In his sermon titled 'The Unsearchable Riches of Christ,' Jason Dohm expounds on John 14:15-24, emphasizing the profound and inexhaustible treasures found in Christ. He explains how Jesus' resurrection was witnessed solely by His disciples, underpinning the truth of His teachings and His divine relationship with the Father. Dohm highlights the role of the Holy Spirit as the 'Helper' promised by Jesus, who dwells within believers, providing an eternal and internal source of guidance and strength. True love for Jesus is evidenced by obedience to His commandments, which results in a deeper revelation and manifestation of Jesus to the believer. The sermon underscores the importance of the resurrection as the ultimate validation of Jesus' claims and encourages believers to pursue a deeper experiential knowledge of Christ’s riches, warning against the distraction of worldly idols that forfeit the grace intended for them.

The sermon text is John chapter 14 starting in 19 through 24, but I'm going to start in verse 15. If you love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever, the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you. A little while longer and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also.

At that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you. He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. Judas, not as scary yet, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus answered and said to him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words and the word which your heart which you hear is not mine but the fathers who sent me." Let's pray.

Oh Lord God I thank you Lord that us being here has nothing to do with us but only in your work in our lives. Oh Lord God, without you we are nothing. Lord please bless the preaching of your word. Oh Father, come be among us. Help us to be attentive and to listen and to hear the message that Jason's prepared.

Oh Lord God, I pray that you would be with him. Help him to come and preach the Word of God with the full authority of Scripture behind him. Oh Lord God, work in him. Speak through him today. In Jesus' name, amen.

The title of the sermon is The Unsearchable Riches of Christ. I'm pulling words out of Ephesians chapter 3 verse 8, where the Apostle Paul marvels that he, the least of all the saints, has been given a grace. What gift is that? That he should among the Gentiles be given the gift to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. To the Apostle Paul, the riches of Christ was a treasure trove that you could never get to the bottom of.

You could sift through pile after pile after pile after pile after pile after pile after pile of gold and you would never get to the bottom of the riches that are ours in the Lord Jesus Christ. He calls them the unsearchable riches of Christ. Friends, we in John chapter 14 are in the unsearchable riches of Christ. There is pile after pile after pile of gold for us here, when we get to the end of it, we will not be to the bottom of it. They are unsearchable, inexhaustible riches.

So I hope I can do just a little bit of justice to the riches that we are sifting through. That we are sifting through. A reminder, chapter 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 are a single continuous discourse. So it's very dense, and we dare not take them all at once. We have to break them up because there's a lot here.

But don't lose sight of the fact that this is a single sitting for the Lord and His disciples. This is the night before His crucifixion. This is hours before Jesus goes to the cross. He has one last shot to impart truth and wisdom to His disciples. Wow does he ever make the most of this last evening together?

A single continuous discourse. So we're picking up right in the middle of Jesus' teaching here. We want to try to work hard to keep what we're looking at in context, and join to what comes before and what comes afterward. Last week, Jesus gave the promise of the Helper. He promised that though He's leaving physically, He's sending a helper to continue his work in the hearts of his believers, so that his believers can continue his work in the world.

He calls the Holy Spirit another helper. We know that because of verse 26. We fast forward to verse 26. He says that the helper is the Holy Spirit. So we don't need to puzzle over who the helper is, he tells us in verse 26.

The helper abides with his people forever. There's no end to it. There's really no coming and going. We may feel the presence of the Holy Spirit to a greater or lesser extent, but he doesn't come and go from the believer. He abides with his people forever.

He dwells with us and he dwells in us. So he is an ever present help, not external help, but actually internal help dwelling within the believer. So that is our starting point for our text. So as we come to the text, let's ask the Lord to help us. Jesus, so true, so true, your riches are unsearchable.

We come to them, we study them, we meditate on them, and there's still a sense where the depth and breadth of it is still a little bit beyond us. They are unsearchable. They are inexhaustible. But I thank you for them. And I thank you for an opportunity this morning to come to your Word and have set before our eyes the piles of gold that are the birthright of those that you have laid claim to by your grace.

