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 whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest.
How can we know the way?
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also.
And from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father,
and it sufficeth us.
Jesus saith unto him, have I been so long time with you,
and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.
Now sayest thou, then, show us the Father.
Believest thou not that I am in the Father,
and the Father in me?
The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself,
but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me.
Or else believe me for the very work's sake.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me,
the works that I do shall he do also,
and greater works than these shall he do,
because I go unto my Father.
And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do,
that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.
If ye love me, keep my commandments.
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you
another comforter, that he may abide with you forever,
even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,
because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him,
but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you,
and shall be in you.
I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.
Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more,
but ye see me, because I live, ye shall live also.
At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father,
and ye in me, and I in you.
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them,
he it is that loveth me.
And he that loveth me shall be loved in my Father,
and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
Judah saith unto him, not Ascariot,
Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us,
and not unto the world?
Jesus answered and said unto him,
If a man love me, he will keep my words,
and my Father will love him,
and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
He that loveth me, not keepeth not, excuse me,
he that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings.
And the word which he hears is not mine,
but the Father's which sent me.
These things have I spoken unto you,
being yet present with you.
For 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.
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.
You have heard how I've said unto you,
I go away and come again unto you.
If you love me, you would rejoice,
because I said, I go unto the Father,
for my Father is greater than I.
And I have told you before I come to pass,
that when it 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.
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, pray.
Father God, we thank you through the Lord
for this wonderful Bible you've left us.
My Lord, we thank you for this wonderful
church you've given us,
and we thank you for our pastor, dear God,
please bless him as he preaches your word.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
- Amen, okay, we're continuing this evening
with John chapter 14.
It's a very famous chapter here.
Of course, most of us can quote one of the verses
from this chapter at least, which is Jesus saying,
"I am the way, the truth, and the life.
"No man cometh unto the Father."
But by me, it's a great chapter here.
There's a lot of great truths
that we're gonna learn tonight.
First and foremost, let's look at these first two verses
talking about the mansions.
In verse one, it says, "Let not your heart be troubled.
"Ye 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."
Of course, we know that within these last couple of chapters,
Jesus Christ is imparting wisdom.
He's giving his disciples doctrine prior to his arrest
and prior to his crucifixion.
This is gonna last up until chapter 17.
And then in 18, we start seeing the persecution,
the arrest and so forth.
Here in John chapter 14,
we're gonna see the divinity of Jesus Christ.
We're gonna see the mansions being talked about here
and the importance of preaching or should I say praying
in the name of Jesus Christ.
Now, the first thing we're gonna look at here
are the mansions.
Now, let me just start off by saying
that I personally don't believe
that when it says mansions in heaven
that it's referring to literal mansions in heaven.
Now, I used to believe that
when I was a brand new Christian for many years.
I just thought to myself,
oh, okay, we're gonna get like legitimate mansions in heaven
with jacuzzis and various rooms.
But the more we study the aspect of eternity, heaven
and the different aspects of what the Bible talks about
regarding the eternal, the less we see that mansions,
physical mansions, house mansions
are even necessary for heaven.
Now, a lot of people still believe this.
And quite frankly, it doesn't matter
if you believe this or not, this is not a main doctrine.
This is just my opinion, but I'm just gonna give you
the reasons why I don't believe there are little mansions.
You know, think about this, when we're in heaven,
we're praising God, we're worshiping God.
And there seems to be no indication in the Bible
that after you're done praising God, you're like,
all right, guys, hey, good one today, guys.
You know, see you guys later.
We'll meet up again tomorrow.
I gotta go to my mansion.
I mean, like a mansion or a house is literally for shelter.
It's literally to house you and protect you
from the elements of the world.
That's what a house is for, right?
And so, you know, to say that there's literal mansions
in heaven, houses that we're gonna inherit,
you know, five story buildings,
two, three story buildings with various rooms.
It's kind of like, it's not a necessity in heaven.
What makes heaven heaven is Jesus Christ.
What makes heaven heaven is the eternal,
the fact that God is there,
the heavenly host and so forth.
You say then why does Jesus Christ call them mansions then?
Well, we obviously know that a mansion
is just referring to a very large luxurious house, right?
And I submit to you that when he's referring to mansion,
he's actually referring to our resurrected bodies,
that which is gonna house our spirit at the resurrection.
Now go to second Peter, if you would,
second Peter chapter one, second Peter chapter number one.
And again, if you believe,
no, I think I'm actually gonna get a literal mansion
when I get to heaven.
Hey, I'm all for you.
I'm glad you believe that.
And you know, if that's what you wanna believe,
that's perfectly fine.
It doesn't change anything at all.
It's just one of these things
that it just doesn't seem practical to say
that there's gonna be literal houses in heaven
where we're gonna sleep in, you know,
hang out in the living room or something like that,
or have, you know, furniture in or something like that.
Obviously, the eternal doesn't necessarily
need those things, right?
We don't need shelter.
We don't need protection from the elements.
Heaven is heaven.
And when the Bible is referring to mansions,
I do believe that it's synonymous with a house,
synonymous with a tabernacle,
synonymous with our temples.
Look at 2 Peter chapter 1, and verse number 12 says,
the apostle Peter speaking here says,
"Wherefore I would not be negligent
to put you always in remembrance of these things,
though you know them
and be established in the present truth.
Yea, I think it meet as long as I am in this what?
Tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance.
Knowing that shortly, I must put off this my tabernacle,
even as our Lord Jesus Christ had showed me."
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
2 Corinthians chapter 5, if you would.
Here the apostle Paul, excuse me, the apostle Peter
in 2 Peter chapter 1 is referring to his physical body
as a tabernacle, and he's specifically saying
that there's gonna come a time
where he has to put off his tabernacle.
What is that referring to?
It's referring to his death, right?
When we die, an accurate way of saying this would be
that we're putting off this physical body,
we're putting off the tabernacle.
The spirit is separating from this temple,
from this tabernacle to be in the heavenlies.
And let's look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5
and verse number 1 in conjunction with that thought.
He says in verse 1,
"For we know that if our earthly house," right?
So the Bible's talking about an earthly house,
that means there's also a heavenly house.
He says if our earthly house
of this tabernacle were dissolved,
we have a what?
A building of God and house not made up with hands,
eternal in the heaven.
So he's obviously referring
to his physical body dissolving,
meaning that it's gonna die, it's gonna atrophy,
it's gonna come to not, we're gonna die.
But when that happens,
there's a promise that God has given to us
that we have another house in the heavenlies
and we can rightly say
that that's referring to our resurrected bodies, right?
He says, "Eternal in the heavens,
for in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon
with our house which is from heaven.
If so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked
for we that are in this tabernacle do groan,
being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed
but be clothed upon that mortality
might be swallowed up of life.
And of course this is referring to the resurrection.
And the doctrine of the resurrection
is an important doctrine for various reasons.
