in on this private conversation,
really, of our Lord with his disciples, and then we get to
listen in on Christ's prayer to the Father. So this is a special
privilege, and it bears our attention. Somebody said this was the greatest
sermon ever preached from John 14 to 16 through 16, followed
by the greatest prayer ever prayed in John 17. If you remember,
when we started out this study, our Lord was getting ready to
leave these men. He'd been with them three and
a half years, been close to them and very intimate friends with
them, and he was getting ready to leave them. And you remember,
at the very first, they were sad. When they found out he was
leaving, they were very sad about it, and rightfully so, because
he had been their father and mother and brother and helped
mean just everything to them, their protector, a provider,
their security, everything for three and a third year, they
had depended upon him for everything. And now he was leaving them,
and they were sad. And he said in the beginning,
he said to them, don't be troubled. Let not your heart be troubled.
Don't be troubled. I'm going to the Father to prepare
a place for you. That is, he said he was intimating
and he was going to the Father to the Holy of Holies to present
that blood that he was about to offer upon this cross, to
present that blood before the Holy of Holies, before this Holy
Father, thus securing redemption and salvation for his people.
He was going to present that blood, and by virtue of that
blood, that atonement, that sacrifice, we have a place, we have a reservation. That's the only way anybody is
going to have a reservation in heaven, not because they decided
for Jesus. to accept Jesus or this and that.
The blood, it's the blood that makes atonement. It's the blood
that is security for the souls of God's people. And Christ said,
I'm going up there and I'm going to pour my blood out before the
mercy seat. I've got the children of Israel,
I've got God's people's names written on my breastplate, and
I'm going to the Holy Father to represent them. And it's security
for you, to prepare a place for you. And all the while he talked,
no matter what he said, And he said back, I can't remember,
I may not be able to find it right away. Anyway, all that he said, it
still didn't give them any comfort. Their buddy, their friend, their
master, their Lord was leaving them. And no matter what he said,
they couldn't get any comfort from him. He was leaving them.
He was leaving them. All the while he talked, they
were more and more troubled and more sad all the time. And on
top of this, he was telling them that they were going to go through
some of the hardest and toughest trials they'd ever gone through
before. That they really hadn't gone through any trials up until
now, because he was leaving them. And now they were going to be
persecuted and hated by everybody for preaching the truth. They
were going to be hated for it. And this only added to their
troubles and their confusion. Now look here at John 16 with
me. Now he says in verse 1, These things have I spoken unto you."
I'm telling you, he said, I'm forewarning you, I've told you
what's going to take place, that you should not be offended, that
these things shouldn't take you by surprise, that it shouldn't
trip you up, that you shouldn't stumble and fall and be faint
and ready to quit. I'm forewarning you that when
they come to pass, you won't be offended by them. I'm telling
you right now, so you won't be surprised at it. They're going
to put you out of the synagogue. Our Lord promised this, and it
happened just exactly like he said. Shortly after he left,
after he ascended back to the Father, Peter and some of them
were preaching in the synagogue, and they came in and grabbed
them and jerked them out of their bodily, cast them out of the
synagogue for preaching, put them in jail. And it happened
just as he said. And this is the reason that Peter
and some of them could come out of that jail rejoicing. That's
what he said would happen. So surely everything else that
he says is going to happen, too. His promises are sure. And some
other things follow that he said, and they probably recall. And
he says here, the time is going to come that whosoever killeth
you will think that he doeth God a service. And this happened
shortly thereafter. Stephen was preaching the gospel,
and they killed that old boy. They gnashed him. Religious people
gnashed their teeth and killed him for preaching the gospel.
And everybody, every one of them were killed, except John. Every
one of them were killed in the name of religion. In the name
of religion. And even up until this day, many
people have been martyred and killed merely for preaching the
truth. And what is our comfort in all
this? What is our hope? Just like in trials and afflictions
and all, our hope is that he promised it would happen. And
we look back and say, that's exactly what he said would happen.
Why should these things bother me? He said they were coming,
and even as he said they would. It's so. Even as he said so. Verse 3. Now he says, these things
will they do unto you because they've not known the Father.
These things they will do unto you because they don't know God
nor me. If they had known God. If these
Jews of old had known God and recognized his Son, whom God
sent into this world to be the Messiah, the Savior, they claim
to be looking for him all these years. They had the scriptures
that were able to make them rise at his coming, to be able to
tell who he was, where he was going to come, Bethlehem. But
they didn't recognize him, did they? They didn't, because they
didn't know God. They weren't really worshiping
God. They were going through the motions
of religion, just like they're doing today. And Christ said
if they had known God and recognized him and been worshiping him as
they should, if they had recognized the Son who came in the name
of the Father, they wouldn't have killed him. They wouldn't
have killed him. If they had known him now, today,
If men knew God as God, everybody would be worshiping Him as God.