May we know them experientially. I thank you for the truth laid out in black and white and words that we can go back to again and again, but we don't want to just know the words on the page. We want to experience your riches. Let us know them by experience deeply. We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen. I'll be breaking the text up into subsections, the first one being verses 19 and 20. So hopefully you still have your finger in John chapter 14. Follow along as I read again verses 19 and 20. Jesus says, a little while longer and the world will see me no more, but you will see me.

Because I live, you will live also. In these two verses, we have the results of the resurrection. So if you're taking notes by filling in blanks on the handout, resurrection fills in the blank. The results of the resurrection. I believe this is straightforward.

In just a few hours, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, would go to the cross, die, and be buried. The world has seen Him. Jesus has been on display. He's been preaching to multitudes. He's been healing in front of crowds.

He's actually been raising the dead before a funeral party. He has been on display to the world. That's over. Jesus is spending a quiet evening alone with his disciples, and then he's going to go to the cross. With his death and burial, the incarnation is over the incarnation is over for the world.

The Word coming, taking on flesh, is over for the multitudes. But the eleven faithful disciples would see Jesus again with their eyes. Not just the eyes of faith. They will see Him forever with the eyes of faith. But they will see Him with their own two natural eyes again on multiple occasions after the resurrection.

I think that is what is being said here in verse 19. In these two verses we have three important truths. One, the resurrected Jesus was only seen by disciples, not by unbelieving multitudes. Jesus for three and a half years put himself forward to the view of unbelieving multitudes. Some of them became believing people of God, but many never did.

Jesus set himself before the eyes of the world. This is the incarnation, the Word becoming flesh, taking on the form of a bond servant. To be the ultimate expression of truth from God to mankind. If you want to learn about God, you look at Jesus Christ. He is the ultimate expression of truth.

He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Jesus. Listen to Acts chapter 10 verses 40 and 41. Acts 10, 40 and 41. This is Peter preaching to Cornelius' household.

He says, Him, Jesus, God raised up on the third day and showed him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with him after he arose from the dead. As Peter is preaching to Cornelius' household, and actually bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles before Paul ever did, Peter is telling this household that God raised up Jesus Christ on the third day and showed him openly, but not to all the people, but to witnesses that God had chosen beforehand to witness the resurrected Christ. Or listen to Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, parts of verses 5 and 6. Peter says, Jesus was seen by Cephas, or Peter, then by the twelve. After that, he was seen by over 500 brethren at once.

So Jesus was seen by many many many many many people after his resurrection. But it was not to the unbelieving multitudes, it was to those who were chosen by God beforehand to witness Him in His resurrected body. That was Acts 10, but here in 1 Corinthians 15, even when he was witnessed by over 500 at one time, they were by brethren. There is no account of Jesus appearing to unbelievers after his resurrection. So I think this is the first important truth in these two verses.

The second important truth, the life of disciples is grounded in the resurrection of Jesus. Because He lives, we live. No living Jesus, no point coming here. If there's a body in the grave, we're wasting our time. We live because He lives.

He is the first fruit from the grave. Paul makes that so clear in 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15 is the chapter on the resurrection. He says, we are to be pitied. If the grave has a body, We are of all men the most pitiable because we've believed in things that are not true.

Now turn back to John chapter 5. I want to remind us of something that Jesus said in John chapter 5. That thing goes right to the heart of our life being grounded in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. John chapter 5 verse 21, Jesus says, Jesus says, for as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. Now skip down to 25 and 26, just a few verses later, skipping down to 25 and 26, Jesus continues, Most assuredly I say to you, or the Amen, Amen as we've come to know it, The hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.

For as the Father has life in himself, So he has granted the Son to have life in himself. There are two things in view, and you can never separate them. There is the immediate. Jesus on the third day rises from the dead and he makes the grave an empty grave. That is based on the fact that Jesus is God, eternal God, unkillable God.

