In the sermon 'A Church Glorified, Loved and Preserved' by Scott Brown, the focus is on Jesus' final discourse to his disciples as described in John 13 and 14. Brown emphasizes the glorification of Jesus through His suffering, death, and resurrection, highlighting that this glorification is meant to manifest God's mercy and love toward sinners. The discourse also introduces a 'new commandment,' centering on the love among believers as a hallmark of true discipleship. Brown further explores the preservation of believers, using Peter's denial and eventual restoration as an example of divine grace and perseverance. The sermon underscores that the church is meant to glorify God, exhibit profound love, and be preserved through the trials and challenges of life by the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit.

Please open your Bibles to John chapter 13, find verse 31. I'm going to read through chapter 14 verse 4. So when he had gone out Jesus said Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify Him immediately. Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer.

You will seek me. As I said to the Jews, where I am going you cannot come. So now I say to you, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another." Simon Peter said to him, Lord where are you going? And Jesus answered him, where I'm going you cannot follow me now but you shall follow me afterward.

Peter said to him, Lord why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for your sake. And Jesus answered him, Will you lay down your life for my sake? Most assuredly I say to you, The rooster shall not crow till you have denied me three times. Chapter 14 verse 1.

The conversation continues. There's really no break in the conversation here. Let not your heart be troubled. You 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 to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am there you may be also, and where I go you know, and the way you know." Let's pray. Oh Lord, we thank you for these marvelous words, these words that are designed to give us such help in this world. I pray, oh Lord, that you would come and shine your light of truth on all these things.

Oh God that you would come and bring our congregation into such conformity and love for all these things that are here. Amen. Please be seated. So Jesus has been walking with His twelve disciples for three years, And they're now at the end of the three years. They're in the upper room.

They've experienced the Lord's Supper and the next morning Jesus will be tried and he'll be crucified. He'll be laid in a grave. Judas has departed from the room just momentarily, and Jesus is speaking to the eleven remaining disciples. And what Jesus is doing is that he's preparing his disciples for his departure. He is telling them what kind of men he desires them to be.

He's already demonstrated that he is sending a certain kind of person into the world, a servant who serves, who takes up the towel. You know, he's already washed the disciples' feet, including Judas, and he's really explaining in this entire section what kind of church he's creating, and he's explaining that there's a particular way of his church and he does it throughout this entire section here the church will be built on the foundation of the Apostles and and how these Apostles these Men who are in the room conduct themselves will be the pattern for the church for all ages. So this is tremendously Critical for all of us. It's as if in this entire discourse. It's called the upper room discourse spans from chapter 13 14 15 16 and 17 one night is the upper room discourse in this time It's Almost like is like God is shining a light like like the sun shines on the moon to illuminate it here's what kind of church I'm building these are Jesus last words to his disciples and the problem the problem with the church is that the world is always getting in the way of that that light and But the Lord is explaining it here and after taking the towel now He shows him more things and by the way in In the upper room discourse, you'll find Jesus says one thing and then He comes back to it.

He comes back to these things over and over again, which will be helpful to us. We're going to need the repetition for this. But I hope that This section is thrilling to your heart that maybe it'll pull you out of a time of despondency because the disciples are struggling with despondency. Jesus is leaving them, and they've walked together for three years. Or maybe it will help to affirm what you already know, or maybe it'll work to even save your soul.

So Jesus is showing them three more things, three more characteristics, and you have an outline in front of you so you can see how I've categorized it. But first, that this is a church that is glorified. It's glorified by the glory that exists in the Father and the Son. And this really explains the, well, it's the chief end of man to glorify God, but to have a church that lives with a sense of the glory of Jesus. The overwhelming mentality and even functionality of the church is wrapped around His glory.

When they gather, they care more about His glory than anything else and they depart and they live for His glory alone. And then secondly it's a church where they love one another. And then thirdly it's a church where they are preserved to do their work in the world in the same way that Peter was preserved even though he denied him before the cock-croaked three times. Before the cock-croaked. So you can see in the outline I've got three words to try to grasp the treasures that are here.

