Turn back to John 14. John chapter 14. Our Lord is still comforting His disciples. He has told them that He's going
to go away. One of them would betray Him. And he told Peter that he would
deny him three times that night before the cock crowed. He said,
you'll deny me thrice. And in this chapter, he said,
let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also
in me. Exercise that same faith in me.
In my Father's house are many mansions, many dwelling places.
If it were not so, I would have told you. I would have told you
the truth. If I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come again and receive you to myself. I will not leave
you alone. If I go and prepare a place in
my Father's house for you, I assure you, I promise you, I will come
again and receive you to myself. Where I am, there you may be
also. And of course, he said, whether I go, you know, the way
you know. And Thomas said, we don't know the way. Well, you
do, Thomas, you just don't realize it yet. Whenever the Comforter
comes, the Holy Spirit, He will bring to your remembrance everything
that I have said, and you'll know it. You'll know I'm the
way, the truth, and the life. You'll understand. You see, there
was a lot of things they did not understand on that side of
the cross that they came to understand on this side of the cross. A
lot of things they didn't understand yet. And then the Lord said,
I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father
but by me. If you had known me, you should
have known my Father also. And Philip said to him, well,
show us the Father. You know, Peter said, thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God. They could see him visibly
in the flesh. God incarnate. But I don't, after
reading this, at that particular time in their understanding,
I don't believe they had quite grasped the fact that this is
Jehovah. This is Jehovah, the same one
that said to Moses, I am that I am. They believed he even to
be the Son of God. They believed that. And they
saw him. And I believe what Philip is saying is, let us see the
Father. Well, God is spirit. God is spirit. And so the Lord
says to him, have I been so long a time with you and you haven't
recognized me? I thought about this. I thought
about me speaking to my father, my earthly father. And I thought,
what if he said to me, John, Have I been so long with you
and you still don't recognize me? I'm your father. They shall
call His name Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father." That's what they'll call Him. He said, you're looking
at Him. Philip, you're looking at Him. And he said here in verse 10,
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father
in me? The words that I speak to you I speak not of myself,
but the Father that dwells in me. He doeth the works. Believe
me! I've noticed this on these several
verses that we are looking at here. He keeps saying this. Believe
me! Trust me! Believe me that I am in the Father,
and the Father in me, or else believe me for the sake of the
works that you have seen. They are enough evidence of proof
of who I am, and that I am in the Father, and the Father in
me. Comfort, mark this down, because
remember this, he is comforting his disciples. Comfort comes
through believing God. You will not have any comfort
if you don't believe. He keeps saying this. He keeps
saying this. Believe me. He says in verse
12, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me,
the works that I do, he that trusts me, leans on me, has absolute
confidence in me, the works that I do shall he do also. And greater
works than these shall he do, because I go to the Father. You know, over and over in this
chapter, he says in verse 28, You have heard how I said to
you, I go away and come again to you. If you loved me, you
would rejoice. You would rejoice at this statement,
because I said, I go to the Father, for my Father is greater than
I. You would be happy. You'd be happy. And later on
they were, because they were given an understanding. They
understood afterwards that he is the mediator, he's the high
priest, he's the surety, he's seated at God's right hand. They
understood that. And it's evident by the writings
in the epistles. But what he's saying here, he
that believeth in me, faith is essential to pleasing God. Trusting
Him, resting on Him, relying on Him completely is essential
to pleasing God. Without faith it's impossible,
the Scripture says, to please God. That tells me this. By faith, with faith, it is possible
to please God in faith. Faith is essential
to performing any work in His name. If you believe, he said
here, he that believeth on me, the works that I do, shall he
do also, and greater works, greater works. The promise of success
is attached to faith. The scripture says in Hebrews,
he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a
rewarder of them that diligently seek him. that He will give them
what they truly seek for. There's no sense in me going
there. He's not going to give me that. You know, you feel the real pressure
and guilt of sin. You think, surely God won't forgive
me this. God won't put this away. He won't
wipe this away. Well, that's believing He's not
a rewarder. That's believing He won't do
what He said He'd do. He said, he that cometh to God
must believe, first of all, that God is, He is who He says He
