If you want to look at the Scriptures
for my text this morning, you'll find it in John's Gospel chapter
13. The 13th chapter of John's Gospel. I want to begin reading in verse
1. I want to read down through verses
17. John's Gospel chapter 13 and
verse 1. The Lord Jesus had finished his
ministry upon this earth. He had hid himself. Verse 12
tells us that he had hid himself from them. He hid himself now
from the world. The world would never hear his
voice again. Never see the miracles that he
did. Never look into his face. Never see his eyes glance at
him. He hid himself. Chapter 12 says. And it makes
this amazing statement. Though He had done so many miracles
among them, yet believed they not Him. They believed not on
Him. Though He had done all that He
did, things that were impossible to be done, miraculous things,
healing lepers, raising the dead, giving sight to the blind. Whoever
heard of one being born blind, see it. He did that. And yet
they believed not on Him. So he hides himself, he gathers
his apostles together here in the upper room to eat this supper,
and he begins a conversation with them. I guess this could
truly be called the inner sanctuary, where he meets and confers his
disciples and instructs his apostles. So let's read it, the first 17
verses. 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. And
supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart
of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him, Jesus knowing
that the Father had given all things unto his hands, and that
he came from God and went to God, He riseth from supper, and
laid aside his garment, and took a towel, and girded himself,
after he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples'
feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.
Then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Simon said unto him, Lord,
do you wash my feet? Jesus said unto him, What I do,
thou knowest not now, but you shall know hereafter. Peter said
unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered, If I
wash thee not, you have no part with me. Simon Peter said unto
him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said unto him, He that
is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean everywhere. And ye are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray
him. Therefore he said, You are not all clean. So after he had
washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down
again, he said unto them, Know ye not what I have done to you?
You call me Master and Lord, and you say, Well, for so I am. If I then, being your Lord and
Master, have washed your feet, you ought also to wash one another's
feet. For I have given you an example
that you should do as I have 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." I just want to
look at these passages and sort of take them apart one verse
at a time. And the first thing we see here
in verse 1, we're told here that His hour had come, His time had
come, that He should depart out of this world. The Lord Jesus
often spoke of this world, that He should depart out of this
world. And why shouldn't He? This world
didn't love Him anyway, did it? When He came to it, it had no
room for Him. Not in the end. He lived a life
and this world gave Him no place to lay His head. When He was
hungry, this world didn't rush with food to feed Him. The world
hated Him because He testified that it was evil. And when He
come to the end of His life, the world gladly crucified Him.
And He was buried in a barren tomb. this world. How happily He departed from
this world. This was the hour that our Lord
Jesus had looked to from all eternity. It was His hour. The Holy Ghost called it His
hour. Now another place, He said to
the scribes and Pharisees and to the world, He said, this is
your hour. Your hour and the power of darkness. They rejoiced in this hour, didn't
they? The world, the lost world rejoiced in the hour that it
come time to crucify the Savior. You know what they said about
this hour? They said, let's break His bands asunder. Let's cast
His cords away from us. Don't you imagine when the scribes
and Pharisees saw the Lord Jesus hanging up on the cross that
they went back to the temple giving one another high fives.
Boy, we've gotten rid of Him. He won't bother us anymore. And
they were so happy. Their hour and the power of darkness. But He calls it here in our text,
His hour. They thought it was the hour
of their triumph, but you know this was the hour of His triumph. This wasn't the hour that He
was defeated. This was the hour that He defeated.
defeated Satan and his enemies. This was the hour that He undone
everything that our first Father had done. Adam brought in sin,
Adam brought in death, and upon the cross the Lord Jesus put
away our sins and He brought in life everlasting. This was
His hour that He would triumph over sin and over the devil. You remember the time that Moses
and Elijah came down upon the Mount of Transfiguration, and
they spake with the Lord Jesus. And the cloud overshadowed them
and said, this is my beloved son. You remember what Moses
and Elijah talked with Christ about. The death that he was
to accomplish. The death. You know the death
of Christ is not a failure. The death of Christ is not some
plan B that God was forced to revert to. The death of Christ
was not an accomplishment. He did in that what no man or
angel could do. He satisfied the justice of God. He put away our sins forever.
