Wanted to say a quick thank you for allowing me to come this evening. It's kind of funny thinking about it because I actually never talked to Joseph this last time. It all happened over just text messaging. I just randomly got a text message from Gross and he asked, hey, how you doing? The next thing, I'm doing pretty good. Hey, can you come over and teach for us? And the reason I think that's funny is I don't keep in contact with him, you know, on a weekly or even a monthly basis. So, you know, here I am in a totally different city and your pastor sends me a random text and says, can you come? And there's two things I thought about when that happened. I say, you know, this is good. I mean, this is a good opportunity. I'm not going to refuse, you know, any chance to go preach the gospel for sure. I'm going to take it. The reason I laugh is I tell my wife, either Joseph is really in tune with the Lord and knows that he can, he can trust this 24 year old guy who he doesn't talk to, but you know, more over two times a year. I told my wife, you know, from the last time I'd seen Joseph, who knows? I mean, I could have, I could have started a cult. I could have, I could have gone so far in the other direction. And yet he's still, so I take it one way. He's either really in tune with the Lord and he knows that the wisdom that has been given to him from above in asking me to teach that's of the Lord or he's totally of the opposite. And I choose to cling to the first one, though. I trust that your pastor is a good guy. He's he's he's in tune with the Lord. And that's it's always a joy to come to a place where where you do have a leader like that. And so I wanted to thank you. It's it's a really awesome privilege for me to be here tonight. I'm not just saying that because that's what every speaker says when he comes. But from my heart, really, thank you for letting me occupy your pulpit for tonight. Let's go to Lord in prayer, though. Father, we thank you tonight that you are on the throne. Thank you for the work of redemption in Christ that you have so wondrously wrought for your people. And even tonight, you're at work, not only here, but throughout the world, gathering a people for yourself. gathering a bride for yourself, calling your sons and daughters from afar, calling them out of the North and the South and the East and the West and awakening faith in them to see the glory of your son and Lord to one day bring us all home. To behold, to treasure, to savor your glory, to see you exalted above all things, And tonight we pray that you would indeed exalt your son in our midst. Lord, I am so weak and so. I ask you right now what I've already asked in public and in private that I need. Your assistance tonight and. I know my brothers and sisters need grace, Lord, to open their ears, their hearts, Lord. And one thing we talked about a while ago is just taking our eyes off of ourselves, taking our eyes off of everything worldly and setting our eyes upon the Lamb and His glory right now, to see Him enthroned in the heavens with the 24 elders before His feet, with the four living creatures with all the myriads and myriads of angels before him. Lord, let us see that tonight. Exalt your son in our midst for his sake and for the good of your church. In his name we pray, amen. This evening, we're going to fix our gaze upon a subject that, according to dear brother Spurgeon, said was a subject that is worthy of an angel's tongue, that it's a subject that needs Christ himself to expound it. And I'm in full agree, full agreement with that, and Personally, it's a joy and an honor to direct your hearts and minds and by God's grace your affections this evening to the gospel of the glory of our blessed God as We gaze upon the cross tonight, which is the centerpiece of our faith I mean this the cross is the the center of all history everything we The world was created so that God could demonstrate His glory in the work of redemption in Christ. This is the whole reason for being. And I want to encourage you tonight. The last time I came, I pleaded with you as a church, I believe it was back in September, to not stray away from the gospel, to not stray away from the cross. To not see the cross and to not see the gospel as something of an entrance into Christianity. Christianity 101 or whatever you want to call it. That the cross is something you understand. The gospel is something that you understand and grasp. And then you move on to bigger and greater things like the study of the end times and the study of what's going to happen. And there is nothing greater than the cross. There is nothing greater than the Son of God descending from heaven's glory to take upon human flesh, to bear the sins of his people and to drink the bitter cup of God's wrath, his righteous wrath, and then rising from the dead three days later and sitting himself at the right hand of God as the new covenant mediator, as the intercessor who pleads on the behalf of his people. There's nothing greater than that. The mentality is that you get over that and onto greater things. And I want to tell you something, that heaven doesn't get over the cross. Heaven is quite loud about the cross. You read about it in the book of Revelation. There's a reference to the Lamb of God about 28 times. You'd think you'd be focused in the book of Revelation of this prophecy and that, and that's all good and great. But don't lose sight of what heaven is centered on. The lamb standing in the midst of the throne as though he had been slain. The 24 elders falling before the throne, the angels falling before the throne and singing, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive blessing and honor and glory and praise and riches. Heaven doesn't get over it, so let's not get over it. Let that be the sun of our solar system of our life, the very thing in which we revolve around. The gospel is for Christians. Romans 1, verse 15, Paul says to the church at Rome, I am eager to come and preach the gospel to you, which is a very strange thing in contemporary American Christianity today. As I mentioned a few months back, You'd think that, no, the gospel is for the unbelievers. The gospel is for the lost. Friends, the gospel is for the church. As long as we have this thing called sin indwelling, remaining in us, we need the gospel. When I wake up in the morning feeling as though every sin is upon my head, feeling so like a worm before God, I need this blessed news that the Son of Man, the Son of God has come and has taken my place, has exchanged my sin for His righteousness. He took upon my sin and in return He gave me His righteousness so that before the throne of God I don't have to shrink back. I don't have to be ashamed. You know, there's so much talk today about you know, with all the faith healers and, oh, it takes faith to do this and faith to do that. And, you know, the strongest evidence of your faith is that you