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John 13.
Starting at verse 10 Jesus says to him he that is washed needeth not saved to wash his feet, but it's clean every week and you are clean but not all.
For he knew who should betray him, Therefore said he, Ye are not all see so after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was sat down again.
He said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me master and Lord?
And you say, well, for so I am. If I thank your Lord and master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one anothers feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord, neither he that is sent, greater than he that sent him.
If you know these things, happy are ye If ye do them, I speak not of you all I know whom I have chosen, but that the Scripture may be fulfilled. He that he has bred with me hath lifted up his heel against me. Now I tell you before it come, that when this come to pass, ye may believe that I am he verily.
Verily I say unto you.
He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. Then the disciples looked one or another, doubting of who we speak. Now there was leaning on Jesus bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter, therefore beckoned to him.
That he should ask who it should be, of whom he spake. He then lying on Jesus breast, said unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He, It is to whom I shall give us off, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the saw, he gave it to Judas Ascari, the son of Simon.
And after the Saw, Satan entered into him.
Then said Jesus unto him, Wrath, thou dost do quickly.
Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him. For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him by those things we have need of against the peace, or that he should give something to the poor.
He then have received the thought when immediately out and it was night.
We could stop there.
On my tough day, I believe verse 10 really refers back to the consecration of the priest in the Old Testament. They were on the day of their consecration, they were brought to the door of the Tabernacle.
And were washed all over or bathed all over.
After that, that was never repeated, but after that each time they approached the altar.
Are we going to a Tabernacle? They have to wash their hands and their feet at the labor. Know how much we need then to be clean as we approach. Our Blessed Lord and Savior way is made open, going to the holiest of all by the precious blood of Christ. But we need to be cleansed.
A daily cleansing as we.
Shall we say?
To approach him.
To go on in communion with himself. Nothing can cause us to lose our salvation.
That washing all over is never repeated. When we know Him as savior, we're safe for all eternity. But the least little thing can break that communion. So how much we need that Washington?
00:05:17
Brother Judge, why don't we have the hands washed here?
Hugh Thomas, brother. No, no, I've had a question.
Senator, you call it.
Well, the thought I had is that the hands speak of the work that we do, And in the Gospel of John, the Lord on the cross cried out. It is finished, the work is done, There's no more work to be done. It's all accomplished. And so all that is needed now is the washing of the feet, because it's our feet that pick up the defilement of the way as we walk through this world. But the work is done, so there's no washing of the hands.
It seems that we should have.
A word on verse 7.
I believe that verse seven has a significance that we don't want to miss. I don't think anything was said about it this morning.
So could we have a little ministry on the meaning of verse seven? It says what I do, thou knowest not now.
But thou shalt know hereafter.
That we have some remarks on that. I know there are people that read this chapter and they say that we should have feet washing, we should get together.
Once a month and wash one another's feet. Well, some people do that, and they always remark that they wash their feet before they go to those meetings, lest their brethren find their feet dirty. So the point is not for the actual washing of feet. And I think we see that in verse seven, don't we, That there's a spiritual significance here because.
Peter certainly knew that his feet were being washed, but the Lord Jesus said now, Peter, what I'm doing.
You don't really know now. Didn't he know his feet were being washed? Yes.
I believe the point is that there's a spiritual lesson to be learned, rather than just an example of how to wash one another's feet.
Physically. Now is that so?
Maybe more, innocent, less. But often we see dear ones going through trial, and they just don't know why. And I think of this verse, what I do thou knowest not. Thou may not be clear to us the way the Lord is leading us. It may be a rough way, but I like to go back to Deuteronomy 8.
Deuteronomy verse 2.
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God LED thee these 40 years in the wilderness, to humbly, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether I would keep His commandments or no.
And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with mana, which found you as not. Neither did thy fathers know that he might make thee know that man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord thus manless.
Well, we may not know why the Lord is passing us through certain circumstances, but it might be well be to draw us closer to himself that we might learn more of Him, His wondrous love and grace and care over us as we go along the way. But I believe when we reach the glory, we'll be able to look back and see all the way the Lord has LED us.
No, a burst of praise as we see the wisdom and love.
