 In our text this morning, John chapter 13, verses 1 through 17, in the title of our sermon, he loved them to the end. And this is part two, working through this text. Last week we spent a good bit of time in the first few verses there, looking at the setting and looking at the heart and mind of our Lord Jesus Christ as he enters this time with his disciples. And we know that from this text already now, as we've talked about this, that as he approaches death in just a few hours, just a short time from now, the Lord Jesus Christ will be crucified. These are the last hours that he will spend with those who are closest to him, the last hours that he'll spend with his disciples. The love of Christ here for his own becomes a primary theme of this time with them, which is the primary theme of the next several chapters that we'll study together. Having loved his own who are in the world, he loved them to the end. This is an amazing portion of Scripture. Not chapter 13, but also 14, 15, 16, 17. It's just an awesome part of a portion of Scripture. Each chapter now bursting at the seams with God's own expression through the Lord Jesus Christ of how he loves those who are his own and how he loves his own to the end. He loves them eternally, infinitely, immeasurably. He loves them distinctively, freely, immutably. He loves them matchlessly. These verses, these chapters that we'll study expressing in beautiful word pictures how the Lord loves his own people. As our text opens, let me give you some context again. In John chapter 13, it's Wednesday evening. It's Wednesday evening during the last week of the Lord's life. The Lord knows that his hour has come when he'll be departing from this world and going back to the Father and there are just hours left before he will suffer and he'll bear the wrath of God for his own, those whom the Father has given him. As the sun sets on that Wednesday night, the Feast of Unleavened Bread or Passover has begun. The disciples likely spend that evening in Bethany just a couple of miles away from Jerusalem near the Mount of Olives. According to the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the Lord sends Peter and John into the packed city on Thursday morning to meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. Lord instructs them to follow him and to ask for the room that the Lord had instructed. A large upper room then in the city was prepared. It was reserved and the Passover meal of the Lord Jesus Christ with his disciples will begin that evening. It's the afternoon, that Thursday afternoon, that the Passover lambs in the city are slaughtered. They're slaughtered by thousands in the temple, remembering the blood of the lamb that was shed to deliver Israel out of Egypt. Now keep in mind as we think through that link to Passover, it's not the blood that saves them, right? It's not the blood that saves them. It's the grace of God through their faith in God's saving plan that saves them. It's important to keep that in mind as we go through this. So as daylight turns to dusk on that Thursday evening, we come to the Passover Seder, the Passover meal. And among the masses of the pilgrims that have poured into Jerusalem, Jesus is now alone with the 12 and it's their last meal together. As we discussed last Lord's Day, Jesus came to the upper room to share this meal with those closest to him. There was much on his heart, much on his mind. There was much that he knew. In verse one, he knew that his hour had come and he knew what that hour entailed. He was clear about that. The hour had come that he should depart from this world. In verse two, the devil had already put it into the predisposed heart of the traitorous Judas to betray him. And in just a few hours, the Lord would suffer and die at the hands of his own people, his people that had rejected him. And he knew by what means he was departing. He was departing by the means of the shameful brutality of the Roman cross. And he knew coming into this hour, he knew that he there was going to face a full and undiluted wrath and fury of God against sin for his people. In verse three, he knew why he had come. He knew the role that he was to fulfill. He was the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God, the Lamb of God, who was slain to take away the sin of the world. He knew that the Father had given all things into his hands and he knew that he had both come from God and through the tragedy that was unfolding before him, he knew that he would be returning to God and to the glory that he'd had with him before the world was. In all of this, with what the Lord knew, with what was in his heart and in his mind, he had a determined resolve to press forward toward the cross, knowing all that the cross entailed, knowing all that he was going to face there. He had already set his face like a flint toward his appointed death. This was the Lord's mind. This was the Lord's heart. The Lord was determined to see it through. He became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. And in the full knowledge of all that he faced, you can just place yourself in the sandals of the Lord Jesus Christ, so to speak, with all that the Lord Jesus Christ faced, what compelled him? What drove him, pressed him forward toward the cross? He was compelled and driven by love for his own. He loved them to the end. Now keep in mind, as we discuss this together, this is not some sappy or mere sentimentalized emotionalism. This is a deep, settled, resolved, determined love on the part of the Lord Jesus Christ to press forward toward the cross, to there, do the work that was necessary to redeem his people from their sin. Knowing all that he faced, his heart and mind has now turned to the disciples and all that they would soon themselves face. You can imagine, in context, there was much they would need to know, right? They don't fully understand what's coming. They don't understand what's happening. And after the cross, they're going to be shaken. There was much that they needed to know. Some things they wouldn't understand until after the resurrection, until after the Spirit is given. But out of a love for his own, the Lord in this time is going to give them parting words, parting instruction. It's parting grace, if you will, to help them in the trial that is coming. Now we see this disposition of the Lord's heart clearly in verse one. And all of redemptive history summarized in a simple statement, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. Now that statement ushers us