Take your Bibles and turn with
me to John chapter 16. This is going to be the last
of our studies in John 16, and a little bit of an introduction
into John 17. Let's begin reading here in John
16 verse 25. These things have I spoken unto
you in Proverbs. But the time cometh when I shall
no more speak unto you in Proverbs, but I shall show you plainly
of the Father. At that day you shall ask in
my name, and I say not unto you that I
will pray the Father for you, For the Father himself loveth
you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came
out from God. I came forth from the Father,
and am come into the world. Again, I leave the world and
go to the Father. His disciples said unto him,
lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now
are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that
any man should ask thee. By this we believe that thou
camest forth from God. Jesus answered them, do you now
believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea,
is now come, that you should be scattered. every man to his
own, and shall leave me alone. And yet I am not alone, because
the Father is with me. These things have I spoken unto
you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall
have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world."
Now look at John 17, verse 1. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son that thy son
also may glorify thee. Now, when he refers, and he does
so several times here, to these things, these words, these things,
he says it several times. It does not refer only to John
16, 33, or back in John 16, 25, or back in John 16, 1, or back
in John 16, 30. He just keeps saying these things,
these things, these things. But it refers to everything that
he said in chapters 14, 15, and 16. These are things that he's
telling them to prepare them for his death. In all that they
believed, they said without being forced, just by his own testimony,
we believe that you came forth from the Father. We believe that.
We believe that you came forth from God. We believe that. But
yet they didn't understand who he was, why he came, where he
was about to go. They did not understand. They
could not perceive those things, and neither do men today. The
natural man perceiveth not those things. He can't understand those
things. He can't enter into those things.
They're beyond his ability to enter into. And I tell you this, we can only
find comfort. He's comforting them is what
he's doing. He's giving them all these things, knowing that
right now they don't understand. Oh, we understand, he said. Do
you? Do you? And just a little while,
you're going to go your way. You're going to leave me alone.
You're going to leave me alone. Do you? We think we do, don't
we? We can only find comfort in so
much as we're given an understanding of his person and work. That's
all the farther you can have comfort. There's no comfort in
ignorance and darkness and blindness. There's no comfort there. That's
a rabbit's foot. You rub on it, whistling through
the cemetery. That's all that is. Real comfort
comes from understanding. And this understanding comes
through revelation. And this revelation comes through
the gospel. And that's what he's telling
them. He's giving them all these precious promises and these gospel
revelations. He's telling them things that
this world has no concept of. He makes a tremendous declaration
back here in verses 27 and 28. He said, you believe that I came
out from God. What a statement. What a statement. And indeed, he said, I came forth
from the Father, and am come into the world. And again, I
leave the world and go back to the Father. And in this understanding,
there was shed abroad in their hearts the love of God. You see
it back there in verse 27? The Father himself loveth you,
because you have loved me and believed that I came out from
God. There's no way to perceive the love of God in anything about
Christ until we enter into the fact that Christ came out from
God. This is God come into the flesh. This is not just another reformer. This is not just another example.
This is God Himself robed in human flesh standing before them. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is
a man. He is a man. He was indeed made flesh, made
of a woman. took upon him the seed of Abraham,
made under the law, responsible for his actions. That's hard
to conceive in it. Responsible for his actions.
Accountable for his motives and thoughts. Tempted, it says, in
all points, like as we are yet without sin. But he was more
than a man. This was the eternal Word of
God. This was all All that God purposed to do,
all that God is, all that has pleased God to do in eternity,
it's all in this man. He is God. He is God. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. More than a man, he's the God-man. And his appearance on this earth
was not just to inspire an example. We had hundreds of examples. And now what he tells us about
these Old Testament patriarchs, we have them as examples. They
were examples. They were inspirations. And his
appearance was, it was to break the curse. And
this is what, not only in the Sunday school lesson this morning,
but this is going to be the message all morning. I'll just keep going
over it. Because there's no comfort anywhere else. There is no comfort
anywhere else. His appearance was to break the
curse. He was not a son of Adam. He was virgin born. Virgin born. He broke the curse. He broke
the line. He broke the succession. And
He came into this world a representative man just as Adam did, who had
no father except God. God, His Creator. He was virgin
born. There's no hope for any man born
of Adam to overcome this curse. That's what he tells us. Isn't
that what the Scriptures say? By one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all
men. How do I know that? Because there's
a record of them, and they've all sinned. They're one of them.
