I've got a couple of more Sundays
here in this chapter. Well, I'm in John's writing but
not Revelation. Here we go. There's not a week that goes
by that I don't get the question about assurance. People want assurance of life.
People want assurance of knowing that they are in the faith, that
they have heaven. They want to guarantee that they're
loved, that they're going to live, they're going to have a
good job, that their marriage is going
to be okay, that their children are going to be well. They want assurance that things
are going to go their way, going to be easy. There's going to
be no suffering. And out of all the things I've
listed, there are times that we can have assurance in some
of them, depending on how we look at it. But beloved, we can
have an assurance of several things in life, and let me list
them for you right now. We can have assurance that we
are all going to die. All of us. Different times, different
ways, different purposes, different seasons, different ages. All
of us. In the history of humanity, all
of us are going to die. And that's one of those certainties
that has been used by the cults of Christianity for hundreds
of years, to press into this, now what shall ye do with that? And give you a laundry list of
things that you could do to secure some type of assurance of what
happens after you die. What happens after you die is
not a motivator to deal with the hearing of the gospel. It
doesn't work like that. Your understanding and apprehension
of your cognitive function between your ears is not eternal life. Knowing God, knowing you is eternal
life. We're going to die. Another assurance
is that we're going to have suffering above all things in life from
start to finish. We come into this life through
suffering. We go out of this life through
suffering. We live this life through suffering. But yet we hold like with fingernails
at the edge of a cliff As if every good thing in the world
is what we long for. When everything in the world
is something else we can be assured of, it is gone, wasting away,
garbage, temporary, and not eternal. That's another assurance. Nothing
in this physical life is forever. No business, no name, no weather,
no economy, no government, nothing. Nothing is forever. There is
no such thing as a lasting legacy of man. At the end of days, it
shall all be blotted off the face of the earth. Every ounce
of architecture will be brought to dust. Every cure of every
disease will be stricken from the record. Every poem, every
painting, every song, ever sung, ever composed, will be erased
from the history of memory. It's nothing. You can be assured
of that. You can also be assured that
the Word of God will never end. Now let's just stop there for
a minute and let's ask ourselves, those things are true or either
my pastor is a liar or fool. And if they are true, if the
second is true, then we are in bigger trouble. And they may
be, but maybe not in this. If those things are true, then
why do we spend most of our lives passionately pursuing and following
the garbage of garbages rather than the Word of God? It's because
we are not in the Word of God. I know when you're in the Word,
beloved, And I know when you're putting it on your coffee table.
I know. Because the Spirit of God gives
testimony from you when you are in it. You cannot escape it. If you work in a chicken house,
I know. And you can get in your truck
and drive for an hour and get out of your truck and I knew
you've been in a chicken house. I know. I know when you're in the Bible,
beloved. And my family knows when I'm in it and when I'm not.
They know my flesh. Don't smile like that. I'm either
hangry or not in the Word. We can't lie. But we make excuses, we pursue,
well I gotta get something else right, I gotta do something else
this way, I gotta have some assurance in these things. Listen, it's
worthless. It's worthless. Do it by faith
or it is sin. What's your five year plan? What's
your 10 year plan? What's your 20 year plan? What's
your five minute plan? That's what you need to be concerned
with, beloved, as believers. What are you doing five minutes
from now? Are you going to listen to the Word of God? And in every present moment,
this is the gift of God for you. Not tonight, not Christmas day,
not New Year's, not anniversary, not birthday, not celebration,
not retirement, not college, not new children. Those things
are over at the end of days. They are worthless now as they
will be then. if they are not by faith. America is too free and too wealthy
and too healthy for the church to stay healthy. I believe that. It is a privilege
to gather with the saints of Christ It is an honor, it is
a glory, it is a power to be together in the Word. Yet, oh,
with 168 hours a week, what we will labor for. And then pray
in our parting shot, oh God help me. Psalm 109, as I read it this
morning, I thought, wow. He loves in His everlasting love. He gives mercy. He helps the
sons of men in their distress. They cry out to Him. He helps
the sons of men. We sang it. It's almost like
the songs we sang this morning came right out of Scripture.
