Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to John chapter 13, the chapter
that we read. In reading for our text, verse
1, or particularly the last part of verse 1, Having loved his
own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. The whole verse reads, 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. John 13, the last part of verse
1. The Lord has been pleased through
the holy word of God and in the history of the world to give
some very vivid illustrations of his people. The great one
of course is the people of Israel that were formed into a nation
in Egypt. And God then brought them out
of Egypt, a redeemed people, redeemed at the time of the Passover,
the first giving of the Passover. And really in the context here,
what we have is going to be the last real Passover, because that
Passover pointed to the sacrificial lamb, the Lamb of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ. But it was with the shedding
of that blood and the sheltering of the children of Israel in
their houses beneath that blood that the destroying angel passed
over them, and the Egyptians were slain that did not have
that blood, but those sheltering beneath the blood were saved. And the children of Israel then
were brought into the wilderness, through the Red Sea, and brought
them to the Promised Land. And the Lord made it very clear
that they were a special people, a peculiar people, a people that
had been known of all nations in the earth. That God was their
God, He gave them their laws, He watched over them, and through
the wilderness His pillar of fire before them by night and
cloud by day. And so in that they were a people,
they were The Lord's people are special people. But Paul, when
he writes to the Romans, he says they are not all Israel which
are of Israel. They were not the only people
upon the earth that were God's people. They were a typical people. They typified a people that were
chosen out of this world and the Lord dealing with them in
a very special way, and watching over them and loving them, and
yet they were in themselves not a sinless people. In fact, they
were people that murmured and complained and limited the Holy
One of Israel. There was nothing in them why
God chose them at all, but that God did have a people like that. is a very vivid illustration,
an illustration before all the nations of the world, an illustration
that remains in the Holy Word of God for us. And of course
through that nation came our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
after the flesh. But then we have, in the time
of our Lord as well, a people that were chosen and separated. They were not the only people,
again, in this time. But they were a people that were
to be clearly identified as the disciples of the Lord. We think
of the apostles, the ones that the Lord had chosen, And many
of the things that are recorded in this chapter, and indeed right
through to the end of this book, in the first place it is referring
to those disciples. He says in John 17 that I not
only pray for them, but for them who should believe on me through
their word. And so he is saying the first
instance, he's praying for his disciples, for the apostles,
the twelve that are chosen, but then also for those that should
believe on him through their word. And so when we think of
the events in this chapter and the words that are before us
as a text, Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved
them unto the end. In the first place, we may apply
that word unto the twelve, those that he clearly had chosen and
blessed them, kept them, and been with them. He says, I have
kept them, and the only one that was lost was the son of perdition,
that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, as Judas Iscariot. And so many of the things that
were said applies to them. But again, they are typical still
of a people, another people, that are the people of God, and
yet are distinct, the people of God. And so, we would think
then, in beginning the word this morning, of a people that are
the Lord's, are his own, because in our text it says this, having
loved his own, his own, his own people, the disciples typical,
but let us just think of it by way of introduction, as the other
scriptures that are spoken of as the Lord having a people that
are his own. His very name, when it was given
in Matthew 1, his name shall be called Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. And immediately there is a reference
to a people that already are described as his people. Then we have the word, the foundation
of God, standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them
that are his. And again, there is a reference
to a people that are already His. And in John 10 we have the
Lord saying, Thine they were and Thou gavest them Me. A people that were the fathers
but were given to the Son to redeem. There's in fact many
references to that people in John 10. We read as the illustration of
the shepherd and the sheep. He says in verse four, when he
putteth forth his own sheep, and again there's a pointing
to a sheep already that are his own, and he puts them forth. And then we have in verse 12,
he says, he that is an highling and not the shepherd, Whose own
the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the
sheep, and fleeth. The wolf catcheth them, and scattereth
the sheep. And he says, I am the good shepherd,
and know my sheep, and am known of mine. Paul writing, he says,
know ye not. Ye are not your own. but ye are
bought with a price. Wherefore glorify God in your
body and your spirit, which are his. And again, pointing to a
people whose own are the Lord. The Lord owns them. He is their
people. He is their God. A people chosen in him from the
