Address—C. Hendricks
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Send 231.
The pilgrims in the wilderness.
Our growing is a camp.
231.
John 15. Here we have the subject of fruit bearing.
The first part of it, that is. You might say The first part is bearing fruit and Father, the husband, man, Christ, the true vine.
And we the branches to to reproduce in US.
The life of Christ in a very practical way.
And the last part of the the section is in verse 17 where the Lord says these things. I commend you that she loved one another, certainly.
The chief characteristic of his life was was love, self sacrificing, giving love.
And it will manifest itself that that blessed life given to us will manifest itself in us the same way. These things I command you, that you love one another. And then the last part of the chapter.
Changes very abruptly between verses 17 and 18. Verses 17 up to 17 describing the the Saints and.
The attitude of the world is next described towards us in verses 18 to the end and going on into the 16th chapter. Well, let's not linger here. Let's just look at a few of the wonderful features in connection with fruit bearing. I am the true vine, and my father is the husband man. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit and taketh away and.
Every branch that beareth fruit, he purchased it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except to divide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in Me. I am the vineyard of the branches, either divided in me, and I in Him. The same bringeth forth much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered.
And men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abiding you, we shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit, so shall he be My disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love.
If you keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love.
These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, but a man lay down his life for his friends near my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you, henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I have called you friends.
For all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you.
You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain. But whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, we may give it to you. These things I command you that you love one another.
We were mentioning this afternoon that.
Israel had been set here as a testimony in the earth to bear fruit for God, and they they failed in that. And the Lord Jesus now says I am the true vine.
And my father is the husband man. The fruit is going to be produced for God in this world. It will only be through the 2nd man and not the first man. There's no food for God from the first man.
So he I'm not going to go into all of these verses because I'd like to continue into chapter 16, but just to pick out some of the central features.
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In verse 4, Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except to divide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. This abiding in Christ is, in a word, living near the Lord.
Going on in dependency upon him, in communion with him. And that's the way of fruit bearing, that's the way that the life of Christ in US will be reproduced in the power of the Spirit of God.
While we're talking of the subject of fruit, let's turn to Galatians 5.
And Galatians 5 we have.
Verse 22.
Had very well known verse, those two verses, but the fruit of the Spirit after he's described the works of the flesh. Notice the difference.
Lips in contrast with fruit and flesh in contrast with spirit. Works of the flesh, verse 19.
So these are manifest and then he describes them what they are.
And then he describes the fruit of the Spirit, verse 22. It doesn't say, as we often quote, that the fruits of the Spirit. It says the fruit of the Spirit in contrast with the works of the flesh when the Spirit is operating in the new life.
He produces this fruit that is described here. And what is the fruit of the Spirit?
In His love, joy, peace, broad suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
The the soul that is under the control of the Spirit of God does not have to be put under law. I like to think of the fruit of the Spirit as a nine flavored fruit.
We oftentimes in quoting it, the fruits of the Spirit, we might look at our lives and say, well, I, I see that this particular characteristic and this one.
I seem to to have that and then there are others that I might be lacking in my life, but I don't believe that's the thought here. When the Spirit of God is in control of our lives, there will be all of these 9 characteristics produced and it's called the fruit of the Spirit. It is love.
Joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness or kindness.
Goodness, faith, or faithfulness?
Weakness and self-control or temperance?
Lovejoy, Peace.
Everyone of these characteristics that are mentioned here.
Are what he was when he was down here. Let's just look at them in connection with himself.
There was never another that loved as he loved.
His whole pathway was a pathway of love, a pathway of self renunciation.
The pathway in which he served others. The Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life for ransom. For for many His was a path of love. The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
He he loved the church and he gave himself for it, and he loved us and gave himself for us, whether it's viewed individually or us collectively or the church itself.
In its entirety, his was a path of love, a path in which he was given giving of himself.
Serving, ministering to the needs of those round about him and that's the way of love. The way of love is not looking to be served. It's not looking to to be ministered to, but to minister. This was his pathway. He read that verse in John 15.
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He talks about His joy. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might be made in you, and that your joy might be full. And what was His joy? That's the next fruit mentioned, the next part of that fruit. It was His joy. He had a joy that was outside of this world. He was the true Nazarene. He was the one who was truly separated unto God. Remember, the Nazarite was not to partake of the fruit of the vine. He was to.
Abstain from it, even all the way down to the skin of the grape.