into, if you will, the Holy of Holies in the Gospel of John. It's a statement that introduces to us all that follows. The Lord's love, God's love, is a matchless, supreme, eternal, free, unconditional, electing and immutable love that is distinctively, distinguishingly for his own. He loved them to the end temporarily, meaning that he loved them to the end of his own life. He gave everything for them. He loved them to the end intensively, meaning that he loved them to the uttermost, freely giving up his own life for theirs. So as we consider our texts, the room has been prepared. The meal has been prepared. Luke records that when his hour had come, he sat down with the twelve apostles with him. And this dinner, this hour that he's going to have with his disciples, was a long awaited, a long anticipated event. It was an occasion that the Lord had looked forward to. And with his suffering and with his crucifixion at hand, he said to the twelve in Luke chapter 22 verse 15, with fervent desire, I have desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. Now part of that desire is because this was sweet fellowship. Sweet fellowship on the eve of the Lord's departure. There was much to say to them, much for them to learn. And the Lord is setting the stage for the staggering set of circumstances about to befall these men. Now, how does he begin? How does he begin this supper, this time with them? In John 13, he begins with an object lesson. He begins with discipleship. He's going to teach them. So, as the disciples entered the room, they would have seen the room well prepared for their meal together. There would have been a low U-shaped table in the center of the room. And around the table, they would have seen the customary mats and cushions on which they were to sit. And it was customary. It was expected that in this room there would have been supplies available to wash the feet of the guests that came. Pitchers of water drawn from a nearby well, a basin and a long linen towel all set to the side. As the disciples reclined at the table together, it would have been very conspicuous to them that there was no one there to perform the customary service of washing the feet of the guests. Their feet would have been filthy, if you can imagine, and likely smelly. The men wore sandals, open toad, open shoes. And so walking all the way into Jerusalem from Bethany earlier that day, about two miles walk, and then walking around Jerusalem that afternoon, a thick layer of dust and dirt everywhere they went, and especially as their feet became moist, right, from sweat with all the walking, the Judean dirt would have clung to them. Their feet would have been filthy. And you can imagine, right, can't you? The sights and the smells of that. So don't think for a moment as we recline at the table with them with this dinner with the Lord, that the disciples weren't thinking about that too. They knew, didn't they? They knew. They might have remembered the Lord in Luke chapter seven when he rebuked Simon the Pharisee. Now think about it. They came into Simon's house in Luke chapter seven. They sat down to eat. A woman there came in after them and stood behind the Lord Jesus, stood at his feet, weeping. And then as the Lord recounts that, she washed his feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair, and anointed his feet with oil. So the Lord there in Luke chapter seven tells Simon the Pharisee a parable about love. He said to Simon, a certain creditor had two debtors. One owed 500 denaria and the other owed 50. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. And so Jesus asked Simon, which one loved him more? So Simon said, well, I suppose the one that forgave more. And Jesus said to him, you've rightly judged. And then he turns to the woman and he says to Simon, Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house and you gave me no water for my feet. But she stood behind the Lord and washed the Lord's feet with her tears and wiped his feet with the hair of her head. He said to Simon, you gave me no kiss, which was also customary. But this woman has not ceased kissing my feet since I came in. You see Simon, the Lord said, to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. Now the disciples heard that lesson. It would have been impactful, right? It's impactful on us, it's impactful on me to sit here and think about it and to consider it. Would his disciples have claimed to have loved the Lord less than this woman? Would you this morning claim to love the Lord less? So as we come to the upper room in John chapter 13, obviously noticing that there was no one there to perform the customary, the expected service of washing the feet of the guests, did any one of the disciples think to love the Lord in that way? There's an opportunity here, right? There's an opportunity. The Lord was certainly their superior. He called him teacher and Lord. Would no one stoop and humble themselves in this way to care for the Lord? It's not a one of them. Not one of them in this account. If they weren't gonna do that for the Lord, they certainly wouldn't have done it for one another. But they didn't even think to do it for the Lord. You know, washing someone's feet before dinner was a menial task. It was a task for a slave, a Gentile slave. Sometimes maybe a woman or a child would be expected to do it, but it was something that a Gentile slave would have done. Certainly peers would have never washed one another's feet, but it would have been unheard of for a teacher or a Lord to wash a disciples' feet. So as the disciples filed into the upper room, they walked right past the pitchers, right past the basin, and they reclined around the table ready to eat together. Unlike the popularized depiction of the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, the Lord and his disciples would not have all sat on one side of a long table with gold obelisks around their head. They would have reclined around a low U-shaped table in the middle of the room. They would have leaned toward the table on their left arm while they ate with their right, and their feet would have been sort of behind them, right, away from the table, for obvious reasons, right, away from the table. As time went by, as time went by, it would have become overtly obvious that no one was coming to wash feet, and just as obvious that none of them were going to do it. This was the opportunity, this was the setting, the context in which the Lord chose to teach them a very valuable lesson, and it's a