Turning your Bibles to John, the 13th chapter, I want to dwell on a verse there, which we began to explore last week. A short verse, but one which is packed with, or shall we say, infused with, the meaning of practically the entire scope of Scripture. Why are you turning there? I also want to, since Katie did come today, tell you that the bulletin is my fault. It's not correct at all points as you look at the announcements. And I thought I could get away with it, but Katie's here. And so I'll have to tell you that it's all my doing. Call if you have any questions, and we'll tell you what time everything is supposed to be. And if you're down for doing something that you didn't sign up for, feel free to go ahead and do that. Your help is always appreciated. John chapter 13, look down to verse 12, and follow along with me through verse 17, John 13, beginning at verse 12. When he, speaking now of Jesus, when he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, do you understand what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right for so I am. If I then, your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you. A servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, bless to you if you do them. May the Lord bless the reading of his word, it is the last verse here, verse 17, where we will dwell today. Have you ever asked someone because of something they've done, have you ever made the comment? Really, it's not a question, just a comment to them along the lines of this, I don't know how you can sleep at night. I don't know how you can sleep at night knowing what you have done, or I don't know how you can sleep at night with that on your conscience, or with that on your mind. And we might, in saying that, know that what we're really suggesting is that they need to reconcile this, they need to bring something to completion, they need to fix the issue which they have in their life. In Psalm 3 and Psalm 4, we read there of the psalmist who are echoing that same sentiment because the psalmist very often, and they're journaling as it were, their spiritual life, their spiritual walk, and their life in the psalms, often mention that they're struggling with sleep at night. They often mention that they've grown allowed to the Lord, that their pillows are covered with their tears, that sleep alludes them and that the dawn greets them before they have been able to close their eyes to find any sleep at all. How do you sleep at night? There are two aspects of this that we probably should explore today, and it's my intention, God willing that we are able to do so. Two aspects of sleeping at night that involve peace with God. Why can't we sleep at night? It's because our souls are not at peace. They are not at rest. We are restless in the very literal sense. We are struggling with an issue, we are tense, we are stressed, we are holding our problems and issues close to our chest. In fact, we have placed them so deeply within our own hearts that they would rob us of our bodies needed rest at night. How pleasant it is when we see someone who is able to close their eyes and fall right away to sleep. And immediately we know that this is one who is not troubled, or perhaps they have a sleeping problem, but nevertheless, not troubled. Each Sunday, during church, I'm pleased to see that so many of you are able to have clear consciences as we preach through the sermon, and so easily are able to have long blinking vacations as we go through our Sunday, worship together. It's good to know that we're among the people with such clear consciences as we are. Two aspects of peace with God that are mentioned in this verse, verse 17. Jesus says, if you know these things, blessed are you. We mentioned last time we were together that Jesus is essentially giving what we might call a be attitude, perhaps the last of the be attitudes, which he gave. We associate those with the sermon on the mount traditionally, and rightly so. We have there a good list of blessed are you, but here we have another. Blessed are you if you do them. Blessed are you if you do them. So there is a sense in which we are to be blessed, and that is at peace with God. Blessed meaning God's hand is upon us, and then we wonder how it is that we can attain to that, and then there is another aspect of this because it is a conditional blessing if you do them. If you do them, you will be blessed. One is a consequence of our returning to our first calling, and that is the act of obedience, and the first is the state of being blessed. The scripture is full from beginning to end of God's promise and God's striving to bless man, and Genesis 128, just after the creation of man, it is said there that God blessed them, man and woman, and he blessed them, and Genesis 12 too, God calls Abram, and he tells them that he will bless him, and he will make him the father of many nations. And Genesis 49, the tribes are established, and each tribe is given a blessing by God. David, we are told, was richer in blessing than any Israelite. And then if we were to go into the New Testament, we have already mentioned the be attitudes, Jesus' blessed are thou, and we know that the Sermon on the Mount gives us eight qualities of being blessed by God. Skipping all the way through the many other blessings through the epistles, we could go to Revelation, and we see seven times there are pronouncements of blessings even in Revelation. Seven times, volleys of blessings are announced. The scripture is concerned that we be blessed, not for our own good, not simply so that we might enjoy life, although that's a result, but being blessed is being at peace with God. In Philippians 4, verses 6 and 7, and if you have your Bible handy, I'd like for you to stare at these verses for just a moment, because these verses are considered by some, and they certainly merit being in the top five verses that we might commit to memory in the scripture, but by some they are considered some of the most precious verses for those who have already come to an understanding, of course, of the gospel and of the message of salvation. Here is the state of the Christian's soul as it is in Christ. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. As your eyes rest upon these verses, is there any goal we would strive for more worthy than to be at peace with God, a peace which surpasses understanding that will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, a peace that removes all anxiety, a peace that removes any fear of being forgotten or being considered irrelevant or being unloved or being neglected or being lost or being without purpose in life. I mourn when I hear of so many, I used to say young people, but it's also adults, who will sit up into the wee hours visiting this chat or that chat or sending out this email so afraid, someone will forget them or they will be irrelevant and so they have to always remind people, I'm still here, don't forget me, think about me, talk to me because if you don't, I'm afraid that I will simply evaporate and go away. My life will have no purpose if you don't recall and remember me, hints for the Christian, how many times are we told God has remembered and are him that we're saying today. The Psalmist was crying out, don't forget me Lord and in each time in the Psalms he's reminded, the Lord is faithful to remember. None of us wants to shrink to nothingness, we all want to be significant and remembered we all want to be blessed. And so we strive after it with all of our energy only to continually be disappointed as fractured relations and families and relationships continue to show all that striving ultimately is vain. Paul and Philippians is concerned about if we were to put it in very common terms, the happiness of the church in Philippi. He was concerned that they be happy in the Lord. He was concerned that they be at peace in the Lord. He's acknowledging that there are threats to the state of blessedness in the Christian life. He was acknowledging that there are conditions which steal happiness from the Christian soul, the circumstances of real life. He was concerned that they understand that Christianity is applicable to real life. He's acknowledging that Christians can fall into a miserable state. But he is also saying that that state should not be and must not be permanent, that we are to be taken from that state back to a state of blessedness God's will, is not that we would remain miserable in Christ, but that we would be full of joy and that we would be blessed. The blessed state that is enjoyed by the Psalmist as he describes it in Psalm 3, verse 5. First of all, in verse 1, how many are my foes, many are rising against me here again, the Psalmist is saying there are people surrounding me on all sides who would seek to depress me, push me down, do me harm, steal my rights, take my very life. But then in verse 5, I lay down and slept. I woke again for the Lord sustained me. Does that mean all the problems went away, that those who would seek together round to do him harm, to ruin her soil or reputation, to steal from him, to take his very life? Does it mean that they went away? We're not told that. We're told that even with those circumstances and conditions in life, because of the walk the Psalmist had with God, he lay down and slept. And then he says simply, and I woke again for the Lord sustained me. Where's his confidence? It's in the Lord. Wouldn't it be odd to mention our bedtime and a Psalm unless our being able to sleep in difficult times, shows our confidence in the Lord? Think about the scriptures that we have, how odd that we are told time and time again about the bedtime of the Psalmist, and how he sleeps unless that very condition is a clue to us about what it is for someone to be at peace with God. Those who sleep well at night are either ignorant of their own circumstances, indifferent to their own circumstances, meaning that they don't care or they are at peace with God. And they have a security and an assurance that transcends the flesh and the eyes of man. Andrew Murray says this, since it is true that God alone is the foundation of all love and good and happiness, then our trust and highest happiness must be in him. So let's ask this question. What would rob us of joy and happiness? For those of us who have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, for those of us who have heard that Christ died to take away sin, that we might live in eternity, take away the penalty of sin rather, that we might live reconciled to God in eternity, what could possibly steal our joy and our happiness away? What takes it from us so that those who are in Christ toss and turn and sleep is stolen from them at nice? D. Martin Lloyd Jones, one of my favorite preachers of history, calls this the tyranny of circumstances. The tyranny of circumstances is what steals our joy away. It's what takes the smile from our face and turns it upside down, the tyranny of circumstances. And the New Testament epistles that are written, they each one face this issue in one way or another. This one is written to churches who because of difficult circumstances are facing trial, tribulation who are persecuted and the people there are feeling the weight and are feeling pressed. And each epistle that is written is written to encourage them how it is in their circumstances that they're able to have joy. And none of the epistles does he turn to them and say you need to just leave. In this situation what you know and how you receive that knowledge and how you understand your relationship with God, how you understand God's working in your situation can give you peace, a confidence and an assurance. The church today is beguiled with troubles just as those churches were and the people in Christ church today are also seeking happiness. And we're often through pop psychology, we want a quick