All right, brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to John chapter 13. This passage that we're going
to look at is just full of precious pearls. And I do pray this morning that
the Lord would put these pearls on us and that we might adorn
the gospel Verse one, it says, now before the feast of the Passover,
when Jesus knew that His hour was come, that He should depart
out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were
in the world, He loved them unto the end. God's love never changes. Those He loved in eternity, He
loves to the end. He never changes. Verse two,
and supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart
of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him. Now this next
verse is what got my attention. This really, really moved me
in heart. Jesus knowing that the Father
had given all things into Christ's hands and that Christ was come
from God and went to God. In other words, by faith in God,
believe in God, believe in his word, believe in his promises,
Christ made himself the least because he believed God. Look,
verse four, he riseth from supper and laid aside his garments and
took a towel and girded himself. After that, he pours water into
a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them
with a towel wherewith he was girded. Now, you know, in those
days, this was a common courtesy. They traveled in sandals and
their feet would get dirty, get hot, and they would come into
a home and they would wash the guests' feet. And it was done
by the lowest servant in the house is usually who washed the
guest's feet. Now, we don't wash feet ceremonially. We don't do that here because
the Lord gave us two ordinances, the Lord's table and baptism.
But the Lord teaches us so much more than a ceremony here. There's so much more than an
outward form here that the Lord's teaching. I've titled this, Least Only
Through Faith. Least Only Through Faith. The
Lord declared that to be great in his kingdom is to be the least
and to serve. That's what it is to be great
in the kingdom of God, is one to make himself the least and
to serve. And our Savior here, when he
washes his disciples' feet, we see Christ's perfect faith in
God his Father. That's what we're seeing. We're
seeing his perfect faith. That's how come he bowed down
to their feet and washed their feet. But it's just a small illustration
of how Christ, the Son of God, made himself the least by taking
flesh and all that he did for his people. I want you to notice
though now, and I want to bring you back to this verse several
times, but I want you to focus in on this. It was only through
faith in his father's word. He said, verse three, Jesus knowing
that the father had given all things into his hands, that he
was come from God and went to God. That's faith, brethren,
that's believing God. Now, the only way that you and
me will esteem our brethren better, and the only way we will humble
ourselves and take our place as the least, is through faith
in the Lord Jesus. That is the only way. We have
to be made to trust That's the only way. You take a brother
who's fallen, who's sinned, offended you, offended your brethren,
the only way you are gonna wash his feet, forgive him, be merciful
to him, restore him, the only way you will do that is through
trusting your Lord Jesus. That's the only way. You have to trust Christ, and
that's the only way you're gonna esteem any brother more highly
than yourself. And certainly the only way you
will esteem those more highly than you who have sinned. That's what this washing of the
feet is about, is being on suffering and forgiving and restoring a
brother who's fallen. And it's only through faith in
Christ that we can be merciful to one another's shortcomings.
It's the only way we can be merciful and forgive one another's sin.
It's the only way we can help one another to look to Christ
only, is believing on the Lord Jesus. Now, I wanna show you
two things. First, we're gonna see how Our Lord's perfect faith made
him humble himself to save his people, and we're gonna see it
illustrated by him washing the feet of his disciples. But then secondly, we're gonna
hear what our Lord is teaching us by this, and those will be our only two
points. We're gonna see Christ's perfect faith, and we're gonna
hear what our Lord teaches us. Now first of all, we see our
Lord's faith in his humility here. We see his faith in his
humility. Verse three, Jesus knowing that
the Father had given all things into his hands and that he was
come from God and went to God, he riseth from supper and laid
aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself. Now, the
Lord Jesus is the last Adam. The first Adam, sinned and everybody
sinned in Him, became guilty in Him, and we're all born of
Him, sinners. The last Adam is the Lord Jesus. He came to represent all God's
elect and whatever He did, the thoughts of His heart and the
works that He accomplished, that's what all His people did in Him.
