Good morning. Psalm 116 verse 15. The Lord tells us that it's precious
in his sight in the death of one of his saints. I'm certain
that most of you know by now that the Lord took Peggy Avila
home be with him on Friday around six o'clock. And, um, I know
Henry and Clarissa were planning to be here this morning that
haven't made it yet, but arrangements are being made for a funeral.
We will have a service here at the church sometime this week.
And, um, we should know that. tomorrow for sure. So we'll get
an email out to everybody as soon as we get the details on
what time the service will be. We were able to be with her when
when she passed away and I've never seen such a peaceful passing. We're reading, I was reading
1 Corinthians 15 to her when she just stopped breathing and She was here a month ago, so
this has been a real sudden thing for Henry and well, for all of
us, but what great hope we have, great
hope we have in knowing that it doth not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall see
him as he is and be made like him. And Peggy is enjoying the
fullness of her salvation like we cannot even begin to imagine.
And for that, we're very thankful. We sorrow, but not as those who
have no hope. We have a great hope and a great
confidence in our Lord's promises for his children. So death is
difficult. for those left behind, but for
the believer, it's the greatest day of their life. And so very,
very thankful for our Lord's mercy. Let's pray together before we
begin. Thank the Lord for his grace,
our heavenly father. thanking you for your mercy and
for your grace. Thank you for those precious
promises that we know are faithful and true. Lord, you told us that you have
gone to prepare a place for us and that you would come again
and receive us unto thyself so that where you are there we would
be also. What great hope we have in knowing
that you sent your angels to receive Peggy's spirit and bring
her into thy presence and change that which is corruptible into
incorruptible and change her mortality into that which is
immortal and reveal to her the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
and deliver her from all semblance of sin. Lord, we pray that you
would cause us to reflect on the mortality of our own lives
and to set our affections on things above, not on the things
of this earth. We pray for Peggy, for Henry
and for Clarissa. Ask Lord that you would sustain
them, that you would give them peace and grace and Lord that
you would just increase their faith and their hope as they
trust you in this time of loss and grief. We ask it in Christ's
name, amen. I've asked Caleb, Hickman to
bring the first message this morning. So he'll do that after
Tom comes and leads us in number 69. If you'll take your hardback
to him though, let's stand together number 69. Safely through another week,
God has brought us on our way. Let us now a blessing seek, waiting
in his courts today. Day of old, a week ? Emblem of
eternal rest ? ? Day of old will meet the past ? ? Emblem of eternal
rest ? ? While we pray for pardoning grace ? ? To the dear Redeemer's
name ? ? Show thy reconciled face ? ? Take away our sin and
shame ? From our worldly care set free, may we rest this day
in peace. From our worldly care set free,
may we rest this day in peace. Here we come, thy name to praise,
let us feel thy presence near. May thy glory meet our eyes,
while we in thy house appear. Here afford us, Lord, a taste
of our everlasting feast. Here afford us, Lord, a taste
of our everlasting feast. May thy gospel's joyful sound,
Doctor, sinners, comfort saves. May the fruits of grace abound,
Bring relief for all the blaze. Thus may all our Sabbaths prove,
Till we join the Church of God. Thus may all our Sabbaths prove, Please be seated. Good morning. Greg told me that he was going
to be taking a little bit of a vacation and asked us to bring
a message and I was nervous, always am whenever he asked me,
but I wasn't as nervous until he said he's going to be here
as well. That's whenever I got really nervous. So I've covered
your prayers this morning. I pray the Lord would reveal
to our hearts the message that he's given me. If you would like
to turn to John chapter three. Gospel of John chapter three. I've titled this message, Do
We Believe in lowercase j Jesus? Do we believe in Jesus or on
the Lord Jesus Christ? There is a very definite difference
in the two. Let's read John chapter three. In verse 35, it says the father
loveth the son. And he giveth and he hath given
all things into his hand. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Our need is to be found in the
Lord Jesus Christ and be caused to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. I pray that the Lord would cause
us this morning to see the difference And I would like to look at three
different men. These men are Judas, Peter, and
the rich man. I'd like to look at their lusts
for power, popularity, and pleasure. So if you'd like to bear with
me just a moment. In 1 John 2 and verse 15, the
Lord says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in
the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father
is not in him. For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life is not of the Father, but is of the world. This is pleasure,
popularity, and power. May the Lord be the unseen host
right now and cause us to see him and turn our hearts to him.