lesson on biblical love. These guys needed an object lesson, and we're gonna learn that lesson today as well as we walk through this text. We're gonna see in John chapter 13, beginning in verses three through five, humble love demonstrated. In verses six through 11, we're gonna see this humble love demanded, and then in verses 12 through 17, we'll see humble love directed. Humble love demonstrated, humble love demanded, and humble love directed. First let's take a look at verses three through five and humble love demonstrated here by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in verses three through five, we know from our brief discussion last Lord's Day that there's a textual variant in verse two, and that a better reading, if you're familiar with those kinds of things, it's a B rating, there's a better reading. What happened to our text here took place during supper and not after supper, right? This took place during supper, and it didn't take place at the traditionally accepted time, and this didn't take place by the hands of the traditionally accepted person. This is a completely different context, a completely different kind of event. The Lord wanted this object lesson to have a maximum impact. This wasn't just a loving thing to do during dinner or before dinner. This was discipleship, right? This was a time for them to learn. This wasn't something you did prior to class. This was the class, right? Ring the bell, classes in session, pay attention. So in verse three, Jesus then, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He had come from God and was going to God. Listen, Jesus, knowing that He was God incarnate, Jesus, knowing that He was omnipotent, Jesus, knowing that He was omniscient, sovereign Lord, overall, knowing that His own life was in His own hands, He had the power to lay it down and He had the power to take it up again, knowing that salvation for His own lie within the authority that God has now given to Him, knowing that He is majestic in power, knowing that He was once before a raid in glory and He was heading back to be a raid in glory again enthroned in praise in heaven with God as He was in eternity past, that Lord Jesus Christ, right? That one, verse four, rose from supper and He laid aside His garments and He took a towel and He girded Himself. He who was robed in splendor, the train of His robe filling the temple in Isaiah chapter six, He stripped Himself down to nothing more than a loincloth. He humbled Himself in that, taking on the form of a slave. He took the long linen towel and He wrapped it around His waist and in verse five, He poured water into the basin. Now the word there, basin, is articular. It's not a basin, it's the basin. It just shows you that the basin, the towel, the pictures of water for washing feet were a customary part. It was just the standard equipment in the room. It was expected to be there. There's the table, right? There's the mat, there's the basin. It was expected that this foot washing would take place and there was standard equipment in the room for that to happen. And in verse five, as He poured water into the basin, He, the Lord Jesus Christ, began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Now think about it for a moment. Aware of His own sovereignty, aware of His own omnipotence, He kneels, hands that created the world's, hands into which God the Father in verse three had given all things. And what does He do with them? He washes the feet of these men. Knowing His own greatness, knowing His own worthiness for worship, He nevertheless humbles Himself. Now in the Greek, most of these verbs here are in the present tense. You can imagine John writing this in the English. It comes out in the past tense. Most of these verbs here are in the present tense. He is rising. He is laying aside. He is pouring water into the basin. He is washing. He is wiping. It's called the historical present. And it's like John here, as he's writing, right? He's remembering this lesson that the Lord Jesus Christ taught him. And he's remembering this lesson as if it's happening before his eyes. And he's recalling everything that the Lord did. And he's picturing it in his mind and he's giving an account of it to us. Now we should picture it in the same way. We need to picture it in the same way. Can you think of this room gathered together, the Lord and His disciples, then you see the Lord rise from supper. You see to Him walk to the side and remove His garments and to take up the pit. You know what's about to happen? What is He doing? And the Lord takes up the pitcher, takes up the towel, He girds it around His waist and He comes back with the basin and the water during supper to wash feet. Now, knowing what we know of the Lord Jesus Christ, can you think of God in the flesh doing this? Can you? Yes. Right? Yes. I can imagine the Lord Jesus Christ doing this. Why? Why is it that we can imagine, that we can think through that, that we can see the Lord Jesus Christ humbling itself in this way? Why that we can? Why was it difficult for them? What's easier for us to think of this because we live on this side of the cross. This reality, what the Lord is doing here has been revealed to us by God on this side of and in light of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Where the Lord in an ultimate supreme and matchless way humbled Himself for sinners, sinners like you, sinners like me. The Lord hung there, bore the shame, bore the wrath of God and died for me and died for you, if you're in Christ. So this humility, you gotta see, this humble act foreshadows the greater humility of the cross. This is the Lord Jesus Christ who humbled Himself and died for me and this is why now He is highly exalted with a name that is above every name. It's a picture of the incarnation, isn't it? A picture of the Lord saving work in redemptive history. The Lord sheds His garments in John chapter 13 like He shed the glory that He had with the Father before time began. He girds Himself with the linen towel in the same way that He girded Himself with our humanity. And He stoops, He kneels, He condescends, He humbles Himself and kneels to wash the feet of His disciples as a picture of how He stoops and humbles Himself and condescends to die in love for His own. One so high, stooping so low. And don't miss the point, right? The greatest love is seen in the greatest condescension. The greatest love is seen in the greatest humility. Jesus said, didn't He? Greater love, greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for