john 14 john 14 the comforter the comforter one of the things that our lord
is teaching his disciples and us taught his disciples and teaching
us is their oneness It's never really stood out to me like it has been
here lately studying this portion of scripture because he's with
just his disciples. Everybody else is gone. It's
just him and them. And he's really teaching them their oneness. He's about to depart. They see
him leaving. They are thinking in their minds,
we're going to be without him. What are we going to do? We've
been with him for three years and he's leaving us and our Lord
is teaching them and us. He never leaves us. We are never
alone. You may be lying in a hospital
bed someday all by yourself, but you're not alone. The Lord
is with you. The Lord is always with his people.
And the one thing that's really standing out to me in this is
that we're never separated. He's never separated from his
people. You know, it's spoken of in the scriptures that when
he comes in the clouds of glory, when he comes, what's he coming
with? Ten thousands of his saints. They're with him. They're not
left back. They'll be back in a little bit.
I'm going to go get the rest of them. There's never a separation
again. When Adam fell in the garden,
there was a great separation made. Sin separated us from God. That's what God said. Your sins
have separated you from me. But our Lord, having put away
our sins, he's telling them and he's telling us, you're never
alone. We are one. It's not, it's more than just
we are one in agreement. We are literally one, we're put
together as one body. That's so enlightening to me
and so encouraging to me. This is not just, it's not just
two people walking down the road together and they agree on the
same subject. This is one walking down the road. We are in Him
and He is in us. And He's telling them right from
the beginning. You believe in God, believe also
in Me. Trust Me. This is so. This is so. In verse 12, Verily, verily,
truly, truly, this is very important what I'm about to say to you.
Get a hold of this. He that believeth on Me, Trust
me, has absolute confidence in me. The works that I do, shall
he do also. And greater works than these
shall he do, because I go unto the Father. If I don't go to
the Father, nothing works. Nothing works if I don't go to
the Father. They didn't want him to go. Peter said, no. No,
you can't leave. No, you can't die. No. If I don't go to the Father,
nothing works. If I don't go to the Father,
it all fails. It all fails. Our Lord's going
back to the Father was absolutely necessary. It's absolutely necessary. It's part of God's purpose. He's
got to go back to the Father. He's got to sit at the right
hand of the Father. He's got to intercede for us
with the Father. He's got to, from the throne,
rule heaven and earth, because all authority and all power has
been given into the hands of that man, Jesus Christ. And He's
telling them, it's absolutely necessary that I go back to the
Father. You see, he's telling them also this. He that believes
on me, faith is essential. It is absolutely essential in
pleasing God. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. You've got to believe me, is
what he's saying. He keeps saying that. If you
don't believe my words, believe my works. Salvation is through faith. God-given faith. We're not saved apart from faith,
we're saved in believing God. We are kept by the power of God,
how? Through faith, through believing God, believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Faith is essential to doing any
work, any work of the Lord. Faith is essential. I believe
this morning, this is of God. I believe it's of God for me
to be here this morning as your pastor preaching this message.
I believe that. I'm not wondering. I believe
it. That's essential. To do anything in the name of
Christ, you have to have faith. And he's going to show them this
in prayer when you ask him my name. Believe him. THE PROMISES OF
SUCCESS IN THE MINISTRY OR IN ANYTHING YOU AND I ENDEAVOR TO
DO IS ATTACHED TO FAITH. ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE TO HIM
THAT BELIEVES, THAT BELIEVES GOD. AND THE LORD PROMISES HIS DISCIPLES
THAT THEY WILL DO GREATER WORKS. YOU SEE, THEY THINK IT'S ABOUT
OVER. You know, when him telling them he's going to leave, they
think this is over. Peter says, I'm going fishing
after the Lord, after he was buried, after he
died and was buried, Peter said, I'm going fishing. He thought
it was over. He thought we've wasted our time. We've wasted our time. We've
given up, you know, they said to him, well, we've given up
everything. But our Lord is telling them, no, you're gonna do greater
works than these because I go to the Father. I go to the Father. What's he talking about greater
works? How can you do greater works? Well, you know, many of
the works our Lord did, many of them were physical work. You
know, he fed 5,000. 5,000 didn't believe on him. Those 5,000 didn't believe on
him. I'm sure some did. I'm sure some were brought to
faith, no doubt. But there's 5,000 plus women
and children. They might have been 10,000 people
there, but they didn't believe. But they had a good dinner. He healed. He gave sight to the
blind. He gave legs to the power to
walk. He gave those who were crippled
the power to walk. But he's telling them here, you're
gonna do greater works. There's only a few during his
earthly ministry, there were only a few that were saved. Only
a handful that really were saved. On the day of Pentecost, when
Peter, as they received the Holy Spirit, Peter preached, how many
were saved? 3,000. You see, the greater work is
not feeding 5,000, it's saving 5,000. And God's going through
your ministry, through your ministry, God is going to use you in a
great way. And look at the Gentile world
since, look at the Gentile world. The gospel has gone throughout
the world through those 12 men, and it started with those 12
men, those 12 apostles. They went out and God used them,
and I'm telling you, kingdoms were subdued. Satan's kingdom
was subdued. There was a church, a thriving
church, right in the seat of Satan's place, Rome. Right there
in Rome. The power of the gospel was being
preached. And you can multiply that many times over the last
2,000 years. Here we sit in Spring Lake. We
sit here through the ministry that started there in Jerusalem
with those 12 men. Greater works are you going to
do in my name. In my name, you're going to do
that. Greater works. I'm going to go back to the Father.
