John 16. Let's read the first
seven verses. These things have I spoken unto
you that you should not be offended. They shall put you out of the
synagogues. Yea, the time cometh that whosoever
killeth you will think that he doeth God's service. And these things will they do
unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told
you, that when the time shall come you may remember that I
told you of them." And these things I said not unto
you at the beginning, because I was with you, but now I go
my way to him that sent me. And none of you asketh me whither
goest thou, but because I have said these things unto you, sorrow
hath filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the
truth. It is expedient 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 unto you." bow our heads and our hearts
before thee this evening. We thank you and acknowledge that thou art
God, beside thee there is none else. You are our God. As we say as the pagan ruler of old, said of Daniel's
God, that our God is God. And we acknowledge you as such, our creator, our sovereign ruler,
our king, our lord and our master. You
are from above, and we are from beneath. We are your creatures, the God in whose hands our breath
is and all our ways, the God from whom all blessings
flow, the God of all grace, by whose grace we are what we are,
have what we have, know what we know, can do what we can do. Every good and perfect gift,
and everything is a gift, comes down from the Father of lights
with whom there is no variableness, no shadow of turning. Thou art
the Lord. You change not. And we are glad
because you said, therefore, we sons of Jacob are not concerned. And that's how we come to you
tonight. We come as sons of Jacob. We come as sinners, undeserving, unworthy, yea, hell-deserving
sinners in the hands of our God to be
disposed of as he sees fit. Yet our God is full of mercy
and grace, and in Christ there is plenteous redemption. So we
come through Christ. This is more than a creed. This
is more than a statement of faith, Lord. This is the heartfelt belief
and plea of our very hearts that Christ is our acceptance. Christ is our salvation. We plead
the blood before thee. the merits, the righteousness
of Jesus Christ as our own. That he came down here and did
what he did for those given to him by the Father. And Lord,
we believe that we are in that number. We don't presume it,
but yet we take you at your word that you will receive all that
come unto you by Christ. And so we come by Christ. Trusting Him, looking to Him.
We know you've never cast out anyone who's come by Christ. Lord, let this be the heartfelt
faith of everyone in here, young and old alike. It's not a hard
thing would be to save everyone in here. So we ask that you would get
glory to yourself, to your son. Be merciful and gracious to us
and our children in revealing yourself. We thank you for everything you've
done for us. We thank you for the abundance
of things that we have, this life we are We are so increased with goods,
and we thank you. Lord, we fear, we tremble and
hope and pray that these things will not take our hearts away
from thee, as they did many of old. O Lord, keep us from riches
lest we forget thee, from poverty lest we steal, and bring reproach
upon thee. give us things convenient, keep us from covetousness, which
is idolatry, set our affection on things above where Christ
sits. In the midst of a perverse and
godless generation, an untoward generation, O Lord, turn our
eyes toward thee, set our hearts on thee. Rivet our attention, our minds,
upon your word. Order our steps according to
thy word. Let no iniquity have dominion
over us. Hide thy word in our hearts that
we might not sin against thee. Make us to be that peculiar people
that you have set apart for yourself, that royal priesthood Dear Lord, perfect that which
concerneth us. I thank you for these people,
this Church, and all that you have done for us. You have so
blessed this congregation with the gospel and with a spirit
of love and fellowship, and I thank you. I ask that you would keep
us by your grace, keep us preaching the gospel, believing the gospel,
loving one another. He calls us to love one another
more with a fervent love. Seek out the needs of one another. Look on the things of others
and thereby experience the joy that you spoke of. Lord, we are a needy people,
spiritually needy. We need knowledge, we need wisdom,
we need patience, we need love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, all these things, the fruit of
the Spirit we need. So by your Spirit would you fill
us with these things, make us like Christ. We pray for the
glory of God the Father. And we have temporal needs. There
are some in here who are suffering, afflicted in body, in mind. Lord, we ask for their comfort.
