mentioned in his prayer that
the saints were worshiping around the throne this morning, and
that has been on my mind all morning. I woke up this morning
and it had just been on my mind. I was thinking of the different
ones here whom the Lord has taken, and I thought of them one by
one. Sitting there or standing, however it's happening this morning
in glory, They are worshiping Jesus Christ, the one I'm gonna
talk about this morning. And I just thought about that
this morning several times, just the reality of that. And all
you who believe, in a very short time, we're gonna be there too,
in a very short time. This life is short. And in a
little while, and I'm more excited about that now than I've ever
been in my life. since I believed, since I have believed. I was
about 22 years old when I really heard the gospel. But now it's
just, the reality of it just seems closer and closer to me. Being there and seeing Jesus
Christ. I open this book every week,
every day. And I come here every week and I talk to you about
him and I, in just a little while, I'm gonna see him. And I'm gonna
see the rest of the, of God's children. We'll know even as
we are known. I don't know how this will have
the mind of Christ. We'll know Abraham without having
to be introduced to Abraham. We'll know David without having
to be introduced to him. We'll just know him and he'll
know us. Family, it's just family. Families are not strangers, are
they? Family know one another. The title of this message IS
CHRIST'S REDEMPTIVE GLORY. THAT'S WHAT HE'S SPEAKING OF
HERE, ESPECIALLY IN VERSE 31 AND 32. NOW WE KNOW THIS, ALL
THINGS WERE CREATED FOR AND BY JESUS CHRIST, WE ARE TOLD THAT
IN COLOSSIANS CHAPTER 1. ALL THINGS CREATED BY HIM AND
FOR HIM. THEY WERE CREATED FOR HIS ETERNAL
GLORY. THIS IS ALL FOR THE GLORY OF
JESUS CHRIST. But His chief glory, I mean,
it's creation is glorious. I mean, what a creation. All
the stars that God has created, all the constellations and everything
God has created, what glory is in them? But none, none can be
compared to His redemptive glory. Redeeming a people from their
sins, A holy people, a people He's made holy. You know, there
is a holy nation on this earth. It's not America. It's the church. They are the holy nation that
the scripture speak of, that Peter speaks of. They are a redeemed
people, a holy people, and He's going to bring them to glory
without spot or blemish. That's exactly what He's going
to do. They are a purchased people, as I told you this morning, purchased
by the blood of the Son of God. And these people are going to
show forth His praise and His glory throughout eternity, throughout
time and eternity. We show it now, but not like
we're going to. And they will be displayed, as it says over
in Ephesians 2, they're going to be displayed throughout eternity
as trophies of his grace we will be displayed as trophies of his
grace now from chapter 13 through 17 our lord instructs his disciples
he takes them to the inner sanctuary so to speak and from chapter
13 14 15 16 of course 17 is his is these intercessory prayer
his high priestly prayer But he gathers his children, his
disciples, and he instructs them. And of course, we are instructed
by reading it. He instructs us this morning.
We get much instruction from it. And he's going to teach them
before he goes to the cross. You know, if you were about to
die, you're about to be beaten and suffer the wrath of God,
You'd be more concerned about yourself, wouldn't you? Wouldn't
you? He's not. He's concerned about his children.
He's concerned about his children. I'm telling you, there's never
been a heart like his heart. Never concerned about himself.
Never concerned what he's going to eat, where he's going to sleep,
like we are, what we're going to eat, sleep, where. He was never concerned about
that. Never. His concern was the glory of
his father and the good of his children. That was his concern. Now he speaks here in verse 31
of his present glory and he speaks of the cross as being glorified. Not a tragedy. He's not a tragedy. He doesn't speak of it as being
a martyr. He speaks of it as being glorified. You see the
present glory of the cross has everything to do with His future
glory right now, seated at God's right hand. Therefore, when He
was gone out, when Judas was gone out, Jesus said, Now is
the Son of Man glorified. And He speaks of it in a past
tense. Now is He glorified. And God
is glorified in Him. Judas has left them to do his
dirty deed. He's left them to do what his
heart wants to do. He wants to do this. He wants
to. He's in league with Satan against
Christ. And so he goes out and he does
his dirty deed. But after he goes out, now the
Lord gathers his children. He calls them children. He gathers
them to him. And he speaks more plainly to
them about his coming death. His coming departure from them.
