Slager in love gave me peace
from above when he reached down his hand for me. When my Slager reached down for
me, when he reached one down for me, I was lost and undone without
God or His Son, when He reached down His hand for me. I was near to despair when He
came to me there. And He showed me that I could
be free. Then He lifted my feet, gave
me gladness complete. When He reached down His hand
for me When Christ Jesus reached down
for me When He reached sweaty down for me I was lost and undone
Without God or His Son He reached down His hand for me Now my heart does rejoice When
I hear His sweet voice In the tempest to Him I do flee There
to lean on His arm Safe, secure from all harm Since He reached
down His hand for me When Christ Jesus reached down for me When
He reached way down for me I was lost and undone Without God or
His Son when he reached down his hand for me. I was lost and
undone without God or the Son when he reached down his hand
for me. You know, along the lines of
what I was just saying, God has to overrule and work and bless
us in spite of us every time. We can't prepare enough. But
he has to work, he has to reveal himself in spite of us, and so
many times there's many other things that come into play also,
weariness of the flesh, trouble of heart and so forth. But he
blesses sincerity. He really does. And he blesses
those that seek him. Seek me or find me when you search
for me with all your heart, he said. It's a promise. It's a
promise like so many others. Now, let's turn to John, chapter
sixteen. John, chapter sixteen. You know, Terry, based upon what
you read back there in the study, it applies spiritually, too.
We don't have put into this thing what we might get out of it,
you know? Stewards, unjust, unfaithful
stewards, right, Henry? If we just be faithful in a few
things, we might be blessed beyond measure. He blesses us anyway, you know,
sometimes. Sometimes he gives us what we
deserve. Nothing. Nothing. We're in John chapter 16, a real
temptation for me to want to hurry through this and get to
John 17. I'm anxious to get to John 17, to that high priestly
prayer, but my, my, the things he has to say here in the last
part of John 16 are so wonderful, and I hope he'll bless us in
it. Now, the last time we looked
at this passage We studied just two verses, verse twenty-three
and twenty-four, where Christ said, Whatsoever you shall ask
in the Father, or ask the Father in my name, he will give it to
you. He said, Here are the two. Have you asked nothing in my
name? Ask, and you shall receive. Or ask in my name, and you will
receive, that your joy may be full. And we saw and we studied
last week that we believe that part of this thing of asking
in Christ's name is to ask in with his will and his character
for his glory, his honor and humble submission to the will
of God, just like Christ prayed for the glory of God, not my
will, but thy will. And he promised that if you ask
in that fashion, you'll get what you asked for, the glory of God
and have Christ revealed. And it also means, based upon
my pastor's message Wednesday night, it also means to ask upon
authority. the authority of this One who
speaks in the name of the One who is all and in all, the One
whom God has vested all things in His name, in His authority. Because the Father loves the
Son and has put all things in His power, therefore to ask in
the name of the Son is to ask upon His authority, and based
upon the Father's covenant or agreement with the Son, we are
to receive the blessing. Father, give me what I've got
coming to me in the name of Christ. And what we've got coming to
us is all the fullness, the blessings of God in Christ Jesus. There
might not be riches in this world, but there'll certainly be the
riches of Christ, the one thing needful. Father, give me what
I've got coming to me in the name of Christ. What have we
got coming to us in Christ? All the fullness of God, spiritual
things. Well, in verse 24, he said the
disciples had not been asking or praying, I suppose, with this
full apprehension of what was theirs in Christ, what was rightfully
theirs because of Christ. You haven't asked in my name.
If you ask, you'll receive, and your joy will be full." Brother
Donnie Bell always says this. He says, Most believers live
far below their privileges. Far below. Well, Christ tells
them, You ask the Father for my sake in my name, and the Father
loves and hears me, and he'll give them to you. Now look at
verse 25 with me. Let's start here. He says, These things have
I spoken unto you in proverbs. What things? Well, he told them
about a woman that's with child when she has sorrow until she
gives birth to a child. Then he told them about them
weeping and the world rejoicing. He told them about praying in
his name. He said, I've spoken in stories, in parables, in proverbs
to you. But the time comes, he said,
when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, in parables,
hidden stories with hidden meanings, but I'll show you plainly of
the Father. Plainly. And you know, the Old
Testament, it reminds me how the Old Testament is a veiled
book to most people. To most people, that's what it
says there in 2 Corinthians 3. It is a veil on the face of most
people in the reading of the Old Testament. It's all just
one story, isn't it? Simple stories. They've heard
Noah's Ark, and they've heard all of these things growing up.
