Now, I want to say this about this
portion of this chapter of this gospel, that
I believe that we're at one of the
most difficult portions in the whole of this
wonderful gospel.
In fact, some of the verses that we
are about to look at have been verses
around which arguments and battles have raged with
the most able of commentators down through the
years, so that we're at a very difficult
part for exposition this evening.
And then, I want to say that this
part of John's gospel, the last eleven verses
of John 16, is the part of the
gospel of John that room won't touch.
They're afraid of it.
You will find in all the Roman commentaries
that they skip by some of the verses
in the latter part of John 16 very,
very quickly, because it exposes, and it exposes
in a way that can't be again said,
any intermediaries between the saint and the father.
And the Lord Jesus clears out any cause
for intermediaries between the saint and the father,
and He does it in the way that
can't be again said in this chapter.
Not only does Pagan, Popist, Babylonist, idolatrous Rome
fear this portion of God's word, but all
the Russellites, and Jehovah's Witnesses, and Millennial Dawnists,
and Philadelphians, and all who deny the deity,
and the eternality, and the eternal Sonship of
Christ, are afraid of this portion, because our
Lord Jesus Christ said very plainly, I came
forth from the Father.
A mighty statement, but we'll go into it
in due time.
Not only does Rome fear this portion, and
all the isms and ifs that form a
Unitarianism, but the devil is afraid of this
portion more than any other, because our Lord
Jesus Christ ended this great pastoral discourse with
these words, be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world.
And you know that the devil is the
god of this world.
The Bible calls him the prince of this
world, and all this world system that's so
subtle around us tonight, the worlds of flesh,
and the world of fashion, and the world
of film, and so many other sidelines that
you can bring in, in the world system,
is all controlled and energized by the devil
himself.
But our Lord Jesus Christ is shouting here,
be of good cheer, I have overcome the
world.
So we're at a tremendous portion that is,
a portion that arguments have raged round, a
portion that so many of the cults from
the pit of hell are afraid of, and
a portion that presents to us tonight some
real difficulties.
Have a look at the verse we're starting
with, verse 23.
The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking and saying,
and in that day ye shall ask me
nothing.
Have a look at verse 26.
At that day ye shall ask in my
name.
Looking at it casually, it almost looks like
a contradiction, doesn't it?
Well, it's not.
And there are many problems in the passage,
just like that this evening, that I could
talk out for you, and you'd find yourself
tightened up to give the proper answer.
So that we're at a very difficult portion
this evening, and we shall take our time
to get through.
I have six headings here before you.
The first one is the practice of the
past.
I want to show you what the apostles
practiced in the days when our Lord Jesus
Christ was with them, and we shall go
in very carefully into the practice of the
past.
And then I want to show you how
our Lord Jesus Christ led them to see
the privilege of the peasants, because the dispensation
that we live in now has many privileges,
and the privilege of the peasant is before
us in the portion.
Then, of course, clearly stated is the power
of prayer.
Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my name,
he will give it you.
And then when we go on down the
chapter, we shall come to that wonderful verse,
verse 28, I came forth from the Father
and am coming to the world.
Again, I leave the world and go to
the Father.
The verse made of two statements, I came
forth from the Father and come into the
world.
Second one, again, I leave the world and
go to the Father.
And in between the two stands the cross
and the glorious resurrection.
But what a verse this is!
It gives us the panorama of the whole
pathway that lay before the Savior from glory
back to glory.
Right from the Father's bosom, right to the
depths of darkness and Golgotha's hill, up to
resurrection and ascension, back to the right hand
of the Majesty and High.
You have a panorama of the pathway that
lay before the Savior.
At the end of the chapter, we shall
look at the profession of these pilgrims around
us.
They're saying to them, we are sure, by
this we believe.
And then, before the chapter ends, he preaches
four things to them that they needed to
know, just before he breaks into prayer.
Because verse, chapter 17, verse 1 says, these
words speak Jesus, and lifted up his eyes
to heaven and began to pray.
He went directly from preaching to prayer.
So, here are the headings, the practice of
the past, the privilege of the present, the
power of prayer, the panorama of the pathway,
the profession of the pilgrims, and the preaching
just before the prayer.
Let's get down to the details of the
chapter.
