Fr. Gary mentioned in his prayer
that we may rightly divide this Word of Truth. You know, all over this country and all
over this world today, there are men and even women in some
places that are standing and they're using this Word of God. And there is truth here. This
is truth. has to do with the Lord Jesus
Christ. How God can be just and justify sinners like me and you. And it's an awesome thing. I've
told people before and I mean it from the bottom of my heart.
There may be this morning or some morning, there may be someone
that stumbles in here. Somebody may have invited them.
They may come with a friend or a neighbor or a family member.
And they come in here and they sit down. And it may be the one
time that they're going to hear the Word of Truth. And it may
be they're going to hear it from an empty vessel like myself.
And it's an awesome thing to stand here. And I pray unceasingly
that when I do stand here that the Lord would not let me neglect
to teach about the Lord Jesus Christ, to tell men who we are,
what we are by nature, tell us about the holiness and the purity
and perfection of God Almighty, and how is it that a beggar like
me, how is it that we can be washed and stand in His presence,
in the presence of pure holiness and pureness? How can we stand
in His presence, knowing what we are? And it's all to do with
the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that the Lord will be
with us. We're going to look at just one verse here in John
chapter 13, the first verse. Let's read it. Now, before the
feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come,
that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having
loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the
end. Now, it begins here. It begins here with this Feast
of Passover, the mention of this Feast of Passover. Now that's
one of these high holy days that the Jews celebrated for 1,500
years. This was the close of 1,500 years. 1,500 years before, you all know
the story of the Passover. God's people, the nation of Israel,
was down there in Egypt in bondage, and they'd been there for many
years. And the Lord called Moses, called him up to that mountain,
and He said, ìIíve heard the cry of My people.î He said, ìGet
down there and tell Pharaoh to let My people go.î And the Lord
visited those people in His wrath nine times, and then finally
He said, ìThis one time, Iíll visit them one more time.î And
He said, ìThey will surely let you go.î And this death of the
firstborn that was prophesied by our Lord, was told of our
Lord. Moses told Pharaoh that. He said, the Lord is going to
pass through the night and the firstborn, and the lamb is going
to die. And the Lord told Moses, he said,
now you tell my people, he said, you tell my people to take the
lamb in the first year of its life, in the prime of life, put
it up on the tenth day, and watch it for four days, observe it,
and make sure there's no flaws and no blemishes in that lamb. And he said, you slay that lamb,
catch that blood in the basin, and you take that blood, and
with a bunch of hissing, He said, you put it on the door post,
on the two side posts and on the top. And he said, I'm coming
through in judgment. And he said, when I see the blood,
when I see the blood, I'll pass over. And then Jews did what
God told Moses to tell them. And they killed that lamb. And
they put that blood out there on the door. And they went in
and sat down. Like we're sitting here this morning. We're sitting
here, sir. Those that know the love of God
in the Lord Jesus Christ, aren't we comfortable here this morning? Scott Richardson used to say
that. And nobody could say it like Scott Richardson. He'd say,
this world is going to hell in a handbasket. And it is. And it's all around us. And yet
here we sit. Here we sit with the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ on the doorpost of our heart. And we
just sit here. And we're just so comfortable
on His rest and His goodness and His mercy and His grace.
And that whole picture, that whole event that took place 1,500
years before the writing of this, and these Jews had been observing
it for 1,500 years, it's a picture of Christ. It's a picture of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God that was slain to take
away the sins of His people. And His blood, applied to our
heart, gives us that perfection before God Almighty. That's the
time, that's the time of the writing of this portion of God's
Word before the Feast of the Passover. Now, before this took
place, and it says here, go on, look here, when Jesus knew, when
Jesus knew, our Lord Jesus Christ knew everything. He knew everything. He always knew everything. He
purposed everything. He willed everything. He brought
everything to pass. He created, He stood as we call
time. There was a time when there was
nothing. There was nothing but the Godhead. God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And they existed eternally in
that purity and holiness and absolute perfection of the Godhead.
