You can be turning to John chapter
sixteen. John chapter sixteen we continue
tonight. In this series of messages we've
been doing from John chapter. Thirteen on through John seventeen. which is commonly called the
pastoral. That comes from. The Jewish referring
to the Jewish Passover which is referring to Christ is his
death he shed blood the Passover. And this is commonly called by
most referred to as the pastoral discourse so that is the message
that Christ gave to His disciples before He went to the cross to
shed His blood. And in chapter 14 is where we're
going to be, but I want you to see something here in chapter
16 in a moment. Now, it's remarkable how this
message goes along with Wednesday night's message. I didn't plan
it this way, but Wednesday night's message was on true saving faith. And in that message on Wednesday
night, we drew some conclusions from God's word on how that a
man or a woman or a young person is truly saved by God Almighty,
what they must believe in order to truly have saving faith. And that those conclusions we
drew were that a man or a woman or a young person must believe
in the heart. In the heart, with the mouth,
confession is made. But in the heart, man believeth
unto righteousness. Believeth what? Well, not just
facts concerning a person, that Jesus Christ came and lived and
died and supposedly rose again. Most everybody believes that.
Not just facts concerning a person, but rather believe God's record
concerning him. Believing what God said about
him, that he was his son, that he came down here. And not just
the fact of it, but the truth of the matter, that God's Son
came down here to become a man and to do for us what we could
not do for ourselves, that is, live a life that God required
of us, perfect, holy, perfection. And He did that. He actually
did that. It's to believe that Christ actually,
by His shed blood, which we looked at this morning, That he actually
put away sins by the sacrifice of himself. But it's not what
we do. It's not our works. It's not even our faith. But it's what he did. It's what
he did. It's to believe God's record
concerning himself. Who God says he is. Absolutely
holy and righteous. And above all, God over all. And to believe what God says
about us. to believe that we are under condemnation before
this holy God and deserving of wrath and judgment. And we have
to believe those things. And it's not just a mere, it's
just not believing in our head the fact of this, of these things,
but to actually know and believe in our hearts about what God
says about himself and what he says about us and what he says
about Christ. Now, we saw in that message Wednesday night,
That it's not the amount of faith, the amount of understanding that
you have, the amount of faith that you have, but it's the kind
of faith that is the object of your faith. Many people, like
I said, believe mere facts. They believe historical facts
concerning somebody named Jesus. But that's not enough. The Scripture
says the devil believes. He believes some things and trembles.
He was there when Christ died. Matter of fact, he thought he
was behind the whole thing, putting him on the cross. So it's not
just a mere intellectual assent to some facts. It's not. It's
not that at all, but it's looking to Christ for your salvation,
the object of your faith, looking to him and him alone that's able
to justify your soul. Besides. Few, if any of us, have much
faith at all. Let's face it now. We live two
thousand years after Christ was here. And none of us have ever
seen him with these eyes. None of us have ever heard his
voice, actually heard his audible voice. None of us can say that.
We live two thousand years later. And most of us, most of the time,
wonder if we have any faith at all. Few of us can say that we
have great and continuing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But
be of good cheer. Look here in John chapter 16. John chapter 16, verse 27. Now Christ here is
speaking to his disciples again now. He's speaking to his true
followers, true believers. He says, the Father himself loveth
you. And that's clearly It's clear
from the Scriptures, from many verses of Scripture, that God
does not love every man. I'm not going to take it for
granted that everybody knows that, but the Scriptures plainly
and clearly say that God is angry with some people, that God hates
all workers of iniquity, that the wrath of God abides upon
the ungodly, that there is a hail that he sends unbelievers to.
So it's clear that The love of God is not upon every man and
every woman. That's heresy. But he's talking
to his disciples here, those that he said in John 17 that
the Father chose and gave to him, those that he gave to him. And he says here in verse 27,
the Father himself loved you because you've loved me and have
believed that I came from God, that I came out from God. And
I came forth from the Father and am coming to the world. Again,
and I leave the world and go to the Father. Verse 29, now
look at it. And his disciples said unto him,
Lo, I wish I'd have quoted this last Wednesday night. But they
said, Lo, now we believe. Now speakest thou plainly. And
you're not speaking a proverb or a parable. And now we're sure
that you know all things. Yeah, we're convinced now, they
said. We're convinced that you know all things, and you need
not that any man should ask of thee. By this we believe that
you came from God. We believe. Yes, we do. Look
at verse 31. Jesus answered and said, Do you
now believe? Do you? He's reproving them. Verse 32. He says, Behold, our
coming. Yea, is now come. It's right
here at the door, that you shall be scattered And every man to
his own shall leave me alone. Do you believe? So we don't make
any wild boasts or boasts and presumption of our own faith.
And this is the faith I believe this world has, faith in their
faith. Faith in their faith. Some people are going to say
they're going to be standing in the very presence of God himself
in his holy presence and say, we did this, we did that. We
believed on Jesus. And he's going to tell them to
bind them hand and foot and cast them away. But why? Because they
sought the glory for themselves, and they drew attention to themselves,
not pointing to Christ, the object of their faith, not saying, here's
saving faith, to stand before God Almighty. And he says, why
should I let you in my heaven? Why should I? And to have that
person say, Because of what he did. Point to the Lamb. There. There's my hope. What
he did. Not, we did this, we did that,
or we even believed on him. Not that at all. But to point
to him and say, He. And I just know we're not going
to have to do that at all. He's going to be standing right
beside of us, representing us anyway. He's going to be presenting
us to the top. Here's one. This is one I gave
myself for. So, did you see that? They boasted
of believing. And he said, you don't believe.
