My text this morning is John
chapter 13 verse 31 through chapter 14 and verse 1. The title of the message is Preparing
for a Fall or Christ Glorified in his people, preparing for
a fall, or Christ glorified in his people. John 13, verse 31. 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. You 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 you 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. Simon Peter said unto him, Lord,
whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I
go, thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me
afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why
cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life 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. Now here we find our Lord
Jesus at last alone with his 11 faithful disciples. The traitor,
the betrayer, the fiend of hell, the son of Satan, Judas Iscariot,
has left the room. He's gone out to do his dastardly
deed of darkness. But freed from the betrayer's
company, his painful presence, our Lord opens his heart to these
11 disciples with greater fullness than he had ever opened his heart
to them before. Beginning in verse 31, our Lord
begins a discourse that continues all the way through chapter 16
and verse 33. and then is finally brought to
its end by his high priestly prayer on behalf of these disciples
sitting here in this room with him as he concludes his earthly
ministry as our mediator and substitute. In this portion of
scripture, the Lord declares that he is glorified as the son
of man, and he declares that the triune God glorified in him
and by him and that the triune God glorifies him. He declares then that he glorifies
himself in his people and shows us how he does so. Now such a
subject, such a passage as this deserves an angel's tongue to
declare it. I can't begin to expound to you
what I have seen here, let alone what I know is beyond my own
comprehension. But as soon as God the Holy Spirit
began to unfold the passage to me, my heart rejoiced in his
message. And I've been anticipating with
great joy the privilege of declaring it to you. And I pray now that
God the Holy Spirit, whose word we have before us will be our
teacher and show us exactly what he intends for us to learn from
this passage this morning. Here's the first thing. Our text
speaks about the Lord Jesus being alone with his chosen family. Therefore, when he was gone out,
Judas is gone. And just the 11 are there. These
11 original disciples, these 11 original apostles, these whom
the master had chosen. You remember he said, I know
whom I have chosen. We often say Judas was chosen
to be an apostle. As I mentioned last week, I rather
doubt that. I think Judas simply came along
with someone he heard the master call and the Lord allowed him
his presence all these three years. But now the Lord is alone
with those whom he has chosen, his own disciples. And he says
to these disciples, as soon as Judas, as soon as Judas is gone,
now is the son of man glorified and God is glorified in him. When the traitor finally departed
and the Savior's left alone with his beloved family, his children,
his mystical body, his church, these 11 disciples are privileged
to hear the Lord Jesus speak privately to them as he'd never
spoken before. And he assures them that he is
glorified that the triune God is glorified in him, that the
triune Jehovah glorifies him, and that he's glorified in them,
his people, who are one with him. These disciples were at
this time, if I'm not mistaken, representatives of the Church
of Christ, his whole body. As such, when Judas, who represented
his father, the devil, and all the seed of the serpent, when
Judas was gone out, the Lord Jesus is left alone with his
family, and thus Christ is glorified. He said, now is the Son of Man
glorified. Now, here I am, just me and you. Just me and you. That's all that's
left, just me and you. That's how it will be in that
great day when our God and Savior has eradicated from His creation
the very slime of the serpent and all evil is taken out of
His creation and sin is no more and Satan is no more and the
influence of the wicked one is no more. All the Judas's of every
generation shall be gone and Christ alone with his people. Oh, what a glorious day that
will be. Listen to this. The sons also
of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee and all
they that despise thee shall bow themselves down at the soles
of thy feet. they shall call thee. That is
all who have opposed you, all who have afflicted you, all who
have oppressed you, all who have mocked you throughout all these
thousands of years on this earth. At last, they shall call you
the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. For the rod of the wicked shall
not rest upon the lot of the righteous. The rod of the wicked
will not even rest, let alone hurt the inheritance, the lot
of the righteous, lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity. When at last Christ is alone,
in the new creation with his own chosen bride, his own mystical
body, his own holy, unspotted, unwrinkled, unblameable church. Then he will make it so that
there's no possibility that the righteous shall ever put forth
their hands to iniquity. Not as it was in the garden when
Adam was created and sin was possible because Adam was made
in humanity and God had ordered the fall for the accomplishment
of redemption. But when redemption is finished,
there'll be no more possibility of a fall or even of sin. All right, here's the second
thing. First, we see our Savior alone with his church. Next,
our text speaks of Christ's glory as our Redeemer, about Him being
glorified, specifically, He says, as the Son of Man, and about
Him glorifying the triune Jehovah. Therefore, when He was gone out,
Jesus said, now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified
in Him. God be glorified in him God shall
also glorify him in himself and Shall straightway glorify him
the Lord Jesus again. I remind you speaks of himself
here Specifically as the Son of Man and is telling us that
the triune God the triune Jehovah Father Son and Holy Spirit is
glorify the God-man mediator, our Savior, the Lord Jesus, and
that this God-man mediator, by his work and in his person as
our mediator, glorifies the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Savior's words certainly
may and should be applied to many things. I have no question
about that. But it seems obvious that in this passage, our Savior's
eye is fixed upon Jerusalem's cursed tree, where he dies outside
the city gate as our substitute. He's specifically talking to
us about his crucifixion, his sufferings and his death upon
the cursed tree as the thing which by which he has been and
will be He says now, now. Now as I come to my hour, now
as the time has come for me to suffer and die in the room instead
of my people, I am glorified. God is glorified in me and God
glorifies me. It is as though, he said, the
time of my crucifixion is at hand. My work on earth is finished. An event is about to take place
tomorrow, which, however painful it may be to you who love me,
is in reality the hour for which I've come into this world and
that which is most glorifying both to me and to my father. How dark, how mysterious, how
Incomprehensible, incomprehensible those words must have been to
those disciples. Obviously, none of them understood
what he said. Not one of them. Not one of them. If I had been sitting there,
I wouldn't have had a clue what
he was talking about. Would you? The scales had not been taken
off of their eyes so they could understand, though he told them
repeatedly he was going to suffer and die, be delivered into the
hands of Romans and suffer and die and rise again the third
day. They just didn't hear and they didn't understand. And now
he speaks about that, which is going to take place within 24
hours. And he says, this is my glory. Even if they had understood that
he was talking about dying on the cross, in all the agony of
that cursed death, in all the shame, ignominy, and humiliation
which it entailed, in all that they would hear and see the next
day, the son of man hanging naked on a cross between two thieves,
covered with blood and covered with human spit for six hours. There's no appearance of glory.
Not even a hint of anything glorious is there. On the contrary, all
they saw in the Savior's death at the time it took place was
disappointment and dismay. You remember those two disciples
on the road to Emmaus? After the resurrection, the Lord
Jesus appears to them. He's talking to them, asking
why they're so bothered. And they said, didn't you hear
what's happened in Jerusalem? Haven't you heard what took place?
And they were totally bewildered by it. Yet our Lord declares,
this is my glory. This is my father's glory. This
is the glory of the triune God. The death of Christ upon the
first tree brought glory to God, the father. Let me state this
very briefly, but I want you to understand. It glorified the
wisdom, faithfulness, holiness and love of our God. Oh, what
wisdom is seen in God Almighty finding a way to be just and
the justifier of the ungodly. In God finding a way whereby
he can, with no compromise of his justice, with no compromise
of his character, justify ungodly men and at the same time show
forth his name as that one who will by no means clear the guilty. No way possible is that except
by the sacrifice of the Son of Man, the God-man, our mediator. No human mind ever conceives
such a thing. This is the wisdom of God. Here
is seen the manifold wisdom of God. The death of our Lord showed
God to be faithful. faithful in keeping his promise,
faithful in fulfilling his covenant. God promised that he would send
the seed of the woman who would crush the serpent's head, and
now it is accomplished. The cross showed our God faithful
and holy, requiring the law's demands to be satisfied. requiring
that justice be satisfied and righteousness too. And so our
substitute fulfilled all righteousness, bringing in perfect righteousness
for us by his obedience unto death and satisfied justice by
suffering the full extremity of God's holy wrath when he was
made sin for us. He suffers until justice is satisfied. And God himself cries out and
says, fury is not in me. It showed our God to be glorious
in his great love. God is love. The scripture don't say he is
a God of love, Bill. God is love. That's what he is. That's what he is. Herein is
love. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our
sins. Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down
his life for us. The death of Christ glorified
God the father. and glorified God the son, the
son of man as our mediator and our covenant surety and brings
glory to him in his eternal divinity as well as his manhood. It glorifies
his compassion, his patient obedience and his power. Oh, what love
is this that a man should lay down his life not for his friends,
but for his enemies. Oh, the infinite love of the
Son of God for me. Not only does his sacrifice show
him loving, compassionate, and gracious to us, being made sin
and a curse for us, obtaining eternal redemption for us by
the sacrifice of himself, but it shows him patient and obedient
as Jehovah's righteous servant. When he took on himself our nature,
When he became one of us, he humbled himself and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. He could at any time
have called for a legion of angels to save him from death. But his
obedience was such that he persevered, determined to suffer and die
for us, obedient as Jehovah's righteous servant. And we obedient
in him, even unto death. Paul said, I want to know him.
