Good morning, church. Turn with
me to John chapter 14. We're still here in John 14. Let's start in verse 18 and read
to the end of the chapter together. I will not leave you as orphans.
I will come to you yet a little while and the world will see
me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also
will live. In that day, you will know that
I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has
my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he
who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him
and manifest myself to him. Judas, not Iscariot, said to
him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us
and not the world? And Jesus answered, if anyone
loves me, He will keep my word, and my Father will love him,
and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does
not love me does not keep my words, and the word that you
hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me. These things I've
spoken to you while I'm still with you, but the Helper, the
Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will
teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that
I have said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to
you. Not as the world gives do I give
to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be
afraid. You heard me say to you, I am
going away and I will come to you. If you loved me, you would
have rejoiced because I am going to the Father, for the Father
is greater than I. And now I have told you before
it takes place, so that when it does take place, you may believe.
I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world
is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has
commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.
Rise, let us go from here. Let's pray. Lord, your word is sufficient
and powerful There in this scripture, Lord, your power rests, your
power comes, your power works. And apart from your word, Lord,
there is no power in our lives. Your spirit is the spirit of
truth. And so, Father, as we study these
things today, as we see this last one of the last dialogues
of Jesus with his disciples on Earth, Father, help us to see
exactly what it is that you've said to us here, that we may
know and that we may hold fast to who you truly are in your
glory as we see in your son Jesus. In his name we pray, amen. Well, we will most likely finish
this particular text today and be in the vine and the branch
dialogue next week, Lord willing. There are a lot of things here.
And as you've seen, and as I've said, it's very easy to just
say, well, okay, he's going to send the Holy Spirit. And as
the old saying go, yada, yada, yada. And now what, what else
can we learn? Well, I want to encourage you
beloved to not look at scripture in such a hurried pace, not to
look at scripture in such a hurried pace. At the same time, I don't
want you to look at scripture in a way where you've got a dig
in mind for what's not obvious. Many people would tell you today
that we need to dig and look into places that aren't there,
need to read between the lines of scripture. We need to have
some more resources that could help us understand what scripture
is teaching. But in the simplistic text, in
the simple way that the Bible has been written by God, the
Holy Spirit through the personalities and the pens of men, his apostles,
This text today explains the mystery. It explains the mystery
of how the Word of God is sufficient. How the Word of God is authoritative.
How the Word of God is indeed the litmus test of all revelation,
of all truth concerning Christ, concerning the gospel, concerning
Christian living. How the Word of God is the final
court, the final rule, and the final authority. and that we
as believers hold fast to that even sometimes when we may not
look there. Sometimes we don't look at the
Word of God, do we? We think, what's the answer to my problem?
What's the answer to my circumstances? What is the answer? How am I
going to overcome this? How am I going to help my mind? How
am I going to help my heart? How am I going to help these
things? Where am I going to find my peace?
And the last thing we do is to go and pick up the scripture.
The first thing we do is to befuddle our minds with the idea that
there is something within us that we might be able to muster,
to pull out, to control, and lo and behold, there's this nugget
that we've just not discovered yet in our own flesh that may
very well provide the answer for us. And when we see that
that doesn't work, then we get on the phone, or we get on our
text messages, or we go and visit a brother or sister, and we begin
to ask them what they have in the storage containers of their
flesh. What I thought I knew didn't
work, and now I'm asking you, can you dig something up for
me? You know, the junk drawer in the kitchen? Is there something
in there that we forgot we put in there that's very valuable?
The Tupperware cabinet? The clothes hangers in the left
side of the closet, they have no clothes on them? Get one out,
see how that works, for those of you who understand. But then
we see that the people around us don't have those nuggets,
don't have those answers. And so then we begin to look
elsewhere, third parties, people that we don't know, people that
we've never even met, people that have never heard of our
names, but we'll Google search them until the keys of our keyboard
are wiped clean from lettering. And then we'll say, okay, now
that makes sense. Okay, now that'll make sense. And we'll employ
every possible function of any piece of advice that we could
ever find, and yet it is all moot. And at the end of our rope, at
the end of our opportunities, at the end of our abilities,
we come to the resolve of realizing that the very place we should
have started is the word of God. The word of God. And the very
thing that is most important for us as a fellowship, listen
to this, is that if I'm not in the word of God, then you are
not receiving the ministry that God's called you to receive.
And if you're not in the word of God, then the rest of you
are not going to receive the ministry that you're called to
receive. Because we teach one another
by the authority of Christ in the name of Christ. That's what
it means to something in the name of Christ. It is by the
power of Christ, by the authority of Christ, by the will of Christ,
by the person of Christ, by the works of Christ. All of that
inclusive when we say by the name of Jesus or in the name
of Jesus, it is not a tagline to a prayer service. It is the
authority by which we stand. The scripture teaches us that
they will all be taught by God. We see that in the prophets.