He saved us, didn't He? Bless His name, He saved us.
He said here that this was His hour. Christ was looking forward
to this hour, not just because that He would leave this world. And why wouldn't He want to leave
this world? What is this world to us? Sometimes it's nothing
but a veil of tears, is it not? Just temptation, faithlessness. And He had to live among that
for thirty-three and a half years. And He longed to leave this world. He did. It was His hour to depart
out of this world. I tell you, you live long enough
in this world, you'll get sick of it. Especially if you're a
child of God, you'll get sick of it. I was talking with Paul
and Mindy Mahan. Most of you know Brother Henry
and Doris, his wife. They're up in their 90s now.
And all they can do basically is go to the worship and go home.
And Paul said, he told me the other day, he said, Mom and Dad
is longing to die. They're longing to die. And don't
you think the Lord Jesus longed to depart this faithless world
that often grieved Him? He wanted to do that. It come
His hour to depart out of this world, but not only just to rid
Himself of it, but knowing what He was going to do when He departed.
He's going to redeem His people. He's going to redeem His sheep.
He's going to atone for their sin. But not only that, the Scripture
tells us here that the hour was come, look at this, that He should
depart out of this world unto the Father. He was going back
to His Father. And don't you think He longed
for that? And He was going back to His
Father, brothers and sisters, in a way that He didn't come
from Him. He comes from Him in His divinity,
in His Spirit. But He is returning our humanity
to the Father in our humanity. And you know He thirsted for
that. I was talking with someone the
other day and we were talking about Christ upon the cross.
And when He said, I thirst, remember that? I thirst. David said that. Remember what David said? My
soul thirsteth for God. For the living God, when shall
I come and appear before God? You know that could very well
be applied to the Lord Jesus on the cross. When He said, I
thirst, He no doubt was thirsty physically, but He had a soul
thirst. He was thirsting from His Father.
And His Father had forsaken Him. My God, my God, why have You
forsaken Me? And He had this longing, this
soul longing to depart and to go back. to be with the Father
from whence He came. The hour had come that He should
depart out of this world back to the Father. And you know every
believer should feel the same way. There's no wonder Henry
Mahan and Doris longs for death. It's not just death. Nobody longs
just to die. But every one of us, every child
of God should feel just like our Lord felt. When I die, I'm
returning to my Father. And when a child of God dies,
where do they go? They go to be with their Father,
don't they? Just like the Lord said, I send to my God and your
God, and I send to my Father and your Father. And you know
if you're in Christ this morning, God is your Father just as much
as He is the Father of Jesus Christ. And you've got just as
much right as the Lord Jesus Himself to say, when you die,
I'm going to my Father. I'm going home to my Father. Boy, sometimes it's good to bear
these crosses. Our Lord bore them all the days
of His life, didn't He? Fasted for 40 days, tempted of
the devil, tried of man. Sometimes it's good to bear crosses.
Sometimes it's good to have losses. It weans us from this world and
the love of it, doesn't it? And it lets us live in more of
the reality of this hope that Christ Himself had. He had a
hope. As a man, He had a hope. He said,
You'll not leave my soul in hell. You'll not suffer me to see corruption. God is going to raise me up,
He said. And you know, you and I can feel the same way if we
were in Christ. There's coming a resurrected
day, brothers and sisters. And we're going to be raised
too. We're going to be raised in a sin, physically, back to
the Father in heaven. But here's the difference. Our
text tells us the difference between us and our Lord. Look at this. He knew His hour
had come. He knew. We don't know. He knew His hour, the very minute
when it would come. He had perfect knowledge of that.
He had perfect knowledge of what was going to happen in that hour.
He knew how He was going to die and when He was going to die.
You know, you and I don't know that, do we? Boy, we don't know
that. Aren't you glad you don't know
that? I wouldn't want to know that, would you? I refer that
back to Him. I refer it back to Him. Just
as He appointed the day that the Lord Jesus should suffer
and die, He's appointed the very hour that you and I should die.