foundation of the world. And it is that which is a foundation,
precious truth of the Gospel, that the Lord knows that people. And he says, I lay down my life
for the sheep. They are a particular people,
a people that the Lord knew, and a people that the Lord then
laid down his life for. So they are his by gift from
the Father, they are his by purchase, he has purchased them. And it
is this people that is spoken of here, a people that are his
own, the Lord's people. May it be our desire that we
be found amongst this people, that we be the Lord's people,
that we be not our own but the Lord's and that we belong to
the Lord and belong to this people. I want to then look more particularly
in the further words that are before us in this text of three
points. Firstly, where? where the Lord's
people are. We are told in the word of our
text, which were in the world. So first point, where the Lord's
people are. And then secondly, the love he
has shown them already. Because our text says, having
loved his own, which were in the world, already he has loved
them. And then thirdly, a love unto
the end. Our text says, he loved them
unto the end. Having loved his own, which were
in the world, he loved them unto the end. Firstly then, where the Lord's
people are? Some might say, well, let's see
where they are. We could see where Israel was. We could see where the disciples
are. Are we to look for a particular
nation? Are we to look for a particular
denomination? or a particular people, where
are we to look for these people? Of these people, we may say that
some of them are not yet born. Some of them are in the mind
of God. They are known by God, yet not
yet. born into this world. It is remarkable that those prophecies,
we read one in our private reading, as if you're following maybe
one of the reading schemes of the Trinitarian Bible Society
Bibles, and there is the account of the prophet that came to the
King of Israel, the first King Jeroboam of the Ten Tribes, and
he had made those two altars, one in Bethel and one in Dan,
with the express purpose of stopping the Ten Tribes going back to
Jerusalem, back into Judah, to worship the true and living God.
And God sent a prophet to speak against and cry against the altar
in Bethel. And he prophesied that a king
would be born, Josiah by name, that he would burn men's bones
upon that altar. And God did, some hundreds of
years later, raise up a king, raise up Josiah, and he did just
that. Many times the Lord has through
his prophets told of those that should be born and also given
them names. They're already known, already
appointed, And so, at any one time, those
people that are the Lords, some are not yet born, we have in
Acts the promises unto you and your children, even as many as
the Lord thy God shall call. Some of them, at this time, are
already in heaven. They have been born, they have
been called, they have been brought through this world, they have
died and the Lord has brought them to be with himself. Now
in this present time, those are the saints of God that we read
of in the Word of God, that is where they are. The Apostle Paul
said, absent from the body, present with the Lord. He is present
with the Lord. The Lord said to the dying thief,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in
paradise. He is in paradise. When they had objection against
the Lord, that he was not yet fifty years of age, and how was
he older? Was he greater than Abraham,
who is dead, they said. But our Lord reminded them of
what he had said to Moses in the burning bush. I am the God of Abraham, the
God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of
the dead, but of the living. And so at this time, there are
some of that people that already are in heaven. But there are
some that are on this world, on this earth, in this world. And so we have in our text, having
loved his own which were in the world. And what is so important
is that those that are not yet born, not yet conscious, not
yet brought into this world, They have no consciousness. They
are not yet in the day of grace. But those that are in heaven, they are beyond the day of grace. They do not need the promises,
the blessings, the helps that are needed here. They are beyond
the reach of sin and Satan. They are saved unto the uttermost. They are with the Lord. But those that are God's people
here, they are in a hostile environment, as it were, in a fallen world
where Satan reigns under the Lord's supreme control. But Satan reigns, he walks up There's a roaring lion seeking
whom he may devour. We ourselves are possessed in
a mortal body. Paul says, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? The good that I would, I do not,
the evil that I would not, that I do. in this world, what is
done in this world. Concerning the people of God,
what is done in this world is absolutely vital because it
is here, here that they are made known as the people of God. Here
they are shown to be the people of God in every nation, kindred,
tribe and tongue. The people that when they are
born into this world are born as any other and there's no sign
or evidence that they are the people of God. But before they
leave this world, they will be shown to be the people of God
by what is done in them what the Lord has done for them, and
by their own testimony, with the heart man believeth and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation. In this day when the Gospel is
preached, when we have the Word of God, it is in this world,
And may we realize what things are done in time in this world
and especially is relative to ourselves. What a short fleeting
time we have here below. And yet in this time, in this
time we need the word of salvation We need God's work in us. We need his blessing. God's people