But one of the reasons why is because of the fact
that it teaches us that we can't obtain perfection
without salvation, right?
And more specifically without the resurrection
at the end of this world.
Obviously we should practice sanctification.
Sanctification is a biblical doctrine.
But quite frankly, we're not gonna reach perfection
or sinlessness until the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We will always be tempted to sin this side of eternity.
We're always gonna combat and struggle with sin.
Why? Because this flesh is corruptible.
It desires to sin.
It is not perfect.
When we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ,
our spirit was made perfect, right?
It was made new.
If any man being Christ, he is a new creature.
Old things have passed away.
Behold, all things are become new.
We have this new man dwelling within us,
but unfortunately, this new man is encapsulated
within the old.
And so that's why as a Christian,
we will struggle every single day.
And I'm not saying that you're gonna fail every single day.
I'm not saying that you are gonna overcome
every single day, but there is gonna be war
every single day.
For the Christian that constantly wants to do right,
that wants to serve God,
you know, he's gonna fight the flesh every single day.
Why? 'Cause the flesh is always present.
The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak, right?
And the Bible says that in me that is in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing.
And so it's God's will that while we're here,
this new man is constantly fighting against the flesh,
constantly fighting against the lust of the flesh,
the desires of the flesh,
the desires of these earthly worldly things until we die.
And you know what?
When we die, our bodies will be buried in the ground
and the Bible gives us the promise
in first Corinthians chapter 15,
that that body will resurrect one day.
The difference is, is that flesh and blood
shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
This corruptible body that is prone to sin,
that has the propensity to commit sin
and break God's commandments,
will not inherit the kingdom of God.
You say, what will?
The glorified body.
Because once this body is buried,
we have the promise that God will also redeem
the physical body itself,
meaning that he will transform the body
into a glorified body, an incorruptible body.
And we will receive the house of God.
We will receive the building of God.
We will receive a heavenly tabernacle
that can actually stand in the presence of God, right?
And so, you know, that's why it's important for us
to recognize that when people preach,
oh man, if you sin after salvation,
that means you're not saved.
That's a false doctrine.
Because if we say we have no sin,
we lie and do not the truth.
And to say that we have no sin after salvation
is just absolute ignorance of what the Bible teaches
regarding the corruptible body, understand?
And look, folks, if we didn't sin after salvation,
then why is God commanding us not to sin?
If it just came so natural to just do right all the time
after salvation, why do the commands in the Bible
constantly tell us to do right, to not sin, to obey God?
That should come naturally.
If after salvation, batteries came included, right?
The reason he has to command us to ask
because of the fact that we have a propensity to sin.
And anybody who's lived a Christian life
for any length of time recognizes the struggle.
You recognize the battle of wages within.
And you know what, some days are good, some days are bad.
Some days you're just like, man, you know,
victory after victory, I'm just a great Christian.
I just read my Bible, I'm praying,
I'm winning souls to Christ, I'm heavenly minded.
Other days, it's just like, oh, wretched man that I am,
who shall deliver me from this body of death?
You know, I'm thinking bad, I'm acting bad,
I'm talking bad, I'm just failing at this thing.
But you know what, that is the Christian life.
And it's two steps forward, one step back.
And you know, when you're a brand new Christian,
a lot of the times it's just like five steps forward.
A lot of times it's like 10 steps forward,
and like maybe one step back.
But the longer you're in the Christian life,
the more you'll see that it begins to equalize
a little bit, and you'll recognize
that it is two steps forward, one step back,
and there's nothing wrong with that
as long as you keep taking two steps forward
and not just continuously regressing back over and over again.
The longer you're a Christian, the more easy it is
to have victory over the flesh.
Why, because you put in habits and guidelines
that will help you to overcome the desires of the flesh.
You'll sin less.
You won't be sinless, but you will sin less.
The longer you're in church, the more you read the Bible,
the more you obey the Lord, the more the habits
are internalized to obey the Lord, right?
The more you become spirit led,
where the spirit leads the body,
it leads all aspects of our being to actually obey God.
The point that I'm making though,
is that you will never have complete success
over the flesh this side of eternity.
Why?
Because we're still waiting to be clothed upon
with immortality, the Bible says.
We're still waiting to be clothed upon
with that tabernacle that's from heaven.
And this is why Jesus said,
"In my father's house are many mansions,
"I go to prepare a place for you," right?
Go back to John, if you wouldn't,
John chapter 14, John chapter 14.
And so when someone tells you like,
"Oh, hold on a second, they which do such things
"to not inherit the kingdom of God," it's true.
Because the flesh is the only aspect
of our being that commits sin.
Our spirit does not sin, our spirit is made perfect,
it's born of God, it cannot sin for it is born of God.
That's what 1 John chapter three says.
But unfortunately, the flesh does sin, okay?
And don't have this unrealistic expectation
of the Christian life that just because you've been
a Christian for five years, 10 years, 15 years,
that somehow those desires just completely go away
or something like that.
Whatever doors you open prior to salvation,
those doors, though closed, remain unlocked, you understand?
And so whatever doors you unlock prior to salvation,
they can never be locked again.
They will remain unlocked for the rest of your life.
But here's the thing is that when we walk in the spirit,
when we read our Bible, when we go to church,
we essentially place ourselves where there's enough space
between us and the doors.
You go down a different hallway, go down to a different room.
And in this house, this corruptible flesh,
there are many doors, unfortunately,
that maybe we have opened prior to salvation
or even after salvation.
And so those doors will remain there.
They will remain unlocked until we
are clothed upon with the resurrected body that
is no longer tempted to sin.
And that's why the resurrection is important.
The resurrection is a beautiful doctrine.
It's a wonderful doctrine.
It means a lot to the Christian, especially
to the Christian who's constantly combating sin,
who's constantly frustrated with the fact
the world, the flesh, and the devil
are present fighting against this.
Well, one day that fight will be over.
We will be glorified.
We will be resurrected.
And we'll kiss the old man goodbye.
See you later.
No more fighting with you.
No more struggling with you.
Now it's just all complete sinlessness in the Lord
with the resurrected body.
So Jesus is saying here that in his house are many mansions.
There are many mansions, because there are many safe people who
will receive that heavenly body, that heavenly tabernacle,
that immortal house, so to speak,
that will clothe us at the resurrection.
Look at verse number three.
He says, "Then if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again and receive you unto myself,
that where I am, there ye may be also.
Where there I go, you know, and the way you know."
So he's saying, look, where I'm going,
you understand the location, but you also
understand the road that leads to that location.
What is he talking about?
He's talking about salvation.
Now, the disciples, you know, they're
kind of ditzy a little bit, and sometimes they
don't understand things that Jesus tells them.
Like Thomas here in verse 5 says,
"Thomas sayeth unto them, Lord, we
know not whether thou goest, and how can we know the way?"
It's like, brother, like, you know, seriously?