We see the illusion there in John's writing and Paul's writing. We've seen it here in this gospel
that God teaches us. Let's see. We have a misconception
that the pastor teaches us. You think I teach you? You think
Trey and Jesse and other brothers who have preached to you through
the years are the ones teaching? We aren't teaching you. We are
sharing what God has taught us. And if God does not teach you,
then you haven't learned. If everything that I say is the
only thing you hear, you're not hearing from God. I want you
to grasp that. And I want you to see that in
this text today, what we are taught concerning God, the Holy
Spirit, is just as important as what we have been taught concerning
God the Son, as He has revealed God the Father, because we have
one God. And He is not divided. He is not diverse. He is simple
and unified, and He is three persons. He doesn't have three
persons. He is three persons. He is one
God. Now, as mysterious as that is,
the only way that you are going to truly grasp it is if God helps
you see it, helps you apprehend it. I know sometime last year,
Trey and I began to look at several different historical elements
of certain teachings. And we couldn't find a lot on
the Holy Spirit. And we couldn't find a lot of
teaching historically on the church at large, the ecclesia,
the assembly. But yet when we do find the teaching
on that, it's typically inundated with just what I explained a
minute ago. Personal nuggets, personal inference,
personal philosophy, cultural ideals, and the list goes on
and on. And a proof text or six might
be there to undergird the idea that it could be, quote, biblical,
but in the end it's not contextual. Ergo, it is not theology. It
is not God teaching. It is rather man's manipulation
of God's teaching that creates that type of outcome. The question
I have for us this morning is what difference does it make
that God the Holy Spirit is alive and working in you? What difference does it make
in the triune God with God the Holy Spirit in your life? You
see, if I were to poll us all and I would say, how many of
you have ever read a book on the Holy Spirit? Few of us probably
could raise our hands. And the ones who did, I could
say, okay, was it a book contextually out of scripture or was it a
philosophical humanistic type book about how God the spirit
works? Was it even orthodox? Was it
even gospel focused? Or was it just some frou-frou
mess you saw at the end cap at Walmart? Some silliness that
you saw at Lifeway Christian stores? which is 90% on the shelves
of silliness. Some foolishness that you might
have seen at a conference or at Barnes and Noble or some coffee
table of a dear friend or relative. Maybe you learned the Holy Spirit
through another book like the shack. The closest thing to the shack
is an outhouse in my opinion and that's exactly where that
book belongs, the bottom of it. The Word of God alone is not
only the sole authority of revelation, but jealously indicts any other
revelation that is not the Word of God concerning the person
of God. Did you hear that? If my commentary
is not from Scripture, I make God to be a liar. If the book
I write It's just full of incredible illustrations that help you understand
God just a little bit differently. A different point of view, a
different idea, a different philosophy, a different worldview. You are
learning a false God. And that is where Most of this
idea of internal answers, external answers come from how is it that
God is actively at work in my life? How is he the answer? What is God doing in my circumstances? Where am I supposed to turn?
The reason we turn so many places is because we have learned so
many wrong things about God that are not from scripture. Now I've
got a list of these culturally. in my own life. I don't want
to waste time sharing them with you. But here's a wonderful one
that you always hear. Well, you know, if God's going
to do something for you, you've got to do something for yourself.
Where's that? Well, there's a will, there's
a way. See, you'd think that's not a theological issue, but
that's a theology. That's a doctrinal position that
a lot of Christians have. And it goes on and on. Just the
very idea of God's love, the very idea of God's peace. Well,
I don't have peace. The Bible says I should have
peace. Well, how are you defining peace? The Bible says you have
peace in Christ. The problem is you're looking
for something other than what God has promised you that is
yours already. You're looking for some other
outcome. You're looking for something else. So keep all of this in
mind as we get started this morning. We've seen intimacy with Christ
in two ways. We've seen intimacy with Christ,
well, in several ways. Let's walk through 14 in our
minds very quickly. Intimacy with Christ in that
he gives his body and blood for you, beloved, for the elect. He's laid his life down willfully
for his people that they may be righteous because his righteousness
is theirs. He illustrates that through the
washing of feet, etc. We've gone over that every week
since we started it. Then we see Jesus saying what? That He is continuing to do the
work, or that His people, the apostles specifically, namely,
are going to continue to do the work that He's done in a greater
sense, in a greater way. Greater works than these will
you do because I am leaving. See, we have intimacy with Jesus
because He's leaving the earth. He's finishing the work. The
cross of Christ is finished. He ascends to the Father because
the work of redemption is complete. That's why He says on the cross,
it is finished. He doesn't say time's up. He
says it's finished. I know it'll be two or three
years before we get to that part in John's Gospel, but I just want to remind
you it's there. It's there. It is finished. We
have intimacy with Christ because of his redemptive work. He gave
himself for his people, for his sheep. They hear his voice. We
have intimacy with him. John says it in his first epistle
that we have fellowship with God. You have fellowship with
us. And indeed, our fellowship was
with the father and with the son. We have intimacy with God because
Christ ascended to the father. We have intimacy with Christ.