Do you now believe? He said, you're very soon going
to be scattered and leave me. So you see, saving faith is trusting,
resting, dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ entirely for your
salvation. I hope we made that clear this
morning. That your eternal salvation depends entirely upon what somebody
else does for you, not what you do. But what somebody else does
for you, and that only somebody, is the Lord Jesus Christ. Only
what He can do, and must do, for you. That is, live a perfect
life as a man, and go to the cross and take your sins on Him,
and be punished by God for what you did. That's the only thing
that will save your eternal soul. Him. What He did. His righteousness,
imputed or charged to your account. And your sins, imputed to His
account. and Him taken away. Now, that's
good news to a weak, hell-deserving sinner like me. That's good news.
Salvation is in what Jesus Christ did, not what I do. It's in what
Jesus Christ did, not what I'm going to do, or what I don't
do, what I shall not do. Salvation is what He has done
and accomplished and finished for me on Calvary Street 2,000
years ago and the fact that he sits beside the Father right
now interceding for me, pleading that same blood. It's a fountain
that never runs dry, that blood, and he pleads it. He's going
to plead it throughout eternity for his people. So you need to
take comfort from this if you feel yourself to be weak in the
faith. And I say to anybody here, and everyone here, everyone,
if you feel your desperate need, and perhaps I didn't dwell upon
this enough last Wednesday night, that it must stand to reason
that the only person who really sees their need of a Savior is
somebody that's lost. That the only person who sees
their need of a ransom, of a redeemer, somebody to come by them. Ransom
means to pay a price. for someone who's captive. The only person who's going to
see their need of a Redeemer, of a kinsman Redeemer, to come
and buy back for them what they've lost, is somebody who realizes
they have lost everything, that they have nothing to commend
themselves to God. So I say to everyone and anyone
that if you feel your sinfulness, I mean desperately see your need
of a Savior, then trust Jesus Christ. Trust Him and Him alone
with your soul, and He will save you, based upon God's Word, based
upon His Word. Now, how are we going to deal with this
thing of assurance? Last Wednesday night, we dwelled entirely upon
this thing of saving faith. Are you warm? Does everybody
feel warm? I've got the air conditioner
turned on. But last Wednesday night, we
dwelled on this thing of saving faith, that it's not feelings
that save you. And so many people, they want
to wait to get a certain feeling, to feel a certain way before
they make any, I don't know, commitment or profession of faith
or whatever. But saving faith is not feeling. It's not feeling a certain way.
You can take many drugs and feel certain ways. Feel good about
yourself. But that's not it at all. It's
not feeling. It's seeing. It's seeing your
desperate need of Christ and seeing that he is your only hope,
your only hope. But in this matter of assurance.
Or a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, it's a matter of
a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. There's something
that is required. Of us. Now, you heard me right. I'm talking about assurance now.
I'm talking about a personal relationship with the
Lord Jesus Christ, believing that He is your Savior, that
He is your Savior. Now, in order to enjoy sweet
communion or fellowship and feel the presence of God's Spirit
and of Christ with you, look here in John 14 with me. I believe
some of you are interested in this. You've got to be. If you
really want to know him personally and feel his presence, look here
in the text in John chapter 14, verse 21. John 14, verse 21. This is where we left off. Christ
is speaking to his disciples. He's not speaking to every man.
He's speaking to his disciples. And he said, He that hath my
commandments and keepeth them He it is that loveth me. He it is that loveth me. He that
hath my commandments and keeps them. He it is that loveth me."
What's he talking about, keeping Christ's commandments? He's not
talking about the law. Look over at Galatians chapter
2. Paul makes this very clear here in Galatians chapter 2.
He's not talking about obedience for salvation's sake. He's not
talking about doing anything in order that God may accept
you. No, he's talking about the proof of what God has already
done in you. It's Terry Redd and James, and
we'll look at this here in a moment, in the book of James. The book
of James is proof of what God has already done. It's not the
condition. That is, works. Works are proof of what God has
done in you. Works don't cause God to do something
to you. They prove what he has done in
you. James is talking about works
that justify or prove that you have saving faith. And Paul in
Romans and here in Galatians talks about saving faith as being
what justifies us. Look at chapter 2, verse 16. He says, Knowing that a man is
not justified, that is, declared holy or innocent. by the works
of the law, by doing anything, but by the faith of, see that
word of, Jesus Christ. Nobody is justified by doing
or not doing anything, by keeping the commandments or being moral
or righteous or holy in and of themselves, but they're justified
by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, what he did, by his faithful
life, by his holy life. Not justified by what we do,
but by what he did. What he did, even we have believed
in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of
Christ, and not by the works of the law. For by the works
of the law, no flesh will be justified. No flesh. Look over at chapter 3. He goes
on and on through Galatians to prove this point, to show us
that, verse 10, Galatians 3, 10, as many as are of the works
of the law are under the curse. Now, that's every man, woman,
boy, and girl that's born. Under God's Son, you're under
the law of God until Christ frees you from that law, until he comes
and ransoms you from the bondage of that law to keep it for life. As many as under the works of
the law are under the curse, and anybody who's trying to reach
heaven, trying to be accepted by God Almighty to what they're
doing, they're under a curse because it's written. Look at
it, verse 10. is everyone that continues not
in all things, not what you like to do, not what you feel like
you're able to do, not what you think you can do and just scratch
out the rest, but all things. Cursed is everyone that continues
not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do
them, every one of them. That goes much deeper than the
Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments go much
deeper than you think. Christ said, You've heard of
them that they've said of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery.
