John chapter 14. The title of the message is, Because
I live, ye shall live also. Because I live, He is alive forevermore. He died. He really died. But
he didn't stay dead. Even as Rolf Barner said, a dead
Christ can't save anybody, but a living Lord can. A living Lord
can. Here in John chapter 14, and
I'm going to basically deal with verses 12 through 21, but our
Lord knew and felt the heart of His disciples. He didn't just know they were
sad and downcast because of the way their expression was on their
face. But we have a high priest who
can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He felt that.
He felt their heart. He felt their... downcast spirit
at that time, because he had told them that he was going to
be leaving them. And he knew their hearts just
as he knows our hearts today. He knows our hearts. He knows
how we feel. Whatever our deepest sorrow is, our Lord knows. And
I can't explain how he feels it, but we have a high priest
who can be touched. with the feeling of our infirmities. He can be touched. Now, Philip asked the Lord to show them the Father. After he told them that he was
going to be going away, and that they knew the way, And they said,
we don't know the way. He said, yes, you know the way.
You just don't know you know the way. Because he's the way. He said, I'm the way. They were
just thinking of an address somewhere. They were thinking of a place
on Earth somewhere. He said, no, you know the way.
You know the way. I'm the way. And you know me.
I'm the way. And Philip said, well, show us
the Father, and that will suffice us. That will suffice us. And the Lord replied, he that
has seen me hath seen the Father. Philip, you're looking at the
Father. He said, the words that I speak,
they're not my words, they're His words. And he said, it's
the Father who's working in me and through me. He's doing the
work through me. And he said to Philip, if you
don't believe my word, at least believe the works. that
you have seen. If you don't believe My Word,
believe what you have witnessed. The first thing that our Lord
commends to them and to us, the first thing in this chapter right
here, is faith. You believe in God, believe also
in Me. Exercise the same faith that
you exercise in God, exercise that same faith in Me. So he commends faith. The first
thing he commends is faith. No one is saved who does not
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. No one. No one is saved who does not
believe the record that God gave of His Son. Now he says here in verse 12, let
me pick up in verse 12, Verily, verily, truly, truly,
what I'm telling you is the truth, it's true. Truly, truly, I say
unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall
he do also, and greater works than these shall he do. Because
I go to my Father, He's telling them that it's necessary for
Him to go back to the Father. I can understand. They have been
with Him now for a good while. They've sat with Him, ate with
Him, listened to Him teach. Wherever He slept out there under
the stars, they were with Him. And now He's going to go away
and they don't want Him to go away. And He's saying to them,
it's absolutely necessary for me to go back to the Father. From there He rules the universe
right now. From there, seated at God's right
hand, He rules and reigns over absolutely everything. Everything. It's necessary for Him to go
back to the Father because it's evident when He goes back to
the Father that the Father has accepted Him, accepted His work,
and accepted all those that He redeemed. Absolutely necessary. But at that time, they didn't
get it. They weren't that advanced. They
were still babes. They were babes in Christ. They
were babes. You don't have to know everything
to be saved. You just have to know Him. And at that time, they
knew Him. Peter said, Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. But there was a lot of things
that he didn't understand yet. But he says here, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall
he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because
I go to my Father." Faith is essential to pleasing God. Without faith, the Scripture
says, it's impossible to please God. Faith is essential to doing
any work in the name of Christ and for the glory of Christ.
Faith is essential. That's what he's telling them
here. And the promise of success is attached to faith. Listen
to Scriptures here in Hebrews. He that cometh to God must believe
that He is, that He is who He is, and that He is a rewarder of
them that diligently Not half-heartedly. God never teaches us to do anything
half-heartedly. The Scriptures never teach us.
It's always, whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your
might. That's what the Scriptures teach.
And it teaches us here to seek Him diligently. And He says,
those who seek Him diligently, He is a rewarder of them. He
rewards them. You seek Him diligently for forgiveness. Guess what you're rewarded with?
Forgiveness. You seek Him diligently for pardon.
