In this sermon titled 'Our Pride and Christ', Pooyan Mehrshahi explores the weaknesses and difficulties that Christians face, specifically focusing on the struggle with pride. He emphasizes the challenge of accepting God's unconditional love and highlights the counterfeit humility that often disguises pride. By examining the dialogue between Jesus and Peter during the foot-washing, Mehrshahi reveals the remedy for pride lies in surrendering to God's grace and continually receiving His love.

Dear friends, I mentioned to you before that we begin a short series of studies for this period of time, holiday season, and I have entitled this series, The Weaknesses of the Christian. The weaknesses, the difficulties that the Christians face. And so the message this evening, it is for the Christians, it is only for true believers in Jesus Christ. It is only true born again Christians who can make sense of it. But if you're not a Christian, dear friends, you prayerfully listen.

You ask the Lord God to apply His Word to your heart as well. All of us, as I said the last time, all of us who are true Christians possess certain barriers, certain things that it seems to stop us, it seems to stumble us, the things that prevent us from fully, if I could use this term, fully embrace the Lord Jesus Christ in our lives. Are there certain things that hinders you? Well tonight's passage found in this 13th chapter of John, it revolves around the Lord Jesus Christ and our struggle with pride. So we could entitle this message our pride and Jesus.

It's our stubborn refusal to acknowledge ourselves as God sees us that hinders us. It's actually acknowledging ourselves as God sees us. This is the thing that hinders us. It's truly challenging to accept and continually receive a love from God for the Christian to be receiving a love from God that isn't based on our usefulness, isn't based upon our beauty. It is difficult for us to receive a love from God that isn't based upon your attractiveness.

How good you are, how productive you are. To put it differently, Do you find it difficult to believe that you, I'm speaking to you Christians, do you find it difficult to believe that God actually loves you unconditionally? That He takes pleasure in you regardless of your usefulness to Him. None of us are useful to God. There is Nothing in us that he needs us for anything, the scripture says.

But that, dear friends, can become a struggle for us. That he takes pleasure in Christians, in those for whom Jesus Christ died, He takes pleasure in you, regardless of your usefulness to Him. Can you grasp that? Can you grasp the notion that The King of the universe, the creator of all things is willing to cleanse you and then by His Spirit to indwell you. Can you compute that?

Can you really grasp it? Who can? We at times sing about what could wash away our sins. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing.

But Jesus' blood can wash away our sins. But do we truly embrace that truth? That God loves you, dear Christian. He delights in you. He washes away your sins.

Do you take that? Yet as someone wrestling with faith I constantly ask myself as Muffin asked as a pastor how can I move these truths from mere knowledge to heartfelt belief? But look at the apostles. We repeatedly encounter the words from the Lord Jesus Christ or the word from the God, they did not understand. They knew not.

They did not comprehend. They did not understand. Nevertheless, when we examine history, we see that God used these men, minus Judas, with the addition of the apostle Paul. He used these men to transform the world. They turned that known world upside down.

That was the accusation that was made. You think about Thomas. Thomas traveled to India all the way there and then he was pierced by the Hindus, by a javelin. This man who we say, oh he doubted. Some sermons back, many months ago, I spoke about the faith of Thomas, that he wasn't the person who just would take people's word for it.

He wanted to know the Lord Jesus Christ himself personally. He wanted to experience the Lord's presence with him. But that was Thomas. He traveled all the way. Do you know how many miles it is from Jerusalem to India?

How many months? How many years did it take for him to get there? Andrew, he spent his days and died in the lowlands. Peter went to Jerusalem and Rome and John, he played a role in establishing the seven churches in Asia Minor and then he was cast on the Isle of Patmos. God employed these men to change the course of history, these men who the Lord says, ye do not understand, ye of little faith.

How did this happen? How could they do such work for the Lord? There was a resurrection. These men at this point in time had not experienced the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost empowering these disciples with divine strength.

That's what they had now. However, I also believe that the words that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to his beloved friends, words close to his heart, took root in them. The Word of God penetrated deep and was implanted in them. The Gospel of John can be divided into two volumes. It was chapter 1 through to 12.

That's the book of signs, we could say, signposts to Jesus Christ, representing Jesus Christ's public ministry. And then chapters 13 to 21, it's the book of, we could say, the book of glory. In these last chapters, the Lord Jesus is no longer addressing the masses, rather it's put in this intimate setting with His disciples. There was the upper room discourse that you have in chapters 13 to 17. It contains significant instructions.