because we continue to have intimacy with each other. See, we are here to continue
to do the work. We are here as a body. We aren't
a little federation of an Americanized ministry. We're not a little
sect of Christendom. I'm beginning to think that Christendom
by and large is a bad term. I'm beginning to think that evangelicalism,
by definition, as it's applied to certain groups of people in
our country, is actually not something to take as a label. Just like when people say the
love of God, they mean something completely different than what
the Bible teaches about God's love. Or, as I've already mentioned,
the peace of God. They believe something different
than what the Scripture teaches concerning peace. We have intimacy
then in prayer, that we can speak to Jesus Christ directly because
of what He's done to open up our intimacy with God the Father. We are not condemned. We stand
before God, holy, righteous, perfect, sinless, as if we've
never sinned. You understand justification
in that way. God doesn't, He's not dumb. He's not ridiculous. He doesn't, He's not being faked
out. But judicially, when Christ took on our guilt, our guilt
is gone. Our sins are gone. They do not
count against us as if they don't exist. And yet here they are. And we can pray now to Christ. We can pray now to the father.
We can pray now to the spirit. We can pray to God and whatever
we need in the work that he has called us to do to continue in
the gospel ministry, which this world knows nothing of as a whole. He will do it. He will do it. And then we have intimacy with
Christ when we love Him. Now I'm going to tell you something,
beloved. I've been reading a long time. I probably started reading,
I don't know, age three, maybe. And I've been able to read for
a long, long time. And I'll tell you, reading is
not that difficult But it is difficult when we engage in a
specific text with all these preconceived ideas like a barge
full of garbage that we're trying to run into the side of a restaurant
thinking that it's a needed ingredient in a recipe. There's a bad picture. He loves these disciples. Then
he says, in verse 15, as we looked at last week, if you love me,
you'll keep my commandments. I'll ask my father, he'll give
you another helper. Now see, if we read this in the
culture of false gospels, I want you to hear this, we will read
into this a condition of salvation as obedience. And we know that's
wrong, so why do we read it in there? Because that is man's
answer to his own righteousness. I must do what I must do to be
righteous. And friends, that is the very
first temptation of the very first people. You will be like
God. What does it mean to be like
God? That means to be righteous, to be set apart above all things,
to be the most high, holy, Just do this and you will know
things that God knows. Just be this way, act this way,
live this way, talk this way, dress this way, think this way.
All these things that you need to do. This is what the devil
started doing and this is what the devil continues to do when
we live our lives not by faith but by fear. And we prove that we live not
by faith when we consider ourselves as the operative agent of redemption,
the operative agent of assurance. And no, we can get real, we can
get spiritual. Oh, we thank you, God. See what
God's doing in my life? See what God's done with my heart?
See what God's doing with my mouth? I mean, you know, we can
thank God for everything, just like the pagan thanks God for
everything. Come thou fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing thy praise. You know that song? I think we
sang it every day the first five years as a church, didn't we?
Because it's fun to play. All spiritual blessings are in
Christ, period. His person, His work, His promises, not us. In spite of us, while we were
dead in our sins and trespasses, Christ saved us. He made us alive. There's only one gospel, beloved.
Interesting conversation. I saw a young man post this distinction
last week of the week before, and I've been talking about it
with some of you. You see, when you think about problem churches,
sinful, disobedient people, you automatically think of one group,
right? Corinthians. And they had a laundry list of
just wickedness that was running rampant in amongst their midst.
And everywhere you look, Paul's like, I'm gonna spank you. I'm
gonna come down there and get you. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do that. And
he's just pounding them. But he never once stops loving them. He never once comes to the end
of his rope and goes, I'm done with you. You're all reprobate. You lied to me. You're fake.
You're not Christians. He holds to the fact they're
believers to the very end. But, he says, to get this sin in check
because you were born of God. Put that stuff away. Put that
stuff away. We're cleaning up the cooked
supper and everybody's hands are washed and we're going to
put one kid in the salad and one kid chopping vegetables and
one kid frying the meat up or doing whatever they need to do.
