if you'd open your Bibles to
John chapter 14. Now I hope that I have my wits
enough about me to preach this evening. I've enjoyed my time
in New York this morning. I got up, I stayed in a motel
or hotel I guess you'd call it on 94th and Broadway and I went
across the street to a little corner diner or whatever, got
some breakfast, took the subway down to Penn Station and got
out, walked around a while, looked at the Empire State Building
and went through all nine floors of Macy's and got lost a couple
of times. Finally, I asked Siri where I
should go to get a train back down here to where you all are. Got that all figured out, got
in the train, And I'm sitting there, and just as the train
takes off, I noticed that on the seat in front of me is a
little hook. I said, oh, that hook's so that you can hang bags
or whatever you got. Where's my backpack? Well, when
I'd stopped to eat breakfast, there wasn't enough room for
me to keep that backpack on and not bump into the people behind
me, and I put it in the chair next to me. Well, I called the restaurant,
and they've got it. And so I get to go back to New
York tomorrow. I wouldn't go back with my iPads in it. So
that may be worth the trip back. But being that scatterbrained,
I'm not sure just how this is going to work out. But we'll
see if the Lord will give me enough clarity of thought to
preach something that the Lord can use to bless you. Reading
the first three verses of John chapter 14. Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself
that where I am, there ye may be also. Now I did just notice
that you all don't have a clock within view. I hope, and I don't
have a watch, I hope I don't go too long. Wave my hand if
it's getting too long, or wave your hand if it's getting too
long. My experience in religion as a youth was somewhat deficient
in many respects. The theology I was raised in
I no longer agree with in many important respects. But there's
one thing they did right in the churches I was raised in. They
emphasized scripture memorization. particularly in us young people,
when it's easy to memorize things. And so I memorized a lot of scripture
when I was young. And one of the earliest scriptures
I memorized was verse 6, which I'm sure you're familiar with.
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the
Father but by me. And that was often, well, we
memorized it because they often referred to it. to point out
to us, as they would put it, Christ is the only way to heaven.
In fact, there was a song we would sing in the Bible clubs
that my mother taught, one way God said to get to heaven, Jesus
is the only way. Of course, if you read it properly,
it doesn't say heaven. It says there's one way to the
Father. Now, no doubt that means also
there's only one way to heaven, but in truth, heaven's not the
goal, is it? One way to the Father. And then
in the scripture that we read, the verses that we read, they
were often used as a springboard to teach about the second coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ, which they had a rather intricate program
of various things that must happen and some of them would swear
that they were happening and just any minute Jesus was going
to come back and take the church away and issue in a period of
seven years of tribulation and after that he'd come back again.
It was a rather intricate system, and they were all excited about
it anytime they read some news of something going on over in
the country of Israel. And so they were always talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ coming back. Well, you know, He is coming
back. There's no question about that. And there's nothing wrong
with talking about it so far as the scriptures speak of it.
But one thing I noticed, or I shouldn't say I didn't notice it as a child,
but in looking back, they were consumed with the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ, not with the Christ who was coming. The event
is not the issue, the person is. It's always the person. Always. Now, as I said, these things
are true. But this passage, to me, it just
More and more keeps being revealed from it. You know, I've been
preaching for roughly 35 years. And just a few weeks ago I was
reading this and something popped out at me that I'd never made
the connection. I may be the last one of the preachers that
I normally associate with to notice this. I don't know. But I want to set forth this
scripture or use this scripture to set forth this truth that
salvation is certain for everyone that Christ came to save. He
said, if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come and get
you. Now notice that, how there is
nothing in between Him preparing and Him getting. No contingencies
to be fulfilled. He says, if I go to prepare a
place for you, I will come again, receive you unto myself, that
where I am, there ye may be also." Now here is a doctrine that's
designed to give great encouragement to anyone whose trust is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what a blessed and sweet
comfort to see that this whole thing is wrapped up in the preparations
of the Lord. not in our receiving of them,
not in our assured grasp of them. He simply says, if I prepare
a place for you, I will come and get you and take you to that
place so you may be where I am. I remember preachers in my youth,
particularly when they get to the invitation, and I imagine
some of you are familiar with what that system is, if you grew
up in the same kind of free willism that I did. But they would talk
about empty mansions in glory. In my Father's house are many
mansions. I go to prepare a place for you and a preacher would
say, now the Lord Jesus went and prepared a place for you.