And when I go back to the Father, boy, you just haven't even seen
what's going to happen yet. You haven't even seen what's
going to happen. The power of God is going to spread. The gospel
is going to spread. Christ is going to be preached.
Christ is going to be glorified. He's going to be lifted up in
preaching. And sinners are going to be saved.
Sinners like you and me are going to be saved. Greater works. You and I are a greater work.
than just feeding 5,000 or giving somebody sight that they can
see with their eyes, you know, where they can walk with their
legs. But they're going to be saved. They're going to have
eyes of faith and they're going to be able to walk and have a
spiritual walk. Their life's going to change.
Your whole life's changed. You don't walk like you used
to walk. I know you don't. God hates you. I don't. I know
you don't. God changes that. He's gonna depart go back to
the sinner. I mean go back to the father
and sinners are gonna be saved all over this world and Whatsoever
you ask in my name and this is this is this shows his oneness
here again with the father They think he's gone. They see a separation. They see this separation and
the Lord's gonna he's gonna They're not gonna quite understand it
yet until the Holy Spirit's given then they're gonna understand
it because he's gonna take the things of Christ and show that
show it to them and But here he says, Whatsoever you shall
ask in my name, that will I do. He didn't say, Whatsoever you
ask in my name, the Father will do it. He said, Whatever you
ask in my name, that will I do. He's showing himself here to
be Almighty God. He's saying, I'm Almighty God. That will I do. Faith in his
person was to be manifested, first of all, by praying in his
name. He's alive. We're not praying
in the name of a dead Christ. We're not praying in the name
of a dead redeemer or a dead sacrifice. You know, Israel didn't
pray in the name of a bullock. He says, whatever you ask in
my name, I'll do it. First of all, he's
saying here, there's faith in him. He's still alive. He's not
still alive, he is alive. He's alive. And Christ shows
his deity by saying, that will I do. They still have access. Here, listen, they still have
access to his presence. They see him going away, but
he said, no, no, you've got access to me just like you do now. You
can talk to me just like you do now. Whatever you ask in my
name now, before then they didn't pray in his name, asking in his
name. But he says, now you're going to ask in my name and I'm
going to do it. I will do it. And in doing it, the father will
be glorified. Every time the father answers
prayer or every time the prayer is answered, the father is glorified
because we ask in the name of Christ. I prayed in the name
of Christ this morning. being prayed in the name of Christ
this morning. And I've learned this. If I'm
gonna use his name, whatever I'm asking, it needs to be worthy
of that name. It needs to be worthy. We don't
just throw it, we're not name dropping. This is not name dropping.
To pray in his name is to pray according to his will. And it's
to pray as he's praying. praying in his name. This is
what he would ask. Is this what the Lord would ask? If you shall ask anything in
my name, I will do it. I will do it. If you ask anything
in my name, I'll do it. Now this is not a blank check
with asking any stupid thing. and then attach his name to it.
That's not what he's saying. You know that. You know that.
It's not a blank check. It's the right of a child of
God to come into God's presence using the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ and asking, according to God's will, what's laid on
your heart. It's laying it out, what's laid
on your heart. You know true prayer. True prayer
is first led by the Holy Spirit. He put it on your heart to pray
it. If you really pray, God laid that on your heart. And He laid
that on your heart, and you're to ask for that in Christ's name. You see the religious world,
the false religious world, especially these televangelists, They take
this scripture and they attach everything material to it. God wants you to be healthy.
