? Forbid it, Lord, that I should
boast ? ? Save in the death of Christ my God ? ? All the vain
things that charm me most ? ? I sacrifice them to His blood ? See from
his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled
down. Did e'er such love and sorrow
meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown? ? Were the whole realm
of nature mine ? ? That were a present far too small ? ? Love
so amazing, so divine ? ? Deep is my love, my life, my all ?
Thank you. Morning. Turn with me to Amos
chapter 3. A couple of books past Daniel. Amos 3, hear this word that the
Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against
the whole family, which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,
You only have I known of all the families of the earth. Therefore
I will punish you for all your iniquities. Can two walk together
except they be agreed? Will a lion roar in the forest
when he hath no prey? Will a young lion cry out of
his den if he have taken nothing? Can a bird fall in a snare upon
the earth where no djinn is for him? Shall one take up a snare
from the earth and have taken nothing at all? Shall a trumpet
be blown in the city and the people not be afraid? Shall there
be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it? Surely the
Lord God will do nothing But he revealed his secret under
his servants the prophets the lion hath roared who will not
fear the Lord God hath spoken who can but prophesy and who
came to prophecy Publish in the palaces of Ashdod and in the
palaces in the land of Egypt and say assemble yourselves upon
the mountains of Samaria and behold the great tumults in the
midst thereof and the oppressed in the midst thereof For they
know not to do right sayeth the Lord who store up violence and
robbery in their palaces Therefore thus saith the Lord God an adversary
there shall even shall be even round about the land, and he
shall bring down the strength for me, and my palaces shall
be spoiled. Thus saith the Lord, as the shepherd
taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of
an ear, so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell
in Samaria, in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch.
Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord God,
the God of hosts, that in the day that I shall visit the transgressions
of Israel upon him, I will also visit the altars of Bethel, And
the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground.
And I will smite the winter house with the summer house. And the
houses of ivory shall perish. And the great houses shall have
an end, saith the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we come to you again
this morning thankful for the message you brought us this morning.
Father, I just ask that, and we ask that, never let us look
to ourselves, to our own righteousness for anything. Father, let us
always look to what Christ did completely. leaving nothing for
us other than death and destruction that we can bring upon ourselves.
And Father, we can't even do that to ourselves if you're for
us. And Father, we ask that you watch
over this congregation, Lord, and whether it be a small number
of us or if you decide to, you know, raise it tenfold, Father,
let the gospel always be preached here. And Father, we ask that
you watch over us as we listen to the second message. Lord,
let us open our eyes, open our hearts and our ears, Father. And we just ask that you watch
over and care for us as we go through the week. And Lord, don't
let this be something that we hear on the weekend and forget
during the week, and just come back on Sunday and hear it and
forget it, and consistently do that, Lord. Let us always hear
this message and know this message as we go through the week, and
Lord, we just ask that you watch over and care for us in Christ's
name. Our second hymn is 110, Alas,
and Did My Savior Bleed, 110. Alas, and did my Saviour bleed,
and did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I? Was it for crimes that I have
done He groaned upon the tree Amazing pity, grace unknown And
love beyond degree Well, might the sun in darkness
hide and shut his glories in? Would Christ, the mighty Maker,
die for man, the creature's sin? But drops of grief can ne'er
repay The debt of love I owe. Here, Lord, I give myself away,
Tis all that I can do. Oh, it's cloggy. Still. All right, brother. Take your Bibles and turn to
John chapter 13. John chapter 13. And our text
is verses 31 through 38. So it's the rest of chapter 13. So in verse 31, the betrayer,
Judas the betrayer, has gone out to work his evil errand to
destroy Christ. He's set on destroying the Christ. And when he leaves, we're brought
into a very tender dialogue between our Lord and his true disciples. We know from this point of history,
we know that our Lord is soon going to the cross, where he's
going to accomplish our redemption. He's delivering his people from
eternal death and separation from their God, and he's making
them his own people. He's going to put away their
sin, and they're going to put His body, His dead body in a
tomb, and He's going to rise again in glory. And He's going to ascend to the
Father in glory for His people. But the disciples, they don't
know this. They don't understand these things
the way we now understand them, or the way that they're going
to soon understand them. And so putting yourselves in
their place, they're about to go through a very hard and trying
time. It's going to be very difficult
for them. And so Christ speaks words to
strengthen his disciples. It won't be a comfort for them
right in that moment, because they don't understand it fully.