Ruth. Most people, when they hear the
story of Ruth, what do they dwell on? They dwell on Ruth, don't
they? Her faith. Where you go, I'll
go. Your people will be my people. Well, that's all fine and good,
but the book of Ruth is about Boaz, the kinsman-redeemer. One who has a right to redeem.
It's about Christ. The book of Ruth is. And go on. Jonah. The book of Jonah. What's
that all about? Christ said there's only one
sign we're going to be given. And that's the sign of the prophet
Jonah. So you know that speaks of Christ very clearly. As Jonah
was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights,
even so must the son of man be in the earth three days and three
nights. And just go on and on. like we
studied this morning. It's a veiled book. These are
veiled stories, parables. Christ said, they asked Him,
why do you preach in parables? He said, because it's not given
to them to know. It's given to you to know. What? How? Seek,
you'll find. Knock, it'll be open. Ask, and
you'll receive. Search with all your heart. Dig,
it's what we do every time we come in. Dig, search, study,
seek, find. And it's open to our eyes, isn't
it? Like a gold mine, like a nugget. It's open. But Christ said, one
day, one day I'm not going to speak in parables. He says to
his disciples that they shall be plainly taught and not in
parables, assemblies. And this reminds me of on the
road to Emmaus. Very shortly after that, Henry, after he appeared
to his disciples on the road to Emmaus, says he began in the
book of Moses. and all the prophets and the
Psalms and expounded unto them the things concerning himself.
He said, Now boys, now get your Bibles out. Now I'm going to
speak very plainly to you. And he opened up their understanding
that they might understand the scripture. Don't you know, and
that's what they said, I don't mind. They saw him like they'd
never seen him before because he spoke plainly to them. He
said these things were hid from the wise and the prudent. You could read the story of Esther
or Ruth or whatever, Noah's Ark or whatever, to a lawyer, to
the Attorney General of the United States, and he'll never see Jesus
Christ in it. You can read it to a plow boy,
a farmer, and if God the Holy Spirit is revealed to him, he'll
see Christ in it. But that's the reason, because
these things are hid from the wise and included and revealed
unto the baby. But Christ said it's coming today,
and it's going to be very plain to you. And the disciples didn't
have a finished picture before their eyes, like we do. They
didn't have this Bible that we have. We've got the finished
picture. So Christ dealt very plainly,
or very tenderly. with the disciples, and we've
got the whole book. We've got the last chapter. We just read
part of the last chapter, Terry. We saw, we got in on what he
really looks like, the last chapter. Therefore, seeing we have such
hope, Paul said, we use what? Great plainness of speech. We tell it like it is. Well,
there's only one way to preach it. The world is under me if
I preach not the gospel in all its purity and authenticity and
plainness. He said, I'll show you plainly
the Father. In verse 26, he says, At that day, you shall ask in
my name. When you fully comprehend, boys,
when you fully comprehend who I am. They still didn't know. They had a little knowledge.
And we just know in part, don't we? Someday we're going to see
him as he is. We're going to feel his love
like it really is. We're going to see all the things
he had for us. And we're going to say, Well,
we may not say this, but we say it now. It's the thoughts of
that. Why didn't I do this or that or that? Why didn't I believe
him more? Why? You know what I mean? Well, that's what Christ said.
When you finally realize, Christ says to each disciple, who I
am and what's in me and what's in me for you, at that day, You're
going to ask in my name." And they did, didn't they? They went
all over this world in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, casting
out devils, healing people, wonderful miracles, the Spirit of God came
down upon them with clothing, with tongues and fire and this
and that and the other. Now, I'm not talking about that we
need these things. Nevertheless, you see the point
I'm trying to make here. When they finally realized who
this was, they asked in his name. At that day, the day of the Holy
Spirit, you'll see that all things are in me, through me, by me,
and for me. And you'll ask according to my
will and my purpose." And, Henry, this gets right back to where
we started. The disciples never asked anything for their own
benefit. I don't recall Peter and the
boys ever getting out there and saying, Lord, we need a good
chariot now to get around. We just hard road we're traveling
in order to give us a new wagon, a nice steed to pull it. We'll call them, ask them for
anything for themselves. They asked gospel purposes, didn't
they? And they got it, buddy. They
got it. They sure did. They got it. They asked according
to his will and purpose. Not selfishly, worldly purposes. Now, worldly purposes, like they
were asking before, Lord, who's going to be the greatest? Grant
that John be on your right hand and me on the left. Lord, would
you do that for us? You don't know what you're asking, he said
to them. You don't need to be on the right hand and the left
hand. You just need to be there. You'll be happy just to have
the last seat in the house. Somebody, Todd Nyberg, always
says that. He said, there's going to be a battle in heaven. It's
going to be over the lowest seat. Everybody thinks they deserve
the lowest seat, the last seat, the last one. They don't deserve
the chief seat. His first should be last, the
last person. Well, he said, look at verse 26 again, wouldn't he? Verse 25, I have spoken unto
you in Proverbs, but the time comes when I shall no more speak
to you in Proverbs, but I'll show you plainly of the Father.
