Open your Bibles, please, to John 13. John 13, the next passage that we'll be studying will be John 13, verses 1-20. However, this morning we're only going to look at the first part of that. We're going to be looking at John 13, verses 1-11. So let's read this together. You read silently and follow along as I read out loud. John 13, verses 1-11. Now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come, that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. The supper being ended, the devil having already put 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 to God, rose from the supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Then He came to Simon Peter and Peter said to him, Lord, are you washing my feet? Jesus answered and said to him, what I am doing you do not understand now, you will know after this. Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I do not wash you, you have no part with me. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said to him, 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." Let's pray. Lord in heaven, we ask that You would add Your blessing to the reading of Your Word. We ask that it would be to us as food. And that we would gain spiritual sustenance from what we learned today. We pray, O Lord, that You would help us to focus our minds on the thoughts that Scripture represents. I pray that You would guide me, O Lord, that I would not stray from the clear teaching of Scripture, but that I would only represent what is there and that I would represent accurately and clearly. We pray, O Lord, that You would be glorified in what happens this morning. I pray that as we hear the Word of God, that we would respond to it as we ought to, as its servants and not as its masters. We would not make it say what we want it to say, but we would submit to the commands and the divine principles that we learn from it. All of this, O Lord, we commit to You. We ask that You would be the guiding force, that Your Holy Spirit would impact our hearts and would use the beauty of Your Word in doing so All of this we ask in Jesus' name, Amen. We've been going through miracles. Miracle after miracle. We have miracles of people receiving sight. We have miracles of lame men walking. We have miracles of people coming to life after they've been dead in the grave. Miracle after miracle after miracle after miracle. And then it stops. It stops because Jesus has ended His public ministry. He has ended the part of His ministry where He is out proving who He is to the entire nation, the nation of Israel. He now turns for the next four chapters, chapters 13-17, He now turns to His disciples. He's very, very intimate with them. He's very loving. He's very tender with them. And for good reason, because He knows this. He knows that He is about to die. If you look at the events that we're talking about this morning, we still have quite a ways to go in the book of John, and yet the events that we're talking about this morning, it says, now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come, So this is around the time of the Passover, right before the feast. Judas has already had it placed in his mind by the devil that Jesus is trying to do him wrong somehow, and he's going to get back at Jesus if anything else goes wrong. So we're approaching very close, probably within the last week of Jesus' life, the rest of the book of John will deal. He knows he's about to depart. He knows he's about to die. He knows the gruesome things that his disciples are about to witness. It's one thing to have a loved one pass away. And many of us deal with that. And many of us have a hard time with that. It's one thing to deal with this, but it's another thing to watch your loved one be so brutalized as Jesus was. To be so tortured as Jesus was. and ultimately to be put on a cross where he would be in front of everyone, in the sight of everyone, stripped naked and then suffocated to death. And you as his follower, you as a person who calls himself a friend, has to sit there and watch the whole thing. Jesus knows what's about to happen. He knows the trauma that's about to come onto His body. He knows the death which He's about to suffer. Remember in the last chapter, He even talks about being lifted up. But He also knows the trauma and the suffering that His disciples are going to go through. He knows the doubts and the fightings that are going to be in their hearts. And so for these four chapters, He turns His attention directly to them. And He tries to get a message across to them. What amounts to in these last four chapters are essentially Jesus' last words to His disciples. Now when someone has last words, when they use last words, we tend to remember those things. We tend to remember the last thing that are spoken between us and a loved one who passes away. And if that person knows that they are going, and they have the capacity to share with us the profound epiphany that happens as you are facing death, we listen, we heed. The same thing that happens actually in the book of 2 Timothy. In 2 Timothy, Paul is about to pass off the scene. And Paul writes what amounts to his swan song to his son in the faith, essentially saying, Timothy, these things you have to know. And he leaves with Timothy some very profound advice that has given us aid even to this day. How do we get through troubles in our lives? How do we understand? How do we understand that when things in our lives are not going the way we want them to go, that God is still in control? You say, well, that's easy. We just turn to Romans 8, right? Romans 8.28 