God wants you to be happy. God wants you to have a bigger
house. God wants you to have this great job. That's all they
attach to it. But when you pray, you pray thy
will be done. What you pray, you really pray
for spiritual needs. I know God's gonna take care
of all my physical needs. I know, I know that. Now we pray
for those things. We do, but they're secondary.
They are secondary. First is my relationship with
Christ and it's the spiritual, my spiritual needs. That's what
I pray for. Now he says here, and he shows
here in verse 15, that love or obedience is revealed by love.
If you love me, keep my commandments or if you love me do what I've
told you do what I've told you that's why you say faith in obedience always go
together James said faith without works is dead it's just dead
if you'll notice here he did not say if you want to enter
life keep my commandments If you want to enter life, keep
my commandments. But here's what he says. If you
love me, Peter, do you love me? Here is the question of questions. Do you love Jesus Christ? Do you love him? He says, keep
my commandments. The greatest motive for service
is love. That's love. Paul said, the love
of Christ constrains me. That's what keeps me from being
what I used to be. There's a new birth, a new nature,
but I tell you what, there's that love for Christ that constrains
you. It constrains you. It's what
it does. And what are his commandments?
Well, he said in one place, this is my commandment that you love
one another as I have loved you. How has he loved us? Sacrificially. He gave his all. He said, now
you love one another in the same way. Sacrificially. Having loved his own, he loved
them to the end. We love each other to the end.
We love each other through thick and thin. That's how we love
each other. And if we really love each other,
you don't need anything else, because that'll take care of
everything. You know, if a husband really loves his wife, he will
sacrifice, he will give himself to taking care of her. I'm old-fashioned. He will give himself to taking
care of her. And if a wife loves her husband,
she will take care of him. They will look after each other.
They will look after each other. And our Lord said, love one another
as I have loved you. And for three years they were
with him, and they knew how he loved them. They knew everything
he did, he did for them. They knew that. If you love me, keep my commandments,
and I will pray the Father. I will intercede for you. He's
the great high priest. I'll intercede for you. Now pray
the Father. You see, He's showing here, though
He's going away, though He's going to die, He's going to the
cross and die, He's showing here, He's speaking to the future.
He's saying here, I'm alive. They're gonna see Him die in
a little bit. But He's saying here, I'm gonna
go back to the Father, but I gotta go to the cross first. I gotta
go to the grave, I gotta conquer these. I've gotta conquer death,
hell, and the grave. That's going to be my victory.
I'm going to release the prisoners from death, hell, and the grave.
I'm going to release the prisoners from the curse of the law, and
then I'm going to go back to the Father, and I'm going to
pray for them. I'm going to intercede for them. And I'm going to pray the Father,
and He shall give you another comforter, that He may abide
with you forever. He's not going to say to you,
I'm going away. See, the Lord had to say to them,
I'm going away. I'm going away, but yet I'm not
because of this oneness. They don't understand that yet.
And I'm just really, I'm just now after all these years, starting
to begin to understand a little bit, a little bit more of this
oneness with Christ, this oneness with God in Christ. That's why
I said to you last week, I have no reason to exist except for
him. Because I'm one with him. I'm one with him. He's one with
me. But listen here, he said, I'm
going to send another comforter, another. You see, the father
is a comforter. He's the one who purposed salvation.
That gives us comfort. That gives me great comfort that
the father has purposed my salvation. He sent his son, who's a comforter,
my peace I give unto you. And he says, now I'm going to
send another comforter. That word here, comforter, means paraclete. You say, what in the world is
that? Advocate. He's going to send another advocate,
another advocate. And that means this, one to stand
alongside of to help. I'm not gonna leave you helpless. You see, we're still, I'm still
with you. I'm still with you. I'm with you in spirit. And I'm
gonna send to you the Holy Spirit. That's who he's talking about,
the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a real person who is God. He's a real person. He's not
an influence. He's a real person. They would
not be left alone. In fact, He says He will abide
with you forever. Ever. Never leave you. He doesn't have to die and leave.
He's with you forever. I want you to notice something
over this oneness here. Let me just point this out here
real quick. I'm going to send you another
comforter, and he's going to be with you forever. Look in chapter
15, in verse 26. But when the comforter is come,
now what did he say? He said, the Father will send
you another comforter. But when the Comforter is come,
whom I will send unto you from the Father. You see this oneness? He said the Father's gonna send
him. He said, I'm gonna send him. Even the Spirit of Truth. What did the Lord say he was?