Most entirely, they are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. It outlines their mission. It outlines their purpose and why they endure suffering for the sake of the gospel. So with the remainder of our time, I want to focus on the dialogue between the Lord Jesus Christ in verses 5 through 8 with Peter. Specifically, I'll explore two aspects.

When we think about our weakness as Christians, this aspect of how, of pride's evil twin and the remedy for pride. Because pride is one of the things, dear friends, that Christians find. It weakens them. Weaken their walk with the Lord. It is the thing that bothers us and causes us great grief when we come to realize this.

And so how can we overcome this damaging trait? How can we heal from the grip of pride? And so there are two things I want to say. First, pride's evil twin or the dark twin of pride. So first and foremost, let's delve into the sinister counterpart of pride.

Look at verse 2. We find ourselves In a dinner setting, if I could put it like that, the Last Supper, while the famous painting of Leonardo da Vinci portrays the Lord Jesus Christ and his disciples seated on this long table, historical accuracy would suggest that it was actually U-shaped, a round table, just lying a few inches from above the ground. Don't believe all the paintings. They are mostly inaccurate showing an effeminate Jesus. Same goes for any films of him.

But dear friends, usually before the meal commenced, The host would assign usually a gentle slave to wash the guests feet. It was an arduous task reserved for the lowest ranking servants. In ancient Palestine, roads were unpaved and the travelers feet would accumulate dirt and grime from the same past shared with animals. You think about this. Consequently upon reaching their destination after a journey, their feet would be repulsively dirty and unclean.

Now think about this passage. It says in verse 2, and supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon sent to betray him. Then moving to verse 4, he rises from supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself. Here in verse 4, As they began their meal, the Lord Jesus Christ unexpectedly rises from his seat in an act that defies cultural norms for a rabbi, because he was treated, he was referred to as a rabbi. The Lord Jesus Christ removes his outer garment and he takes his attire and he takes the position of a slave.

He wraps a towel around himself, his waist. He fills a basin with water to the amazement of the disciples. Moving from disciple to disciple. This goes from one to the other. He proceeds to cleanse the filth from their feet, from their toes.

Would you do that for anybody today with all of our, the fact that we have shoes on our feet? Would you do that? But then when he But then when he reaches Peter, we see this resistance. Look at verse 6. Then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?

Look at what he says. Lord, are you going to wash my feet? Do you wash my feet? Understandably, Peter is hesitant to have his master, his Lord Jesus, to kneel before him. He should be kneeling before the Lord Jesus.

But the Lord Jesus is kneeling before him. And to remove the dirt and all the impurities with all the smell of it from the feet of Peter. And the Lord Jesus responds in verse 7. He says this, Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now, but that thou shalt know hereafter. You don't grasp, he says, you don't grasp the significance of what I am doing now.

You have no idea. But in time, later on in time, you will understand Peter. But Peter, he remains steadfast. He doesn't understand it. He's stubborn.

And he says in verse 8, Peter said unto him, thou shall never wash my feet. You're not going to do that. Absolutely not. I insist, he says. And he actually uses what we call a double negative for those of you who like grammar, he uses double negative to convey the firmness of his refusal.

He says, you will not not wash my feet. Not now, not ever, not for all eternity. You will not. There is never a chance that you will wash my feet. Now I want to pause here and speak to you about what I call counterfeit humility.

Counterfeit humility. That's the twin, the evil twin of pride. Counterfeit humility. Let's address this critical question. Is Peter's resistance to the Lord Jesus rooted in genuine humility?

When he is so adamant and he declares this, thou will not wash my feet. No, thou shall never, ever wash my feet. Is it a display of true humility or is there something else at play here? It becomes evident, friends, that pride can often disguise itself as a virtue such as humility. This is the dark twin, this evil twin of pride, counterfeit, false humility, a deceptive disguise worn by pride itself.

Peter also struggled, friends, with this issue is not unique. It is a problem that plagues us all. We can pretend to be humble, and yet underneath there can be this pride. One Puritan put it, beware of false humility, it leads to self-righteousness. Another Puritan says, humility is the robe of all the sons of God and the distinguishing character of a true Christian.

Humility is the only way to glory. True humility never desires to show itself because it intends to hide not only other virtues but above all itself. The same Puritan says hypocrisy is the ape of all virtues. Even pride itself puts on the cloak of humility. You know the Pharisees love to demonstrate this kind of humility, this false humility, this counterfeit humility.

