Shall we turn to the official of John chapter four? Reading at verse eleven. Beloved, is God full of us. We love also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we of one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfectly within us, hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us, because he has given us of his spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love. And he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in us. Hearing is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love cast without fear, because fear hath tormented. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateeth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom ye have seen, how can he love God whom ye have not seen? And this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also. I want you to notice verse seventeen and eighteen especially. Hearing is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. Now I want you to turn to chapter two and verse six. He that saith, he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. And then in chapter three, behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of the children of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it means him not. Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. For we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purified himself, even as he is pure. Now coming to that wonderful verse I read in the fourth chapter and verse seventeen, herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. I do not know of a stronger scripture anywhere in the word of God in which we have such an assurance that the believer who has trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior will never, never be lost. If that could be questioned, then the security of the Lord Jesus himself could be questioned. Because in this wonderful scripture that we have read together, the very position that the Lord Jesus Christ holds before the Father is the very position in which every believer is. And so what is true of the Lord Jesus is true of the believer. And if the Lord Jesus is secure at the right hand of God after all has transpired to him, then, friends, that is equally true of the believer that is in him. Now, the Lord Jesus came into this scene. that he might accomplish the will of God. He came to do his will. And that will in the market of redemption, he came into this scene to glorify the Father. And he did it perfectly. The Lord Jesus walked this scene as nor the man walked it. It was in obedience to the Father's will every step of the way. He never needed to retrace a step He never needed to recall a word because everything was in harmony with the will of God. And he could say at the end of that life of his, I have glorified thee on the earth. It is equally true that the Lord Jesus glorified the Father in respect to the death that he died upon the cross. And indeed, his death upon the cross was the glorifying. of the Father's name. If we were to read in the Gospel of John chapter twelve, there we would find certain Greeks coming and wanting to see Jesus. They said to Philip, Sirs, we would see Jesus. And Philip Andrew bring them to the Lord Jesus. And in that hour the Lord Jesus said some very, very important words. He said, Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. And in those words, glorify thy name, it meant that the Lord Jesus must subject himself to the awful ordeal of Calvary. There the Father's face was to be hid from him. there he was to know the first time unbroken fellowship with his God on account of being a sin for you and for me. I heard, dear Mr. Ross, one time at a Des Moines conference saying words like this, that to glorify really means or to have the very name of God made known and his character known. And I believe that is true. There are two things very especially spoken of God in his word. He is said to be light and he is said to be love. And the God who is light is the one that can expose everything. And he brings every sin into the light. to the Pope. God brought into the open every sin of man. And the God who knew every sin laid them upon his dear son. And so we read in the prophetic word, The Lord hath laid on him, the iniquity of us all. And so the God who is the God of light brought every sin into the open, lay them upon his dear son, and the Lord Jesus answered to God for every one of those sins. He, God, made him Christ, so we sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And so the God who is light then brought everything into the open, exposed them there at Calvary, laid them upon his dear son, and the Lord Jesus voluntarily bore the judgment of them at the cross. Not only is it true that God is light, but God is love. And the God who is light, and the God who is love provided the sacrifice to take away those sins. And the person of his own dear son, he found the one that was willing to offer himself as the sin offering to God. For you are sinful mine, friends. And what that meant for him we never, never can pardon. For when we know his dread owls upon that cross, we hear a cry from his heart. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? I tell him, your friends, you and I the depth of that tremendous work that the Lord Jesus did there at Calvary. And how glad we are that before that our view was over, our blessed Lord Jesus could say that triumphant cry, it is finished. It is finished. And so the Lord Jesus carried out the will of God in his life here upon the scene, glorifying God in that light glorifying God in that death. And because the blood of Jesus was faithful to his God, God was faithful to his Son. And because he had glorified him in respect to the putting away of sin, God raised him from the dead. And he's now seated at God's right hand in the glory. And what is the position? that the Lord Jesus Christ holds at the right hand of God. He is there, the offense, past death. He is there, past judgment. He is there, facing the glory that is yet to be revealed, when all his own shall be brought in, shall of in his own beloved people, he will be glorified throughout eternal ages. And so the position the Lord Jesus holds now at the right hand of God is the very position in which every believer is found. Is he past death? Indeed he is. The believer is past death too, because he himself declares, He that heareth my word, unbelievers of him that sent me heart everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. And so the believer is past death already, past death already. Or he may indeed face physical death, but that death for the believer is only the portal to the glory above. And so, however sudden that may happen, sudden death, No sudden glory for the believer. Death as judgment can never come to the child of God because death as judgment passed upon the Son of God. And so the believer is past death already. What of the judgment? The Lord Jesus Christ is beyond the judgment. He has indeed borne the judgment in his body on the tree. And because that is past for him, It is passed for the believer also. And so the believer is passed judgment, shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death until life. And so what a wonderful position the believer is in. He is facing the glory now. And so in the quest of the Lord Jesus, that is the position of the believer. That is indeed a very wonderful message of assurance for our hearts. But now let us come to the next word. In first John chapter two and verse six, we read, He that saith ye abideeth in him, or of himself also, so to walk, either as he walked. If in the first message we have a message of assurance, in this we have a message of responsibility. and grace brings us into responsibility. And I think in this part we are coming to something of