Since we began studying the book
of John, it's been difficult for me to imagine not studying
the book of John. Just about every day, it's my
delight to meditate on it, to look into it, and to preach from
it. As pitiful as the attempt is,
you could just about read the book of John without comment
and we could go home rejoicing, we certainly would. There's no
question we could do that. Look at verse 25 this morning. Remember now, our Lord is meeting
with His disciples only, with those who have said with Peter, to whom
shall we go? Most have forsaken Him. branded
him a fraud and if not violently opposed him. Many just walked
away, turned and walked no more with him. Many violently opposed
him, but there was a handful. There were a few. Just a little,
he called them my little flock. He said, don't be afraid, little
flock. It's my father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
He speaks to them here. He says, These things have I
spoken with you, verse 25, chapter 14, being yet present with you.
There are some things, he said, I want to and will say to you
and have said to you while I'm here, while my bodily presence
is here with you. But the Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach
you all things. Don't think when I leave here
and I'm not sitting here speaking with you that you're not going
to be taught of God. The Holy Spirit, my Spirit, will
come and teach you all things and bring all things to remembrance
whatsoever I have said unto you. He's going to say some things
to you that the Lord said there are many things which I could
have said to you but you couldn't hear them now. You can't bear
them now. But the Holy Ghost will come
and He'll teach you some things and He'll remind you what I said
to you. Look at verse 27. Peace I leave with you. What are you talking about? My
peace. 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. You have heard how I said unto
you, I go away and come again unto you. If you loved me, you
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, you 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. And we'll
stop there today. Any man who is going away for
a long time leaving those that he loves, might wish to leave
something with those that he loves, not only to remember him
by, but to benefit them. If I was going to leave my family
for a long period of time for some reason, I'd want to leave
something with them that would be a help to them. If I had it,
whatever I had at my disposal that would help them, I'd give
it to them before I left, wouldn't you? Now we know in the greatest sense
our Lord has never left us. He promised. We've already claimed
that promise this morning, haven't we? I will never leave thee nor
forsake thee. Never. And He's been true to
that promise. But He also knows that we are
creatures of sense. And He knows that His disciples
were creatures of sense. That his bodily presence being
absent from them would affect them. So he leaves a parting gift with
them. My peace. My peace. He said, here, my peace I give unto you. I give
it to you. Knowing what they needed the
most. He gave it to them. They already
had forgiveness of sin. They had pardon of all their
iniquity. They had redemption through His
blood. Though He had not died yet, His blood is the everlasting
blood of an everlasting covenant. He's the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. They have faith in Him. They
said, where would we go? You have the words of eternal
life. We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ. The
Son of the Living God. They have faith. They have knowledge.
They have the Gospel. He prayed to the Father in John
17, 8. I have given unto them the words which thou gavest Me.
And they received them and have known surely that I came out
from thee. And they have believed that thou didst send Me. They
had the truth and they had faith in His truth. These gifts from
Him. They have His almighty protection.
He prayed to the Father, I've given them your word and the
world hath hated them because they're not of this world, even
as I'm not of this world. I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of this world, but I do pray for this, that
thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of this world, even
as I'm not of this world. Don't let this world or the prince
of this world, touch them. They'll be in this world, but
they'll be protected. They have all of this wisdom.