And in that day, the day of the Holy Spirit, when he comes, you
will ask in my name, and And I say not unto you that I will
pray the Father for you." He's not saying he's not going to
intercede for them and be praying for them. He never lives to intercede
for us, the Scriptures say. That's not what he's saying.
What he's saying here is that I don't need to coerce the Father
to hear you, and I've got a confession to make you. Sometimes I... Vicki and I were talking about
this the other day. Sometimes we make it sound like
the Father just is reluctant to hear us, and Christ has just
got to make him hear us. Father, hear them for my blood's
sake, and so forth." Now, that is the reason he hears us. He
still has two holy ears to hear our saying, the Holy Spirit has
to give us groanings which cannot be uttered, and so forth. And
the blood of Christ makes our petitions acceptable. But the
reason Christ came was because the Father was willing to hear
us and loved us. Terry, that's the reason he came.
I don't want to give that impression at all. Not at all. See what I'm saying? It's not
Christ's saying. I'm not saying unto you that,
verse 26, I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for
you, verse 27, but the Father himself loves you. I tell you,
we can get a hold of this. I can't. Heaven, the holy God
of heaven loving me. Father himself loved you. Terry,
it's the reason he bloodied his son. Because he loved an old
scoundrel like you. Because he had to, to reach down
to pick you out of that mire like he sung about it. He had
to. Had to kill his son to do it. That's love, isn't it? Behold what manner of love the
Father has bestowed upon us. It's because hearing is love,
isn't it? Not that we love God, but He
loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation, a bloody sacrifice. His visage marred more than any
man because of His love. And that's what Christ is saying.
He's saying, I'm not going to have to coerce the Father into
hearing you. I've got to do this work in order
for him to hear you and go back and sit at the right hand as
a man to intercede, to mediate, to represent you. But I came
because he intended to hear you from here on out. The Father loves you. Why? Because you love me. See that,
verse 27? Because you love me and you believe
that I came out from God. The Father himself loves you.
Now listen to this. It's because of the Father's
love that sent Christ, that he sent Christ. And as you grow
and mature in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and of God, you realize you're
firmly persuaded whom you have believed, even the Father. This
is eternal life that they might know indeed. the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Christ said, I and the
Father are one, right? How is God? What is God like? We describe Him as being holy,
unapproachable, don't we? And He is. But, or and, maybe,
Christ was God, wasn't He? How was he? How was he? However, God, however, Christ
was is how God is. And what do you say? Oh, Jerusalem,
Jerusalem. Didn't he? How else would I have
gathered you? As a mother, he and us gather
her good. Didn't he? He's willing. Somebody said he's
more willing to show mercy. He'd be gracious than we are
to ask for it. Oh, boy. If we could get a hold
of that, it would give us some peace and some comfort. But the
more we learn of Christ, the more we learn. This is what we
learn. The more we learn of the Father. Because God was in Christ,
reconciling the world to Himself, showing that He's forward toward
us through Christ. That's the reason He came. Now,
we say this over and over, John, or anybody, that we say this
over and over, that you don't come to people with this first.
No, there's got to be, and this is what Christ came preaching
and John came preaching. What? Repentance toward God,
this holy God, this sovereign God, whom you can approach in
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and bow to Christ. And then,
when he reveals who God is, either come up to God and must believe
that he is, and a reward of them that diligently seek, he'll reward
them that bow before him, like the woman at the well and the
leper. Come worship him in that way. They reward him, and eventually
he'll give them the spirit of adoption, whereby they can cry,
Daddy. Not first, Nancy, not first. You don't come to God like that
first, do you? No, not first. Christ himself, John the Baptist,
all the prophets, and every true preacher now comes preaching,
first of all, repentance toward this holy God. You've offended
the holy God, now bow down. And faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus and be, say, him and him alone. And if people do that, then you
can say, now, God loves you and Christ died for you. That's what Christ is saying
here to his beloved, to his disciples. He's not saying that to everybody,
is he? It's just that this is intimate conversation to his
disciples. He said, now, the Father himself
loves you because you love me. God's love for us is not based
upon our faith. You may think that's what he's
saying here. Our faith is based upon God's love for us. You see,
we love him because he first loved us, and we believe on him
because what? He gave us the gift of faith. God loves us because we believe
Christ. Well, this is not a contradiction. God doesn't contradict his word.