That's why he says over there in John 14, I'm gonna get ahead
of myself, but he says, let not your heart be troubled. Do you
believe in God? Believe also in me. They were troubled over
this. Their hearts were deeply troubled over this when he spoke
to them about leaving, but he's gonna teach them. He's gonna
teach them something. He's not gonna leave them alone.
He's gonna instruct them. All thy children shall be taught
of God. And here God is teaching his children. And so he's going
to teach his children, and he's going to speak of this coming
event, the cross, as being glorified. He puts it in a new light. He
puts it in its right light. You see, they're going to see
him in a manner they've never seen before. They're going to
see him in the garden, sweating great drops of blood. They're
going to see him in the garden in great agony. Father, if thou
wilt, let this cup pass from me. But if not, thy will be done. They're going to see him saying,
I'm about to die right here in the garden of Gethsemane. They're
going to see him in a manner they've never seen him before.
And then he's going to go to the judgment hall, and they're
going to see him beaten. I mean beaten. Beaten to the
point he's unrecognizable. His vision, he just says, was
marred more than any man. He was unrecognizable by the
time they got done beating him. Then they're going to see him
carry the cross to Calvary, and they're going to see him nailed.
They're going to watch those nails driven in his hands. They
watched that. Then they're going to see that
cross dropped in the ground and his bones out of joint, and they're
going to sit there, and they're going to watch him. They're watching
this. And it's disturbing. We thought
you're the Messiah. Now what they said on the road
to Emmaus, we thought he was the one. He knows what's coming
for them. He knows a very dark hour is
coming for them. And he's gathering to him, and
he's trying, and he's, not trying to, he's comforting them. I don't
like to use the word try when it comes to God. God never tries
anything. But this is what's going on.
And he speaks of this event that's about to happen. He says it's
a glorification. Now is the Son of Man glorified. Our Lord's glory was seen many
times as the Son of Man, as the Son of God. You know, at his
baptism, a voice spoke from heaven, this is my beloved son, whom
I'm well pleased. The father glorified his name
then. He's glorified in the miracles. All those miracles he performed,
they glorified his name in the Mount of Transfiguration, standing
there with Moses and Elijah. You know what they were talking
about? The death he should accomplish. It was an accomplishment. It
was not a tragedy, it was an accomplishment. for God Almighty
to come into this flesh and die, that's an accomplishment. But none, none of these things
glorified Him as His death on the cross, His death, burial
and resurrection, His ascension back to glory. Nothing glorifies. He could have created 10 million
worlds and they wouldn't even compare to the glory he has and
all those people that's going to be standing there praising
him, cleansed and washed from their sins. You got, you got
any sins? He's the only one can put them
away. He put away all my sins. I got, you know, I got a lot
of them. So do you. I'd say they would go into the
trillions, and he'd put them away. He'd put them away. Now is he glorified. None of
his miracles, his transfiguration, none of
them glorified him like his death. Listen, up until this event,
up until the cross, he could never say it's finished. When he healed the lame, he couldn't
say, well, it's finished. When he raised the dead, he couldn't
say. When he raised Lazarus, he could not cry out, it's finished.