He's like trying to be poetic here,
and then Thomas just comes over and is like, I don't know.
I don't know where you're going or even how to get there.
But thankfully, he asked this question
because Jesus follows up with a very profound statement
that we've used for thousands of years.
Verse 6, "Jesus sayeth unto him,
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me."
And that's basically a summary of salvation, is it not?
He's saying he's the way.
The way to what?
To salvation.
He's the truth that we have to believe for salvation, right?
He's the life that we get at salvation.
That's why he says, "I am the resurrection."
He doesn't give us the resurrection.
He is the resurrection.
He is the way.
He is the truth.
He is the life.
And here's the key, that no man comes into the Father
but through him.
No matter what kind of covenant you think you have with God,
you can claim that you got God, but you don't have--
you may not have the son, but you have God the Father.
Doesn't exist.
It's not in the biblical equation.
It doesn't fit what the Bible actually says.
Jesus said that no one has the Father.
No one has God without Him.
1 John 2, 23 says, "Whosoever denieth the Son,
the same hath not the Father."
He acknowledged that the Son hath the Father also.
I love the simplicity of John's writings.
He's like, hey, you're denying Jesus
that you don't have the Father, even
if you claim to have the Father.
But if you acknowledge the Son, then you have the Father also,
because you can't have one without the other.
If you want God the Father, you have to go through the Son.
And this applies not only to these Christ-predicting Jews,
but it also applies to Muslims.
Muslims can say, oh, we have Allah,
and Allah is basically God.
No, Allah is a false god.
Allah is a false god.
And you know what?
If there's a Muslim out there who thinks that Allah
is the god of the Bible, it's still--
and even if that were true, they don't really have him now,
do they?
Because they don't have the Son.
Because at the end of the day, though Muslims
adhere to the belief that Jesus was a great prophet, it's not enough.
Not enough. Why? Because it's not, you know, I, I, I,
I'm thankful that you believe that he's a prophet and I'm, um,
thankfully you don't spit on the ground when you hear his name,
but you're still going to split hell wide open because believing that he's a
prophet is just not enough. And in fact, it's just inferior.
It's an inferior belief. He's not just a prophet, by the way,
he's the prophet that Moses foretold of in the old Testament.
And the prophet is the savior. It's the anointed one. It's the Christ.
That's what Christ is. It's the anointed prophet.
This is the man who essentially brings salvation to the world through his
sacrifice. No other prophet in history can do this. Okay. And so, you know,
Muslims will go to hell. And I hadn't,
I've had Muslims message me on Instagram and they love the content cause they
like all the anti-Jews, anti-Jew stuff. And they're just like, Hey, you know,
I'm thinking about just remaining a Muslim though,
cause it's pretty close to Christianity anyways. And they're just like, no,
it's actually vastly different.
It's so different that you will split hell wide open if you die because they're
like, well, why? And I told them because of the fact that you don't believe that
Jesus is God is like, Oh, that's the only thing. That's the only difference.
That's like the only difference that we have there. I'm like, uh,
that's a major difference. You know, I'm glad you don't blaspheme Jesus Christ,
but you know, not blaspheming Jesus Christ is not enough for salvation.
You have to believe on him for salvation because no man comes unto the father,
but through Jesus Christ.
And what this means is that you have to believe that Jesus Christ is God.
It's not enough that you believe that he exists or he's a great historical figure.
Okay.
You have to place your faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ and the cross
in order to be saved.
Okay.
Look at verse eight, speaking of the divinity of Jesus Christ, it says,
"Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the father and it suffice at us."
So, you know, Jesus is talking about the father.
He's talking about the fact that in his father's house are many mansions.
So he's mentioning the father quite a bit and Philip says, well, show us the father.
So we can, you know, so we can suffice us.
So we can be satiated and satisfied with this.
Verse nine, Jesus sayeth unto him, Have I been so long time with you?
And yet has thou not known me, Philip?
He that hath seen me hath seen the father.
And how sayest thou then, Show us the father.
Believest thou not that I am in the father and the father in me?
The word that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself,
but the father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
Believe me that I am in the father and the father in me,
or else believe me for the very works sake.
So what's being stated here?
Well, Jesus Christ is not saying that he is got the father,
because that is a major false doctrine that's proposed out there
by Charismatics and Pentecostals.
This is often referred to as oneness Pentecostalism, right?
Essentially stating that Jesus Christ, though he's the son,
he's essentially the father also, because Jesus is saying here,
"Have I been so long a time with you, Philip, and is thou not known me?"
If you're not saved, you can almost interpret that to mean
that Jesus Christ is saying that he is the father.
But what is Jesus really saying?
He's saying that because they've seen Jesus Christ,
they've essentially seen God the father
since he's basically in the image of God, right?
He's the express image of the father.
One of the greatest examples or illustrations that I can give in this regard
would be that if you ever wonder what I look like as a nine-year-old,
just go look at Bruce.
If you've seen Bruce at nine years of age, you've seen me at nine years of age.
And in fact, there's times where I post pictures of me as a child
and people are like, "Whoa, that's a Zias.
That looks like Bruce. That's like a spitting image."
It's almost like the same person or something like that, you know?
Or like Armenians, for example.
If you've seen one, you've seen them all, right?
What a great illustration, actually.
Earlier this week, I had this podcast with those two Armenian guys.
They're great guys, they're awesome guys.
I had a great time doing it. They're very receptive to the Bible.
But everyone, myself included, was just like, "Man, this guy sounds like Haik."
If you closed your eyes, you would think like...
We don't really know if it wasn't Haik, huh?
We've never seen both of them in the same room at the same time.
But if you closed your eyes, you'd be like, "Is the pastor talking about Haik?"
"Haik has his own podcast? When does Haik have a podcast?"
It just sounds exactly like it. Various people said this.
It wasn't just me. A lot of people were like, "Man, this is so crazy."
I'm exaggerating a little bit regarding the illustration here.
The point I'm making is Jesus is saying,
"If you've seen me, he's the expressed image of the Father."
He's not saying that he is the Father.
He's just saying that he's in the resemblance of the Father.
You've seen God if you've seen Jesus Christ,
because Jesus Christ is God.
And so, very important.
What this is putting forth here, what Jesus Christ is stating here,
is not that he's the Father, it's saying that he's basically God.
He's proving his divinity to Philip and his disciples.
Now, Muslims are like, "Show me a verse in the Bible
where Jesus Christ said that I am God."
And look, don't humor Muslims when they ask you this,
because there's so much evidence in the Bible
to point to the biblical fact that Jesus Christ is God.
And if you were to present the evidence to Muslims,
they're still not going to believe.
They're always going to reject it.
Because nobody can walk away from this passage right here
and not come to the conclusion that Jesus Christ is God.
They're going to believe that Jesus Christ is God,
that that's what he's saying, that's what he's putting forth.
But the Muslim is like, "No, I need to see a verse in the Bible that says I am God."