People today can do the same. All of this virtue signaling that goes on is a form of this. You have the Pharisees, they were the religious leaders during the time of the Lord Jesus. You have it recorded in Matthew six, and I'll read the two verses for you. Matthew six and verse one, our Lord Jesus Christ said, take heed that ye do not your arms before men to be seen of them, otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

Therefore when thou doest thine arms, do not sound a trumpet before thee. So when you're giving to charity, when you are doing a charitable work, don't make a big show of it. Don't go around with a trumpet saying, look at me, look at me, I'm doing a good work, I'm doing a charitable work. As the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets that they may have glory of men. That's it.

They won't say, will you glorify me? But they're actually doing it for that purpose. Verily I say unto you they have their reward. They have their reward in this world. People think these people are holy people and humble people but ultimately in eternity they will be shown for what they really are.

And religious people, dear friends, I can be like this. You can be like this. Don't fool yourself. I shouldn't fool myself to think I can't fit into this category. This is our weakness, dear friends.

So in that passage, the Lord Jesus Christ is criticizing the Pharisees for false humility, as they would be doing these acts of charity and righteousness to gain public recognition and to gain public praise. The Lord Jesus Christ said, do not seek for the praises of men. We should be worried when men praise us, when the ungodly praise us. The world, the Bible says, the Lord Jesus Christ, the world hates you if you are a Christian. The world would not want to have you in their sight if you are a child of God, if you are living a holy life.

That's what they did with the Lord Jesus. If you follow after the Lord Jesus Christ, they said that they would hate you also as they have hated me. But these Pharisees, they would make a show of their generosity, seeking admiration and accolades from people, rather than doing these good deeds out of a genuine love. And so the Lord Jesus Christ said, they are hypocrites. They show compassion for others or it's an act of obedience to God and yet it is only for a show.

It is like these multimillion people who own so much and yet they go, they use their jet planes and they travel so many miles somewhere saying, do not fly because that would leave a great carbon footprint for you. Well, the hypocrites, their actions were driven by desire for self-glorification rather than a sincere desire to serve and to help others. And the Lord Jesus Christ points out that this false humility is not pleasing to God. It's warning against seeking earthly recognition as a motive for doing righteous deeds. And so, dear friends, true humility involves a sincere and humble heart that seeks to honor and serve God.

That's the main thing. To honor the Lord above everything else. It doesn't matter what people think rather than seeking a validation from others. If I do any kind of virtue signaling, I should be removed from here. So when Peter comes and Peter pulls back his feet, Peter insists, not my feet, definitely not my feet, not here, not now.

I don't deserve this. I don't deserve this. To be in your presence Lord, to receive these things. I can't accept it from you. I can't let you do this.

That's the attitude in which, and that's why Jesus comes very powerfully, very sternly against what Peter was saying. And because he sees pride here. He sees pride attempting to masquerade as humility. Pride is cleverly, clever. Pride cleverly avoids kneeling.

It refuses to bend the knee. Yet, At the same time, pride also refuses to display weakness. For Peter, like many of us, it's a challenging thing to fully embrace God's love on his terms. Jesus was showing his love on his terms to his disciples, setting an example to them and to love them, but he wasn't prepared to take the love of God on God's terms. And that's challenging.

To receive and continually receive and simply resting in God's care and God's love and God's charity with open and with empty hands. That's hard because we want to earn it. We want somehow to say the Lord did this for me because I deserved it. And that's pride. If we were to be honest with ourselves, we would all, like Peter, retract our feet.

We too would pull our feet back. In our relationship with God, Aren't we often like Peter with the Lord Jesus, pulling back our feet? We might enthusiastically proclaim our readiness to teach Bible studies and to serve the needy and to give generously and to show hospitality to our neighbors, all for Jesus Christ, all for God. But when faced with humility, this humility of God kneeling before us, offering His care, offering His love, offering His affections towards us, and inviting us to continually receive it, we too might find ourselves uttering, thou wilt not wash my feet. You are not going to do that.

I should be doing it for you. You can't serve me. You'll never do that. We might prefer to be the ones to be washing the feet rather than allowing our feet to be washed. I hope you get what I'm saying.

