Let's open our Bibles again to
John chapter 14. The title of the message is, Have
You Seen the Lord? Now, at the end of verse 21,
the Lord says, I will love him and will manifest myself to him. Our Lord tells us he's going
to manifest himself. He's going to reveal himself
to somebody. Now we know, if you look back
and hold your finger there, look back at John chapter 2, we know
the Lord's not going to make himself manifest to everyone.
Everyone doesn't see the Lord. In John 2 verse 23, now when he was in Jerusalem
at the Passover and the feast day, many believed in his name
when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit
himself unto them. He didn't make himself manifest
unto them. He didn't commit himself unto
them, because he knew all, and needed not that any should testify
of man, for he knew what was in man. They couldn't see the
Lord, because the Lord didn't commit himself to them. He didn't
make himself manifest to them. But some see the Lord. Somebody
sees the Lord. The Lord told his disciples,
Blessed are your eyes, for you see. God gave them eyes to see
Christ. And those are the same eyes God
gives all of His elect. God's elect, all of them, they
see Christ. So my question is, have you seen
the Lord? Have I seen the Lord? There's
nothing that I want for us all more than for us to see the Lord
Jesus Christ. And you can tell whether or not
you've seen the Lord. Our Lord gives us here some marks
of people who have seen the Lord with the eye of faith. And the
first one is obedience. In verse 21, our Lord says, ìHe
that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth
me.î Now, the obedience our Lord is talking about here is not
our personal obedience to the law. He's talking about obeying
His Word, obeying the commandment of His Word and the commandment
of His Gospel to believe Christ, to trust Christ, to come to Him.
He's talking about His commandment to follow the Lord and believe
His baptism, to publicly confess Christ. He's talking about His
commandment to meet together and worship Him, to pray, to
follow the Lord in our daily lives. See, He's not talking
about our obedience to the law, the Ten Commandments and those
kinds of things. When we say, you know, a believer is not required
to keep the law, we're not under the law, don't misunderstand
me. A believer doesn't have any desire
to break the law. Not at all. No one who's seen
the Lord wants to have any other God other than the true and living
God. No one who's seen the Lord wants
an idol. We want the Lord. We want to know Him. We want
to worship Him. Anyone who's seen the Lord, of course they
don't want to take the Lord's name in vain. If you've seen
the Lord, His name is precious to you. You don't want to take
His name in vain. If you've seen the Lord, of course you want
to honor your parents. You want to be honest people. You don't want to murder people
most of the time. If you've seen the Lord, of course
you want to be content with what the Lord's given you. You don't
want to cover up what belongs to somebody else. You want to
be content with what the Lord's given you if you've seen Him.
But you know what? The legalist wants all those
same things, too. The legalist doesn't want to worship an idol.
He does, but he doesn't want to worship an idol. He didn't
want to take the Lord's name in vain. He wants to be an honest
person and not be covetous and those things. But the obedience
of a believer is looking to Christ, not the law. The obedience of
a believer is obeying Christ, not the law. See, that's the
difference. The difference between a Pharisee
and a believer is why you want to keep the law, why you care
about your conduct. The Pharisee cares about his
conduct because he wants to earn something from the Lord. A believer
cares about his conduct because he loves the Lord and wants to
obey his master. So the first mark, if someone
has seen the Lord, is obedience. A believer loves Christ. more than our own obedience to
the law, more than our own recognition that we can get from keeping
the law. And that brings us to the second mark of someone who's
seen the Lord. If you've seen the Lord, you
love the Lord. Our Lord said, He that hath my
commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. Now,
remember, this is an evidence of seeing the Lord. It's not
a condition of seeing the Lord, it's an evidence. You don't obey
the Lord so that you can see the Lord. You're an obedient
child because you have seen the Lord. You don't love the Lord
so that he'll let you see him. We love the Lord because we have
seen him by his grace. We love him because he first
loved us and he first made himself manifest to us. Then we love
him. Once you see Christ, you'll love him. You will. Faith is
the root. But obedience and love are the
beautiful flower that grows from that root. It all starts with
faith, seeing the Lord. And if you love the Lord, you'll
follow Him. If you love the Lord, you'll
confess Him. You'll confess Him publicly. You'll confess Him
by your daily walk. You'll confess Him if you love
Him. If you love the Lord, you'll worship Him. If you love the
Lord, you'll read His Word. You want to read what He has
to say. If you love the Lord, you'll be a help and a blessing
to other people. And you'll do it out of a heart
of love, out of a thankful heart of love. And the third mark of
someone who's seen the Lord is a growth in love. Verse 21, He
that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth
me. And he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father. And I
will love him and will manifest myself to him. Now, if the Lord
has revealed himself to you, you're joined to Christ. And
that union is a living union. Now, anything that lives grows. Anything that has life grows.