There's the word glorified, verses 31 to 33. There's loved, loved by Him so that we would love, in verses 34 to 36, and then preserved, 36 to 38. So this is a very unusual section, a long section that documents this one evening after Judas has departed. And Judas' departure really explains something that we will always see, and that is that there will be people among the gathered church who do everything that it seems like they ought to do. They believe everything.

It seems they ought to believe, but they're not part of the true church. We shouldn't be surprised when that happens. We will always be brokenhearted when it happens, but we should never ever be surprised when it does happen. So let's begin here. The Lord shines this great light on His glory, the glory of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice.

In verse 31, So when he, Judas, had gone out, Jesus said, Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify Him in Himself and glorify Him immediately. Now I don't know if you were counting but five times in these two verses there's the word glory or glorify or glorified and that's what Jesus is wanting the minds of His disciples to grab onto. And God is glorifying Himself, and the Son is glorifying the Father. So this is the subject and this is why Jesus came and Jesus' announcement of His departure is tied directly to the outpouring of His glory And that's why we read in John chapter 7 already, you'll remember when we were there on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and He cried out saying, if anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink and he who believes in me as the scripture Has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water, but then he says this But this he spoke concerning the Spirit whom those believing in him would receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because, " and you might be able to finish the sentence, "'because Jesus was not yet glorified.'" So Jesus is speaking about the glory of the cross is bearing the sin of mankind his being Laid in a grave Raised on the third day sitting at the right hand of God and pouring out a spirit on mankind.

That's the glory he's talking about. Now I think it's a package. I think it's a package that begins immediately, right? Beginning at his trial and then his bearing the sin of mankind. Jesus is just a few hours away from the cross.

So this glorying, this glorying of the Father and the Son, this glorified state that believers will experience is all wrapped up in his death and his resurrection and is pouring out the Holy Spirit. That's the way I understand it. So you connecting as you read this connect God glorifying himself. In other words making a big deal about himself. In other words making himself great.

He's glorifying himself by saving sinners. He's glorifying himself by magnifying his mercy towards sinners. So lost, so messed up, so broken, and he glorifies himself. God wants to make a big name for himself by his mercy. That's the deal that's happening here.

And it's such a beautiful thing. You know, He glorifies this. God glorifies His Son so that His Son will bring many sons to glory. That's the whole package of glory. When you read the word glory, think of it that way.

God wants to make a big deal out of Himself about what a big mercy He has for sinners. We see the same language in John 17. Jump ahead. John 17 verse 1. By the way, this matter of glory and all will come up again.

Let me identify this one place. Jesus spoke these words. This is in John 17 verse 1. He lifted up his eyes to heaven and said father the hour has come glorify your son that your son may glorify you As you have given him authority over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him so God's glory is seen in his magnificent love for sinners. Continuing in verse 3, And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

I have glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do. And now, O Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you Before the world was now when we get to John 17, you'll see that Jesus also said that they might experience our glory Okay The Father glorifies the Son the Son glorifies the Father The Father and the Son bring many sons to glory through His love. But God here in these first verses of our text is just explaining who he is. He's a father of tender mercies, and he wants to be known for his mercy towards sinners.

That's what he wants to be known for, and this is the purpose of his coming to earth. In fact, we read of this very same thing being communicated by the apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 2. Paul is speaking to the Philippian Church and he wants the Philippians to make sure that they understand that the glory of the Father is not, it's not an intellectual exercise primarily. It's actually something that moves you, it moves your whole life and it's meant to show us actually how to love and this is how he how it's framed in Philippians 2 let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant and coming in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death even death on the cross therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow those in heaven and those on earth and Those under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father God's holy objective for created mankind is that they would stand and say that God has sent His Son to save sinners, that He humbled Himself through His Son on the cross and glory was given to Him.