So I say unto you, whosoever lusts or looks upon a woman to
lust after her in his heart has committed adultery with her.
He said, whoever thinks evil or hateful towards somebody killed
that person. And the same applies for all
the law of God, because God looks on the heart. First of all, you're
not looking at what you're doing, what you do as a result of what
you are inside. So he says, curses everyone and
continues, not in all things written in the book of the law.
Well, verse 11, he concludes, no man is justified by the law
on the side of God. Do you see that? No man, no woman,
no young person is going to be accepted by God Almighty because
of what they do or don't do in the sight of God. That's obvious
right here. It's clear. It's evident, he
says. The just shall live, that is,
have eternal life, by faith. And what is faith? Depending
on somebody else to do it for you, depending upon the Lord
Jesus Christ to save you, to represent you to the Father.
That's faith. It's not doing anything. It's just sitting back
and saying, you've got to do it. Lord, you must do it. You
must be my Savior, verse 13, because Christ that redeemed
us from the curse of the law. He was made a curse for us, because
it's written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Go back
to the text in John 14. So he's not talking about keeping
the commandments. That'd be a contradiction of
the rest of the scriptures, wouldn't it? Paul's not contradicting
our Lord here, because our Lord had just said, we just studied
back in John 13, how he said, I am the way, or John 14, right
here in this chapter, I am the way, the truth. And in life,
no man comes unto the Father, and you'll come to the Father
by what you do and what you don't do. You don't try to make yourself
acceptable, but you come by me. I've got to take you in. I've
got to give you the wedding garment, and I've got to give you the
permission. I've got to give you the permit
to go in. That permit is his blood. So it's not a contradiction
here. What he's talking about here,
let's go on here, he's talking about loving obedience to the
faith, obedience to the faith. Now, let it be understood from
the outset here that these are not conditions for God's love.
That's what people would have us to believe. Romans 8, 28 says
that all things work together for good to them that love God.
People would have us to believe that God does things to people
because they love him. That's not it at all. Go on to
read that verse. It says, who are called according
to his purpose. Starts with his purpose. God's
purpose in choosing a people and in sending Christ down here
to represent, to die for those people and save them from their
sins and going back and sitting in his right hand. And then the
Holy Spirit comes down and gives them faith in Christ and works
in them, makes them willing and obedient to the faith. And then
they love him and God plants that seed of have love for Christ
and his word in them, and it starts to grow, not of themselves.
But we love him. Why? Because he first loved us. So this is not a condition for
God's love or salvation. And these things, let me establish
it from the very outset, what I'm saying here does not determine
our standing before God. That is, our standing before
God is not conditioned on these things. on the righteousness
and blood of Christ the Lord, but obedience to the faith and
obedience in life and walk." Now, this is meat. We had some
meat this morning. Paul said in Hebrews, on over in Hebrews,
he said, I have many things to say unto you, but he said, if
some people are dull of hearing, I hope that doesn't apply to
anyone, but this is meat, if you can receive it. Obedience
is the result of true saving faith in God's work, not the
cause of it. It's the result of it. Now, listen.
Nobody is a disciple of Jesus Christ. Everybody claims to be
a Christian. Everybody claims to love Jesus and to be a follower
of Christ, follower and after Christ. Nobody is a Christian
who does not, from the heart, not the head, Although you have
to be convinced in your head, but from the heart, believe everything
he says about himself, everything God says about himself, everything
God says about us. Believe in the heart. Know it
to be so. Agree with God. Agree with what
he says about us and about himself and his son, the way he says. Believe. Nobody's a disciple
of Christ who does not absolutely Without reservation, believe
in their heart. They may not understand the whole
thing. And this is what John and I were talking about. You
don't have to understand everything. We're not called on to understand
God's Word. We're called on as little children to believe it,
to believe it, to bow to it, to submit to it. If it says elect
you, so be it. And if God ever saved you, truly
saved you, you'll realize he had to elect you to do it. But
it's to believe in the heart. and the desire to do all he says. And nobody is a disciple of Christ
who does not want to be like him. Nobody who does not want
to be like him and strive to be like him. It's a common trait,
a characteristic of a little child to want to emulate their
parents. Right? Every one of our children
has tried to be like us in so many ways. Tried to be like us. And the same way with a true
disciple of Christ, they want to be like Him. Nobody's a true
disciple of Christ who does not want to be like Him and striving
to be like Him. I'm saying that doesn't save
you. It doesn't save you. I said that from the beginning.