would call somebody forth from the dead. And I would submit to you that what takes the greatest act of faith is to wake up in the morning or to get on your knees at night and to go to the throne of God, almighty, all-glorious, all-satisfying God, and to know that your sin is gone. It takes more faith to look in the mirror and to see yourself and to know that there is a God who has clothed you with his righteousness so that before his throne, you can stand with boldness and confidence and to find grace and to help in time of need. That's what takes the greatest amount of faith. Because if you're honest with yourself, when you're alone with God in the dark, you know what you are. At least you should know what you are when you're alone in the dark with him. I know what I am. And I don't want you to think today that I'm some great man of God who's come from, you know, cross land and sea to come and mightily throw my blessing upon you. I have nothing apart from God. As I was preparing for this week, you know, I kept saying, Lord, I'm not even worthy to speak your name, much less to preach for an hour about you. What justice can our words do in proclaiming such a glorious one as this blessed son? There's no such thing, as I've been learning, as great men of God and high and mighty, awesome men of God. There's no such thing. If you hear that, stop yourself. There's only weak, pitiful, faithless, inadequate, men and women of merciful and gracious and patient God. The word great can only be ascribed to one. So be careful when you exalt men. You know, read Isaiah chapter two, the end of it, and you find that man is nothing more than a nostril full of breath. That's all he is. And that breath doesn't even come from him. It comes from God. And so, my prayer this evening is that God would use such a foolish, immature one as myself. And I'm sure there are much more mature Christians in this room who are much more mature than myself. And the glory of it all is that God uses such worms to proclaim his gospel in order that he gets the glory for himself and that no man can touch the ark and say, I had a hold on that, no. So, as we gaze upon the cross tonight, upon which the Prince of Glory died, my desire and my prayer is that God, by his Spirit, would expound this to your hearts and minds and leave you with affections that burn for the Savior Our text this evening though is gonna be found in John chapter 13. John chapter 13. The 13th chapter of John, beginning in verse one, we read, now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his garments and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, Lord, you wash my feet. Isn't that the cry of every penitent sinner? It's like, Lord, you, the Holy One, the righteous one, you're gonna touch me? Remember Peter, when he was in the boat with him and he saw the Lord's glory, Peter said, depart from me, I'm a wicked man, don't even touch me, you might become defiled. That ought to be the cry when we're awakened to our depravity, when we're awakened to our sin. Lord, how could, and the glorious thing about it is, is he's the only one that can stretch out his hand and touch the most unclean and yet remain so pure and so glorious and so righteous. And so Simon Peter says, Lord, you wash my feet. Jesus answered him. What I'm doing, you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand. Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I do not wash you, you have no share with me. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said to him, the one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you were clean, but not every one of you, for he knew who was to betray him. And that was why he said, not all of you are clean. When he had washed their feet, and put on his garments and resumed his place, he said to them, do you understand what I have done to you? We're going to stop right there tonight. Beloved, we have in this text before us this evening a glorious picture of the gospel of the grace of God You see, throughout Scripture, especially in the Old Testament, we see shadows and pictures and illustrations of that which was to come concerning the salvation of God that would come through the person of his Son. I think of one right now, you know, Noah's Ark. Christ, in the book of 1 Peter, is referred to as our Ark, the Ark of God. The same way that Noah's ark protected those who were in the ark from the justice and wrath and righteous indignation of God. The same way Christ, for those who are in him, will shield and protect them from the coming judgment. And so in the same way that the waves beat and bruised that ship, that ark, So too our ark was beaten and bruised as he provided the salvation and shelter and deliverance for us. There's just one illustration. David in the 22nd Psalm, you can remember, in that Psalm we're given a fascinating illustration of the Messiah's suffering as we see him despised by men and forsaken by God. It's described in such a way, is it not, that you can almost hear the mocking and the scorning and the ridicule from the bloodthirsty crowd. We see Christ in Psalm 22 surrounded by his enemies with none to help. We see his hands and feet pierced by the nails that have fastened him to the cross. We see him hanging, stretched, suspended between heaven and earth, naked and humiliated while his garments are divided among his enemies. We see his life poured out like water, his bones all out of joints. His strength says he's gone. Gives us such a detailed picture of that. And finally, at the end of it, we see him bow his head in the dust of death as David calls it. Of course, one of the more familiar passages of scripture depicting the substitutionary death, the substitutionary sacrifice of the Messiah is Isaiah and the 53rd chapter where We see the Christ of God marred, as Isaiah says, marred beyond human semblance, despised and rejected by men. We see him wounded, crushed, pierced, chastised and punished, not for his sins, for he had none to be punished for. but for the sins of others. We see Jehovah, I believe it's verse six around there. We see God Almighty laying our iniquities upon him and then leading him like a docile lamb to the slaughter. Again, I believe last time I alluded to the scapegoat of the Old Testament, the same way that the high priest would transfer the sins of the people onto the goat and drive him off to the wilderness to wander and just die. And the same way, God the Father laid his hands, as it were, on the head of his beloved son, transferring the sins of his people. And in the same way that the scapegoat was driven outside the city, we read in the book of Hebrews that Christ also suffered outside the gates of the city for us. And so we see the picture of the son of God carrying that cross, but beloved, it's so much more than just carrying that cross. He was carrying the full weight, dreadful weight of our sin. And that is no light thing. When you