title of the message is Do You
Now Believe? Do You Now Believe? After teaching
them these things, our Lord asked them this question. Do you now believe? Every time we hear the truth
of the gospel preached, We are faced with this question. Do
you now believe? Jeremy had called me yesterday,
and Madison's wanting to talk to me about baptism, being baptized,
and she's supposed to call me, and I'm gonna talk to her about
it. But I told him what I'm gonna tell her. Do you believe? That's what Philip said to that
eunuch. Do you believe? He said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the son of God. I believe that. Now you ask anyone who's been
brought up under the gospel, they will say that they believe
that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Everybody here in this
room, everyone in this room will say that. You believe that he's
the son of God. But there are two types of believing. There's two types. One is by instruction. You've
been brought up under the gospel. You've been taught. You've been
taught. The other is by revelation. The
other is by revelation. As the Lord said to his disciples,
he said, you shall know After the Holy Spirit has come, he
will take the things of mine and show that revealed them unto
you. There's a difference in believing
the story and believing the one whom the story is about. When
you believe him, when he's revealed to the heart, when he becomes
very, very real to you. when he is not someone who lived,
but someone who lives right now. He's my Lord, he's my master,
he's my savior, he's my all in all. Everything is committed
to him. Paul said, I have committed everything
to him, everything. Do you believe? And he asked
them this after he had taught them these things. But let's
start in verse 24 and work our way down through this. He said,
hitherto, up to this point, you've asked nothing in my name. They
always ask him. They ask him. Then whenever they
had a question, they ask him personally. Now, they had prayed
before to the Father, but they had never asked anything in his
name before the Father. But hitherto you've asked nothing
in my name. Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be
full. Ask in my name. Ask. Ask for mercy. Ask for forgiveness. Ask for peace. Ask for faith. Ask the Lord to reveal himself
to you. And he said he would. He would. If you want to know
him, he said ask and you'll know. You'll know. Ask him my name
and you'll receive. Everything you need, everything
you need is in me. Now you just ask for it. Everything
spiritually that we need is in Christ. Seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness, and all these other things will
be added. I'm not worried about these other things. Really, I'm
not worried about these other things. Things I need are spiritual,
right? These things are passing away.
These things are temporal. And God will provide that. God
will provide our needs. He said, Matthew, I think it's
Matthew 5. He said, your father knows what
you have need of. He said, look at the birds of
the air. They sow not nor do they reap. And your heavenly
father feeds them. Are you not much better than
a sparrow? Are you not much better than
they? Absolutely. but ask for these spiritual things
that you need. I need, Lord, increase my faith. Lord, I believe. Help thou mine
unbelief. Help me to get rid of it. Help
me to get rid of it. Help me to believe you. Help
me to trust you. Help me to follow you. Help me.
He said, ask and it'll be given to you. Knock and you shall find.
Seek and it shall be opened. These are promises. You'd think
we'd take God at his word. Just take him at his word. Faith is the gift of God, but
faith is taking God at his word. It seems like people are just
waiting for this epiphany of this something to happen. It's
like, oh, no, it's just believing God. It's not simple, but it's
simply taking God at his word. It's standing on the word, standing
on the promises of God we sing. Our problem is we sing above
our experience. Ask in my name and believe. Ask
believing, he said in one place. Ask believing. Don't ask and
say, well, I bet he won't give it to me. Oh, ask believing he's
going to, because whatever you need in Christ, whatever spiritual
need you have, he said he'll provide it. He'll give it to
you. Now, if you need other things,
I mean, there are other things we need. There was a time that
I'd lost my job, and I needed a job, and I asked the Lord for
one, and I got it. A year later, but I got it. He answers in his own time. He
answers, but he answers in his own time. And these things refers to all
the teachings that our Lord spoke to his disciples in that night,
all these teachings. He said, these things, they're
there in verse 25. These things were made, these
things that he taught them were not clear to them at that time.
