This morning we'll be finishing John 14, so we'll be going from verses 15 through the end of the chapter, which is verse 31, or at least, I should say, Lord willing, we intend to get that far. The title of this lesson is Promises and Provisions. John 14, beginning in verse 15. Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me, because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus answered him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words, and the word that you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, I am going away and I will come to you. If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I am going to the Father and the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place so that when it does take place, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here. Thus far is the reading of God's word. Let us pray once more. Father in heaven, we rejoice at your goodness and your kindness to us, that in a world of darkness you have given us light In a world of sin, you have given us salvation. In a world of violence, you have given us peace. And so we ask even now that as we study your word, you would be pleased to grow us in grace. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Who has ever heard the expression, show of hands, good structure beats good intentions? Has anyone ever heard that or something like that? What's it mean, Tucker? Not sure? I love we have these short summaries and expressions that people can articulate. I'm supposed to summarize something helpful, and I'm like, I don't know. Jeff? have to be based in doing good, even if a sinful person does something that, by Christian standards, would be good. If they haven't come to Jesus, then it means nothing. OK, that's close. That's in the right direction. That's all you said is true, but that's not quite what's meant by the expression. It means that your intention, your desire to succeed in any given thing, Spiritual or otherwise is not enough. You must also put plans and structures in place to achieve your goals. And then you must act on those plans and structures. Good structure beats good intention. It's not enough to desire to do good, you also have to have a plan to work it out. This is something that I think about all the time, particularly with relation to papers and sermons and things like that. a good intention, and then you have to have a structure. Josh knows I talk to him often about this, not because he's particularly weak in it, but because it's so important. You need a good structure to match your good intention. It's a good thing to be able to say in a clear, concise way, this is what I want to do, this is why I want to do it, and this is how I am going to do it. And that, again, is not just spiritual advice. That applies to academic pursuits, athletic pursuits, professional pursuits, whatever. You want to think through what I want to do, why it matters, and then how I'm going to do it. This is even more important if you are going to be a leader in any capacity, professionally, in a family, whatever it might be. If you want to instill confidence in your team or your staff or your family or whoever you're serving, you don't want to just make a bunch of promises, but you want to have a plan in place to actually achieve what it is that you have promised. More free advice. Never trust a leader who doesn't have a plan. All of this is true and all of it works. because it is patterned after the way God works. God, in 1 Corinthians 14, 33, we are told, God is not a God of confusion, but a God of peace. In the end of 1 Corinthians 14, we read, all things should be done decently and in order. God is a God who plans, has goals, He has plans, and he executes those plans for the purpose of fulfilling those goals. Somebody please read for us Acts 2, verse 23. Maybe I can get someone on the front row, Acts 2, 23. The next row, if I could get somebody for Isaiah 14, 24. And then we'll go to the back row. No, we'll go to the third row. And if somebody could get for me Psalm 33, 11. So Acts 2, 23, first row, Isaiah 14, 24, second row, Psalm 33, 11, third row, and back row, I promise I will find a verse for you all too. All right, who's got Acts 2, 23? All right, hit me Samuel. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. Hang on, why was Jesus delivered up? So that he could bear our sins. Okay, yes, but what's the verse say? What was behind Jesus speaking? God had a plan. Jesus was delivered up according to that plan. Finish the verse. You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. So the most evil, wicked thing that ever happened, the crucifixion of Jesus, was according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. Isaiah 14, 24, who's got me? Ponder. The Lord of hosts is sworn, as I have planned, so shall I be, and as I have purposed, so shall I abstain. Why do things happen? As I have planned. And as I have purposed. God has a purpose. God has a plan. And because that's true, everything that happens, happens. All right. Psalm 33, 11. Yes, Tabitha. The counsel of the Lord stands forever. The plans of his heart to all generations. The counsel of the Lord stands forever. The plans of his heart to all generations. We may not have all of the details of the plan. In fact, it's not only we may not, you do not have all of the details of the plan, but there is a plan. And we do know a fair bit of it. God knew that from before the foundation of the world, what he wanted to do, he wanted