His friends. It's glorious, isn't it? This is the Lord Jesus Christ who we worship. The Lord who would do this for sinners having loved His own who are in the world. He loved them to the end. This should lead us to worship, to worship. I wanna ask you a question now from this. Do you see in the Lord's act? Do you see in this lesson? Do you see how humility and love are inextricably linked, right? They're pressed together and you can't have one without the other. True love, true love, right? You have kids, you know that movie? True love, right? Genuine love, biblical love is only possible for the humble. Biblical love, the way that we're called to love, right? Is only possible for the humble and true love, genuine love, biblical love is a guaranteed fruit of humility for a humble person that love will be there. If you are prideful, let's say this, the more prideful that you are, the less capable you are of demonstrating this kind of love. So put it together now. The more humble you are, think about it, the less selfish you are. The more humble you are, the less selfish you are, the less self-centered, the less self-indulgent you are, the more humble you are, the less selfish you are, the less selfish you are, the more loving you are. It's just that simple, that simple. The more humble you are, the less selfish you are, the less selfish you are, the more loving you are. The less you are focused on yourself and your own interests, the more that you will be focused on others and esteeming them more highly than yourself and loving them in Christ. Worldly love, by its very nature, to some degree or another, is selfish. There's some consideration always given to with him, right? What's in it for me? However, the Bible teaches us and the Lord Jesus Christ teaches us by this example in John chapter 13 that we are to love in a selfless way. No regard for personal gain. In different to personal desires, we are to love selflessly. We're to love sacrificially. We're to get ourselves out of the way and love as the Lord Jesus Christ loved. Now let me give you an example of the contrast between the two. Now think about it. The Lord is demonstrating this selfless, sacrificial love with his disciples in the upper room that night by washing their feet. It's a picture, it's a foreshadowing of the selfless, sacrificial love in what he is doing for them that will lead him to the cross. And what are the disciples doing about this time? Look back with me at Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22. And I want you to see the contrast between the two. We need to examine this contrast in our own lives. Do we love the way the Lord Jesus Christ has taught us and commanded us to love? Are we paying attention to love sacrificially, selflessly? If you look at Luke chapter 22, about this time, you know, I don't know from the text, I pray that this happened with the disciples before the Lord washed their feet and then that object lesson taught them. And I pray that we don't fall into such selfish sin as this. Look at Luke chapter 22 and look beginning at verse 24. At this time, right, at some point during this supper, verse 24, there was also a dispute among them as to which of them should be considered the greatest. That's happening now in context of the Lord girding himself with a towel, kneeling and washing their feet. Look at verse 25. He said to them, listen, the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them. And those who exercise authority over them are called benefactors, but not so among you. On the contrary, he who is greatest among you, listen, you think you're great. He who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger. Let him be as one to you who has no authority over anything. Right as the youngest, as a child. And he who governs, let him be as one who serves. Verse 27, for who is greater? Now he's gonna expose here worldly wisdom. Verse 27, who's greater? He who sits at the table or he who serves. Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet, right, in contrast, in distinction from that worldly wisdom, yet the Lord Jesus Christ says, in verse 27, I am among you as the one who serves. Now they again know that he is teacher and Lord. Didn't Peter and Matthew 16 declare him? Confess that he was the Christ, the Son of God. Now the Lord here in Luke 22 asks two rhetorical questions and he exposes, with these questions, he exposes worldly wisdom involved in their thinking. Greatness in the world's eyes is being served by others. You have someone here sitting at the table and you have someone there serving him. You have one sitting at the table and one serving him. Who does the world see as the greatest? Or the world sees as the greatest, the one who is sitting at the table because he's being served. But Jesus says, verse 27, yet he says, I am among you as the one who serves. The Lord Jesus Christ did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many, right? He is among them as the one who serves. Christ demonstrated his love for them through humble service. That's how Christ loved. He loved through humble service, giving of himself. Now they're arguing in Luke 22 over who's the greatest. And the Lord Jesus Christ then comes along and in a simple act he revolutionizes their concept of greatness. He redefines it. He redefines it. Whoever would be greatest among you, let him be your what? Your slave. Let him be your slave. This has to grieve the heart of the Lord, doesn't it? To see the disciples, men that he's spent a lot of time with, a lot of time teaching, a lot of time talking to, a lot of time discipling. It has to be grieving to him how they're conducting themselves. At that time, the Lord has said, I'm going to die. I'm gonna be delivered into the hands of wicked men and I will be crucified. I will suffer and be crucified. And they're arguing here in Luke 22 over who's gonna be the greatest on the eve of the Lord's death. No one would humble themselves. In fact, not only are they not humbling themselves to watch the Lord's feet at least, much less one another's feet, not only are they not humbling themselves, they're displaying great pride, right? And then there was Judas. And we'll spend some time on Judas next week. But among this, there was Judas. There was one sitting at the table who would betray him. And the Lord washed his feet too. This is, right, the humiliation of the Lord Jesus Christ, his humility, his condescension, great humility and out of great humility, great love, great