They teach us who God is. And that's the whole point of
this gospel. is to show us the true assurances
that God's Word will never fail. And let me tell you something,
beloved. A lot of us have spent many of our years studying the
peripherals of God's Word through historical figures. Garbage! It is utter garbage! If you study James Tippins 200
years from now, you live in sin when you usurp the Scripture
that is living and breathing today. Put it away and listen to the
Spirit of God. How many words do we have in
our lifetime? And yet we waste them and waste
them and waste them. And that's how I feel every day
of my life about me. In some seasons of life, especially
when I'm sick, I don't have the power to preach. I don't have
the desire to study. I don't have the mind to think. Now what am I to do? What am
I to do? I'd rather just sleep. You ever
rather just sleep? You ever go outside and do anything
but focus on things that are important? Does it feel like
your life sometimes is nothing but a big, what do they call
that, three ring fire, or is it a circus, or is it both? It's
a three alarm fire, a three ring circus. And yet every fire is
really not significant, it's somebody else's yelling, somebody
else's problem, somebody else's procrastination that makes it
your emergency. You ever feel that way? We face the day not with the
joy of the Lord in our heart and our mouths. We face the day
with mundane frustration. Oh, woe is me. How am I going
to make it? There's going to be another bad
week. There's going to be another bad day. Well, I can tell you what
right now, you are a prophet. When we say those things, we
will surely, surely get them because that's what we want. No, I'm not talking about metaphysics
and all metaphysical speaking into reality garbage mumbo-jumbo,
but I'm going to tell you right now, you will see what you want to
see. You'll see what you want to see. And when we look at,
now, who's guilty? Simon says, raise your hand.
You say, we're all guilty. That's where Jesus is right here
in John 16. He's saying what's been said
of him already, what he said of himself. I'm showing you the
Father who is eternal life. And you see, you think you can
see, but you can't see. And I know you can't see, but
I'm going to show you. You see, see me. And in order for you
to see me exactly from where I come, I have to go back there.
Then I send the helper and you will see. And many more will
see. And you will keep seeing. And
you will never stop seeing. That is why the assembly is not
just important, it is commanded of you, beloved. And our brothers and sisters
who forsake the assembly but will not miss work in the morning
are in trouble. And you know the difference in
forsaking and being sick. But I'd warrant to say that the
first time in 21 years, I couldn't attend service this week. Because
you didn't want me here. I was sick. midweek. And I wasn't even preaching,
but I still needed to be here. But this isn't a beat-up session,
this is an encouragement session. Because preaching that guilts
people is worthless. Preaching that beats on people
is sinful. And preaching that causes conviction
is not of God. Only Holy Spirit conviction.
No, He does not. The Holy Spirit a racist conviction
of guilt. How many of you have been taught
the opposite? We learned it a couple of weeks ago, in this very chapter,
the Holy Spirit who's coming will convict the world of sin,
that means they're condemned. They're condemned because they
will not believe in Him. If you're convicted, it means you don't
believe in Christ. Historical theology is cultish
because we say, well, that's the definition. Where's the definition
in the Bible? No. We've not systematized God
in a series of platitudes and say, oh, we got it now. We see
him. We see him and we know him and
we're there. And it is inexpressible, unintelligible
to the natural man. Any natural man who can grasp
the things of God don't have the things of God, you see. Assurance. The Word of God will not end. And it will not fail. And you,
beloved, have the love of God. You can be assured of that. You
will not be condemned. If Christ died for your sins,
you cannot be condemned, because if you are condemned, and Christ
died for your sins, Christ, and the Father, and the Spirit, and
the prophets, and the apostle, and every sovereign grace pastor
in history are liars. Jesus did not die for the entire
human race or the entire human race will be saved. He paid the debt. Why? What intimacy have we seen
thus far? Intimacy with Christ, intimacy
with Christ in his death, intimacy with Christ in his body, in his
blood, in his washing, his sanctification, his setting apart for the Father,
the atoning work, all these particular things that we can pick out which
are all equally and absolutely, essentially, universally, timelessly
true at all times for the elect. These things are done and finished,
perfected realities, attributes of us. And though we cannot say
13 words in one breath, that's how we should understand it.
