John chapter 14, and reading
from verse 24. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
who is speaking. He that loveth me not keepeth
not my sayings, and the word which ye hear is not mine, but
the Father's which sent me. These things have I spoken unto
you, being yet 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. Peace I leave with you, my peace
I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let
not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard
how I said unto you, I go away and come again unto you. If ye
loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said I go unto the Father,
for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before
it come to pass, that when it is come to pass ye might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much
with you, for the Prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing
in me. 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. Amen. May the Lord bless this
reading to us also. And just let me mention, before
we start the main part of the sermon, this little reference
here to, my Father is greater than I, and the Lord Jesus Christ
in the final verse, the Father gave me commandment, even so
I do. That does not mean that the Father
is greater than the Son in the eternal persons of the Godhead.
What it means is that the Lord Jesus Christ voluntarily went under the authority, submitted
to the authority of his father in the covenant of grace. And that is something which we
speak about quite a lot. But just in passing, as I read
those phrases, I thought to myself, I will make that clear just so
that no one, perhaps some of the younger ones amongst us,
might read that superficially and think that the Father is
greater than the Son. It is only in the context of
the work of Christ on earth and the covenant of grace which the
Lord submitted to. Right, we have, as we've been
going through these verses in this chapter, we have noticed
before how keeping the commands of the Lord Jesus Christ and
taking his yoke upon us is not a grievous experience for a believer. Keeping the Lord's commands,
as we've noticed before, is living by faith. It is trusting in the
Lord, and that is characteristic of a believer's life. The character
of a believer is to live on Christ by faith and to do as the Lord
would have us do. That is a function of the new
birth. of the new creation and of the
Holy Spirit in dwelling the elect of God, the people of God. We
do keep his commands, just like we do love him and we do have
faith in him. We are empowered to do so by
grace. and doing so for the Lord's people,
having faith in Christ, trusting Christ, resting in Christ, obeying
Christ, loving Christ, delights the Lord's people. It's our pleasure
and our privilege to do so. And all believers love the Lord
and every believer. delights to serve the Lord and
to practice obedience to Christ's calling and to Christ's cause. The fact that so many preachers
have to be whipping people and enforcing obedience and Christian
morality and Christian works upon people is indicative of
the fact that they do not possess that new creation which causes
the Lord's people to delight in his service. In fact, it's
more than that even. It grieves our hearts when we
fail to be obedient, when the weakness of this flesh hinders
the longing of our spirit to honour and serve and love the
Lord. So that here again, in these
opening verses of this passage, the Lord Jesus is distinguishing
between those who keep his commands and those who do not. That is,
those who are of grace, those who are of God, and those that
are not. Those who love him, are distinguished from those
who do not love him. Those who love Christ keep his
words. Those who do not cannot keep
his words. They cannot be obedient in faith
because they have no true faith. Now they may maintain Christian
lifestyle. They may uphold a moral code
moral values. They may attend church. They
may boast all manner of Christian experience. But the reality is,
from the lips of Christ himself, he that loveth me not keepeth
not my sayings. And we know this. We know this. No person can love Christ whom
the Father has not loved everlastingly and justified by grace. No one can love Christ but those
who have been redeemed by his blood when he died on the cross. No one can keep the Lord's commands
who has not known the quickening work of grace and the gift of
faith. We do His will by believing. We keep the Lord's word as we
rest in Him for all our righteousness and all our acceptance with God. We keep His commands when we