Everybody would be preaching Him as God. The sovereign, omnipotent,
omniscient, omnipresent Lord and ruler and controller would
be bowing down and not be playing all these silly religious games.
If they knew Him as God, but they don't. It's like we preached
this morning. It's so obvious. In the name
of all this religion, all this foolishness that goes on, in
the name of Jesus in the name of Christianity. Men don't know
God, it's obvious. They're not worshiping God as
God, and they not don't know Christ. They're talking about
some Jesus who cannot say, but they don't know Christ the Lord,
the Lord our righteousness. Paul said it, they're ignorant.
They're ignorant of this righteousness that God requires of us, and
they're going about to establish their own, their own little silly
little works of religion. in order for some God to accept
them. But if you believe this gospel
of sovereign grace, if you believe it and preach it, the reaction
to that, the reaction to the preaching of the sovereign Savior
is still the same today as it was then. They say, they said
it then, they say it now. We will not have this man to
reign over us. We want to be in charge of our own destiny.
We will not have a sovereign lord. It's just what it comes
down to. Men and women just will not have a sovereign lord to
rule over them. They'll have a Jesus. They'll
have a baby in a manger. They'll have a Jesus to help
them out of a bind when they get in one, to make sure they
get in heaven, an insurance policy, a fire insurance policy, but
not this sovereign lord who reigns and rules and who has everything
in his hand, including salvation. They won't have that. They don't
have it. And they'll gnash their teeth at that. And if it were
lawful today, they'd kill everybody that was in the business of preaching
it. Yes, they would. And they'll kill you by different
methods. They'll blackball you. They'll talk nice to your face.
But you hear the comments out in the community. That's the
church. The old church. Where do you
go to church? Central Baptist. Old. Old church. Down there where they preach
that predestination. Now, so, we will not have this man reign
over. And Christ said, now these things I'm telling you, verse
4, these things I've told you that when the time shall come,
you're going to remember that I told you it happened. And here's the thing about it.
He said, somebody said in one place, woe is unto you, men speak
well of you. Didn't it? Christ said, it's
a certainty, it's a surety. The disciple is not above his
master. They hated me, they're going
to hate you. And if you dare to proclaim the truth as I did
it, as boldly and as plainly and clearly as I did it, they're
going to hate you too. He didn't say it's going to stop
in 1990 and things are going to get better. No. It's obviously
getting very much worse. Things are getting more and more
perverted in religion today. And they're going to hate you
and us just the same as they did Christ for preaching, for
merely for preaching this gospel. And Christ said, now I'm telling
you, He's telling his disciples there, and he's telling us, too.
Don't be surprised. Expect it. Be surprised, and
be worried if they don't. If somebody says, my two favorite
preachers are Paul Mahan and Jimmy Swaggart, oh, my! I'm not
saying something. I'm saying something wrong. I'm
not saying it right. Men need to see the difference.
It's like Mindy said this morning. This would be a good thing. The
real difference in what we preach here and what other people are
preaching is what we talked about this morning. It's the difference
between getting saved and being saved. The world preaches a salvation
you go get, a Jesus you go accept, you do, do, do, do. That's the
world salvation. That's the religion of today.
Get saved. Get born again. Get, get, get.
We're preaching a sovereign salvation. Something has to be done to us.
The difference between getting saved and being saved by God
Almighty. Totally passive in this thing
of salvation. There's a difference in what we preach. And if we
preach it clear enough and strong enough, somebody's got to see
that. They've got to see it. And they will. They will. And
Christ said, Now I'm telling you that you'll remember what
I said. And don't be surprised when it happens, when it happens. And he said, These things I said
unto you at the beginning. Now wait a minute. These things
I said not unto you at the beginning because I was with you. In other
words, I was going to be with you for three and a half years.
And I didn't tell you at the first. He began, you know, he
did. He began warning, forewarning them all along, telling them
little things here and there. But they didn't understand. He
began telling them of his death a long time before this, didn't
he? And they'd say, now he'd come right out and say it, wouldn't
he, Ron? Now the Son of Man is going to go to Jerusalem and
be delivered into the hands of wicked men, and they're going
to take him and kill him and crucify him, and he's going to rise again
the third day. And they'd go, you don't know
what he's talking about? No, I don't know what he's talking
about. He'd go on. And they didn't understand. But he didn't come right out
and tell them these things right at the first, because they'd have
been shaking and worrying the whole time. But he was going
to be with them. For three and a half years, he's
going to be right beside them. So they didn't need to worry
about this. And they didn't need to worry about these things.