think of it, when you really take the time to think of... the anointed one of God, carrying the full weight of our sin. It's dreadful. Think about, as some of you who have been renewed by the grace of God, you're new. You don't have the same perspective on sin. It's not that you're refraining from sin because you want to be made right with God. It's that you're avoiding sin because God has created you new. You have no desire for it. There's no satisfaction in it. But those times that you do fall back and fall down, and you blatantly turn your back upon your Savior, you know the guilt that you feel for that one sin before God. You feel like you were the most unclean leper on the face of the planet for that one sin. That almost has the, the capability of ruining your day, just knowing how filthy you are because you went back for that one sin. Well, imagine the shame that the Christ felt as he bore not just that one sin of yours, but every sin that you would ever commit, every sin that this person ever committed. Imagine the weight he felt, the shame before a holy God He bore our sin, as Isaiah says. These are just a few pictures that foreshadowed the coming salvation of God. And our text this evening in John chapter 13 is another beautiful picture of the gospel of our salvation. And that's my intention tonight is to show you how this passage of, you know, as it's typically referred to as the foot washing. This is a picture of the salvation that God provided from first to the last. In it, John 13, we see our blessed Emmanuel serving the undeserving, the ill-deserving, the hell-deserving. And is that not what the gospel is? Is that not what the good news is? Is that the Son of God descends from heaven's glory to serve those who should have been serving Him? He comes to serve those who who should have been honoring and serving him. Here we see him serving the undeserving, the ill-deserving, the hell-deserving, and that's the gospel. And it's no wonder to me, as I thought about that, that Paul refers to the gospel as a mystery. A number of times in the New Testament, the mystery of the gospel, the mystery of Christ, the mystery of this salvation, you know, he refers to it as a mystery. Because it goes to a certain point where you dive into the unsearchable riches of Christ. You begin to search out the gospel. You begin to study the substitutionary atonement, all the aspects of redemption, and you get to a wall. And that wall is just, why? Why? There's mystery in it. Why did he do it? He didn't have to do it. The angels fell and God did not spend them a savior. He was not obligated to send us a savior. He was not out there. There was nothing in us that said, oh, wow. Wow, now I have to send them a savior. There was nothing in us that could have ever provoked him to do such a thing. He did it out of the own, out of his own free and sovereign will. As Ephesians calls it, the good pleasure of his will just to do it. For in doing so, he would get glory for himself. But it's a mystery. If the gospel that you've embraced personally, if the gospel message that you've embraced doesn't leave you with this questioning in you of, this is amazing. How can this be true? What love is this? There's an old hymn, what wondrous love is this? that caused the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul. What wondrous love is this? If the gospel that you've embraced doesn't leave you astounded and at times dumbfounded, wondering in awe at the grace and mercy of God that he's poured onto such a vile and unclean creatures as ourselves, know that the gospel that you've embraced is not the gospel of the Holy Scriptures. It might be the gospel of so many contemporary so-called Christian movements today, but it's not the gospel, the scripture, the true gospel, the true gospel. And I'm ashamed to even have to use the terminology. We live in a day that I have to actually say, well, the true gospel, because there's so many gospels out there. Second Corinthians chapter 11, I believe it's verse four, says that there's another gospel out there. Galatians one says that there's another gospel out there. If this mysterious gospel is not the one that you've embraced, it could very well be that you are still in your sins and on your way to damnation, on your way to hell. I don't say that because I want to be mean. I say that because it's true. I don't wanna see you on that last day and say, he never took the time to share the true gospel with me. He never challenged me. We get so offended today when somebody challenges our conversion, the genuineness of our faith. When Paul, the apostle himself says to the Corinthians, examine yourselves to see whether or not you're in the faith. We see it because of our pride today as an insult. He's judging me. Could it be that the pastor's asking you these things because he loves you? Because he wants to see you on that day next to him in joy and glory to hear the Lord say to you, enter in to the joy of your master. It's we should receive it as as. Receive it, thankfully. Brother, did you see something in me that may be challenged that the fact that I'm saved, if so, what is it? Well, I need to take that to the Lord. I need to get rid of that thing in my life. The gospel ought to leave us changed, but talking about the gospel, if this is not the gospel that you've embraced, it could be that you're still lost. You go to church, you sing the songs, but it is indeed not well with your souls. You have not surrendered all. To you, it's just a thing to do, because everyone else is doing it. Test yourselves in the light of scripture to see whether or not you're in the faith. As Peter says, make your calling and election sure. We can be wrong about a number of things, I will say that. But to be wrong about the gospel is, the consequences are dreadful. We don't have to agree on our studies and eschatology and the end times. We don't have to agree on everything. We don't necessarily, we're not gonna be condemned if we're wrong about a few things there. But to be wrong about this is dreadful. That's why I challenge you. Know the gospel, study the gospel. Now, back to John 13, prior to this moment, prior to this foot washing, Jesus had continually spoken to his disciples concerning his death. In fact, you remember that Peter at one time rebuked the Lord for talking about his coming death. He says, Lord, don't even talk like that. This shall never happen to you. He takes the Lord to the side and says, stop talking like this. He continually reminded the disciples, the time is coming, the time is coming. And isn't it true that when you enjoy somebody so much or you're loving something so much, knowing that it could end is just you keep telling yourself, no, no. Well, that time is now. In John, chapter 12, he tells them. The time has come for the son of man to be glorified. He mentioned in John chapter 12, his soul being troubled. He knew that the time had