You don't want your place to be empty, will you? Well, what
the Lord says makes it rather obvious there will be no empty
spots. Brother Mahan used to say plenty of room but no vacancies.
If the Lord prepared a place for you, If He has prepared a
place for you, He will get you, and He will take you to be with
Him. Now, Christ did not come to save
everyone, but He shall fully save all for whom He came. That is a doctrine despised by
those who trust in themselves, because they want the difference
between the saved and the lost to be found in what they have
done. They say that God loves everybody
universally, Christ died for everyone universally, and the
Spirit of God is calling everyone universally, or at least universally
wherever the gospel is going. And what does that say about
the love of God, the sacrifice of Christ, and the call of the
Spirit? It has nothing to do with whether or not you're saved.
That's what they're saying. Because the deciding factor,
and that's a good way to put it, the deciding factor is your
decision to be saved. Not God's decision to save you,
not Christ's work to redeem you, or the Spirit's effort in calling
you. None of those made the difference. You did. And that way they can
claim to preach grace because they say it was so gracious for
God to try. They won't use the word try, but that's what they're
getting at. So gracious for God to try. And they would say now, don't
let it be in vain. A work of God in vain? My decisions
can be in vain. But God's works and intentions
can never be in vain. Now let's look at the meaning
of the Lord's words right there within the context in which he
said them. There are three things that had
just happened that prompted our Lord to say to the disciples,
let not your heart be troubled. First of all, he had told them,
and they're all gathered there in the guest chamber of a house,
the upper room, They're all gathered there and this is the night on
which the Lord will be arrested and the next day he's going to
be crucified. And he tells them three things. First of all he
says, one of you is going to betray me. One of you. Now we know who it was. And probably
we've heard of Judas and always thought that, well how could
they miss that Judas was such a counterfeit? Well the only
reason we aren't in their position is we read the book and we know
what happened. But notice this, that among those
and the eleven were honest believers. Only Judas was the phony, and
not a one of them recognized him for what he was. He was the
treasurer of the group. And he had been helping himself.
And I'm sure he had justified his actions saying, well, I'm
doing this work. If I take a little bit, that's just simply being
paid because I'm doing more work than the other disciples are
doing. After all, they aren't keeping the books, I am. You
know, people that do things like that, they always have some justification
for it. He was a greedy man, obviously.
A thief at heart. And that's why he'd be willing
to sell out the Lord for 30 pieces of silver. But they didn't know
it. See what an evil person can dwell among the
people of God and from the outside. Nobody knows it. The Lord knew
it, because he sees the hearts of men. He knew what Judas was
from the very beginning. Judas was the son of perdition
before Christ called him to be a disciple. Christ called him
and he followed, and for three and a half years he followed
him as the son of perdition. He betrayed him as the son of
perdition, died as the son of perdition. He still is the son
of perdition, of judgment and destruction. It's what he's always
been. But only the Lord could tell. I remember at one of the conferences
at 13th Street back in the mid-80s, I asked a fellow to sing that
song, Lord, I want to be a Christian in my heart. I remember listening
to it, and I thought it was pretty and all that, and then the fellow
sang this verse, and it really shook me. It says, I don't want
to be a Judas in my heart. And I think, boy, the only thing
that keeps me from being Judas is the Lord. I bet you Judas
thought he was the real thing. I bet you he found an excuse
for every one of his sins. And he thought that for all his
failures, but you know, I'm still a follower of Christ. No, he
wasn't. Oh, I don't want to be a Judas.