Line or strong drink or anything else in connection with that. It speaks of all that this world affords in the way of joy. He found his joy outside of the scene altogether. When he came he said, I delight to do thy will. Oh God, it thy laws within my heart. It was his joy to to please the Father. His pathway was.
A path of of love to the Father, that the world may know that I love the Father. Even as he has given the commandment, so I do. He loved the Father. I love my Master, my wife and my children. I will not feel free.
His joy was to fulfill, to accomplish the will of God. Whatever we live for, shall we find our joys, our joy goes up, goes down. It's dependent upon our circumstances. It's dependent upon many things which change down here. But His joy was constant. It was.
A joy that wasn't dependent on circumstances.
It was a joy that came from his communion and fellowship with the Father. Now in the measure in which this fruit of the Spirit is reproduced in us, we'll know what that joy is. The true joy of the Nazarite got the joy that the world has not anything that the world can afford us, but that which comes from walking with Him and having the consciousness in our souls that we are.
Accusing him.
And then there's peace. We were looking at those verses in the 14th chapter piece. I leave with you my peace, and give unto you what was His peace.
That was the peace of one who.
Was not.
Ruffled by circumstances, it was the peace of one who was in entire dependence and obedience on the Father, His peace.
The peace of the dependent man, the obedient man, the lowly man. When we look at Christ, we see manhood, imperfection. We see manhood in every aspect of of what manhood is in its perfection before God.
Long-suffering.
Now that's the first mention.
In the fruit of the Spirit which requires.
Something that is adverse.
In our lives, some friction, some trial is something that that tests our patients.
Our long-suffering the Lord met with that on every hand, says the Pharisees watched Him, that they might catch something out of his mouth, that they might have to accuse him. He was constantly under surveillance by those round about him, just seeking to catch something out of his mouth. long-suffering, he says, all faithless and perverse generation. How long shall I suffer you? How long shall I bear with you?
He felt, he felt the the hardness of man's heart, he felt the affront to his love, he felt all that sin had brought in. And he felt their lack of faith and their lack of entering in to his mind, to his thoughts. What was it that she disputed among yourselves along the way? And they were talking among themselves. Who should be the greatest?
Think of this person, think of this one who was here.
The Lord of Glory, the infinitely Holy One.
How patient, how long-suffering to bear with the likes of us, the likes of you and me, to bear with them, to bear with us to, to do with us to, to think of Peter when the Lord talked about his having to go to the cross, and Peterson picking themselves. Lord, this shall not be unto thee.
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Peter rebuking him just think of it and how he though he rebuked Peter that be behind me Satan quite severely there for thou savers not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. But think of how that blessed one born with those that so little understood him, so little understood that blessing one the most misunderstood man that was ever here.
Was the Lord Himself?
And yet he was long-suffering with them. And so that's one of the characteristics of the work of God in our souls. We are in a scene where things do not always go well. We are we are with people who do not always understand us and misinterpret some of our actions.
And maybe may even appropriate and acute to us things that we did not mean and how much long-suffering is called for in our pathway here. If you ever called and I speak to my own heart in this and in all these things, of course, if we're ever called into a situation where we just say, well, I just can't take that person any longer.
Think of what the Lord Jesus headed his pathway, children. His Holiness headed his perfection.
And think of who he is and how he born with his own.
That that both those disciples.
Will you also go away?
And Peter says, Lord, to whom shall we go balance the words of eternal life?
Till shall we go?
Let's just think of this pathway, how much he bore with as he was down here, a man amongst men.
Or kindness.
All the deadliness and the kindness of the Lord Jesus. Remember when the disciples would have, would have sent the children away.
From the Lord Jesus he said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not for such as the Kingdom of heaven.
Kindness. A bruised Reed, would he not break? And smoking flax, would he not quench? Or if he saw ever so little faith, It's not the quantity of faith, it's the object that the faith rests upon that matters. And he would not quench, he would not break.
The blue street, nor Christ, the smoking plaques, kindness, gentleness. My gentleness hath made thee great. The Apostle Paul says, I beseech you by the the weakness and the gentleness of Christ.
Gentleness does not give offense, and weakness doesn't take offense.
It's always difficult when we have to deal with the person where you you have to constantly watch just how you say it.
And what you say for fear that they will take offense, well, that isn't weakness. We're going on to that. After gentleness, he says goodness, goodness. The Lord Jesus was goodness personified down here in this world. Remember that verse in Romans 5?
