This is one of my favorite chapters,
I think, in scripture. It's a favorite because of the
intimacy with which the Lord Jesus does what he does here
for his people, his disciples. And so in this chapter, what
you see is a bright light shining on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
like these twelve men that he had chosen to be his apostles,
Judas obviously fell from that office by his betrayal, but he
had chosen them to be his apostles and had brought them into such
a near relation to him that these 12 men are with him here. It's
not the Passover feast at this time, it's just before that,
a couple of days before that. But they're in this place together,
and this chapter is like a bright light shining on our master.
He's at the center. He's the one you see when you
look at the scene here, isn't it? But you still see the disciples
here, and Judah seems to be somewhat prominent in a negative way.
So you see the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's appropriate. It's very
appropriate, obviously, because you see him, as it says in the
beginning here, that he loved his own, which were in the world.
He loved them and he loved them to the end. And so that's the
first thing you see. And then you see how he is recorded
here that he knew when supper was ended, he knew that Judas
was going to betray him and he knew the father. had sent him,
had given him all things and had sent him to the world and
he had come from God and went to God. He was about to go to
the cross and then to God. And it was with all of that that
the Lord Jesus Christ then rose from the supper and he laid aside
his garments. And we don't have to be so specific
as we say which garments, but we know that there were some.
And he took on the towel that he was going to use to dry the
disciples' feet, and he was therefore dressed as a servant. And then
he began to wash the disciples' feet. And I don't know if you've
ever felt the foot of someone who walks around in sandals all
day. Not in modern times, but there's
a lot of calluses, and there's a lot of dirt, and there's probably
some rough places there that are rougher than your hands.
And here the Lord Jesus Christ, whose hands healed so many and
whose hands could stop the sea from its raging, he could accomplish
anything with his hands. At one point he grabbed a hold
of Peter as he was drowning and just lifted him up out of the
waters. He had been a carpenter, I suppose
his hands were rough from all that. These were the hands of
a man. And those hands, doesn't say
he had a washcloth, so I'm assuming he just used his hands on their
feet. Felt everything. And it had to
be very humbling for those men. Obviously for Peter, he didn't
want him to do this. And the reason they didn't want
the Lord, they were reluctant for him to do this, is because
he was the master. You know, when you've taken a
training course in something, you know, maybe you had a professor
in college or you've had someone teach you a skill and you didn't
know what you were doing, you're completely ignorant about that
and they show you each step in the process and you see that
whenever something fails, they know exactly what to do. They
recover you from your mistakes and they bring you along slowly. They realize you're completely
ignorant And you feel that ignorance because this person is so knowledgeable
about the subject at hand. And that's the way it was with
these disciples. They had been with the Lord three
and a half years, and their knowledge of the things that he was telling
them was so small compared to what he had said. And they needed
him constantly to explain the most basic things. And so they
were already feeling this smallness in his presence because of that. And yet they felt comfortable
with him. And so he takes his hands and
washed all 24 of their feet. 12 men, 2 feet, 24 feet, and
there's a lot of dirt there. A lot of time was spent doing
this. It had time for this to sink in, didn't it? And that's
what it was meant to do. It was meant to sink in here,
to sink in deeply. And so that's why this introduction
is given here in the first couple of verses where supper was ended. The devil had put it into the
heart of Judas to betray him. And Jesus knew that the Father
had given all things into his hand. all things, had given his
people into his hands. The treasure, the inheritance
of God, was put into the hands of Christ as his own inheritance. Did you know that, that God's
people are his inheritance? He had chosen them for himself,
he had purchased them with the price of blood, he had adopted
them to be his children, and he had promised to give them
eternal life and eternal glory. They were his, And he had made
himself their God and them his people. And so he had given them
to his son, like Jesse gave to his son David the sheep to care
for them, only the father gave his people into the hands of
his son. And he had not only given his people, but had given
the Lord Jesus Christ as the son everything. There was nothing
left out. All that was God's was given
to Him, not only because He is God, but as Christ, as the God-man,
He was given all things in order to bring about God's will to
save His people from their sins. So God's will was put into His
hands to accomplish it. God's work was put into His hands.