to glorify himself in the salvation of sinners. I've got drawn up here again, Redemptive historic timeline right so all the way back over here off the map God knows that for the glory of his name He wants to save sinners Hence the rest of redemptive history everything that is unfolding is for that Original plan is according to that purpose. We don't have time to go through all of these passages, but I trust being in a Presbyterian Church, and often hearing me rail about covenant theology, you're just gonna give that to me. God has a plan, it's been one plan from the beginning, and it's going here to where he will dwell with his people. He knew what he wanted to do, and he knew why he wanted to do it, for his own glory, right? Why did God make you and all things for his own glory? And also, as you'll hear in the sermon this morning, because he loves you. And He knew how He was going to do it. By sending His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So there's a plan, there's a why it's important, and there's a how. It's through the cross, and also through the outpouring of the Spirit. In these verses that we've read, Jesus is communicating to us, and to His initial audience in the upper the depth of God's purpose for our lives. And as such, he essentially states the same thing a couple of different ways. There's a lot of theology that's packed into these verses that I don't have time to get through, but I want to draw your attention to the fact that there's a lot of repetition here. Somebody on the back row, please read verses 15 to 17 of John 14. And then somebody back here on the front row, 21 to 23. Back row, John 14, 15 to 17. Not all at once. Providence. Very good. All right. Front row, 21 to 23. Mr. McCochran. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he is who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. Judas, not ascariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not into the world? Jesus answered him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Thank you very much, Mr. Cochran. There's some overlap here that we should see throughout the passage, right? There's these reoccurring themes. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And the Holy Spirit will come to you and will be in you. That's a summary of what Providence read for us. That's basically it. Then again, he says, verse 21, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. If you love me, keep my commandments. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And what will happen for that one? I and my father will come to him. We will make our home with him. So there's nuances there that we can get into, but for the sake of time and clarity, this lesson will not be arranged going verse by verse, as is our normal custom, but it will rather be arranged thematically. And we may have to come back and do another lesson or two on this. I'll get with Miss Berenger about that later to update the music schedule as is needed. So we're going to look at the concepts that Jesus lays out for us repeatedly through this passage. And this chunk, it all goes together. But again, for the sake of the depth of it, we may spend a couple of weeks here. So today for our purposes, we're going to look at three main ideas, three, main divisions, remembering before I give you those, the context and the purpose of the passage. The context and the purpose of the passage is we're in the upper room. It's the night that Jesus will be betrayed. It's the night before the cross. It's the night before he's going away. And he's offering them comfort. He's offering them assurance that even though I go away, you will still commune. You will still have communion with the Father in heaven. And not only will you have communion with the Father in heaven, but you will also have communion with me. That's what he says in verse 12. Whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do and greater works than these will he do. So you have communion, you have a participation, even though he's no longer bodily here on earth with the Lord Jesus. And then in our passage, he also brings in the third person of the Trinity, which should be no surprise to any of you, he brings in the Holy Spirit. You will have communion with the Holy Spirit. So even though Jesus is departing physically, you, disciples, and now you, Second Pres Youth Group, Sunday morning, November 17th, 2024, can have communion with the living God. And so what we're gonna look at today is the nature of our communion with God The result of our communion with God. And finally, the cause of our communion with God. Or to go back to what we were talking about at the very beginning, what's God's plan? What's His purpose in His plan? And how is He going to do it? Right? You see that? The nature of our communion, the result of our communion, and the cause of our communion. Well, first of all, what's the nature of our communion? You may think of it, you may think of this as what is it that God wants to do? What is it that he wants to accomplish? What is the chief end of man? His chief end is to, come on guys. Oh my God, and to enjoy him forever. Very good, very enthusiastic, I appreciate it. God's desire in the creation of all mankind in general as well as your creation particularly, is that He might be with you, that you might commune with Him. We see this communion that we will have with the Spirit in verses 16 and 17. Now look at those real quick. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper to be with you forever. You know Him, for He dwells God is with you. God will be with you. And then he also describes the Spirit this way in verse 18. I will not leave you in orphans, but I will come to you. God is with you. This is a central teaching of Scripture that O. Palmer Robertson, he calls it the Immanuel Principle. Why do we have the signs that say Immanuel this time of year? What does that name mean? Matthew 1, 23, yes? God with us, right? No spoilers, no secret answers here, right? I'm talking about God being with you, Emmanuel, God with us. Robertson writes, throughout the biblical record of God's administration of the covenant, that's this, a single phrase reoccurs as the summation of the covenant relationship. I shall be your God, and you shall be my people. The constant repetition of this phrase or its equivalent indicates the unity of God's covenant, this singular purpose through all of redemptive history. This phrase may be designated as the Emmanuel principle of the covenant. The heart of the covenant is the declaration that God is with us. For the sake of time, I'm not gonna run through all of these verses here, but I'm gonna give them for you zealous note-taking types. Genesis 17, seven. Exodus six, seven. Exodus 19, four and five. This is also what the whole purpose behind things like the tabernacle and the temple. This is where God's presence dwells with his people, major parts. The entire book of Leviticus is about this principle. Ezekiel 34, 23 to 24, and Zechariah 2, 11, and of course, Matthew 21, 23. And that principle, it carries all the way from Adam, all the way to over here, where in Revelation 21, 3, we read, we hear the voice from the throne declaring, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and God will be with them as their God, and they will be with him as his people. His promise could be said to be the unifying theme of all of scripture. This is in the prologue of John's gospel, and the word became flesh and dwelt, or tabernacled, among us, with us. And though Jesus is leaving his disciples, he wants to assure them and us that his communion with them, as well as with all three members of the Godhead, that's not going away. That's not changing. God is with us. You believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, God is with you. But then, as is his custom, our Lord ups the ante, as it were. It gets better than that. I love the language, and I hope you do, of Psalm 23, where David writes, my cup is not full, it overflows. God with you is big. God with you is huge. God with you is very, very, very significant. But he's not only with you, he's in you. Jesus promises the disciples that God will be with them in ways that are difficult for us to wrap our minds around, but he says that he'll be in you. Just look back at the passage. Verse 17, again, towards the end of the verse, you know him, the Holy Spirit, for he dwells with you and will be in you. John 14, 20. In that day, you will know that I am in my Father, Jesus saying, I, Jesus, am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Verse 23. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. God is with you, God is in you. That's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6.19 that your body is a temple for the Holy Spirit. That's not hyperbolic. That's true, that's literal, that's real. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the eternal God, your creator, resides in you and you in him. There are moments when I think we catch just a glimmer of what this means and what the distinction is that I'm making here. And I'm going to give one brief illustration. Anyone, when you were a child, have an irrational fear of thunderstorms? Yeah, I certainly did. I was convinced that every single one of them was going to become a tornado and rip apart my house. My kids, for whatever reason, have that same irrational fear. And in a typical, general thunderstorm, like a run-of-the-mill one, they need Dad to be with them. They need me in the room. And that's better. But sometimes there'll be a particular crack of lightning, a particular loud boom of thunder. And then they not only need me with them, they want to crawl in my arms. And there's this sense in which they're like trying to burrow inside of me. Because that's how they're going to feel safest and most secure. Now, that's not physically possible for my children to do with me. But it is spiritually exactly what God does for you. You are in Him and He is in You. You don't become God, right? You nor, you're not the fourth nor the 400,000th or 400 millionth or 400 billionth member of the Trinity, right? There's only three of them. And yet, there is a mutual indwelling that takes place here. In my study of the concept, I really like the way Sinclair Ferguson puts it, there are some things that are better felt than telt. And of course he's playing on words. Some things that you need to feel and can't really be fully explained. That's what he means by felt versus telt. By which he explains, we only begin to appreciate some things when we experience them ourselves. I think perhaps the best way to try and explain it is that sometimes people think reading their Bible or any form of spiritual talk or instruction is like a workout supplement that you take to give yourself a little boost when you're in need. Right? I remember in a previous job, I was reading my Bible at my desk and one of my coworkers says, Hey, you're reading your Bible. I