Well, Jesus didn't write the Bible with Muslim standards in mind.
It's not like, you know...
You know what? Muslims are going to read this later on.
Maybe we should put, like, "I am God" in there, you know,
just to kind of help them or something.
No, you know, the reasons Muslims say that is because they're rejecting the Bible.
They reject the truth. That's the reason why, okay?
It's not because they need just some ironclad proof.
There's enough ironclad proof.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.
The Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
"Yea, but how does he pray to himself?"
How did he turn the water into wine?
How did he multiply the fish and the bread?
Because he's God.
You know, God doesn't have to live according to your standards.
He doesn't have to adhere to, you know, your form of thinking and your logic.
You just have to buy into what he's saying in the Bible.
If he's saying, if he's praying to God,
and the Bible says that he's God and that God the Father is God,
you just need to believe it by faith, if that's what the Bible says.
And look, I always tell Muslims, I always say,
"What about a verse where God the Father says that Jesus Christ is God?"
But you know what? That doesn't satiate them as well.
Because Hebrews 1 verse 5 does say that.
"But unto the Son he sayeth, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever,
a scepter of righteousness, is a scepter of thy kingdom."
Now, I will say this.
You know, there's a Muslim who asked me for a verse and I gave him that verse.
And they're like, "Whoa, powerful verse. I've never seen that before, ever."
And then I was like, "Well, do you believe now?"
And this is what they said. They're like,
"I do believe, but I need to look into it more."
Why would you look into what more?
How much more do you need to look into Hebrews 1 verse 5
to see what the Bible clearly says there?
But at the end of the day, they're just rejecting the truth.
The point that I'm making here is that when Jesus Christ says
that he's in the Father, that the Father is in him,
he's not amalgamating the two saying that they're one person.
How do we know that? Well, look at verse 17.
He says, "Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,
because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him,
but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you."
So if the Holy Spirit is in us, does that mean we're in the Holy Spirit?
No, it's just saying that the Spirit dwells within us.
Well, how about verse 20?
"At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you."
Does that make us Jesus?
See, the logic just kind of falls apart when you compare it to the actual chapter itself.
But you know what, this is proposed by heretics and false prophets
who just want to impose their false ideologies into what the Bible is saying.
Because at the end of the day, the disciples are now walking away saying,
"Oh, Jesus is the Father."
No one walked away saying that Jesus was the Father after this.
What is this teaching?
That Jesus Christ, who being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, because He is God, okay?
And so, you know, He's kind of giving Philip this smart, alecky answer here.
Because he's simply saying like,
"How long have I been with you, and hast thou not known me?
If you've seen me, you've seen the Father."
You don't need to go to heaven to view God the Father.
And by the way, they couldn't see God the Father.
Because if they did, they would just completely discombobulate.
They'd just disintegrate, right?
Because no man can see the Father and live.
The Father's face can live.
And obviously, that's a picture of the fact that the only way
to see God the Father is through the Son.
Look at verse 12.
It says, "Verily, verily I say to you, he that believeth on me,
the works that I do shall he do also,
and greater works than these shall he do because I go unto my Father."
Now, we often use this verse to show and to prove that, you know,
we can do greater works as in quantity more than Jesus Christ.
This is not referring to the works in quality but rather in quantity, okay.
And one of the reasons why is because of the fact that, you know,
we have more time to serve the Lord.
Jesus Christ only had three and a half years in his ministry
to actually, you know, do all the works that he did.
But it's also saying that because we are saved, because we believe on him,
we are given the capacity to be able to perform great,
marvelous works in the name of Christ and see more people saved.
That's what it's essentially teaching us here.
But another thing that we can get from this verse, in verse 12,
is that Jesus Christ is specifically saying that in order to do greater works,
which would also imply just any works, any service of God,
you have to be saved, right?
Because there's this doctrine out there that says that like,
"Oh, Judas got a bunch of people saved."
Unseemly people could get people saved.
Well, according to Jesus, he says that if you believe on him,
meaning if you're saved,
then you're going to be able to perform the works that he performed
and even greater works than these.
So the prerequisite to be able to serve God and do the works
is that we have to believe on Jesus Christ.
We have to be saved, right?
Now, that's like really elementary
and that should come as no surprise to anybody
because of the fact that what propels us,
what empowers us to do the work of Christ is the Spirit of God.
And the way we get the Spirit of God is when we believe on Jesus Christ,
he indwells us eternally and he enables us to do these things.
The flesh profiteth nothing about his.
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and life.
The flesh profiteth nothing.
The flesh cannot please God because it's not subject to the law of God.
Neither indeed can be.
It's an enmity with God.
The flesh is corruptible.
It is incapable of performing any spiritual feats because it's not of God.
Therefore, the spirit that dwells within us is the one that bears witness.
The new man is the one who's able to do these things.
That's why we shouldn't have confidence in the flesh, right?
Don't have confidence in the flesh, don't have confidence in your talents and gifts and abilities.
We need to rely upon the Lord to accomplish great things for God.
And obviously, in the context I'm referring to, just seeing people saved, right?
You know, these, these, these heretical street preachers out there,
like Ray Comfort and the like, they're not getting anybody saved.
First of all, they're preaching a false gospel
because they're telling people to repent of their sins to be saved.
That gets no one saved.
But furthermore, let's say they, let's just pretend for a minute.
Let's just go into a fantasy land and say that they are preaching the right gospel.
They still not going to get anybody saved because they're not saved themselves.
Because they actually have to believe what they're preaching
and you know what? He doesn't.
He can claim that you have to place your faith in Jesus Christ to be saved.
But you know what? He speaks out of both sides of his mouth.
And you'll also say, do you have to live in holiness?
Are you living in holiness?
That's what he'll tell you. What is he saying?
Have you repented of your sins to be saved?
And you know what? He's a liar because he has not turned from his sins to be saved.
Because you can't turn from your sins, but no one can turn from their sins.
Because once you turn from one sin, you are immediately confronted with another sin.
We're constantly surrounded, we're besieged by sins on a daily basis.
The point that I'm making here is that Jesus is saying that in order to perform works like Jesus,
the greater works in quantity than Jesus,
the prerequisite is that we have to believe on him to do so,
which would indicate that we have to be saved in order to do these things.
And you know the only people who say, "Oh, Judas got people saved,"
are probably Judases themselves.
If they're constantly proposing, "Oh, Judas got a ton of people saved,"
it's probably because they want to, you know,
they're probably not saved themselves,
and they're like, "I'm kind of like Judas, you know,
hopefully I get a bunch of people saved too."
They're projecting, is what they're doing.
Look at verse 13.
It says here in verse 13, "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name,
that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it,
if ye love me, keep my commandments."
Now, this is where we get our belief that when we pray,
we always finish off the prayer saying what?
"In Jesus' name I pray, amen."
It's important for you to know this,
because we don't want this to become some sort of traditional thing that we do
without understanding as to why we do it, right?
