14, 15, and 16 were the words that he spoke
to his disciples, preparing them for his going away, for his death, for their ministry, for the trials
that they would endure, for the burdens that they would bear,
for the disappointments they would experience, for all these
things. And he says in verse 1 of chapter
16, these things have I spoken unto you, that you should not
be offended, that you should not be taken unaware, and that
you should not falter in the way. Some difficult times ahead,
that's what he's saying. There's some hard times. There's
some great and heavy trials in your future. And I'm telling
you about them now, that you might not be offended when you
experience them. You might not be taken unaware. This morning, let me read a verse
or two that I used this morning in John 15. He says in verse 18, the world
will hate you. If the world hate you, you know
that it hated me before it hated you. It's a hate. It hated me. We say that the
world, the religious world hates God. And people are shocked when we
say that, but they do hate God. They don't hate their God. They
don't hate their idea of God. They don't hate the God that
they worship, as the idolater does not hate his God. But they
hate the God of the Bible. That's what the Lord's saying,
that they hate the true God, the living God. Now, if you were
of the world, verse 19, the world would love you. But because you're
not of this world, Your message is not the same message. Your
gospel is not the same gospel. But I've chosen you out of the
world, and therefore the world hateth you. Now watch this person.
Remember the word that I said to you. Keep this in mind all
through your life. The servant is not greater than
his Lord. If they persecuted me, they'll
persecute you. If they kept my saying, they'll
keep yours." Now, our Lord gave notice to
these apostles, to his people, of the world's hatred and persecution,
that they might be prepared. Someone said, hardships and trials
and disappointments are difficult at all times. But when they come
unexpected, when they come unawares, when we're not prepared for them,
when we don't know that they're coming, they're hard on our spirits. But if we expect them, if our
Lord has told us and we believe Him that they're coming, Persecution. Harassment over
the gospel. Harassment over a lot of things. He said, Paul said, Alexander
the coppersmith did me much evil. He made my way difficult. By several things he made my
way hard. And he said God reward him according
to his But when you expect that, then you're not offended. When
you expect it, you're not caught unawares. And when you expect
it, it doesn't knock you down. It's like a man said to me one
time after a severe trial came his way through a former friend.
He said, well, I'm disappointed, but I'm not surprised. He didn't
catch me by surprise. I'm disappointed, but I'm not
surprised. That's the way of all flesh.
That's the way the flesh behaves and you can expect it to. And
he said in verse 2, they'll put you out of the synagogue. What
does this mean to be put out of the synagogue? It means on
their part they'll cast you away from God. They'll exclude you from the
whole body of believers. They'll exclude you from the
body of the kingdom of God. They'll exclude you from all
spiritual blessings. They'll put you out. That's what they did to the blind
man, you remember? They put him out. They'll put
you out of the synagogue. Now watch this statement. And
the time will come when whosoever kills you will think, listen
to this, that he Doeth God a service? Let me ask you a question. How
can people murder, actually murder, destroy a person, destroy them
in the name of God and feel no guilt and no remorse? How can they just destroy you
and not feel any guilt? Well, I'll tell you one reason.
They think you're a heretic. They think you're a blasphemer.
They think your doctrine and your gospel is evil. And they think when they stamp
you out, they're stamping out an evil. It's exactly right. The old Jews, according to history,
the old Jews felt like if they killed a heretic or a blasphemer, it was the same
as offering a sacrifice to God. That's what they thought. if
they could destroy a person whom they believed to be a heretic,
that they were ruining the camp of an idol, and they were doing
God a favor. Saul of Tarsus thought that.
Let me show you that. Turn to Acts chapter 26. He actually
thought, when he killed those believers in Christ, that he
was serving God. Look at Acts. This is by his
own testimony. in Acts chapter 26. And you ask, how can people just
murder in the name of God and feel no remorse? Listen to Saul
of Tarsus, Acts 26 verse 9. I very thought with myself that
I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
I thought that. this strongly religious man,
Saul of Tarsus, which things I also did in Jerusalem. And
many of the saints that I shut up in prison, having received
authority from the chief priest, and when they were put to death,
I gave my voice against them. This man, this This Pharisee, this member of
the Sanhedrin, this deeply devout religious man held the coats
of the men who stoned Stephen and gave his approval to murder
in the name of God. That's religious nature. when the gospel of God's grace
is at stake. I remember when I was pastor
of Pollard Baptist Church here in this town, trying to preach
the gospel of God's grace, the same message I'm preaching right
now. The message I brought you this morning, I preached over
there in February 1953, that message I brought you this morning. And after it was preached, that's
out of the sincerity of my soul and heart, I preached the gospel
of God's grace, honestly, before the people, telling the truth
about God. I had three children. Doris and
I were young, trying to raise a little family, not making much
money. They had a meeting of the ladies'
class. And some of those dear, sweet
grandmothers made a covenant, and this was the covenant. If
we can't vote him out, we'll starve him out. That's grace,
isn't it? Starve him. We'll starve that
young preacher, and starve his wife, and starve his three children. That's true, isn't it? How do
people do that in the name of God? talk that way in the name of
God. I'll tell you why. Because they
hate God. They hate his gospel. And they
hate his picture. That's right. And that's what
our Lord is warning them about here. He said, I'm telling you.