I just quoted two verses to you there that say this doesn't mean
that. What he's showing us here is
that the love of God is in Christ, and it's for believers. You hear
what I'm saying? What he's showing us here is
not that the love of God is conditional upon our faith. Our faith's conditioned
on the love of God is what it is, the gift of God. What he's
showing us here is that the love of God is in Christ Jesus, that
God loves people in Christ, that he loves believers, Roberta,
not everybody, not Esau. He hates Esau. Why? Esau sold
his birthright. He didn't want anything to do
with God. He hates all workers of iniquity, those that don't
want anything to do with him, workers of unrighteousness. He's
angry with them every day. He loved believers. Why did they
believe? Because he gave them the faith.
What he's showing here is that the love of God is for believers,
not unbelievers. And this is the reason you can't
go out to anybody in the spirit world and say, God love you.
Heard some fool on TV today talking to people in Russia. Showed a
little silly film of some Jesus. And then these people never heard
the gospel in their life. And he said, and they had him
pray a little prayer afterward, you know, a silly little prayer.
He said, now, if you prayed that prayer out, Jesus just came into
your heart. And I saw him all of a sudden sitting there. He
did? Yeah, he did. You're saved. Jesus
just came into your heart if you prayed that prayer with me.
Well, that's not the way it is, is
it? You must be born from above,
the scripture says. Not from a repeat-after-me prayer. Not hocus-pocus dominocus. says
to me, rub a magic lantern, you know, say the magic word that
God's obligated. No, sir. No, sir." Well, to be sure, it's all based upon
Christ. It's all for Christ's sake. It's
his sake. and whom the Father, because
the Father loves him supremely, and he's made Christ his sole
heir, his firstborn, his well-beloved, his only begotten. Now, Christ,
look at this, verse 27. He said, You believe this, because
you've loved me, and you believe that I came out from God. Look
over 1 John chapter 4 with me, quickly. 1 John chapter 4. Brother
Ralph Dale preached on this, and it's been a while back, and
so I want to preach on it here soon. You have to wait a while
after you preach something somebody else has preached. But he preached
ably on this passage of Scripture. I really enjoyed it. But this
is John saying the same thing here. He said, Christ said to
him, you believe that I came forth from the Father. And this
is what John said, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the
spirits or the preachers, whether they are of God, because many
false prophets have gone out into the world. But hereby know
ye the Spirit of God. the Holy Spirit, and when his
hand is upon every spirit or preacher, because every one of
them that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
is of God. And what does that mean? In plain
and simple terms, that means that Jesus Christ is sovereign
Lord, come down to do a job, and he got it done. He come down
to reign and rule among the inhabitants of earth, just like he did in
the inhabitants of heaven. And he came down. He just wasn't
a baby in the manger. He's not a helpless, frustrated
man. He's the God who reigns and rules.
And he comes down to save, and he got the job done. He got the
job done. He came in the flesh. And every
spirit, every preacher that doesn't confess that Jesus Christ has
come to effectually accomplish what the Father gave him to do,
and he did that. They don't believe that. They
don't believe the blood of God's Son cleanses us. They're not
of God, plain and simple. They don't believe Christ is
sovereign in salvation, as well as everything. They're not of
God. And this had a whole lot deeper meaning back then than
it does now, because everybody's saying Jesus is Christ and so
forth. But back then, when they said just Jesus of Nazareth is
the Christ, everybody knew who the Christ was, the Anointed.
the Messiah, the King, the reigning ruler, who's to come, God's chosen
from among the people, to come and reign and rule and save his
people from their sin. But now it's been used so carelessly,
so flippantly. Well, look back at verse 28,
back in the text. He said, I'm come forth from
the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the
world and I go to the Father. He said, you believe this? You
believe this and these are the first principles of saving faith.
First principles of saving faith is God sent his son. He sent,
he's the heavenly one sent down. Christ is the one sent. Why? Because he had to come establish
a righteousness. You need to understand that.
