Alright brethren, let's go now
back to John chapter 16. Now this is the question that
Christ asked of His apostles. This is a question for you and
me. He says in verse 31, Do ye now believe? Do ye now believe? Now in a few hours, Christ will
go to Gethsemane and He's going to allow Himself to be arrested
and put on trial. in a very short time He will
be hanging upon the cursed tree. So the aim of our Master here
was to teach His apostles and to teach you and me to believe
on Him alone. That was the point of this whole
message He was teaching them was to Look to Him and believe
on Him alone. Rest in Him alone. If you go
back to John 14, I want you to see something. Look how He began
speaking to the apostles. He says in John 14, 1, Let not
your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in Me. This is what He was teaching
them. In My Father's house are many mansions. If it were not
so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And
if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive
you unto Myself that where I am, there you may be also. He said to them in verse 6, I
am the way, the truth, and the light. No man comes to the Father
but by Me. And Philip said, show us the
Father and it will suffice us. And he said in verse 9, have
I been so long time with you and yet thou hast not known me,
Philip? He hath seen me, hath seen the
Father. How sayest then, show us the
Father? Believest thou not that I am
in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak
unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth
in me, he doeth the works. Believe me, believe me that I
am in the Father, and the Father in me, or else believe me for
the very works sake. Look over at verse 27. Peace I leave with you, my peace
I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give
I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. You've heard how I said unto
you, I go away and come again unto you. If you loved me, you
would rejoice, because I said I'd go unto the Father, for my
Father's greater than I. And now I've told you before
it come to pass, that when it come to pass, you might believe
you might believe, you might believe in me. And so he ends
the same way, verse 33, John 16, 33. These things have I spoken
unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you
shall have tribulation. If you look to yourself, if you
look to anything about you, if your faith rests anywhere but
in me, you're going to have tribulation. but be of good cheer, I've overcome
the world." Everything in between, from the beginning to the end,
he's teaching his apostles, look to me, believe me, trust me,
rest in me. That's what he's teaching them.
True faith is of God. True faith rests entirely in
Christ alone. And true faith gives all the
glory to the Lord. That's three characteristics
of true faith. It's of God, true faith rests
entirely in Christ, and true faith gives God all the glory
for our salvation. Now, I want to show you first
the apostles' faith. There was something wrong with
their confession of faith. We know that from what Christ
said to them. You know, we've been going through
this series on questions where God asks a sinner a question.
And every time, it's either to teach the sinner something about
his sinfulness, his error, or it's to teach them about the
glory of the Redeemer. In this case, it's both. It's
both. There's something wrong with
their faith. So we'll see the apostles' faith. Then we'll see
Christ's faith, that perfect faith by which we're saved. And
then we'll hear his lesson concerning our faith. Now, first of all,
the apostles' faith. Now remember, the apostles believed
God at this point. They had very weak faith, but
they believed Him. You and I have very weak faith,
but we believe Him by His grace. But they believed Him right here,
but back in verse 16 is where we begin to understand or begin
to see that they didn't understand what the Lord was teaching them.
They had not understood this from the beginning. But here
he says, verse 16, a little while and you shall not see me and
again a little while and you shall see me because I go to
the Father. And he knew they didn't understand
it. When you read on there, you'll see that they questioned him,
you know, and he knew it. He's omniscient. He knew what
the question was in their heart. So he went on talking about this
some more. He told them how the result of
what he was doing was they would have communion with the Father
through His name. And that's what we have through
Christ's accomplished redemption. We have access into the Holy
of the Holies. We have Christ as our High Priest
and it's through His blood we have communion with God. But
then he gets down here and he gets to verse 28 and he says
the same statement again in a little different words. He says, verse
28, I came forth from the Father and am coming to the world. Again
I leave the world and go to the Father. That's the mystery of
godliness summed up in one verse right there, brethren. Think
about it. I came forth from the Father. Jesus is God in human
flesh. He came forth from the Father.