Let's look at the rich man first. If you'd like to turn to Luke
chapter 16. Luke 16. We're going to read
verse 19. There was a certain rich man
which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously
every day. Purple was a color of royalty.
Fine linen mean that he was a very rich man. And if you notice the
word fared sumptuously, that is to say he went and traveled
the world eating everything that he wanted to put into his mouth.
All the pleasures of life. He had everything that a man
could possibly want. He indulged in every form of
pleasure possible. I want you to notice something
that's more important than any other part of this rich man.
The Lord never gave his name. And that's because our Lord says
whenever all men will give an account, whether their deeds
be good or evil, and we know the ones that are found in Christ,
those are the ones that have hope. But the Lord says to those
that are not found in Christ, depart from Me, you workers of
iniquity. I never knew you. This rich man was not known of
the Lord. Let's continue to read. He says,
and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus. which was laid
at the gate, at his gate, full of sores, and desired to be fed
with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover,
the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that
the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom,
and the rich man died also and was buried. And in hell he lifted
up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and
Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father
Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip
the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented
in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember
that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things and likewise
Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted and thou
art tormented. There is not a single atheist
in hell. Even the demons believe and tremble
before the Lord. Yet there is no one in hell that
believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. It takes faith to produce salvation. The scripture says in Ephesians
chapter 2 verse 8, for by grace are you saved through faith,
in that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. This rich man, we are just like
him and we're drawn away from our own heart's desire when we're
trying to fulfill what our hearts want through our lusts. When
doing so, we are declaring that what God has said and what God
has done is not good enough for us. When we contrast our circumstances
to others, that is not looking to Christ in faith, believing
on Him. Unbelief is not looking to Christ
as our all in all. We see a woman, a Canaanite woman
came to the Lord and asked the Lord for help. And the Lord said,
it's not meat that the bread be cast to the children's bread
be cast to the dogs. And she said, truth, Lord, believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ is agreeing with whatever he has said, because
it is truth. We need to believe that Jesus
Christ is all our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.
And the only way we can do that is for the Father to bestow faith
upon us and give us eyes to see and ears to hear. When He says,
speak, then we can sing the praises of the Lord. When He says, walk,
told Bartimaeus, come. And once He says, walk, then
we have the strength, our feet get the strength to run the race
with patience. Judas found the same Lust in his heart as this
rich man did, but it was in the form of power, and I'd like to
look at Judas and John Chapter 13 if you'd like to turn there. There is no rest in this world
and the things that the world has to offer. The only rest that
we have is found in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Judas
here in John chapter 13 has already asked the high priest, what would
you give to me if I turn him over to you? And the priest has
already told him, we'll give you 30 pieces of silver. And
just so we understand, 30 pieces of silver is about $200. That's
how much the Lord was sold for in today's money, about $200.
Let's look in John 13 in verse two. And supper being ended,
the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot,
Simon's son, to betray him. Jesus, knowing that the father
had given all things into his hands and that he was come from
God and he went to God. He riseth up from supper and
laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself. After
that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples'
feet. and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. Our Lord laid aside his garment
when he condescended into this earth and robed himself in sinful
flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. He had to robe
himself in dust. The scripture says God formed
man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostril.
Man became a living soul. Scripture also says from dust
thou art dust thou shalt return. Our Lord had to become robed
in the same dust from the same clay that you and I was in order
to redeem his people. We see the Lord beginning to
wash the disciples feet here, and if you'll notice, he goes
to every disciple, but when he comes to Peter in verse 6, he
says, then cometh he to Simon Peter and Peter said unto him,
Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto
him, what I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know
hereafter. Look at Peter's response to the
Lord here. He says, thou shalt never wash
my feet. And the Lord says to Peter, if
I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Peter said, well,
in that case, not only my feet, but my hands and my head. We
see that the Lord, when he reveals unto us himself, We believe on
Him, and that is to say, wash me completely, Lord. Whatever
you've said, I believe. Whatever you've done, I'm trusting
in that. Wash the dust from off of me,
not just my hands, not just my feet, but my hands and head also.
