John. Thirteen beginning. With verse thirty one and will
read through chapter fourteen. And verse. Three John thirteen. Beginning with verse thirty one
through chapter fourteen verse three. Therefore when he was
gone out, speaking of Judas Iscariot, therefore when he was gone out,
Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified
in him. If God be glorified in him, God
shall also glorify him in himself. and shall straightway glorify
him. Little children, yet a little
while I am with you. Ye shall seek me, and as I said
unto the Jews, whither I go ye cannot come. So now I say to
you, 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 know that ye
are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord,
whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I
go, thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me
afterward. Peter said unto him, Lord, why
cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thee,
for thy sake. Jesus answered him, Wilt thou
lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
The cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice. Let not your heart be troubled.
Ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are
many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that
where I am, there ye may be also." Let's pray together. our holy and righteous God, sovereign ruler, God in whose hands our breath
is in all our ways. Thou art our God. thou art God and beside thee
there is none else. The one true God. We come before
you tonight to worship because you're worthy
to be worshiped. We come, we hope, in fear and
in trembling. You said that you dwell with him that
is of a broken heart and a contrite heart and trembleth at your word. You have told us, you have written,
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Over and over in your
word it says, Those who know you, fear you. Fear. Unite our hearts to fear thy
name. In a day, in this modern day,
when men, when there's no fear of God before their eyes, the
transgression, the psalmist said, the transgression of the wicked
saith unto my soul, there's no fear of God in them. The way that men use your name,
the way that men pretend to approach you, the way that men pretend
to worship you, you said in your word, this for as much as this
people draw near to me with their lips when their heart is far
from me. And the fear, your fear is taught
by the precept of man. But O Lord, teach us to fear
Thee." That beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy
is understanding the Holy One of God, how we may approach unto
this Holy God through Christ. So we come By faith in Christ,
we come pleading his blood and his righteousness, foreign things
to our generation. Yet to those that know you and
fear you, this is our very hope. He is our hope. This is the only
way. He is the only way to approach
such a one as you. We come in fear. We come to worship. We come bowing down before your
throne. And we come to hear from you.
We come to be spoken to by you, from your Word. Not to argue,
not to question, not to reason, but to be spoken to, to be taught
as little children. Lord, we need you to teach us. If any man, you said, if any
man thinketh he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought
to know. You have said if a man or a person
thinks there's something when they're nothing, they deceive
themselves. So we come as empty vessels to be filled. We come
as ignorant men, women, and young people to be taught, to be instructed
from your word. So take your Word, which is,
every bit of it is your inspired, infallible Word. Take it, that
Word which is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction,
instruction, and righteousness, that the man of God might be
truly furnished unto all good works. Take it, and operate upon
our hearts and minds and lives. Change us. Change our minds. Give us the mind of Christ. Change
our walk and our ways into Thy ways. There is a way that seemeth
right unto man, that the end is destruction. But Christ the
way, the end is life eternal. So put our feet,
order our steps in thy word. May we, by your grace and mercy,
seek, search, find the old way, the old path wherein is the good
way, and walk therein. The word of God which liveth
and abideth forever. Thank you, O Lord, for your word. We esteem it for what it is. We esteem it as life, as bread,
the children's bread, as the water which the Holy Spirit uses
to sanctify the truth whereby we are sanctified. We esteem
your word as Indeed, it is the word of God. We believe all of
it. All the prophets have spoken. The apostles, every word. And so we come. To be. Dealt with from your word, your
precepts, your commandments, your statutes. Give us understanding,
give us rather give us faith. And if we believe, you said,
we'd see wondrous things, the glory of God. So, Lord, take
your word and apply it to your people. And me, as I draw a bow
at adventure, take this word and as a net, throw it out. Oh, Lord, you decide who needs
what. and you apply it accordingly.
Get glory to yourself. We dare not take any glory. We dare not share thy glory. For thou art a jealous God, you
said. To God be all the glory for all
that is done here tonight. Get glory to yourself, glorify
your son, glorify your word, and instruct, encourage, comfort,
admonish, rebuke, correct your people. We pray these same things for
your people everywhere that meet together, your church, in various
places, your people, all those who worship God in spirit, rejoice
in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh, we pray for those.
We pray not for the world. We pray for those whom you have
given to Christ. We pray that you would bless
them tonight. Bless those who preach your word
tonight. Bless those who hear. Bless your
word. And we bless your holy name.
Through Christ, through his blood, we come. Through his righteousness,
we plead and ask all these things. Amen. All right. John 13. Let me remind
you once again who this is written to. He says, beginning in verse 31,
when he was gone out, speaking of Judas Iscariot. Now, the same John who wrote
this wrote 1 John. Turn over there very quickly.