That have been shown to us that we didn't realize. Now I believe every fresh sight will call forth a further burst of praise and Thanksgiving for all the way that he has let us.
That's a beautiful application of the verse that we can apply when we go through trials. I know a number of times that verse has been sent to me.
But the meaning of the verse in its context.
The Lord is saying to Peter what I do. You don't know. You don't understand the significance of what I'm doing to you right now. And the now was before the Spirit of God was given, before Christ entered the glory, before Christianity began. They did not understand the significance of the feet washing. But thou shalt know hereafter and the next chapter, the Spirit of God is given.
00:10:27
And then they're brought into, typically anyway or figuratively, the communion that the Spirit of God gives us. And all these chapters are teaching 13141516 are teaching truth that applies today, Christ in glory.
So he's washing our feet right now by the water of the word our brother Peripato brought before us in Ephesians 5 the washing of water by the word. He's doing that right now from on high on the glory. It wasn't just a literal removing of earthly contamination, but that was figurative of a spiritual truth, Ron, that you're getting out, of course, And and that is that we need to have those things of earth.
Things that would tie us down here, things that would cause us to think and act just as mere men after the flesh. We need to have that. The washing of the Word and to be brought into the conscious sense of it. I need that every day, every one of us needs that every day to be reminded. I belong to heaven, I belong to another world where Christ is in glory and so he washes our feet.
To remove those earthly attachments. Call it what you will defilements, things that tie me down here. Gravity has such a strong pull. It always pulls down, doesn't it? It pulls us down, down, down. But we need the power of the Spirit of God to lift this up into that which is our real portion in fellowship with a glorified Christ. Philippians 3 answers practically to what we have here.
He was beholding in 2nd Corinthians 3 verse 18, beholding the glory of the Lord were changed into the same image by the Spirit of the Lord. So it's and it's the water of the word Christ in glory washing our feet that we might have part with him there. It's doing that right now, isn't he? Through the word.
I think we could say that.
The Lord Jesus gave these intimations of what was going to happen after and so on we read in Ephesians chapter three. We find that the mystery that was locked in the heart of God from the past eternity was made known personally from Christ to the to the Apostle Paul. But then it goes on to say.
And.
Have now and is now revealed.
Unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.
And then in our book.
It chapter 14 of John and verse 26.
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, so that.
Paul received directly from Christ the mystery of the Church and the heavenly calling, and so on. But then the Holy Spirit revealed these things that had been given to him, speaking reverently, and he taught those the apostles. And so how. Now in His word we have the all those secrets, the reason that lay behind some of these statements, and I believe that.
Now we have the full revelation via the Holy Spirit through the Apostles, and now we have their teachings. And now we can fully understand what the Lord meant when he said He shall know it later on.
As a verse we could add to that in chapter 16, verse 12 he says, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them. Now in chapter 14 he says that he would bring all things that he had said to them to their remembrance. But in chapter 16 he says there are things that they couldn't bear. Then that they would be would be brought to them when the spirit of God came, my brother said to me between meetings a very.
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I thought it was an excellent statement, he said. The ministry of the Lord John 13 through 17 or 16.
Is preparatory to Paul's ministry.
That's very good statement preparatory to Paul's ministry. Paul's ministry is the full development of these things, which are in embryo here unfolded to us. I'd like to say this too, that we here in evangelical circles of new developments and new revelations, but.
Brethren, I don't believe that anything new was revealed after the apostles passed off the scene and after they had committed to paper the revealed word of God. There is nothing new since that time, nor till the rapture. And these thoughts that well, the Lord appeared to me and He revealed this.
Something new as Mr. Darby?
Said, if it's new, it's not true, and if it's true, it's not new. We have the full revelation of truth in our hands. All truth is here, and the Spirit of God is here to teach us what these things mean. As we walk in what we already know, so we will learn more of that truth.
At the point in time when the Lord spoke these words, there was still further revelation to be given. There was still that which was future and would be given through the medium of the apostles. But the Apostle Paul clearly tells us, as you've just told us, that he was given to complete the word of God. And the completion of all that God was to reveal to man was the revelation of the mystery Christ in the assembly.