He was going to be with them. Verse 5. Now, he says, but now I'm
going, I'm leaving. I go my way to him that sent
me, and none of you asked me whether you go. You remember
they did when we first started this study out. Some of them
said, Was it Phillips? Thomas said, Lord, we don't know
the way. So where are you going? We don't
know. The cross said, I have the way.
And Phillips said, well, show us the Father. He said, you've
seen me, you've seen the Father. So he explained that to them
there at first. And he said, now you don't have
to ask me this. I've told you where I'm going.
I've told you. But now I'm going away, and none
of you ask me where you're going. But I've told you these things.
But you still say it, he said, because I've said these things
unto you that I'm leaving. Sorrow has filled your heart
because of what you hear. This is much like an unconsolable
child when the mama leaves it in the nursery or something.
Unconsolable. This will not be comforted because
his mama's leaving. That's what these old boys were
like. Much the same way. And these
disciples were We're upset no matter what he told me. He said,
but nevertheless, now listen to me, listen to me for a second. Nevertheless, now I know you're
sad, he said. I know you're troubled. I'm leaving
you. Nevertheless, I'll tell you the
truth now. You listen to him. He said, I'm
telling you the truth. It's expedient that I go away. It's necessary. It's vital. It's
so necessary that I go away. So necessary. And this is kind
of like, this reminds me of a husband or a father who's going off to
work or to war. He was. He was going off to work,
wasn't he, Ron? Going off to his work that he
had to accomplish, his decease that he should accomplish. And
this reminds me of a husband or father going off to work or
to war. It's a job to be done. It's a job to be done for the
safety, for the security, for the provision of that family.
Yet they hate to see him go. Don't go. Please. I've got to. You see this? Such a clear picture. He says, I've got to. Listen
to me now. I'm telling you the truth. I've got to go. And like
a father would say, I've got to go. I've got to go. If the
family is going to be provided for and cared for, I must go. I must. It's experience. It's
necessary. And this is what Christ is saying.
It's necessary that I go. I've got to go. I've got to go
to that cross. If I don't go to that cross,
you have no part in me. You have no salvation. Then start
worrying. Don't worry because I'm leaving.
And that's the sense in which Christ said when he was carrying
that cross, don't leave for me. Oh, my soul, be praising God
in what I'm doing. Weep for yourself and for your
children. Don't worry about me. Ah, boy,
I've got to go to that cross for your salvation." And they
said it rightly so when he hung upon that cross. They said he
saved others. Himself he cannot save. And that's
the truth. If he was to save others, he
could not save himself. It's expedient. It's necessary
that one die for the people, right? An atonement. A sin is
only a victim, a substitute. It's expedient. It's necessary.
It's vital. Absolutely necessary to the salvation
of God's people that somebody go and represent them, be a substitute,
and die for their sins, be punished for their iniquity. Shed that
blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. Establish that righteousness.
Take off that robe of righteousness and cover those people in that
righteousness. and hang there on that cross. If the Son of
Man be lifted up, he'll draw all men to himself. It's necessary,
he said. It's expedient that I go. I've
got to go to the cross. I've got to offer that sacrifice. The chief priest has got to go
into the Holy of Holies with that blood, must. Every year,
the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies, not without
blood, to offer that sacrifice. And Christ said, I've got to
go. I'm the high priest. And it's that year, the one year,
the one time, the time, the year, the day, the moment, the hour
that all of time and eternity has been waiting for. When this
high priest, this great high priest would offer up that blood,
not the blood of a lamb or a bull or a goat, but blood of God's
Son, offer up that sinless, holy blood, thus securing forever,
obtaining eternal redemption. for us. He had to go. He had
to go. This old hat says, sometimes
I think he is. He had to go. He's saying it's
expedient, it's necessary that I go. It's absolutely necessary. It's the reason I preached this
morning, the necessity of us understanding that. Well, I understand
something about this. How can we know what salvation
is unless we understand why Christ died? How can we? We can't. We don't have the foggiest notion
of what it means to be saved unless we understand something
of why Christ died. We've got to understand why Christ
died. It's expedience. It's necessary
that he go to that cross. And then, it's necessary he go
to the grave. Not only go to the cross and
shed his blood, but the blood must be shed for sin. It's like
God said. But he's got to go to the grave,
too. He's got to die. The soul that sinned must surely
die. Every soul in here sinned. Now,
either you've got to die, that is your soul, in eternal hell,
or somebody will do it for you. That's the Lord Jesus Christ,
and He did it for a people. Are you one of those? I don't
know. But He did it for a people. It's expedient, it's necessary
that His soul be put in the grave, that He die. And what did He
do when He was in that grave? I believe that He was like that
scapegoat in the wilderness. at the Holy Spirit who laid the
sins of all of God's people upon his head and sent him somewhere
around with those sins, behind God's back. That's where Christ
went for three days, behind God's back. Where's that? It's the
hearse from the east of the world. Wherever he was, that's where
he went with my sins and deposited them in a safety deposit box. And he's got the key. No, he
threw it away, never to be found. and our sins would be remembered
no more. You know something God forgets? God does forget. Sometimes He forgets. He forgets
some sins. He said, there are sins and iniquities
I'll remember no more. But I was such a sinner. Don't
you remember what? No, I don't remember. That's good news to
me. If you've ever seen yourself.
