this John Musgrave. Thank you for coming to the podcast. If you like this content or this episode, please click like or you can subscribe or hit that thumbs up button on your screen and that will help more people find us. Thanks for listening. Getting close to the cross now as we progress in the gospel of John is the night before Jesus was put on the cross. John chapter 13 beginning in verse 1. This is God's word, eternally true. It was just before the Passover feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. The evening meal was being served and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot son of Simon to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the father had put all things under his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God. So he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing and wrapped his towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter who said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet? Jesus replied, you do not realize now what I'm doing but later you will understand. No, it's a Peter. You shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered, unless I wash you, you have no part with me. Then Lord, Simon Peter replied, not just my feet but my hands and my head as well. Jesus answered, a person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet, his whole body is clean and you are clean though not every one of you. For a new who was going to betray him and that was why he said not everyone was clean. When he had finished washing their feet he put on his clothes and returned to his place. Do you understand what I have done for you? He asked them. You call me teacher and Lord and rightly so for that is what I am. Now that I, your teacher and Lord, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have sent you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. I am not referring to all of you. I know those I have chosen, but this is to fulfill the scripture. He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me. Here ends our reading. There is a response of thankfulness printed for you and your worship guide as well as up here on the screen. The word of the Lord. Thank you. Thanks indeed. Let's pray. We know as believers, we know as people who go to church, or if we ever mention, as we talked about earlier, inviting people to church or speaking up about what we believe that we are quickly looked down upon by those who don't believe. That's just the nature of things. We don't need too much scripture to prove this effect to us because they put Jesus on a cross. Those who proclaim the truth get put on a cross. If we think we're going to be treated well for proclaiming the truth, Jesus' experience speaks against that very loudly. That's just something we're to know as believers that as we proclaim the truth, as we believe the truth. That's what Jesus did. He proclaimed the truth. Pilots said, are you a king? Jesus said, I am.
Jesus was asked by the chief priests. Are you the Christ? And Jesus says, I am and you will see him coming with the clouds of heaven, claiming to be this son of man, Christ, king of God's people, and that brought on the fury of Caiaphas, the high priest who didn't believe. And so as you see here, our gospel lesson is called here, looked down upon Christians, that's who we are. We're Christians and we're looked down upon in society. So why is that? What do we do about it? How should we think about this? If you'd like to fill out blanks in an outline, you can start now in our introduction there. We just simply state here that being a Christian involves non-believers looking down on us. You being a Christian involves non-believers looking down on you. First Peter four, four, Peter speaks of the non-believers that were the friends of the Christians he was writing to. He names five regions and what's now Turkey at the front of his book in chapter one, verse one, and he's writing to these folks and probably a lot of Gentiles in that group that he was writing to in first Peter and second Peter. And he says this in first Peter four, four, they, those non-believers, your friends from growing up, your neighbors, they think it strains that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation and they keep abuse on you. And that, that's the Christian's experience. People see we're not acting like they, believing like they. And as a means of, I put their Romans one, 1840, as a means of suppressing the truth, which they feel, they see how you're believing, they see how you're living and they know that it's right and they know they should be living that way and they know they should be believing that way and they know they should be worshipping the God you worship and that bothers them inside. And Paul talks about that in Romans one and two, that makes them feel guilty. And so there are two solutions to that. Paul reveals in those first two chapters of Roman. One solution is that you get rid of your guilt through faith in Christ. That is you say I am guilty and that guilt my sins can be placed upon Jesus' body so to speak through my faith. Or you can try to get rid of that guilt unsuccessfully through just suppressing the truth. Saying well that's not true, there's really no God. Jesus was just a man and a failed leader, spiritual leader and then I can live any way I want and I'll be happy you're living this way that I'm living now and even though things don't always work out right, that's due to other things. That's suppressing the truth. And so unbelievers are very motivated to downplay and criticize you as a believer for the way you live and for what you believe in because they're trying to absolve themselves right like Mozart's friend Salieri. At the end I absolve you. I absolve you. They're trying to get rid of their guilt and they're trying to do that by by discrediting how you believe and what you do. So they heap abuse on you and they're hoping that you quit believing how you believe and they're hoping that you quit acting in the way you act and just join in with them so they don't have to witness anything with their eyes or hear anything with their ears that will remind them of the guilt they feel deep inside of them that God has placed in them of their guilty consciences. So non-believers look down upon us. One of the ways they suppress the truth as well with our faith is to look at Jesus and they say, well he's