everything He did in Him. And the way He saved His people,
the way He came down and did everything He did for us and
went to the cross, is through faith in God His Father. Trusting
God His Father. See, He's the perfect believer. Me and you don't even have faith
that's perfect. It's full of sin. But He's the
perfect believer. Everything He did, He was doing
for his elect, so that it's like
that you just, if you trust him, believe him, you just look at
Christ and see God consider that you doing that, you doing what
he did. So everything he's doing, he's
doing it trusting the Father, just like we're called to trust
him. He did it trusting the Father. His condescension, from the throne
of God, being the son of God, his condescension
to come down and take flesh was because God the Father had promised
him. He trusted him with these people and he gave him all this
great glory of saving his people and having all the preeminence
and being all the fullness that his people needed. And then God
would raise him to his right hand and he would have this glory
with the Father that he had from before the world was made. But
he would have it as the God-man who had saved all the people
that got trusted to Him, and he believed the Father. It's
hard to enter into this, I think, because the Son of God is God,
and as God, He needed nothing. He's God. But our Lord so thoroughly
humbled Himself that He put Himself in a place where He thoroughly
trusted the Father for everything, just like a sinner would. But
he did it as the holy God man representing his people. And
he did it knowing God promised him all this, and that he promised
him a people, the joy that was set before him. For that joy,
that's why he endured the cross, despising the shame. And by this
perfect faith, now consider what he did. We see it pictured here.
By his perfect faith, Just like He arose from supper that night,
our Lord Jesus arose from His throne in glory as God. And just like that night, He
laid aside His garments. The Son of God laid aside His
glorious garments as God. And just like the Lord Jesus
took a towel and girded Himself, The Lord, the Son of God, took
flesh like his brethren and put it on. He girded himself with
it. Go with me to Philippians 2. He said here in verse three,
he said, do nothing through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness
of mind, lowliness of mind, esteeming other better, let each esteem
other better than themselves. That's what we're seeing in Christ.
That's what we're seeing him do. Look not every man on his
own things, but every man also on the things of others. But
this mind, this mind being you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
This was the mind of our Lord Jesus now, who being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made
himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant
and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion
as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Now that's the perfect faith
of our Savior. That's what this perfect faith
of our Savior made him willing to do. It made him willing to
become the least, esteeming his brethren better, that he might
save us. And he did it all the way to
the death of the cross. He did that by faith. You know, scripture's clear in
Galatians. We're saved by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're justified by the faith
of Christ. That's why we believe in Christ.
And I'm trying to show you the faith of Christ is how he humbled
himself. That's why he humbled himself.
It was the faith of our Savior that night in the Father that
made him humble himself to their feet and wash their feet. Pride is insecurity. That's what pride is, insecurity.
Pride will make a man tear down the reputation of others. It'll
make him refuse to be merciful. It'll make him refuse to forgive.
It's prideful insecurity. God-given humility, true humility
created of God, is trust in God. It's knowing
we're safe under his wings. That's what humility is. You got nothing to prove. Don't
have to defend anything. Not striving for something, not
seeking any vainglory. I'm secure in Christ. Okay, no
matter what men say, no matter what men do, no matter what I
do, I'm secure in Christ. And that humbles you, that humbles
you to just trust Him. That's what faith, faith and
humility is so vitally united. It's a willingness to make ourselves
of no reputation. It's a willingness to esteem
your brethren better, even the one that's offended you and sinned
against you. This true humility can only be
through faith, because you're made willing to submit to your
brethren, to really submit to your brethren, to bow down to
their feet, to forgive their sins, to be merciful to them. And sometimes, you know, we think
of sin you know, some sinful, wicked thing that they do. Sometimes
the sin is just pride. It's pride. But the only way that we can
be merciful is through faith in Christ, knowing we are secure
in Him and knowing that my brother who professes to believe is secure
in Him. No matter how he's sinned or
fallen or what's happened I have to believe he's secure in Christ. It's from knowing God, from knowing
God, from knowing our Lord Jesus, that he's given to us all spiritual
blessings in Christ. We have everything we need in
Christ. It's knowing we've been in Christ
from eternity. It's knowing we're going to Christ,
and it's knowing none's gonna pluck us out of his hand. It's
that our Lord knew The Father had given all his brethren into
his hand, given everything into his hand. He knew he came from
God, knew he was going to God. And this is what, God's given
all spiritual blessings into our hands. It's what faith believes. He's given us all spiritual blessings
into our hands that he worked for us. We've been with him from
eternity, and we're going back to him. This is what faith believes. and we know nobody's gonna pluck
us out of his hand. Faith believes Christ has justified
us, he's able to, and here's what we, to wash a brother's
feet, to do what this is picturing, to really do what this pictures,
you have to believe that Christ is able to make his people stand. That he's the master, we're the
servant, and he's able to make his servants stand. You have
to believe that. and you have to believe that
he does it the same way he first made you stand was through the
word, the gospel, that gives him all the glory. We got one
weapon. It's not carnal. We're not fighting
like the world's fighting. We're not striving like vain
religions strive. We got one weapon. It's the gospel
of Christ. That means come what may, that's
the medicine. That's the bomb, that's the message. Every situation and every problem
and every need has one answer, one cure, and that's the gospel
of Christ. And we have to believe that.