We ask for their strength of body. We ask for their healing,
if it can be according to your will and for your glory and for
their good. Do it for your name's sake. through
Christ. Lord, forgive us of our sins.
Forgive us our sin. Our sin is ever before us. We
have sinned and come far short of thy glory. We beg your forgiveness. We know we have it through the
blood of Christ. That is why it is in his name
that we pray and come and worship. In Christ's name, amen. All right, let's read verse 1
again. Christ said, These things have
I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. The truth is offensive to most
people. That's why When you talk to people,
you have to use so much psychology and diplomacy to keep from offending
people. Well, our Lord did. He offended
everyone. He had nothing good to say about
people or their religion. The old saying is, there are
two things you don't talk about, politics or religion. Well, our Lord didn't talk about
politics, but he did talk about religion. And he had nothing
good to say about religion or those that were in it. He spoke
very plainly, right to the point. As the old saying, he didn't
mince words, pull any punches. He spoke right to the point and
offended nearly everyone. One time his disciples even said
they were a little bit offended in the fact that he offended
the Pharisee. And they came to him and said, Don't you know
the Pharisees were offended? Because the Lord exposed everyone's
hypocrisy. Look back at chapter 15, verse
22. Chapter 15, verse 22 of John. If I had not come and spoken
unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak, no
covering, no excuse for their sin. Our Lord exposed everyone's
sin and hypocrisy. And we've seen how that's what
the Lord does to us when he first speaks to us. He doesn't speak
peace at first, does he? He doesn't speak kind words.
God doesn't come to us with the gospel first with words of love
and mercy and grace, but he comes with condemnation, doesn't he? and we are condemned. Like someone
said, the gospel is not good news to you unless you first
heard the bad times. Well, the things that Christ
said, he said here in verse 1, these things have I spoken unto
you that you should not be offended. He said many things. We've been
going through these chapters, chapters 13 up to this point. where he was speaking to his
disciple, and he said many things, but the things which he said
which most people find offensive were basically two things. The
two things that he is saying all the way through these chapters
that most people find offensive. He spoke of, all the way through
here, he spoke of election. Election. And another thing he
spoke of and kept speaking of was exposing, like I said, exposing
false religion and false professors. Someone may say, well, he never
said election, no. Didn't he? Look back at chapter
13. Let's just browse through here
again and look at some of these things he said. Chapter 13, look
at verse 1. Now, before the feast of the
Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should
depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his
own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. Jesus knowing that the Father
had given all things into his hand and that he was come from
God and went to God, verse 18, he says, I speak not of you all,
I know whom I have chosen. I know whom I have chosen. Look at chapter 15. Turn over
there quickly. Chapter 15, verse 16. He said, You have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you and ordained you. Verse 19, If you
were of the world, the world would love his own. But because
you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you, because you are mine elect.
The world hateth you. And I'm sure there are people
who would charge us with saying too
much about election. That they would say, you sure
do preach a lot about election, don't you? I had a fellow tell
me that one time. He stood at a poster that was
over at the house that time. He stood nose to nose with me
and he said, that's all you want to talk about. And they would accuse us of saying
too much about election. Why do we speak so much on election? Why? Why do we preach so much
on election? And I say that, and that's the
way people would say it. We don't preach the doctrine
per se. We preach the electing God, the
God who elects. Now why do you preach so much
on election? Number one, there are several
reasons. Because Christ said it. And if the scriptures deal with
it one time, it's worthy of a million sermons. If God's word says election one
time, it's worthy of many messages. But some form of the word is
used twenty-seven times in the New Testament alone. That's not
using the word chose or chosen either. Christ said it, and he
said it often. We just read several times there,
and in his prayer in John 17, how many times does he say, Those
thou hast given me? Because all of scripture from
start to finish is full of The blessed doctrine, the blessed
truth of God's election. From start to finish, isn't it,
we see how that God chose a people from the start. And Romans 9
talks about that, God choosing a people. One out of twins. One out of twin. One nation out
of many, out of the world. It's all the way through. Here
may be the principal reason why, is because this is what makes
God, God. This doctrine of election, or
that is God's right to choose, is what makes our God, God indeed. It's the difference between God
being God and God just wanting to be. God's right to choose. It's the
difference between the true gospel and the false. This right here,
this is the difference between the true gospel and the false.