come for him to be made sin on our behalf. God was going to make him sin. When we sang one of those, the hymn a while ago, and it says that my sin, not in part, but the whole was nailed to the cross. We think that here's Jesus on the cross, and then here's the sin, you know, on the corner of the cross or on the bottom of the cross, or that the sin is somehow separate from Jesus on the cross. No, when we say that our sin was nailed to the cross, Jesus became our sin. Jesus became sin on our behalf. Second Corinthians 521 tells us that. For our sake, he who knew no sin was made sin on our behalf so that we in him might become the righteousness of God. He just didn't, it was more than him bearing our sins. He became our sin. You remember in Romans chapter eight, it says that God condemned our sin in the flesh. He condemned our sin in the flesh, whose flesh? The flesh of the son of God. He condemned our sin. He dealt with our sin in the person of Jesus because he had become our sin. He talked about that he knew that the time had come for him to be made sin. He knew that for the first and only time in history, the blissful intimacy between him and his father would be broken. as he bore the sin and became sin on our behalf. All of this is going through his head now. He knows that this is the time has come. The one who never did anything but please his father would be crushed by his father. As he stood condemned in the law place of sinners, he knew that what he was about to experience as he became the substitute for a multitude that no one could number was going to be exceedingly dreadful and horrific. He knew that. God, the righteous judge, was going to deal with his son the way he would have otherwise if it were not for his grace dealt with millions and millions in hell. God was gonna deal with his son as if he would have dealt with me if it weren't for his grace in hell for all eternity. He knew all this. The suffering that he was about to experience that would last a few short hours would be equivalent to what millions upon millions would have experienced through all eternity in hell. Jesus was about to drink the fierce and bitter cup of God's righteous and holy wrath. Why do you think he trembled and pleaded for an alternative when he looked inside that cup in the garden, knew what he was going to drink? And he says, Father, if there's any other way. And that moment, Hebrews chapter five, I believe tells us that, or chapter two tells us that when he's contemplating these things, he offered up strong crying and tears. My sin caused the Savior to tremble. My sin caused him to fall on his knees. The one to whom all people will one day bow on their knees was now on his knees because of my sin, because of your sin. The one who never had any reason to tremble or sweat in anxiety and in terror, great drops of blood as it were, was now because of my sin and sinner, your sin, trembling now in the garden. He was going to drink the cup of God's wrath. Again, read Psalm 78. You read about the bitter cup of God's wrath. Read Jeremiah 25. God says to Jeremiah, I'm gonna make the nations drink of the cup of my wrath. They're gonna stagger and be crazed, and they're gonna die, he says, as they drink the cup. All throughout the Old Testament, we find this cup, this cup, this cup. And it's almost as if the cup is just bringing, getting closer and closer and closer on the table to the Son of God. And so when he said it was finished, it was as if he was on that cross tipping that cup over and not a single drop was left. He endured it all. The wrath of God that will one day cause generals and nations to hide in caves and plead with the rocks to fall on them to crush their minds and brains from the fierceness of the wrath of the lamb. Yet that lamb endured the wrath of God for millions. That's the gospel. He knew all of this was going to happen. He knew that he was about to drink the cup. He was about to drink the fierce and bitter cup of God's righteous and holy wrath so that millions upon millions would not have to drink it in eternity, even though we all deserve to drain it down to the dregs. That's what Psalm 78 says, that he's going to make the wicked of the earth drink that cup and they're going to drain it down to the dregs. That means, you know, it's a wine term. There's going to be nothing left. The full justice of God will be executed. Not a single drop of justice will be wasted upon his enemies. You read Deuteronomy chapter 32, and he's the God of vengeance. Yes, he is the God of love. Yes, he is the God of grace, but he is a just and holy God, and he is a God of vengeance. And he says, I will take vengeance upon my enemies and those who hate me. And so knowing all of this, rather than shrinking back in disgust From those whose sins he was about to bear, rather than leaving and departing from those in whose place he was about to stand condemned, we read, he loved them. He loved them. Sorry, it doesn't say that. It says he loved them to the end. He loved the one who would soon betray him. He loved the one who would soon deny him. He then took a towel, poured water into a basin, and washed the disciples' feet. Knowing all this, knowing that, think about it, the hands that would soon tremble in the garden as he prayed for an alternative, the hands that would soon be in shackles, the hands that would soon be nailed to a cross, are now gently and tenderly washing the feet of those whose sins he was about to bear. Yes, the feet of those who, upon his arrest in the garden, would all flee from him and abandon him and leave him alone. He was about to wash their feet. And he loved them to the end. How did he love them? By washing their feet. You see, what a perfect example he is of John's exhortation in his first epistle. Brethren, he says, let us not just love in word, And in our words, oh, I love you. He says, let us love indeed. And in truth, let's love by our actions. And here's the Savior giving us the example. He didn't just say to them, I love you guys. I really do. No, his love was manifested. His love was demonstrated in that he interrupted dinner, rose up from supper to wash their feet. knowing that those feet would soon leave him and run from him as the prophecy and Zachariah would be fulfilled. God says, I'm going to strike the shepherd and the sheep are going to scatter. And they did. And that prophecy was fulfilled. Now. He loved them to the end, those who would do that. I mentioned that my intention in choosing this passage of scripture as our text this evening was to show you how this passage is an amazing picture of the gospel in its entirety, the gospel of grace in its loveliness. And with God's help, we're gonna do that now. I'm gonna highlight some of the phrases in this text and expound them for you. And may the Lord give us eyes to see and ears to hear. First thing I want you to notice about our text and how it's a picture of the gospel is I want you to notice the son's consideration in the third verse. And it's almost like the apostle takes us directly into the mind of Christ, where before washing the disciples feet, he considered how the father had given all things into his hands and had given him authority over all flesh. Think about the son's consideration. All things are mine. The son, the heir of all things. Hebrews 1 says that God has appointed him heir of all things. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. John chapter 17, he says that all authority over flesh. I have that authority over everyone. his consideration, knowing this. Knowing this, considering his position as the son of God, knowing this. I don't know about you, but I ask, then why? Why? Why go and wash their feet, knowing that? Why serve those who should have been serving you? Why? Knowing that every mountain is yours, every star in our galaxy is yours, every angel and seraphim and cherubim is yours and they exist to give you praise and glory and fall before your feet and declare how lovely you are. Knowing all this, why? And again, here's the mystery of the gospel. But brethren, I want to take you back further than this consideration in his mind. I want to take you back to another time when another consideration within the mind of God took place. I'd invite you to go with me to a time before the world existed, before the angels existed, before time existed, when it was just the triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all equally one, all glorious, all wonderful in their persons, all distinct, but one God. Go with me to a time referred to by the theologians as eternity past. Think of God in all of his fullness, all of his greatness, all of his loveliness, all of his glory, and all of his beauty. He is self-sufficient, meaning he needs nothing. God never has, does not presently, and never will need anything. He is the great I am. for him to need, for him to have a need, he would cease to be God at that moment. He just is. He has no need. He is self-sufficient. He needs absolutely nothing. He is satisfied, complete, perfect. And brethren, he is happy beyond your wildest imagination. Does that shock you that God, the God who created this world is so incredibly and infinitely happy? He's referred to in the New Testament as the blessed God, which can be translated in the Greek as the happy God. The gospel of the glory of the blessed God is like saying the gospel of the glory of the happy God, the God that needs nothing, and yet there is good news of what he has done. This gospel, the happy God, it gives us a picture of this, God that needs nothing, He is happy in Himself. He is supremely joyful in the fellowship of the Trinity, each person beholding and expressing His eternal and unsurpassed delight in the all-satisfying perfections of the Triune God. The Father looks joyfully at the Son and sees His glorious reflection, all that is lovely, all that is pure, all that is righteous, all that is good, all that is excellent, all that is true, all that is virtuous, all that is just, all that is upright and blameless, and all that is perfect. As Hebrews tells us, the Son is the exact image, representation of the Father. And so, the father looks at the son and sees all that is glorious. He sees the reflection of himself. The son looks to the father and joyfully delights in all that he is. And the Holy Spirit determined and dedicated to glorify and exalt the Son who is the complete and perfect image of the Father. That's his ministry read about in the Gospel of John, that the Spirit will glorify me, Jesus says. He will honor me. He will exalt me. And so you see this love and this intimacy and this joy within the Trinity. Think about that. There's nothing that he needs. what harmony, what joy, what love, what unity within the blessed Trinity. The angels are then created to sing the praises of this glorious God. And then man is created and man falls, man rebels. Man is now born in sin and has a love affair with sin, and it is a deep, deep love, according to Jesus. Men have loved the darkness, he says, and that word for love is agape. Men have agape love, but it's for sin. I should say unconverted, lost men have an agape, and it is for the darkness, Jesus says in John chapter three. Man is now in love with sin, He wants nothing to do with God and everything to do with sin and self. Oh, he may want religion to feel good about himself, to feel like he's done his Sunday duty, but it's all for him still. It's not for the Christ. It's not for the all-glorious God. Now, before all of this happened, Imagine the time in eternity past when God, in his infinite wisdom, considered providing salvation for those who would want nothing more than to dethrone him, enthrone themselves so that they could live the way they wanted to. Imagine the consideration to send this creature deliverance, justification, acceptance, to send them an invitation to be to enter into the joy. Within the blessed Trinity, imagine that consideration, imagine that plan first being devised into the mind of God is if we can if we can say such a thing. Think of the time, if we may, when the Trinity. When within the Trinity, it was determined that the son of God would be the one to descend from heaven's glory, to enter into time, to be confined to a dark womb within a virgin for nine months, to be born in a manger, to live among sinners, to one day bear the sins of millions, to actually become sin, to be despised and rejected by men and by God, to be spit upon, to be laughed at, to be scorned, to be beaten, to be bloodied, to be bruised, to be broken, to be nailed to a cross and crushed under the fierce and righteous wrath of almighty God so that millions of sinners and God haters could one day enter into the joy of the blessed Trinity. Imagine when that plan arose in the mind of God, that the son would be the one who would bear their sin and give them his righteousness. What a glorious exchange it was. Brethren, look at John chapter 13 and consider, look at Jesus, considering his position as the son of God before washing the dirty feet of his disciples, and then see him in eternity past in the blissful, intimate joy of the Trinity, considering that he needs nothing and that all things are his, and yet considering the plan of the all-wise Trinity to one day come and cleanse millions of God-haters from their sins with his royal blood. As you see him in verse three here, considering that all things are his, go back a little bit further, a lot of it further, to the time when he first considered that. Close your mind. When we see him considering that all things were his before humbling himself and washing the disciples' feet, we should be reminded of the time when God considered that he needed nothing, that all things were his, that he could have continued through all eternity beholding and expressing his eternal and unsurpassed delight in the