If you have life, your love for Christ will grow. The more you
learn of the Lord, the more you're loving. And we've got plenty
to learn, don't we? We just know in part. We've got
plenty to learn, so there's plenty of room for our love to grow. Now, those are marks of someone
that's seen the Lord. Now, we talk about obedience.
I'm going to ask you a question. Is obedience important for a
child of God? Is it? Well, of course it is. Obedience is the evidence of
love. In verse 23, our Lord says, if
a man loved me, he will keep my words. The evidence that a
man loves him is he keeps his word. In verse 24, he that loveth
me not keepeth not my sayings. The evidence of no love, the
hatred, is you don't keep his sayings. Obedience is the evidence
of love. Now, I want to give this illustration
and it'll hopefully help our young people and maybe you older
folks too. Now, a parent who's got any sense
whatsoever will make sure his children obey him. If you've
got any sense, you're going to make your children obey you because
it's best for that child. Scripture says, children, obey
your parents and the Lord. This is right. This is the first
commandment with promise. Children, obey your parents and
the Lord. God said that it's not just Frank saying this. God
says this. You obey your parents, you have
a better life. It's going to be better for you if you obey
your parents. And you know why that is? They
know more than you. I'm going to talk here a minute
about you can tell when you've matured, you know, when you children,
especially you teenagers, know when you've matured, when you
finally realize your dad knows more than you. That's when you've
matured. They know better than you. Listen to them. Obey them.
They'll be better for you. So when a child's young, he's
got to obey his parents or he can be punished. You kids, don't
be mad when your parents discipline you. When they correct you, don't
be mad at them. They're doing that because they love you. They're
doing that so they teach you what to do and how to do it. You'll be happier and better
off if you obey your parents. Your home will be better off
and happier if you would obey your parents, I promise you.
So when we're young, we have to obey or we'll be punished.
Want me to tell you when you've learned something? I can tell
you when a child's matured and grown up. When you start obeying
because you love your parents. Not because you have to, not
because you're afraid they'll discipline you, because you love
them. When suddenly you get up from the dinner table and start
doing the dishes before your mom tells you to do it, now you've
learned something. Now you've matured. When you've
cleaned your room, you might vacuum the living room, vacuum
something besides your room. You know what that tells me?
You've matured. You love your mother. She works
hard for you. She works hard to put good food
on the table and keep you clothed and bathed and keep you out of
trouble. And you love her. You appreciate
her. You want to do something to show her you love her. When
you get up in the morning, go out and cut the grass where your
dad tells you to, you love your father. You care, you love him.