He needs to forget our sins right now. People are sitting here
listening to the gospel so listlessly. You better hope God forgives
that. It's good news. We take it for granted. We better
hope He forgives that. We better. It better be covered
in the blood, right? It sure better. So Christ had
His expedient that He go to the grave with our sins and deposit
those sins somewhere where God couldn't see them. And then it's
necessary, it's expedient, that He rise again. This proves that
He was accepted of the Father. that he was victorious over death. Death of death, John Owen wrote
about. If he did not rise from the grave,
then that means he was just a man like anybody else. And some people
are trying to say that. It's been a conspiracy since
the beginning that Christ did not rise from the grave. Oh,
no, he was seen by many men at one time. He was seen, and you've
seen him. If you've ever heard the gospel,
seen the truth, you've seen him, Dick. Yes, you have. You've seen
him in this word, in this gospel. And it's experience. It's necessary
that he rise from the grave, illustrating that he was victorious
over death, not just the mere mortal man, but the God-man,
and that God accepted him. It's proved that God accepted
the sacrifice, like that high priest of old that went into
the... Now, this may be so much great to some people, but I've
got to say it. It's like the high priest of
old that went into that holy of holies with that blood. He had some bells on his garment.
Bells. And those bells would jingle
all the time. Jingle bells. And they'd be ringing
all the time. If they stopped ringing, that
means he was dead. And God didn't accept the sacrifice.
And the people out there, something wrong with the priest. God found
a spot on him. His garment wasn't clean enough. The blood wasn't
right. Something was wrong. God didn't
accept it. And he killed that man. And they
dragged him out of there by his heels. They had to hear those
bells. And the priest had to eventually
come out of that place. Come out of there. Every time
he came out, he came out with a sigh and a smile. It's okay,
folks, is what he'd say. And that, in a sense, is what
Christ said when he rose from that grave. It's OK, folks. God accepted it. God accepted
the sacrifice because of who it was. Because of who made the
sacrifice, this high priest who's without spot, without blemish
before God. It's expedient. It's necessary. It's vital. I've got to go. Don't
go. I've got to go. I've got to go. Besides this, he said, look at
verse seven. Besides this, if I don't go away, the comforter
won't come." He said, now I'll tell you, if I don't go away,
the comforter will not come. But if I leave, if I depart,
I'll send him unto you. Now, I want to dwell right here
for about an hour and a half. No, just kidding. But I do have
a lot of things to say, so bear with me. It'll be a blessing
to you, and I believe you'll get something out of this. I
did. He said it's necessary that I
go. that I go, go back to the Father. If I don't go, this Comforter,
the Holy Spirit is who he's talking about, he won't come. But if
I go, he'll come. I'll send him to you personally,
my emissary, my ambassador, my personal representative, and
oh boy, will you see what we've got through this person, the
Comforter. Now let me ask you a hypothetical
question. What if Christ had not left the earth? What if he
hadn't left the earth? Now, he rose from the grave,
he went back to the Father, and then he came back to earth. Remember,
he told Mary, don't touch me, I haven't ascended back to the
Father. So he went back to the Father at some point in time,
and I believe he presented that blood. But anyway, he came back
and he dwelled on this earth. How long was it? Forty days or
something like that. And then communed with the people.
What if he hadn't left? Wouldn't that be great? What
if Christ was still here? Wouldn't that be wonderful? It would. I mean, it really would.
The bodily presence of Christ would be wonderful. It was wonderful
to these men. Oh, when they were with Him,
it was wonderful. Wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't
that be wonderful? Well, as wonderful as the bodily
presence of Christ is, and was then and would be now, it's more
wonderful that He left us. Now listen. Because of the Holy
Spirit. God has given two great gifts.