For a good man, some would even dare to die. For a righteous man they would not die, one would not die. But for a good man, some would even dare to die. A good man. Goodness, remember the one that said to him, Good master, what good thing shall I do that I might inherit eternal life? And the Lord said, Michael, my call is telling me good is not good, but one that is God.
Are you only my my deity?
Are you acknowledging who I am? Are you nearly imputing goodness to me in my humanity?
Goodness.
That quality produced by the Spirit of God which we see in all its blessedness. Goodness is, is love come down in the midst of of sin and departure from God in the midst of enmity, in the midst of hatred, in the midst of evil.
Who was goodness, absolute goodness, down here in this world to meet the needs of men for a good man, a benevolent man, one who went out in acts of kindness and benevolence and grace to meet the needs of others? Goodness.
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Pay for fidelity, faithfulness. He is, He is called in Scripture the faithful and true witness. How often we have been unfaithful. Never, never was he unfaithful. He was always the faithful one, faithful to God his Father.
And in perfect obedience to Him I spoke to his disciples in rebuking them where needed, and rebuking the Pharisees, and speaking to them in in faithful love, faithful of the wounds of a friend. But the kisses of an enemy are profuse.
Fidelity.
And then that word Meekness, come unto me. All you that labor that are heavy laden, keep my yoke upon you, and learn from me way it ought to read Brian meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your soul. My yoke is easy, and my burden is life.
The woke of dependence.
Unique one, I beseech you, by the meekness of Christ.
Lucas does not take offense, and gentleness does not give offense. Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered, He threatened not, but committed himself into the hands of him, and judges righteously the meekness that we see in Jesus. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter.
And as she, as the sheep is done before her cheers, so he open it, not his mouth. Meekness. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. No retaliation, no no vengeance against those that were abusing him and mistreating him.
But lowly submission, Lowly submission, What a path.
Per person, and this is the fruit of the Spirit, it's the life of Christ produced in the power of the Spirit of God in the believer. Now we see an imperfection in him. And then the last one is temperance or self-control. How often?
They did things to the Lord Jesus, They said things against Him. They imputed evil to Him.
Which with many of us, with most of us, maybe we can say with all of us, would have been met with a retaliatory remark at the least.
Self-control.
He never.
He never displayed.
Anything that was out of control. One time we read in Marks gospel that he looked round about him with anger, a righteous anger against the hardness of their hearts, but never.
An anger which is labeled as it says in.
Verse 19 The works of the flesh are manifest, which are adultery, fornication and beingness, lasciviousness, idolatry, whichcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath.
Strike, sedition, heresies, and so on. Wrath or angers now there was nothing like uncontrolled anger, with him always in perfect control.
How many times we have said something and we wish we hadn't said it can't be taken back, but there was one that never had to retract a word that never had to withdraw.
Anything that he said or did, all was imperfection. All was under the power of the Spirit of God. It's not just because He was God, but He was perfect man. We're looking at his humanity here. We're looking at him as man down here.
The fruit of the Spirit lived out in perfection in a man on earth. We've traced it in Christ when we relate it all to Him, when we have the the true model before us, the one who lived it out in perfection. Now that's what the Father is looking for. Let's go back to John 15.
Verse five I am the blind near the branches either divided in me that's communion, and I and him the same bringeth forth much food, for without me you can do nothing.
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How many times a severe trial comes into a person's life and they they go through it?
Without a rumor.
They go through it in independence.
And in communion and in fellowship.
They realize they cannot handle this themselves. They're cast upon him. They realize that they need need him to sustain them. As the Lord says here, without me, we can do nothing.
But how many times there has been failure in our lives over little things?
The dropping of the fish or the spilling of something at the table. Things that really don't amount to much. And we will.
Become angry or lose our temper. We need Him in every detail of our lives. Without me, he says we can do nothing and the opposite to that is found in Philippians 4 where the apostle Paul says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
So we have divine power operating for us when we are in the place of confessed weakness and dependence. That is our strength.
Our weakness, our conscious weakness, our fancy strength is.
Is altogether amiss, and we are we often are allowed to prove that because we're relying upon an arm of the flesh. If a man abide not in me. Well, I don't want to come in on that verse verse 7 if he abide in me and my words abiding you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. Here we have the secret.
Of answered prayer. If you abide in me, that's communion.