And then he says really in the very next verse in Philippians 2 therefore my beloved in other words His glory is not just an intellectual contemplation. It's meant to actually change your life It's actually meant to make you love he says therefore my beloved as you have always obeyed not in my presence only He says do all things without grumbling and disputing that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world so what the Apostle Paul is saying to the Philippian Church is Christ humbled himself he glorified God's mercy So that every knee would bow and every tongue would confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and he saves Sinners and what are you supposed to do about it? Well, don't just sit there and think about it and become a good Calvinist Do something about it, you know like You know stop complaining stop disputing become blameless and harmless children of God, you know, without fault in the world. That's what he's saying here. So all of this to say in this first section that God is glorified in the sufferings of His Son, and He was glorified While he was condemned, while he was abased, while he was slandered, while he was slapped, while he was spat upon, while he was rejected of men.

And his glory is demonstrated in his sufferings, the agonies of death for sinners. And Jesus came to glorify his Father's mercy through his suffering. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And His glorification also meant the defeat of Satan and his power in people's lives. And that's why the Apostle Paul taught the Colossian Church in Colossians 2 verse 14, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us.

He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross, having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. Now, the picture that Paul is painting is that on the cross, this, all of the sins of those who have repented of their sins were nailed on the cross and They and they were they were nailed on the cross to make a public spectacle of the harsh abusive life that you get with Satan the condemning slandering of your soul that the devil has for you. And he takes your sins and he nails them to the cross and puts an end to them. And God is glorifying Himself through His Son and he's saying, my name's sake is for the sake of mercy. God wants to be thought as big on mercy towards sinners, And he does that through defeating Satan's power in people's lives.

So God glorifies himself in the defeat of Satan and through the forgiveness of sinners by washing them clean and nailing their sins to the cross. And you know there's so many images like this in the Bible. You take nail to the cross and add to it buried in the bottom of the sea, add to it thrown behind the back, add to it stomped on the ground, add to it as far as the east is from the west. That's the mercy of God. God wants to, What's the world to know that he's the God of mercy?

Towards sinners and that's the whole matter here and he's he's risked he his son is receiving The punishment of sin he's receiving the shame that we deserve How much shame do we deserve? How much is there privately in our own hearts that would be so shameful if it were known Jesus Christ came to cover your shame? Cover it forever and put it as far as the east is from the west, and to nail it to the cross and stomp it to the ground, and put it so far out of sight it's impossible to even calculate the distance. Have you done that? He's done that for you.

He's done that for you. John the apostle summed it up like this, here is love, not that we loved God, but that He loves us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. So Jesus is making this very clear. His glory is a manifestation of his love that he is going to demonstrate on the cross that's coming immediately. Okay, now look at verse 33.

Sort of the elephant in the room, The problem, the thing that's causing them distress. I don't know what's causing you distress in your life right now. There's something in everybody's life in this room that's causing them distress. Okay? Well, this was...there was something that was causing these men distress.

It was the threat of his departure. He'd been talking about it all along and now he's really nailing it to the wall And he says in verse 33 little children. I Shall be with you a little while longer You will seek me and as I said to the Jews where I am going you cannot come." Now first I want us to just camp on these words little children this is the first and last time Jesus will use this terminology in in the gospel of John but interesting if you turn over to the Epistle of John, in the Epistles, John the apostle uses this term six times. He can't get over it. Jesus spoke it in the upper room and He can't quit saying it, little children, over and over again.

It's very beautiful to see that. And He also cannot get over love. Those two words are so prominent in John's epistle, but this is a term of endearment. He loves his own. We already read at the very beginning of chapter 13, he loved them to the end.

So he's declaring his love for them. You know in 1st John he says, little children keep yourselves from idols. So he uses this terminology. He says, little children, these things I write to you that you might not sin. If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.

So this terminology of little children is used over and over again in 1 John. And yet his leaving the earth, leaving his disciples is necessary for their salvation. Imagine if your son or your daughter or your wife or your husband just showed up one day and said, I'm leaving. This is somewhat what it was like for these disciples. They'd been walking together for three years, and now he's saying, I'm leaving.

