All right, brethren, let's turn
to John chapter 13. John chapter 13. I want to read
the first 20 verses. 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. 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 Christ's hands and that he was come from God and
he went to God, he riseth from supper and laid aside his garments
and took a towel and girded himself. After that he poureth water into
a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them
with a towel wherewith he was girded. Then cometh he to Simon
Peter, and Peter saith to 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. Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt
never wash my feet. Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash
thee not, thou hast no part with me. If I wash thee not, thou
hast no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord,
not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus saith
to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but
is clean every whit, and ye are clean, but not all. For He knew who should betray
Him, therefore said He, You're not all clean. So after He had
washed their feet, and had taken His garments, and was set down
again, He said unto them, Know you what I've done to you? You
call Me Master and Lord, and you say, Well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master,
have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example
that you should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither
he that is sent greater than he that sent him." You see, they
were all being sent. They were all his apostles. They
were being sent by him. and they had been or were about
to be arguing over who should be the greatest among them. And
he said, The servant's not greater than his Lord, neither he that
sent greater than he that sent him. If you know these things,
happy are you if you do them. I speak not of you all, I know
whom I have chosen, but that the Scripture may be fulfilled.
He that is bred with me hath lifted up his heel against me.
Now I tell you before it come, that when it is come to pass,
you may believe that I am he. Verily, verily, I say unto you. Now this goes along with that
word he set up there where he said, neither he that is sent
is greater than he that sent him. He said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me. And he that receiveth me receiveth
him that sent me. This could be a message for preachers. It very well could be. They were
all preachers and Christ washed their feet. And that's what it
takes for Christ to send His preacher and for their feet to
be beautiful. is for Christ to wash their feet
so that they're willing to wash one another's feet, wash the
brethren's feet. When I come here to preach to
you, I'm trying to wash your feet. That's what I intend to
do by being here is to wash your feet with this word that we're
preaching, this gospel. And Christ does the washing.
But it also applies to every believer. Because every believer
who's been chosen and redeemed and regenerated by God, every
believer wants to obey God. Every believer wants to do the
will of God. That's so of everybody born of
Him. We want to honor God. We want
to bring glory to God. We want Christ to have all the
glory in our salvation. You know, the Lord said a city
that sat on a hill cannot be hid. We are well aware, we are
not trying to do things to be seen of men, but we are well
aware that we are being seen of men. And so we want to do
nothing that will give this world and especially the religious
world, especially works religion, we don't want to give them anything
where they can accuse us or blame our Savior or blame us for whatsoever. These are the things that are
in the believer's heart. He wants to honor God and serve
God. He wants to obey, not because
he's under law, but because he's under the grace of God, and he
sees what Christ has done for him. And we have a commandment
from God. We're not without law, we have
a commandment from our Savior. He says this, 1 John 1 verse
3 says, This is His commandment, that we should believe on the
name of His Son, Jesus Christ. That's how the Sabbath day is
fulfilled in perfection. Christ did it. That's how all
the other commandments of the Decalogue is fulfilled. Christ
did it. That's how all the ceremonies fulfilled. Christ did it. Christ
did it. And He says, now you believe
on Him and through faith because He did it. That whole law is
established for His people. And He says, now, and you love
one another. This is His commandment that
you believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one
another as He gave us commandment. That means to love and to help
our brethren. It means to do everything for
the cause of the gospel, helping our brethren to take the burden
off of them. so they can be here and hear the gospel, so that
nothing interferes with hearing Christ instruct us, because this
is where Christ said, I'm going to teach you. I'm going to be
in your midst and I'm going to teach you. And we want to see
other sinners brought to this house. We want to see them brought
in, because He's calling out His sheep. We want them to hear
the gospel. We want to send this gospel far and wide into the
world. This is loving one another. doing whatever you can do to
keep the focus off of you and off of your brother and his trials
and the world and all the things that are bogging him down. Taking
those burdens off so that they can come in and sit down and
have their hearts and affections set on Christ Jesus the Lord
alone. Because there is our salvation
and there only. There only. We are not under
the law of Moses to do these things. The law never made a
man obedient. The law never made a man, it
never constrained a man just by keeping on whipping him and
policing him and disciplining him. That doesn't make him obedient.