And election is the principal cause of salvation. Paul said
to the Thessalonians, he said, I am bound to thank God for you,
brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning
chosen you. That from the beginning, that's
what started it all. God's electing love. God deciding to save some people
and set his affection on them and chose them to save them.
And here's another reason why we say so much about it. Because
nobody else is. Because nobody's saying anything
about it. They're afraid to. I love that quote by Martin Luther. I cut it out of somebody's bulletin.
It's been quoted and printed in every bulletin, I suppose.
If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition
of the truth of God, except precisely that point which the world and
the devil are attacking, then I'm not confessing Christ. If I profess with the loudest
voice the truth of God, except precisely
that point which the world and the devil are at that moment
attacking, I am not confessing Christ. Like I said, this is
what makes God, God. This is what makes Christ, Christ. Their right to choose and do
with their own as they will. Do these things offend you? That's
what Christ said. He said, be not offended. Many
are offended. All are offended in our day,
aren't they? Just mention the word. And do you know this is
one of the things that separates the sheep from the goats? Yes,
it is. This is one of the things that
separates the sheep from the goats. You see, sheep know who
chose them. They know who chose them. Our
Lord keeps reminding his disciples of that. You didn't choose me. You remember over there, Stan,
where Peter said, We believe and are sure that thou art the
Christ. Remember that? And Christ said, Yeah, and have
not I chosen you? I chose you to believe that.
You didn't just believe that on your own. But sheep know who chose who.
Goats just keep on budding, don't they? Just keep on budding. Electing
love is offensive to most people. And then the Lord talked about
religion. And He used the term world, didn't He? John, later
on in his epistle, talked about the world. And what he's talking
about is the religious world, because nearly all the world
is religious, aren't it? And our Lord said the world doesn't
know God. They hate God. Look at chapter
14, look back there. He said they don't know God,
they hate the truth, and they hate those who believe it. Chapter
14, look at verse 17. He said the Spirit of truth,
he talks about sending the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot
receive. There's much talk about the Spirit
today, isn't there? And they're always talking, they're
all talking about have you received the Spirit? Well, Joe Christ
said the world cannot receive Him. Look what he calls him here,
the spirit of truth. That's why, because they don't
love the truth. They receive not the love of
the truth. Therefore, it's not the true spirit. Whom the world
cannot receive because it seeth him not, read on, neither knoweth
him. You know him. And if we dare to tell people
that, that we know the true gospel,
and we have the true They'll hate you for it. And call this
that's going on today, another spirit, they'll hate you for
it. But Christ said it a long time
before, didn't he? Look at verse 22. Verse 22. Judas saith unto him, that is,
Lord, how is it that thou would manifest thyself unto us and
not the world? The world. And then Christ goes
on to say, my word. My word. The Word is set aside in our
day in favor of anything and everything. They're not using
the Word of God, are they? Of all the thousands and thousands
of verses that people could put on their church bulletin board,
there's not one of them good enough. Not one of them good
enough. How many proverbs did Solomon
write? Thirty thousand? That's what the book says he
wrote. Not all recorded, but not one of them is good enough
for their church boys and boys. Lightly esteem it. They don't
know God, that's why. Look at chapter 15. Chapter 15. Unless you think I'm just in
a religious bashing mood in the last few days, I'm just telling
you what the Lord Jesus Christ said here in John 14. 15 and
16. All the way through here, he
does the bashing. Look at verse, chapter 15, verse
18 and 19. If the world hate you, you know
it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the
world would love his own. But because you are not of the
world, I have chosen you. But I have chosen you out of
the world, therefore the world hateth you." Verse 21, "...all
these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because
they know not God that sent them." They don't know Him. Verse 24, "...if I had not done
among them the works which none other man did, they had not had
sin. But now they have seen and hated me and my Father." In chapter 16, where we are,
look at verses 2 and 3. He says, They shall put you out
of the synagogue, yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth
you will think that he doeth God's service. And these things
will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father,
nor me." They don't know God and they don't know Christ. And
we use that same language today. No one. And folks say we're just
too narrow and too bigoted. No one. And hateful. Hate mongers. No, we're just repeating what
the Lord already said. Just repeating what he said.