And my words abide in you. That's intelligence. That is the soul that's going on in communion with the Lord, asks according to His will first, John 5 If we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. And if we know that he hears, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. So he says, if He abiding me, that's going on with the Lord, walking in fellowship with himself, and my words abiding you.
Then we ask in accordance with his mind. His words abide in us. We don't ask him this. As James says, you ask and receive, not because you ask him this, that you may consume it upon your lust, but here it's just the opposite. Here it's the soul going on in communion. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.
Hearing as my father glorified that she bear much fruit.
So shall you be or become my disciples. So discipleship is in the way of fruit bearing. Discipleship is the path of obedience and.
Submission to him.
Much fruit, and the Father is glorified. And I like the thought that I read once. Never is the Father nearer to the mind than when he is pruning it, and never is the Father nearer to us than when he is putting us through some severe trial. Because the pruning process speaks of discipline. It speaks of cutting off those tender little shoots that spring out of the vine that would rob it.
Life said to produce abundant food and the Father, the husband, man, he, he sees that in our lives and knows how often our hearts would go out after all kinds of things that are presented to it in this world, which would rob us of real food bearing, of really producing, reproducing in us the life of Christ.
By the Spirit of God. So he cuts those little things off.
That's painful.
Very painful.
That he's never closer to the vine than when he's doing that. That's a very precious thought to my soul.
Which name? As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.
Continue ye in my life.
Continue in the sense of it, Father's love for the Son. Can we measure that? Can we fathom that? Can we grasp that? Father's love for the Son, as the Father has loved me.
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Because Even so, have I loved you.
Now Abraham loved Isaac.
And take now thy son, whom thou lovest.
I have made known unto you.
The friend is 1 to whom he divulges the very secrets of his heart. All things that I have heard of my father I have made known unto you. He's taken us into his confidence. How precious. We have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you.
That you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain.
Now that's the only fruit that will remain. The only fruit that will remain. Sometimes we say it this way. Only what's only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. Whose ordained us that we go and bring forth fruit? What is that fruit? It's Christ. It's Christ. Christ produced in our life by the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ in weakness and gentleness and patience and long-suffering and kindness and goodness.
In faithfulness, in love.
All those qualities, the fruit of the Spirit as we were looking at them, all of these now reproduce. And that fruit, that fruit, that fruit will remain. It will remain for all eternity because it speaks of Christ. And it's only that which speaks of Christ in your life and in my life that will remain. It will never pass away. It's that which is for the glory of God. It's that which sends forth that sweet fragrance to God.
In our lives that remains, we have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you, and you should go and bring forth fruit. What a privilege, What a privilege to be a branch in the vine, to bring forth fruit, to manifest the character and the life of Christ. That's why he's left us here.
That's why he's left us here in a scene which is antagonistic to him, which is an enmity with with him, which is away from him, which is cast him out, which is spitting his face and hitting him and crucified him and said we will not have this man to reign over us. You and I have the inestimable privilege of bearing this fruit and showing the world what Christ is.
Can't say that.
Without hanging their heads in shame as we realize how we have failed to manifest the character of Christ, the Christian testimony. What is Christianity? Remember that was the question as we took up this series. What is a Christian? What is Christianity? It's Christ. Christ in the life of the individual, Christ produced in the power of the Spirit, operating in that new life that lives in life that we have because he lives.
We live also, and the Spirit working in that new life to produce Christ. That's the fruit that remains, and that your food should remain. And then again it says, whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
How the the the answer to our prayers, to our requests flows from communion and fruit bearing and walking down here as he walked.
And then that section is ended. These things I command you that you love one another.
Over and over he directs that new nature I command you that you love one another, and that command imparts the very energy needed for that nature to to act.
According to its very nature, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. You can sublimated, you can educate it, you can train it, you can put it through all kinds of processes. It's still flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit and it it, it partakes of the of the of the nature of its source and the new nature, the divine nature, if you will.
Is formed in US.
Produced in us by the power of the Spirit of God, that new life that we have, which is Christ.
Now in verse 18 we have the world, we have the enemy that the world hates you. The thing that Arctic characterized the Christian community is verse 17 that you love one another.
Actually love one another.
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But when we have to do with the world, we think of its hatred, its opposition. If the world hate you, we know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hated you. Do not love it.
We're not here to set it right.
System which is an opposition to God. We're not here to fix it. We're not here to mend it. We're here to manifest the life of Christ in a world that will not have Him and the measure in which we are faithful in reproducing that fruit.