trust His word and His promises. We are obedient when we live
on Him by faith and serve Him in gratitude. It is the work
of God in a believer's life that we believe on him whom he hath
sent. Now, many believers struggle
with assurance, with their own personal assurance, because they
feel that the strength of the old man seems to dominate in
their lives, seems to dominate the new man. They feel that they
are full of doubt or that their lives are not good enough. They
know that salvation is all of grace because they've heard the
message, they've heard the doctrine, they've received that teaching,
and yet they feel in all honesty that there ought to be more evidence
of grace in their words, in their actions, in their deeds, more
evidence than they can discern. And John chapter 14 can be suitably
applied to your case if you are such a person. When the Lord
says to his disciples in verse 26, let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. He is speaking to you as well. You who are fearful for your
standing in Christ. You who are concerned because
of a lack of assurance. It has been the Lord's intention
all along to comfort his weak disciples and strengthen their
understanding and their faith. And it continues to be so. Just as we saw a little bit earlier
with David, the natural inclinations of a man or a woman. The natural inclinations are
always at odds with the spiritual realities of grace. It is always
the case. And Christ, in dealing with his
disciples, thus deals with every believer's needs as we also struggle
with our natural inclinations, with the trials that come to
us in our flesh. And so let us view John chapter
14, although it has a specific time and place and circumstance,
let us see in it applications which are enduring for all the
church, for all time. And as we've seen in recent weeks,
the Lord Jesus to these disciples has made some wonderful promises. designed, intended to uplift
their hearts, to encourage their faith. For example, he's spoken
of mansions prepared for them in his father's house. He has
promised the Holy Spirit to supply them with power and to comfort
their souls. He has spoken of how he, with
his Father, will come to dwell with them. And though these things
are spoken at first to the disciples, these spiritual graces, these
eternal promises, are every believer's possession. They are our inheritance. They are a continuing tonic for
discouraged and disheartened saints with troubled souls. And like our infinitely wise
and kind Saviour, There's no end to the supply of grace and
mercy that Christ has apportioned to preserving God's children
from harm in this world and preserving his bride from shame. Paul says,
God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory
by Christ Jesus. And what we learn from John 14
and the Saviour's words here to his disciples is that whatever
we need to comfort our hearts, to strengthen our faith and encourage
our souls will be delivered in barrel loads
and dispensed with shovels. because there is so many layers
to the goodnesses of God to his people. Accordingly, as we come to these
verses today, we find that there are three more provisions added
on top of all that Christ has already said to help his troubled
disciples. Actually, as I was thinking about
this, I was reminded of the hymn, Count Your Blessings. Count your
blessings. We should practise doing so,
especially in troubled times, and it will surprise us what
the Lord has done. Here are the three additional
provisions that the Lord makes for his people in these verses
today. First, there is the gift of spiritual
knowledge. The spirit of truth would teach
them all they needed to know. The Lord says, he shall teach
you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever
I have said unto you. The Spirit of Truth would equip
and enable the disciples to serve the Lord and fulfil His purpose
on earth. Remember what I've said, we're
not only talking to disciples here, we're talking to all the
Lord's people. He will equip and enable them
to serve the Lord and fulfil his purpose on earth. That's
the first additional promise that Jesus gives. The second
one is this, the gift of spiritual peace. So we have the gift of
spiritual knowledge from the Holy Spirit and the gift of spiritual
peace. The Lord Jesus Christ would bestow
divine peace on these men sufficient to enable whatever tasks they
would be called to perform. Peace I leave with you, my peace
I give unto you. He would give spiritual knowledge. He would give spiritual peace.