I am coming to the world. His people were flesh. He took
flesh. And He came forth to serve God.
in the place of His people, for His people. And He redeemed us
from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. Again, I
leave the world and I go to the Father. Having satisfied divine
justice, having glorified the Father, having redeemed each
of His people, God so well pleased with Him, He raised Him from
the dead to sit at His right hand, the glorified God-man. That's the gospel in one verse,
brethren. Now notice the apostle's response, verse 29. 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. Now
we're sure of this. And by this we believe that thou
camest forth from God. And we know by Christ's answer
that there was a lot wrong with this confession of faith. What
was it? What was wrong with it? One,
their faith was in their intellect. Their faith was in their intellect.
They didn't glorify the Holy Spirit for revealing this to
them. They didn't glorify Christ for
revealing this to them. They attributed it to their own
intellect, to their own ability to understand. They said it's
because Christ now spoke plainly. It's because Christ now spoke
no dark saying. They made Christ to be the one
who was at fault for the reason they didn't understand Him before.
You preach a message. I've had somebody say this to
me. You preach better on Sunday morning than you do on Sunday
night. Or maybe you've just been at work all day, I mean better
on Sunday morning than Thursday night. Maybe you've got so much
on your mind on Thursday night that you can't hear. You know,
but it's like we tend to blame the other person. It's you, it's
you. And they blame Christ. You didn't speak plainly before.
Now you're speaking plainly and we understand it now. We understand
it now. And their faith was not really
faith at all. Because they saw that Christ
is omniscient. Because He knew what they were
thinking. He knew the questions they had.
And when He revealed to them that He knew what they were thinking,
they saw that He's omniscient. They experienced it and saw He's
omniscient. And they said, by this we believe. Now listen, true faith is the
gift of God so that no flesh can glory. Scripture says, Ephesians
2.8 says, By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. And the gospel is believed not
by mere intellect, or not by sight. It's by the revelation
of God. In Romans 1 verses 16 and 17,
Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it's
the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it,
to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. For therein is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. He has to
reveal this gospel to us. That's the only way we're going
to receive it. And so when they made this confession, they didn't
do what God's people are brought to do when we make a confession
of faith. When God's people are given true
faith, we're brought to confess this. They said, now, we're brought
to confess this, from 1 Corinthians 2.12, now we have received not
the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. That's how we understand the
gospel. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them. A natural man can't know
the things of God. They're spiritually discerned.
So their first problem with this confession was they were confessing,
we believe now because we comprehend it. You've spoken plainly and
we understand it. Every preacher ought to stand
in the pulpit and try to speak as plainly as he can. But don't
ever imagine that you speaking plainly is going to make somebody
believe the gospel. God's got to reveal it. And He
can take your stammering and stuttering and reveal it in spite
of you. And I'm so thankful for that.
But that's so. Now listen, number two, their
faith was in their faith. Their faith was in their faith.
They said, now are we sure? They said, by this we believe. There was something wrong with
their attitude. That's why Christ said, oh, do you now believe? That's a rhetorical question. It means you don't have to believe
like you ought to be. It's not our faith itself that
saves brethren. You hear people say, well at
least I got my faith. Go to hell with your faith too.
It's not our faith that saves, it's the object of our faith
that saves. True faith is looking out of
itself, away from itself, to Christ alone. It's far safer
for a believer to be suspicious of our faith. It's far safer
for us to pray to God and say, help thou my unbelief, than it
is to have this attitude of, oh now we're sure, now we believe. And number three, They only believed
half of Christ's teaching. They only believed half of His
doctrine. Look here in verse 28. He said,
I come forth from the Father and am coming to the world. Again,
I leave the world and go to the Father. But they only confessed,
by this we believe that thou camest forth from God. Brethren, we see through a glass
darkly. Why didn't they confess the last part? They didn't understand
that part. And so they wouldn't say they
believed that part. Listen to me. There's a good
lesson right here. We see everything through a glass darkly. And we
believe the whole Word of God, even that which we don't understand. We're not called on to understand
everything with some kind of perfect understanding. We are
called on to believe the Word. What does he say? By faith we
believe that the things that were created were created out
of nothing. Can you explain that? Do you comprehend that? Are you
able with your intellect to just lay that out, splice and dice
that for me and tell me how God created something out of nothing?