all-satisfying perfections of the Trinity and not having to break that fellowship when his son would be made sin and punished on our behalf so that we could enter into that all-satisfying intimacy with him for all eternity. Think of that. When you see him here contemplating in his mind, all things are mine, but I'm going to watch them go back further. All things are mine, but this is the plan that I'm going to execute. Close your mind. There's the mystery of the gospel again. Considering his exalted position as the son of God, he proceeded to wash the disciples feet. Considering the bliss, the joy, the love, the uninterrupted intimacy and fellowship, the glory within the Trinity, the praises of all the angels, God proceeded to send us a redeemer, a deliverer, one who would bear our sin and in turn give us his righteousness so that we would stand righteous before God. and experience that joy that the Trinity has experienced and will forever experience, that we would enter into that joy. He sends us a Redeemer to serve us. And how did he serve us? He served us by living the life we could not live, and by dying the death we should have died. That's how he served us. He lived the life we could not live, and He died the death we should have died. You see, be careful when you just focus on the death of Christ. The life of Christ is equally important because when He lived a perfect life, what was He doing? He was working out a salvation that would be acceptable to God, that God could take that righteousness and give it to us. He worked out our righteousness. He lived the life. that God perfectly delights in in order to give us that life through the great doctrine of justification. So that's what he did. He lived the life we could not live and he died the death we justly should have died. The second thing I want you to notice in our text is not only the son's consideration, but the son's dissension, his being brought low. He didn't just consider his exalted position and the fact that all things were his. He actually rose up from supper, we read. took a towel, found a basin, filled it with water, knelt down and washed the feet of his disciples. This is true dissension. And by dissension, I mean that he he lowered himself. The son of God lowered himself to do this. And you already know where I'm going with this. Think of the time in heaven when he as it were, rose up from that supper to come and serve us down here. He considered that all things were his, and after doing so, it's as if he rose up from the right hand of God to descend and lower himself and serve us. Isn't that amazing? That's another glorious picture of the gospel right there. Notice that phrase, though. He rose from supper. Supper gives us the idea of fellowship, of intimacy. You know, in Revelation chapter three, he says, you know, I will come in and have supper with you. I will fellowship with you. And it's as if Christ left that intimacy, that joyful event of heaven and heaven's glory to rise up from that and to come and serve those who should have been serving him. Go to the time when He rose up from sitting at the right hand of His Father, in whose presence is fullness of joy, and see Him descending the steps of the throne to come to this earth. Think of the time when God said, it is now time for the Word to become flesh and dwell among men. Think of that descending of God's Son. Think of the angelic host gazing upon their king in confusion and silence and wonder as he makes his way, as it were, out the gates to assume the place within the womb of a virgin. And there's actually an old hymn concerning that very idea called, Let All Mortal Flesh Be Silent. And the whole hymn is about heaven's reaction to the sun descending the throne and leaving heaven's glory to come and serve the undeserving. You can almost see it. One verse of the hymn goes, rank on rank, the host of heaven spread this vanguard on the way. It gives the picture of all the troops of heaven just in a line, making an aisle down the gates of heaven. And here's all the angels covering their faces, the millions of angels there are. And here's the Son of God descending the throne and walking out to serve us. Rank on rank, the host of heaven spreads its vanguard on the way, as the light of light descendeth from the realms of endless day. Third thing I want you to notice is, and we're gonna spend some time on this, the sun's humiliation. the son's humiliation. He descends, in a sense, from his place of power and authority in order to humble himself and serve his disciples. And brethren, I want you to see the bigger picture here, too, again. He considers, all things are mine. I need nothing. Nothing can add to me to make me more glorious. I need nothing. But I'm going to descend. And the third thing, I'm going to humble myself. I'm going to humble myself. He humbled himself. Paul says that though Jesus was in the form of God, he did not consider it. He didn't count equality with God something to be grasped, but he made himself nothing. The one to whom everything is due made himself nothing. He then tells us that he took the form of a servant and was born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death on a cross. He humbled himself, my dear brother Spurgeon, who's, you know, I love him. He once said that that phrase, he humbled himself, can be the summary of the biography of the Lord Jesus. That can be the summary of his whole life. He humbled himself. Think of that when your heart raises up and wants to be proud with your wife or with your husband or with your children or even with God. I didn't do that. Think of the son who humbled himself. Not just, his whole life was an example of humbling himself. Notice how John describes his humiliation with me now. It says, he laid aside his garments. He laid aside his garments, took a towel, tied it around his waist, poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with a towel that was wrapped around him. Now, he considered all things are his, yet he descended. He then humbled himself. Look at that little phrase. He laid aside his garments. What a picture again of what took place in heaven. As he descends from the throne, which as one preacher said, would make Solomon's throne look like paper mache. As he descends from that throne, it's as if he's descending, laying aside his heavenly garments, laying aside his heavenly glory, laying aside all the praises of heaven. He laid aside his garments. What a picture. What a picture. He laid aside his garments. He laid aside his heavenly glory to clothe himself with our earthly shame. He laid aside the praises of angels to listen to the cruel blasphemies of men. He who was clothed according to the Psalms with splendor and majesty is now naked on a cross. The only thing covering his body is his blood and perhaps the spit, the saliva from his enemies. He who once dwelt in unapproachable light is now drowning in the darkness. The