Let's have a look at this verse, verse
23.
The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking the first
phrase, and in that day ye shall ask
me nothing.
And you must place this other one with
it, verse 26, at that day ye shall
ask in my name.
Now, when you come to the chapter at
any time, and you face a problem, I'll
tell you how to go about it, and
you younger ones listen carefully.
First thing you do is, you ask yourself,
who's speaking?
Always be perfectly sure that you know who's
speaking.
And then ask yourself the second question, who
is the speaker speaking to?
Be very sure that you know who he's
speaking to.
And then third question, where is he speaking
from?
And then the fourth question, and it's the
most important one, be very sure that you're
sure of what he's speaking about, so that
that will make you look at every word
in the speech.
But we know who's speaking, says our Lord
Jesus, and we know who he's speaking to.
He's speaking to the eleven apostles.
I'll slip that into your mind.
And we know where he's speaking at.
He's on the way to the garden of
Gethsemane.
At the end of John 14, he left
the upper room, and he's now walking from
the upper room on that memorable level to
be, and he's on the way to the
garden, and in my opinion, he's very near
to the brook that he passed over as
he went into the garden of Gethsemane to
pray.
And as he walks along with his eleven
apostles on the way to the garden on
that memorable night, he said this to them,
and in that day, and we've only got
to stop and ask ourselves the question, what
day is he talking about?
And that's very simply answered because you remember
last week's portion, that in five verses, we
have this phrase, a little while.
Look at verse 16.
A little while, and you shall not see
me.
And again, a little while, and you shall
see me, because I go to the farm.
And seven times in five verses, you've got
this phrase, a little while.
And he was looking up to the disciples,
and he was saying, now I want you
to get the hold of this, a little
while, and you shall not see me.
And again, a little while, and you shall
see.
And he was talking about that time when
he would go away, and this very dispensation
that we're in now would be brought about
when he would be our absent Lord, and
whom, not having seen, we would still love.
And you remember how I went into why
he called it a little while, why it
has run almost two thousand years.
But when we calculated up from his standpoint
that one thousand years are as one day,
why he hasn't been gone two days yet,
in his estimation.
And I said last week that after nineteen
hundred years of absence, there must be a
very, very, very little while left of the
little while.
Before he comes again, there can't be much
of it left now.
If it was a little while when he
went, and there are over nineteen hundred years
gone, there must be very little of the
little while left, until we see him again,
and I'm positively sure that's true.
Now, that's the day he's talking about, the
day when he'll be gone.
This very dispensation, that's what he's talking about,
and that's what he's saying, in that day,
in this dispensation, the dispensation when he would
be gone from them, and they wouldn't see
him.
He says, in that day ye shall ask
me nothing.
And it's the same dispensation in verse twenty
-six, at that day ye shall ask in
my name.
And I'll shut the light out of you
when I tell you that the word ask
in both verses is two different Greek words.
And that's the bit you've got to be
sure of, you see.
I went over each word very carefully, and
I found this, and I found the answer
to the problem too.
I found the first ask, in verse twenty
-three, is a Greek word that just means
to ask questions, and he's taken them back
to the pictures of the past.
You know, when the Lord was here with
them, when they'd got any problem or anything
to discuss, they just came and they asked
him.
I will not be asked, it's in the
first verse.
It's just the Greek word for questioning, coming
and asking your familiar friend some question.
But the Greek word that's in verse twenty
-six is the word for actually getting down
and making a petition.
And he said, you'll do that when I'm
gone, and you'll not do the other.
And the thing's plain, isn't it?
Oh, there are no problems in the book
if you take your time, you know.
You see, he's just turning them down to
see the breasts of the past.
Supposing we try to watch this, have a
look at John fourteen over again.
Now, here's the sort of thing that went
on when our Lord was with them.
We'll begin at John fourteen, verse one, and
our Lord's talking to them, he's trying to
comfort them.
Let not your heart be troubled, you believe
in God, believe also in me.
In my Father's house are many mansions, if
it were not so, I would have told
you I go to prepare a place for
you.
And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive
you unto myself, that where I am there
you may be also.
And whether I go, you know, and the
way you know.
And then Thomas watches, and he asks the
question, Lord, we know not whither thou goest,
and how can we know the way?