love. And the Lord now calls us to look at his example and to follow his example. We're not to strive for worldly honors and worldly acclaim when we have heavenly honors and heavenly treasures laid up for us. We have better honors laid up for us in glory. Now we enter into those honors. We enter into those blessings having been here among one another as one who serves, not as one who has come to be served. Christ-like love expressed here in humble service. I don't know about you, but I've had too many conversations, right, over the years, witnessing to people that, you know, they go to this church or that church or the other church with no concern given to the truth of God's word. And why would you go? God's truth is not being proclaimed. The gospel is not being proclaimed. They're not calling you to repentance and faith. Why would you persist in going to a quote unquote church like that? Because I feel like I'm being fed there. Or I feel like I'm comfortable there. You know, they make me feel good. Or I leave there, I like the preaching. In other words, when you come to church, when you enter into the body of believers that Christ has gathered together, purchased with his own blood, you come as one not who has come to be served, but to serve. You realize when you come to the local church, you're coming to be employed in Christ-like service to other members of the community. God, Christ himself calls you to love them as you have been loved in him. You're employed. This is a place where you come to labor for the Lord, where you work for the Lord, to love your brothers and sisters, to express this kind of humble love for others. This is a call to the one and others. We see that humble love demonstrated by the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to see it demanded. The demand for it, beginning in verse six. Humble love demanded. Now you can imagine, right? As the Lord Jesus Christ enters into this room and everyone is reclined around the table and the Lord himself during supper, he rises and he walks over to the pictures of water. And he walks over to the towel and he girds himself with a towel and he takes the water in the basin and he comes to the feet of the disciples. You can imagine in the room, right? You could hear a pin drop. They would have just been shocked. Silence. I can't help but think that as the Lord is walking over to do that, they know and they know that they themselves have failed to do that or failed to be thoughtful in that way. And I can imagine just great conviction, right conviction having come upon them when they realized what he was doing. Maybe the thought of the conversation they just had flashed through their mind and their mouths are stopped now. Until of course he came to Peter. And we don't know where in the order that Peter was. If he began with Peter or began with someone else. But Peter couldn't take the silence. Peter had to fill the silence with words. He had to say something. You remember when Peter was up on the mountain, the mountain of transfiguration, right? And Elijah had come. And Elijah and Moses were talking with the Lord Jesus Christ and Peter just said, Lord, it's good that we're here. He couldn't handle the silence. He had to say something. So Peter verse six, the Lord Jesus Christ comes to Peter and Peter, you can almost see Peter, right? Snatching his feet back up under it. Lord, what are you doing? Are you washing my feet? Now Peter is incredulous. And basically what he's saying is, Lord, you can't wash my feet. This can't be happening, right? And Peter, trying to wrap his mind, wrap his head around what's happening right now. Peter knows in his heart and mind that he's not worthy of this, right? If you remember Peter in the boat with a catch of fish. Lord Jesus Christ performs that miracle. And Peter, knowing that he's the Lord Jesus Christ says to him, Lord, depart from me. I'm a sinful man. Here's the same kind of effect, right? He knows he's not worthy of this. He knows that he's a sinner. So Lord, in verse six, are you washing my feet? And Jesus answered and said to him, verse seven, what I am doing, you did not understand now, but you'll know after this. Now that's clear from the statement in verse seven that the Lord's not talking about foot washing anymore. Lord's not dealing with foot washing. He's moved from the picture to the reality, from the symbol to the substance, okay? This is an object lesson. And now he's pointing that object lesson to its object. He says, Peter, essentially, you don't understand this right now. You're gonna understand it later because I am going to humble myself to the point of death for you, Peter. I'm not simply Peter going to wash your feet, but Peter, I'm going to bear the weight of your filthy sin on the cross. That's the way that we're to understand this. This act is not prescriptive for foot washing. This act is descriptive for both the necessity, the necessity of the Lord's sacrificial act of humble love, and it's also descriptive for the humble love with which his people are to love one another. Now the Lord does this often. Again, this is not a prescription for foot washing. It's descriptive. The Lord does this often. In John chapter four, John chapter four, the Lord meets a woman at a well. And standing in front of that physical well of water, and she's got her pots there, buckets there, he tells her about living water, moving from the physical to the spiritual, do you see? In John chapter six, he feeds the 5,000 with physical bread, and then he tells them that he is the bread of life. Goes from the physical to the spiritual. In John chapter nine, he restores the sight of a physically blind man having been blind from birth. He restores his sight, and then he talks about spiritual blindness. Now he does the same thing again here, moving from the picture to the reality. The son of man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give himself, to give his life a ransom for many. He's picturing the fact that he's not come here to be served, but he's coming to serve, and serving in the ultimate sense, which will lead him to the cross. Now Peter in verse seven, doesn't understand this at this point. He's gonna understand it later. After the resurrection, right? After the Holy Spirit comes and calls to his mind, he remembers all of these things in light of the cross, then he's going to understand. We understand these things in the light of the cross. That's how we also see them. But the Lord, very interesting in verse seven, the Lord