 The title of our sermon this morning is the blessed departure, the blessed departure. This is part two. Last week we began this text in John chapter 14 looking at verses 25 through 31. And so this morning we're back, we're back to this text. We spent a relative decent amount of time discussing the gift of the Holy Spirit and what a blessing that is to the, to the Christian. What a blessing that is to the believer. And we could spend years of sermons on the blessing that is the Holy Spirit of God to the believer. And we had an hour last week. So we'll plumb the depths of that blessing. I hope if the Lord allows it to be Terry's as a church together over many years. Today again, we come back to these blessings now to explore the other blessings here mentioned in this text. These are blessings to the believer. And there's a context in which these blessings are given. And we need to understand the context because these blessings apply to us as believers in similar ways that these blessings apply to those disciples in the first century. All right. This section of texts that we're studying in John 14 is considered a part of what we call the farewell discourse. The Lord is with his disciples in the upper room. They're observing their last Passover together. And it's the first Lord supper together. And he is about to depart from them. And he's going to depart from them by means of the cross. And so he's giving them here parting words. This is parting instruction, preparing them, preparing those disciples for the trouble and the tribulation that attends the cross. And then for the trouble and tribulation that lies beyond in their ongoing ministry as they continue to follow the Lord. And just a few short hours from now, they're no longer going to have the physical presence of the Lord Jesus Christ with them any longer. And so these are gracious and thoughtful words, words of preparation and words of encouragement for the Lord's disciples. Now after witnessing the arrest of the Lord and the tragedy of the cross, the disciples will continue to face enemies, enemies from within and enemies from without. That is the Christian life. They're going to flee at his arrest and they're going to face confusion and doubt and anguish and despair. They're going to face the temptation in the face of persecution to draw back from following the Lord. They're going to face, as we know from scripture and from church history, they're going to face poverty. They're going to face pain, prison, severe persecution. As Paul would later say, they will face stripes above measure in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of their own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils of the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brothers. They will face weariness and toil, sleeplessness and hunger, thirst and cold and nakedness and above all, a great concern for the Lord's church. Their path is not an easy path. However, it is the path that they have chosen. You have to count the cost when you come to Christ. Peter had said to him, had said to the Lord, I will lay down my life for your sake. And Peter did. Paul later said, Paul said, I do not count my life dear to myself so that I may finish my race with joy and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. That is the path of every Christian. That's the path that every Christian chooses to take when they come to Christ, count the cost. We are to finish our race as Paul did and fulfill our ministry as those apostles did, as those disciples did, as those examples of faithful brothers and sisters in Scripture, faithful brothers and sisters through church history that ran their race, that fulfilled their ministry. The Lord says he who loves his life will lose it. He who loves his life will lose it. But he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Do you hate your life in this world? To us who are in Christ, all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That path wasn't easy for the disciples, but it's not going to be easy for the Christian today either. You and I as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ have to apply ourselves to the ministry that we've been given. We have to apply ourselves to the work and when you do, you're going to bear the reproach of Christ. When you do that, when you apply yourself to the work, when you apply yourself to the ministry that you've been given, you will face persecution, like the disciples. There are going to be times when you face confusion. There are going to be times when you face doubt, when you face anguish or despair. You may face the temptation to draw back from zealously following the Lord. You may draw back to the passing pleasures of this world, back to the comfort of your couch, back to the false peace that silence promises. But listen, we can't draw back. We can't draw back. You have to press on. Think of all the exhortations in Scripture, many of those we see in the writings of Paul, pressing on, running the race, running with endurance, exercising yourself toward godliness, right? Striving, agonizing to enter through the narrow gate. We can't draw back. We've been given a ministry. We've been given a race to run. The Christian life is not a life of leisure. It's not a life of passivity. It's a life of gospel engagement with lost people. We have to press on, forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forward to those things which are ahead, pressing toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. And the Lord knows, the Lord knows that those disciples in the first century couldn't do it on their own. And the Lord knows that you and I can't do it on our own. We have great need of Him. We need help. We need strength. We need wisdom. We need perseverance. The same gifts and promises and blessings that the Lord Jesus Christ gives to the disciples in John 14 to help them persevere in their ongoing ministry are given to believers today to help us to persevere in our ongoing ministry. So we, in light of those glorious gifts, as we think about these gifts and these blessings, we need to wage the good warfare. We need to exercise ourselves toward godliness. Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. In John 14, the Lord will soon depart, but He does not leave us beleaguered. He does not leave us in weakness. He does not leave us impotent. The one who forgives also empowers. The one who justifies also equips and enables. And so in John chapter 14 verses 25 to 31, the Lord here describes three blessings that He leaves us in order that we may run our race. First, He gives us the blessing of the Holy Spirit. We looked at that in verses 25 and 26. Next, He gives us the blessing of His peace. We'll see that today in verse 27. And He gives us the blessing of a bolstered experiential faith. We'll see that in verses 28 through 31. Gifts of the Lord Jesus Christ to His people. And all of these have come at an immeasurably high cost. They're given upon His departure. And His departure is by means of the cross. And it is a blessed departure. Right. Last week we looked first at the blessing of the Holy Spirit in verses 25 and 26. Here where the text reads, these things I have spoken to you while being present with you, the Lord says, 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 things that I said to you. So a glorious and tremendous blessing for every true Christian, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit sending Christ's name and continuing Christ's work through Christ's disciples. And we talked last week about His particular function as teacher in verse 26. He will teach us all things. Secondly, we talked about His particular subject in verse 26, being the revealed words of Christ. In other words, He will bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you, the Lord says, not any new revelation in the form of some completely new teaching, but a remembrance of all those things that Christ had taught. Now through that ministry of the Holy Spirit to the apostles, we have the New Testament. You have your Bible, you have a New Testament. That New Testament has come through the ministry of the Holy Spirit to those apostles, those disciples. Our Old Testament inspired also to those that wrote Scripture. And beyond that wondrous gift of having the New Testament, we also have the Holy Spirit, the ultimate author of the New Testament as our help, as our teacher. And we concluded from verse 26 that one way among many that the Holy Spirit is a blessing to the people of God is by helping us to understand and apply the revealed word of God. That is a glorious blessing, glorious gift of God for the Christian life. And many of you, like me, you're a genuine Christian, you've experienced that in your Christian life. I mean, in times when you've opened the Bible and just the Spirit of God opens your understanding, opens your eyes, opens your ears, opens your heart to understand and helps you understand and apply and experience the Bible in your Christian life. It is a glorious blessing. We have to acknowledge in that though that receiving the word, right, being receptive to the word, being convicted by the word, being transformed by the word, all of that, none of that is merely an intellectual pursuit. Because of what the Bible teaches, all of that is a spiritual pursuit. And because of that, we have to depend upon the spirit of God. We have to pray. We have to read independence upon the Holy Spirit. We have to obey independence upon the Holy Spirit. We have to seek understanding independence upon the Holy Spirit. We have to ask for wisdom. It's why your prayer life is so important. Your dependence upon God is so important. This is not just an exercise in filling your brain with intellectual information. This is a spiritual pursuit. And you need to pursue God, pursue Christ in his word, and you do that independence upon the spirit. And we have that blessing. The Holy Spirit of God has been given to every believer. If you're in Christ, you have the spirit of God depend upon the spirit for understanding. Depend upon the spirit for obedience. We need to make use of the glorious gifts we've been given, amen. Sometimes we live like we don't have them. We live in ignorance of them. We live in neglect of them. We have glorious gifts. We need to live like it. All right. Second point on your notes. We have the blessing of the Holy Spirit. We also have the blessing in verse 27 of his peace. The Lord says in verse 27, peace I lead with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid. My peace I give to you. Another exceedingly precious gift to the people of God secured at an unimaginably high cost. Hard one at the cross by the Lord Jesus Christ for his people. Now this gift, this gift of the Lord's peace, certainly a gift for the disciples, certainly a gift for the disciples, but also a gift to all who believe in Christ through what they have written through the word of God. Right. Verse 27, if you think about it, presupposes troubling circumstances because the Lord says there, let not your heart be troubled. Why is he saying that? Because there's gonna be trouble. You can count on it. Okay. Verse 27 presupposes fearful circumstances because the Lord says, neither let it be afraid. Now you can imagine with me, can't you? You can live your so-called quote unquote Christian life in a way that will engender no troubling circumstances and no fearful circumstances. Right. But I would submit to you, that's not the Christian life. All who desire to live godly will suffer persecution. Okay. Now we know from scripture the circumstances they're about to face. They're hearing this for the first time in John 14. The Lord knows the circumstances they're about to face and he is fully aware. Think about it. The Lord fully aware of his own circumstances. The Lord and his disciples here are on the verge of a tempest. In verse 31, they rise to leave and the Lord leads them out to the Garden of Gethsemane. And that's where that storm, that tempest begins. Right. This is the eve of his crucifixion. The Lord is about to depart this world by means of its execution. He will be nailed to the tree. He will become a cursed for us, bearing the wrath of God for the sins of all those who would repent and believe. And his concern at this moment is to reassure his disciples. Having loved his own, he loved them to the end, loved them to the uttermost. They are troubled, these disciples, troubled by what he's saying. And they don't know the half of it at this point. And the Lord wants to encourage them with a promise of his peace. The Greek word there is a reine, a reine. In scripture, the word has come to have multiple nuances, but primarily refers to a soul at rest, a reine, a soul at rest. Now there are three ways that this peace is characterized in verse 27. The first way that it's characterized is that it's a peace that is left with them as a gift. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ leaves it with them upon his departure. It comes to them on the basis of, and after, his finished work culminating at the cross. It's left with you, Jesus says, and it is given to you. In other words, it's a gift to those who are in him. It's a gift to his own, those who are genuine followers of Christ. It's given to those who are in Christ as a gift, a gift of God's grace, a gift of God's mercy. Not something that you have to wait around for or even to ask for all the time. You have it. It is present tense. If you're in Christ by faith in him, then you have this peace. If you're a genuine disciple, then you possess the gift. Now think with me for a moment. The kind of peace, if we're going to talk about what this peace is, the kind of peace left for us that is grounded in the finished work of Christ and given to the believer by the grace of God is first and foremost, peace with God. So we want to talk about what this peace is, how this peace is characterized. First and foremost, it's peace with God. Turn with me to Romans chapter five. Let's take a look at this together. Romans chapter five. If you've not been born again, if you've not come to a place of acknowledging and mourning your spiritual bankruptcy before God and have turned from your sin, if you've not holy, heart, soul, mind, and strength, if you've not entrusted yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting him alone and following him as Lord, then listen, you are an enemy of God. You're an enemy of God by your wicked works and you need peace with God. Otherwise you're going to face the wrath of God. Not only are you an enemy of God trampling underfoot the blood of his son, but listen, God is also an enemy to you. You are an enemy of God. God is an enemy to you. He is angry, the Bible says, with a wicked every day. And when you die, he will consign you to hell. There's only one way to propitiator satisfy the wrath of God and that's faith in Christ. Now on the cross, as we think about this in Romans five on the cross, Jesus Christ took upon himself the wrath that we deserve. And those who trust in him are declared innocent based on Christ's work at Calvary. They are justified, meaning they're reconciled to God. Lord Jesus Christ, the God imputes the sin of the sinner to the Lord Jesus Christ and imputes or credits the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ to the sinner. They are declared based on his finished work. They're declared innocent. They're reconciled to God. They're made to be at peace with God. Now after having explained justification in Romans chapter four, a right standing that is only by faith, Paul then explains that peace which comes through that right standing with God. Look at verse one, this is Romans chapter five verse one. Therefore Paul says, having been justified by faith, we what? We have peace with God. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now because of our justification, because of our justification by faith, we have, notice what it says, their present tense, we have peace with God. In other words, the minute that you trust Christ, the minute, the moment that you turn from sin and you entrust yourself to him, you have peace with God. You have peace with God. The enmity is over. It's not a feeling of peace. It's not a sense of peace that comes over you. It's a forensic fact, a legal fact, a declared fact. This is not a passing peace. It's a permanent peace, an irrevocable peace. It's not subjective here. It's objective based on the work of Christ. You see? Now that's a basis on which then you wage the good warfare. It's a basis on which you serve him. You live the Christian life. You've ever been in battle over sin. How difficult is it to battle sin when you're not even sure that you have peace with God? You're trying to battle sin. You're trying to wage the good warfare. You're trying to serve him faithfully and you're not even sure if you have the spirit of God. How effective is that going to be? This is an objective fact when you turn from your sin and put faith in Christ. It's a declarative fact. You have peace with God. But that objective peace, once we understand the objective peace that we have through our justification, that objective peace with God leads to the subjective effects of peace of our justification. Look at verse two. Through that peace with God that we have through our Lord Jesus Christ, verse two says through whom, through Christ, also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Now notice there into this grace in which we stand that it's God's grace. It's not human effort. You can't work your way into it. It's God's grace. And that grace, God's grace is the grace that sustains us and causes us to stand. Paul said to Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter one verse 12, Paul said, I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I've entrusted to him until that day. Those of you think about it, if you have peace with God and you're trusting Christ, heart, soul, mind and strength, you know that peace in Christ is secure. Objectively, it is, it's not going to be taken away. It's irrevocable. It's a gift of God to you. Living in the light of that kind of peace, living based on the promises of God and Christ, we can say with Paul, I know him whom I've believed. I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that he's able to guard what I've entrusted to him until that day. That's faith. That's faith. That's a peace that is derived from faith in Christ. You see? Now in that, Bible says in verse two there that we rejoice. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Where there's peace, there's always joy. Where there's peace, there's joy. We can rejoice. Look at verse three. But not only that, I think this is all, these are fruits of our justification. It's fruits of the grace of God in Christ. It's a fruit of the faith that's been gifted to us by God. Look at verse three. And not only that, but we also glory in difficulty, glory in tribulations. Now how do we do that? Because we know, look at verse three, we know that tribulation produces perseverance. Perseverance, character, and character, hope. Goes back to that same issue, doesn't it? Based on the objective promises of God in Christ for our peace, this gift of peace, we can glory in tribulation. Knowing what that tribulation produces in the life and character of a genuine Christian. Now that hope, verse five, does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. If you look at the peace back in John chapter 14, you look at the peace that the Lord Jesus Christ is leaving with us as he departs. The peace that is given as a gift to believers. There's an objective part of that and a subjective part. The objective peace leads to a resolved and settled and trusted, subjective and supernatural peace that passes all understanding. Think about Colossians chapter one, or Paul says in verse 19, that it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Christ and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross. Through him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven, and although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, in other words, you are an enemy of God, yet he has now reconciled you and his fleshly body through death in order to present you before him, holy and blameless and beyond reproach. That objective fact leads to that subjective quality of peace that the Lord leaves us as a gift. Back in John chapter 14, if you look at verse 27, first characteristic of this peace is that it is left with them upon his departure as a gift. The second characteristic is this, the Lord characterizes this peace in verse 27 as my peace. See that there in verse 27, my peace I give to you. Now the Lord, think about this for a moment, his peace, the Lord is about to be arrested, he's going to be beaten, he's going to be mocked, scourged, murdered. Beyond that and far more, the Lord is about to bear sin, bear the wrath of God and the penalty that sinners deserve, and what's keeping him during this time? So calm, he's calm, cool and collected during this time. It's his peace, it's his peace. If you remember the story from Mark chapter four, remember the disciples on the boat with the Lord, right? The storm came, the disciples were on the boat, the waves began to crash against the boat, the boat began to fill with water, and where was the Lord Jesus Christ? Yeah, Mark said he was in the stern of the boat sleeping on a pillow. He's sleeping on a pillow. Jesus awakes, he rebukes the wind and the waves, he says peace be still, that word for being still there means muzzled, he muzzled the wind and the waves, muzzled the tempest, muzzled the storm, and then he asked the disciples, he asked the disciples, why are you so fearful? And how is it that you have no faith? If you think about peace this way, and what Lord Jesus Christ says or characterizes as my peace, you have that aspect of peace which is based on objective reality. If you've turned from your sin and you put your faith and trust in Christ, then at that moment, the moment that you've been justified, you have peace with God. It's an objective reality. Then for the Christian, we don't have just one moment of faith. We live by faith in Christ. We live according to faith. And so living according to faith, we have that peace that arises, that peace that matures, that peace that is grown or bolstered through faith. And as your faith matures, your peace increases. As you understand the word of God and trust Christ, your peace increases. This is the subjective peace I think that's characterized in verse 27 by my peace. My peace is the peace that Christ has because he perfectly trusts his Father. He perfectly submits himself, commits himself to God. Peace in the face of Pharisees, right? Peace in the face of Pilate. Lord Jesus Christ had no rest, no rest from dawn to dark, nowhere to lay his head, right? Constantly bearing burdens, constantly attacked, constantly misunderstood, constantly forsaken. The constant labor and toil, you know, there's a story where the Lord Jesus Christ, they're walking through Samaria. The disciples have a not so good encounter with a bunch of Samaritans and the disciples respond by, Lord, should we call down fire out of heaven and consume them? They've given over to not so peaceful thoughts and feelings about the Samaritans, but the Lord Jesus Christ just had peace. Lord Jesus Christ had peace. Peace despite his circumstances. This is the experiential peace that is rooted or grounded in faith. It's rooted, grounded in trust, trust of the Lord, a trust in God. Now being that, being that it's rooted and grounded in faith, it matures, it progresses as your faith matures, as your faith progresses. How many would say amen to that in their Christian lives, right? As you go through trials, as you go through difficulty, and many of those in the beginning, they are earthquakeing, earthshaking difficulties, all right? And the Lord leads you through and you look at that trial, you look at that difficulty in the rear view mirror and you see how the Lord brought you through it. And your faith is bolstered, right? You learn how to trust the Lord. It's like, I should have never been fearful. I should have never been worried about that. Look how gracious the Lord was to me. And then look at all the benefits and blessings that came to me as a result of that trial. Look at all the perseverance and the character and the hope, right? Those things that trials produce. And so your faith is bolstered. Well, as your faith is bolstered and you're looking out the front windshield and you see the next trial coming, maybe the next trial coming doesn't hit you like the last one hit you. You see it coming and you, okay, it's coming. I know, I see it coming. And while you see it coming because your faith has been built, you have peace in the face of adversity. He eludes to that in verse 29. Look at verse 29. He eludes to that there. The Lord says, and now I've told you before it comes so that when it does come to pass, you may believe. And what is a fruit of that belief? What's a fruit of that faith? It's, it's peace in their circumstances, right? The Lord tells them before this is what's going to happen so that when that comes to pass, we want to trust the Lord and have peace in him. You know, he is our sufficiency. He's our peace. So what is a fruit of that faith? It's peace in their circumstances. So that, back in verse 27, they should not be troubled and should not be afraid. I want you to notice a couple of things about this peace. The first is this, that peace, biblical peace, my peace as the Lord Jesus Christ says, is