By the power of the Spirit of God will be the measure in which we feel the world's hatred. Someone might say, well, this was written with a view to the early days of Christianity, when the world was a roaring lion in opposition to the testimony of Christianity. But now the world has changed. The world has become Christianized. We talk about this country being a Christian nation.
That's totally false.
Concept This nation is not a Christian nation. There is no such thing as a Christian nation in the world today. The world, the nations of the world and maybe nations which have been favorable to the propagation of the gospel. For that we do thanks. And we're grateful that we live in a in a nation that we enjoy such liberties.
But that doesn't make the nation in which we live Christian.
But the world is in opposition to God. The world is in opposition to God. It always does and it always will be. Then Paul's last epistle, Second Timothy, he says, and this, this has a view to the last days, the early days in which we're living. Has the world changed in its attitude towards Christ? He says all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
Evil men, producers show wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. No, the Word of God doesn't hold out any such false idea that the world is being improved by the influence of Christianity. It cannot improve the natural man. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
Their foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned.
But he did spiritual.
Concern of all things, that He himself is discerned of no man, and we have the mind of Christ. The world knows nothing of this. We saw that in the 14th chapter where when the Spirit was talked about in verse 17. Whom the world cannot receive, because you see, if you're not, neither knoweth Him, but you know Him, for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. The complete contrast all through the Word of God. We're looking at what is true Christianity.
We've been living with a false sense of what the world is. There are many Christians today.
That are all upset over some of the things that are happening in Washington and the laws that are being passed and the legislation that is being.
Formulated that seems to all be in the direction of being anti Christian, and it is. This is the direction in which the world is moving.
And but we're not of it and we're not called to to right these wrongs and these injustices and these ills of society and politics and whatever the world is opposed to Christ.
So he says, Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept My saying or my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my namesake, because they know not him that said Me.
If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin. But now they have no quote for their sin.
He that teaches me hated my father also. So he says in verse 19 that if the world hate you, know that it heated me before you. And now he says that he that hated me hated my father also. If I had not been among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin. But now have they both seen and hated both me and my father.
But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled, and is written in their law. They hated me without a cause.
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But when the comforters come, who know descend of you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me, and He also shall bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning. Well, you notice the Spirit of God is referred to as the Spirit of Truth in chapter 1417.
And here in chapter 1526.
But again in chapter 16.
Verse 13 Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth has come, we will guide you into all truth. So in all of those 3 chapters we have the Spirit of God, the Comforter mentioned as the spirit of truth. The world will have him, doesn't receive him, will not have the truth, have rejected him who is the truth.
Lord Jesus and its attitude towards those who are His is the same as its attitude towards Him who goes on with the subject in chapter 16. These things have I spoken unto you, that you should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogue. May the time cometh. But whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth. God service.
And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father.
Nor me, but these things have I told you that when the time shall come, you may remember that I told you of them. Remember He's addressing his Jewish disciples. He's not addressing Gentiles here, though the truth of what he's saying to them would certainly apply to us today. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you, but now I go my way to him that's threatening the Father, and none of you asketh me.
Goest thou but because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart. And now in verse 7 we have one of the most important verses he says. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient. It is absolutely necessary for you that I go away. They wanted to maintain Him.
The thought of him leaving them filled them with sorrow. They did not know of the day that was coming, the day of Christianity, the day of the Spirit, if you will. The Spirit of God being down here characterizing the present testimony, the Spirit of God, a divine person on earth. You think of how evil.
Those Jews were that required the lifeblood of the Son of God. They cried out, crucified and crucified Him.
Away with him.
What evil happy gun. And the more he said that, the more they cried out crucified him when he was only amongst them for 3 1/2 years publicly.
Publicly.
Doing his works of grace and power.
Manifesting the Father. Telling them of the Father.
A life well when they sent those.
To take him, they came back and besides he said why have you not brought him? And he said never met. He said never man spake like this man. They realized there was a difference, tremendous difference.
He teaches as one that has a port and not as described.
Well, we rejected him, then they cast him out. But we're living. We say how evil that was.
The lady with great sin. And it was.
Cannot we cannot overstate how how we can rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ loved by the world, but we've been living for nearly 2000 years. Spirit of God, the divine person on earth.
Bearing witness to his servants through the years, through the ages, 2000 years of gospel witness, the church on earth through his people. And what have they done? They have rejected the testimony of the whole ghost. So the guilt of Christendom.