If we're gonna speak that, that's how we're gonna wash one another's
feet, is reminding them of what Christ has done for us. That's
the message, he blesses to make his servants stand So we're gonna
have to believe that the gospel is really the power of God unto
salvation, and that it's Christ who's gonna bless it and make
our brethren stand. After our Lord told Peter, I've
said this before, after our Lord told Peter, he said, how many
times should I forgive my brother, seven times? The Lord said 70
times seven, that means without end, without limit. And the Lord
said this on another occasion. He said, if he sinned against
you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day repents
and asks you to be merciful, then you be merciful to him.
You forgive him. And you know the next question,
or the next statement that they made was, Lord, increase our
faith. We're gonna have to have faith
in Christ to forgive. You can't do it any other way.
You have to believe, as bad as the situation might look, my
brother's holy and righteous in Christ. And he may look like
he's fallen to the point he's never gonna get back up. I have
to believe the Lord's able to make him stand. And I have to
believe he's gonna do it through this gospel that glorifies him.
Or else I'll speak everything in the world but the gospel to
him. Now, Christ made himself even lower than taking flesh.
Verse five says, After that, he pours water into a basin.
We see a picture here, our Lord Jesus Christ. Why do you think
he went to that cross? What do you think was the constraint
that made him go to that cross? Well, we know it was love, but
he had to go there trusting and believing what God would do. I know it's God he raised himself
from the dead, but brethren, he really put himself in a place
to where he's going there to bear the curse of the wrath and
judgment of God in place of his people. And he's gonna die, he's
going to give up the ghost and he has to really trust the father
that when the work is finished and he's justified his people,
that God will raise him. That's how, when I say he represented
us fully and became us, Fully that's what I'm saying. He he
You when you die, you're gonna have to believe God that he's
gonna raise you Well, that's when Christ went to the cross.
He trusted the father that the father would raise him Now that
well, I'm talking about perfect faith now no wavering at all
Would you not would you have perfect faith? if you if you
face the kind of suffering he faced and had men saying the
things they were saying against him and I can tell you this from
personal experience, it takes way less than what he endured
for your faith to be out the window. And you think it's all,
it's over. But he had perfect faith through
all that. Perfect faith through that. And
he poured out, just like he poured that water out in that basin
that night, he poured out his blood for his people. He gave
his life for us, because that's what justice demanded. We had
to die. And he gave his life to satisfy
God's justice, to uphold God's honor and his justice. He did
that for his people. Life's in the blood. Without
shedding of blood, there's no remission. It's because life's
in the blood. Christ, our Redeemer, poured
out his own life's blood for those he loved. unto him that
loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. You know,
when they pierced his side, water and blood came out. What does
that, what did that signify? Water represents sanctification,
blood represents justification. Christ is our sanctification
and he is our justification. He is both. It's due to him having
justified and sanctified his people on the cross that the
Holy Spirit comes and sanctifies us in our heart, gives us a holy
heart, because he justified us already. He sanctifies you in
your heart to make you look to him and see he's both your justification
and your sanctification. Can you prove that? Can you prove
that the reason we're born again is because he justified us? Titus
3, Titus 3 says, it wasn't by works of righteousness we've
done, but it's according to his mercy he saved us by the washing
Talking about washing here now, the washing of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified, we should be
made heirs. In other words, because Christ
already justified us by His blood, we should be born again and we
should be made heirs. And that's why He did this for
us. It's because He justified His people that He comes and
sanctifies His people. He's the fountain, brethren.