No one is a true disciple of Christ who does not desire to
know Him better. And this is what we're going
to talk about tonight. You have ears to hear. We're talking about
knowing Him better. We may not know Him very well,
but if you're a disciple of Him, if He has saved you, revealed
Himself to you, just a little bit, well, you want to know Him,
don't you? You want to. This is a mark now,
a mark of a true disciple. You may not know Him very well,
but you desire to know Him better. Paul said, oh, that I may know
Him. No, Paul was an old man when
he said that. He said, I haven't arrived, I
haven't attained yet. He said, I desire to know Him. Now, don't you think a little
baby in the faith ought to feel that way? Nobody's a true disciple
of Christ who does not desire His personal presence with them.
Now, come on now. We may not feel His presence.
We may not feel like He's ever with us. Let me say this. He's
with us in the gospel. If you ever hear the gospel with
power, and it gives comfort, and strength, and encouragement,
and lifts your spirit up, He's there. He's the one that spoke
it to you. You know what I mean? I just told Terry before I got
up here, I said, this is too big for me. It's too big for
me. So if God ever speaks to you
through His gospel, that's Christ speaking to your heart. That's
Him with you. If two or three are gathered together in my name,
I'll be right there. So no man is a disciple of Christ
who does not, in the heart, believe him, and want to be like him,
and desire to know him better, and desire his personal, intimate
presence. David was a man after God's own
heart. And throughout the psalm stand, he said, Oh, thou wouldst
rend the heavens and come down. He spoke of this, you know, you
read the psalm, and he speaks of wanting the Lord to be with
wanting to be with me. Now, this cannot be unless you're
truly a sinner and need a Savior. And if you are, and feel your
need of a Savior, and He reveals Himself to you, then you'll be
taken up with Him. Somebody, a very simple illustration,
if somebody saves your life, I mean, saves you from destruction,
saves you from grounding or whatever, pulls you out of a burning building,
You'll be indebted to and in love with that person the rest
of your life. And you'll sing and exalt that person from then
on, wouldn't you? How much more? The Lord Jesus Christ who rescues
your eternal soul. Now, last Wednesday, we dwelled
on the need to see God as He is, and ourselves as we are,
and Christ as our only hope, and in trusting Him to save us.
And the only way anybody's going to trust Christ is to see Him
as the only one that's able to save you. Now look over here
at Romans chapter 10. I've got to build this up here. Romans chapter 10. Romans 10
verse 13. The only person who's really
going to trust Christ is that person who sees their utter helplessness
and sees their only hope being in this sovereign Christ who's
able to save. Romans 10 verse, well, look over
at verse 9. All religion likes to quote this
verse, but they don't define it. If thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, or that is, Jesus to be Lord, absolute
sovereign ruler and controller over all things, and believe
in your heart that God raised him from the dead. Why? Accepting
his sacrifice. He was talking about his righteousness
and his sacrifice before death. He said, if you could believe
that by God's power, by his gift, thou shalt be saved. With the
heart man believes unto righteousness. Okay, verse 11. Whosoever believes
on him shall not be ashamed. Verse 13. For whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The name of the
Lord. Well, verse 14. How are they
going to call on him whom they've not believed? So nobody's going
to call. Nobody's going to call out to
the Lord Jesus Christ to save them until they really see that
He's the only one that can, that He is the Lord, that He is the
just God and the Savior, that He's the only one that can save
them. People get down and hurt Him and in trouble. I said this
last Sunday. And then they start calling on
God. Well, they're not calling on the Lord Jesus Christ to save
them from their sins. They're calling on God to get
them out of the mess they're in. Calling on God to make them
well, because they're sick. That's not salvation. Salvation
is seeing your desperate need of somebody to put away your
sin, because you're guilty. And calling upon the Lord Jesus
Christ to be your Savior. To be your Savior. Calling upon
Him. And when anyone really sees Him as Lord, they'll bow to and
submit to His rule. This is what I'm getting at.
Saving faith. unto salvation, obedience unto
the faith, and the obedience in the walk of life. Stay with
me, please. Anyone who really sees Him as
Lord, the only one able to say, I'm not getting this across very
clearly, but this is the way it is. Anyone who really sees
that Jesus Christ is the only one that can save them and that
He is their only hope, and they trust Him, they're going to want
to follow Him. They're going to want to be obedient
to Him. They're going to be in love with Him. It naturally follows
when anyone really sees Him. It's not like the Arminians say,
accept Jesus as Savior now, then make Him Lord of your life later.
No. It's to bow to Him as Lord and see Him not only as the only
Lord that is able to save you, but to see that you're in His
hands to do with as He pleases. And so you say like John, here
am I, Lord. It's in me. You don't make Him Lord. No,
you bow to and submit to Him as Lord. And as Lord, you see
Him as the only Savior, the only one able to save you, a just
God and a Savior. And whoever really believes in
Christ and trusts in Him and submits to His will as Lord will
follow Him, will follow Him and strive to be like Him. Now, I
don't feel like I'm hitting this thing like I ought to. Look back
at John 14 with me, back to the text of John 14. There's a big
difference in sentiment and reality. There's a big difference in head
and heart. Now, in case you're confused,
let me illustrate this. My daughter, her standing as
a mayhem, as a mayhem depends on what?