And there was a time, as we call time, as we mark time, when the
Lord stood there on nothing but His absolute sovereignty. And
He created everything that we see. Everything that we see. And He maintains it. And He sustains
it. He provides. John and I were
talking last Wednesday night, I believe it was, Back over there
in one of the Psalms, I think it's Psalm 148, all the things,
all the things, if nature had a voice, if nature had a voice,
if they could audibly speak like we speak, they would sing the
praises of the Lord Himself who provides for them and cares for
them and nurtures them and not up the sparrow falls except to
heavenly Father purposes and wills. He created it all and
He sustains it all and provides for all of His creatures. He
knew everything. He's always known everything.
But here it says, when Jesus knew that His hour was come,
His hour was come, there was never a time when He didn't look
to this time. There was never a time, as we
mark time, that He wasn't aware of this time. Every event and
advent concerning this time, this hour, it was purposed before
He ever created the heavens and the earth. Everyone that would
be there in the audience, when He hung on the cross, everyone
that would abuse Him and brutalize Him as He was there before Pilate
and there before Caiaphas, the high priest, and those lackeys
of His that would come up and slap our Lord, that would pluck
the beard out of His face, that would spit in His face, that
pressed that crown of thorns on His head. He always knew that. He always knew that. He purposed
that. He willed that. It was what He must do. to bring
wretches like you and me into a fellowship with God Almighty.
But he said here he knew, he knew, he knew that his hour was
come. He knew that his hour was come.
Look over here in Luke chapter 2, look over here in Luke chapter
2 and in verse 48. Now this was the first time that
our Lord spoke in the Scriptures. This is the first recorded instance
of our Lord speaking. He was twelve years old, and
you know the background to this particular event here. One of
these high holy days when Jews, if they could from all over the
world, they came to Jerusalem for these events that took place
under this Old Testament economy. these high holy days, these feasts,
these services that they conducted, and Jews would come from all
over. Well, our Lord, His earthly parents, Joseph and Mary, went
up there to Jerusalem, took Him up there, and He was twelve years
old, and they were there for this feast, this ceremony that
was taking place, and they left and headed back. And they left
without Him. He was 12 years old. They were
traveling probably in a caravan among a group of people. And
they came headed back home, and they journeyed a couple of days,
and they began to ask around, and nobody had seen them. So
they left the caravan, they went back to Jerusalem, and they found
the Lord Himself, 12 years old. He was in the tabernacle there.
He was in that place where all those big thinkers, those people
that was dedicated to the study of the Old Testament Scriptures.
And there He sat right in the middle of them. And he was discussing
the Old Testament Scriptures. This whole Old Testament that
he had written, that he had impressed upon men to write, and it all
had to do with him. And these men studied it, spent
their whole life poring over this Old Testament, them old
scrolls, and spend day and night looking at those things. And
they didn't know that they were talking about him. And there
he was talking with these men, these scholars, all of them sitting
around there. And Joseph and Mary, they came
in. They picked up here and they were astonished. They were amazed
that here he sat talking to all these scholars, these brilliant
people you know. In verse 48, ìAnd when they saw
him, they were amazed. And his mother said unto him,
Son, why hast thou dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I
have sought thee. Don't you know that we worried
about you? Don't you? Don't you? Don't you know that we was concerned
about you? Don't you know? And listen to what he answered.
And I don't believe he, I don't believe he was rough. I don't
believe he used harsh language. I believe he was sorrowful like
we are to people that just don't know. They just don't know. It
grieves us when our loved ones, they don't know. They don't see
what we see. They don't see what the Lord has revealed to us.
They don't see the necessity of the Savior. They don't see
the deadness of their heart. They don't see the deadness of
themselves and the awfulness before God. And when we talk
to them, we don't rough them up. And I don't think he roughed
his earthly mother up here. And he said unto them, how is
it that you sought me? Why were you worried about me?