They're one of them. David said he was conceived in
sin, and went astray as soon as he was born, speaking lies. All are sinners by nature and
by birth and by practice. We're not sinners. When we talk
about sinners, when I stand up here, Brother Don stands up here,
David or whoever's up here, and we're talking about sinners,
we're not talking about men comparing themselves with other men. We're
not talking about just lawbreakers like murderers and thieves and
drunks and that type of thing. That's not what we're talking
about. We're talking about how you appear before God. Sinners
before God. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. That's what David
said. Before God. Two things are required of a
man. God demands a perfect Unbroken
spiritual obedience. Continual. No break in it. From
the time you're born to the time they lay you in a box. Perfect. Perfect obedience. Can you produce
that? He says you can't. He says you
can't. In the scriptures it says this.
Over in Hebrews 4, if you want to read it, verses 12 and 13,
he said, God is a discerner. A discerner. That means He's
able to look and understand. He is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. Not just when it pops into your
head, but before it pops into your head. the thoughts and intents
of your heart. God can see those things. He
sees them in a way that you don't see. He sees them perfectly.
There's no creature, He said, that is not manifest in His sight. But all things are naked and
open unto the eyes of Him. Now watch it, with whom we have
to do. So when I'm talking about sinners,
I'm talking about sinners before Him. You can fool me. Those Pharisees fooled thousands. He said, you make clean the outside
of the cup. That's what everybody looks at.
But on the inside, you're full of all manner of uncleanness.
You're like those sepulchers out there in the cemetery. They're
beautiful and clean. Somebody goes out there and cleans
them, and they take the moss off of them, and they take the
dirt off of them, and they're clean, and they're shining, and
they're white, and they're pure. But he said, on the inside, you're
full of dead men's bones. God looks on the inside. And
under such a scrutiny, He says this over in Galatians chapter
3 and verse 10. Now, I just read to you out of
Hebrews chapter 4 how He sees. He sees the thoughts. He sees
the intents of the heart. He sees the motives. Now watch
this. Cursed is everyone who continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do. He's cursed. He's cursed. He's cursed. God requires a perfect,
unbroken, continual, spiritual obedience in motive, thought,
and deed. And secondly, He demands satisfaction
for every transgression. Every transgression He demands
perfect. I'm not talking about satisfaction
to me. I've heard people talk about,
and they get hung up on certain sins. I know a woman one time,
she loved her husband, but she had an affair with a preacher. And it was so shameful to her,
she couldn't get over it. To her, all her sin was right
here in this one thing, and she never could get over it. Never
could get over it. I'm not talking about that. I'm
talking about what we are by nature before God. We're one
big long succession of sin. That's all we do. We're just
piling it up like cordwood. Everything we do and think and
say is sin. And it's just piled up, piled
up. God demands satisfaction. He did not satisfy me. She never
could satisfy herself. Never could. And you can't either.
You can't either. That conscience will cry guilty
all the way to the grave. There's only one thing that can
remove that guilt from that conscience, and that's the death of Christ.
He demands satisfaction for every sin, perfect justice, perfect
righteousness, perfect holiness. And the only sacrifice that God
will accept for sin is the bloody sacrifice and death of His Son. He tells us this, it is not possible
that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin. Not possible. And under that bulls and goats,
those were the things that God ordained as a sacrifice. Now
he said it's not possible that these things were pictures, these
things were types to point us to Christ. But in those things,
they can't remove sin and neither does all these other things that
we've added in a big list down below it. Walking down aisles,
shaking hands, pledge cards, going to the pool, whatever else
that foolish men can dream up, not going to take away sin. That
blood of Christ is the only thing that can take away those sins
and satisfy God. Hebrews 10, verse 5, it said,
When He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice an offering
thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared Me. In burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure.
Then said I, lo, I come in the volume of the book, it's written
of me, to do thy will, O God, to satisfy God, to accomplish
the will of God in these things. By the which will, the doing
of it, the fulfilling of it, the accomplishing of it, we're
sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. Once for all. He's not entered,
Hebrews 9, 24, into the holy place made with hands, which
are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself now to
appear in the presence of God for us. Nor yet that he should
offer himself often as the high priest entereth into the holy
place every year with the blood of others, bulls and goats and
sheep and doves. For then must he often have suffered
since the foundation of the world. But now once in the end of the
world hath He appeared, in the body of a man He appeared. You
see what I'm getting at? To put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. That's why He came. To put it
away. Now did He put it away? Said
He did. God said He did when He raised
Him from the dead. Hebrews 10, 14, For by one offering
He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. He came
into this world the mediator of God's testament and will.
