Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is much that we could explain tonight about the Trinity. And I think the children even know even that word which isn't found particularly in the Bible in its own definition. But throughout the Bible we find this truth revealed to us that God is one God but he's revealed himself to us in three distinct persons. There is one essence, there's one being of God, but there are three persons. And even stating that is hard to grasp. It's hard for our English language to get our minds around what that would mean. It's a mystery in a certain sense. It's like we are body and soul, two parts to our one being, but we're one being. You can't really separate the two. Tonight, I want to look at this truth with you, not so much on its doctrinal basis, but upon which Jesus is unfolding here for his disciples. If you were listening to Jesus at the time he was speaking the words of our text, you would have probably reacted the same way the Pharisees did. I'm listening to a man who's going through the Bible in a certain sequence, and he says, anytime the Pharisees get upset, we should sit up and pay attention. Why? Why are they upset? Well, they get upset to some of the things that Jesus has been saying about himself. Because throughout the history from the Old Testament period and then through the exile, they understood, the Pharisees did, that God had put them in exile, out of the country, because they had come to worship so many other gods. He wanted them to realize our God is one. This was a passage that they taught all of their children from Deuteronomy 6, 4. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. Beside him there is no other God. Jesus, no doubt, learned this verse from Deuteronomy when he was a child. And now when they hear Jesus speaking about he and the father are one, the Pharisees are ready to accuse him of blasphemy. So I want to back up a couple of chapters in John. This whole day will be kind of centered around this gospel and it's important. So if you turn in your Bibles back to that chapter I said there's this kind of dividing line in the gospel of John in chapter 6. Jesus had given them bread to eat. He said, I am the bread of life. that's come down from heaven. Your fathers ate bread and they were hungry. But any who eats of me shall never hunger again. Any who drinks of me will never thirst again. And Jesus lays this out in relationship to his father. Look at the end of this discourse in verse 57. As the Living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven, not as your father did eat manna and were dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever." They were offended. Verse 60, many, when they heard this, this is a hard saying, who can hear it? And they murmured, verse 61, and Jesus said, does this offend you? What and if you see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak unto you are spirit, they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. And verse 65, he said, therefore, I say unto you, no man can come unto me except it were given him of my father. And from that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Jesus throughout his ministry and now in the latter part of his last week with his weeks with his disciples, he is going to even more clearly show this connection between himself and his father. And then as he will do the discourse with his disciples in the upper room, he will even fill in the aspect in regard to his spirit. He had declared this already in chapter 7 as well. Verse 16, notice what he says there. Jesus answered them, my doctrine is not mine, but this, his, that sent me. Then we come to chapter 8. This woman again, we saw this morning, caught in adultery and all of them go away and he speaks to her that he does no longer condemn her, but go and sin no more. Come to the passage that I read in regard to light. I am the light that is of the world. He that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. And the Pharisees therefore said to him, thou barest record of thyself, the record is not true. Jesus answered and said, though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true. For I know whence I came and whither I go. But you cannot tell whence I come and whither I go. You judge after the flesh. I judge no man. And yet if I judge, my judgment is true. For I'm not alone, but I and the Father that sent me." This is important. Jesus is saying, these are the two witnesses. My Father and I are witnessing that this is true. It is not a lie. I'm come to bear witness of myself and the father that sent me bears witness of me. Then said they unto him, where is thy father? Jesus answered, you neither know me nor my father. If you had known me, you should have known my father also. And we get to verse 41 as he unpacks this even further. He gets to the very heart of the issue. when he tells those who had rejected him, you do the deeds of your father. And we read the Pharisees became angry. Verse 41, they said to him, we are not born of fornication. And the word there is, we're not an excuse, but this is the way the word is used. We're not a bastard like you, born out of wedlock. That's what they saw Jesus to be. They totally rebelled against who Jesus was saying to them he was. He is saying, I am come from God. I am God. We get to chapter 12, you pursue through this reading what we looked at this morning. And he that believes in me in verse 44. has seen the light, I am a light common to the world that whosoever believes on me should not abide in darkness. In 49, for I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which has sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting. Whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said to me, so I speak. Jesus knows his last hour is coming. He wants his disciples to understand he is God, the son of God. For the Pharisees and those Jews of that day, this was earth-shattering, this was mind-blowing, this was incomprehensible. I think sometimes for us, having heard so much about Jesus as a man, that he walked among us, that he loves and embraces his people, that he's compassionate. All of these human characteristics as well as divine, but we have sort of this often, this human perception of Jesus. And Jesus is reminding us tonight, I am God. And we want to look at that also as we see here from our catechism in Lourdes VIII as well as from John 14. that flushes this out in Jesus' own words, these three distinct persons. So we turn to Lord's day eight. Now remember, we're at this section in the catechism having just covered what is true faith and what is the content of our faith in the 12 articles that we read tonight. So as we read those every Sunday, we ought to be speaking along in our hearts with what's being said. This ought to be our heartfelt confession, I believe. And the implications of what that means are spelled out in the rest of what follows behind in Lord's Day 8 and following. And in this short Lord's Day, they summarize in three sections here, three persons, the three persons of the Trinity, how these articles are divided. So question 24, how are these articles divided? Answer into three parts. The first is of God the Father and our creation. The second, of God the Son and our redemption. The third, of God the Holy Ghost and our sanctification. Question 25, since there is but one only divine essence, why speakest thou of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? Answer, because God has so revealed himself in his word that these three distinct persons are the one only true and eternal God. And we'll see that in this passage we look at tonight from John 14. I just want to read several of these verses again, focusing mainly on nine, but what follows as well in 10, 16, and 17. John 14, nine. Jesus said unto him, Philip, have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that has seen me has 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 words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. 16, 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 you know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. Well, we want to look at the theme of God seen in the face of Jesus Christ with three thoughts. First, what's the content here of what Jesus is saying to his disciples? What's the context? Then the content, and last, as we reflect on this, what is the commission he's sending us out to take heed in this week and in time to come on reflection on these two things? Well, Seeing in the Old Testament was a serious matter, seeing God. If you remember some of the instances when an angel or the likeness of God and resemblance of Christ in an appearance, a theophany or so, came to appear to people, they were petrified, and rightly so. Because the understanding was there is no one who can see God and live. God did not really come down and speak at a human level other than through these kinds of theophanies. When he appears to Moses, he says, I'll just show you my backward parts. In today's world, there is this desire to see the unseen. People want to see in order to believe. That's how we've been taught in our secular school system through science. When we see it, we can test it, then we can probably believe it to be true. And what Jesus is saying to us here is, if you have seen me, if you have seen the light we have talked about this morning, in seeing me, by faith, you will be able to say, as Jesus tells us, you have seen my Father. You have heard me. You have heard my Father's words. Don't be... deceived by what our world has ingrained into our minds even through the science of our day. And that's why evolution has taken such a large role in our culture and world. It's because supposedly we can see and we extrapolate from things we see and until we see it we're not going to believe it. That was precisely the problem that Philip was having here in this passage. He wanted to see something. And there's people in regard to religious things that want to also kind of see something. Until I see it. And you fill in the blank of what you mean by see it. But some want to have this, whatever, you describe what that is. You in your own mind have an idea of what that might be. Unless this, then I won't believe that. And that's what Philip was saying here. Jesus had just said to them, If you've known me, you've known my father, and you will know him and have seen him. And then Philip says, show us the father, Jesus, and it's enough. He was true, he was correct. If we have seen God, it's enough. But Jesus is going to correct Philip. He's going to express to him his disappointment. Look at what he says at the beginning of verse nine. You can hear it in his words. Philip, have I been so long with you and yet you have not known? And that's a penetrating question. It's a penetrating question for me as I suppose it would be for you. Especially if we are looking for some sort of sign. You remember in Jesus' ministry there were many who were looking for signs. Even the Pharisees were looking for signs. Give us a sign and we'll believe it. Even to the last day of when he's hanging on the cross, come down from the cross and we'll believe that you are the Son of God. They wanted a sign. Jesus is saying to his disciples, you're hearing my words. You need no more signs. Remember