I'm telling you now. If they hate me, they'll hate
you. And if they won't receive my message, they're not going
to receive yours either. And they persecute me, which they
did. They despised him. They hid, as it were, their faces
from him. They spit in his face because
they hated his father and his gospel. And he's warning us,
don't... I'm shocked, but I am not surprised. Isn't that right, Paul? We're
not surprised. We expected it, didn't we? He told us it's coming. He told, it just, and these things,
look at verse 3, and these things will they do to you, because
they've not known the Father, nor me. That's why they do it,
they don't know God. Our Lord in this verse opens
the true source of all hatred against God's preacher, and those who believe the gospel. They hate you and they hate those
who believe the gospel because they do not know the God of the
Bible, God of the gospel, Christ of the gospel. You see, somebody
says, well, that's being hard. Well, no, it's just being truthful. Turn to John 8 and listen to
the Master. Now, he's talking to these religious
folks here in John chapter 8, verse 41. And he says in verse 41 of John
8, you do the deeds of your father. And they said, then said they
to him, we be not born of fornication, we have one father, even God. And Jesus said, listen, if God
were your father, if he were, if you knew him,
you would love me. You'd love my words. You'd love
my gospel. You'd love my grace. You'd love
my mercy. You'd love my blood. You'd love
my righteousness. You'd love me! Don't faint. Don't quit. And down here in verse 4, he
said, the last sentence in verse 4, and these things, John 16,
verse 4, and these things, I said not unto you at the beginning,
because I was with you. I didn't, I didn't, I didn't
talk to you about this some time ago. This is at the, see he's,
he's already been with them three and a half years nearly. This
is just before he goes to the cross. And he said, I didn't
tell you about what to expect about these things before because
I was with you. The Lord didn't talk about this
rage of men and hatred of the religious crowd before. Why not? He said, because I was with you.
I was with you. And the hatred and the malice
was directed toward him. They left the disciples alone,
didn't they, John? They didn't tackle Peter and
James and John. It was Christ, you see, that
they hated. The world was against him, his
word, his atonement, while he was with The disciples, the religious
crowd, left him alone. But he said, now I'm going back
to the Father. They'll come after you. They'll come after you. They can't touch him. They don't
know where he is even. But they know where you live.
They'll declare war on you because of their hatred for his message. Let me show you something in
Matthew 23. This is so interesting here. The master talking here
in Matthew chapter 23 to that religious crowd. In Matthew chapter 23, he said,
beginning with verse 29, Woe unto you, woe unto you scribes
and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You build the tombs of the prophets
and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous. What's that talking
about? You build monuments to Moses and Abraham, these old dead prophets,
Isaiah, King David, You build monuments to them. You erect
beautiful memorials and put their names on it. They're dead pictures,
dead prophets. And you say in verse 30, if we
lived in the day of our fathers, when our fathers were hating
Moses and hating David and hating Isaiah and hating Elijah Those
men stood alone. Isaiah said, Who hath believed
our report? To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? Well, if we'd have lived during those days, we would
not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
We wouldn't have destroyed these men. Christ said in verse 31, Wherefore
you be witnesses unto yourself that you are the children of
them that killed the prophets. So fill you up then the measure
of your fathers. You serpents, you generation
of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore,
behold, I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, and some
of them you kill and crucify, and some of them you scourge
in your synagogues and persecute them." In other words, what our
Lord is saying is, this is true all the way. When Moses was living, they hated
him. And when Moses died, they hated
the prophet that was on the scene then and bragged on Moses. Hated
Isaiah and Elijah. And then when they were dead
and Christ came, they bragged on the prophet and hated Christ. And then when Christ and the
apostles were dead, they hated Luther and Calvin and Whitfield
and Luton and Spurgeon. And now those men are dead, and they hate the preachers that
are preaching what those men preach. They're building monuments
to those men. The religious folks named their
sons for Luther and Calvin and Knox and Spurgeon. But when those
men were here, they broke their hearts. They killed them. But now that they're dead, they
brag on them and they break the hearts of the living from them.