is basically asking Peter to submit to what he's doing now in faith. Peter, you don't understand what I'm doing now, but you're going to understand later. Just submit to it in faith. He asked Peter to submit to it in faith. Let me just make a quick application of this to the Christian life. There is much in the Christian life that maybe you don't understand. You don't see the importance of it. Maybe in your heart and your mind, you rebel against it. You'll understand later. You'll understand later. Trust the Lord and submit to him and do that which God has commanded you to do. I don't know why this is so important. They harp on me coming to small group and evangelizing and being faithful, all these things. Maybe you don't understand some of that. Listen, submit to the Lord. You'll understand later. You'll understand over time these things will be revealed to you. There are often times in the Christian life where you can't, by the Lord's design, by his providence, you can't see clearly the path in front of you. You just need to step out in faith. You just simply need to trust him and obey. And when you trust him and obey, isn't it often the case, you find out later. You'll understand later. You see the blessings of God in it. You see the maturity that came from it, the sanctification that came from it. That we've been through many circumstances like that as a church, right? What in the world is going on here? But then another month down the road, oh, yeah, okay. Thank you, Lord. Right, I see it. Thank you, Lord. That's what's going on here with Peter. Does Peter get it? No, he doesn't get it. Just submit to the Lord in faith, trust him. But in verse eight, does Peter do it? No, the first part of verse eight, Peter said to him, Lord, you shall never wash my feet. Literally, it's never will you wash my feet into the ages is what Peter says there. Never, forever, Lord, are you going to wash my feet? Now, you know, it's very interesting to me in thinking about this, that it sounds humble, doesn't it? Sounds humble, sounds humble, like on the surface. Lord, recognizing him as Lord, recognizes himself as a sinner, but what is it really? It's pride. Yeah, it's pride. This is pride. What was it when Peter said, Lord, I'll never deny you? It was pride. What was it in the garden when Peter went for Malchus's head and got his ear? It was pride. If you think about it in verse eight, true humility, considering what we've considered in the text so far, true humility would have likely just put its head in its hands and wept. But the Lord's humiliation here, his condescension was a rebuke to Peter's own pride. And Peter responds, Lord, you're never gonna wash my feet. So he pulls his feet back. Don't do it, Lord. Peter didn't understand it now, but he would later after the cross, where the Lord's ultimate humiliation for Peter would far exceed this one. Jesus answered him, verse eight, if I do not wash you, you have no part. The word there means assets. You have no inheritance with me, the Lord is saying. If I don't wash you, Peter, you're not going to heaven with me. The Peter knew that the Lord meant what he said and Peter knew what the Lord was saying. And so suddenly, right in a moment, in an instant, all his objections melted away, verse nine. Simon Peter said to him then, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Now, Peter didn't know much at this point, but what Peter did know is that I want Christ. I want Christ. This is Jesus Christ the Lord. He has confessed to him as Christ. He has seen his miracles. He knows him, knows who he is. He wants Christ. He wants to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. So Lord, not my feet only, but also then my hands and my head. Jesus said to him in verse 10, he who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean and you are clean, but not all of you. For he knew who would betray him, therefore he said, you are not all clean. Now here's the lesson from this. If you want Christ, if you want part and parcel with him, and you have to be washed by him, you must be cleansed by Christ or you have no part with him. Nor is there salvation in any other, right? For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. It's Christ and Christ alone. If you're not cleansed by Christ, you have no part with him. And in that, just as Peter did, you have to acknowledge your filthiness. Peter, in his heart, acknowledging I'm a sinful man, but going all the way, acknowledging your filthiness and then acknowledging the Lord's condescending and humiliating, humbling work on the cross for sinners that he came, that he suffered, that he died for sinners. And that, knowing that, is the only means by which you will be clean. Now, what is it that keeps people from doing that? What is it? It's pride. It's pride. Pride keeps people from doing that. You are a filthy, dirty, rotten sinner. Own up to it, right? And don't get offended when someone tells you you are. It's true. I am a dirty, rotten, disgusting, filthy sinner. I've rebelled against God. I was born in sin. My mother conceived me in iniquity. I was born as a son of Adam, rebelling against God, right? Consuming all his goodness to me on my own lusts. And the Lord Jesus Christ girded himself in the dirt of my humanity. And he came humbling himself, taking the form of a slave, being found in appearance as a man. And he became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross to save me. Peter wanted that. What keeps someone from doing that is pride? Admit that you are a sinner. Consider the word of God and its diagnosis of your spiritual condition. You are spiritually bankrupt. Is it gonna be by your own good works that you're made clean? No. Paul says to Titus, in Titus chapter three, verse four, but when the kindness and the 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 how? Through the washing, right? The cleansing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us, just like he poured out that pitcher of water, right? He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our savior, that having been justified by his grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. We're given part with him, assets with him, and inheritance with him. You cannot be saved apart from this washing. You cannot be saved apart from the washing of regeneration. You must be born again. And it was necessary that Christ died. This is this humble love demanded, right? The justice and holiness of God demanded this kind of sacrifice, this kind of love. Luke