what Jesus said when he told the parable of the rich man who lifted up his eyes in hell. They wanted to see something. Go back and go talk to my brothers. And Jesus says that they have the word. That's all they need. And Philip here is falling into this same kind of error. Lord, show us the Father and then it will be enough. If we see it, we can believe it. But Jesus does not want to permit this way of thinking for Philip or for his disciples or for you and me. Early on in Philip's life, this also affected him. You remember when he went to go tell Nathaniel. We have seen the Lord. And he begins asking Nathanael all these questions to Philip and the only answer that Philip can give him is, come and see for yourself. Philip was this understanding and this kind of simplistic faith, if you just show me and then I'll believe it. But remember, Philip had seen many things. At this point in Jesus' ministry, it's the last hours of his life. He had seen all the miracles. He had heard Jesus' sermons. He had even seen in the last few days Lazarus risen from the dead. And now he's saying to Jesus, show us and we'll believe it. Jesus does not want his disciples to think along this way. Jesus wants his disciples to hear his word and that's enough because he said it. Jesus says the better way in essence is take me at my word. Notice in verse 10, Jesus is comparing here the words and the works as if they're interchangeable. And he's saying, you've seen the works, Philip. Believe my words. And later he will say, even when he's risen from the dead and Thomas is doubting that Jesus had risen from the dead, unless I put my hands in the print of his nails and I thrust my hand in his side, I will not believe. And then the second time Jesus appears with him in his presence with Thomas there. I don't think he probably had to do it because he saw him. And what did Jesus say? Blessed are you who have seen and believed. But blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Well, what did they believe? The words. The words. If you're looking to see something in your natural eye or something spectacular, Jesus is saying, this is what you need right here. It's the word that I've spoken to you that's recorded precisely by my spirit, by the spirit of God for you. Christ was always about speaking the word. And what word was that, his own? Not at all. It was the word of his father. The very reason Jesus is living and he's going to go to the cross is not primarily and first of all for his people. Yes, that's true. But he is doing it for his father. He is living for the glory of his father. He wants to please his father. And Jesus wants his disciples to have this view also of his father. Because a right knowledge of God the Father can only come through a right knowledge of God the Son. And if the Son of God is truly known, then we may say, indeed, we truly know the Father. And if we do not understand the words he spoke about his Father and about himself, then he says, you do not know me. or my father. In other words, you and I can only know the father insofar as we know the son. He said, all things are delivered to me of my father, and no man knoweth the son but the father, neither knoweth any man the father save the son, and he to whom the son will reveal him. Jesus is saying, the words I have spoken to you, they are not of myself, they're of my Father. And the Father that dwells in me has done these works. And now I and my Father have come, Philip, and we're going to dwell in you by the Spirit. Do you believe that, Church of God? that the triune God, who we're talking about in Lord's Day Eight, is present here. Yes, He's present everywhere, but He's present particularly in the hearts of His people by His Spirit. And so what Jesus is saying to us in this context is when you see Me. When you read of me in the Gospels, the record that has been preserved of me faithfully and truthfully by the Spirit recorded by these men who actually saw it, you are seeing my Father. Now, of course, he's saying we haven't seen the literal face of his Father. God is Spirit. but Jesus was God and man. And so what Jesus is saying to us children is this, very simply, we can't begin to understand triunity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three in one, but Jesus is saying to us very specifically and really, when you read the gospel, when you open your Bible and read and Matthew and John and Mark and Luke, when you read about Jesus and you begin to see who he was, who are you seeing? You're seeing Jesus. But he's saying as well, you're seeing my Father. When you see Jesus back in John 8, what we just looked at briefly of this woman who was caught in adultery and they're surrounding this woman and ready to throw stones at her and Jesus kneels down and begins writing in the sand. What are we seeing? We're seeing Jesus. We're seeing his heart of compassion and forgiveness and love to a sinner. Yes, but we're seeing also His Father, heart to this woman. And that brings us to the second point here, this content of what Jesus is actually saying. When you have seen me, you have seen the Father. John begins his gospel this way in verse 18 of chapter 1. So everything about the mission of Jesus was also in part to declare his father to us. So the words that he spoke is in the mission that his father gave him to do. The words that he spoke are what his father wanted him to say. In essence, what John is saying is Christ has come and he explains, he unbacks what we are to know about his father. So when Jesus tells the parable of the prodigal son, yes, he is talking about a son like ourselves who destroyed our life and righteous living. That's