It's called redemption. We have prayer. We pray to the
son and the son asks the father. I'm just as a review. Chapter
15, 14, 15 and now 16. And we have intimacy with Christ
in the spirit. We have intimacy with Christ
and love and an obedience. We have intimacy with Christ
because he is the vine and we have been produced by him. We
have intimacy with Christ in the love of Christ and the peace
of Christ and the power of Christ in the spirit of Christ. and
the hatred of the world against Christ. We have intimacy with
Christ in the works of Christ and the witness of Christ. We
have intimacy with Christ and the promise of Christ. We will
not be orphaned. We will not be lost. We will
not be cast away. We will, even if we're killed,
not forsake the truth. We have intimacy with Christ
that he's going again, going again to the Father. The work
on earth is done. The finished crosswork of Jesus
has been accomplished and they who it applies to, we do not
see him. Yet we love him. We have not seen him, yet we
love him. We have assurance in that. No assurance in that. Last week we looked at the joy
of Christ and how it must have been for these disciples to lose
the physical presence of Jesus, but Jesus was telling them over
and over and over again, you will rejoice because you will
see me again. The question I have for you is
what is your assurance this day? And in your assurance, I want
to say that in some way spiritual and in some way physical, we
interchange hope with assurance. Yet sometimes we see hope in
our lives as something not Christ. And then we divide and we say,
okay, well, in my spiritual sense, my hope is Jesus. In my Christianity,
my hope is Jesus. In my heart, my hope is Jesus.
But at work, It's me. At home, it's me. It's somebody
else. It's something. It's a plan.
It's an action. It's a goal. It's a set. It's something we've
got to do. It's a progression, something,
something other. So we divide out our spiritual
assurance with our earthly living and we systematize it in that
way. Beloved, we can't do that because we're always going to
be Really running in circles when
we do that. We rest in the sufficiency of Christ, our hope in life. My hope to live tomorrow is only
in Christ as He wills it. If I'm to die today by a stroke
or a heart attack or a wreck or an accident or a gunshot or
a knife or just by some fluke, that thing may very well kill
me, but God and His sovereignty took me. And so if my hope and your hope
rest upon me and how I'm a part of your life, we've missed the
point of each other's lives. We are to point to Christ. And
there's nothing greater, there's no greater sin than a pastor
to think my hope of my joy rests in the joy of my flock. And every
intricate detail of your lives being fixed so that you rejoice. And I used to think I was a superhero,
you know? In my 20s and in my 30s, especially,
oh, I can fix this. Let's just sit down, let's just
get the, I can fix this. I mean, and many of you, especially
some of you brothers that we talk a lot, we still feel this
way. It's like the comedian who talks
about his children when we read the comic books. Superman, Batman,
Spider-Man, these aren't fiction heroes. These are options for
the future for most boys. I'm going to be a superhero.
We think we're superheroes. I'm super pastor, super counselor,
super fixer. It's not possible. My hope can't
be in your hope unless your hope is Jesus and vice versa. My joy
can't be there. When it comes to the tides of
life, let us not separate the gospel and its promises from
the temporal joy of this life that is our eternal joy. Jesus
is our joy. Now, what I've just said was
a review of six sermons. Let's get to today. Verse 25, chapter 16. Jesus speaking, I have said these
things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will
no longer speak to you in figures of speech, but will tell you
plainly about the Father. In that day, you will ask in
my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father
on your behalf, for the Father himself loves you. Because you
have loved me and have believed that I come from God. I came
from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am
leaving the world and going to the Father. That's all I want
to do today. Because here, as we know in this
narrative, Jesus at the Last Supper, he is talking with the
disciples. And as we've read this over and over again over
the last few months, we've seen recapitulation. That means a
repetitiveness of repeating teachings, phraseology. Nothing even new
in this context, but it's also very clear throughout the entirety
of the gospel that we've been learning over the last few years.