I hope you see what is happening here. It's something very subtle that's happening. And the Lord Jesus sees it and He then confronts it, even though not everyone around were understanding what was happening, the Lord knows the heart and the intentions of the heart. Do you see yourself like Peter struggling? Struggling with pride?

Remember Peter once said, Lord, I would do anything for you. I would do anything for you. I would die for you. Yet now he's hesitating. He's saying, no, no, I'm not going to do this.

I'm not going to allow you to wash my feet. Never. And this inner conflict echoes within each one of us. For the Lord to love us because he loves us. That's electing love.

For the Lord to love us not because there is anything good in us and for us to receive that without a sense that I must do some sort of performance, I have to perform, I have to be productive? Jonathan Edwards said this, the more excellent something is, the more likely it will be imitated, referring to humility. There are many false diamonds and rubies, but who goes about making counterfeit pebbles? However, The more excellent things are, the more difficult it is to imitate them in their essential character and intrinsic virtues. Yet the more variable the imitations be, the more skill and subtlety will be used in making them an exact imitation.

So it is with Christian virtues and graces. The devil and men's own deceitful hearts tend to imitate those things that have the highest value. So No graces are more counterfeited than love and humility, for these are the virtues where the beauty of a true Christian is seen most clearly. We can easily counterfeit love and humility, " he says. So there is this issue, this matter of counterfeit humility.

And I mentioned to you, and I will go on to speak further about the struggle to receive, this fight to receive. Isn't it the most challenging battle of your life? This fight in the depth of your heart to receive and to continue to receive a love that is not contingent on our usefulness, that is not based upon your beauty, your attractiveness, your productivity. This is the fiercest kind of conflict that plays out within us. Just like a handicapped husband, day after day has nothing to offer back to his wife and must live in that vulnerability.

We too have nothing to offer to deserve God's love. We make more work for Him. And then He says that He will spend the rest of eternity to make intercession for us. It's amazing. You think about it.

And the Lord Jesus Christ makes it clear in verse 8. He says this, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. If I don't wash you, you have no share with me, no inheritance with me. You cannot be my disciple if you don't let me wash you." And the question that confronts us this evening is, will you, if you're a Christian, if God has saved you and he has given you that assurance that he died for you, will you allow the Lord Jesus Christ to cleanse you, to love you? Will you permit the Lord Jesus Christ to be the agent of your purification?

Can you humble yourself for Jesus to wash your feet, to let him kneel before you and wash you? Does this narrative resonate before you and within you? Does it expose the games that we play and our tendencies to move away from God? Isn't it the saddest story? Have you ever thought of this as a sad account?

And I believe that we grasp the depths of this if we meditate on this. We have witnessed all that the Lord has done to reveal His fatherly care for us. That He demonstrates His love towards us in this way. He commends his love towards us, the Scriptures, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Can we grasp that?

To keep us, to know us, to cherish us, to purchase us, to redeem us, to free us from all condemnation that we can say in our heart of heart, I am not condemned. I am not condemned because Jesus died for me. Yet despite all these demonstrations of his love, we find ourselves mirroring Peter's struggles in our hearts. Isn't this familiar to you? Isn't this why there are times that you struggle with assurance because you see your sins, you see your issues, you see your weaknesses.

And instead of accepting that Jesus died for me with all of these things, with all of my issues, He sees, as Cromwell puts it, warts and all. He sees all of my blemishes and yet he loves me. But we can't accept that. So then we say, no, he can't love me because it depends on what I do. It depends on how productive I am.

It depends on a certain sort of standard that we impose upon why should Jesus Christ love me. Then you pull away your feet and say, no, my feet is too dirty. Isn't this familiar to you? If only you understood truly how much God in Jesus Christ loves you, dear Christians. It would propel you towards Him.

It would say, wash my feet. Lord, I will allow you to love me with all of my heart. Even in the face of all of my weaknesses. It would compel you to embrace his care, embrace his love, To live within that realm of divine affection, John Owen the Puritan, he wisely states, he says, and I quote, you have such difficulty believing God loves you, so you can no more, I'm sorry, so you can no way more trouble God or burden God than by your unkindness in not believing of it. He's explaining that what grieves God the most is your refusal to accept His love because He desires communion with you above all else.

That's what He desires. And the thing that grieves Him, you won't let him. You won't accept his love. So just like a child who hesitates to approach a parent if they think the parent is disappointed or reluctant to accept God's love hinders the deep communion that God longs to have with us. Thou shalt never wash my feet, never say that to the Lord Jesus.