So, our Lord talked to his disciples about sovereign electing love.
He said, you didn't choose me, I chose you. Chose you out of
the world. You're not of the world. Therefore,
the world hates you because I chose you. I chose you. You remember when John said over
in his epistles, we're of God and the whole world lieth in
wickedness. Who do you think you are, John, chosen, the elect
of God? Do you think you're right and
everybody's wrong? Well, if God be for us, if God chose
us, if the truth be in us, then yes. The Lord talked to his disciples
about sovereign electing love and man being religious but ignorant
and lost. And he says to us, he said to
them, if we merely declare these things the world would hate us. But look at verse 4. He said,
but these things have I told you that when the time shall
come you may remember that I told you of them. When the time comes. When it happens, you will remember
that I told you so. When it happens to you, when
you suffer persecution for the truth's sake, when you approach
someone with the truth, I mean, you're just declaring what God's
Word said. And they hate you for it. Remember, He said it
would happen. And there's real consolation
in that. I don't know if you've ever... I know you've had it.
If you've ever been hated by someone or despised by someone just for
simply, simply for telling the truth of what God's Word said.
Isn't there real consolation afterward? Doesn't the Lord appear
to you more dear, and isn't the gospel more firmly cemented in
your own mind and heart? It is to me. It's like the apostles
of old who were, whenever they were persecuted for preaching,
and they were beaten within an inch of their lives. They didn't
go back home or go back to the church to the folks all beaten
down and whipped and defeated. They went back rejoicing that
they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. Another time
they came to the church and reported all that had been done unto them.
They'd been beaten and warned not to preach. And it says after
they all prayed together, and they prayed that Psalm 2, That's
what the Church prays, Psalm 2. That was their prayer. It
said, Behold our threatenings against the Lord and his anointing.
They've lifted up their hand, but he'll dash them to pieces.
And it says they went out after that more bold than when they
came in. The consolation. And they rejoiced and were that
much bolder. And he says, now I'm telling
you this now, I'm telling you this now, while I'm with you,
read it, verse 4. These things I said not unto
you at the beginning, because I was with you. It's
like a young disciple, a young believer, when the Lord first
had his disciples around him, and they were so ignorant and
so weak, you know, and then he sent them out by twos to preach.
And what did they know? What could they tell, really? I remember when I first had the
gospel revealed to me, I remember going out to take on the world,
you know. And I didn't know nothing. And
the only good thing about it was that everybody I faced, they
knew less. I didn't know anything, they
knew less. So therefore I wasn't just Defeat, as it were. Right? Neither did he and his disciples.