In John chapter 5, Jesus said, as the father has life in himself,
so has he given to the son to have life in himself, to give
life to whomsoever he will. And He has committed all judgment
to the Son that all men should honor the Son even as they honor
the Father. So everything was given to Christ.
God's honor, God's judgment, God's people, the life of God,
God's law to fulfill and to magnify, God's justice to satisfy. Everything, all of God's glory
was put into the hands of Christ to shine forth in him. Everything was given to him.
He's the heir of all things. He's the Son, and He's the Lord
Jesus Christ. It was put into His hands, meaning
it was put into His hands as a trust, and into His hands to
do with as He would. And it pleased the Father that
He would do whatever He wanted with what God gave to Him, because
God's own will and heart was in His heart. There was nothing
at risk here. In fact, he knew it would succeed. Everything he put into his son's
hands would be successful. Like Potiphar, who put Joseph
over his household, or the prison keeper, who put Joseph over the
prison, or Pharaoh, who put Joseph over the whole land of Egypt
and all the people in his own household. And everything that
Joseph did was successful. It prospered. Our Father put
everything into the hands of Christ, His Son. And the Lord
knew He was come from God. He didn't come from men, He came
from God. And He went to God. He was going to actually finish
the work. He couldn't go back to God if
the work wasn't done. It had to be finished so He knew
He was going to complete the work and then He was going to
go back to His Father. And he wasn't just going to go
back there in order to sit and observe, but in that place of
exalted authority, he was going to take everything the Father
had put into his hands, now having accomplished his will, and then
administer it to give eternal life and to bring to eternal
glory, as children of God, those that God had given to him. to
bring about God's will, to subdue their enemies, and to bring all
things to work together for their good, to sit at God's own right
hand in the place of highest authority, and the highest honor,
and the place of greatest approval and love, and there intercede
and advocate for his people to save them. This is the one that
we're talking about here. He knew this. It wasn't as if
the Lord Jesus had to learn that. He knew it. And he had that understanding
of what God the Father had given all things into His hand. To do with as it pleased Him.
All things were made by Him and for Him. And for Him all things
were created and He upholds all things. for his pleasure. They
were created. They are and they were created.
It says in Colossians 1 16 through 18 and then Revelation chapter
4 at the end there where he says everything was made for his pleasure.
And so it pleased the father that he should do with all that
was the father's whatever he wanted and in so doing that he
would accomplish his father's will. Then he would go to his
father. Now having all of that and rightful authority. It was
right. He had the wisdom. He had the
heart for it. He had the ability to execute
that will. And knowing all this, that's
when he rose from supper. That's when he took off this
garment and he put on that towel of a servant. and he wrapped
it around himself, and he went to each disciple. First of all,
he went and he poured out enough water in that basin, and then
he took it to each disciple, and he put their feet undoubtedly
right there. I don't know exactly where, but
he put it there by the basin, or on top of it, or in it, and
washed their feet. And then he does this to each
one of them. Of course, there's this interaction
between himself and Peter about Peter not wanting him to get
washed. No, no, no, I don't want to be washed. Not by you. And then what Jesus said to him,
we'll get to that. And then at the end here, he
says, when he's all done, he says, do you know what I've done?
Do you know what I've done to you? Can you imagine? You know
how it's funny how people do? They'll hear something great
and then they'll try to do that in order to sort of make a show
of mimicking that. Do you know that the Pope, at
least I don't know if he still does, but every year he would
wash the feet of 12 other people? That's shameful to me. That is
shameful. because he's putting himself
alongside of the Lord Jesus Christ. I hate that. I do, I hate it. But you know, kings, I read somewhere
where the king of England and the king of France, every year
they would wash the feet of 12 poor people. Trying to put themselves
like the Lord Jesus Christ in the place of that humility, that's
a shameful thing. So shame on them for doing that.
That's not what the Lord was talking about here. Some religions
have adopted this process where they wash one another's feet,
literally wash one another's feet. That is not what Jesus
is trying to communicate here. Understand, first of all, that
this is the master. This is the one who knows. And
this is the one who is the teacher. And he teaches not only by what
he says. In fact, his most effective lessons
are given by what he does. Like a prophet. Not only what
he said, but what he did was the lesson, was the message.