They don't go outside and dig in the dirt. Mining for gold. You know how kids are going to
think they're going to find gold in the driveway, right? digging potholes. You don't put that junk up on
the counter when we've cleaned up. It's out of place. It has
no business there. It's antithetical to the sterile
environment required for healthy eating and living and common
sense and godliness. I mean, y'all know me by now. So put that away Corinth. Put
that stuff away. That's not on the table of the
Lord. That's not in the purity of the Lord. Put that stuff away.
And if those people who won't put it away, you put them away
until they put it away and then you bring them back. But there's another church that
we never think of when we think about disobedience. And that's
the church of Galatia. And the church of Corinth had
a lot of sin, but the church of Galatia had another gospel.
The church of Galatia had a perfect cross work gospel. And then they
begin to add obedience to the side of it. And Paul doesn't
call those people brothers. He doesn't call the Judaizers
brothers. He says they're anathema. And he says anyone who takes
their confidence in this work are anathema. For it is another
gospel. And then he uses Old Testament
allusion and illustration over and over and over again to show
there is no justification in obedience whatsoever. And there's
no assurance in following a set of prescribed rules. The law
is righteous and good and holy and perfect. And the reason it
was given is to convict and condemn. And that's all it will ever do. The law always condemns no man
ever except the true law, who is the righteous one, Jesus.
No man born of a woman or of a man in this world will ever,
ever be justified in comparison to the law of God. Pre or post
conversion. Context is king. If you love
me, you will do what I'm telling you to do, my apostles. You will
do the work that I've called you to. You will do it in the
face of adversity. You will hold fast and you will
what? Love one another. Paul does it. James does it. John does it. They singularize all of the righteousness
of Christ into one thing. loving each other. This is the
intimate reality of gospel living. But it's not a condition for
redemption. It's not. And as you love me, that means
as you do what I've called you to, as you do what I've commanded
you to, as you love one another, As my apostles give you teaching,
you follow them. You do it not out of fear, but
out of love. Out of love. For I've laid my
life down for you. I've given you everything that
you may live with me. I am sending a helper, the spirit
of truth. And then Jesus changes, we're
here now, we're in verse 18. He changes His wording when their
fear is how are we going to survive? What are we going to do? Where
is our ministry strength gonna come from? Jesus says, I'm going
away. You have intimacy with me. I'm
sending another. He is the spirit of truth. You
won't fail. You understand that? Jesus is
saying, you will not fail. You cannot fail. So if Jesus
was talking about strict life order and morality and obedience,
where in the world are those Christians? They're not in this
building. They're not standing up here. I'm not your standard. Christ
is. I'm the standard of what it looks
like to believe and hope in the grace of God. That when my sin
rises up and slaps me in my face, I trust in the mercy of God in
Christ. Jesus says He won't leave them
as orphans. But I'll come to you, verse 19, yet a little while
and the world will see me no more. That means He's not going
to be in the world any longer. He's going to be resurrected.
He's going to be glorified in His new body. He's going to ascend
to the Father. And now the work of redemption is complete. Now the life together as the
body of Christ is seen in Christ because He is alive, we also
will live. His resurrection and ascension,
all the promises that Christ has given in verse 20, help His
disciples know that He was in the Father and that they were
in Him and that He was in them. What is that imagery? What's
that picture of? Is that a hard theological scientific statement? No, it's an imagery. It's imagery. If you're in me and I'm with
the Father, then you're with the Father. If the Father's in me and I'm
in the Father, then you're with the Father, you're with me, and
I'm with you, and I'm in you, and you're with me, and you get the
point. We're all together in this. That's why the apostles
used the metaphor as a body. As a body. When we look at Philippians,
when we see what Paul deals with in Philippians, there's a unity
and suffering for the sake of Christ. There's a unity because
of the work of Christ. There's a unity as the example
of Christ, who, though he was equal with God, thought it not
robbery, as the KJV says, but considered equality with God,
not something to be grasped. But he obediently made himself
a slave unto death on the cross. Therefore, God exalted him. We
share in the glory of Christ, for we are the body of Christ.