1 John chapter 2. First John chapter 2. Back there in John 13, it says
when he went out, when he was gone out, then Christ said, little
children, and then he speaks to them. Well, the same thing is spoken of here, or in the
same way. Look at verse 18. John says,
little children, little children. And then in verse 19, he says,
They went out from us, but they were not of us. If they had been
of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went
out that they might be made manifest, or revealed, that they were not
all of us. Not everyone who saith, Lord,
Lord. Not everyone who makes a profession. Not all men, not all flesh, are
the children of God. All men are not the children
of God. But God's chosen. God's redeemed. They are his children, and that's
who he's writing to here. That's who he's speaking to.
Back to John 13 now. Need to clarify that. This does
not apply to everyone. There are many promises. words of comfort here that don't apply to everybody.
Most preachers would stand up and preach this as if this applies
to everyone without exception. That's just not so. Be lying
on God and lying to men. There are some who are under
the wrath of God, and they're not under the love of God. There's
some who the judgment of God is awaiting them. Others, there's
no condemnation. Well, God has to decide. God
has to decide. I don't know. Some give evidence,
but I don't know. All right? I need to say that. If you are a believer, if you
are a follower If you believe what I just said, then you're
a believer, or at least you give evidence, because what I just
said is so. If you're a believer, if you're
a follower of Jesus Christ, then you are his disciple, and the
things he says to these disciples apply to you. All right? But they do not apply to all
men without exception. All right, now let's look at
it. Verse 33, he says, little children. Now this is an intimate
conversation between Christ and those eleven disciples. 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. The Lord is telling his disciples
that he is leaving. And he's been telling them that
for some time now. And they just did not hear him. They just did not understand.
But he's been telling them, foretelling of his crucifixion, his death,
and his resurrection for some time now. But John, they just
weren't listening. They didn't hear it. But now
they hear it. Now they finally hear what he's
saying. He's leaving. He's going away. He who has been their father,
their mother, their elder brother, their provider, their nurse,
their friend, their companion, their everything, their all,
for three years. I mean, they totally depended
on him for everything. Little did they know that they
had depended on him for everything before they ever met that all life had depended on
him. Nevertheless, he tells them that
he is leaving, and they're troubled. And the reason they're troubled
is they thought he was the Messiah. Well, he is. And when they saw, and they had
the false notion of the Messiah just like the Jews, the Pharisees,
and all did. that the Messiah was going to,
that there was, that he was going to literally restore the kingdom
to that nation Israel over there, and he's going to sit on the
throne of David, literally, in Jerusalem, going to sit on a
throne there. Well, he's seated on a throne
right now, isn't he? The Messiah is seated on the
throne. He is the king of Israel. Yes,
he is. He's king of the Jews. Those
Jews over there in that little country in the Mideast, they
don't own him, but he's king of the Jews. Paul said he's a Jew which is
one. How? Inwardly. Well, they thought he was the Messiah.
They saw him come into Jerusalem to all the adoration of the crowd. Remember that? Just shortly before
this, he'd come in, riding into Jerusalem. And they heard all
the people, and they thought, this is it. Now he says he's
leaving. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Now look at verse 36. So there's
the setting. Simon Peter said, Lord, where
are you going? Where are you going? Whither
goest thou? Wait a minute. You can't believe. Where are you going? And again
Christ says this. Now he says this twice, and we
looked at it, we dwelled on it, didn't we? And it's, it's, the
gospel's right here standing in what he says here. They don't
catch it, neither do most men today catch it. Back there in
verse 33 he says, As I said to the Jews, I say unto, as I said
unto the Jews, now I say to you, where I go you can't come. Now look at verse 36. Christ
answered him and said this again. Christ repeats himself. Whither I go thou canst not follow
me. Can I go into that again? Do
I need to repeat it? He did. That's all a true preacher
is anyway, a fellow just repeating what God has already said. And
if he doesn't repeat it in such a way that men say, is that all
you know? He's not a very good preacher.
Peter said, I would always have you in remembrance of these things.
Remember that? Paul said to write the same things
to you, to me. He's not grievous. It's safe. Paul said, it's all I know. He's
all I know. He's all. When Christ said, where
I go, you cannot come. He said that to the Jews, he
said that to his disciples, and he said it twice to his disciples.