He couldn't do it. Only on the cross could our Lord
lift up his head and cry with a loud voice. He didn't whisper
this. It wasn't a whimper. He cried
as only God can do it. He cried, it's finished. Redemption
is finished. It's done. The price has been
paid. The law is satisfied. It's finished. It's finished. Redemption is
His greatest glory. If I can borrow a phrase from
Winston Churchill, His finest hour. It was His finest hour. God Almighty God s finest hour
was at Calvary when God Himself in human flesh put away my sins. The sins of all for whom He died,
He put them away. That s His finest hour. It wasn
t creation. It was redemption. Redemption. And now He speaks here in verse
32 of His future glory. You see, the present glory was
the cross. Here's He speaking of His future glory, and you
know in verse 31 and 32, He speaks of being glorified. He speaks,
uses that word five times in two verses. You think it means
something for Him to use it five times in two verses? If God be
glorified in Him, in His Son, in the Son of Man, God shall
also glorify Him in the future. IN HIMSELF, AND SHALL STRAIGHTWAY,
IMMEDIATELY GLORIFY HIM." How was God glorified in the death
of Christ on the cross? You know it was the death of
a criminal. The cross was reserved for the
worst of criminals. Here's how He's glorified, and
I'm just scratching the surface. Every attribute of God is glorified
in the death of Christ, Christ and Him crucified. You know,
all the attributes of God are not glorified in creation, His
mercy, His grace, that's glorified in redemption. We see at the cross, we see mercy
and truth meeting together. We see mercy and truth reaching
across the aisle to each other and shaking hands. That's how
they meet together. That's the only way mercy and
truth can meet together. And we see at the cross, righteousness
and peace kissing each other, embracing each other, righteousness
and peace. You see, God is righteous. God's right, God's holy. He demands
perfection. And the only way you and I can
have peace with God is at Calvary, the Lord Jesus Christ. And our
Lord at the cross brought in everlasting righteousness. Let
me read this to you out of Daniel, Daniel chapter nine in verse
24. Listen to this. Let me find it.
Daniel 9, 24, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy
holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and
to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness. That's what he did. You see,
for him to keep the law perfectly, for him to do it, he has to die. For 33 years, our Lord perfectly
obeyed God's law. But if he doesn't die, he broke
the law. Because the law says, the soul that sinneth shall surely
die. And if he's gonna be my substitute, he's gotta die. Death has to be rendered to God's
law. God said, you gotta die. If you sin, you gotta die. And
so our Lord brought in everlasting righteousness by the cross. by
the cross. It's the final act. It's that
final act of redemption. It's the cross. Justice is satisfied. Justice is satisfied. When Jesus
Christ died for the sins of his people, justice was satisfied.
Now, if we really understand what real justice is, not backroom
justice, not backroom bargaining. There ain't no bargaining with
God. There is no bargaining. There are no plea deals with
God. There are no plea deals. It's absolute obedience or death. And in the death of Christ, God's
holy justice satisfied. Completely satisfied. That means
a lot. That means everything to God and to his people. And
then God's love. Nowhere can you see the love
of God demonstrated and honored like at Calvary. Herein is love. Not that we love God, but that
He loved us. You see, it's not that we love
God. Oh, how I love Jesus. Well, you ought to. Really? You ought to. We ought to love
Him with all our heart. But here's the love. Here's the
love, but that He loved us. He loved us. There's the shining
part. He loved it. John says it. Here's
love. Here's love. Not that we love
God, but that God loved us and sent his son. God proved his
love. He says, you know, the scripture
says love, not in word, but love indeed. And in truth, not love,
love, not in word only, but indeed in the truth. He said, love not
in word, go ahead and say I love you. I mean, there's nothing
wrong with that. You can express your love, but he said, put deeds
behind it. God did. He did when he sent
his son to be the propitiation, the mercy seat for our sins. You know, the only hope that
I have every time I pray and I ask God to forgive me my sins.
I always say through the propitiation of the blood of your son, Jesus
Christ, Because it's just not upon the basis of me asking.
It's upon the basis of Jesus Christ. Does not the scripture
say, you are forgiven? We are forgiven for what? Christ's
sake. I'm forgiven for Christ's sake. What the word of God says. And
then we see here how, brethren, this is so important. We see
how grace reigns through the righteousness of Jesus Christ
and him crucified. Grace does not reign through
my repentance. Grace does not reign through
faith. Because no one here and no one has ever lived other than
Jesus Christ. But we don't have perfect faith.
