told this morning that that last
time we just sang Day by Day was a new believer's favorite
hymn. Already, she has a favorite hymn. And I thought to myself, as the
Lord gives you life, and as you continue in your Christian life,
you will come to have favorite verses, favorite Psalms, That's
exciting for a new believer, isn't it? Some of us have been
around for a while. Our problem is we've got too
many favorites now. If you will, let's open our Bibles
tonight to John chapter 14. I want to bring a message to
us from verse number 30. John chapter 14. I'm going to read verses 27 through
31, but I want to speak to us tonight from verse 30. 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. Isn't it amazing that in this
chapter, in just a few verses, our Lord told his disciples two
times the same thing, let not your heart be troubled. Doesn't
that tell us something? Before we read on, God's people
made trouble in this world. Anyone who preaches a message
that tells people that if you are saved, that you'll never
have any problems, never have any difficulties in this life,
is not a true preacher. He doesn't preach from the word
of God. Because God's people, in fact,
the psalmist said, many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. And here again,
in this chapter, our Lord tells his disciples, 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. I was directed, I trust, by God
the Holy Spirit to this verse this past week. Hereafter, I
will not talk much with you, for the prince of this world
cometh and hath nothing in me. The verse divides itself into
three parts, and that's the way we would look at it tonight.
First of all, our Lord said, Hereafter, I will not talk much
with you. The hereafter here refers to
the time between when he spoke these words and his death on
the cross. With less than 24 hours, his
voice would be silenced on the cross. For three and a half years,
approximately for three and a half years, these disciples to whom
he spoke these words, they had heard him speak often. They had
heard him speak, as the scripture says, as no man speaketh. He spoke the words of God, the
commandment, the words which his father had given him. And
sometimes, no doubt, they were alone, just him and the 12 disciples. Now, when he says this, Judas
has already gone out, so now it's just the Lord and his 11
disciples or apostles. Hereafter, he said, I will not
talk much with you. During this time, during this
interval that he's speaking of here, he would speak to his father
several times. He would speak to his father
in the Garden of Gethsemane when he prayed, oh my father, Let
this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. He would speak also to the men
who came to arrest him in the garden that night. And the words
which he would speak to them would be, if therefore you seek
me, let these go their way. Remember when they came, Judas
led the soldiers and those that came out with torches and clubs
to arrest the Lord Jesus Christ, and he said, Whom seek ye? They said, Jesus. He said, I
am. And when he spoke those words,
they all fell backwards. I am. Of course, that's the name
of God, isn't it? And he is God, a very God. At
the same time, he is man, one person. And in the verse we read
above this, when he said, my father is greater than I, you
know there he is speaking as a mediator, as the God man, as
a servant of Jehovah. As a son of God, he is one with
the father, equal with the father and with the Holy Spirit. But
when he says the father is greater than I, he's speaking now as
he has come into this world as a man, to be the one mediator
between God and man. If you ever are going to approach
unto God, you must go to him through Jesus Christ. And if God ever comes to you
in peace, he's going to come to you through Jesus Christ. Not through anyone else, not
through some saint, no, not through some church, No, there's one
mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. He would
speak to those who came to arrest him. Whom seek ye? We seek Jesus of Nazareth, I
am. And they all went back, fell
back. Once again, showing us that they
had no power. Remember he said, No man taketh
my life from me. I lay it down of myself. This
commandment have I received of my father, both to lay it down
and to take it again. Yeah, he spoke. Hereafter, he
told his disciples, hereafter, I will not talk much with you. And the words that he did speak
now between this time when he spoke these words And the day
of his resurrection, he did speak to those men who came to arrest
him. He did speak to the priest when
they carried him, to the priest, to one priest, and then to the
other priest. They were high priests of the
nation of Israel, Cephas and Annas. And he did speak to them. And what he said to them hereafter,
when one of them said, I adjure thee, I adjure thee, art thou the Son
of God? He had to answer then, didn't
he? He had to answer, once that priest adjured him to answer.
