So John chapter 13, I wanna read the first 17 verses here as we start. And before I do, I want you to think with me as I'm sure you've covered an ancient Israelite cottage during the Exodus, where you have this slave and his wife and their family. and they've selected a lamb, a spotless, unblemished lamb. God has told them to kill this lamb for the Passover, to eat from it, to take the blood, put it on the doorposts, and they will be safe from the avenger blood. But could you ever imagine that any of those Old Testament lambs would do what this lamb does in our chapter. Come with me. John chapter 13, 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. And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him. 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 the towel wherewith he was girded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter. 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 has 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 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, 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, 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 is he that sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. Thus far, a reading of Sacred Scripture. Let's pray, God, for a blessing. Gracious and good-doing Lord God, in these moments we bow before Thee. We bless Thee for Thy truth, an unshakable rock in a world that is topsy-turvy. We pray Thee, O God, that we would run from out of our own imaginations, which are foolishness, to that only solid rock, the Lord Jesus Christ set forth in His Word. We know, Lord Jesus, that Thou art here through Thy Word and Holy Spirit, and Thou art washing sinners' feet through Thy Word even now. We pray Thee, Lord, for eyes that are open, for hearts that need Thee, for hands and arms of faith that would not push Thee away, but that would learn, that would fall at Thy feet, that would say, Lord, wash me, and I shall be clean. I pray, O God, that thou wouldst work with thy Holy Spirit mightily in every heart, on every seat, for everyone here, and that none of us would leave this camp untouched by thy mighty hand. Lord, convict and convert. and take all the praise and the glory to thyself, and teach us to serve thee and each other. In Christ's name alone we ask this, amen. I also want to ask you to turn just briefly here. I have this at the top of the outline to the book of Isaiah. The prophet Isaiah wrote about the servant of Jesus Christ, and I'll deal with this verse as well. In fact, it's the outline for my talk. even though the content is from John 13. So look with me at Isaiah 52 and verse 13. My topic for tonight is the servant lamb. And this is what God Jehovah says about Christ. Isaiah 52 verse 13. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Let me read that again. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and shall be very high. Well, dear friends, each and every one of you here today, the reason why you and I were placed on the earth is very simple. You can put it different ways. It was to know God and to enjoy Him forever. You could also say we've been placed here to serve God, to be His servants, His handmaidens. in all our actions, in all our words, in all our thoughts, with everything that we are, to serve the triune God. I beseech you, brothers, Paul says, by the mercies of God, that you offer yourselves as living sacrifices unto God, holy and undefiled, and that you not be conformed to this world, which serving itself, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you might know what is the perfect will of God." In other words, don't live for yourselves, live for God who's worthy to be served. And don't be like the world, and don't either continue the way you were born, serving yourself, because you've been made to serve the Almighty God. Now that's an amazing thing as we contemplate it. You, everyone here, have been placed on this earth as sons and daughters of Adam to serve God. I don't know if you've ever realized that. Maybe you think you're here in the world in order to live out your days, to eke out some pleasure, and to get a good job, to make money, to climb the ladder of success, and to have people serve you. That's what most of this world is doing. Most of this world is trying to get as many people to serve me, to serve them as much as they can. And all this, of course, is topsy-turvy. The truth is, God has put us here to serve him. And what happened in paradise is that you and me in Adam are representative, our head. In that moment when he came and he said, did God say you shall not eat? In that moment, we said as it were, each of us, you too, every one of you, we said, serve God? Are you kidding? I'm gonna serve myself. I owe it to myself. I'm going to live my life serving myself. And in that moment, you turned your back on God, and I did as well, and we went the opposite direction. In fact, instead of serving God, we've been serving the devil ever since. That's what the Bible says. His servants you are, Jesus said, and his will