Why were you worried about me? Don't you know what these people
had sought? Don't you know what they had witnessed? Don't you
know what they'd heard? Don't you know that the angel
of the Lord appeared and said, that holy thing, that holy thing
that's formed in you is God Almighty, is the Son of God? And she took
all those things to her heart and she pondered on all of those
things, the miraculous birth, all those things that took place,
and yet here we are. Here we are. Can't we identify
with this earthly parents of our Lord? He said, how is it
that you sought me? Why were you concerned about
me? You know who I am. You know who I am. Wished you
not? Wished you not that I must be about my Father's business.
Twelve years old. Twelve years old. John said last
week, His face set like a flint to the cross. He came on purpose
for a particular people and He must do all that His Heavenly
Father required to redeem those people. He knew. He knew that
His hour was come, that His hour was come, this hour for all eternity. He looked forth with joy to redeem
His people, to redeem His people. He knew that this hour was come.
Look here in John, verse 17. John, verse 17. We're going to
probably spend a couple of times here in this, so just keep your
thumb here on John 17. These words spake Jesus and he
lifted up his eyes to heaven and he said, Father, the hour
has come. The hour has come. This hour
of all hours. This event of all events. This
time of all times. The hour has come. The hour has
come. Father, glorify thy Son. Glorify thy Son. That thy Son
also may glorify thee. The time has come. He knew it.
He knew that the time was come, as thou hast given me power over
all flesh, that I should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given me. The time has come. The time has
come to complete this work, to finish this work. The time has
come. And this is eternal life, that
they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. Jesus knew. Jesus knew the desire
was come. And look here, he goes on and
he said he knew. He knew that he should depart out of this
world. He should depart out of this
world. The work was finished. The work was finished. And we
can't even imagine. We can't even imagine the council
halls of eternity. God Almighty, God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We can only think of
it and speak of it in terms that we're aware of. We can't even
imagine what took place there. But as men would speak, God Almighty
determined to have a people. He set his love on a people that
had not yet even been born, that the earth had not even yet been
created. He set his love on a particular people. And he said, those people
are sinners. Those people are wicked. Those
people are undone. They're awful. They're filthy.
They're beggars. They're ragged. They're dirty. Someone must go
down there. Someone must go there and do
for them what they can never do for themselves. And our Lord
Jesus Christ said, I'll go. I'll willingly go. I'd love to
go. I'd love to go and redeem the
people that you've given me. The people that I've set my love
on. And in time, He came. And in
time, he came on purpose to satisfy the holiness and the purity of
God, to satisfy his justice against sinners. The soul that sinneth
must die because of who God is, because God is perfect and pure. And the only thing he can accept
is something perfect and pure. How's that going to happen? How's
somebody like me going to be perfect and pure in the sight
of God? Christ said, I'll go make him that way. I'll go make
Him perfect and pure. I'll go die for Him. I'll take
that filth and I'll put it on myself. And you punish me in
His room instead. And let Him go free. Let Him
go free. Remember when those soldiers
came to arrest our Lord there in the garden this very night?
This very night? And He said, whom do you seek?
Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
He said, I'm Jesus of Nazareth. And if you seek Me, I can just see Him. Here was these
disciples here with Him. Let these go their way. That's
me and you. You take me. Christ said, you
take me and let thee, oh let my beloved, let these precious
ones that I've come to die with, let them go free. Let them go
free. And we do. And we do. He knew. He knew that
his hour was come and he knew that he should depart out of
this world. And look here, unto the Father. You see that? He
knew that he was going back to the Father. He was gone to the
Father. Now, something that I've seen
here and I've never seen before, you know, I've always said, you
know, when I hear a man, when I hear a man that I've got this
such a regard for, you know, I used to hear Henry say this
all the time, and I hear John say it, and other men, Todd and
other men, they'll say, you know, I've never seen this before.
And I think, man, that's, that's something. When I say I've never
seen it before, they don't hold much weight because I don't see
much. I mean, I'm the last guy to see
anything. Everybody will say, how did you
not know that? And I'll say, I don't know. But I've never
seen this before, like most things I hadn't seen before. But you
know what? These events that are taking
place, these are the last days of our Lord here on earth. Here
on earth to do for sinners what they can't do for themselves.