And we see this throughout his life here, but especially at
the cross, don't we? That's the message Christ came
to give, the gospel. And here it is, too. He's giving
this lesson to his disciples, and not just those men there
with him then, but to us. That's why it's written here.
This is why the apostle John wrote this. That's why the Apostle
John inserted these words here about Jesus knowing these things
to show us his highly exalted place as God and man, the Christ
of God, the Master, the Lord. He said, you call me Master and
you call me Lord. It's right that you do so, he
says. He says, you say, well, for I
am. I love that. Put that plaque
on my wall at home. You call me master and lord.
You say well, for I am. Don't you? I like that. I like
that. Then he brings the lesson home
to them. If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet,
you also ought to wash one another's feet. And throughout time, that
problem of people taking the words without understanding the
meaning and therefore taking them literally to mean, oh that's
what he meant. We just get out, you know, once
a year we get out, we wash one another's feet or some silly
thing. That's not at all what he meant here. It's like when
he said, this bread is my body, which is broken for you. And
then people, oh, see, somehow Jesus is in the bread. It's a
metaphor. You say things like that all
the time. This bread, this wine is my blood of the New Testament.
shed for many for the remission of sins." The wine didn't accomplish
the remission of sins, it was his blood. And so it wasn't the
washing of the feet he's talking about here, but it's that stoop
of humility in love for those who were totally undeserving. in order to save them from their
sins that the Lord Jesus Christ did. And he says here in verse
34, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another,
not love your neighbor as yourself. But notice that you love one
another, a new commandment, as I have loved you. That's an entirely
new thing, isn't it? In the Old Testament, did it
ever say, you know, you love one another as the son of God
in your nature laid his life down for you? No, no. This is gospel here, isn't it? As I have loved you. That was
the lesson. Stoop to do the most menial things
for those for whom Christ died. Those who call Christ master
and Lord. Those like you. I was thinking
about love. I always end up laying awake
at night quite a bit on Saturday night and the next morning as
I'm getting ready for church thinking of all these things.
I would encourage you to try to prepare a message because
what happens is after you're done preparing it, then all the
thoughts start swimming around in your head. We love people
on earth. I love my brother Brad, and my
wife Lisa too, and Luke. I love people. But there's something,
you know, I think about people who really love me in my life. My mom, I know that my mom loved
me. I know that Denise loves me. It seems like Denise doesn't
see wrong, she just loves me. Almost 50 years now, this year,
in July, 50 years. That's a long stretch of love,
isn't it? But, you know, the funny thing is about that kind
of love, unfortunately, is that it's always a love that's on
the risk of doing something and weakening in it. It's like, oh
man, I didn't know you were that kind of a person. I thought we
were friends and I knew you, but this is not, I don't like
this about you. That's kind of rude. Or that
characteristic, that's something that just doesn't sit well with
me. But the thing is about the love
of the Lord, is that His love to us doesn't find anything in
us that attracts His love. It all comes from Him. And that's
hard for us to understand. My granddaughter, Anella, was
on the phone with Denise and I, and she was asking her mom
where God is. And we were talking, well, he's
everywhere. And the little two-year-old mind
just can't get around that, because I can't. And so I don't expect
her to. But there's something, there's
this process by which these things are introduced into our thinking.
And it's like, that's way beyond my ability to comprehend. God
is everywhere. He's even bigger than all of
creation, or that God was never created. He's always been God.
He never began to be, He always was from eternity. And these
thoughts just boggle our mind. So it is with the love of God.
I don't know this concept of love that comes from God that
doesn't look for or find or depend on the ones He loves for that
love to flow. Well, if it did, where would
we be? See, this is phenomenal, isn't
it? Love one another as I have loved
you. How did he love these men? How
did he love these men? Well, it was in spite of their
humanity, in spite of their sinfulness, in spite of their immaturity,
in spite of their unfaithfulness. in spite of their clamoring to
be number one, to have the preeminence. In spite of all that, he loved
them. Like the master, when you're
first learning that trade, I remember I worked for the railroad when
I was younger and they had these special kind of things called
a spike mall. You drive the spikes into the
railroad ties. I must have broke 13 handles. And the foreman was a little
frustrated with me. He probably wanted to fire me, but he couldn't
because it was a union job. So I just kept breaking them.