And the only one that can do anything about that is the Lord
Jesus Christ. He told them one would betray
them. Then He said this. He said to them that He was going
away. You find this in chapter 13,
verse 33. He's going away and they can't
follow. Now, what had He done when Christ had first met them? What did He say? Come, follow
Me. And they did. And for three or three and a
half years they followed Him. Now He's saying to them, you can't
follow Me anymore. I'm going somewhere you can't
go. Now you can imagine that they're
like a deer in the headlights. you know the Lord the Lord saying
things we just can't get our mind wrapped around this one
of us is a betrayer and then they saw Judas get up and leave
and they didn't know for sure what that was about he says I
know where I'm going where I'm going you can't come that that would break their heart and then he said this that they
would fail him now in particular it was applied to Peter. Peter said in verse 37 of chapter
13, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my
life for thy sake. Jesus answered him. Wilt thou
lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice. Now Peter was the mouthy one
in the group. He was the one always talking. And while Peter's the only one
that made the boast, you can be sure every one of the others
thought it. And while the Lord spoke directly
to Peter about his denial, every one of them felt it. And before
the night was over, everyone had done it. None so notably
as Peter did it, but it says, all his disciples forsook him
and fled. So one's a betrayer. He's going
somewhere they can't go. And they are all going to fail
him. Now I'm glad they put chapter divisions and verses in here
so we can find our spot quickly. But sometimes we need to ignore
it and just keep reading. He says to Peter, The cock shall
not crow till thou hast denied me thrice, let not your heart
be troubled. If you are a child of God, what
troubles you the most? When you don't act like a child
of God. And what does the Lord say? Don't let your heart be
troubled. Don't let it be taken up with
fear. Don't let your failures make you think that my salvation
will be a failure. Don't think that your failures
will drive me away. I find this very interesting
that even though Judas was the son of perdition and the Lord
Jesus Christ knew it, when Judas approached him to betray him,
the Lord said, friend, why have you come? Certainly as a man, the Lord
was merciful, had a merciful attitude towards Judas to the
very end. Judas betrayed him. And you know,
the difference between Peter and Judas is found in this. Because both betrayed him, though
one not so much into the hands of men, but simply denied him.
But the difference between Judas and Peter was not in the level
of their betrayal of Christ. It was that Peter sought mercy
from Christ for it, and Judas never did. Judas went out and
exacted his own punishment against himself in an attempt at self-atonement. And thus he was the son of perdition.
Peter, for all his failures, could not leave the Lord. And even though he felt utterly
unfit to preach and said, I'm going fishing, the Lord went
back and said, no, you're not, Peter. I've got different plans
for you. Now, do you love me? Yes. Well, feed my sheep. Do you love
me? Yeah, I do. Feed my sheep. Do you love me? Lord, you know
everything and you know I love you. You know who didn't know? Peter. And that's why the Lord
dealt with him as he did. All you have to do to prove the
love of a believer for the Savior is to challenge it. He may say,
I've proven myself unworthy of His name, and I can't see how
that I love Him the way I've acted. Well, do you love Him?
Well, yeah! And thus, Peter was restored.
For he was connected to the Lord Jesus Christ and sought Him even
though he himself was a failure. But he told them these three
things, and he said, let not your heart be troubled. Don't be troubled by these realities. Don't be troubled that someone's
going to betray me, because that's not going to upset the apple
cart. This is not overthrowing what I came to do. The three
and a half years you and I have spent together, they are not
coming to an end because they are fruitless. It's not as though
people, my enemies have gathered up against me and they will be
successful in my overthrow. Now he didn't explain all of
this to them until later, but this is the meaning behind all
of it. It's not as though they're going to ruin my success through
an overthrow. In all reality, what they are
doing is necessary to the success of my mission. How often have
we seen things go what we think is awry only to discover they
were exactly what had to happen in order to bring about the desired
end. The Lord's ways are mysterious
to us. We cannot understand them. Our
Lord Jesus Christ, He did not simply find some way to make
some good come out of His death. No, he came for the express purpose
of dying. That was how he made a success
of his work. And this betrayal was simply
one cog in the great machine of God's divine purpose to bring
about the salvation of his people. He says, let not your heart be
troubled. He says, now I'm going away. But don't you worry about
that either. Because when I go away, I'm going
to send somebody else. Another comforter. And interestingly
enough, that's exactly the same word that is used in 1 John chapter
2 when it says, if any man sin, any one of God's people sins,
we have an advocate. Exact same Greek word. A person
called alongside. And the Lord says, if I go away,
you can't come with me right now. But don't worry, I'm sending
someone, another comforter, who will not just be with you, he'll
be in you. And then he says this, he says,
I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. Now the doctrine
of the Trinity is a great mystery and anybody who tries to explain
it is going to get in over their head right away and make a mess of
things. But the Lord is saying this, I'm sending the Spirit
and that's me. Him being in you is me being
in you. You will not be orphans. You won't have me as you did.
That doesn't mean you won't have me. And then he says, concerning
your failure, don't let your heart be troubled. None of this
depends on your success anyway. It all depends on my success.