Well, that's the sort of asking that he's
talking about in verse twenty-three.
He said, you know, when I'm gone, you'll
not be able to do that sort of
thing.
In that day, ye shall ask me no
more questions.
That's the idea.
You see, he started to talk to Thomas
here, do you see him?
Jesus saith unto him, verse six, I am
the way, the truth, and the life, and
no man cometh unto the Father but by
me.
If ye had known me, ye should have
known my Father also.
I am from henceforth ye know him, and
have seen him, and then Philip watched him.
Lord, to us the Father, and it suffices
us.
Oh, he's coming up with a suggestion.
And the Lord starts to talk to him,
and down the chapter, do you see, verse
twenty-two, Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot.
How very, how very wonderful the word is
to protect a fellow.
Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how
is it that thou would manifest thyself unto
us, and not unto the world?
And if you go through John's gospel, and
see our Lord talking to them, and preaching
to them, and trying to enlighten them, you'll
find that again, and again, and again, they
butt in, and they ask questions, and they
had a right to do it.
He was in their midst, and to whom
else would they go?
Why, he had got the words of eternal
life.
And the soldier, I came and asked him
questions.
And the Lord is just saying in John
sixteen, At that day, when I am gone,
ye shall ask me nothing.
No more questions asked like that.
You see, something else would take place.
At that day, ye shall get down and
petition my Father, in my name.
That's the way we go about it now.
Yes, you go to heaven with your problems,
and I hope you do.
Some of you seem to think you only
need to run to the pastor.
You think that he can just call the
dog.
Well, you're being taught different by the Lord.
You need to know the way into the
holiest of all, and how to get down
on your knees, and bring your burden to
the Lord, and leave it there, and make
your request known unto God.
That's the teaching of God's word.
And so, there's no problem here.
You see, he's only showing them the practice
of the past.
You see, in the past, they asked him
questions.
And watch this.
In verse twenty-four, he said this, Hitherto
have ye asked nothing in my name.
He said, hitherto.
Oh, that's the past also.
You see, wouldn't it have been nonsensical for
these disciples to get down in prayer around
the Lord Jesus, probably holding on to a
stretch, and closing their eyes, and asking God
for something in his name?
No, hitherto, they didn't do that.
Why, even the prayer that he gave them
for a model, they down like this, Oh,
Father, we trust in heaven.
And it didn't end with Jesus' name at
all.
Because hitherto, in that day, they were not
asking in his name.
Oh no, that day had not come.
They were talking to the God of history.
Hitherto, he said, ye have not asked anything
in my name.
But watch this.
Not only in the past did they ask
him questions, and not only in the past
they prayed not in his name, but he
said this.
At that day, verse 26, ye shall ask
in my name, and I say not unto
you that I will pray the Father for
you.
You see, in the past, they didn't ask
him his name.
They came and asked him the question, but
in the past he had asked the Father
for them.
Oh, you remember outside the grave of Lazarus,
that he prayed Father.
Then he said, I know that thou hearest
me, but for their sake I'm crying out
loud.
And again and again he had asked you,
Father, for them.
That's all the fractures of the past, for
eleven a person.
So you no need to get mixed up
in it.
It's as clean as daylight to me.
It doesn't worry me for one bit.
And you should see the mess that some
of the commentators have made of it.
It's absolutely clear.
It's just the past practice of these apostles
that is touching here.
But then he comes to the present privilege.
You see, verse 23 over again, says, In
that day ye shall question me no longer.
Then he says, Verily, verily I say unto
you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in
my name, he will give it to you.
Now, the ask here is the Greek word
for petitioning.
It's a different word from the word that's
used for questioning a familiar friend.
It's the Greek word for petitioning.
You shall petition the Father.
And while our authorized version reads like this,
Verily, verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye
shall ask the Father in my name, he
will give it to you.
All the best and oldest manuscripts read like
this.
Verily, verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye
shall ask the Father, he will give it
to you in my name.
It's just that wee bit of difference.
Now, on this occasion, the in my name
is not connected with the asking.
I know that in other scriptures it's connected
with the asking.
But on this occasion, the in my name
is connected with the giving.
That makes all the difference, you know.