Where I go, you cannot follow me now. What he's saying is,
I'm the only one that can approach a holy God. I'm the only man
on the top side of the earth that God will let walk right
into heaven. That a holy God will look on
with favor. The only one. That's what Peter
preached at Pentecost. First words out of his mouth,
ye men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man
approved of God. God didn't say that about Adam,
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and so on and so forth. He never
said that about one man. I approve of this man. Why? Because all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, but not this man. And God said it from heaven twice. God has spoken once, yea, twice. God repeats himself. And you're
going to hear me repeat that Sunday morning. in contact. But God said it from heaven twice,
this is my Son in whom I'm well pleased. God is well pleased
with one person that's ever lived, Jesus Christ. He is highly displeased with
the whole human race. That's why he's going to destroy
it. All right. He accepts the person. God is
no respecter of persons, but he does respect one person. You ever thought about that,
Stan? He's no respecter of persons. There's nobody respectable but
one. All right. How's God going to
have anything to do with us? How? Ephesians 1, 6 says, God
says these people are accepted in the beloved. God said, this
is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And all those whom
God is pleased with are in him. We are accepted in the beloved. So everyone that's in Christ
by faith, God is well pleased with. Not because of us. Not because of anything we've
done. Not even because of that faith. Because that's not of
yourself. That's the gift of God. Right? That's just so. And what Christ
is saying, where I'm going, you cannot come. I'm the great high
priest. And I'm going into the Holy of
Holies to offer up my own precious blood, that one sacrifice for
sins forever. Which only, back, God's been
saying it from the beginning, when he instituted the sacrifice,
you must have blood, without the shedding of blood there's
no remission of sins, death. And there's only one person who
could go in and offer up that blood, that was the man appointed
by God to be the high priest, one man. not a woman, a man. A high priest, the Scripture
said. And he went in, the Holy of Holies,
within the veil, not without blood. He had to have the blood. That
blood is what made him accepted. And he went in and poured it
out on the mercy seat, and all that's a picture of Christ. The
mercy seat, the blood, the priest, it's all Christ. Christ is all. And God's been saying it from
the beginning. One man can go in. One. And that's what the
whole book of Hebrews is about. One man. Hebrews 1, 5 says, When he had
by himself purged our sin, sat down on the throne. And it's not over in Israel. It says, The right hand of the
majesty on high. When Christ says, where I'm going
and what I'm doing, you have no part in it. You can't have
any part in it. I'm the only one that can do
this. I'm the only one God would accept. And the only way He'll
accept you is if I do this for you. Where I'm going, you can't
go. But listen to this. Look at verse
36. He said, but thou shalt follow
me afterwards when he rips the veil. You see, the Old Testament high
priest, he went in, you know, he went under the veil. He went
under the veil and he came back out. He went under. He kept offering
continually the same sacrifices every year, which could not put
away sin, but this man. When he went in and offered one
sacrifice, it says when Christ was hanging on that cross, you
remember what it said about the veil in the temple? Ripped. From where? Top to bottom. Who ripped it? That thing was
six inches thick. Who ripped it? It was ripped
from the top. God ripped it. Now, therefore,
Hebrews says we can come boldly. Come right on. You shall come.
You shall follow me after me. Don't you love that? After I
go and offer up this sacrifice, I'm the only one that can go
in the Holy of Holies. After I clear, put away your
sins, make you holy, Put away your sins, rent the veil unto,
make you God's children, and you can just come right on in. Holy, holy, bold, bold. If I don't go any further, you
have heard the gospel. All right, look at verse 37 now.
Peter said unto him, Lord, why can't I follow thee now? Oh,
Peter. Oh, Peter. You know, we always criticize
Peter, don't we? But I thought about this a little
more carefully. I'd like, I would like to be
a little more like Peter. Peter said, Lord, why, why can't
I, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy
sake. Did he mean that? Yes, he did. Look back, look over chapter
18, chapter 18, verse 11, or chapter 18, verse 10. When they
came out, remember, in the garden they came to get Christ, oh,
I wish we could camp here a while. Verse 8 says, when they asked
whom seek ye, Christ said in verse 8, I've told you I am.
If you seek me, let them go. Boy, there's the gospel in there.
You've got an hour. Can y'all hang around? No, let's
go on. Verse 10, Simon Peter got his
sword out. I mean, John There was a band
of soldiers, an army, whatever, a regiment, professional soldiers,
and Peter took one sword and started slashing and cut off
that fellow's ear. Remember that? He was going for
his head. And the Lord directed the sword, didn't it? Lord allowed
him to do that. Peter meant that, didn't he?
Stan, he meant that. I'll lay down my life for you.
He just about had to at that time. If Christ hadn't been,
if Christ hadn't said what he did, you seek me, let him go. Well, I would like to have more of
his zeal and enthusiasm and courage, wouldn't you? Wouldn't you? Christ didn't blast Peter then.