He tells them to trust Him. He says, you trust God? Good. Trust me also. And the way he
says it, you cannot miss the fact he's saying, you may trust
me as you trust God, because that's who I am. I mean, if he'd have said something
like that in front of the Pharisees, they'd have right away picked
up stones to stone him for claiming to be God. Because the connection
cannot be missed. You trust God, trust me. Trust
me as you trust God, for I am God. Now, who can overthrow God? Nobody. Who can frustrate his plans?
Nobody. And so he says, don't let your
heart be troubled. Don't worry about this. Don't
let these realities trouble you. Then he goes on and says to them
that in the father's house there are many mansions. Now, unfortunately, People miss the meaning of that
simply because the meaning of the word mansions has changed.
You say mansion now, people think of a huge house. When I was visiting
some friends in Dumont, New Jersey here, the night before last,
they took me around Alpine, they said. And I don't know if that's
just a part of their city or another city. But I mean, there's
houses there like I've never seen before. I saw one, it looked
like an old lord's manor, huge. And I said, that looks pretty
old. How old is that? He said, about four years old. They're building them
like that right now. They're true mansions. Not just
big house mansions. But that's not at all what was
meant back then. This just meant a living place.
In fact, the word signifies a permanent dwelling place. You and I have
a dwelling place, but it's not going to last very long. I mean,
if our present dwelling place lasts around 110 to 120 years
old, we're going to end up in Guinness, you know, Book of World
Records, because that's about all these things are good for
at the far end. Moses said 70 years, and if by
reason of strength you get 10 more, it's just 10 more years
of old age. You know, you can't add 10 years of youth to these
bodies. So these, Paul talks about our
dwelling place being just like a tent. that a good stiff wind
will blow it away he said but we have a dwelling place from
God a permanent dwelling place like a city with foundations
and so he's saying that's what he's going to make a dwelling
place a permanent place for us someplace from which we shall
never be removed and no matter how healthy you eat and how many
bad habits you don't Practice. You're going to die. You will
leave this dwelling place. But this dwelling place, no one
ever leaves. It's permanent. It's solid. You dwell with God. And then
he says this, that he's going to prepare such a place for them. I've heard people say this. In
fact, one of my favorite contemporary Christian singers, as they call
it, from back in the late 70s and early 80s, had this song
and the tagline was, you know, in six days you created everything,
but you've been working on heaven for 2,000 years. No, that's not
what he means. You know how long it took him
to build this place? One day. Oh, it was an awful, awful construction
project, if we use that terminology. In one day, He went to the Father,
through the cross, and in doing that, He made us a place. He lost His place to make us
a place. See, most often we believe that
Jesus Christ died and that for three days He was somewhere,
who knows where, and He raised up from the dead, and then later
went to the Father and began building a place for us. But
what did He say to that thief on the cross? Today, you will
be with me in paradise. So that means that the Lord had
gone to the Father that day. He went before the Father in
the sacrifice of Himself. Went before the Judge and endured
such suffering as you and I cannot imagine. And in fact, when He
cries out, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? It's as
though He went to His dwelling place and got turned away at
the door. I tried to understand what it would be like to experience
what our Lord did. To have God His Father turn Him
away. And I imagine going to my home,
now my parents are gone now, but for many, many years I lived
in Iowa and so I go to see them a couple of times a year. And
when I drive up, if I even got the chance to get to the door
before my mom got to me, there was never any doubt they would
open the door to me. I would go to the door and I
would knock and I would open it. I wouldn't even wait for
him to come to the door. I had no doubt they wanted me inside
where they are. But our Lord came before his
father. Well, I can't imagine what it
would have been like if I had gone to that door one day and
my father had come to the door and said, I despise you. Get
away from me. Everything about you is loathsome
to me. You have no place in this house.
I don't know what I would have done. And yet that's what happened
to the Lord. Bearing our sins before God made Him loathsome
to God. So much so that God forsook Him. And yet in so doing, He completely
exhausted the wrath of God. He who was the natural-born Son
gave up His Sonship that we rebels might be made sons. But so great
was his work that when he was done, he was a son again and
welcome in the house. And he went in. And as he went
in, that thief on the cross, well, he got there just ahead
of him. I suppose that's one reason the Lord died first. He
had to go get the place ready because the thief was on his
way. Thief died later that day. And when he died, There was his
place already made. His name on the door. And he's
never left. I go to prepare a place for you. What a horrible road he walked
to prepare that place. What an awful work he did. And
yet it was done and the place was prepared that day. And he
came out of that tomb simply to give some final instructions.
to give a visible testimony to the fact that he was raised to
the father's right hand. But the place was built before
he ever raised from the dead. And then he says this, if he
goes he'll come again to get them. Now in the Greek language
the word translated if can just as well be translated since.