Stay with me, ain't no those in your purse. God has given
us two great gifts. The first one is His Son for
us. He gave His Son for us as a victim,
as a sin-atoning substitute for us. And now He gives us His Spirit
to us to live with us. His Son was sent to work this
work of righteousness and make an atonement for us, and His
Spirit was sent, finally, to apply it, to apply it safely,
and to build upon it, to build up these things. And Peter said
this, he said, when He ascended on high, He laid captivity captive. Death, captivity, sin, everything,
He laid it captive. And He gave gifts to men. When
Christ left, He left some gifts with Him. And listen and learn. You see, Christ Jesus came down
here as a man. The scripture says he was made
a little lower than the angels, in that he was confined to a
body. But Lord Jesus Christ, God had
to take on a body to live as a man. And he was confined to
this body while he was on this earth. Else we wouldn't have
a high priest who was touched for the feeding of our infirmities
and so forth. But he had this body. And he was confined to
it, to an extent. He was confined to this body
for our sake. And because he had to establish
righteousness as a man, and suffer as a man, and pay for our sins,
and when he went to that cross as a man, he went to that cross
and he hung there, and finally, after he made that sacrifice,
he hung there. He said, now, it's finished. It's over. His work, his principal work. He said, I came for this hour,
came out to die. I came to die. I didn't come
to live here on this earth and rule as a king upon this earth.
No, my kingdom is not of this world, he said. No, it's not
of this world. I'm going to destroy this old
thing and establish a new kingdom someday. And he establishes a
kingdom in hearts. But he said his work as a man,
his work as a substitute was finished. His principal work
was finished. Now, he had to go back to the
Father to carry on another work, that is, a mediator, an intercessor. Lord, he had more than just the
earth to think about. He had the universe, the cosmos,
the Lord to rule over all of this in his spirit capacity. He had to go back and sit on
that throne as king and rule over it all. He couldn't be confined
to a body. And he had to sit there at the right hand of the
Father and intercede for it. Now, somebody else had to come
in his place to carry on the work that we need, to carry it
out, this work on the earth. And that somebody is the Holy
Spirit, the Holy Spirit. You see, listen to these points. Bear with me, listen. Christ
as a man could no longer help us on this earth. He did what
he had to do as a man, and he said, now I've got to go. As
a man, Christ could not give us the help that we needed. Christ
as a man, listen to this, as a man, he would have been hard
to get to, wouldn't he? Think if he was still on this earth.
If somebody wanted to see him, forget it. You might never get
to see him. Might never get to see him. Think
of all the believers all over the world trying to get to Christ.
It would be about like that scene over in Mecca. and all the thousands
and millions of pilgrims, so-called pilgrims, trying to get their
way to that stone, piece of stone. Well, it'd be like that. People
making pilgrimages all over the earth trying to get to the Christ,
trying to get to Him, see Him, touch Him, just hear His voice.
Some might not even get close to Him or see Him ever. The weak,
the sick never get to see Him. Yet the Spirit is everywhere. Anybody, anywhere can speak to
the Spirit and be spoken to. He said, where two or three are
gathered together in My name, I'm going to be right there.
How? He couldn't as a man, could He? In the Holy Spirit, He could.
He fulfilled His promise there. Where two or three are gathered,
that's where I am. Where the two or three are gathered everywhere
all over the world, everybody's met together. He's right there
in the person of the Holy Spirit. You see that? He couldn't have
done this as a man. Now, listen to this. We couldn't
have personal communion and comfort with Him. And instruction and
guidance would be next to impossible. We'd want to. Oh, wouldn't you
like to talk to the Lord personally? Just sit down with Him just for
a moment. Just have, you know, make your appointment. It'd take
you twelve years to get in the scene. And make your appointment
and say, Lord, listen to me, time's up. But it doesn't have
to be that way. Anytime, anyplace, you wake up
three in the morning, you can talk to him. Right. And to think about that. Think
about this, if Christ had never left, if he'd remained here upon
this earth, what if he'd stayed here all these years? The Lord
never left. The scripture says now, in three
and a half years, three and a third years, it says the things that
he did and the things that he said, if they were written down
in books, if they were written down and recorded, all the things
he did and said, the world could not contain the volumes of things
that he said and did. And what if he lived 2,000 years
on this earth? There'd be masses of literature. Can you imagine? Masses. What would we appeal to? Where
would we go? I need to know this. I need to
know that. No. Three and a third. And wrote it all down in simple,
concise, brief form. That's all we need to know. Got
it right here. Everybody in here got a copy
of it. Or you'd have to carry around books. Let's see, what
does he say here? You know what I mean? You say
you're going to say it? But we have this book. Isn't that the
wisdom of God? He said this all now. He said
all he needs to say. All that needs to be heard is
recorded. This reason this Mormon testament is a blasphemy. It's a snitch in God's name.
It's not another testament. This is it. God hath in these
last days spoken unto us by his Son, not Joseph Smith. I asked
one of those fellas, so you show me where Joseph Smith's name
written in this book. They call him a prophet. Every
prophet God ever spoke to is written right here. There are
no more prophets. No more. No more apostles. I
don't care what the church down the road says, apostolic corner.