And then thirdly, he would give the gift of spiritual faith. The Saviour went to great lengths
to strengthen their weak faith. This isn't faith for the first
time. These men were believers. But the Lord is strengthening
faith because faith can be weak and faith can be little and faith
can be tried. It can't be lost, but it needs
to be strengthened. And the Lord strengthens their
weak faith by detailing future events which, when accomplished,
would confirm His divinity and reinforce their faith. He says, I have told you before
it come to pass that when it come to pass ye might believe. So that these three gifts too,
like the gift of the Holy Spirit, like the indwelling of the Father
and the Son in the life of his people, and like Christ's preparation
of the heavenly mansions on behalf of his disciples, They are our
gifts as well. They're not the preserve of a
few elite Christians. Every blood-bought child of God
is a joint heir with Christ in the commonwealth of grace. So we have the gift of spiritual
knowledge, the gift of spiritual peace, and the gift of spiritual
faith. Let's take them one by one and
just draw out a few points concerning each, and then we'll wrap things
up. First of all, we've got the gift
of spiritual knowledge. And I think that it is truly
a precious promise that the Holy Spirit of truth would convey
all truth to the apostles in order to enable them to remember
all things that the Lord had taught them. I mentioned in the
little note yesterday how we could make much of this with
respect to the authority and the veracity of the scriptures
and the doctrinal testimony of the apostles. and so we can. When Peter and John and Paul
speak to us in scripture and Jude, it is Christ's own doctrine
that we are hearing. It's Christ's own teaching that
they are giving us. They are giving it to us directly
from the Saviour and they have remembered it over all those
years because the Holy Spirit conveyed all truth, all things
that the Lord had taught them, brought them back to remembrance. And I'll stretch that a little
bit more and say this, that every faithful preacher to the extent
that he preaches what is taught in scriptures in the apostolic
foundation, in the apostolic teaching, speaks for Christ. However, although we could take
that tack, I want to take a slightly different approach today and
apply these words as the Lord purposed them, I think. That
is for the comforting of his disciples. And I want us to note
how utterly unfit must the disciples have felt
in this moment. How weak, how ignorant, how ill-equipped
at the prospect of being left alone without the
Lord's presence. How inadequate to uphold the
witness of Christ at all. Who were they going against?
The scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the lawyers. These
men who had been steeped in the Old Testament traditions and
the teachings of Moses, they would be going up against these
individuals. Now Christ had a wisdom, Christ
had an ability, Christ had an insightfulness. that the disciples
just did not possess. How could they, who were mere
students, bear the burden and assume the role of their master? And yet, this is exactly what
they would be called upon to do. And so, they would need to be
enabled The Lord would need to enable them to witness the things
that he had taught them. And the Lord Jesus promised his
disciples a complete body of divinity to do just that. A complete body of truth in the form of
a perfect, supernatural recollection of all that he had spoken and
taught over these three years of his ministry. Do you recall what we said last
week? There you are. I'm talking about a supernatural
recollection of all things. And then I ask you if you remember
what we said last week. What we said last week was this.
Whatever the Lord requires of us, he first supplies to us. And this was a tremendous promise
that the Lord gave to his disciples. And yet I suspect it would only
become meaningful in the months and years to come as the Apostle's
own ministry unfolded. But there's help in this for
us too. Many of us can become anxious
that our witness is lacking, that our knowledge is limited,
that our testimony is imperfect. And it is undoubtedly true that
all of these things are the case. But yet, our witness and our
knowledge and our testimony is sufficient for the moment. and sufficient for the demands
the Lord places upon us. When he requires more of you,
he will supply more for you. I constantly, and I'm speaking
personally now, I constantly feel the weight of my preaching
responsibility, the burden of the gospel ministry. Paul asks,
who is sufficient for these things? To the one, we are a saver of
death unto death, and to the other, the saver of life unto
life. But let us all remember It isn't
the strength of our reasoning, or the clever words that we can
employ, or the sharpness of our wit that enables the gospel to
scale those high walls of man's opposition to the truth. It's
the gospel itself. It's God's power in the gospel. It's always of the Lord. It's always, we will continue
to be anxious and worried and doubtful when we look at ourselves. Because there is no worthiness,
never will be any worthiness in our natural abilities. It must all be from the Lord. It is God's power in the gospel. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. 2 Corinthians 10, 4. The witness of the church, the
Lord's people, accomplishes the end that the
Lord desires and secures. Our witness, the witness of the
Church. accomplishes the end that the
Lord desires. And it will secure his purpose
in the calling of many sons to glory. Faltering we may be, stuttering,
inadequate in our own selves. The Apostle Paul said that that
is how he felt when he went to speak to, to preach amongst the
Corinthians. And yet the Lord uses even the
faltering, stuttering words of the sent one, whether that's
a preacher or whether that's the witness. In personal witnessing, he uses
that which he has given in order to accomplish his end and purpose. So this was the first gift that
the Lord spoke of, the gift of spiritual knowledge. He continues
to his disciples, and he says that he would give the gift of
spiritual peace. This is our second thought. The
Lord now furnishes. peace for the disciples. And he qualifies that. He says it's his own peace. This is the peace of Christ that
he is giving. It's peace for their troubled
hearts. Remember the Lord stood on the
bow of the ship and he looked into the wind and he looked upon
the waves on the Sea of Galilee and he said, peace, be still. This is the peace of Christ upon
troubled hearts. And I admire the suitableness
of the Saviour's gifts. He gives gifts that are suitable.