true. And he's talking about sinners who return to God, and those three parables in Luke 15 are about the work of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. But particularly there in that last parable, there is not a focus upon that son. There is a focus upon the Father. And as Jesus tells this father, one can only imagine in his own heart as he's telling this parable of his father's heart toward sinners. And Jesus said, you've seen me. You've seen me ministering compassion to the sick and the sorrowing and the hopeless and the dying and the miserable and the sinners. And that is my Father's heart. Paul tells the Colossians, Christ is the image of the invisible God. You know, sometimes when we're shown a picture of someone at Christmastime, you have all these pictures, you see everybody and their families, and you might look at them and go, that's a spittin' image of his parents or his father or his mother. That pales in significance. It's not superficial features we're talking about here. We're talking about essence. We're talking about the very heart, the very core, the very being of Jesus. What you see in him, what you see on the pages of the gospel, what you hear from his words, they are the words of his father. They are the actions of his father. That's what Jesus wants us to know. So when He healed the lepers, when He healed the deaf, when you see Christ acting like this or like that, we're seeing His Father. And when you read Him in John 3.16 saying, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, He's reflecting what His Father wanted Him to say. The writer to the Hebrews put it this way in chapter 1, 3, Christ is the brightness of God's glory, the express image of the Father. God the Father has chosen, among other reasons, but he has chosen to reveal himself through his Son. No man has seen God at any time and lived, and yet everyone who is at the time of Jesus alive and saw Jesus. They saw God. This is what Advent is all about, the wonder of Christmas. God come down, manifest in our flesh. There is this intimate union and relationship between these three persons of the Trinity. From all eternity before time began, the Father begets the Son and the Son is eternally begotten of the Father. And there's this mutual indwelling of Father and Son by the Spirit. There's one person or three persons in one divine Godhead. They each have their particular work. Our catechism spells that out. In the coming Lord's days, you'll discuss those each more in depth. The Father in our creation, the Son in our redemption, and the Holy Ghost in our sanctification. But it's one God, one work, one essence, one word that comes to us. And now Jesus is saying to Philip, he's saying to us, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. because we are one, the Father and I are one. No, they're not the identical person, it's not what he's saying, but in essence, whatever you see in me, Philip, whatever you hear from me, Philip, it's in direct relationship to my Father. Whatever the Father wanted me to say, I've said. Whatever the Father wanted me to do, I have done. And now what does he want his people to do? To be like him. To follow him so that we here, just as Jesus heard of his father, we ought to be like him. We want to do what he asks us to do. What he asks us to speak. Because he renews us. He makes us alive. He displays His light. He shows us Himself. And when we've tasted of Him and we want to be more like Him, then the Spirit of Christ who dwells within us is moving us, is transforming us, so that we become more like Him in our words, in our actions. Now, we don't become God. But Jesus is giving us here this parallel that we are to see for ourselves as well. God the Father here is revealing himself in the words of Jesus. Jesus is the word. He came down from heaven. He dwelt among us. He was set about his father's business from the moment he makes his public appearance there with all the doctors of the temple. He's about his father's business even as a boy. And everything he speaks, if you follow through in the gospels, it's about what his father is teaching him to say. And why does he spend so much time apart in prayer? Well, he's listening to his father. He's commuting with his father. And if you and I want to know what to say to your children or someone else who maybe needs a word in season or out of season, how do you know what to say? We don't have the words of ourselves. We'll be like Jesus. Spend time with the Father. He will give you what to say in that hour. And if you want to know the Father, study the Son. Because He and the Father are one. As is the Father, so is the Son. And as is the Son, so is the Father. In Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24, we read this. Thus saith the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him that glorieth glory in this. What? That he understands and knows me. That I am the Lord that exercise loving kindness, judgment, righteousness in the earth. Who did that? Jesus. If we have a glimpse of God by faith, it ought to bring us to the place where having a glimpse of God brought Job. I have heard thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee, wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and in ashes. And yet Jesus has come so low to us, so low to Philip, and he will say to him, you have seen me, Philip? You have actually seen the Father. Peter says, to those who are scattered abroad and have been brought by faith, into the church. He says, And in that passage, he's also talking about what we have seen in the mount. You We have that word, we have the word of the gospel, we have this word that Peter recorded for us. Peter is saying, you have this, a more sure word than what I saw on the Mount of Transfiguration. You have all that you need. Peter says, whom having not seen you love, and though you don't see him, yet you believe his words, so you should rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Have you seen him by faith? The light we heard about this morning, have you beheld him in his word? If we have seen him, We have seen the Father. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? And the words that I speak unto you, I'm not speaking of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. And Jesus said he's going to pray that the Father will give to us another comforter, and he did precisely that. That's why Pentecost is such a watershed moment for the church. in a way far beyond what has ever been done before. And that point in the church going forward, the pouring forth of this comforter, the Spirit, Jesus is going on to say, we, my Father and I, will come to dwell in you. Think about that for a moment. What does it mean for us? This is the triune God who makes his abode, who is building a temple for himself of living stones wherein he will dwell forever. That's the destiny of those who've heard his word. And so there is a great need for us in this context, This disappointment in Jesus' words to Philip is probably, I'm just talking for myself, there's probably a disappointment in Jesus' understanding of what I think I know. Don't you know? Have I been so long with you? Have you read my Bible so long? Have you heard my words so long? Don't you know? You've seen me. You've seen my father. What does this mean for us? What is Jesus gonna commission us in light of this truth? I want to look at that after we sing. We'll sing 168, one, two, and three. Well, in light of this truth that Jesus is setting before us, what does it mean for us? Does it change us? It ought to. Sadly, it doesn't as much as it ought to. But as you begin this chapter, as you begin the whole catechism, what's the idea? Comfort. He begins this section, let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. At my father's house there are many mansions. If it weren't so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. But in the meantime, Know this to be true. Philip grasped something of what Jesus was saying when he told him, you've known me and you should have known my father also and so on. I am the way, the truth and the life. And Philip says, but Jesus, I don't know. And maybe that's you tonight. Maybe that's me to a degree also as well. I don't know. What does that mean? What does it imply? Philip understood that if he saw God, that's all he needed. That's all anyone could ever wish. The interesting thing is in Garden of Eden before the fall, Adam and Eve, enjoyed that at every moment. There were times when God came down and walked in the cool of the day. He's commuting with them. He's with his child. But how much more that ought to be the case if we have, who have fallen away from him, have experienced in some measure the father's embrace of a dirty pig smelling sinner. And with the kisses of his mouth, he's received us for the sake of his son. The first commission, the first idea here I want to leave with you is this. There is no way we can be the same if we have seen God. And, of course, you know I do not mean we see Him literally. But if we have seen the light, if we have seen who Jesus truly is, He's illuminated our hearts and our mind by this Spirit, we'll never be the same. It's impossible. Yes, we are then a new creature in Christ Jesus, But we ought to be continuing to grow, continuing in our understanding of who this true triune God is, that we worship Him because we ought to have been destroyed when that light shone first into our heart. What was our recognition? I'm dead. I deserve to be destroyed. But instead of destruction, there's life. There's forgiveness. There's a ransom. There's a Savior. There's a substitute. And it's this Jesus who speaks. He's the savior of sinners. And in hearing him and his words of his promise, as he said to this woman, now, neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more. Can you imagine what that must be for a sinner who's expecting judgment and damnation and darkness only to have light and life? You'll never be the same. The religious world today, in many respects, even of Christianity, has dumbed down God. If we meet with God... I think here of John on the Isle of Patmos. The one who, earlier in his life, when Jesus, in that Last Supper, was giving the bread and the wine, and he laid his head on Jesus' chest. Who is it, Lord? Such nearness, such fellowship, such closeness. When he sees the exalted Lord on the Isle of Patmos, he falls as one dead. He's God. And yet sometimes people, when they speak of Jesus today, it's almost like He's the good friend next door. Oh, He has come down and dwelt among us. I know all of that. But in some sense, we ought to have this sense of awe and wonder and amazement. that our Lord not only came and dwelt among us, he was like us in all things. He was tempted in all points. He suffered and died. He went to hell. He rose again. But he is God. And every believer is able to say on the basis now of his words, this same Jesus, He dwells in me. That's what Jesus is saying in this passage. I am going to come, I'm going to leave you, but don't be distressed. I'm going to send my Comforter, and my Father and I will manifest ourselves to you. We will show us who the true God is. We will even come and make our abode in you. You'll never be the same. So when you go to this God in prayer, and we