says, all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. We understand that all things are purposeful in God's divine sovereign plan. Well, why would you turn to Romans 8.28? Why would you look in this book at all? you know we have some very profound advice from paul in his swan song that tells timothy by the way timothy I'm leaving the scene. But I want to let you know, you can no longer call me, you can no longer write letters to me, you can no longer call on me as a mentor and a tutor. But I want you to know this, that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That you, Timothy, the man of God, may be perfect, completely furnished, completely equipped, to do everything you want to do. All good works. And down through the ages, down through the millennia, 2,000 years just about, we have been taking that advice, we have been heeding that advice. Why? Because those were the final words of Paul. They meant something very, very dear to Timothy, and they mean something very dear to us. In the same way, we have the final words of Christ to His disciples before His death. I want to look at these things today. And what we're going to find as we look at this are three principles of spirituality. Three principles of spirituality. You want to know how to have a real, a truly spiritual life, a truly spiritual experience with Jesus Christ? I think there are three things in this passage this morning that we can glean from, how we can know that we have a truly spiritual experience. I tell you what, this world is full of that word spiritual. People want to be spiritual. We have out here spiritual centers. And we have people saying things like, I'm spiritual, I'm not religious. It seems there's a thing out there that maybe we could call spiritual chic, that it's kind of chic right now. It's kind of the in, the hip thing to be spiritual. I've even heard it on the soccer field. I overhear people's conversations and I hear people say, oh yeah, that guy, he's a great guy, you know, he's very spiritual. What does that mean? What does it really mean to be spiritual? I think in this passage we have three principles that we can follow, that we can learn from, Before we do that though, I would like to go through this passage a little bit and glean some of the truths and just give you a little background before we delve into these three principles. Look at verse 1 real quick. It says that these events that are about to happen, happened before the feast. And the feast was actually just about to conclude. And that doesn't mean that they hadn't eaten yet. What that means is that the whole festival had not concluded yet. So in verse 2 it says, "...and supper being ended." So we know there that it's actually after they had eaten. They had already consumed something. But it says though that Jesus knew that His hour had come. He knew that He should depart from this world to the Father. Now notice the next phrase. It says, "...having loved His own who were in the world." I want to note there that it doesn't say, "...having loved those He had chosen." It doesn't say, they're having loved His apostles. It doesn't say, they're having loved those who were there in the room. It says, they're having loved His own. The interesting thing is that when we look at that Greek phrase, His own, it's actually we find in other Greek writing that this is very much a term of endearment. This is much like we would say, this person is part of my ohana. Even though maybe you don't really have blood relations, but they are so close. You feel so close to them and you feel such a connection and a bond between you and this person, that you tell people that, yeah, this is my cousin. Or this guy is part of my ohana. He's part of my family. This is exactly what they're talking about here, that Jesus loved His own. He had a very close and deep relationship. But with who? It says, His own in the world. Those words are going to mean something very, very serious in a little bit, and I'll get to it in a little while. Then it says, He loved them to the end. Supper being ended, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him. Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hand, and that He had come from God and was going to God. Let's stop right there. I want you to notice that last phrase. It said that he had come from God and was going to God. Who is Jesus? I want you to think about that for a second. Who is Jesus? As we have been going through this book, We've seen him walking on dusty roads. We've seen him eating in houses with people of ill repute, people of good reputation. We find him in the cool of the evening on a rooftop speaking with one of the premier teachers of the land. We find him walking all through this physical world. And perhaps we may forget one fact. Or maybe not forget it, but just for a second overlook the fact that Jesus is the exalted sovereign of the universe, of all that exists. That is precisely what John is trying to get across here. Jesus has an exalted mission. He has an exalted purpose. Notice this. It says, and that He had come from God. That speaks of His purpose. He has an exalted purpose. And then it says in that He goes to God. He has an exalted destiny. He is exalted in every way, the sovereign of the universe. This is Jesus who is sitting before them, and in His mind, as Jesus is there, He knows all of these things. He has these truths in His mind, that I am above all of this. I am the King, and I am not just the King. I am the King of Kings. I am above Herod. I am above Caesar. I am above everything. And that nothing happens in this world that is not