Notice that he did wash Judas's feet because he went to all the
disciples. But in verse 10, he says, Jesus saith to him, he
that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean
everywhere. And you are clean, but not all. Speaking of Judas,
for he knew who should betray him. Therefore, he said, you
are not all clean. He washed Judas's feet, but he
did not wash Judas's heart. We have a heart condition this
morning and we need the Lord to wash our heart. Not just wash
it, but give us a new heart that looks to him. He did not love
Judas as he did the other 11. If he loved Judas and he died
for Judas, what does the Lord's love and the Lord's death have
to do with salvation? He did not love Judas. God does
not love everyone, only his elect. He causes it to rain on the just
as well as the unjust. When we come into this place,
this is where the Lord washes our feet with the washing of
water by the word. He's our example one to another that we should
wash each other's feet. And if you look in verse 14,
he says, if I then your Lord and master have washed your feet,
he also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an
example that ye should do as I have done to you." Our feet
are being washed in this building right now. This is our sanctuary. This is our city of refuge. This is where the Lord said,
I will meet with you. When the preaching of the gospel comes forth, we
are trying to run to our true city of refuge, Jesus Christ.
We're praying that He will hide us. We're begging Him to hide
us. in the true sanctuary, Jesus Christ. Here is where he washes
the dust of sin from our heart, the washing of water by the word.
He put away the dust of our unbelief by fulfilling every promise we
could not, perfectly obeying every jot and tittle that was
in the covenant of grace, obeying his father completely. And the
father was satisfied with what Jesus Christ had done. He washed
us when he put away the dust of our sin by fulfilling every
requirement in the covenant of election. One question I have for us this
morning. Are we like Judas, who was able
to see the Lord and had his feet washed, obviously believed in
Jesus. He saw every miracle that the Lord had ever done. Every
place that the Lord went, Judas was following him, but he didn't
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a false power like Judas
had in his mind, a false power of free will that he had a choice
to be made, that he had the option of choosing what he wanted to
choose. Are we like Judas in that regard, or does the Lord
get all the glory and salvation and choose whomsoever He will?
The Lord's people bow to that. Look at verse 21. When Jesus had thus said, He
was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, that one of you shall betray me. Then the disciples
looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake. Now there was
leaning on Jesus' bosom, one of his disciples whom Jesus loved.
Simon Peter therefore beckoned him that he should ask who should
it be of whom he spake. He then lying on Jesus' breath,
saith unto him, Who is it? All these disciples. Looked at
themselves. They didn't look at each other.
Seeing Christ looking to Christ, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
means you see yourself as the chief center and every disciple. Looked at themselves. Asking,
is it I? Only John asked Lord, who is
it? John had been given faith to
believe that if the Lord loved him, he would keep him. John
heard the Lord's heartbeat and knew that if his heart was beating
for John, the Lord would keep him. The Lord, in another place,
it says, he that begun a good work in you will perform it. When we're faced with this lust
for power that Judas had, let us remember what Psalm 23 says.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Now that means
I shall not be in want, yes, but that's also a command saying
don't want what the things of this world is. You're in this
world, but not of this world. Is that our prayer? If we are
the Lord, we know that we are the man. Everyone, every one
of those disciples knew that the Lord was just and right and
looking at them and saying it's going to be you that's going
to betray me. Every single one of the Lord's people are that way.
We know that we are the man. We know that we are the chief
of sinners. But we also know that if we are His, He will keep
us. After this, the Lord dips the
sop and gives it to Judas. And that night, Judas betrays
the Lord with the kiss. Upon seeing the Lord condemned,
the Scripture says Judas repented himself. He did not have a changed
heart. He just changed his mind. He
had come to the conclusion that he made a bad choice. He did
not have God-given repentance. In the Romans chapter 10, verse
9 and 10, it says that, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart, God hath raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. God-given repentance is confessing
that Christ is right, and I am wrong in everything. He is true,
and I am false and full of sin. God-given repentance causes you
to run to Christ, but that's not what Judas did. Judas went
right back to the law to devise a solution to make an atonement
for his transgression. He went right back to these chief
priests and tried to give the money back, tried to fix what
he had done. There is no hope in looking to the law or your
works for salvation. There are churches that are meeting
right now, trying to take things into their own hands by saying,
I'm going to give Jesus my heart. And there's preachers that are
preaching saying, just let the Lord come into your heart. I
want to tell you this morning that God does not want our heart.