He doesn't burden His people with gifts that are unnecessary.
He gives the gift in the moment of need. He makes suitable gifts
to His people. Your hearts are troubled. I give
you peace. And what are the practical implications
of this? Well, here's one practical implication,
that despite the severity of the experience that was about
to overtake these men, They would be preserved and protected. They
would enjoy a sense and awareness of peace, despite the traumas,
despite the trials that were going on around about them. Also,
the peace of Christ would spawn a spirit of peace in the hearts
of the disciples as a group. they would maintain an attitude
of harmony one with the other. Have you ever thought how easy
it would have been for this group of 11 or 12 disciples and the
followers that had gathered around, how easy it would have been for
them just to simply disintegrate, for fights to break out, for
arguments to arise, for different ways of doing things to have
been proffered and suggested and proposed? but the Lord gave them peace,
enabling the group to remain cohesive, single-minded, and
united in their apostolic ministry. Behold how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. That's what the disciples
did, and they did so because of the peace of Christ amongst
them. When we know and understand Christ's peace, we learn to live
in peace with our brethren. Believers love peace because
peace lies at the heart of all that we have from Christ, all
that we hope for in Christ. But there's more to Christ's
peace than peaceable living. The gospel is called the gospel
of peace. And the covenant of grace is
called the covenant of peace. This is the reference that Christ
is making. The Lord committed this peace,
the covenant peace, the peace of his grace and his goodness
to the disciples to be preached and proclaimed to all the world
after he was gone back to heaven in his ascension. Now it would
be some months before this ministry would be fully realised on the
day of Pentecost when Peter stood up to preach what he later called
the word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching
peace by Jesus Christ. You see, that peace that Christ
gave them was preached by them as they preached the gospel. But there's even a greater application
for individual hearts than this. And I suspect above all, the
peace that Christ was speaking of here was that real vital awareness
in the converted soul of peace with God and reconciliation with
God by the blood of Jesus Christ. This peace, this peace is our
actual union with God by the atonement. And we often see,
and it's right, that that word atonement, it's actually a made
up word. It's a constructed word to describe
the work of Christ on the cross, to describe the work of reconciliation. And it literally means at one
meant. We are meant to be at one with
God. God through the work of Christ
on the cross. The Saviour's blood has removed
the sin that separated us from God. So that receiving Christ's peace,
which includes the application of forgiveness to our conscience,
the conscience of cleansed and converted men, gives us that
understanding. It is a spiritual peace that
passes understanding because it is totally unlike the peace
that this world gives, which is merely fleeting and false. So that Christ in pointing them
to his work on the cross, the efficacy and power of his blood,
and the union that they would have with God, through that peace
which he was giving to them, was lifting the disciples' eyes
higher to view the blessedness of God's grace to them that they
could never find anywhere else in this world. The peace of Christ
and peace with God is the greatest possession that we have on this
earth. And no matter what else happens
to us in this world, no matter what else discomfort, what else
distress, what else trial, what else tribulation, what else persecution,
what else even to the loss of our lives and the shedding of
our blood, peace with God will prevail. transcend everything that this
life can throw at us. If we have peace with God, everything
else pales into insignificance. It will carry us safely into
the bosom of our God and Saviour. So that once again, let me return
to our application. Nothing we do, nothing in ourself
recommends us to God or makes us useful to God. And we must
never look at our failures and upon the basis of our failures,
doubt the promises of God. God's promises are unconditional.