It was the most disturbing thing they could think about. And you'll find that this issue comes up. Jesus is going to address it in 14 and 15 and 16. He continues to bring this home. He is leaving and he is sending his Spirit.

They're going to have to live without his physical presence. And his messaging to them is all wrapped around how you live in this world without the physical presence of Jesus. And he's teaching his church how to live in the world and how to live with one another while he is gone. He's leaving and he's teaching and he's teaching his disciples and he's teaching us the same thing. How are we going to live together when he's gone?

Well, he's gone, he's at his father's right hand and he has given us his Spirit and now how are we going to live? And the first matter he wants to clear out here is, at the beginning of chapter 13, serve one another, wash one another's feet. Now he says, understand my glory, Understand that God wants to be made known for His mercy in my sufferings, as Jesus would say it. So God wants to be known as great. And, you know, knowing that God has promised that He would glorify Himself in the sufferings of his Son means for us that he will glorify himself in the sufferings of the individuals in the church.

Individuals in this church are suffering in different ways. And so this whole idea of His glory in these first verses should comfort us. We are experiencing fears, setbacks, malicious attacks, but we know that God is glorifying Himself through all of our sufferings, through all of the questions, all of the fears, God has designed all of our suffering for His glory in the same way that He's glorifying Himself in his son's sufferings. And his sufferings actually become our sufferings, as you read your Bible. And his glory is our only comfort in this world.

That God is glorifying himself in everything is our only comfort. It's my only comfort. You know, I was reading this week and frankly needing comfort, and I read this line from an English Puritan, Elias Pledger, and I remember showing it to Deborah, And I remember somebody asking me, how are you doing? And I pulled out my phone and I showed them this quote. I will lay the weight of my sinking spirit on the free grace of Christ.

When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you." Jesus is declaring His glory to His disciples so that they would rest all of their hope on His glory. And His glory is most manifestly demonstrated in His suffering for sin on the cross, and His resurrection, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And if you want to go anywhere for comfort, go there. This is our only comfort in life and death, the comfort of Jesus Christ. So glory.

It's as if God is shining a light like he shines it on the moon and saying, look there, look at my glory, and don't let anything of man get in the way. Don't let there be an eclipse of my glory. Worldliness is the reason his glory and our joy in it is diminished. Loved glory, loved. Let's go to this next section 34 through 36.

This is the love of Jesus Christ in His people. It starts with His love, and then His love is expressed in His people. That's the simplest way to describe these next few verses. In verse 34, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. Well, there you have it, one of the most famous statements in the whole Bible.

You know, has it grown dim? Jesus repeats this in John 15. He says, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends. Jesus will repeat this concept of love.

He revisits the whole concept in John 17 verse 21 He prays and he's really praying for the love of the brother and that they all may be one as You father are in me and I in you that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that you sent me and the glory which you gave me I have given them that they may be one just as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me and Have loved them as you have loved me Love glory unity oneness all wrapped up in this story of God's redemptive power and His love expressed. Now the whole story of history is summed up in these words, As the father has loved me so have I loved you. That is the entire story of the Bible. The love of God and its demonstration is the purpose of everything on earth. The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 says nothing really matters without love.

In fact, without...he says without love you're nothing, nothing. Nothing lasts without love. Nothing is beautiful without love, and that's what Paul spoke of in 1 Corinthians 13. You know, one theologian called this in John, in John 13 and in John 15 and in John 17 he called it like a waterfall of of love where the father loves the son and the Son loves the brethren and the husband loves his wife and The earthly father loves his earthly son and the daughter loves her father and the wife respects her husband and and God is the head of Christ who pours out his love through him and Christ is the head of man and he pours out his love that way and man is the head of woman and he pours out his love on his bride this is this cascading fountain this Waterfall of love that God has established and John is identifying it here And The world was created to be a demonstration of love. That's why God created you.

That's the purpose of your life. You want to know what the purpose of your life is? Here it is. To love as He has loved you. There you have it.

Let's be very reductionistic about it. You know, that's why we say, what's your ministry? What is your ministry? Well, your ministry is like the next person you meet. That's your ministry.

