Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.heritagesermons.org/sermons/8764/john-quality-good-quiet-sermon-incomplete/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Number nine. I fame would love the day of rest, Would still esteem this day the best, But of the last I'd need to say, How barren is my soul today.

[0:21] True, I frequent the house of prayer, I go and sit with others there, I hear and sing and sing to pray, But of my mind is called away.

[0:35] 1124. Amen.

[0:58] Amen. Amen. Amen.

[2:02] Amen. Amen.

[3:02] Amen. Amen.

[4:02] Amen. Amen.

[5:02] Amen. Amen.

[6:02] Amen. Amen.

[7:02] Amen. Amen.

[8:02] Amen. Amen.

[9:02] Amen. Amen.

[10:02] Amen. Amen.

[10:33] Amen. Amen. Amen. The Lord shall help me this evening, I'll direct your attention to a text you'll find in the 13th chapter of John, John's Gospel, chapter 13 and verse 1.

[11:02] where you will read these words when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of the world unto the Father having loved his own which were in the world he loved them unto the end it is more particularly the last clause of the verse which I wish to speak from this evening having loved his own which were in the world he loved them unto the end the hour which Jesus was approaching was the hour of his departure and death he well knew the occasion when it would be and that it was upon him from his disciples and ourselves these things are wisely hidden from our eyes as to when we must depart depart but this we know we must depart from this world that there is an appointed time for all God's will an appointed time to die and this word is a kind of beginning prefects to the story of the foot washing which we have the account of in the world word

[12:56] Jesus named that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he was come from God and went to God and he riseth from supper and laid aside his garments and he took a towel and girded himself and this memorial act it took place at the end of our Lord's sojourn here below and the passion was the end of his life and that was about to begin that same night he was to go to Gethsemane Gethsemane and in less than 24 hours those dear hands that did such good would be nailed to the accursed tree and he who spoke so tenderly to his little flock fear not little flock it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom he would soon be in agony he had almost reached the end of his earthly life and he had to come to a season of awful agony and he was about to endure great and a terrible a season a terrible death the death of the cross by which he was about to purchase eternal redemption for all his people and we might say what would be uppermost in his mind at this time now he had this suffering in front of him now he has so many other things on his mind approaching death agony the sweat of Gethsemane what place would his disciples have under these circumstances a text has the answer to that when Jesus knew that his hour was come his love was burning at the paschal supper as ever it did before it was undiminished and it seems in that wonderful prayer in the 17th of John to which I referred this morning the lover of Jesus had never been so great so inflamed we might say behold how he loved his disciples for even at the end of his life he still loved those whom he loved before truly ye are a chosen people a peculiar people a royal priesthood now those of whom this word speaks with whom he associated they are called in the text his own it is a very brief description but a most wonderful one and so very full now that was a circle it was sometimes a wide circle around the saviour made up of publicans and sinners the worst of characters and he had a measure of love to them all and it is desire to bless them but there was an inner circle that contained twelve apostles and some godly women who had joined themselves to him these were his own described in the text to them he often expounded the word and the hidden meaning of the parables which he spoke at which was left at times unexplained to the wider sphere the crowd they were a special people many knew many despised them but Jesus loved them and it's the same today the people of God are despised they're known by the world but you see

[17:58] Jesus loved them and this was the main thing that made them his own you know how they came to be his own he chose them before ever the earth was born Christ chose his own bride as a man chooses his own wife he chose the church before the first light fell upon the pristine darkness of the world Christ had made his choice and he stood to it he chose them for his love and he loved them for his choice he espoused them unto himself they shall be mine he says in Malachi I will be married to them I will be bone of their bone flesh of their flesh and consequent in the fullness of time he came and made one with our humanity the babe in Bethlehem's manger they were his own also for his father gave them to him the father committed to his son

[19:31] Jesus Christ committed into his hands he says thine they were and thou gavest them me so he says in that 17th of John father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory and this is where our godly friends are going he has a right to have them where he is father I will and the father he loved the son and he committed all things into his hands he entered into a contract on their behalf the great shepherd will take care of his thoughts which are entrusted to him he says in John 10 my sheep hear my voice