It says, In that day, in that news,
ye shall come in before my power, and
ye shall ask, and he'll give you whatsoever
ye ask in my name.
Oh, it's terribly beautiful.
Dr. Ironside and Enderstreet did that like this,
by a story from the battlefield.
Two young fellows had gone to the war
together, meted up together, went to battle together.
One of them is now lying on Newmound's
land, and his blood is draining into the
swamp.
And his friend, who's quite a way off,
crawls and crawls until he comes beside him,
puts his arm on the young fellow and
says, Jacob, I'm dying.
He said, I've never told you, you know.
I didn't like to tell you.
I just wanted to meet up with you.
My father's a millionaire.
He said, take my card.
Hold it while I sign it.
And he signed Charlie on it.
He said, Jack, if you get out of
this and you get home, go and see
my father and he'll do anything for you,
for my sake.
And the fellow put the card in his
pocket, and after the war was over, went
home and forgot all about it.
And then came the hard times.
Then he thought about this.
Then he went away to see Charlie's father
and sent in his own card, but they
sent it out again.
The man was too busy, he couldn't see
it.
Then he took this one out and sent
it in.
And in two seconds, the big business man
was off, and he said, he said, my
God, why didn't you let me see this
before?
For Charlie's sake, I'll give you anything.
No, I want you to get the hold
of that.
Our lovely Lord Jesus Christ, through his death
on the battlefield of Calvary, has opened a
way for us, right into the holiest of
all.
And for Christ, God will give you.
God will give you.
Yes, that's the privilege we have, but, oh,
it's so much deeper than that.
I want you to get the hold of
this.
You see, our Lord Jesus is talking here.
He says in verse 26, Archbapti, ye 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 ye
have loved me, and have believed that I
came out from God.
This is a tremendous vision.
I want to go easy, so that you'll
get the hold of it.
You know, in the very early days of
the Christian Church, in this dispensation, many dear
saints of God got the idea that God
was so holy, and so inflexibly holy, and
so mighty, and so far away, and they
themselves were so poor, and so blind, and
so miserable, and so naked, just like us,
that they actually believed that they would have
needed someone to be an intermediary between them
and the Father.
It is perfectly true that there is one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus.
Of course, the moment that we come to
Christ, and the moment we embrace Christ, and
the moment we trust Christ, we're made acceptable
through him.
To God?
Ah, but wait a minute!
We're not talking just now about sinners coming
to God through these mediations.
We're talking now about sinners who came to
Christ who were made trans.
You see, you are not only a sinner
that came to God through Christ, but the
moment you came, you got the adoption of
silence, and God became your Father.
And I want you to get the hold
of this.
The Lord Jesus said, at that day, I
will not pray the Father for you.
I'll not be the intermediary, mind you, to
bring you to the Father, for the Father
himself loves you because you love me, can
believe.
Do you know what makes you acceptable to
the Father?
Just because you believe in the Lord Jesus,
and you love him.
And you don't even need an intermediary.
And Christ won't be it.
He said, no, no, I'll not pray the
Father for you.
The very moment that you believe and accept
me, you'll be welcomed by the Father, without
anybody in between.
And if we don't need Christ, we most
certainly don't need Mary.
And if we don't need Christ, we don't
need King Paul, or King Peter, or King
Jude.
Now, I want this meeting to get the
hold of this tonight, that the day that
we trusted Christ as sinners, we were brought
into God's presence, not only as sinners gave
by grace, but as children of the Father.
And we have a right tonight to go
into the Father's presence, and he'll accept us
because we believed in Christ, and because we
love him.
There's truth here now.
No wonder pagan Rome doesn't like us.
Knocks the bottom out of their boots, to
put an intermediary in here.
And it is the teaching of the blessed
Lord Jesus himself, that you can go to
the Father without any intermediary in between.
And the only grounds that you go on,
is that you love the Savior, and that
you believe in him.
You know, I think this was a tender
touch.
It's a very tender one, isn't it?
When he looked at them, and he said,
verse 26 over again, Of that day ye
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 ye
have loved me, and believed that I came
out from God.
You see the crowd that was around them?
There's Peter, and Thomas, and Nathanael.
You see eleven of them.
Eleven miserable characters, I'll call them.