You appreciate him. He works hard for you and you
want the grass to look nice. You want the yard to look nice
when he comes home. Because you love him. When you
start doing that, you've matured. You've learned something. You
see, that's maturity. You understand that? The same
thing holds true for a child of God. Love and obedience will
grow as we mature in grace. Even in our Lord's case, the
evidence that he loved his father was he was obedient. He was obedient
unto death. He says in verse 31, but that
the world may know I love the father as the father gave me
commandment. That's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to go to the cross that the world may know I love
my father. Even evidence of our Lord's love
was his obedience to his father. Now, verse 22. Judas saith unto
him, not Ascariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest
thyself unto us, and not unto the world?" Now this is Jude
that asks this question. Jude the apostle that wrote the
book of Jude. He said, Lord, how are you going
to show yourself to some and not to others? When you make
yourself manifest, why won't everybody see you? And even though
we know the answer to this question, we ask it, don't we? How come
everybody doesn't see what we see? How come everybody doesn't
love the Lord like we love him? Now, we know the answer to that
is because the Lord revealed himself to you and he left the
world in blindness. That's how. The Lord reveals
himself to his people. And those who are not his people,
he leaves them in their blindness. So Jude asked the Lord, how are
you going to make yourself manifest to your people? And the Lord
answers the question. The rest of this chapter, he
gives us nine ways he manifests himself to his people. That sounds
like a lot. I promise I'll be brief. Each
point will be brief, but he gives us nine ways he manifests himself
to his people. First one is by loving him. Verse
23, Jesus answered and said unto him, if a man loves me, he'll
keep my words and my father will love him and we will come unto
him. Now we see the Lord because he
loves us. He loves us from all of eternity
with an everlasting love and He comes to us. He reveals Himself
to us because He loves us. The Father loves His people and
He elected a people unto salvation. He loved those people. He set
His affection upon them and He put them in His Son to be their
Savior. The Son loves His people and
He shows His love for His people by becoming a man, by taking
on Him flesh. in fulfilling the law for us
as a man, in suffering and dying for us in our place as our substitute. The Holy Spirit shows His love
for God's people by applying the blood of Christ to our hearts,
by giving us life and showing us Christ. The Spirit makes Christ
manifest. And when the Spirit comes, now
we see. Now we see the Father's electing
love. Now we see the Son's redemptive
love. Now we see the love of the Holy
Spirit in coming to a sinner like me, implying the blood of
Christ in my heart. It's the love of God that moves
God to come to his people. And when God comes to you, you
will see him. And in response, we love him
and we show our love to him by our obedience to his word. Now,
the Lord says, if a man loves me, he'll keep my words. That
word keep, it means to observe. and to attend carefully. If you've
seen the Lord, you're careful with His Word. To keep God's
Word is to believe Christ, to believe His Word, and I mean
all of it, even the parts you don't understand. Just believe
it, because this is God's Word. God said it, so it has to be
so. If you've seen the Lord, you're
going to believe His Word. Christ came to save sinners.
I am a sinner. I read that in God's word. Well,
if I keep God's word, then I'm going to rest in Christ. And
I'm not going to try to make myself more savable or I'm not
going to try to make myself closer to God by keeping some of the
law. No, if I keep God's word, I commit everything to Christ. Salvation is all in him or I
have no salvation. That's keeping God's word. Look
back at John chapter four. Here's a good illustration. of
exactly what I'm talking about, keeping the word. In John 4,
verse 49, this is when this nobleman had come and asked the Lord to
come heal his son who was sick. In verse 49, the nobleman saith
unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus saith unto
him, Go thy way, thy son liveth. And the man believed the word
that Jesus had spoken unto him. And he went his way. He was obedient. See, the Lord says, go thy way.
And he went his way. And he believed the Word. Now, I mean, we know he believed
the Word because God's Word says he believed it. But I can tell
you another way. We know this man believed the Word that the
Lord spoke to him. You know how I know that? He
didn't go straight home and check it out. He didn't go straight
home and check to see, did he really heal my son or not? No.
He was obedient. He went his way. There are things
to do in town. He went and did those things. He got him a room
in the inn, and the next day he went home. He didn't have
to go home and check. He knew his son was healed. Look at verse
51. And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told
him, saying, Thy son liveth. Then inquired he of them the
hour when he began to amend, and they said unto him, Yesterday. See, the guy spent the day in
town. Yesterday, the seventh hour, the people left him. So
the father knew that it was the same hour in which Jesus had
said unto him, Thy son liveth. And himself believed in his whole
house. Now he already believed, but
he believed more fully. And he's told his house, let
me tell you about the Lord. And they believed, because they
believed his word. Now he believed, but as he grew
to know more of the Lord, his faith and his love for the Lord
grew. Now the word keep also means to guard. Guard. How do we guard God's Word? Well, God's Word needs no defending
anymore. You have to defend the lion. You don't have to just
let him loose. You don't have to defend it. But to guard, it
means to guard, to keep God's Word in our heart. To protect
it carefully so we don't lose it. Don't let it slip now. To
keep the words of Christ is to keep, is to carefully keep, to
guard the truth of Christ. Because I love Him. I want the
truth of Him. And I will, if I've seen the
Lord, I will guard the truth of Christ. Because my Savior
can only be glorified in the truth of His Word. And God's
sheep can only be fed in the truth of His Word. And I'm going
to guard it carefully. So that a partial gospel, a partial
truth is not preached. Because a partial gospel is heresy. A partial truth is a lie. And
I'll give you a good example of that. King Solomon. You remember
the day there he sat on his throne and two hearts came to him. Each
of them brought a baby. One baby was living, one baby
was dead. One of those mothers had rolled
over on top of her baby, smothered it in the night. And both of
them were saying, the live baby's mine. Which one's the mother? Who's the mother of that living
child? Solomon said, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. Bring
me a sword. They brought him a sword. He said, I'm going to
cut that child in half and give each of you half. Now who's the
mother? The mother of that child loved
that baby. She loved that baby at all costs.