[20:36] I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish and no man shall pluck them out of my hand neither out of my father's hand there is absolute security for these sheep and will not he will not lose either a lamb or a sheep at the last Jesus will say to the father here I am father and the children which thou hast given me of all that thou gavest me I have lost none why he paid the fair those who he called his own were soon to be the wondrous purchase as he spoke these words he looked upon their redemption as being already accomplished for in this prayer he said father

[21:59] I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do and how dearly we are if we are the children of God we are Christ by his redemption have you considered ye are not your own ye are bought with a price what a cost what a sacrifice that he gave to be made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made but the takers of the righteousness of God in him he loved his church better than he loved himself a brother born for adversity might well be seen as some of us used to in the

[23:03] Sunday school perhaps oh teach me what it means that cross uplifted high Jesus the man of sorrows condemned to bleed and die he laid down his life for those who were once his enemies but they became his own by his conquest in us and of us he had called his disciples to whom he spoke by his grace he had drawn each one of them by the cords of love and they had run after him it is just so with you and I and his people you remember the time when he drew you by his sweet and resisted his grace and voice can you ever forget when at last you yielded to the power of those bands of love or if you cannot clearly discern and not all of

[24:23] God's children can clearly discern the day yet you are unable to say like that poor blind man one thing I know that whereas I was once blind yet now I see or like one twelve year old boy I recently heard an accountant who was unable to say thou art fearer than the children of men to come Wild it is done, the great transaction done I am my Lord and he is mine it was Jesus my friend when he hung on the tree who opened a channel of mercy to me and though you were once a stranger to grace and to God but now you are his own because you have yielded yourself to him his delights are with the sons of men and you delight in him and in his ways and in Christ he is truly the fountain of all bliss of innumerable pleasures and blessings to your heart the cheapest among ten thousand and the altogether lovely one and his own chief they hear his voice thou called his sheep or his disciples or friends thou called his brethren members of his mystical body and what a title and how honoured to wear such a title and thus he distinguishes people his own people from the rest of mankind he sets his children apart know ye that the Lord has set him apart that is godly for himself and surely this is the greatest honour a person may have for he says my name shall be upon them they shall be mine says the Lord of hosts in that day when I make up my jewels and I will spare them as a man spares his own son that serviced him and his own they are described still as in the scripture unlearned and ignorant men his choices and best friends and followers are so described and the apostle said

[27:34] God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and the base things and things that are not hath God chosen that that no flesh should glory in his presence and here we see the wondrous sovereign faith of this divine person of everlasting love where he says to his children I have loved thee with everlasting love therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee really in this word we might say that we have a miniature history of Christ's dealings with his disciples in these brief words having loved his own remember friends that that is how he began with them impoverished spiritually poor lost ruined they were walking in the wrong direction children of law even as others impenitent under the reign of the prince of darkness dominated by Satan just like that character

[29:19] Mephibosheth that we read of who was lame on his feet deformed and so we were deformed spiritually and yet for Jonathan's sake for Jesus Christ's sake the foundation of God standeth having this seal the Lord knoweth them that are his he began by loving them whose heart the Lord opened he is the one who openeth and no man shut it David said thou hast loved my soul out of the pit what a description how act how beautiful is such a description of conversion and salvation the love of God lost us out of the pit of destruction and thus Christ loved his people from the beginning and he proved his love by drawing them to himself by the cause he used to draw them with and so tender and so compassionate was he he was truly the good Samaritan who were not great the bruised wreath or quenched the smoking flax it is he who says come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy labour and I will give you rest if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink well having begun by loving them he continued to teach them after the initial placing them in wisdom's ways all his teaching was in love to them for they and we are so indolent so indifferent at times so dull and forgetful of his teachings we are poor pupils or students in the school of Christ what does he say to his disciples who are so slow to remember do you not remember the loaves and the fishes how I multiplied you and to one of his he said have I been so long time with you and thou hast not known me