just a man. In fact, perhaps and isn't he just a failed leader? One of many spiritual leaders, a Buddha or a Muhammad who just led people in a certain way. One of many ways but even his own people crucified him. So he was a failed leader at that. So why should I listen? Why should I listen to him? The Jews of Jesus' own day decided not to follow him and they decided to put him on a cross. They decided death was the most appropriate thing for him. And just like they didn't pay him any mind, I don't need to pay him any mind either other than Christmas, right? To put as Nate Bergatzi or whatever says, you know, they pay mine to Jesus because he told us to put pine trees in our living rooms and drink hot chocolate. So Jesus can be seen as a failed leader but we see here in this text number one, number one in your outline here. We see here in this text, you don't serve a failed leader. This text shows us you don't serve a failed leader. Jesus wasn't trying to do something that he didn't accomplish. Nothing happened to Jesus that is, that he didn't expect to happen, that he hadn't come to earth to get to happen and to walk through. You don't serve a failed leader and we're to realize this. So why wasn't Jesus a failed leader? We can note this in A. Jesus' death was planned. That's your A. Jesus' death was planned. Jesus came to die. The father planned Jesus to come to die. So verses one and three, look at verse one there. A few opening words there and verse one and then it says, Jesus knew, see that they're Jesus knew, that's the time had come. So this was something that was supposed to happen. What was to come? Jesus knew that time had come for him to leave this world and go to the father. That's a fancy way of speaking of death. The time had come. Now in the gospel, John, one key phrase that we've seen over and over again is that Jesus says, my time has not come. But now we get to chapter 13 and Jesus knows that it's time had come to leave this world through death and to go to the father. Or look at verse three, look at verse three there. Jesus knew that the father had put all things under his power and that he, Jesus, had come from God and now was returning to God. Or as Jesus had said to his disciples and we see it in a number of places, but Mark 10, 45, Jesus told his disciples the son of man came to give his life as a ransom for many. So that was the plan. He came to give his life. So Jesus' death was planned. In other words, number one there. So one A1. Jesus' death was not, Jesus' death was not primarily the plan of Satan, Judas, nor the Jewish leadership. Now you can see there in verse two there. It says the evening meal was being served. The devil had already prompted Judas the scary at the time of Simon to betray Jesus. And so a person might think, just reading that verse, that this was something that Satan planned to do or that Judas planned to do. But we see it sandwiched there right between verses one and three, don't we? That this was God's plan. This was the plan of the father that was also the plan of Jesus that Jesus would die. And so Satan and Judas are just pawns in God's plan. Jesus' death was not primarily the plan of Satan, Judas, nor the Jewish leadership. And we see the Jewish leadership in chapters 18 and 19 of John working out their plan. And we see in previous chapters that, you know, there are all these little spotted things, you know, from then on they plan to kill Jesus. But this was all part of God's plan in sending Jesus to the earth. This is all part of the plan in Jesus coming to earth. This is why, why he came. And number two, Jesus' death in other words was not Jesus being overpowered or outsmarted by the people of his day. It's not his being overpowered or outsmarted by people of his day. And three, but Jesus' death was the plan of God. It was the plan of God which he worked out through wicked forces, acting freely according to their own desires and wills. And Peter says this is at Pentecost. Jim read this for us this morning from Acts chapter two. He says there are men of Israel. He's talking to the Jews. Listen to this. Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs which God did among you through him as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you. Here's the part. Listen, this man was handed over to you by God's set purpose, by God's set purpose and foreknowledge. And you, without how about being when some here, huh? Ha, ha, ha. And you, with the help of wicked men, put them to death by nailing them to the cross. So both are operative. Both are always operative in the world. God's set purpose, his decree is always enforced. But God accomplishes his decree through the use of means ordinarily. And it's got accomplishes his decree, his will, doing exactly what he wants to do. He does not violate the will of his creatures. Jonathan Edwards talked about the American, you know, that preacher Jonathan Edwards talked about this a lot in his book, the freedom of the will. And he talks about that that every person is always doing what he most wants to do given his options. Even if those options are limited, your money or your life, you'll choose those are limited options. Sometimes our options are big, sometimes they're in many, sometimes they're small. But people are always doing what they want to do. Even if a child does his parents will, it's still his option. He's still decided it will be better for me to do what my parents want me to do instead of this other thing that I really want to do because there's an ultimate consequence for it. Okay. And so this was the case with Jesus. That people were operating freely. Satan was operating freely, doing exactly what he wanted to do, put Jesus on the cross. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 1 that the Satan didn't understand when he put Jesus on the cross that he was accomplishing the salvation of Jesus people. And the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Jewish crowds shouting for Jesus to they were doing exactly what they wanted to do freely. And this is what we would have done apart from the Holy Spirit in us. We would have agreed and shouted crucify him. Crucify him. And if you don't think that's true, you don't understand the gospel. Okay. We're the one shouting crucify him. And the only reason we believe is because he blew on us by his Holy Spirit. John 3 verses 5 through 8. Okay. That changed us.