You seek Him diligently for righteousness, and He gives it to you. In the
name of Christ, for the glory of Christ, He gives that to you. And the Lord promises His disciples
that they will do greater works than He has done. When you first
read that, you think, Wow, he says, you're going to
do greater works than what I've done. What's he talking about? He'll
do greater works than what I've done. Well, if you take his earthly
ministry, few were saved. Few were saved. He had 12 disciples. Twelve apostles that he named
apostles. But there was not that many that
followed him. He was hated. He was despised, it says, and
rejected. He was nailed to a cross. But
after he died, after he went back to the Father, And after
the disciples were gathered there at Pentecost and the Holy Spirit
descended upon them, they went out from there, they turned the
world upside down. They turned that Roman Empire
upside down. That place which was the seat
of Satan, they turned it upside down. And from them, from those
men, and from the church, from that little existence, the whole
world has heard the gospel. That's hard to say how many have
believed over the years through the preaching of the gospel,
and that's what he means by greater works than these. Then what you've
seen right here in this little locality of Jerusalem, it's gonna
go all over the world. It's like they started this circle
just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger,
and all of a sudden, it's all over the world. Greater works
than these, he says, shall you do. So it's necessary for me
to go back to the Father. There's more to be done. There's
more to be done. And we're still doing it. We
are still doing it. Two thousand years later, here
we are preaching the gospel, believing the gospel, supporting
the gospel here in Spring Lake. So it's necessary for him to
go back to the Father so that the work can be advanced. And
it's necessary for him to go back to the Father on our behalf,
as our mediator, as our intercessor. We have what? An advocate with
the Father. He's seated right there with
the Father. It's absolutely necessary for
him to go back. I'm glad he went back." And they
were too, after they understood the gospel better. He's back
there, he's seated at the right hand of God, making intercession
for the transgressors. And then here in verse 13, he
talks about using his name in prayer. That's why prayer is
so serious. I find prayer not to be easy. Not to be easy. Especially public
prayer. It's not easy at all. When you
consider you're going before Almighty God, and when you consider
you're using the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that puts some weight to it,
that puts some real weight to it. But now listen to what he
says, "...and whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do." You know, up to this point, they
had been with him, and they were able to sit down by the fireside
and open their heart up to him. just sitting across from each
other. Have you ever thought, now I have thought this, I've
thought this, I've thought, there's been times I've thought, I wish
I could just sit right down with him, right in front of me, and
Lord, I've got this problem. Now I know, I know he hears my
prayer, I know he's present, but you know what I'm saying,
I think you know what I'm saying, sometimes you just, Like they
had his physical presence there and they sat there and they just
talked to him. They talked to him. And he talked
back audibly. He spoke back to them audibly
and they were able to converse back in conversation back and
forth. But he's saying here now that he's going away. And they
think, I know they're thinking We don't have access to him no
more. You're going to be so far away. I can understand. And then the
Lord comforts. Listen, He's given some real
comfort here to them and to us because we've never seen him.
We've never sat across the table and saw his physical presence
and had him converse back and forth with us as he did with
them. But he says here, whatsoever
you shall ask in my name, that will I do, I will do it. He's showing here his deity.
That's what he's doing. He's showing me his deity. I
will do it that the father may be glorified in the son. First of all, he's saying here,
faith in His person after He's gone. Faith in His person was
to be manifested by praying in His name. We manifest faith when we pray
in the name of Jesus Christ. And the Lord chose His deity
by saying, that will I do. It's like he's saying, you still
have access to me. You still have access to my presence,
though my bodily presence won't be with you any longer. His spirit
is as real as his bodily presence. That's why I was hesitant trying
to say what I was trying to say about sitting across the table
from me. But his spirit is every bit as real and present as when
His bodily presence was with them. It's just as real. And He's saying here, whatever
you ask in My name, showing His deity, showing His presence,
He's saying, I will do it, and by doing so, the Father is glorified. You know, when the Lord answers
our prayer, When He really answers our prayer,
first of all, it was ordained of God, that situation that brought
it about, for Him to answer it. And every time He answers it,
He answers it in a way that God the Father is glorified. Now,
you and I, most of the time, think of Him answering it according
to our need and getting us out of the situation, but every time
He answers it, it has to do with the glory of His Father and our
Father. Our Father too. We have the same
Father. If, in verse 14, if you shall