Yes, Peter's the man on this very night,
who is going to deny him.
And Thomas is the man who's going to
disbelieve the evidence.
And Nathanael is the man who cried at
the beginning, shall any good thing come out
of Nazareth?
And here they're all lined up.
And yet, you know, miserable poor weaklings that
they were, the Lord says, you know, you
shall love me.
And you believed in me.
Very nice of him.
What a beautiful Savior he is.
You know, here we are tonight, and we're,
we're a crowd, you know.
Yes, miserable crowd that we are.
And perhaps the posture of the most miserable
of all.
Here we are, and yet he looked down
on us tonight.
And he said, you shall not love me.
And you believed in me.
And that's enough to get the end of
the Father's threat.
You'd almost hang your head in blush when
you talk about loving them, wouldn't you?
But he looks at us, poor creatures, and
says, you love me.
And you believed in me.
And the Father loves you for that.
You see, the Father doesn't love us because
of Christ's intercession.
Oh no, no, no.
No, Christ intercedes because the Father loves us.
Put it on the other way, man.
The Father doesn't love us because Christ intercedes.
No.
The Christ intercedes because the Father loves us.
It was on that way.
You know, the moment that we put our
arms around the Savior down here, and gave
him our hearts and souls, poor weaklings that
we are, and have stumbled with thee, yet
the Father opens his heart and loves us,
because at that moment we became sons and
daughters of the living God.
This is a family affair now.
And we can go into the Father, and
for the son's sake he will give you
whatsoever you ask.
It's very wonderful, isn't it?
You know, that's the privilege of the present.
Now, we must have a look at this
power of prayer, of course.
You see, it's all tangled up together, isn't
it?
I'm only teasing it out.
Now, let's get down to it again.
Verse 23.
I think we must stop there for a
moment, because that whatsoever is not as broad
as you might have thought it was.
You see, he's talking to his disciples now,
and he's liking them as children who can
come to the Father, and he's talking about
really asking, petitioning the Father.
Now, I want you to get the hold
of this, whatsoever ye ask, because you know
this, that word ask, a very special Greek
word, meaning to petition the Father.
And there's a whole lot that goes on
for prayer, you know, that's not asking anything.
And he's not asking at all, in any
sense.
We were looking on Sunday morning at a
text, and the Lord Jesus looked at his
disciples and said, And ye, when ye pray,
ye shall not be as the hypocrites are,
for they love to pray standing in the
synagogues and at the corners of the streets,
that they may be seen of men.
And he used this word, they love to
pray, because there's no other English word you
can use to describe it, but it wasn't
pray.
You see, for a man to stand at
the corner of the street, or to stand
up in the synagogue, and to close his
eyes, and to tumble at a whole lot
of words, and in his heart he only
wants to be seen of men.
Well, whatever he's doing is not prayer.
There's a whole lot of that goes on
in the prayer meeting.
And there's a whole lot of things that's
passed over of intercession, and supplication, and praying,
and asking, and it's baloney.
Real asking is what Jude describes as praying
in the Holy Ghost.
That's when you're asking.
You see, he's looking at this very dispensation
of God, this privileged dispensation, when the Holy
Ghost will end well every child of God.
That's the way we can go into the
presence of the Father and say, Abba, Father,
by the Spirit.
So, if you hadn't the indwelling of the
Spirit, you wouldn't be in the family at
all.
Yes, when the fullness of the time would
come, God sent forth his Son, made of
a woman, made under the law to redeem
them that are under the law, that we
might receive the adoption of sons by the
Spirit, and were able to say, Abba, Father.
Oh, this is wonderful.
But the Holy Ghost does take men and
women, praise the Lord, and removes their hearts,
removes their whole beings, until they come into
the very presence of the Father, and they
make their requests known.
And whatsoever you ask in the power of
the Holy Ghost, God will give it, for
his Son said.
So, that's a mighty thing.
Do you see the Spirit taking the child
to put his hand upon the Father's throne,
and for the Son said, the answer will
come.
That's the triune God, working wonders.
That's the power of prayer.
It's not twaddle in the prayer meeting, mind
you.
It's not some old fellow getting up to
pray, and kicking the half of the time
off, and waddling round the room, and if
he wasn't there next Thursday, you could say
his prayers for him, and all the old
twaddle you've ever had in all your life,
that hits up the time.