We don't know it, but He does, and I'm content with that, aren't
you? It may come with an illness, it may come with an accident,
it may come suddenly, it may be prolonged, but only He knows
our time. That's the difference between
us and the Lord Jesus Christ. He knows it. But the same God
that purposed His has purposed us. And you know they came often
to try to kill the Lord and couldn't. They tried to take Him, but how
many times does the Bible say His hour had not yet come? And
you know something? You'll not leave this world till
your hour comes. God has appointed the day of
your death, and you're immortal until that appointment comes.
No man lives to himself. And no man dies to himself. Whether
we live or die, we are the Lord's. Knowing that His hour had come,
that He should depart out of this world. And what was the
time of His death? We're told here in verse 1, we're
told something else about the time of His death. The feast
of the Passover. It was the feast of the Passover.
Hold that chapter and turn over to Matthew chapter 26 with me.
I want to read you this. Matthew chapter 26. And look
here in verse 1. Well, this Passover was, it was
the first feast, the first ceremony that God ever instituted to the
nation of Israel. He gave them this in Exodus chapter
12, the very first ceremony that he gave them. The very first
feast that he gave them was the Feast of the Passover. And you
know this was the most famous feast that they had. It's the
most famous ceremony. That's why millions of people
came to this feast. They came from all over the world.
They laid aside the money and the time and this is where many
people took their vacation every year at this Feast of the Passover. And look here what's said of
it in Matthew chapter 26, in verse 1. It came to pass when
Jesus had finished all of these sayings, He said unto His disciples,
You know that after two days is the feast of the Passover,
and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified. Then assembled
together the chief priests and scribes and the elders of the
people unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas
and consulted how they might take Jesus by subtlety, trickery,
plotted His death and kill Him. But they said not on the feast
day, lest there be an uproar among the people." Notice how
they wanted to kill Him, but they said not on the Passover. There's too many people here.
We'll create an uproar. We don't want to do it on the
Passover. But you know something? The very day of the Passover
is when He was crucified. The very day of the Passover.
God just overruled their wickedness every turn. They said, we want
to kill Him, but we don't know what to do on that day. Why is
it that this feast day so represented, so pictured the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, if you'll study that Passover
in Exodus chapter 12, you can see Christ all in that Passover.
You remember, it was the very night that the firstborn was
going to be slain. God spoke to Moses and He said,
at midnight I'm coming through the land of Egypt and all the
firstborn, from Pharaoh's firstborn son to the beast, I'm going to
slay them. And He says, here's what you
do. On the tenth day of the month, you take your lamb, you go out
in your flock and you find your lamb without any blemish, without
any wrinkles, without any blisters. Now who does that remind you
of? Isn't that Christ? A lamb without spot and without
blemish? You keep him up for four days,
and the fourteenth day, in the evening, you take the lamb, and
you slay him. You catch his blood, take some
hyssop, some weeds, dried grass, and you take that hyssop, dip
it in the blood, and put it over the door of the house, and on
the side posts of that door. And at midnight, when the death
angel comes through, I will look upon that blood and I will pass
over you." Now isn't that a beautiful picture of Christ? The blood. Is your faith in His
blood? Some man asked another fellow
one time, he asked a preacher, he said, how do I know if my
faith is real? He said, is your faith in the
blood of Christ? Is your faith in the blood of Christ? You can't
see it, but is your faith in it? They put it over the door
of the post and they went inside the house. And when God came
by that night in this plague, He saw the blood on the door
post and He passed by them. That's why they call it the Passover.
God passed over them. And listen, if God did that to
them, because he saw the blood of a four-legged lamb? How much
more will God pass over those who are under the precious redeeming
blood of His Son? Ain't that wonderful? This ceremony represented Jesus
Christ. This is why He had to die at
the feast. And now, We sang that old song
sometime. When He sees me, He sees the
blood of the Lamb. He sees me as worthy. He sees me as perfect and not
as I am. God wasn't looking. To be honest
with you, He wasn't looking inside the house to see what they were
doing. He was looking for one thing
and that was the blood. Now you can bet those inside
the houses, you can bet they were probably praying, they were
waiting, they were going to leave out of there early the next morning.