[32:17] Philip there is a mass of love in that question and so it was when he was dating with Thomas poor doubting Thomas in his tenderness he submitted without question to the doubting disciples as he tested him he said to him reach hither thy finger and behold my hand and reach hither and thrust it into my side all his teaching was uttered with the lips of love all his instructions they consisted of this love lessons of love he teaches to profit and he has not offered now his love it did not diminish in one in any respect not one iota and neither does it today to you and I he kept on loving his disciples although their natures were so wonderfully imperfect and diverse this may be a great consolation and comfort to some here that among his choices on earth there was not one among them who had a good all round character and nature even John the beloved disciple was hasty and tempered and he would at one time he would have called down fire down from heaven on certain salarities it was

[34:28] John of whom it is said that in his old age as he was taken to the temple in his frailty and weakness exhorted the people of God to love as little children and yet the master he kept on loving them he made up his mind to love them and he never ceased to love them as long as he was with them and he has gone on loving them ever since now at the time he was about to depart from the world unto the father they still needed to have their feet washed and he loved them enough to render them this lonely service as we read this evening and all the foolishness the imperfection the carnality the dullness the slowness of their nature which he saw in them and which he sees in you and I was much more clear to him than it is to us they saw it but this he saw it but this did not bar his love too it didn't hinder it in one any respect at all he did not cease to love them having loved his own which were in the world he loved them unto the end even when he saw how they would act in the future and he well knew he foresaw that they would soon be cowardly faithless foolish he loved them all the same he said unto them or ye shall be offended because of me this night they all forsook him and fled a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief he told

[36:54] Peter he would deny him thrice before the cop crew and yet all the while it was true having loved his own there was never a moment never any hate towards them notwithstanding their lukewarmness and indifference there was certainly nothing of this in Christ but there was always this once in him said the hymn writer in him forever thus the eternal covenant stands what has been his conduct to you and I nothing but love he is that friend who sticketh closer than a brother who loveth at all times love and though we vacillate and change he changes not he saw me ruined in the fall yet loved me notwithstanding all he saved me from my lost estate in loving kindness oh how great and at times his children are enabled to answer such a question as was put to

[38:21] Peter lovest thou me lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee and yet there will be at times inward grief penitence for all your past failures and sins how you grieve and vex his holy soul and his gracious heart you will say something like this nothing but sin I thee can give nothing but love shall I receive though we have caused him pain and his people have received nothing but love and the whole of his conduct towards his chosen is the same it is summed up in the words having loved his own now

[39:29] Jesus he knew that this hour was coming upon him and that he must go to the cross so tenderly is it described in the word here yet he knew that he had to die the ignimonious death upon that tree Isaiah says he was wounded for our transgressions it is by his stripes that we are healed he was numbered with the transgressors there were three crosses on that hill at Calvary and in the centre was God in the form of human flesh 33 years or so before he had come he had been born in a stable at

[40:32] Bethlehem and after a brief stay he comes to Nazareth where he grew up with his parents later he was baptised by John and he went about doing good teaching healing saving and the poor had the gospel preached to them and the common people heard him gladly but the jealousy of the religious leaders of the day drove them into conspiracy to bring about his death all appointed he was arrested tried a mockery of justice he was spat upon his beard was clothed he had a crown of forms forced upon his brow mockingly without superscription hail king of the

[41:39] Jesus king of the Jews and the moment came when the streets of Jerusalem cried out crucify him crucify him he was led away to the hills stumbling under the crushing weight of the cross which he was forced to carry and then he was taken and nailed to the cross which was lifted up and dropped into its socket every bone of his sensitive body felt that jar and then Jesus spoke in his last hours before healing up his life that shameful death and yet he prayed father forgive father forgive them for they know not what they do in such a situation

[42:52] Jesus prayed we can understand it if he had prayed for himself and it's not wrong to pray for ourselves when he's healed but you prayed but you see he prayed not for himself but for others not for those who were his friends but those who were his enemies his persecutors and in this present situation he pleaded that they might be forgiven he was loving and praying for their great need it is the need of everyone forgiveness of their sin if they did but realise it this is surely the greatest need of anyone can we detach ourselves from this situation of picture this scene of