It depends on me, who her father is, right? It depends on the
fact that I gave birth to her, that I sired her, that my wife
gave birth to her and I sired her. It depends totally on me
giving birth to her. She had no part in this matter,
no part. And even so, we're born of God. Anybody that's a true disciple
of Christ A believer, a child of God, is because God gave birth
to him, born of God. Not of blood, not of the will
of the flesh, not the will of man, but born of God. He must
be born from above, Christ said to Nicodemus, born of God. But the proof that she's my child,
she's my child, the proof of it is her loving obedience to
me. I wanted to try to illustrate
this. If I tell her to do something, if I tell her to do something,
she'll do it because she loves me. She admires me and loves
me and honors me. Now, to be sure, there are times
when she rebels, just like us. There are times when she rebels,
but the principle of love and respect and obedience is there. It's there. Although it may be
weak, it's there. Why? Because of this seed that
dwells in her. This love for me, this bond,
this union that's within her. And as my child, she's being
taught daily, continually by me, and she's having my words
every day. We try to teach something to
her. She's having my words stamped on her heart. And that's what
he said over in Hebrews, and he said that this is a covenant
I'll make with him in that day. I'll write my law. on their hearts. I'll put my word in their hearts.
Now, this is what Christ is talking about here. And the Scriptures
say, say over there in James, we're to be doers of the word
and not hearers only, deceiving ourselves, deceiving ourselves. Well, you say, what are the commandments
of Christ? He said, he that hath my commandments and keepeth them,
he it is that loveth me. What are the commandments of
Christ? You know what they are. I know what they are. I just quoted to you, he said,
I put my law, my word in your heart. There's not a person in
here who hasn't had the word of God speak to their heart at
some point in time. If you're a believer, it's in your heart. People talk about wanting to
know the will of God for their life. Come on now. It's right
there. He said he put it in there. It's
right here. We don't have to look far to
find out what he has to say. Let's start reading it. Let's
get into it. What are his commandments? We
know them. He said the word, and that word is nigh you. It's
even in your mouth. Every one of us can halfway quote
something. And if we're not doers of the
word and hearers only, that is, we just quote it and we don't
abide by it and act on it, we're fooling ourselves, right? If
my daughter feigns obedience to me, she's not a True child,
is she? She's not truly in love with
me. But if you truly love Christ, you'll try to act upon his commandments,
all of them, whatever they may be. He it is that loveth me,
he said. He it is that loveth me, verse
21. Now here, look at this. And he that loveth me shall be
loved of my Father, and I'll love him and will manifest myself. to him. You see what we're talking
about here? You see what he's talking about
here? He that loves me, hears my word, acts upon it, is obedient
to it. I'm talking about salvation now.
Don't get me wrong here. And I think I made that perfectly
clear from the outset that this is not, this doesn't recommend
you to God what you do. But he's talking about manifesting
himself to you in a special way. You want that? I do. You want Christ to reveal himself
to you a little more clearly? You pray it every time I hear
you pray. Lord, reveal yourself to me. Lord, teach us. And what
you want is out of worry. I believe you mean that. Yeah,
I do. Yeah, I do. Lord, teach us. Lord, increase
our faith. That was my text Wednesday night.
I didn't read it. Lord, increase our faith, the disciples said.
Increase our faith. Well, I said, he that loveth
me shall be loved of my Father. We love him because he first
loved us. But according to this, there's a sense in which the
special love and a greater manifestation of God's love is shown to those
who really honor his son, that really honor his son. And you
want that. I know you do. You have to. You have to. He
says, I'll love him and will manifest myself to him. Talking
about a personal visitation of the Son of God Himself. Sir,
we would see Jesus, those men said. They came looking for Him.
And I had a little conversation out there, and they said, wait
a minute, we want to see this Jesus. That's who we came to see. Instead,
that's... You know, I got shelves full
of books down here. Shelves after shelf of books.
And I use them every now and then when I feel like I can't
get anything out of this. When I can't get anything out
of this, when I feel at a loss, then I reach up there. But this
is where I go first. Go in here and dive in and dig
and dig and dig and dig. And if it just doesn't come,
then I reach up there and say, well, maybe He'll warm my heart
with something, teach me with something by somebody else. But
I'm wanting to hear from the Son of God Himself, not from
John Gill, not from John Newton. I want to hear Christ speak to
me through His Word. John Warburton, an old preacher
way back when, said that he wanted a set of John Gill commentaries
to buy it. And it was a real prize and a treasure back then
to have those. And they were very expensive,
too. And one of his deacons, he was very well off, and he
went up to him and said, Deacon Parks, would you mind lending
me the money for a set of John Gills? And he said, no, ain't
going to do it. He took him back. We will pray. Tell me why, sir, why you won't
loan me the money. He said, if I want to hear from
John Gill, I'll buy me a set. I want to hear what God says
through John Warburton. Well, you know, you may not like
this vain bad bird up here at all, but I'm trying to hear the
voice of the Son of God through his word. And you'd do well to
do the same thing. Quit listening to so many voices
and start trying to tune your ear to hear him. And he says,
I'll manifest myself to him. He's talking about a kind of
special attention paid to a respectful and obedient child. Special attention. Now, let me illustrate. It's
kind of like the loving affection of a parent for that special
child who never gives any trouble. Now, none of us fit in that category
in regards to God. No, not at all. But there's a
sense. in which this obedience and this
special love and this honoring of the Son and following up to
him will get the special love and favor of the Father. Now,
listen, I had two brothers, and he was my brother that's alive
now here on this earth. He may hear this. I don't. Well,
it doesn't matter. But I had two brothers. My oldest
brother was a role model as a child, just an obedient, respectful,
loving tend to just a fine, fine young man. But my other brother
was a rebel. I mean, a rebel from the start.