Far exceeds the guilt of Israel in rejecting their Messiah. That was terrible. That was awful. The greatest crime committed in the annals of time.
Think of the guilt of Christendom and rejecting.
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And finally, doing away with the testimony of the Holy Spirit.
Well, the judgment of Christendom is indeed horrible when we read of it in the Book of Revelation.
Let's just go on just a little. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. Verse 7. It is expedient for you that I go away, or if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
Now we have new truth. You remember in the 14th chapter He said He will be with you forever, He will dwell with you, He shall be in you, He will be your teacher, He will bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. But now He unfolds further truth.
About the coming of the Holy Spirit, he says it's absolutely essential that I go away. He couldn't come until there was a man in the glory, until he had gone on high. Then he would send the Holy Spirit. But if I depart, I will send him unto you. Verse 8. And when he has come, he will reprove the world of sin and righteousness and of judgment. Another translation gives that.
Wings come, He will bring demonstration to the world.
Of sin and of righteousness, and of judgment. That is, the presence in this world of the Spirit of God is a demonstration of these three things, sin and righteousness and judgment of sin, because they believe not on me. But presence in this world of the Spirit of God is a demonstration of the sin of man.
In rejecting Christ and not believing in Him.
It's a demonstration of righteousness, he says in verse 10. Because I go to my father and he see me no more.
The righteousness of God was put forth and displayed in raising his Son from the dead, and setting them in the glory, a man in the glory, the sin of man in rejecting him in in not believing in him, and then the righteousness of God in exalting him to his own right hand in heaven of righteousness, he says.
Because I go to my Father. So as we look on high, we see that man in the glory. It's God's answer to the work of Christ. Man's answer to Christ was to nail into a cross and to reject him. That was his sin. They wouldn't believe. They wouldn't receive him. God's righteousness is shown in taking that blessed man and setting him in the highest place in heaven of righteousness. Because I go to my Father, and you see me no more.
And then he says of judgment.
Because the Prince of this world is judged, we're going to a judged scene. The Prince of this world, the Prince that has led the world onto that awful crime of crucifying the Lord of glory, he was judged there at the cross. Now is the judgment of this world. Now show the Prince of this world be cast out. So here we have these three things.
And the presence in this world of the Holy Spirit, He's been here for nearly 2000 years.
Is a demonstration of the sin of the world in rejecting Christ, of the righteousness of God and exalting Him, and of the judgment which has been pronounced upon the Prince of this world, and will soon be carried out. We're going to a judge soon. We're going through a world which is under the judgment of God, and it's not our business to try to improve it or to right its wrongs, but to manifest.
The character of Christ, as we've been seeing.
He says in verse 12, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Now here he talks about future things, things that he would unfold to them after he had departed the scene and gone on high in the glory. Because you're not able to understand these things, the things connected with the new order, the things connected with the assembly and Christ as the head of the church and the church being the body of Christ and the House of.
And the Bride of Christ, and all the truths that are brought out in the Epistles, I have many things yet to say unto you. We mustn't think that we have all the truth brought out in this Gospel or in any other of the Gospels. Much of the truth is unfolded to us and the Epistles, but you cannot bear the more. Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of Truth has come, He will guide you into.
All truth, for he shall not speak of himself.
But whatsoever he shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come. He should glorify me, for He should receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All that the Father has in mind, Therefore said I, that He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. There you have the whole Trinity, the Father, the Son speaking, the Spirit of God, who would take of what was His, and show it to us.
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A little wild, and you shall not see me. And again a little while Angie shall see me, because I go to the Father. And then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he say unto us? A little while, and you shall not see me. And again a little while, and you shall see me.
And because I go to the Father, he's going on high, and the time that he's away is characterized by the Lord here as just a little while, a little while the Lord will come and we shall wander here no more. It's just a short time, just a little while that he's in the Father's presence.
And they didn't understand what he said. Doesn't verse 19 Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do you inquire among yourselves of that? I said, a little while, and you shall not see me. And again a little while, and you shall see me. Verily, verily, I say unto you, that you shall reap and lament.
But the world shall rejoice, and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail, have sorrow because her hour has come. But as soon as she is delivered to the child, she remembers no more the anguish For joy that a man is born into the world, and he now therefore have sorrow living in that time when our Lord is rejected.
The Bible. He's been cast out and sent away.
