Address—C. Hendricks
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To run with me tonight to John's Gospel chapter 13, John 13.
And I'll begin reading at verse one. Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come, that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands.
And that he was come from God and went to God.
He rises from supper, and laid aside his garments, and took a towel, and girded himself.
After that he poured water into a basin and began to Washington the disciples feet.
And to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter. And Peter saith unto him.
Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do, thou knowest not now.
But thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands into my head. Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not saved to wash his feet, but is clean.
Every whit and ye are clean.
But not all, for he knew who should betray him. Therefore said he.
Ye are not all clean.
Let me stop the reading there.
By desire tonight is to look not just at the passage that we've read, but to look at the chapters 13 through 16. I don't know if we'll get that far, but just to bring out the the precious truths which the Lord Jesus.
Brought before these disciples.
Whose thoughts were? They were Jewish disciples, of course, and their thoughts were after an earthly Kingdom, desiring that he would come in power and glory. They were looking for a Messiah that would come in power and glory and establish the Kingdom for them on earth. They were in ******* to the Romans, and they felt that yoke very severely.
And the Lord Jesus in these chapters 13 through 17. Really.
Brings before us the blessed truth that he wasn't going to at this time establish the Kingdom for Israel, but rather he was going away and he was going to leave them here in this scene and in his absence they were to be here for him.
What we get in these chapters, 13 through 17, is the real.
True character of Christianity, what Christianity is now, we'll see as we go through these chapters, the Lord telling his disciples over and over again that he was going away, that he was departing to the Father, that he wouldn't remain with them. And they didn't like that thought. Their thoughts were, of course, formed after the pattern of Judaism, and their thought was to have Him here.
We see that over and over again in the Gospels.
Even when he was the Risen One and he spoke to Mary Magdalene, he has to tell her, touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. You can't have me as the Messiah down here in his relationships with with Israel after the flesh. But he was about to enter in as the Risen 1 into an altogether new order of things, and he was going to become the head, as the risen man of a new creation, and they were going to be introduced.
As new creatures in Christ into this new creation and to be united with that man in the glory, and their portion was going to be altogether outside of this world. Well, we'll see that developing as we begin here in John 13. The first thing we notice is that when Jesus knew that his hour was come, now that wasn't the hour of the cross, but 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.
This chapter begins with the hour of His departing out of the world to the Father.
The hour of his glorification, the hour when he would ascend up back to the Father, where he from whence he had come, and supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simons son, to betray him. Now again it's repeated, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God and went to God. So in the consciousness.
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That he had come from God and in the consciousness that he was going to God.
In the consciousness of that he does a very significant act. He lays aside his garments. He rises from supper, lays aside his garments, takes a towel, and girds himself. Now the girding of himself presents him, of course, as the Servant. We know that when he was down here, he was the Son of man that came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. He was that blessed Servant of whom Jehovah said, Behold my Servant.
In whom my soul delighted. Oh, there was never a servant like he, but having entered the glory on high, he commences a new service.
And He is serving us today and we get a little picture of the service that He is performing today as the risen glorified man on high in what He does right here in this symbolical act of the feet washing of the disciples. He pours water into a basin and He began to wash the disciples feet. Many have seen nothing more in this chapter than an example of humility.
Well, the whole pathway of the Blessed Lord was an example of humility.
Says in Philippians 2 That being in the form of God, he thought it not not an object of rapping, or something to be grasped after and held on to to be equal with God. But he emptied himself, and he took upon him the form of a servant, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. His whole pathway here below was one of humility.
So there's something far deeper.
In the feet washing that the Lord Jesus undertakes with his disciples an instruction that.
We must gather from the passage.
He began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. Then he comes to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?
Peter had a sense in his soul of who it was that was undertaking this lowly service. It was his Master, it was his Lord, it was the Lord of glory. And he says, dost thou wash my feet? Now Notice verse seven, a very significant statement. Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do, thou knowest not now.
But thou shalt know hereafter, that is, they would not understand.