[43:54] Calvary looking upon these people we may be inclined to think that they were worse than ourselves but this is far from the truth friends one of our hymns says something like this so aptly the soldiers pierced his sight is true but we have pierced him through and through Judas he had had the bag he was grieving he sold his lord for 30 pieces of silver the chief priests were jealous of him envious Pilate and his own people who were so popular he was frightened of his own prestige and yet we see here emotions and traits which are common to that envy pride grieve for that little bit more and they reach their logical conclusion here in the death of

[45:19] Christ they are our sins too and forgiveness is our greatest thing the scribes and the Pharisees murmured who can forgive sin but God only but the son of man himself had power to forgive sins he lovingly said to the man who was paralyzed thy sins which are many are all forgiven thee and on this cross he was suspended between earth and heaven and he began his ministry of intercession and which he continued after his ascension with his father in heaven at the right hand Jesus Christ the great high priest of his flock the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world who gave his life an atonement that his people might be made of one with him and on the basis of that one sacrifice he asked for his children's forgiveness he began then what he still continues to do to make intercession at the throne of grace they know not what they do though he was not excusing their behaviour or exaggerating their ignorance and their limited knowledge and how enormous was the crime of crucifying the son of God the lord of life and glory this is a most solemn aspect of sin we may realise to a small degree our guilt but we may be unaware of the magnitude of that guilt and the consequences of it sin really is a little bit of hell let loose we cannot evaluate the repercussions it may cause to sin and such a prayer on the cross by

[48:08] Jesus was wonderfully answered on the day of Pentecost where the people are charged with crucifying the lord with wicked hands says Peter have you crucified him and unless he repent he shall all likewise perish forgiveness it implies repentance to leave the sins we did before we have the wonder of the feet at the right hand who were saved but we have on the cross too that dark hour when Christ knew what it was for his father to hide his face can we comprehend the depth of that my God my God why hast thou forsaken me the sun in darkness seemed to hide itself and there was the earthquake so there the very nature on earth seemed to be overwhelmed in sympathy with the indescribable sufferings of Christ he who became sin who knew no sin we cannot fathom or plumb the ocean depths which he passed oh the awfulness of sin that he was to be forsaken of God who is purer of purer eyes than the children of men the wages of sin is death but the gift of

[50:14] God is eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ how God loved the world how true it is God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever ever believed believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life so he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities and by his stripes we are healed he was there reconciling the world unto himself and how greatly Jesus loved his people in being prepared to go through the condemnation of sin on their behalf having loved his own he loved them unto the end what a display of God's love how shameful is much in our lives how trivial when we look in comparison with this the sufferings of Christ think on these things it is finished were his words so vigorous and clear was the cry of victory they were not like the words of man it is not by works of righteousness which we have done but by his alarm according to his own mercy he saved us and now he is ascended glorified and sits at the right hand of the father mediator who stands between it was him to set his face as a flint to go to

[52:29] Jerusalem now death itself could not change that love it is true as in the word many waters cannot change cannot quench love neither can the floods drown it love is as strong as death he was about to depart from his own disciples on earth let not your heart be troubled he says to them in my father's house and many mansions no distance makes any difference between Jesus and his own having lost them he lost them unto the end God brought from death as he came from death he was raised from death to the resurrection and from the resurrection he went to the ascension from the ascension he went to glory and that he is now on the throne he makes no alteration to his love he says which were in the world his own which were left in the world that is left in the midst of all the abounding wickedness the idolatry and their most ungodly age the blasphemy the theme blasphemy which they hear but he says be of good cheer

[54:15] I have overcome the world in the world you shall have tribulation it is through much tribulation that we enter the kingdom there are those who were persecuted and all that were godly must suffer persecution it takes a great variety of forms there are those who suffer open persecution there are those in the time of Paul when he wrote to the Romans who lived in the hills of the seven sisters outside of Rome in dens in caves of the earth there are those who were thrown into the arena of lions tormented there are those today if we did but know who suffer like things but you see when

[55:22] Paul wrote to the Romans he says something like this when he loved his own who shall separate us from the love of God shallcü through him Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us, who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[56:11] They are tempted, they are bribed with the pleasures of this life. They have love and passion. They were in the world in affliction too, and in all their affliction he was afflicted.

[56:28] Are there losses, crosses? And God's curse still rests on the earth, where he says storms and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee.