So Westminster Confessant faith chapter 3 verse 1 and God's decree says God from all eternity did by his most wise and only counsel of his own will freely and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass. Everything is absolutely under God's control. And Jesus going to the cross is absolutely under God's control. Then it says yet God is not the author of sin. That is when sin happens. That's not God doing the sin. That's God allowing people to do exactly what they want to do. As they are directed and guided by and following their sinful desires and passions as Paul talked about himself and all the believers in an Ephesus in chapter 2 verses 1 and 2. And so the creatures are acting that people were created us were acting freely. So God's not the author of sin. We're the ones who are sinning. We're the ones who want to sin. But violence going on. Violence is not offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of men taken away. Okay. So that's A there. Now B the plan was not the plan was not for Jesus as the son of David to become king during his incarnation. Now some of you have come from classic dispensationalism in classic dismanstationalism. There are brothers and sisters in Christ and we love them and all that kind of thing. But they teach as I was taught as I you know was warmed up to this so long time ago that Jesus came to be king of the Jews. And then God got surprised and they rejected him. So he thought of plan B which is the church that that's classic dispensationalism. But this is not the case. Jesus said before anyone turned against him I came to seek in the save the lost and I came to give my life as a ransom for many. He doesn't say I came to take a throne into Jerusalem and lead the Jews. That's what classic dispensationalism teaches that Jesus came to be king over his own people until lead the Jews but they rejected him. And so God said well my people rejected me. I guess I better make some use out of this trip to earth. I guess I'll die and create a separate people who will always eternally be separate from the Jews even in heaven and in the new heavens and new earth. That's classic dispensationalism as opposed to one sheep or one one flock and one shepherd John chapter 10. But Jesus comes never to that's not his intent to become king during his incarnation 2,000 years ago. And we can see this if you just flip a couple chapters back John 615 after Jesus says the miracle of the bread and the people want to make him king by force the Jews do want to make him king by force and so he slips away it doesn't allow them to do that because that's not his that's not his goal. Verse 1 verse 3. His goal is to die and to go back to the father. The plan of the incarnation is to die. Jesus death was planned. So in contrast see see in contrast you serve a leader who is not a failure you serve a leader who successfully you serve a leader who successfully and sacrificial secured many benefits for his people. So you know if you put yourself in the shoes of a Jew during Jesus day after Jesus was crucified or even in those three days after his crucifixion before you saw the resurrected Jesus you might feel like you had given three years or four years whatever it was those disciples to a failed leader right they're afraid and they're confused and they have to add the kingdom of God you know Acts chapter 1 it says Jesus spent 40 days explaining to them the kingdom of God this is a kingdom where I'm going to be raining from heaven this is a kingdom where I will be raining over Jews and Gentiles all over the world this is no longer just a kingdom of the son of David located geographically in Jerusalem just over a geographic people having a geopolitical influence in one little corner of the world but Jesus comes to establish benefits for his people and he successfully does that through the cross and through his resurrection so because these benefits and because of these benefits as you experience unbelievers looking down on you for your faith in Jesus number two so this is the impact of this passage for you as you feel non-believers looking down upon you as you feel non-believers looking down upon you to disagree disagree in your heart with those who look down on you for your faith in Jesus disagree in your heart you may speak up you don't have to different times different things are appropriate but but just the alert don't agree with this understand Jesus came and he accomplished exactly what he came to accomplish he is the ultimate success he succeeded by going to death no harder way to succeed than that right you have to die to succeed I mean you can't top it and Jesus does that and so realize you you follow a successful leader other spiritual leaders didn't die to accomplish numerous benefits for their people ours did ours did so disagreeing your heart with those who look down on you for your faith in Jesus a because they are wrong and should it say at eyes to see and should rather be admiring what you have it should be admiring what you have not looking down on you for your faith and desiring it desiring the things that you have because of Jesus because of your faith in Jesus desiring it for themselves they should be Ephesians 1 verses 3 through 14 is a great passage about all the things you every spiritual blessing in Christ that we've been given but in names a good number of things there that we've been given and it's stuff that you know what person what same person would not want those benefits listed in 3 1 through 14 for forgiveness of sense for instance every spiritual blessing in Christ it's just approach a non-believer who's not already veered up to say no and suppress the truth and say hey if there is a God and you have sin would you want your sins forgiven no no one's going to say that right we all want forgiven I love Billie Joel's new song from like nine months ago or whatever it is so point it and if you know