And finally, I got the hang of it. And that's the way it is
when you're learning, right? The Lord, He doesn't find something
in us that qualifies us for the job. Everything He gives us to
do, it's His grace operating in us that enables us to believe
Him, that enables us to love, that causes us to realize what
He did and how He loved us in some measure so that we, yeah,
it wasn't because of me. In fact, it was in spite of all
that I am. So that when we begin to see what He says here, to
love one another as I have loved you, we realize He loved us for
the sake of his father and his own sake. And we can't explain
it. I love, what did the song say
earlier, but the whole of love, the half of it, it all comes
from you. So these things boggle our minds
like my two-year-old granddaughter. I can't even begin to understand
this. And in Ephesians chapter three,
he says that the apostle Paul prays that you may comprehend
the breadth, the height, the depth, the width of the love
of Christ that passes knowledge. And so we know whatever we know
of the love of Christ is way beyond our comprehension. And
I think the love of Christ is greater than anything. I love
that song that says, It's one of the best songs. I think Todd
Nyberg told me he thinks that's the most inspired song that he's
ever found. If the whole ocean was an inkwell,
and every man on earth was a scribe by trade, and every piece of
grass was a quill to dip into the ocean, and the whole sky
was the scroll, to write the love of God above would drain
the ocean dry. What a picture. I like that,
don't you? I know you do. It's just phenomenal. It goes beyond our comprehension,
the height, the breadth, the depth. It has meaning to all
these things. I just wanted to give you that
introduction here. The Lord Jesus Christ here is
talking about this act of stooping, is talking about His humility.
It's talking about our filthiness. It's talking about His love.
He loved them that were in the world. They were His own and
He loved them. And He loved them to the end.
There was no interlude. There was no separation of them
from His love. Those He loved, He always loved.
He kept loving. It was a faithful love, a loyal
love. The love of God. The love of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The love of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that love was not reluctant to do the most insignificant
and degrading, debasing tasks for those he loved. And he only
drew attention, drew their attention to this in order to teach them
how he wanted them to love one another. Don't praise me in doing
this task like the Pope or like these kings who did it for honor
from men. He did it in order to teach us
to love one another as He loved us. That we would love one another
for His sake. For His sake. That's enough,
isn't it? For the Lord's sake. Let's do it for the Lord's sake.
So we want to talk about these things. The title of our sermon
today is Our Master Served in Love. Our Master Served in Love. And what a thing that is. You know, in Scripture there's
this phrase used, His great love wherewith He loved us. Remember
those words? You know that's only used one
place in Scripture? His great love wherewith He loved us. It's
in Ephesians chapter 2. And Ephesians chapter 2, it's
given to us in that context there, in the contrast of our own unloveliness. He says in Ephesians 2, you,
hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, this
is Ephesians 2 verse 1 and following, where in time past you walked,
this was your lifestyle. You walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
Satan. This is the way you lived. You
lived after the manner of the devil, the spirit that now works
in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation in time past, not only our words, but what we did.
They call it conversation because it's the way you really know
what a person's saying or how they act. We all had our conversation
in time past in the lusts of our flesh, not just thinking,
but fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And
we're by nature the children of wrath, even as others, the
same mass, of guilty, justly condemned humanity, bound in
their sin, servants of the devil. And then he says, but God, who
is rich in mercy, for his great love, wherewith he loved us,
even when we were dead in sins, has quickened, made us alive
together with Christ, for by grace you are saved. amazing
grace. He raised us up together and
made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in
the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace
in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. That's what John
13 is about. The exceeding riches of his grace
through Christ Jesus. The great love of the Lord who
loved us when we were so unlovely." And that's what he's saying here.
