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Betray him Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and he was come from God and went to God. He rises from supper and laid aside his garment and took a towel and girded himself.
After 94th water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with a towel, wherewith he was girded.
When comma Peter, Simon, Peter, and Peter sat unto him, Lord, dost thou wash spy feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do, thou knowest not thou, but thou shalt know hereafter.
Peter said unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I washed thee not.
Thou hast no part with me.
I'm Peter saath unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but all from my hands and my head. Jesus back to him he that is war. He is not faith to wash his feet, but it's fleeing every whip. And ye are clean, but not all. For in you who should betray him there for said he, hear not all clean.
So after he had washed their feet.
Taking his garment, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done done to you? You call me master and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. If I, then your Lord and master have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.
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 he knows these things, happy are ye if you do them? I speak not of you all I know whom I have chosen, but that the Scripture may be fulfilled. He that he is bread with me, has lifted up his heel against me. Now I tell you before come.
That when this come to pass, you 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, when Jesus had said, had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall be training. Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he speak. Now there was leaning on Jesus bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.
Simon Peter, therefore back into him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake, he then lying on Jesus breath.
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 do you dip the saw? He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the thought Satan entered into him, Then said Jesus unto him, that thou doest 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 that we have need of against the peace.
Or that he should give something to the poor, he then having received the saw.
Went immediately out and it was night therefore.
When he was going out, Jesus said Now is the Son of Man glorified.
And God is glorified in him, if God be glorified in him.
God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall streak we glorify him.
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Little children.
Yet a little while I am with you, ye shall seek me. And as I said unto the Jews, whither I go, ye cannot come. So now I say to you, and your 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 ye have loved one to another. Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go? Thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards.
Peter said unto him, Lord, why counter thy fault of thee now?
I will lay down my life for thy sake, Jesus answered him. Wilt thou lay down my life for my sake? Verily, verily, I said to thee, The **** shall not crow, because thou hast denied me thrice.
Brother Judd, we would all consider the kindness to us.
If you might share with us.
Of what particular thoughts came to your heart that led you to the reading of this chapter?
We would all like to hear the particular things that may have motivated you to.
Suggest this chapter.
Well, our brother mentioned his prayer, except the corn of wheat, all under the ground, and died, it abideth alone.
And here in the opening of this capture.
Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world under the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
What I thought much recently.
Of that Marxist love that was in the heart of God toward us in a past eternity, their improvisation, we find the Lord personified His wisdom.
Say my delight, we're with the sons of man.
In first Peter one and 20 we find that.
The Lord was born in as the Lamb of God, before the foundation of the world, and here because of that obedience to the Father's will. For I believe.
Christ's primary object and coming into this scene was to glorify the Father concerning the question of sin.
At the same time, here he was now on his way to the cross.
Father given everything into his hands on his way to the cross.
That he might accomplish that work of salvation. That he might die.
That you and I could be with him in the glory.
Yes, except that corner. We fall into the ground and die and a bit of hello. But he would not go back to the glory alone. He would not go out free. No, he would go to that cross of Calvary. And here with the cross before we find that it is old that he is thinking of not himself, but his old. Oh, how he desired to have his own around himself.
Result of that work, here we are, a little company gathered to look into his present, word gathered around himself.
What, of course, is ours, beloved in Christ?
Chemistry given in John 131415 and 16.
Culminating in the Lord's Prayer to the Father in John 17. All have to do with the present day of grace. That is what we get in these chapters, often called the upper room. Ministry is Christian truth.
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It's the Lord having departed for the Father. Notice verse one, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should be part out of this world unto the Father and.
A very significant thing he does here, the feet washing, which we'll discuss, but the important thing is.
He is all that he teaches. All that he does in these chapters flows from his being back with the Father, being in the present place of glory with the Father. So it has to do with this present period of time, the cross. John 12.
If I be lifted up, will draw men unto me, Now is the judgment of this world. Thou shall the Prince of this world be cast out, and the corn of wheat falling into the ground had to die, or divide alone. That's John 12. And now we have the hour of his glorification, not the hour of the cross, but the hour that he should depart out of this world to the Father, and all the ministry that's given what he does the feed washing.
And the teaching that he gives us in these chapters.
Characterizes the day in which we're living with Christ on high in the presence of the Father.
And we're left down here in this world. This chapter that we've read is so suitable for what is needed today for the truths that are unfolded here. We might call them dispensational truths. That is the character of the time in which we're living, where Christ is back with the Father and we are left here to be His representatives. This is what we have unfolded, the Spirit of God, sent down in the 14th chapter.