I want to know him in the fellowship of his sufferings, in the power
of his resurrection, being made conformable unto his death. And
Bob, that's how we're going to know him. Absolutely conformable to his
death. Absolutely so. Because when he
was obedient, it wasn't for himself, but rather it was for us. And
we obeyed God in all points of righteousness, even unto death,
to the satisfaction of justice when we died in Christ. Paul
said, I am crucified with Christ. And our Lord's sacrifice showed
him powerful. omnipotent. This man who experiences
all the weakness of humanity is God in the flesh. And when he died, he vanquished
Satan and spoiled him of his prey. He nailed the law to his
tree and nailed our sins there and vanquished death, hell, and
the grave and spoiled Satan himself. Not only so, but the death of
Christ glorifies God the Spirit. For it is the glory of God the
Holy Spirit in his office capacity as our divine comforter to take
the things of Christ and show them to us. It is the glory of
God, the Holy Spirit, to convince us of sin, righteousness and
judgment. It is the glory of God, the spirit,
to sprinkle the hearts of chosen, redeemed centers with the blood
of Christ, effectually applying, effectually accomplished redemption.
It is the glory of the spirit to seal, comfort and preserve
us as the objects of Christ's redeeming love and his sacrifice. Forever cherish the thoughts
of Christ crucified. Never tire of thinking about
the sacrifice of the Son of God, the idolatrous pictures and images
and statues that men make that are supposed to portray our Lord
Jesus, even those that are supposed to portray him in his crucifixion,
are but idolatrous images and can never tell the story of his
agony, his ignominy, his shame, his suffering, and his death.
But as we behold him made sin for us, suffering all the horror
of God's holy wrath in our stead, we see something of the link
and breadth and height and depth of his sufferings. As he cries,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And at last cries,
it is finished and has finished the work of redemption for us.
No wonder Paul said, God forbid that I should glory, save in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. All right, here's the third thing.
Look at verse 33. Our Lord Jesus tells us that
there must be a time of separation between us and him. A time of separation between
him and us. Little children, yet a little
while I am with you. Ye shall seek me. And as I said
unto the Jews, whether I go, ye cannot come now. So now I say to you, oh, how greatly we feel the separation. For to me to live is Christ and
to die is gain, Paul said. But if I live in the flesh, this
is the fruit of my labor, yet what I shall choose I want not. five minutes straight between
two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is
far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful
for you. Here is a time of separation. But our saviors leaving us here
in this time of separation is for a specific purpose and for
a specific time. He leaves us here for proving
time. For here in us, He glorifies
Himself, proving the sufficiency of His grace, proving His faithfulness, proving
our faith in Him that He gives and sustains in us, proving His
love for us, and the faithfulness of his love to us. He glorifies
himself in us, using us while we're here for the glory of his
name. God could save his elect. He
could call out his elect without the use of any man or any means
whatsoever. Does anyone here question that?
Does anyone question that? Of course he could. But he condescends
to use such things as the world considers the offscouring of
the earth. He condescends to use the base,
the useless, the corrupt, insignificant, cast off, waste pieces of humanity. to preach the gospel to sinners
loved of him with everlasting love, redeemed by the precious
blood of his darling son, who must be called by his spirit.