These things that he was teaching them were like parables. He said,
I spoke to you in parables. They didn't understand. You know,
you and I are on this side of the cross. We have the New Testament. We had the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit was given at the day of Pentecost. And when that happened,
all these things that the Lord had been teaching them that seemed
like parables to them became very clear. As clear as they
are to me and you now. The gospel is clear to me. Is
it clear to you how God saves sinners? Is it clear to you how
God can be a just God and a savior? Is it clear to you that Jesus
Christ is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption? Is
it clear to you that Jesus Christ is our all in all? Well, it wasn't
that clear to them until after he died. And after he died, the
Holy Spirit, after he's died and risen and sent it back to
the Father, Holy Spirit was given and he took these things. and
he made it clear to them. And then we have the New Testament
from it. They wrote the New Testament
from it. And not only, listen, here's
something else that's just such a blessing that we don't, I don't
think we really realize, I don't. When I read things like this,
I thought, man, I don't realize what I have. At that day, you
shall ask, At that day, you shall ask in my name, and I say not
unto you that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father
himself loves you." Listen, you have access to the Father. You
have access to the throne of grace. Do you know that? Do you
know you have access into glory right now, into heaven? You have
access. You have literal access into
the presence of God Almighty in heaven through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Listen to Romans 5.12. Therefore
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access. Not everyone
has access to God. But those in Christ who love
Christ, believe Christ, follow Christ, they have access into
the holy presence of God, by whom also we have access by faith
into this grace, wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. And the Father himself loves
you. You know, it's like the Lord
is saying to them, I'm not talking him into giving you the things
you asked for. Our Lord makes intercessions
for us. We know that. But he's saying the Father, it's
his good pleasure to give you the kingdom. The Father loves
you. He loves you. As I have loved
you, the Father loves you. He loves you. And you have access into his
presence. Our Lord came into this world
because the Father loved us. He didn't come into the world
to make us lovable. He came into the world because the Father
loved us with an everlasting love, a love that you and I can't
destroy. We can't destroy. It's divine
love, it's not human love. You can destroy human love. You
can wear human love out. You can wear it out, but not
God's love. It's everlasting love. He loved
me when I was unlovable. He loved me, listen, knowing
everything about me. You know that I don't know, I
might live to be old. I mean, I'm getting old already,
but I might live to be 90, 100. I doubt it, but I might. But
you know there's not anything I'll do that God doesn't already
know. and he hasn't already taken care
of, he's already taken care of it. He's like that baby laying
in the field in Ezekiel. It was thrown out into the field
because it was so grotesque. It was polluted in its own blood.
It was just, they took it and threw it out in the field to
die. And he came along, the Lord came along and he said, the time
was a time of love. And I put my skirt over you and
I said, live. I know better than that old, that grotesque looking
baby laying in that field. And yet God loved me. He loved
me and he loved me with everlasting love. And there's nothing I can
do. to separate myself from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus, which you can read that in Romans
chapter eight, starting in, I think, verse 28, 30, well, 28 all the
way through to 31, I think it is. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ. I can't even do that. And that is good news. That's
good news. In verse 28, I came forth from
the Father and am coming to the world. And again, I leave the
world and go to the Father. Here's something that just stood
out to me. I came forth from the Father. This is the Son.
Unto us, a Son is given. Unto us, a child is born. The
Son's given. I never saw this before until I was looking at
it this week. I came forth from the Father.
God Almighty. That's who Jesus Christ, he's
God Almighty. He came, God is spirit. God is spirit. He said,
I came from the Father. He came into this world. He became
a man. He came in as God, now listen,
he came in as God into the world. He went back as the God-man.
He went back as the God-man. He came as God, very God, went
back as God-man. God in human flesh. There's a
real man seated at God's right hand, right now, in glory, representing
a multitude of sinners no man can number. That was given to
him by the Father. He represents them, he's there.
A real man is seated at God's right hand. A man who can identify
with this man. He was tempted in all points
as we are, yet without sin. He was tried in all points as
I am, yet he never sinned. Like I do, I give in to it. A real man. God came and then
went back as a man. Isn't that something? I came
forth from the Father and I come into the world. And again, I'm
now leaving the world. I'm going to go back to the Father,
but I'm going back as a man, as the God-man. But now there's
three facts here that we have here concerning redemption in
this one verse. I came forth from the Father.
This refers to our Lord's deity, his pre-existence. He existed
before the world was. The world was with God and the
world was God. In the beginning was the word
and the word was with God and the word was God. This refers
to his deity, his pre-existence, and the Father's will to redeem.
He sent him into the world. Listen, Proverbs 8, verse 30. Then I was by him as one brought
up with him. I was daily his delight, rejoicing
always before him." He said, I've always been with him. This
is the eternal existence of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And
he came not on his own. He said, I came forth from the
Father. He was sent to do the Father's will. Listen to these
scriptures. In John 6, 38 through 40, for
I came down from heaven. That's where I came from. He
said, in one place, I'm from above, you're from beneath. I came down from heaven, not
to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. Are
you interested in that will? I'm interested in knowing it.
And this is the Father's will which has sent me. Here's His
will, and God's will shall be done. He said, I will do all
my pleasure. This is the Father's will which
has sent me, that of all which He has given me, I should lose nothing. I'm not
going to lose any one of the sheep given to me. Not one will
perish. That's what he says. I'll lose
nothing, but she'll raise it up again at the last day. And
this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which
seeth the sun and believes on him may have everlasting life.