And they did not understand at that time the significance of His active feet washing. He said you will know it later. And the later time is right now when the Spirit of God is given. We're living in the days of the Spirit, you might say, the dispensation of the Spirit of God. He has been sent down from heaven in fullness of power to lead us into all the truth.
And this is the day that he's looking on to what I do thou knowest not now.
But thou shalt know hereafter, Peter saith unto him. Thou shalt never wash my feet.
And Jesus answered him, if I washed thee not notice carefully, thou hast no part with me. He doesn't say thou hast no part in me, but with me. And this gives the clue to the meaning of the feet washing the Lord Jesus was about to go to the Father. He was about to return into the glory from whence he had come. Now as a man now after he had accomplished redemption. I know this chapter is before he went to the cross, but these.
Are significant because they say his hour was come that he should depart to the father. That is he's beyond the cross in the significance of what takes place here. Redemption is accomplished and he's about to depart to the father and in the presence of the father on high, he's going to commence a new service, that of feet washing as we walk through this world.
You're walking through a defiling scene. We're walking through a scene where.
Everything that's out there in this world through which we're passing is defiling. It's a scene of death. It's a scene of defilement. There isn't one thing that the world serves us that can feed us. There's not one thing John tells us in First Epistle of John chapter 2. All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the.
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Father but is of the world, and the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God.
Abideth forever. There isn't one thing in the scene through which we're passing.
That can feed our souls, not one. The fear that the world deals out to those who are of it will not feed your soul. In fact it is defiling. It will tie you down to earth. And the whole purpose of the feet washing is to remove the defilements of this scene of this earth, that we might have part with him in the new position into which he is now entered as the man in the glory.
He was about to take up a new place of exaltation and supremacy on high, not the Kingdom on earth, but rather to be rejected here, to be hated here and rejected here and go on high. And in that place of glory on high, He wants our fellowship. Isn't that precious? And so he gives this significant act of the feet washing in order for us to have fellowship with himself.
The defilements of Earth must be removed and he undertakes to remove them.
By the washing of water, by the word, He gets down to our feet. That blessed One, His service on high as our advocate.
Washes away the contaminants of this world that we might have part with Him where he is in the glory.
Satan. Satan is satisfied if he can keep the Saints of God.
Occupied with Earth.
Satan is satisfied if he can keep the Saints of God occupied. On a worldly level. It isn't enough to be A to live a righteous life.
That, of course, is essential for the glory of God. But a Christian is a heavenly man. A Christian is down here in this world just as Christ was.
In the Lord's Prayer to his Father in John 17, he says, as the Father has sent me into the world, Even so.
Have I sent them into the world? And he's talking about his own? We have been sent into this world to represent Christ, just as He was to represent the Father.
How separate should we be? The Lord gives us the measure of our separation also in that prayer in John 17 he says they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. The measure of our sanctification for Christ is our sanctification.
Is to be as separate from this scene as He is, and He is now the man in the glory. Well, here in John 13, he washes our feet now in the Tabernacle in the Old Testament, when the priests were consecrated, they were bathed in water. They were washed all over, symbolical of the new birth. The Lord had told Nicodemus in this Gospel in chapter 3.
Except a man be born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God. And then he amplifies that by saying, Except a man be born of water.
And of the Spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God, so being born of the water.
Is the word now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you, and the the consecration of the priest set that before us. When they were bathed in water, they were symbolically born again. But then there was the Laver, and they had to use that Laver as they.
Officiated in the priesthood and they used it to wash their hands and to wash their feet. But you don't read anything in this chapter about washing the hands. Instead the Lord is at the disciples feet.
And he removes the defilement of their feet. Nothing about the hands. Why is that?
I believe that's because in Christianity there isn't anything to do. The gospel doesn't bring a work to do, but a word to believe about a work already done. The Lord Jesus cried on the cross. It is finished. And the worst, the work necessary to save our precious souls, has been done over 1900 years ago by the Lord on the cross. So it isn't anything we have to do. The hands don't need washing today. The work has all been done by Christ. But as we walk through this defiling.