ordained by Me. And then down through the ages of history into the future, He understands that even down into the future, nothing will happen that doesn't first go through Him. This is the point that John is trying to make because immediately following this verse we have a very interesting contrast. Start in the middle of verse 3, "...and that He had come from God and was going to God." And notice the next word, the very next word actually continues this kind of exalted and magnificent splendor and presence where He's coming from God and He's going to God and then it says, "...and He arose." And you think, wow. And the picture in my mind's eye, at least, is this king who is bedecked in robes and gold and a crown and so elegant and so beautiful. And I stand in his presence in awe. And as I am kneeling in his presence in awe, and as I kneel there from his throne, he arises. And he looks larger than life. And he looks like this. How could this person even look down on me? But notice, Immediately a contrast follows. He rose from supper, it says, laid aside his garment, took a towel and girded himself. I don't intend to be crass. I don't intend to be flippant in any way. But I think I need to represent to you in as graphic detail as I believe the text indicates. Normally, when a person would take off their garment, they would take off their outer robe, and they had an inner tunic that they would wear under it. The outer robe was for comfort and protection, and the inner robe was generally kind of like what we would wear around, like this. I don't have a big coat on. I don't need the warmth. However, when garments is put in plural, it usually indicates that He didn't take out His outer robe. It usually indicates that He also took off His inner robe. In other words, Jesus knelt there before His disciples in what amounted to nothing more than a mallow or a loincloth. And the reason we know that is because it was a custom of the day that a servant who would come and have to lift this heavy basin and have to do these heavy things, would not be dressed and encumbered in all of his garments and all of his clothes. He would simply be there in what amounted to a loincloth and perhaps a towel, not for covering, but so he could dry off these people whose feet he was washing. And he wouldn't get sweaty and he wouldn't be encumbered. And this is exactly what Jesus did. Notice it's in plural. He removed His garments. Let's go back to the picture here. The exalted Christ. the sovereign of the universe, whose purpose is exalted, whose destiny is exalted, whose place in this universe is exalted, the sovereign king of all things, who I can picture in my mind's eye with the royal robes, rising, being larger than life, takes off his robes, sets them aside, and now is standing there naked, just about, in front of his disciples, in the garments, in the clothes, of a slave." It goes on to tell us why he did this. It says, after that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet. The common practice of the time is when you would go to someone's house, you would bathe, obviously, before you went. They were not able to get into these very clean and sterile cars, dry, and walk on paved roads. They walked through dirt and they had just taken a bath. They were still wet. They would walk out onto these dirt roads and immediately what happens when you walk out onto a dirt road with wet feet? It's not just a little bit of film that develops. What ends up happening is you end up with cake on mud. all over your feet. And you would go to this person's house. Now, mind you, that we talk about customs being Western and Oriental a lot of times. And the Middle East, while it's the Middle East, is still considered an Oriental culture. And they like their floors clean. And when you would go into their house, they would have a servant come around, the lowest slave, who would have to bow at your feet and scrub the mud off of your feet, then dry them. And that way you were clean from your bath, but you were also clean from the dirt of the day. And remember that when they would sit at a table, they had low tables, and instead of sitting on chairs, like we see the picture of the Last Supper, they would actually recline down on one elbow, and that meant your feet were right there touching the next person next to you. You needed to be very clean, and that was this person's job, to get your feet clean. Jesus looks around, no one's doing it, There's no servant there. Remember that when they went to the upper room, it was a borrowed room. They borrowed it from somebody. They weren't actually there to eat with that person, so He supplied no servants. Jesus didn't walk around with servants. They get to the upper room, and now what are they going to do? Someone has to wash the feet. No one's willing to do it. Jesus strips down, puts on the garments, exposes himself in the garments of a slave and begins to do the job of the lowest slave. Verse 6, Then he came to Simon Peter, and Peter said to him, Lord, are you washing my feet? Peter here kind of is very antagonistic against what Jesus is going to do. He's shocked. It's amazing to me that not everyone seems to be shocked. But apparently a lot of them either were in so much shock that they didn't say anything or they were simply caught off guard and their feet were washed and they just assumed it was a slave and they were, you know, busy talking and they, you know, don't look at the hireling over here. He's, you know, don't bother with him. I don't even know who that guy is. And they're talking and talking. All of a sudden Peter comes up