Here on earth to satisfy the perfectness of God, the purity
of God, the justice of God. Here he is on earth to satisfy
the law of God on behalf of me and you. And here he is and he's
getting ready to go to the cross. And he says, I'm going to my
father. I know I'm going back to my father.
I'm going to depart this world and I'm going back to my father.
Don't you know that He knew everything that was mean and vicious that
was directed to Him? Don't you know He knew every
one of them? But He doesn't say here, My hour
has come and I'm going to go to the cross and I'm going to
suffer. I'm going to have my beard plucked
out. I'm going to hang on a cross, suffocating in my own blood,
gasping for every breath of air. hanging there with those nails
in my hands and raising myself up on that spike through my feet
and raising myself up so I can gasp one more breath of air.
He doesn't mention any of that. He doesn't mention any of that
agony. He doesn't mention any of that suffering. He doesn't
mention any of that treatment at the hands of sinners like
me and you, being slapped in the face, being spit upon. He
doesn't mention any of that. He doesn't mention any of that.
He says my hour has come. My hour has come when I'm going
to depart out of this world, and I'm going to go to the Father,
to my Heavenly Father and to your Heavenly Father." And I
thought, this is good. This is good to get a hold of
in the good times, in the times of health and happiness and prosperity
that the Lord has given us. This is a good thing to get a
hold of. Our Lord didn't bring up all the agony. He said, I'm
going to my Father. I'm going back to my Father.
One day we will too. One day we will too. We don't
know what the Lord went through. We know what the Lord endured.
And I say often, we know how we came into this world, but
we don't know how the Lord is going to take us out of this
world. We had a fellow we got to know
pretty well down at Grace Fellowship, a fellow named Kevin Havens.
Last Sunday, he was in church at Grace Fellowship where the
Dan Caldwell preached. And he went home and he told
his wife, he said, I've got a heaviness here in my chest. He said, I've
got a hurting. I've got some pain here. She said, we better
go check on that. He said, we're going to go tomorrow.
He said, we're going to go tomorrow. And he got up the next morning
and he said, honey, this hasn't gone away. He said, I feel this
heaviness. Something's just not right here. I've got some hurting
all over me. And she said, let's go to the doctor. He said, OK.
She said, let me get a quick shower. And he went in to get a shower.
And he was in there showering. And she heard him holler. And
she went in, and he was in the shower, and he said, hurry up,
honey. He said, get me dried off. Get my back dried off. He
said, this pain's terrible. This pain's terrible. And so
there, standing in the shower, she dried him off. And he stepped
out of the shower and fell dead there on the floor. And now for
Barb, his wife, oh, how awful. As we as people count awful. But wouldn't it be grand if the
Lord would remove us that way? And it may be that He will. It
may be that He will. He may suddenly and quickly just
breathe your last breath and go to be with the Father. Go
to be with the Father. But He may not. And we've seen
it. And we know it. It may be that
He'll pull us down to just skin and bones with some kind of disease.
And you think, well, why would the Lord do that to somebody
that He loved? Somebody that He loved for all eternity. Why
would He do that? He knows He's going to bring
you to be with Him. He's known from all eternity
that He's loved you, and He came and died for you, and He's going
to bring you to Himself one day. Why wouldn't He just remove you
like He did that man down there? Well, we don't know the purposes
of God in these things. Those things that happen may
not be for me. It may be for my children or my grandchildren
or one of you that's watching. We never know who's watching.
And some of them old writers say, we never know when we're
making a memory. We never know when someone's watching and say,
that fellow's a believer and he's going through deep waters.