Look at that. It said, then said Jesus unto
Peter, verse 11, put up thy sword into that, into the sheath, the
cup which my father hath given me, shall I not drink it? He
didn't upbraid him, did he, Stanton? He didn't upbraid him. And here,
back in chapter 14, chapter 13, he doesn't severely upbraid Peter
or embarrass But he and he's going to teach Peter an unforgettable
lesson and humility. Stay with you with me. OK. With me. All right. Because if you're a believer
now, you're going to you're going to like it. He's going to take
you going to need it. He's going to teach Peter an
unforgettable lesson and humility, one that Peter will never forget.
in a way that you'll never forget it. He's going to humble Peter. That's what we're all. He's going
to bring us down. This is the way up starts down. He that is humble, God exalts. He that exalts himself, God will
obey. A man's got to be humbled first.
A man's got to be brought down in the dust first to see himself
for what he is, or he won't esteem God for who he is, or Christ
for who he is, or the gospel for what it is. He won't do it.
He's got to be lowered, like Brother Bell said, lowered in
a snake's belly, like Peter. And Peter's never going to forget
this, but you know Christ did this privately. He taught him
this privately. And whom the Lord loves, he chastens,
but he does it privately. But the person he's doing to
it knows it. Right, Peter? All right, look at verse 37.
Peter says, Why cannot I follow? I will, I will lay down my life
for this. But Christ is the one who's going
to lay down his life here, not Peter. Peter's not going to have
the preeminence here. He's not the one who's going
to be laying down his life here. Uh-uh. He's going to be running
scared. There's one who's going to be
doing the dying here. and to save them here. It's Christ. He's the one who's going to lay
down his life for Peter, not vice versa. If Peter had said,
listen to this, if Peter had said, Lord, by your grace, by your grace, according to your will, by your
grace, I believe I would lay down my life for you. But he
didn't. He said, widely, I will. You will. You look at how the
Lord answered him. Verse 38, will thou? And everyone in Christ said,
don't say, well, tomorrow I will do this, I will do that. You
say, the Lord willing. wilt thou, wilt thou lay down
thy life?" The Lord's going to teach him barely, barely. I say unto thee, before the rooster
crows in the morning, you're going to deny me every time. We'll bow. We'll bow. I'll tell you what you will do,
Peter or John or Stan or Paul or Earlene or whoever. I'll tell you what you will do,
but by the grace of God, you will do the unthinkable. You
will do anything that any other man or woman has ever done, but
by the grace of God. You will only do what your fickle
will will let you do. But by the grace of God, you
will, he said, you will deny me. Will you lay down your life
for me? You're going to act like you've
never even heard of me. Not once you're going to do this,
not twice, but thrice. Three times you're going to deny
me. Why did Christ say, why did he have him do it? And he had
him do it. He prophesied it. He directed
it. Why three times? Why three times? Well, if you deny Christ, you
deny the Father. You deny the Father, you deny
the Spirit, right? You deny one person, you've denied
all three. These three are one. To deny
one is to deny all three. And the Lord, look at what the
Lord says, that before the cock crowed, you're going to deny
me three times. Peter had just crowed, now he's
going to eat it. Right? How much crow weed? I was telling my daughter that
the other day. Somebody was, who was it? Somebody was over at the house
talking about shooting crow. And I remember my dad and some
men used to go out and shoot crow. And I said, well, I haven't
shot any, but I've eaten a lot. Hannah said, You have. Is it
good? I said, No, it's terrible. I don't want to ever want to
use it again, but I will. But I will. The Lord is showing Peter how
fickle he is, how quickly he can change. And he said, Before
the sun comes up in the morning. You're going to deny me three
times. I mean before it's morning. You're bold tonight. Before the
sun rises, you'll be a monster. You know what he's saying, don't
you, Henry? You're nodding your head in agreement. You're all
real faithful tonight. What a good Christian he is tonight.
In the morning, you'll be a raving lunatic. Is that right, Peter? So this conversation took place
to teach Peter and to teach us. And I believe, oh look at this,
this is wonderful. This took place to the praise
of the glory of his grace. To the, this is all for the,
to the praise of the glory of his grace. Christ's grace, God's grace. There's no chapter division here.
This is a bad division. The translators did that. The
King James translators. There's not supposed to be a
chapter division here. Right after the Lord said, Peter,
you're going to deny me three times, let not your heart be
troubled. The Lord says, Peter, without
me you can do nothing. Without me you will do anything.
Yea, the worst thing. Peter, you're going to fail miserably.