But I tell you, God was looking for one thing. It's that blood
upon the door. That's why Christ had to die
this feast day. Because it represented, it was
a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you believe
that? Is your faith in His blood? You
say, Bruce, I can't see it. I can't either. But God can. Can't he? Our faith is in that. God sees the blood and passes
over me. It was the feast day, the hour
of the feast. Turn back to our text, and let's
see something else right quickly. Isn't it amazing? Wayne mentioned
this. We were talking about this morning. When you start looking
at these verses, isn't it amazing how they just mushroom? There's
just so much there, and you just look, and you say, man, I just
didn't think about that. When you start meditating on
that, and look at this, here's something else in verse 1. Only
the Holy Spirit could just put all of these things in. If you
think about this, you go over to 1 Corinthians 5 and verse
7, chapter 5 and verse 7, sometimes and read where Paul said that
Christ, our Passover, is crucified for us. So that tells us. You
know, and something else I noticed as I read the Scripture and studied
on this, you know Passover is never mentioned after the death
of Christ. You find it all through the Old
Testament, the Jewish Passover, all through the four Gospels,
the Jewish Passover is at hand. But after Christ died, you never
read anything else about it. And why should you? We don't
need that Passover. They didn't need it. We have
the true Passover. Christ, our Passover, is sacrifice
for us. And I love this. Look what he
said again in verse 1. Now, before the feast of the
Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should
depart out of this world unto the Father, look at this, having
loved His own which were in the world, He loved them until the
end. Having loved His own. And you
know, if it had said, having loved His own who were in heaven,
That would make more sense. But that's not what He says.
Having loved His own which were in this world. Every age of time, the Lord Jesus
Christ has had His people in this world, His elect people,
and they're His own. He redeemed them. They're not
their own anymore. They're Christ's. They're His.
And if He's redeemed you, you should say this, I am my Beloved's. I'm not my own anymore. And don't
you stand amazed that He loves you. You're in this world of
temptation and you're utterly weak, but He loves you. Who does
He love? His own. How long is He going
to love them? Until the end. When you look at these poor apostles,
you've read about them, isn't it amazing? We say sometimes,
we stand amazed in the presence of Jesus of Nazarene, wonder
how He could have left me a sinner unclean. But when you look at
these apostles and their weakness, they didn't understand Him. They
asked all kinds of questions that showed that they were utterly
ignorant. And the Lord Jesus told Peter
here in this, He said, before this night's over, you're going
to deny me three times. And I ain't going to love you
anymore. Is that what He said? That's what He said. That's what's
amazing. He said, every one of you is
going to forsake me. Peter, you're going to deny me.
You don't understand me. Isn't it amazing then that He
turns right around and said, having loved his own He loved
them unto the end. I can't understand how Christ
could love me when I was dead in my sins. I can't understand
that. And I still can't understand
how He could love me now. And how He's going to keep loving
me till the end. Isn't that amazing? Just four
days before this, these same men had begrudged that oil that
was poured upon the head of Jesus Christ. Remember that? Just four
days earlier, the woman came with this precious ointment and
poured it on his head, and his disciples said, Why are you wasting
that? Wasting it? That wasn't a waste. The Lord said, She's anointed
my head for my death. And they said, It's just a waste.
Could you love somebody like that? I'd be so disgusted with
them. But you know what he said? Having
loved his He loved them until the end. We don't know nothing
about unconditional love, do we? That's why we have such a
difficult time grasping the love of Christ for such as we are.
It's unconditional. We keep looking inside of ourselves.