you are doing, he told the Pharisees, religious people. And it applies to all of us. We are Satan's servants. Oh, he hides it from us. You don't see Satan around you. You don't think of Satan when you're going into sin, when you're doing sin, when you're living for yourself. But that's what you're doing. You're serving Satan and yourself instead of God. And so it has been from that very dawn of human history, each and every one of us, every successive generation, it's as if God looks down from heaven and he looks at this one and that one, everyone. Now all the billions of people here on the earth. Is there anyone that serves God? Is there anyone that lives for God? They are all together gone astray. They are all together unrighteous. There's none that seeks God. There's none, you could say, that serves God. What a tragedy. God made us to serve Him. But no one serves God. And so out of the whole human race, God could say, as He looks down on you and me and everyone, He could say, What a wayward people. They are like sheep that have gone astray. In fact, Isaiah says that in Isaiah 53, right after the passage we read. We are like sheep who have gone astray. We have followed our own devices. We've left the shepherd. And instead of serving his will and serving his honor and glory, we're serving ourselves. And I said that was true then, and that is true now. With every successive generation, we have all together gone astray. David says, I was like a wandering sheep. I've lost the path. I've gone astray. Perhaps you're here today, and what I'm saying to you right now rings true in your life. I hope so. I hope the speeches that you've been hearing have bored this into your heart. And God is convicting you of this even now. that your life is open before you. It's an open book in your heart. The secret recesses of your heart are becoming clear to you. And you realize, in a measure, I've been here for myself. I've been living life for myself. I get irritated when people don't do my will. I get irritated when I'm asked to do this to help someone. You're serving yourself, my friend. I know from experience that that is the hardest life. That is the cruelest life. That is the most hateful life for yourself and for others. To, as it were, pull everyone to serve you because, as I said, that's not what we were made for. Well, as the Lord looks down on the whole earth, he sees that everyone has gone their own way, like sheep that are going astray, but there's one exception, and that exception is in Isaiah 52, verse 13. Behold, behold. My servant he shall deal Prudently and he shall be very high. There's one exception Thanks be to God in this whole human race of which God looking down. He says there's one Who is my servant? Who is this one? Should He be God's servant? Well, from a certain perspective, no, because He's God of gods. He's the only begotten Son of God who was in the bosom of the Father. Should He serve? What happened? Well, all mankind being lost in sin, not serving God, this glorious Son of God who was in the bosom of His Father from all eternity, He said, lo, I come. In the volume of the book, it is written of me, I delight to do Thy will. You could say the King of kings and Lord of lords, for that's what He was. In eternity past, He determined that He would be the Lord's servant, that He would be His slave, that He would be subject to Him and serve Him in every way, not just as the Son of God, but much more than that. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. I want to speak to you here from John 13 about two things, two points here. First of all, Christ's skill, the servant's skill. I'll explain that in a moment. And secondly, his success. Well, heaven rejoices to see Jesus Christ as the servant of the Lord. And notice how this text, Isaiah 52 verse 13, this phrase, behold my servant. Sometimes you walk into these stores, you've seen it, perhaps at your workplace, if you have a job, it's true as well. You have this board, and sometimes they have what is called the employee of the month. I'm just speaking commonly here in everyday language. But someone, the whole group of employees, has stood out. And the boss has been looking out over all his staff, and he's been watching carefully. And by the end of the month, perhaps they have a meeting, they call the whole staff together, and someone is honored by being that employee of the month. They stood out. They served their boss well. They served the company well. They served the customers well. They just stood out. and they're the employee of the month. Of course, this is just a very lowly, very common example. It's almost too common to apply to the Lord Jesus Christ. But if you just take that thought and magnify that infinitely, the Lord from heaven looks down on his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and says, there's nobody like him. I've looked, I've watched. And there's none like the Lord Jesus Christ. He shall deal prudently. That's what the Father says about the Son. He will be, literally speaking, the most