Well, why on this earth would God allow, let alone purposefully
use, such clay pots as we are? to carry the gospel to chosen
sinners. Why does he do that? That no
flesh should glory in his presence. That the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. Do you remember that Gadarene
back in Luke chapter 8? Luke chapter 8, come back there
for just a moment if you will. In verse 38, now the man out of whom the devils
were departed, this Gadarene demoniac, who's now sitting at
the Savior's feet clothed in his right mind, besought him
that he might be with him. Lord, let me go with you. That
seemed reasonable, doesn't it, David? Let me go with you. But Jesus sent him away, saying,
return to thine own house and show how great things God hath
done unto thee. Why has he left us here? To show
other sinners like ourselves what great things God's done
for us. That's why. And when our appointed
time of labor and service is done, When our work on this earth
is finished, when all that God Almighty purposed to do through
us is done, we will go with him into glory. Thank God he didn't
finish his word by saying, whether I go, you cannot come. Look at verse 36. Simon Peter said unto him, Lord,
whither goest thou? Jesus answered him. Whither I
go, thou canst not follow me. Is that a good word, Skip? Now. Not now. Not now. But thou shalt
follow me hereafter. Somebody asked, where is heaven?
I don't know. Can you show it to me? No. No. Can you point
me in the right direction? No, I can't. But I'll tell you
this, wherever Christ is, Bobby, we're going to follow him. Wherever
he sits now at his father's right hand, he said, I'll give you
to sit with me in my father's throne. Whether I'm going, you
shall, absolutely shall follow me hereafter. Yesterday, Brother Larry came
by yesterday evening and gave me something we've been talking
about for a while. Brother Scott Richardson wrote, and I called
Marvin last night to find out when he wrote it. This is the
last thing Brother Scott said to the congregation at Fairmont
before God called him home, the very last thing. He read this
to the congregation on Wednesday night. He was too tired and weak
to attend services on Sunday, early Tuesday morning, God took
him. I want to read it to you. Scott said, I've come across
some things that helped me, and I want to pass it on to you.
We understand more about what heaven is and will be to us by
what it is not and will not be. He said, there'll be no more
sin, no more pain, no more sorrows, No more crying. No more war. No more jail. No more sickness. No more dying
in a ditch. No more heartache. No more confusion. No more lacking anything. No
more vanity. No more waiting. No more darkness,
no more going astray, no more reproach, no more affliction,
no more trouble, no more curse, no more dishonoring God. Our
name will no more be called Jacob. We should be called the children
of the living God. And he finished with this. When
we take our last breath and go out into that world, we'll feel
good about it. since we know a little more about
it, what it will be. And I myself experience it every
day. I know that I'm going to die. Not very long. I'll be glad if
I make one turn over in my bed tonight and go to sleep. I'll be happy about it because
heaven is my happiness. The Lord bless us. And then he
said, and no more birthdays. No more birthdays. Oh, what a
day that will be. When the company of Judas. Is
no more. And the Judas's of my own heart
are no more. All right, here's the fourth
thing. Verses 34 and 35, our Lord Jesus tells us how he glorifies
himself in us by giving his chosen a new law. A new law by which
our lives are governed in all things. A new commandment I give
you, that you love one another as I have loved you. and that
ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that
you're my disciples, if you have love one to another." Now, if you're familiar with
the book, when you read those words, you kind of got to scratch
your head and say, well, wait a minute, that's not a new law. That's not a new law. The rich
young ruler knew better than that. The rich young ruler knew
that the essence of the law is love God with all your heart,
soul, mind, and being, and love your neighbor as yourself. And
our Lord said, you're right. That's what it is. Well, how
then does he say, I give you a new commandment that you love
one another? The old law said, thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself. The Savior says, love one another
as I have loved you. That's the example we're to follow.