ask anything in my name, I will do it. Take my word for it. Trust me. Trust me. They're about to go out and,
listen, they're about to go out into a God-hating world. You
know, for years they were right there in Jerusalem. Now they're
about to go out to a God-hating world. They're about to go preach
to a bunch of, even among the Jews, those who hate God. They
wouldn't say they hated God, but Christ said, you're of your
father the devil. And He said He's encouraging
them and He's encouraging us. He's encouraging us, first of
all, to pray. I don't believe any of us or
anyone that I've ever known, none of us pray as much and as
often as we ought to. None of us. We usually have to
be driven to it. Pretty much, I mean to truly
pray. We pretty much have to be driven to it. But in saying this also, he's
saying this, that will I do, he's talking also here about
his resurrection. He hasn't died yet. He's letting
them know, I've got to die. I'm going to die, but I'm going
to live. I'm going to rise again. And whatever you pray in my name,
I'll do it because I'm alive. I'm not dead. I'm alive. I'm going to die. But in three
days, I'm coming out of the grave and I'm going back to the Father. And whenever you're asking my
name, I'll do it. And I'll do it to the glory of God the Father. But now listen. The religious
world, the false religious world has used this and abused this. They've abused this. This is
not a blank check with His name on it. It's not. But what it
is, It is the right of any child
of God to come into God's presence and use the name of Jesus Christ,
God's Son. Any child of God. Any. We have the right to use His
name. And using His name in prayer
is to seek the Lord Himself. That's what it is. To ask in
His name, now listen, to ask in the name of Christ is to do
it right, if we understand what we are doing, is to completely
set aside our will in the matter that we're praying about. It's
to set aside our will when we pray in His name, when we use
His name. And now here in verse 15, he
makes a change in the subject, a change in his thoughts, so
to speak, a new thought. He has a new thought. He was speaking to them about
leaving, but he's telling them, I'm leaving, but you ask in my
name, I'm alive and I'll do it. Don't fear that there's going
to be a separation and you can't get a hold of me or get to me.
But now he turns to this matter of love, because love is revealed. This is important. Love is revealed
by obedience. That's how it's revealed. Love
not in word only, but in deed and in truth. And he says here, if you love
me, keep my commandments. It's not like that young rich
ruler said, which one? No, it's not which one. It's
keep my commandments. It's his teachings. Go read the
Sermon on the Mount. Those are his teachings. The
doctrines of Christ are the teachings of Christ. And that's why they
say, if you love me. You know, listen, he doesn't
say, if you desire to enter into life, keep my commandments. He
doesn't say that. Because that is not how we enter
into life. We are given life by the grace
of God. But he says, if you love me.
If you love me, you will obey me. If you love me, you will
follow me. If you love me, you will submit
to me. A person who will not submit,
if this person is under the authority of someone else and they will
not submit, there's no love there. Period. There's no love. And
that's what he's saying, if you love me, keep my commandments. Paul said, the love of Christ
constrains me. Love constrains me. It was love that caused Paul
to lose everything. He said, I've suffered the loss
of everything for Christ's sake. It was love that did that. He was willing to forego everything
for Christ. He was willing to forgo everything
and suffer everything for the elect's sake. That's us. That's us. What are His commandments? Well,
as I said, it's His teachings. But A.W. Pink said this, the
commandments he's talking about here is the whole revealed will
of God. It's the whole revealed will
of God. If you love me, not if you're trying to obtain life,
but if you love me, you'll submit to me. You'll keep my teachings. And I tell you this, if you and
I love Him, if we love Him, we will be in His Word, learning
of Him, being instructed by Him. Just like tonight, we're being
instructed right now. We are being instructed from
His Word. And now He gives them here, He
gives them a word of comfort. Because remember, He's going
away and this is, He knows this is on their mind. You know, sometimes
somebody can say something and everything else they have to
say goes right over your head. You know, you're just stuck right
there. And so he knows that they're
still, as he's talking to them, he knows their hearts are sad,
they're sorry. I mean, they've got sorrow going
on. He knows that. And so he says here, I'm going to pray the Father. I will ask the Father, and He
shall give you another Comforter, one besides me. He'll give you another Comforter
that He may abide with you forever. And one of the things He's given
here, He's assuring them of eternal preservation. It's going to be
all right. It's going to be all right. He'll give you another Comforter.
And that word Comforter also has the word Advocate. It also means advocate, but it
also means this, and I like this. It means one to stand alongside
to help. I'll give you another comforter.
I'll give you another one to stand alongside you and help
you along the way. And he's going to be with you
forever. He's never going to leave you.
In fact, he's going to be in you. He's not just going to be
with you, stand alongside of you. He's going to be in you.