need his direction, his guidance, his teaching, his comfort, his
grace. It is all needed here below. However hostile, however adverse
and different to the people of God this world is, A people,
God's people are to be a holy people, a separate people, a
people that has his laws and his teaching and the love of
God. The Lord says, I've chosen you out of the world and that
you should show forth the praises of him that called you out of
nature's darkness and into his marvelous light. It is in this
world that the people of God are found, compassed with infirmities, in themselves nothing special,
sinners they are, and no reason in themselves why God should
ever have mercy upon them and save them and deliver them. And yet they are in this world,
having loved his own which were in the world. The people in the
world that God sets his love upon, the people in the world
that are then to be known as God's own. I want to look at
that in our second point, which is the love he has shown them
already We have in our text, having loved
his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. A love that is already there. A love which has already been
shown. But before it is known by that
sinner, it is still there. Because it is love with an everlasting
love. Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love, and therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn
thee. It was love that chose them,
that gave them to Christ, that made them his people. It is said of Jacob and Esau
before they were even born, or before they'd done any good or
evil, that the purposes of God, according to election, might
stand. That Jacob have I loved, and
Esau have I hated. It is a sovereign, separating
love, a love that is already being bestowed on those that
are the Lord's, His own, but is a love that at first they
do not know of, and maybe even do not want. Certainly, the desire
of the unregenerate heart would never seek after the Lord, except
that He first had sought after them. And we read of our Lord
saying, No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath
sent me draw him. nor raise him up at the last
day. So a love that is already shown
is evidence first just in a drawing, an inclination of the heart to
the Lord, or to the Word of God, or to His people. We read in
the book of Ruth, how that she claimed to her mother-in-law. She loved her, she was drawn
to her. Could she say she was one of
the people of God? No, even when she came into Bethlehem,
she said of Boaz who showed her favor, though I be not like one
of thine handmaidens. She was very conscious she was
not like the people of God. She'd come out from Moab. And
sometimes we have it. When I go around the churches,
I might ask someone I have not met before, known before, their
name, especially with the wives. You don't know what their maiden
name was. And the thought sometimes is
that they are connected. You might know their families. And sometimes it is said, you
won't know. You won't know my family. I was
not brought up in this denomination. I came in from outside. And it
may be they've been amongst the denomination for 40 years, but
they're still mindful of the fact that actually they haven't
got a history, a long history amongst the churches. Some of
us, we might go back with our families and go back many years,
hundreds of years. But others are very conscious
that they're new. But that is the people of God. It is not of flesh. It's not
of what families we're born into or what denomination we're born
into. The important thing is that we
are born again of the Holy Spirit, that the Lord has quickened us
into life. And it is that love that God
shows his people, I pass by thee when thou wast in thy blood,
and when thou wast in thy blood, I bid thee live. And the first
signs and evidences of that life is to be drawn, drawn to the
Word. It might be that that love is
evidenced by a sense of an aching void that this world cannot fill. cannot be satisfied in this pleasure,
in that pleasure, in those things. There's an emptiness, a voidness,
and longing after something you might not know what it is you're
longing after, and a seeking for something you don't know
really what you're seeking. But God has shown his love in
putting a blight on the world that otherwise so fills the heart
and affections that there's no room for the Lord at all. Bless
the Lord if he's shown his love to you in making room for himself,
or giving you a hearing ear so that you're ready to hear the
word of the gospel, you're ready to read the Bible, you're ready
to search the scriptures, you're ready to receive what they have
to say to you. Bless the Lord if He in love
has given you a feeling heart, so that you feel what goes on
within. You're mindful of your own sin,
of the evils within. You're mindful that you are not
a godly, a good person, When the Word of God comes with
power and authority, it shows us what we really are. The Word
tells us that we are fallen. It tells us that the reason why
the law of God was given, that all the world should become guilty
before God. There's not one righteous, no,
not one. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. that we would remember that the
Lord Jesus was given his name. Not only that he should save
his people, but save his people from their sins. It tells us
his people have sins. And it is the love of God that
has already been shown to a person when they feel and know that
they are sinners. They're brought into conviction
They're brought as guilty. They're brought to need a saviour. They're brought to seek the things
of God. It is the love of God that takes
the people that He has loved with that everlasting love in
hand. And He draws them to Himself