And once that was given the full range of, it's like, it's like a pie chart if you're an engineering, a pie chart, but there's a little section of the pie chart missing. And then Paul comes in with the truth of the mystery, and he puts that in there. And now the pie is complete. All that God is going to reveal to man has been revealed. So this, this, this thought, this notion, fresh revelation, this absolute fallacy, isn't it? Word of God is complete today.
Some might ask, well, isn't the apostle apostle John in the Revelation go beyond?
All well, I believe, is that John fills in some of the details of the broad scope that has been revealed through the Apostle Paul. He fills in some details, but there isn't.
In Colossians, Paul said that he was raised up to fulfill or to complete the word of God. Nothing more to be revealed that is not in our hands.
Thing the.
Disciples passed after the resurrection they didn't have before. Maybe somebody could comment on them. John 20 we read. He breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost.
Well, God breathed in the man's nostrils, the breath of life. Man became a living soul, so there it would appear to me he imparted.
In that sense divine life, resurrection life, and then in Luke 24 then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures.
In Acts One, he tells them that ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you. There are those three things I've noticed. Maybe somebody could comment on them. In regard to what Brother Barry said about the completion, you have that in Colossians.
Chapter One.
In verse 25, whereof I made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which has given to me for you to fulfill or fully to preach or complete the word of God.
00:20:09
There we have scripture for saying that the Word of God is complete.
Fulfill is the thought of give the fullness of there was a part of the revelation that God was to give to man that had not been given, and it was given to fall, to give that missing part, to fill it up, to complete it. And that's the thought there and to fulfill it, fill it full.
Nothing more now to be revealed.
All said to Timothy in First Epistle, in chapter one and verse 3, see that they teach no other doctrine. It sounds awfully narrow and absolute, but if we're going to grow in our souls, we must have realized that you cannot bend the word of God, you must draw it in a straight line.
As he said further on to Timothy a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed.
Drawing in a straight line the word truth.
As to your question, brother Ron, I just noticing the discourse that now takes place between Peter and the Lord. In other words, the Lord is going to deepen his understanding of this truth. Obviously Peter didn't grasp it because he said in verse 8, thou shalt never wash my feet. There was something revolting to Peter about this. There was something that he didn't want to get involved and something maybe about having your feet uncovered or.
Has someone seeing the dirt on your feet or?
Maybe he thought that he should be down there. What is the Lord doing down there on the floor washing my feet? There was something that bothered Peter about this. And so he said, Lord, you are never going to wash my feet. And the Lord says, if in verse 8, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. And I think someone just mentioned this this morning the need of this cleansing that we've been talking about as far as communion with Christ goes and and brethren, if we're not willing to go through this cleansing process.
Then we can't have any part with him. One of the marks of a real true believer is that he will allow the cleansing effect of the word of God. He'll sit in a meeting like this and say that means me, There's some things in my life that need to go. There's some things that have been hindering communion. I've been out of communion with my Lord, and that's a mark of being a true believer. So the Lord says you can't have any part with me unless you allow this. And so we see then a an overreaction on the part of Peter.
Peter says, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. He's saying, if that's what it means, then I'm willing to go all. I mean let my whole body go into this basin and be cleaned because I need, I need that. I want that part with thee. And I I I know, brother, there's some, there's some fleshly enthusiasm involved here. And yet we see with Peter a real love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
He wants that part with him. He wants him. He wants communion. He wants to be a part of him. And so he says, just dip the dip, my whole body in this basin. And the Lord then begins to reveal a little deeper and, and this is just interesting how the Lord takes care of Peter. He doesn't say. Now, Peter, this is a very ignorant statement that you've just made. He doesn't put him down, but he keeps revealing truth. They get a little deeper into it. And so he says.
The Lord says he that is, I think as Tim mentioned, bathe needeth not saved to wash his feet. So here here we have the wonderful truth of eternal security. He's saying, Peter, if you've had a bath, if you have been cleansed and you have been washed, then you don't need to be washed all over again. All you need is a little cleansing from the defilement that you picked up in your pathway. And then he goes on and says.