not merely or only an emotional response. And we think of it in the world as suppressing bad feelings. I feel stressed. I'm just going to, I'm going to sit down and I'm going to have peace, right? Kids, stop running around, just give me a minute of peace, right? We think of it as suppressing those things. This is not based, this peace not based in our emotions one way or the other, right? We know from the scripture that Jesus wept. Soon in the garden, he's going to sweat great drops of blood and anguish over the cup that he's about to drink to the dregs. Emotions can swing from joy to grief in a moment, but this peace, this peace is the, it's the settled peace, the resolved peace, the determined peace that arises from determined convictions. It comes as a result of your convictions that God is God and he is sovereign, has intended all things to work out together for your good and he can be trusted and he can be followed and he can be obeyed despite your circumstances. It's knowing that God is sovereign, knowing that he works all things together for your good, knowing that he's the one who keeps you and he's the one who preserves you. Now that being said, it's not dispassionate or stoic either. It's not just ignoring. Your circumstances may be wrought with emotion, but your peace will come by trusting Christ. This is the peace that is produced in the heart and mind of one who trusts the Lord. All right? We're talking about now three characteristics of this blessing of peace to the believer. First, this piece is left with us as a gift in verse 27. The peace, this piece is characterized as his piece in verse 27 and now he characterizes this piece that he gives as not the peace that the world gives you. Look at verse 27. Not anything like the peace that the world gives you. This piece is the fruit of the spirit and I would submit to you it is only the fruit of the spirit. It's not going to be produced in your heart and mind apart from the spirit. Galatians 522 lists the fruit of the spirit as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. This is a supernatural piece, a piece that is divinely given. I think the peace of the world generally comes through heavy medication. That's about the only way you're going to get. That's what the world thinks, right? They're going to distribute their peace through heavy medication. This word, the word for peace in the Greek, the word Irenae, originally started out as a word in history of defining any interlude in what was considered an everlasting war. That's what Irenae mean. Any brief respite from what was considered a constant war. I think one historian said that in all of recorded history, if you look at the history of the world in all of recorded history, there's only about 300 years in all of recorded history that could truly be characterized as years of peace. The rest of the time the world is at war. You get lost people living in a fallen world with other lost people and you're going to have conflict. You're not going to have peace. And so as the world began to have conceptions of what peace meant, peace of the world is nothing more than a suppression or a brief escape from a bunch of negative bad things. Have you ever been to a funeral before? Obviously, many of you have. The funerals that I've been to other than the funerals of this church, I can say every funeral I've ever been to other than the funerals that we've preached or been held at this church, in none of them have I heard an accurate or biblical gospel preached. Now why is that? It's because the world wants to comfort you with a false counterfeit sham fake peace. Peace. We want peace when there is no peace. Jeremiah, right? Jeremiah chapter 6, the prophet preached peace, peace when there is no peace. The world wants to take in that cotton candy kind of peace and rely and trust in that. And you can see how empty and how shallow it is when you disturb that peace. When you're standing at the door, a really good brother and I were out witnessing yesterday standing at the door. When you talk to someone about the only way about the only way in which peace is possible and it's disturbing their sham counterfeit peace, they get defensive, don't they? They get hostile. They want to grasp onto that fake peace like there's no tomorrow. But that's not the peace that Lord Jesus Christ gives, the peace that we have in Christ, not just, you know, an escape from worry and escape from anxiety. But that peace is a positive peace. The peace that we have in Christ is a peace. It's a, it's a lens or a filter through which we view everything that happens to us. It's a lens or a filter through which we view our circumstances. It's based in the revealed word of God. It's produced in the believer by the Holy Spirit of God. It's grounded and rooted in the promises of God. It's something that we can, we can stick our teeth into, right? Something that we can stand on, the promises of God. I've seen many of you in this church walk through difficulty, like face really difficult trials, hard, difficult trials. But to be able to watch a believer, right, watch a believer walk through that kind of adversity with a settled, resolved peace in God, because they're basing their peace on the promises of God. They're basing their peace on the finished work of Christ. Just a far different experience, isn't it? Then to see how the world walks through peace. We live in a wicked world, a troubled world. There's constant turmoil around us right now. World's peace is false. It's empty, short-lived at best. It's always an unfulfilled promise. There'll be peace if that person is elected, right? There'll be peace if we can solve that problem. It's a psychological issue, or it's a medication issue, or it's an education issue. It's a love. All we need is love, right? But the lack of peace in this world is a depravity issue. It's a depravity issue. And simply stated, there is no peace for the wicked. Wicked false teachers preach peace when there is no peace. Listen to this from 1 Thessalonians Believers. Chapter 5 verse 2, Paul says this, You yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when the world says peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them. As labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape. If you're relying on a worldly peace, you're not going to escape. The world says peace and safety, and then sudden destruction comes upon them. Paul goes on in verse 4 to say, But you brethren, you're not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief. World preaches an empty peace. Not only does the world preach an empty peace, but the world coaxes you along and lulls you into a comfort with that fake sham peace, and lulls you along all the way to destruction. The only real peace is the peace that we have in Christ. It's a glorious blessing. But that peace, if that peace is real, if that peace is genuine, if it's Holy Spirit produced, then it results in two effects that we see in the text in verse 27. On your notes, it results in a spirit-informed comfort, and it results in a spirit-empowered courage. Spirit-informed comfort and spirit-empowered courage. Now if we're justified, if we're living by faith in the Son of God who died and gave himself for us, if we're resting in the promises of God in Christ, then we need to respond to that reality with a spirit-informed comfort and a spirit-empowered courage. We should respond to our circumstances accordingly. Verse 27, the Lord says, and these are imperatives, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Now the ability to do that is not rooted in your own flesh. So where do you go? If you're not going to live according to the flesh, you're going to live according to the Spirit, then you depend upon the Spirit. You pray the Spirit of God for help in times of difficulty. This peace, the ability to respond biblically according to these circumstances, is not rooted in your own flesh. Responding in peace is a fruit of the Spirit. Spirit-informed comfort, let not your heart be troubled. A spirit-empowered courage, neither let it be afraid. Now think about it for a moment. Peace in the life of a Christian is not the absence of troubling or fearful circumstances. Rather, peace in the life of a Christian is the Spirit-fueled faith to trust and obey in the midst of troubling or fearful circumstances. In other words, you and I, brothers and sisters, we cannot live like incapacitated cowards. We cannot live like incapacitated cowards. You know, Fox's book of martyrs tells a story of an English reformer named Thomas Cranmer. And in 1556, there was a group that packed into University Church in Oxford to witness Thomas Cranmer's recantation of what the Roman Catholic Church called his heresies. In other words, Thomas Cramner took a stand for justification by faith alone and Christ alone. Roman Catholic Church deemed that heretical, and so the Roman Catholic Church had him arrested for heresy. At first, Cranmer's resolve was strong. They put him in prison, and he held up. But after months and months in prison, under daily pressure from Catholic authorities, from government authorities, Bloody Mary was on the throne at this time, threatening him constantly with death and torture, burning at the stake, Thomas Cranmer's faith faltered. He became troubled. He became fearful. You might say for the moment that Thomas Cranmer was relying upon his own strength, relying upon his own courage, and they eventually, the Catholic Church, eventually coerced him in designing several documents, renouncing the faith, the faith which Thomas Cranmer had vowed to uphold, the faith once for all delivered to the saints, the faith that he was in prison for, now Thomas Cranmer is writing recantations against the very faith that he preached, which landed him in prison. Now Cranmer's enemies wanted more than just a written recantation. They wanted to hear him publicly renounce what they deemed were heresies, and so they planned a public event, March 21st, 1556, University Church in Oxford, where Thomas Cranmer, disheveled, skinny, haven't been in prison for two years, went up behind the pulpit of that church to publicly read a statement that had been prepared for him by the Catholic Church, and that's when the unexpected happened. If you know the story, Thomas Cranmer found his courage, and that comes from trusting Christ. There's something more important than our lives. It's the glory of God. You've given your life, if you're a Christian, you don't count your life dear to yourself. You're a soldier of the cross. In the middle of his statement, as Thomas Cranmer stood behind the pulpit of that church, he deviated from the script, and this is what Cranmer said. Cranmer said, I've come to the great thing that troubles my conscience more than any other thing that I ever said or did in my life. Now why would that be the case? It's because of the spirit of God, the spirit of God, the truth of God. I've come to the great thing that troubles my conscience more than any other thing that I've ever said or did in my life, and that is the setting abroad of writings contrary to the truth, which here now I renounce and refuse as things written with my hand, which were contrary to the truth, which I thought in my heart being written for the fear of death and to save my life. Cranmer went on to say that if he should be burned at the stake, his right hand would be the first to be burned since it had signed those recantations. And then just to make sure that no one in the audience of that church that day misunderstood what Cranmer was saying, he added this, and as for the pope, I refuse him as Christ's enemy and anti-Christ with all his false doctrine. You know, so praise God for Thomas Cranmer, right? Chaos ensued, and moments later Thomas Cranmer was dragged outside and burned at the stake right there that day. And true to his word, Thomas Cranmer put his right hand in the fire first. As the flames burnt Thomas Cranmer to death, he died with the words of Stephen on his lips, Lord Jesus receive my spirit, I see the heavens open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. So in the flesh we often falter, but this is not an intellectual pursuit, this is a spiritual pursuit. In the flesh we're weak, in the flesh we can't make it. You can't live the Christian life in the flesh, must be lived in the spirit, and in the spirit we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. There are many examples like that, right? You and I can't live like sluggards. We can't live like cowards. You can't retreat to the comfort of your couch. Live the Christian life. You have brothers and sisters. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. We have brothers and sisters in our history who died for this faith that you've been delivered to. You know, there's an example of this from Scripture. I want to look at it quickly. Go with me to 2 Corinthians. We talked about the example here of Thomas Cranmer. Let's look at an example from Scripture. Turn to 2 Corinthians with me. In 2 Corinthians 3, we see the effect of this peace in the ministry or in the life of a believer, in this case Paul. 2 Corinthians 3, look at verse 1. Just think about this for a moment. The effect of peace with God, reconciliation with God, right standing with God. Paul says in verse 1, chapter 3 verse 1, do we begin again to commend ourselves or do we need as some other epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men. Clearly, you are an epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, on tablets of flesh, that is of the heart. And we have such trust, verse 4, through Christ, toward God. Now think about faith. Faith of Paul here. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. Now, that's where our peace is rooted and grounded. Your Christian life is found in him. Your sufficiency in him. You want to be more faithful as a husband, trust Christ. You want to be more faithful as an evangelist, trust Christ. You want to be more faithfully obedient to him, trust Christ, love Christ, stand on the promises of God. He said, who also made us, verse 6, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not preaching salvation by law, which kills, but the spirit is the one who gives life. Look at verse 7. But if the ministry of death written and engraved on stones was glorious so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the spirit not be more glorious? Now you think about these gifts and blessings that we're talking about in John chapter 14, the blessings of our justification, the blessing of the spirit of God, the blessing of his peace given to us as a gift, the blessings of the spirit of God far more glorious. Look at verse 9. For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness, the Lord's righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect because of the glory that excels. If you look down, look at verse 12. Therefore, in light of this peace with God, in light of the gift of the spirit of God, the ministry of the spirit of God, the ministry that's been given to each one of us, look at verse 12. Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech. Now think about that for a moment. Don't be afraid. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. We should use great boldness of speech. Unlike Moses who put a veil over his face that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away, their minds were blinded. Look down at chapter 4 verse 1. Therefore, since we have this ministry as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. Don't let your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Don't lose heart. We have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifesting manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. Even if our gospel is veiled, it's veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the God of this age is blinded, who do not believe. Drop down to verse 7. We've been given this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard pressed on every side yet not crushed. We have peace, peace with God, hard pressed on every side yet not crushed. We're perplexed, we're not in despair, persecuted. We know we're not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed, always caring about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you. I want to live like that for Christ. We have been given, delivered to a glorious blessing, a treasure that now resides in earthen vessels. We have the gift of his spirit, we have the gift of his peace. We need to live like it. Look at verse 13. And since we have the same spirit of faith according to what was written, I believed and therefore I spoke. We also believe and therefore we speak. Listen, brother, sister, you believe therefore you speak. I believe therefore I speak. We believe therefore we speak. Knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes that grace having spread through the many may cause thanksgiving to a bound to the glory of God. Therefore, we have peace. We don't lose heart even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things through faith which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. It's a blessing. Christians have so much. You know, if he's given us his son, how much more then will he freely give us all things? And he has, he's given us these blessings. And yet as Christians, we often fail to avail ourselves of those blessings and we live like paupers. Ironside tells the story of a confederate soldier at the end of the civil war. Listen to this. At the close of the war between the states, we're told that a troop of federal cavalry were riding along a road between Richmond and Washington. Suddenly on the road, they saw a poor wretch clothed in the ragged remnants of a confederate uniform who came out of the bush. And he hailed the captain who drew rain and waited for him. And he gasped out to the captain. He said, I'm starving to death. Can you help me? Can you give me some food? And the captain said to him, starving to death, why don't you go into Richmond and get what you need? The other answered, I dare not, for if I did, I would be arrested. Three weeks ago, I became utterly disheartened and I deserted from the confederate army. And I've been hiding in the woods ever since, waiting for an opportunity to get through the lines and go to the north. For if I knew that if I were arrested, I would be shot for deserting in a time of war. The captain looked at him in amazement. And he said, haven't you heard the news? What news? The poor fellow gasped. Why the war is over, the captain said. Peace has been made. General Lee surrendered a general grant at Appomattox two weeks ago. The confederacy has ended. What? He said, peace has been made for two weeks and I've been starving in the woods because I did not know it. Make application, right? Sometimes in our Christian life, we can live like we are starving in the woods and we don't know what we've been given. We don't know what we have access to. It's through faith and practice and perseverance that you come to understand that which you've been given access to. Go into Richmond and get some food, right? Go to the spirit and gain peace, gain wisdom, gain strength, gain empowerment, gain