You all know what a will is, a last will and testament. That's
what he's talking about. He offered himself like the high
priest of old without spot to God to purge our guilty consciences
and put away our sins and assure our hearts before God. And for
this cause, Hebrews 9.15, he is the mediator. He is the one
who dispenses. accomplishes this covenant. He's the only one that can. They're
one mediator between God and me and the man, Christ Jesus.
He's the only one who can. He's the mediator of the New
Testament. Now, listen to this last line.
That by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions
that were under that first testament, Those transgressions of God's
holy law, of God's will, of God's authority, all those transgressions
under that first testament, they which are called might receive
the promise of the eternal inheritance. Huh? Everybody that's called. Now, in the light of this, let
me read you this last verse here in John chapter 16. These things have I spoken unto
you, that in me you might have peace. In the world, you're going
to have tribulation, trouble. But be of good cheer. I have
overcome the world. He stood on this earth a representative
man, a covenant head like Adam. And that's going to be my text
here in just a little bit. In Adam, all die. In Christ,
all are made alive. That first man, he's of the earth,
earthy. That second man is the Lord from
heaven. He stood here, a representative
man, a covenant head, a mediator, the great high priest, the one
prophet. Moses said, the Lord's going
to send you a prophet like unto me. Christ is that prophet. David
said there's going to be another king. God's going to raise him
up and sit him on the throne and his rule is going to be forever.
That's Christ, the king. He's the great high priest. He's
like Melchizedek without beginning or without end. Everything under that old dispensation
before the coming of Christ is done away. It's finished. It's
finished. Well, you mean it? It don't mean
what it meant back then. Absolutely it means what it meant
back then, but he accomplished it. He fulfilled it. I dig a hole and the hole's done.
I'm not going to dig it again. It's done. It's finished. That's what he says about the
law. It's finished. Christ is the end of the law
to everyone that believe it. Why? Because he accomplished
it. He accomplished it. That's why
he prayed for Israel. He said, I bear them witness.
They have a zeal of God, but it's not according to knowledge.
For they, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, are still
going about trying to accomplish one. Quit trying to accomplish
it. It's finished. It's finished. Quit trying to make atonement
for your sins. The atonement's been made. I don't need an earthly priest.
I've got a great high priest passed into the heavens. Why
would I need a priest here? I have a great high priest who's
passed into the heavens, who's seated at the right hand of God. I don't need an altar. Paul said,
we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat would still
serve that old tabernacle. We have an altar. We don't need cities of refuge.
Christ is my refuge. I need to get to Him. We don't
need special dress. We're robed in His spotless righteousness. Turn with me over to 2 Samuel
chapter 6. I want to show you something
here about this. Over here in 2 Samuel chapter
6, this is the story about David going down to recover the ark.
Now God gave them instruction about that ark of the covenant.
They were to put staves in it, certain length, certain diameter,
told what they were to be made out of. And this thing was to
be borne about by the priest. They were to carry this. But
David got excited and in his zeal he had them build a brand
new cart. Probably decorated that thing
all up and had symbols of the kingdom and might have had David's
picture on the side of it for all I know. But they had this
brand new cart. And they took this thing down
there and he made a big processional about it. He made a big thing
about it. And he loaded the Ark of the Covenant up on the cart.
He didn't carry it. The priest didn't carry it. He
loaded it up on the cart and was coming back. And those old ox pulling that
cart drove that thing, and it fell off into a pothole. And
when it did, that ark raised up. And Uzzah, walking along
beside the cart, reached up to keep the ark from falling off.
God killed him dead in a wedge. And David, realizing what happened,
turned in at Obed-Edom and left that ark there for several months,
several months. And then David, when he got the
news that the house of Obed-Edom was blessed because of the ark,
he sent down the priest to bear it up the way he should have
done to start with. Now watch this. 2 Samuel 6 verse 14. And David danced before the Lord
with all his might. Now here's these priests. They're
bearing this ark. They're coming up the rope. And
now here's the king of Israel. And all he's got on is a little
epon. And he's out leaping and dancing.