Or if we did, we wouldn't complain. And we'd go through trials. You
know, when the Lord was on that ship and the storm was going,
what was he doing? Sleep. You know why? Because
he believed God. He knew he was safe, he was in
the hands of his father, and he just went to sleep. That's
perfect faith. We don't have that. We don't
have perfect repentance either, do we? We don't have perfect,
we can't repent as we ought to, not as we ought to, but listen,
the grace of God reigns on us. The reason I'm not in hell under
God's wrath is because God's grace is raining on me through
the righteousness of His dear Son. That's why it rains on me.
And that word rain is R-E-I-G-N, not R-A-I-N. It does rain on
me like a shower. But it rules, the grace of God
rules. It reigns, it rules through the
righteousness of Jesus Christ or we all perish. I mean, have
you really paid attention, completely paid attention since you've come
in here? Or your mind has wandered and you have to rest it and try
to bring it back? Well, the only reason God doesn't just cast
us off right now is His grace is raining through the righteousness
of that man, Jesus Christ, that accomplished that righteousness
on Calvary's tree. That's good news. That's good
news. And His future glory spoken of
here is reflected by His present glory of the cross. He's putting
that into a new light for His disciples, because they're about
to see something. that they didn't think they were
going to see. Now God will glorify His Son. He says He'll presently
glorify Him. Let me read that again. He says,
In straight way He shall glorify Him. And He's going to do so
by raising Him from the dead. He's going to set Him at His
own right hand. That's where He's at now, when He's here now. Can you believe that? He is. If two or three are here,
He is. And God has given him a name
that's above every name and every knee shall bow and every tongue
shall confess that he's Lord to the glory of God the Father.
We saw that in the Bible class. He'll have his hand on the neck
of his enemies. Everybody's going to bow. You
know, everyone's going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Everyone,
whether you believe or not, you're going to confess. God's going
to make you do it. He's going to get you by the
nap of the neck and put you on your knees and you're going to
confess that he's Lord. Thank God if he does it while
you're still alive on this earth. Because you're going to do it.
Everybody's going to do it. God has promised that. Now he
says here in verse 33, after telling them about his
glorification of the cross, his future glory, he said, little
children, little children. You know, I think this is the
only time he used that. I'm speaking to them, little children. Yet
a little while, I'm with you. You shall seek me. And as I said
unto the Jews, whither I go, you cannot come. So now I say
to you, I'm going to a place that no one can follow me. I
gotta do this one alone. Y'all gotta stay back. He's gonna
put them out of harm's way. He's gonna put his little children
out of harm's way, and he's gonna take it. He's gonna take the
full wrath of God. What an endearing name he gives to those whom he
died to save, little children, little children. Here we hear
the father speak as well as the son. You know, Christ said this,
as I hear I speak, and the father is saying little children. The
father's speaking to him also. And if you'll notice, he waited
until Judas left before he called them little children. He didn't
call them that until Judas left. God's not the father of every
person. He's the judge of all, but he's
not the father of all. And he waits till Judas leaves,
then he calls them little children. And that's when he begins to
really instruct and teach them. And I want you to notice something
here. When he said to the Jews, he was telling them, when he
said, you cannot go where I go, you can't go. He was talking
to them about heaven. He's talking to them about going
back to the father. He said, you can't go there in your unbelief.
You can't go there. But when he says this to the
disciples, he says not now, but you will afterwards. He's talking
about going to the cross. When he talks to the disciples,
he's talking about going to the cross. You see, he has to tread the
winepress of God's wrath alone. We would mess it up. We would
defile it, but not him. And what he's telling this here,
what he's saying to him is, he says in verse 34, a new commandment
I give unto you that you love one another. You see, hard trials
are coming. He knows what's coming for them. Peter says, Lord, I'll
die for you. Well, he actually does. Years
later, he does lay down his life for Christ's sake, but not right
now. The Lord's gonna prove something
to Peter. But he says, a new commandment
I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you,
that you also love one another. Now it's not new in the sense
that it never existed before. Listen to 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. But what he's
doing, he's setting it in the new light, the light of the gospel. It is given by a new example.