The grave cannot hold him because of who he is. The grave cannot hold him. In that sense, the resurrection was inevitable. There's no scenario where that body stays in that grave because of who Jesus Christ is, because of His identity. The immediate event of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead was inevitable because the Father has granted him to have life in himself just as God the Father has life in himself.

Or as John said at the beginning in chapter 1, in him was life. Period. Amen. Or consider what Paul says in Romans. Romans chapter 6, that's our baptism passage.

We read it almost every time we baptize someone. In Romans chapter 6, Paul says, If we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. Paul is acknowledging there that the life of the believer is grounded firmly and only in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So you join him in his death, you are crucified with Christ, and so because you are in the likeness of His death, you get to join Him in the likeness of His resurrection. Because He lives, you live.

Here's the best. Turn to Job 19. Job is right before Psalms. Job 19. This is about at the halfway point of the book of Job.

Job has had everything stripped away from him. He's had his children, his ten children stripped away from him. He's had all of his riches stripped away from him. He's had his health stripped away from him. He's sitting in sackcloth and ashes, picking at his sores with pieces of broken pottery.

This is Job. Everything stripped away from him. What sustained Job? We get the answer to that in Job chapter 19. It's glorious.

Here's what Job says in Job 19 verses 25-27. Job says, I know that my Redeemer lives and he shall stand at last on the earth. And after my skin is destroyed this I know that in my flesh I shall see God whom I shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold and not another how my heart yearns within me." What can sustain a man When God strips away his family, his ten children are dead. When God strips away his wealth, he goes from the wealthiest man to having nothing. When God strips away his health from a man who enjoys good health to a man who is sitting in sackcloth and ashes picking his sores with broken pieces of pottery, can anything sustain such a man?

Yes. The knowledge that his Redeemer lives and that out in the future, the promise extended to him is that his Redeemer lives, that he will see God on the earth, not another but his own eyes long after he is dead and buried, he will see God and know God. Because God lives, because his Redeemer lives, he'll live and see God. You know, This can sustain you if God strips away everything else. This can sustain you.

It is enough to sustain you. From afar you say, is that enough to sustain you? Job is proof. Job is proof. It is enough.

No one wants to have their family stripped away. No one wants to have their material possessions stripped away. No one wants to have their material possessions stripped away. No one wants to have their house stripped away. But know this, if God takes it all from you, this can sustain you.

This is a river of living waters flowing out of your heart. It can sustain you. So the first important truth was that the resurrected Jesus was only seen by disciples, not by unbelieving multitudes. The second important truth was that the life of disciples is grounded in the resurrection of Jesus because He lives, we live. Number three, the resurrection is the ultimate declaration that what Jesus said about His relationship with His Father and His relationship with His disciples is true.

That was a long one, I'll say it again. The resurrection is the ultimate declaration that what Jesus said, the claims that Jesus made about his relationship with his Father in heaven and his relationship with his disciples is true. Listen to how the Apostle Paul begins Romans. Romans is the most systematic, wonderful, comprehensive, full gospel. Romans is the most systematic, comprehensive, full gospel.

At the end of Romans, Paul says, this is my gospel. We tend to truncate the Gospel. The Gospel is full and rich. It does have fundamental things that you can boil it down to, but it's full and rich. Romans is Paul's Gospel.

Listen to how he begins it. He begins it in Romans 1, 4. Romans chapter 1, verse 4, by saying that God the Father declared Jesus to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead. So Paul is going to ground his gospel, set his gospel on a foundation. What is that?

That God the Father, God in heaven, declared Jesus to be the Son of God, to be His Son by the resurrection from the dead. In a sense, the resurrection is a sermon from heaven. The resurrection is a grand declaration. It is a sermon from heaven. It is God preaching that Jesus is His Son.

Jesus has made and is making in John 14 these claims that Jesus is in God the Father. And going back to verse 11, that the Father is in Jesus somehow. He has made and is making the claim that his disciples are in himself. Disciples are in Jesus and that Jesus is in the disciples, somehow. How do you know that's true?