I mean, it was obvious when he was a little boy that he was
a rebel. He despised dominion and authority.
Despised it. Well, they were both loved. Now, anybody that has more than
one child, you know that you love all your children just as
much, don't you? Huh? Violet, you do, don't you? You
don't have any. You don't love one more than another. Oh, no.
There wouldn't be love, would it? Not at all. They were both
loved by my parents, but one of them was shown special affection
and special closeness and enjoyed special benefits and favors.
Why? Because of his loving obedience
and respect to his parents. This is exactly what Christ is
talking about here. Exactly. He that loveth me and
honors Christ, obedient to the faith, shall be loved of my Father. And I'll love him, too, and we'll
manifest ourselves in a special way. Look at verse 22. Well,
Judas said unto him. Now, this is Jude. This is the
man who wrote the book of Jude. He saith unto him, not Iscariot,
but Jude, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself unto
us and not unto the world? Verse 23. Well, Jesus answered
and said unto him. It sounds like he just repeats
himself here. He says, if a man love me, he'll keep my words. This word, keep, means to guard
closely from losing. It ain't time you keep a hold
of something you've got a hold of. You don't want to lose it.
It's precious to you. Now, El would be convicted. He
said, he that loveth me will keep my words. I wonder how often
we even read his words. much less guard it closely as
a precious treasure. He that loveth me will keep my
words, guard carefully, protect out of great value, and anybody
who truly loves and highly esteems Christ as Lord and all-wise Master
will value and honor everything he says and everything he does,
above all else. It's to just consider the world
and everything in it. He that loveth the world, the
love of the Father is not in it, Christ said. He that loveth the
Son, the love of the Father is in it. He's talking about renouncing
everything else and keeping hold of Him. Esteeming Him as that
great pearl, you see. Selling everything else. You
know, when that fellow sold everything he had and got that pearl, you
reckon he kind of was walking down the street? And this is the thing of a disciple,
you know. Oh, isn't this great? Isn't this
great? Keep it. Guard it closely. And
this word, keep, also means obedience. Obedience begins in the heart.
This is where God looks, first of all. Come on in. You can say all you want. You
can do all you want. He didn't pay attention to that.
He's looking first at the starting point. He's looking at the motives.
The Pharisees were men at their best state. Religious and pious
and stood on the street and prayed long prayers with long beards.
They looked apart. They sounded the pot. Acted the
pot. God. But their hearts were so
far from God. And he said, you vipers and snakes. You've got the outside cleaned
up, looking pretty good, don't you? And inside, you're a dead
man, full of dead men, whited graves. It cleanses the inside. The outside takes care of itself.
So God looks on the heart. True obedience begins in the
heart, and that's where God looks. And every true Christian, though,
and every true Christian, deep down in the heart, deep down
in the heart, there's a longing and a yearning to please God. at the risk of sounding Arminian. Now, I said from the outset,
let me clarify myself again, there's nothing we can do to
please God Almighty, to make Him accept us, to save us. Nothing
we can do. Only what Christ did pleases
the Father. But once He does that to a child,
makes him a new person, a new creature in Christ, somehow,
somehow, He makes those works acceptable to the Father, what
we do. Yes, He does. And every true
Christian, deep down, because of this principle that God has
put in their heart, there's a yearning to please God and to do His will.
There's no exceptions here. No exceptions. It's stronger
in some people than in others. It's obvious, painfully obvious,
isn't it, Rick? That some people have this desire
to please God a lot more stronger than we do. It's stronger in
some people than others. because of their zeal and enthusiasm.
And it's stronger at different times. In you, even, than at
other times. Right? The Spirit is the one
that does it. And the Spirit blows where it
lifts us and when it lifts us. And He may impress upon your
heart tomorrow morning, Terry. He may move upon you tomorrow
morning. He may not. He may not. But it's his to do. But what
is in the heart will manifest itself in the outward life. Look
back over at James with me. I won't keep you too much longer.
James chapter 1. What is in the heart will manifest
itself in the outward life and the walk, known by your fruits. Known by your fruits. Your fruits
don't make you, but they prove what's already
in there. Prove what's already in there. James chapter 1, look
at verse 21 with me. James 1 verse 21. He says, Wherefore,
lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and
receive with meekness engrafted word, which is able to save your
soul. That's talking about being submissive
to God's word. And be ye doers of the word,
not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. If any be a hearer of the word
and not a doer, he's like a man looking at himself in the mirror,
and he says, oh, I need to do this, I need to do that. And
verse 24, he beholds himself, sees his own needs and so forth,
and then he goes his way, and straightway he forgets what he
was looking at. He forgets what he was like. Verse 25, here's
what I was getting to. Whoso looketh into the perfect
law of liberty, Christ, and continueth therein, Follow after him, he
being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word." This
is the man that's going to be blessed in his doings. See that? That's the man that's going to
be blessed in his deed. Blessed by God. Any man among you who
seem to be religious and the Bible's not his tongue, receives
his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion, undefiled
before who? God and the Father. He's this. Visit the fatherless and widows
in their affliction and keep himself unspotted from the world.