That's the inspiration for the love. That's the motivation as
I have loved you. But this new commandment of love
is that which arises from within with the new creation. This is
what God promised in the covenant. Our right my law upon their hearts. This is a new law. It arises
from a new nature. It is that which comes with arises
from and always accompanies faith. This is his commandment that
you believe on his son whom he has sent and that you love one
another as he gave us commandment. The love of Christ constraineth
us, Paul said. So that the believer, the new
creature in Christ, is one who lives with God, walks with God,
serves God, and serves God's people. Are you listening now? Merle,
just cause you want to. That's all. Just cause you want
to. No fear. No terror, no threat, no promise
of reward, no threat of losing reward, just because you want
to. How come you're here? How come you just gave your hard-earned
money to the furtherance of the gospel? How come you labor in
places and situations that nobody knows about except you and God
for the cause of Christ? How come? Who's forcing you to
do so? Who's forcing you to go out of
your way to take care of somebody in need? Who's compelling you
to attend worship services? Who's forcing you to read the
word? Who? I'm pretty sure nobody's forcing
me to do those things. Nobody's forcing me to do those
things. Because I want to. Is that it, Lindsay? Want to.
God's given us a I want to honor Him. I want to
serve His people. I want to serve our generation.
This is a new law. This is a new commandment. The
world knows nothing about it. The religious world knows nothing
about it. Preachers are scared to death of it. They keep beating
you with law. They keep beating you with rules
and regulations. They keep wanting to rule your life and govern
your life and inspect your life and see what you're doing. The day I come trying to govern
your life, trying to inspect what you're doing, trying to
determine how you're serving God, hit me in the jaw and throw
me out the door. That's what you ought to do with
any preacher who does. God's people serve him freely. Freely you've received. What'd
he say? Freely give. Freely. Here's the fifth thing. Beginning at verse 36, the Lord
Jesus very graciously prepares his beloved disciple Peter for
a terrible fall. Simon Peter said unto him, Lord,
whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, whither I
go thou canst not follow me now. Oh, can you imagine how this
word, this next word must have Oh, how it must have rung in
Peter's ears to the day he died after the Lord recovered him
from his fall. But Peter, even you shall follow me here afterwards. Afterwards, Peter said unto him,
Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life
for thy sake. And now that he was telling the
truth, he did. But in telling the truth, he was too confident,
too proud, too much starch. We're told by the other gospel
writers that he said, though all men forsake thee, I'll not
forsake you. I'll lay down my life for you.
I'm not like these other fellows, Lord. I'm not like them. I'm
not like them. He proved himself courageous
in the cause of Christ. He took on a band of Roman soldiers
with a fisherman's knife in the garden. But he was too proud. And God only uses broken pieces. Pray for God to use you. Be careful. He just might. But before he
uses you, I promise you, he will break you. He will break you. Read on. 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
three times. And thus the Lord Jesus prepares
Peter for a fall. The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord. Even these steps. Even these
steps. His word, thou shalt follow me
hereafter, was just exactly as his word, thou shalt deny me
three times. Wasn't a possibility it wasn't
going to happen. Wasn't a possibility. And it was ordered by God for
Peter's good and Christ's glory. And though that man, that good
man, one made good by God's grace, though his steps are ordered
of the Lord, though he fall, Psalm 37 verse 24, the Lord will
raise him up. Though he fall seven times in
a day, God raises him up. You see, our Lord Jesus never
proves himself more glorious than in the way he deals with
his fallen saints. Oh, it's glorious that he should
take such a sinner as you are right now wash you in his blood,
accept you by his grace, save you by his mercy. But then he
takes one who's walked with him every day for three and a half
years, who's knelt with him every night in prayer, who's been with
him in the highs and lows, who's seen his power manifest again
and again and again. And that disciple denies him. and abandons him. And the Lord, when he's risen,
says to his angel who speaks to the women at his tomb, go
tell my disciples everything's all right. I'll meet them in
Galilee, just like I said I would. And be sure you tell Peter. And
then read John 21 and see how the Lord graciously, graciously
snatches Peter from his fall. You see, There hath no temptation
taken you, no trial taken you, for such as is common with men.
But God will with the temptation make a way of escape that you
may be able to bear it. And I'll tell you the way of
escape. He snatches you from yourself. He snatches you from the pits
into which you've fallen. He snatches you from the corruption
of your own doing, of your own making, and washes you and cleanses
you in his precious blood. And thus, Christ is glorified. Thus, Christ is honored. Thus, his name is made glorious
among the inhabitants of the earth and shall be sung to the
praises of his glory in heaven forever. Amen.