The Lord who is God over all, the Lord from heaven, he says
in 1 Corinthians 15, 47. The Lord of glory, 1 Corinthians
2, 8. The Prince of life, Acts 3, 15. He's God over all. He's the Prince
of Peace, the Almighty God, the Everlasting Father. He stooped. What moved him to stoop? Nothing
outside of him. This is who he is. He stooped
and he took those dirty feet that had who knows what kind
of filth on them, representing the filth that we gain, that
we collect to ourselves, we take to ourselves every day of our
lives. Every step we take accumulates this filth and it has to be washed
from us. Who does it? The Lord Jesus Christ. But that's not the half of it.
He says here, it's the Lord who stooped, the Lord who stooped.
Now, let's read through this together just briefly. He's basically
saying here, it says, Christ's great love, the Lord Jesus had
a great stoop and it's seen in his service to his people. the
most high God, the most high God, the Lord Jesus Christ stooped
to do this and to do far more. This is the master's command
given to his own by his own stoop of service, his own example that
they should do this in love towards one another and to do towards
one another as the Lord has done for us. That's what he's talking
about here. So he says in verse 1, now, before
the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was
come, and what hour was that? It was the hour of his death,
the hour of his agony, his sufferings for our sin. He's going to take
our sins. He's going to lift those sins from us, so that they're
no more on us. And he's going to lay them, he's
going to bear them on himself. And then he's going to go before
God in sacrifice as the sin offering. And he's going to offer himself
to God with those sins because of those sins. And he's going
to endure the outpouring of God's wrath in justice that should
have come upon us, but we could never have borne it. And he bears
it all and drinks the cup to the dregs. And he so satisfies
God's justice, and he so fulfills God's law in that stoop of love,
that God's everlasting righteousness is established in his obedience
unto death. It's all done in love. This is
the hour. This is the hour. And he knew
that he should depart out of this world and go to the Father,
having loved his own. Why didn't he just say, having
loved these people, all these people in the world? Because
that's a general love. And Christ's love is not a general
love. It's a particular, specific love. It's a love for his own. Having
loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them to the
end. To the end, not only to the end of his life, but beyond
that. Because he tells us in Romans
8, who shall be able to separate us from the love of Christ. And
he lists everything possible. Things in heaven, things below,
things in the past, things in the future, things in the present,
our life, our death. No, no, no, nothing. It's to
the end. And so supper being ended, and
the devil having put into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's
son to betray him, Jesus knowing that the father had given all
things to his hand, that he was come from God and went to God,
he rises from supper, laid aside his garments and took a towel
and girded himself. He's going to devote himself
to service. As a very lowly man clothed in
this towel, And he poured the water into the basin and began
to wash the disciples' feet, to wipe them with a towel wherewith
he was girded, all of them. He came to Simon Peter, and Peter
said to him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered, he said to him,
now these are spiritual words here. What I do, thou knowest
not now. He's talking about washing his
feet. But thou shalt know hereafter, soon, in just a few minutes.
Peter said to him, thou shalt never wash my feet. What is that?
That's pride. You're never gonna wash my feet.
Jesus answered him, if I wash thee not, now has no part with
me. What's required for us to have
a part with Christ? We have to be clean. How do we
get clean? He has to wash us. How does He
wash us? The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
us from all sin. In Revelation 1.5, the hosts
of heaven say, unto him that loved us and washed us from our
sins in his own blood. In Hebrews 1.3, he says, who
when he had by himself purged our sins, he removed the filth,
the plague that our sins caused from us in his own blood. In Ephesians chapter 5, he says,
Christ loved the church and gave himself for it that he might
sanctify and cleanse it. So he gave himself for the church
that he might sanctify, make her holy and cleanse her and
present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle
or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. That's what he did. He has to
clean us. He has to wash us from our sins. And He washes us from our sins
in His own blood. But He also washes us by applying
that blood to us personally. In Hebrews chapter 9, both the
cleansing of our sins before God by His blood is mentioned,
and the cleansing of our conscience, of our hearts. He says in Hebrews
9 verse 12, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His
own blood, He entered in once into the holy place. This is
the presence of God. Having obtained eternal redemption
for us, And then in verse 13, if the blood of bulls and goats
and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctify it to the
purifying of the flesh, in other words, in the Old Testament following
those ceremonial laws, the priest could actually perform the outward
ceremonial acts because they had been cleansed through the
ceremonial cleansings, and that was just of the flesh for those
typical things. But verse 14, how much more?