You and I know that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
The Holy Spirit, which is God, the Holy Spirit is a very real
person. Just as the Son is a very real
person, and as the Father is a very real person, the Comforter,
the Holy Spirit, is a very real person, and He's in you. How
is it that From time to time, you find great
comfort in the Word of God. I'll tell you how that is. The
Holy Spirit takes the Word of God and applies it. He opens
it up to you. He gives you an understanding.
He comforts your heart with the Word of God. He does that. And
He does that because He's in you. He's in you. He's an advocate. He's willing
to stand alongside of you. He's a very real person. You're not going to be left alone.
In fact, this is going to be such a close union because you
see Christ was walked among them. They walked beside of Him, talked
to them. He said, but the Holy Spirit, He's going to be in you. He's going to be in you. Even, and He calls him here,
listen now, let me read verse 16 with it again. And I will
pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that
He may abide with you forever. Now listen, He's speaking to
us too. This is written to us just like it was written, just
like He was speaking to them at that time. Even the Spirit
of Truth, so you can trust Him. You know, Christ has said He
was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. This is where the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one. They are three distinct
persons, but they are one God. That's why the Lord said to Philip,
or Thomas there, he that has seen Me has seen the Father. We are one. We are one. Even the Spirit of Truth whom
the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, they can't see
the Holy Spirit because He's Spirit. Neither knoweth Him. They can't know Him. It's impossible
to know the Holy Spirit. It's impossible to know Jesus
Christ. It's impossible to know the Father
except you be born again. because that which is born of
the Spirit is Spirit." See, that's on another level. That's a completely
other level. You see, in this life, you've
got plant life. Then you have animal life, which
is far above plant life. Then you have human, our life,
since the fall, since we spiritually died in Adam, we have human life,
which is intelligence and reasoning, which is far above the animal
as the animal is above the plant life. But then there's spiritual
life. There's the life of God. God
is spirit, it says. There's the life of God. And
that is so far above us as we are above the plant life. I mean, it's incomprehensible. But when a man is born of God,
he can know the things of God. That's what our Lord said. He
can know the things of God. That's what Paul wrote over in
Corinthians. But the world can't. That's why
the world can't understand. That's why the world thinks it's
foolishness. That's why when you tell the
truth of the gospel, the world thinks you're a nutcase. They
look at you like you're a cult. Because they don't understand
Him, they don't know Him, can't see Him. They have no understanding
at all. They live in darkness. But here He says He's going to
give the Spirit of Truth. And we know that in the Scriptures,
the Spirit of Truth will guide us into all truth. He guides us and directs us into
all truth. That's how you and I know the
truth. He guides us into all truth. And He is the truth. And He reveals the truth that
are contained in the Scriptures. I don't know these things. You
don't know these things because you took a commentary and laid
it down beside the Bible. No. You read the Word of God
and then one day you say, I see. You don't know how many times
I've had people after I preached. And I did the same thing to Henry.
I said, I never saw that before. But it's so clear now. It's so
clear. That's because the Holy Spirit
revealed the truth through the preaching of the Word. The world, the natural world,
natural men, they can't receive the Holy Spirit, they can't understand
the gospel, their ears are deaf, their eyes are blind, and they
are dead, spiritually dead. But you know Him, that's what
He says, you know Him, That's like the Lord said, you know
the Father, and He says, show us the Father. He said, you're
looking at Him. And He's saying here, you know
Him. You know the Spirit of truth. You know Him. For He dwelleth
with you. Christ had the Spirit without
measure. He was with them all along. He was walking with them
all along in Christ, in that man, in that man. He had the
Spirit of God without measure, the Holy Spirit. And he said,
he dwells with you. Now he's going to be in you.
What a mystery. Don't you think this is getting
confused? No, don't try to figure it out.
Just believe what he's saying. You can't figure God out. God
is too immense. He's too great for us to comprehend,
but he's holy. He's just and He cannot lie,
so we can believe Him. We can take Him at His Word. In that man, Jesus Christ, who
is the Son of God, who is God, and yet a man, the Holy Spirit,
dwelt in Him without measure. And He's telling them that He's
dwelt among you. You know Him. You know Him. He's going to be in you. Same
Spirit. Then He's going to give them
a promise, and His promise is to us also. I will not leave
you comfortless in your darkest hours, in your loneliness. I'll not leave you comfortless.
You know, the Lord said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you.