It's not that.
Talking about really asking, being moved by the
Holy Ghost, for the glory of Christ, a
child in the presence of the Father through
the power of the Spirit.
And if you get there like that, you
know, you'll get answers.
Prayer's a mighty thing, isn't it?
You see what the Lord Jesus Christ said
behind that?
He said this in 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.
You know, all this was desperately difficult for
them, and it may just be difficult for
us tonight, it shouldn't be.
You see, here's the whole thing that was
the problem here.
These eleven standing round him, their whole mind,
their whole hearts, their whole soul, was all
filled with the idea of the Kingdom.
Although we're always wondering when you'll take the
throne, when you'll set up your kingdom, and
when we'll be in the cabinets, and they
can't understand them going away, and a little
while in the lofty hill, and talking about
us going to the fatherless children.
They can't get it.
It's a proverb unto them.
They saw sparks of light, but they couldn't
get it.
It was a new dispensation altogether.
He said the time will come when I
shall show you plainly of the Father.
Wonderful Jesus.
And you know, our difficult portions becoming clearer,
I hope.
Oh, it's a difficult one, but I think
if you take your time you'll get it.
And then he comes out into the open,
and he said this, verse twenty-eight, I
came forth from the Father, and I'm coming
to the world, again I leave the world,
and go to the Father.
You know, I don't think that there was
ever so much said, and so little, to
so few, to mean so much.
What a marvelous statement this is.
I think you need to take your time
at it.
I want you to get that, I want
you to place the I over there.
I, just put it there, it's the Lord
Jesus.
I came forth from, so that he actually
existed before he came forth from.
There's your Russell Wagner.
Let me tell you that this teaches the
pre-existence of Lord Jesus.
Yes, it teaches his eternality.
And if it teaches his pre-existence and
eternality, it's touching his deity.
Ah, but it's far deeper than that, brethren.
Just put the I there again.
I came forth from the Father.
Oh, I know there are exclusives who think
they know the whole thing, don't they?
And they say that the sonship only began
in Bethlehem.
Hold your tongue.
I, go on ahead, came forth from, that's
who, the Father.
I don't think there's a Father here who's
got only one son.
Well, I can just tell you how long
your fatherhood has, has, has reigned.
Just as long as your son.
You weren't a father till you had a
son.
Oh, you might have been married for years.
But the day you got a son, you
became a father.
And so if he came forth from the
Father, hallelujah, there was a son before he
came.
Because it's a deep one, but it's a
glorious one.
Oh, it didn't begin in Bethlehem.
That's Unitarianism and it'll take you to hell.
Unitarians are on their way to hell.
Deny the deity and the eternality of Christ.
You go to heaven, you know.
Oh, no, it didn't begin at Bethlehem.
He was the son yonder who came forth
from the Father.
And you know, if you can see his
eternality and see a sonship, the very wording
here, came forth.
I came forth.
You can see his willingness, can't you?
Oh, I know that officially he was sent.
I know that.
I know that when the Godhead got down
to consider this thing, that the voice came
and said, who will do for us and
whom will we send?
And he said, here am I, send me.
And the Father sent the Son.
I know officially he was sent.
But I know that he stood here and
said, I came forth.
And I know that Paul, Christ, Jesus, came
into the world.
He wasn't pushed into this thing.
Can't you see the willingness?
Can't you see his eternality?
Can't you see his willingness?
Can't you see his sonship?
And he came forth from the Father into
the world.
Can't you see his humility?
Can't you see his humanitary statement?
How much he pressed into it.
And then, you know, he took the second
bit and said, and I leave the world.
And again, I leave the world and go
to the Father.
And in between these two mighty statements stands
his cross and his resurrection.
Oh, this is a wonderful thing.
Look, if you're getting it like this, there
are five G's.
I came forth from the Father.
That's from the glory.
And in the next chapter it says about
the glory that I had with thee before
the world was.
And from the glory he came to Galilee.
That's where the incarnation took place, up at
Nazareth in Galilee.
That's where it took place.
I know he was born in Bethlehem, but
the incarnation took place yonder.
And when the fullness of the time must
come, the Virgin was brought to Bethlehem.