That sums up the first point. The deceitful, the evil twin of pride, this counterfeit humility that exists. So then secondly, the remedy for pride. The remedy for pride. They that know God will be humble, John Flavell says.

And they that know themselves cannot be proud. They that know God will be humble and they that know themselves cannot be proud. They that know God will be humble and they that know themselves cannot be proud. So Let's look at and explore the cure, the medicine that the Lord Jesus Christ offers us for our pride. What is it?

We must receive, dear friends, and we must continue receiving His amazing grace. Amazing grace. If we only understood that. The amazing grace of God. We started in verse one, didn't we?

Now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. We are learning here that the Lord Jesus, knowing his time to depart from this world to the Father has come. He loved his own that were in the world. He loved them to the fullest extent, to the end. So this Last Supper goes beyond a mere example for them.

And when the Lord Jesus Christ says that He loved them to the end, to the uttermost, It is encompassing not only the end of his earthly life, but also the full breadth of his perfect love. That's what it means. When he tells Peter in verse seven, then he says, what I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. When he says, what I am doing here right now, you don't understand it, Peter. Don't try to understand it, Peter.

But Afterwards, after a time, after a season, you will understand. I will show you what I am doing." And here he's referring to the events following his death and he's referring to his resurrection. The Lord Jesus Christ, friends, in this dramatic act of washing the feet, He is encapsulating the entirety of His redemptive mission. This is what I have come to do. I have come not to be served but to serve.

I've come to lay down my life. This is a picture of it. I've come as a slave, as a servant. He's washing their feet. His love is not merely demonstrated by humbling himself to cleanse their feet.

It extends further to his ultimate act of humility, his sacrificial death upon the cross. And in a sense, the Lord Jesus is conveying to Peter, wait until tomorrow. Wait until tomorrow, Peter. For I am not merely pouring water to cleanse the dirt from your feet. I'm pouring out my blood tomorrow to cleanse you from your sins that are so bright red sins.

And I will wash them away with my bright red blood. To cleanse you from all of your sins, all of the sins that is all part of your soul and part of your heart and part of your mind, everything. I will then forgive you. Is it in that profound act of redemption that Peter realizes the surpassing value of Jesus over his own pride? In verse 9 Peter saith unto him, Lord not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.

And here it seems that the light begins to shine. And so he then says, not just my feet, everything, Lord, everything, I need it now. And so he longs to be wholly cleansed, he wants to be completely changed. Is echoing what the psalmist's plea was for a deep cleansing of his heart, a washing that purifies the heart thoroughly, leaving no trace of inequity. The remedy, dear friends, for your pride, for my pride, lies in allowing Jesus to love you fully, surrendering to His grace, and doing so continually, day after day, I will receive the grace for today.

I will receive the amazing grace and the love of the Lord for my soul. Will you surrender to his love, dear Christian? I'm speaking to the Christian. And with all of your weaknesses, with all of your faults, with all of the things that you don't know how anybody could love you. But God says, before the world began, I love you.

So whether it's your first time doing so or the thousandth time, Don't let pride keep you from opening your heart and soul to the King of the universe. You don't have to have it all together or pretend to be someone you are not before God, before he would wash you and cleanse you. Instead you must believe that God is good enough to cleanse you. Jesus Christ is good enough to cleanse you. He's gracious enough to cleanse you.

If you are familiar with those words, thou wilt not wash my feet. Thou wilt never wash my feet. So if you are familiar with that, then I would implore you to set aside your pride and You come to Him. You go to Him. If you don't know where to begin, just say to Him, Give me Jesus.

Lord, give me Jesus. Forgive my pride. Give me the Lord Jesus. Someone has said pride is blindness to our faults, sins and failings. Most importantly, pride is blind to the existence of itself.

Therefore the more proud you are, the more humble you will feel. And the more humble you are, the more proud you will feel. That is because true humility is the opening of the eyes to our personal sin. And one of the first things a humble person becomes aware of is his or her pride. Dear friends, remember that the Lord Jesus Christ came not for the righteous but for sinners.

So embrace this amazing grace. The overwhelming love of the Lord Jesus Christ, what he has for us. And Peter's words, not my feet only, Lord, but cleanse my hands, cleanse my head. That can serve as an invitation for us. Lord, do this thoroughly in me.

Show me thy love, Lord Jesus. That's the remedy against this sinful pride. Amen.