122 sermons today in John. And we know what the synoptics
teach, the synoptics Matthew, Mark, and Luke, those gospel
narratives. We know that the synoptics show
Jesus speaking in parables and speaking in figures of speech,
if you will, so that what? What does he say? So that those
who aren't intended to see and hear can't see and hear. But we see even in Mark's gospel
where people will take this text if you don't, this is the part
of Christianity and spiritual development and maturity and
growth and Bible study that you should never take part in. You
should never get into an argument about scripture that God himself
has not shown you through your own reading. But people will
take what Mark said and say, that contradicts such and such
and this doesn't contradict, hogwash. Because the synoptics show that
Jesus spoke figuratively in order to keep the truth from certain
people. We know that in John's Gospel, don't we? John 6 is a
very good example of that. You cannot believe because you
are not my sheep. You cannot believe because you
don't belong to me. You will not come to me because
the Father will not give you to me. You cannot believe, Jesus
says in John 8. What is he saying? He wants us
to eat his flesh and drink his blood? This is too much for us
to bear!" And they leave. Ten to fifteen thousand people
walk away from him that day. Oh, he really is crazy. We're
leaving. Why? Because they had not been given
eyes to see. They could not hear what Jesus
was saying concerning the Father. Jesus' entire ministry was to
give glory to the Father. That's the only reason He came. Now we know the counterparts
of how that is done, to seek and save the lost, to give His
life for a ransom for His people, to satisfy the wrath of God.
We understand the Pauline epistles. We see what the apostles teach
concerning the doctrine of Christ, the person and the teaching of
Christ. We know what He accomplished, but ultimately, the ultimate
end is what? The glory of God the Father. It's the glory of
God the Father. In October of 2012, I said these
words in a pulpit with a lot of people listening. And I said,
God loves Himself infinitely. And more than He loves anything
else that He's ever made. And all that He does and all
the love that He has for His people is for the sake of His
self-love and His self-glorification. Now people get up and walk out.
Now, ironically, I just got through exegeting in machine-gun fashion,
Romans 1 through 3. And then I said that. Amen, amen,
amen, until I've made it clear. And as they walked out, I quoted
Ephesians 1 to the praise of His glorious grace. Why does
He save the beloved? To the praise of His glory. If I, out of my own hands, create
a tree And out of that tree create a forest, and out of that forest
cut it all down and create wood, and out of that wood with my
own hands, not even tools, I push nails and I craft them out of
the ground. And I do like this. I mean, that's
a powerful looking something. And I push them in with my thumbs
and I build me a house, and somebody else comes and burns it down.
Does that man owe me? Yeah. And would I be wrong to
seek restitution from that man? No. It is not wrong for God to
declare all praise and glory and honor is due Him. We are yet, we are nothing but
a creation. Jesus speaks about the honor
and the glory of the Father. I did not come to do my own will,
but I came to do the will of the one who sent me. I tell you
the truth. If you've seen me, you've seen
the Father. I am not the Father. I'm the
one that comes from the Father. I'm the son of man. It's very easy just to sort of
wiggle on out theologically in these passages. But what about
the first church? What about the believers, the
fledgling believers of the day of John, hearing these words? Why were these words written
here? That you may have eternal life. What Jesus is saying in
verses 25 through 28 is sufficient for you to see, beloved. And as a child of God, for you
to be encouraged and for you to be assured. Now, do you see
it? Can we just say, yes, we see what the Scripture is teaching
us and move on? I pray that it's already there in your face. But
if not, maybe through just further explanation, God will make it
clear to you. I've said these things to you
in figures of speech. Jesus was not speaking here at the Last
Supper in parables. Was He? He wasn't being purposefully
convoluted, but what he was saying there is that their apprehension
of what he's teaching is cloudy. It was hard to grasp. It wasn't
something that they could rightly put their finger on. And of course,
Peter and those like him, like, yeah, we get it. As you'll see
in verse 26, look at verse 29. Look what they say there. We're
not going to get to that till next week, but he goes, Oh, Now you're speaking
plainly. Now you're speaking plainly and
not using figurative speech. Great. Now we know that you know
all things and we don't need anybody to ask you about this
stuff. We believe that you came from God. Let me give you a preview. It's like when dad's lecturing
and the kids go, yeah, we got it. We got it. We understand. And they're going, we don't understand
anything. Remember last week? What does
he mean by that? They just proclaim, oh we got
it, now you're speaking plainly, now we see. And Jesus has already
told Peter, I guarantee it was Peter who said that. I can't guarantee, but I think
it's Peter who said that. It sounds just like Peter. I promise you this. If it was Peter, or if it wasn't
Peter, Peter heard it with his own ears, and Peter has just
been told just some ten minutes before, what? Before the sun
comes up? You're going to deny me three
times. Not me. No way. I hear what you're saying. I
get it now. We're good, Jesus. And Jesus
rebukes him. Verse 31, do you now believe?