She said, don't cut him in half. Give him whole to the other woman.
I'd rather see him live with her than have him for myself.
I love him. Don't cut him in half. The one
who's not the mother, she said, that's a good idea. Cut him in
half. Because she didn't care a thing about him. If you love the Lord, you're
not going to see the gospel cut in half. You're not going to
see a half gospel preached. I won't preach it. I won't support
it. I won't listen to it for a minute because I love the Lord. Love was revealed in how that
mother guarded, kept her child. Our love for Christ is revealed
in how we guard the gospel. And the person who truly sees
Christ is going to have the whole gospel, the whole counsel of
God because we love Christ. The man who truly sees Christ,
he's going to preach the whole counsel of God. He's not going
to give you half of it. He's not going to hold any of
it back because he's afraid of the consequences. He's going
to preach Christ because he's seen him and he loves the Lord
because the Lord first loved him and he'll guard the word
that God's given to his trust. Secondly, how does Christ manifest
himself to his people? By dwelling in them. If a man
loved me, he'll keep my words and my father will love him and
we'll come unto him and make our abode with him. Christ reveals
himself to his people by dwelling in you. Now, if Christ dwells
in your heart, you can't help but know him. He's in you. Of
course you know him. You can't miss him, can you?
If you're joined to Christ so that he's in you and you're in
him, And you draw your life from Him. If Christ is your life,
you see Him. If you're joined to Christ, you
see Him. You understand. He's your wisdom. He's your righteousness. He's
your sanctification. He's your redemption. He's everything
you need. You see that. You understand
that. If you join to Christ, you see Him. You know that He
is your life and that union to you. You can't explain it. How
can you explain a union with Christ? You can't. But it's more
real to you than the union of your right arm to your shoulder.
Christ dwells in you. That's how he reveals himself
to his people. Third, Christ reveals himself to his people
by giving them his word. Verse 24, and he that loveth
me not keepeth not my sayings. And the word which you hear is
not mine, but the Father's which sent me. This is the eternal
Word of God. And God's people have the Word
of God, the commandments of Christ, in our heart. Because Christ
is in our heart. We're not talking here about
words on paper. We're not talking about commandments
carved in stone. We're talking about God's Word
written on the heart. Now why is God's Word written
on our heart? So you love it. What's in your heart you love.
God's Word is in your heart. written on your heart, you love
God's Word. And when we see the Lord, we
see the Bible is the Word of God. Brother Marvin Stoniker
and I were talking yesterday about he's preaching through
the Book of Proverbs on Sunday morning. And he said, you know,
there are parts of that that's hard. It's hard to preach from
parts of that. He said, not all of it makes
perfect sense if all you're looking for is advice. You're just looking
for some good advice. Proverbs, that's easy to talk
about. He said, but now if you're digging
for the for the message, if you're digging for the truth, you have
to do some digging parts of that because it's not easy to see. If we see the Lord, we know the
Bible is the word of God. It's written to reveal Christ.