We pick up its habits, its ways, its customs, its jokes, all that rubs off on us, and that has to be removed because we have a nature. Though we're born of God, we have a nature which goes out after those things every one of us does, and in order to have part with Him in that new place of exaltation and glorification where he is as the glorified man.
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He gets to our feet with the water of the word, and he removes the defilements of earth.
So that we can enter into our heavenly relationship with Himself.
Well, Peter says to him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. And the Lord says, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Peter then goes to the other extreme, and he says, Lord not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. And then Jesus saith to him, he that is washed all over or bathed, that's a different word. You don't see that in the King James, but it's a different word than the one later used for washed. So he says he that is bathed.
That's symbolical of the new birth.
Needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every wit, and so we need the feet washing, and the Lord undertakes that, that we might have part with him.
Well, let's go on, because there's much to be considered here.
In verse 18.
He says.
At the end of the verse, he that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.
Now I tell you before it come, that when it is come.
To pass, you may believe that I am He.
Verse 21 Jesus is troubled in spirit.
And testifies, saying, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.
Verse 26 Jesus answered he It is to whom I shall give a SOP when I have dipped it, and when he had dipped the SOP, he gave it to Judas Iscariot.
The son of Simon. And after the SOP Satan entered into him, then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest do quickly. Verse 30 He then, having received the SOP, went immediately out, and it was night, and oh, what a dark night it was for that man's soul. He had been with the Lord during his public ministry. He had heard his blessed words. He had witnessed the works of power that he had wrought, and he goes out.
He is going to betray him.
He goes out in its night, and this gives the Lord occasion now to talk about the cross.
In verse 31, therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, now is the Son of man glorified? He was glorified as the Son of man in a in a life of perfection and obedience. His obedience carrying him all the way to the death of the cross, says in Philippians 2. Again we referred to it, He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, and that was the perfection of obedience, the perfection of obedience, obedience.
Not just in His, as He was in His life, in a life of perfect dependence on the Father. Or he could say, I do always those things that please Him. The Father hath not left me alone, but on the cross. He was obedient in the face of divine wrath against sin. He was obedient in the place where He was forsaken. And so he says, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.
All that is in God has been glorified.
Through the death of Christ on the cross, when He was made sin, all that was in God against sin was poured out upon the head of our blessed Savior, and he cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? God has been more glorified through having a loud sin to come into His fair universe, and having put it away through the sacrifice of His Son.
Than he ever would have been, and he never allowed sin to come in. God has received more glory.
In what He has allowed and how He has put it away, demonstrating His Holiness, His righteousness, His truth, His Majesty, and His love, and His grace and His mercy at the cross, all beautifully meeting for righteousness and peace, have kissed each other at the cross. God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in Himself.
And shall straightway glorify him. So God answers that work.
By which he was glorified infinitely as to sin by glorifying his Son and putting him in the highest glory. And so we have the cross before the Lord could carry out this, that which is symbolized by the feet washing, he had to go to the cross. He had to lay the basis for our redemption, for our eternal salvation. And so the cross is brought in and then immediately he says, little children, verse 33.
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Yet a little while I am with you. He tells them this over and over again, lifting their Jewish thoughts from earth, from an earthly Kingdom. They were hoping he would establish it. I say it again, and really, in order to grasp the significance of these fresh truths. It's the first time they had ever heard this.
There are thoughts you have to place yourself in the position of these Jewish disciples whose every hope was earth. They were looking for a Kingdom to be established on earth in power and glory, and when he who was the one they expected was their Messiah.
Tells them he's not going to do that, but rather he's going to be rejected, refused here, and go up on high and bring in an altogether new order of things. This was very difficult for them to grasp, even after the instruction of all these chapters, even after he had died and rose again. And he appears to them in Acts 1 as the risen man. They asked him the question in Acts 1.
Wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel?
You see, their thoughts were still Jewish, they were still looking for the establishment of an earthly Kingdom. And the Lord said, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power, but tarry ye and Jerusalem till ye be endued with power from on high, to be endued with power from on high, when He would send the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit, to unite those Jewish disciples to a glorified Christ in heaven.