Whereas just like, "Oh, they just say, 'In Jesus' name I pray, amen.'"
But the reason we say, "In Jesus' name we pray,"
is not because it sounds great at the end of a prayer,
it's because we're actually asking, petitioning for these things
in the authority of Christ.
That's what it means to come in the name of Christ,
we're coming in the authority of Christ.
We are petitioning for things,
we're asking God the Father for a particular request or needs
in the authority of Christ.
So this is why He commands, He said,
"Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do," He says.
So this is telling us that if we ask anything in Jesus' name,
God will perform it. Why? Because if it's in the authority of Christ,
God the Father will answer the prayers of His Son.
And if we're coming in the authority of the Son,
then we will have, you're like, "That's weird.
I've been praying for a million dollars in Jesus' name.
I just never get it." Well, it's probably because, you know,
first of all, you're asking a miss that you may consume it upon your own lust.
So there's specific requirements when it comes to prayer, okay?
One of them is the fact that we need to pray.
We need to make sure that we're not asking a miss
to consume things upon our own lust, right?
But another thing is that, you know, we need to make sure we pray
according to the will of God, right?
So go with me if you want to 1 John chapter 5.
Let's look at a couple of verses here because look,
Jesus is not exaggerating here when he says,
if you ask anything in my name, I will do it.
And he didn't say, you know, unless you're asking for X,
Y and Z in the Bible, I can't really do that.
No, obviously, he's saying if you pray in my name,
I will perform the request that you've asked of the father
because you're coming in my authority.
Now, again, this is a very broad topic because, you know,
there's a lot of stipulations to prayer.
One of them, first and foremost, is that we've got to be saved, right?
Because God hears only the prayers and the requests of His children.
And it's of my humble opinion that the only prayer
that God listens to from the unsaved is the prayer to be saved, okay?
The prayer where they're seeking out the truth.
You know, and I'm not saying that if a person's out there saying, you know,
"Help me find a good church," and they're not saved,
you know, God can interpret that prayer to mean, like, "He needs salvation."
Therefore, I'm going to lead them to someone, lead them to a church,
lead them to a Christian or a pastor where they can get the truth.
The point that I'm making, though, is that an unsafe person
can't necessarily pray to God for specific things
and expect to hear an answer from God,
because God answers the prayers of His children.
And quite frankly, you know, God has a system in place in this world
where even the unsafe benefit from His love and His kindness, right?
He sends rain on the just as well as the unjust.
So unsafe people can often misinterpret, you know,
whatever the benefits that they're receiving in this side of eternity,
because they're getting their prayers answered.
But it's not necessarily that. It's just that God's just a good God.
God is awesome. I mean, His goodness is so great that it just, you know,
the residuals of His blessing just ends up falling upon unsafe people
like every single day.
So it's not that they're getting their prayers answered.
It's just that God is just so good.
There's so much goodness that God extends to His people
that it overflows and unsafe people end up benefiting from it.
They just don't know Him, you understand?
And, you know, He sends the rain upon the just as well as the unjust.
He gives rain from heaven.
You know, there's unsafe people out there who succeed at their jobs.
They are breathing. They're healthy.
And they often think, "It's because I prayed for it."
But it's not necessarily that it's just God is just good.
It's just good to you.
And He expects for unsafe people to respond to the goodness of God
to look for the truth.
Because the goodness and forbearance of God should lead them to repentance, right?
Now, unfortunately, that's not always the case.
Sometimes when people have it really good,
it doesn't cause them to seek after God.
It causes them to be proud, to be arrogant, to give credit to themselves.
But God's intent for His goodness to spread throughout the world
is that people in this world in light of that would seek after God.
The point that I'm making here is that the people who get their prayers answer us.
But even then, there's conditions and stipulations attached to it.
Look at 1 John 5, verse 14.
He says, And this is the confidence that we have in him,
that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.
So according to his will is essentially synonymous with praying in his name,
because it's saying that we have to pray based upon what the Bible actually says.
And why does he say that we have the confidence?
Well, if you ask for something that God already intends to give you,
then you have the confidence that you're going to get it
because you're praying according to his will, right?
He goes on to say in verse 15, "And if we know that he hear us,
whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him."
You're like, "Man, I don't know why I haven't gotten this prayer answered."
Well, number one, it could be that, you know, you're just not right with God.
So it's always good to examine yourselves to make sure that you are right with God.
But number two, are you praying according to his will, right?
And this is like a running joke back in the old IFB.
I remember my father-in-law used to talk about this a lot.
You know, the whole lottery thing, right?
He's like, "Man, I just haven't been praying for the lottery."
Well, you're not praying according to his will
because God's will is not for you to win the lottery.
Or how about this? Let's get a little more specific here.
You know, people are like, "I'm praying to just get married,"
but they've been divorced, right?
That's not a prayer that God's going to answer.
Why? Because it's against God's will
for a divorced person to get remarried,
considered an adultery in the Bible, right?
And it's just like, "Yeah, but I just think that,
you know, I believe that God wants me to be happy."
As a single person, and God is not obligated to answer that prayer
because it goes against His will.
Now, people marry after they get divorced plenty of times.
And you know what? God blesses them thereafter
because maybe they recognize the error of their ways,
but that can't be changed.
But here's the thing is that sometimes people erroneously state
that it looks like God brought them that person.
No, He didn't. You've constructed that yourself, okay?
And so we need to pray according to His will,
not enforce our will on God or construct our own blessings
and then accredit that to God, right?
And say, "Well, you know, this happened, it must have been God.
Are you sure? Is it according to His will?"
You know, we need to make sure that's why it's important for us
to know what the Bible actually says.
And thank God you're in a church
where the pastor is going to tell you what the Bible actually says.
And don't get offended if what the Bible says
goes against what you originally have learned, right?
Hey, the Bible always goes against our grain.
It always corrects us.
And it always seeks to remove unbiblical traditional thoughts
and beliefs and ideas that we have that we've always believed to be true.
It always challenges that and it wants to change it, okay?
And so we have to pray according to his will.
So that's why when we get up here and we're praying for the service,
we're praying at the end of the service, we always pray in Jesus' name, right?
You know, every morning when I wake up and I do my morning routine,
I read my Bible and I go through my prayer list at the end of that prayer,
I always say, I pray these things in Jesus' name, and I pray in faith, right?
Because it's important to not just pray in Jesus' name,
but it's also important to pray in faith,
believing that God will provide those things.
Now, what do you think to yourself, well, what if like I've prayed for things,
I'm praying according to His will, I prayed in Jesus' name,
I don't have sin in my life, and I know that this is biblical to pray for,
but I still haven't gotten it, what's the answer then?
Well, the answer is just wait, got to wait.
Because here's the thing when it comes to prayer,
is that we don't always get the prayers answered on our time, right?
You know, we kind of treat God like a microwave sometimes.