It's not laws for us to keep. It's not good advice on how to
live in this world. It's Christ. The word's holy
like God is. The word's perfect like God is. You can't separate Christ the
incarnate word from Christ the written word. This is where he's
revealed, by faith, in his word. It's the word of God. If you've
seen the Lord, you believe God's word. You believe it's so, you
believe it's God's word, and you love it. You love it so much
you wouldn't change it if you could. because it's all Christ. Fourthly, Christ reveals himself
to his people by giving them the comforter to teach them his
word. Look at verse 25. These things
have I spoken unto you. This is the word of God. I have
spoken unto you, being present with you. But the comforter,
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name,
he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your
remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. Now the Spirit
makes God's Word plain. The Spirit gives us an understanding
of God's Word. We can't read God's Word and
understand it. We can't understand the message
of it. We can't see Christ in it until the Spirit shows us. We can't understand God's Word
without the Spirit any more than we can see Christ unless He manifests
Himself to us. So it's God the Holy Spirit that
enables us to believe the Word and to understand, to see Christ
in the Word. And if you've seen the Lord,
the Holy Spirit has taught you everything you need to know. Everything about salvation. The
Spirit's taught you that from the Word. You may not even know
you know it. But when you read it, and when
it's preached to you, you say, that's it? How do you know that? The Spirit
showed me Christ. He revealed Christ to me in the
Word. And this is why it's so important We constantly hear
the Word preached. We hear the message. And we think,
boy, that's a good message. We go home. Maybe we stop to
eat. Maybe we go home and get home,
oh, it smells good in the kitchen. Wife's got something in the crock
pot. It smells so good. You sit down and eat. Sit down
and prop your feet up and say, what was his text this morning?
What was he said about that? I hate myself. I can't remember.
Why do I forget? What was the use of going to
services when I already forgot what I heard preached? Now, don't
think that now. Because how many times when you
need it, the Word comes to your mind. Well, did you take some
supplement that day that made your mind work better and you
remember? No. The Spirit brought the Word to
your remembrance. Isn't that what our Lord said?
The Spirit will bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever
I've said unto you. The Spirit brings the Word to
your mind. It's a Word in season. A Word
that comforts and calms the heart. A Word that instructs you and
strengthens you. It's the Spirit that brings the
Word to our memory. But now we've got to hear it
first. Faithfully attend the preaching of God's Word and the
Spirit will teach us and bring those things to our memory. Fifth,
Christ reveals Himself to His people by giving them His peace. Verse 27, Peace I leave with
you, my peace I give unto you, and as the world giveth, give
I unto you. So let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be
afraid. Our Lord has told them, I'm leaving you, but don't be
overcome with sorrow. Don't worry about it. I'm leaving
you, but don't worry. Can you imagine how worried they were?
Can you imagine how sorrowful they were? The Lord's leaving. They had to love being with the
Lord for those three years. My soul, how they had to love
that. And now He's leaving them. They're filled with sorrow. But
He says, don't be filled with sorrow. Don't worry. I'm leaving
peace with you. And not just any peace. I'm leaving
My peace with you. So don't be afraid. Don't be
troubled. And the peace, my peace, our Lord says, is very different
than the peace that the world gives you. If the world's going
to give you peace, what does it tell you? I'm going to give
you money. I'm going to give you health.
I'm going to give you popularity. I'm going to give you fame. That'll
bring peace. You know, if you've got plain
money in the bank, you've got a good stock portfolio, you're very popular. People, they'll give you things
and take care of you. You've got your health, you've
got everything. Have peace. All of that can be lost in a
moment. In a moment. You can sneeze and
throw your back out and lose your health. The stock market
just fluctuates just wildly. You can be rich today and be
bankrupt tomorrow. You can have all this popularity
and somebody puts out a piece of bad press on you, you don't
have a friend in the world, nobody will answer the phone. The world's
peace can be lost in a moment. The peace the world gives is
a peace of ignorance. That's exactly what it is. Ignorance
is bliss until judgment comes. Ignorance is bliss until the
truth is revealed. The world cries peace, peace,
when there is no peace. And people perish because of
it. But that's not the peace that our Lord gives to his people.
He says, I'm going to give you my peace. My peace. This is the personal peace that
the Lord Jesus had as a man. Now, what was His peace? Well,
first of all, He had the peace of perfect obedience. Your conscience
only bothers you when you do something wrong. Don't do anything
wrong, your conscience won't bother you at peace. We don't
know what that feels like, but our Lord did. He never did anything
wrong. He never sinned, so He was always
at peace because He didn't have anything to feel guilty about.