And from Galilee he set his face to
go to Gethsemane.
And it all was started in our chapter.
And from Gethsemane he went to Gabbatha, the
judgment hall.
And from Gabbatha he went to Golgotha.
And from Golgotha he went back to glory.
Hallelujah.
The level was so much, said in so
little, to so few, to proclaim so much
as I do of.
The glorious version, don't miss it, of it's
the whole panorama of the pathway of the
Savior.
And you know, once he'd said this, verse
29, his disciples said unto him, Lo, now
speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proper.
Now we are sure that thou knowest all
things, and needest not that any should ask
thee.
By this we believe that thou camest forth
from God.
They haven't got the fatherhood worked in yet,
have they?
Oh no, they haven't.
They can't get this bit.
It doesn't suit their ideas of the kingdom.
But you know, it behoves every believer to
watch what they're doing.
I'm sure they were very sincere when they
said, Now we are sure.
By this we believe.
And mind you, the whole crowd of them,
I can see them all around them, maybe
one or two only speaking.
By this we are sure, and the rest
of them nodding their heads.
We're all in.
We've got it now, Lord.
My, we're late now, Lord.
We've got it now.
And it will behove every believer here to
pay attention just here, to have no confidence
in that old crash of yours.
And there is a teaching that can never
be altered.
Let him that standeth to teach.
You know, I get fed up listening to
these fellows who say, I've got it.
Oh yes, they've got it.
Yes, I'm holy.
Oh yes, I'm holy.
We're on the top of the hill.
They're standing.
Hallelujah.
So pick me up.
It's all I.
You listen and you'll hear it.
I can hear it for one ear now.
And before very long, I've seen them too
often, you know.
You want a list of them, I'll write
them out for you.
Dear brother, if you can just get down
to see how miserable and poor that anything
within you is, you'll begin to say like
Paul, it's not I.
Not I.
Oh, if I outline that chapter and it
pleases me well, and I'm getting it over
and it's thrilling the people, I always say
at the bottom, it's not I.
Well, it has got nothing in the white
world to do with me.
Well, when you begin to talk about I,
it's a great pity of your spiritual mentality.
It's not I.
And the Lord had a look at them,
hadn't he?
And here's what he said to them.
Verse 31, Jesus answered them.
Oh, if it had been the apostle that
was answering them, they would have been annoyed,
wouldn't they?
I said to him, he's always talking.
It was Jesus that was answering.
Do ye now believe?
Behold, they all cometh.
Yea, yea, is now come.
That ye shall be scattered every man to
his own, and shall leave me alone.
That was tight talk coming behind such statements,
wasn't it?
And you know, they were just at the
very place.
Oh, how foolish we can be.
Oh, how self-confident we can be.
Oh, how this old flesh can be lost.
They were at the brook, Capernaum.
And on the other side of the brook,
Judas was going to come.
And they would split.
God help us to go slow and low.
Always not I, brother.
Always not I.
I think there's a touch here we wouldn't
need to miss.
He said, ye shall leave me alone, and
yet I am not alone, because the Father
is with me.
You know, this was one great, wonderful comfort
to the Lord Jesus, that every step right
down through those days of ministry, when he
was despised and rejected of men, right down
until they put him on the cross.
And when you hear the dull blow of
the hammer swung low, and he's looking into
the faces of the men who are nailing
him, he's saying, Father, forgive them.
And he was still with the Father.
But what a moment must it have been
when the Father turned away.
I wouldn't like to dare to expound it,
you know.
I can only gaze way down deep into
the depths where there was no standing, and
the night was dark, and none of the
ransomed ever knew how deep were the waters
crossed, or how dark was the night that
the Lord passed through, ere he found the
sheep that was lost.
But away down there he cried, My God,
my God, why is there no protection?
The light of the sun faded out.
When he died for me, blessed be his
holy name.
Wonderful Jesus, wonderful, wonderful Jesus.
You'll never understand it.
I dare not explain it.
And then he said this to them.
You see, he was warning them there of
their weakness.
These things have I spoken unto you, that
in me ye might have peace.
He's pointing the pathway to peace.
Now, I believe that these things have I
spoken unto you.
It just doesn't deal with the last eleven
verses.