Never trust a man who spends all his time talking about dead
preachers. Never trust him. It's the easiest
thing in the world to follow a dead preacher and brag on them. and hate the one that God has
on the scene at this time." See, that's a normal, that's the normal
pharisaical spirit. That's right. Our Lord said that.
And he said, tell you in verse 35 what's going to happen, "...upon
you will come all the righteous blood shed on this earth from
the blood of righteous Abel, the son of Zacharias, Righteous
Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barakas, whom you slew
between the altar and the temple in the altar." I know people
that think Brother Barnard is the greatest thing that ever
lived. He's dead. When he was alive, he didn't
have that many friends. Not that many at all. But that's the normal spirit.
You see, so Christ said, when I was with you, I didn't tell
you about this that was coming, because they're working me over.
But when I'm gone, they'll love Jesus and hate you. It's normal. Now verse 6, because
I said this, sorrow has filled your heart. Sorrow has filled your heart.
Verse 5, he says, I go my way to him that sent me, and none
of you ask, whither goest thou? You know, back there when he
told them the first time he was leaving, turn to John 13. This
is interesting. John 13, verse 36. Watch this. This is so interesting.
Simon Peter said to him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered
him, whither I go, you cannot follow me now, but you shall
follow me. And Peter said, Lord, why can't I follow you now. I
lay down my life for you." Peter was ready to go with him then.
In John 14, he talked about leaving. Look again, John 14, verse 3. And I go to prepare a place for
you, and I will come again and receive you unto myself. And
where I am, there you may be also. And whether I go, you know
in the way. You know, Thomas said, we don't
know where you're going. How can we know the way? But now
here in verse 5, He tells them where he's going. I go my way
to him that sent me. I came from the Father, I go
back to the Father. And none of you ask me now where
you're going. You know where I'm going. But because I've said these things
to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But, now watch verse 7. I'm going to tell you the truth,"
he says. It's expedient for you that I go. He said to these poor,
broken-hearted disciples, their master was leaving them, he said,
it's absolutely necessary for you that I go, that I die, that
I rise again, that I go to the Father, because His death atoned
for our sins. It's necessary. His death removed
the curse of the law. Necessary. His death enabled
God to be just and justify us. It's necessary. It's expedient.
His blood secured peace and reconciliation and atonement. His blood opened
the way for us into the holiest by the blood of Christ. It's
expedient. His resurrection and exaltation
gives us a high place. If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father. It's expedient. His presence
with the Father transacts all of our business with the living
God and possesses and prepares by His presence for us a place. Oh, he said if you just knew. He talked about leaving, and
Peter said, let me go. Not now. You're a father. I go to prepare a place for you.
Well, we don't know where you're going. Well, now you do. I'm
going to the cross, and the tomb, and the presence of God. And
sorrow has filled your heart. But it ought not to, because
it's necessary that I go away. But listen, it's expedient for you that I
go away, for if I go not away, if this doesn't take place, the
Holy Spirit will not come to you. If I do not die on the cross
and rise from the tomb and ascend to the Father, the Holy Spirit
will not come to you. If Christ had not died and risen
and been exalted, there wouldn't be any use for the Holy Spirit
to come to you, wouldn't it? He wouldn't have any blood to
sprinkle. He wouldn't have any righteousness to reveal. He wouldn't
have any peace and message and gospel of peace to deliver. He
wouldn't have any elect to quicken. He wouldn't have any promises He wouldn't have any glory to
bestow. He wouldn't have any gospel to preach. He wouldn't
have any comfort for distressed people. Ah, the Lord Jesus said,
it's expedient that I go to the cross, and the tomb, and to the
Father. For if I go not away, the comforter
will not come. If I depart, as I told you, I'll
send him to you." And when he's come, listen, and when he's come, he's going to reprove, he's going
to convince this world, you and all of my people, the elect,
he's going to convince them of sin. and of righteousness and of judgment.