Ain't no more apostles. They're gone. There's a few preachers,
a few voices, that's all. Voices out there. Ain't no more
prophets. Every prophet's been recorded
right here, and all we need to know is right here. John the
Baptist was the last prophet, the last one. We have this sure
Bible. It's sure. God in wisdom has
written all that we need to know down in simple, concise, and
brief form. Finished by you. Finished. Finished. Think about this. If Christ hadn't left, if he
was still here, faith would be useless. We wouldn't live by
faith. We'd live by sight. And when we couldn't see, You see what I'm saying? Faith
would be useless. We wouldn't live by faith. We'd
live by sight, and we would not be tested and proved. Our faith
is what he tests and proves. The things we go through is to
test our faith. Test our faith. We wouldn't experience
many of the blessings that faith produces. Let's see if I can
make good on this. Faith takes what it is worth.
That's principally and primarily what faith does. It takes, God
says this, God says this, I believe it. and you take God at His word. Now, if you didn't just take
God at His word, if you had to have sight, He said a wicked
and evil adult in a generation seeks after a sight. Unbelievers
have to have something to look at, something concrete to feel,
to see. Show us a sign. No, He said,
none will be given. My children, this is proof. Faith
is the substance of things hoped for. Evidence of things not yet
seen. This is proof of my law written upon their heart. They
just believe me. How could they? They don't see.
You haven't seen it. Blessed are the eyes that have not seen.
Blessed are they who have not seen Him yet believe. You haven't
seen Him, but you love Him. That's faith. That's proof. That's
evidence that God has revealed Himself to you. Otherwise, you'd
just be like everybody else. You'd just be believing what
you see, and you can't trust your eyes. But you can trust
God's Word. You can take Him at His Word.
Yeah, you can. And faith, we wouldn't glorify
God as much. Faith glorifies God. This thing
of taking God at His word, trusting Him, God delights in that. He
delights in it. I said it. That settles it. Now,
you believe it. That's what God says to us. And
all those that believe, He's pleased with. He counts them
righteous. I'll tell you how pleased He
is. He counts them righteous, accepted, and beloved. And God delights in that. Besides,
Christ's personal presence, listen to this, Christ's personal presence
didn't produce the results that the Spirit did as a teacher. The Spirit is primarily a teacher.
We've seen this. We saw that back in chapter 15
or 14. The Spirit is primarily a teacher.
Take the things of Christ and show them to people. In Christ,
three and a third years, now I'm not saying he's a failure
here, but this wasn't principle of duty to be a teacher. Now,
his duty coming here was to be a substitute. That's why he came,
to establish rites. He's on the way now, on the road
of establishing rites. Every now and then, he would
turn to him and say, this is what I'm doing, and this is what you,
and he'd teach them on the way. But he said, after three and
a third years, he had to say to him, have I been so long time
with you, you haven't understood what I'm saying? No, you haven't. Well, I'm leaving. Somebody's
going to come and they're going to teach you. He's going to teach
you effectually. I've got a job to do. I'm going
to go shed my blood. I'm sending somebody else to
be your personal tutor, private tutor from here on. And sometimes
the Holy Spirit teaches some people in a very short period
of time, very quickly, about Christ. So Christ came as a man
to do a job, and as a man, and he got the job done and he left.
Now somebody else had to come. the Holy Spirit to do a job.
You better believe He gets a job done, too. And we call it the
effectual work in the Spirit, irresistible grace is what we
call it. And just like the Son, just like
it's blasphemy to God Almighty to say the Son did not accomplish
what He set out to do, it's blasphemy to God to say that the Holy Spirit
doesn't accomplish what He set out to do. So we have to believe
it equally. But this powerful, omnipresent,
sovereign Spirit, the Spirit's God, He's sovereign like the
Father and just like the Son. And He came to do a job, and
He does it. Everybody whom God the Father
sets the Spirit upon is going to be saved. And this is the
effectual workings of the Spirit. And He brought with Him, now
listen, I'll try not to be too much longer. He brought with
Him some gifts, this Holy Spirit brought with Him some gifts,
At Pentecost, some of these gifts were manifested. It said that
the Spirit descended in the form of a wind. When these people
were met together, they heard the sound of a rushing, mighty
wind, the Scripture said. A rushing, mighty wind, and it
breathed on all those in attendance. I believe it was much like the
breath of life that God breathed into Adam, and they became living
spirits. I believe it was much the same.