You need to understand we don't have this holiness that God required. And then he came to be a substitute
that we need a lamb. Michael Isaac said to his father,
he knew more than theologians today, didn't he? He said, Father,
here's the wood and here's the fire, where's the lamb? He knew a lot more than preachers
today, didn't he? You've got to have a lamb, you can't worship
God. You've got to have blood, you can't worship God. And Christ
is saying, you know this, you know this, that I'm the one sent
down to establish this righteousness, to be your substitute, to be
your representative. Now, I'll get into this a little
bit more in a moment. And they knew he was going back,
or at least in their head a little bit, that he had power over death,
to intercede, to reign, to rule, when he got back there. Now,
verse 29. His disciples said unto him,
after they heard this, they said, Lo, now speakest thou plainly. Now you're talking. Now we can
understand what you're saying. They spoke a little more plainly
there. They said, now speakest thou plainly, and you don't speak
in Proverbs, verse 30. Now we're sure. Henry, you ever
said this? Now we're sure. You ever come
in and heard a message or hear on tape, whatever, see it in
the scriptures? Now I'm sure. I know now. Now we're sure that
thou knowest all things. Need it not that any man should
ask thee? By this we believe that thou
cam'st." I've got it, now I know. I know now. They believed. They did. They
believed the fundamentals of faith. They knew Christ. They
knew Christ. They believed Christ's word.
They believed who he said he was. That's the fundamentals
of the faith. Believe in God. Believe in the
record of God's Son. But as far as having much understanding,
they didn't know as much as we know now. No. But, lest somebody say that they
were ignorant of the things necessary for salvation. No. They believed. They heard. They believed. Peter
said it. He summed it up, didn't he? He
said, Thou art the Christ. Now, like I said, back then it
meant a whole lot more than it does now. The term Christ, it
meant Messiah, Holy One, Son of God, Savior, Redeemer. Men
don't believe He's the Savior. They believe He tries, don't
they? You see, I'm splitting hairs.
Yes, I am. Men don't believe He's the Savior.
They believe He tries to save. When you believe Jesus is the
Christ, you believe He saves. He gets the job done. And He's
the Messiah, the Holy One sent of God, the Lord, our righteousness. I guarantee you, they knew that
He was the Lord, their righteousness. They knew that He was their acceptance
with the Father. They appealed to Him time and
time again, didn't they? Didn't they? They appealed to
Him on every hand. Lord save us, or we perish. If that ain't knowing that He's
their representative, I don't know what is. Right? That's knowing that you
need somebody to save you, but you can't do it yourself. That's
not going about to establish your own righteousness. That's
appealing to Him. They might not have known it
in doctrine so much, but they knew it in principle. They couldn't
fully understand and know the implications of it all, but they
knew this, that Christ was their hope, and to be sure that the
Father sent the Holy Spirit to lead and guide them into all
truth later on, to be sure he will not leave his people in
ignorance. None of them. Won't leave them
in bondage either. None of them. All thy children,
all thy people shall be taught of God, right? And he that heareth
and learneth of the Father cometh unto me. And ye come to Christ,
and know Christ in the Son, said ye what? from bondage and rules
and regulations, touch not, taste not, handle not, rules and ordinances
which are to perish with the using, right? I've got a kind and merciful
and gracious and loving Heavenly Father like I treat my daughter.
I don't demand things of her and put her under rule and bondage
and chains. I don't do it. This is what I'm saying. The
more you come to know this person, the more you realize, hey, he
loves me. What's he going to do to keep
me under? He won't do it. Do you do it to your children,
Terry? He won't do it to his children. Come unto me, sinners! Come. Loyal life, bond, not the
righteous enough. Come to call the righteous. You
goodness, I don't want you. sinners, sinners, and they stay
sinners in their own eyes at least. And they don't go about
to establish a righteousness. They realize that nothing I do,
say, look, whatever, is going to please God Almighty. That
my pleasing is in Him, the one He's well pleased with. Right? The more you come to know and
understand Christ, And discern his gospel, and the more you
realize that, that he's love. God is love, not an iron hand. Well, Christ admonishes them
here for saying, I've got it all figured out. was the ringleader here, I bet
he's the one that spoke this up aloud. Now I'm sure. Are you? Listen to what Christ said. Do
you now believe? Are you sure? Yeah, I got it
all figured out, Lord. Oh my. That's what Peter said. Lord, I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm
ready to die for you. Oh, Peter. It's almost as if
he said, I wish you hadn't said that, Peter. Now I'm going to
show you. And to be sure, our sin, our
self-righteousness, our presumption, our holier-than-thou attitude
will find us out. God will bring us down. But their faith was genuine.