Now, Holy Spirit conviction is necessary. Brother B.B. Carwell used to contend that
it wasn't difficult to get a man saved if God got him lost. It's not too hard to get a drowning
man to grab hold of a lifebuoy. Now, it's pretty hard to get
a fellow standing on the dry ground to get a hold of one when
you throw it to him. That's pretty difficult, because
he doesn't need one. It's not too hard to get a sick
child to take medicine that'll make him well. But my mother
used to think every Saturday we were supposed to take castor
oil where it was well or sick. I don't know why. I grew up to
hate oranges. Because every Saturday morning,
I had a dose of castor oil and a half of an orange. I wasn't
sick, but we needed to be purged or something. I don't know what
they're talking about. They just needed to be cleaned
out or something. Black drops. Did you ever take
black drops? When they ran out of castor oil,
they gave us black drops. You just can't put a remedy on
a man that's not sick. He's not interested in your remedy.
But I'm telling you, when I got pneumonia and I went to see the
doctor, and he said, I'm putting you in the hospital, I said,
thank you. I need to be there. I knew it. I needed help. I needed
it. And if you ever need Christ,
there won't be anything to believe in, because it'll meet your needs. So if you miss conviction, You're
going to miss repentance, and if you miss repentance, you're
going to miss faith, and if you miss faith, you're going to miss
Christ, and if you miss Christ, you're going to miss life. So
it all goes back to this thing, the Holy Spirit, when He comes,
He's going to reprove, and convict, and strip, and kill, and wound
this world. He's going to work us over, and
He's not going to turn us loose until we're convinced of three
things. And I'll tell you something else.
Holy Spirit conviction is essential, and Holy Spirit conviction is
essential. Not law conviction, not earthly
salvation, being convicted and convinced of sin against God. And this conviction, now listen
to me, I'm telling you something here that needs to be It has
to do with Christ. When the Holy Spirit has come,
he's going to convict of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
Now watch this. All of them have to do with him.
Of sin, because they believe not on me. Of sin, unbelief is the root
of all things. He said, if you believe not that
I am he, you'll die in your sins. If you believe that I am he,
you're forgiven of your sins. Israel could not enter the promised
land because of what? Unbelief. That's the granddaddy
of all sin. And that's where the Holy Spirit
does his work. He convinces us of sin because
we haven't believed God. We haven't believed Christ. We
haven't believed his gospel. We haven't believed his redemptive
work. Old George Whitefield had a young
man come to him one time, and, oh, he said, Mr. Whitefield said,
I'm just a terrible sinner. Mr. Whitefield said, what do
you mean you're a terrible sinner? Oh, he began to talk about his
past life, and when he got through, Whitefield said, is that all?
Oh, he made it a little worse, and he talked more about his
evil heart, evil mouth, and evil ways, and when he got through,
Whitfield says, is that all? He said, Mr. Whitfield, I've
described some terrible things, and you keep saying, is that
all? Whitfield said, you haven't yet confessed to the greatest
sin, unbelief. Unbelief. Unbelief. Isn't that the greatest sin? And that's what the Holy Spirit,
when He does His work, it'll have to do with your relationship
to Christ. You see, there are a lot of people
who know they do wrong. Esau sought repentance with tears. He lost his birthright. Judas.
Judas came back and threw the money on the floor and said,
I've messed up. I've betrayed innocent blood.
went out and hanged himself. This thing of conviction of sin
has to do with your relationship to Christ. I'm telling you the
truth. It has to do with who He is,
what He did, where He is, why He came, His glory, His right,
His crown rights. That's right. And then secondly,
He'll convict men of righteousness because I go to the Father. What
does that mean? If he had not accomplished all
righteousness, the Father wouldn't have received him. When Jesus
Christ walked this earth in human flesh, and obeyed God's holy
demands in every jot and tittle, and went to that cross and died
under judgment for our sins, God was pleased to breathe, and
he buried him. One day God called him out, and
I go to the Father. And I'll tell you, if he had
not accomplished for us a perfect holiness, God would not have
received him. Because he went there, Cecil,
as the surety. He went there as the high priest.
He went there with us with him and in him. He went there with
our names on his breastplate. And the Father would have shut
the door in his face if he had not had a perfect righteousness.