How can you, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Well, look back at the text, John 14, verse 23. He said, Christ
said, If a man love me, he'll keep my words, guard them closely,
believe them all, believe everything I say, believe who I am and what
I say. Trust me, me alone, for his salvation. believe that I am the way, the
truth, and the life, and no man can come to God to be saved except
by Him and Him alone. Not by what we do, but what He
has to do for us. If a man loves me, he'll believe
that. He'll keep my word. And my Father
will love him, and we'll come unto him and make our abode with
him." Terry, what if the President of the United States called you
up and said, I'd like to come down and spend a couple of days
with you. Oh, you think? Oh. Me? Oh, Mr. President, wait a minute.
There's so many people out there that you could go visit. Heads of state and rich people. Me? Oh, Mr. President, I live in a little,
I live in Copper Hill. You know where Copper Hill is?
Mr. President. No? Terry, I'd like
to. Very much, come in. You'd feel
honored, wouldn't you? Oh, this is a great privilege. God said, I'll come visit you. God! The son of God! Says that my father will love
him and will come unto him. And Ricky doesn't say, We'll
spend a couple of nights. He says, we'll set up residence. We'll come to stay. Oh, my goodness, God Almighty,
and Lord Jesus, Son of God, come down to dwell in me. That's what he says, the temple
of the Holy Spirit. The manifestation, the revelation,
or the outpouring of God's love and presence is in direct proportion
of how we look into, study, believe, and act upon this right here. That's exactly what he's saying
there. The revelation, the manifestation, the presence of, the comfort,
the assurance of, the leading, the guiding, the instructing,
the teaching, the holding of your hand is direct proportion
So how you in this? And right here, hearing it. Like that little boy that sat
on the front row and had his ear cut. And somebody said, what's
wrong? Are you hard of hearing? He said,
no, somebody said that God speaks through the gospel. He says,
I want to be sure to hear him. Is that you? Oh, we're so dull most
of the time, aren't we? Well, Christ said, you have his
word right here, don't you? Heareth my word, he that hath
my word, it shall be so. Not just, you know, a minute
of much service is over, a good message, but... You see that
ballgame last night? I might as well not have been here, all
right? That's not keeping the word. Throw the Bible on the costly
table and see it next Wednesday night? That's not keeping His
word. That's not guarding His treasure. Come on, is it? No, it's not.
No, it's not. So you feel weak? You very rarely
feel the presence of Christ? Don't leave yourself to blame.
Right? I know what I'm talking about
here. I've got a confession to make. I've been working on this
house. Every little bit of free time
I get, I go over there and I come over here and just rush, rush,
rush, this and that and the other. And I'm suffering because of
it spiritually. But the time when I had to, when I give of
myself to this, that's when it seems more blessed and more of
a sweet time of communion. This is what he's talking about
in Revelation chapter 3. Look over here in Revelation
chapter 3. Talking about knocking at the door. Christ said he's
knocking at the door. This is what he's talking about
here, Revelation chapter 3. You know, you ladies, you know,
you want to know how to win the love and respect and admiration
of your husband, and the tenderness and romance of your husband. You want to know? Want to know
the secret? What made you that? How to win the love and respect
and tender care and attention of your husband, wait on him
hand and foot. And unless he's a monster, he'll
treat you with tenderness and care, won't he? The men need
to tell you that's the truth, that I am a monster most of the
time. But when she takes such good care of me and just, like,
remember Jacob sending all those presents to Esau? Remember? And
Esau, he thought Esau was going to kill him. He just knew he
was. So he just sent present after present, present after
present, just one heart of Esau. For me? Oh. And she just, oh,
when she wakes up, you know, and she just, it wins me. It softens this old hard heart. Well, but if you ignore him and
give him the cold shoulder, or worse, he'll ignore you. And he will, and he'll treat
you like an underling. And he'll get about as macho
as he can get. But look here at Revelation chapter
3, Revelation chapter 3, verse 14. And under the angel of the
church of the Laodiceans, right there, these things say of the
amen. Who's that? Christ, the faithful
and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know
thy works. Thou art neither cold nor hot. I would if you were cold or hot,
but you're lukewarm. Because you're lukewarm, neither
cold nor hot will spew you out of my mouth. You're not talking
about losing your salvation. You're talking about leaving
them alone, leaving them to themselves. Come on now. Be cold. Be like
you are. Be complacent. Be dead. Warm. Because thou sayest, I know.
I understand God. And that really basically what
he's saying is, I'm rich and increased with goods and have
need of nothing. I know that. I'm a theologian. And knowest not that you're still
wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked? I counsel
thee, I instruct thee, Christ sayeth. I instruct thee to buy of me
gold, precious gold, dried in the fire, that thou may'st be
rich, and white raiment, that thou may'st be clothed, and that
the shame of your nakedness do not appear, and anoint your eyes
with eyesale." Boy, I need to see a little better, a whole
lot better. Verse 19, "'As many as I love I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent.'"