and teaches them on two sides. One, it is not by works, and
that they are sinners, and the only way they can be saved is
by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that love is shown in so
many ways, you may say already shown, how many of us may look
back and realise in what different ways the love of God has been
shown to us. What about the keeping, the preserving,
when we are in unregeneracy? I can think of the bicycle accidents. It may be the car so-called accidents
or those times when our lives have been in danger but we've
still been kept in this world. Our lives and our days have been
lengthened out so that we did not die in our sin or ignorant
of the Lord, but we came to a time that we were brought to know
Him. Whom to know is life eternal. Tracing the love of God that
brings us under the sound of the gospel. That brings us amongst
the people of God. That love of God that directs
us unto Christ and brings us to put our soul trust in what
he has done. What has he done? He's lived
a life that we could not live. He has been obedient unto His
Father in which we could not do in this world. This same world in which His
people are shown and called by His grace to know Him is the
same world in that He lived. And in the same world, in the
same hostile environment that He laid down His life, While
the crowds cried, crucify him, crucify him. The same world in
which he endured the contradiction of sinners against himself. And
we're told to consider this, lest we be wearied and faint
in our minds. And it is then that love, sometimes
through cross-handed providences, A love that's spoken of in Psalm
107 where it speaks of the many times that the people of God
fell down and there was none to help. Then they cried unto
the Lord in their trouble and he saved them out of their distresses. And at the end of that Psalm
it says, who so is wise and will observe these things even they
shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. Very often it is
looking back that we can see more clearly than even those
things that we are going through at present. Joseph was able to
look back after he'd been exalted in Egypt, back over the time
that he'd been in prison, over the time falsely accused, over
the time cast into the pit by his brothers, over the time when
he'd had the dreams And he's able to say, it was
not you, not his wicked brothers that sent me hither, but God,
to preserve your lives by great deliverance. And he looks back. And in a way, it's like here
with our Lord, immediately following the words of our text. We have
our Lord rising from supper, laying aside his garments, taking
a towel, girding himself. And he says to them, what I do
thou knowest not now, thou shalt know hereafter. And he does what
he does first, and then he interprets what he has done. He tells them
what he has done. Peter, he doesn't want to submit
to this. He doesn't want, he esteems the
Lord as his Lord, and for his Lord to take a servant's place,
and to do such a manual part, manual, task as washing his feet,
Peter's not going to submit to this. But the Lord says, if you
don't, you have no part with me. Then Peter wants everything
washed, not just his feet. But the Lord says, no, just your
feet. That's all that is needed. And
there's a real lesson here. And he says, you wait until after
this is done, and then I'll tell you what it is. And so again,
this principle, the love that the Lord has shown already, having
loved his own, is a good thing that we look back over our lives
and see love inscribed on things that may be going through them.
We couldn't see love was inscribed on them. But it is the love of
God to bring us from this present evil world and to bring us to
faith in Christ. And to make those things work
for good. In Romans 8, we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
that are the called according to his purpose. Well, what was
really the lesson before we perhaps move on from this with the Lord
washing the feet? You know, with our brethren in
the churches to be times like what was going to happen to Peter,
that they are left to fall. The feet, it speaks of walk. It speaks of our conduct. And our lives are not perfect. We would walk and not fall. that Peter fell, he denied his
Lord and Master those three times. And what the Lord is saying,
don't expect your brethren to be perfect in all that they do
and all that they say. You wash their feet. You cover,
as it were, their transgressions, their failings, their faults,
things that they have slipped and fallen. not habitual sins,
not walking constantly in a way so opposite to the gospel, but
in those slips and falls in their walk and in their conduct, wash
the brethren's feet. And we think of the same teaching
that is set before us in Galatians in chapter 6 and verse 1. Brethren, if a man be overtaken
in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. This is the work that our Lord
was setting forth before them. But in this point that I desire
to bring before you, it is what the Lord has already done. And
of course, as the people of God go on, then he blesses them with
repentance, He blesses them with forgiveness of sins and repentance,
and forgiveness of sins go together, and the Lord Jesus Christ is
exalted to give repentance and remission of sins unto Israel,
that is their spiritual people. And through that they are brought
to assurance, brought to have joy and peace in believing, and
brought to walk in the ordinances of his house. But may we never
think, well, the only way that the love of God can be shown
upon his people is when they're brought to full assurance. That
is not the first time that the love of God is bestowed on his
people. That love is an eternal love
and it begins in the first awakening to be evidenced here in this