And I'll raise him up at the last day. This is the will of
him that sent me. God, now listen, you're not gonna
comprehend this, God sent God into the world to save sinners. And those sinners are gonna be
saved. He said, I'm not gonna lose one of them, not a one of
them. Here's the second thing about redemption. I'm coming
to the world, this is his incarnation. John 1, 14, and the word that
was in the beginning, that was God and with God, and the Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. The Word,
sometimes when I read that, I think of this, and I don't know that
this is a good example or not, but I think that the Word that
I'm saying right now, the Word becomes flesh, becomes real. What if my word right now coming
out of my mouth became flesh and stood before you? God said
the word became flesh, and it dwelt among us. God's word dwelt
among us in the flesh. We beheld his glory. See, his
word is a person. He is the second person of the
Trinity. His glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Galatians 4, 4 and 5, but when
the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son,
made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were
under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. He took
us out of the hands of the law into the hands of the Father. And this is the second Adam.
This one who came from glory is called the second Adam in
Romans 5, 19. For as by one man's disobedience, many were made
sinners. So by the obedience of one, who is that one? That's
the second Adam, the Lord from heaven. Shall many be made righteous? Then there's the third part of
redemption. I leave the world and I go back to the father.
I came into the world. I was sent into the world. I
became a man. The word was made flesh. I have
finished the work that was given to me to do, the work of redemption. When he was on the cross, hanging
on the cross, he cried, it's finished. And after that, he
gave up the ghost. And now he says, I'm going back.
Going back as the victorious savior. Going back as the Redeemer
who has redeemed his people from their sins. I leave the world
now and go back to the Father. The Lord Jesus Christ ascended.
He ascended and he is now exalted and seated at the right hand
of God as our mediator. Ephesians 4.8, wherefore he saith
when he ascended up on high. He's gone back to glory. He led
captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Ephesians 4.10, he that
descended is the same also that ascended. Up far above all heavens
that he might fulfill all things. In Hebrews 4.14, listen to this.
Seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into
the heavens. He's passed into the heaven.
Our forerunner has entered into glory and take possession of
it for us. He has taken possession of heaven
for us. Jesus, the Son of God. Now when
the Savior said, now listen, here in 29 through 30, let me
find this, 29 through 30. And his disciples said unto him,
Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speak no more Proverbs. Now
are we sure that thou knowest all things. Now we're sure. You
are the Son of God. We're sure of this. We're sure
of it. This is clear to us now, that
you came from the Father. You need not that any man should
ask thee. By this we believe that thou
camest forth from God. We believe you are the Son of
God. We believe you're the Son of God. And the Lord said, do you now
believe? You know, you said that before. Peter said, thou art
the Christ, the son of the living God. Do you now believe? Do you believe that I came forth
from God? Do you really believe that I'm
the Messiah, that I am God also, that I am the God-man, that I'm
the mediator, that I'm the high priest, that I'm everything you
need? Do you believe that? Do you now believe that? He said, you're going to be put
to the test here in a little while. You say you believe, listen,
everyone who, every one of God's children, everyone who do, who
believes the gospel, you're going to be tried. He said, he said,
the shepherd's going to be smitten and the sheep are going to be
scattered. Peter, you're going to deny me. Peter, who said,
Lord, I'll die for you. I'll go with, no. He said, you're
going to, before the rooster crows three times, you're going
to, before the rooster crows, you're going to deny me three
times. You're going to say, I don't know you. I don't know who that
man is. He said that to a maid. He said,
a maid asked him, said, you're, you're one of the Galileans.
You're one of those with him. He said, no, I'm not. And he
even, it says, cursed. He even cursed. I don't know the man. And the
third time, that rooster crowed. And the Lord just looked at him,
and he went out wet bitterly. And they all forsook him. They
all left him. But listen, alone, he's alone. He left alone, but he's not alone. He says in verse 32, behold,
the hour cometh. Yea, it has now come that you
shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me
alone. And yet, I'm not alone. I'm not alone, because the Father
is with me. In the mystery of his person,
the Father was with him. What did he say to Philip? He
that has seen me has seen the Father. In the very mystery of
his being, they saw a man. But at the same time, he's saying,
you're also looking at the Father. The Father is speaking to you.
He said, as I hear, I speak. So when I speak, you hear the
father speak. You see me, you see the father.
They are undivided. They're undivided in his sufferings. He said, the Father's with me.