He was perfect. And he gives that peace to his people by imputing
his obedience to us. His obedience is our obedience.
So I've got nothing to feel guilty about. Look at Romans 5. And
if I've got nothing to feel guilty about, I've got perfect peace. It's peace because Christ gave
me his obedience. Romans 5.1. Therefore being justified
by faith. Now remember, justified is not
just as if I've never sinned, because if we say just as if
I've never sinned, really I sinned. So really, I've got something
to feel guilty about. Justified is made without sin,
so that you have never sinned. If you're justified, you have
no reason to feel guilty, right? Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
because His obedience has become ours. He gave us, he gives his
people the peace of perfect obedience. Second, our Lord had the peace
of being debt-free. Now, we have no debts. The car's
paid off, the mortgage is paid off, we had the ceremony, we've
earned our mortgage. There's a certain peace in that, isn't
there? You don't have any debts. And it feels pretty good. Our
Lord had the true peace of being debt-free. Our Lord didn't owe
a debt to justice because He never sinned. He didn't have
a sin debt. We do. We have a sin debt we
cannot pay. But Christ can. And He did pay
that sin debt for His people. With His own blood. And He made
peace for us through the blood of His cross. How did He make
peace for us? Because through the blood of His cross, He put
the sin of His people away. The debt's paid. We have the
perfect peace of being debt-free, sin-debt-free. Thirdly, our Lord
had the peace of always being in control. You know, storms
and floods and tornadoes and hurricanes, these things worry
us. Never worried the Lord. He's in the midst of that terrible
storm, but those experienced sailors thought, we're doomed.
The storm's going to kill us. We're going to sink this ship.
Where is the Lord? He's asleep down there in the
corner. Why aren't you worried? He's in control. And he showed
he was in control by saying, peace, be still. Suddenly the
wind's gone, the sea's glass. He's in control. Those mobs that
were going to come take him before his hour was come, we'd have
been worried. His mob's out of control. Most
mobs, our Lord just passed through the midst of them. He's in control.
And the mob that did come to take him, the mob that he did
let take him, before they took him, he let them know who's in
charge here. I am. And they all fell backwards. He's in control. That's the peace
he gives to his people. We don't get bent out of shape
about the events of this world. I've got a sick habit of watching
NBC News every night. I like the star of the show,
you know, the music. Brian Williams comes on. I like
this voice. I like to listen. And every once in a while I think,
oh my, I have to remind myself. God's in control. God's in control. This thing's right on schedule
in the Bible. And I don't need to worry. The peace of being
in perfect control. Our God reigneth. Let the earth
rejoice. And fourthly, our Lord had the
peace of a good relationship with God. If you have a good
relationship with God, all's well. All's well. You can be
on your deathbed. All's well. I'm going to go see
my Heavenly Father. But our problem is, by nature,
we don't know what that feels like. But our Lord did. We're at war with God. Christ
wasn't. He always did what pleased the Father. He was always the
perfectly obedient son. The will of the son and the will
of the father were always in perfect agreement. The father
always smiled on him. The father was always well pleased
with his son. And we have that same peace by
being in Christ. The father is pleased with his
people in Christ. My peace I give to you. Now you
see how foolish it is for this notion, well, I made my peace
with God. You can't do it. We cannot make our peace with
God. But Christ did. And He gives
that peace. He doesn't say, I'll let you
make your peace. He said, no, my peace I give unto you. Peace
is something that Christ gives to His people when He makes Himself
manifest to them. If you see Christ, you are at
peace. Just that perfect peace. Eternal
peace that could never be lost. Once you see Christ, you have
peace. Because now you understand who
He is. And you understand what He accomplished in His death.
It's the peace that that Jewish father had in the last night
there in Egypt. The night of the Passover. That
father had peace in his heart. The firstborn was dying everywhere
in that whole land. The firstborn of the cattle was
dying in that land. That father had peace. He was
going to leave the next morning with his firstborn. How could
he have such peace? The lamb died. The lamb already
died. My son's going to live. That's
the peace you have when you see Christ. I have life because the
lamb died. You see, he's a freshly slaughtered
lamb. A lamb as it had been slain.