But Peter, I'll never fail. Peter, you'll leave me. I'll
never leave thee. Peter, you will deny me. I'll
never deny you. You're in me. Your name is written
on the palm of my hand. Incidentally, Darnell, I wrote
yours on my palm like I do everybody else's. But I believe that somebody
else had it there first. Peter, you will be untrue to
your word to me. You won't honor your word to
me, but, Peter, heaven and earth will pass away. Not one word
shall fail of all of my promises to you. I made a covenant before
the world began, and now I'm going to seal it with my own
blood. I'll never leave the day, nor forsake the day. I'll honor
my word to you. Your word is nothing. My word is salvation." Oh, boy, because I'm God, that's
why. Let not your heart be troubled.
Now, the thought of Christ leaving no trouble Peter, but what Christ
just told Peter troubled him worse, didn't it? He hurt him. Peter, you're going to deny me
three times. Peter's feeling mighty bad now
about this time. The Lord said, but right on the
back of that, right on the back of his sin, John, before he sinned, the word of promise and comfort
came. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God? You believe in God, believe me.
Why? I am God. I am that I am. Look down at, look at chapter
sixteen, quickly. Chapter sixteen, verse thirty.
Hurry, I've just got about five more minutes. Chapter sixteen, verse thirty.
Now, these three chapters were written
for their comfort, our comfort. He's telling us who He is. He's
telling them who He is. Now look at verse 30. Now we're
sure, after He said all these things, now we're sure, thou
knowest all things. Needest not that any man should
ask thee. By this we believe thou camest forth from God. Now
we're sure, now we're sure. Oh my, Christ said, look, verse
31. Are you? You see that, Sherry? Do you? Now I believe. Oh, I believe
now. How many times have you said
that after hearing a message? Now I believe. Oh, do you? You see, that's not even your
salvation. Your faith is not your salvation. It's not you remaining faithful
that's your salvation. It's him remaining faithful.
Do you believe? You're all going to deny me,
you see. Every one of you. But what's, what's, what's their
hope? Chapter 17. That's their hope. The high priest is going in now
for a prayer. I pray for them to keep on. Keep
them. They can't keep themselves. Keep
them by your power. And we are. Peter wrote that
later on, didn't he? He said, We're kept by the power
of God. Peter said, I thought that I
could do that. No, no. We're kept by the power
of God unto salvation through faith. Well, back at the text,
and I'll quit. Our Lord says, and I'm going
to deal with this Sunday morning. In my Father's house are many
mansions. The word is dwelling place. Dwelling
place is the word. Mansion. Dwelling place. Because let me ask you, what
need will we have of a palace in heaven? A mansion? Huh? Why would we want to be inside
anyway when the sun's shining so brightly? Any of you? Deborah, you sit there in that
teller's booth, and on a beautiful, glorious day, the sun's shining,
you know, and people are out there, they're free. People are
out there roaming free. And you're in Bondi, Georgia,
to a great star. Is that where you want to be?
No. You want to be basking out in
the sun, don't you? Huh? Why would we want to be
inside anyway? When the sun... This is... Our
Lord said it's dwelling places. Reservations. That's the word.
Reservations. There are many reservations.
All filled All filled, mind you, made way
beforehand. Every reservation's been filled
way beforehand, every name put in it in its proper place. If it were not so, I would have
told you," he said. I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you. I go to prepare a place for you. And I've already told you how
Christ did that. He does that by going into the
Holy of Holies itself and offer up his precious blood and impute
his righteousness to his people and thereby secure their place.
in heaven in glory with him. With him. He is heaven. Isn't
it? Somebody said that recently,
didn't they? And if I go and prepare a place
for you, verse 3, I will come again and receive you unto myself. That where I am, where I am,
you may be also. Let not your heart be troubled,
believer. You're going to deny Before the
sun comes up, you're going to deny once, twice, yet thrice. But He won't deny you. Trust
Him. Believe Him. Look to Him. Let not your heart be troubled.
All right, let's stand and I'll dismiss this in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for John 13 and 14. We thank you
for this word which you spoke. You became flesh, dwelled among
us. and spoke to us. God has spoken
unto us by his Son. We've heard you. We've heard
your marvelous voice, and it's spoken peace to our hearts, peace
which no man can take away from us. And Lord, we thank you that you
have done it all. Jesus Christ paid it all, all
the debt I owe. that in spite of our unfaithfulness
and our sinfulness, we are accepted in him, in you. Thank you, Lord,
for doing this mighty work. However, O Lord, Keep us by your
power. Keep us from denying thee. Give us faith. Give us courage. Give us strength in the face
of persecution, we pray, for your honor, for your glory, for
our good. In Christ's name, amen.