Listen, go with me to Zechariah 13. Zechariah 13. He is the fountain. I want you to see this here now.
All washing's coming from him. Now watch this. In that day,
talking about after Christ has redeemed us and ascended to his
throne, in that day there shall be a fountain open to the house
of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. That's all his
people elect, Jew and Gentile. We're the house of David, we're
the inhabitants of heavenly Jerusalem. There'll be a fountain open for
sin, for justification, and for uncleanness, for sanctification.
You see that? He is the fountain for sin and
for uncleanness is Christ. But the way that Christ went
to that cross, the way that he made himself the very least on
the cross, and when you see the cross, you see, when Christ said,
he that's least is the greatest in the kingdom, well, on the
cross, you see the greatest because there you see the only one that
ever made himself that least, the only one that ever esteemed
his brethren so highly that he made himself that low. And that's
his height of his glory right there at the same time. But the way he made himself least
even unto death is because he believed God would raise him
when he had satisfied justice. He believed God. If you're gonna stand with a
fallen brother, and you're gonna forgive him,
and you're gonna restore him, You're going to wash their feet.
All of this is washing their feet. And it's going to come
at an expense to you. You're going to be reproached
for it. You're going to be maligned for
it. You're going to be lumped in the same category with Him.
That's what Christ did on the cross for us. And if you're going
to do that, it's going to take faith in Him. Trust in Him. That's all. He's going to work.
He's going to work all things together for you good. We can
only do it through faith. That's how he went to that cross.
He was rejected of men, despised and rejected of men, and was
willing to be so because he trusted the Father. You and me, if we're
going to wash one another's feet, it means we're going to be despised
and rejected of men. Sadly, most of us love the honor
of men, the praise of men more than the praise of God. And we're
more willing to offend God than we are to offend a brother. But if you're gonna be rejected
because you stand with somebody and you restore them, it's gonna
take faith in the Lord. That's just so, isn't it? You
know that. even though and has risen and
has glorified now with all power in heaven and earth, given a
name above every name because of what he accomplished for his
people. You know he's still lowly to us. Most of our acting all big and
mighty, I say it's insecurity. We're trying to prove something.
Christ's got nothing to prove. When you don't have anything
to prove, You know you are what you are. Man, that's some liberty. That's liberty. You know, I don't
have to have, you don't have to have what other
men have to have to fancy this and fancy that to try to make
other people regard you as something. You are what you are. You know
what you are. That's liberty. But even now, as high and powerful,
with a name above everything, he's still lowly to us. He had
all that that night. What'd he do? Verse five, he
began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with a
towel wherewith he was guarded. That's what he does for us. In
lowliness, he came and taught us the gospel and gave us life
and faith to trust Him in lowliness. He didn't come and, you know,
bow up on us and shake His finger at us, and I came lowly. He said, take my yoke upon you,
learn of me, for I'm meek and lowly in heart. You'll find rest
for your souls. For sinners, proud sinners, for
us to come to Christ, we're gonna have to come down to where Christ
is. Say, well, he's in glory, seated
on glory. Yeah, but I'm talking about the spirit he has is a
lowly spirit. And we got a proud spirit by
nature. We're gonna have to come down. Come down. In lowliness, he gives
you faith to believe him. And then through faith in his
blood, he does what he did for them that night. He came there
and he washed their feet, and then he took that towel that
he had on, and he put his towel on them. Brethren, that's what
he's done for us. He came and washed our feet,
washed us in regeneration, and took his righteousness and put
it on us. Put it on us. And he keeps washing
your feet. You know, we have an old nature,
and we sin, and we fall, and we, every day, whether it's in
thought, word, deed, we don't want to, but we do. And Christ
still, in lowliness, has compassion on us. He remembers we're dust.
