May I please Almighty God to
bless us together this evening. As we meditate in his word, let
us turn to the Gospel of John, chapter 13, and we'll read verse
seven. The Gospel of John, chapter 13,
and reading verse seven. Jesus answered and said unto
him, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. These words were of course spoken
to Simon Peter in response to a question that he asked the
Lord. He said, Lord dost thou wash
my feet? Something of course that the
disciples were not expecting. And yet it was that which the
Lord graciously did to them and instructed them by it, and instructs
us by it. Indeed, it's a wonderful truth
because how relevant, if we think about it, we all need to be washed,
we all need to be cleansed from all our sin. Indeed, cleansed
through the precious blood of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, the Lord speaks to Peter
and of course speaks to the other apostles in this very wonderful
occasion in the upper room. What a time it must have been,
what a blessed time it must have been. We try and ponder it to
think that they went there to carry out the Passover once again
which they had no doubt done all their lives and yet really
in reality it was the last Passover because the Lord instituted then
the Lord's Supper. On this occasion, of course,
the Lord's Supper, which we are privileged to carry on in the
day and age in which we live after all these years, shows
forth to us the deeper significance than that which, of course, was
signified in the Passover. How dim the picture really was,
and yet the Lord gloriously then revealed it in the and the Lord's
Supper that we are privileged to enjoy in the day and age in
which we live. Well we should be thankful then
that we have this account so detailed in this Gospel of John
in 14th and 15th and 16th chapters and then of course the wonderful
high priestly prayer of the Saviour himself to his Father in chapter
17. So we are very privileged to
have a record of such things and we should truly bless God
for it. Often we forget, I think, to
bless God for the Word of God, for the glorious truths it contains. From Genesis to Revelation, it
is full of glorious truth, gracious instruction, wonderful words,
the words of life. May we truly prize the Word of
God, may we truly bless God for the Word of God, and may we never
tire reading it, May we ever rejoice to read it, and may it
speak to our souls as we read it. May it never be just a history
book. It is a history book. It does
give us a wonderful historical account, but far deeper than
that. I often think of that simple word, the deep that couches beneath,
underneath the surface that you and I read, there is a glorious
spiritual And so may we ever seek and pray that that may be
revealed to us, that we may rejoice in it as we journey on through
life. And so the Lord here speaks to
Peter and of course to the whole Church of God and he says, What
I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. And in our lives we find there
are many things which come into our lives that at the time we
do not understand. We perhaps feel that our life
is very mysterious. The leadings of God are very
mysterious and perhaps we might think they're very strange. But
we ought to realise that what the Apostle said, and his life
was very mysterious, when he wrote to the Romans and he said,
and we know that all things work together for good to those who
love God and to those who are called according to His purpose.
And we should not forget that such a word is addressed to those
who love God. And only those who love God are
those who are loved of God. So we can see how relative and
how important it is for us to consider the great blessing and
the great favour of knowing that God is dealing with us as sons
and daughters of the Most High God. What I do thou knowest not
now. We should not be surprised therefore
if we don't understand all the things which are occurring in
our life. No, we often perhaps journey
on Sometimes we journey on many, many years. Perhaps it's when
we come into glory that we shall find the wonderful reason why
the Lord has dealt with us such. I sometimes think upon those
wonderful words of Robert Murray McShane, who tells us in a hymn, when
this passing world is done, which it will of course, when is sunk
yon radiant sun, when the sun has risen and sunk for the last
time, when I stand, and may that be true of each one, when I stand
with Christ in glory, looking over life's history. Then, Lord,
shall I fully know, not till then, how much I owe. You see, the Lord deals with
his people in this life to prepare them for their eternal home. And therefore, as we have a word
like this tonight, what I do, it's not now, but thou shalt
know hereafter, we shall know why the Lord leads us in our
little life on this earth in one way and another, but we can
bless God if we have the evidence that he's not cast us off as
a cumbra of the ground, but in love to our souls. He's dealing
with us. It's a wonderful blessing to
have the evidence that God is dealing with us and indeed we
need to have the evidence that God is dealing with us and he's
dealing with us because of His love to our souls. It all emanates from God's love
toward us. It's amazing, isn't it, that
all the great work of God toward us, every day, every moment of
our life, is in accordance with God's divine plan for us. Nothing occurs which is not outside
of God's leading and God's directing and God's plan for us. And of
course we have so much to learn and so much to be instructed
by. You remember we have many references
in the Word of God to encourage us, just to trace out one or
two we can think of God's servant Abraham, can't we? He was probably
pretty comfortable living his life in Ur of the Chaldees. He got married there, living
there with his wife. No doubt, relations and people