No. But by faith we believe it, don't
we? You see, we believe things we
don't understand in the Word of God, and if we're not careful,
what we end up doing is trying to explain them and appeal to
the intellect in such a way that we just take the meaning completely
out of it and take the purpose of it completely away. As Brother
Henry used to say, you can dissect a rose until the fragrance is
gone and the beauty is gone. We just believe what God said.
It's true. He said it. That's enough. It's
true. Whether I understand it or not.
You know, there used to be a saying, well, God said it and I believe
it and that makes it so. No, no, no. God said it. It don't matter if you believe
it or not. God said it. That makes it so. We just trust
that what He tells us is so. And we're saved trusting Him.
Not trusting our intellect, not trusting our level of comprehension,
and not by sight, and not trusting in our doctrine. So our Lord
reproved them here, and He checked their pride, and He's telling
them and He's telling us that this kind of faith, it's not
going to pass the test. When we're tried, if you've got
the kind of faith they're confessing right there, it's not going to
pass. Now, understand, they're believers, but listen to what
he said, verse 31. Jesus answered them, Do you now
believe? That word now is important. You
know, they said, Oh, now you're speaking plainly. Now we believe. He said, Do you now believe?
Think of what he said. You believe me now? after three
years of me preaching to you, now you believe me. You believe
me now that I've spoken plainly as if He didn't speak plainly
before? You believe me now that the sea is calm and everything
is good? He says, Behold, the hour cometh,
yea, is now come. Their pride right here revealed
they were already being sifted by the devil. They were already
in that sifting of the devil right now. Right now. Because
they were proud of their faith. Oh, now. Now we're sure. And he said, the time has come,
it has now come that you shall be scattered, every man to his
own, and shall leave me alone. In the garden of Gethsemane,
Peter, James, and John left him alone. When they slept, instead
of praying with him, as he was sweating great drops of blood
in soul agony on their behalf. and they're sleeping. Is that
not us? Everything He's done, He's done
for His people. And we're so sleepy-eyed and
just dull. The apostle Peter, he thought
this was so. He truly thought this was so.
He thought his faith was so strong, he boasted and said, though I
should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. And a little
maid, asked him three times, and he denied the Lord three
times. And so did the rest. All of them did. Christ said,
you shall be scattered, every man, every one of you. And they
all denied Him. And they all ended up saying
in their hearts what the two said on the road to Emmaus. We
had trusted that this was the one who would redeem Israel.
we had trusted. Believer, this is where we're
going to end up. If our faith is in our intellect,
if our faith is in our faith itself, if our faith is in doctrine,
or if it's in anything except Christ only. Except Christ only. Now, let's look at Christ's faith. Juxtaposed here to that error. We have perfect faith. We have
perfect faith. True faith is going to be tested.
True faith is going to be tried. And Christ is the tried stone. His faith was tested by what
His disciples did. Not only by that, but by what
His disciples did. And His faith was proven to be
true, perfect faith. Listen to this, verse 32. Here's
how He was tried. He said, You shall be scattered
It's a sorrowful, painful trial, brethren. And it's a true test
of faith right here to see those to whom we have ministered, the
ones to whom we've ministered, to see them not only part from
us, but part from all their brethren. They not only forsook Christ,
they not only departed from Christ, they scattered from each other.