And the Holy Spirit's going to convince you that you're accepted
in the Beloved. Only in the Beloved. That's right,
of righteousness. And then of judgment. He's going to convince us of
judgment because the Prince of this world is judged. Let's look
at a couple of scriptures. John 12. Listen. John 12, verse
31. John 12, 31. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. John 14. Let's read this one
along with that. John 14, 30. Hereafter I'll not
talk much with you, for the prince of this world is coming. He's coming. Satan met Christ. He met Adam
and Adam fell, first Adam. He met second Adam and our Lord
killed him, put him out of business. He cometh and he hath nothing
in me. He found in Adam agreement, cooperation,
submission, sin. He found in Christ nothing. And
thank God we were in Christ. And therefore there is no judgment
to them who are in Christ. The law came, couldn't find anything
wrong with him. Satan came, couldn't find anything
wrong with him. And there's no judgment if you're
in him. That's what the Holy Spirit does. He convinces men of unbelief
because they believe not on me. Of righteousness, I go to my
Father. Of judgment, because you don't
meet Satan, he does for you. He meets every curse, every judgment,
every enemy, sin, Satan, death, and hell. He met them and conquered
them. That's right, all right, let's
get through. Now, I have many things to say
to you, but you can't bear them now. You're so young and new
in the faith. You're so full of tradition and
prejudices of Judaism. You're so fleshly and natural
in your thoughts. You're so weak and full of pride
talking about who's going to sit on the right hand and the
left hand. So it's going to take a while. And he's saying that to us too. I say to you younger believers,
listen to these older folks around here. It's wise. They all know how slowly we grow
in grace. See, you don't believe anything
until you experience it. It's not like going to school
and you can take a crash course and finish a college education
if you work hard enough in three and a half or four years. But
you don't finish this education in three and a half or four years.
You don't finish it in a lifetime or two or three lifetimes. I've
got many things to say to you, Christ said. But you can't bear
them because you can't experience them. You don't have a foundation
on which to lay them. You learn this message, this
truth, and you learn that truth, and you learn the other truth,
and then the other one comes along and you have to have this foundation
to put that on. These young people take advanced algebra and calculus
and things like that, but I tell you, they didn't take that in
the first grade. You've got to have a foundation. You've got
to be about 17 to handle that. And there's some things in this
Word you've got to be about 17 or 18 or 20 to handle these,
spiritually speaking. That's right. How be it, I'll close with this,
when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He'll guide you into
all truth. I thought about a new baby. Dr. Sam Robinette and Trish have
a new little girl born the other day. I think about these new
babies. A baby's got life. The first
thing the baby discovers, I think, is his hands. It gets to him
cross-eyed. He looks at his hands, you know.
He doesn't know anything that's out there but his hands. His
thumb goes in his mouth, you know. And then he discovers his crib,
and they put a little thing up here, a whirlybird up here, and
he discovers that thing, and he reaches up there, and he's
content several days away with that. Then he discovers his room,
and he sees airplanes hanging from the ceiling and things like
that, you know. That's his world. And then he discovers his house,
and he just gets to running through the house, you know, hunting
new rooms. He'll go open the closets and
get in things, you know. It's a big world out there. He
gets a little older and he discovers his yard and the neighborhood.
Goes to school and discovers there's somebody else in the
world besides him, you know. And his mother and dad take him
on vacation and he asks all the way, are we there yet? Are we
there yet? You can't explain to a child what 500 miles is. You see from the room from his
crib to the bathroom ain't 500 miles. Doris and I were going to a Bible
conference one time down in Alabama, and Todd Nybred asked me to stop
and pick up his wife and little daughter, Aubrey, and take them
on down, and he'd join us. So we stopped in Lexington and
picked up Lynn and Aubrey. We got in the car, and Aubrey
got in the back with her mother, and we started down the highway.
She said, is this going to take 40 days and 40 nights? I said, honey, it might take
that long. I don't know. But that's a big
world. But he didn't learn it. That
little new baby's not going to learn it today. But that little
fella would be awful wise if he'd listened to his mama and
daddy. A fella told me one time when he
was 17, 18, he didn't think his daddy had any sense at all. When
he got 21, he's surprised how much his daddy learned in three
years. Holy Spirit will guide you into
all truth. He won't speak of Himself, but
whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He'll show
you things to come. And here's the key, He'll glorify
me. You want to know how you can
tell a true preacher from a false preacher? Who does His message
glorify? Christ or Himself? Christ or
you? He'll glorify me. And he'll receive
of mine and show it to you, all things that the Father hath of
mine, therefore said unto you, this will be his life, the preacher
of the gospel, he'll take of mine and keep on showing it to
you." I preach Christ and He'll crucify. May God bless it to
your hearts. Let's sing 223.