I believe it deals with the whole pastoral
discourse.
And that began in the upper room.
Yet it begins with John 14, the explanation
of why he was going away.
He said, If I go away, I go
to prepare a place for you.
That was the explanation.
And I wish we could get our eyes
on the beautiful, beautiful place that he's preparing
for us.
And then he comes down John 14 into
John 15, and he takes the illustration of
the vine, that even when I'm away preparing
the place for you, there'll be a sufficiency
flowing through me that will meet your every
need, that will make you live here to
the glory of God.
And then he comes from the explanation and
the illustration to the revelation, I'll send the
Holy Ghost.
He shall guide you into also.
He shall show you things to come.
He shall glorify me.
Oh, what a revelation.
And now comes this new dispensation, when you
can go into the Father without anybody keeping
you back and get the things, the Holy
Ghost lays upon your heart.
He says, These things, these things, this explanation,
this illustration, this revelation, this dispensation of privilege,
these things ought to bring you peace.
Oh, dwell on them, brethren.
Take up pagan Rome and their rebels.
We're going home.
There's a house over there for all the
redeemed.
Thank God there's every sufficiency on the way
home.
Christ is all sufficient, and the Holy Ghost
is here.
That's why we're enjoying the book.
And we're in a dispensation where we can
go into the Father, and we don't need
Mary, thank God we don't need Mary.
Just before you close your Bibles, look at
two things.
He said this, In the world ye shall
have tribulation.
I'd like you to take that statement tonight,
and I'd like you to take it home
with you.
And I'd like you to remember that Christ
said it.
And I'd like all you young believers to
get the hold of it.
He's not bluffing you, mind you.
He says, In the world ye shall have
tribulation.
And you can't alter this.
And you can't put it behind your back,
and you can't blot it out.
It's Christ's own words.
In the world you shall have tribulation.
And don't you forget it.
You just live for Christ.
You just teach Christ.
You just follow Christ.
You just worship Christ.
You just love Christ.
You just obey Christ.
And you'll have tribulation.
And you will.
And you can't alter it.
You can't alter it.
Brethren, it's just like that.
That's just how it's to be.
In the world you shall have tribulation.
And they'll give you a pretty good dose
of it too.
And the more you live for Christ, the
more you'll get.
So you must make up your mind.
Don't think because you're going to be a
spiritual fellow you're going to dodge it.
You're walking dead into it.
I've made up my mind about it.
It's going to be a battle for me
the whole way home.
I'm not bluffed about this.
I know where I am, you know.
I know the wilderness of me.
But if he said that, he finished the
discourse like this.
Be of good cheer for the victor.
Blessed, wonderful Jesus.
God bless you.
Let us bow together before the Lord.
I don't think we'll, yes we will, we'll
change us.
Just let's bow for a moment.
Father, we bow in thy presence.
We lift our hearts.
We bless thee for our wonderful, wonderful, wonderful
safety.
Thank thee for this dispensation in which we
are now acknowledged publicly as thy sons and
daughters.
We have had the adoption of sons, and
we can come to thee as children to
a father, and we don't need any intermediary
between.
And we thank thee that just because we
believe in him and because we love him,
little as it says, Lord, we're accepted in
thy presence.
And we know that when the Holy Ghost
really moves us to put our burdens at
thy feet, that thou wilt answer.
We have no doubts about it.
Lord, we thank thee for all the way
that thou didst travel for us, from the
heights of the glory of the bosom of
the Father, to the dark, dark depths of
Calvary, and back to the glory to prove
that the work was done.
We know that in the world we shall
have tribulation, but Lord, our trust is in
thee, and thou hast overcome the world.
And by this we shall overcome even our
faith in thee.
They can't do anything to us, Lord.
Our trust is in thee.
Bless thy people.
And should there be one here tonight who
has gazed at thy coming from the Father,
and going into the depths of Calvary, and
dying alone, and praying sin's tremendous price, and
rising from the dead, an all-sufficient conquering
Savior, O God, if there's one here without
Christ, wilt thou draw them to his feet
this evening?
Get them to come as sinners, and then
they'll be changed in the Son, and be
able to come to the Father.
Dear Lord, take our thanks for thy words,
thy precious words, for thy name's sake.
Amen.