answer, we want something that just puts a smile on our face without relieving the issue or the tension between us and our problems. Or we seek some sort of an entertainment that simply distracts us from our problems, gives us a sense of spiritual fulfillment which unfortunately leaks out very quickly after we go through the actual engagement of the experience itself. We seek these rather than turning to the wise counsel of the New Testament authors. When we read the scriptures we must do so with an honest intention of surrendering to them and that by definition is an act of obedience which is what Christ has said here in verse 17. Blessed are you if you do them, blessed are you if you obey, blessed are you if you obey. Again looking to Andrew Murray's comments, if you accustomed yourself to studying the Bible without an earnest and very definite purpose to obey, you will harden yourself in disobedience. How sad it is to think, it is a pious thing just to read the Bible without any sincere effort to obey it. Those are so boring words to me and I trust to you as well. We can be a well-studied people, we can journey through the scriptures, we can do word studies but if we approach this without a sincere determined will to obey that which we learn we actually harden ourselves towards disobedience. We teach ourselves to disobey, it would be like a child waiting to hear something from a parent that they ought to do knowing their expressed purposes to wait to hear the word so they can know what not to do. We sometimes think that's what the kids do and sometimes we'll leave them play a little bit of a game where we don't tell them what we want to do but lead them into that knowing that there will be contrary to what we say as they try to assert themselves but if we approach to scriptures where we have no intention of changing our hearts and minds and lives. We approach the scriptures with no intention to be adjusted to obey we are training ourselves to live contrary to God's word with the false assurance that through knowledge of God's word we are somehow being sanctified. That by our words and language by our expanding vocabulary of spiritual ideas and concepts that that somehow is making us a better people. When Christ has simply said, blessed are you if you obey, if you do them. Why was Paul able to rejoice in his chains and suffering? Why in Acts 5 did the apostles after being beaten, do we read, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer and dishonor for the name because of obedience because they were following after Christ. In the cathedral at Lubek, Germany, I think I've pronounced the cathedral's name right, if anyone goes there and finds a different pronunciation please let me know. You call me master it says on a plaque and obey me not. You call me light and seek me not. You call me the way and walk with me not. You call me wise and follow me not. You call me fair and love me not. You call me rich and ask me not. You call me eternal and seek me not. You call me gracious and trust me not. You call me noble and serve me not. You call me mighty and honor me not. You call me just and fear me not if I condemn you, blame me not. So bring words on a cathedral wall. What was the one thing God required of man for his continual living and residing in paradise at the time of creation, the one thing God required, obedience, obedience but Adam disobeyed and so God drove him out. The theme of obedience didn't simply end in the garden however, it is carried all the way through to in Revelation. We find in Revelation 22-14 this verse, blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life. In the beginning and in the end it is God's law that remains unchanged and we are called to obedience. Obedience is required. We are not liberated from obedience because we're saved by grace which we are but that doesn't liberate us from God's law. Obedience is required all the way through the Scriptures to the very end. In the end in fact in Romans 5-19 it is described how we gain access to the tree of life and that is through Christ. So in the beginning and in God's law remains unchanged, it's required but we have been born in Adam and in Adam we are born in the flesh and as Ephesians 2-1 and 2 tell us. You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world following the prince of the power of the air and the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Those who were in the flesh, those who are outside of Christ are even categorized as sons of disobedience. We are children who obey not sons of disobedience. Romans 5-19 which I mentioned a moment ago though says that we are not able because of obedience to attain to salvation. It is not through our obedience that we will be saved. It is through Christ and Christ alone. Romans 5-19. For as by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. By one man's disobedience many are made sinners. That's Adam and by one man's obedience many are made righteous as Christ. So do we go the way of Adam or do we go the way of Christ John Milton said that thou art happy, O to God, that thou continue with such O to thyself because that is obedience. What does he mean? That our happiness comes from us? No. He's saying that you are happy you owe that to God but if you were to continue in happiness then don't go to war with God. Remain at peace with God and that is obedience. Between then and between now, between the garden and between Christ return which we read of in Revelation we are called to obedience in Christ. He's told them the same thing. He says you call me teacher and Lord you're right. If I then the Lord and teacher have washed feet you also ought to wash one another's feet. He did not say I have washed feet therefore reflect upon my washing of the feet and you are freed from having to do this menial task yourself. He says if I am teacher and I am Lord and I have done this we can imply less you are higher