All right, turn with me to John
14. John 14. What a precious thing
it is to remember our Lord's death. Isn't that a precious
thing? especially here in the way that
he has commanded us to remember it. When I was preparing this
message for this ordinance, I thought, I'm so thankful that the Lord
gave us this ordinance. We understand now things that the disciples then
had no idea of. He would say things and they
had no idea. And we are remembering right now what our Lord was teaching
them in this text. I believe that John 13 through
18 is so precious. It's so precious. The Lord's
words right before He went to accomplish His work. He said
in this chapter at the end of verse 2, He said, I go to prepare
a place for you. That's what I'm going to do,
to prepare a place for you. And we know what that means now,
don't we? Had he not gone, we could have no place. And he said
at the end of verse 12, I'm going unto my Father. I'm going back to the Father.
I'm going to make intercession for you. And he said in verse 19, Yet
a little while, and the world seeth me no more, but you see
me." And his disciples are hearing
all of this and they're thinking, what is he saying? What does
he mean by this? So verse 22, that's where our
text is going to pick up tonight. Verse 22 says, Judas saith unto
him, not Iscariot, The traitor has already left. Judas has already
gone out to do what he must do. This is Jude, the apostle, the
writer of the book of Jude. His last name was Thaddeus. Sometimes you see the apostles
listed and Thaddeus is one of them. That's Jude's last name.
Verse 22 says, Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how
is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us and not unto
the world. How will you manifest yourself
to us and not to the rest of the world? Why will you manifest
yourself to us and not to the rest of the world? What a privilege
it is that God has revealed these things to us. It is such a privilege. We are so privileged. How do
we know that we are the us? He said, how is it that you're
going to manifest these things to us? How do we know that we
are the us? The answer is Jesus Christ has
manifested himself to us. That's how we know. We see that
he is not God's son. He is the son of God. And we know what that means.
He is the Son of God. It means that He is God manifest
in the flesh. That's what it means. The God,
God Almighty Himself. We see that He is not standing
at anybody's heart's door, is He? We see that. Do you know
how many people believe that He is standing at sinners' hearts'
door? We see that. He's not at their
heart's door, He's on His throne and we see that. We see that He did not die to
make salvation possible. He died to make salvation finished. And He has manifest Himself to
us. and he hasn't manifest himself
to the entire world. So what a privilege it is. It's
his doing, it's his decision, his will. All we can do is be
thankful to him for choosing us. Man, we ought to be the most
thankful people on this earth. God chose us. Yeah, but I don't
have much of the world. Well, I don't need it anyway. This world is about to be burned
up. There's a new heaven that I'm about to inherit in him. Thankful, thankful he chose us. Verse 22, Judas saith unto him,
not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself
unto us and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto
him, 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. Now we have seen in the last
couple of messages from this chapter what our Lord means when
he says, if a man love me, he will keep my word. So I'm not
going to re-preach that tonight. But I will tell you this. If
our Lord says something one time, it's bound in eternity forever. If He says it one time. If He
says something twice, we had better sit up and listen. This
is the third time He has said this in this chapter alone. And
He's about to tell us the opposite of this in the next verse. And
he says this four more times in chapter 15. Look at chapter
15, verse 10. It says, if you keep my commandments,
you shall abide in my love. Verse 12, this is my commandment
that you love one another as I have loved you. Verse 14, he
said, you are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. And verse 17, he said, these
things I command you, that you love one another. Our Lord is
very serious about that. So we would be wise to believe
and obey his command. And the reason is because back
in chapter 14, verse 24 says, he that loveth me not keepeth
not my sayings and the word which you hear is not mine, but the
father which sent me. Do we keep His commandments so
that He will love us? No. He has already proven His
love to us. Already. Chapter 15 verse 13
says, Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down
his life for his friends. Can you believe that God Almighty,
the God of heaven and earth, has called us His friends? Can you believe that? His friends. I have some friends. I have some
real friends. And they're good to me. And I
am not good to my Lord. But in spite of that, He has
called me His friend. Man, that is something. Well,
verse 25, chapter 14, verse 25 says, These things have I spoken
unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which
is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall
teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance
whatsoever I have said unto you. Every time we come together,
every single time, And we remember our Lord, and we have some elements
here, but we remember His death every time, every single time. And every time we do that, that
is the work of God's Holy Spirit. If God's Holy Spirit quit moving
on us, we would cease to come together and truly remember our
Lord and remember His death. He brings us together in the
name of Christ and He brings to our remembrance the things
that Christ has said. He opens this word to us. And
He calls to remembrance the things that Christ has said. And what
a precious thing He said in verse 27. I think this is so precious. He said in verse 27, Peace I
leave with you. Peace I leave with you. That's what this is. This is
peace. My peace, he said, I give to
you. That's what this is. Now I want
to show you something that blessed my heart. Go over to chapter
20. This was, Such a blessing. Chapter 20,
look at verse 19. Then the same day at evening,
being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where
the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus
and stood in the midst and saith unto them. Now this is after
he died. This is after he rose and he
appeared unto them. They're assembled together in
this room, the doors are shut, and all of a sudden he appears.