To indwell us, He's not leaving us alone, and we're set here to be the expression and the representatives of himself during his absence. So he's not reigning here. And what he teaches in these chapters was altogether new truth to the ears of these Jewish disciples. They had never heard these things before. He was now about to depart this scene and return to the Father.
And now he unfolds the truths that we would need during the time of his absence here.
And his glorification on high, that's what we have unfolded in these chapters.
And there are those that see in the feet washing nothing more than an example of humiliation on the part of the Lord Jesus.
Well, it certainly is that, but it goes far beyond that. It's what he is presently doing from the glory, washing our feet by the water of the word in the power of the Spirit of God is what he's presently doing. Now that we might have part with him, not with him as he was down here, but with him as he is now, in the glory, we might have part with a glorified Christ. This is the point of the ministry here.
And it culminates in his prayer in John 17.
Just before I close, just turn to John 17 a moment.
In verse one these words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said Father, the hour is come.
Glorify thy Son. It was the hour of his glorification.
Verse 5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was He asks to be instated into that glory that he had with the Father before he became a man, but now as a man.
And then?
Verse 11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee.
He uttered these words when he was in the world, But the spirit of what he's saying, and the truth of what he's saying in all these chapters applies now, after he's gone back to the Father, verse 13. And now come I to thee, and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. So here we have. Truth, though uttered on earth, applies. After the cross. I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do.
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And after he's been glorified and now we have the ministry that's given in these chapters characterizes the Christian day in which we live. And if we miss that, we've missed the teaching of the chapters. And that's the most important aspect of what we're going to be, considering that the hour of his returning to the Father had now come. And the character of the day in which we live is unfolded the presence we're living in the day of the Spirit.
A man in the glory, the spirit of God on earth, a finished work that's Christianity and the Father's house prepared on high with the promise that he'll come to take us to be with himself there very soon. This is all Christian truth. This is being denied. We're talking about that, that last night, or the Tim and I. This is being denied in many circles, and it's even coming in amongst us in certain ones.
And it's very important to be clear as to these truths and really it has to do with dispensational truth that we don't mix up the truth to Israel and the truth to the to the church, the truth to the heavenly people. And we are heavenly people. We we are, we are associated with a heavenly man rejected on earth. And that's that's why the character of the ministry here, for instance, in John 15.
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're not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hated you. And in John 17, the Lord says they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. That couldn't have been said of Israel. Israel was a people of this world. They had their establishment here. They were God's earthly people.
We're heavenly people. We're associated with Him during the time of His rejection here.
The time of his glorification back with the Father, and that's the character now of the Ministry that we'll be looking at.
God, always.
Shows us the extreme.
And here we see in this chapter.
That this blessed man, He declares that in that second verse that the Father.
Verse 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands.
Well, what an immense statement that is that God had given everything and it specifies it into the hands of a man, his beloved Son.
Now that's lofty. That's wonderful. Truth and love and power combined there in the Father's having been glorified by what his Son has done. And now we go to the other extreme. Our eyes turn to his hands.
All powers given into his hands. What does he do with his hands?
And here we see that he washes the disciples feet with his hands.
What? What backoffs, what extremes? And we never beloved ones, can go too high in the contemplation of the glory that the Lord Jesus has received from His Father. And on the other hand, we never can get down low enough down to the feet to seek the blessing of one another, as we find the Lord giving us an example in the use of His hands.
In verse two you have the expression and supper being ended.
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And then in verse four he arises from supper. What supper is that? That's mentioned here?
Brother Ron, I always think of it this way, that this was the closing now of his earthly days, and the supper is the last meal of the day, and so.
The the evening glow is coming on now, and here is this Last Supper.
Before he goes in the 12Th chapter.
Mary, she has put the ointment on his feet. And here now in these last moments, supper being ended, last few, last acts, now laying before us the emphasis of what he is going to do during this day of grace to be washing our feet, and that we should learn.
To take from that example, and should be the desire beloved ones of everyone of us.
To be doing this, the tendency these days is to be patting each other on the back instead of washing our feet. And sometimes there's just a bit of resentment when when I'm told something that maybe I don't like to hear well, I must take it from the Lord and be sensitive to these things. And we need all of us to be sensitive these days.
That the tendency to recognize that the tendency is to compromise and to let everything slide and justice to say, well, these are the days but beloved ones, we need to realize that to wash each others feet is a a a service for the Lord's glory and the blessing of his people. And we need to be concerned about one another, not to be resentful, but to thank God that we.