Surely there's got to be a reason He loves me. Surely there's got
to be a reason He keeps loving me. There's not. If there is,
it's found in Himself. Even our own children. I tell
you sometimes our own children can so disappoint us over and
over again until finally we say, would you just leave? Would you
just get out of my sight? I'm moving or something. I've
known people for years, decades, and didn't even know they had
any grown children. And I wonder, why didn't you
tell me that? Well, we're not getting along
too good. We're not getting along too good. Even our love as parents
is not unconditional, but His is, isn't it? Having loved His
own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. His love no end or measure knows,
no change can turn its course. Eternally the same it flows from
one eternal source, Himself. Boy, he's going to change the
subject right quick. Let's go quickly because I'm going to
keep you too long if I don't. Verse 2 of our text, John 13,
verse 2. Boy, look at this now. The subject
changes quickly. He goes from love to hate. He
goes from Christ to talking about Satan. From talking about his
own to the traitor. And supper being ended, the devil
having put unto the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to
betray him. Oh my goodness, what an awful
searching statement. Satan has access to the heart. And you know that's his favorite
place. He don't want access to your bank account. He don't care
what you own, your position in life. He doesn't care. He wants
access to your heart. Reckon that's why the Bible tells
us to keep our hearts with all diligence. Because Satan is a
roaring lion going about seeking whom he may devour? And isn't
it amazing how he comes so secretly and suggests things to our hearts? He put it in Judas' heart. How did he do that? He just suggested
it. Hey, why don't you get some money
out of this? Why don't you betray him? Go
tell the high priest. If they'll pay you, you'll deliver
him until everything will be fine. Why don't you do that? And you know what? He listened
to that suggestion. You'd think he had some doubt
as to that being right or wrong. I'm sure he did. But he entertained
that suggestion. And you know what happens when
men entertain Satan's suggestion? They wind up entertaining Satan.
We're told in the 27th verse of this chapter that Satan entered
into him. It started with suggestion, and
then he enters in to him. That's sort of dark, ain't it?
That's sort of dark. Don't like to study on those
things, but that's a fact. I was talking with someone just
the other day, and they were making fun of Satan. This generation
is doing a lot of that. Messing around with things of
Satan. Seeking to know the deep things of Satan. To study him. Some even worship him. Make fun
of him. Some don't even believe he exists.
What Ben Shannon was talking about the other night. You don't
believe that Satan exists. You don't believe the Bible.
If we believe in Christ, we believe in Satan, don't we? He does exist. But he's nobody to play with,
boy. I'm telling you what, we're no match for him. He's wiser,
more experienced, and more powerful than we are. He made the damnation
of this poor man sure by suggesting this to him. I'd stay away from
him. I'd flee to Christ. I'd flee to Christ, get away
from this demon. He's damned himself. And he takes
great pleasure in damning everybody else that he can. Satan, having
put into the heart of Judas is carried. Look here in verse 3 now. Look
in verse 3. Jesus knowing that the Father
had given all things into His hands and that He was come from
God and went to God. Now why does Why is this verse
even here? I mean, it seems somewhat out
of place, and most commentaries agree that it seems somewhat
out of place. But one of the reasons it's here,
the Lord Jesus was going to teach His apostles some valuable lessons
about humility. And before He does that, He's
going to tell them two things about Himself that could never
be said about men or angels. And the first one is this, He
possesses, knowing that the Father had given all things unto His
hands. God has not given that to man,
has He? He's not given it to angels. He's given it to one
person. That is Christ. Everything. You know, the Bible says that
the earth is the Lord's. The earth belongs to the Lord
Jesus Christ. and everything in it belongs
to Him. The moon, you go outside tonight
and look at the moon. Boy, I went out one night this
week and I looked up in the sky and I've never seen the stars
so beautiful. I almost went in and woke my
wife up and said, come out and look at this. You're not going
to believe this. It looked like the stars were down on the top
of my head. They were so bright and beautiful
and glowing. You know who those are? Jesus
of Nazareth. He owns them. They've been given
to Him. The Son that's rised up this morning, you know whose
Son it is? It's His. The Father has given
all things. Your breath this morning, you
know who gave you that? Jesus. It's His. Your heartbeat, your movement,
whether you live or die, judgment, everything belongs to Jesus Christ. God the Father has given it all. unto His hands. You've given
Him power over all flesh. All power is given to men, heaven
and earth. All judgment and the execution
of that judgment. It's almost like the Father just
sat down and said, Son, you run this thing. You bring all of
this to pass. Here's my book. Here's my purpose. You fulfill it all. Turn every
page, one page after another. It's all in your hands. I tell you, this poor little
Jesus we've been hearing about today, that's not the Christ
of this Bible, is it? He knowing that the Father had
put everything into His hands. I don't know what's not put there.
