Father, we thank you for your word, for every jot and tittle of it, because you've inspired it. And it is your very word, and we receive it by hearing as your word. And what we're to believe, and how we're to obey your commandments. Lord, bless the reading and the hearing of your word to our hearts. But now, Lord, we come to the preaching of your word. Father, grant the strength of the Holy Spirit, the unction of the Holy Spirit to your servant to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ with both clarity and power, that your name may be exalted and your people edified. in the hearing of the proclamation of your word. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. As you know, I committed to assisting the session here from the time that Pastor Laurel Ivey took another call until such time as we call another man. I was hoping for a longer period of time, quite frankly, to be here with you, and so I bit off two fairly large pieces series to preach, one in the morning and one in the evening. But thanks be to God, I'm not going to be able to finish those two series. because the Lord is bringing to you a pastor. And I am delighted for that. This is what I've done the last 23 years as RHVM, is I work myself out of a job from place to place to place in anticipation of when God would call the man to come and to be the pastor. The sad thing is, is I don't get to come back nearly as often when that takes place. And I think and I don't think I've told night this yet, but I think that I only have two more times I Think to August and September because October is the week of Presbytery. Okay, he knows now. So now the session knows about October. Two more times, and so I'm going to try to tie up these two series by limiting them in these two times with you. We've been in chapter 13 of John's Gospel. I really wanted to go 13 through through 17, but we'll barely get through, I think, chapter 13 before Pastor Tim arrives. But I thought this a good pericope to look at. The night that Jesus was betrayed, those last words that he had for his disciples, and that action that he took when he washed their feet. And this we've seen so far. And in chapter 13, one of the things that we find up front is there is a preoccupation, I think both with Jesus and with John as he records this, with the betrayer. That one is going to betray me. We actually see this very early in chapter 13, now before the Feast of the Passover when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world. The Father, having loved his own who are in the world, he loved them to the end. And then we read, during supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him. Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things to his hands, and then we see that he washes his disciples' feet. But up front we learn having known that the devil had put into the heart of Judas that he should betray him. And then last time I was here, we saw what happened when Jesus announced it further. And I want to remind you of what we saw, because it's been two months, I think, since I was here last. But what we saw last time, and I'm convinced that this is the Passover feast. John's Gospel doesn't make that plain, but the synoptic tradition does, I think, make it plain that this is actually the Passover feast when this takes place. And I told you last time that they didn't set, as you see in the Da Vinci painting, and straight back chairs all on one side of the table, looking out at what's called the Last Supper. But actually the tradition was to recline around a table, a very low lying table. And they would recline on dining couches, which were really like pillows. They would recline with their left elbow, holding them up, their bodies at an angle out from that, and then they would reach over and eat with their right hand. And there were three places of honor. One, of course, the officiant himself. Usually it was in a U-shape is the way they set it up. And so he would be at the head of the table. But then just to his right in reclining was a place of honor. And we know, when we read the text, that this is where John himself was reclining, so that his head would be at the bosom of Jesus, or at his chest. We also know from what transpires that Judas was in the other place of honor, to the left of the one who was the officiant in the meal, so that Jesus' head was right at the bosom or the chest of Judas. And we know this because Jesus said to his disciples, one of you will betray me. And they're wondering among themselves who it might be. Probably some are saying, Lord, Please don't let it be me. But who is it? And it's Peter. We don't know where Peter was seated, but he caught John's eye, and he said, ask the Lord who it is. And all John had to do is just turn his head, and he could whisper in Jesus' ear. And he said, who is it? And the Lord took John into his confidence, and he said, it's the one with whom I dip the bread, the one where I dip the sop, the one to whom I give the bread. And then immediately Jesus took the bread and he dipped it and all he had to do is turn like this and give it to Judas. And Judas took the bread and the text says the devil entered him. And what did Jesus say? Do what you must do quickly. Do it now. And the point that I made last time is Jesus is sovereign over all of these events. This is not something that happened to him. He orchestrated it. And you can even see that beginning with the triumphal entry and the cleansing of the temple. Jesus put himself in harm's way on purpose. He incited the religious authorities against him, not only when he cleansed the temple, but later in the temple during that week when he cried, woe is you, scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites, you whitewashed sepulchres. and poisoned them even more against him. Why? Because he set his face for the cross and nothing was going to keep him from going to the cross. And I wanted to set that in context because it makes very clear what Jesus says in our text. As we come to our text, there are three points that Jesus makes this very short paragraph. And I will admit, when