But it's going to be a great comfort to them. It's going to
be something that they reflect upon. The words that he spoke
with understanding is, oh, he spoke of his death. He spoke
of his resurrection. He spoke of what he was accomplishing
for me. But they're going through a time
of trial, and so they're not going to understand what he's
saying at this time. But it's going to prove very
useful and comforting to them, because the fact is they're going
to understand and realize we forsook the Lord. We turned our
back on the Lord. We fled from him. And that can
weigh heavy on the heart and the mind of someone when they've
done something so wrong and now see the error of their way. And so the Lord speaks very tenderly
to them to which they will be able to reflect upon later and
know the Lord loves me and he did this for me. And I see now
how wonderful and how gracious he is and how great a God we
serve. I've titled this, A Timely Lesson
on Love. A Timely Lesson on Love. And the first thing we see here
is the glorification of Christ. He says, well it says in verse
31, therefore when Judas was gone out, Jesus said, now is
the son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. And so Judas takes himself out,
going to work wickedness, going to do that which is evil and
wicked on his part. And when he leaves, there's this
great relief. The tension is gone. The betrayer,
the enemy, the deceiver, he's gone. He's left. And so it's
Christ and his disciples, his true disciples whom he loves.
And now he can speak freely of his sufferings, of his death,
and what he's going to accomplish for his people in his death and
resurrection. And he tells them about their
conduct, what their conduct is to be like toward one another
in the kingdom of God, because this is his family. These are
his disciples, his true disciples. And he's gathered them together.
He's brought them into his kingdom. and he's teaching them how we
are to live and what he's done for us, that we would seek him
and cry out to him with that understanding of what he's accomplished
in making us accepted in the beloved. And so our Lord says,
with Judas having gone, he says, now is the son of man glorified. Now is the Son of Man glorified. Judas has now gone off to do
what he's going to do, and the Lord is going to use that to
accomplish salvation for his people. And this work, what the
Lord's doing is glorifying the Son. Christ is glorified in His
death. The carnal man looks at Christ
dying, that shameful death on the cross, and thinks that's
a horrible way to die. And Christ did things deserving
of that. That's what the carnal natural
man thinks who knows not the true and living God. But the
reality is it glorifies him. Christ is glorified in him because
he accomplishes the redemption of all whom he loves. all whom he loves, all who were
given to him. And so it's the glorify the son
in the redemptive work, which the father gave him to do. Turn over to John 17, John 17,
Christ speaks of, of being of his glorification in verse one
and two. Verse one, Christ says, or it
says, these words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven
and said, Father, the hour is come, glorify thy son that thy
son also may glorify thee. And so the glory that we see
Christ speaking of here is his redemptive glory. He's all glories. We worship him. who redeemed
us with his own blood, who purchased us out of every tongue, tribe,
people, and nation, and gathered us together in himself to be
his people. We rejoice and sing that praise. We sing that song now and for
all eternity because we're his people. We're his own property. We are his purchase. He chose
us and purchased us and made us his own. And so Christ is
going to die for the sins of his people, not his own sins,
but for our sins, your sins and my sins. He's going to die to
put them away forever. And they're going to take down
his lifeless body, his dead body, and put it in a tomb. And then
God's going to raise him from the dead, and he's going to show
himself in his flesh, his risen flesh, so that he eats with them,
and they can touch him, and know that he literally rose from the
dead. And then he's going to ascend
to the Father, ruling and reigning over all things, implementing
the will of God, opening the seals of the book, and accomplishing
the will of God in heaven, and in earth, so that the Father
through the Son is glorified in Him. And the Son is glorified
in the Father, in accomplishing the will of the Father. And it
says in verse 2, we see this redemption glory. It says in
verse 2, as thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that he
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And so the ability to give eternal
life is a glory which is peculiar to God alone. And that's why
men today are so desperate and have been throughout ages trying
to find the fountain of youth and they're still trying to find
something equivalent to the fountain of youth because they want to,
of their own hands, reach out and take of the tree of life
and give themselves eternal life apart from God. Because that's
God's glory. The ability to give eternal life
to whom he will. And that's why the Lord says
to the wicked, you're not going to accomplish what you're trying
to accomplish. And God will frustrate the works
of the wicked. Because God and God alone gives
eternal life. Only God gives eternal life.