When he's in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, Father, if you don't
do something here, I'm gonna die right here. And the angels
came and ministered to him and strengthened him. In his misery,
the Father was with him. In his character and his work,
the Father was with him. He said, I hear, I speak, I don't
do these things alone. But on the cross. The Father
forsook him, and he was alone. I heard my pastor say one time,
no man ever died as alone as Jesus Christ. God the Father
forsook him. He hung there on that cross alone. He tread the winepress of God's
wrath alone. He did that alone. But after that was over with,
the father's with him. And you know he's always with
us. He said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Never leave
you nor forsake you. Not ever, ever, ever. Ever, ever,
never. The father's with him. in the
Godhead, in his operation as a man, in the exercise of communion,
the Father's with him. And he says here in verse 33,
these things I have spoken unto you. And in verse 33, you know
what we see here? We see that the life of a believer
is in two places at the same time. The life of a believer, the life
of every believer is in two places at the same time. These things
I've spoken of to you that in me. You see, we're in Christ. We're literally in Christ. You
might have peace in the world. We're in the world. I'm in Christ
and I'm in the world. I live here. I have an address. I have a zip code. I have a phone
number. I live in this world, but I also
live in Christ. I live in him. In Christ, he
says, in me you have peace. You have peace with God, but
you also have peace of conscience, peace of heart. You have that in me. I give it
to you, the Holy Spirit. He sheds the peace of Christ
abroad in our hearts. He makes us to know Christ our
peace. But in this world, you're gonna have tribulations and troubles.
He knew what was coming on them. Peter didn't know he was gonna
be crucified upside down. John the Baptist didn't know
he was gonna have his head cut off. And all these disciples, except
for maybe John, I'm not sure about how he actually died, but
the others were all martyred. They were all killed. They were
all beheaded and different things. They didn't know that was coming.
He did. He did. And he assures them this,
my peace will be with you. When you stand before their fire,
when you stand before their anger and their hatred, my peace will
overtake you. My peace will overtake you. In
the world, you're going to have trouble, because the world hates
me and it hates you too. But in me, you have peace. You
have peace. He said, you'll have it when
you need it. I'll give it to you when you
need it. These things, he says in verse
33, these things I have spoken unto you that in me you might
have peace, in the world you'll have tribulation, but be of good
cheer, be happy. I've overcome the world. It's
already whipped. The battle's over. The battle's
been won, you know that. We're not gonna lose the war. The war's over. You and I who
believe are being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. That's
what's going on. God is calling out his sheep
from all over this world. He said in one place, John 17,
we'll see this next week. Father, you've given me power
over all flesh that I should give eternal life to as many
as you've given me. I've overcome the world. The
world's not a problem to Christ. You see the world in all its
chaos right now? You know, you look at it and
you think, good night, it's just, no it's not. It's under his control. What looks like chaos to us is
orchestrated chaos. He's orchestrating all of it.
He's bringing about his eternal purpose. And his purpose, his
eternal purpose is to have a people just like his son. That's what
God's doing. There's gonna be a new heaven
and a new earth, and that new earth is gonna be populated with
a people like Jesus Christ, who loves like Christ, who's holy
like Christ, who is kind and meek and lowly like Christ. We're being conformed right now
to that image. It'll be perfected when we leave this world and
enter into glory. It'll be perfected. I've conquered
Satan. Satan's not a loose cannon. He's
not a loose cannon after running around. He's under the absolute
dominion and power and reign of Jesus Christ. That man, he
brought down Adam, the man Adam, in the garden. He brought him
down. He couldn't bring that man down. He said, Satan has
come and found nothing in me. There was nothing in Christ for
him to sink his teeth into. There's no sin in him. He said, I've conquered Satan.
He said, in one place, I beheld Satan's lightning fall from heaven.
I've conquered him. And he's conquered the world.
Not only the world out there, but the world that's in me. Paul
said, I'm crucified to the world, and the world's crucified to
me. I have nothing for the world, and the world has nothing for
me. We don't have anything in common
no more. His victory is our victory. You
know that? His victory is our victory. We have no cause to fear or fall
apart over what man is doing in this country or any other
country. It's under the domain and rule and reign of our Lord,
the man, Christ Jesus. It's under his power and his
authority. Now, do you believe these things? Do you now believe? Do you really,
really, truly believe? That's basically what it's gonna
come down to if Madison calls me about this. I'm gonna say,
do you believe? Do you really believe that Jesus Christ is
the son of God? He's all the hope you have. If
you do, I'll come in and baptize you.
That's the only fence, that's the only hedge around baptism
and the Lord's table. Do you now believe? That's it. All right.