How many laws have we added to God's laws? We just keep adding
them, adding them, adding them, adding them, adding them through
the years. And the book just gets thicker and thicker and thicker
and thicker. And we're more perverted and corrupt now than we've ever
been in history. We've got more laws and we're
more corrupt than we've ever been. No, what motivates and
moves and constrains God's child to obedience is Christ working
in the heart, through the Spirit, constraining us by His love,
by what He has done for us. That will constrain a man. That
will constrain a man. Faith, which worketh by love,
is the rule of life for the believer. Faith, the just shall live by
faith. And that's how we live, by faith.
We don't live by sight, we live by faith. And everything we do,
we do it from the constraint of His love. As Paul said, for
the love of Christ constraineth us. So where does the believer
look then? Where do we look then if we would
know how it is that we're to live in this world? The example
and the pattern that we see and learn and are taught how to live
in this world, where do we look? Only to Christ. Only to Christ. That's the only place we look.
We look to Christ alone. Christ alone. Our Redeemer said
in verse 15, I have given you an example that you should do
as I have done to you. I've given you the example, He
said. Peter was there, and Peter heard it. And later, Peter, when
he was writing his epistle, he said this. He said, Our Savior
suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow
in His steps. We learn everything we need to
know from our Lord Jesus Christ. We learn everything we need to
know by looking to Christ. Looking to Christ. Now here's
what we're going to see in John 13. In love for God and His brethren. In love for God and His brethren.
Our Lord gives us an illustration here. How that in love for God
and for His brethren, Christ lowered Himself to the very lowest
love. And He washed us from our sins. That's what Christ did. In every
one of God's elect, He washed from our sins. And so He says
to us, we ought to love one another. We ought to love one another
by lowering ourselves to the lowest position and serving one
another as He served us. This is what He's showing us
here. Alright, first of all, let's go back up to verse 1.
First of all, Christ let nothing stop Him from loving those the
Father gave Him. And He teaches us, let nothing
stop us from loving those that are our brethren. Now look at
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 unto the end. Do you know how much must
have been weighing on our Savior's heart at this time? When it says
there, before the feast of the Passover, it's telling us that
this was the night before Christ was to die, the night before
he was to die as the true Passover. And this happened on the eve
of our Lord's death. Now this Sunday, this world recognizes
this Sunday as Easter, as the morning when our Lord was resurrected
from the dead. That's not the day it was, it
changes every year, but if this Sunday was the day that our Lord
was resurrected from the grave, tonight would be the night that
this happened. Tonight would be the night that this took place,
right here. That's how close it was. He would
be looking tomorrow at going to the cross. That's how close
this was. Now, I want you to see here that
Christ's work was upon the work of His Father. I mean, Christ's
heart was upon the work of His Father. That's what He was thinking
of. It says, verse 1, When Jesus knew, He knew that His hour was
come, that He should depart out of this world, unto the Father.
He knew that. He knew the hour for which this
world was made had come. Do you know the hour for which
this world was made? Why was this world made? It was
made for one hour. For one particular hour. In Colossians
he said he made everything so that Christ might have all preeminence. That's where he gets all preeminence,
right there in that one hour. And the Lord knew that hour had
come. He knew that hour had come. He knew God's law had to be honored. And he knew he would accomplish
it. He knew that God's justice must
be satisfied. And he knew he was going to accomplish
it. He knew that God's elect had to be reconciled to God.
And he knew he was the one that's going to do it. He knew that
God's elect must be made the righteousness of God in him. And he knew he was the only one
that would accomplish it. And also as He looked towards
that hour, our Lord knew also that when He went to that cross,
He was going to bear unparalleled, indescribable horror and shame
on that cross. He knew that He would bear the
sins of God's elect in His own body on the tree. I don't even know how I can come
close to saying what that would be like for you and me. We can't enter into it. How would
you like to be stripped naked? No, you're going to be stripped
naked tomorrow and out here in the square and everybody in town
is going to come by and beat you and spit on you and ridicule
you and reproach you and all that. But that wasn't half of
it. He knew he was going to bear. Not only shame and reproach for
men, but the shame and reproach of the sins of His people. He
knew He was going to stand before God the Father, that God that
He loved and served, and God the Father wouldn't even look
on Him. He that took two pure eyes to
behold iniquity was not even going to look upon Him. He was
going to separate Himself from Him. so that He would pay the
wages of sin that His people owe, which is eternal death.