The word does not tell you whether or not there's any doubt about
whether it'll be done. Usually when we say if, we're
saying the outcome is not certain. If we say since, we're saying
the outcome is certain, generally speaking, because it's already
happened. So what our Lord is saying is this, since I go to
prepare a place for you, since I'm doing this, you can count
on it, I'm coming back. to get you, because I'm not going
to waste my time making a place and then not have you occupy
it." I find that to be such a blessed
truth. That the Lord will not let His
own work go to waste. That He is not so foolish as
to build dwelling places that will never be occupied. That
He is not so silly as to do such a horrible work and then not
take possession of all that he purchased by that work. Now most relegate, it says since
he goes he'll come again, most relegate this to his return at
the end of the ages. And certainly there is that application. But that's not the only thing
he means. In the book of Hebrews, it says
that for those that wait for him, he will come again not to
suffer for sin, but to bring salvation. When did he do that?
He began that when he came out of the tomb. You see, the high
priest would go into the Holy of Holies and offer the sacrifice.
When he came out again to the people, he came not to make another
sacrifice. No, the sacrifice wasn't needed,
at least not for another year. When did he come out? He'd come
out and raise his hand and bless the people. He'd bring them the
salvation that they were waiting for. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
goes into the presence of the Father, does the work He's supposed
to do, builds the place He said He would build, and what does
He do? He comes out of the tomb to bring the salvation He has
just purchased. And to begin gathering the people
He said He was coming for. As I said, He gathered one of
them that very day. At least one of them. And He's
been gathering ever since. His resurrection was Him coming
again to bring salvation and to begin gathering His people.
By gospel preaching, Jesus Christ comes again and gathers His people. If the Spirit of God is pleased
to give power to the preaching of the gospel, you can count
on this. It's not the man preaching that's doing any gathering, is
it? It's the Lord Jesus in him, coming again and receiving his
people to himself. Beginning that process of actually
bringing them physically into his presence. That's why we ought
to be delighted at gospel preaching. Gospel preaching is the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ, one version of it. And when the Lord
comes, I want to be there. He comes to get them through
gospel preaching, and the experience of it is the new birth. The first
experience of it, Christ comes and lays hold of that sinner
for whom He has made a place, for whom He has prepared a place,
and He begins to prepare that person for that place. The new
birth makes us spiritually alive. We were spiritually dead and
physically dying. First thing, He does make us
spiritually alive so that we know Him, we love Him, and we
believe Him. And then He gathers His people
to Himself in death. Oh, we're afraid of that, aren't
we? I guess there are a few people that don't fear death. I'm not
among them. My flesh resists it. I'm 60 now. So even though, I think 78, we'll
round it off to 80. Most of the people in my family
lived in the 80s. I'm three quarters done. And
I don't even hardly feel like I've got started. Our bodies don't want to die. We fear it. We fear it because
we know what comes after it, facing God. Pointing out the
man who wants to die and after that the judgment. We fear death. The child of God,
I want you to understand this. Your death is nothing other than
this. The Lord Jesus Christ coming
for you. That He may take you, receive
you unto Himself. That where He is, you may be. Now, do you believe God? Don't
you want to be with Christ? For most of us, if not all of
us, that's the path it's going to take. Unless the Lord comes
back and ends all of this world's existence, then that's how He's
going to come back and get us. You see, the second coming, so
to speak, is not a singular event. The Lord just keeps coming back
and getting His people. And so whether it be in your
youth through a car accident or some youthful disease, and
you die, as the world would say, before your time. It wasn't before
your time. It was the Lord's time to come
and get you. And in your youth, He may come and then spare you
all those years of drudgery that Moses spoke about. Or He may
let you go the natural lifespan and grow old and feeble. You
may lose your mind. You may not remember Him. But
He will remember you. What did the thief say? Lord,
when you come into your kingdom, remember me. I hope I remember
the Lord till I draw my last breath. But it won't change my
eternity if I don't. I may not remember me. I didn't
remember my backpack. Things are not looking good. But the Lord isn't scatterbrained
like I am. He isn't absent-minded. He's
present. And when the time comes, He will
remember me and say, it's time to go get Him and bring Him to
myself that He may be with me. And then there will come a day
when the Lord Jesus Christ, well, when the last of His sheep has
been born again, there's nothing more to do after that. The only
reason God didn't bring the flood any sooner than he did was because
he had to wait until the ark was built and all the animals
were inside. Once that was done, the Lord shut the door and sent
the flood. And one of these days, the last animal's going to be
put on the ark and the Lord's going to say, okay. And he's
going to come and he's going to receive every one of his people
yet living in that day. Receive them into his sense.
