Keep sharing good news without ads.
Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/larry-perkins/last-words-of-the-lord-jesus/
Gospel of John chapter 13, please. Gospel of John chapter 13, verse 34. Now, everything that I read here will be the words of the Lord Jesus. A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
Chapter 14, verse 15. If ye love me, keep my commandments. Chapter 15, verse 4. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. And then finally in chapter 16, and verse 16. A little while, and ye shall not see me.
And again a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father. We've been reading here the last words of the Lord Jesus Christ to his own. This took place, of course, the night before he went to the cross.
Now, all the words of the Lord Jesus have weight and are important. But I don't know about you, but I remember the last words of people that I've known. I think my own mother, who died just four years ago this month in a hospital in British Columbia, I remember her last words.
And unless I become totally senile, I don't think I'll ever forget. Last words. Interesting what the Lord Jesus spoke to his own about, his last words. Chapter 13. Now, I'm just going to refine it and just look at a few different things.
Chapter 13 we read, he told them, love one another. Just three words, love one another. Then in chapter 14, three words, keep my commandments. Chapter 15, abide in me. And then chapter 16, a little while, a little while.
But first of all, in chapter 13, these words, love one another. Now, we all know this. This is well known to even the youngest Christian, that the Lord has told us to do this, to love one another. But notice what he says after that.
In verse 34 of John 13, he says, love one another as I have loved you, as I have loved you. How has he loved us? You know, as parents, sometimes we tell our children, don't worry about what I do, just do what I say.
You know, we tell them to do things and maybe we're not a very good example of what we're telling them. The Lord Jesus wasn't like that. And so often, what he told his people, he was the perfect example of what he wanted them to do.
Now, he says here, love one another as I have loved you. How has he loved them? How has he loved us? Look with me a little bit earlier in chapter 13. Let's read in verse 1. Now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
Verse 3. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God and went to God, he riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments, and took a towel, and girded himself.
After that he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with a towel, wherewith he was girded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?
Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.
Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus saith to him, He that is washed, or different word here now, he that is bathed, needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every wit.
And ye are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray him, and therefore said he, ye are not all clean. So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?
Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say, Well, for so I am. If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet, notice, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord, neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. He says, I have given you an example.
Do as I have done to you. What had he done? He'd washed their feet. And he says in verse 14, Ye also ought to wash one another's feet. Now, we know the Lord doesn't expect us to physically wash one another's feet.
To me, it's pretty clear in verse 7. He tells Peter, What I do, you don't know now, but you'll know hereafter. Later in verse 12, He asked the disciples, Do you know what I've done to you? Listen, these men, although they were fishermen, they were not imbeciles, they knew that the Lord had washed their feet.
What they didn't understand was the spiritual meaning of it. What is the spiritual meaning? In these days, days in the New Testament, people didn't have running water like we did. And my understanding is that if they wanted a bath, they would go to the public baths.
They would be bathed all over. The Lord talks about that. But coming back home, dusty roads, perhaps sandals, their feet would get dirty. They wouldn't need to be bathed all over, but they wouldn't need to have their feet cleansed and washed.
The day the Lord saved you and me, we were washed, we were bathed all over, as far as the penalty of our sins is concerned, washed whiter than snow. That's what He's talking about in verse 10 when He says, He that is washed, the word is bathed.
He says He only needs to wash His feet. What's the point? When we are saved, we are cleansed once and for all from our sins. However, as we walk through this world, we're defiled and we need cleansing from that defilement.
Brother, sister, the Lord wants you and me to help one another with the defilement that we all contract as we walk through this defiling scene. But let's bring it down to where we live. What is our attitude to our brother and sister that we can see has some defilement?
For example, maybe there's a brother that smokes. What's their attitude? You know, some people, I had lots of habits before I was saved. Smoking, I didn't have difficulty giving up that. But some Christians have a tremendous difficulty with that.
You know, we can just write them off and think they're subpar Christian, or we can help them with it. What about the teenage believer? And we happen to get in their car and maybe they ask to drive their car and we turn on the key and this music comes blasting out just about knocks us out of the driver's seat.