He knew that. He knew that. He knew He was
going to lay down His life, the Spirit go out of Him, and His
body is going to be laid in a tomb. How would you like to know? Tomorrow
you're going to die. Really die tomorrow. He knew that while He was sitting
there having this supper with His disciples. And He also knew
this to show the victory that He accomplished over sin, death
and hell. He knew He was going to leave
this world and go to His Father and be with His Father. Oh the
joy, the rejoicing that that would be. That's the joy that
was set before Him. Now He had all that on His mind
and on His heart and at the same time At the same time, as his
heart set on this work of his Father, his heart is set entirely
on those he loved. Look at verse 1. 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. You know, whenever we have
a fearful and just highly important thing ahead of us, it's fearful,
it's something, it's a highly important task that we have ahead
of us. Whenever that's the case, we
have a tendency to become self-absorbed, to be thinking about ourselves,
about what we're about to face. Or if it's something incredibly
joyful, we do the same exact thing. We do the same. But either
way, our loved ones tend to sort of fade into the background. And we kind of consider what
we're important and what we're about to do is most important.
But with our great Redeemer, not the terror of the cross,
not the weighty responsibility of the cross, not the joy and
the rejoicing He would encounter with the Father could ever turn
Him from loving and caring for those that the Father gave Him
out of this world. He never could. Brethren, do
you know that His own are not just those that were sitting
at that table? His own are all those the Father gave to Him
from eternity. That's who His own are, having loved His own.
They're His own by God's Father's gift. He chose them and gave
them to His Son. There He is by His purchased
redemption. He bought them. There He is.
And there He is by the Holy Spirit's regenerating grace. There He
is. They're His own. And Christ loves His own to the
end. He loves them to the end. Not
only to the last. Not only to that point that is
the end, that point that's the last. But to the farthest extent
of our need of His grace, He loves us. He knew Philip was
going to act like he never knew him. In just a few pages over,
Philip's going to say, well, if you'd show us the Father,
it's suffice, son. Philip, have I been with you
this long and you don't know me? He knew that they'd argue
over who was going to be the greatest. He knew that. And while
they're doing that, be exalting themselves over their Lord and
their Master. He knew that. And yet he loved
them. He loved them. He knew the three
of them were going to sleep in just a minute when he told them
to the Garden of Gethsemane. They were going to fall asleep
while he's sweating drops of blood and agonizing in his heart.
Yet he loved them. He loved them. He knew Peter's
going to deny him three times. He knew Thomas was going to doubt
him. And he knew they all were going to forsake him. And yet
he loved them. Brethren, he knows this and more
about every one of his chosen redeemed saints sitting right
here now. He knows this. Until the end of our miserable
failures, He loves us. Until the end of our unworthiness,
He loves us. Until the deepest end of our
deepest need, yet He loves us. That's who He is. Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday, today, and forever. There's no shadow
of turning with our God. He said, I've loved you with
an everlasting love. And that's who He is. Now here's
the first thing for us to know. Christ said, I've given you an
example that you should do as I've done to you. If you know
these things, He said, happy are you if you do them. Here's
the first thing for us to know. Christ upholds the holy and righteous
requirements of God. Christ alone upholds the holy
and righteous requirements of God while at the same time loving
and ministering to His people in the world. And the fact of
the matter is, they're one in the same thing. You can't separate
them. While He's upholding holiness
and righteousness on the cross for His people, He's loving and
ministering to His people. That's right. He went to that
cross because he loved God and he loves those the Father gave
to him. That's why he went to the cross. And God's love and
righteousness and holiness are inseparable. He loves in righteousness. He loves in holiness. That's
how God loves. Now, his grace and his love constrains
us not to compromise the truth of the gospel. That's what he
had his mind on, going to that cross. And when he enters our
hearts, He makes us not to compromise the truth of God, of Christ our
righteousness and Christ our sanctification. He makes it so
you won't compromise that truth. Your heart, your mind is set
on that cross, just like His heart and His mind was set on
that cross. And when He enters in, at the same time, He makes
you to love your brethren, just like He's loved you. And that's
one and the same. That's one and the same. I'm
telling you, you can't love your brethren by compromising the
truth and speaking lies. That just don't, that's just
not, it's impossible. True love is to have your heart
set on the cross, the truth of it, without compromising it.
That's loving your brethren. And that man will do whatever
needs to be done for his brethren because of that cross and what
Christ accomplished. Alright, under this same heading,
notice this too. Christ loved his own while as
yet he knew his betrayer was in his midst. Look at verse 2.
And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart
of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him. He knew that. These are things our Lord knew.