world. The first concern, the first
seeking, the first conviction, that love is shown all the way
along the way. Don't, as it were, reject the
love of God shown to you that is a scriptural love, and drawing
is, conviction is, and just think, well, the only way that I realise
the love of God is if I have full assurance. Yes, seek that. Don't rest short of that, that
we might have the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by
the Holy Ghost. But remember this, what John
says in his epistles, we love him because he first loved us
and that love will be evidenced. We know that we have passed from
death unto life in that we love the brethren. but it is what
he has already done. And so in this second point,
it is going back, it is thinking, it is meditating on how the Lord
has already shown his love. And remember this, what we put
with our introduction and first point, having loved his own which
were in the world, his own unknown by the love that he shows to
them. by his dealings with them, by
his bringing them to himself, separating them unto himself,
like the children of Israel separated from Egypt, like the disciples
separated from the rest, being a people that the apostle Paul
says, ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price. Wherefore
glorify God in your body, in your spirit which are his. That love that is already shown
was evidence God commendeth his love to us, in that while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Greater love had no man
than this, says our Lord, that a man lay down his life for his
friends. Yea, my friends, if ye do whatsoever
I command you, the love that the Lord showed to his people
in dying for their sins on Calvary's tree. He brings them to see that,
to know that, to realise that he has suffered in their place
and the wrath of God is put away by the Lord, by his love to them. Well then, our third point, a
love unto the end. Having loved his own which were
in the world, he loved them unto the end. Really for this last
point to be precious, then we need already to have realised
that the Lord has bestowed his love upon us. He which hath begun
a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. The comfort of that word, we'll
perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ, is to realize and to
believe another measure of assurance that He has begun a good work
in us. And with the word of our text,
the assurance and comfort that He loves His people unto the
end, will only be to those that are able to trace already. He has loved us. Did Jesus once
upon thee shine? Then Jesus is forever mine. In that beautiful chapter again
of John 10, he says of his sheep, how secure they are that they
are in his hand. My Father is greater than I,
no man is able to pluck them out of mine hand. It is one of
the beautiful truths of the Word of God. It is not a love that
is based upon our love. We are not saved one day and
lost the next, or because we have tripped and fallen and been
ensnared, then suddenly we are lost. The love that God has is
an everlasting love. And when we trace that showing
of that love in time, we know that the Lord shall never relinquish
that. He'll never let go those people
that are his. In John 17, which really is the
Lord's Prayer, it's the Lord making intercession for his people. He says that really binds up
all the words of our text in verse 10 in chapter 17 and he
prays for them and then he says and all mine are thine and thine
are mine and I am glorified in them and now I am no more in
the world but these are in the world and I come to thee Holy
Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given
me, that they may be one as we are. While I was with them in
the world, and this is speaking primarily of the disciples, the
type here, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest
me I have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition
that the scripture might be fulfilled. And he speaks of his keeping
of them, his watchful care of them. I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them
from the evil. They are not of the world even
as I am not of the world. And later he prays, Father I
will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where
I am that they may behold my glory. There is a time that we
are kept in this world. There is a time when he will
bring us from this world to the next and to be with him forever. There is an end. Surely there
is an end. but thine expectation shall not
be cut off. There is an end, as it were,
of the Lord's time on earth, but not an end of his eternal
life. He lives in heaven. There is
an end of your life and my life here below, and the Lord will
keep us while we're in this world right unto the end, but that
is not the end. It is an eternal love, an eternal
habitation, eternal place in heaven is prepared for us. But this word, this assurance,
this love that is first shown, this people, his people, he loved
them unto the end. May this be a real comfort and
help to us. May we be able to look back and
see, believingly, those tokens of the Lord's love. It's why
the Lord has given the ordinances of His house, especially the
Lord's Supper, that we might see in that ordinance His love
to the Church, as if He'd say to the Church, this is the love
that I've bestowed upon you. I lay down my life, I shed my
blood. This is the love that will never
be taken away. Ye do show forth the Lord's death
till he come, till the end, till the Lord come, either in death
or at the end of the world, and gather his people home, and to
be with him in heaven. May the Lord bless this word
to us. May we see and know that we are
amongst this people, his people, having loved his own which were
in the world, he loved them.