And if we are Christ's body, then we are also each other's
body. And this is the point. And our calling is not about
any type of things. Like I said the last few weeks
about being this amazing on Wednesday night, being this amazing apostle. Everybody wants to have this
incredible radical ministry, as we discussed in our men's
group last month. But that's not the call of Christ to the
church. Our greatest call is consistent,
normal life together with each other in Christ. God uses that which is lowly. Example in the fact that Christ
became lowly, hated by the masses. He says then in verse 21, whoever
has my commandments and keeps them, he, it is the one who loves
me. We illustrated that last week, that now we see that when
we are in Christ, the best way to love Christ is to do that
which Christ has called us to. Husbands, love your wife as Christ
loved the church. Wives, submit in respect to your
own husbands. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for
this is right. And now I'm raising my fifth
child and I still haven't gotten it right, but yet I continue
to tell them, your greatest worship, children, your greatest love
for the Lord Jesus is to do what I tell you to do. You love Him greatly when you
obey me simply. And Lord, have mercy on those
times when we as parents like to take that a little too far.
and say, and I know if you don't want to obey me, you're probably
not in Jesus. You ever said that? If you haven't
said it, you thought it. And the Holy Spirit, God, the
Holy Spirit will tell you very quickly, what about you? Where's
your track record, buddy? Thankfully he doesn't say that,
because I'd probably flip out if God said buddy. It's not in the
Bible, so he wouldn't say that. Those who love Me. I'm in the Father. You know I
love you. Those who love Me, they're loved
by the Father. And I love Him, manifest Myself to Him. I'll
show Myself to Him. I show Myself to the One that
I love. And the One that I love is the One that loves Me. And
the way you love Me best is to do what I've told you to do and
do what I've called you to do. But it's not in you to worry
about how you're going to do what I've called you to do because
I'm sending a helper, you see. And you can pray, and I will
send you what you need. I will give you what you need.
I will do what's required for you to hold fast. And the most
important thing you can hold fast with, beloved, listen to
this, is true, intimate affection for each other. You realize our
homes and our marriages and our parenting are temporary pictures
of an internal reality. But this congregation is the
closest to eternity. that we can grasp. Who we are
and what we are in our homes, we learn to love each other through
harsh times, and then we bring that same learning and discipline
into our assembly and we love each other in the body. And all
the time we're doing that, see, we as a culture think, well,
I can love somebody over here, but I gotta love Jesus more.
I gotta do this over here for all these people, but I gotta
love Jesus more, I gotta do this for Jesus. What does Jesus say
in Matthew's Gospel? When you do this to the least
of these, my brethren, you're doing it unto me. The way we
love the Lord the most is to love each other the greatest. But it's so hard. I can't love
that person. They can't love me. We don't
get along. We don't have the same interest.
We have the same spirit. My right hand is not at war with
my left. Shoulders, maybe. Hands, no. They're not at war
with each other. I don't start to write and my
left hand slaps the pen out of my hand. Because if we did, I'd
have a problem. I'd chop that thing off. And
if the nub came along there and started doing that, I'd just
keep going. Keep going. And we'd cut the extremities
off until they'd change my name to Bob. I'd just be this head
on a plate somewhere. Just being funny. I will manifest myself to my
people. Judas, not Iscariot. We don't think this is the half
brother of Jesus, but it doesn't matter. Said to him, how is it
that you will manifest yourself to us? How is it that we're going
to see you? How is it that we're going to know you? How is it
that we're going to be able to be with you in this way, but not
the rest of the world? What's going on here? And Jesus
says, if anyone loves me and he gives it a different tone,
What does he say here? He'll keep my word. So now we
start to get a picture. And I'm not playing games here,
y'all. And you may not recognize this, but what I'm saying right
now is the creme de la creme of antinomianism. It is the charge
where people will say, oh, that Tippins loves to preach anti-law,
anti-obedience. Have I done that today? No. So you know what you do to that?
And move on. Don't give it five seconds because
those people are infantile in their minds and blinded by the
spirit of this world. That's what they are. And that's
how much we should not show them our pearls, much less throw them
at their feet. No, no. We don't have to give an excuse
for people who have the same spirit that we have. Dialogue,
conversation, teaching, learning. Those are not a big deal. Accusations
against the brethren. What does Paul say? Who can bring
a charge against God's elect? Nobody. Let them bring it. But
you abide in the Word. Keep the Word. And see, chapter
15 explains all of this in great detail, doesn't it? John didn't
go, well it's all these notes I've had for the last 90 years,
put them all together and let's see how they come out. No, he
wrote this by the power of God the Spirit, purposefully articulated
in the right order that makes good sense. What is it to keep
the Word of Christ? To abide in Him by faith. That's what it means. And when we really love Him the
most, we're faithful in that living out our faith. Because
we love Him. Not because we're scared not
to. Teach your children the fear
of the Lord as it's given to us in Scripture. He is an all-consuming
fire. But we have not come to Sinai.
We have come to Mount Zion. To Christ. To a better covenant. to the blood of Christ that cries
out greater than the blood of Abel. Whoever does not love me, verse
24, or verse 23, Jesus answered, if anyone loves me, he will keep
my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and
make our home with him. So here's this intimacy. It's
just a recapitulation. Jesus is reiterating what he's
already said. There's a unity with with the Father, with me,
and now with the Spirit that I'm sending. I'm sending. He'll
glorify me. He'll teach you what you need.