How do you know you can build your life on that? How do you know you can bet your life on that? The grave is empty. It is the great declaration from God in heaven that Jesus is His Son, sent to say the things that He sent Him to say and to do the things that He sent him to do. And the great doing is the cross.

The resurrection is a sermon from heaven. It is God preaching that Jesus is His Son and the claims of His Son are true. Back to John 14. I should have put some sort of transition there, but I didn't. So we're just moving on to the next verse.

Verse 21. Jesus says, John 14 verse 21, Jesus says, He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is He who loves me. And He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." In this verse we have the results of a true love of Jesus. If you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, True love fills in the two blanks. The results of true love of Jesus.

Of course there is a fake love of Jesus. Everybody knows that. Everybody has known people who profess to know and love Jesus Christ, but it makes no impact on their life. It's all a lie. They're not telling the truth.

It's not a true love of Jesus. Jesus is talking about what results of authentic love for Christ. Back in verse 15, it was almost the same words but not quite. Verse 15, if you love me, keep my commandments. Now in verse 21, he who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me.

In verse 15, it was an imperative, a command. If you love me, believer, keep my commandments. And I said last week that God gives it as a command, as a means for growth and obedience. In other words, people who love Christ, people who have entrusted themselves to Christ, have this verse in their Bible staring at them saying, if you love me, let there be evidence of that love. Keep my commandments.

Here in verse 21, it's different. It's descriptive. It describes True love for Christ. True love for Christ bears fruit. It is fruitful.

It produces something in your life. If it's real, it bears fruit. Now Jesus says, what follows when a person truly loves Jesus? When a person has a fruit-bearing love for Jesus, or a true love for Jesus, or an authentic love for Jesus, or a real love for Jesus, all those sent me trying to say it many different ways the same thing. Well what happens then?

What follows from that? Three things. One, he or she is loved by Jesus' Father. Man or woman, boy or girl, you love Jesus, really love Him. Not just a talking love, but a walking love.

That's real love. You love Him, His Father loves you. Jesus just said in verse 20, believers are in me. Look at verse 20. True?

You and me, believers in Jesus, in Christ, who is Jesus? He is the beloved Son. When you are joined to the beloved Son by faith, union with Christ, the Father loves you because you are joined to His beloved Son. Two times we hear a voice from heaven. What does the voice from heaven say those times?

This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. When you are joined by Christ, by faith, You get the love that Jesus has from his Father. End the deal. What a deal. In chapter 12, 26, Jesus said, If anyone serves me, him my father will honor.

Same thing, you are joined with Christ by faith And when you serve Him, His Father honors you. So, believer, if you serve Him, if you serve Jesus, Jesus' Father will honor you. If you love Jesus, Jesus' Father will love you. It comes with being joined to Christ by faith. Well what else?

What else happens when you have real love for Jesus in your heart? Two, Jesus Himself loves you. So one, you are loved by Jesus' Father. Two, Jesus Himself loves you. He loves that person back.

Isn't that wonderful when you love someone and they love you back? This is Jesus. When there is real love for Jesus, He loves you back. We sang that song in vacation Bible school. Jesus loves me.

This I know, for the Bible tells me so. Here it is telling you. He really does love you. Sometimes my sermons are so regimented. Major point number one, this.

Subpoint one, ABC. Subpoint two, ABC. Major point number two, I preach in outline. So anybody who's been here a while knows I preach the outline. Not everybody preaches that way, and not everybody likes that kind of preaching.

I assume you do, or you're a glutton for punishment or something. It's at moments like this that I wish I didn't preach an outline. Jesus loves you. Jesus loves you. You shouldn't preach that like an engineer.

You should preach that like a poet. Like a songwriter. Jesus loves you. Jesus loves us. He has a people that He loves.

But it's not just a love for the group. He loves you. His thoughts towards you, if they were to be counted, would be more than the stars. We are in the unsearchable riches of Christ. He loves you.