that we're not told anything about. There he was and God spoke
to him and God called him. This is the great truth, isn't
it? He was called to go out into a place which he should receive
for an inheritance. And what did he do? And it's
always good to read what the Word of God tells us on such
occasions as this, because I'm sure it wasn't an easy position
for him, but he obeyed. He went out not knowing whether
he went. And of course, the Lord led him
about and instructed him. Yes, he did. In a very strange
way. It wasn't a local journey. He
went many, many miles up to Haran to start with and then across
to Canaan. You look on the map, it's a long
way. And yet you see he was obeying
the Word of God and this Word would have been very true. Would
I do that? No, it's not now. Abraham didn't
really know. God had come and spoken to him
and said He would bless him and would prosper him. He didn't
know where he was going, but he trusted God. When you and I can trust God
for all the future, for everything in our little lives, to know
that what God does is best for us and to realise that God is
leading us as We read in the 107th Psalm, He led them forth
by the right way that they might go to a city of habitation. You see, God doesn't make any
mistakes. We make mistakes. We make assumptions. We draw
conclusions. We look at it as man looks at
it. What a blessing it is when the
Holy Spirit comes and influences us and directs us to the grand
and glorious plan of our God. And of course the great and glorious
plan of our God is really to ever bring us closer, closer
to the Saviour, farther away from the things that we find
ourselves dealing with day by day in this vain world. And you
remember what the Apostle said when he wrote to the Philippians
a great and glorious statement in that third chapter says that
I may know Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. I wonder sometimes if
our prayer is like that. We may have many things to deal
with in our life, many things to consider, but is our chief
concern to know the Lord Jesus Christ? And that's personally,
in our own little lives, that I may know him, and the power
of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings
be made conformable unto his death. Such a statement, such
a word is really not something that you and I would really ask
for naturally. We would think, What's the purpose? And surely this is going to be
a painful pathway, this is going to be a difficult life for me. Well, it's not at all. Sometimes
the Lord does bring us into a pathway of opposition and a pathway of
affliction, but not always. We should never make an assumption
like that. But we should always be concerned
to be drawn to the Saviour and to enter into fellowship with
the Lord Jesus Christ, because that fellowship with the Lord
Jesus Christ brings us, without any doubt, to that great and
glorious place, to the cross of Christ. And we view Him by
faith, suffering, all incarnate God could bear, with strength
enough and none to spare, in order to redeem our soul. what
a great and wonderful time that is and what a blessing it is
it supersedes all the things of time all the things that we
may think about in a spiritual way you know we can think of
many things and perhaps when I want to have that experience
and I want to have that experience sometimes we try and dictate
to God, but you know God knows what is best for us and that's
why we have a statement like that. What I do, thou knowest
not now. No, but God does that which is
right and good and therefore as the Lord says, and it's very
true, but thou shalt know hereafter. The Lord leads us and directs
us and blesses the true Church of God. There is, in the true
Church of God's life, the evidence of God's blessing and God's favour. We don't want to go through life
without any favour. We don't want to go through life
without any touch from the Master's hand. We don't want to go through
life without any fellowship, without any union, without any
communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. No, may we earnestly
pray, then the Lord will bless us, because we should always
come to recognise that our life is, as the Word of God tells
us, a vapour, poof, it's gone, it's gone, and then eternity. And so how important it is that
our life consists of a desire like this, to know Him and fellowship
with the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, it's interesting that
the Apostle speaks about the power of His resurrection. You know, it was power to raise
the Blessed Lord from that dead condition. And my friends, it's
power to raise you and me into spiritual life. And so, what
a good thing it is then. to have the evidence that the
Holy Spirit of God has brought into our life the wonderful,
powerful work of the Holy Spirit to bring us into the glorious
light of the Gospel so that we can rejoice in all that it contains
and desire to be led into all truth as it is in Jesus. Well, the Lord blessed Abraham. He blessed Abraham with faith. My friends, we touched on faith
this morning. We'll just touch on faith again tonight. You and
I need faith, God-given faith, to understand this truth. What I do, they know it's not
now. And to have faith to believe
that what the Lord is doing for us is for our eternal good. And he's leading us in the right
way. And we shall know hereafter We need the blessing of God to
convey to us living faith, to believe this great and glorious
truth, and not to get worked up about things, not to think,
well, I don't know why this is in my life. Ponder it. Think about it. Is it for your
or my eternal good? You see, the Lord deals with
His children in this way. You know what that is? Love to
our souls. Love to our souls, whatever it
is. To the people of God, it is in
love to our souls. What a mercy that is, surely.