Love each other. Hold fast in this way. Serve one another.
Humble yourself to one another. Remember Him getting naked and
washing their feet. That's the whole picture. This
is this conversation. I'm going away because it's what
I must do in order for you to be fully clean. My love for you will keep you. And he transitions to the Word.
Who does not love me does not keep my words. Keeping the words
of Christ are explained. I almost wish I would just go
into chapter 15. And you might think, well, you know, you were
a little harsh a minute ago about people who would accuse us of
certain things. Well, go to chapter 15, verse 18. They are the world
that cannot see Jesus. Why? Because he will not manifest
himself to them. Anytime someone is holding to
their own, remember all that stuff I did in the beginning?
Anyone who's holding to their own ideas, their own strength,
their own flesh, and the advice of others, but not Christ's Word,
not the Scripture, they're not going to love the gospel of free
and sovereign grace. They're going to hate it. They're
going to be an enemy of the cross of Christ by thinking that the
cross was just an opportunity and then we come alongside God
and walk with Him and then He's pleased. Friends, these are not
issues of ignorance. These are not liberal interpretations
of Scripture that have margin for us to get along and be in
unity. If we don't believe in the same Christ, we are not filled
with the same Spirit. There are only two Spirits. The
Spirit of truth and the Spirit of lies. No matter what Jesus
we say or how many times we use the word grace or how much we
really appreciate the God of sovereignty, We see the scripture as it's
given. And then Jesus teaches in verse
12, chapter 15. This is my commandment that you
love one another. Context rules. Keep the word
of Christ. Believe in him. Our home will
be together. And those people who don't love
me, they won't keep the words that I'm teaching you this very
day. They won't hold fast to what I've said. They will find
another way to righteousness and it will fail them. But you're not just believing
my words, you're believing the words of my Father. Continuing
in that theme, that He and the Father are indeed the same God. These things, verse 25, I have
spoken to you while I'm still with you. That means I'm saying
this now. while I'm sitting here in this
room. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will
send in my name. Remember what I said earlier
about the name of Christ, by the authority of Christ, by the
will of Christ, by the power of Christ. He will teach you
all things and bring to your remembrance all that I've said
to you. Now I want to stop there. I might not make it past this
today. I might have been a little too zealous in finishing this
out. There is a large argument today.
Why do I start almost every sermon with the authority of Scripture?
Because the Scripture itself pleads that. And if we are to
believe what we say that we believe in Scripture, then we have to
hold to Scripture. And that's okay that many people believe other
things, but they don't believe what we believe in that context.
People will argue, well, men wrote the Bible. Yeah, they did.
Just like a man is preaching it today. People will argue with
you that there is always some opportunity for there to be error
in the context of the Bible. And I don't disagree. I mean,
I've seen some grammatical errors through certain transcriptions.
I've seen this, that, and the other. I've seen all sorts of
different variants. So somebody made a mistake somewhere
in that copying, right? But yet there are no theological
errors. There are no errors of truth. God has preserved his word. And
people think, well, these these 12 men, how were they any different
than anybody else? Because there is a specific articulated
experience that they had with God, the Holy Spirit, that we
will never have ever. And that is, what are they to
do now that their Messiah, their Lord, their King, their Savior
has left the world? Where to now? How are we going
to make it? How are we going to love each
other? How are we going to continue the work in greater works than
these? How are we supposed to manage life without Jesus in
the flesh? And Jesus says, I will be with
you. You are not orphans and I will show you the way. Moreover,
the spirit that I give you will perfectly give you all knowledge
concerning me." Now you hear that? So next time
somebody comes to you and says, well, I don't believe the Bible
can be authoritative because men wrote it. Take them to this
text. Verse 26 of chapter 14. I will
send in my name, he, God, the Holy Spirit will teach you all
things. That's why Paul makes a difference
sometimes when he's speaking. Not I, but the Lord. This is
not a command of the Lord, but just something that I think you
should do. He makes a distinction when he writes of his own opinion
versus what the Lord has commanded him by the Spirit. We don't have
that type of relationship with the Spirit because we are not
writing the Word of God. So God gives the Spirit, and
not only will He teach them all things, He will bring to their
remembrance all that I have ever taught you. That's why the corroboration
of the Gospels and the letters are so amazing. Decades and decades
apart, yet they are cohesive. Well, the rooster crowed twice,
or the rooster crowed three times, the Bible's a lie. I mean, who
cares? What's the rooster crowing? How
many times? Well, well, well, well. I mean, how many of you
heard the train come by this morning? It met many Sunday mornings.