Billie Joel at all in its life like he's been married three times or maybe he's in his fourth marriage now and you would have predicted that if you listen to the words and the stranger album his view on women but but he's got a tough life you suicidal at one point in the mid 70s to but he looks on his life and and the the song talks about oh what's the song called open the door no anyway he's looking down one of the verses he's looking down on the house that he built and now other people are living in it because he's no longer united to his wife and he's considering the pictures that used to be up on the up on the wall and and just the pain that's with that but it's the song is a plea to this wife apparently you know you don't know in the song that he's not quite divorced from yet and he's basically saying I get it now please forgive me if it's not too late but maybe you don't even want to see me but if you can see me and it's not too late please forgive me and so what person doesn't want to be forgiven in their lives for the things that they've done wrong or were morally reprehensible in doing I have those things and we all have those things at a good friend this this week I wish me sent a personal message to me on my birthday not a believer but just just talking about this this kind of thing I sent him a I'd sent him a we have a friend named Russ Snyder from my graduating class in high school and I was running a couple weeks ago and there was a realty sign and said for sale and the and and the realtor's name was Russ Snyder so it looked like it was saying for sale Russ Snyder and so I said to my friend look who's for sale and he said to me yeah that's and he said wonder how much they're selling him for and he said to my shame I beat him up in elementary school and I said back to him I said yeah I said we all have those things don't we things that we did at the time and were convinced you know that you know that and we felt good about doing until we had done them and now we look up back on them and and we're ashamed of what we've done but everybody would want forgiveness and so people should be admiring if you look at what is promised in Christianity if you look at what's being promised or faith in Christ who wouldn't want these things so be be for now here are some of the reasons from John 13 that you're having faith in Jesus is to be treasured and valued by you and why what you have what all Christians have should be valued and desired by others so be um Christians or non-Christians are wrong should rather be an admiring what you have because you're having faith in Jesus means that's your blank you're having faith in Jesus means that a or not sorry b b1 sorry one the god the father out of his great love for you shows you god the father out of his great love for you shows you to be a person who receives his mercy so look at verse 11 in this passage so what we're saying is here because you have faith in Jesus you can know these things are true of you and the first thing we're saying is that God the father loves you and he shows to love you by showing you mercy look at verse 11 Jesus knew who would betray him Judas was not chosen by the father in love but the rest of the disciples were um there's choosing involved and so just like the 11 disciples reading this from John or knowing this could say you know what Judas betrayed Jesus and I didn't that mean God chose me to believe and chose me to be to show his mercy to well look at verse 18 you see this idea of choosing as well verse 18 Jesus knew who was who was chosen by the father and he Jesus being one with the father likewise you know agreeing with that choosing um there um Jim read chapter 6 of John verses 37 through 39 for us and it said Jesus said all the father gives me will come to me and I'll raise them up at the last day so if the father has a group that is chosen that he gives to Jesus and that Jesus will raise up the last day so because you believed in Jesus that means the father has loved you and he chose you no merit of your own but he chose you to show mercy to Peter later writes and it's this the declaration the gospel you can read it in the front of your front of your bolt in the arrow the declaration the gospel third thing in our order of worship this morning
second little paragraph there is first Peter one two you have been chosen according to the four knowledge of God the father now that's what Peter writes the Christians there were people who have been chosen according to the four knowledge of God the father so that's the first thing it means that God out of his great love fusions two as a great love for you showed you showed your mercy that you have faith in Jesus means the father has great love for you and chose you to give you faith number two number two non-believers were wrong in looking down on you and should be instead designed to have what you have because your faith in Jesus means that Jesus who is God has loved you Jesus who has got has loved you loves you and will love you in all your future the end of verse one look at the end of verse one there having loved his own who were in the world he now showed them the full extent of his love or some translation say he loved them to the end he verse 13 five says that God will never leave you nor forsake you quoting deuteronomy 31 8 and many other passages in deuteronomy and in in Joshua Jesus will love you he's loved you he loves you and he'll love you to the end that's what your faith in Jesus means number three non-believers are wrong in looking down on you and should be instead desiring to have what you have because your faith in Jesus means this as well number three that the Holy Spirit who is God with the same love enabled you enabled you to believe and have faith so it just says you're having faith in Jesus means that Jesus loves you you're having faith in Jesus means the Holy Spirit loves you because you needed