Christ has made unto us the wisdom of God, righteousness, sanctification,
redemption, constant protection, and loving providence, always
working all things for our good. What do you give somebody that
has everything? This world is running from its
own shadow. People are taking every imaginable
drug, legal and otherwise, just to cope with everyday life. And
don't imagine that I'm some kind of staunch and unaffected statue,
somehow imperturbable. Sometimes just the common everyday
things of life are overwhelming for us, too, aren't they? But
I've got something this world doesn't have. And you don't need
a prescription to get it. You need a Savior. You need my Savior. You need the One who said to
His disciples, and to me, to my heart, I will not leave you
comfortless. I will come to you. That's who
you need. My peace I give unto you, not
as this world giveth, In what sense, in what way is it not
as this world gives? Well, this world promises peace,
doesn't it? And they talk about it all the
time, striving for it. And they give something that
they call peace, don't they? This world does. But this world's
peace is false peace. Religion gives to the people
of this world something they call peace. Go in peace, not
my son, you know. God said through his prophet
Jeremiah in 614, they have healed also the hurt of the daughter
of my people slightly. Saying peace, peace, when there
is no peace. They have a false peace. Slightly
they've healed God accuses them of healing my people slightly
That means they put a band-aid on a deadly infectious wound
They cover up the problem without ever really treating the true
problem. You're a sinner before God Well, you need to make that
all-important decision. How's that gonna solve my problem
me making a decision? My decisions are my problem Not the solution. Christ is the
solution to my problem. They say, peace, peace. You're
a sinner? Oh, well, you need to get down
to that old time altar, don't you? And get saved. That's what
you just need to get saved. You've done that? Oh, well, then
peace, all is well. No, no. Not all is well. You've accepted Jesus as your
personal Savior? Peace, no. You may have accepted
Him, but God will not accept you on those terms. Not on those
terms. He accepts sinners in His Son,
and only in His Son. The peace that Christ gives is
true peace, because it's based upon redemption and satisfaction. The peace of this world is based
upon something that man does. Whether it's man forgiving, or
man working, or man reforming, or man doing something, there's
no peace in that. Christ is our peace. And then
secondly, this peace is not like the world's peace because the
world's peace is transient. It's temporal. It's fleeting
peace. Listen to Job chapter 8. You
can turn there if you'd like to. I want you to listen closely
if you don't though. Job chapter 8 and verse 11. This
question is asked, can the rush grow up without mire? The reed
that grows in the swamp, can it grow up without that swampy
water? Can the flag grow without water
whilst it is yet in its greenness and not cut down? It withereth
before any other herb if you take away that which it needs. It's the first thing to die.
So are the paths of all that forget God. And the hypocrite's
hope shall perish Well, wait a minute, they've forgotten God.
They don't have any hope. Well, they think they do, though.
Everybody has hope. Everybody has hope. But the hypocrite's
hope shall perish, whose hope shall be cut off and whose trust
shall be a spider's web. He shall lean upon his house,
but it shall not stand. He shall hold it fast, but it
shall not endure. It's beautiful. It looks good.
but it won't last. If your peace is based upon security
and trust in the things of this world, what happens to your peace
when the things of this world pass away? And the Lord said,
the fashion of this world passeth away. Christ's peace is eternal
because He Himself is our peace and He's the everlasting Son
of God. We have peace because we have Him. And we have Him
forever. Well, the world's peace also
is external peace. This world gives peace that's
based upon physical things, outward things, and so can only be external
and shallow. But Christ's peace is heart peace. It's peace within our very soul. It can't be touched. It can't
be easily shaken. because it's anchored in the
heart. Philippians 4, 7, And the peace of God which passeth
all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. When Job had lost everything
he had, he was able to say from his heart to the Lord gave and
the Lord took away. And he blessed God from his heart.
Why? Because the peace of God ruled
in his heart. And then the world's peace is
selfish peace. Think about that with me for
a minute. This world will give you peace, or at least what it
calls peace, for a price. The religion of this world reflects
this. Christ gives freely. Freely. You have to earn peace
from this world, don't you? You have to act like you're supposed
to and give like you're supposed to and do like you're supposed
to. The world's peace is costly and worthless. Christ's peace
is priceless and free. Neither the gift nor the way
it is given is like this world. And that gladdens my heart. This
world doesn't have much for me, does it you? Not since I met Him. How does this peace come? Mysteriously,
certainly. The Lord just gives peace as
He is pleased and in the measure that pleases Him. Especially
when we need it the most. I know that. Have you experienced
that? especially when you most need it. These disciples were
going to really need this gift that he left with them. And he
gave it at the right time. But I believe the means by which
it comes, by which God gives peace, generally speaking, is
given right here in our text. Look at verse 25. 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. And then verse 27, he says, My
peace I give unto you. If you notice the context here,
I believe that there is an unspoken connection there between verse
26 and 27. You can read verse 26 and 27
and say, in other words, in between there, and not violate the text. Look at it. But the Comforter,
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name,
He'll teach you all things. And we know that He said in another
place, He'll show you, He'll take the things of mine and show
them to you. He teaches us concerning Christ,
who He is and what He did for sinners. And He'll teach you
and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have
said to you. In other words, peace I leave with you. When
I go, He comes. My peace I give unto you. Not
as the world. Let not your heart be troubled.