That's a rebuke. We'll get there next week. I've
said these things to you in figures of speech. But he wasn't purposefully
trying to hide something. He was showing them the essence
of his coming and what it was for and that they could not understand
the reality of it until he went to the Father. Until the Spirit
came. Now we understand the omnipresence
of God. The Spirit wasn't up there and
then came down here. He's everywhere, always, all the time, eternally.
God the Spirit is not moving like magic by the will of man
or the will of God. He is God. He is everywhere. He works when He wishes. He's
not told what to do and where to go. So, the hour is coming when I
will no longer speak to you in figures of speech, but will tell
you plainly about the Father. Now, I find this interesting
because, as I said, Jesus' whole ministry was to give glory to
the Father. What does it mean to see the
glory of God? It means to see God exactly as
He fully is. Exactly. Nothing's hidden. Nothing's
wondered. There's nothing left to see.
We understand. We see. We comprehend. We can
touch, feel, hear, experience. We are there. Everything is perfectly
illustrated, very plainly. We have seen the glory of God.
Glory as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. We have seen His glory. So this
is what Jesus has been doing for three and a half years. And
here's His last few days on earth. in His earthly ministry, before the resurrection. And you might be thinking, Jesus,
what have you been doing? Have you not been teaching plainly
about the Father? Yes, He's been teaching plainly about the Father.
How has He been doing that? He's been declaring, I come from
the Father. This is the Father's work. The
Father has been working until now I am working. Remember that
in John 5? It is not I who indict you, but
Moses. Moses wrote of Me. Who gave the words to Moses?
God the Father. So everything Jesus has said,
everything Jesus has done, everywhere Jesus has been, everything He
has accomplished, every person He has healed, every time He's
been lied about, accused, accosted, it's all to reveal what? The
Father. It's all to reveal God. But yet still, there is something
not quite clicking. Why? Because the work hasn't
been finished. At this point, the work hasn't
been finished. It is time to go. Now the Son of Man Now is
the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God
will also glorify Him in Himself and glorify Him at once. Little children, yet little while
I am with you, you will seek Me. And just as I said to the
Jews, now I also say to you, where I am going you cannot come. But I give you a new commandment.
that you love one another just as I have loved you, you also
are to love one another. By this, all people will know
that you are my followers, if you have love for one another." And so we're thinking, okay,
Jesus has talked plainly about the Father, but when is He going
to talk more plainly? At the cross? Well, many men
died that day. Men died every day in Roman occupied
Jerusalem. For any reason, stole a chicken? Crucified. Kick some dirt? Crucified. Didn't speak to a Roman centurion
like you're supposed to? Crucified. I mean, unless you're
a Roman citizen, then you didn't get crucified. So when is He going to talk about
Plainly? Maybe it was the cross. It wasn't the cross. Many people were crucified. What's
the difference in this man, who was pretty famous and very polarizing,
versus any other man? Did that show the Father and
the cross? Well, it did. You could put everything that
was taught together, but they still couldn't see it. They still
couldn't see it. There's going to come an hour
where I'm going to speak plainly about the Father. I'm going to
reveal the Father very clearly to you. When was it? The resurrection. Because the resurrection is what
sets Jesus apart from any other man dying in history. The resurrection
is what proves that Jesus is God and man. And the resurrection
is what vindicates His claim of sinlessness. For the wages
of sin is death. Jesus took a death that wasn't
His. He served it. Then He raised Himself from the
dead. You see. Now after the resurrection,
we see that they could clearly understand
the point. And then when He ascended to
the Father, they really understood He's back where He came from.
The work is done. Now let's bring the sheep home.