to be enabled to believe and have faith um Jim read for us six six forty four no one Jesus said no one can come to me unless the father sent me enabled him how's the father enable a person to come to Jesus so Jesus says no one can come to me if that's the end that's period we say while we're all lost because we don't have the ability we can't come to Jesus um unless the father enables him and how's the father enable a person will tightest three five says he saved us um through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit that's how the father enables us the wash the renewal by the Holy Spirit he gives us life or as Jesus talked about in John chapter three the Holy Spirit blows upon a person so that the person has new birth and is born born again or born from above born spiritually you can see in our declaration of the gospel again um and first Peter one two Peter speaks of how God the Spirit did a work in you to sanctify or set you apart unto believing in Jesus and from that belief that you were sprinkled in his blood so that you can now have grace and peace from God in abundance so look at that that passage there the second little the second paragraph from the declaration of the gospel not only if you've been chosen according to the four now to God the Father but he chose you by enabling you to believe that it's through the sanctifying work of the Spirit God the Holy Spirit did a work in you to set you apart to sanctify you that's what sanctification is to be set apart like a sanctuary there's a room set apart for the worship of God so you've been sanctified by the work of the Spirit why that you might have last phrase in their grace and peace in abundance because the middle part you've been sprinkled with the blood of Jesus you've been loved by Jesus he went to the cross for you I spilled his blood so you'd be be forgiven there so the Spirit in his love for you did a work upon your eyes and your heart and your ears to enable you to believe that next number four number four non-believers are wrong so you've got the one through three as a Trinity loves you the Father chose you Jesus died for you and the Spirit enabled you to believe all three persons of the Trinity loved you and brought you faith in Christ gave you salvation and so when people look down on you because you're your belief that's silly because God has loved you that's what your faith in Christ means your faith in Christ doesn't mean you're trying to get God to love you it's the other way around your faith in Christ is proof that God all three persons of the Trinity loved you God the Father ordained that you would be shown mercy Jesus died so that you could have mercy and the Spirit gave you life right like Jesus said in John 65-ish whatever that is he gives you life it's the Spirit who gives life the flesh profits nothing so you're having faith is proof that all three persons of the Trinity have been at work so that you would be eternally saved okay so that's one through three that's why non-believers are wrong your faith is the proof that God loves you thoroughly and it's not that Jesus is pleading with the Father oh Father I know that you hate him but I died for him no the Father sent Jesus to die for you and Jesus for the joy set before him Hebrews 12 to went to the cross though he scoring the shame that his blood might cover your transgressions that he might sprinkle you with his blood first Peter 1-2 and the Holy Spirit washed you regenerated you so that you would believe this is how God showed you his mercy for the Spirit working in you before you had faith before you had eyes to see before you had a heart to understand the Spirit worked so that you could see a number four non-believers are wrong and looking down at you and shouldn't instead be admiring what you have and desiring it for themselves because you're having faith in Jesus means that God has washed away God has washed away that is forgiven all your sins look at verse 10 there's a little in and out of all this and we'll talk about this more next next week too but but Jesus says that you've had a bath he says the Peter and the other 10 besides Peter had had a bath we'll talk about the washing of the feet what that means there but Jesus says you know look at verse 10 Jesus is a person who's had a bit of a Peter says wash all of me not just my feet Jesus says I don't need to wash all of you you've already been washed he says a person who has had a bath he's only to wash his feet his whole body is clean so that's symbolic for all your sins have been forgiven okay all of it you've been forgiven you've been sprinkled clean with my blood and we'll talk about this more this week but in the Old Testament you know in the temple and with the priests and the furnishings of the temple all the kind of thing if God wanted something consecrated so it could be in his presence he sprinkled it with blood and so that's the language that we're sprinkled clean with the blood of Jesus that just our feet you know are washed or washed here but he says our whole bodies are are clean our sins have been washed washed away so verses 5 through 11 Jesus discusses this verse 11 we've been all of this is Jesus talks about being washed over and over person who's had a bath needs only to wash his feet his whole body is clean and you are clean he says they're not everyone a few so there's a contrast here there are those 10 or 11 disciples are in their clean they're forgiven but not Judas not Judas they're not everyone a few yeah give them clean and the disciples have faith the 11 that they're already clean washed of their sins is because they have faith but the one who doesn't have faith the one the phrase Jesus is not clean so you see there the difference between being clean and not being clean is faith in Jesus believe that he'd come from God believe that he's the one the anointed one the one and only the king the Christ that made