You know what a trial that was for Christ to behold. He ministered
to them for three years and not only did they leave Him, they
left one another. And then verse 32, He says, every
man to his own. It's sorrowful when those for
whom you minister look to their own wants, not even their needs,
just their wants. They look out for their own comfort,
their own safety, when they live for self rather
than for Christ and for their brethren. Peter left and he said,
I'm going back fishing. He didn't mean I'm taking a fishing
trip. He meant, I'm done with this. I'm going back to my old
profession. I'm going to be a fisherman from
here on out. I'm done with it. That's what he meant. He went
to his own. And then look at this. Verse 32, And shall leave
me alone. It's hard enough. It's hard enough
when somebody who does not love you deserts you and leaves you
alone. Somebody that you're counting
on, but you know they don't have a heart love for you. But when
they desert you and leave you alone, that's hard enough. But
when it's somebody that you love and somebody that is supposed
to love you, and they leave you alone? And here's the sad thing. When
those for whom you suffer are offended at your suffering and
that's why they leave you alone. You think about that. Christ
was suffering for His people and they were offended at His
suffering. and they left, and left Him alone,
to suffer alone. Brethren, aren't you thankful
that Christ suffered these things? Because He knows what it's like,
and when you and I suffer something like this in a very minor way,
He can comfort us, because He knows what that's like. But don't
forget this, it wasn't just His disciples that left Him alone.
Because He bore the sin of His people and because God is just,
God the Father left Him alone. He cried out, My God, My God,
why hast Thou forsaken Me? And God gave Him no indication
at that time for those three hours of darkness. God the Father
gave Him no indication. He was with Him whatsoever. But
here was Christ's faith even when He was left alone by His
apostles and by His Father. He said, verse 32, and yet I
am not alone because the Father is with me. That was his faith. Do you see how his faith rested
only in the object of his faith? Christ's confidence was not in
his intellect. His confidence was not in his
faith. Well, I believe and I'm sure
the Father's with me. No. He said, I'm not alone. The Father's with me. His faith
was not in doctrine. Christ rested only in the object
of His faith. I'm not alone because the Father
is with me. And this faith believed, Christ's
faith believed the Father was with Him at all times. He didn't
say, I will not be alone because the Father will be with me. He
said, I am not alone right now because the Father is with me
right now. He is with me at all times. And
He didn't put a condition on it. He didn't say, if I do this
or if I do that, the Father will be with me. He said, I am not
alone because the Father is with me. Even when the Father turned His
back and gave Christ no evidence in His heart that He was with
Him, He gave Him no outward evidence He was with Him, He left Him
in darkness for three hours, and Christ still in His heart
knew, He's with me. I'm not alone. He's with me.
He's with me in everlasting love. If I've ever come to behold through
faith that God loved me, He's everlastingly loved me. It never
changes. So if I can't behold Him, and
I don't feel like He's with me, and I don't even feel like I
have faith, He still loves me. It's not conditioned on what
I feel. He knew He was with him in everlasting covenant. He'd
entered covenant with Him. God can't lie. If God's ever
made a covenant with you, you know He's not going to break
His promise. Whatever you feel, whatever you think, whatever,
He's not going to break His promise. And He was with him in justice.
Turn over to Isaiah 50. He knew He was with him in justice.
Look here in Isaiah 50. Now listen to this. Christ glorified
God for His faith, for His understanding, and for his obedience." Watch
this, Isaiah 50 verse 4, the Lord God has given me the tongue
of the learned, that's Christ speaking, that I should know
how to speak a word and season to him that's weary. He wakeneth
morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as to learn.
The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious,
neither turned away back. The result of Him opening my
ear, I wasn't rebellious, Christ said. I didn't turn away back.
He glorified God the Father for knowing Him, for understanding
Him, and for the obedience, for believing Him. And then look,
Christ's faith was not in doctrine. It was in the Lord God alone.
Look at verse 6. 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, because the Lord God will help me. No
other reason. No other object. Just, I know
the Lord God will help me. Therefore shall I not be confounded.