I'm going to live. His sacrifice is sufficient for
me. Peace. Sixth, Christ reveals himself
to his people by giving them a reason to rejoice. Verse 28,
You have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again
unto you. Now if you loved me, you would
rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father, for my Father
is greater than I. Christ reveals himself to his
people by giving them a reason to rejoice. Now, a believer knows
why he rejoices. This is not just crazy jumping
around, shouting, slobbering at the mouth and all this crazy
stuff. A believer gives you rock-solid
reasons why you rejoice. It's not because somebody gets
you whipped up, you get your emotions whipped up. You have
a rock-solid reason to rejoice. You rejoice because God loves
you. Now, just think of that the rest
of the day. God loves you. What reason for
rejoicing? Christ died for you. How we rejoice
in Christ died for you. Your sins put away. Rejoice! The Holy Spirit's given you eternal
life. The Spirit Himself dwells in
you, showing you the things of Christ. Rejoice! Don't be filled
with sorrow because Christ went away. Rejoice that He went away. That's how He gave you life.
That's how He gave you peace by going away for you. And if
you loved Christ like you ought to love Him, you wouldn't be
sorry for Him when He went back to His Father. You'd rejoice. That's a far better place than
being here on earth, isn't it? You'd be happy for Him if you
really understood what it meant. He went to be with His Father.
Far better place than here. And when our loved ones who know
the Lord die, we're filled with sorrow. Because we're going to
miss Him. Because we suffered loss. They
didn't. They had all gain. And if we
really understood that, we wouldn't be sorry at all, but rejoice.
Our Lord said, I'm going to my Father who's greater than I.
Now, the Father is not greater than the Son in nature, is He?
They're equal. Father and Son are equal. Our
Lord thought not robbery to be equal with God. So why does he
say, my father's greater than I? In character and in office,
the father's greater than the son. When our Lord's speaking,
he's a man on earth in the character of a servant. In that way, the
father's greater than the son. But now our Lord says, I'm going
to go back to the father. Equal with the father. And that
would make us happy if we really loved the Lord and really understood
what it means that the Lord Jesus Christ is exalted. If our Savior
is exalted to the right hand of the Father, you know what
that means? That means He finished the work the Father gave Him
to do. Rejoice! Brethren, rejoice! The work of
salvation is finished. Rejoice! If our Savior is exalted, you
know what that means? That means all the sin that was
laid on Him is gone under His sacrifice. Rejoice! Your sin is gone under the blood.
If our Savior is exalted to the right hand of the Father, that
means the Father accepted His sacrifice. The Father said His
sacrifice is enough that we can rejoice because we're accepted
in Him, in His sacrifice. There's no more sacrifice for
sin. If our Savior is exalted to the right hand of the Father,
that means that our Savior is seated on the throne at the Father's
right hand. What's He doing there? Making
intercession for His people. Rejoice. Our advocate is heard. He's at the right hand of the
Father. Look in John, or if you're still there in John 14, look
back at verse 3. If our Savior is exalted, it
means He's coming again. John 14, verse 3, and if I go
and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive
you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Brethren,
rejoice. All rejoice, He's coming again,
that we'll be with Him eternally. You see how all of our rejoicing,
it's in Christ, isn't it? None of these things mention
physical things, reasons to rejoice. Our rejoicing is in Christ. Our
rejoicing is not even in any of the spiritual blessings that
we have. Our rejoicing is in the blesser, not the blessing.
We rejoice in Christ Jesus, in the blessed person who gave himself
for us and is coming again for us. Seventh, Christ reveals himself
to his people by giving them faith. Verse 29, And now I have
told you before it come to that when it is come to pass, you
might believe. He's given his people faith to
believe what he's told us in his word. He told us so we believe. All the word of God is given
to us so that we see Christ and God gives faith to his people. When Christ is made manifest,
when we see the Lord, we believe him and we rest in him because
God gave you faith to believe. The only way you can believe
him is by faith. The only way you can see him
is by faith. So he gives us faith to see. Eighth, our Lord reveals himself
to his people by giving them the victory over sin, death,
hell, and even Satan who accuses us. Verse 30, Hereafter I'll
not talk much with you, for the prince of this world cometh and
hath nothing in me. Now Satan's coming. Here our
Lord, they're getting ready to leave. He's getting ready to
go to Calvary. Satan's coming. and a major battle
is getting ready to be fought. And our Lord says, there's not
going to be much more time for instruction before this battle
is fought. This is an important battle.