He's still saying the same thing, just in a different, more explanatory
way in verse 27. He will teach you, the Holy Spirit
will teach you. Will He come into your mind and
heart in the night while you're asleep and infuse knowledge into
your brain mysteriously somehow? No. No, we know better than that,
no. Will He mystically somehow cause
us to hear voices or just be taught mysteriously without even
knowing we're being taught. No. We know better than that,
don't we? The Holy Spirit has always taught
God's people the same way. Listen to some scripture here.
Don't turn to these because I'm going to read them quickly. Acts
1 16. Men and brethren, he's preaching
the gospel here and he says, this scripture that I just quoted
to you must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth
of David spake. before concerning Judas, which
was God to them that took Jesus. The Holy Spirit spoke it, but
He did it by the mouth of David. You see that? Acts 4.31, And
when they had prayed, the place was shaken, where they were assembled
together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they
spake the word of God with boldness. That's when a man will speak
the Word of God now with boldness. A natural man can speak all kinds
of other things just generally and randomly. But if a man speaks
the Word of God with boldness, the Holy Spirit has something
to say. It's always been that way. Acts
28, 25, When they agreed not among themselves, they departed,
after that Paul had spoken one word. Paul said to them this,
Well, spake the Holy Ghost, by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers.
The Holy Spirit speaks by his servant, by his spokesman, by
a man. Second Peter 121, for the prophecy
came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So when Christ says, the
Holy Spirit, the Comforter will come and he'll teach you, how's
he gonna do that? We know, don't we? Same way he's
always done that. This hasn't changed. Now we have
another key in our text as to how Christ will give us peace. Give us peace. Look at verse
29. He said, I speak these things
to you now while I'm with you so that before they happen, before
this even comes to pass, I'm telling you, teaching you this,
so that when it does come to pass, you might what? Believe. You might believe. He
will teach us by His Holy Spirit the same way He has always done
that. And He will cause us to believe
what is taught. Peace. Is that how He gave you
peace? Long after He spoke these words
of comfort to His disciples, how did He give peace to your
heart? By causing you to hear His Gospel and causing you to
believe it. How are you comforted? By hearing
the gospel and saying, that's right. Everything I've been thinking
all week is wrong, and that's right. That's right. Isn't that
it? To the extent that you believe,
you will have His peace. Write it down. All right, verse
28 again. You have heard how I said unto
you, I go away and come again unto you. He didn't just say,
I'm going away. He said, I'm going away and then
I'm coming again. He's so gracious. He reminds
them of that again. I didn't say I was going away.
I said, I was going away and then I'm coming back. That's
what I said. If you loved me, you would rejoice
because I said, I go unto the father for my father is greater
than I. Now we know in what sense the
Father is greater than the Son, because we see that elsewhere
in Scripture. In office, the Father is the
one who sent Christ, and Christ is the one being sent. He is
the sent one. The Father is the one who requires
satisfaction in this matter of grace toward sinners, and the
Son is the one who obeys. and submits and becomes the satisfaction,
or fulfills that satisfaction. He's always been that satisfaction.