Especially as then the Holy Spirit directs us, as I've said, to
come to the cross, to see then the cost of our salvation. When
the Holy Spirit directs us to that, and gives us a little view
of the cost of our salvation that puts things in a right perspective. We don't then complain, we don't
then rebel, we're happy to come and be passive and humble under
that good hand of God which is upon us because of his love to
our soul. Well the Lord had a love to Abraham,
and God was with Abraham. God had to journey in a very
strange path, but nonetheless God wonderfully favoured him.
As you know, he had great temptations. He was told he would have a son
in his old age, and that exercised his faith in Sarah. It didn't
suddenly happen, did it? A good number of years, I think
it was 14 years, before Isaac was born. Yes, God's hand was
upon him, and surely he was in that situation. Would I do that? No, it's not now. Was it going
to happen? When was it going to happen?
Was it going to continue? Well, it came to pass. And of
course, all God's words come to pass. We can be sure of that. But just remember, it comes to
pass in God's timetable and not ours. That's the big difference.
Your time is always, but my time is not yet. We have a need of
patience to wait for God's time. Be sure of this, God's timing
is best. Your timing and my timing would be so wrong, because God
knows the end from the beginning, and you and I don't. God knows
what He's planned and you and I don't. And therefore we need
grace and patience to wait for the appearing of Almighty God.
And so, to remember that God's servant Abraham, he obeyed. He obeyed God. That's a good
thing, isn't it? That's a good word, isn't it?
It's a necessary word, isn't it? Sometimes we like to obey
ourselves. No, Abraham obeyed God. And we today, many years later,
are still to walk this path of obeying God. There is a way that
seemeth right unto a man, but the way thereof is a ways of
death. And that's a very solemn word. You read that twice in
the book of the Proverbs. It's clearly put there for a
real reason. And so we should not follow the
way that just seems right, but we should follow the way that
is right, and the way not always be clear to us. And that means
we have to rest in the Lord. That means the way we have to
pray under God, that He will indeed bless us indeed. Well, we have Abraham, and I'm
sure you remember God's servant Moses, another character in God's
Word, a wonderfully blessed character. What I do thou knowest not now,
but thou shalt know hereafter. And sometimes I think of that
word in the Acts of the Apostles. I think it's in Stephen's, what
we call Stephen's Apology, when he gave a brief history of how
Israel had been led about. And he speaks about Moses and
he said, this is what Moses did. Moses supposed that his brethren
His brethren would have understood how that God by His hand would
deliver them, but they understood not. That was a blow, wasn't
it, for Moses? He'd been 40 years in Pharaoh's
household, he'd learnt all the position of how to organise himself
and to operate and He thought, well, now's the time. God's ordained
for me. No, said God, you've got a lot
to learn yet, Moses. Forty years in the wilderness. That wasn't easy. And in the
back side of the desert. Lonely existence, really. Looking
after sheep. Such a different position. But God was graciously dealing
with him. what I do they'll know it's not
now. You see Moses didn't really know what was occurring, why
was that? But the time came when God appeared
to Moses in a wonderful way in that burning bush. He then had
no doubt that God was in it, but at that time of course poor
Moses had been brought right down. So he didn't think he was
then the greatest, He didn't think he was the chap that was
going to lead Israel out. He then thought, I'm not the
suitable one. I'm not the one. He changed around,
you see. What had God done? He brought
Moses right down in his own estimation. What a blessing that is. When
God brings us down in our own estimation so that we don't think
we're the person to do this or do that. No. We have to say,
Lord, I'm not suitable, I'm not the right person. But he was. And therefore after 80 years,
it came to pass that he was the one. The fulfillment of the words
spoken to him over 40 years ago had come to pass. And therefore,
what I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. And therefore Moses came to that
knowledge. And of course God was with him
then for those 40 years of leading Israelites through the wilderness. Yes, God was so gracious to him.