And he was girded with a linen epon. And as the ark of the Lord
came into the city of David, Michael, Saul's daughter, this
was David's wife, looked through a window and saw King David leaping
and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him before the
Lord. Then David returned to bless
the household, verse 20. And Michael, the daughter of
Saul, came out to meet David and said, How glorious was the
king of Israel today! Oh, you really put on a show.
You uncovered yourself today in the eyes of the handmaids
of thy servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth
himself. You're dancing naked out in front
of the cart and everybody's seeing you. Don't you? Boy, you're really
somebody. She despised him before the Lord.
Now watch this. David said, it was before the
Lord. I wasn't dancing for the handmaids.
This was before the Lord. Which chose me before they did
your father. And before all his house to appoint
me ruler over all the people of the Lord over Israel. Therefore will I glory before
the Lord, and I will yet be more vile than thus. And I'll be base
in my own sight, and of the maidservants which thou hast spoken of, of
them I'll be held in honor." What on earth is going on? What's
he talking about? What was all this rejoicing and
dancing naked before the Ark? What in the world is he talking
about? Brethren, believers rejoice naked before Christ, having only
His righteousness. Do you understand that? Having
only His righteousness. I don't have any other cover.
That's why David was dancing before that ark. He knew that
God in his righteousness smote even Uzzah, who was trying to
do good, but he did it ignorantly. And he touched that which he
was forbidden to be touched. And he realized he didn't have
any righteousness except that of Christ. And he danced before
that ark and rejoiced in that righteousness. He didn't have any covering,
but that priestly Ephraim We don't have any covering but
that of Christ's righteousness. And while this world sees us
as vile, you preach grace that sin may
abound. Is that what we do? They see
us vile. Naked sinners dance before the
Lord. They rejoice before the ark.
Faith is persuaded that everything that God has for sinners is accomplished
and fulfilled in Christ, of which that ark was a picture. No peace
anywhere else. There's no hope in anything else
and there's no rest except in Christ. A priest cannot absolve
your sin. You believe that, you're deceived.
You're deceived. Preachers cannot pray you through
to God. They all gather around you. They
used to when I was a kid and they'd all pray and had their
hands up. They can't pray you through to God. Saints cannot
bring you good fortune. And the church cannot bring you
to God. Peter said Christ suffered for
sins. The just for the unjust that
he might bring us to God. Huh? Ain't that what it says?
That he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh
and quickened by the Spirit. These things, you see, these
things is what brings comfort. These things that he told us. Things about God's purpose and
will and God's promises and oaths, God's means and methods, God's
intentions and goals. These things have I, the Lord,
the prophet of God, the one mediator, the great high priest, these
things have I spoken unto you that in me, now that's where
it's at, in me you might have peace. In me. In the world, religious
or not, in the world, healthy or sick, in the world, rich or
poor, in the world, young or old, you're going to have tribulation. That's what you're going to have.
Tribulation. But he said, be of good cheer.
I have overcome the world. I have. Not you. I have. I have. Nothing apart from Christ in
this world that can give you peace. I promise you this, our
government's not going to give you any peace. It hasn't given
me any. It's not going to give you any
peace. And I promise you that your husband and wife ain't going
to give you peace. I promise you that your children
are not going to give you any peace. And I promise you that
a successful business is not going to bring you peace. Peace
is in Christ. You have peace in Christ, and
you'll have peace with your wife. Yes, you will. Yes, you will. You'll have peace in your business,
successful or not. You'll have peace. You'll have peace with your children,
even when they go out and do what you told them. And you know
the result of it. You know where they're headed.
You know the pothole. They're all going to fall in
them. I won't fall in them. You still going to have peace.
Still going to have peace. To all in Christ. We find peace
through the justifying blood and righteousness of Christ.
And we find peace in His authority as the reigning high priest,
seated at the right hand of God, directing, arranging all providence,
all things. Salvation. Salvation. Preacher, you just don't know
where we are. There are no preachers over here. No, I don't know it,
but he does. He does. He knew that Ethiopian
eunuch was out in the middle of that wilderness and sent him
a preacher, didn't he? Huh? Sent him a preacher. And that's what he does. He finds
his own. And seated at the right hand
of God with all authority, He sins and does as He pleases to
accomplish the will of God. May God give us an understanding
of those things.