skillful, the most wise, the most prudent one there has ever been. And dear friend, if you know Christ, you know that to be true. You know that there's no one in heaven or on the earth like Jesus Christ in terms of his wisdom, in terms of his righteousness, in terms of his sanctification, in terms of his redeeming ability. Jesus Christ shall deal prudently. I ask you today, have you met this prudent Jesus Christ, this wise, this skillful Jesus Christ? Because that's what the word means. He shall deal prudently or skillfully Now, skill means that you're very good at what you do. If you have someone who is a woodcarver, or who makes pieces of furniture, that's not a job you would give to me. You wouldn't wanna see what I would put together. But someone who's really skilled at this, that means they have that aptitude, that ability, they can see it before them, they make it happen. And it's flawless. And so too with the Lord Jesus Christ. From his earliest moment of conception on to his last breath on the earth and beyond, there was 100% skill, perfect skill in everything he did. Why don't we see it? Why don't we read this book, starting in Matthew all the way to Revelation, and actually the Old Testament as well, because that's about Jesus Christ. And why are we overwhelmed with the skill of Jesus Christ? Heaven is. Heaven says, behold, my servant shall deal prudently. And each and every moment of Christ's life on the earth, it was as if heaven said, this is my beloved son. This is my beloved Son. This is my beloved Son. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. So it's true, isn't it? God sees it. God acknowledges it. Heaven announces it to the whole world. He deals prudently. The other side of that, dear friends, is when you put you or me next to this Lord Jesus Christ, what would heaven say about you? If it says about Jesus Christ, he shall deal prudently, I know what he would say about me. Apart from Christ, oh, he's dealt foolishly, he's dealt corruptly, he's dealt wickedly, he's dealt vilely, wretchedly. I know heaven would say that of me, apart from Jesus Christ. Do you know what heaven says about you? Have you ever heard what comes forth from the mouth of God about you? Have you felt it? I pray God he would make you to see it and feel it, even today, outside of Christ. It's not good. I would wish that your life would flash before you. You are outside of Christ. You realize that every moment of every day that you've lived so far, even the supposed good things you've done, the sight of God, is he going to say, behold, my servant, he, she's dealt prudently? No. There's a long time when I followed my own heart as the world says you should. You've heard it. You hear it in their music all the time. Follow your heart. I can tell you from experience, I followed my heart. And you know where it takes you? It takes you to hell. We've got something inside of our heart, a deadly pull towards hell. And unless God stops us, unless God makes us see what this is, our folly, that we are like those animals that just one after another just go off the cliff. There's this cliff in Alberta, if you've ever been there, where all these bison and others were driven off by the Indians. And that's what they did to kill these bison, this buffalo. Well, you and I, we do the same thing. Our heart just has this gravitational pull to hell, and unless God stops us with this prudent servant in his word, that's where you go. My servant shall deal prudently. And the evidence of it is here in our text, in John chapter 13. I want you to see four ways in which we see this prudent dealing of the servant of the Lord. We see it from all eternity. What's the picture here? The Lord Jesus Christ is in the upper room together with his disciples. And they all have dusty, dirty feet, as you would back then. And there they all are, getting ready for this Passover celebration. And they're all looking around for some or other slave to wash their feet, as was customary there. This was the work that was given to some lowly slave, usually not even a Jew himself, but a Gentile, an outsider, someone who was too low to do almost anything else, and he would wash people's feet. So there they all are, Peter, James, John, Thomas, Matthew, Judas, all of them. There they are. And none of them grabs water. None of them grabs a towel. None of them will even help one of the others. They're all sitting there, waiting. The impression you get from the text is that some time passes. And they've just been arguing, as you can read from the other Gospels, who is the greatest. And all of them, in all their hearts, is the same thing that is in you and me, in pride, this ego that wants to go up, and that won't go down, that won't. serve others unless it benefits ourselves. And in that moment, the Lord Jesus Christ does something so amazing, so truly divine, in the sense that He is the Son of God, did in that upper room what He did in eternity past. When He said to His Father, I'll go. I'll go for those vile, wretched sons of men, those daughters of men. who