Our heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, the Lord
said. And what does it speak? It speaks all form of evil and
corrupt communications. God does not want our heart.
He gives us a new heart, takes out the heart of stone, and gives
His people the heart of flesh and causes them to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. There's other churches that are
believing they're coming to a knowledge of the truth. They're going through
the motions of their church and they're speaking from the same
exact Bible we're using today. And whenever I recently had a
conversation with someone that's in a position of pastor and I
said, if you believe the gospel of election, why are you not
preaching it? And they said, well, Number one,
I wouldn't have a church. They would run me out. And number
two, that's the meat of the word. That's not the milk. We have
to preach the milk to these babes. That's that's a coward's answer.
Number one. And that's lying on God. Number
two, the gospel of Jesus Christ in the covenant of election is
the meat and it is the milk. And that's what we preach. Christ
Jesus and him crucified. And the Lord does the work. He
causes his people to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. we can see clearly that the power
Judas gained from selling the Lord out. And that's what those
men do that I just was describing is selling the Lord out for 200
pieces of for 30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave for 200,
200 dollars in our today's money. That's all they're doing is just
selling out the Lord. But that power did not slake his lust.
He took matters into his own hands and offered himself up
to the father by committing suicide. Don't offer yourself up unto
the Lord by the works of your hands. Don't think that you can
fix what you have broken by being nothing but sin. Look to Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
How often do we devise our own destruction by contemplating
our future vanities? By not. By taking matters into
our own hands, by not seeking the kingdom of God first, Christ
said clearly, Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these things will be added unto you. It is truly the Lord that keeps
us and preserves us for Himself. And Judas is our sobering example
of how close we can be to the Kingdom of God and still miss
Christ. Believing in Jesus, but not believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. You can have your feet washed
by the Lord Himself. And that's what we're doing right
now. We're having our feet washed. With the preaching of the Gospel
in this place. You can break bread with the
disciples of Christ, the elect of God. That's what we're doing
right now. The Lord is the bread of life. You can kiss the very
cheek of Christ and go straight to hell. Judas is our example
of that. Believe in Jesus. Yet not on the Lord Jesus Christ
is what Judas did. And I want to tell you I want
to ask this question this morning, just as the disciples. Lord,
is it I? Am I Judas? Because I know in my heart of
hearts that if the Lord leaves me to myself, I would kiss his
face. I would hear his heartbeat. I
would sell him for $200 if the Lord leaves me to myself. If
this is your fear that you're Judas this morning, stop looking
to yourself. Stop looking to what you're doing.
Look to Christ and live. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Do not offer yourself to God
for your salvation. Look to him, our surety, our
substitute. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The last man I would like to
look at is Peter, if you'd like to turn to Luke chapter 22. In John 13, we just saw that
Peter's desire was to be washed completely from the top of his
head to the bottom of his feet. Look at Luke 22. Verse 31. It says, And the Lord
said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that
he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that
thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren." Look at Peter's answer to the Lord
here. He says, unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee both
into prison and to death. And he said, I tell thee, Peter,
the cock shall not crow this day before that thou shalt thrice
deny that thou knowest me. In verse 33, Peter had a zeal
for the Lord. And he said, I'm ready. I'm ready
to go to prison with you. I'm ready to die for you. And
how often are we the same In our own zeal, whenever the Lord
reveals himself to us, we feel encouraged and strengthened,
rejoicing. But let us not forget that we're
but dust and we cannot stand against the wiles of the devil
without being found in the Lord Jesus Christ looking to him.