need a verse. I need some encouragement. Pour it on. I just like, you don't want me to read this. I'm in Jeremiah right now. It's not going to be good. But people think about reading the Bible that way. A lot of people think about it that way. A little increased assurance that you've got this. You can do it. Something more contrary to the message and purpose of the Bible is hard to imagine. Or slightly better, and I want to recognize this is legitimate good, reading your Bible, spiritual discussions, good sermons, edifying conversation, good books, it can grow you and it ought to grow you in the assurance that God's got this. If God is for us, then who can be against us? That's Romans 8.31. But the disciples, well, they need that, and you and I need that. They will need more. They are about to receive the great commission to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. And they will need something more than the self-confidence about the gifts that God has given them. And they will need something more than the often tritely used expression, God will handle it, because God has commissioned them to do it. Peter, Matthew, and so on, you go and make disciples. I'll be with you, but you are called to do it. And the good news is that while he commissions his disciples, while he commissions us to do the work, he is not only with us in the work, but he actually does it through us. 1 Corinthians 1510 is one of my favorite verses. I would add that to my running list of please memorize this first list. By the grace of God, I am what I am. I worked harder than any of them. I worked, I did it. Paul's saying, I labored. Nevertheless, it was the grace of God working in me. Or the verse I really hope you already have memorized, Galatians 2.20. This life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith. And I started in the middle of the verse, and that's my bad. He says before that, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And I say to you this morning, if it hasn't come yet, there will come a time when God calls you to a difficult task. It will happen. And I don't just mean enduring a difficult trial, though. That will also certainly happen, and you will need God with you and in you for that. But there will be other things that God calls you to do. Lord willing, one day you will get married, and you will be given, as a wife or a husband, the very simple, at least cognitively simple, task of, ladies, loving and respecting your wives as the church is to love and respect Jesus. And I gotta tell y'all, for Mrs. Early, that is not easy because it's me, okay? And I know all of the faults with me that make me difficult. But she's called to do it. And men, you will be called to love your wives as Christ loved the church. This is an obligation that is laid upon you, and if you are going to do it, you need God to do it in and through you. The same will be true, Lord willing, that many of you should become parents. You will be called not to provoke them to anger, but rather to raise them in the nurture and admonition, the discipline and instruction of the Lord. My kids are cute, but that ain't easy. I need God to do that in and through me. Some watered, others planted, but God gives the increase through. they're watering and planting. These are not things that you will be able to do even with God working alongside of you. You need him working in you. And so my advice to you right now is don't try and worry about figuring out the metaphysics of how all this works God in you. I don't get it, but he said it. And so I believe it. So rather than trying to figure out like how that works, how about we trust that it does work and pursue that. What you need to do is yield yourself to that. If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has passed away, the new has come. It's still you, but it's also God in you. And so what you need to do is spend time in your words, spend time listening to sermons, spend time reading good books about the Lord and about His works and His purposes, so that when you recognize in yourself an inclination towards certain things, you can say, that agrees with the Word of God, that doesn't agree with the Word of God. This agrees, I'm going to yield, I'm going to give to it, this doesn't, I'm going to put it to death, I'm gonna put it away. You need to yield yourself to these things, so that when you come to your time to carry out the work that God has given you to do, you'll be equipped you'll recognize his voice and his work within you. I'm always very suspicious whenever anyone says, the Holy Spirit told me to do thus and so. Maybe, but I have a desire to do thus and so, and God's word says that's a good thing, and so I'm going to pursue it. That is something we can work with. And for the sake of time and clarity, I'm going to pause our lesson here because, again, I'm an overzealous fool who prepared too much. But let's summarize again. The nature of your communion with God is that he is with you and he is in you. And what you need to do is give yourself to him in heart and mind so that you can recognize his work in your life and pursue it. God in heaven, we give thanks to you for your many blessings to us, your people. And I pray, Father, that you would bless my dear young friends, that you would bless them not only to know what your word teaches, but to live according to it. Lord, that you might build them up in the grace and provision that is theirs in Christ. In whose name we pray, amen.