is. He is as He has revealed Himself in the Scripture, and
that He is a rewarder. If we come to Him in the name
of Christ for mercy, for forgiveness, for grace, for help in time of
trouble, He'll give it. I believe He will. In His time. In His time, He'll give it. The Lord promised His disciples
that He said, You'll do greater works than these. You believe
on Me? You'll do greater works than these. What does He mean
greater works? What's He talking about? How
can we do greater works than Him? Well, it's not that we will
outdo Him. He's not saying you'll outdo
Me. No. When our Lord walked on this earth in His earthly
ministry in those three years that He preached and went about
doing good, There's only a few saved. You remember the day of Pentecost,
how many were saved? Three thousand. Three thousand
were saved. Every time God saves a sinner,
and I'm standing here preaching this morning, and if God is pleased
to open a man's eyes, if He's pleased to save a sinner, and
the saving of that sinner, the blind see, The deaf hear, the
dumb speak, the lame walks. All that happens when God saves
one sinner. And the day of Pentecost, 3000. And then after that, look at
all the churches that were established and look at it now throughout
the world. It's throughout the whole world. Before it was it
was just that little isolated place called Israel. But now
it's throughout the whole world. Throughout the whole world. And
He's telling them, He's encouraging them and comforting them that
His departure back to His Father was good news. He said, what
I'm telling you is good news. You know, it's amazing when we
hear bad news, it always seems to outweigh the good news. We
can't get past that. You know, the Lord said, He said,
I'm going to go away for a little while. That's why He's telling
the disciples. He said, I'll come again afterwards
and I'll get you. And Peter said, no, you're not
going away. He completely missed the fact he's coming back to
get him. It just went over his head. All he heard was, I'm going
away. He said, I'm going to the Father.
And the Father is greater than I. And whatever you ask for,
the Father will do it in my name that I may be glorified. And whatsoever, he says in verse
13, whatsoever you shall ask in my name, now listen, that
will I do. My ministry is not over. He's going to go to the cross.
He's going to go to the grave. He's going to rise. He's going
to go back to the Father. They are not going to see his
bodily presence anymore. But my ministry, he says, he's
saying that my ministry is not over. You and I are not going to be
separated. I thought about this yesterday
and this morning. Do you really believe the Lord's
here in spirit? Do you know that's
every bit as real as Him being here in body? Now, you and I
cannot be somewhere else. We may be able to think upon
someone else right now in another place and pray for them But our
Lord in spirit is in His church. He's in His people. He's here
this morning. That's how solemn this service
is. He's here with us. That's the way He's saying it.
If you ask in my name, I'll do it. That the Father may be glorified
in the Son. Faith in Christ was to be manifested
first by praying in His name. The second way, here in a minute
I'll show you, is love, which is evidenced by obedience. The
faith in his person must be manifested by praying in his name. Why should I pray in his name?
I don't know where he's at. I know where he is. He's seated
at the right hand of God. There is a man, a bodily man,
a human being, flesh and bone, seated at God's right hand. At
the same time, that person, the Lord Jesus Christ, is here this
morning in you, in His church. He's in His church. And that's
every bit as real as His bodily presence. Every bit is real. And Christ shows also here, He
shows His deity by saying that, well, I do. I'll do it. He's showing His deity here.
I'll do it. You see, they still had access
to his presence, though his bodily presence would be no longer with
them. He said, you still have access to me. You still have
access to me. And if you ask anything in my
name, I will do it. We do not pray to a dead Christ. We pray to the risen Lord. He
lives. He lives. And He rules and He
reigns over absolutely everything. Everything. Nothing happens. Absolutely nothing happens. A
leaf doesn't fall to the ground without Him. He directs the very
path of that leaf to the ground. I believe that. I believe He
is that tied to to creation, to His people. I mean, He makes
everything move. He makes everything have its
being for your sakes. Everything. Everything. And in so doing this, He says,
My Father is glorified. And I want you to notice here
also, and I want to make this clear. If you shall ask anything
in My name, I will do it. This is totally abused by false
religion. Totally abused. This is not a
blank check with his name on it. And you just go write in
what you want. Because you know what flesh does with that. It
wants all the material gains, all the material things. But
here's what it is. It is the right of any child
of God to come into God's presence and use his name. And listen,
this really puts a seriousness on prayer. It is a right to come
into God's presence and speak in His person. And what if I
go down to the bank and I said, I'm here, I'm here on the authority
and in the name of Mike Bartram. He said I could ask for this.