To bring them into an altogether new order of things, Paul could say in 2nd Corinthians 5. Though we Jews have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.
Therefore, if any man be in Christ.
All things have passed away, all things have become new and there's a new creation If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation. All things passed away, all things become new. This is what these are the truths that are being laid by the blessed Lord in this ministry from John 13 through 17 and so again he tells them verse 33 yet a little while I am with you.
You shall seek me, and as I said unto the Jews, whither I go, ye cannot come.
So now I say to you, a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples. If you have loved one to another, he says, I'm going to leave you here.
I'm going away.
I'm going to leave you here and the significance of the feet washing is that he was going to be preparing them here.
To have fellowship with him there, to have fellowship with himself as the glorified man on high.
And he tells us in the next chapter, and we'll see that in a moment, that he wasn't going to leave them comfortless, but he was going to give them another comforter, the Spirit of God. He wasn't going to leave them without comfort. But in the meantime, he gives what should characterize the Christian company, and that is love, A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another.
Some have wondered what's the difference between the commandment of Christ and the commandments of Moses, The law? Well, they're as different as day and night. The commandment of Moses, the commandments of Moses. And just think of them. I'll just quickly go through them. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou should not make unto thee any graven image of anything in heaven or earth, and bow down to them. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
The 5th commandment is Honor thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth.
And then the 6th commandment which is on the second table of stones, the 1St 5.
Had to do with our responsibilities Godward, and then our responsibilities man word. Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, and thou shalt not covet or lust.
You notice that almost all the commandments are negative. They are a prohibition.
On the desires of the flesh.
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Take the last commandment. Thou shalt not covet to say that to the natural man.
Is to tell him you must not be as you are. And so it's a law of *******. It's not a law of liberty.
It's seeking to prohibit that which the natural man desires to do.
And this cannot be kept by man. He fails to keep it. The command of Christ is just the opposite. He imparts to us a new nature, a nature which is love, a nature which is the very life and nature of God himself, which who is light and who is love. And then he gives a commandment, which is a directive. The command of Christ is, is the directive to the new life that we have in Christ.
It imparts energy to love one another. That's the very thing that the new life delights to do. Sometimes you might hear a brother say, well, I just can't love that brother. Well, of course you can't, because you're trying to love him in the energy of the flesh.
We can't love our brothers in the energy of the flesh. The nature that we have is born of. Adam doesn't love.
It isn't so constituted, but is born of God. We have the life of Christ and did you ever see a life that was a life of love like His?
Absolute selflessness. As you look at the four gospels, you see a man that never did anything for himself. You see a man who spent himself altogether and entirely and always for others. You see a man who lived in implicit obedience to his father.
You see a man whose joy, whose delight it was to do the will of God.
That was his very meat, as one has said. That which sustained him here was the will of God which He came to do.
As he could tell those in John Four, my meat is to do the will of him that set me and to finish his work.
And that Blessed One lived a life of love that has never been seen before.
He is called in the first Epistle of John, that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.
And we have heard it and seen it, he says, and report unto you.
That eternal life that ye also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And there isn't anything more precious than to be walking down here in this scene in fellowship with that blessed One. Well, the nature that He's imparted to us is a nature which loves. And so when the Lord Jesus says these things, I command you that you love one another. He is directing the new life that we have in Christ.
And this what? This is what must mark those who are his disciples by this.
Shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have loved one to another?
I don't know whether Peter heard those words. He had heard what the Lord had said in verse 33. Yet a little while I am with you, You shall seek me. And as I said, under the Jews, whither I go, you cannot come. So now I say to you. And now in verse 36, Peter says, Lord, whither goest thou? He had heard the Lorde words that he was going away. And all that bothered Peter, he loved. He loved the Lord so intensely.
So intensely, and he repeats that in his epistle, Whom having not seen ye love.
Peter loved him.
He says, Lord, why can't, Why cannot I follow you? Where? Where are you going? Jesus answered him, Whether I go, Thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake. And he meant it. He loved him wasn't false, but he didn't know his own heart. Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, the **** shall not crow.