He died not just to make His name great, but He died because He saw sinners and loved them and shed His blood for them. It was motivated out of a desire to put himself on display and receive glory. Yes. Yes. Yes Don't be so reformed you lose sight that Jesus loves you You have a name.

He knows your name. I wish I could preach like a poet. Sorry, you're stuck with an engineer. Although I'm not an engineer, I'm a P.E. Major.

What else? What else happens when you have a true love for Jesus in your heart? 3. Jesus manifests Himself to you. 1.

You are loved by Jesus' Father. Two. Jesus Himself loves you. Three. Jesus manifests himself to you.

He reveals himself to you. He discloses himself to you. He shows himself to you. He shares himself with you. He manifests himself.

It is a revealing and disclosing and showing and sharing of himself with you. I've said to myself and to others many times, I want to know Jesus better. You ever said that? You ever thought that? I want to know Jesus better.

You ever said that? You ever thought that? I want to know Jesus better. Okay, so what are the ways? What tracks can we go down to know Jesus better?

We can study Scripture more. If you know what you're looking for, he's on every page. This is a book about Jesus. The Old Testament is much as the New. So, amen.

We can study Scripture more. We can pray more. Prayer is a form of fellowship with God. God tells us to pray, invites us to pray, commands us to pray. Amen.

We should pray more. We can fellowship with God and know Jesus better through prayer. Here's one that never makes the list. Obey more. Study scripture more.

Amen. Pray more. Amen. How about obey more, Jason? You say you want to know Jesus better, But you're not nearly as vigilant over your life as you ought to be.

Jesus is setting this forth as a track to knowing Him better. You can read this as binary. This, all or nothing. So, you obey and you know Christ, or You don't obey and you don't know Him at all. But the truth is, experientially, it is not binary.

It is not all or nothing. And by obeying Christ more, He manifests Himself to you more. There is such a thing as quenching the spirit, as grieving the spirit. It is a buffer, a barrier. It is a barrier against knowing Christ to the extent that He desires to be known and that he can be known.

So study your Bibles by all means. Pray more by all means. But if you want to know Christ, obey him. Obey his commandments. He manifests himself to those who obey Him in ways that unbelievers and inconsistent Christians can never know.

Jesus Christ manifests Himself. He discloses Himself. He shares Himself with those who obey Him, who are careful to obey Him, in ways that unbelievers and inconsistent Christians never know. It's possible to go to heaven knowing Him very little. This will be why, if that's you.

And you will have cheated yourself. I will have cheated myself from a great, great treasure. And looking back, we'll grieve. We'll grieve. We'll see The worthless things that we traded that for.

I'd like to ask and answer two questions. First, is is now salvation by loving Jesus? No. Salvation is by grace alone through Faith alone. Really easy to prove that from other texts of Scripture.

Jesus is describing the effects of salvation, not the cause of salvation. Don't get this wrong. Getting this wrong will send you off in bad directions. Jesus is describing the effects of salvation. What flows out of being saved?

These things. This is not the cause of salvation. Faith saves. By grace alone, through faith alone. Think of the relationship between true saving faith and love.

In other words, is there a relationship between these two things? You betcha. I realize my desperate condition, my desperate need. God gives me eyes to see and ears to hear what the day before I couldn't see or hear. Now I am aware of my desperate condition that I am at odds with this almighty, all-knowing, all-righteous judge.

And then Christ is set forward in all of His beauty and goodness as a Savior. And I take that Savior to be mine. You love. There is no saving faith that the first fruit of it isn't love. I don't believe it.

The first fruit of saving faith when you've been delivered from that desperate condition is love. It's part of the new heart. Being Born again is a heart of stone being removed and replaced with a heart of flesh. It is a new heart with new affections and the first affection is towards the Savior. Love is the first fruit of saving faith.

Love for Jesus is distinct from faith, but it always flows from faith. It always flows from faith. Second question I'd like to ask and answer. Am I initiating this relationship of love? Sort of sounds like it.