He says this, love one another as I have loved you. Having loved
his own, he loved them to the end. He gave everything for them,
everything. He gave up his life for them.
Now by this, in verse 35, by this shall all men know that
you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. It
was interesting. I read in my reading, it said
in that day, each sect, you know, the Pharisees, Sadducees and
so on, each sect among the Jews had something that distinguished
them from the other sect. You know, there would be some
distinguishing, you know, some people, you know, have a family
crest and then some have, I mean, you know, the Masons have their
own little sign and, you know, everybody has their own little
something. You know what the Lord said,
you know, how are they going to distinguish you? You know what the distinguishing
mark is for his family? Love. You know, he didn't say
it's faith because a lot of people act like they believe, don't
they? Simon Magus, he said he believed in Baptism, but Peter
said your heart's not right with God. Here's the distinguishing
mark of God's children, God's disciples. You love one another
as I've loved you. It's a love that's not of this
world. You love to be here. You love to be here and hear
of your Lord. You love to be among the brethren.
You love to be with one another. You know, I enjoy, you're the
only company I have. You know, I've moved down here.
Me and Vicki moved down here. You're the only company. I don't
see anybody else in this community. I don't. And nobody calls me
either in this community. You're it. You're it. You're
my brothers and sisters. You're the ones I see every week.
I don't see nobody else. By this distinguishing mark,
shall all men know you're my disciples. If you love one another.
See, love is a It's a mark of sonship. He that loves not, he
says, knows not God. God is love. God's love. First John 420. If a man say,
I love God and hate his brother, he's a liar. He's a liar. He that loveth not his brother
whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
First John 314. We know that we have passed from
death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth
not his brother abides in death. We love the brother. Love's the
bond that holds the family together. Listen to 1 Peter 4, 8. Above
all things, above everything, have fervent charity, love among
yourselves, for love, charity, shall cover the multitude of
sins. You don't want to hear anything
about your brother negative, do you? You don't want to hear
it. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it. Love
covers it over. Love covers it over. I don't
want to hear anything negative about him. You know, I sat under
Henry for 40 years, and I can tell you, because I sat there,
I know, I never heard him in my presence say anything negative
about any person. He never one time ever said anything
negative about any president that was a president, not one
time. The only time he ever exposed
anybody is when he was preaching a false gospel. That's the only
time. But never did I ever hear him
say that. We don't. Love covers a matter. Love covers
it. Love covers a multitude of sins. Now listen here. Verse 36, Simon
Peter said unto him, isn't it something how the gospel be preached,
truth be preached, and it go right over your head? Our Lord speaking of the glory
of the cross and the glory that was to follow, and Peter didn't
hear it. He didn't hear it. Because he said, Simon Peter
said to him, Lord, whither goest thou? Where are you going that
we can't go? Jesus answered him, whither I
go, thou canst not follow me now. Now he's talking about the
cross. When he started saying that to
the Jews, he's talking about heaven, paradise. Here he's talking about
the cross, but thou shalt follow me afterwards. I've got to work
to finish. Now later you can follow me because
he says in John 14, I go and prepare a place for you. You
don't have a place. It's a place of acceptance. I'm
going to prepare it for you. You see how he develops this
whole message to them. I go and prepare a place for
you. And you can't follow me where I'm going, but you will.
I'll bring you to that place. We'll see it in John 14. And
this shows us how the Lord must give us spiritual understanding
because it goes right over our head. It's interesting, I think,
how much instruction we receive and how little of it we retain. But our Lord adds comfort to
his disciples. He said to the Jews, you can't
follow me. He said to his disciples, you can't follow me right now,
but you will. We'll be together again. We're
going to be separated for a while, but we'll be together again.