Some of you hear it, some of you don't. Does it matter? The point is, Peter, you're going
to deny me before the sun comes up. And that doesn't change. He does. He's going to teach you all things.
You're going to remember everything I've ever taught you. You're
going to write this down. You're going to send letters. You're going to
teach the churches. See, if I were Jesus, I'd told
him one more thing, and I said, I'm going to have one of the
Sanhedrin be like one of your primary guys. I'd have said that. You know, Judas is going to do
his deal. Peter, you're going to do your deal. Oh, and by the
way, there's a guy named Saul. He's, you know, oh yeah, you
remember Saul? He's going to be like your best guy, your best
friend. A brother in the fight. Brother
in arms. They were like, I know Jesus
has lost a man. This wine must be a little too old. But he didn't. But the Holy Spirit
gave them understanding. And I find it really encouraging
that though this is spoken to them and for them, or spoken
to them at that time, and it was written to the Christians
of this day, it is for us. Jesus is not saying He will give
us the Spirit to come to bring to memory all things, and that
we will have all truth and all understanding. See, the apostles
didn't have to sit down and debate doctrine. They just wrote it
out and there it was. And if John wrote something on
Patmos and Paul had written something in Rome and they put it together,
it matched. When James wrote his letter to
the Jews in the Dyspersia and it seems to start to contradict
what Paul said because of this verse right here, we know it
doesn't. We're not silly. Let's quit being foolish. What
is it that James is speaking of? Must be maturity. Must be
common sense. Must be because now we have a
clean environment to feast. Let's not bring the dirt in.
Treat people the way Christ has commanded you to treat them.
Love them. Show no favoritism. You want the answer to social
justice in our culture? Church discipline. People who claim to be in Christ
but who hate other people ought to be expelled publicly on the
sidewalk. That's why. You want to deal with greed?
Church discipline. You want to deal with all these?
People hate people. But Christians are called to
a higher way, a greater way. God is just in hating sin, and
God is righteous in hating sinners. But in God's wisdom, He doesn't
hate His people because He suffered Christ on their account. And verse 27 is the result of
this. Peace. Peace I leave with you. Now,
I would just... I know my heart. And I know that
when I'm distraught, Or when I feel, I told somebody this
morning that I don't recognize my stress until it's too late.
Because my stress is no longer in constant thoughts, I've got
that for now. My stress is just in the anxiety
of it all. And you don't know it does anything
until physiologically it begins to exhibit. And so I'd love to
have been there that day when I was worried about whether Jesus
was going to be there or not be there. And this helper, was
he really going to help me? Was I really going to be able
to sustain this ministry and this life and this calling by
myself? And then Jesus just turns around
and says, peace, I'm going to give you peace. And I guarantee you, peace in
that day meant a whole lot more than it does to us today. Because
I use the term sometimes when I'm sitting in the driveway as
I pull up at my house and I sit there in the truck for an extra
15 minutes. Just sit there. And just hear
nothing. That's peace. But that's not
the peace of Christ. Sometimes it's peace, not a beach.
I'm not a beach guy. I don't like to hear that noise
whatsoever. But, you know, I like being out in the wilderness.
I like hearing nothing except that which God has made. I think
it's peaceful. I don't find peace in crowds.
I don't find peace in sporting events or theme parks. But either
way, there's, yeah, we got some amens over here. I saw about
seven or eight people go, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hoorah. Preach it, brother. That's the world. And the world
will say, you got peace this way. What is peace? Is peace
getting along? No. Chapter 15 verse 18 shows you
that's not peace. We stand in Christ. The world
will hate us. God will not allow, Christ will
not permit the world to see him. Only his people. He will not
reveal himself. He will not show himself. Friends,
these are, these are not new doctrines. He's already said
that in John seven, John eight, John six, John three, Peace I leave with you, my peace
I give to you. Now, where does Christ's peace
come from? And this is the last thing I'll be able to say today
for time. Christ's peace comes from truth. Christ's peace comes
from the absolute reality that the father and all the work that
he has commanded the son to do is effectual unto peace. between the elect and God and
also in the heart of Christ. How does Christ go to the garden
of Gethsemane? Does He go there whistling, flipping
a coin, saying, come on guys, let's pray, it's about to get
this party started. The cross is going to be rough,
but I'll see you on the other side. Peace is not smooth operator.
Peace is not just having a swagger about yourself in the midst of
fear. Jesus' humanity feared death. But Jesus was given peace by
the Father through the Spirit to know that even in that fear,
the promises of God were yea and amen. As Jesus is saying He is going
to what? Die and to leave And these people
are so overwhelmed, they can't even minister to Him, but Christ,
in their weakness, ministers to them with His humility. This is the peace of Christ.
