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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/william-lavery/being-like-the-lord-jesus/
Now I'd like to read with you from the Gospel of John, first of all in John chapter 1. John chapter 1 and verse 36. And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God. Chapter 4 and verse number 6.
Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour. Chapter 10 please, and verse 9. I am the door. By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture.
The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
Now chapter 11 and verse 35. Shortest verse in our authorized version of the Bible. Jesus wept. Now chapter 13 and verse number 5. After that he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.
Now just one more, chapter 21. My brother referred to this, at least I thought he was going to, but he referred to this chapter 21 and verse 15. So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?
And he said unto me, Yea Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. And he saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.
He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.
Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Now just another verse, 20. Peter turning about saith the disciple whom Jesus loved following, which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?
Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come. What is that to thee? Follow thou me. Now we know that God will bless the reading of his word with what we have already heard.
We have heard a lot about choices and I'm sure it has affected us and should in the days to come. We found it very interesting to think of the choices that Daniel had to make and that Daniel made choices that had a great impact on his life and on the life of others.
And we heard about Abraham and what a tremendous character he is and the change that he made, the changes that should come into our lives because of what we have heard of Abraham. And then we have heard about Ruth.
Beautiful little story, like an oasis in the desert. The lovely story of Ruth, a young woman that made the right decision and I'll tell you, she never regretted it. The wonderful life that lay ahead of her.
We also heard of Peter and no doubt the choices that he would make when he heard of the Lord saying, you're going to catch men alive. You're not just going to be occupied with fish, but you're going to catch men.
You're going to make a fisher of men. Now, what I have read, you may wonder how that fits in, but what I've been thinking about is this, that there's one choice that all these other choices would be included in, I think.
At least if we made this choice and followed it through, we would fulfill many of the other choices and decisions that these men made. What is it? To be more like the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we want and that's what our brethren have been bringing before us from different characters.
It's all leading us to the perfect example, our blessed Lord himself. Now, we have read a few things about the Lord. First of all, we read of him walking and we ask a question now, how's your walk? You say, what does that mean?
Well, you remember in that passage, it says that John stood and he saw Jesus as he walked. John's little ministry was finishing and the Lord's was just commencing. So, John stood and he saw Jesus as he walked.
And there were two men that were really interested in this. They were attracted to the walk. Good thing to have an attractive walk. And they said, Rabbi, where dwellest thou? And he said, come and see.
Now, how about your walk? This is my walk. How does it correspond with the walk of the Lord Jesus? Well, you know, none of us can walk exactly as he walked. And yet Peter said, he has left us an example that we should follow in his steps.
We want to be like the Lord. The walk, you know, in the scriptures is a manner of life. And it would be nice to have an attractive walk so that others would be attractive to this wonderful person. And that's what happened.
Others were attracted to the walk of the Lord Jesus. My mind goes to a young woman. We want to include the sisters. And her name was Aksa. And her name means anklet or a jewel for the ankle, I suppose, like a little chain maybe they wore in those days.
I'm not giving you permission to do that today. But do you know what it means? The beauty of the walk. While there were others that were not enjoying the inheritance that God had brought them into, here's a young woman, and she said, I want to enjoy this inheritance.
And she said to her father, give me a field. And he gave her a southland, a field. She wanted to be fruitful and a southland where the sun is conducive to fruitfulness. And then she said, but there's something else I need.
I need water. So he gave her the upper and the lower springs. Picture of the Holy Spirit. And that's what we need to be fruitful and to walk for God. The beauty of the walk. It says that Asher dipped his foot in oil.
I suppose, of course, it's not oil like we would think of it today. It'd be olive oil. And I just want to apply it this way. When you dip your foot in oil, you'd leave a track. And that's what God would like us to have, a walk that would leave a sort of a track behind us.
All the animals with clothes and hooves, that's what they did, wasn't it? They left a track. And the Lord Jesus left that track so that we could follow in the track. So, what I want to do is make these things very practical and say now, does my walk encourage others?
Am I walking? I know I'm walking before God. That's the important thing. And before the Lord. And if I am, it's going to attract others to him. And then we read of him being weary. Jesus, being weary with the journey, sat thus on the well.
And we have the Lord Jesus and he's weary. And weary walking to Samaria. Why? With one object in view, to meet a sinful woman. Aren't that wonderful? That the Lord would go to that extent. And you know, in the Gospel of John, that's what happens.
The Lord goes out after individuals. And he's weary with the journey, and he sees a way to open up a conversation. It's good if we could follow his example. He didn't just go right in and tell this woman, you're on the way to hell and so on.