[56:45] And then there is the trial of faith in the world. And how often this is tried, real faith is tried, sorely at times.

[56:57] There is also a day of me. And so, being in the world surrounded by much weakness of body, of mind, always needing to call upon the Lord for help.

[57:15] Change and decay in all around I see, but thou who changes not, abide with me. And he will love them unto the end.

[57:28] This is how Jesus will be acting towards his own. Having loved his own which were in the world, he will love them unto the end.

[57:39] And that he will never change from the tenderness of his human heart. I believe this sentence, this last sentence, it means he loved them right on.

[57:55] His mercy endureth forever. For in other words, it endureth unto the end. That is, to the end which has no end.

[58:11] Christ himself, in his passion, may be said to have come to an end. And he loved his disciples unto his death. But it means that he loved them without any end forever and ever.

[58:25] Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them right straight on, always. We'll love them when time shall be no more.

[58:40] It is the everlasting love of God towards his people. He says, the mountains and the hills shall depart. Or removed.

[58:53] For my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed. It standeth forever.

[59:06] For again, it can mean this. He loved them to perfection. He could not love them any better. That was impossible.

[59:19] He could not love them any more wisely or more intensely. And whatever the perfection of love that may be, that Christ bestowed upon his people, there is no such love as Christ to his own.

[59:39] Impossible. He loved them to the uttermost. Or that which is set forth as being most distant.

[59:53] He loved them so unutterably. In such a way that you cannot tell or conceive or describe how much he loved his people.

[60:03] to the uttermost stretch of his own love. Perhaps someone here is saying, I wish I could have experienced that love.

[60:18] If I could have experienced that love. If I could just silently creep in amongst his own people. If he would just speak to me.

[60:29] Well, his word is, Ask and ye shall receive. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened unto you.

[60:43] I love those that love me, and they that seek me early shall find me. He has not said to the seeking seed, Seek ye me in vain.

[60:56] O thou hidden love of God, Whose height, whose depth, Untasled, no man knows, I see from far thy beauteous light, An inly sigh for thy repose.

[61:11] My heart is pain, Nor can it be at rest, Till I find rest. In thee. Well, The fruition of his love Will be found in heaven.

[61:33] Unto him, We read in the revelation, That has loved us and washed us by his own love. The Lamb of God, The glory of Emmanuel, It will be to an inheritance, Incorruptible and undefiled, And that fadeth not away, Reserved, In heaven for you.

[61:56] Corruption is here. The path of the just, Is as a shining light, That shineth more and more, To the perfect day.

[62:07] Corruption is written across life, It is sown in corruption, It is raised in incorruption, We are subject to disease, And decay, But there will be a glorious transformation, For the people of God.

[62:27] And so he says, And so he says, Undefiled, The promised land, Of Canyon, To the children of Israel, They defiled that land, With their sins.

[62:42] But you see, The heavenly Canyon, The heavenly Jerusalem, There will be no decay, No defilement there, There shall not enter anything, That defile it, Or make it alive.

[62:56] So, It will be unfaithing, We all do fail as a leaf. But you see, Palestine, As it speaks, Of the promised land, There was much beauty in the spring, There was life, There was freshness, The flowers were on the earth, There was new life, But in winter, That land was sterile, Barren, Decay, And deadness was written across it, But by contrast, The heavenly Canyon, Will be, Terennial, Forever, Fresh, It will be eternal, I hath not seen, Nor ear heard, Neither hath it entered, Into the heart of men, The things that he has prepared for them, That love him, It is his love,

[64:01] And in his pity, He redeemed them, And carried them, All the days of old, Having loved his own, Which were in the world, He loved them, Unto the end, Oh, May this be your happy experience, And mine, To realize this precious love, Of Christ here, My soul with joy attend, While Jesus stylus breaks, No angel's heart such music knew, As what my jeffers speak, Stay under their poder darum, Stay under their coffee caveat, O'er God, Stay under youradow, Stay under your thought of God, Stay under your pay, Stay under your love,

[65:04] Eastern, For faith and die are the sacred things, For faith and die are the war, Stay under your brooch, God bless you.

[65:46] God bless you.

[66:16] God bless you.

[66:46] God bless you.