I first sent this out, I was going to do the rest of chapter 13 in one sermon. But when I dove into it, I thought, there's at least two sermons here. So I'm going to do it in two sermons rather than one sermon. Brief text, that doesn't always mean brief sermon. But we do have a brief text here, and Jesus makes these three points. And the first point that he makes is what I call the five-fold glory. Now is the Son of Man glorified, Jesus says. The second point that he makes is, I'm going to go away. And where I go, you cannot come. Now, we're not going to deal with that one this time. You have to wait, Lord willing, until next month when I'm back. Because Peter takes up that question in the next passage that follows. Jesus speaks there of his ascension to go back to the Father. And then the third point that he makes is, I'm going to give you a new commandment. And so the sermon this morning has two points, two points that come right from the text. I don't know if I've ever been able to accomplish it before, but the two points are in the sermon title itself. Fivefold glory and a new commandment. And that's what we see here. So in light of what we've seen in terms of the context, that Satan enters Judas. And when that happens, Judas says, I'm going to do it. I'm going to go through with it. And Jesus says, do what you do quickly. As soon as Judas leaves, this is what Jesus says. He says, when Judas had gone out, that is Judas had gone out, Judas says, now is the Son of Man glorified. And there's five, there's a repetition of the word glory five times in this particular verse that we have before us. Now is the Son of Man glorified. He means now, and he means in particular what's going to happen the next day. He's talking about the cross. He's not simply talking about the resurrection and the ascension that will follow 40 days after the resurrection, and his session at the right hand of God, where he is in glory now, seated at the right hand of the Father. But he's talking about the cross. Now oftentimes in theology, and this is biblical too, we think of Christ's humiliation and his exaltation. We think of his humiliation, we think of the incarnation, where he took to himself a human nature, but we think fundamentally this humiliation of the cross. And then we think of the exaltation, we think of the Father vindicating His work on the cross by rising Him from the dead, raising Him from the dead on the third day, then by His ascension and His session at the right hand of the Father, and of course in consummation when He comes again in the clouds of glory. We think of His humiliation and His exaltation. And it's right to think that way. This is exactly what Paul does in Philippians chapter 2. when he speaks of how Jesus humbled himself, when he took on the form of humanity, when he took to himself a human nature, when he became a man. It was obedient to death, even death on a cross. That's his humiliation. But then, Paul says, therefore God highly exalted him. That's resurrection and ascension where God gave him the name which is above every name. But don't lose sight of an important truth when you realize that the cross is the ultimate humiliation. That that is a defeat. No, it's a victory. It's his glory. His cross is His glory. Why? Because everything that God purposed to demonstrate, His grace and His mercy in this history, comes to fruition in that cross. That's your redemption. He died on the cross for you. This is not something that happened to Him. He set His face for Jerusalem in the Gospels beginning at Caesarea Philippi, it becomes quite clear. Nothing is going to deter Him. Nothing is going to turn Him from the cross. This the Lord Jesus does, and it's His glory. This is the epitome of His obedience to the Father. I want you to think about the doctrine of the covenants. You think of the covenant of works that God made with Adam in the garden before the fall. But Adam broke that covenant. So if there's going to be any relationship or any reconciliation between mankind, descendants of Adam, and God himself, it's got to be by a covenant of grace. And we see that that covenant of grace begins as soon as it's necessary. We can see remnants of it. We can see the beginnings of it in the garden itself in Genesis chapter three. But there's another covenant that we don't think about as often. It's a covenant between the three persons of the Godhead. It's an eternal covenant. eternal, in the eternal mind of God, in the three persons of God, in the Godhead. We call it the Covenant of Redemption, or the Council of Peace, or if you want to use Latin, the Pactum Salutus. These are different terms that we use for it. But it's a covenant between the three persons of the Godhead that includes both creation, but also redemption. And then that covenant, the Father willed that the Son, in due time, in creation itself, would enter into that creation by incarnation. And in the fullness of time, that He would be crucified to redeem a sinful people for Himself. And the Son agreed to do that in due time. That eternal covenant and God's eternal decree lays behind everything that we see that unfolds in redemptive history beginning in Genesis and moving all the way through. That's coming to fruition in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus understands that this is his glory, his cross. Look at what he says. When he'd gone out, Judas had gone out, Jesus says, now is the Son of Man glorified. Remember what he just told Judas, what you do, do quickly. He knew what he was going to do. Go do it quickly. Go betray me. Go to the leaders. Have them come get me. Have them arrest me. Have them try me on trumped up charges. Have them condemn me. Have them crucify me. This is his glory because it is your redemption. But look at the fivefold glory. Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. That is, God the Father is glorified in God the Son. Remember, what's laying behind this is this eternal covenant of redemption between the three persons that God had. And in particular, between God the Father and God the Son, to redeem a people for himself. The Father is glorified in the glory of the Son in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because God is about to display the glory of his grace in an extraordinary way. And so first, the Son of Man, Christ himself, is glorified in what's about to take place. But it also brings glory to his Father. And then you have the repetition that if God is glorified in him, which of course he is, then we read this phrase, God will also glorify him in himself. Now it seems a bit ambiguous. Oftentimes we see this in scripture, and it's true in the Greek here, See, the same thing happening in Hebrew, where there's a preponderance of use of pronouns, and sometimes it's hard to know what's the antecedent of the pronoun. But I think I know in this case. It could be that the Son is glorified in Himself. But I think what the text is talking about is God the Father is glorified in the glorifying of His Son. What we see here is in this inner this inner relationship between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the communion and the union that is there. God the Father himself is glorified in what the Son does, and the union of that glory there. What we need to see when you look at the cover of redemption is that this is God's perfect plan. All three persons They're not at war with each other in carrying out this plan. The result is the glory of the triune God. God will also glorify him that is the Son in himself. The relationship between the three persons of the Godhead. a little bit more here in terms of theology. I actually do teach theology, too, on Thursday nights at Grand Bible College, and I'm going to be teaching theology one this fall, where we will look at the doctrine of the Trinity and the attributes of God there. But as we come to this particular text and understanding this, I think it's important for us to think about Trinitarian theology. Now, let me say this. It's a mystery. That is, it's beyond your ability to comprehend. As soon as you think, aha, I've got it. I've got the perfect illustration of the doctrine of the Trinity. Do you know what I do if students try to turn in to me an illustration of the doctrine of the Trinity? They get an automatic F. I tell them that up front because it doesn't do it. The Trinity is revealed to us in Scripture. We can understand it to the point of formulating it, but how can there be one in three and three in one? The math doesn't add up in terms of our rational thinking, but it's who God is. He's not three gods. He's one God. It's one substance or one essence of the Godhead. But the one God exists and has from all of eternity in three distinct persons. How can that be? How can we understand it? Well, one thing I found that's been helpful, I'm going to teach you a big word. Some of you may have heard it, some of you may not have. So I'm going to teach you a big word. It's called perichoresis. Have you heard that word before? A lot of people are saying, I've never heard that word before. That's OK. You don't have to have heard the word before. But it's an important truth to help us understand this. Perichoresis means that, yes, there's one God of one essence and of one substance that exists in three distinct persons, but each of the three persons fully, completely, exhaustively penetrate the other. So the Father exhaustively penetrates the person of the Son and the Spirit. The Son exhaustively penetrates the person of the Father and the Spirit. The Spirit exhaustively penetrates the person of the Father and the person of the Son. It's called parakaresis. It will not help you understand that which is beyond your ability to comprehend. but it will help you in some sense see, I think, that there's one God of one substance, but to exist in three persons. The Father did not become incarnate, neither did the Spirit. It is God the Son made flesh that redeems us in His cross. And yet the Father exhaustively penetrates the Son at every point and at every time, and the Spirit, the Son, and the Son, the Father, and the Spirit, and so on through the three Persons of the Godhead. This is the plan of the Chayun God. The result of it is your redemption. You're saved. Your sins are paid for. They're separated from you as far as the East is from the West. And apart from this glorious work, plan and work of the triune God of Scripture, you'd be hopelessly lost and condemned, even as we confessed in our prayer of confession this morning, which was very bold and very blunt as to our condition apart from grace, and very true. You're not in Christ Jesus by works, you're in Christ Jesus by grace through faith only. He has redeemed you. Yes, unto good works. We know that. but He is the one who paid the price in full. And God the Father is glorified in that work and demonstrates it by glorifying His Son and raising Him from the dead and glorifying His Son and the ascension into heaven and glorifying His Son on the other side of the clouds when He, the Lamb that's been slain, sat down on the throne beside the Father where He sits now where He reigns. and he will come again in the clouds of glory. The Father has exalted him because of obedience in this work. I want to teach you something else about this that I think is important. And that is, let me use the illustration. Anybody like the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe? But I'm sure some of you, I see a hand or two going up, that people love the Lion, the Witch, War. It is not an allegory, it's a story. If you don't believe that, just ask C.S. Lewis. I'm sure still in heaven he's saying, it's not an allegory, it's a story. You don't get your doctrine of the atonement from the Lion, the Witch, or the Wardrobe. It's a different world that was created in the imagination of a brilliant writer named C.S. Lewis. But if you're remembering the story, and this is in the story, not an allegory, remember when Edmund betrayed Aslan. And the White Witch knew the magic. She knew that for Edmund to be redeemed and forgiven, someone must die in his place. And she put this before Aslan, and what did he do? He surrendered himself to the table where he was sacrificed in