Anybody need this? Anybody in here need what he's
saying to you? I do. Repent. "'Behold,' verse 20,
"'I'm standing at the door knocking.'" How's that? Right here? Knocked
this morning? Knocking this evening. Not the
sinner's heart's door, trying to let, wanting him to let him
in to save him. That's ridiculous. That's blasphemy.
Talking to the church here. And he said, because here's the
key. He said, I stand at the door and knock. That is, I speak.
I knock. I'm calling at the door of the
church. If any man hear my voice, what
was Christ saying a while ago? Keeping his word. Keeping them. Taking them to heart. Relieving
them. and open the door, I'll come in to him and sup with him. Sup. We'll have sweet fellowship
together. And he's with me." You know,
that's what he's saying there. That's what he's saying there.
You see, this hard line, Terry read it over in James chapter
4. I will not go back there, but
this hard line Calvinists don't like the word obedience. Well,
and I don't mean to, I'm not belittling the term Calvin, Calvinist
at all. Oh no, I'm a Calvinist. I'm a
Calvinist. But the scripture says all scripture
is profitable for doctrine, and we like the doctrine, don't we?
But it goes on to say for reproof, for correction. You can't have
the doctrine without the proof and the correction. You can't
have one thing and not, you know, continue. You can't have one
without the other. If you just take one, you can just forget
the rest. Well, let's go on here. Look back at the text. Besides,
you want to please God anyway, don't you? Huh? Well, through
the shed blood and the righteousness of Christ, God accepts us, and
through that same blood and righteousness, Our desires and our works are
made well-pleasing to the Father. Yes, they are. Christ is talking
about this right here. Yeah, He is. We don't have to
get too mystical here with this. Verse 23. He that loveth me,
or if a man loveth me, will keep my word, and my Father will love
him, and will come unto him, and make our abode with him. Verse 24. Now, he that loveth
me not keepeth not my sayings. No true love, no true obedience.
The unbeliever is very obvious, has no respect, no regard for
the word of Christ. Who cares? Who cares what Christ
said? And this goes over into the religious
world. Religious unbelievers, they don't
care really what Christ says, what his word is. They're not
looking into what he says, really. They've got some preconceived
notions, some pet verses here and there, and that's all they're
going by. They're not diligently studying everything he says and
believing everything he says. Not at all. The unbeliever has
no regard for Christ and his word. Verse 24. He that loveth me not keepeth
not my sayings, but the word which you hear is not mine anyway, but the Father's which sent me.
He that hath not the Son hath not the Father, the scripture
says. And he that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father.
And that's what we thought when we talked about Jehovah's Witnesses,
so-called Jehovah's Witnesses and all. That pertains to anybody,
to them especially, but to anybody that doesn't honor the Lord Jesus
Christ. They don't have God. You can't come to God except
through Jesus Christ. No, no. He that honoreth not
the Son honoreth not the Father. He that hath not the Son hath
not the Father. Uh-uh, because they're one and the same person.
That's what he's saying now. This word that I speak is the
Father's word. Why? Because I am. I am. Verse 25, he says, Now these
things I've spoken unto you, while I'm still with you. And
he'll go on to say, and we'll look at this next week, he'll
say, I'm going to send somebody after I'm gone, and he's going
to teach you these things and bring to memory everything I
told you. And he's the one we're hearing from now. The Holy Spirit
is taking the things that Christ said and teaching us and showing
us. He said what he said, and amen, and it's the truth. And
he is who he says he is. He is the way, the truth, and
the life. And there is a blessedness in serving him. We don't know
much about that. We really don't. But that's very
clear there, what he says concerning a special relationship of a son
with a father, like a special communion with Christ, a manifestation
of His person. And if you're a believer, you've
got to want that. Do you? Yeah, you do. You've
got to. Like a little child, you've got
to. Well, I hope there's some help. I hope there's some help,
and I hope God will enable us to keep it and act upon it. Look to Christ. Christ alone. Don't try to be religious, don't
try to do anything for your salvation. Depend upon Christ and him alone. Ask him to teach you, to show
you himself. And then if he does, oh, buddy,
take up your cross and follow him. Follow him, be a disciple,
as we ought to be, a reasonable servant. Stand with me and I'll
dismiss this in prayer. Our Father, our Lord, our Savior, Your Word
is so rich and so full. If You gave us the Spirit, if
You gave us Your Holy Spirit and instructed us and taught
us, we could spend much time in every word that You uttered
while upon this earth. We thank You for it. It's the word of life. Thou hast
the words of life. You have the words that are able
to give life, not only to give life, but to sustain it, to restrain
us and constrain us and lead us and guide us and instruct
us and admonish us and teach us, approve us, exhort us, correct
us. We love your word. We thank you,
Lord. We ask you for that you'd increase
our desire for this Word. Increase our desire after Christ,
the Word of life. It was totally up to you. It's
totally up to thy Spirit to effectually work in our hearts.
We're so dead. Lord, we're so dead. This world
and everything in it you