what we were having before our hearts this morning. The responsibility of obedience to God, of watching before Him so as to free Him in the sea, and the standard that is of Jesus himself. And so if he is the measure of our acceptance before God, he also is the measure of our responsibility to walk before God. And so we have in our wonderful text, he observed, he abided in him, also himself, so to walk, even as he walked. Somebody says that's too high a standard, is it? If God is perfect, would you expect God to give to his people a lower standard than perfection? No friends, he couldn't do it. And so if God sets before you and me a standard, it has to be a perfect standard. I didn't say that you and I could come up to that standard. and that standard is his own beloved son. And so we are exhausted to walk as children. You say too hard. I remember one of our dear brethren that was with us, the pilgrim preachers, along with Mr. Bartlett and I for many years, was a dear man who was deaf. His name was John Kerr. And you know the strange thing about John Kerr's deafness was that when he was running along in our own forehead and it was a noisy one. We talked about noisy cars. Anyway, it was a noisy one. Dear old Dan could hear everything that was going on. He could whisper and he could hear. But then, if we were outside of the car, why, he couldn't hear a thing. But dear old Dan was one who meditated upon the word of God when we were perhaps busy joking with one another and playing with one another and so on at our meal time, at dinner time, perhaps in a field or anywhere they would find a place to have a picnic dinner on our journeys. But you know, Euro Dan said this one time, that there were two men shooting, one was shooting at the stars, and the other was shooting for a kidney stack. Well, another man who aimed at the stars never reached the stars. And although the man who aimed at the kidney stack or would indeed reach his girl, yet dear friends, the man who shot to the stars reached far higher than the man that was aiming for the chimney star. And so his point was aim high, aim high. Now whenever Christians are beginning to question, is this right or is the other right? and he has any questions about things in his life, then dear friends, the awful disease has occurred already in his heart. He wants that, and he makes excuses to go on with it. And whenever you have that in the light of the Christian, then friends, he's calling chef of the exaltation, walk as he walks. And so, friends, if we make this the standard, will never be satisfied with our attainment. There always will be room for improvement. And so the exhortation is walk as he walks. We may well ask the question, how did he walk? Think of his walk before his father. How did he walk before his father? He was dependent upon the Father's will for every word said and every act he did. And if we are to walk our steward before our Father, we will indeed seek his word out to the very word you say and out to the very act you do. There may be places that you and I will never go through, but we first of all went into the presence of God and asked him if I should go there. There are words that we would never have said that we first of all counted ten and think about the Father's world regarding it, and there are many fellows that have been avoided among the people of God if that were so. And so we are to walk astute out the servant father looking to him for every word we say. Every act you do. How did the Lord Jesus walk in regard to his own? In the thirties of John we read of him having loved his own which were in the world. He loved them to the end. And then he took them with tarot and he girded himself. And then he poured the water into the basin. And he began to wash those disciples' feet. Everything he did in himself. The disciples could very well have filled that basin with the water. But Lord the Lord Jesus did it. He did every bit of it. Many years ago I heard, dear Mr. Theopog, speaking on that word, he that is least, he that is faithful in the least, will be faithful also in that which is much. And he took two passages of Scripture. The first having to do with the washing of the disciples' feet. And the other, having to do with that wonderful word we heard this morning, Philippians told, how the Lord Jesus left heaven's glory and took down to the scene, humbling himself to be a man, and then humbling himself to the death of the cross and so on. And he pointed out that there were seven steps that the Lord Jesus took at the washing of the feet of those disciples. Seven things he did. when he tipped the tower, when he poured the water into the basin, when he girded himself first, when he poured the water into the basin and so on, and began to wash their feet, there were seven things that he did. And then there were seven steps down, dear friends, in humility, to the death of the cross. No wonder there was that exhortation by the Father that corresponded with the depth of his humiliation. And so will your friends, with regard to his own, he humbled himself to be a lonely slave. To wash the disciples' teeth. And if you and I are going to walk like tea wash, then friends, we will serve one another by love. By love, serve one another. The only time that I turn nearest to having my teeth washed was one time with the pilgrim preachers, Morgan, you remember it, in John Christopher, a dear lady came to our open-air meeting at the close of the meeting, she said, why, if those your preachers have any washing to be done, why, she says, I will be glad to do it. You gather up all the washing, and I'll wash their clothes while they are here in this town. We were there for about three days. She says, I can't wash the saints' feet, but I will wash their socks. and so she was willing to wash our socks. I tell you, traveling as we did day by day, I won't say anymore about those socks. But anyway, she was willing to serve because of love to Christ, serve His own dear ones. And then, friends, with regard to those that were outside, how did the Lord Jesus walk? Why, dear friends, We read of him that he had compassion upon the multitudes. Seeing them as sheep without a shepherd, he had compassion on them. And his compassion led him to the cross. Why, our compassion for the unsaved can never lead us to Calvary. We could never die for people. But oh, that love and that compassion should move us. to do something of what we've been hearing this morning, that we might be ready at all times to be at the Lord's disposal to reach our soul for Christ. And that can be done anywhere, not only as we heard inside of the building. Then, when we think of all that, dear friends, how short we come of what we should be, if we are to walk as we walk. And I'm sure that what this has done to us this afternoon is to perhaps awaken an exercise in our hearts that we are not anything like Him. Oh, how unliked Him we are. But dear friends, I want to bring a word of cheer to you, and that is, one day we are going to be like Him. in spite of the fact that we are so unlikely now why the very measure of our futurity is Christ Himself. Christ the measure of our assurance before God. Christ the measure of our responsibility to walk before God. And Christ the measure of our futurity. For we are going to be conformed to the image of His dear Son. And there in that third chapter that I read, we have it. Beloved, now are we the children of God? And it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear, we shall delight him. For we shall see him as he will. Aren't you looking forward to that wonderful day when we shall delight the Lord Jesus? God loves his son so much, somebody has said, he wants millions in heaven making, and he's good at getting it. Because when he comes,