I am the way, the truth, and the life. Here's the Spirit of
Truth, which proceeded from the Father. He shall testify of me. Now look over in chapter 16,
in verse 7. Now verse six, but because I
have said these things unto you, sorrows filled your heart. Nevertheless,
I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that
I go away. It's necessary for you that I
go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send
him. I will. I will send him. The Father will send him. Whatever
one does, the other does. They can't be separated. They
don't operate separately. What He does, what the Father
does, the Son does, and the Spirit does. They do these things together. And here's His work as a paraclete,
as an advocate. First of all, the Holy Spirit
will help our infirmities in prayers. We see that over in
Romans chapter 8. Words, we can't find words for
it. But he does. You know, he intercedes
for us. Look over in Romans chapter 8.
Romans chapter 8, look in verse 26. Likewise, the Spirit, Holy Spirit
also helpeth our infirmities. But we know not what we should
pray for as we ought. Now, when you pray, do you really
know what exactly what you ought to be asked for? We pray what's
on our heart, but the Holy Spirit knows exactly because he knows
the mind and will of the Father. He knows exactly what to pray
for. But we know not what we should pray for as we ought,
but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us. He's an
advocate for us. with groanings which cannot be
uttered." Now brethren, that's praying beyond us. And then he's a counselor to
guide us in the perplexities of life. You know, how many times
have you been so perplexed you didn't know which way to go?
You've prayed and you've asked for guidance. Well, He, the Holy
Spirit, takes the Word of God and He guides us. He knows the
mind of the Father. He guides us into all truth.
We'll see this later on in this chapter. He guides us into all
truth. He guides us in those things
that we are so perplexed about. He guides us. He's a counselor,
as our Lord is a counselor. then he's a comforter in our
in all the trials of life he comforts us he takes the word
and he comforts us verse 17 even the spirit of truth
whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not he's
spirit but also they don't spiritually understand they can't spiritually
see and understand what what's going on this morning The truth
has been told this morning, they're like, it's like going right over
their head. Whom the world cannot receive
because it sees him not, neither knoweth him, but you know him.
Isn't that what he said about the father? You know the father. Philip said, well, show us the
father and that'd be, that's sufficient. That'll be enough.
Show us the father. You've seen the father. You know
him. And He's saying the same thing
here. You know the Spirit of Truth I'm talking about. This
Comforter I'm talking about, you know Him. You know Him, for
He dwelleth with you. Really? They're like, you know,
at this point, they're kind of stumped. They're like, you know,
in a little while, when the Holy Spirit is given, then it's all
going to clear up. But He said, He dwelleth with you. And shall
be in you. He dwells with you. The spirit
of truth. I've got written down here 1
John 5, 6, but I can't remember. It just doesn't come to me right
now. So turn to 1 John 5, 6 and let's see why I wrote that down.
That's sad, isn't it? I looked at it and I thought
I put down there to a capital letter read. I can't remember
why. 1 John 5, 6. It'll all clear up when we read
it though. This is He that came by water
and blood, even Jesus Christ. Not by water only, but by water
and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth
witness, because the Spirit is truth. This shows their oneness. Christ said, I'm the truth and
the Spirit is truth. The Father is truth. The Father's
truth. And He will guide us into all
truth. The Spirit of truth will guide
us into all truth. He will reveal the truth that's
contained in all the Scriptures. This morning we looked at the
blood. We looked at the blood in Leviticus chapter 4, 1 through
7. And how that blood represented
the Lord Jesus Christ. It was typical of His blood.
Well, how do you know that? I mean, how does it really mean
anything to you other than me standing here telling you? The Spirit of Truth makes it
real to you, makes it plain to you, makes it obvious to you.
He takes the Scriptures and He applies it to the heart. He reveals
it and you see it. You understand it. He reveals the truth contained
in the scriptures. You know, the Lord said in one
place, he said, what I'm telling you now, you don't understand,
but you will afterwards. You will afterwards because you'll
have the spirit of truth. You know, here's a, here's something
that hit me when I was reading this. When the gospel is being
preached, when the truth is being preached and you're sitting there
listening and your heart leaps within you, I mean, your heart
rejoice, you rejoice and you're being fed. You know, that's the
spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are the sons of
God. That's the spirit of truth in you bearing witness to the
scriptures. And in doing so, he's bearing
witness that we are the children of God. Without the spirit of
truth, You know, you who understand the gospel, those who understand
the gospel, you rejoice in it, you have joy in it, don't you?
But those who don't are thinking about, I'd like to have steak
for dinner this evening. It doesn't mean anything. It
means nothing. It means nothing. But to you
who believe the Spirit of Truth is alive in you, and you are
alive, and He's bearing witness, He's revealing Truth to you.