And he came and stood in the midst and saith unto them, Peace
be unto you. That's how he greeted them. When
he saw his brethren after his ascension, that's how he greeted
them. Peace be unto you. Now look at verse 26. And after eight days again his
disciples were within, now this is eight days later, his disciples
were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors
being shut, and stood in the midst and said, Peace be unto
you. That's how he greeted them. Now
I can't help but wonder. I read those two, there were
two references, and I read both of those and I saw it. Peace
be unto you. I cannot help but wonder. after
seeing and hearing that's how he responded that's how he greeted
them the same way both times I cannot help but wonder if when
I finally get to see him face to face the very first time that
this body sleeps and all this stuff falls off and he comes
to get me and you know I thought he's not going to take me to
glory he is glory if he comes and gets me then I'm in glory
And the very first time that these eyes get to see His face
and all of His features, and I'm standing there with Christ
Himself face to face, I wonder if the first words I'll ever
hear come out of His mouth are, Peace be unto you. Absolute, eternal peace is unto
you. Welcome to glory. Is that not
wonderful? Peace be unto you. Look over
at Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2 verse 14 says, For
He is our peace. who hath made both one." That
means the one who was without God, with no hope in the world,
and Christ Himself. He has made us one. "...and hath broken down the
middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in His flesh
the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for
to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace. And that he might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby,
and came and preached peace to you which were afar off and to
them that were nigh. Peace be unto you. Peace be unto
you. This is our peace. You know that? In what this represents, a middle wall of partition has
been broken down, completely busted down. The veil in the
temple has been rent, and now you're welcome to go into the
Holy of Holies. That's peace. Back over in our
text in John 14, Verse 27 says, peace I leave with you, my peace
I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give
I unto you. I'm not talking about peace with
man. The world can give you a little bit of peace, but it's only with
man. He said, I'm talking about peace with God, peace with God
Almighty. So he says at the end of verse
27, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. I love
that he started this chapter by saying, let not your heart
be trouble. And he gets almost to the end
of this chapter saying, let not your heart be trouble. Let it
not be trouble. I want to partake in the peace
that Christ made, don't you? I want to be a partaker in the
precious blood of the Lamb. I want to partake of that. I
want to, he said, he that eats of my flesh and drinks of my
blood, I want to partake Him. Well, he said, let not your heart
be troubled. Don't let it be afraid. Verse
28, he said, you have 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 go unto the Father, for my Father is greater
than I. He's saying, if you had any idea
what I was doing, you would rejoice in it. He keeps saying, don't
be sad, don't be troubled, If you want to be a partaker in
this, I must go. And if you knew what I was doing,
you would rejoice in it. If you knew that I was going
back to the Father and I was bringing my own blood before
Him, here it is, Father. Make an intercession, make Him
peace for you. You would greatly rejoice over
this. But He's also saying something else. He's saying, if you loved
me, Now think about this. If you loved me, you would be
happy for me because I just told you I'm going back to my father.
If you loved me, you wouldn't want to keep me here. I thought
about our loved ones who depart in the faith, and we know it's
the Lord's will, but man, we sorrow. Well, if we could enter
into this and if we loved them, We would be happy. We would be
truly happy. He's saying, my work is done.
I'm leaving this sinful world and I'm going back to glory itself.
And if you loved me, you'd be happy. Look at the second half
of verse 28. If you loved me, you would rejoice because I said,
I go unto the Father. For my Father is greater than
I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that when it
is come to pass, you might believe. I'm telling you this so that
you will see you have nothing to sorrow in. Just rejoice. Verse 30, Hereafter I will not
talk much with you, for the prince of this world cometh and hath
nothing in me. Now he talked with them for 40
days after he arose. He was here with them for 40
days after his resurrection, but he's saying our conversation
is about to end right now, for a short time right now. And the
reason is it's time for this great transaction. It's time. The moment that was ordained
before the foundation of the world, it's here. The moment that the angels have
desired to look into, it's here. Here it is. The moment that history
and humanity and eternity hangs on, it's here. It's time. When I told Eve and that serpent
that the serpent's seed would bruise the heel of Eve's seed,
but that the woman's seed would crush the head of the serpent's
seed, It's time. It's time. It's here. It's on
us. Verse 30, Hereafter I will not talk much with you, for the
prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me. He has nothing
on me. There's no sin. There's nothing
that will condemn me. I'm going to willingly do this. Verse 31 says, But that the world
may know that I love the Father, And as the Father gave me commandment,
even so I do. Now let me show you two very,
very holy scriptures. Very holy scriptures. The first
one is in Isaiah 53. This is one verse and one word
of God is no greater than another word. But what a glorious verse
this is. Isaiah 53 verse 7 says, He was
oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened
not his mouth. You know what that means? He
was willing. Absolutely willing. Now the second
one is in Hebrews 5. Go with me over to Hebrews chapter
5. Hebrews 5 verse 8 says, Though
he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which
he suffered. Willing. He was willing. He did this willingly. Every
bit of this was willingly. Now go back to our text in John
14. Verse 31 says, But that the world may know that
I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, even
so I do. Arise, let us go hence. I love that. I love that. What he's saying is, no man takes
my life from me. Before we go, I want you to understand
that no man takes my life from me. I lay it down. Now let's
go. Let's go. I love the glory and the honor
of our Lord's victorious death. The time is here. It's time. And I'm going to do this willingly. arise, let us go hence. If all of our hope is in what
our Lord accomplished, where he went hence, if that's all
our hope, if it's in what he accomplished through his glorious
death, then let's honor him by remembering him and partaking
of his table, all right? All right, Brother Bob, you come.