As I have loved you, so love one another. Now open your Bibles to 1st Corinthians 13. In the first three verses, the apostle explains the value of love. The value of love. It's more valuable than anything.

And by the time we get to the end, we'll realize it lasts longer than everything. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing. Or as we like to say around my place, you ain't nothing. That's how the people talk around where I live.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. So eloquence without love There's prophecy without love understanding mysteries without love. There's knowledge without love. There's faith without love There's generosity without love there's self-sacrifice without love and it's all worth nothing All those good things are worth nothing without love. And then the apostle gives signs of love in verses 4 through 7.

Love suffers long. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself. Love is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. That's what love does.

You know, we live in such a messed up world on this matter of love. We've turned it into feelings, God has turned it into realities. Things that you actually do, not just feel, but things that you do. And that's why John said, he who says that he's in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him but he who hates his brother is in darkness and Walks in darkness and does not know where he is going Because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Do you get this? I mean, John is explaining what love looks like. Paul is giving us greater detail. Then there's the permanence of love in verses 8 through 12. Love never fails.

And then there's the supremacy of love in verse 13, and now abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. You know, and all of this starts with God. Jesus says, love as I have loved. That's, that's a, John said it a different way. He said, behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the sons of God." And then he turns around and says, love one another.

That's the message that Jesus has. And then he says, a new commandment I give to you. Well, it really was an old commandment, so what is he saying it's a new commandment? In Leviticus chapter 19 verse 18, this phrase appears. Jesus is quoting the law.

Jesus is always interpreting the law properly. Jesus loves the law of God. Jesus wrote the Pentateuch through the hand of Moses. In Leviticus 19, 18 we read, You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people. So he's talking about what love, how love is contradicted, like the law tells you, it convicts you of your sin.

Do you have a grudge? And Do you have vengeance in your heart The law will convict you of your sin, but then but then Moses writes But You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord so it's not a new commandment It's an old commandment now Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount already explained how all of his laws were laws of love. And there are many stories in the Gospels that are recorded. Here's one in Mark 12.

Then one of the scribes came and having heard them reasoning together, perceived that he had answered them well, asked him, which is the first commandment of all? Jesus answered, the first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself there is no other commandment greater than these so what God does with His commandments is He brings them in summary form. He summarizes them all in ten commandments, and then Jesus clarifies and summarizes them in two. But all of them are summarized in one word, love. Every commandment of the Old Testament and the New Testament is a commandment of love. Now you might not be able to figure out how it is, but it is.

And the reason you can't figure it out, or the reason I can't figure it out, is because we are so corrupt and so messed up in our understanding of love. We don't even know what love is. We have to have somebody tell us and the law tells you and the gospel explains how you deal with it. So, love was manifested as it was never manifested before in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the brightness of His glory.

Love was never manifested on the earth more clearly than in the life of Jesus Christ. Love was explained by the author of all love, by Jesus Christ himself. In that sense, no one had ever seen this kind of love before. No one had ever seen perfect love demonstrated or spoken, and in that sense it is a new commandment and it's carried out to a new clarity than ever before. This is what God does.

He continues to increase clarity through the ages, and Jesus Christ comes and he gives us the clearest earthly view of the love of God that ever ever existed one commentary one commentator also explained it this way why was it a new commandment number one the Jews didn't do it They were full of animosity and rivalry. Number two, the disciples didn't exhibit it. They were just arguing about who is the greatest. Number three, the Lord had just set a new example that demonstrated a kind of love washing the disciples feet and these men were clueless about it and then fourthly They would have a new capacity to love because of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit So there are different ways. I think that we can say it was a new commandment But the command to love was not new.

It was new in a different way, and it was what Jesus always taught. So this is a call to love. You know, many years ago I read a book by Francis Schaeffer called The Mark of a Christian, and in that book Francis Schaeffer, which was speaking really about the collapse of culture, but he called this command to love the final apologetic, the final demonstration of what the true church is all about. It's love. It's that they love one another.