It really was, but it wasn't as strong as they thought it
was. It was genuine. Take comfort. Their faith was
genuine. We've said this, too, and we've
said it in all sincerity, too. Now I know. I know. Next morning,
I was not so sure. Right? But it was genuine. Lord,
I do believe. Oh, but help my unbelief. I do
believe that shortly thereafter we will be revealed the fools."
And he says here, let me quote this, it says, keep your foot
when going into the house of God. Remember who it is you're
sitting before? Before him, another believer.
Keep your foot, and don't be so ready to give the sacrifice
of fools, because shortly thereafter we will be revealed to be the
fools and the cowards that we really are. Somebody said it's
better to be a fool and keep your mouth shut. than to open
your mouth and remove all doubt. Listen to J.C. Ryle here. I wrote
down here. I just couldn't improve upon
this. J.C. Ryle. He said, The true secret
of spiritual strength and maturity is self-distrust and deep humility. Do you trust yourself, Henry? Oh, no. Goodness gracious. A
young, weak, foolish believer does. Yeah, I got it all figured
out. Paul said, Paul, the saint of
saints, the strong. When I'm weak, Paul said, then
I'm strong. Listen to this. He said, Raul
said this, none of us perhaps have the least idea how much
we might fall if placed suddenly under the influence of a strong
temptation. Stanley, your Bathsheba hadn't come along yet, and you
better hope she doesn't, right? We better be praying that she
doesn't. Mine hadn't either. Or whatever
David King said, Little Maiden. And whatever temptation, none
of us know, none of us realize how we might fall if placed suddenly
under the influence of some temptation. Happy is he who never forgets
these words. Let him that thinketh he standeth
take heed, unless he falleth." Why, what good does that do you?
Because you'll remember the disciples, you'll remember Peter, and you'll
pray daily, Lord, hold thou me up, unless I fall. Lord, save me or I perish. You
keep that in mind. Strong in yourself, and a strong
arm of the flesh, and so forth. Forget him, and God will allow
you to fall greatly. Better hope he picks you back
up. If you keep leaning and looking to him, though, say that trust
in the Lord shall never fail you. Well, look at verse 32. Behold, the hour comes. I've
got to hurry. The hour cometh. Yea, now is come. He said to
them, You'll be scattered. This scares me to death just
to read this verse. The hour comes, and now is, that
you're going to be scattered, every man to his own. What did
Paul say over there to Timothy, I believe it was? He said, all
seek their own. Didn't he? I believe it was to
Timothy, wasn't it? All seek their own, and not the
things of Christ. And this was along the lines
of my message Sunday night. If everybody in here was maturely,
truly, sincerely seeking the Lord Jesus Christ and His glory
and His honor, to know Him, to win Christ and be found in Him,
to love Him, know the love of God which passes mere knowledge,
the height, the depth, the length, the breadth, and so forth, to
know and love Christ, to worship Him, gather together in His name,
and to love my brother and my sister like Christ. We'd never
have a problem with it. Not a moment's problem, not a
bitter word, not a... where never is heard a discouraging
word. That's what they say about this
church. I'll go down there, never heard it. Why? If we're seeking
Christ, all right. That's what Paul said, I'll seek
their own. Whenever something comes up, it's got to be because
I'm seeking me. Right? I'm not thinking on the
things of others. I may be thinking on how I can
gossip, but if I'm really thinking on for God's glory and His good,
there won't be any problem. I need this. But Christ said,
there's going to be a time when everybody's scattered, every
man to his own, and shall leave me alone. Now listen to this.
If this ain't scary, I preached the message. I think it was the first of this
year. I'm not sure why I didn't look it up. I preached a message
there from a text where Christ said, Will you also go away?