Let's bring the sheep home. Let's show the sheep the work
of the Father. Let's show the sheep the work
of redemption. Let's show the sheep the eternal covenant before
creation. When the Spirit of God was hovering
over the waters of the deep, and the earth was void and without
form, and dark, and God said, let there be light, and there
was light, and the light was good. That's what Jesus is saying
here. Just as a seed falls to the ground
and dies, it brings forth light, life. When I die and when I come back,
that's life. The promise and the assurance
of your security in this life and the next is in the finished
work of Jesus. Not your faith and not your works. and not your passion, and not
your zeal, but in Christ. And as I said before, when we're
not in the Scripture, we lose all sight of that really quickly,
don't we? We lose it. We just, oh, Jesus is glorious,
and walk outside and go, it's cold. You didn't turn the heater on
in the house. Why are the kids fighting in
the back seat? What'd you say to me? Look at
that idiot at McDonald's drive-thru pull out in front of me like
that. I mean, our worshipful mindset goes away fast, doesn't
it? So we have to continue to go back into the Word of God.
That's what this table does. We taste something. We taste
the fruit of the vine. We taste the fruit of grain.
We taste the brokenness of the bread. We're tasting something
with our physical senses. And in a sense there, in a real
sense, we experience something. In a spiritual sense, we're reminded
of something. And in a supernatural and a divine
way, and in a mysterious way, we sense the work of Christ because
as we have the small taste and the small filling, we're to be
reminded of the true filling and the true taste and the true
covenant and the true life that comes through Jesus Christ because
He has spoken plainly to you about the Father. Three or four weeks, we'll see
John 17 3. And this is eternal life, that
they know you, the one true God and the Son whom you have sent.
So Jesus is saying here to His disciples, I'm going to show
you the trueness of the knowledge of the Father. And He's talking about His death.
And more explicitly, He's talking about His resurrection. That
when I have been raised to life, you will see everything I've
been trying to tell you. Because in all practical realities,
the disciples at Jesus' death thought it was just over and
that they were going to get some helper, some spiritual sense
where they would be able to survive the next few years. They didn't realize the full
presence of the finished work of Jesus Christ would be with
them. The full power of God's Word that cannot be thwarted.
There is no man ever breathed breath in this life born of a
man and a woman who could ever stop the sovereign will of God. You cannot stop it. So as Jesus is saying, I will
tell you plainly about the Father, in this way He is saying, you
will see clearly what I've been teaching you this entire time.
It's hard to put ourselves in that place, isn't it? Because
the resurrection is here. We live in the present contemporary
day of a risen Savior. We live in the day of the Kingdom
that has come. And we long for the day of consummation. So consider that. Consider. I listen to my teaching, and I
try to listen to what I teach every week, at least once or
twice. Sometimes I have to go back in
and correct it week to week. But when we consider, when we
consider the Lord, it's something I used to say a lot. I used to
say it a lot. In verse 43 of Psalm 107, not
Psalm 107, which I read this morning, Psalm 107, it says,
whoever is wise, let him attend to these things. Let him consider
the steadfast love of the Lord. That's what Jesus is about to
say. How is this so effectual? What
is this relationship we now have with Christ? That we now have
with the Spirit? That we now have with the Father?
Jesus said, you can pray to me and I will intercede for you
on behalf of the Father. And look what He says now. In
that day, what day? Verse 26. In that day, the day
where you will know plainly the Father. And understand plainly
the Father. The work of the Father through
the Son, and the work of the Son continuing through the Spirit. You will ask in my name. As I've
already told you, ask in my name. Why? Because Jesus is God. He intercedes on our behalf and
He's already said we have that privilege to pray to Him, to
pray to the Father in His name, by His authority, by His power.
But now Jesus is going to say something extremely different.
When you see the Father in the way you will see Him, you will
ask in My name, and I'm not saying to you now that I'm going to
ask the Father on your behalf." That's what he's saying there.
I'm not going to ask the Father anything for you. For the Father Himself loves
you. Now stop there for a second.