I think He said everything, it means everything. Notice this. Secondly, something
said of Him here that could never be said of anybody or anything.
Notice His deity, His eternality. Knowing that He came from God. Isn't that amazing? He came from God. He wasn't just
sent of God. John the Baptist was sent. God
sent angels on errands. But He came from God. He was
with God before the world was. All eternity He was with Him.
And He came from Him. What does that tell us? Boy,
He's dead to us. It tells us of His divinity. He came from God. And now He says that He went
to God. He's the eternal Son of God.
And now He says that I know that I'm going to God. And boy, what
does that mean, brothers and sisters, for you and me, that
he went back to God? And he went back to God, as I
said a minute ago, in a way that he didn't come from God. He went
back to God in our glorified humanity, didn't he? And he's
seated there at the right hand of God. What does that mean to
us? That means he's our mediator.
We've got a mediator between us and God, the man, Christ Jesus. And you know something? If we
didn't have a mediator, we'd have no access to God. It's only
through Jesus Christ that we can go to the Father. No man
comes to Me. No man comes to the Father except
he come by Me. One of the first mosques Islam
ever built in the United States was in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
My nephew lives there. He said, I want to take you and
show you this mosque. I heard a lot about it, so he took me
outside of Murfreesboro. There was this humongous parking
lot. And this mosque sat right in
the middle of it. But they chose to build that
mosque right next to this little Baptist church. And there sat
this little Baptist church with a huge sign next to the church. And somebody in the Baptist church
went out and put their letters on that church sign. John 14,
6. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. I thought, man, what a sign,
what a message, right in the face of Islam. You guys can't
approach. It's only those who have a mediator
that can approach. How do we know? Because he said,
I'm going back to God. I'm going back to God. Oh, that's
our hope, isn't it? That's our hope this morning,
brothers and sisters. Since He went back to God, then
that's our hope because He died and then He ascended back to
God and you're going to die. But here's your hope if you're
in Christ. When He raised and ascended back to God, that's
your hope that you're going to raise because He's the firstfruits. Oh, what a hope we have. I'm
ascending back to God. Don't that take away the fear
of death? It does for me. It does for me. I ain't going
to feel the sting of death. He did. I got the hope of raising
because He rose. I got the hope of ascending to
God because He did. And He's our representative.
You have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
you, which hope we have as an anchor of our souls, both sure
and steadfast. and to that within the veil,
where our forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus. I sinned,
I come from God, and now I'm going back to God, and now we
have a mediator, and now we have a good hope. And here in verses
4 through 9, let's look at this quickly. Verses 4 through 9.
This is amazing. The Lord's here, we're told,
raising from supper, laying aside his garments, and tucked this
towel and girded himself and began to wash the disciples'
feet. And Peter was amazed. He was absolutely amazed. I remember Peter said, when the
Lord Jesus stilled that storm, what manner of man is this? Remember
that? Boy saw Him there as God. But
I just about imagine when the Lord Jesus bent over and stooped
down to wash His feet, He probably thought again, What manner of
man is this? He just got through telling us
that everything was His. He just got through telling us
that He was with God and going back to God. He's the Lord and
Master. Ain't that what they called Him?
And now I look at Him with this towel, washing my feet. What manner of man is this? There's four lessons in this
that you and I can see from this very act that the Lord Jesus
performed. What humility! What humility! And the first thing we see in
this act that He did, He teaches us that we're welcome. We are
welcome to approach unto Him. He teaches us this. He's not
repulsed. by our misery. He's not repulsed
by our awful, awful condition that we found ourselves in. He
doesn't shy away from our need. He shows us this in this example
that He gives us. You just told me, Thurman, let
me read you a verse that proves what I just said. We often quote
the last part of Matthew chapter 11, but listen to Matthew 11,
25. Father, I thank you that you have hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father,
forsoe it seem good in your sight. All things are delivered unto
me of my Father. And no man knoweth the Son, but
the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father
save the Son. And he to whomsoever the Son
will reveal him. All things are delivered unto
me. Now my father, what's he teaching? His sovereignty again.