to Peter and Peter's not one to ever be at a loss for words. And Peter comes right out and says, are you going to wash my feet? Look at what Jesus says. Jesus answered and said to him, what I am doing, you do not now understand, but you will know after this." In other words, Peter, shut your mouth. You don't know what's going on. That's what he's saying. You don't understand what's going on. Remember when I was teaching high school, and there would be some activity that we were engaged in, and I would tell the students, okay, you have to do this, step one, step two, step three, step four. Don't do it out of order. Do it like this, or you're going to get all messed up. Yes, what's your question? I already know step 1 and 2. Can I just do step 3 and 4? Okay, let me explain again. You have to do step 1, step 2, step 3, then step 4 in order or you're going to get all messed up. But what if you already know step 1, It's at that point that you want to say, as Jesus said, what I am asking you to do now, you do not understand. But there will come a time where you will understand. And anybody, I think, who has ever had to deal with children, understands that. You don't understand what's happening now. But one day you will understand. Peter said to Him in verse 8, You shall never wash my feet. Wow. Once again, Peter, being brash, essentially is telling Jesus, I'm too humble for this, and then turns to the Master and Sovereign, who he claims is too exalted. You are too exalted to wash my feet. So I command you not to wash my feet. Do you see the hypocrisy in his statement? Was that true humility? That's not true humility. Essentially, what he was saying is, Jesus, I command you to let me be humble. You know, a lot of times I think that's how we deal with things. We have a form of humility in our mind. A form of virtue in our minds. And we forget about the spirit that is going on. The spirit of the law, so to speak. And our humility amounts to much like Peter's humility, and that is false humility. If you want to know about humility, think about the last time you actually told somebody you're sorry, and then stop there. Think about the last time you told somebody you're sorry, and then didn't say, I'm sorry. But you know, what you did, that's exactly what Peter is doing here. False humility. It had nothing to do with real humility, and yet he insisted that he was too humble to obey Christ. He was so humble that he must command the Lord of the Universe, His Sovereign, His Master, what he was supposed to do right here. Either a colossal misspeak on Peter's part, or hypocrisy. Jesus answered him very sternly, if I do not wash you, you have no part with me. By the way, when Peter makes his statement, you shall never wash my feet, the you there is in an emphatic position. So when we would read it, we would actually read, you shall never wash my feet. He doesn't say, you shall never wash my feet. He says, you shall never wash my feet. And then Jesus does something that is very interesting because He uses the two pronouns there, you and me and you and I, in a very interesting way. His emphasis is like this. If I do not wash you, you have no part with me. Notice the contrast there. When He says, if I, the first statement, the first part of that statement is I, then you. The second part of that statement is you, then me. You notice that? If I do not wash you, you have no part with me. What is Jesus pointing out here? You know what the point is? It's me, Peter. It's me. The whole point of all of this is me. Don't look at yourself and don't look what you're having to go through. Don't look at what you're having to do. Look at me. Consider me. The two emphatic positions are taken up by the pronouns that refer to Jesus. Then it says, he who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. Jesus starts off by speaking of the atonement in chapter 8, and Peter in verse 9, when Peter misunderstands further, Jesus uses that same metaphor of the washing of the feet, and he kind of changes its meaning a little bit. That's why it doesn't seem to be overly consistent, and it's not intended to be. It's intended for Jesus to kind of switch gears here. Because He says, he who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you. And it says in verse 11 that He knew that He would be betrayed, and by whom He would be betrayed. That's why He said that they were not all clean. Now in these 11 verses that we've just looked over, real briefly, I want to look at three principles of spirituality. And I think when I start to go through them, you will see that these principles are very, very clear. Principle number one is this. Number one is be cleansed of your sin. You cannot be truly spiritual if you have not been cleansed of your sin. Do you remember when Jesus was talking to Nicodemus? And Nicodemus asked the question, what do I need to do to inherit eternal life? Jesus says to him, you can't have a part of my eternal kingdom unless you are first born again. Now that phrase, born again, has taken on a completely different meaning in our society today. I was listening to George Barna, and he said that 80% of the US are born-again Christians. I said, pardon me? Then he went on to define born-again. He says, but only 20% of the 80% are actually evangelical Bible-believing Christians. Well, there goes your whole born-again thing right out the window. The word born-again doesn't mean anything if you're not a Bible-believing Christian. But here, born again, when Jesus in John chapter 3 talks about born again, He goes on to describe, He says, unless a person is born of water and