No, the Lord sat down and he took the opportunity. He needed a drink of water. And she gave him a drink. And, of course, it opened up a whole conversation. Talked about worship. And then the Lord got right down to the crux of the matter.
Go call thy husband. I have no husband, thou hast well said. I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands, and that saidest thou truly. And the Lord spoke to her with a view of bringing her under conviction of her sins.
And I'll tell you, there was a great result. She left her vessel, her water pot, her vessel at the well, and she became a vessel. A vessel that would go out to bring others to the Lord Jesus. So, couldn't we be like him in that aspect of his life?
That's what glorifies God. Not just learning a lot of things about the Lord Jesus. Of course, if we really learn them, we'll put them into practice. So, we need to learn them, and we should be like him.
And be weary. Put ourselves out. Go the second mile to try and win someone for the Lord. And then chapter 10 and verse 9, we have the Lord watching. He's a shepherd. And one of the things he's doing, he's watching for the sheep.
And I thought, it's a wonderful thing to be one of his sheep. And to know that we have a shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. What beautiful words those are. Sometimes unsaved people try to take comfort out of them at times of death and so on.
But it's good to really know the Lord is my shepherd. And he's going to lead us in and out. He's going to find pasture for us. That's one reason why we come to a conference. And he's going to feed his people.
And everyone that takes a platform like this, or in your local assembly, that should be the object in the ministry of the word to feed God's people. So then I ask myself, do I have a heart for the flock?
Do I have a heart for God's assembly? Am I going to be a help in the assembly where I am? Or am I going to be a hindrance? I'd like to be a help. And I'd like to be an encouragement. And I'd like to be able to provide a little bit of food for God's people.
And we can do that apart from ever being on a platform. There's not too many times maybe we do it ourselves or others do it. But the only one I asked you recently, what have you been studying in the scriptures?
What have you been looking at? Mr. Maxwell, Sidney Maxwell, when he was going to work, there was an old believer sat down beside him and said, well, what were you reading this morning? My, he thought I hardly had time to get out of bed and wash my face and get out around to the aircraft factory.
But he said it taught me a lesson. Get up earlier. Maybe go to bed earlier would be good for some of us to get up earlier. And then he said, when the man asked me, I had something to tell him. And he said the brother had something to add to it, to be an encouragement.
So do we have a love for the flock, a love for the Lord's people? That's something that we need. And that's all the Lord's people, not just the ones that we know, or even just those in assembly fellowship.
We should have a love for them all. But those that we can influence and help, we should be, have that desire. What about Jesus wept? Well, that's beautiful. When I read the gospel of John, I always think of the greatness of the Lord.
All things were made by him. He came out from God and so on. And then a few verses as we have them in our first chapter, behold, the Lamb of God. And here we have the same one in all his greatness. John's gospel is the gospel of his greatness.
And yet he's able to draw near to sympathize with those that are bereaved. Jesus wept. Rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep. Some people think it's easier maybe to weep with them that weep.
You don't like to rejoice if they're getting along better, maybe in some way than you are. But I tell you, the Lord Jesus was a man of compassion. Wept. Wouldn't it be nice to be more sympathetic? Sometimes I wonder why my heart's so hard.
When you hear of the predicament or whatever problems and difficulties that some of the Lord's people have, you wonder how they can bear it. And of course, we know the answer. It's only that the Lord draws near.
He's still sympathetic. And even if no one else would sympathize with you, I tell you, he will. He still draws near. But I would like to have a greater heart of sympathy, a sympathetic heart, a softer heart toward God's people that are ailing, and of course, toward sinners as well.
And then you have the Lord washing. He's washing the feet of the disciples. He girds himself with a towel. Mr. Darby says it's a linen towel, and that would connect it maybe with the priestly ministry of the Lord.
Perfect service for this same wonderful person, the creator of the universe, and yet he's the one that stoops at the feet of the disciples to wash their feet. But do you know what he said? He said, I have left you an example.
And we would do this to our brethren and sisters. How do we wash their feet? It's not a literal washing that we would be involved in, but it's something to, well, to refresh them and to cleanse them. And this is what we do in a personal way, private way, as well as in public.
It's so that we would remove anything that would hinder their enjoyment of the Lord and to refresh them. The Lord refreshed his little group, having loved those who were in the world, he loved them with an extreme love.
And he showed that love in taking that lowly place, and he washed their feet. Paul speaks of a man, Onesiphorus, and we'll be looking at him tomorrow night, God willing, in 2 Timothy chapter 1. He said, who oft refreshed me, he was not ashamed of my chain.