But is clean every whit. And ye are clean, but not all. In other words, now he's going, He's revealing that there's someone among them who is not bathed. He hasn't had this bat. He has not had his sins forgiven. So we just we just see that the Lord just takes these opportunities to teach constantly. Teach his disciples, not put them down for an ignorant statement, not not close off the this, this.
00:25:09
Communion that's going on between them, but to use it to teach them, and I think that now Peter is getting a little, getting his eyes opened a little bit, at least maybe he'll be able to look back and say this is what the Lord really meant.
Don't you think rather Dan, that the Lord Jesus is showing himself?
In his words to Peter.
He's showing himself a very skillful Workman, doing the very thing and showing us the proper mechanism for doing this in the future. So he and himself, though he's washing their feet with water, yet with the precious word of truth, he is actually dealing with Peter's soul in the process and giving us an example too, to teach us. Is it not so?
After the resurrection, we find the Lord joining too as they walk to a mass.
And.
He expounds under them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
Would you say that he washed their feet?
I think so. I love it, Yeah.
What an example it is for us.
Yes, he rebuked, and he said, old fools and slow of heart to believe all the prophecies spoken, but then he simply as a wayfaring man.
Ministered Christ to their soul.
Well, I think that's what we need. Just a warm heart. Not tell them they're wrong. They may well be wrong. They are wrong if they're getting away from the Lord, but we need to warm their hearts. They rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem, where the divine center was at that time.
Oh, so many are growing cold. May we have wisdom to know how to minister to them.
2 little words that may help us in understanding this passage in the and with me that the Lord had said, Thou hast no part in me that would have meant that he wasn't one of the Lords. In other words, in every believer in this audience today who knows the Lord a Savior, we're in Christ. And then there's this word that is used now with me.
Now that has to do with our daily walk and our communion. And this is what the Lord was trying to at least was was saying to them with me. But don't wash you. You're not going to be in that clean state of soul to understand to receive what I am saying to you or what you're going to hear later. So the with me has to do with us as a as believers in me would be.
For salvation.
When we look at a verse 2 verses in first John 4.
I I want to read 2 verses in First John chapter 4, which I think are very important in this connection with what we're looking at, verse 9.
And this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him.
The first necessity that we have is to have light. We are dead in our sins. We need light. We need to be born again. We need to be born of the water of the Word. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. And we're born of the water and of the spirit. John 3 That's what the bathing is that he's referring to in our chapter. It has nothing to do with the blood.
Now the bathing is symbolical of the new birth when we're born again. So when Peter says not my feet but my hands in my head, the Lord says he that is bathed only needs to wash his feet with the labor. Now that we need repeatedly, we need to go back and have our feet washed. That's the water of the word. Both of those are water, though have nothing to do with the blood there the first washing the bathing.
Which was the consecration of the priests, speak of the new birth, were brought into the family of God.
It's not necessary to be born again and again and again and again. We're only going to be born again once. So once that bathing is taking place where children of God we have life. That's first John 49 verse 10. We have the blood. Hearing is love. Not what that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Again the blood is only applied once to the soul.
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There is the thought that when we fail, we have to have fresh recourse to the blood. That's a that's a false thought. It's really dishonoring to the eternal efficacy of the blood of Christ. That's not intended, but that's really what it amounts to. So there's a sense in which the washing by the water.
The bathing is only once. That's the new bird. And when we're sprinkled by the blood, that's only once we come under the value of the work of Christ.
We need these two things. We need life communicated by the new birth, and we need the propitiatory work of Christ by His blood applied to us. But that's only once. What we need reapplied over and over again, that we might have part with him, not in Him, but with him, as you just explained, is to have our feet washed. And the laborers. What answers to that?
And the priests, they wash their hands and their feet in the Old Testament because the work was not done, it was still future. But now the work is done, so the hands are not washed, just the feet. Because we do pick up defilement as we walk through this world. Well, I thought that would be important to explain because there's confusion as to sometimes. I've heard the blood brought into this chapter and it really isn't in this chapter. It's the water all the way through, isn't it?
I've enjoyed a thought and connection.
With the Day of Atonement.