Do you remember it? Four people have left this congregation
since I preached that message. I'm pretty sure that all four
of those people heard that message. I'm not saying you have to go
to this church to hear the gospel, but why leave it? Am I preaching the gospel? Then if you leave this church,
and I'm not saying there's a hint of this happening at all, but
I'm just warning us, everybody, like I just said, people, we
may not have been suspected. So if you leave this church for
whatever reason, You're leaving the gospel, right? Unless God doesn't leave you
to yourself, and doesn't leave you out there in the wilderness,
and takes you somewhere else to get mad at me, or my wife,
or deacons, or whatever, somebody else, if God does spare you and
have mercy, it's rare, it's very, very rare. Because once the root
of bitterness springs up and troubles us against something,
you know, you hear this man, you get mad at this man. There
ain't too many men much different. Really, there really isn't. They're
all men. Every man in his best state's
all a good man. And if you don't like the way somebody doesn't
like the way I do things, they're probably not going to like the
way somebody else does things. It's just the way men are men, you
know. Everybody makes mistakes. But I know one thing, like we
were talking about Ralph, there may be better preachers out there,
but there ain't a better gospel. Maybe if they was able to preach
it a little better, but they can't preach a better and clearer
gospel than I can. I'll say with Paul, if any man
preached any other gospel than what I've been preaching, they'd
be a curse. I'd say that with all confidence.
But Christ gave us this warning. He said, you'll leave me. You'll
leave me if God doesn't hold you up. And I'll say that again,
one more time. Goodness gracious, it scares
me to utter it. Will you also go away? Who knows, you know? It might
be Henry Sword, gracious sake, what a blow that'd be. Wouldn't
that be a blow? Joe Park, can you imagine? I've
seen it happen many times. Elders, deacons, I've seen it
happen. Just shocking. Not him, no. That's what they said about Judas.
He was the treasurer. That's what they said about Judas.
Nobody suspected Judas. No, not Judas. That's the reason I pray for
me, because I'm in the position to be attacked, not by people
so much as it is, but by the devil himself. Christ said, You'll leave me
alone though, but yet I'm not alone, Christ said. I'm not alone,
because the Father is with me. I need to get to verse thirty-three
in a hurry. Yet I'm not alone, Christ said. Christ accomplished
his work by himself. It is true. Yet it was the Father
who sent him, and it was the Father that upheld him, that
upheld him. Somehow or another, Henry, he
became sin. That's what Scripture said. God made him to be sin. Somehow
or another, when he was hanging on that cross, he said, if I
be lifted up, I'll draw men to myself. Somehow or another, when
he hung on that cross, he could not save himself. Like they saved
others himself, he cannot save. That's true. He was made sin,
somehow or another, supernaturally. He was made sin, a sacrifice,
a lamb, laid as a sheep before her shearers is done. He's hanging
on that cross. He could not come down because
of that eternal covenant with the Father, because of the Father's
power that held him there. But he wasn't alone. The father
was with him. The father was behind him. Now
I'll quit with this verse thirty-three. He said, Now these things I've
spoken unto you. These things. What things? Very
briefly, turn back with me to chapter fourteen. Turn back with
me, please. He said, These things have I
spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. What things
did he say? Well, back in chapter fourteen he said, Don't let your
heart be troubled. You remember, we've been going
through all of this, and he's uttered his last words before
he goes to the cross. I can't get past this. I should have gotten to this
a little faster. But this is a summary of it all. I go to prepare a place for you.
Verse 6, I'm the way, the truth, the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Verse 13, whatever ye ask in
my name, I will do. Verse 14, ask anything in my
name, I'll do it. Verse 16, I'll pray the Father.
He's going to give you a comforter. Look at chapter 15, verse 1,
I'm the true vine. My Father is the husbandman.
You're clean through the word which I've spoken unto you. Verse
5. Without me you can do nothing. Verse 15. Forget it. Verse 15. I don't call you servants anymore.
I call you friends. Friends. Verse 16. You haven't
chosen me. I chose you. And I ordained you
to bring forth fruits. Verse 26. The Comforter is going
to come. I want to send him to you. He's
going to tell you all about me. Chapter 16. Verse 8. Chapter
16. Verse 8. So when he comes, he'll
reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and judgment.