the Spirit. We went through John 3, I'm not going to rehearse the whole thing, because when we went through, we actually talked about the many different ideas, and some people say it has to do with natural birth, but natural birth has nothing to do with that. It's not talking about natural birth, it's actually hearkening back to the Old Testament, where water was used for ritual cleansing. The labor was there and they would wash. And then in the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah specifically talks about being washed our sins as like it was being washed with water. And it's hearkening back to those passages. And we even see beyond that when we look at Ephesians, when Ephesians talks about the church, right? Being washed with water by the Word. And what Jesus is saying is that a person who is going to be born again must first Be born of water. In other words, they must be clean. They must be cleansed. Their sins must be cleansed. And second, they must be born of Spirit. In other words, they need to be born spiritually. They need to have a new life spiritually is what he's saying. New life. You can't be the same old person and consider yourself a born-again Christian. I think Barna needs to change his criteria perhaps. Anyway, the point is that here Jesus uses the same idea. He says, unless I wash you, you will have no part of me. Unless I wash you, Listen folks, every person who wants to find meaning in this life, who wants to find some kind of central, centering idea in this life that actually means something and find meaning in this life, must all come through Jesus Christ and must be cleansed of their sins by Jesus Christ. There is no other way. I've heard people say that, I'll come this way, I'll do this, and I think in the end everything should be ok. Everything should be fine. If I just live an ethical life, that's a good one. Live an ethical life and in the end I'll die a happy man and that's all that matters. We come from apes and we go to dust. And that's all that matters. Well, listen. Somebody who wants to be ethical, who is a Darwinist, believes in evolution, that our ancestors were ape-like creatures, must come to this realization, if they're honest, that if there is no purpose for my being here, that if there is no standard for me being here, that if I came up as a product of natural selection, then there is no ethic. There is no ethic other than kill or be killed. There is no ethic other than do whatever it takes to survive. Why wouldn't I look around the room and say, you know what, why should I go out into the mountains and try and chase a pig and eat that when I could very well shoot somebody right here and eat them? Is there a basis for ethics? Not in Darwinian evolution there's not. There is absolutely no reason for anyone to do anything. There is no ought. There is no ethics. There is no, you ought to do this or you ought to do that, because there is no foundation of ethics. Some people say, well, it's all determined by society. Well, if I distance myself from society, then I can just pick you all off one by one. Right? I have my own society. The only way isn't through ethics. The only way isn't through being good. The only way isn't through living a good life, finding karma, The only way is through the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. Your sins must be washed. Principle number two, if you want to have a real spiritual life, real spirituality is following the example of Christ. That's the point actually that we're going to get to a little bit more next week in verses 12-20. That Jesus specifically says that He wants His disciples to follow His example. What is his example? His example is this, who being in the form of God and thought it not robbery to be equal with God, made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a slave. It was made in the likeness of man. How often have we decided in our own minds that, you know what, I am not going to bow to this person one more time. I'm not going to submit to this person one more time. I won't do it. That's beneath me. I'm too intelligent or sophisticated. Is there any rotten fruit out there? Women, Scripture says that you ought to submit to your husbands. I'm looking for the rotten fruit. Is it coming? Follow the example of Christ. You know what? But I'm smarter than He is. I'm better looking than he is. I'm a harder worker than he is. Why should I submit to him? I'm even more spiritual than he is. Follow the example of Christ. Take upon yourself the form of a servant. Men, Hebrews chapter 13 makes it very clear that you need to be submitting to those who have the rule over you. You know what that means? Hebrews 13 isn't talking about the government, you know. You know what Hebrews 13 is talking about? It's talking about the church. Ah, that kahoot. Every time. Same thing. It says the same thing every week. I tell you what, if your children who are supposed to submit to you, and your wife who is supposed to submit to you, see that you respond to the church and to the government in an unsubmissive way, what makes you think that they're going to submit to you? You've given them the best example. Follow the example of Christ. Follow the example of Christ. The third principle, and I'll be quick with this. First was be cleansed of your sin. Second, follow the example of Christ. And third, rest in His love. Rest in His love. Look at verse 1. You know, so many people try and they strive, oh, I've got to get back in favor with God. Oh, I did something wrong. Oh, no. Folks, it's good to be sorry for your sin, but you have to realize