And Moses was so wonderfully blessed. But we see, don't we,
the preparation of God. And you and I sometimes may think,
well, I'll do this and prepare myself. No, God prepares us.
We don't prepare ourselves. God prepares us. We make mistakes. If we were to prepare ourselves,
we'd prepare in a nice easy way. You see, God prepares us in the
right way. And so it was with Moses. Yes,
what I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. Just one more illustration, well
known I'm sure, and that's the case of Joseph. I'm sure we're
familiar with Joseph, aren't we? Well, the Lord again blessed
that young man with those two dreams, most remarkable dreams,
really very clear in the interpretation, and Joseph had no doubt about
the interpretation and therefore he was able to tell his brethren.
Of course his brethren weren't very happy about it, they didn't
like it, and no doubt They all thought it would perhaps, or
at least Joseph thought it would come to fruition quite soon,
but no, it didn't. And Joseph had to pass through
a very hard time. We might say much more difficult
than Abraham, much more difficult than Moses. But we're told with
Joseph, and it's good that the Psalms give us the clue now,
give us the information now about Joseph, in the 105th Psalm, we
read, until the time that his word came, the word came to Joseph,
until the time that his word came, the word of the Lord tried
him, tried him. Just imagine all those years,
years in prison, sold into Egypt. What was going to happen? Was
that dream true? Was it going to come to pass? What I do thou knowest not now,
but thou shalt know hereafter. In due time, it came to pass. And of course, most remarkable,
wasn't it? That was quickly brought to fruition. in a wonderful way, a way that
of course Joseph would never have thought of, that he would
be so elevated under the King. God's way is perfect. So as we have this word tonight,
what I do there, no it's not now. No, we don't know very often
what the Lord's purpose is for us and we paint our own picture.
we find the picture is often very incorrect and sometimes
we may expect that to occur sometimes we may think God has
given us a word and we're waiting for that word to be fulfilled
we wait on and we wait on and it's not fulfilled because it
wasn't from God You may say, well, how am I to analyse that? I'll tell you how you ought to
analyse that. If you have a word from God and
you expect it to come to pass, are you going to claim any honour
for yourself? Are you perhaps going to say,
well, I prayed for that and now it's come to pass. And what are
you doing? You're claiming some honour for
yourself. And what is it? It's pride. God is a jealous God. And God
will not allow us to be proud of things in our life. God works. As he says, I will work, and
who shall hinder it? It's God that works, not you
and me. We have to analyse ourselves
very carefully. And of course, we're told, aren't
we, The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. What a mercy it is when God gives
us grace to search out in our little lives whether what we
think God has given us with regard to some future scene or situation
is emanating from Him. It may be we've got to ditch
it. Maybe we have to throw it away.
recognising it was just our own heart's desire. Well, bless God
then, if God gives us right words, right encouragements, and we
are totally dependent upon the Lord to bring them about. These
people, Abraham, Moses and Joseph, they were totally dependent,
weren't they? They might be brought about And of course, these words
were really very true of the Apostle Paul, weren't they? What
I do thou knowest not now. Yes, he was very content with
casting all believers into prison. And yet you see God, in his sovereign
mercy to Paul, had allowed him to be brought up at the feet
of Gamaliel so that he had a very good knowledge of the law of
God. But then he had to go away for
those three years after he was converted for the Spirit of God
to instruct him. Yes, what a mercy that was. What
a blessing that was. And those two things combined,
his natural ability, which God had given him through studying
in the Ephesians and in the wonderful revelation that God had given
to him, so that he was able to understand the wonderful truth
contained in the Old Testament. The wonderful work of God. Glorious
to understand that we have so many cases in the Word of God
to encourage us today to realise it's His, God, who is working. What I do thou knowest not now,
but thou shalt know hereafter. It means that we should come
and commit our way unto the Lord. Yes, trust also in Him, and He
will bring it to pass. He will bring to pass that which
is, for His honour and His glory, then you and I will have to sink
down. Then I won't be able to pat ourselves
on the back. But we shall glorify God. We
shall praise God. And it will be for His honour
and glory. What a mercy then to realise
that we have such a kind and gracious God. He knows what we're
like. He remembers that we are dust.