Verse 13, when he's come, he'll guide you in all truth, all truth. Verse 16, a little while you'll
see me, again a little while you'll see me, as I go to the
Father. I'm going, I'm leaving, I'm coming back, you'll see me
again, and you're coming back with me. Verse 22, and your heart's
going to rejoice, you now therefore have sorrow. But then your heart
will rejoice, verse twenty-six, and at that day you will ask
in my name. And I say not that I have to pray for you. You can
pray to the Father yourself, because he loves you. Now, he
said, I have spoken these things unto you, that in me you might
have peace, peace, comfort, and assurance. We heard it Wednesday
night as clear as we could possibly hear it, that Christ is God. We said we went through the whole
counsel, everything that God has for us, nearly. in everything
that Christ has just been saying. All of these things, all of these
things. You know, he mentioned leaving
them, leaving, he mentioned them leaving him. He just said that. You're all going to leave him
there. But he never said he'd leave them, forsake them, did
he? That's their peace and their covenant. That's just like you
and me, Roberta. We may leave him. We may. We
may have a fallen out. But bless God, if we're His,
we'll come back. We'll come back. We'll not fall
away completely. And three days later, he said
he'd appear to them, and the first, you know what the first
words he said when he came back? When he said, he said this to
them there throughout this sermon, or this word to them, this message
to them. He said, Peace, I give unto you. My peace, not like
the world, my peace. You know what the first words he said when
he came back to them, Terry? Peace. Peace. Peace. Why do you
have wars and struggles and so forth within you? Is it not from
your own lust? Peace. Peace. In Christ. That's what I was trying to say,
about being in Christ, having peace. But he forewarns them. He doesn't leave them. Right
there he forewarns them, verse 33. He says, In the world you're
going to have tribulation. And you're going to have peace
in me. All peace is in me. Everything is in me and me alone,
all their peace. But he forewarns them that they're
going to have tribulation here. Tribulation. And they ought to
put all their eggs in one basket, man, and not this world. They ought to put all their hope
and trust in him and trust everything to him. He said, In the world
you shall have tribulation. Now listen. In the world you
shall have tribulation. All trials are from God. All
trials, tribulations, trials are from God. They take many
different forms. Like that house that's built
on the rock, the rain's descended, trials come down from above and
you know it's from God, and then the floods come up, trials come
beneath, and then the winds blow, you don't know where they're
coming from. But it all comes from God. But Christ said this,
in the world you shall have tribulation. Trials in the world. like pain
and suffering and sorrow, bodily sickness and poverty in the world
and from the world, too. You're going to have persecution
and reproaches and hatred and so forth. But though in the world
you shall have tribulation, Christ said, be of good cheer, peace,
peace. I've overcome it. I've overcome
the world. I've overcome the world. You
know, part of the reason I like to come into this place, part
of the reason I like to come here to this church, hear the
gospel, preach the gospel, whatever, worship with God's people, and
part of the reason I like to get together with God's people,
those of black faith, is to get away from the world. How about
you? Oh, yeah. Listen to this. Listen to Thomas Manton. He said,
The world is a dirty, defiling thing. He said, a man can hardly
walk here, but he defiles his garments. The men of this world
are dirty, sooty creatures. He said, we can't converse with
them, but they leave their filthiness on us. That's right, isn't it? You can't step out the door,
can't go anywhere without hearing God's name blasphemed and something,
some dirty joke or something just bombard you, mud slung in
your face. And like Henry said, we got us
to deal with, too. We got me, the old man, to deal
with. The old man, he's with us. Henry
said this, he said sometimes he'd like to run away from all
his problems, but he finds out that when he got there, his problem
would still be there. Him. He said, I try to run away
from my problem, but when I get there, I find that I'm still
there. So, Henry, you know why we come here? To crucify this
old man of mine. Killing, right? Yeah, to nourish the new man.
Have this new man nourished within us, growing up. Growing up. And to kill this old, put him
on the cross again, right? by the gospel, killing. Christ
said, be of good cheer, be of good cheer, I've overcome the
world. The world is essentially the
same, but so is Christ. And our Lord said that he overcame
the world. The foundation of our peace and
our comfort is Christ's victory, his victory on that cross. That's the foundation of our
peace, that when he came to save When he came to reconcile us
to God, he did it. When he came to put away our
sins, he did it. When he came to overcome this
world, it seemed to overcome us, and he said he did it, he
did it. And that's our comfort and our
peace. And whatsoever is born of God,
John said, overcomeeth the world. And this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith. What is our faith? It's
not of what? It's not a what. It's a who.
He's an object. He's the object of that. He overcame it. It seems like
it overcomes us, doesn't it, all the time. It seems like it's
just got a hold of it. He said, I took care of it. Don't
need to worry about it. It'll never, it'll never finally
have the victory over it. No, never. Never. I've overcome
it. I've overcome it. I've suffered
every temptation that We have not a high priest who is not
cut for the fear of our infirmities, but is tempted in all points
like as we are, yet without sin. He walked on those waters, the
waters that we go down under. He walked over top of them. He overcame for us, for all those
that come unto God by him, who believe in him. All righty, let's
stand, and I'll dismiss this in prayer.