Have those that will get down South low at our feet, as to Washington, our feet desiring that we would be preserved and the soiling that is just rampant in the world we'll be preserved from.
I enjoyed it, Brother Chuck, your remarks about.
The keynote of this chapter and the subsequent chapters is very helpful. Pardon little hard to hear. Speak a little louder. I'll try it. Thank you very much, Chuck, for the very helpful keynote that you've given to us in verse one.
And I assume that verse two, it talks about the supper being ended. That's the last Passover supper.
And verse four it arises from supper. I assume that's the Passover supper.
But I'd like to ask you, Brother Hendrix, if you have any thoughts as to why the.
The remembrance of the Lord is not brought in here.
That would certainly be part of the present day, wouldn't it? But there must be some wonderful reason why the remembrance of the Lord is not mentioned here in John, in this Ministry, the upper administrator. Do you have any thoughts about that? I really don't. Maybe you can pass them. No, I I don't have any. That's why I asked the question.
Brother, brother, Hendricks given to us, the cross is looked at as accomplished.
And Christ in glory? Are we going to remember the Lord in glory as we do down here?
So it's still in common. Would that be why it's not mentioned here?
John's ministry.
Isn't a long church line.
It's a family relationship, children with the father, so we don't find that this connection that the other disciple.
Peter intimates it and then.
Paul was revealed this wonderful truth of the church.
But we hardly have ministry on earth in John's writing.
So I believe it's more of the individual relationship now.
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Therefore, supper is prevention.
Thing of those words two and verse one, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
Not so much to comment on them as just think of that log which led him to that cross of Calvary that he might have us with himself.
Throughout those endless ages of eternity, we'll never know what it cost him to be made sin that holy, smartless, sinless one. But He went to that cross to glorify the Father, and that He might have us with himself.
Having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. Nothing would turn aside from going to that cross.
Instead of a key to this whole chapter, isn't it brother Judge that the love of the Lord Jesus Christ is what motivated them to get down to the level of disciples feet. It was what motivated him to love his disciples all the way through to the cross. Sometimes in industry we have when we build a product we have some extremes that we some specification limits that we put on that product.
And then we test it within those specifications. There's other times when we will take the test beyond the the the spec limits, and we will take it to the point of destruction where it actually fails. Well, here we see the the love of our Lord Jesus Christ tested beyond the limits of man, tested all the way to the depths of the cross, all the way to that terrible judgment that fell. And what happened? There was no failure, No failure.
At all. He was faithful all the way his disciples forsook him and fled. Peter denied him one of the apostles.
Turned against him and turned him in to the to the Jews and so on. But the love of Christ never failed. And I think that's that's what's behind this whole chapter, brother. Here we have a Savior whose love will never fail. It's beyond the limits of man.
Amen question about the mention of breaking of bread for supper and John that in John 28 and verse 31 we get the purpose of the writing of the whole gospel. And he says these things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that you might that believing you might have life through his name. So we see that John is the eternal life gospel.
Only do we see it as the Son of God and the deity of Christ brought out, but it's the eternal life gospel. And so there's two things that are never mentioned in the Gospel of John, and one is Christian baptism.
Never have any Commission for them to go out and baptize and also the breaking of bread because neither of those have anything to do with the salvation of the believer. The Catholics today would say, well you can be saved by taking the sacraments. Well, if that brought us eternal life, it would be mentioned here in the Gospel of John. There's other groups that say you have to be baptized to be saved, but there's no mention of Christian baptism in the Gospel of John.
Like give this thought.
Comes before me.
Verse four he rises from supper.
Verse 2 ought to read, I believe, enduring supper instead of the supper being ended. And then he rises from supper.
If we can take the Supper to represent the remembrance of him and his death, and we know that he instituted it, although John doesn't bring it out specifically.
Rises from supper.
And lays aside his garments, and he girds himself.
Takes a towel, a linen towel, and girds himself. Well, that's what he is now. He is the risen Christ. He is risen from suppers. It were from death.
That which speaks of his death. And he is now a raised, a risen man, and having entered the glory, he lays aside his garments.
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And Gerdes himself for another work.
A work on high in which he serves us. He was a perfect servant on earth. Behold my servant, my neglect, in whom my soul delighted.
There was number servant as he when he was down here, but now he's serving us as our advocate with the Father.
He girds himself, and that presents him to us as a servant. And he takes water, pours it into a basin and washes their feet, Gets down at their feet. Well, that's what he's doing right now, from the glory. Right now in these meetings, he's washing our feet by the water of the word. Whenever we have the word over our souls before our souls, he washes our feet with it, whether collectively as we are this morning or individually.