than animal's blood. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, notice, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God. What are dead works? It's anything
you do to try to perform what Christ did for your salvation. It's called trying to do what
is already done, what no man can do. That's why the Lord came
from glory. In Hebrews 4, he says, he that
has entered into his rest has ceased from his own works. And
so here, the dead works are those works that men do in order to
perform what Christ alone did by his own death. washing our
sins, establishing our righteousness, making us holy. You can't do
it! The law taught you that, didn't it? It's like a rubber
hose beating you on the head. Finally, you realize, I'm a dead
sinner, nothing at all. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
done it all. Okay, so we see here, He purged
our sins in the presence of God when He offered His blood for
us. And then He takes that blood and by the Spirit of God, He
applies it to us and He washes our conscience from these dead
works. Look at Titus chapter 3. We ourselves,
in verse 3, Titus 3, 3, we ourselves also were sometimes foolish and
disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living
in malice. hate and envy, hateful and hating
one another. But after that, the kindness
and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of
righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy,
he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost. So we have the washing. We have
the washing of Christ's blood applied to us by the Holy Spirit.
As Titus 3.5 says, this is called the washing of regeneration,
that first time when God, in the appointed time, applied the
blood of Christ to us, but in an ongoing sense. The Lord Jesus
Christ, through the Word, He washes us continuously and washes
our feet by the Word, applying to our conscience again and again
and again the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So that in 1 John
1, He says, Therefore we know this, we confess our sins. He's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins. This is called walking
in that light. And what a blessed thing that
is to know in our own conscience that the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanses us from all sin and God is faithful and just. Not just faithful and merciful,
but faithful and just to forgive us all of our sins. It's all
for Christ's sake. And so we see that here. And
so back in John 13, He says, if I don't wash you, and he's
not talking about his feet here, he's talking about his whole
body, his whole soul. Peter had to be cleansed by the
blood of Christ and by the Spirit of God applying that blood to
him and continuously, and he signifies that by the washing
of the feet here. And he says, he that is washed,
Because Peter responded, he says, well, if I don't have any part
with you unless you wash me, then wash me all over, my feet,
my hands, my head. Jesus said, he that is washed,
meaning his blood is applied, does not need to wash except
his feet. He's clean every wit. And you
are all clean. No, he says, you are clean, but
not all. Do you see? You see that not
all? Not all are clean. Not all have
been redeemed by the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb. Not all are
His own whom He loved, in verse 1, and loved to the end. Not
all of the disciples here were forgiven. Judas was not forgiven. The sin that he committed was
not forgiven him, but the sin that Peter committed, when he
denied the Lord, it was forgiven. Why? Because he was clean. He had been washed. He was loved. He was bought. He was kept. You see, look at verse 16. Verily, Jesus says two times,
verily, verily, establishing it with certainty, 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 ye if you do them. Who among the 12 did those things? All of them, except Judas, who
didn't, and it was imputed to him as sin. And to those who,
like Peter, were proud, who said at the end of this chapter, I'm
never gonna deny you. No way, I'm gonna die for you.
He did not know himself, did he? He didn't know he was self-righteous
and that he thought he could do what only grace could accomplish
at the appointed time. He didn't know that Christ had
to not only wash him, but die for him. And all the disciples
shared the same ignorance and pride and ambition to be first. But the Lord Jesus Christ didn't
see that sin in them because he had washed them. But he did
see it in Judas. And so that's why he speaks of
it here. That's why there's such a contrast here between Judas
and the other 11 disciples in this chapter. That's one of the
reasons. One of the other reasons is it
shows that scripture is always fulfilled and Christ knew it
before it happened because he was God and man. And another
reason here, of course, is that the betrayal of Judas led to
Christ being delivered into the hands of his enemies because
we ourselves deserved to be betrayed and turned over to our enemies
because of how we treated our God. What a stoop! Don't you see the
stoop here of the Lord Jesus Christ? I was telling someone
in San Diego, I think to me the most beautiful, the most endearing
quality of the Lord Jesus Christ is His humility. And I know that
that's just another way of saying His grace, isn't it? You know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though He was rich, yet for your
sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be
made rich. He always had the blessing He
would bestow on His disciples in view of all that He did. Why
did He love us? Well, He loved us in order that
He might save us from our sins. In order that He might bless
us with eternal life and eternal glory. To have us with Himself.