And we say, how can they listen to music like that? How about the believer that gets discouraged so easily because of circumstances in their life? You know, some of us are more prone to discouragement than others.
Maybe things at work, things in the home, things in the assembly, and they just, you know, you find them discouraged. Or how about the brother that's a workaholic? And you say, you know, doesn't he realize what this is doing to him and his family, the assembly?
All he does is work. I've just mentioned a few things. Listen, there isn't one of us here this afternoon that isn't affected by the world. We didn't grow up in a bubble. We don't live in a bubble. The world has an effect upon us.
And I'll tell you, our attitude to one another with our faults and failures, our shortcomings, the effect the world has upon us, it's critical. What's our attitude? You know, we can take the attitude of, say, the Pharisees, and, you know, they would stand at a distance, point their finger, and say, look at those dirty feet.
And we might talk to this one, that one, did you see so-and-so? Can you imagine listening to that kind of music? You know what? I smelled smoke on them the other day. You know, we can gossip away, or we can take a sword and cut those feet off.
And unfortunately, I've seen seen well-meaning believers take another believer to task and go up one side and down the other and just chew them out for what they perceived was wrong behavior. Unfortunately, I've also seen it when the person that was so well-meaning and thought, you know, they were doing the right thing, they were totally wrong, totally wrong.
The person hadn't done anything. Love one another as I have loved you. You know, it seems to me one of the biggest challenges that you and I face in assembly fellowship in the day in which we live is to get along with one another.
We are all so flawed, and we all need grace from God, not only to be the people God wants us to be, but to put up with one another. Love one another as I have loved you. Listen, the Lord Jesus washed the disciples' feet, even Judas.
Is there any believer that you wouldn't want to wash their feet? If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I've given you an example that you should do, as I have done to you.
I want to tell you, I thank God for Christians, especially in my years as a believer, who took time to help me with things in my life that needed changing. Sure, they could have just read the riot act, chewed me out.
You know, the Lord Jesus girded himself with a towel, and he got down by those disciples, and he had a basin, and he washed their feet. You know, if we're going to help one another, and I say this to myself because I'm no paradigm of excellence here at all, but you know, to wash somebody's feet, you need to get low, and you need to get close.
The towel and the basin. And I feel that, I know in my own life, this is lacking. In the society in which we live, it's so easy to be independent, live in our own little worlds. And so many of God's people are hurting.
Oh, they have a smile when they come to meeting. Brother, sister, the Lord deals so graciously with our failures, does he not? Shouldn't we deal graciously with others? You know, I would think in the days in which this was written in New Testament times, that it would be very refreshing if your feet are dirty.
And of course, they didn't drive around in cars. Maybe feet would be tired. It would be very refreshing to have your feet washed. You know, I think there's many believers that are weary. They're weary.
And their walk isn't as clean as they would like. We have a choice. We can point our finger at a distance and say, look at that. Can you believe it? We can even speak to them strong words. Or in love, we can try to get close to them and take the low place and try to help them, help them kindly, because that's what the Lord Jesus does with you and me, love one another.
Then the Lord says in chapter 14, keep my commandments. You know, it seems that some of us were big on the love. Others of us are big on the commandments. But the Lord Jesus is the perfect example. And here's the example here.
Love one another. That's first. But here it is in verse 15 of chapter 14. He says, keep my commandments. You can't get around that. Both are commands to love one another, to keep his commandments. Both are equally true.
And he says, as the motivator for keeping his word, he says, if you love me. I enjoyed that hymn our brother Dick gave out this morning, Lord Jesus, I love thee. And it's well that we should sing that from our hearts.
But you know as well as I do that our love for the Lord isn't just shown with our lips, but with our life. And our love for the Lord can be measured by our obedience to his word. Christianity is very practical.
I can say I love the Lord Jesus, but if I'm not keeping his commandments to that degree, I don't love him. Now, it goes without saying that if I'm going to keep his commandments, I'm going to have to find out what they are.