They didn't know these things. He knew these things. This shows
us that the betrayer in their midst, the devil himself ruling
Judas' heart, that couldn't stop Christ from ministering to His
people in love. It couldn't stop Him from doing
what He'd do for His people. You know what Christ said about
Himself and His church? He said the gates of hell won't
prevail against Him. The gates of hell won't prevail
against it. When Christ is working in the heart of His child, He's
going to minister to that child. No matter how the devil and the
enemies of Christ try to stop it, He's going to minister to
them. And He's going to cause His brethren to minister to His
people. No matter how this world tries
to stop it, He's going to do that. Alright, secondly. Christ loves us by taking the
lowest position of service to wash us. Look at verse 3. Jesus
knowing that the Father had given all things into His hand and
that He was come from God and went to God. Now just first look
at that verse right there. It speaks of it as if it's already
happened. Knowing that the Father had given
all things into His hand and that He was come from God and
went to God. It speaks like it's already done. Well, the fact
of the matter is Christ's dominion as the mediator is an eternal
dominion. He's the Son of God. And Christ
being our surety ship, being our surety and the one in whom
His people are accepted, that's been from eternity. He came and
accomplished it in time, but it's done from eternity. The
works were finished from the foundation of the world. He's
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He came from God
to redeem His people from our sins as our King. And He went
back to God, having redeemed His people from our sins, as
our King. That's who He is. And that night,
that was so, and it's so now. And as the King, as God Himself
and man, the God-man, this One who is almighty, all-powerful,
the monarch of the universe, look what He did. Knowing himself
to be God Almighty, he humbled himself to wash the feet of his
saints. Now, before we look at this,
you know in those days that was a custom. If you come to somebody's
house, you've been traveling, you've had on sandals, you've
been traveling across the desert, the courteous custom was is that
you wash their feet. But now the owner of the house
didn't do it. The master of the house didn't do it. He had a
servant, and usually it was the lowest servant because, quite
frankly, nobody wants to wash nasty feet. So that was the lowest,
most menial job there was in the house, was to wash the feet
of the guests. Nobody even would notice the
person washing the feet of the guest. He's just down there washing
their feet. It's not like they went and had
a massage. He's just getting his feet washed.
He wants to get on in the house with the people and enjoy the
dinner. Christ here takes that and uses it as a way to illustrate
what He did for us in coming from heaven to here to minister
to His people. Look at John 13, verse 4. It
says, He arose from supper. He arose from supper. Just like
He arose from His throne in glory when the hour came, when the
time came. Verse 4 says, He laid aside His
garments and took a towel and girded Himself. Just like the
Son of God humbled Himself and became a man. This one who is
God, laid aside His deity. He didn't lay it aside, but He
didn't come as God. He came as a servant. He humbled
Himself, took upon Him the form of a servant in the likeness
of sinful flesh. And verse 5 says, And He poured
water into a basin, just like as He poured out His precious
blood on the cross to wash His people. He's the laver we have
to enter in through to enter into the tabernacle. And look,
verse 5 says, "...and He began to wash the disciples' feet."
Just like He purged His people from our sins judicially on the
cross, justifying us from all the sins from which we had broken
the law of God. That's what He was doing on that
cross, justifying His people. Just like He washes us in regeneration. Remember, Paul said, It's not
the works of righteousness which we have done. But he said, but
He washed us in regeneration. It's the washing of regeneration.
And He bestowed that grace on us abundantly, he said. And He
continues to cleanse us from our sin. If any man sins, we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and
He is the propitiation for our sins. He said, if you confess
your sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Because when we walk through
this earth, we get filthy, we get defiled. We begin to exalt
ourselves over our brethren and try to take the higher seat.
And we need to be washed. We need to be washed. Verse 6.
And then He began to wipe them with a towel wherewith He was
girded. Like when He makes you a new
creature, He takes that righteousness wherewith He was girded and robes
you in that righteousness wherewith He was girded. And verse 12 says,
And after He had washed their feet, and had taken His garments,
and was set down again, He said unto them, Know ye what I have
done to you? And after Christ had redeemed His people from
all our sins, He took again those garments of His glory, and He
ascended to the Father, and He sat down at the right hand of
the Father, and now He's ministering to us, saying, Do you know what
I've done for you? That's what He's saying every
time we hear the Gospel preached. Do you know what I've done for
you? That's our message. Do you know what I've done for
you? And Christ is the teacher. He's the one teaching us in our
heart. Now, he said, if you know these things, happy are you if
you do them. Do you know these things? This
is the one thing needful. This is the one thing needful.