It's the time of the church's sorrow in that sense. But he says, But I will see you again, and your heart shall shall rejoice. They had a little picture of it then when the Lord was taken from them before his resurrection, they were sorrowful. They barely thought that it was He that would have redeemed Israel. The disciples said to the risen Christ in Luke 24.
They were filled with sorrow, and then he revealed himself to them.
Well, in another sense, we're going through a time when he's away, just a little while, when he's departed. And the one who is the source of all our joy, the one who is our heavenly Bridegroom, he's not with us. And so in that sense, we are sorrowing now while we wait for his return for us. And now you therefore have sorrow. But I will see you again.
And your heart shall rejoice, and your joy.
No, man, take it from you. And in that day you shall ask me nothing again, I believe referring to the day of Christianity. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it to you. Give it to if you ask nothing in my name. The name of the departed one, the name of the rejected one. Ask and you shall receive.
That your joy may be full answer, prayer flowing out of communion with himself, asking in His name.
Asking in accordance with his name, in accordance with his will, intelligently according to the word of God, and having the answer, that the joy may be full. 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 at that day, and that's the day of Christianity.
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 you have loved me and have believed that I came out from God. There was a thought that no one could approach the Father directly. They all had to go through the Son. And so he says the Father himself loveth you. The thought was that the the Son had to intercede for us with the Father. But he says no. He says the Father himself loveth you. You can go directly to the Father.
You don't have to think that his that he's unapproachable. The father himself loveth you.
Because you have loved me and have believed that I came out from God. I noticed this. I came forth from the Father and I'm coming to the world again. I leave the world and go to the Father. He was introducing them to the Father. He says in John 17 verse 6, I have manifested thy name, the name of Father, unto the men which thou beavest me out of the world.
Grind they were, and Thou gave us them me, and they have kept thy word. But He had manifested the name of the Father to them.
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He was seeking to bring them into into the the being at home with the Father, being comfortable with the Father. So he says the Father himself loveth you because you have loved me and have believed that I came out from God. Now you have to remember he was talking to these Jewish disciples. They had they didn't know God as their father. They were now being brought into this knowledge by the Lord himself when we know it came about.
In John 20 when he gave that wonderful message to Mary Magdalene.
Go to my brethren and tell them, I ascend unto my Father, and to your Father, to my God and to your God. So he puts it in his place, the fruit of redemption accomplished. And he says, My Father is your Father, my God is your God. But he can't be brought into anything more intimate and blessed than that. And so he's leading them in his teaching here into this. He says, I came forth from the Father. Notice how he puts it. And then come into the world again. I lead the world and go to.
Father, sometimes I hear those addressing God as as God, God, God all the time. That's that's all right. But we have something more more intimate, something more precious than that. He came forth from the Father and we have we by the Spirit of God, we cry and the Father and we have the, the, the consciousness that we've been brought into that intimate relationship.
His Father is our Father, his God is our God. Notice having missed it, they didn't get it. He says again, I leave the world and go to the Father. His disciples said unto him, Lo, thou speakest thou plainly, and speaketh no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest for all things, and neatest map, that any man should ask thee? By this we believe that document forth from God.
They missed it. They they didn't enter into it.
He had come forth from the Father, and they still say by this we believe that thou came as forth from God. That was certainly true, a blessed truth, but they were to be brought into, and the Lord sought to bring them into that which was even notice He doesn't rebuke them for this. He says He answered them. Do ye now believe?
Behold, the hour cometh. Ye is now cometh. It took them a long while. They were very slow in appropriating.
The blessed truth of being able to address God as Father, that's Christian ground, that Christian knowledge, that's Christian into the sea. When somebody says now we hold the hour cometh, there is now come when you shall be scattered every man to his own and shall leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me.
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace in the world you shall have tribulation.
Be a good cheer, I have overcome the world. So he he ends this section, this whole portion here, he says in me you might have peace. Not in the world. We don't look for peace in the world. In the world we have tribulation. That's what the Christian can expect. But he says be a good cheer, I have overcome the world. These brought us into another world.
Another world where he is everything and he's going to bring us there.
In a moment.
John 17. He doesn't address the disciples.
Now he addresses the Father concerning the disciples.
We're the subject of his prayer. We're the ones that he's talking to the Father about now. He's loved us and he's going to bring us into all that is in his heart of love for us. Wonderful to to read John 17. It's the son.
Speaking to the Father about you and me, and telling the Father his thoughts, his desires for us. Father, I will for those whom God has given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which Thou hast given me. For Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.