I'll just read from the book. It was written in 1970. I read it right when it came out. Unless True Christians show observable love to one another. Christ says the world cannot be expected to listen.

Even when we give proper answers, let us be careful indeed to spend a lifetime studying to give honest answers. For years the Orthodox evangelical church has done this very poorly, so it is well to spend time learning to answer the questions of those who are about us. But after we've done our best to communicate to a lost world, still we must never forget that the final apologetic which Jesus gives is the observable love of true Christians for true Christians. He says the world looks, shrugs its shoulders, and turns away. It has not seen even the beginning of a living church in the midst of a dying culture.

It has not seen the beginning of what Jesus indicates is the final apologetic, observable oneness among true Christians who are truly brothers in Christ. Our sharp tongues, the lack of love between us, not the necessary statement of differences that must exist between true Christians. These are what properly troubled the world. And then he says this, I want to say with all my heart that as we struggle with the proper preaching of the gospel in the midst of the twentieth century. The importance of observable love must come into our message.

We must not forget the final apologetic. The world has a right to look upon us as we as true Christians come to practical differences, and it should be able to observe that we do love one another. Our love must have a form that the world may observe. It must be visible. The final apologetic.

It's an appropriate way to describe what Jesus is saying here in this verse. You know, it's a tragedy, but it ought to be a wake-up call if any of us lose our mercy toward one another, if we lose our compassion for one another. Love growing cold. Someone disappoints you. They didn't say what you wanted them to say.

They didn't look at you the way they wanted you. They didn't invite you. They didn't hang out with you. Whatever it is. And love starts growing cold as a result.

And then it escalates. And then there are accusations. It usually starts with sort of feeling uncomfortable with somebody in the church and then it escalates. And then it's the whole church. That church is so whatever.

But the root of it all is somebody lost compassion for their brother. That's where it started. And then all of a sudden, after some months or years, that whole church is that way. And now you've taken the place of slandering the blood body of Jesus Christ. Those people that Jesus forgave, those people, and He's still forgiving them, every day.

And you can't forgive them. Now Jesus talked about this quite a bit. John said, we know that we've passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

You know, frankly, as an elder, when I hear people speaking evil of a congregation or speaking evil of people in this church, I get very disturbed because these people were bought by the blood of Christ, and they are sinners, and they still sin. So don't lose your compassion for one another. You know, John, there's a story of the apostle John. He's in his 80s. He's getting ready to die.

He was so weak they had to carry him to the pulpit. And in The last days before he died, they would carry him up to the pulpit and he would say, he would preach a really short sermon, love one another, and then he would be silent. And then they would take him down and then they would bring him up again to preach again and he would say, love one another. And then somebody said, why are you just saying love one another? And he replied, it's reported, Our Lord Jesus told us to love one another.

That's it. So the church is a place of the mercy of Jesus Christ. And then preservation. We have glory, we have love, and we have preservation. Now I'm going to treat this section differently than many preachers have treated it, and I, myself, have treated it.

This is the prophecy of Peter's denial of Christ. So this could be a sermon about a lot of different sin problems and sin patterns in our life. Our pride, our fear of man, our boastfulness, our presumption, you know, like that's like a four-point sermon right there, you know? Well that's not...we know that. We know that that's the issue and it's proper to talk about it.

But there's something here that I've not been able to get out of my mind. It's in verse 36. Look at verse 36. Jesus answered him, where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow me afterward." He's talking to Peter. Peter, you'll follow me afterward.

Peter said, Lord, why can't I follow You now? I'll lay down my life for Your sake. Jesus is preserving His proud, presumptuous, overconfident son. Is that you? Anybody struggle with pride?

Anybody struggle with overconfidence? Anybody here at all like Peter? No way. And God in His mercy is preserving him to that day. You will follow me afterward.

You'll follow me. You'll fall and you'll follow. Louis Birkhoff defines perseverance. This is the perseverance of the saints. So this is marvelously stated.