They came back at times and said, why the devils are subject to
us. He said, settle down. Don't rejoice in that. Rejoice
that you know me. Rejoice that you know me. But
he said, these things I said unto you in the beginning because
I was with you. Well, they were courageous when
the Lord was around. Peter in the garden, he was going
to take on that whole mob, wasn't he, Stan? With one sword. Why? The Lord was there. But later
on, buddy, when he had gone back, Oh, my. They're going to need
some help, aren't they? Huh? He said in verse 5, Now
I go my way. I'm leaving. I'm going to him
that sent me. And none of you asked me whether
to go astow. I believe they were too afraid
to ask. Remember, they asked back there. Remember, Thomas
said, We don't know where you're going. Where are you going? We
don't know the way. He said, I am the way. Whether I go, you
know. The way you know. Because you
know me. Philip said, show us God. Show
us the Father. I said, Philip, I am the Father. And they were afraid. And he
kept talking to them. And they knew now he's leaving. And he's
saying to them now, you're afraid to ask me. None of you ask me
where the go is that. And because I've said this, verse
6, because I've said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled
your heart." And I'm so glad that all of the
fears and doubts and shame of the disciples were recorded in
the Scripture. Aren't you? All their failures
and the shame. Aren't you glad that Peter's
denial of the Lord is recorded in the Scripture? How many times have we done that? I love that passage where he
says, go tell my disciples and Peter. And then Peter was the
first one he dealt with and dealt with in mercy and love and grace
and compassion. What the scriptures record is
their doubts and fears and shame. For my comfort, because I'm full
of doubts and fear and shame and Peter, Peter, of all the
apostles, Peter's the one that wrote this. He said, hey, we're
kept by the power of God. He said, whom have you not seen
you love? He said, I know you haven't seen
him. He said, but we did. We saw him on that holy mountain
when he was transfigured before us. He said, and it was wonderful.
But you have a more sure word of prophecy and you do well to
take heed to it. Because we lost our faith, too,
when sight was gone. When sight was gone. And we had
to resort, you see, the apostles had to resort to the same place
we resort to for their strength, didn't they? The source of their strength
is the same one that we need. Same place. The Word of God through
the Spirit of God. And this is the next thing our
Lord said. He said, nevertheless, I tell you the truth. He always did, didn't he, Joe?
Because he is the truth. I tell you the truth, it's expedient. That word means it's necessary.
It means it's the best. It's the most profitable thing
for you that I go away. It's expedient that I go away,
he said. Read it. For if I go not away,
the Comforter will not come unto you. The Holy Spirit. He will not come unto you. But
if I depart, I will send him unto you. All right, just a few
more minutes, I want you to consider with me why Christ had to leave. Why he said it's expedient, it's
necessary, it's best that I leave in order for the Holy Spirit
to come. Let me tell you some reasons why it's best that Christ
be not here in a body with us. It's expedient that I go. It's
expedient for you that I go away. Now, it's expedient, number one,
that he go to the cross. He must. Like the enemy said,
if you be the son of God, come down from that cross. He saved others, himself he could
not save. That's true. If he's going to save others,
himself, he cannot save. If he's the Son of God who's
come in the flesh, he must not come down from that cross. He
must stay there, nailing the ordinances against us, burying
our sin. He must go to the cross to pay
our sin debt. He must go to the grave and die.
Why? To obtain the victory over it.
O grave, where is thy victory? Somebody came out of it. He must go back to heaven. He
must, where he must sit down at the right hand of the majesty
on high and ever live to intercede for us. We need a high priest
in the holy of holies for us, don't we? Always. He must go
back there and take his own precious blood which he shed and pour
it out on that mercy seat up there. And he must sit down and
reign and rule over all things and be the surety, the head of
the everlasting covenant and make sure that all things come
to pass, just like he purposed it. He's got to do it from the
throne. He can't do it down here confined
to a body. And if I don't, he said, the
Holy Spirit won't come. The Holy Spirit will not come.