Right there, that the Holy Spirit breathed on them, and through
the preaching of the Gospels when this happened, the preaching
of the Gospel, salvation was breathed into men. Three thousand souls. This never
happened when Christ was here, did it? No. The work wasn't accomplished. It wasn't finished. But now it
was finished, and the Holy Spirit came to apply it, to show men,
to show them, And he did, boy, in that one time, in a wonderful
way. Three thousand people saved. I like that. Three thousand. Think about that. Wouldn't have
happened if Christ hadn't ascended back. Then he came as fire, the
Scripture said, burned within the hearts of men, within their
soul, filling them full. You ever had that fire? You ever
had it? Go up your spine when you hear
the gospel. It's burned within you. Did not our hearts burn
within us when I heard that gospel? Oh, I can't explain it to somebody
that's never felt it. I talk about some literal fire
and then some jibber jabber. No, no, I'm not talking about
that at all. I'm talking about a love and a warmth and a zeal
and enthusiasm and just a... Well, when you hear the gospel,
it's love for God's Word and His gospel. Then came tongues.
at that day of Pentecost, languages. Languages is what this tongue
means. And in a sense, what happened here was the Holy Spirit was
saying, now go. He opened up their tongues, languages.
Many men heard the gospel preached in their own native tongue. And
what the Spirit is doing here is saying, go now, preach the
gospel everywhere to everybody. You've got the keys to unlock.
Zimbabwe, Mexico, South Africa, go, China, Russia, go. Got the tongues now, got the
languages. Go, open them up. And the whole
world was opened up. Keys, that's what these tongues
were for. Not to prove your spirituality. That just proves your foolishness
and all that. That proves you don't have the
Spirit. Exactly. They talk about that being the
gifts of the Spirit. It's jibber-jabber. That proves
they don't have the Spirit. It proves they've got another
Spirit. Because God's not the author of confusion. Certainly
not the confusion of tongues. No, He speaks audibly. If the
trumpet give not a certain sound, who's going to know what He's
saying? That's not the way God works. God opens up languages
so that they go out with the gospel. Now, through God's infinite
wisdom, millions and millions and millions of people and through
the Holy Spirit, all over the place, have heard the gospel. And the scriptures are fulfilled.
We've said, have they not all heard? Didn't Paul say, haven't
they all heard? Yeah, they've heard it. The sound
has gone throughout the world. Everybody's heard this gospel.
So they're all without excuse. A million. Now, if you've been
paying attention, let me ask you a question. What does this
tell you? All of this. Christ said it's
expedient that I go away. It's necessary. Because if I
don't go away, the Spirit won't do this, won't do that. These
things are necessary that I go away. I leave. What does this
tell you? What is the conclusion you draw if you've been thinking
about this message? And I put a lot of thought into
this. What does this tell you? This tells me that our greatest
need is the Holy Spirit. Right? But this tells me that
our greatest need is the presence of the Holy Spirit, even now.
Christ said, now without me you can do nothing. Without me you
can do nothing. Christ is called divine. We're
called the branches. You know what the sap is, the
chlorophyll? The Holy Spirit. That's the connection. That's
the life-giving connection. Else it may look pretty good,
like one of these branches out here that's getting ready to
die. It's still connected, apparently. But it's going to die if it doesn't
have that sap running through it. If the Spirit be not in you,
if the Spirit of Christ abide not in you, you're not near none
of His. That tells me we need the Holy Spirit's presence right
now. The Spirit of God. If the Spirit
were with us tonight, if the Holy Spirit were with
us right now. You think about that. Is this
the right step to this story? I think it really is. If the
Holy Spirit were with us tonight, I mean in a powerful way, every
person in here could be saved. Yes, ma'am. If the Holy Spirit,
somebody who doesn't give a flip to the gospel, never has, God
could take it right now and just It's just so hard to make that
person cry out to God. Nancy, we need Him, don't we? We need to call on Him. We need
to ask Him to be with us. It needs to be more than just
so much word. I'll send you Holy Spirit. Amen.
It needs to be a heartfelt desire, doesn't it? Lord, please send
Your Spirit. We need Him. If the Spirit loved us now as
He did people then, think of what we could do. Ron, think
of our usefulness. We feel so useless, don't we? So unprofitable. You ever feel
like you've ever done anything for the cause of Christ? The
Holy Spirit dwelt in you and really loved you like He did
these men. And they don't even differ from
you, Ron. Just men, women. Think what a useful servant you
could be. We need Him, don't we? If the
Holy Spirit takes your soul, worthless piece of thing. It's
just, it's a vessel of clay. This shriveled up little bald-headed
fella. And speak through this voice. You'd hear a message you never
heard in your life. They heard it from Paul. They heard it. He was a shriveled up little
bald-headed fella they say. Another Paul. If the Holy Spirit
was pleased. Somebody's out there really praying,
darling, and Lord bless this man. Bless him. Oh, it could
happen. It has happened to a certain
degree. Perhaps it hadn't happened to
the degree that we'd like to see it because we're praying
for it. Right? I'm speaking the truth here.