have the Holy Spirit who with groanings unutterable within us, and we have an intercessor at the Father's right hand who is making intercession for us, we have everything we need so that we can say here with Jesus, whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. And if you think back to that time in which he first shed that light abroad in your soul, your first love, wasn't it as if you were walking hand in hand with one who you could never live without, who you needed so desperately? You have known me, Jesus says, you have known my father. The first commission, you'll never be the same. Second commission, Be in the word. Turn with me a moment to 1 John 4. It reminds us of this thought we've just had, but it leads us into this as well. 1 John 4, 11 to 16. Because what we're doing right now is my second commission. be in the Word. How will we know Jesus? How will we see His Father? Right here. And it's the Spirit who inspired these words who will illuminate our understanding. Verse 11, Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. This is the same John who wrote what we are studying tonight. And we have seen, and do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." Spend some time this week on that word. Abide there. Let it manifest itself in all of its glorious truth in your heart and in your soul. God will speak, reveal himself, show himself to us who he is through this word. And in seeing Christ, as you read the word in the Gospels, you will see the Father's heart. Why is it so often that as believers we may see that darkness that we talked also at times about this morning? Why is that? A primary reason is because you're not in the Word. I'm not in the Word. Second reason? It's the reason Jesus gave to those travelers to Emmaus. He expounded to them all the things in Moses in the prophets, and he admonished them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all these things. The commission that Jesus gives to us in this passage is When we have little joy, little sense of peace, and little sense of pardon, he will ask the same question he has asked Philip. Have I been so long with you that you don't understand these things? Be in the word. The third thing I leave with you, the commission that comes to us And reflecting on this truth from John 14 is, live like Jesus. Love walking. Wisdom talking. The fruit of the Spirit's evident at every turn as you read the Gospels. This is Jesus, perfect, sinless Lamb of God. We're not, but He calls us to follow Him, to seek to walk in the fruit of the Spirit, the Spirit of which He says is God. who indwells the people who he's rescued from sin and slavery and set them free. What does that mean for us? It means he's, through that word and the word of the gospel, he's coming to us to crucify. He empowers with his resurrection power what we need daily to conscientiously kill and put to death the remaining deeds of the flesh in us and be clothed. in the fruit of the Spirit, be like Christ. When the people in Jesus' day encountered Him, not the Pharisees generally, but the common people, they heard Him gladly. He was compassionate. He was kind. He was gentle. He was loving. And that's how we are to be. We are to speak His words to those we meet, that they might hear not our words, but Christ's words through us. So I ask this question, when someone sees us, how much of Christ do they see reflected through us, in us? Does it grieve us? Do we flee to Christ even tonight? He's not here to condemn us, say, oh, you're not like me. He's coming to woo us. He's coming to say, have I been so long with you? Will you not be by my spirit transformed more into my likeness? And he works it by his spirit through this very word that comes to us. And so Christ has prayed to his Father that the believers would abide in him. Are you abiding in Christ so that you may bear abundant fruit to the glory of the Father? Paul says, be you followers of me insofar as I am following Christ. So, if we've seen Him, we'll never be the same. Be in the Word. Be like Christ. And fourth, hear the preached Word. Why is that related to this? Well, turn with me to Galatians 3. Churches talk to several pastors recently, even in our own denomination. I see it in our own congregation. I don't know if this is evident of anything, but as we think about the Lord's Day and coming together on the Lord's Day, what's happening? God is speaking, and he wants us present to worship. What's happening? Look at verse 1 of chapter 3, Galatians, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? Now it's related to other parts about what he's admonishing here about returning to works-based righteousness rather than by faith in this crucified sacrifice. But there's something else Paul is saying here. And it's this. Who at Galatia actually saw this? Probably not many, if any. So what's Paul saying? before whose eyes Jesus Christ had been evidently set forth, crucified among you." When would that have happened? I assert to you, every time the gospel was preached. Every time we hear the gospel proclaimed in one way or another, Jesus Christ and Him crucified and risen from the dead is proclaimed to us. To encourage us, to strengthen us, to renew us, to make us alive. That's why we gather. And to neglect that means of His grace means we're not hearing His word. We don't really grasp the significance. I've seen Him and it's changed me forever. Oh, we see Him now through a glass darkly. But there's coming a day we will see Him face to face. And let these four commissions I've given you stir our heart so that we might with anticipatory joy desire that day and we'll be fully like Him. Let's pray.