Only God keeps his people alive eternally. It says this in Exodus
33, verse 19. Moses asked God, show me your
glory. Show me your glory. And the Lord
says, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will
proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. And he says, and
will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will be merciful
to whom I will be merciful. So we see the glory of God to
forgive sins in grace and in mercy to whom He will, to whom
He will. And you who hope in His Son,
even now, trusting not your own righteousness, but trusting the
Word of your God, who gave to you the Son, who spared Him not,
but delivered Him up on the cross for us, His people, you believe
Him and trust Him because God, the love of God, is in your heart. That's why you believe Him. That's
why you hope in His Son, because the love of God is manifested
in your heart. It's His distinguishing grace
in His people. And you give Him all the thanks,
all the honor, all the power, all the glory, knowing this isn't
my flesh, this isn't my will, this isn't my power or my works,
but your power, your work, your will, Lord. You've done it all,
thank you, thank you. And so, that's the love of God
manifest in you, which was not manifest in those unbelieving
Jews. When Christ said, I know you,
you have not the love of God in you. But you have it in you
because God has chosen you and will be gracious to you and merciful
to you in the Son, in the Son. And so God is declaring to us
that He is glorified in the redemption of sinners because the Son has
opened the way. He's laid the highway. He's opened the fountain of His
blood wherein sinners are plunged the blood of Christ, the sin-washing,
sin- atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that apart from
the law, because the law couldn't do it, apart from the law we
are justified, declared righteous by God the Father. and God is
just in declaring us justified, because the sins are put away
in Christ. Romans 3, 26, to declare, I say
at this time, God's righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. God is glorified in
this work. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit are glorified in this redemption work of the
people of God. And so Judas is marching off
thinking that he's going to overthrow the will of God, and yet he'll
be frustrated. And God brings out of that, brings
his glorious work of redemption to save his people from their
sins. So now our Lord says in John 13, 32, if God be glorified
in him, God shall also glorify him in himself and shall straightway
glorify him, so that Christ is glorified of the Father. This
is testified to us throughout the scriptures. According to
the scriptures, Acts 13, 30, God raised him from the dead. God was pleased with the son
and he raised him from the dead. And after his resurrection, just
before he ascended up to the father, he came to the disciples
and said, all power is given unto me. over heaven and in earth,
all power, so he has all authority and therefore that means that
he's the king, he sits on the throne, he's the lord of lords
and king of kings, he's the one who rules and reigns even now
and because he's the ruling and reigning king all people, not
just you and me who are in his kingdom as happy citizens, but
all those who refuse him and do not believe him and reject
him, all will come and confess the name of Christ. All will
bend the knee to Christ and declare, Lord, you are just, you are worthy,
you are righteous. and you're just to condemn me.