He said, that puts the seriousness on, doesn't it? I do say this, when I pray,
and I'm not an example, I'm not an example, This is an example. When I pray, as I've gotten older and studying the Word of God,
I really try to think about, really think about what I'm praying
for because of whose name I'm going to attach to it when I
get done. You think about it. When you
pray, think of the name that you're going to use when you
finish praying. When you finish asking for it,
is it worthy of the name that you just made the request in? Is it worthy of that name? To
ask in His name is to set aside my will in the matter, and thy will be
done. That's what it is to ask in His
name. His name. And then love is evidenced here
by our obedience. He says, if you love me, if you
love me, keep my commandment. Obey me. That's what he's saying.
Obey me. You call me Lord, Lord, for so I am. In other places he said, you
call me Lord, Lord, and do not what I say. If you love me, express it. by your obedience. Express it by your obedience.
Faith and obedience always go together. Always. You notice he did not
say, if you want to enter into life, keep my commandments. No, he said, if you love me. Love is the greatest motive for
service. It's the greatest motive for
service. Paul said, now listen, he said the love of Christ shall
constrain me. He didn't say that. He said the
love of Christ constrains me. It constrains me. It guides me. It rules me. It ruled me. Now what are His
commandments? Well, it's the whole revealed
will of God. That's what it is. In another place He said, this
is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. As I have loved you. That's how
you love one another. Sacrificially, unselfishly. That's
love. Love considers the other one
more than it considers itself. That's love. And then He says,
now listen, if you love Me, keep My commandments and I'll pray
the Father. And here He's going to introduce
the Comforter. He's going to introduce the Holy
Spirit. And He shall give you another Comforter. He's not going
to leave you comfortless. He's going to give you another
Comforter. This is the third person of the Trinity. Now listen. The Holy Spirit, one writer said
this, he's not an emanation from the Father and the Son. He is
a distinct, real person. And he is in every one of God's
children by faith. He's in when they believe. That's
the reason they believe, the evidence of it. When you believe
the gospel, that's evidence that the Spirit of God's in you. That's
an evidence of it. But he says here, another comforter. You know, that word also means
advocate. Advocate. Does he not pray for
us in groanings with words that can't be uttered that no one
says over in Romans? Does he not intercede for us?
Does Christ not intercede for us? It also means this, one to stand
along the side and help. You're not alone. He says you're
not alone. This is the Holy Spirit. He's
a real person. He's a real person. You know,
whenever He said the Holy Spirit comes, He'll not speak of Himself.
He'll take the things of mine and show it to you. He'll speak
of me. Well, that doesn't mean we'll never speak of Him. That
doesn't mean we'll never mention His name or His office or His
work. There's a real work that He does.
The new birth is His. He's the one who gives you the
new birth. He's the one who creates faith
in the heart. He's the one who comforts you with the Word of
God. He's the one who takes the things of Christ and reveals
them to you. If you know anything of Christ,
He gave it to you. He revealed it to you. He's a
real grievenot, the Holy Spirit. He's a real person. He indwells
you. The Spirit of Christ. He said, I'll not leave you alone.
He said, in fact, this Comforter will abide with you forever.
He's not going to go away. I've got to go away. I've got
to die. I have to be buried. And I'm going to go back to the
Father. But now listen, the Holy Spirit will never leave you.
Never. He's in you. He's called the
Spirit of Truth here in John 17, in verse 17 I mean. Even
the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because
it sees Him not, neither knows Him, but you know Him. For He
dwelleth with you. He dwelleth with you and He'll be in you. You see, He's called the Spirit
of Truth here because He is the truth. You say, how can that
be? Christ said, I am the truth.
Well, I'm not going to try to decipher all this. This is over
my head. But He's the Spirit of Truth.
Christ is the truth. There's only one God. There's
only one truth. There's only one way. There's only one life. And He guides men into all truth.
And He reveals all the truth that's contained in the Word
of God. Without Him, you and I would not understand anything
of this book. Not at all. And the world of
natural men cannot receive Him because they are blind, deaf,
dumb, and dead. That's why He said the world
can't see Him. They cannot understand. And they
can't receive Him. Because they're dead. Dead in
trespasses and sins. As a result of the fall, all
men are dead. And if a man is going to be saved,
God the Holy Spirit will have to give him a new birth. Him
or her, a new birth. A new life, a life that was not
there before. Has to. He has to reveal the gospel to
them. He has to make known the love of God to them. But you know Him. It's like we said about the Father.