Now as wonderful as it must have been when Christ was here in
a body, and I would have loved, wouldn't you have loved? And
someday we will be actually in his presence and touch him and
be touched by him. And as wonderful, that's the
reason John in his epistle said that. That. That's what the angels described
it, that holy thing. John said, that, that word of
life, we've touched, we've handled, our eyes have seen the word of
life. We've touched it. And as wonderful
as that must have been, Christ said it's experienced better
that I leave and send the Holy Spirit to you. Let me give you
a few reasons. Number one, if Christ were still in the flesh, And we wanted to see him. It would be kind of hard to get
to, wouldn't it? Especially if you're like me, kind of like
Zacchaeus. It would have to be a sycamore tree right in handy. I mean, they thronged him everywhere,
didn't they? That one woman had to crawl through
that mass just to touch his garment. It would be hard to get to. even harder now with more disciples,
wouldn't it? It would be hard to get to. But
in the person of his Holy Spirit, we can speak to, we can see him,
we can see him. It would be hard to spend any
personal time with, wouldn't it? Everybody would want to be
with him, wouldn't it? I would. I would want to be one-on-one
with him and ask him Personal question. Be hard to do. Be hard
to do. But Christ said, now that he
left, he said, where two or three are gathered, I'm right in the
middle of them. Ask me what you will. I'll commune
with you. How? By his Spirit. He's called the Spirit of Christ.
It is Christ. He is Christ. Here's another
reason. And then it goes with that one. Personal communion
and instruction would be nearly impossible. Nearly impossible. But in the person of God's Holy
Spirit, we can speak to, we can be spoken to, we can be guided
into all truth. How? How are we guided into all
truth? By the Holy Spirit. How does
he teach us? Signs and visions and revelations. How does he
teach us? That's right. His Word. And that's my next
point. If Christ hadn't gone back, we wouldn't have this. It wouldn't be fulfilled, Rick.
Right? The book wouldn't be fulfilled.
He's still speaking. He has to keep making additions. Know what
I mean? The Scripture says, if all that
he said and did were recorded in a book, why, the world couldn't
contain the books. And if he were still, we'd still
have to be writing. And we'd have to carry around
volumes. But we have this concise, complete, finished book. Nothing needs to be added. Right? It's the full revelation. The
full revelation. Isn't that wonderful? A lot of
people are still here. And the Holy Spirit, this is
what the Holy Spirit uses. Nothing else. This is what he
uses. The word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Peter said
that. which is by the gospel preached unto you. You know, you wouldn't need any
new revelation. We don't need any new revelation. If Christ were still here, somebody
would have said, somebody that was meeting with him over somewhere,
you should have heard what he said. I missed it. Oh, I did. I heard it. And it
would be misconstrued, but we have the same copy. Right? We
all have the same thing. And we can resort to it and find
out what he said. Can't we? We don't have to have
a new revelation. It's fulfilled. We have the same
word. And here's another, and my last point. Faith would be
useless. Faith would be useless. There's
a very real sense in which the disciples lived by sight when
he was with them. They totally depended on him
while he was with them, and so do we. But we can't see. We don't live by sight. We live
by faith. The just shall live by faith.
Seeing would be believing, wouldn't it? Seeing would be believing. The presence of Christ would
be necessary for our comfort. But not by faith. You follow
what I'm saying? And I quoted Peter who said,
Whom having not seen, ye love. God's people love Christ, though
they've never seen Him. And they love Him just as really
and just as much as Peter and James and John and the boys.
But they've never seen Him. How could that be? By faith?
How could that be? It's a gift of God. It's real,
too. work of the Holy Spirit. Faith,
to create faith. Though you see him not, Peter
said, you rejoice with joy unspeakable. And Christ, God, is more highly
honored by faith than by sight. Everybody believes what they
see, don't they? God is more highly honored by
faith than sight because you have to take him at his word.
Doesn't he say, I've magnified my word above all my name? Faith
honors God more than anything. Faith says, just because you
said it, I believe it. I haven't seen it. The promise hasn't been fulfilled,
but I believe it's just as good as, wow, because you said it.
That honors God. And that's faith. That's faith. It honors God. And our hearts
are more convinced and persuaded by faith than by sight. Listen to that again. Our hearts
are more convinced and persuaded by faith than by sight. Because if you love someone you've never
seen and you really love them. Can you say that? Huh? We've talked this over before.