He possesses all things. And listen to this. Come unto
me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. Learn what? I am meek and lowly
in my heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. Here's what
the Lord Jesus is teaching us. here in our text, that when He
humbled Himself, He manifested such meekness and such humility. Though He's the Lord of glory,
He's somebody that's meek and lowly, and He welcomes us into
His presence even though we're in our awful misery and sad and
sinful condition. You can't approach Him to great
men. You can't approach Him to kings. The more they have, the
more arrogant and lofty they get. But not Him. This is God in our flesh. And
what's He doing? One of the most God-like things
He ever did was humble Himself and wash the disciples' feet.
Isn't that amazing? Don't you feel like this morning
if you had a thousand souls, you could trust Him with every
one of them? I do. And the reason is when you see
His heart, If He was austere, if He were just some despot setting
up on His throne, looking upon us with indifference, all right,
I'm afraid. But oh, when we see Him humbling
Himself, condescending, stooping towards dirty feet of mere men,
even the one who betrayed Him. Oh, I think I can approach to
Him. I'll come to Him. I'll even be honest with Him.
I'll tell Him what I am. I'll tell Him what I've done
with a hope that He's so meek and lowly He'll receive me. That's
the first thing He teaches us about this lesson. The second
thing He teaches us about this lesson is this. You and I can
only be saved by the humility of Jesus Christ. We can only
be saved by Him stooping and humbling Himself. Peter said, Lord, get up. Get up. You're not going to wash
my feet. I want an exalted Christ. I want
one on His throne. Yeah. But you're going to be
saved by that one stooping off of His throne and being humiliated
upon a cross of shame and suffering. The commentators tell us that
in the early church they had those men that said when Christ
took to Himself flesh, it wasn't real flesh. They said, there's
no way that the Son of God could have come to this earth and taken
real humanity that was beneath Him. That's what they said. That's
what Peter was thinking. Lord, you're too high. You can't
stoop towards my feet. And the Lord said, if I don't,
you can't be clean. And those people that won't have
Christ hanging on a cross, Those people that won't have Christ
being their substitute, suffering what belongs to them, they can't
be saved. Those that won't have Christ
to be made sin for them, they say, no, that's going too far.
Listen, if He's not made what we are, then we can't be saved. Oh, we bless God for a bloody
cross, don't we? A bloody, humiliating cross of
shame. Because that's the way we're
saved. He'd been found in fashion as a man. He humbled himself
and became obedient to death. Even the death of the cross. Oh, we have a stupid Christ on
earth. A condescending Christ. We can't
be saved any other way. We can't. There's a third lesson
in this. The apostles were going to be
greatly used of the Lord. greatly used them then. Though
these men were ignorant now, boy, He's going to give them
some understanding. He's going to give them wisdom. They're
going to write all of these inspired epistles. They were going to
establish more churches. They were going to do these miracles,
raise people from the dead. They were going to be pillars.
But you know something? They weren't going to do anything
like that in their pride. They were going to have to first
be humbled. They were going to have to come
down off their lofty opinions of themselves. And the Lord Jesus
was going to begin to teach them this by being an example Himself. I have given you an example,
Peter, that you should do as I have done unto you. Old Peter
was proud, wasn't he? when the Lord told him, said,
Peter, before this night's over, you're going to deny that you
even know me three times. Why did he say that? Because
Peter said, Lord, I'll never do it. All of you are going to
forsake me, Lord. James is going to. I don't doubt
him. I know some things about him. John will do it. I suspect
him, but not me. I'm not going to do it. I have
a freewill Baptist cousin, and he's all the time talking about
people falling away. And everybody's going to fall away but him. Because
he's so faithful, you know. Nobody else, they might fall
away but not me. I'm going to be so faithful.