And so it says in Philippians 2, 9 through 11, wherefore God
also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is
above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under
the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So God is glorified in
the Son. Having accomplished this work,
he's glorified. And the wicked, they're out of
their minds, they're upset. As Joe was saying to me in the
break, just how angry the legalist gets when you tell them that
their works count for nothing. that Christ is all, that God
is pleased with the Son and only with the Son. And the natural
man despises and hates the word of grace. But the sinner, the
child of God, the sinner saved rejoices and thanks God and blesses
him because he can't understand how God could be so merciful
to a stinky, vile sinner like me. And so we rejoice in him. And yet, we read of this anger
of the Jews. It says in Psalm 2, verses 1
through 7, I'll read it. Why do the heathen rage? and
the people imagine a vain thing. They think they're going to overthrow
God. They think that they can accomplish the equivalent of
eternal life by their own works, by their own inventions, by their
own smarts that they think that they have. But then they get
angry at the thought that God says, no. No, you're my creation,
and I'll judge who I will, and I'll be gracious to whom I will,
and my will will be done in the earth. And says, the kings of
the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us
break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. Well, he that sitteth in the
heavens shall laugh, and the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them
in his wrath, And vex them in his sore displeasure. saying,
Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare
the decree the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee. And the writers of the New Testament
tell us that's speaking of the raising from the dead the Lord
Jesus Christ, where God declares that he is justified in what
he's done. He's glorified. He's the ruler. all and that there's none like
him none like him and so we rejoice in his redemption and salvation
and so our Lord says if God be good invert back in John 13 verse
32 I'm sorry I already I'm already there so our Lord He tells his
disciples now, back in John 13, he tells his disciples here of
his death. And they don't understand, when
he's speaking of his glorification, he's speaking of the death which
he should shortly die to accomplish their salvation. And he says
this to them to assure them that what they're about to see and
experience and go through, that both the son and the father are
glorified. This is the will of God. This
is the determinate will and counsel of the Father. Nothing has gone
off the tracks. God is not frustrated. God's
will has not been moved or altered or changed in any way. This is
exactly what God has purposed. This is what he's telling them
and assuring them of it. Because this is going to happen,
because their world's about to be turned upside down, the Lord
speaks very tenderly to them. He knows that they're going to
go through a time of confusion, and distress, and pain, and sorrow. And they're going to experience
this at His departure. At His departure. And so He says
very tenderly, look at verse 33, Little children. Little children. Right? The way you spoke to your
children when they were little. The way your child came to you
and was young and acting the way they acted and not understanding
things, but you spoke to them very tenderly. Little children. Yet a little while, I am with
you. Ye shall seek me, and as I said
unto the Jews, whither I go or where I go, ye cannot come. So now I say to you." And so
that Christ knows just how awful his
disciples are going to treat him. When Christ is arrested,
when they take Christ, because Christ willingly goes with them,
when he's arrested, his disciples are going to treat him rather
poorly. They're going to be scattered.
They're going to abandon him and forsake him in order to save
themselves. And Christ knows this. And so
from the perspective of the disciples who are reflecting upon their
friendship and fellowship with the Lord, this is going to be
the low point for them. They're going to know I just
took off. I just, I ran. I was afraid. Everything he ever said to me,
I just forgot. I just blanked out and took off
to save my own skin. And when they reflect on that,
they're going to feel shame. They're going to feel sorrow.
They're going to weep when they see the weakness of their own
flesh. And so the Lord says to them,
right? He says first, little children,
which is kind words. He's teaching them. He knows
what they're going to do. And yet he says, little children. Now, let me just continue with
what he's saying here in verse 33. He says, where I go, ye cannot
come. So now I say to you, He wants
to tell them something very important before he departs. So now I say
to you, I'm not going to be here with you much longer, so now
I say to you, knowing that they're going to forsake Christ, he tells
them about loving one another and to be kind to one another
and to bear with one another, keeping in mind He knows what
they're going to do. He knows what thoughts are going
to be in their minds, what's going to be in their heart, the
weakness of their faith, their weakness of their trust in Him. And so Christ, knowing He's going
to be forsaken, speaks of love. And so he tells him this, not
in some passive aggressive way that later on they'll think about
this and be like, oh, that even hurts more. He was so kind to
me and I did this wrong to him. He's not saying these words to
shame them. He's saying these words because
he loves them and he's encouraging them to know They're His. Nothing's changed. His love for
them has not changed or been altered in any way. They're still
His disciples and He's teaching them words that they need to
know of in His kingdom and because they will be encouraged by what
the Lord is saying to them when they feel their shame and feel
cut off from the Lord. And so Christ He says to them
to love one another, so I say unto you, but I skip down to
verse 36 because all that Peter hears in this is, Lord, why can't
I go with you? Peter doesn't even hear what
the Lord's talking about in terms of love. All he heard is, I'm
going away, you can't come with me, and Peter's wondering, why
can't I go with you? That's all he's thinking about.