chapter 24, verse 46 says this, thus it is written and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. Won't you turn from your sin? Right, turn from your sin. Turn from your self-will. Turn from indulging yourself, living for yourself. Turn to Christ, repent of your sin and live for him. Listen to me, young man, young girl, stop living for yourself. You think you've got years and years stretched out in front of you, but you don't. You could die this afternoon. The Lord holds your life in his hands. Turn from your sin, put your trust in him. You who profess Christ and you're not living for him. Turn from your sin. This love that Christ has for his own. He will wash you, he will cleanse you. He will draw you to himself and grant you repentance and faith. Stop living for yourself and live for him who died and gave himself for you. And Peter of course wanted that. He says in verse nine, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. And Jesus said to him, he who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but it's completely clean. And you're clean, but not all of you. This is a great truth in verse 10. You don't need to bathe all over again, Peter. You've just gotten your feet sullied a bit. You've been cleansed already, Peter. Let's just keep clear accounts with God with those feet that continue to keep getting dirty, okay? So many deceived people. So many deceived people that they presume to be saved. They presume to be a Christian. It's presumptuous. And so many genuine Christians today struggle with assurance over their salvation. And Jesus walks up to Peter and says, Peter, you're saved. That's pretty awesome, right? But he just walks up to Peter, Peter, you're saved. But not all of you. There's Judas, right? We're getting to Judas next week. But this statement is for you. If you're in Christ through faith, through repentant faith in him, if you've turned from your sin, you've turned from living for yourself, you've put that life behind you and you're living for the Lord, turning from sin and putting your trust in him, then this statement is for you. You are clean. You're clean if you've turned from your sin and put your faith in Christ. Jesus Christ at the cross paid the debt due for your sin. And when God sees you in Christ, he sees you as clean, right? Not merely forgiven, that's awesome, but he sees you as righteous. Because not only have you been made clean, you've been given the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's been credited to you. And then in verse 10, that cleansing happens when you turn from your sin, put your faith in Christ, but then verse 10 gives us an indication of what the daily life of a Christian should look like. You're clean, you just need to have your feet washed. And what does that mean? What is he talking about there in verse 10? A genuinely safe person, someone who's been born again of God's spirit and subsequently has turned from their sin and put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that safe person still traipses through the dust and dirt of this world. You live in this world. It's not our standing with God that needs to be cleansed or needs to be perfected. It's been perfect. Listen, you will never be more clean than you are right now. If God has cleansed you through this washing of regeneration, you are clean, you're justified, you are made righteous, you are innocent. Some have the thought that because God's forgiveness in Christ is all at once like that and complete and perfect and permanent, some have the thought that they can live without ever being concerned for sin or forgiveness any longer. It leads to antinomianism, antinomianism. Because I am clean, it doesn't matter anymore really how I live. And so that the professing, that's the professing, professing Christian then thinks to himself, well, because I'm in this unrepentant sin, I'm in this willful disobedience. I know what God's word says about evangelism, but you know what? I'm not gonna do it. That's what you're saying with your life. That person who lives in that kind of presumptuous sin isn't entitled to assurance that they've been made clean. It's antinomianism. That person who has continued to wallow in the mire has continued to eat their own vomit, as Peter says. That person isn't entitled to assurance that they've been made clean by God. They're to turn from their sin. If there is an unbroken pattern of willful sin in your life where you say, I want that sin, that's the way I'm gonna live, that's what I'm gonna do, you're not entitled to assurance of your salvation. But that one who has turned from that sin, that doesn't mean they're gonna be sinlessly perfect. You're gonna struggle, you're gonna war, you're gonna fight, you're gonna battle against that sin. The war, the fight, the struggle, the battle is a mark that you are clean. You've been made clean by God. This is practical sanctification over here. That's a mark that you're in Christ. But this kind of thought that once clean, I can live how I wanna live, leads people to be indifferent toward the means in their life that leads to sanctification, that leads to holiness. They become indifferent to God's means to affect their sanctification, do you see? Now listen, it's true. It's true that God's forgiveness in Christ is comprehensive. It is permanent and it is irrevocable. It's true that we have been given Christ's perfect righteousness. And that's that righteousness by which we stand justified. We stand innocent before God. But it's also true. It's also true that repentant sinners have not yet been delivered from the presence of sin in their lives. And a means by which we are sanctified by God is the continuing repentance and confession and asking of forgiveness that is a part of the daily Christian life. It's a means by which God sanctifies us. By which God works in us and through us to remove that daily presence of sin in our lives. It is, if you will, a metaphorical washing of dirt off your feet. Not a washing of your whole body but here specifically dirt off your feet. That's why the Christian life is confessing your sin. Not to a priest, right? What is a priest? Priest is a mediator between God and men. There is no other mediator between God and men but the man Christ Jesus. You're to confess your sin. You're to ask for forgiveness. You're to repent. Turn with me quickly to 1st John chapter one. 1st John chapter one. 1st John chapter one. When you confess your sin, when you sin, you confess your sin. You're not confessing to a condemning judge any longer. You're not confessing to a condemning judge. You're confessing to a heavenly father that loves you to the uttermost. That's who you're confessing to. And the fact that we can do that is a blessed, blessed privilege of the Christian. 