Go through the motions. If we're really concerned about
this thing. You see, nothing can or will be done without God's
Holy Spirit. Nothing. Nothing. Do you desire
to pray? All of you do. You men that lead
and pray, you desire to pray, don't you? You can't do it without
the Holy Spirit. Ah, you've tried it before, haven't you? You've
failed miserably. You can't do it. There's times of it. There's
time, a blessed time, when the Spirit does give you a little
utterance. Ah, boy. It's a blessed time. Do you desire
to hear the gospel? At times, you can't. Without
the Holy Spirit, you can't. Without the Holy Spirit, you're
not a man. We need the Holy Spirit bad. Some of you need Him bad, bad,
in this area. That'll wake us up out of our
spiritual lethargy and deadness and coldness. That's what we
sung back there at 150 at come. How can we live at this poor
dying rate? He said. Do you desire to sing? Wouldn't you like to sing like
you meant it from the heart? Can't do it without the Holy
Spirit. I've been up there and sung these songs. You may have
thought, oh, that sounds real good. Well, I thought, boy, hypocrite,
sit down, let somebody else sing. It means it. That's what I thought. But say
it now, man, the Lord will let me enter in by His Holy Spirit.
Let me enter into what I'm singing. And I get a blessing out of it.
Do you desire to worship? You can't do it without the Holy
Spirit. You've got to worship Him in what? Spirit. and in truth. You've got to have the gospel,
the truth. You've got to have the power of the Holy Spirit.
Do you desire to be like Christ? You can't do it without the Holy
Spirit, unless He takes you and molds you and conforms you to
the image of Christ. And that's what I'm saying. Oh,
that we might call upon God to send His Holy Spirit to us. Didn't
He say over there in Luke chapter 7, I believe, how much more shall
The Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. Isn't it? So you then, being
evil, know how to give good gifts to your children. The things
that they need. Necessary things. Food and clothing
and all these things. The things they need. Instruction.
How much more shall the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
them that ask Him? Maybe our problem is we're not
asking. Or are we really asking? Lord, teach us. Show us. Guide
us. Lead us. Give us your Holy Spirit. And this tells me, too, that
we ought not to do anything without accreting God, without looking
to the Holy Spirit. We ought not to do anything.
We ought not to tempt anything unless we feel like we've got
His sanction upon us, the Holy Spirit. Acknowledging our need
of Him, just like the Father and just like the Son, acknowledging
our need of the Holy Spirit, It pleases Him. You can grieve
Him. You can grieve the Holy Spirit
by ignoring Him. Ignoring Him. You can please
Him. You can please the Father by
honoring the Son. You can please the Holy Spirit
by honoring the Son. Or by listening to His counsel
and His words and heeding Him, rather than grieving Him. And
that's the reason we sing this song. Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly
dove, kindle a flame of sacred love in these hearts of ours,
these cold, dead, and dry hearts. So we need the Holy Spirit. He's
as much—there are three that bear record— He's as much a part
of and a necessary part of the Godhead and of salvation itself
as the Father and the Son. And we need Him. dare not do
anything without him. And we need to be praying without
him. We really do. Brother Ron, I want you to come
up here and dismiss us in prayer, please. It's good to have Brother
Ron Trey back with us. Stand with us and Brother Ron
will dismiss us in prayer. Shall we pray? Heavenly Father,
For this word we've heard tonight, we give you thanks. We thank
you, O Lord, for the privilege of being here. We thank you for
this man you have used mighty and powerfully tonight to preach
Christ and him crucified to us. And we know, Father, that your
word will not return unto you void. But take that spirit he
talked about and apply these things to our heart. Let us go
now and ponder these things that we have heard. Search the scriptures
as the noble Bereans to see if they are so. We thank you for
him here who you have brought to minister to these sheep in
this place. We ask that you give him much
wisdom and much power in the future to continue to proclaim
this word. And that oh Lord that the sheep
in this community you have called him for. Bring them out of the
darkness. And the lostness that they're
in. Father increase our faith. Give us that zeal that we once
had when you first revealed your word to us. Bring us out of the
deadness and darkness of our hearts and the coldness therein. And apply that word through your
spirit to us tonight and the days ahead. We give you thanks
for the privileges and blessings we have, spiritual and temporal. Lord you're so good to us. and
how evil we know we are. You've shown us these things.
Never let us grow tired of hearing this old, old story proclaimed
over and over again. For it is the gospel that saves. Teach us to continue to look
to Christ and rely on him. Wherever we are, whatever condition
we're in, we know, Lord, it's your will and purpose for putting
us there. And we know it's for your glory and our good. Forgive
us for our sins today. We ask and pray these things
in Christ's name. Amen.