And he comes and washes our feet, and keeps us walking by faith,
trusting him. God's exhausted him with a name
above every name. I mean, he's Lord of Lord and
King of Kings. A leaf don't fall to the ground
without him. A sparrow don't fall without him. Your hair,
your head don't fall without him. He's God. And he's God, the God man glorified. But you know what his exaltation
is? His exaltation was that he made
himself the least. By doing that, he glorified God
to the highest, because he trusted the Father. You want to glorify
God, men are always talking about wanting to glorify God, and I
want to do the will of God, and they want to go out and do all
these mighty works. Just lower yourself down to his
feet and trust him. That gives him more honor than
anything. Men will be doing all these mighty works, they're going
to glorify Him, and then something, some man comes up
against them or something, you know, looks like we're going
to be invaded or something like that, and oh, they're just terrified
of it. Sanctify God. Be fearful. We trust Him more than be fearful
of men. That's what's going to glorify.
That's humility. That's lowliness. Confess, I
can't do a thing. I'm trusting Him. That's Christ's glory. He trusted
the Father. When you look to that cross,
you see Him right there glorifying God to the highest. You see His
height of His glory right there. And God raised Him. And as mediator
with perfect fidelity toward God and toward His people, He
continues to intercede for us and He continues to wash our
feet We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our
sin. He is our ever living, continually living, holy mercy seat with
God. And he said, when you come to
him and you confess your sin, it's by him and for his sake
that God is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. He keeps washing your feet. You're
justified, that's a one-time thing. You're regenerated and
cleaned in regeneration. He's done it. You got a holy
man in you, you're justified. But you're gonna have to be renewed
continually, inwardly, and he's gonna have to direct you and
correct you and keep you looking to him and walk with more faith,
and that involves washing your feet. And in lowliness, he keeps
doing that for us. Now, secondly, let's see what
our Savior teaches us here. He teaches us to wash one another's
feet. He says here in verse 12, so
after that he had washed their feet and had taken his garments
and was set down again, he said to them, know you what I've done
to you? You call me master and lord, and you say, well, for
so I am. If I then, your lord and master,
have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
For I've given you an example that you should do as I've done
to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not
greater than his Lord, neither he that is sent greater than
he that sent him. If you know these things, happy
are you if you do them. Listen, if our exalted Savior
is still lowly toward us, and he is, are we gonna get so elevated
in knowledge and good works and these things that we're gonna
stop being lowly toward brethren who need mercy. That's what happens. Think of what you had when Christ
first revealed himself to you and you first came to Christ.
You didn't have anything. You didn't have any knowledge.
You just knew you needed him and you knew he was a sinner.
You didn't have any good works to bring with you. You didn't
have anything. You just came lowly to his feet. Don't ever
leave that place. Don't ever get, don't ever, ever,
ever go from that spot. Don't, don't, I hope you've grown
in knowledge. I hope he's grown you in knowledge. Don't, don't get puffed up by
that. I hope he's worked good works in you. Don't get puffed
up by that. Keep coming to him just like
you did the very first moment you came to him. with nothing,
trusting Him for everything. That's true humility. That's
true loveliness. He's our master and He's our
Lord. He said, if I'm your master, I'm your Lord and your master,
and I've washed your feet, you ought also to wash one another's
feet. Just think of the sinful disgrace to reject a brother
who's fallen. That's saying we're above our
Lord, our master. He said, I washed your feet. Now you do what I've done. He alone can make his people
stand. Who art thou that judges another man's servant? To his
own mastery standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holding up,
for God is able to make him stand. That's our Savior. That's what
faith believes when it comes to washing a brother's feet.
We believe our Lord will make him stand. So faith is lowly toward the
fallen brother. We do so because this right here,
this is the number one constraint right here. We know, go with
me to Ephesians 4, we know every single day. Not an hour in a
day goes by, not a minute in an hour goes by, that God does
not forgive you and he does it only for the sake of Christ. And if you know that, you won't
have a problem forgiving your brother and being merciful to
him. If you really know that, He says, let all bitterness,
Ephesians 4.31, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor
and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And
be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you. Even as God for Christ's sake
hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved
us and hath given himself for us. There's the lowliness. Gave
himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet
smelling savor. That's just what our Lord said
that night. He said, if I've done this for
you, You do it for one another. All right. Brother Greg.