You know Him. You know Him. You know Him for He dwells with
you. He's been with you all along. Our Lord had the Spirit, the
Holy Spirit, as a man without mayor. And our Lord said, He's
been with you all along. Well, I tell you, they didn't
realize that the Father had been walking with them and the Holy
Spirit had been walking with them. The whole Trinity! The
whole Trinity! The whole Godhead had been with
them! He said, He dwelleth with you. He dwelt with Him in Christ,
who had the Spirit without measure, and He's going to dwell in you. You're sealed with the Holy Spirit
of promise. You're sealed with it. And I'll tell you this, you're
sealed with it and you cannot be unsealed. You cannot be unsealed. You're His and you're His forever. Now, I will not leave you comfortless.
If you look over your margin, that means orphans. Orphans. I'll not leave you orphans. I'll
come to you in spirit. And like I said, that's every
bit as real as His bodily presence. I'll come to you. He comes to
us now in spirit. If this is a true worship service, the Lord is here in spirit. Guaranteed. If this is a true
worship service, He's here. He's in His people. Now He says,
yet a little while and the world sees Me no more. He promises
them life. He promises their life is going
to be secured by His life. He said the world will see Me
no more. That's judgment. Oh, that's judgment to see him
no more. You know what hell is? It's the absence of God. It's
the absence of God's mercy, God's presence, God's love. Now, it's
not the absence of his wrath. But to be separated from God.
That's the word I want to use to be separated from God, that's
hell. Our Lord said. Hanging on the
cross. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? He just went through hell. He
went through my hell. Because that's hell. Separation
from God. That's torment. That's torment. I don't know much about the flames
of hell or all that goes on in that place. But I do know this. It is separation from God. And
that's torment. But He assures them this. He
assures them that my life is secured by your life. My life
is the security of your life. The world will see me no more,
but you see me. Because I live. You shall live
also. The world saw the Son of God
for a little while. They saw Him as a carpenter.
They saw Him as a young boy. They saw Him running around in
the yard. They saw him as a carpenter,
a man who got calluses on his hands from working. They saw
him as a preacher. They saw him as a man going about
doing good. So that's all they thought of
him. They saw him hanging on a tree. They saw him. Sitting down, they watched him
there. They saw him. For a little while, the world
was allowed a little glimpse this man. But now it sees him
no more. The next time it will be in great
glory when he puts an end to all this. But he says the world
will see me no more. But you see me. You see me. You see me. You know me. You
know who I am. You see me as the Christ. Peter
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You see
me as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. You
see me as your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
You see me. You see me as your all in all.
You see me. The world doesn't see me. But
you do. You see me every day. You see
me every hour. By faith, by faith, you see Him. Faith is a substance of things
hoped for. By faith, you see Him. He's real
to you. The Lord Jesus Christ is as real
to you who believe as if He were just sitting right there in that
chair. You see Me. And because I live,
you shall live also. Christ is my life. He is my life. Paul said in Galatians
2.20, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. We sing a song like that, Christ
liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. In Colossians 3.4, When Christ
who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with
Him in glory." He is my life because I live. You shall live. And at that day you shall know
that I am in the Father and that ye in me and I in you when the
Holy Spirit comes upon you. This happened at Pentecost. You
will recognize and understand all that I'm telling you. He
said before, you don't understand now, but you will. What I'm telling
you now, you don't understand, but you will. You will. When
the Holy Spirit comes, you'll recognize and understand this
spiritual union that's between me and you. I'm in the Father, you are in
me, and I am in you, and we are one. The Lord Jesus Christ. by His
Spirit actually lives in everyone who believes. He lives in you. Also, nevertheless I live, yet
not I, but Christ liveth in me. He's the vine, we are the branches.
He's the head, we are the body. To offend one of these little
ones is to offend Him. To bless one of these little
ones is to bless Him. And then he says, and I'll close,
he that hath my commandments and keeps them, he it is that
loves me. It's evidenced by love. It's evidenced by love. And he
that loves me shall be loved of my Father. My Father loves
him. And I will love him and will reveal myself to him. manifest myself to you. These
are comforting words, aren't they? These are comforting words to them who believe. To them
who believe. All right, Mike.