Those who love me will obey my commands and my father will love him and I will love him." Sounds like God is responding. Consider these, Ephesians 1 verse 4. Ephesians 1 verse 4. He, God the Father, chose us in Him, God the Son, before the foundation of the world, That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. God the Father chose us in God the Son before the foundation of the world.

Believe me, God is not responding to your love. Maybe God is responding to you having responded to His love before the foundation of the world. Maybe you could say that. The point is, God initiated before you ever took a breath on planet earth. God initiated before He set the foundations of the world in place.

Or what Jesus said in John 6, 37. John 6, 37. All that the Father gives me will come to me. And the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out. How did you get to God?

God the Father gave you to God the Son. And all that that's true of come to Him and He doesn't cast any of them out. Or what Jesus said in John 6, 44, just a few verses later. I just quoted John 6, 37, now I'm quoting John 6, 44. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.

No wiggling out of that one. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up at the last day. God is not responding to us. God is initiating. We are responding to Him.

And then, when we love him back, he pours out love on us. How do you like that? Back to John 14. Back to John 14, the last three verses, 22-24. Judas, not a scariet, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world?

Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. And my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words. And The word which you hear is not mine, but the Fathers who sent me." In these verses we have a great and precious promise for those who truly love Jesus. If you're taking notes on the handout, filling in blanks, promise fills in the blank.

A great and precious promise for those who love Jesus. At this point, Judas asks a question. It's not Judas Iscariot, it's the other Judas. If you look at the listing of the disciples in Luke 6.16 or in Acts 1.13, you find Judas the son of James as well as Judas Iscariot. So there were two disciples named Judas.

John the Gospel writer wants to make it clear that this is not Judas Iscariot, the traitor. This is Judas, the son of James. Now a quick note. In 14 verse 5, same chapter, we're in the same chapter, 14 verse 5, Thomas asked a question. In 14 verse 8, Philip made a comment.

Here in 1422, Judas, the son of James, asks a question. A lot of the marvelous teaching we're getting in John chapter 14 is a response to either questions or a comment that his disciples have asked. Notice in each one of these places. Look at verse 5. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going.

Now verse 8, Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father. Now verse 22, Judas not Ascariot said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us? These are his best friends on earth. They are not calling him Jesus. Overwhelmingly, in the Gospels, though they are his friends, they call him Lord.

This is informative. Jesus is the friend of sinners, but Jesus is Lord. His disciples called him that. Judas can't figure out how Jesus could disclose himself to them, but not to the world at large. This could be confusion about Messianic expectations.

When you see Messianic prophecies, prophecies about what the Messiah will be like and what He will say and do in the Old Testament, there is not a distinction between the first coming of the Messiah and the second coming of the Messiah. So it's easy for us in 2019 to look back and say they were so foolish. They didn't get it. But the truth is, in the Messianic prophecies, you have the first coming and the second coming without an explanation or distinctions made. Their expectations gravitated towards the second coming in glory for a kingdom, not towards the first coming, the suffering servant.

So there's plenty there about the Messiah being a suffering servant, but their expectations gravitated towards the glorious kingdom. Can you blame them? So it could be that, Judas not understanding how he could disclose himself to them when he knows that Jesus is the Messiah and that the Messiah is going to get a glorious kingdom that will be seen and known by all? Or it could be as simple as Jesus just raised Lazarus from the dead within the last couple of weeks. The triumphal entry has happened this week with probably hundreds of thousands of people gathering to say, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

The cat is out of the bag. How is Jesus going to be able to do anything anonymously to show himself to his disciples without the world looking on? He's raising people from the dead. Hundreds of thousands are coming out to praise Him. Jesus does not give a direct answer to Judas, the son of James, I suppose, because within a week, his question will be answered with perfect clarity.

That's my guess. We're left to speculate. That's my speculation. Instead, Jesus pounds away at things that he's been saying. What is that?

Two things. Number one, The ones who love Jesus are the ones who keep His Word. So he says it again. If I sound like a broken record, blame Jesus. Verse 15, If you love me, keep my commandments.

