The Promise of the Paraclete

Listen Now

Read the Sermon

Transcript

[Prayer] Father, we thank Thee again for the privilege of the study of Thy word and we ask for the illumination of the Holy Spirit. We pray that as we ponder again some of the last words of our Lord Jesus Christ that the truths expressed by them may grip our hearts and also touch our lives in a very ethical way. We pray that through the study of the word we may be strengthened in the knowledge of the Scriptures and in our Christian lives. We ask, too, Lord that Thou wilt use us as testimonies to the grace of God. Enable us to fulfill the task that Thou has given each one of us to perform while here. We commit this hour to Thee and the ones that follow in Jesus’ name. Amen.

[Message] The subject for tonight as we continue our exposition of the Upper Room Discourse of our Lord is “The Promise of the Paraclete.” Many years ago when I was beginning the study of the Scriptures I ran into a statement that was made by Andrew Murray which I have often thought about. In one of his volumes he began one of his studies, as I remember, by saying, “In olden times believers met God, knew him, walked with him, had the clear and full consciousness that they had dealings with the God of heaven, and had too, through faith, the assurance that they and their lives were well-pleasing to him.”

We are living in days of the history of the Christian church in which this particular sentiment is not so often realized in the lives of believers. I’m not sure that it was Mr. Murray but someone else who commented upon the practice of Fletcher of Madeley. John Fletcher was a very well-known man. He was an Armenian in his theology but a very godly man, and Mr. Fletcher it was said when he used to lecture to his students, when he finished his lectures he would say, “Now those of you who would like to realize in your Christian experience the things about which we have been speaking, follow me into the little room on the right.” And he and the students would go in and they would pray together that God the Holy Spirit would make real in their lives the things that they had studied from the word.

Well I think in the study of the Upper Room Discourse anyone who reads it gains the impression that this is some of the most spiritual of the teaching of the New Testament. The Lord Jesus is giving the apostles some instruction in the light of the time that he would not be present with them. One of the great themes of the Upper Room Discourse is the departure of our Lord, therefore. In chapter 13, in verse 33, he had said, “Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Where I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you.”

So he is seeking to bring them face to face with the fact that he will soon be gone but he’s also seeking to strengthen them in the teaching of the word of God in the light of his departure. Now last week we studied the questions that Peter and Thomas and Philip ask and the answers to those questions, the questions themselves and the answers I should say, were really interruptions of the theme of the departure of our Lord. And that theme is now picked up again in chapter 14, verse 12 through verse 21. This is the section that we want to study tonight and I want you to notice that several promises are given by our Lord in the light of his departure. And the first of these is the one that is mentioned in the 12th verse and it is the promise of greater works. Listen now to the 12th verse of John chapter 14, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”

It might seem really quite a problem to us if we reflect for a moment upon the words that our Lord has just uttered. Think of it, he says, “The one who believes in him, he will do the works that Jesus did. And further he adds, “Greater works than these shall he do because I go to the Father.” One might, first of all, ask the question, “How is it possible for any disciple of the Lord to do greater works than the Lord Jesus Christ? After all, his works were done in the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit and so being supernatural works how is it possible for us to have a greater work than a supernatural work?”

Surely, I would imagine that everyone in this auditorium would not dare to raise your hand if I were to say to you, “Have you done greater works than the Lord Jesus Christ.” Now when I was going through seminary we used to have a professor who graded very laxly. It was very nice to take his courses because, of course, you didn’t have to study. And furthermore, he was an excellent lecturer and so it was like listening to a Bible class and then knowing that you wouldn’t have to stand and exam. Now we did stand and exam but the grades were just out of this world. If you made under a 95 it was really the equivalent of flunking very badly [laughter]. And he graded papers one right after the other, 100, 100. Well one day he faced a problem which he, no doubt, had not thought about he graded several papers 100 and he came to one paper which was so obviously better than the other papers that he felt embarrassed to put a 100 on it and so he put 100+ and over in the seminary library you can pull out a thesis written by this particular man and you will find the grade on it, 100+. It was better than perfect. Now we might think of the works of the disciples as being 100+ works but surely that’s not what our Lord means. So I think it is much better for us to interpret the statement, “Greater works than these shall ye do because I go to my Father,” as works that are greater not in quality but in quantity.

In other words, it is true that of the disciples there will be, for example, many more who will come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ than those that came to the knowledge of Jesus Christ through his own personal ministry and let me remind you that when the Lord Jesus died they had a little company of disciples of possibly five hundred whereas on the day of Pentecost alone three thousand came to a personal faith in Jesus Christ. And so it was true even from the standpoint of Pentecost that they, the apostles, did greater works in the sense of greater in quantity, but not in quality. Luther, Wesley, Calvin, Whitfield, and some of the evangelists of the centuries have done greater works in that sense. Not greater in quality, most of them would say, “My works are not greater in quality at all, they were done totally by the power of the Holy Spirit or by the Lord through the Spirit,” but greater in quantity.

Now isn’t it interesting, too, that he says, “Greater works than these shall ye do because I go unto my Father.” In other words, the power that flows through the apostles from now on is going to be power from the ascended Lord. It’s almost as if as long as he prays and as long as he supports them they will do these greater works. Reminds me of that incident in the Old Testament when the children of Israel came to Amalek and Amalek fought against Israel and, remember, Moses said that he would go up in the mount, he told Joshua, “I want you to take the fighting men and I want you to fight Amalek and I will go up in the mountain with Aaron and Hur.” And when Moses lifted up his hands the children of Israel prevailed and the battle below in the valley, when his hands became tired and they began to relax and fall then Israel suffered defeat in the valley. And then finally they decided that they would hold up Moses’ hands so Aaron took one arm and Hur took the other and they held up his arms until Israel prevailed. It seems to be a beautiful illustration of the Lord in heaven praying for the saints and thus guaranteeing their victory down here on the earth. And Aaron is the great type of the high-priest, and Hur whose name means purity is a great type of the advocate and so the advocate and the high-priest are the reason for the success of the fighting men in the valley below. And the reasons for the success of Christians in the Christian live is not because of anything in them, it’s because we have a great high-priest who is now at the right-hand of the Father and he prays for those who are related to him. And consequently the victories that are accomplished by Christians are victories accomplished through our great high-priest and advocate at the right-hand of the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ. In effect, what he is saying then is, “Christ glorified and seated at the right-hand of the Father will do more works than Christ incarnate in the state of his humiliation.” So the promise of greater works is the first promise.

Now the second promise follows in verses 13 and 14 and it is the promise of answered prayer, “And whatever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.” Now this, I think, probably is one of the ways by which the greater works are performed. From the divine standpoint it is the Lord Jesus who prays but from the human standpoint it is the apostles as they pray. And so by answered prayer the greater works are accomplished. This is one of the greatest of the blank checks of the Bible left for believers in Christ.

Now let me point out one thing that I think is important. He says in verse 13, “Whatever ye shall ask in my name,” now what is meant by, “Asking in my name”? Does that mean, simply, that when we make a petition and address it to God the Father that we add as a kind of ritualistic phrase, “In the name of the Lord Jesus”? I don’t think so. “Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter to the Kingdom of Heaven.” It’s not enough to name a name. If you study the expression, “In the name of,” you will, I think, be convinced that what is meant is in the recognition of the authority of, in the name of. So, “In my name,” means a recognition of the authority of the Son of God. To pray in the name of the Lord Jesus truly is not simply to mouth a phrase, but it’s to pray out of the conviction: number one, that we are totally unworthy in ourselves; and number two, that Christ has died for sinners; and number three, that by the grace of God we have been brought to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus as the one who has died for sinners and we have committed ourselves to him.

In other words, we rest upon the merits of Christ and not upon our own merits of which we have none according to Scripture. So to, “Ask in my name,” means to, “Ask out of a sense of relationship to me through faith,” it’s to ask as a Christian, not as a church member, not as a baptized person, not as a person simply who sits at the Lord’s table, but as a believer in Christ who has had an experience personally. I’m not speaking about feeling, I’m speaking about simply the acceptance of Christ as one’s own personal savior as a personal experience. “Whatsoever you shall ask in my name,” we have no right to expect anything from the Father except our petition to ask in his name. We have no merits apart from Christ. The merits that the Father recognizes are the merits of the Son of God, given as the representative for sinners.

So, “Whatsoever you ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” Now I say that’s one of the great blank checks of the Bible. I read of a father once who when his son went off to college he just gave him — now this was foolish — but he gave him, literally, a book of checks that had been already signed by him. He said, “I’ve paid your tuition, I’ve paid for your board, and these checks are for your incidental expenses and my account will always cover them if they are at all reasonable.” That was stupid, wasn’t it? [Laughter] But he must have had a great deal of confidence in his son, but it was like the giving of blank checks when the Lord Jesus said, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

The 14th verse has an interesting textual addition in some of the critical texts of the New Testament and in fact probably the one that is used by more seminary students today than any other, the little word “me” occurs after the verb “ask” in verse 14 and it reads, “If ye shall ask me anything in my name I will do it.” Now that’s a rather interesting reading, it may be the genuine reading. Many good manuscripts of the New Testament have it but it’s very interesting because in the Bible ordinarily prayer is to be directed toward the Father in the name of the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit. That is the general teaching concerning the doctrine of prayer. We pray to the Father in the name of the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now there are some exceptions to this which only goes to show that it is possible for a person to pray directly to our Lord Jesus Christ, though that’s not the common teaching of the New Testament. That’s what Peter did when he was about to sink and he said, “Lord, save me.” His petition was directly to the Lord Jesus and it was answered. Stephen, when he was dying, prayed to the Lord Jesus directly, but normally it is otherwise. If you are looking for a text that might justify it this would be one, ‘If you shall ask me anything in my name.” Now we cannot say that that text is, however, absolutely certain for some Greek manuscripts have the “me” and some do not and it’s a very difficult textual question and since many of you don’t read Greek it would not be enlightening if I discussed the textual problem and, furthermore, it doesn’t add a great deal.

Let’s look at the third promise now, and this is the promise of the paraclete, verse 15, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” Or, again, as many of the manuscripts have,

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”

Paraclete; let me first explain what I mean by that. The Greek word that is used here and translated in verse 16 of the Authorized Version by the term comforter — that, incidentally, is not a covering — comforter is the Greek word parakletos. And so paraclete is simply a transliteration of the Greek word. Parakletos comes from two Greek words, one of which means to call and then the preposition para means alongside. So the basic idea originally of that expression was, “One called alongside.” And the idea is, “Call alongside for help.” Like an advocate; in fact, it’s rendered advocate in the New Testament. So a paraclete, then, is someone who is called alongside for help. The word itself means in the New Testament to exhort. It means sometimes to encourage, it means sometimes to comfort. So the paraclete, then, is a reference to the Holy Spirit in verse 17, it says, “Even the Spirit of truth.” He is the paraclete, he is the one called alongside to help.

Now this is the first of the many passages in the Upper Room Discourse on the Holy Spirit. I want you to notice first the condition of his coming, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter.” So it appears as if loving him, will lead to obedience and the outpouring of the Spirit. “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” What an interesting concept that is for there are people who think that they do love the Lord Jesus but they do not keep his commandments. The evidence of our love for him is that we shall keep the commandments. Now he doesn’t say, “Keep them perfectly.” He speaks about the bent of life; the Christian’s bent of live is obedience, not disobedience. The Christian who constantly disobeys the word does not have any assurance from the Bible that he really belongs to the Lord Jesus. If you should be, as you examine your own life, in doubt about obedience in your life you should be in doubt about your relationship to the Lord. It’s very plain if you love me you will keep my commandments then as a result I will pray the Father and he will give you the Holy Spirit. So loving him leads to obedience and the outpoured Spirit. Truly even in our natural lives love leads to obedience.

I don’t see my daughter in the audience tonight so I’m going to tell an illustration about her. This happened many, many years ago. But when she was just a little tiny girl about four years of age and one day I came in and I sat down and I just thought I would test her a little bit and I said, “Gracie, run to my closet and take my shoes with you.” I took of my shoes, I said, “Take my shoes with you, put them in the closet, and bring back my slippers.” Well she took the shoes, she went into the closet, she brought back my slippers, she said nothing. She didn’t even say, “Oh, Daddy,” but she did it without a single word, I was amazed. And that night I commented to Mary and said, “It was amazing, I asked her to do this, she didn’t utter a single word, she went right to the closet, she got my slippers, she came back, she put the shoes in there, and without a single word.” And I remember Mary replying, “Oh, she always does things for those she loves.” Sammy, her brother who was three-and-a-half or four years old, “Sammy just uses her for a slave.” [Laughter] Well that’s true to life, as our Lord says, “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” It’s a good test for Christian life. The perseverance of the saints is a biblical doctrine so, “If you love me you will keep my commandments,” and he says, “I will pray the Father and he will give you another Comforter.” That verb is probably dependent upon the peridusus in that if clause that preceded, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments and I will pray the Father.”

“Now another comforter,” I want to say another word about that because comforter is a very interesting word. The Revised Standard Version here has, “Another counselor.” But the idea back of the word parakletos is not so much instruction, although that is involved as we shall see when we get to chapter 16, but it’s the idea of strengthening, it’s the idea of guiding, it’s the idea of encouraging. And I also would add this, it is the idea of exhorting because occasionally the Holy Spirit is not our comforter so much than he is our discomforter. That is, he points out things in our lives that are not true to the word of God. So comforter has the idea of strengthener. In fact, John Wycliffe in his version rendered Philippians chapter 4, in verse 13, “I can do all things through Christ who (the Authorized Version reads “which”) comforted me,” he renders it, “Which strengthen me.” Or rather I should turn it around, he renders it, that’s right, he renders it, “Comforted me,” but comforted in the sense of strengthen. So another comforter is another strengthener, he is someone called alongside to help us.

Now when he says another he means another of the same kind. In other words, there evidently is another comforter just like the Holy Spirit. Well we’re not told here specifically but he means himself. He’s the comforter and he’s going to call alongside another one like that one. And later in the Johannine Epistles in the 1st Epistle the Lord Jesus is called the advocate with the Father and it’s the same word; the comforter with the Father, the advocate. So we have two advocates, we have two comforters, we have two strengtheners. We have one in heaven at the right-hand of the Father and we have one who has come to indwell us. We have a lot of strength to lay hold of, a lot of comfort. So I will pray the Father and he will give you another comforter. The comforter was very much like an advocate who pleaded the case of someone, like a lawyer. Isn’t it interesting, we have a comforter in heaven and we have a comforter on the earth who dwells within each believing Christian. Therefore we cannot go anywhere, we cannot do anything, we cannot say anything that he is not there. Now that’s something to think about. It always startles me when I go in places in Dallas and I walk in and I think, “Well surely no one sees me now.” I was just telling Bob [name redacted], he’s moved into my neighborhood, I said, “I’m sorry Bob [name redacted], you’ve ruined the neighborhood,” and then I said, “You know, you’re going to be watching me now and I’m going to have to be careful about the way I live over in my neighborhood.” But we go into places and someone will say, “Hello Lewis,” I thought I was unrecognized. And it makes you think that you do have to be careful. But how much more careful we should be in the light of the fact that the Holy Spirit indwells us, another comforter and that is designed to have an effect upon us.

Now he is called the Spirit of truth. I wish it were possible to say more about that but I must go on. He says in the 17th verse, “The Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” Now notice the expression, “The world cannot receive the Holy Spirit.” Do you know what that means? That means not everybody is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. It means that the world is not indwelt by the Spirit. What is the Lord Jesus mean when he says the world is not indwelt by the Spirit? Well he means the same thing that John has meant previously in the 7th chapter and the thing that Paul expounds in great detail in his epistles. That only believers in Christ are indwelt by the Spirit. In fact, that’s the test of the possession of Christianity. Paul said, “He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his.” So if you do not have the Holy Spirit indwelling you, you’re not a Christian. Now you may be a Presbyterian or a Baptist, you might attend Believers Chapel regularly, that’s not the test of Christianity. At the judgment seat of Jesus Christ or the great white throne judgment, the question will not be what local church you were a member of, on what role were you. The test will be the possession of the Spirit of God.

The world cannot receive the Holy Spirit, he says, “Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him.” Now I over and over again in preaching here have tried to labor the point that a man outside of Christ cannot come to faith in Christ of himself. I think that doctrine is so important. The inability of the man outside of Christ to come to Christ is fundamental to the recognition that salvation is of the Lord. Here again we have, over and over again, “Whom the world cannot receive.” In other words, you have to be out of the world before you can receive the Spirit. Well how can you be out of the world before you receive the Spirit? Well it is the work of the Holy Spirit to bring regeneration, new life, which results immediately in faith in Christ and the reception of the Holy Spirit. That’s it, that’s the divine pattern. The unsaved man cannot believe, regeneration precedes faith. The man in the world cannot respond, you must have new life to believe. In other words, the first act is the product of the work of God. How important that is.

So here, the world cannot receive him. Well it’s said so many times in the Bible that I hesitate to even cite further texts but I know someone might say, “Well that’s just one text.” One’s enough, incidentally, for a Christian. But let me remind you, “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: they are foolishness to him: neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned.” “They that are in the flesh,” Paul says, “cannot please God.” So you must be out of the flesh. Now he says of Christians, “Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, so be the Spirit of God dwell in you.” That’s one of my favorite doctrines. You know why? Because salvation, then, is of the Lord, not of man. When we get to heaven that’s what we’re going to sing about. We’re going to praise God for the salvation that comes by the grace of God, “Whom the world cannot receive, ye must be born again.”

Now then, he goes on to say, “But ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you.” Isn’t that interesting? He says the Holy Spirit is with these believers, but he shall be in them. Now, again, there is a little bit of a textual problem with the verb in the last clause of verse 17, “And shall be in you.” Now some of you if you have a Greek testament, and for any visitors we do have a number who do have Greek testaments, wouldn’t it be nice if we all had them? But anyway, it’s not necessary to be a Bible student, to read the Greek text but if you do happen to have one you will notice that it’s possible your text has, “For he dwelleth with you and is in you.” Well that would make sense and there are a number of manuscripts that read that way in the Greek text. But there are also a number of manuscripts that read the future tense, “He dwelleth with you and shall be in you.” Now the meaning of this would be the Holy Spirit is with you as a helper now in the sense that he is there from time to time for in dealment with power to help you through the trials of life but in the future he is going to be in you in the sense of a permanent indwelling.

Now some of you have a Bible Society’s edition of the Greek New Testament to show you how the critics have differed over this and the first edition of the Nestle-Aland critical text the present tense was preferred. In the second edition the present tense was preferred. And when I was teaching the Gospel of John I always contended the future text was correct and the future text was the proper reading at this point and so I just assumed that the members of the committee heard about that and in the third edition they had changed to the future tense [Laughter]. And it reads now in that edition — I’m kidding you, of course — “And shall be in you.” In other words, he says, “The Holy Spirit is with you now but there is to be a relationship which is more vital, more intimate than with you in the future. It is in you.” In other words, there is going to be consummated through the work of Christ on the cross a relationship that can be called personal union. He shall be in you. That’s one of the great blessings of the word of God, promised to the believer today, the fact that we have the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Most of you know that I was taught one of my first courses in theology by Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer. And Dr. Chafer used to talk in his soteriology classes on the things that happened the moment a believer believes in Christ. And he used to introduce it by an experience he had many years previously. He said one year he had been very busy in the work of God as a Bible teacher and some friends of his had graciously offered their cottage in Maine for Dr. Chafer to have a vacation of a month and he accepted it. And he and his wife went to the cottage in Maine to spend a month of relaxation from the work of ministry. And Dr. Chafer used to say, “When we arrived, the first day it rained.” And he said the second day it rained and the third day it rained. And he said, “Frankly it rained for thirty consecutive days,” and he used to say, “It was the first time I knew that it could rain so continuously without a flood.” So he was very confined, he had nothing to do, and so he decided to do what preachers ought to do anyway, he decided he would read the Bible.

So he started at the Gospel of Matthew and he thought, well I want to have something to read for, some goal, some aim, and so he determined that he would read through the Bible and note the things that happened to a person the moment that he believed in Christ, the blessings that came. He read through the whole New Testament, he said, and he picked out thirty-three things that happened to a believer the moment that he believed in Christ. Many of them were things like: justified, he was declared righteous; forgiven, he was made a priest of God; he was mad a Son of God, and various other things. And one of them was the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Well Dr. Chafer, when he finished, said, “I think I’ll check this,” and so he said he went back

And he went through the New Testament again. Counting again, and he arrived at thirty-three things that happened. And acco9rding to the story, I didn’t remember him saying this but I ran across an account of this too of someone else who had heard him, he did it for the third time and he came out again at thirty-three things that happened the moment that we believed in Christ. Well Dr. Chafer, when he finally realized what had happened, he said he was upstairs and his wife was downstairs and he suddenly let out a loud, “Praise the Lord!” And Mrs. Chafer called up and said, “What’s the matter?” And he said, “Well, my dear, I’ve just discovered that I’m a thirty-third degree Christian and it hasn’t cost me a penny.” [Laughter]

I have a friend in Houston who is the pastor of a church and he was a student at seminary and he had to learn these thirty-three things too because Dr. Chafer used to make us memorize the thirty-three things that happened the moment that we believed in Christ. And he likes to say that there are thirty-four things that happen to a believer, he found one more that Dr. Chafer had omitted but I believe Dr. Chafer still because he checked his three times [laughter]. One of the greatest of these blessings, regardless of how many they are, is a permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Now, did you notice that little adverb “forever”? Verse 16, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you (for six months, or for one year, or until you sin. No,) that he may abide with you forever.” Forever, in other words the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that comes to the believing Christian is an experience forever. That wonderful blessing never leaves a Christian, the Holy Spirit is always indwelling, “That he may abide with you forever.”

And incidentally, we also notice that when he says, “He is with you, and shall be in you,” that there is a difference between the work of the Spirit in the Old Testament and the work of the Spirit since the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit was active in the Old Testament but the blessings that are the Christians in the present age surpass the blessings of the believer in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament there was no permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He endued Christians with power upon occasion but there is no evidence there was any permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. That takes place now that Calvary has taken place and the gift of the Spirit had been given on the day of Pentecost, since that time there is permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Let me hasten on down, I notice verse 18,

“And I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day, (no doubt a reference to the day of Pentecost according to the majority of the commentators,) At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you.”

Will you look at those last words of verse 20? “And ye in me, and I in you.” What a magnificent union. There are just six words in the Greek text expressing this, “Ye in me, and I in you.” What an amazing statement and what a puzzling statement in one sense. How is it possible for anyone to be in someone who is in them? “Ye in me, and I in you,” doesn’t that seem like a paradox? What kind of language is this? Well this is the language of an element I suggest to you. It’s the language of, well, the language of air. It’s the language of fire. It’s the language of water. It’s the language of earth. All of which it is true that they are in what is in them. As the fire is in the iron when the iron is in the fire. You take a poker, for example, and put it in the fire, soon the fire is in the poker. A bird flying through the sky is in the air but air is also in the bird. And for those followers of Izaak Walton, the fish is in the water but the water is in the fish. A plant in the ground finds that the chemicals of the ground are in the plant. So it’s the union of an element, the closest kind of union. “Ye in me, and I in you.” And notice the order, too. It’s, “Ye in me, and I in you.” So he is in us that we may be in him. The iron is the first in the fire, that the fire may be in the iron. The bird is in the air, if the air is to be in the bird. So here is an expression of a tremendous union that exists and it’s a kind of double security that we have in Christ.

Finally we read in verse 21, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” It’s not enough to have the commandments; he expects that we keep them. “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.” What a tremendous revelation that we’ve had here. We have greater works, we have prayer power, and we have the personal presence of the Holy Spirit. What magnificent promises.

But now he concluded verse 21 by saying, “And will manifest myself to him.” That raises the question which Judas picks up and asks and is from that point that we shall pick up our story of the Upper Room Discourse in our next study. May God help us, like the apostles, to pay the closest of attention to the words of our Lord, for they apply to us. We live in the age that the apostles were to live in. And may it be true of us that we not only have his commandments, but that we keep them through the power of the permanently indwelling Holy Spirit. Isn’t that a great blessing? All of the experiences of life seen under the light of that, become experiences that we can undergo to the glory of God. Let’s bow in a word of prayer.

[Prayer] Father, we are grateful to Thee for the promises that are in the word of God. And we do thank Thee for the Upper Room Discourse of our Lord to the eleven. For we, too, need these words of instruction. The Lord Jesus is absent from us in bodily fashion, though with us through the Spirit. Enable us Lord to pay attention to his commandments. But not only have them, keep them. Oh God, help us to become more obedient in our Christian lives…

[RECORDING ENDS ABRUPTLY]