And Peter's, listen, his self confidence is, is exposed here
and needed to be exposed. Peter said to him, Lord, why
cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy
sake. I'll lay it down. There's no doubt Peter loved
the Lord. He said, Lord, you know, all
things, you know, I love you. But what good would it do for
Peter to lay down his life at that time? For Christ's sake. Our Lord is going to teach him
a lesson and in teaching him a lesson, he's going to teach
us a lesson because he said this, but you know, over in Matthew,
I think it is 26. They all said that after he said
it, he's like, we're not going to let him outdo us. He said
it, so we'll say it. But he only needed to make one
example. Peter didn't understand the absolute
necessity of the death of Christ in order for him to actually
be saved and follow the Lord afterwards. He didn't understand
that yet. It's the death of the Son of God, His resurrection
has sent you back to glory that's totally necessary in order for
us to be there. And so what we have here in verse
38, and I'm gonna close, we have a needful fall. A needful fall. Jesus answered
him, wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Peter, will you
really lay down your life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
The cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice. It
just dawned on me when I was studying this, that just briefly
before this, he said, one of you will deny me or betray me. One of you will betray me. And
they said over in Matthew and Mark, Lord, is it I? Is it I? And in this chapter, Peter says
to John, see who it is. Ask him who it is that's going
to deny or betray you. And here in verse 38, the Lord
says, Peter, you're gonna deny me three times. It never, I never
occurred to me before. Did Peter think that the one
he was talking about earlier is really himself? Because you
know, Peter never answered him a word after that. Peter never
said another word. I think it struck fear in him.
I think it struck him. But Peter needed this fall. Just
like David needed the fall that he experienced. Sometimes the Lord lets his children
fall hard. Sometimes he does. With thou lay down thy life for
my sake. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, the cock shall not
crow till thou hast denied me three times, Peter. Here's what
Peter's got to learn. Without me, you can do nothing.
The Lord is going to expose his self-confidence. Lord, I don't
know about these guys, but I'll lay down my life for your sake. I'll do it. I'll do it. Peter, I'm gonna show you who
you are without me. I'm gonna show you who you are.
You're no better than Judas. You know, I assure you, Peter
never forgot that. Judas betrayed him, Peter denied
him. Three times. Three times. And I have no doubt that Peter,
from that point on, after he denied him, realized, I'm no
better than Judas. I'm no better. I had an opportunity
here to stand up for my Lord and lay down my life for his
sake, as I said I would. And I didn't. I didn't. Sometimes we have to learn our
lesson the hard way. Experience is a brutal teacher.
It's better to be wise than ignorant. It's better to be instructed
than to say, I want to experience everything. I don't. I don't.
I'd rather take what the Word of God says. Paul said to Timothy,
flee youthful lust. You know what Solomon said, Solomon
in the book of Ecclesiastes, he gave his heart to everything.
He tried everything. You know what he said at the
end of it? Vanity of vanities, all vanity. He had his riches,
he had everything. I mean, there was nothing withheld
from him. And he writes down, it's all vanity of vanity, vexation
of spirit, that's all it is. The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ
is not a tragedy. It's the gateway to His glory
and our glory in Him. It's just almost like, you know,
they no doubt they saw this as a very dark event, but in His
eyes, it was like the brightness of glory. He despised the shame
of it, yes. But without it, there's no glory.
There's no glory. There's no CD sitting at God's
right hand. There's no people on a new, on
a new earth. There's no, there's no there.
It's failure. Failure. And this is why Paul
wrote in Galatians six 14, but God forbid that I should glory. Let us not look
back on our life and glory and anything we accomplished. God
gave it to you. What do you have, Paul said,
that you didn't receive? God forbid that I should glory,
save, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world. I don't
want nothing to do with the world, and the world wants nothing to
do with me. The cross of Christ. Not that piece of wood. Not that
piece of wood. It's the suffering Savior. It's
our suffering Savior. We glory in Him. All right.