hands that once stretched out the heavens are now fastened to a cross. Think of Isaiah chapter six when Isaiah sees the Son of God. And I say that because John chapter 12 says that Isaiah indeed saw Jesus in Isaiah chapter six. When he sees heaven just filled with the train of his robe, just this heavenly robe that fill all there is to fill. He laid that robe aside to serve those who should have been serving Him. Don't separate yourself from this. This is not some separate thing happening. Here's the Lord doing this. He's doing this because of your sin that often looks so precious in your eyes and you go for it like a fish goes for the bait. That sin that Satan disguises and makes it look so beautiful and so attractive and so promising. He did this for that sin. This is not some separate thing from you. This is our sin. This is our sin. But think of Isaiah chapter six. You know, the train of his road filled the temple. He laid that aside. He laid that aside as he descended and humbled himself. I want to read you a passage from a 16th century preacher. He says, concerning the humility of Christ, that Christ should come from the eternal bosom of his father to a region of sorrow and death, that God should be manifested in the flesh. The creator made a creature that he that was clothed with glory should be wrapped with rags of flesh. that he that filled heaven and earth with his glory should be cradled in a manger, that the power of God should fly from weak man, you remember, when the God of Israel, when he fled into Egypt when he was a child, that the God of the law should be subject to the law, the God of the circumcision, circumcised, the God that made the heavens working at Joseph's homely trade as a carpenter, that he that binds the devils in chains should be tempted, that he whose is the world and the fullness thereof should hunger and thirst, that the God of strength should be weary, the judge of all flesh condemned, the God of life put to death, that he that is one with his father should cry out of misery, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? that he that had the keys of hell and death at his girdle should lie imprisoned in the sepulcher of another, having in his lifetime nowhere to lay his head, nor after death to lay his body, that that head before which the angels did cast their crowns should be crowned with thorns, and those eyes, purer than the sun, put out by the darkness of death. Those ears which hear nothing but hallelujahs of saints and angels to hear the blasphemies of the multitude. That face that was fairer than the sons of men should be spit on by those beastly wretched Jews. that mouth and tongue that spake as never a man spake, accused for blasphemy, those hands that freely swayed the scepter of heaven, nailed to a cross, those feet like undefined brass, nailed to the cross for man's sins, each sense annoyed, his feeling or touching with a spear and nails, his smell with stinking flavor, being crucified about Golgotha, the place of skulls, his taste in his mouth with vinegar and gall, his hearing with reproaches, and sight of his mother and disciples bemoaning him, his soul comfortless and forsaken, and all this for those very sins that Satan paints and puts fine colors upon for us." That's the son's humiliation there. The next thing I want you to notice is not only his humiliation, but within his humiliation, look at verse 5. He washed. He washed. Here's the action taking place now. He washed. He considered. He descended. He humbled himself. And he accomplished the work. He washed. He washed us. And think of this, knowing what Judas would do, knowing what Peter would do, he washed. But more importantly, brethren, knowing what you and I would do and how you and I would act and how you and I would live, he washed us. Knowing this, he washed us. This is the whole point of Romans chapter five, verse eight. God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still, while we were yet sinners, while we were yet God haters, Christ died for us. Every one of you, apart from the grace of God, apart from your conversion, every one of you was a God hater. Every one of you. If that's not true, then Jesus is a liar. John 3.20 is a lie that says that men have loved the darkness and hated the light. The light is God. Romans 1.30 says that we're all haters of God prior to conversion. Luke 19 gives us the idea of sinners kicking and fighting, saying, we hate this king. We will not have him reign over us. You may have loved a God that you created in your own mind, but that God was not when you were saved, or after you were saved, if you were to compare it, it was not the God of the scriptures. And so what Romans 5, 8 is saying is that while we were, as it were, with ropes, throwing them to the throne of God, trying to shackle His hands and feet to dethrone Him, murder Him, and set ourselves on the throne. Is that not what our lives say? Is that not what sinners are saying, essentially? What unconverted sinners are saying in their lives prior to conversion? I'm my God. This God who has told me to repent, He's a liar. How do I, my life is saying he's a liar, how? Because I'm not repenting, so I must believe that he's a liar. If I believed him, I would repent, but he's a liar. That's why 1 John talks about us making God a liar when we don't believe the testimony of God's son. For those of you who are not following the Christ, for those of you who have not forsaken your sin and have run to the cross, run to the throne of God, what you're saying by your life is that this God, he's lying. He's lying. He didn't really make all those promises of forgiveness and justification and come unto me all you that weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. He's lying. That's what comes from our lives. It may not come from the lips of man, but it comes from the lives of men. And while we were doing that, while we were trying to shackle this God and dethrone Him and take Him off that throne and set ourselves upon that throne, while we were doing that, Christ descended, humbled Himself and bore our sin and died for those very sins that we were committing and those very sins that we loved. That's good news. That's the gospel. Let us not depart from that. He considered all things were his and yet he rose up from that supper. He rose up from that heavenly fellowship and he says, I'm going to descend. I'm going to humble myself. I'm going to take off these heavenly robes and I'm going to get down and wash. He came to serve. Remember in the gospel of Mark, he says, the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. That's what I came for, is to serve. To serve the undeserving, the ill-deserving, the hell-deserving. To serve. And in what way did he serve us? Well, he served us first and foremost by living the life we could not have lived, the righteous life we could not live. He served us by living the righteous life that God delighted in so that God could take that life and impart it to those of us who repent and believe. He served us by living for God and working out and purchasing our righteousness before God. He then served us by not only burying our sin, but by becoming our sin. You know, the idea of serving gives the idea of a waiter doing something for you though you don't ask for it. When you go to a restaurant, you don't ask the waiter to come and introduce himself and to come and ask you if you want something to drink. He just does it. But how much more the servant of all servants coming to serve us by living the life we could not have lived and would not have lived rather, but also by burying our sins, carrying our sins upon him, becoming our sin. He served us by, according to Galatians chapter three, verse 13, by becoming a curse for us. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. What does it mean to be accursed? Study that. If you want an interesting study that's going to keep you up all night and perhaps weeks trying to grasp it, study that. What does it mean to be accursed of God? What does it mean to be under the curse of God? And to sum it up, to be cursed of God is to be under the fierce and furious wrath of God. That when God deals with you on Judgment Day and casts you into the lowest part of hell, all of heaven will rise up and Praise God for executing his justice against such a criminal as you. You see, sinners are not victims, they're criminals. We before, many of us who are now converted, prior to our conversion, we were not innocent victims of a fall. We were in a sense, but guess what? We didn't mind being victims of the fall. We weren't trying to fix, we weren't trying to get rid of our sin, we were running to our sin. You see, in Revelation chapter 16, when God casts his judgment upon the ungodly, in Revelation chapter 16, when we see the wrath of God and the execution of his justice being poured out onto the ungodly, heaven and the altar, it says, is saying, righteous and true are your judgments, O God. They deserve it. Read it. I'm not making this up. Revelation chapter 16, it is what they deserve. It is just for you to do this. It is good because they hate the good. They hate the light. They will not come to light because their deeds are evil. They are not victims. They are criminals. They want nothing to do with you. And so heaven applauds as God executes his judgment upon those who hate him. So what does it mean to be accursed? That's what it means to be accursed. And guess what? Christ became that. Christ became what I should have become. He became the most vilest, the most unclean thing that has ever walked and ever will walk this earth. He became that in order to redeem us from having to go through that. When you really sit down to think about it, brethren, when you really sit down to think about it and dive into these things, You don't care so much to be used by God anymore. You just want to be found in Him. Lord, I don't care about being used anymore. I don't care about doing this. I just want to rest in knowing that this has been done for my soul. And yet, those are the people that end up being the most used by God. He redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming that curse for us. You see, when in Matthew chapter five, Jesus says to love your enemies, he gives us an example of how God loves his enemies. He says, he makes his son to rise and he makes his reign to fall on not just the good, but the evil, his enemies. In other words, how does God love his enemies? How does God love those who want nothing to do with him outside those doors, and maybe perhaps some of you today? How does God love you? This is how he loves you. He made the sun come on your flesh today, give you, you know, the comfort, the warmth. Some farmer, though this farmer back in Pakistan wants nothing to do with the triune God of scripture, though he wants nothing to do with him, God in his love sends rain to his crops as a demonstration of his love. He gives them sunshine for his crops. Where am I going with all of this? The sun was withheld from the son of God that day. which tells me that if the sun came and rose, rather God caused his sun to rise on Judas and the Hitlers and the Mussolini's and all the people that are killing people in Juarez right now. all the worst of the people on this planet, if God still loves them in such a way that he makes the sun shine upon them, what happened on that cross when for three hours darkness came over the land? It was as if God was saying, I know I caused my sun to shine on Hitler, and I know I caused my sun to shine on Judas and on Caiaphas, And I know I caused my son even to shine on the devil himself. But what he has become today is so exceedingly dreadful that I'm not going to shine my son on him today. He drank what we should have drank. Notice the effect of him washing us. Look at verse 10. He leaves us completely clean. Completely clean. The one who has been washed, the one who has been bathed doesn't need to bathe again. He may need to wash his feet, but he is completely clean. Giving a picture of what God does when he gets a hold of a sinner. He imparts the righteousness of Christ He has dealt with their sin upon the cross, has left them completely clean. They may get their feet dusty, but they don't have to bathe again. They've been bathed already in the fountain of Emmanuel's blood. And so, he leaves us completely clean. I'm almost done. But notice verse 10, verse 12, I'm sorry. It then tells us that after he washed us, he put on his garments and he resumed his place. Think of the bigger picture again. After he completed a perfect and complete redemption and atonement and propitiation, for those who did not deserve it. God exalted him and has given him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. God has exalted this Jesus whom you crucified. God has made him both Lord and Christ of all. He's seated at the right hand of God and what happens? What's on his garments again? Only this time he returns with scars in his hands and his feet. And the best of all is he resumed his place before the right hand of God. I have a high priest who's interceding for me, that when I fall and when I stumble before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea. A great high priest whose name is love, whoever lives and pleads for me. He now stands as, he sits rather, as the mediator between God and man. He resumes his place as the exalted son of God, able, willing to cleanse those who come to him. He says, those who come to me, I will in no way drive them away. He stands as the high priest and intercessor and mediator of the new covenant. Brethren, I don't think we realize what it means when we read that we have a high priest before God. When I'm having the worst of days, when I feel so filthy and so wretched, I can step outside of Justin and get away from how I feel and realize that...