Peter was so full of zeal that he cut the high priest kinsman's
ear off when they came to take the Lord. He drew a sword and
chopped a man's ear off. He was ready to die for the Lord
in his mind. But the Lord tells him, I've
prayed for you that thy faith fell not. You can go through
the motions and say that you believe, but the Lord tries the
hearts. He knows. He knows our heart. Judas. Or then Peter. Peter did the exact thing that
he said he wouldn't do. He did the exact same thing that
Judas did, yet without money. And somebody said, well, what
Peter did wasn't near as bad as what Judas did, and that's
true. Peter did it three times. He didn't just do it once. He
denied the Lord. Betrayal, complete betrayal of
everything he said that he loved. That's what Peter did. Interestingly
enough, Peter denied the Lord to a damsel without the palace,
a young lady. He denies the Lord again on the
porch to a maid. That's a young girl. He was so
ready to go with the Lord in the Lord's presence. But as soon
as the Lord left him to himself, because of popularity and position,
he became so afraid that he denied the Lord to a child. Is that
not our make? Is that not what we are if the
Lord leaves us to ourselves? We're exactly the same. He denied
the Lord to the same kinsman of the high priest that he had
cut the ear off to. And when that kinsman asked him,
you're Peter. You're the man that was with
him. I know you. You chopped my ear off. Peter began to cuss and
to swear that he did not know who Jesus Christ was. Peter had
become everything that he despised and everything that he hated.
And as soon as the cock crow, the Lord looked at him. What
kind of look do you think the Lord gave him? I believe Greg
was speaking of this last week. It was not a look of condemnation.
It was not a look of I told you so, because that's what we would
do in our nature. We would look at someone if we tell them or
warn them that they're going to do something, then they do
it. That's what enters into our heart, isn't it? I told you so. That's not
what the Lord did. He looked at him with eyes of
compassion and love. And Peter remembered his words.
I have prayed for you, Peter. Peter went out and wept bitterly
when the Lord looked at him. Those next few days they took
his Lord. They took our Lord Jesus Christ
and they crucified him. How lonely those days must have
been. He was sitting there constantly,
no doubt, just replaying it over and over. Not believe not couldn't
believe that he had done it. You ever been in that situation
before? Believe, find yourself the things that I want to do.
I don't do them, but the things I would not do. That's what I
find myself doing. That's what Paul said. It's exactly how we
are, isn't it? Those days were very lonely for
Peter. David said in Psalm 119 verse 67, before I was afflicted,
I went astray. And the Lord afflicts us with
our sin, shows us what we are, shows us our depraved nature. That's when we cry out to Him
like a child. That's how He accepts us, crying out to Him like a
child. He gives us the heart of faith to look to Him, to believe
on Him. So Peter, you can imagine He
goes back to fishing is what he does. He turns around and
says, well, the Lord is gone and I have no hope. So I'm going
to go back to what I love doing. I'll go back to fishing. And
that's what he does. The Lord appears to the disciples while
they're fishing and Peter's out there on the boat. And the scripture
says he's naked and he's fishing and they've told all night long
and they haven't caught anything. And the Lord is on the shore
and he says, cast your net on the other side. He actually says
the right side. They was fishing on the wrong
side. You understand what I'm saying? And the Lord comes to them. They
didn't know it was the Lord. And me and Greg was fishing the
other day. And I would imagine seeing somebody on the shore
telling us where to fish out on the boat. We both would have
thought, well, how does he know? But they obeyed. They obeyed
his voice. It wasn't a question. It was
a command. Cast your nets on the right side. And they did
so. And the scripture says that it was 162 fish that they pulled
in. And they couldn't get them into
the boat. So they had to drag them all the way to the shore. And when they
got to the shore, The Lord had already had fish prepared and
already had bread prepared. And those two fish are, yeah,
those two, as you see the five loaves and two fish, five loaves
is the bread, our Lord's body. That's what that is. The two
fish are representative of the spirit and the word that's preached
by the gospel, the Lord's preachers. So the Lord comes to Peter and
reveals himself as who he is. And he asked Peter, he says,
Peter, do you love me? And Peter says, yeah, Lord, you
know I love you. He does this two times. And then the third
time he asked him, Peter's grieved. And he says, Lord, you know all
things. You know that I love you. Peter
was being asked, Peter, do you love me? He said, do you love
me more than these? Do you love me more than these
fish right here? That's pleasure. Do you love
me more than pleasure, Peter? He said, feed my sheep the bread
of life in the blood of Christ. That'll satisfy them. Peter,
do you love me more than power? Feed my lambs. The Lord only
said lambs one time. If you love me, feed my lambs
who are powerless. My lambs who are powerless. Tell them that their warfare
is accomplished. Peter, do you love me more than
popularity? Feed my sheep that are wandering, trying to find
their place. Tell them that they have a place
in the cleft of the rock, a place that I've hewed out for them.