He came and fulfilled it on earth in time. What does he mean here,
if you loved me? Do they not love him? I believe
that they did, don't you? I believe they loved him. I believe
that's why they were upset to begin with, that he was leaving,
and why he needed to comfort them, because they loved him.
They didn't want him to leave. They didn't want him to leave.
And I guarantee you, if you had him bodily present with you,
you wouldn't want him to leave either. We're creatures of sense,
aren't we? We know that he's here this morning,
don't we? But what if we could see him
here? What if we could say as John, our hands have handled
the Word of life? We don't need that. Faith doesn't
need that. But we would cling to that, wouldn't
we? What if he visited us for a few moments this morning and
said, I've got to go? There wouldn't be a believer in here that wasn't
begging him not to leave. Begging him, don't go, Savior,
don't go. They loved him. They loved him. But he says here, if you loved
me like you should love me. Their love for him was the reason
that they were They were troubled at his departure. So he's not
saying here that there's no love for him, but he's directing their
love. He's teaching them in their life. He's instructing them to love
him knowledgeably. If you loved me aright, if you
knew, if your love was knowledgeable love, the fact that I'm leaving
you would not cause you to weep. Not tears of sorrow, it would
cause you to weep tears of joy. Can we learn that this morning?
Why would the fact that His Father is greater and that He's going
unto the Father be reason why their love for Him should cause
rejoicing? Why would that be the case? Because, first of all, it's the
purpose of God and the will of God that the Father, having finished
the work that the Father gave Him to do, return and present
Himself in our room instead. in the very presence of God in
that Holy of Holies, not made with hands, with His own precious
blood having been offered. And indeed, a vital part of that
work is for Him to present Himself unto the Father as our High Priest. That's not just, okay, the work
is done, now I'm going. That's part of the work. It's
finished, includes that. He goes and presents Himself
as our representative unto the Father to be seated on the right
hand of the throne of God. A man is seated in glory. That's
why He had to go. Does that cause you to rejoice?
My brother's on the throne. That ought to cause us to shout
hallelujah, my friend. And because it redounds to the
glory of both Father and Son. And don't you desire His glory? That's why our love for Him should
cause rejoicing that He's going unto the Father. Because loving
Him, we desire His glory. And when we see Him accepted
of the Father, we see the fulfillment of what He prayed. In John 17
3, He said, This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. I have glorified
Thee on the earth. I have finished the work that
Thou gavest Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou
Me. with thine own self, with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was." No doubt that
was fulfilled at the cross, but also in glory itself, in the
very presence of the Father, Christ was glorified, because
He speaks in the context as though He was already there. You read
John 17, He said, Now I am no more in this world. So you understand in that context,
He's talking about the glory of being in the very presence
of His Father again as a man. I can't even, I can't even talk
about that. And seeing Him glorified, seeing our brother glorified
is our great desire. even if it's not pleasing to
the flesh. We don't want Him to go. We don't want Him to leave.