Verse 21, he who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. Now verse 23, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word." By the way, instead of commandments this time in 23, he says, He will keep my word. This is the same Greek word as John 1 verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So, he speaks not my words, not words that I've been saying, but my Word as a body of truth.

He who keeps the body of truth that Jesus was sent to deliver to mankind. Those are the ones who love Him. And now, verse 24, He who does not love Me, does not keep My words. He who loves me keeps my words. That's the top side of the coin.

The bottom side of the coin is that the reverse is also true. If you don't love him, you don't keep his words. Verse 15, love him keep his commandments. Verse 21, love him and keep his commandments. Verse 23, love him and keep his commandments.

Verse 24, you don't love him, you don't keep his commandments. Got it? Jesus is pounding away at this to disarm and disable false Christianity. A tree is known by its fruit. The second thing that Jesus is pounding away at, repeating things that he's been teaching, is that he explains the truth of verse 20.

So, look back at verse 20, let me read that. At that day, you will know, resurrection day, you'll know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. So if we go back to verse 11, it says, Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me. And now he adds us into the mix. All joined, united together.

So he is explaining that now in verse 23. If anyone loves me, he will keep my commandments, and my Father will love him, and we will come and make our home with him. We will come and make our home with Him. We will come and dwell with Him. In the span of just a few verses, we have the promise of the indwelling by the Holy Spirit, by God the Father, and by God the Son.

The Indwelling of the Trinity. I believe by comparing Scripture with Scripture that God the Father and God the Son dwell in us by His Spirit. I almost don't even want to say that because it runs the risk of stripping away the glory of it. It doesn't strip away the glory or the nearness of the Father and the Son to believers. We tend to think of the members of the Trinity as individuals, like we are individuals.

In our minds, it becomes that the Spirit indwells us, and He sends an email to the Father and the Son every once in a while to let them know how we are doing. That's not how the Trinity works. They are in one another in a way that I can't explain. There's no less glory or nearness in God the Father and God the Son indwelling His people by His Spirit. So don't be bothered that I can't explain it.

No one else really can either. Not fully, anyway. I have no doubt that there are those who understand it better than I do. It is a mystery. It is a well that you keep letting down line into and you never hit the bottom.

Jesus explains, we will come to Him and make our home with Him. Now linguistics, Greek words. The Greek word rendered mansions in verse 2, to my weeping and gnashing of teeth, it should be dwellings, is the word rendered home, here in verse 23. So, I wished it were, in my father's house are many dwellings. It's not about the size of where you dwell in heaven.

It's about who you dwell with in heaven. That's the emphasis. The same Greek word is rendered, make our home with him, or make our dwelling with Him. They come to dwell with you. Father and Son come to dwell with you.

Now, what do you get when you combine the two uses of this word? Verse 2, in my father's house are many mansions, are many dwellings, and if I go and prepare a dwelling for you in my father's house, I will come again to receive you to myself. What do we get when we join that with, we will come to him and make our home with him. We get this. Jesus came, he dwelled in the flesh, he left.

Where did he go? He went to heaven. What did he go to do? To make a dwelling for us there, to carve out a place for us in heaven. In time, we'll be there face to face.

Listen to the end of the Bible, Revelation 21 verse 3, and I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. That is the future of Christians face to face with God. Jesus has gone ahead. Jesus has carved out a place for you.

It is certain. It is your home in heaven. In the meantime, you're not left orphans. In the meantime, God makes a dwelling with us. Time and time and time again in the Gospel of John, we have seen that Jesus teaches that eternal life begins when?

When you die? No, no, no. Eternal life begins when you have faith in Christ. It begins then. You don't wait to begin your eternal life.

You have started your eternal life. God comes and takes up, He makes a dwelling place with you to get you through until the time when you are with Him face to face. We'll give Paul the last word. Ephesians chapter 3. Turn to Ephesians chapter 3.