Perseverance may be defined as that continuous operation of the Holy Spirit in the believer by which the work of divine grace that is begun in the heart is continued and brought to completion. It is because God never forsakes His work and that believers continue to stand to the very end. That's Lewis Burkoff in his systematic theology. Peter was proud his Savior did not push him away. Peter was confident that he was not cursed by his Savior.

Peter was fallen, but he was not forsaken. That's perseverance and the preserving power of Jesus to cause his true children to persevere after they stumble. Here's a reality. Some have stumbled, some are going to stumble. Some are going to stumble.

And if you've stumbled, then cast all of your hope on Jesus Christ's preserving power and believe it. Believe that he will preserve those whom he has saved. John has already stated why he wrote this. He said, these things were written that you might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that in believing you might have life in His name, everlasting life in His name. So Peter's making claims, he's making promises, He's being very boastful, he's self-confident.

He says, and it's recorded in Luke, you know, Lord, I'm ready to die with you. I'm ready to go to prison with you. And then there's this little girl in the courtyard that He can't stand in front of without capitulating. You know, this is Peter who stepped out in the water. This is Peter who was on the Mount of Transfiguration.

This is Peter who cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest in the garden. He's cutting off the ear of the servant of the high priest and then he can't even stand before a little girl in the courtyard. This is the fluctuating faith that we have, and God has designed to carry us through. Peter even said, if everybody else stumbles around here, I'm not. And then all the disciples said, Hey, I'm not stumbling either.

So everybody was really powered up, you know in that place. They fell they all fell and They were preserved Don't think that after you fall you can't be preserved don't think that That's what repentance is Martin Luther said the whole life of a Christian is a life of repentance. Well we do think more highly of ourselves than we ought. Now maybe there's maybe there's sort of a Peter even here and you're offended at him because he's so weak. Just remember the preserving power of Jesus And I don't say that to say, oh, we should just ignore all sin.

You know that's not what we think. But how do we deal with it? And Jesus is explaining how he deals with it. You know, Jesus says, Jesus makes it very clear who is the one who's going to die. It's not Peter.

He's going to die for Peter. So, you know, I think it's a good opportunity to take stock of empty boastful self-talk, secret thoughts rattling around your head, you know, that you're such an exemplary Christian, you know, and you're way better than these other people, you know that are sitting around you You're better than your wife. You're better than your husband. Don't you dare think that way at all Have no confidence in the flesh Pride comes before fall and Peter makes that very very clear for us to help us to understand that. Jesus confirms this in the next chapter in verse 10 and 14.

He says, A little while longer you'll see Me no more, but you will see Me, because I live, you will also live." He's talking to Peter. At that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. Jesus kept talking to Peter about his love for him. So there's, there you have it, you have Glorified, loved, and preserved. Jesus wants His disciples to understand what His church, His true church, is all about.

That the central matters of church life have to do with becoming servants and washing feet. It has to do with thinking of everything in terms of His glory. That God is great because He loves sinners and He's glorifying Himself in His Son's sacrifice for sin, and that He loves us so that we ought to love one another, which means that when we go through our lives day to day and when we come here, we should find more and more out about His love, to be a church that is magnifying His love and then finally preserved. And do you see God preserving you you know? But on the other hand you may not be one who's being preserved you may be a person who's actually headed to everlasting punishment and torment because you do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

We'll turn to Him. Run to Him. Believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Believe that He is the all-sufficient Savior. Believe that He is the only one who can reconcile you to God.

Believe in the gospel and you will be saved. And if you are saved, you will be preserved. And Don't think for a minute, oh, I could never turn to the Lord because I couldn't make it. Jesus is saying, yes, you can. Yes, you will.

I will take you there. So don't worry about that if that's an objection in your mind. He will get you there when you truly turn to Him. Well, behold what manner of love the Father has given to us that we should be called the sons of God, to be glorified, to be loved, to be preserved. Would you pray with me?

Lord, we need to be a church like this church that you've just described, Where these are the greatest things, these are the things that are seen in us. Lord, illuminate us by the light of your Son. Let nothing get in the way of your glory, of your love, and of your persevering power. Amen.