But, oh, He said, it behooves you that I go unto my Father. If we love Him, we desire that
and rejoice in Him. Look at verse 30. He said, Hereafter now, from
now on, I won't talk much with you, for the Prince of this world
cometh. and have 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. I'm almost through. Give me your
undivided attention for about 10 minutes here. This is the
best thing I've read in a long time. He did not talk much with
them in these last few days that he was on this earth in his bodily
presence. Oh, but what he said. Even as he is saying here, I
won't speak much with you, what he says in that very sentence
is all of my hope as a sinner. The prince of this world will
come. He will enter into Judas Iscariot. It says that Satan
entered into a man. And he sent his servant Judas
on an errand of monumental evil, representing every one of us
apart from Christ. We all despise Christ and would
betray him. We would sell him for less than
30 pieces of silver if the Lord left us to ourselves for two
seconds. And he's going to destroy the
one that you love, the one that breaks your heart that I'm leaving
you. And the manner in which I leave will break your heart. And the one in whom you've believed
and placed all of your trust and left all and followed. But
understand this, Satan's going to come and do this, but he hath
nothing in me. The Lord Jesus Christ doesn't
have to say much. to say everything, everything. My problem is this, and I mean
my problem. I mean my problem from which
every problem I have springs is this. Satan has something
in me. He had something in my father
Adam from the very beginning, didn't Satan can lie and cheat
and connive and scheme, but Adam sinned because of something in
Adam. And it's also in me. It's not
in my Savior. The result of all of Satan's
efforts to destroy and to thwart my mastery will be twofold according
to Christ here in our text. Satan's going to come. He's going
to do everything he can to destroy your hope, to destroy, to mar,
to degrade the holiness and glory of God, to defeat God who cast
him out of his presence. He's going to do everything he
can to be victorious in this thing. And the result will be
twofold. Now, before we talk about that,
let's talk about the result of Satan's attack on me and my father
Adam. The result of Satan's attack
on Adam and upon me, absolutely. Every day, unless God restrains
him from being victorious in it. Every day. Alright? When he attacks Adam
in his subtlety and craftiness and lying, perverting the Word
of God, undermining the truth of God, the Gospel of God's grace,
he twists it and perverts it and adds man's efforts and works
even just a decision, all you have to do is accept it. There
you go, there's Satan's foot in the door right there. You've
got to do something to please God. What's the result of that? Well, the first one is this.
When Satan was successful upon Adam, when he attacked Adam,
the first result was everybody could see that Adam loved himself
and not God. You'll be his gods. This is going
to be good for you, Adam. God doesn't want you to do what's
good for you. He wants you to do what's good for him. And I
said, well, wait a second. That don't sound right. And you see the result of Satan's
attack, and you say, Adam loves Adam. He doesn't love God. And the second result is this. You see Adam disobey God's clear
command. Thou shalt eat freely of every
tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, thou shalt not eat of it." Nothing ambiguous about
that, nothing unclear about it, nothing unreasonable about it.
That's God's rightful established authority as the sovereign, and
man's place is to humbly submit and obey. And Adam, what did
Adam do? He clearly disobeyed the clear commandment of God. Is
that what your flesh does? Me too. Me too. And it's not
Satan's fault. It's my fault. Satan has something
in me, you see. He has something to work with. All right, the Lord Jesus Christ
said, Satan's coming, and he's going to come after me, but he
has nothing in me. And what's going to be the two
results of Satan's attack upon me? Everybody's going to know
that I love my father. Do you see that as Satan tempts
him in the desert and says, If you
just do that, I'll give you, I'll bless you, I'll make you
somebody." And the Lord Jesus Christ said, Man shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God. All of Satan's efforts to defeat
my Savior resulted in this. The Lord Jesus Christ said that
the world may know that I love my Father. And then the second thing, that
we see as a result of Satan coming and having nothing in Christ
is this, everything that my Father hath required of me, no matter
what Satan does or says or anybody else that he uses, even so I
do. That's my Savior. That's my hope. He's my gospel. obedient to the law all through
his life, obedient unto death as the mediator of the new covenant.
That's my Savior. That's my Lord and my God. That's
my righteousness. He is my righteousness. And He's
my sin offering. Having loved the Father and obeyed
the Father, He laid down His perfect spotless shed, His holy,
precious, priceless blood for my sins. And it was effectual. It got the job done. God saw
me, the sinner, and then he sees my substitute shed his precious
blood for my sin. And God says, I'm satisfied.
I'm satisfied. And then the Lord said to Arise,
let us go hence. I can get up from here this morning
and go hence with that knowledge, with that truth, with that gospel
in my heart and not let my heart be troubled. Can you? Neither
let it be afraid. I can go from here rejoicing
because my Savior faced up to all of the blast and fury of
hell itself and loved His Father and did exactly what his father
told him to do. And that's my representative.
He did that on my behalf. And I stand in him. Rejoice. Don't be troubled. Don't be afraid.
My peace I leave with you. Let's bow in prayer.