Therefore have I set my face like a flint. I know that I shall
not be ashamed. And Christ's faith was in God
being righteous. His faith was in God who is just. And he knew that once he had
satisfied justice, look at verse 8. He is near that justifieth
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. You see that? He trusted God's righteousness. He knew God will justify me.
Now hold your place right there, brethren. Go back to John 16. You see why Christ is called
the Faithful One? It's not my faith that's going
to save me. It's not your faith that's going to save you. When
Scripture speaks of our faith saving us, it's speaking of the
object of our faith that saves us. It's not our faith itself
that's going to save us. It's the object of our faith.
He looked to the Father and trusted the object of His faith was going
to... The one who taught Him everything, the one who gave
Him the faith, the one who sent Him, He said, He's going to justify
me. He's going to raise me up. So
He looked to Him alone. You and I, brethren, He's teaching
you and me to rest in Him alone. Now let's look at our faith.
Go back. Verse 33. Here's the whole point of everything
Christ has said. These things I have spoken unto
you that in Me you might have peace. In the world, you look
to your intellect, you look to your understanding of doctrine,
you trust in your doctrine, Doctrine is important. It's how we know
Christ. But the doctrine is not to bring us to just rest in the
doctrine, in a system of doctrine. You don't have any leg up on
anybody because you believe the doctrine of election. There can
be a lot of people in hell that believe the doctrine of election.
The devil believes it. That doctrine is to bring us
to God who does the electing, to Christ in whom we are elected.
And if our faith is in itself, we're going to have tribulation
in this world. But even that tribulation is
going to bring us back right here. We'll be of good cheer.
I have overcome the world. And therefore, He's not going
to let His child go. Even when we don't believe Him, even when
we're looking in another direction, even when we're looking at something
else and trusting something else, He's still overcome all our enemies. And He's going to keep us. No
matter our circumstances, we can say, I am not alone because
Christ is with me. We had peace in Christ before
we knew about it. God the Father blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places according as He chose
us in Christ before the foundation of the world. And we should be
holy and without blame before Him in love. He predestinated
us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. It
was all according to His good pleasure. It was according to
His will. It was according to His purpose. It was to glorify
Him and His grace to us. Now, if He blessed us like that
before you and I knew Him, then brethren, even when you don't
think you know Him or you don't have any indication He knows
you, that's not what's going to change it. That's not going
to alter it. If He loved me before I even knew Him and blessed me
before I even knew Him, He's still going to bless me when
I'm in a state where I don't know Him. You might get Alzheimer's
one day and you won't know you are your wife. What matters? What did Christ say to those
that He cast out? I never knew you. That's what
matters, that He knows you. By the blood of His cross, He
accomplished making peace for us with God before we ever knew
anything about it. God commendeth His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved
from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more,
being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. If He did
that for us when we were enemies, we know He's going to save us
now that He's reconciled us. He created peace. And even in
our subjective experience, even in that part of us where we're
looking to Him and trusting Him to be our peace and we feel peace
in our heart. We have peace with God whether
you feel it or not. That's what I'm saying. He gave
us that peace with God according as He chose us in Him before
the world was made. He gave us peace on the cross
when He justified us and reconciled us to God. But now let's talk
about your subjective peace. How do you have it? He came to
dead sinners and He created us anew inwardly and Christ entered
in and He spoke peace into our hearts and made us to know we're
reconciled and we have peace with God. How do you continue? He continues to keep us. He's
the bars around the tabernacle and the bar through the boards
that keeps us so that we continue looking to Him along. So be sure
to understand this. The peace we have in Christ,
it's not of ourselves, nor is it the result of something we
do. It's not conditioned by our circumstances. It's not affected
by our disappointments or our tribulations. The world cannot
give it and the world can't take it away. He said, your joy no
man takes from you. Christ Himself is our peace. It's called peace with God, peace
from God, and the peace of God Himself. That's what scripture
calls it. It's the peace of propitiation. It's the peace of pardon. It's
the peace of providence. It's the peace of His presence.