Hereafter, this is the way he answered. Hereafter shall you
see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, coming
in the clouds of heaven. That's the way he answered that
question. He did speak a few words to Pilate. He didn't speak any words to
Herod. You remember when Pilate found
out he was from Galilee that he sent him to Herod trying to
shift the Lord Jesus Christ, his trial from before him because
he knew he was innocent. He knew he'd been delivered because
of the jealousy and the envy of the priest. So he sends him
to Herod. King Herod, and our Lord answered
him not a word." He didn't speak to him at all. Has he ever spoken to you? Has he? If he has, he's spoken
to you through his word. Sometimes you hear people make
the statement something like this, well, I guess God's trying
to get my attention. God doesn't try to do anything.
He does. If he wants your attention, he'll
get it. Make no mistake about that. But the words he did speak
to Pilate was, Pilate asked him, art thou a king? That's what
they're saying about you. Art thou a king? And Jesus answered
him, thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for
this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto
the truth. Everyone that is of the truth
heareth my voice. But his voice would be silenced
upon the cross in just a few hours from the time he spoke
these words. Hereafter, I will not talk much
with you. The last words, we have the seven
sayings of Christ from the cross. And the last words that he spoke,
Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Now after his resurrection,
remember this, he tells his 11 disciples now, Hereafter, I will
not talk much with you." And what he did say unto them in
this time hereafter, we have recorded here in chapters 15
and 16 of John. But then after his resurrection,
this is what we read. This is what we're told in the
book of Acts. For 40 days after he arose on
the third day, for 40 days he would speak again to these disciples. In fact, the scripture there
says, to these disciples, he would show himself alive by many
infallible proofs and speak to them of things pertaining to
the kingdom of God. Hereafter, I will not talk much
with you. The second part of the message
is, for the prince of this world cometh. The Lord Jesus would be confronted
by the prince of this world. There are several titles or names
in the word of God for Satan, for the devil, and they all mean
something a little different and they all reveal something
a little different about him. The term or the title devil means
slanderer. Slander, he slanders the people
of God. He slanders God's people. We
have the case in the book of Job. When Satan came with the
sons of God before the Lord, remember how he slandered Job? He said, basically, and I paraphrase
this, he said, the only reason he's serving thee, the only reason
he's serving you, Lord God Almighty, is because of what you give him.
Well, sure he'd serve you. He's the most wealthy man in
all the East. Yes, he's just serving you for
what you've given unto him. And so God gave him permission
to take everything he had. And what did he say? Blessed
be the name of the Lord. Naked came I from my mother's
womb. Naked shall I return there. Oh,
well then. He slandered him, saying, well,
what about his health? He's a healthy man. Take his
health. And God gave him permission to
take his health. And there he was, sitting on
the ash heap with a pot shared, a broken piece of pottery, scraping
his body, the balls on his body. What did he do? He still blessed
the Lord. You know, as I've read that and
preached from it many times over the years, I see how the devil
slandered Job to God, but I see also the truth about Satan himself. First of all, what I see there,
he's not omniscient. He doesn't know everything. Only
God is omniscient. Only God knows everything. If
Satan had known everything, if he had known how this was going
to turn out, that he was going to be defeated, do you think
he would have slandered Job to God? Of course not. He didn't
know that Job served the Lord, not for what the Lord gave him,
but for who the Lord is, who he is to him, to Job. He's not only not omniscient,
he's not omnipresent. Because there in that passage,
it says he came before the Lord. Only God is omnipresent. God
is everywhere present. There's so many things about
God that are so amazing, right? The fact that he is everywhere
present, but not He's present here with us tonight, but not
part of Him is here and part of Him is outside. No, all of
Him is here and all of Him is outside. He's omnipresent. Men try to hide from God. They
try to hide their evil works from God in the dark, but it
makes no difference with Him, light or darkness. He's certainly not immutable.
Satan isn't. He's not omniscient. He doesn't
know everything. He's not omnipresent. He's not everywhere present at
the same time. And he's not immutable. That is, he's changed. Only God is immutable. He's the
same today as he was and shall ever be. Never changes. You say,
how do you know that Satan's immutable? Because he changed. He's not what he was when God
created him. The scriptures tell us what happened
to Satan. It's a mystery, no doubt. But
he thought he would be like God. He thought he would be like God.