Receive them to himself all in one fell swoop. And bring an
end to this world. He says, I'm coming to get you
that where I am, there ye may be also. And there is no better
description of heaven to be found anywhere. I weary of people talking about
pearly gates, which really doesn't even refer to heaven at all. symbolic description of the church,
not heaven. But that's what they think. Do
you actually think heaven is going to be some big golden city?
I don't think I'd want to live in something like that now. I
have no interest in living in a city physically as it's described
there in the book of Revelation. That's not my idea of beauty
at all. That's the idea of pure things and very expensive things. No. Heaven's not about gold streets,
pearly gates, and colonnaded mansions. Heaven is being with
Christ. And what did our Lord say when
He prayed? That's His opinion of things, by the way. He said,
Father, in John 17, Father, I would that those that You have given
Me would be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory. There are two things that define
heaven for the believer. First of all, it says that we
are predestined to be conformed to His image, to be like Christ. That's heaven. I'm tired of being
what I am. I'm weary of that. I'm done with
it, aren't you? I mean, I would be glad if I could just flip
a switch and change that. Someday the Lord is going to
change me to be like the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, to be like
Him and to be with Him. That's heaven. And it won't matter
to you whether the street's made out of gold or there's no street
at all. It won't matter to you what kind
of place you live in, which I don't think this is even referring
to places as such, houses and stuff like that. What would matter? Nothing matters if you're with
Christ. That's heaven. Now, let's note here the great
love expressed in what our Lord says. The older I get, and I
guess there's no way to get younger, so people say, the older I get,
well, what else are you doing? Every one of us is getting older,
you know. But the older I get, The more
I see how the Lord understood us and what we need, and how
He can communicate it to us in ways that become richer and richer
with time. But all the love that is demonstrated
here to His disciples, these fearful men, and they're troubled. And He
says, don't worry, don't worry. I'm going to do what it takes
to make everything work out. And I'm doing it because I love
you. So where do you get that? Turn
back John chapter 13 verse 1. 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 to the end. And then what did he
do? I'm not going to read it all,
but he did that business of washing their feet. And the description
of it is rather remarkable. It says, he got up from his place
at the table. Now, they didn't sit at tables.
They reclined at a table with their head on, you know, their
elbow, arm holding up their head. But he got up. He took off his
outer clothing. Men wore two layers of clothing
back then, just as we do now. They had a robe, and underneath
was a tunic-like thing. And the tunic thing is what servants
wore. That's all they got. They didn't get the robe. He
took off his robe, that which signified that he was more than
the common servant. And dressed as a servant, he
took a towel, and he began to wash the feet of those disciples.
And it says, when he got done, he put back on his robe, and
I love these verses, and went back to his place. Now what our
Lord was doing, He says, you don't understand what I'm doing
right now, but you will later. Well, here was what the later
understanding was. Our Lord was with God and was
God in the beginning of the world, but what did He do? He took off
His robe. He took off that glorious expression
of His divine person and took upon Himself the form of a servant.
The Bible says He emptied Himself, made Himself of no reputation.
And being found in the likeness of sinful flesh, He became obedient
to death, even the death of the cross. That's the means by which
He washed our feet. And when He was done, what did
He do? He put back on that robe of divine glory and went back
into the presence of the Father and was seated at His right hand,
which was His place. Now the disciples watched all
this happen and didn't have a clue what he was meaning. Later on,
they caught on. And they realized this. He said,
what I've done for you, do for one another. And what he had
done for them was not wash their feet, because they understood
that. He said, you don't understand what I've done, but what I've
done, you do for one another. Well, they understood the foot
washing part. What are gospel preachers supposed to do? Wash
the feet of God's people. Remind them that through the
blood of Jesus Christ, their sins are gone. That was the example
left for them. But what love was demonstrated
in the work that he was about to do because he loved them.