I mean, how many of you read that this week and went, What's
really being said there? Four, the Father Himself loves
you. The Father loves you because
you loved Me. Your love for Me is your believing
that I came from God. You believe that I came from
God. The Father loves you because He's given you to Me. This is
all rerun, guys. This is like the plot of the
movie. This is the flashbacks just coming
through at the very end, at the very climax. of what's happening
here, I don't have to ask the Father on your behalf. Ask Him
yourself because He loves you just as He loves me. Now think
about that for a second. Never in human history until
this moment Has any human being ever been told that they have
the authority and the presence of mind and the presence of stature
to stand in the presence of God the Father and ask of Him anything
without a mediator? Think about that. You want to
see the significance of the atoning work of Jesus? There it is. Moses, take off your shoes for
you're standing in the presence of I Am who is set apart from
all things. That's what God says when He
says, take off your shoes for this is holy ground. Who are
you? I Am. Jesus says that of Himself seven
times in this gospel. And every time the Jews pick
up stones to kill him and he disappears because he makes himself
God. You must bow down before the
bush that I created and I am burning but not consuming because
through it shall I speak for you cannot see me and live. Moses,
you cannot see my glory, but you will hear my law, and I will
write it with my own hand on these tablets of stone. And you
shall take it down to the people, and you shall command them concerning
it. And they shall be judged accordingly. For through it my
righteousness and my justice and my wrath and my holiness
shall be vindicated. If an animal gets close to the
mountain and touches the base of its approach, it shall be
stoned and burned. If a person approaches this mountain
likewise, they shall die. Can I see your face? You cannot
live and see me. For you're not fit for my presence,
you sinner of those sinners. For if you were to look upon
me, you would die. For you would see the fullness of my righteousness.
And in your conviction, you will be condemned. For I am God and there is no
other. And my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts
are higher than your thoughts. Who says to the potter, why have
you made me this way? Does the potter not have any
right over the clay? Of course he does. He'll make
one lump out of the same lump, he'll make a vessel for honorable
use, and he'll make a poo-poo pot. Y'all remember that, kids? Who dares ask why to the God
of hosts? Do not approach the throne of
God. Even in that day there must be a mediator. What was the mediator?
The law? The sacrifices? The priesthood? The Levites? Aaron's descendants? And it was all still shadows
and types and copies of truth. Who is Jesus Christ, the righteous?
No man approached God and lived. No man could come into the presence
of God and establish some sense of peace without a mediator. And every
day, every day, for thousands of years in the economy of grace, Animals died and died and bled
and bled and bled. And I tell this some months back
to my high school class on Tuesdays, but have you ever considered
what the temple worship was like? It was a bloody massacre. Slaughtering of animals, draining
of blood, burning of carcasses, pouring of blood, prayers, Slaughtering,
draining, burning, prayers, pouring, prayers, burning, prayers, slaughter,
knives in throats, knives in throats, blood in jars, prayers,
slaughter, burning. Does that sound like somewhere
you want to go? That's a little cold in here today, Pastor. At
least we don't have blood and fire everywhere. It wasn't everywhere, it wasn't
in every spot, but in the places of worship, that was the point. And the high priest would pour
blood for himself and pray. Then he would pour blood for
the nation and pray. In every feast, in every festival,
in every opportunity, there was some mediator, there was some
symbol that something had to come between the righteousness
of God and the sinfulness of man. And it all pointed to Jesus
Christ who was going to reveal the Father to us fully and perfectly. People have a misunderstanding
of the good news, and they think, well, okay, Jesus is the mediator,
Jesus is the lamb, Jesus is the new covenant, Jesus is the one
who intercedes. All of these are true, but it
changes our relationship with the Father in such a way that
we call Him Papa, Daddy. Paul says we come bold before
the throne of grace. Since I was old enough to walk
and remember, I've been able to walk into the back door of
the office access of the Sheriff's Department. And if that door's
locked, I could bang on it, and they open it for me. Because
my father's been in charge in that office for almost 40 years.