Our Lord is going to ready Himself for this battle, the battle of
battles that will determine our eternal life or eternal death. And Christ is going to win this
battle because He says, Satan has nothing in me. Satan has
nothing in common with me. Satan finds plenty in common
with you and me, doesn't he? Satan finds plenty to work with
in you and me, but not the Savior. He couldn't find anything in
common with the Savior. There's nothing he could work
with in the Savior. He's got plenty to work with
in us, but not the Savior. Satan's getting ready to go to
battle with the Savior. He doesn't go to battle with
you and me. All it takes for him to get us is a whisper, and
we fall. Because he's got so much to work
with in us, but not the Savior. One of the writers used this
analogy, I think it's outstanding. If you throw a match, a lit match,
into a barrel of gunpowder, you're going to have an explosion. Because
that flame has got plenty to work with in that gunpowder.
But throw the same lit match into a barrel of water. The flame
goes out. Because the flame's got nothing
to work with in that water. That's our Lord. Satan came with
all the fury of hell. And the flame went out. Because
it had nothing to work with in our Savior. That's how He won
the victory. And that victory is our victory. That's our salvation. There is
no guilt in the Savior for Satan to expose. He couldn't manipulate
Him. He didn't have any power over
Him. Because there's no guilt in the Savior. Our Lord had done no
evil. So the accuser of the brethren
couldn't accuse Him of anything. He'd done no evil. He couldn't
bring a railing accusation against Him. He could against us, but
not against the Lord. There is no corruption in our
Savior. So Satan had nothing to work with and manipulate mold
because there's no corruption in him. And he won the victory. And when our Lord cried, it is
finished, brethren, it's finished. There's nothing left to do. The
victory was won and it's ours in him. And last, Christ reveals
himself to his people by giving them love and obedience through
union with him. Verse 31. but that the world
may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment,
even so I do. Arise, let us go hence." Now,
we looked at this earlier. We need love for Christ and obedience
for Christ in order to be saved. When we see the Lord, we see
His love and we see His obedience, and His love becomes ours. His
obedience becomes ours. Our Savior was always perfectly
obedient to His Father, even to the end. He was obedient even
under the cursed death of the cross. And we have that love
and that obedience that we need in Christ. His love is our love. His obedience is our obedience.
And I know that's so because He says, let us go hence. Well,
now I thought He went alone. Well, He did. He went alone as
no man has ever been alone. But yet every believer went in
Him. Arise, let us go in. It's just
the way He told John the Baptist. It becometh us to fulfill all
righteousness. John, what righteousness are
you fulfilling? None. He's fulfilling it all. And I'm
in Him. The only way you can know the
Lord and to love Him is if He reveals Himself to you. Gives
you His love and His obedience and you go in Him. What He did? We did. Have you seen the Lord? I hope you have. Rejoice if you
have. If you've seen the Lord. It's
by His grace He made Himself manifest, wasn't it? If you've
not seen Him, you know it. Call on Him. Call on His name. And ask Him to reveal Himself
to you. That's the only way you'll ever
see Him. It's if He reveals Himself to you. than ask Him. Maybe He'd be merciful. Maybe
He would. I know this. God's still in the
business of saving sinners. Then I'd ask Him to save me.
I really would. All right, let's bow in prayer.
Our Father, how we thank You for Your Word. How thankful we
are that it has pleased You to reveal Yourself to Your people.
You can reveal Yourself to somebody. Lord, would You be pleased to
reveal Yourself to Your people here this morning. Reveal Yourself
to us that we find salvation in You. Reveal Yourself to us
that we have righteousness and acceptance and sacrifice for
sin, everything we need in You. Reveal Yourself to us that our
hearts won't be troubled and won't be filled with worry. Enable
us, we beg of Thee, to see the Lord. If we see Him, We have
all things. We have need of nothing if we
see you. In your mercy and your grace,
would you reveal yourself to us, we pray. For your namesake,
we pray. In the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ.