The Holy Spirit's work is to convict the world of sin, specifically the sin of unbelief, and to establish righteousness in Christ. This righteousness is not earned by human effort but is secured through a relationship with Jesus. Judgment has already been executed upon Satan at the cross, and this judgment will ultimately fall upon all who reject Christ. The sermon emphasizes that sin and the sinner are inseparable, and that individuals are sinners by birth and by choice when they reject Jesus. The promise of answered prayer is extended to believers who abide in Christ, ask in His name, and seek God's glory, highlighting the profound privilege of being a child of God with direct access to the Father.
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out to our text in John sixteen. And verse twelve. I have yet many things to say unto you, but he cannot hear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you in all truth, for he shall not speak of himself. Whosoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. he shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine.
Therefore said I, that he shall take of mine and show it unto you. A little while, and ye shall not see me. And again a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father. Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith of Allah? A little while, and he shall see me, cannot see me. Again a little while, and he shall see me. Because I go to my father. They said, Therefore, what is it that he saith? A little while. We cannot tell what he saith.
Now Jesus knew, you see, they were talking among themselves, but the Lord knew what was in their hearts and what they were thinking. Now Jesus knew that they were desired to ask him and said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves that I said a little while, and ye shall not see me, and again a little while, and ye shall see me? Very, very I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament. but the world shall rejoice. He shall be sorrowed, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. We'll say something about the next few verses in a few minutes.
I want to refer again to what we were speaking on briefly last Sunday morning, and that is what you have in verses eight to nine, where you have the work of the Holy Spirit and the threefold work and ministry and mission. of the Holy Spirit. He has come, as it comes to in verse eight, to convince or convince not only but to convict and to more or less convert anyone who will acknowledge what he is seeking to teach them what sin is. He said, I am coming to the world to convict of sins.
And then he qualifies that of sin because they believe not on me. So he has come to convict, to convince, to be true, but the world of sin. And that sin, as we pointed out, is the sin of unbelief. Then the third next thing he speaks of was righteousness because I go to the Father. Here you have righteousness satisfied and righteousness established. Righteousness is satisfied. God is perfectly satisfied with what Christ did on the cross. And he's now seated at God's right hand and eternally established that righteousness is in Christ Jesus.
And if any man or woman is going to have righteousness to qualify him for heaven, it's not what he does. It's what he has in Christ, his relationship with Jesus Christ. And then the third thing of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. He points out those three things. Unbelief in Christ. and righteousness satisfied and established in a living man at God's right hand, and the judgment has been executed at the cross, executed upon Satan, and eventually all who are unsafe. God shows his horror and hatred of sin by what he did to his own son at Calvary.
Sin must have been awful. Sin must have been fearful in the sight of God that it necessitated such a sacrifice to put it away. God said it's so deep, it's deserving of such punishment that I'm willing to give my son, my only beloved son, not an angel. I could dispatch a thousand angels if they could pay for sin and atone for sin, but they can. only a sinless person which was Jesus Christ could make atonement for sin and no one else.
So that's the passage you have here. Sin is discovered. What is the sin for which men and women are going to be lost? Unbelief in Jesus Christ. You could pull a trigger and send ten, fifty people into eternity as a murderer. And still you could be saved. You could acknowledge your sin before God, except Jesus Christ as your Savior, and God would block out all those sins, and you'd become a new creature in Christ Jesus. Many ungodly wicked men have been saved by the grace of God.
The thieves on their cross were murderers. men of factors, you'll get Christ saved more than that. The one thing for which man will suffer eternally is rejection of Jesus Christ, and a religious person can do that. So you have sin discovered, you have righteousness secured. I have righteousness, not my righteousness. I have Christ with all righteousness in him, and you have judgment execute. Think of that first expression. Sin and the sinner. You can't divorce them. Sin and the sinner.
Yes, it's the sinner who commits sin. And he commits sin because he is a sinner. A dog doesn't become a dog when it barks. It barks because it was a dog or is a dog. Man is born into this world a sinner. Therefore he sinned It's not Adam's sin that caused a man and woman to be lost. Man is a sinner by birth for which you are not responsible. A time comes in a person's life when he becomes a sinner by choice. He either accepts Jesus Christ or rejects him. He comes to the light and he turns his back on it.
He's a sinner by choice and then by practice. So you have these. Three points in verse nine. Sin and the sinner. The Savior and the sage. Yes, the saving, righteousness at God's right hand. And all who are associated with Jesus Christ are saved. But the third thing, you have Satan and the separation. The sinner, and then you have Satan in the end, the prince of this world. and to separate. For those who line up are still lined up with Satan, they are not lined up with Jesus Christ, they're not associated with it, there's only one other party to be lined up with in that shape.
And they're separated just like Satan will be separated from God forever. So everyone who is not born again, separated from God forever. with the devil and his age. Now that's what your Bible says. That's not what I say. That's what God's words are. Depart the workers of the nation. I never knew you. You know that word, come, you understand it. You know what come means. The Lord says, come unto me, oh, leave at labor on a heavy laden and I will give you rest. But the opposite to come is depart.
Do you understand that? You're dragging your feet when it comes to coming Christ. You won't drag your feet when you depart. When you stand as a sinner before God and you're convicted and convinced of your sin, of rejecting Jesus' faith and he passes a sentence, what's it going to mean? It'll be a hasty dispatch from the presence of God. You won't drag your feet there. God will command the angels and they'll be right there and bind you hand and foot and take you away and thrust you into outer darkness.
There'll be heapsing and draining and nastiness. People drag their feet now, but they won't drag it there. There's some solemn scriptures in your Bible, Matthew thirteen, where the Lord speaks of the parable. Let both let the wheat and the tares, let both go together until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest, I will say to the leaper, The angel, Gather together first the tares, find them in bundles, but burn them, but gather the wheat into my garden. In Matthew twenty through thirteen, Then said the king, referring to God, because this is the marriage of the king's son.
Then said the king to the servant, bind him. Notice that word, bind. We notice the binding of the bundles. Bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer darkness. There shall be deepening and gnashing of teeth. This binding by age. The mystic of being bound when you are proven guilty, your name is not in the man's book of life, and then the angels are commanded, but by you and forth. And you have no power. They'll bind you, and they'll take you away, and they'll cast you into everlasting country.
Where are those bundles and what are those bundles? We mentioned this last week over in Revelation. What are these bundles? The fearful, that one bundle. The unbelieving, that's another bundle. The abominable, that's another bundle. And the murderers, that's another. The foremongers, another. The sorcerers, another. I call it others, another. All I. Find them in bundle. They are the bundle. I'm proud you like now. you will have them, but you won't enjoy their comfort. Now this is what the Bible says.
If it were my words, it wouldn't amount to a lower king, but this is God's word. And that I've got something else to talk about. The Lord said in this opening verse twelve, I have yet many things after speaking about the work of the Spirit in verses eight I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. He has said many things. He noticed that in the previous service. He had said on many occasions, I will give you power. I will give you life.
I will come to you. I will pray for you. I will love you. I will manifest myself unto you. But he said something that is precious and sweet to every Christian. What's that? He says, I will answer your prayer. Can you think of anything more precious than that? There's only one prayer the sinner can pray that the Lord will pay any attention to or answer. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. If a sinner prays that one, he'll respond and save that person. But here we're talking about Christian. He's promised to answer the prayer of the Christian, and only the Christian.
And I don't know anything sweeter. I don't know when you get saved. You've got someone who can answer your prayers. Now, I haven't read the text in these studies on John and these three chapters, working fifteen and sixteen, that have to do with prayer. and they're precious. And I'm going to give you them now. Notice chapter fourteen and verse thirteen. They're right nearby. You don't have to turn many leaves. In chapter fourteen, verse thirteen, I want you to notice it. And whatsoever, that's a wonderful word, whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do.
Now Christ is talking here and he's going to do it. that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If he shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. But now the Spirit is going to come and see what he says in chapter fifteen and verse sixty. Ye shall ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should be made. that whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. Now the Father's given you this, not the Son.
He said in chapter fourteen, I'll give you. I'll answer your prayer. In this passage he says the following. And it's in chapter fifteen where you have the vine and the branches. Now notice also chapter sixteen, the chapter we read this morning, but I didn't read these verses. He said in verse twenty-three, And in that day he shall ask me nothing. Therein regarding I say unto you, whatsoever, in the word whatsoever in all these days, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Hitherto have ye have nothing in my name.
ask and ye shall receive, and your joy, that your joy might be full. And in verse twenty-six, at that day ye shall ask in my name, and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father loveth, the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and I believe that I came out from God. Isn't that a mark? Now he says, while I've been on earth, you've been asking me questions, you've been asking the things that I've been giving them to you. But he says, I'm going up to be with my father. I'll be sitting at my father's right hand. And you pray to my father.
The word father is very significant, relationship. And if you pray to my father in my name, and six times in these verses we've read, he says my name. in my name, in my name, in my name. A check that you have, unless your signature is on it, means nothing. And if we ask prayers of God in the name with his signature, the signature of the Son of God, he says it'll be answered. Isn't that nice? Here is Christ sitting at the Father's right hand, and if we ask the Father prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus, Father Lewis.
Now, I've got to qualify that. And I want to say that this privilege is not for the unsaved, but for those who know the Father, and they are in the family of God. If a ragged dirty little boy came up to you, people were standing around, and he said, Father, I need something. I need some food. I need some clothes. I need some money. What would you say? You'd be embarrassed. You'd say, well, you're not my child. I don't know you. I never saw you before.
You're not my responsibility. Wouldn't you say that? Yes. And that's how God treats a sinner. He doesn't know Christ. You're not my child. You haven't been cleansed. You're still in your sins. I don't know you. You're not my responsibility. God is responsible for his children. The only prayer a sinner can pray is God be merciful. He, the sinner, then you become a child of God. Every person in the world is God's creature, but not his child. You've got to be born again to be in the family of God.
God is your Father and you are his child. I never will forget. My only spirit caught up as I was in a Christian home. The Bible was in every room and house. Grace was set at the table every time. Family all. I was nineteen. I didn't know God was my father, nor Christ was my savior, and I never once got on my knees and asked him to do that. One time I made a deal with the Lord, and he took me up. I don't know what it is.
We were playing hockey, and the Tosca was tied, tied, tied. We were in the third period of overtime. And I was coming down the ice on the right wing of my position. We were getting here and I said, Lord, if you let me score this wheel, this ghoul, I'll sit there and hunt. And I went in and let go my shot the highest I could and went into the net. And we did win the game. Now you said that the Lord answered your prayer, you give up hunting. About three weeks later, on the third of May, I accepted Christ as my Savior.
I didn't give up hockey because of that. I gave up hockey because I found something better than hockey. I had been playing hockey since about a kid in City League and worked my way up to the OHA, Ontario Hockey's New Day, but I wasn't happy. Something down in my heart I'm not happy. And I led the team and scored. But I wasn't happy. My kid brother Reggie would come, the newspaper would come out in big letters, making the headlines on the sports days. I won't see it. I got what I dreamed of a boy to be.
I wasn't happy. But the night my own father led me to Christ in the kitchen of our home. quarter past nine on the third of May, nineteen forty-five, I accepted Christ as my Savior. And after rejoicing, I went upstairs in my bedroom. As soon as I got inside the door and I shut the door, I don't think I need to turn on the light that room was lit up anyway, as far as I was concerned that I did turn on the light. And I got down on my knees of that chair. where I had sat for many times and read Jesse James and all kinds of other books, but never the Bible.
But that night I got down on my knee and I said, Father, and I told them, the meaning of that word really grew. For the first time in my life, God is my father. And I'm a child. Father, I wasn't emotional, but I choked up and said, here, God's now my father, and I'm his child, and this relationship can never be broken. It took me two or three minutes to let that really sink in. I'm a child of God.
I'm a child of God. I tell you, that lets you into a whole lot when you become a child of God. You have a lot of privilege. And in these verses we've read about prayer, how wonderful it is. In other words, you have the key to all the treasures of heaven. Key, prayer. It unlocks to you all that you want. He says, whatsoever, whatsoever you shall ask in my name. Now I can see some superficial person when he reads that. Boys, his eyes will light up the tree and will say, Hallelujah.
I'm going to ask the Lord for two cattle eggs. I'm going to ask the Lord for a new home. I'm going to ask the Lord for enough ponds and so on. I don't have to worry for a long time to come. I haven't made. That's the way some people take those effects. What's really should I ask the Father in my name? I will do it. But I'll tell you one thing, no thinking Christian will pray like that or expect that. And if you're praying, wanting all those big things, a Cadillac, a big home, a bank, a council, you won't get a wheelbarrow, that little paddling.
Because you're not meeting the three things that are essential if you get your prayer. One is, abiding in Christ. If a born-again Christian is a branch, and abiding in Christ, it means the life of the vine is going through the branch. And the branch is only going to be consistent with the vine. And we abide in Christ. And Christ tells us in that chapter he says, I abide in the Father. Christ abides in God and Christians abide in Christ. And a Christian who is abiding in Christ and in whom is the life of Christ, he's not going to get on his knees as soon as he can say, Lord, I want this, I want that, I want the other thing.
If you're abiding in Christ, you're only going to ask God for what is consistent with the Christian. The second thing, in connection with giving what you want. Not only are you to abide in Christ, but you're to ask in His name, in the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, His Word of the Father called the cross, where they shed His blood, and put away my sin. And in the merits of Jesus Christ, the man had brought my hand. I'm going to pray this prayer. And the third thing is, God is to be glorified in the answer.
Abiding in Christ, asking in the name of Christ, and God to be glorified in the answer. Well, God wouldn't be glorified in the answer. If he answered a lot of Christians' prayers, he would almost be horrified. I want this, I want that, I want the other thing. I've already learned enough to do the nature that if you've got what you want, you wouldn't be living for the Lord. You'd be living for this work. Because when you ask for it, I'm here. There's a lot to this business of praise.
God means what He says. But if you were abiding in Christ, And if you ask in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, no other name, the name of the Virgin Mary wouldn't do you any good. She's not sitting at the cross by hand. I sit in my name six times in the cross. And God may be known. If you meet those conditions, I believe you'll see your prayer then. I believe the reason a lot of Christians don't see their prayers answered, they are not abiding in Christ. They're saved, they're going to heaven, because they're not in a hurry to get there.
They don't want the Lord to come right now. They might do a few more things down here, do more things they'd like to enjoy. I wonder how about Peter's work. Are you a Christian born again Christian in your abiding of Christ Jesus? And you're asking as a Christian in fellowship, well that's what it means, the branch in fellowship with the body. You're in fellowship with God, and you're asking in the name of the Lord Jesus and for the glory of God. Father, will you do this? Now, he is a true and honest analyst. If what you're asking is not for his glory, He's not forgiven.
He may come out with an outright no. He may come out with an outright yes. I'll give it to you. I see your movements. You want me to answer your prayer for my glory through the virtues of my side. Yes. It may be late, but I am not a good friend. I'll answer your prayer. sort of time and hope gives to me. Well, this is a wonderful subject of answered prayer, but we can't play fast and loosely this subject. Think of what I'm saying. Now I give it all up. Ask God for anything. Give it to me.
So he will give it to you as he will ask. In the name of the Lord Jesus, a Christian in fellowship with him, something for his glory. I'm sure If it gave us all one thing, what we want, you give an S. In my early days, I asked the Lord two or three times to let a young woman become my wife. And I prayed since this day he didn't answer my prayer. I sure prayed that I saw what the man got when he married us. I'm glad you owned my wife.
But at the time those four have caught up. I thought she's the one for me. Lord, let me have this one. Lord said, no, no matter how I argue, he wouldn't change his mind when that is. He doesn't give us all we want. He knows what then. Then you come to these remarkable verses in fourteen and fourteen and fifty. he shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall sow it unto you. Here's the Trinity. Isn't it wonderful the Godhead here?
The Lord Jesus speaking, and he says, he referring to the Spirit, he shall glorify me, for he, that's the Spirit, shall receive of mine, and shall sow it unto you. all things that the Father hath are mine. Can you get around that one? Christ says, All that the Father hath they're mine. I'm equal to the Father. All that the Father hath are mine. Therefore said I unto, therefore said I, that he the Spirit shall take that mine and shall show it unto you.
He simply said it. I came into this world to show what my Father has and what I have. Now when the Spirit comes, he's going to tell you what I have. There you have the work of the Holy Spirit. John is very quick in his epistle and his Gospels to explain the relationship of the Father and the Son and what the Father has, the Son has. You don't have Matthew, Mark and Luke going into this too closely. Not like John. John is very jealous of that one truth. The Father and the Son are one.
And the Spirit takes up the blessed sin. The Father's glory. He says that in my quote is true. I shared in eternity past, as we'll see in chapter seventeen five. The Father's power is mine. Going into all the world, he said, preached the gospel, O Lord, in which you always, even unto the end of the age, and all power is given unto me, and heaven and earth. The same power of the Father is in the person of the Son, Jesus Christ. And the wisdom of the Father. Christ had that same wisdom. Also, the Father's worship. He said, I can have that same worship.
And never once did the Lord Jesus remove anyone who outbound before him to worship him. He accepted it because he too was God. So all that belonged to the Father came in the Father's possession. He said, all that the Father has, that's mine too. So you see the Father and the Son and how wonderful it is to see the power of the Father, the possessions of the Father belong to the Son. But now I want to speak the rest of the meeting, all those little words, yet a little while. You play it verse in verse sixteen.
And seven times in these verses, you have those words, yet a little while. A little while. A little while. You have them twice in verse sixteen. You have it twice in verse seventeen. Once in verse eighteen. Christ in verse nineteen, a little fire, a little fire, a little fire, a little fire. And they're found three times else in the Bible. Older in Hebrews ten, thirty-seven, then twice in the Old Testament you'll find a little fire. Older in Jeremiah thirty-one, fifty-one, thirty-three, and at the latter, chapter two and twenty-two, a little fire.
That's very precious and very strong. A little while, he said. What was we referring to, including in this remark, he said, I'm going to the cross. And for three days, you won't see me. I'll be in the truth. But he said, then I'll see you again. I'll be with you forty days. Oh, how brief is that little while, three days. But then at the end of the forty days when he was with them, he went up to the mount of the tomb. And he left, and went back to the plough.
And he said, there's only a little fire in the middle of the street. What do you say, nineteen hundred years, a long while? Not according to the calendar of heaven, a thousand years, but a day, the rest near the rock. Oh, we were a little fire. And he says, you see me again. Now you'll notice in that verse, we pointed out in verse twenty, how the world is rejoicing. Very, very I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice. The word is going to rejoice for what? For what? Because I'm born away.
They don't want me here. The world's going to rejoice when I leave. They did not say earlier, away with this man. We don't want this man available to us. The world was happy when Jesus Christ left. The world didn't want him. And they don't want him today. I'll tell you, if it were announced that Jesus Christ was coming at twelve o'clock tonight, he'd have a sick world. All right, all the pressure is going to have, three hours, seven o'clock. Then it's all over.
The world will be sick to think. They only had a few more hours to enjoy the world. The day doesn't want them. They don't want them now. And some of you don't want them now. The world rejoices because he left. they'll be awfully unhappy with anything like that. But he says, you're going to rejoice in his own. In fact, they rejoiced when he left. This truth so gripped them, that when the Lord left from the mountain, they rejoiced.
Look at what you have in Luke, twenty-four or fifty, now I'll read it to you. And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. that came to pass while he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven. Now notice, and they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple, praying and blessing. So when Jesus Christ went away, then really we go, or it's only going to be a little while, a little while. Or you say, I've been hearing that for a long time, my grandparent thought about the more of the coming.
Yeah, it's true. But there were long, long, middle-aged people, and the coming was not more. Or three. And the coming of literature. But I want to tell you this. It's only a little while. If it were a little while, nineteen hundred years ago, how little must it be today? And this world has gone so far toward the fulfillment of prophecy in the last twenty-five years is frightening. I'll tell you this, the prophetic shift in the world events have zeroed in on the coming again of the Lord Jesus.
And only a little one, a little while our Lord shall come, and we shall wander here. to take us to our father's home where he fasteth gone before to view him the sea of thee and the story saved our grace over in Jeremiah fifty one and the thirty three and I'm going to read it to you for thus saith the Lord of both the God of Israel the daughter of Babylon is like a flushing floor It is time to bless her yet a little fire, and the time of her harvest has come.
That's the prophetic doctrine. The Babylon of the Old Testament is foreshadowing the Babylon of the last days. And that's what you've got in the book of Revelation. Babylon the Greeks. It speaks of confusion. If you ever had a day of confusion, far as this world can burn it's not. Confused. And he says, Jeremiah, led by the Spirit all those hundreds of years ago, even before Christ, he says, the time's coming. He says, when Babylon the great will appear on the earth, the latter day when she's here.
And he says, I love it. Her harvest has come. Yet the rivers are And then Habakkuk, over in Habakkuk, he made a language like this, and the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision, and make it plain, what I am trying to do, on tables, that he may run, that read it. If God had a message, I want you to be in a hurry and get it out. For the vision is yet for an appointed hour, the end time. But at the end it shall speak, and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it. because it will surely come. What do you have over in Hebrews chapter nine, ten and thirty-seven?
I want you to get it. Ten and thirty-seven. For ye have need of patience, Christian, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise, and what is the promise? For yet a little while it be that shall come will come. Amazing, isn't it? The final little words, death, our little life. That's kept many a child of God afloat. Likely many Christians have been in those boats. Refugee boats, sailing, unfriendly walkers, away from unfriendly shores.
Oh, the squalor, the poverty, the pain, the heartache in those boats. yet a little while. Likely many Christians had that on their minds. If it means his coming, he could come any once, he gets a little while. But if he doesn't come, on this boat goes down, we'll see a patient again. Just a little while. I wonder where you are this morning. Are you among the world? The world loves its own. I will tell you that.
The world loves it only. Read that in chapter fifty. Yes, the world loves you because you love the world. But the opposite. Christ loves me. I love Christ. That's the opposite of the world. Yes, you love the world. The world loves you. You belong together. You know you're in London. Don't forget and go where the Bible was going. But the child of God be saved, he must be. I must be saved. Because he must be, and gave himself all that he was.
And it's only a little one. He that shall come, will not, and will not have it. I trust you with honor to see. If you accept Christ this morning, you know what you're missing. And if you're a Christian and you're at a fellowship with God, your prayers are not going any higher in the sea. Only Christians praying in the mind of God and by the Holy Spirit are going to get their prayers. I can pray with all my heart for souls that past according to the will of God.
I can pray that God will bless his will. I can pray that I might live as God is, Christ knows, and exist in Christ. And if I am praised for the glory of God and by the help of the Holy Spirit, and I am studying the