Why can't I go with you? It says, Simon Peter said unto
him, Lord, where goest thou? And Jesus answered him, where
I go, thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me
afterwards. You know, the Jews who died in
their sins, Christ said this in John 7, verse 34. John 7, 34, he said to them, ye shall seek me and shall not
find me. And where I am, thither ye cannot
come. And then he says later on in
John 8, that if you believe not that I am he, he said, you can't
come with me. If you believe not that I am
he, you shall die in your sins. They won't be with Christ in
glory. They'll bow the knee, and they'll
be cast into outer darkness. But the disciples of Christ,
they will be with him. They'll follow him through the
veil, through Christ, our forerunner. They'll be in glory when the
Lord determines it. But Peter is going through a
fall here. And it says, verse 37, Peter
said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay
down my life for thy sake. And so Peter here, perhaps he
means well, but he's so confident and so arrogant and proud in
his own strength and his abilities, and he's going to be humbled
and he's going to have a terrible fall. Verse 38, Jesus answered
him, will thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily,
truly, truly, I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow, the
rooster will not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice, or three
times. Peter can't even hear what the
Lord's saying because he's so strong in himself, he's so confident,
he's so sure and certain that he, all others may forsake you,
but I will never forsake you, he said to the Lord. It won't
be me that leaves you. And Paul tells us this because
this is something, he's right, Paul writes this to the churches
in Romans 12, three, because in ourselves, in this flesh,
we too are proud and arrogant and lifted up with pride and
we think ourselves to be something when we're nothing. And Paul
said, I say through the grace given unto me, to every man that
is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought
to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to
every man the measure of faith. And the faith which has been
meted out or measured out to Peter is about to be shaken,
and shown just how weak Peter is. And he's going to deny Christ
three times just as the Lord said before the cock crowed.
And it says in Luke 22 verse 61 through 62 that when he denied
Christ that third time, It says, and the Lord turned and looked
upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word
of the Lord, how he had said unto him before the cock crow,
thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. He wept bitterly. And so our
Lord, knowing this, knowing that Peter's going to forsake him,
he says back in verse 33, little children, children, yet a little while
I am with you." And he speaks tender words to comfort his broken
and humble children. Peter couldn't hear it then,
but when later on, when the Spirit brings it back to his mind, he's
comforted. at the tenderness and the love
of the Lord for Peter. Even Peter who forsook him three
times. Even Peter who shut out what
the Lord was saying and said, nope, you're right on everything,
Lord, but you ain't right on this thing. And yet the Lord
is right. And Peter being humbled would
be comforted later by these words. And so the point is is that when
When we've done something horrible, some horrible thing, and we're
sunk low in ourselves just as Peter, and the Lord turns and
looks upon us so that we know, and the word of the Lord comes
back to our heart, and we realize, we come to ourselves as the prodigal
son came to himself and realized, what have I done? What am I doing? I'm in a cold, distant, far off
place. And like Peter, we're made to
weep bitterly in sorrow for our sin. What the Lord is saying
is, when you are brought to yourself, remember these words here, which
Christ spoke knowing what his disciples would do. And he knows
us. He knows us better than we know
ourselves. And he says, little child. little child. He speaks to you
tenderly with words of love and comfort, drawing you to himself,
comforting you in his love, and that his blood has put away your
sin. It's a tender term of endearment
for one that he loves. Little child, he says to you. And so Christ loves you that
believe. And that's why you believe and
hope in him because of his love for you. And that's how Paul
words it in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13 and 14. He says, we're
bound to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you unto salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. God chose you to believe the
truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And what's the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ? His purchase of you, your redemption. God's called you to receive that,
to receive that in yourself, that new man, that creation of
Christ, that taking of you and bringing you to his bosom, to
himself in his kingdom, so that he's all our salvation and all
our life. Now, you will, you will experience
trials. in this life. You will experience
the trial of faith just like Peter experienced the trial of