them clean and it made Judas unclean because he did not believe those did not believe those things his sins had not been washed away but Peter since had been washed away he had taken a bath so to speak many other verses in scripture speak of a person being washed clean of his or her sins by faith in Jesus revelation 714 says this reveals its souls the souls John sees in heaven they're in revelation 7 are there because they had faith in Jesus and therefore they had washed robes those in heaven have washed robes Acts 22 16 Paul makes an appeal to his listeners in Jerusalem so it goes back to Jerusalem this is right before he's arrested and then gets carried off to Cesarean and to to Rome but he's appealing to his fellow Jews as he goes back to Jerusalem to deliver that that offering that they've been collecting around in the other churches in the various nations and he says this to them this is his call to faith to Jews he says wash your sins away calling on his name you see that synony is that a word how do you wash your sins away call on his name if you call on the name of Jesus if you look to him for the forgiveness of sins it will be the washing away of your sins those two things are together so we believe in Jesus and our sins all of them are washed away we've taken a bath through our faith through our faith in Jesus Paul later in Titus 35 as we've talked about that verse before describing the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit the experience of being born by the Spirit he says this is a washing of rebirth this a washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit and in 1 Corinthians 6-11 this is Paul emphasizing the Spirit's work to bring you to faith means that now having faith having called on Jesus your sins have been washed away from you he writes this this is 1 Corinthians 6-11 you were washed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God this is how Paul describes a Christian washed your sins washed away you being made you being made clean now the third reason number number five why non believers are wrong in looking down on you because you have all these benefits God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit they love you and that's your your faith is proof of that fourth benefit your sins are washed away fifth benefit God has set you apart God has set you apart or made you holy as his treasured possession as his treasured possession in distinction from all those who are outside the church Judas wasn't set apart he wasn't Jesus treasured possession as we see in verse 10 11 and 18 and unbelievers aren't set apart in the treasured possession of God today but the 11 disciples who believed were and you are God's treasured possession you can see this in Deuteronomy 7-6 in your declaration of the gospel that's the first paragraph there God says you know with people who are in covenant with him as we are covenant in Christ blood which we'll talk about with the Lord's supper here this morning he says but you are people holy to the Lord your God are set apart to the Lord your God the Lord your God has chosen you and all the people on the face here to be his people his treasured possession God treasures you he loves you he's chosen you to treasure and and to love
those who are outside the church Ephesians 2-3 are still objects of wrath but you're a treasured possession of the Lord the creator of the ends of the earth and so this is something to be admired something to be desired and so when someone despises you because if you're faith in Jesus um it just means they don't understand they don't understand that they have faith in Jesus means that you possess in your heart and in your mind the proof that God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit loves you you possess by your faith in Christ the proof that your sins have been washed away and by your faith you possess in your heart in your mind by that faith the proof that God treasures you again if you approach the non-believer and they had eyes to see and say would you want God to treasure you no one's going to say no but your eyes are open and just no others eyes are not but this is a message and this is a passage of encouragement to you because you know if you just if it's democracy we lose most people look down on Christians Christians are the smaller group and so sometimes we can get distracted and look at the big group and say whatever and else thinks this and Jesus says no you're washed no i love you no you're the chosen ones and that's why you've believed and you're washed in fact you're all bathed and this baptism you had which if you weren't in a Baptist church you don't have to fret because you didn't have to be dunked in water if I wash your feet that's enough
so summary summary for you Jesus didn't fail but succeeded in what he came to do on earth so someone looks down on you for your faith for you following Jesus realized that you follow a religious leader who succeeded not one like Muhammad or Buddha or somebody else who just succumbed to death you came to the only person who succeeded by dying next as a result of what Jesus did result of him dying your faith in Jesus is present that's why you have faith because he died your faith in Jesus is present and this means many good things for you now and for eternity which we enumerated here and are one through five there and then lastly know that your faith the fact that you have faith means that God loves you follow sun and holy spirit God loves you that your sins are washed from you you don't have to fret about your sins now when you do sins say that was dumb and turned from it but it doesn't mean God's love for you has decreased means God loves you and that your sins are washed from you and that God has set you apart as his treasured possession God's not merely putting up with you he treasures you he sets you apart he's made you holy he's washed you clean let's pray