In me you shall have peace. You see that? In the world you
shall have tribulation. We must, through much tribulation,
enter the kingdom of God. It was necessary that these apostles
go through this tribulation that Christ told them they were about
to go through. Why? He said, the devil's desired
to have you that he might sift you as wheat. And he said, here's
one reason you're not going to fall away. I've prayed for you,
that your faith fail not. And they've got to learn that.
So what's he going to have to teach them first? that this cocksure
attitude about, oh, we believe and we're sure, He's going to
show them, I leave you there, you're going to fail. And He's
going to let them fail. He's going to let them fail.
They're going to be scattered, they're going to leave them alone, and they're
going to be brought down. They're going to be brought so
low that when Christ comes to Peter and says, Peter, do you
love me? Peter says, Lord, I'm just going
to leave it with you. You know I love you. I'll just
leave it to you. You know. You know. That's where we've got to be
brought. We've got to be brought where we won't even boast in
anything we do toward Him. Oh, I believe you. Oh, I love
you. We've got to be brought to the
point where we say, Lord, if I look to me, if I look to this
world, if I look to anything else but You, I have nothing
but tribulation. But even through that tribulation,
when He's brought me down and turned me from looking to me,
He turns me back so He says to me, be of good cheer. I've overcome
the world. I've overcome all your enemies.
So that you're more than conquerors through Christ. More than conquerors. So that nothing can separate
us from the love of God in Christ. That's why we have to go through
tribulation. It's to show us that greater is He that's in
you than He that's in the world. It's not you and me that's great,
it's greater is He. It's to show us that God always
causes us to triumph in Christ. Now let's then go back to Isaiah
50. Let's end right here, hearing Christ's Word to us, right here. He's going to speak to us who
believe and He's going to speak to us sitting here who don't
believe. And here's what He said, right
here, Isaiah 50 verse 10. First He's going to speak to
you who believe. Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that
obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and
hath no light? He is saying, even when you are
in the darkness, even when you have no evidence that God is
with you, let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon
his God. Not his intellect, not his doctrine,
not his church creed, not his church denomination, not His
works, not anything about Him. Trust in the name of the Lord
and stay upon God. Now, here is His word to those
whose faith is produced by their own intellect, who have faith
in their faith, and faith in their doctrine, and faith in
anything else. Here is His word to you. And let me tell you something.
You might sit here and say, well, I am not religious. I don't have
faith in anything. Oh, yeah, you do. You believe you. You trust you. Everybody believes
something. You either trust in Christ or
you. So whether you're religious or not, you're worshipping an
idol. The idol is you looking at him in the mirror every morning.
So you're trusting somebody. Now listen to what God says to
you. It's what Christ said, verse 11. Behold, all ye that kindle
a fire, you kindled your own fire. Behold, all ye that kindle
a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks, You've seen
a sparkler, you know, that sparkles. What does it do? It sparkles
a little while, and then what happens? It goes out. He said,
if you've kindled your fire, you just got a bunch of sparkles,
that's all. Coppice Joseph said about the sparks, walk in the
light of your fire, and in the sparks that you've kindled, this
shall you have of my hand. You shall lie down in sorrow.
Now brethren, that's a word of you and me that believe too.
Because in those times when we're like the apostles, when we've
kindled our own fire and said, oh, now I believe, and we've
compensated ourselves about with the sparks that we've kindled,
we're going to lie down in sorrow. But thank God we are, because
He's not going to let us keep trusting in us. This is the difference. This is the only thing that makes
the difference. If we're His, He's going to turn us back to
Him and keep us trusting Him. And that's how we're going to
continue to believe in Him. Not us. These things I have spoken
unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world, what
does that mean? That means anywhere else you
look but Christ, you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. Christ has overcome the world.
That means He has overcome all the enemies of His people. So
even our flesh He has overcome. So He is not even going to let
our flesh separate us from Him. Aren't you thankful? Trust Him. Trust Him only. Stay on Him. Amen.