It's just like, Lord, in Jesus' name, and you press and it's just like in a minute.
Can I get it like at the end of the week, though?
Can I get it at the end of the month? Can I get it at the end of the year?
And it might be, God's not saying no, he's saying yes,
but he's also saying just not yet, though.
Because you'd be surprised, you know,
if God gave us everything that we requested, even if they're good things,
how many of us can't even handle the blessing?
Sometimes like God has to mature us first.
You know, certain blessings comes with maturity.
I mean, think about this, you know, money is not evil.
The love of money is, right?
But what if God just dropped $500,000 in your lap right now?
Are you mature enough to be able to handle $500,000 in your bank account?
Or would it just turn you into a wicked person?
The vast majority of people probably turn them into a wicked person.
Why? Because they don't have the spiritual maturity to be able to handle that.
So sometimes it's just like, you know, maybe God will make your business successful.
He will give you monetary wealth, but he kind of has to mature you first
so that you can handle that type of wealth, that type of blessing, those types of possessions.
Because if he just gives it to you right now, you end up making that your God.
You end up serving mammon rather than God.
You get out of church, you think yourself to be something that you're really not.
And you end up departing from the ways of the Lord
because you become a covetous, greedy individual.
And you can apply that all across the board.
The point that I'm making here is that some blessings require a little bit of maturity,
a little bit of spiritual growth.
And God maybe is not answering that particular prayer now.
He's going to answer it later.
But he's just going to work on you a little bit
to get you to the point where you can actually handle the blessing.
So that's why we pray in Jesus' name.
And I want you to notice verse 15 again.
He says, "If you love me, keep my commandments."
So in conjunction with praying in Jesus' name,
we also have to keep His commandments.
So don't be a person who's just praying for things,
but is not actually serving God.
You're not going to church, you're not reading your Bible,
you're not praying, you're not winning souls to Christ.
You're not serving God with your time, talents, and treasures,
but you're expecting for God to bless you or something like that.
And I also want you to notice that He says, "If you love me, you'll tell me."
If you love me, you'll feel like it.
If you love... No, He says, "Keep my commandments."
I like that right there.
That's a tangible way to measure whether we love God or not, right?
He says, "If you love me, you will obey me."
What does that tell me?
It tells me that the vast majority of people on social media don't love God.
They can claim to have this fuzzy feeling in their stomach
and in their heart as just gas.
They can claim that, man, they have these visions
and they feel so emotional about the Lord.
But if they're not keeping God's commandments, it's a lie.
It's false because God equates loving Him with obeying Him.
Obedience to His commands is how He views you loving Him.
The Bible also tells us to love the Lord God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
Obeying God is not the only manner of loving God.
There is some emotion involved.
We love God with our hearts.
We shed a tear when we read the Bible, when we sing a hymn,
when we think upon the Lord.
But let's be honest, we're not always going to be emotional about the things of God.
Quite frankly, you know what God wants from you?
He wants you to read the Bible when you feel like it and when you don't.
Sometimes you get up and you're just like, "I do not feel like reading the Bible.
I just don't feel like doing it." But you know what?
If you read it, God says, "Oh, you do love me."
Because you're making yourself do what you're supposed to do
in spite of the fact that you don't feel like it.
Why? Because our emotions are like this sometimes.
Some of you is like, "Some of you is like..."
You know? Just all of us.
And I'm talking to the ladies, obviously, you know what I mean?
You ladies are emotional, okay?
And there's nothing wrong with you being emotional.
Be spirit-lad, amen.
But don't come around me. No, I'm just kidding.
But the Bible says here, ladies,
and this goes for some of you men too,
that you need to make sure you keep the commandments of God
even if you don't feel like loving God.
And you may think, "I read the Bible, I just don't feel like I love God."
Well, according to biblical standards, you do love God because you're obeying God.
"I don't feel like I love God even though I came to church."
Well, according to God, in God's eyes, you do love God.
Because you picked up your carcass and you brought it to church.
See, God likes it when you make yourself do the things
that you're supposed to do even if you don't feel like it.
God loves that. He's like, man, this guy loves me so much
that he's just picking up that corruptible carcass,
making it read the Bible, making it go soul-winding,
making it go to church, making it serve God. That's love.
Not like, "Therefore I'm going to stay in and I'm not going to go to church."
That's a feigned love, fake, it's phony, it's not biblical, okay?
And I'm not discouraging being emotional for God, ladies, okay?
I'm not discouraging having emotions towards God
because God gave us emotions, right?
I mean, on Sunday night, I got emotional while telling that story, you know?
I had a hard time even finishing that story
because I was so emotional about the salvation of the girl who lost her life.
It's a very emotional thing.
But you know what? We don't live our lives like that, okay?
We need to make sure that we keep under our bodies
and bring it into subjection, right?
Make your body obey you.
That's how we love the Lord, by keeping His commandments.
All right, let me move on here before I chase another rabbit.
Look at verse 16.
He says, "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter,
that He may abide with you forever.
Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,
because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him.
But ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you.
I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you,
yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more.
But ye see me, because I live, ye shall live also."
So here we see the promise of the Comforter.
And this is obviously referring to the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is eternal, He's existed from eternity's past.
He never just came into existence, He's always existed because He's God.
He's the third person under the Trinity.
But this is the instance where God reveals another name of the Holy Spirit,
which is the Comforter.
And it's accurate to call Jesus Christ the Comforter as well, right?
Jesus Christ comforts us as well, which is why He says,
"And he shall give you another Comforter."
Why? Because Jesus Christ is also a Comforter.
But because Jesus Christ is physically leaving them at this time,
because He's going to die,
He's going to send them the promise of the Holy Spirit
to comfort them and indwell them.
And I want you to notice towards the latter end of verse 17,
He says, "But ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you."
And I want you to notice this, "And shall be in you."
Now, what does it say?
Well, because they're still technically in the Old Testament,
the Holy Spirit was not sealed within believers.
Like we're sealed with the Holy Spirit promise.
Once we got saved, He's in here.
He's sealed unto the day of what? Redemption.
Until the resurrection, right?
So the Bible refers to it as like the earnest of our inheritance,
which another way of describing this would be like
God's eternal down payment on us.
He places His Holy Spirit within us
as an indicator that one day He will redeem the entire body, right?
And so, you know, that's how it is now.
But back then, it wasn't like that.
In the Old Testament, it was different.
In the Old Testament, He would come upon believers.
And yeah, there were instances where He would indwell believers
for a limited time, for a specific task, for a specific feat.
We see 1 Peter chapter 1 telling us about that.
But He did not permanently indwell believers in the Old Testament.
Why? Because He permanently indwell the physical temple of the Old Testament.
But in the New Testament, because we're the temple of the Holy Ghost,
now He permanently indwells within us.
So He says He dwelleth with you and shall be in you.
So once Jesus Christ ascended to be with the Father
and He placed His blood on the mercy seat,
that's when the Comforter came and actually indwell believers permanently.