Didn't He say that? I'll never leave you nor forsake
you. I know this, you know, I may, I don't know, I may live a long
time and may end up in a nursing home and I may end up dying in
a home, in a room all by myself, but I won't be by myself. I will
never be alone. Never be alone. Listen, I will
not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. When everybody
else is gone, nobody else is around. He said over in the,
over in the, it's in the Psalms, I will carry you even to your
old age. I won't leave you. I won't leave
you. But here's what this, here's
what this means. I will not leave you comfortless. It means this.
Yeah, I think it's in your margins. I will not leave you orphans.
I will not leave you fatherless. You won't be orphans." He comes to us in Spirit now,
which is every bit as real as His physical presence. Verse 19, "'Yet a little while,
and the world sees Me no more, but you see Me. Because I live, you shall live
also. You see Me. You know, it's like this. In
a little while, you're not going to see me, but you see me. You're
not going to see my physical presence, but you see me in faith,
with the eye of faith. Is Jesus Christ real to you?
How real is He to you? Do you see Him? He's to the believer now, to
the believer, He's as real as you are yourself. You look in
the mirror, you see yourself, you know, you're real, you see
yourself. He's that real to you. Yet a little while the world,
but the world sees me no more. You know, the world saw him for
a little while. They saw him for a little while. Over there
right now in Jerusalem where they're being bombed, over there
right now, there was a time they saw Him walk those streets. They
saw Him grow up from a child. They saw Jesus Christ grow up
from a child. They saw Him as a teenager. They
saw Him as a young man. They heard Him preach over there.
They saw Him nailed to a cross. They witnessed. There was a whole
generation over there that witnessed the nailing of Jesus Christ to
the cross. They saw Him. But the world,
He said, will come a time they will see Me no more because I'm
going back to the Father. But you see Me. You see me every
day. You see me in my Word. Do you see Christ in the Word
when you pick it up and read it? You see me in my Word. You see me out here in creation.
When you hear the thunder roar, you think of it as the voice
of God. You don't think of it as just thunder. I don't. Job
said, his voice thundereth. He says His voice over in Revelation
is like the sound of many waters. You hear the rush. I've stood
at Niagara Falls and listened to that thing. The roar of that
fall is nothing compared to the voice of God. You see Him in
every turn, don't you? You see Him in Providence. Right
now, right now, you know, I'm kind of excited to see what's
going on. I'm like, it's like the Lord's doing something. There's
something going on, it seems like the Lord's, it just appears,
well, He is doing something, we know that. You know, He is
doing something, but maybe He'll come back here real soon. Maybe
He will. That would be something. You see me, you see me. How do
you see Jesus Christ? Peter said, thou art to Christ,
the son of the living God. That's how we see him. We see
him as a son of the living God. That's what the eunuch said.
I believe that Jesus Christ is a son of the living God. You
see me as the lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.
That's how you see me. You see me as your wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. You see me as the lily of the
valley, the bright morning star. You see me as one altogether
lovely. That's how you see me. You see
me. I tell you sometimes, Many times
I've stood and I've preached and I've known family and loved
ones in the congregation. And my heart just aches that
they could see what I see. Or was it I read to you when
Paul was there before Agrippa, he said, I would to God, I would
to God you'd have what I had except for these bonds. I wish
every one of you believed. I wish you'd have what I had.
I wish you were as like me, saved by the grace of God. You see Him as your all and in
all. Now, he says, because I live,
because I live, you should live also. Paul said this in Galatians
2.20, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. The Spirit of Christ liveth in
me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, Day by day, I live by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me and gave Himself for me. Over in Colossians 3, 4, when
Christ, who is our life, shall appear, I look for Him to appear. I look
for the Lord to appear. And Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." Oh, you see me. And at that day
you shall know that I am in my Father, you in me, and I in you.
We're one. This, our union, he's speaking
here of our union, it's a oneness. I in the Father, the Father in
me, you in me. What a mystery. But it's real. It's real. This union is real. This union with God in Jesus
Christ is very, very real. But only those whom the Lord
saves know it. Nobody else knows this. And I close here with verse 21,
"...he that hath my commandments, and keeps them, He it is that
loves me. It's evident, it's evident that
he loves me. And he that loves me shall be
loved to my father. I will love him and will manifest
myself to him. Oh Lord, help me to love thee. Make yourself known to me. I
wanna know, I wanna know Jesus Christ. I wanna know him as much
as I can know him in this life before I go.