the place of Edmund. But he didn't know the deeper magic. She didn't know the deeper magic, the white witch. That is of resurrection. She didn't understand resurrection and victory of Aslan until he was raised and he came after her. and those that followed her. That's sort of the deeper magic. We're not talking about magic here. We're talking about a deeper motive in God for the cross. The deep motive of God in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is to redeem you because he loves you. but there's a deeper motive of God. It's suggested in our text, but it's made explicit in the book of Ephesians chapter one. Let's just turn there. Ephesians chapter one. This great reformed, or reformed in Presbyterian, we could say together, text. Ephesians chapter one. We read, beginning in verse three, the overall statement, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ Jesus with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. Then he begins to unfold what those blessings are. Look at verse four, even as he, that is the father, chose us, that is the elect, the people of God, in him, that is in Christ, before the foundation of the world. I don't know how Paul could state it any more plainly than he does right there. that we were chosen by the Father in the Son before the foundation of the world. We call that the doctrine of election. That's a doctrine that we who are Reformed and Presbyterian champion because the Bible teaches it. But let's keep reading and see what he says. Before the foundation of the world, here's to a certain end, that we should be holy and blameless before him. And here we see the blessings of justification and sanctification in the text. What God's intent is and what he intends to do in us. or declare about us in justification you're not guilty or you're righteous, and what he intends to do in us through sanctification that is making us more and more holy. This is his purpose. And then we see the words, in love. See that? In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. Therefore, the blessing of adoption. We see that motive of love. Why did God do this? Because he loves you. He loves his elect. He set his affection upon you before the foundation, the world. But that's not the deepest motive. That's the deep motive. But there's a, I'm gonna go all the way to the superlative. There's the deepest motive of God. And this act of salvation, look at what he says as we continue to read. According to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he blessed us. To the praise of his glorious grace. That's a refrain. This is almost like a hymn. It's actually one sentence too. It's one giant run-on sentence in the Greek. Giant went on, why? Because as these blessings are coming forth, as Paul is dictating them, they're being written, he can't pause enough for a period. It's got to be a comma or a semicolon. He can't pause enough for a period. It's these blessings that come from God are lavished out and flow out to us. But then He comes to that rain to the praise of His glorious grace. And later He'll say, to the praise of His glory. And then He'll say again, to the praise of His glorious grace. The deeper motive of God is a zeal for his own name and a zeal for his glory. And we hear that and our minds think, well that seems sort of self-centered. But you don't understand. If God wants to display that which is most beautiful in all of existence, What's he going to display other than his own perfections and the beauty of his own perfections? For creation, the angels in the invisible heavens and those creatures that live upon the earth to behold the beauty of our God and to say, glory, glory, God wanted to demonstrate and show to all of creation He made so that they could see it and enter in His own beauty. He displayed His own beauty. And we see the beauty of His goodness on display in this act of redemption. His goodness manifest to you is mercy. It's grace. No other supposed religion can answer the question, how can God be righteous and just and at the same time justify sinners? Only the true religion, which is Christianity, has that answer. How can God be just and justify sinners? Through the righteous one who died in the place of sinners. God himself becoming flesh and dying in the place of sinners. And what flows from that is grace that flows like a river that washes away all of your sins. You cannot atone for them yourself. You cannot do enough good works to tip the scale. You have to rely wholly upon the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. His act of obedience, that's what's imputed to you. And when you stand before God, you stand before God not in your own stead, but you stand before God dressed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And God looks upon Him in His righteousness, and He declares you to be righteous. And God is fully just. Why? Because He paid the penalty for us all. And that's His glory. The cross. It's not a defeat. It is His glory. Beloved, that's the gospel. That's the gospel that when your pastor comes, it's going to be herald from this pulpit, Lord's Day after Lord's Day. And there are people that live up and down these streets. And I'm so thankful for Ocean View Christian Reformed Church that said, we want the gospel to continue to be proclaimed in this place. And we're going to join with you. I got to spend last night with Nate and Scott and they told me about the testimonies they heard from you folks from Ocean View. And what a blessing and what a joy it was. for them to hear those testimonies of faith and of a persevering faith, that a witness to the gospel be in this place, and having the foresight to see that you come and join with your sisters and brothers at Reformation Presbyterian Church, that the Lord would continue to use this place that you've given yourself for this to be a lampstand here, for that to continue for decades to come. And it's a joyful thing to see. It's a wonderful thing to see. But there are people here that don't know the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of you have heard me say things like this before. Bring