than me then you also will do the same if you will be found in me. If I give you an example verse 15 that you also should do just as I have done to you truly a servant is not greater than his master nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. He's saying here what I have done in being obedient to God you also do likewise be obedient to God. Paul reiterates the same thing first Corinthians 7, 19 for neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision but keeping the commandments of God. It's not religious ceremony that saves. It's not baptism that saves. It's not taking of the Lord's supper that saves. Obedience the first active obedience is responding to the gospel of Jesus Christ when he says follow me and we receive his merit and his righteousness for our salvation but then continuing in obedience following the example of Christ. Andrew Murray again the whole redemption of Christ consists of resting or rather of restoring obedience to its place the beauty of his salvation is that he brings us back to the life of obedience. We were once sons of disobedience and the beauty of salvation is now we are brought back into a life of obedience through which the creature can give the creator the glory due to him. Paradise Calvary heaven all proclaimed with one voice child of God the first and last thing your God ask is simple unchanging obedience. It's precisely the point of obedience that's tied in here with the idea of being blessed the blessed estate of a Christian the inner peace of the Christian the peace of God that differentiates the teaching of the Bible as being so far superior to any other counsel. The most practical the most revealing test of your faith and walk. You want assurance of salvation. You need repeated testimony that your saved by grace through faith. The assurance is is there a fruit that follows that revelation of truth. Are you one that simply professes to be a Christian or do you walk with the Lord? Are you one that calls yourself a Christian or you one that lives the life of a Christian there's a great book called a long obedience in the same direction by Eugene Peterson who is a Presbyterian minister as well. I found a passage in here which I think is so insightful as to almost be dangerously scary. The great danger of Christian discipleship is that we should have two religions a glorious biblical Sunday gospel that sets us free from the world that in the cross and resurrection of Christ makes eternity alive in us a magnificent gospel of Genesis and Romans and Revelation and then an everyday religion that make do with during the week between the time of leaving the world and arriving in heaven. We save the Sunday gospel for the big crises of existence for the mundane trivialities the time when our foot slips on a loose stone or the heat of the sun gets to be too much for us or the influence of the moon gets us down. We use the everyday religion religion of the reader's digest reprint. Advice from a friend and and landers column the hoaxedard wisdom of a talk show celebrity we practice patent medicine religion we know that God created the universe and has accomplished our eternal salvation but we can't believe that he condescends to watch the soap opera of our daily lives and trials and tribulations so we purchase our own remedies for that to ask him to deal with that with what troubles of each day is like asking a famous surgeon to put iodine on a scratch. Martin Luther said you may as well quit reading and hearing the word of God and give it to the devil if you don't desire to live according to it. How is it that we understand the application of the word of God in our lives it was again been franklin of a great one of the fathers of our nation who said how many observed Christ's birthday how few his precepts. Oh, it's easier to keep holidays than commandments. I think we could echo the same for we love to hear a good sermon. We love to entertain good reading. We love to be convicted and to have our toes stepped on which is almost now an axiom in Christian language right up there with born again. We love to engage in the songs and the atmosphere of Christianity and of Christian celebration but how often do we let our troubles so overwhelm us that we never give a thought to conforming to Christ as the answer to life's dilemma. Paul begins by saying and that passage I read from Philippians don't be fixated on your troubles. Don't be anxious in the sense of brooding and pondering the troubles in life. Don't make your trouble the center of gravity in your entire life. Don't let your trouble occupy the spot that is reserved for God. For whatever reason that we do it we often do exactly that. We take the issues that beguile us. We take the issues of trouble and of complexity and the stresses of life and we move them right into the center of our lives. And we make them almost our whole purpose for living. The resolution of these issues. Paul is not encouraging your responsibility. He's not encouraging a carelessness. He's simply saying don't take hold of and embrace misery. Paul shows that remedy is found in the heart and the mind that is dwelling in peace with God. Because it's there in the heart and the mind that we move the very principle that would plague us to the center and it's there that anxiety is born and it is there that anxiety is cured. The problem is we can't control our environment to any degree. And so just as we think we have one problem solved another will come and again our heart and our mind will be anxious for the issues of life. A psychologist would have us to simply reframe our problems. Just think about it differently. Put it in a different context. Retool it, reword it, talk yourself through the issue or just reprioritize it so that it's not so important. But no attempt to deceive our own heart and mind will really do anything but just repress the issue, deceiving ourselves, pushing it down, driving