That's why it says that there.
So you say, "I'm not going to leave you comfortless."
Now, this is a great promise. Why? Because you know what?
Life is filled with hardships.
And quite frankly, you and I both know
sometimes people are not the most comforting people.
Especially your pastor, sometimes he's just a little rough.
And maybe a brother or sister in Christ is not the best comforter.
And quite frankly, you know, people in our church love each other.
I love you.
There's people in our church that love you.
But there's only so much we can do for you, right?
Because we are subject to like passions, we're subject to the same sufferings.
But Jesus Christ, on the other hand, he is acquainted with your grief.
And even on top of that, the comforter who dwells within you knows your grief.
And there's going to be times in our Christian life where we are grieving.
We're filled with maybe depression and sorrow.
And you know, our brother, sister in Christ does help us.
They give us that word of exhortation, tell us what we need to hear.
And it's just like, man, I'm just so thankful for God's people, you know,
sometimes they give us a swift kick in the rear end and we need it.
But other times, sometimes they do come for us and it helps.
But sometimes and you and I both know this brothers and sisters in Christ
sometimes just don't help. And it's not because they're imperfect.
All right. Should I say it's not because they have ill intentions towards you.
It's not because they don't like you.
It's because human beings are limited in how much comfort we can provide you.
And you know, sometimes it's of my personal belief when we go through a hard
time and we don't find comfort in those around us and maybe because God wants us
to be comforted by him. Right.
He wants us to seek solace and comfort in the scriptures and in the comforter,
which is the Holy Spirit. Why?
Because the Bible talks about the fellowship of his suffering and some of the
greatest moments that you will experience.
You don't want to hear this and it's not pleasant,
but some of the greatest moments that you'll spend being close to the Lord Jesus
Christ is when you're suffering, is when you're going through a hard time.
Believe it or not, it's in tears. It's when you're depressed.
Those are some of the closest moments you experience with the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's, you know, it's not necessarily the most pleasant thing though,
but if you want to have fellowship with Jesus Christ,
it requires a little bit of suffering.
Point that I'm making here is the fact that according to the,
go to Romans chapter eight, if you would,
Romans eight is that the comforter who is in like manner,
the spirit of truth dwells within us. He's the spirit of truth,
but he's also the comforter. And let's look at an example of how he comforts us
in our trials and tribulations. Look at verse 26 of Romans eight. It says,
likewise, the spirit also helpeth our infirmities. What's the,
what does infirmity means? It means our sicknesses. And obviously you,
you automatically think maybe like a physical ailment, a physical sickness,
but it's just referring to an ailment of any sort, mental infirmity,
physical infirmity, emotional infirmity, right?
And it says here that the comforter, the spirit helps us in those infirmities.
For we know not what we should pray for as we ought,
but the spirit itself maketh intercessions for us with groanings,
which cannot be uttered.
He that searched at the hearts knoweth what is the mind of Christ because he
maketh intercessions for the saints according to the will of God.
Now, what does this mean?
I love this passage here because what this is saying is that, you know,
there's going to be times when you're going through a difficult time and you're
praying, but you don't really know what to pray for. All right.
Or you're going through such a hard time that you're not even saying anything.
You're just crying. I mean, you know what I'm talking about?
You don't have to raise your hand, but you know, ah, too late. No, I'm just kidding.
I'll be the first one. You know, I, I know what that means. I know how that is.
Okay. Where you're in so much agony and pain and emotional, you know,
uh, just agony that you know, you need to pray.
So you do pray, but really quite frankly, no words are really coming out.
You're just crying. You're just going through a hard time.
And what the Holy Spirit does according to Romans chapter eight is that he kind
of translates those groanings, which cannot be uttered. He translates that.
This is what he needs, Lord. This is what he needs. Comfort. He needs strength.
He needs to push through this. He translates that. Understand.
She left me. I can't believe she left me. Lord,
what he's trying to say here is that, you know, keep her away from him. Right?
This is what, this is what this means. He's heartbroken, but you know,
just to just strengthen him and help him not to go back to that,
that sleazy woman because it's destroying him. So he has to,
he translates for us, you know, we're over here speaking fleshly.
And the Holy spirit translates it into that, which is spiritual,
because it says that he intercedes for the saints. What?
According to the will of God. Right? It's just like, Lord, I just,
I just need this amount of money. And then the Holy spirit is like,
he needs contentment, right? He needs you to provide for his needs.
He needs you to increase his faith and he needs contentment. Lord.
I just, you know, you fill in the blank. He translates that.
That's what the Holy spirit does. Okay. Now let me just say this is that,
you know, prayer is important for us to experience this, right?
Like we need to be able to pray in order to experience this.
But let me say this.
The Holy spirit doesn't just comfort us when we're going through a hard time by
just, you know, answering our prayers with groanings.
He also comforts us through the scriptures. Got to read the Bible.
And here's the go to when you're going through a hard time.
Book of Psalms. Book of Psalms is great, especially when you're angry.
You're like, well, I thought like Psalm 22, Psalm 5, Psalm 139.
Because here's the thing, like David, he's very emotional in a lot of ways, right?
Like he's like crying. He's making his bed to swim.
But then he's also saying like, Lord, break their teeth.
And then, you know, you're mad. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Break their teeth, Lord.
And then he's just like, Judean, I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee.
And I'm not. I agree with them that rise up against thee.
I hate them with perfect hatred.
I counted my enemies and it's just like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, Lord. Yeah.
Because look, folks, emotion is not just sadness.
Emotion is also anger. Right.
It's just like you're upset, you're angry,
and then you just need to unload on the Lord.
Guess what? The Book of Psalms is perfect for that.
You know, David is the sweet psalmist of Israel.
But, you know, not everything is just sweet in there, though.
Now, sweet for dudes. Dude, like sweet, you know, break their arms, break their teeth.
Sweet. That sounds pretty sweet.
You know, some of that stuff, it does feed the soul because it's what we need to hear.
It reminds us that God is a God of justice.
He is a God of vengeance.
You know, it's just so very Christian, you know, to be able to like say those things.
The Book of Psalms is in the Bible.
And when when when the Bible is being written and inspired, God's like, write that down.
Because here's the thing, folks, if the Bible is telling, you know,
I thought the Bible says vengeance belonged to me, I will repay, say the Lord.
Yeah, we're highlighting the fact that God is vengeful and we're leaving it in his hands.
Yeah, but you think it's right to pray those imprecatory prayers?
Yeah. I mean, what do you think?
Do you would you prefer for me to pray the imprecatory prayers or take matters into my own hands?
What do you think is a better option?
Right. And praying the imprecatory prayer is
an act of faith, believing in the vengeance of God.
But here's the thing. And look, this is my philosophy.
Is that I believe it's one hundred percent scriptural to just pray cursings
upon your enemy if you're just feeling that way.