Till thou hast denied me thrice.
And then in the next chapter we have the Lord Jesus going on high again. He says, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.
Why does he say that? The Lord was in their midst. They saw Him. They looked upon Him. He wasn't an object of faith. They could see Him. They could handle Him.
John says, we heard him, we saw him, we looked upon him, and to whom our hands have handled of the word of life.
But now he says, I'm going away. I'm not going to be visible to you. I'm going to be an object of faith, just as God is. You believe in God, believe also in me.
And so it is today. Peter tells us today, whom, whom having not seen ye love, in whom, though not now looking, but believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. And so he was going away. He says, In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. I go, he says. I'm going there. I'm not going to set up the Kingdom here.
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You're expecting it, and I know I'm dashing your hopes.
Dashing your hopes to pieces, but I'm going to prepare a place for you up there. You're not going to have an earthly place of prominence and glory. Christianity is not an earthly religion. It's heavenly. Christianity is associations with a heavenly Christ and so here in John 14 he goes to prepare a place for us in John 13 in the feet washing he.
Us for the place He prepares us that we may have we may have part with Him in the glory.
And in John 14 he prepares the place for us.
He says another truth. I go to prepare a place for you. They hadn't heard that before. And then he says, if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again to what set up the Kingdom? Oh no.
I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. So he's taking their Jewish thoughts, and he's raising them from earth to heaven. He's saying I'm not going to set up a Kingdom and rather I'm going away. I'm washing your feet from the defilements of earth, that you might have part with me there as the risen glorified man. And as I go there, I'm going to prepare you a place, and I'm going to come back for you.
Again, not to set up the Kingdom. We know that's coming, that's coming, but that's not Christianity. Christianity is. He prepares us for the place and he prepares the place for us, and soon he's coming back to take us to that place on high.
Whither I go, ye know, and the way ye know. And Thomas says we don't know where you're going.
And how can we know the way they did not understand? They did not understand?
And I believe that today as we look around in Christendom.
We see.
The mass of those who are his true believers that love the Lord.
If they don't understand the heavenly character of Christianity, their hopes are earthly centered, they're centered down here, and it's hard for them to enter in into the thoughts that are unfolded here in these chapters, just as it was hard for these Jewish disciples.
The Lord says I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me.
Have you ever noticed in scripture we have 3 great enemies, The world, the flesh and the devil, and there are three for us and they're put in opposition to these three that we've just mentioned. The Father is in opposition to the world.
It says again, I'll quote it in first John two, All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the Father. The Father has a new world and that world isn't here. The Father has a world which is up there. And what the Lord is doing in these chapters is preparing these, those disciples for that world.
For that world.
A brother once a remark was once made to a brother who was very.
He had tremendous.
The powers of the mind very educated and.
He had a mind that.
Probably eclipses anything that we have today and someone said to him.
You could make a name for yourself in this world.
In the world, he said.
This one here or the Father's world above if it's this one here?
Then it's not of the father.
And then we have Christ opposed to Satan.
And then we have, we know that we have many instances in Scripture where we have Satan is the great adversary to Christ. He's the one that tempted him in the wilderness 40 days and 40 nights.
And then we have the flesh and the spirit.
The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary, the one to the other, so that you should not do those things which you desire. The works of the flesh are and they're listed, and then the fruit of the Spirit is love.
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Joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, the fruit of the Spirit. And so we have the three that are for us, the Father opposite to the world, Christ opposite to Satan, the Spirit opposite to the flesh.
And here we have the Father's world, the Father's house mentioned in verse two. In my father's house are many mansions, and the Lord tells us that He is the way. Now let's go on. In verse 15, He says, If you love me. Again He repeats, If you love me, keep my commandments.
The principle of obedience, keeping His commandments is one of the characteristics of the new life that we have in Christ, love and obedience. And we see that perfectly manifested in the life of the Lord Jesus, love and obedience. And so he says, if you love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever. You have the whole Trinity in that verse, the Son praying the Father and the Father.