A young believer, this is just one reason why we read his word. If we love him, we try to find out, well, what does he want me to do? I remember when my wife and I were first married, and there were different times that she would say, honey, do you like, and she'd, you know, meatloaf, or I'm glad she never said you like chopped liver, you know.
But different things she would ask me if I liked this. Why was she asking me that? Because she loved me and she wanted to please me. That's what we've been hearing. Didn't the apostle Paul say that? Lord, what do you want me to do?
And that's why, one reason why we read his word. You know, the word of God is not a buffet. It isn't picking out this, or we all have our favorite sections. The whole word of God. He doesn't say if you love me, keep some of my commandments.
Keep the commandments you like. He says, if you love me, keep my commandments. And I look at that as the whole word of God. Brother, sister, do we love him enough to submit to his word? And, you know, again, the devil might make us think that if we submit to his word, it's going to be, you know, drastic, and no fun, and my life's going to be ruined.
Listen, there is tremendous blessing, there's tremendous joy in living for the Lord. Nothing can compare to it. Walking with the Lord Jesus, having fellowship with the living God, letting him guide your life, letting him, as it were, have his hands on the steering wheel of your life.
Listen, he is able to do exceeding, abundantly, above all that we can ask or think. And anyone who has ever let him be the Lord of their life has never regretted, never regretted it, as it has never been the poor.
My friend, our Lord is gracious. He wants to bless us. He knows what's best for us. And if we just want to do our own thing, go our own way, he might allow that in measure, but we're the one who's going to suffer.
Someone might say, you know, I would like to love my brother and sister, but, you know, it's hard. I'm selfish, and sometimes they do dumb things. It's hard. Somebody else might say, you know, I love the Lord, I want to keep his commandments, but, you know, I'm so sinful, I can't.
Well, listen, the Lord knows what we're like. And so in chapter 15, the next three words we read, to me, is the answer to how we can love one another more perfectly, how we can keep his commandments more perfectly.
What is it? Verse four of chapter 15, he says, abide in me, abide in me. I'm so glad that we don't have to live the Christian life in our own ability. We couldn't save ourselves. We can't keep ourselves.
It's all about him. Abide in me, he says, and I in you. Now, listen, to me, there's a positional aspect to this, and there's a practical. If we're saved, we're in Christ. The moment we trusted him, we rested in him, and our position is secure.
Nothing could take us out of his hand. But there's that resting in a moment by moment, in a practical way, living in the good of my union with him. You know, I get some help in understanding what he means to abide in me by the picture that he uses.
He says, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, he says, the branch cannot bear fruit of itself. Now, you know the picture. I don't know much about grapes, so I'm not going to go there, but just a branch in a tree, whether it's a peach tree, apple tree, you know that that branch, if it's separated from the trunk, there's not going to be an apple or a peach on the end of it.
The branch cannot bear fruit of itself. You and I cannot produce fruit for God on our own, and I take fruit primarily to be Christ's likeness, the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace. That would characterize him.
It's character, first of all. Now, what makes that peach? What makes that apple? It's the sap flowing through the trunk and out through the branches. What is it that produces fruit in your life and mine?
It's the life of Christ. We're in him. The Lord wants us to rest in him, depend on him, moment by moment. Let him live his life out in us. And maybe a sort of parallel thought, looking at it a different way.
In Galatians 2, Paul says, I've been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And this life I live in the flesh. I live by faith, trusting the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
I want to stop and leave a little room at the end here. But the last thing we read about, the last three words, the Lord Jesus said, a little while, a little while, and you shall see me. Now, I know the context here, he was probably speaking, they would see him in resurrection.
But I want to apply it this way, brother, sister, a little while, a little while, and we're going to see him. I enjoyed gathering around the Lord Jesus this morning. I've enjoyed being at this conference.
It draws our hearts to him. What is it going to be like when we see him? A little while. It could be a very little while, couldn't it? And have you ever thought what it's going to be like to look into his eyes, this one whom having not seen, we love?
And I wonder, what will be the first words that he'll say to us? I'll tell you what a moment that'll be. He says, a little while, and you shall see me. Last words of the Lord Jesus Christ, love one another, keep my commandments, abide in me a little while.