1st John chapter one, look at verse five. John says, this is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Now he's gonna flesh out that reality with three conditional statements, right? The first of the three is in verse six. If we say, we have fellowship with him and we're walking in dirt, we're walking in darkness, we lie and we do not practice the truth. This is the truth that we're speaking of here in John chapter 13 verse 10. If someone claims to be clean and they're walking around in filth, they're guilty. Right, they're guilty of two things essentially. They're guilty of being a liar about their Christianity. We lie and they're guilty of not doing the truth. That's what practice the truth at the end of verse six means. They're guilty of being a liar and they're guilty of not doing the truth. They're guilty of doing evil or doing sin, okay? Verse seven. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, number one, we have fellowship with one another. And number two, the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin. That word cleanses there. It's very interesting, it's present tense. It's an ongoing cleansing. Our salvation, our justification is one momentary event where the Lord had justified us. He imputed Christ's righteousness to us. We were declared innocent, we were justified. This cleansing is a present tense. It's forgiveness. It's forgiveness. If you will confess your sin, you have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you, forgives you, so to speak, from sin. Now if you say verse eight, if you say you have no sin, you deceive yourselves and the truth is not in you. In other words, to claim you're a Christian and yet walk in darkness you're a liar and now to claim you have no sin. In other words, to ignore your sin, you're also a liar. In verse 10, you call God a liar also. We'll give verse nine. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Christian living involves an ongoing acknowledgement of your sin. To whom? It's a God, that's right. To him, to Christ. Now two things happen when you confess that ongoing acknowledgement of your sin and that ongoing confession of your sin, two things happen. He forgives our sin and he cleanses us. He forgives us. He cleanses us from all unrighteousness. He removes the defilement, so to speak, that sin has brought into your life. In both forgiveness, in both the forgiveness and the cleansing, God has said to be both faithful and just. Verse 10, if we say that we've not sinned, we make him a liar and his words not in us. So now in summary, think about it, two important truths pictured here. One truth, you're standing with God. If you've repented and believed and you are cleansed clean by Christ's atoning work on your behalf at the cross. Christ has cleansed you from the stain and stench of your sin. You're not clean one day because you did well and then the next day, dirty again because you didn't do as well, because you got swept up with the world or the filth of the world, lust of the eyes, the pride of life. You're not clean one day and dirty the next, you're clean. If you're in Christ through repentant faith, you're clean. But the second important truth, back in John 13, that's depicted by verse 10 is that you must as a Christian turn to Christ again and again in repentance, confessing your sin, asking for forgiveness and that daily, hourly, right? Sometimes minute by minute reality of the Christian life is a means by which the Lord affects our sanctification, by which he makes us holy, by which he makes us more like Christ. So back in John chapter 13, the Lord secured all of this at the cross and his work on the cross was necessary to accomplish it. And it is required of Christians that they acknowledge that through faith, through faith. Theology then, this truth leads to holy living. Doctrine accords with godliness. So then having given us a picture of his own atoning sacrifice on the cross by washing the disciples' feet, Jesus then holds up the picture as a pattern for us of the works that we should do in his name, of the life that we should live in his name. And we're gonna look at that life more in detail next week, humble love directed. Aren't you so grateful to the Lord that he, the Lord of glory would condescend to the safe centers like you and me? That he cleanses us and washes us. And then for the Christian, listen, he loved his own who were in the world and he loved them to the end. And so when you, living the Christian life, struggle with sin and you're battling against sin, but you sin and you sin, when you sin, it's that love to the uttermost, that love in Christ, that love that God the Father has shed or brought upon us that allows you, enables you by the promises of God to go to him, to confess your sin, to acknowledge your sin and to have the promise of God, a forgiveness of cleansing. Just an amazing, amazing blessing from God. What happens often in the Christian life is that genuine Christians who have turned from their sin they're living by faith in Christ, trusting him, they're turning from sin, they're battling sin in their lives, that genuine Christian fails to understand this kind of love. And so we'll live in despair or we'll live in defeat or we'll live apart from this blessed reality. Listen, it's almost as if you're like Peter yanking your feet back, and Lord, you're not gonna wash me in that way. He has and he will put your faith and trust in Christ and when you sin, you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who gave everything to purchase you, your salvation, your redemption, and if you'll go to him and confess your sin, he is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness, Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for these glorious truths, pray that we would live in light of them. God, I pray that if there's anyone here not saved, you for your own glory, for your own namesake would cleanse them, Lord, wash them with regeneration, cause them to be born again, grant them repentance and faith, draw them to yourself for your glory, for your worship, for your praise. We love you, Lord, we thank you for all this that you've given us in Christ. We praise your holy name for it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.