faith. You will go through dark and
tough times just as Peter and these disciples here went through
tough and difficult times, but Peter's faith was found. When
we're shaken and when we go through the trial, it's to bring forth,
to make evident the faith that God has given to you. It's to
show you the faith that God has given to you so that we see,
Lord, you didn't let me go. You kept me. You turned me back
to yourself. And Peter was shaken like this,
but he could write the epistle in 1 Peter 1 7-9. It says, Peter
wrote that the trial of your faith, being much more precious
than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire,
might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing
of Christ. Whom having not seen, ye love. In whom though now ye see him
not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation
of your souls. And the Lord has done this for
us. He writes a little bit later in that epistle, that ye should
show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness
into his marvelous light. God is glorified in being gracious
to whom he will be gracious and being merciful to whom he will
be merciful. And you better believe, you can
believe and trust the Lord that he is gracious to us and merciful
to us. and not dealing with us as our
sins deserve, but being gracious to us in the Lord Jesus Christ,
who has shed his blood to put away all your sin. Rest in him,
believe him, trust him, that you're glorifying the Lord. Not
that we go out and sin that grace might abound, but we trust him
because we do sin. When you sin, when you sin, you
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. You
have the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust him, brethren. And so Peter
knew what it was, intimately, he knew what it was to fall,
and he was humbled, and the Lord restored him, and the Lord made
him thankful, And Peter began to minister the word of God to
the sheep, just as the Lord called him to do. After that fall, and
the Lord said, feed my sheep, and Peter wrote beautiful words
in that epistle, and Paul writes the same words, showing us the
tenderness that our God has for us, knowing what we are, knowing
what we've done and what we will do, and the Lord has called us
and is gracious to us in His Son. And so, maybe they didn't
hear it at first, but these words will prove valuable to Peter.
When he says in John 13, verse 34 through 35, a new commandment I give unto
you, that ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye
also love one another. By this shall all men know that
ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." And so
this is This salvation and what the Lord's
done for us in bringing us together as a family, He's established
us in His love and He fills our hearts with love so that we are
tender and loving and patient with one another. and that we
forgive one another when we've sinned against another. And the Lord teaches us to treat
one another as He's dealt with us in Christ. You know, it says
in Leviticus 19, 18, thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge
against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself, I am the Lord. And Christ held no grudge against
Peter. And so we're not to hold grudges,
even if we're wrong. really wronged or somebody does
something to us, we're not to hold a grudge and say, boy, I
hope the Lord just pays them back real good. I hope they get
what's coming to them. Pray that the Lord give us a
forgiving heart and an understanding heart and patience and that the
Lord be merciful and forgive them. And that he melts the heart
with grace and mercy, just as we hope he deals with us every
time we deserve wrath and anger and judgment, but he's gracious
to us. And that's how we minister grace
to others that we've been shown is by being gracious. And even
when They've done nothing to deserve us being gracious to
them. But he says, don't bear any grudge. And Christ didn't bear any grudge
against Peter. But he spoke kindly, little children. He spoke to his true disciples,
little children. You're going through a tough
time. You're going to forsake me. Your faith's going to be
shaken. But I'm going to restore you
in my love, wash you clean by my blood. Peter, and Peter was
arrogant about it too, and he denied them three times, even
knowing Christ warned him and said, you're gonna do this, Peter,
and yet he still went and did it. And doesn't that, that typically
gets us angry when we tell somebody this is gonna happen if you do
this, and they do it, and then it happens, and we're all the
more mad because they didn't do what we said. But here the
Lord was gracious to Peter and forgiving to Peter. And so love
your brethren like that. None of us can do that, but we
pray. We pray for our brethren. We
pray the Lord hold us up and that he help us to be gracious
and patient. When the heart is turned another
way, we're saying one thing, but we're thinking another and
the hearts turn. Lord help, help me. Give me a true heart that
does love my brethren and want to be gracious to them because
I don't want to be, right? But the Lord turns the heart
so that he makes us willing in the day of his power. So forbear with one another.