And to enrich us with all the glories that were given to Him
by His Father. Well, what moved Him to do that?
I can't explain it. That's who He is. That was His
will. It seemed good to Him. And it
was right. But it's a very endearing thing
to think that all that the Lord did was because of who He is.
That's His nature. And when you see John leaning
in this chapter on Jesus' breast, you say, he just felt so at ease
with him, didn't he? Because he was loved. He said,
the disciple whom Jesus loved. And He wants us to know that
every one of them are loved to the same degree as God loves
His people. He doesn't love one above another.
He loves with an eternal love, an everlasting, infinite love,
all that God is. It's not like degrees of love.
Well, I love this one, you know, only a little. Some people say
God loved Jacob and hated Esau. That means that He loved Esau
less than Jacob. But that's insulting to God that
he would love less. Can God do anything that's not
all? There's nowhere in scripture
where it says that God loves somebody who is in hell. There's
nowhere in scripture like that. Because it's not true. And the
problem is, let me just close with this. The problem with 99.9%
of religion today is that they all say that God loves everybody
and wants everybody to be saved, and Jesus, therefore, died for
everybody in the whole world, and the Spirit of God, therefore,
must try to get everyone saved, but it really comes down to whether
or not that person decides to be saved, whether they accept
Jesus or not. Whether they commit themselves
to Him and surrender themselves to Him. And you know what that
does? People say that's universal. It's more universal, you see.
Because it means that God doesn't distinguish. He just loves everybody
the same. And Jesus died for everybody.
So everybody has a fair chance. That's what they want, right?
They want salvation to be left up to them. That way I can get
in if I want to. And it puts it all on the will
of man, and the work of man, and the worth of man, and the
intellect of man. All of which is so bad, it's
called being dead in sins. But it all comes down to a point. Because if the Lord Jesus loved
his own in that way, then their salvation and their part with
him, then comes down to what they do, and what they feel and
love. But that can't be. I mean, there's
no security in that. And so those who claim a universal
salvation, they're for limited. They limit that salvation, don't
they? They make it depend on the impotence of a sinner. But in the truth of the gospel,
God doesn't limit his salvation except in its intent, in its
design. He loved his own. But then having
love to his own, he accomplishes everything for them. Even giving
life to them to make them know this love of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ. So it's a very assuring, comforting
thing, confidence building thing to know that God's love is to
the end. It doesn't make a distinction
between those he loves, he loves them all in Christ, therefore
he loves them as he loves his son. For his son's sake, and
the Lord Jesus loves them for his father's sake, and he loved
them, he gave himself for them. It's all, it's all beyond our
understanding, isn't it? And it's so securing. that if
the Lord has loved me, then he loved me before I knew him, and
he loves me to everlasting ages, and that love provides everything
he requires, has already provided it. In fact, he tells me to love
as he loved me, and therefore I go to him and say, in you is
my fruit found. Hosea 14.8 says, in me is thy
fruit found. So I go back to him and say,
Lord, my fruit is found in you. Give me this faith that works
by love. Let's pray. Lord, we pray for
your mercy towards us, that this grace that you give to your people
would be given to us, that the choice of your people in love
would be a choice you've made of us in the Lord Jesus Christ,
that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ shed for your people would
also have been shed and washed us from our sins. And give us
this through your word, Lord. None of us here are here by accident.
Every one of us can trace our life, bringing us to this point,
to your will. And give us, Lord, that grace
that comes and is given to your people in love through the hearing
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the light shined
on him would shine in our hearts. And give us this knowledge of
the glory of God in his face. In his name we pray, amen.