Because here's the thing, folks, you know, if it's according to God's will,
then it'll happen. Then who's going to argue against you?
But if it's not according to his will,
nothing's going to happen to that person and everything's OK.
At least you feel better that you prayed it.
You're like, destroy them, Lord. Man, I feel better.
You're just like, and then, you know, if it happens, it's just like, wow.
And, you know, that's what that's what God's will was.
And look, I prayed in precatory prayers and it happened.
And you can't tell me that it was
unscriptural because it actually happened, which means that God answered the prayer.
So you would have to concede and say, oh, God was unrighteous for doing so.
No, I prayed according to the will of God.
I didn't take matters into my own hands.
I exercise faith and say, Lord, destroy this person for their wickedness
against God's people, for their wickedness against you.
I leave it in your hands.
I'm not going to do anything.
And you know what? God actually did it.
Oh, by the way, I prayed in Jesus' name.
When I finished that prayer, I said, in Jesus' name, I pray amen.
And by the way, what does amen mean?
It means I believe. OK, look at verse 20.
Let's finish up here. Go back to John, verse 20 says,
At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father and ye and me and I in you.
He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.
And he that loveth me shall be loved
by my father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.
Judas sayeth unto him, not as scary a Lord.
How is it that thou will manifest thyself unto us and not into the world?
Jesus answered and said to him, if a man
loved me, he will keep my words and my father will love him.
And we will come unto him and make our abode with him.
Now, what does he say when he says I will manifest myself to him?
This doesn't mean he's going to appear in a dream or something
looking like Caesar Borgia with long hair and a dress.
When he says I will manifest myself to them, he's saying that he's going
to show himself strong on your behalf.
You know, like Mark 16 says that he worked with them with signs
following confirming the work.
Well, in like manner, you know, what's an indication that God is with us
is the fact that he's blessing our work.
He's manifesting himself with First Works Baptist Church.
Here's the proof. All the salvations that we've done,
all the new people that have come to our church.
The truth has been spreading throughout the world, through the internet,
through the through the efforts of our people.
That's an indication that God is manifesting himself to us
because he's blessing our efforts, right?
We don't need to physically see Jesus, OK?
And if you physically see Jesus, you got issues.
It's not Jesus that you're seeing.
And why is it that when I ask her, well, how did Jesus look like?
It's always like the Catholic Jesus.
No one ever says like he's a short, dark fellow with not long hair.
He looks like an Israelite of the Middle East.
It's always like some six foot dude in a dress with long hair, blue eyes.
That's not Jesus.
All right. Verse twenty six.
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 again, going back to the ministry
of the Holy Spirit that brings all things into our remembrance.
Now, let me just say this.
In order for the Holy Spirit to bring anything to remembrance,
you have to like know it first.
Like there has to be content in your heart for him to, you know,
give him something to work with.
The Holy Spirit is not just going to bring something into your mind
that you've never read in order for him to remind you of something.
You actually have to have the contents already in your mind.
Now, this is one of the greatest pleasures in the Christian life, in my opinion.
And that is when you're reading the Bible and the Holy Spirit
starts making connections like, whoa, whoa.
You know, I'll give you an example, you know, and I didn't make this connection.
Brother Hike did. Don't get proud.
Like on Sunday night, you know, where I was giving all the different
illustrations of the Old Testament of sowing, right?
The last example was a high mass and Kusai and how that basically pictures
the, you know, the importance of being ready when you're preaching the gospel.
And obviously we see the picture of Absalom picture in Jesus Christ,
a high mass and Kusai kind of representing Peter and John running.
One outruns the other and just various parallels there. Right.
And obviously, you know, you have a high mass who had no good tidings to give.
And he's just like, he didn't have any tidings.
Like Joe's like, how are you going to go when you got no tidings?
Kusha was the one with all the tidings, the high mass didn't have a good time.
But Brother Hike pointed out the fact that it was a high mass, the son of Zadok.
And Zadok is from which the Sadducees come from.
And the Sadducees are those who what? Deny the resurrection.
And if there is no resurrection, then we are of all men most miserable.
And you know what that shows us?
It shows that they have no good tidings
because the good tidings that Jesus Christ rose from the grave.
Now, I was thinking about just hijacking that and just claiming it my own.
But, you know, I'm going to give credit where credit is due
because the Holy Spirit revealed that on the hike, you know.
And that happens a lot.
We're like, God shows me something and then I'm teaching it to the church.
And then someone in our church just meets me in the PA room and says,
hey, also this, and it's just like, you know what it is?
Is the Holy Spirit that dwells within us.
It's connecting all the dots.
Now, you know, sometimes people come up with stuff
and it's like, that was not the Holy Spirit.
It's just, I don't know what that was, you know.
No, there are no dots there to connect, brother, you know.
You come on, that's just, you're grasping at straws there is what it is.
OK, and that happens more often than not.
Point that I make is the Holy Spirit teaches us things.
Bring all brings these things into remembrance.
So it's important that when you read the Bible, you say, Lord, open down my eyes
that I may behold wondrous things out of they law.
Teach me the Bible.
Show me the deep truths of God, the deep things of God.
For the Spirit searches all things.
He had the deep things of God.
So it's important when you read the Bible, just ruminate on the Bible.
Think upon the Bible, meditate upon the Bible.
So he's able to do so.
All right, let's finish up verse twenty seven.
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.
And I just want to make one comment regarding this verse.
You can read the remainder of the chapter later.
It's pretty self-explanatory.
But Jesus Christ is saying that there are two pieces.
There's the peace of this world that the world offers you.
And then there's the peace of Christ.
The peace of the world comes at the price, though it comes with money, possessions.
Oh, you want peace?
You got to have these things, right?
Whereas the peace of God comes through Jesus Christ through salvation, through the Bible.
And so he's saying, you know, the superior peace for you to seek after
is the peace of God that comes through Jesus Christ.
The tranquility that comes through serving God,
because the peace of this world, you know, it's kind of it's conditioned
upon whether you have things or not.
Oh, you don't you don't have money.
No peace. You don't have possessions. No peace.
You don't have this person. No peace.
Whereas the peace of God is just stays with you no matter what happens.
It's not based upon happenings, it's based upon the Lord.
Right. The peace of God that passeth understanding.
And so great truth there.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word.
Thank you for John chapter 14.
Lord, help us as your people to recognize
the importance of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
And we know that he was involved in our salvation.
He regenerated us. He renewed us.
He brought our spirit back to life.
But he dwells us until the day of redemption.
But until that point, Lord, help us to submit to the ministry of the Holy Spirit
as we read the word of God and help us to be led of him, to be filled with him,
to walk in him and to be empowered by him as well.
And I pray that you bless us as we go on our way.
Lord, give us a great friend day on Sunday.
I pray we see many visitors come to church.
I pray that many people would be saved
and that would be added to First Works Baptist Church.
And Lord, we pray this things in Jesus name. Amen.