The other comforter, that he may abide with you forever. Now this is in contrast Jesus going away. He wasn't going to remain with her. Instead He was in his absence going to send them another comforter. Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him. The world cannot receive this spirit of truth.
The world has no part in it whatsoever. We were once of this world.
We were once a part of it. We've been called out of it. So separate now from it are we that the Lord says they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. He is that heavenly man. He is the Son of man who is in heaven. He speaks of himself, and He's the one who came from heaven and He's gone back to heaven. And He's preparing us for that place, and He's preparing the place for us, and He's giving us the Spirit of God to empower us while we're down here.
That that life which has been imparted to us, the life of Christ, might be manifested in us even as it was manifested in Him.
But He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him. Now notice what it says of the Spirit here, for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. The Lord wasn't dwelling, wasn't going to remain with them.
He wasn't going to remain with them, He was going to leave them. But he says when I give you the Spirit, he will dwell with you and more he will be in you. The Lord was not in the disciples, he was among them. But now in Christianity he is in us, the Spirit of God. Sometimes in in Sunday school the children sing, I would like to have been with him then and would have been a wonderful thing, wouldn't it, to have been in the company of the Lord Jesus.
When he was here on earth, that blessed man down here to have the Lord pick up the children in his arms and hold him.
Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, he said.
But we have something far more precious, far more blessed than the company of the Messiah on earth. Were united by the Spirit of God to the man in the glory. And the Spirit will never leave us. He'll be with us forever, be with us forever. He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. And that's true now by the Spirit.
Well, let's move on.
He says in verse 23, Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings, and the word which he hears not mine, but the Father's which sent me. These words have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you but the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things.
And bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
How quickly they forgot these instructions and how we saw that from Acts One when they asked if the Lord would restore again the Kingdom to Israel. No, he says, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to bring you into an altogether new order of things, the new creation. And so the Spirit, when he came, would bring back to their minds everything that the Lord had said to them, these instructions, these blessed truths.
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And he tells us that He and the Father would come and make their abode with us if we kept His word. We have the whole Trinity abiding with us, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit never to be taken from us. We cannot sin the spirits presence away. We can grieve Him, we can grieve Him, but He's with us for all eternity, not because of anything that we are not because of any of our faithfulness.
But because of the work of Christ, he's with us. He's been sent down into this scene.
To indwell us individually and then of the church collectively. Now you don't get church truth in John's gospel, in John's ministry, but you get that which is the basis, the fundamental truths of it. The Spirit of God-given to bring us into the enjoyment of heavenly things. And then he leaves us his peace in verse 27. And he gives us says peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you. He made peace by the blood of his cross.
The peace that he had as a dependent man through this world, as he passed through this world, was receiving everything from the Father.
And he says, My peace, peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. And then in the 15th chapter we must move on. He talks about fruit bearing. He says I am the true vine, and my father is the husband man.
And in verse eight he says, Herein is my father glorified, that she bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples.
Verse 10 he says if you keep my commandments, you should abide in my love. Notice that's just.
The opposite.
It's put in just the opposite way.
Of verse 15 of chapter 14 and verse 15 of chapter 14, he says if you love me.
Keep my commandments in chapter 1510 he says if ye keep my commandments.
Ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments.
And abide in His love. The Lord was one who was constantly in the consciousness of the Father's love. He was. He was always in the bosom of the Father. He was in the hiding place of love. He was always in the place of communion. He was always the obedient, dependent man. He always kept his Father's commandments. They were his delight. And so they are to us who have a new life. We are down here.
For Christ, and as Christ John tells us in his first epistle, as He is, Even so are we in this world as He is. We have His life in nature, and we're to walk through this scene first. John 26 says he that saith He abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk even as He walked. That's what you have in John 15, Fruit bearing. What is fruit bearing? Fruit bearing is merely the reproduction.
In the life of the Christian of the life of Christ.
And that's what the Father delights in. That is the only life.
That the Father delights him. The only life is the life of Christ, and he's given us that life.
That eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested unto us in a man down here in a in obedience and dependence. That position that he occupied as the obedient, dependent man, He was down here expressing eternal life.