Pride is a sin. But he was a slanderer. He slanders
God's people. His name, Satan, means adversary. He's our adversary. And whether
you know it or not, if you're a child of God, you have an adversary. Your adversary, the devil, the
apostle Peter said, goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking
whom he may devour. In the book of Revelation, he's
called in the Hebrew tongue, Abaddon, but in Greek, Apollyon. Apollyon. Do you remember in
reading Pilgrim's Progress many years ago for some of us, maybe
not so long for some of us, but remember when he met Apollyon,
he had to fight him and he had to have help. Faithful came along
and helped him. But here, he is called the prince
of this world. Our Lord called him that. The
prince of this world cometh. Now, this is not Satan's world. This is God's world. We sing
that hymn sometimes. This is my father's world. It's
not Satan's world. All the authority that he has
in this world is usurped authority. But using the word prince, the
prince of this world, that's a title that usually is given
to people who are in places of authority, who reign. And we know the scriptures reveal
unto us that there is a kingdom of darkness, just as there is
a kingdom of God's dear son. When a person is saved by the
grace of God, according to The Apostle Paul and Colossians were
taken out of that kingdom of darkness and were translated
into the kingdom of his dear son. So yes, the word prince
does remind us that he is over a kingdom, but it is a kingdom
of darkness. And also we are told that as
believers, we have enemies and they're divided into ranks. There's
principalities. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities and powers and rulers of darkness,
as though there were various ranks under Satan. He is the head of these fallen
demons that fell with him. Now, most believers, most Bible
teachers believe that a third And the reason for that is in
Revelation chapter 12, when Satan was cast out of heaven, he drew
a third part of the stars with him. And most believe that that
means that a third part of the many angels, millions of angels
that God created, that a third of them fell. And they are reserved
in chains of darkness unto the day. In other words, Their condition
will never change. They have a future, and their
future is in the lake of fire. And that's where all lost people
are going to be placed. In the lake of fire, what we
usually call hell, they're reserved in chains of darkness until that
time. And Satan himself will be cast
into the lake of fire. But our Lord here, in leaving
his disciples in this world, he refers to Satan as the prince
of this world, maybe, maybe to show them the power, the power
that they would come up against, or would come up against them
in this world. You know, the apostle John, almost
at the very last of that first letter that he wrote, He said,
and we know that we are of God and the whole world lies in the
wicked one, or wickedness, the wicked one. At every point, I think, at every
point of time in the history of this world, the greater part,
the greater part of mankind have been in the broad road which
leads to destruction. At every point, no doubt. That's one reason John said the
whole world lies in the wicked one or under the power of the
wicked one, the God of this world. Our Lord said, enter you in at
the straight gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way
which leadeth to destruction and many, many there be which
go in there at. As I said, at every point in
history, the history of this world, the many have gone in
that wide gate. The few, the people of God, have
gone in the straight gate. But notice the last part of this
text. The first part hereafter, our
Lord said, I will not talk much with you. And we've dealt with
that hereafter. Just a few more hours, he would
be with his disciples, and then he would be crucified. His body
would lay silent in the grave for three days. On the third
day, he would be raised from the grave, and then he would
reveal himself and speak to his disciples again over a period
of 40 days. And you see that when you read
through the gospels, and you read some of the questions his
disciples put to him. And then after the day of Pentecost,
after those 40 days of instruction, and after God poured out the
Holy Spirit upon his church, the knowledge, the understanding
that these very disciples now had of the scriptures, how the
Apostle Peter could say, this is what Joel, the Old Testament
Joel, this is what he said years ago. And they just take the scriptures,
the Old Testament to show, how is that possible? How is that
possible that these fishermen, these fishermen could be the
instructors and the teachers of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ with such power and authority and ability. It's because the
Lord taught them, first of all, and secondly, because God the
Holy Spirit enabled them, gave them that understanding. The
prince of this world cometh. The third thing, he hath nothing
in me. Hereafter I will not talk much
with you, for the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing
in me. Some copies of the scriptures
shall find nothing in me. You remember at the beginning
of our Lord's ministry, his public ministry, after he was baptized
immediately, After he was baptized, he was driven, one scripture
says, Mark tells us, driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness
there to be tested by the devil for 40 days and 40 nights. And what did Satan find that
time in Christ? Nothing, nothing. Every temptation
he came to the Lord with, the Lord responded with, it is written. It is written. It is written.