cannot and will not save themselves. And He, as it were there, you can picture it with me, He in eternity past, He said, though the glories of glories are mine, I'll humble myself. I'll take to myself, as the Bible says, the form of a servant. Let me, O Father, go lower than low. Let me humble myself to the lowest depths. So even in eternity past, you could say he laid aside his glory. He did this at his conception, but in his resolve, in his mind, this servant of Jehovah said, I'll lay it all down, everything that I had from all eternity. Not that he ceased to be God, mind you. Not that he ceased to have any of the glory that was his, but as the scripture said, he made himself of no reputation. He hid it all. So that unless people had the eyes of faith to see what he was doing, Isaiah says he had no beauty that we should desire him. What a picture this was. He humbled himself, again a double humility, in which we see the evidence. He did it in glory, he did it in the upper room, he did it on the cross, and that's not it. But he does it, dear friends, in salvation. What a picture we have here. Jesus comes to Peter, and Peter rebuffs him. For whatever reason, Peter doesn't want this. It's just not right. I think what is behind Peter is maybe behind you in these moments, and that is this spiritual pride that, I'm not gonna let the Lord Jesus Christ do this to me. It's too low for Him, and it's just not right. You see, there is in the natural heart, there is this desire to save ourselves, to wash ourselves. Some of you may be doing this right now through works, through resolutions in your mind, through prayers. You're just trying to cleanse yourself, to get rid of the guilt of your sin. And when the Lord Jesus Christ comes in the gospel as he does, in his word and in the preaching of the word, something inside of you just pushes this away and says, no, no, no, no, that's somehow, that's not right. I will do it. I will do it. Maybe you don't think that, but that's what you're doing when you reject the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what sinners are doing all the time, especially religious sinners, because God comes, Christ comes under the preaching of the gospel with his word, and he's coming to his filthy bride, and he says, I've come here to wash you and cleanse you from all your sins. And what sinners do is they say, wash me? No, no. I'll do it myself. I've got my own water. I've got my own way. It'll work. I know it for sure. If Christ washes me, that is such, that cuts through everything that I am. Because when Christ washes us, nothing is left. We have no honor. We have no glory. See, if you could save yourself, If you could climb the staircase in Rome that Luther tried to climb, if you could whip yourself like Luther tried to do to get rid of his guilt and to get rid of the stain of his sin, then in the end of the day, it would be Luther, at least in part, who managed to cleanse himself. But when Christ does it all, then you and I have no part of it in the sense that we can't take the honor to ourselves. And that's what Peter is thinking in that moment. But thanks be to God, Christ perseveres with Peter. And he says to Peter, if I don't wash you, if I don't cleanse you, you're outside of me. You don't belong to me. You're apart from me. You're away from me. Peter understands by light from on high, by the Holy Spirit, that to live apart from God is death. "'Tis good his face to seek." And in that instant, by life from on high, he just blurts it out, Lord, not just my feet, but my head and my hands and all of me. Peter's like one of these people that swings back and forth. Do you do that? I do that. I do that. Oh, our mind is just so messed up. Lord, I'm gonna do this myself. but then you don't have any part of me. Oh Lord, please, please do everything, do everything, everything, everything. The Lord has his own way of leading us and guiding us. He has work for us to do. He calls us, we are responsible. There are things that he calls us to do. Yes, he energizes us to do them. He gives us his grace, his Holy Spirit to do them. But he himself in these moments, friends, he's here. Through His Word, He washes through the water of His Word. He comes to sinners like you, and He says, I'm here to wash your feet. Have you pushed Him away? Maybe in this camp even, you felt the Lord close. Lord says, I don't desire the death of the wicked, but herein have I delight that the wicked turn from his wicked way and live. You feel the claim of that, the power of that very, very close. And something inside of you says, but then I have to break, and I have to come under God, and then I might lose these friends of mine, and then I might appear to be just such a sinner, and people will avoid me, and then I'll have to abandon all my self-program of salvation. Whatever it is, my friend, throw it in the wastebasket because all of it is condemnable. In fact, the sooner you're rid of it, Oh, the better it is. And fall before God and fall before Christ and say, Lord, wash me throughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. I acknowledge my transgression before Thee. My sin have I not hid. My friend, why would you delay? Why would you delay? Why would you heap more guilt upon yourself? Don't you see the dirt of your sin, the corruption of your own heart? Have your methods of saving yourself worked at all? Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. There's no greater physician, no greater Savior than the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. He did this in glory. He did this in the upper room. He did this on the cross. He does this in salvation. That's why I have three applications here under our first point, and the first is, Don't ever leave this truth. Don't ever leave this truth. Why do I say that? By God's grace, I trust that all of you are in churches that teach sovereign grace salvation. Where you don't get through a Sunday without hearing about the cross of Christ, which is able to save. from death and from hell and from sin. That's the center of the center. And there's a reason why it's there every Sunday. Don't move away from it. Don't go to churches. that leave the cross to the margin or outside the door. I've been to churches like that. By God's grace, I never became a member in them, thankfully, though I was tempted to. I visited scores of churches during my years of wandering, looking here, looking there, looking for a different way. Don't ever leave the truth, my friends. Don't leave the truth! Because without this cross, you're not saved. Well, you need more than just the truth, and you need more than just to sit under the truth. But don't you ever, ever think of leaving the truth of sovereign grace salvation, of a church that teaches Jesus Christ is the only Savior and has the cross at the center. I pray, God, that any time you're tempted to leave that truth, This word would come to you and you would never do it. That all your life long you'd be under the truth of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Don't ever leave this truth. Secondly, come under the cleansing power of this servant lamb. Come under the cleansing power of this servant lamb. If God says in his word, behold, my servant shall deal prudently, listen to what he's saying. Behold, look at him. Look at Him. Fix your mind and your heart on Him and Him alone. He needs to be in the center of your focus, Him. There's a lot of things that are important, but this you can't do without, and that is with a single eye to look at Jesus Christ. Once you look at Him, you'll be addicted forever. You'll need Him for as long as you live. And every time you find your mind going away from Him, or He's out of the center of your mind, oh, you need Him. You need Him more and more. Behold My servant. It's as if God is coming and saying, listen, He's on the margin of your life. Behold Him. Look at Him. Look at Him alone. Are you looking to the Lord Jesus Christ? Or are you trying to play this game where with one eye you're looking at him and with the other eye you're looking at the world or looking at yourself or looking at what your friends are doing. Behold him, there's only one way to look. Put blinders on as it were and do what God says. Behold my servant. Someone says, but I can't see him. My friend, that's no excuse. He's right here in this word. And like Bartimaeus, you can cry. God's given you a voice. You can cry. You can pray. You can pray, open mine eyes, son of David, have mercy on me. I want to see Jesus. And don't stop that prayer until you see him. And don't be looking at other saviors around the world. A lot of times when people say, but I don't see him, a lot of times, a lot of times they're looking at something else. They're looking maybe at a system, or they're looking at other people, they're looking at their friends. They haven't resolved before God to look away from this world. Look away from their own system of saving themselves. They're holding on to that, and then they say, yeah, I don't see him. Well, that's because you're looking for him in all the wrong places. Look prayerfully in his word and say, Lord, I wanna see Jesus. Show me Jesus. Reveal to me Jesus. Open my eyes that I might see Jesus. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. Thirdly, under this first point is an application follow this Lamb wherever He goes. Revelation 14, verse 6b. They are they which follow the Lamb, whithersoever He goes. Young people, the best life to be lived ever is following the Lamb wherever He goes. Wherever He goes. And the closer, the better. You know who wrote the book of Revelations. It was the apostle John. And John was there when John the Baptist said, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And you can read in John chapter 1 that he and this other disciple, they followed the Lamb the second time. John the Baptist had to say it twice. The second time, they went after him. They followed him and they said, Master, where dwellest thou? And so John knew what it was like to follow the Lamb. In fact, they were going into the wilderness. He