Don't tell them not to worry about their popularity in this
world because my Father knows their name. That's all that matters
is does the Lord know your name? Their name is written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. Do you love me? Feed my sheep.
The glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ and His finished Word.
Shortly after this, John asked the Lord, who was it that betrayed
Him? Peter asked the Lord, but what
of this man? Peter knew that Judas had betrayed
the Lord, but Peter wanted to know about Peter. He was concerned
about Peter. Stop looking to yourself, Peter,
is what the Lord responded to him. What is it to you if he
tarries until I return? What is it to you? Stop looking
at yourself, Peter. Follow me, was the Lord's command.
The same answer to John and to Peter. John says, who was it
that betrayed you? The Lord said, stop worrying
about it. Follow me. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Do we not do the same? We look
around at our brothers and sisters and say, well, they're doing
this or they're doing that. Or we look at ourself and we
in our heart, we think, well, why am I doing this and why am
I thus? The same answer is to us as well.
Follow me. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Don't look to yourself, your circumstances. Don't seek after
popularity and pleasure or power. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ was the only one who ever
conquered pleasure, popularity and power in the flesh. Greg
preached a message on that recently. When Satan came to the Lord to
tempt him, when the Lord had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights,
came down off the mountain and Satan appeared to him and he
says, you know, the Lord was hungry. He had 40 days not eating.
Physically, he would have been famished is what the word we
would call probably. He said, if you be who you say you are,
command these stones that they may be made bread. Well, that's
pleasure. And the Lord, of course, rebuked
the devil. The next place he took him was
to a high place and said, cast thyself off from here. If you
are who you say you are, that all these can see angels of the
Lord will catch you even use scripture to the Lord to try
to get him to sin. And that's popularity, isn't
it? Took him up on a mountain and he said, bow to me and I'll
give you all that you can see. That's power. Our Lord was the
only one that resisted all three of these for his people. That's
why He is our hope. That's why our only hope and
peace, our only rest in this life. So what made the difference
between these three men, between Judas, the rich man, and Peter?
What was the difference? Christ's finished work is the
only difference. In verse 31 and 32, the difference
is where he looks at Peter and he says, I have prayed for you,
Peter. In John 17 9, the Lord praying
to his father says, I pray for them. I pray not for the world,
but for them, which thou has given me for they are thine.
Now we know our Lord is immutable and immutable means that it's
unchanging over time. We're unable to change. Our Lord's
immutability means that if God loves me now, he has always loved
me. He didn't begin loving me at
one point. If he began loving me, he can stop loving me. He's
always loved me. If I'm in Christ, he has always
loved me. Everything that our Lord says
is true. The Lord cannot lie. He loves
me. He's always loved me. The reason
that everything the Lord says is true is not because he only
speaks truth. That is true, but it's because
he says it. That makes it truth. It proceeds
out of his mouth. That's what makes it true. That's
the kind of God I'm talking about. So if he says, I love you, I've
prayed for you, Peter, you can believe that he is one of the
Lords. This is why that it's blasphemy
to say that he loved the world outside of Christ. The scripture
says in John 316, for God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. Most of us probably have memorized
that from a young age. The world that we live in, the
churches that are preaching today preach on just the love of God,
but they fail to mention that his love is completely based
upon his darling son. Christ is the only item of the
Lord's affection and love. The Lord does not love the angels. They're good. They're good beings. But even the stars are not pure
in his side. The angels have to cover their
face. The angels are not in the Lord Jesus Christ. To be loved
of the Father, you must be placed in the Lord Jesus Christ. You
must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be loved of the Father. If I am in Christ right now,
I've always been in Christ. I am seated at the right hand
of the father in Christ right now. That's the immutability
of our Lord. If he prayed for me, we can be
persuaded like Paul in Romans chapter eight, verse 38 and 39. For I am persuaded that neither
death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
things present or things to come. nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature shall be able to separate us from the love
of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We have this assurance
because God was satisfied with the Lord Jesus Christ. In Isaiah
53 verse 10, it says, Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. Who's his seed? You and I, the
elect of God. That's his seed. He shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied.