And that's another reason that we need to study the Word of
God. Because when Satan comes to tempt us, and you do have
this adversary if you're one of his children, and he may just
show up at your door. And if he doesn't, one of his
demons may. And the way to defeat Satan and
his demons is how? As our Lord did. It is written
with the Word of God. What did James say? Resist him
and he shall flee from thee. Resist him with the word of God. He came to our Lord that time
and he found nothing in him. Now here he comes again at the
end of his public ministry. And what's he gonna find this
time? Nothing. What does that mean? Hath nothing
in me. The Lord Jesus Christ, as I've
already said, we know is fully God and fully man. And he was
not only free from all sin, but he was, and I'm going to use
a big word, many of you know it, impeccable. You need to know
that word. You need to know what it means.
You're going to run up against it sometime. The Lord Jesus Christ
was impeccable. The prince of this world came
With all his usurped authority and all of his deceit and all
of his years of experience of tempting men, he came and he
found nothing in Christ, nothing. He is impeccable. Now, what that
means simply is this. He not only was not overcome,
by temptation, he was unable to be overcome by temptation. And we know this because he is
immutable. If he could have sinned, he would
not be immutable. He would be mutable. He would
not be the almighty God that he is if he could be tempted
and be overcome with temptation. Some think that, and the Bible
does tell us that he was tempted in all points like as we are,
and we're thankful for that. As a man, he was tempted in every
way, not in sinful ways, of course, but in every ways that are common
to men, he was tempted. We have not an high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in
all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Now, some people when they read
that, it does say he was tempted. He may be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we
are. Then some people say, well, if
it were not possible for him to sin, how could he be tempted?
Arthur Pink, I like this. He said, that is like reasoning
that because an army cannot be defeated, it cannot be attacked. Here's a 100,000 man army, and
here's an army of 10 men. Now, is the army of 10 men going
to overcome that army of 100,000 men? Of course not, but does
that mean that army of 10 men cannot attack the larger army? Mr. Pink, and I'll close with
this, but he went on to say this, probably there were many reasons
why God ordained that his incarnate son should be tempted by men,
by the devil, and by circumstances. One of these was to demonstrate
his impeccability. Throw a lighted match into a
barrel of gunpowder and there will be an explosion. Throw it into a barrel of water
and the match will be quenched. He went on to say, in a very
crude way, may be taken to illustrate the difference between Satan's
tempting us and his tempting the God man. In us, we're like
that barrel of gunpowder. He can throw a lighted match
into us and there'll be an explosion. In us, there's that which is
susceptible to his fiery darts. But the Holy One could say, the
Prince of this world comes and has nothing in me. Our Savior not only overcame
all temptation, but He could not be tempted. He could not
be overcome with sin. A great savior. So many different
ways to speak of that. There was a pastor here in Houston
years ago, who wrote many various books on the impeccability of
Christ. He was known all over the United
States, actually, sovereign grace preacher. And That was his stronghold
because he had been confronted by fellow pastors that did believe
or did say and did teach, at least, that it was possible that
Christ could have sinned. And he was a defender of the
faith, I tell you. I spoke to him several times
on the phone, heard him preach once, and all my friends have
just about gone on home. All my preacher friends. But
I've got good memories. I really do. God has blessed
me, letting me hear some of the finest preachers that have ever
preached in the United States. And I thank God for every man
that's called of God and is faithful to preach the word. Don't you?
And I pray for all of them. I don't know all of them, but
I pray for all of them. Do name those that I know. And
I encourage all of us to pray for each other and pray for the
man that God has put into the ministry. Okay, David's going
to come and lead us in a few hymns.