followed him. And he never stopped following the Lamb. And that's what you do when you follow Jesus Christ. You never stop. Well, we do wander. We do leave His path. But He's the good shepherd who seeks His wandering sheep. But follow Him. Follow Him. Follow Him wherever He goes. Your main concern is not where the Lord is going. but how close you can stay behind him. You want just one step between you and him, even less. You want to see that footprint that he leaves in the earth, and you want to put your feet where he is, as close as possible. Still closer to thy side I press, for near thee all is. wherever he goes. The Lord Jesus Christ goes many places and he wants his people to follow him wherever he goes, not just in happy times, not just when things are great. Many Christians love to follow God, follow Christ when things are good, when He leads them into prosperity and leads them to rejoice in God, when everything's going well, when there's calm in the sea of life and all the rest of that. But that's not the way it is all the time. The Lord has the exact measurements of prosperity and adversity. And the call of God is to follow Him wherever He goes. If He's going into a trial, follow Him as hard as it is. If he goes into a difficult situation, follow him as close as you can. Is this a trying circumstance where all your friends are leaving because it's much easier? Follow him. Follow Christ. Follow him all the time. You will not be disappointed. There may be very hard days. There were for John. He was in the Isle of Patmos. your fellow in tribulation, but he was following the lamb all the way to the Isle of Patmos, because he knew that if he followed this lamb, this skillful, this prudent, this servant lamb, And he would also one day partake of his success as we have here just briefly in our final point. We've seen his skill and now his success. And this is what you see in Isaiah 52 verse 13. Let me take you back there once again. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently and shall be very high. There's three words in the text for what the Lord Jesus Christ will be. He will be lifted up. He will be very high. He will be exalted. Why? Because he served God and he did it so perfectly. Heaven says he shall be very high. That's His reward for serving me. And, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ, He rose to conquer over death. That's the first step of His exaltation. He ascended into heaven. That's the second step of His exaltation. He is seated at the right hand of God. That's the third step of His exaltation. And He is coming again. And then before all the world, this verse will be absolutely true. My servant who's dealt prudently shall be very high. Every eye shall see him. Every eye will look up. There's a day coming, friends, when the sun will rise one last time. All of a sudden, we don't know the day or the hour, but all of a sudden, at the time appointed by the Father, this world that now seems so stable in which we stand shall be rolled up as a scroll. I don't know what that means, but that's what's gonna happen. And every soul that ever lived will be before that great white throne of God. And on that throne, there will be before every eye all the billions and billions, I don't know how many, but every soul shall see Him. Every soul and body reunited on that day, and He will be very, very high. And that Savior in that day who will be high will have been the Savior who was so low that on a night like tonight, he would have been so low, he would have been under you. With his word, he would have come so close. With his word, he would have taken your feet, spiritually speaking, into his holy, pure hands. Did you know that this Lamb of God washed the feet of Judas? He went to every one of those disciples, including Judas, who would betray him, and he speaks about him in this chapter. What must that have been for these holy, harmless, undefiled hands of the Lord Jesus to come into contact with Judas, who would betray him? And he would take water, and he'd wash his feet. Of course, Judas never partook of that washing spiritually because there was no faith in his heart. In fact, the very opposite. He despised this one. He had sold him for 30 shekels of silver. And he would not have any part with this Lord Jesus Christ. And yet Jesus, this Prince Emmanuel, came so close. His hands wrapped themselves around those feet of Judas, as if to say one last time, Judas, as he said later on, betrayest thou the son of man with a kiss. Judas, do you know what you're doing? Must you go to hell? with a Savior so close, the merciful Savior who comes so close, who touched his feet, showing him there in that instant what a servant, what a lamb he was. And Judas would have nothing of him. What does this love, this undying love of Emmanuel, this servant lamb, does it leave you untouched? He didn't need to come there. He could have stayed in the glories of heaven. He said then, and he says it still today, the volume of the book it is written of me I will serve thee no matter