He's revealing it to you. The world can't receive Him.
The world of natural men can't receive the Holy Spirit. You
don't put new wine into old bottles. Our Lord said that. If you do,
they'll burst. You can't put the Truth of the
Gospel in an old vessel. It's got to be a new one. It's
got to be a new one. And the truth that's revealed
in the scriptures can only be understood by a new nature, a new man, a
new birth. Nicodemus came to the Lord and
he started asking some questions and the Lord stopped him. He
said, except you be born again you can't see you can't see the
kingdom of god you can't understand it you're dead to it you're dead
to it you got to be born of god to understand what the lord say
and what the holy spirit reveals you see as a result of the fall every man every woman became
spiritually dead i mean dead as a hammer spiritually spiritually
In other words, you don't have the Spirit of God. You know, the plant life out
there, grass, flowers, the garden, what grows in it, it has a life
of its own. Life God has given to it. Then
you have the animal world out here. They have a life of their
own that God's given to them. And then there's the life of
this flesh, human life, human nature. We got a mind. God's
given us the ability to think and reason. A dog can't do that. No animal can do that. Plant
life cannot do that. We can do that. But then there's the life spirit,
that's God. And that which is born of the
spirit is spirit. And unless a person is born of God, that
person cannot understand the gospel. He can't understand grace,
he can't understand the holiness and righteousness of God. They
think that hell is just way out of line, it's too severe. That's
because you can't understand what real holiness is. You can't
understand it. But you do. I understand it. I understand that God has to
be God. God has to be holy. I tell you
what, if he's not holy, you can't count on anything. Can you? You can't count on anything because
if he's not holy, he's a liar. You cannot. Confidence in a liar,
Solomon said, is like having a broken tooth and a foot out
of joint. You can't trust him. You can't trust him. But listen here, but you know
Him where He dwells with you and shall be in you. He dwells
with them. What's He talking about? He dwelt with them in
Christ. Remember when Christ was baptized,
what happened? The Holy Spirit descended on
Him in the form of a dove and He had the Spirit without measure.
He's been with you all along. He's been with you. And now when
I leave and go back to the Father, He's going to be in you. He's
gonna be in you. This is so, my soul, we just
get a hold of this. He said, I'm not gonna leave
you comfortless, and I'm gonna close here. I'll finish the rest of
this, Lord willing, next time. But he gives a promise here,
and I'm gonna close, just say a few brief things, but he said,
I will not leave you comfortless. You know what he's saying? That
doesn't mean, it doesn't mean I would not leave you, you know,
without peace and comfort. You know what comfort is, you
know, when you're comforted. He's saying, here, I'll not leave
you orphans. You're not going to be orphans. Well, he left
us. You know how, you know, somebody
would drop a baby off on a doorstep and leave him, leave him as an
orphan? He said, I'm not leaving you
as orphans. I'm not gonna leave you that
way. Listen, I will not leave you as orphans. I will, I will
come to you in spirit. You know, here again, it's this
oneness. I'm gonna send you, I'm gonna
ask the father and he's gonna send you the spirit of truth.
I will send you the spirit of truth. I won't leave you comforters. I'll come to you. I'll be with
you. There's no separation of them.
If you have the Son, you have the Father, and you have the
Spirit of truth. We're not trying to get this,
as one man told me, this second work of grace, what he called
it one time, this baptizing of the Holy Spirit. If you have
one, you have them all. They all dwell in you, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. You say, well, that's way over
my head. Good. If you could understand it, we've
missed it. If you can comprehend God, you've got the wrong God. God can't be comprehended. But
he can be believed. And as he reveals these things
to us, we can take great comfort in these things. I'm not going
to leave you. They thought, well, he's going
to leave us and that's over with. He said, I'll be with you. I'll
be with you. Christ with us this morning in
spirit is every bit as real as Christ being with us in the flesh
as he was with them. It's just as real. It's just
as real. You and I are, you know, we're
so given to this thing of gotta see it. Gotta, you know, physically
see it, physically touch it. What was it, Thomas said, I won't
believe until I put my fingers into the prince of his hand and
he sighed. I won't believe till the end.
Then when they saw him, they said, the Lord said, well, Thomas,
put your finger in here. And he just, I'm sure he felt
stupid, embarrassed that he didn't believe the Lord. The Lord said
to his disciples, if you don't believe my word, And this is
to the ones that were with him for three years. If you don't
believe my word, at least believe what you have seen me do. My, how gracious. Aren't you
glad salvation by grace? None of us would be safe if it
wasn't. All right.