Like Peter. Peter did not hem-haw around
when the Lord asked him if he loved him, did he? He didn't
say, oh, I don't know if I do or not. I think I do. I'm not sure. You remember that? Remember the illustration
I gave? It was my wife asking me, honey,
do you love me? And I said, well, I think. I'm
not sure. I hope I do. I don't know. Shouldn't I? Do
I? Doesn't the scripture say, know you not your own selves,
how that Christ be in you? Do you love Christ or don't you?
Nobody in here loves him like we ought to. Nobody loves him. Herein is love, not that we loved
him, but that he loved us. That's real love. And our love
is so weak and so fickle and failing that we hesitate to talk
about it, but we can say with Peter, yea, Lord. I do. You know, because you put it
there. But that's my faith, isn't it? You've never seen him. Can
you fall in love with a man you've never seen? If he writes a good
letter, you can. If he's good with a pen and his
words touch your heart, oh yes. And you have, haven't you? That
makes it more real to you. Here you can believe on. Then
you say the masters who saw Christ, they were all around him. Many
believed on him, didn't they? Many. Everybody around him believed
on him when they saw the miracles and the signs of the one. Everybody
did. That boy, when he hung on that cross and died and left,
how many? Do you believe? Yes, I do. Faith, that's the
work of God. It must be the work of God. And
all of the All of the things that faith does, it makes you
hate what you once loved. Now, people, if you were like
me, you weren't looking to be religious. Were you, Greg? Were you looking to be religious?
You wanting to be saved? Wanting to get saved? You going out to
get saved? John? Henry? Huh? Down on your luck, so to
speak? Looking to turn over a new leaf.
Was that you? It wasn't me. I was defying God. But God. And now to take a sin-loving,
world-loving fellow and make him hate sin
and hate the world, that's the work of God. It has
to be. Joe, this has to be. I wasn't looking for it, wasn't
interested in it. How about you? Has to be the work of God. All
things become brand new. And then this book. All the wondrous
revelations. Didn't he say, didn't Christ
say, didn't He say, didn't I say unto you, if you believe, that
you'd see the glory of God? Huh? And what have we seen? Christ
said an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign
will be given. No real sign. Oh, he's sending
strong delusions, and they're believing a lie. But he's opened
our eyes, like David said, to behold wondrous things from his
law. And John, you have walked into
the Holy of Holies, haven't you? You've looked in the ark. And
Shekinah glory. has filled your soul, hasn't
it? Huh? You watched the priest put the
blood on the mercy seat, hadn't you? Been right there within
the veil where not everybody can go. And now you believe more
firmly, and ain't nobody and no one, no thing going to convince
you otherwise, right? And all because of this. He's
opened this up to you. Through the Holy Spirit, And
Sunday morning we're going to deal with these three things
in verses 8 through 11, when the Comforter, when the Holy
Spirit has come, he's going to do three things. This is the
work of the Holy Spirit, to convince of these three things. And he's
already done that to us, hasn't he? Thank God. All right. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for sending your Son, for nailing
him to a tree, bruising him, sending him to the grave, raising
him from the grave, seating him at your right hand, accepting
the blood on our behalf. and send in your Holy Spirit
to lead us and guide us into all truth, the truth as it is
in Jesus Christ. We thank you for this book that
you have completed and given to us and made known unto us. The very mysteries of God which
have been kept hid from the foundation of the world have been written
in a book for us to read. And yet it is a sealed book to
the world. Lord, how we thank you that you
have opened our eyes and dug our ears and plowed our hearts
to receive the engrafted word. And we have beheld wondrous things
from your book, and we thank you. But we would ask for a greater sense of your Holy Spirit's presence.
We would grasp for your Holy Spirit to be with us at all times. That he would truly take the
things of Christ and bring them to our remembrance, all things
that he has said, and thereby create faith. So that we can
say with the Apostle Paul in the face of whatever persecution
or whatever trial or whatever you sinned, we can say, I know
whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to
keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. This
takes faith, and this faith is your gift. Grant it. We pray through the hearing of
the Word, in Christ's name we pray, amen. Okay.