that we
desired of Him. Now brethren, all these works
that Christ worked, any trouble you face, any time you've overcome
with unbelief, believe Him. And if He isn't, if you can't
believe Him, start thinking. Turn away from the waves and
turn away from everything else to Him and start thinking about
All these works He's worked for you and in you. And believe Him
for the works sake. What do you have that you didn't
receive of Him? He's worked it all. He's worked
it all. And that's what He said. Believe
Me. Believe Me that I'm in the Father and the Father in Me or
else believe Me for the very works sake. Let's go to Him. Father, we thank you for this
word. Thank you, Lord, that you've been gracious to teach us and
that you're merciful to our unbelief. Lord, increase our faith. Make
us really think about the works you've worked, nothing that's
ever been out of your sovereign power and how everything you've
worked, you've done it for your people. And make each of your
people remember that you did it personally for them. And Lord,
by that, strengthen us to trust you and have all our confidence
in you alone. Lord, any poor sinner that's
never believed on you, we ask, Lord, if it's your will, that
you'd work this work in them through this word. Make them
hear, make them believe, trust you. Thank you, Lord, for this
day. Thank you for bringing us here
and showing us again. Oh Lord, we need you. We need
you to teach us. We need you to keep us. And we
thank you for that mercy and that grace. In Christ's name
we ask it. Amen.