He loved them to the end and gave himself for them. And then
note what great power is expressed. He says, if I prepare a place,
I will come and get you. And do you realize that Earth
and hell have been doing everything it can to stop that process,
and the Lord has not yet lost one. Not one. Satan is called the accuser of
the brethren. Why? Well, the accuser essentially
means the prosecutor. The prosecutor in the court of
heaven. Why does he prosecute believers in the court of heaven?
Why does he bring up their sins? Because if he can make one sin
stick to a believer in the presence of God, Christ loses. Christ
will lose one for whom he came. There will be an empty spot in
glory and Christ will be disappointed and no longer the glorious Savior
that he is. Everybody thinks that the job,
that nothing makes the devil happier than to make people sin.
The only reason he would want a believer to sin is so that
he could bring that sin up in the sight of God and hopefully
make it stick. But it says the accuser of the
brethren is being cast out. Why? Because the advocate of
the brethren is there. And his accusations, the devil's
accusations can never overcome him who is the advocate of God's
people. And right after it talks about
the accuser being cast out, it talks about God's people that
they have overcome him by the blood of the Lamb. That blood
is a great advocate. It's a great answer against all
guilt, isn't it? Oh, what power! Our Lord said,
or God said about the new covenant of the gospel, there are sins
and iniquities I will remember no more. The devil keeps trying
to remind him, but the Lord doesn't bring them up again. Why? Because
Jesus Christ actually put those sins away and they no longer
exist. And you can't bring up something
that doesn't exist. They're gone. The Lord uses many metaphors,
I guess, as we could understand. He said they're behind His back.
And if you're standing before God and your sins are behind
His back, you might see them, but He doesn't. He says they're
buried in the depths of the sea. He says, like a thick cloud I
blotted them out, as though the Lord is... I say, as though it's
exactly what He's doing in every way that we could understand.
He is saying to us, they're gone. They're no longer part of the
equation. And therefore, no condemnation can come upon you. Not one for
whom the Lord did the work shall fail to reach the place that
is prepared for him. And then lastly, let's notice
what blessedness is in this promise. In the promise, there's not one
word of us doing anything. He says, if I go to prepare a
place for you, I will come again and get you. So don't you have
to believe? That's really not the right way
to put it, really. If He prepared a place for you, you will believe.
You'll see to it. So it's not, he didn't even have
to say if I go to prepare a place for you and you consent to let
me come and get you. Or you approve of the place that
I have made. If it passes your inspection.
None of that. Remember he's saying this right
on the heels of his declaration that they would fail. What we
would hardly do to try to comfort those you have said will fail
by saying that if you do such and such, you can go to heaven.
If they couldn't so much as survive one night without denying Him,
how would any of us ever make it over the years that we have
known Him? He sets before us one thing and
says, if it's true, your salvation is guaranteed. And what he said
before them is simply this, if I came to save you, you shall
be saved. So what about faith? Well, he
who prepared a place for us will be sure to prepare us for the
place. And he comes and works the new birth in us, which gives
us spiritual life. And just as breath is natural
to physical life, faith is natural to spiritual life. That's what
spiritual life does. It believes. It sees the invisible,
hopes in those things that it does not have, and relies on
one whom they've never seen. That's why the world calls it
foolishness. You wouldn't trust $100 to what
you trust your soul to. Someone you've never seen. Someone
whose voice you've never heard. You might as well just... I'm about to say leave your backpack
in New York City. It doesn't have much of a chance.
No. But why do we trust Him? Why
do we believe Him? Because He did something in us.
And we see things that others can't see. We know things others
can't know. We hope for things others can't
even conceive of. But that's because He did something,
not because we did. And He didn't wait on us to give
Him permission to do it. In my Father's house are many
permanent dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again, and I'll receive you unto
Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. Now I just ask
you this, to reveal your heart to you. Do you see in the work
of Christ a preparation of a place for you? Can you see that the
death of the Son of God at the hands of God the Judge was a
sufficient payment for sins such as you are guilty of? Do you
see in the Lord Jesus Christ a mighty and victorious Savior? I hope you do. Because I believe
that those that can see that, they see it because God gave
them eyes to see it. You say, I don't think I see
that. Look again. look again. And keep looking
until you see it. Keep listening to the gospel
until you believe it. And may the Lord bless His Word.