faithfulness, gain hope, gain holiness, right? We have a glorious peace. We have to live like we have a glorious peace. We have to live like we have the glorious blessing of the Spirit of God rather than trying to wade through the woods or wade through our own vomit, trying to get it ourselves. Point three on your notes. We have the blessing of a thriving faith, a bolstered faith. Verse 28, you've heard me say to you, I'm going away and coming back to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice because I said I am going to the Father for my Father is greater than I. A bolstered faith rejoices at the exaltation of the Son where there's peace, there's joy. The Lord says, if you loved me rather than mourning your own loss, you would rejoice at the coming exaltation of the Son. We should rejoice that he has risen. The Lord says at the end of verse 28, I'm going to the Father for my Father is greater than I. We don't have time to go into this in detail, but notice he's speaking there of his incarnation in Hebrews 2 9. The Lord Jesus Christ and his incarnation was made a little lower than the angels. He's obedient to the Father. He's dependent upon the Father and in light of his incarnation, that statement makes abundantly clear sense and it is beyond use by Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses or any other Arian. He is Lord Jesus Christ, plenty of scriptural testimony to say that he is eternal, uncreated, co-equal with the Father with all the fullness of deity. Now he goes on in verse 29 and the Lord says, now I've told you before it comes that when it does come to pass, you may believe his intent here is to build their faith through their experience of the truth of his word, their faith will be bolstered. It will result in the rejoicing at his exaltation. But then secondly, a bolstered faith is resolved in his triumph. Look at verse 30. I'm no longer going to talk much with you for the ruler of this world is coming and he has nothing in me. When the Lord Jesus Christ heading into the Garden of Gethsemane with the disciples, he saw the coming of Judas and the coming of the soldiers as the coming of Satan. And he is victorious. Satan has no power, no hold on him. There is no hope of victory. Look at verse 31. But that the world may know that I love the Father and as the Father gave me commandment, so I do arise. Let us go from here bolstered faith rejoices in the Lord's exaltation. It's resolved and determined in the Lord's victory. Right? We stand resolved and determined because the Lord has won the victory. And then thirdly, a bolstered faith responds to the Lord's example. The Lord here in verse 31 motivated by love for the Father that the world may know that I love the Father and as the Father gave me commandment, so I do. There's no hesitation. Just faith and obedience working in love. In other words, faith responds. Faith responds. Here the Lord Jesus Christ trusting God the Father, perfectly trusting God the Father obeys in love. He will not avoid the confrontation in the garden, will not avoid crucifixion. He's not going to cower at the confrontation in the garden or cower in the face of crucifixion. He's not going to avoid the confrontation or cower at the ruler of this wicked world who comes out to meet him, but he will step forward to meet him. And he steps forward to meet him so that the world will know when he walks through the streets of Jerusalem carrying his cross condemned to die and then hanging on the tree the world will know. And he shows us right in verse 31 shows us the necessity of we as we've already discussed in John 14 shows us the necessity of demonstrating our love for Christ through our obedience to him so that the world may know that I love the Father. I'm going to obey his commandment. So I do. Let's go to the garden, right? We want to be a church marked by that kind of love for Christ. I want to be a Christian marked by that kind of love for Christ. I want you, my brother, you, my sister to be a Christian marked by that kind of love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Andrew Fuller said that true churches of Jesus Christ travail in birth for the salvation of men. They are the armies of the land, lamb, the grand object of whose existence is to extend the Redeemer's kingdom. That's us. Our mission. We said here many times is to make disciples for the glory of God. Make disciples for the glory of God. How do we do that? Andrew Fuller says true churches of Jesus Christ travail in birth for the salvation of men. They are the armies of the lamb, the grand object of whose existence is to extend the Redeemer's kingdom. Amen. And like the Lord Jesus Christ ends verse 31, we can end our time today by saying, as the Father has given us commandment, so let us do. Amen. We arise and let us go from here. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for your word. Thank you for the Spirit of God to help us understand, help us, Spirit of God, to apply these truths to our heart, to not to live before you like paupers, but to lay hold of these glorious blessings, to live faithfully and fervently for you. I thank you for the peace that you've given us in Christ. I was so grateful to be rescued out of the bondage to our sin, out of slavery to sin, to be forgiven and cleansed, to be right with God, adopted into his family, sons and daughters of God. Praise you, God. Thank you for the peace that you've given us in Christ. And thank you, Lord, that as we live by faith in the Son of God who died and gave himself for us, thank you that through that experience of faith in the Christian life that our faith can be bolstered, our peace can mature, we can grow into fuller and fuller understandings, fuller and fuller experience of that peace as we come to trust you and come to live for you the way that we should. As we're conformed daily into the image of your Son. I thank you for these glorious blessings. Thank you for the Word of God. Thank you for Christ. Thank you for all that you've done to redeem us. It is a glorious redemption. We praise you, Lord. We love you. Help us now to go out and live for you, laying hold of these blessings for your glory, for your name. And, Lord, to see sinners come to Christ, to see Christ receive the full reward of his suffering, to see lost people saved in the family of God and one day worshiping you for all eternity. In Jesus' name we pray all these things. Amen.