its roots deeper into our own spirit so that it takes a stronger hold and begins to affect other parts of our life and perspective. Paul's remedy is much different. Paul's remedy is that by prayer and supplication we would make known all of our anxieties to God prayer. Prayer means coming face to face with God. Prayer is an act of worship and adoration. Prayer is an act of lifting up God focusing on the Lord. We see this in the scriptures. I could sit and go through the Psalms one after another who are prayers to God for issues and crises and temptations in life. In Job 42 we read, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. That sentence should be in every prayer that we utter. Lord God, all that ways heavy upon us, we still know Father that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Or in Psalm 77, verse 11, I will remember the deeds of the Lord. There is an aspect of prayer that is reflective where we are thinking of God's work and God's ministry and God's love of the past and His faithfulness. And here the Psalmist after remembering says, I'll ponder all your works and I'll meditate upon them all your mighty deeds day and night. Prayer, you shall find this to be God's usual course, Richard Baxter, a great pastor once said, not to give his children the taste of his delights till they begin to perspire and seeking after them. You want the blessings of God, then strive for them, not because you merit them through your works. God forbid that we would ever preach that we are rewarded for work. But the intention of our heart is the sale of our ship and the wind that blows behind that drives us in the direction in which we would go. And what direction is it that we are traveling, a God-word direction or a manly direction? We keep striving towards man and we keep striving towards the flesh. Why are we so shocked when we find our ship, no matter the length of journey grounded and dashed upon the rocks and all of those who would call themselves our friends nowhere to be found. God alone is faithful. God alone is the one who stays. It's clear, Thomas Aquinas says, that he does not mean that he does not pray who far from uplifting himself to God requires that God lower himself to him. That's not prayer. Prayer is an uplifting of God. It's clear that he does not pray who resorts to prayer, not to stir the man and us to tell what God wills but only to persuade God to will what man and us wills. What is the fashion of our prayer? What is the nature of our prayer? How is it that we come before the Lord and pray to submit to his will to be obedient to him to pray they would strengthen the hands of obedience? Or that he would clear our paths and bring us glory and bring us achievement and bring us success? Prayer is supplication, bringing those issues that plague us, seeing the greatness of God first gives a good perspective on the issues. Look to the greatness of God, then look to the issues. Remind yourself of the story of God's redemption, then look to the issues of life. Prayer is also thanksgiving. We have to pause. We have to remind ourselves that despite our present trouble, God sent His Son to die in our place. Despite the issues we feel are weighing so heavy upon us and that would steal our joy in life, that God first sent His Son and loved us and sent His Son to die in our place. I have issues in my life, but God raised Jesus Christ from the grave and He is even now carrying my case before the Father. I don't know how I'll resolve my issues, but I do know that God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. I know that the work God has begun in me, He will be faithful to complete, and I know that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. How do I know these things because God's Word is behind the promises? If we do this, Paul promises the peace of Christ. Allow me one last quotation from Martin Lloyd Jones. Keeping our hearts and minds, keeping our hearts and minds in Christ means a garrison or a guarding. This peace of God will walk around the ramparts and towers of our life. We are inside, and the activities of the heart and mind are producing those stresses and anxieties and strains from the outside. But the peace of God will keep them all out, and we ourselves inside will be at perfect peace. Keeping our hearts and our minds is a garrison and a protecting by God. If God did not forsake you even to spare his own son from the cross, why would he forsake you over the issues of your day? We'll conclude with this story, and I hope that you have heard it. I won't go into great detail, but the great hymn it is well with my soul is a moving hymn with an inspiring, sad, and moving story. Horatio Spafford wrote this hymn as he was crossing the Atlantic having lost his family, his children, his wife survived the sinking of a ship. And as he passed over the very spot in the ocean, he asked the pilot of the ship, the captain of the ship, to ask him if he would alert him when they passed over the spot. As they passed over, he stood on the back of the ship, and he looked down into the water, peering as far as he could below its dark waves, knowing that below his feet at that very moment, his daughters whom he loved dearly were at rest in the sea. What would a man such as this cry out to God at a time like that? Though Satan should buff it, and though trials should come, let this blessed assurance control, that Christ has regarded my helpless estate, and has shed his own blood for my soul. And he concludes with, it is well, it is well, with my soul. And we would infer from that that he was able to lay down that night and sleep. Have any of us experienced a tragedy of this degree? The tragedy would be the loss of our soul that prays God through Jesus Christ, he has secured that in the cross. What now measures up to such a tragedy is to steal our joy and our blessed estate and the Savior. Can we sing it as well, it as well with my soul?