Sinful dust. He deals with us in love to our
soul. He deals with us so that we shall
bring forth praise unto Him. Not praise to ourselves, praise
unto Him. What a mercy it is then to have
these leadings by the Holy Spirit. It's very humbling. Coming back
to that which we hinted at earlier. It's a wonderful blessing when
the Holy Spirit leads us to the cross of Christ. You and I can
come there. We think we can bring ourselves
there. We need the work of the Holy Spirit. Because my friends,
without it, it would just be a natural standing there. When
the Holy Spirit comes and applies his word, and by faith then,
We view the suffering Saviour dying upon Calvary's cross, shedding
His precious blood for our sin. It brings things then into a
right perspective. It's then, you see, that we do
truly rejoice in the glorious work of salvation, the glorious
plan of God. We see a beauty in it. We see
a glory in it. We see it as something we couldn't
have planned for ourselves. No, it's the work of God. And
to Him belongs the honour. And to Him belongs the glory. And how humbling it is to recognise
that God, in love to our soul, has enabled us to come and stand
there and by faith to view the suffering Lord God Almighty suffering
for us, shedding His precious blood for us, washing away all
our sin. You and I can't take away our
sin ourselves. Oh, it's there. But bless God,
He can remove it all. He can take it all away. And
as the Apostle Paul says in the 1 Corinthians 6 chapter and such
were some of you can read that list and such were some of you
but ye are washed ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye
are justified how? by our own ability? not at all
in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. You see, it's the Spirit's work.
The Blessed Spirit's work. And that's why it makes, in our
spiritual life, the work of the Spirit of God very real and very
precious. We might think sometimes that
we really only come and desire to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, bless God. True believers
are Trinitarians. True believers believe in God
the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Bless God
if you and I have experienced in our innermost soul the wonderful
work of the three persons in the Trinity. You will rejoice
before God. Bless God for it. And it's a
wonderful evidence of His grace and mercy toward us. What I do
thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. We realise
that the Lord leads us into positions and situations and experience
to be able to testify of the grand and glorious truths of
the work of God in such an unworthy sinner's heart. It's all of grace. It's all because of His love.
It's all because of His mercy. My friends, you and I would desire
to extol our God. You and I would desire to honour
His great and glorious name for what He's done, for that good
hope He's given us, that hope of eternal life. Because these
revelations and these blessings to our soul give us, therefore,
that hope of eternal life. Our condition is not hopeless.
It's a good hope, through grace, that one day we shall be found
with Him in glory around that throne of God in heaven. Oh,
what a prospect it is, surely, to the true and living household
of faith. And so may we bless God for it,
and may we thank God for it, and to think that Lord Jesus
Christ came down in this sinful world and crowned with glory
and honour." My friends, do you and I crown Him? Lord of Lords, in our heart,
for all that He's done, for all His mercy and love and grace?
You see, the true Church of God will desire and will honour and
glorify Almighty God. You see, our God is to be honoured
and glorified. That's what we're on this earth
for. For the honour and glory of God. We're not here for ourselves. We're not here to just carry
on in this life aimlessly. We are the children of God. It's
for the honour and glory of God. Ponder it. Think about it. It's
very relevant. It's very important. What will
I do? Thou know'st not now, but thou
shalt know hereafter. The blessed work of God in the
soul. The blessed prospect for us of
glory at last. It's all of the work of God. And we shall be as nothing that
Christ and God the Father and God the Son may be all in all.
And we shall then bow down and worship the ever-living and true
God. Well, I hope all of us have bowed
down and worshipped. If we haven't, may we indeed
be brought to that place where we do bow down before our God
and worship. What I do thou knowest not now,
but thou shalt know hereafter. Amen.