And I'm a son, and I got no business back there. But when the Chief
and the Sheriff's son show up, they open the door. Now that's
a crazy picture, but I've never been scared. I've walked in there
and there'd been people stabbed and fighting and drunk. I don't care. Where's my daddy? Can't see you
now, son. Go. But I'm still your daddy. The king of the highest of all
things, God. whereby He has one Son, the only
one that He has, Jesus Christ the Righteous, who was the only
one fit for His presence, but now because of His work to reveal
the Father to us in His death and in His resurrection, we are
loved by the Father. And let me say it this way, the
reason Christ saved us is because we are loved by the Father. The love of God is in every way
and only visible in the giving of Jesus Christ the Son. Jesus, the one whom the Father
loves and gives the Spirit without measure, has created us and prepared
us for the presence of the Father. So though He is our mediator,
I can pray to my Father. And He will answer
my prayers because He loves me. He saved you because He loves
you. And this is everywhere. This
is all over the place. But it's one of those places
That's one of those things in Scripture that if we're not careful,
we'll piecemeal it together to such a degree that we'll lose
sight of it. But in Ephesians 2, we can hear
this very clearly. And you were dead in your trespasses
and sins in which you once walked, following the course of the world,
following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit of those
now in the world, and the sons of disobedience, amongst whom we all once lived
in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the
body, the desires of the mind. And we're by nature children
of wrath like the rest of humanity. But God, see that's our station. But God being rich in mercy because
of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were
dead in our sins, made us alive together with Christ. When Jesus
was raised from the dead, the apostles, by the power of God
the Spirit, went, I see it. Wow. All this worry for nothing. All this fear for nothing. All
this doubt. The guilt that I had, Peter would
say. The guilt. I denied the Lord. Three times
Jesus finds him. What did Peter do after the crucifixion? He went back to fishing. He tried
to blend in to his old life. He just went back to the old
way of living. Jesus finds him and presents
himself to Peter and says, Do you love me? Do you love me?
Do you love me? Yes, you know. Yes, you know
I love you. You know I love you. Then feed
my sheep, Peter. The love of God effectual for
us is the power of God toward us in Christ Jesus, is the power
of God in us for His service by the Spirit of God who has
promised us to be with us. He has not abandoned you, beloved.
Be encouraged. When you fail, it's Christ and
His promise. When you sin, He's promised to
save you, and He did. When you doubt, He will revive
you. He will give you courage. It's a stark difference than
the way the world preaches a false gospel to say, you better get
your act together, boy. Thank God He did not permit me
to get my act together. I thank God every day that the
act that I had put on paper did not come to fruition. And that my spiritual sense and
where I thought things should be and how they should go, God
in His mercy refused it and did it His way. Verse 28. Here's the reality and the efficacy
of this promise. I came from the Father. I've
done the work the Father has sent me to do. Eternal life is
knowing the reality of this work by the Spirit. And now I'm leaving the world
and going back to the Father. And I don't have time. I've gone
on and on and on enough. It's hard to get all this out. It's here, it's hard to get it
out. I'm finished. You're safe. You're mine. It's over. There's the assurance. Preaching
should be encouraging. That's why I overly emphasized
in a little bit of a negative way in the beginning, we need
to be in the Bible. I mean, I'm preaching what I felt this week
in my own flesh. Preaching should be an encouragement
to you. Sometimes it can be rebuking if the text so calls for it,
but even in the rebuke, the rebuke is little, but the encouragement
is great. And I'm going to say something
that's going to sound a little tongue-in-cheek and probably a little off, and
people may say, well, that's just not true. But in the context
in which I'm thinking, so I'm right in my own mind, there's
no such thing as a sorry Christian. No such thing. There's no such thing as a Christian
that needs to get their act together. I think we just need to believe
every second of every day, encourage one another through the truth
of the gospel and the love of God. This is your assurance of
gospel security. This is your gospel assurance.
God's love for you in Christ. God's love for you in the work
of Christ. God's love for you that Christ
finished the work and now sits at the side, the right hand of
majesty. That all preeminence sits. And you're safe. As we take this
Lord's table today, I want you to remember that. I want you
to remember that as you taste the bread and drink the cup,
and as your physical senses come to life, I want you to think
for just a moment how The spiritual truth of the gospel is truly
alive forever for you. That we can remember what Christ
has accomplished because He's gone to the Father. And we can
see the Father, and we know the Father loves us. And we'll talk
about the rest of this next week. Let's pray. I praise You, Lord, for Your
mercy on me,