And look how he's going through them deep waters. And the Lord
said here, I'm getting ready to leave. My hour has come. I'm going to depart from this
world. I finished the work that my Heavenly Father gave me to
do. Those that He gave me in eternity past, I've done for
them what they could never do for themselves. I've satisfied
my Father's justice. And I've satisfied the law, that
perfect law on their behalf. I faced Satan, defeated Satan
on their behalf. And now I'm going to take all
that filth and put it on myself and I'm going to go to the cross.
And I'm going to be brutalized and beaten in their room instead. What they deserve for what they
are, I'm going to endure that for my people. But he doesn't
mention any of that. He says, I'm just going to go
to my Father. And I hope I remember this one of these days, if the
Lord is pleased to bring me love, and He's pleased to bring me
in a narrow strait, in a time of a deep valley and strong trials,
I hope I remember this. What our Lord said. Well, there's
going to come a time when I'm going to go, just going to breathe
my last breath, and I'm going to go be with Him. I'm going
to go be with Him. He knew. He knew. He knew that
his hour was come, he knew that he was going to depart out of
this world, and he knew he was going to go to be with his heavenly
Father. He goes on and says, having loved
his own. Having loved his own. Who are
these own? Well, we know one thing. It's
not everybody. It is not everybody. And the
world is full of this teaching. God loved everybody and Christ
came and died for everybody. That is not true. That is not
true. You cannot find anywhere in this
Word of God, you cannot find to back that kind of a statement
up, that God loves everybody. I know one thing, if God will
set his love on someone, they're going to be with him for all
eternity. I know that if Christ died for someone, They're going
to be with Him for all eternity. I know if the Spirit irresistibly
calls someone, they're going to flee to Christ. And they're
going to lay hold of the Savior. And they're going to be kept
by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that. And they'll
never fall away. And no one will ever be able
to pluck them out of His hand. I know that. But it is not for everybody
that has ever lived on the face of the earth. It is not. And
if you just go and look in the Old Testament, there was a whole
world of people in the Old Testament. A whole world of people. There
were people right here. There were Native Americans right
here on this continent when the Lord Jesus Christ walked the
streets of Nazareth. There is no evidence anywhere
that God visited them in mercy. There is no hieroglyphics left
on those caves that tells anything about a Savior coming, God Almighty
in human flesh. There is nothing said about a
sacrifice of a perfect Lamb of God to take away the sin of His
people. Nothing anywhere in writing. If God loves everyone, don't
you think, don't you think that throughout the Old Testament,
every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue under heaven would
have had a tabernacle? They would have had a priesthood.
They would have had the sacrifices. They would have had a high priest.
They would have had the law. They would have had the Day of
Atonement. They would have had all those things because that's what he
did with those people, those Israelites. And that's a picture
of what he does to his people, the church. The church of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We have a great high priest.
And we have a sacrifice. And we have a tabernacle. Not
made with hands. Not made with hands. Jesus Christ
himself. So he says here, having loved
his own. Who are these own? Well, in the
first place, they're the ones given him by the Father in eternity
past. Turn back over to John 17 and verse 5. You're all familiar
with all these verses. You could probably quote them
when I mention them. And now, O Father, John 17, verse
5, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which
I had with thee before the world was. Are you reading along? I have manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they
were, and thou gavest them me, and they kept thy word. Did He die for everybody? No,
He didn't. Did He come for everybody? No, He didn't. Who were they
on that He loved? Them given Him by the Father
in eternity past. Those particular people, those
elect people, those chosen people that were chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world. Those that He loved were those given Him by the Father.
Those that He loved were those purchased blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He hung on the cross and there
were seven things that's mentioned in Scripture that he uttered
hanging there on the cross. But the final thing, one of the
final things that he said that's mentioned in Scripture was, Father,
forgive them. Now whoever he had in mind when
he said that, when he prayed to his Heavenly Father, you forgive
them. I believe he had Frank in mind,
John, Bob, Carla, Cecil. Please, Father, forgive them.