By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he
shall bear their iniquities. In closing, I want to tell you
a story that happened to me recently. I have three daughters, as all
of you know, and the youngest one's name's Bethany. And she
had an abscessed tooth. Even at a young age, I guess
that's pretty common. They said she had to go to the
dentist to get it corrected. And we didn't really know what
was going on at the time. We had just showed up for, we called,
she had a toothache. We told them what was going on
and they said, okay, bring her in. We'll see what we can do to help
her. So we get there and she says, daddy, she's in a lot of
pain. She says, daddy, my tooth hurts. Daddy, my constantly telling
me that. I said, honey, I understand. We're going to get it fixed today.
We're going to take care of it today. We're going to get to
the dentist. It'll be just fine. So we get there, and they say,
well, to put her asleep, the process with the anesthesiologist,
there's a big line for that. So it's going to take two months
was the waiting list for the anesthesiologist in order for
her to get her tooth fixed. And I've already promised my daughter
it was going to be that day. And I said, well, what can we do? They said, well,
we can give her some gas, and we can give her numbing medicine,
of course. And they had TVs above where they was laying. She was
able to watch TV. It was very interesting. So I thought, well,
maybe she'll be distracted. It'll be just fine. So they gave
her this medication that made her very weary or very woozy,
so to speak, almost like in a drunken state. And I said, okay, let's
go ahead and do all that. And so they did. And she, as
they begin to start, she begins crying out for me. She begins
to ask for me. She says, dad, I'm hurting. They're
hurting me. And in my heart, at that moment,
there would have been nothing that I wouldn't have done to
try to take her place. And any parent in here can feel the same
way about your children. You know what I'm talking about.
If your child's in pain, you want to fix it or you want to
take their place. The dentist asked me, the dentist stopped
and looked at me and said, do you want me to continue? And
I have never felt so torn in my life. I knew that if he continued,
it would be taken care of. But at the same time, if they
continued, I would be given permission to that dentist to hurt my daughter.
So I told the dentist to continue. And as soon as it was over, I
scooped her up in my arms and loved on her. The very second
it was over. Our heavenly father had the power
to stop the death of his son, but he had purposed in the covenant
of grace that his son would be put to death for his people.
yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. The Lord unsheathed the
sword of justice and pierced the heart of the Lord." The Lord
loves His Son. It wasn't just a business transaction
that happened on the cross. It wasn't just something... Our
Heavenly Father loves His Son dearly. I don't understand what
that even means compared to my love for my children. My love
is completely up and down. All the time changing. His love
is perfect, never changing for his son. And when he saw my sin
upon his son, justice demanded that he be executed for it. That's what the father did for
you and I. He is eternally satisfied with
his son and has always been satisfied with his son. That means that
if I'm in Christ, he is eternally satisfied with me. He resurrected
his son because he was satisfied, because the Lord had accomplished
the warfare that needed to take place. The Lord had accomplished
salvation for his people. There is a bomb in Gilead. The
River Jordan, that river of death, has been parted. Sin hath been
put away. As the Lord told Peter, Satan
hath desired you, but I have prayed for you, Peter. That's
what I'm telling us this morning. Satan has desired every single
one of us. But if you're the Lord's, the Lord prayed for you. David, you are the man, you are
guilty. But fear not, the Lord hath put
away thy sin. The Lord ascended on high and
led captivity captive. It is finished for the Lord's
people. Salvation has been accomplished. Everything that the father requires,
he provides in his son. Believe on Him for all of your
hope right now. The believer truly knows that
we are the rich man, and we are Judas, and we are Peter down
deep in our heart. It is Christ that makes us to
differ. It is Christ that keeps us. We have one thing needful,
and that is to be found in Christ. He gets all the glory in salvation,
and the Lord's people love that. In John 6.29, Jesus answered
and said unto him, This is the work of God, that ye believe
on Him whom He hath sent. I would ask us one last time
this morning. Do you believe in the imaginary Jesus that so
many churches do? Or do you believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ? Lord, I believe. Help thou my
unbelief. Amen. Let's take a break.