Now that life is now ours, He gives it to us from His place in glory.
He gives that eternal life to us, and for what reason?
That we might be here for him. That the fruit that delights the heart of the Father might be found reproduced in US.
If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. Have you ever thought of His joy?
Just thought of the number of times in the scriptures where it speaks of his joy.
One of them I think of is in the 40th Psalm. I delight to do Thy will, O God. It was His joy to do the will of the Father. It was his delight to do the Father's will another time, in Luke 10, when He had to pronounce judgment upon all those cities where in His mighty works were done, because they repented not.
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He has to say, Woe unto thee, Corazon, woe unto thee, Bethsaida.
For if the mighty works which were done in you were done entire incident, they would have repented, they would have continued to this day. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shall be brought down to hell. For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have continued to this day. And then we read, Jesus rejoiced in spirit. And he said, I thank thee, Father, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babe, unto babes.
Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.
Oh, that was His joy. His joy was to receive everything from the Father. Another time we read of His joy is in Hebrews 12. Who? For the joy that was set before him, He endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. What was that joy that was set before Him? It was to be back with the Father, back in the Father's presence.
And then to have us there Another time he speaks of his joy is in the 8th Psalm. He says, my delights were with the sons of men. He finds his joy in US and all it's going to be, it's going to fill his soul with joy in that coming day when he presents us to the Father and says, Behold I and the children which thou hast given me.
And he says he prays here that my joy, he says, might be in you.
What do we find our joy in? Is it as it was His? The delight of his heart was to please his Father in everything.
To please his Father in everything. And that is to that's our joy as well, is it not?
Verse 16 of chapter 15 You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you.
That He should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain that fruit, that fruit that we bring forth, which is Christ being reproduced in our lives by the power of the Spirit of God. Christ being reproduced, This is Christianity. He is not here, He's on high, but he's left us here. He's given us his life and nature, that the very life of Christ might be seen in each one of us and that our joy might be.
Again, he repeats in verse 17 These things I command you that you love one another.
Now, immediately after that, the Christian community ought to be characterized by love one to another.
Because that's the that's the nature that we've received. And he's the spirit of love.
The fruit of the Spirit is love.
But then he speaks of the world, and he says, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you were not of it. He's chosen us out of it. We expect the world's hatred.
Well ought to characterize those who are His is love.
In His absence, that which will bring testimony to the world that we belong to Christ. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another, if that new nature is in activity.
And love is, you know, love is manifested in obedience. If you love me, keep my commandments. And John says in the first epistle, chapter 5 by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments.
When we love God and keep his commandments. So these two principles, obedience, keeping his commandments, obedience. This is as seen in the blood Lords life down here and love.
Everything he did was in love, and he was always that obedient 1 even unto death.
And that the death of the cross. So what does He leave us here to expect? Not the glory of an earthly Kingdom, but rather He Himself rejected, He Himself hated. And He leaves us here. He gives us His life, He gives us the Holy Spirit, the other Comforter, and He washes our feet, that we might have part with Him, not where He is here, not part with an earthly Messiah.
Oh, that's so important. But a rejected Christ?
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One who's gone on high, a heavenly man. Our portion is heavenly. Our portion is heavenly. What do you find today? You find Christians urging other Christians to get involved in the politics of the world, to get involved in voting, to get involved in military affairs of nations, to get involved in the in the economic struggles that exist here.
The Word of God tells us that we're not of the world, even as Christ is not of the world. Was he here to set the world right? He will. When he comes back, He's going to set the world right. That's not why he was here the first time. He didn't come here to set the world right the first time. He didn't touch the world. Have you ever remarked how the apostle Paul when he deals with slavery in his epistles? Slavery was an awful thing.
Slavery was an awful thing. The common thought today among Christians generally would be we should assert our Christian influence to abolish slavery.
Paul didn't do that. He didn't do that. He gave instruction to the slave how to live and to obey his master, and he gave instruction to the master how to conduct himself, if he was a Christian, towards his his slave. He left the world where he found it.