them in here to hear it when your pastor comes. I don't care if you have to kidnap them to get them here. I don't care if you have to tie them up or blindfold them and get them in and then sit them down and tie their hands to the chairs just so they come to the hearing of the preaching of the gospel. I'm being facetious. Don't quite go that far. But this should be your zeal because this gospel has the power to save and you know it because God saved you through it. five-fold glory that begins as its foundation in that redemptive historic work that's the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord willing, next time we'll come back to this intermediate point that Peter takes up and ask a question in the next text, Lord willing, when I'm able to return. But let's turn quickly now to the third point, a new commandment. A new commandment, this is verse 34, I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. We might say that's not a new commandment, that's an old commandment. Why does Jesus call it a new commandment? Our Old Testament reading comes from the law. It's where Jesus turned when Jesus was asked the question, you know, what's the first commandment? And he said, love the Lord, your God, while your heart, soul, mind, and strength. But then Jesus said, the second is like into it, you know, love your neighbor as yourself. That we are to love our neighbor as ourselves is an old commandment. But here there is a refinement in its focus. to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're to love your neighbor, whether they're a believer or not, and long for their salvation. But how are you to love each other? And Jesus goes beyond the old commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. He says, love each other as I've left you. We saw that demonstrated in the foot washing. So we love each other by serving them, but also in light of what's going to happen the next day. How did Jesus love you? He said, Father Crusoe, find me in their place. Pour out your wrath upon me. Let them go free. It's intercession on your part to the cross. That's how Jesus loves you. Now he says, that's the standard by which you're to love one another. That is, we're to be laying down our lives for each other in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is also true, of course, of marriage. When husbands are told, not wives, wives are told to submit to their husbands, husbands get the hard job. They're told what? Love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Remember many years ago when my daughter was in college, she went to Covenant College, and Dr. Henry Crobendom, any of you know Dr. Henry Crobendom, Dr. K., OPC minister, a Dutchman, six foot seven Dutchman, I might add. who's retired many years ago but he still preaches in Uganda, I think about half the time, full of evangelism and zeal. She would call me up when she was taking his Old Testament class and just say, you couldn't believe what Dr. Kay did today. We had the story of David and Goliath. Can you imagine a six foot seven Dutchman standing on top of the desk portraying Goliath in the classroom, in a college classroom? But he also taught a course in preparation for marriage. And my daughter was not married at that time. She went to a retreat where he taught the course. And he looked at the young ladies, and he says, if a young man's interested in you, and he is interested in courting you, and maybe starting a courtship, the question you need to ask him, are you ready to die for me? And if he says no, or even if he hesitates, just pass on and go to the next one. Because that's what the Word of God says that a husband is to do. It's broader than that from Jesus onwards. This is how we're to be towards each other in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we love like this, the world knows. They take notice. You see, we want to bring people in, kicking and screaming if necessary, to hear the gospel. But we also want them to see, while they're here, the communion of the saints and how you love one another in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Satan knows that this is where he can get his foot in the door by causing disunity in the life of the church. And disunity oftentimes comes. Most of the time, it's not over principal issues. Sometimes disunity is. There are reasons why there are divisions, but oftentimes it's not. But what's not underneath, even when there's difference of opinion, is a love that lays down its life for the brothers and sisters in Christ. And a condemning and judgmental spirit sometimes prevails. And you can bring people in and they can hear the gospel of peace preached powerfully from this pulpit, but they can sense if you don't like each other in the church. When there's unity in the church, when there's mutual love in the church, it's palpable. You can feel it when you walk in the room. When there's disunity in the church, and most of us at one time or another have experienced it. It's palpable. Unbeliever comes in and hears a message of how God is reconciling men to himself, and then they look and they say, but this person's not speaking to that person. Why should I believe that when they're not even reconciled to each other? Well, they're not lovely. Why should I love them? Look in the mirror. Why should God love you? He shouldn't. He does. This is tough. But it's what Jesus says that we must do. And he issues it as a new commandment. And I want to exhort you as these two congregations have come together in an extraordinarily beautiful way. And I got to taste a little of that in the process by coming to preach on, I think, two previous occasions here. I got to taste some of that and see. As you're embarking now is one people of God in one congregation, and as you have a pastor that's coming in, oh, Satan sees all kinds of things in ways in which he can pit one against another. Don't let him. Love each other like Christ loved you. That's what the Word of God says. That's what Jesus said to us in this text. I think the application is clear. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word and for