Peter protested. He didn't want to be washed this
way. Now, you know what Peter was doing. He didn't know he
was doing this, but when Peter protested, he just didn't want
to see the Lord humble himself down there and take that poor
position and wash his feet. But by denying that and saying,
I don't want to be washed, you don't wash me like that. By saying
that, Peter was saying, I don't want to be washed on the cross. That's too menial, that's too
low, that's too humbling, that's too beneath you to go to the
cross and die a cursed death on the cross, that shameful,
ignominious death in place of His people. He didn't know he
was saying it, but that's the same as what he was saying. And
the other thing was, the only thing making him say that was
pride. Pride. That's it. Pride. And the Lord said in verse
8, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Brethren, hear
what the Lord is saying. Pride will destroy you and it
will destroy me. It's not by our works we're going
to be saved. No, no. That can't be. And it's
not by any ordinance we do. Not by baptism, not by the washing
of baptism. This is not an ordinance here,
the foot washing. This is an example the Lord gave
us. But that's not going to save you. Nothing like that. In fact,
the Lord washed Judas. He washed Judas' feet. Judas
was there and He washed his feet. And it had no effect on Judas
whatsoever. And it didn't have any effect
on the rest of them either. It was just an outward illustration
He was giving. But by it not having any effect
on Judas, you see by that, that when Christ Himself washed him
outwardly, it didn't do anything to him. That ought to tell us
if me and you go through some ordinance like baptism, that's
not going to save us. That's not going to wash away
our sin. Outward works is not going to save you. He said this,
I must wash thee, or you have no part with me. Christ must
wash us. That's the thing needful. Christ
must wash us. He must wash us judicially before
the law. He must wash us experimentally
in our hearts, making us new creatures. And He must wash us
continually by His persevering grace, ever living to make intercession
for us. Jesus, verse 10, Jesus said to
him, He that's washed, He's clean as it went, and you are clean.
That's what He told the Christians. Some of you were... He's told
them you were drunkards, and you were sodomites, and you were
thieves and robbers and all this. And He said, but you're washed.
You're washed. You're sanctified. You're justified. That's the work of Christ. He
said, I must do this or you can't have a part with me. If He don't
wash us, we can't come into His presence. Just like Robert was
saying there, His righteousness and His holiness is His glory,
that glow, and it's so bright and so brilliant, we cannot come
into His presence unless we've been made the very righteousness
and holiness of God Himself. And the only way that can be
is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only
way. Christ does it. And He brings it to us and teaches
us this, and then brings us to rest in Him that He is our righteousness
and He is our holiness. Alright, lastly. Christ teaches
us to love one another as He loves us. Alright, verse 13. He says, You call me Master and
Lord, and you say, Well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord
and your Master, have washed your feet, if I have gone to
the cross of Calvary and done for you what I have done for
you, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I've given
you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, the servant's not greater than his Lord. We're
not going to get away with not serving one another. And we're
not going to get away with exalting ourselves over one another. We're
not going to get away with trying to exalt ourselves over Christ.
He won't have it. And He's going to bring His people
down because the servant's not greater than the Lord. Neither
is He that is sent greater than He that sent Him. Christ sent
His preachers and He sent His people and we're not greater
than Him. If you do these things, happy
are you that do them. Let me give you two or three
things and I'll be done. Not one of us is greater than
our Lord Jesus Christ. Not one of us is greater than
our Master and our Lord. He says, if I then, your Lord
and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash
one another's feet. With His great work before Him,
looking at that work before Him, He loved us. That's what we saw
in the beginning. With that great work before Him,
He loved His people. Brethren, whatever work we have
before us, whatever we have that's so all important in our life,
we ought to still love one another. with the pain of the cross before
Him. The pain of that cross before Him. He loved us. With trials
before us, in the midst of a trial, we ought to still love one another.
Still love one another. Even though we're in the midst
of the trial, even though it's painful, we ought to still love one another.