Christianity is not here. It's not a system of religion to reform the world. Rather, it's a new world. This world is under judgment. This world is a condemned scene. And he takes us out of it and unites us to another world, to the man of that other world who is the center of that scene. That's Christianity. He's prepared a place for us there, and he's coming to take us home there. That's our portion.
We're not here to change things in this scene.
The Lord alone will set things right down here. We're not here for that purpose. We're not here for that purpose. We're here to bear fruit. We're here to manifest the life of Christ in lowly love and patience and goodness and humility and in service to others. But we're not here to change the course of this world. He will do it when He comes.
When he comes, when the judgments of the Lord are in the earth, then the inhabitants of the world.
Will learn righteousness, but here he prepares us for the world's hatred, he says.
Remember the word verse 20 that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my names sake, because they know not him that sent me.
If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin. But now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin. But now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. Oh, if we're going to follow a rejected Savior.
A rejected Christ. We're going to meet with the world's opposition.
He tells us in the first verse, a second verse of chapter 16, They shall put you out of the synagogues.
Yeah, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God's service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told you that when the time shall come, you may remember that I told you of them.
You know, these Corinthians needed this truth. The Corinthians needed this truth. In First Corinthians 4, he says to them, now you're full, now you're rich. You have reigned as kings without us. And I would to God you did reign that we also might reign with you. But he has to rebuke them because they were reigning as kings now.
And now's not the time for reigning. Now's the time for suffering. Now is the time for being identified with a rejected, hated, despised saviour. Now's the time when we take part with one.
Who is not here? What is a Christian? A Christian is one who is in Christ where he is, and one who is for Christ where he is not. He is not here. He is not here because the world has turned him out, because the world will not have him.
And we're followers of that Blessed One. And so he lifts the thoughts of these Jewish disciples from earth, from any earth expectancy to heaven to heaven.
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He tells them, verse 26 of chapter 15. But when the comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall have me. And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
Well, that's as far as we can go tonight.
But just to go back quickly, in John 13, in the consciousness that he was going, that he'd come from God and he went to God, he lays aside his garments, he girds himself, and he undertakes a new service, washing the feet of the disciples that we down here who are going to be left in this world might have part with him there as the rejected man and the accepted man on high.
Got man having rejected him, God having accepted him, we have part with him there in the 14th chapter. He prepares that place for us and tells us he's coming back to take us there, not to set up the Kingdom here. And then he says, well, I'm gone and I'm absent from you. I'm going to give the the other comforter the Spirit of God that he'll be with you forever.
He'll be with you and in you that constant companion, the Spirit of God.
To lead us into all truth and to unite us to that man in the glory. And then he speaks of fruit bearing and he's looking for that. That's why he's left us here. That's the one reason we're here. The one reason we're here. We're not here to make money. We're not here to get ahead in this world. We're not here to make a name for ourselves in the scene that Christ was rejected in.
Let me just.
Mention this.
Lovely poem.
And yet outside the camp.
Twas there my Savior died, It was the world that cast him forth and saw him crucified. Can I take part with those who nailed him to a tree, And where his name is never praised? Is there the place for me? Nay, world I turn away, Though thou seem fair and good, That friendly outstretched hand of thine is stained with Jesus blood, If in thy least device I stoop to take apart.
All unawares.
Thy influence steals God's presence from my heart. I couldn't put it any better than that.
We're not here.
For any other reason than to live Christ.
Herein is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit. And what is fruit bearing? It's the reproduction in our lives of the life of Christ. This is what delights the Father when he sees Christ in US. And what ought to characterize the Christian company is love.
And we expect the world's hatred because we're not of it. We belong to another world. We belong to the Father's world. The center of that world is Christ.
He's coming soon, He's prepared the place, He's preparing us now for the place, and soon he's going to present us to himself in that place on high. That's our portion. We belong to heaven. We're not an earthly people.
Well, you get that in chapter 16 and 17, but we don't have time for that tonight.
May God lift our gaze and may our walk be consistent with our heavenly calling until we hear the shout.