And that's what Peter thought of himself. Lord, I ain't going
to do it. And the Lord said, Peter, you're
going to do it three times before this night's over. And you know
something? How is Peter going to preach
to 3,000 people on the day of Pentecost up here in his lofty
nest? When those Jews said, Oh, we've
crucified the Lord of glory. We're in trouble with God. What
must we do? You know what Peter said? That's
good enough for your scoundrels. You're going to get just what
you deserve. That's probably what he had said. I'm going to
call down far out of heaven and consume everyone of you, you
bunch of lowlifes. Why didn't he say that? Why did
he humble himself down and say, Oh, there's hope in this Savior
that you've crucified. The very blood that you shed
will now wash you from your sins. Be baptized every one of you
and repent in His name. Why did he preach the Gospel
to them? The Lord had humbled him at that. He had humbled him. Now he'd come down and he had
the attitude of the Master. Be clothed with humility. If God is going to use a man,
I've seen these young preachers get themselves in a mess. I had
a young preacher ask me not long ago, he said, you got any advice
for me? I said, one thing. If you'll listen to me, I can
save you a lot of trouble. I said, stay low. Stay low. If you don't stay low, God's
not going to use you. You'll get yourself and everybody
around you in trouble. Stay low. Be clothed with humility. That's what the Lord Jesus taught
them by this. Peter, do you see what I've done?
Me, the Lord and Master, I've stooped. That's what you must
do. You must humble yourself and
become a little child. Serve one another in love. That's why He did this for us.
You know today, this is a perfect example to us today, we don't
wash one another's feet. If you come to me and you pulled
your shoe and sock off and said, would you wash my feet, both
of us would be embarrassed, wouldn't we? We'd be embarrassed, because
we don't need to do that. And they could have done their
own feet, but it was a chore for the slaves, usually. This
was the chore for the most unworthy person in the house. If you had
company to come in, they'd call the slave. Hey, come and wash
their feet. The master never did bow down
and wash their feet. But this one did. This one did. It wasn't just washing their
feet. It was the lesson behind it. If I have done this to you,
then you should wash one another's feet. If I'm willing to serve
you in humility, you be willing to serve one another. And fourth
and lastly, this is a good lesson because he tells them in verse
17. If you know these things, happy
are you if you do them. You know the happiest people
in this world are humble people. Gail's got a good ringtone on
her. If you want to hear a good little song sometime, call Gail
that Always be humble and kind. That's what it says. I'd say
some things about that, but it wouldn't bear scale. If anybody
should have that ringtone, it should be her. Because she's
that way, is she not? You know why they say the misery
index is so high in our day? It just got up there and don't
want to come back down. Everybody's miserable. And you
know why? Everybody's proud. Everybody thinks I should have
more. Everybody thinks I'm worthy of more than what I've got. I'm
not worthy to suffer what I'm suffering going through this.
Why me? And everybody's miserable. You know, happy people is people
who are humble and say, Lord, I'm not worthy of the least of
your mercy. The happiest people are those who humble themselves
down and serve others just like the Master did. Happy are you
if you do these things after knowing them. Are you happy? Clarence said
he was happy. I thought he was going to shout.
He said he was happy. Well, you're happy if you do
these things. You're happy. Oh, Father, gracious, merciful
Father in Heaven. Oh, thank you for letting us
open your Bible this morning. read about our dear Savior so
exalted upon His throne, and yet even there His heart has
never changed. He's still meek and lowly. Meek
and lowly in your heart. Oh, we come before you today
so freely because of who you are. Oh, surely
you won't turn us away. Your heart's to us. Your heart's
towards us. Even though we're utterly weak
and feel ourselves so wretched and miserable, your heart is
towards us. You love us. You welcome us into
your presence. Oh, Lord, we can be honest with
you. We don't have to try to deceive
you. We don't have to come fearing and trembling out of some slavish
fear because you're not only our Lord and Master, but you're
our faithful and merciful High Priest. Thank You for those who
are here this morning. Thank You for their patience.
Thank You for the desire to hear Your blessed Word. O Spirit of
God, bring these things home to our hearts. Give us understanding
and give us faith to enter into these things. We go back out
now into a dangerous world full of lust, full of pleasures, full
of deception. We go out with these awful hearts
within us. Oh, guard us and guide us, our
Lord. If evil comes, if temptation
comes, deliver us, don't let us fall. Watch over those who
aren't here. Be merciful to the lost. We ask
these things for Christ's sake. Amen. I have one song, if I can find
it quickly, if you'll sing it with me.