that if you are a believer and your sin has been forgiven, it's already paid for. It's gone. All you have to do is this, 1st John 1, 9, confess. What does confess mean? Hamo lageo. Homo, same, lageo, to say. Say the same thing about your sin that God does and He says He's just to forgive you of your sin. He won't hold it against you. Say the same thing. Some of us get so torn up. Oh, Lord! Please! It's so awful, terrible. You could never forgive me for what I've done or what I've thought or this or that. He is faithful to forgive us. Look at verse 1. It says, at the end of the verse, He loved them. What does it say? to the end. I want to tell you something about those words to the end. It's a word that is actually telos. It means just what it says. It's a completion, the fullness, maturity. But understand this, that John intends, I believe, a double meaning here because he knows he's going to die. Jesus knows he's going to die and he loved them to the end. He loved them through Peter's denial. He loved them through all of them running away. He loved them through all of that to the end. But also it has another meaning because telos can mean to the full extent. He loved them as much as He could love them. Now I said that these words here in verse 1 were gonna have some significant meaning. It says, He loved His own who were in the world. He didn't just say to the apostles or to the disciples. Rather, what He does is He takes a statement that is a term of endearment and then just absolutely opens it up to all ages. Because who are we and where are we? We're the loved ones of Christ in the world. Therefore, how does He love us? He loves us to the end. He loves us till it's all over. He loves us to the full extent. As much as He can love us, He loves us. And as you look around and you see these horrible, terrible things that are going on around us and you say, how could there be anything good in this? We have to know, despite all of that, God loves us to the full extent. In closing, I was listening this week to a man named Dr. Wilder Smith. Dr. Wilder Smith has three earned doctorates. He has a doctorate in pharmacology from the Netherlands. He has a doctorate in pharmacology from Denmark or someplace else. And then he has a PhD from the University of Reeds in England. Bright guy, really bright guy. I'm listening to this thing and he said, the problem, why we have drugs, why we have drug problem. By the way, the drugs he was thinking about wasn't crystal meth. The drugs he was thinking about was cocaine and heroin. And he's talking about our brain and our bodies and how they function. And he said our stomachs are used to process fuel. Our digestive system, they process fuel. They put it into a usable form. They make sense of this chaos. You know, you look at the label of this food and you see it has this, this, this, this, and this, and this, and this, and they have to break it all down. You know what? You throw that into your stomach, you throw that into your mouth, and as it goes through your digestive tract, your body makes sense of all of that. Puts it where it belongs. It makes sense of all of this. He says, what people don't realize is that chemically, your brain makes sense of thought. In other words, when something happens, your brain processes that and gets all of this information from your senses and says, this is why it happened, this is what happened, this is what's going on, Makes sense of it all. Finds a purpose. Finds meaning in information. Information by itself is nothing, right? Information by itself is just useless. But it gives meaning to information. Think about this. For the last 50 years in our country, what have we been telling kids in our schools? We've been telling them, you know what? By chance, without purpose, without intelligence, without design, everything came to be. There is no reason for this world to exist. There is no reason for this place to exist. There is no reason for you to exist. You know what the mind does with that? The mind freaks out. The brain freaks out. He even said, he's a British guy, he said, it kind of has a trip. And he says when people are processing information for purpose, and they are finding no purpose, Then they lose hope. And when they lose hope, anything goes. An example of that was a ferry that was in Indonesia, and the ferry was sinking. Many of these men who were on it, it was overloaded. Many of the men who were on the ferry were drowning. And there was an American girl on board. And as these men are drowning, Some of them, as they were going down, as they were dying with their last breaths, were groping her and molesting her. Why? Because if there's nothing else to live for, then just go for whatever you want right now. And folks, that is precisely the place that our world is in today, where there is no hope and anything goes. What do they need to know? They need to be able to rest in the love of God. There is a purpose for us being here. There is a reason for us being here. And we must rest in the love of God. Let's pray. Lord, I thank You for Your Word that is so clear. I pray, O Lord, that You would take these thoughts that I have shared this morning and that You would allow them to sink in And if I have misspoken anything, O Lord, I pray that You would somehow divinely erase those thoughts from people's minds, that it would not lead them astray. I pray that You would be our guide, that Your Spirit would guide us by Your Word. I pray that we would test all things by Your Word, by the Scripture. We pray, O Lord, that You would be glorified in all we do. In Jesus' name, Amen.