what the cost I will go that way of suffering I will go that way into hell for sinners for the vilest for the most wretched I'll come so close with my word I'll serve thee perfectly And friends, that servant Lamb is still the same, and He's here in His Word today. And He can teach you to follow Him. He can draw you to follow Him. And you'll have the best life you could ever live. Now's the time. Now's the day of salvation. Not later. Not next week. Not tomorrow. Not down in the future. You don't know. Today, while you hear his voice, Stoneheart, in your heart, he's here with his word. And he says, if I wash not your feet, you have no part in me. But I'm not worthy, you say. Nobody is. You're looking at someone who is utterly unworthy, then and now. But I need him. And I want him. Don't you need him? Don't you want him? And I ask you this, do you want him alone? Him alone? In this moment, when you look out over your life and you have all these things that vie for your attention and vie for your affection, is it Jesus and? That can't be. None of these things can save you. They can only condemn you. But Jesus can save. Jesus does save. And Jesus will save. any beggar who falls on his or her face before this Lord and says, Lord, wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. And Master, may I follow Thee. Like Bartimaeus again, he followed Him in the way, the way of the cross. It's not an easy life, but it's a glorious life. I can tell you after some years of following Christ, I don't know what He has for me, but I know in His strength, I won't ever wanna leave him because the worst day on earth with Jesus is heaven compared to the best day without Jesus. He's the lamb, I need him, my soul needs him, my life, I need him. And to live under his shadow, to follow him all the way till he is there, high, high, high, very high, lift it up, that's what I want. The world has its crown now. The believer has his cross for the most part now, and sometimes the Lord puts a crown, but then, crown, crown, crown. And everyone there, I hope you're there. Please, take this seriously. I hope you're there. You'll take your crown, and you'll cast it before him, and you'll say, behold the servant. He has done prudently. He's very high. You cast your crown before him, and you honor him, and you glorify him, world without end. Friend, don't resist his call. Don't resist his voice. He is there, and you will be with him if you follow him now. He's everything. Why would you leave life without Him? Why would you leave today without Him, if He's the servant Lamb? And one last thing as we close. One way that you know you're following this Lamb, whether so ever He goes, is you love Him. and you serve others, you serve others like him. When Jesus is in you, he's still the servant, and he's serving through his people here on the earth. And you find the lowest person, you find someone that's needy, and you say, what can I do in the name of Christ for you? Your brothers, your sisters, your friends who don't need the Lord, who think they don't need the Lord, you go to them, you seek to serve them. You ask for wisdom to do this rightly, to really serve them, to wash their feet. You go home, and that brother or that sister that you just can't get along with, or that person in your class or in the neighborhood that just, there's a problem. Every time you feel it when you're with them, you pray, Jesus, help me to serve. your parents, anyone and everyone, and constantly your mind will be coming like the mind of Christ. You'll take off your glory, you'll take off your robes, you'll find that basin, you'll try to wash other people's feet. If they refuse it, it causes pain. It causes hurt. But you stick close to Jesus. You make sure you have the heart of Jesus. And you go the life God gives you to live until you too are with him. High, high, high. Friend, that's the way to live. Truly live. I hope God gives it to each and every one of us. Let's pray together. Glorious Servant Lamb, we bless Thee for Thy love, Thy undying love, from eternity past, through all of history, especially in that upper room and on the cross, when Thou didst wash sinners' souls and lives, mine and many here, and Lord, Thou art willing to do that same work of grace in sinners still today, the filthiest, the vilest, none too far gone, but Thou canst help, Thou canst save, and Thou alone. Lord, bless these words, bless Thy truth, bless each one here. Thou knowest every need. Lord, if there are those who are torn up, over their life, which is so empty, so lacking in service to Thee. We pray Thee, O God, that Thou wouldst come close, that Thou wouldst show them the Savior, the servant Lamb, that Thou wouldst save and that Thou wouldst make many servants. We pray, Lord, in five years' time, in ten years' time, in fifty years' time, if Thou wouldst tarry that each of these young people, by Thy grace, would serve Thee and follow the Lamb wherever He goes, wherever, by Thy grace and to Thy glory. We ask this in Christ's name alone, in the pardon of every sin. Amen.