And that is that area the high priest. On that day all the sins of the people for all the for the past year were all confessed. And in went Aaron into the holiest of all, not without blood. And there he presented the blood on behalf of those sins, and the people would be waiting expectantly.
For him to come out, it didn't come out. They would know that they hadn't been accepted, but on his appearance.
On his appearance they had the assurance that their sins were gone for the year now. It's beautiful to connect this, I believe, with the present.
The present were in the Lord Jesus has gone into heaven, that blood has been shed and he's gone into heaven, but he has never come out. So how do we know that we are accepted?
He hasn't come out yet. Well, we have had here in our chapter He has sent the Holy Spirit, and that Holy Spirit has come from the Father and from Him, and has come Himself, and has assured us now that we are accepted in the Beloved.
Brother Perry and Justin, what you just said. Chapter 14, verse 18. The Lord says I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. Now that's true now by the spirit, isn't it?
So that's just what you just said. He has actually come to us by the Spirit to fulfill that verse, yes, just as if he had come back.
We have.
After 16 of Matthew.
Other illustration of.
That's Ron's first question there beginning. I've enjoyed that as very instructive. In the 16th chapter of Matthew we have where Peter was.
In Christ.
It says in verse.
14 there and they said.
Some other Jeremiah's, or one of the prophets. And he said, that with them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven.
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And then the 18th verse. And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church. That was not Peter, but there Peter was only the stone. But upon this rock that is his confession will I build my church, And the gates of hell shall not reveal against it. Now here we find that Peter is in Christ. And now look.
4 verses on verse 21 The Lord Jesus tells his disciples that he must.
Suffer and be killed, and be raised again the 3rd day. And then then set Peter unto him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from the Lord, this shall not be unto thee. But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, Thou art an offense unto me, that thou savor is not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
Well, how far?
A believer can go even as Peter here, trying to be a mock piece of Satan. It was human good advice, but not of God.
Well, Peter was with him, but that was not of him, not of Christ. Then in the 18th chapter, Mount of Transfiguration.
Who is it there that makes a big blunder again? It was Peter. He wasn't with him in that and that he says let us build 3 Tabernacles, 3 tabernacles. So he made a big mistake there.
Then in the 18th chapter, and this has always been very comforting to my heart. After that wonderful scripture there in verse 20, verse 21, it says, Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me? And I forgive him? Till seven times Jesus said unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until 70 * 7. In other words, there is no end to that.
Well, Peter wonders how far can grace go? Or that forgiveness.
Well, we may be in Christ, but how often are we not with Him? How often are we not like Peter? And Peter raises the question himself, and we get that wonderful answer from the Lord an infinite time. I think that's what it means, 70 * 7 and Peter, I believe, took that to heart.
You got that answer from the Lord and we do get the same answer. We can come back to him daily, hourly.
For failure, having not been with him.
We are in him, but with him all how often we fail. But it hasn't reached 70 * 7 yet and goes beyond where the Lord would say, well, no, no more now.
It's a comfort, isn't it?
And that coming to the Lord being restored, do we go to sleep at night without healing in our hearts, having owned to the Lord the day?
Whether.
Good or bad, we confess to the Lord, and we find him the same toward us and the feet. Washing is therefore to a daily thing, an hourly thing, perhaps, often.
We see John the.
God the Lord doing that very same thing.
Himself from on high.
Just take a moment. Israel's history from Solomon on the time when Judah was carried away for not having kept their Sabbath of years. Every seven years the land was to rest and they were told to keep that. Well, they didn't. How many of those Sabbaths did they miss? They missed 70 of them.
For at least 7 * 70 is 490 and you find in time that it was from Solomon right on to the days of Daniel 490 years when they were the Lord said, I'm going to take you away now for those 70 years that you didn't keep those Sabbath and they were carried captive in that day of captivity God revealed to to Daniel.
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The sweep right on into the future. And how far is that? Another 490 years of God's care for Israel. And that 490 years took them from Daniel's days right into Christ, the coming of God's Messiah. So God in His grace and His mercy. 490 years He bore with them, and He did until the coming of the Savior.
Takes you right through the establishment of the Kingdom, doesn't it? Right on faster.
70 weeks, yeah.
Time is filling up my favorite.
We've seen 234.