They don't know what they're doing. Do we know what we're
doing? I sure don't. I stumble around
in the dark most of the time. But it's not about me. It's about
Him. Dying on the cross. Having loved His own. Who were
those? The ones that the Father gave Him. The ones purchased
by His blood. The ones who were called by His
grace. Look back in John 10. John chapter
10 and verse 27. Let's just begin up here in 24. Then
came the Jews round about him and said unto him, How long dost
thou make us doubt that thou be the Christ? Tell us plainly.
And Jesus said, I told you, you believe not. The works that I
do in my Father's name, they bear witness of who I am. But
you believe not, because you are not of my sheep, as I said
unto you. Listen to this. My sheep, my
sheep, hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life,
and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all. No man is able to pluck them
out of my Father's hand. That's who He came for. That's
who He came for. And that's who He loved. That's
who He loved. He loved those that were given
to Him by the Father, purchased by His blood, called by His grace,
kept them by His power. Kept by the power of God. Kept
by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Any possibility that
one that the Father gave Him in the eternity past, that the
Lord Jesus Christ came and died in their room instead, took their
sins upon Himself? Any possibility that that one
that the Spirit calls irresistibly calls to faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ? Gives them that grace to flee
to Christ and to lay hold of the Savior? Any possibility that
he's going to fall away? He or she's going to fall away?
Not a possibility. But you look at those people.
Look at how feeble those people are. Look at them. We went to a conference years
and years ago. Went to a conference up at Donnie
Bell's, up at Scott Richardson's. And I didn't know a lot of people. It was the first conference we'd
ever gone to. It was way back in the 80s. We were there waiting
to check in. And there was a fella come in
that's a grace preacher. And I love him to death. I mean, I just care about him.
I can't tell you how much I regard him. And he'd come in, he'd made
a reservation. And this woman was working there.
She said, yeah, you're up on the second floor. He said, up
on the second floor? He said, I told you I wanted to be around
them other preachers. And he said, I even mentioned names
and everything. She said, I'm sorry, she said, but you're up
on the second floor. And I'm telling you why he pitched one
right there in the lobby of that hotel. I mean, he, and he didn't
know me from a lump of coal, you know, and he don't remember
it, and I'm certainly never going to bring it up. But, but you
think about this. That's me and you. That's all
of us. You know, it's not what we do and it's not how we look.
And we do. We hate it when we stick our
foot in our mouth. And I get both of them in there
sometimes. But it's not what it's about. It's not what it's
about. He loved us. He loved us and
He gave Himself for us. The Father gave us to Him. He
came and died for us. And the Spirit calls us. And
we're kept by His power. Not by what I do and say. Although
I want to do and say just those things that are spot on. But
I know I won't. And I know I don't. But we're
kept by His power. Kept by His power. And look at this. These that
He loves in the world, we're still here. We're still here. And He still loves us. And He still keeps us. And He
still provides for us. And He still leads us. and guides
us and directs us. I'm way over. I'm way out of
time. I'm going to have to hurry here.
But He loved them. He loved them to the end. What
does that mean? To the end. Does it mean to the
end of our Lord's life here on earth? No, we know it don't mean
that. Does it mean the end of our life here on earth? No. No,
we know it don't mean that. He loved us. He loved us to the
end. He died for us. He died for us. He intercedes for us. He continues
to commune with us and supplies us with all that grace to get
us through this journey here below. He preserves us all the way,
every step of the way. We're kept by His power because
He loves us. And one day He's going to receive
us into His eternal presence. Not to the end of this life.
He is here on earth, not to the end of ours, but to the end,
always and forever. continually, perpetually, everlastingly. He knew. He knew that his time
has come to leave this world. The job is over. That that he
had been given to do, he did it. He did it perfectly. So just
sit down. Just sit down and just rest.
Just roll up in his arms and just rest. Rest in that joy that
he loves us, he keeps us, preserves us, he's called us by his grace,
crossed our path with the gospel. given us some understanding of
this amazing book, this Word of God. And one day, He'll remove
us from this place, we'll leave this world, and we'll go to be
with Him forever and forever. All right. I hope that's been
a blessing. It's a comfort to me.