Until the end, He loved us. We ought to love one another,
faults and all, right to the end. to the furthest need that
they have. You know when somebody is treating
you, when a brother or sister is being a horse's rear to you,
that's when they need you to love them the most. That's when
they need, that's when, isn't that the case with us? We need
Him to go to the end in loving us, to the farthest point of
our fall to love us. And that's when a person really
needs you to love them. And with the devil in his midst,
he loved his people. If the devil tries to stop us,
love one another. He hates that. Love. Love one another. Condescending
from his throne in glory, Christ came down to this earth, lowly
manger, and then down to the cross. Down, down, down he went
to redeem his people. Christ said, now if I've done
this for you, we ought to take the lowest service that we can
take to serve our brethren, serve one another. And He washed us. He washed us. He washed our feet.
He washed us clean so that no sin will ever be laid against
one of His people. You know what we ought to do for one another?
We ought to wash one another. We ought to cover one another's
sins. And I mean by that not talking about them, not talking
to them about them amongst your family, not talking to them about
them in your mind, just thinking about them, not talking to them
about other people, not even, because that just is going to
eat like a canker and just grow and grow and grow and grow and
grow. And the Lord said, when you're picking out the splinter
in somebody else's eye, you've got a cross tie in your own eye.
We ought to love one another by covering their sins. Covering their sins. He washed
us. And then He laid down His life
for us. That's how we should love one another. By laying down
our lives for one another. I don't mean just hear this tonight
and walk out of here and just go another week like we went
through this week. I mean walk out of here by God's grace saying, Lord,
I want to love you and my brethren like I've never done before.
I want to be committed to Christ and to His gospel and to His
people like I've never been before. Not because I have to, not because
I'm being yoked by law, but because I see what great condescension
my Savior made to come down here and redeem me and take me to
God. That's why. I hear people say
things like, they'll call me and ask about a church somewhere,
and I'll say, well, there's one in such and such a place. Well,
that's like an hour or better. Well, I wonder if I said, you
know, about an hour or better over there, they're giving away
a million dollars today to whoever shows up to get it. I bet I'd
just hear a ba-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, and they'd be hung up on me.
Whatever is our treasure, Whatever is our life, that's where we'll go, that's
what we'll do, that's what we'll sacrifice for. Whatever is our
treasure, whatever is our life. And then here's something else.
This is important too. If someone's trying to love you,
if someone's trying to love you, let them love you. Let them love
you. We're so proud. We're like Peter. Oh, don't wash me. We had to
be regenerated by the Holy Spirit and called out of that darkness
before we'd ever even bow to Christ and say, okay, I need
to be washed and this is the only way I can be saved, this
is how I want to be saved. But you know, we so often, somebody
will have a fall on hard times or something like that and they
can't pay the bills or something or they can't pay the gas bill
to get to the services or something like that and you say, we're
going to do that for you, we're going to help you with that.
Oh, no, no, no, no, I'm not going to let you do that. One time
that happened to me. And I started that, no, no, I
can't let you do that, I can't let you do that. And you know
we're just lying through our teeth, because in our hearts
we're going, I'd really like to take that, but I can't do
it because I'm too proud to do it. When a man told me, he said,
the Lord has blessed me by making me the righteousness of God.
And He's provided for me from the day He called me by His grace,
even before I knew Him. And He said, and He's given me
this heart to want to help you. Don't take that blessing away
from me. Don't refuse that blessing. And I realized, that's just pride.
It's just pride. You go out and do some things
for some people and see how few people will let you do something
for them for free. They want to pay you back. They want to
pay you back. Let them do something for you.
If somebody wants to love you, help you out in any way, shape,
form, or fact, let them do it. I'm talking about your brethren.
Let them do it. And then lastly, notice this. This is true happiness. What I'm talking to you about,
what the Lord's saying here is true happiness. This is true
happiness. It's to know Christ and to obey
Him. To love one another and serve
one another. This is true happiness. Verse 17, He said, If you know
these things, happy are you if you do them. That's right. He doesn't say, if you do them,
I'm going to then make you happy. He says, happy are you. Happy
are you if you do them. Those who see what He's done
and are happy and blessed and cheerful because of what He's
done, they're happy because of what He's done. And happier you,
if you do these, it's because you are happy. You're happy. God loves a cheerful giver. He won't have any other kind
of service but a happy service, a cheerful service. That's it.
That's the only kind. If it's, oh, I've got to get
up and go to church. Oh, I've got to go down here
and help this fellow out. I've got to do this. I've got
to do that. I get to preach. I get to study the Bible. I get
to travel and preach the gospel to people. I get to do it out
so that God's people can have. I get to not give to my children
so that we can give the gospel to you. I get to do that. I'm
happy. I get to do it. That's happiness. It's happiness.
All right. Amen.