Forbear with one another. Even when they're full of faults
and weaknesses, bear them up in love and patience. As it says
in Ephesians 4.32, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven
you. And that's how he's dealt with
us. And so we are to deal, we want to be that way to others.
And it's easy when everything's fine, but there comes times when
things get shaken and we feel someone's wronged us. be tenderhearted
and kind and forgive and pray. And the Lord helps us. So he tells us that even others
in the world, though they have no part in me, when they see
your love one for another, that's how they'll know you're my disciples,
when you have love one for another. That's the telling mark. Even
if they don't have the spirit of God and have no part in Christ,
they'll know they love each other. I can't deny that. They love
each other. They take care of one another.
They love each other. And so this whole chapter began
with the love of Christ, our Savior for his people. It says
in John 13, 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. And so, brethren, that's
the love that our Savior has given unto us in the Lord Jesus
Christ. 1 Peter 5, 9-11, Paul said, For
God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we
wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore,
comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also
ye do. And so comfort one another and
edify one another in love, in love, in the love that your God
has shown to you. And so I pray the Lord bless
that word to your hearts and thank him for his timely love
for us. Amen. Our gracious Lord, we thank
you for your love, for your patience, for bearing long with us and
suffering with our folly, our foolishness, our ignorance, our
sin, our hardness of heart, our pride. Lord, we thank you that
you are forgiving and gracious and you do not deal with us as
our sins deserve, but you deal with us in grace and mercy in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord, to walk in that
spirit of love and patience with one another. Help us, Lord, to
hear the tender voice of our Savior who calls us little children
and who comforts us with words of love and drawing us with cords
of love. Lord, help us to walk in that
spirit and in that love for one another. And to be kind and patient,
even with others, not holding a grudge, even when we're wrong,
to be kind to others. That others may see your love
and glorify our God in heaven. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks. Amen. All right, brother. Brother Joe,
come and close us in a hymn. I'll try to. Thank you. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn, 63. Take the name of Jesus with you,
63. I think we sang this once before. Take the name of Jesus with you,
child of sorrow and of hope. It will joy and comfort give
you. Take it then, where'er you go. Precious name, oh, how sweet. Hope of earth and joy of heaven
Precious name, oh how sweet Hope of earth and joy of heaven Take
the name of Jesus ever As a shield from every snare If temptations
round you gather Read that holy name in prayer Precious name,
oh how sweet Hope of earth and joy of heaven Precious name,
oh how sweet of earth and joy of heaven. Oh, the precious name of Jesus,
how it thrills our souls with joy. When his loving arms receive
us And his songs our tongues employ Precious name, oh how
sweet Hope of earth and joy of heaven Precious name, oh how
sweet Hope of earth and joy of heaven, at the name of Jesus
bowing, falling prostrate at his feet. King of kings and heaven
will crown him when our journey is complete. Precious name, oh
how sweet. Hope of earth and joy of heaven. Precious name, oh how sweet. Hope of earth and joy of heaven. Thank you.