Christ's peace is perfect peace and perfecting peace. We are
reconciled by the blood of Jesus Christ and the great transaction
is accomplished and complete. When the Saviour gives us his
peace, It does indeed pass natural understanding,
but it is perfectly consistent with spiritual truth. So Paul
says, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the third thing and then
I'm done. we have the gift of spiritual faith. The third gift
after spiritual knowledge and spiritual peace is spiritual
assurance and faith. I have told you before it come
to pass that when it is come to pass ye might believe. Now, I mentioned yesterday in
the little note how that only God knows the future before it
comes to pass. And so here the saviour is demonstrating
his divinity. And it is certain that the faith
of the disciples grew greatly in the weeks after the Lord's
resurrection and ascension. The giving of the Holy Spirit
at Pentecost brought further boldness and power to men who
previously hid themselves for fear of the Jews. But there's
a lesson here for our faith as well. We have objective truth
in which we trust. because all that Jesus said came
to pass. He showed himself to be God by
his knowledge of future events. We have a successful saviour
who fulfilled all that he foretold. We have a reconciled God who
accepts the blood of our substitute and sets his people free. We trust him, we believe him
and we are assured because those things which he has said he would
do, he has most certainly accomplished. Now we are a people of faith
and yet faith can be small and weak and variable. So the scriptures
reinforce our faith. They reassure us. As we read
the scriptures, we are encouraged and comforted, for we see the
work of God accomplishing his purposes in them. When we hear
the gospel, our faith is renewed. It is strengthened. It is built
up. It is undergirded. So it is good
for us frequently to hear the gospel. It is good for us to
dwell in the company of our Lord. The Lord himself will supply
all the encouragements to grow our faith and to deepen our trust
in him. And it is our prayer and our
desire that He will do so. So these are the means, these
are the tools at our disposal that He has committed to us.
And He provides us with the knowledge and the understanding to approach
the Scriptures, to see in them Him as God and His work in the
saving of His people. The Lord concludes his words
of reassurance of his disciples by drawing their attention to
the coming prince of this world. This is the devil that he is
talking about here at the end of this passage in John 14. The
devil was coming to taunt and harass the saviour as he suffered
on the cross for the sins of his people. But here Christ makes
an interesting observation, telling his disciples, Satan hath nothing
in me. Despite bearing a world of sin
for his beloved people, there was no personal sin in Christ. All the transgressions of God's
chosen people were placed on Christ. He carried them on his
shoulders. He bore them in his soul as the
sacrificial lamb. But he was pure in heart and
he was pure in soul, in himself. Satan taunts and harasses the
church as well. He can point the finger, but
he cannot lay a hand on us or do us any harm. His days are
numbered and his apparent successes in this evil world are but judgments
of a holy God against sin. We often become morally affronted,
even morally outraged at the wickedness of sin about us. Let's remember the peace of Christ. Do not be disheartened or discouraged
about the evil in the world around us, because this too is in God's
purpose and accomplishes his will. In closing this explanation for
his disciples in John 14, the Saviour makes a direct reference
to the covenant of grace. He had come to do the Father's
will in obedience to the Father's command. And this refers to the
fulfilment of Christ's covenant obligations laid on the Saviour
and voluntarily undertaken by the Saviour in the eternal counsel
of grace and peace. At that time, the justification
and the reconciliation of the elect was settled upon the basis
of Christ's saving work. Jesus Christ was fulfilling God's
command, he was being obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross, for the redemption of the elect, making peace for
all who had been placed into his hands. So you see this 14th
chapter of John was and is designed to comfort the church in the
day of trouble and distress. And it is a precious passage
that continues to reward all who read and meditate upon it
in times of trouble. Let us resort to it frequently. It will do our souls good. One last thing I'm going to say,
and it might seem trite, but I'll mention it anyway. Just
when the disciples thought their world had come to an end, the
Lord says to them, arise, let us go hence. Let us just take that also. No
matter what occurs in our lives, until the Lord Jesus takes us
home to glory, our work is not complete. He will equip and enable
us to arise and go hence with Him until He takes us home to
glory. And may He continue to lead and
guide us in our own journey, to the mansion that he has prepared
for us. Amen.