Ephesians chapter 3, I'll read 14-19. Ephesians 3, beginning in 14, the Apostle Paul writes, For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. So, I'm going to stop here just to say, this is preparation for me in this sermon. This is preparation for the punchline.

This gets us ready for the punchline. What has Paul said so far? We're talking about the riches and that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. This is what being joined, brought into union with Christ buys you. That's where we are.

That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height. To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." Paul is longing, longing that the people of God by faith would experience this. They would not have a shallow experience of the love of God and the fullness of God, but they would have a deep, broad experience of it. It is a deep, broad, high love. So We should want to know it in its fullness.

We should clothe ourselves with a dissatisfaction with a shallow experience of the love of God. Do you understand that? You should clothe yourself with dissatisfaction for a shallow knowledge of the love of God. He bled and died that We could know the length and breadth and depth and height of his love. Application, just one.

One single application. Believers. You and I can have more of Jesus. He has unsearchable riches. He has inexhaustible riches.

To whatever extent you know him, you are just scratching the surface. If nothing else has happened this morning, I pray that your appetite has been wet. Your appetite has been wet. To have more. He wants you to have more.

He wants to disclose himself to you more. He wants to share himself with you more. Brothers and sisters, I'm talking to believers, let's consecrate ourselves to the Lord Jesus more than we ever have. Every believer needs to do this every once in a while. Consecrate yourself again afresh.

Acknowledge where you've been re-entangled in worldliness and sin, and see the price that you're paying for that knowing that there are unsearchable, inexhaustible riches that you forfeit even as a believer by entangling yourself again with the world and sin and say, I don't want to pay that price anymore. The cost is too high. I'm cheating myself out of riches. I consecrate myself today to be vigilant over my life and to obey him that he might manifest himself to me more and more and more by the day. That he might disclose himself to me, show himself to me, Share Himself with me.

Consider Jonah 2.8. Jonah 2.8 for whatever reason stuck in my brain as a young, young Christian, early teens. Listen to Jonah 2.8. Jonah praised this in the belly of the whale. He knew it by experience.

Listen to Jonah 2.8. Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy. Jonah regarded a worthless idol, and in the belly of the whale he's acknowledging that in doing so he forsook his own mercy. Here's how the NIV renders this. I didn't even look it up, because I memorized it in the NIV as a teenager.

I know it word for word today. You can check me on this. You'll find I don't miss a comma. Here's how the NIV renders this. Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

Those who cling to worthless idols, the shiny things of the world, or darling sins, those who cling to worthless idols, forfeit the grace that could be theirs. Gifts from God that were intended for you that could be yours, but you've given them up for the shiny object." That might not be great translation, but that is great commentary. That is great commentary on that verse. Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. Oh, think of the promises.

Oh, think of the unsearchable riches. What shiny object is holding you back from the unsearchable, inexhaustible riches of Christ? What darling sin is keeping you back? Darling sin, you protect it. You hide it.

I don't know about it. Your spouse might not even know about it, but it's holding you back from the unsearchable, inexhaustible riches of Christ. Oh, I beg you today, You are paying too high a cost to have that darling sin. If you only knew the price you were paying for the grace that you forfeit, for the gifts that are theirs for the taking, Begin to obey Jesus day by day. Be more careful over your life.

A life of steady obedience. Jesus comes and manifests himself. He discloses himself, shows himself, shares himself. It's not costly. Steady obedience to Christ is not costly.

What's costly is clinging to worthless idols. God, thank you for your Word. Thank you for your Word. Make us a people who have true love for Christ in our hearts, who have been saved by faith. And that knowledge that we deserved hell but have been given heaven because of the shed blood of your son just causes love to flow out of our new hearts, a heart of flesh.

It was a heart of stone, but you took it out and you gave us a heart of flesh. And Now it has new affections, the first affection being for our Savior. Help us to fan the flames of affection for Christ in our hearts. We might know Him as an unsearchable, inexhaustible riches. Let us know him by experience.

We pray in Jesus name.