This is the foundation of the peace with Christ. Christ makes
peace with God for the elect. And everything that resolves
in Christ, to trust in the Father, Christ gives His people. And when we sit down and we start
digging through those, for those of you who didn't get here early,
go back and listen to the beginning of the sermon. I talk about all
these different ways in which we try to pull advice and wisdom.
When we're sitting around pulling advice and wisdom from all sorts
of places, it is only by the Spirit of God that is found in
the peace of Christ that we resolve to trust in Him and we go back
to the Word. See how simple it is? Why don't you just say that
in the beginning? You could save 40 minutes. and this peace is not as the
world gives you, then the command, same verse,
let not your hearts be troubled. It's the second time he said
it in this conversation. Verse one and now the third, the latter
part of verse 27. Let not your hearts be troubled
and do not let them be afraid. I know what you're looking at.
I know what you're seeing. I know what you're experiencing.
I know what you're fearful of. But know Me. Look at Me. Rest in Me. I created this world
with My mouth and I will take it away again. I lay My life
down and I will raise Myself up. And I have peace that you
can't comprehend in your flesh. You must rest in Me. You must
abide in My Word. You must obey My command to believe
in Me. Now it makes sense, doesn't it? And in verse 28, I find this
extremely interesting, because it actually lets me off the hook
of grasping the gospel the way Jesus teaches it. That I'm not
some weirdo making stuff up, because I want it to be so. You heard me say to you, I'm
going away and I will come to you. Another conditional statement. If you loved me, you would have
rejoiced. Because I'm going to the Father,
for the Father is greater than I. Jesus is saying, listen, if
you love Me for who I really am, you would not be worried
right now. You would not be scared. You
would not be fearful. But I love you anyway. And I redeemed you
anyway. And I died for you anyway. And
there's no amount of your love being good or bad or strong or
weak that's going to change what I did for you. You will not be
condemned for My body is broken for you. My blood is shed for
you. And you would have rejoiced when
I said I had to leave and go to the Father because you would have seen.
How are we supposed to see? How are you going to manifest
yourself to us? How are we going to see you and the world's not
going to see you? See, they were thinking so literal, so physical,
just like every other dialogue in the entire Gospel of John.
So physical. Where's your bucket? You don't
have a bucket. Where's the food that you said? Somebody gave
him a sandwich. What do you mean? Go back into
my mother's womb and ta-da! Reborn! What's going on here? How can we see and they not see?
It's a perfect illustration of down the road to Damascus, isn't
it? It's in a literal sense. It's thundering. Paul is talking
to Jesus, or vice versa. you to rejoice, but you didn't
rejoice because you don't know you don't get it. That's OK.
I'm going to send the spirit who help you see it and not only
help you see it will cause you to see it and then you will never
unsee it. And it'll be the catalyst. It'll
be the foundation. It'll be the rock. It'll be the
anchor for your soul when everything that you think. you have is taken
away from you. When every piece of your life
is turned upside down, when you, see, Jesus could have done this.
When you are crucified, when you are beheaded, when you are
arrested and die in prison, when you're crucified upside down,
denier, you will rejoice. Because nobody
can unsee what I showed them. Nobody can unsee it. And then
He says, I've told you all this before it takes place, so that
when it does take place, you may believe the Holy Spirit will
say, aha, look. And you go, that's what He meant.
That's what He teaches. Now it's written down for us.
And by the same Spirit through exposition, we grasp it. We grasp it. By the same Spirit
through His Word, we walk in it. By the same Spirit, As we
are taught and learn and teach each other, we are at peace. I will no longer talk much with
you for the rule of this world is coming. He has no claim on
me. We understand that. But I do as the father's command
to me so that the world may know that I love the father. Get up
and let's go. We gotta go, we got things to
do. I gotta dial the cross and go to the Father. Let's pray. We thank you, Father,
for this great truth, for this wonderful opportunity
to just see the gospel in a way that we just have never seen
it. And Father, in a way that we're
not worthy of seeing, but Lord, you give it to us and you show
it to us and you do so with great love and care. And I thank you, Father, that
all sin for your people is vanished and vanquished at the cross of
Christ, that there is no condemnation. And Lord, we are so glad that
even when our love for you wanes, your love for us never fails. So because of your love, help
us to love you by loving each other, by forgiving one another,
by caring for each other, by teaching one another, by holding
each other's burdens. And I thank you for the power
of that in our fellowship. While none of us is sinless,
we are all forgiven because of Christ. And we thank you for this opportunity
to worship in these truths in Jesus name. Amen.