Here's a man that sought Paul out when he was in prison, and a very dangerous thing to do. But he says, he refreshed me. Wasn't ashamed that I was there in prison, but he oft refreshed me. Now, what about us?
Can we follow that example? Would that be a choice to make, to be like him in this? Washing the feet of God's people, encouraging God's people? Sometimes we can discourage God's people, maybe. Hopefully, we won't do that.
But each one of us, we can take this to heart, and we can be an encouragement. How? How do we wash their feet? Well, I would think we use the water of the word. This would be related to the laver. And the laver in the had water that God gave them from the smitten rock.
So, it would speak to us the word of God, and in the power of the spirit of God. And that's how we would refresh one another, by bringing some little thing from the word to them. Something we've enjoyed, and especially something we've enjoyed about the Lord himself.
That's what would encourage the hearts of God's people. Now, what about chapter 21? We have heard a little bit about restoration. And the Lord, here he is, he's restoring Peter. I'm sure Peter was devastated when he realized he was so adamant that he would never deny the Lord.
And now, the Lord is dealing with him. Isn't it lovely to see how the Lord deals with people in restoration? He didn't just jump all over Peter. We say that reverently. No, he treats him very tenderly.
The Lord knew what Peter was going through. Peter had a right heart. It was just a very difficult situation. We wonder maybe what we would have done in the same position. But the Lord is so kind, and he's so gracious.
And he works to restore this man. It's not just saying, now, you're going to be restored, but you have to take the back seat from now on. No, he's going to use him for his honor and for his glory. And that should have, at least, and would affect Peter and anyone that has been restored in that way.
And I know we all need restoration, and bigger things that we restored. You know, it should really change our lives. I know people that have been disciplined from God's assembly for immorality and brought back, and you wouldn't think after a while that, for me, I'd be treading softly, I think.
I think, I know restoration is full restoration, but do you think you would have to prove yourself again? Well, Peter, he would never forget that. And as he would deal with others, likely it would be the same thought in view.
You know, we can help restore one another. It's important to see souls saved, but it's wonderful, especially when you're preaching the gospel, to see people restored. That's a great thing, to see people restored to God.
And maybe they've been away from God's assembly for years, and to see them brought back into fellowship of God's assembly. Restore such an one in the spirit of meekness. That's how it's done. He that is spiritual, Galatians 6, not he that is legal.
The legal person will never restore anyone. They'll hurt them, and they'll chase them away. But he that is spiritual, let him restore such a one in the spirit of meekness. And the great example, I think, of that in the Old Testament, and I like to use Old Testament examples if I can find them, would be Abraham restoring Lot.
Lot was taken captive, and Abraham went out after him, that he might be restored. And he did it in the spirit of meekness. He wouldn't take anything from the king of Sodom, lest they say they have made me rich.
And I'll tell you, he had a great reward, didn't he? Behold, I am thy shield, and I am thy exceeding great reward. The Lord was his reward. That was far better than anything they could give him out of the world.
And then, just in closing, Peter had an interest in the sheep that he was to tend to and take care of. And I believe that when he said, what shall this man do? He wondered, God said, now you're going to feed my sheep, and John's one of the sheep.
What'll this man do? If he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Of course, the saying went around that he was going to live till the Lord came. He didn't. His ministry went on to the time when the Lord came, both in the rapture and away in the book of Revelation.
But I thought now, applying that to ourselves, just in closing, it's possible that we will tarry till he comes. Some of us may, some of us may not, but it's very possible the imminent return of the Lord means he could come at any moment, and he could come today.
What are we going to be occupied with? What choices have we made that will help us in our lives? We'd like to be in good condition, wouldn't we, when he comes? We'd like to have a walk, to walk like he walked.
We'd like to be weary in our labors for him. We'd like to have an interest watching over the flock. We'd like to weep with those that are in difficulties and have a heart of sympathy. And we'd like to be used in washing the saints' feet, just refreshing one another as we're on this way.
We all need it. And then to be, I put another W there. I don't know if it's a very good one, but I put winnowing. And I thought because that's what Satan wanted to do. He wanted to winnow or sift Peter as wheat, and he wanted to do it to take away the good stuff and leave the chaff.
That's not what Ruth did. She got the good stuff. Forget the chaff. You got the good stuff. But here it's the Lord. He's the one that's dealing with Peter. What for? For restoration. So may the Lord help us to have choices, see the importance of them, to live for him.
And all, maybe under this great umbrella, the choice that I make, I want to be more like our blessed Lord.