But the laying aside of his garments, I always used to apply that to his coming into the world. He laid aside his glory.
But this is his going back to the Father now, and having got there, there's another work for him to do. He finished the work on the cross, but now he lays aside his garments and he takes water and girds himself for another work, the work that he's presently doing as our advocate and as our High Priest.
And that's most precious, that he's serving us right now from the glory. And in Luke 12, when we get home, he's going to come forth and he's going to serve us again.
Even in eternity He will serve us, He will minister to us of his own thoughts.
And his own delights. And it will be that for us to feed on for all eternity. So in every position that the Lord has been in down here is a man now in the glory is a man, and in that coming day he'll serve us most precious.
Back to the 21. You have the account of the Hebrew servant? Yes. Please don't say I love my master.
My wife, I told her. I will not go out for you.
We brought to the door.
God and the door.
Would be more through them all, you would serve him forever.
Well, we see Christ here serving. We just went for a moment to 1St Corinthians 15.
1St Corinthians 15 and verse 28.
And when all things shall be subdued under him.
Then shall the Son also himself be subject.
Unto him and put all things under him, that God may be All in all all That lack of one is bringing everything back.
Into that condition in which God can again take pleasure in it, man lost it all. But now Christ is man bringing everything back, so that God can again take pleasure in it. And then he hands all back to God, and he is a he shall serve him forever.
A servant forever, a man in the glory, that he might have us with himself, that we might enjoy him throughout the endless ages of eternity.
May I suggest chapter 5 for a moment?
I.
Just a few little toads.
In the middle of verse 24.
25 rather verse 25 the middle of the verse.
Right also.
Love the Church, the Assembly.
He gave himself for it yesterday.
Now, today.
That he might sanctify it and cleans it with the washing of the water by the Word, the word of God. That's the wake that the Lord Jesus, that precious Savior, is doing in the Gospel of John. The Lord Jesus is the Good Shepherd that gave his life for the ship in Hebrew chapter 13 is the great shepherd of the sheep that is caring for us.
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That's the second work that he's doing.
And so it says here that with the washing of the water by the word, that's what we have in 13 chapter, don't we, Of the gospel of a job. And then the final week when he retains, oh what a wonderful save your behalf 3 fold work that he might sanctify, that he might present it to himself.
A glorious church.
Not having.
What? Nor wrinkles, nor any such a thing, but it should be holy and without length. Wonderful Savior. But I'll tell you about our people of God, the mark of the cross that is suffering, that the Lord Jesus, when they're at the cross, will remain with him for all eternity. In the chapter five of the Book of Revelation, when John developed Apostle, he was looking for the tribal Judah. All of a sudden he saw a lamb as he had been slain.
The mark of the cross is going to remain with him forever.
And he's going to cause us to praise him, to worship him forever.
But we see a very lovely go ahead brother. We see a very lovely illustration of what just has been mentioned before about his garments and now in preparation for his ascension to glory in Genesis 41. Just a minute to look at that verse. Joseph, his work in the dungeon.
Has come to an abrupt end. And the call from Pharaoh and in verse 14 it says that's Genesis 4114. Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon, and he shaved himself and changed his raiment and came in unto Pharaoh.
Well, Pharaoh, from that place being a picture of God the Father, and here now the Lord Jesus changed His garments and resurrection light. We're seeing in anticipation in our chapter the changes as garments. And now He is.
Ascending to the Father's presence where he is now in that work.
Foot, foot washing, Who, brethren, is something that we have an opportunity for and A and a privilege to do. And in verse 14 it says, if I then your Lord and master have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. And I think it's it's just important that we go down through the steps that our Lord Jesus took and just view them, because there are several steps that are very important in the washing of feet.
I believe that foot washing is something that is being neglected today, and foot washing is something that does not require gift to do. It is something that the sisters may also do and some sisters are very effective in doing, maybe more so than some of us brothers. But as we look at verse four, he rises from supper in. Some of the comments have already been made about the Lord Jesus getting up from the supper.
I was at had the privilege of being at a dinner.
With some other Christians who were not at the Lord's table. It was a wedding and some of these Christians at my table turned out were were from some high circles of religious opportunity in in Christendom and they were doing a real work for the Lord and and I was listening to what they were saying. Every once in a while I would say that reminds me of a verse in the Bible and finally this brother who was straight across from me, he said, well who are you anyway?
And I said, well, my name is Dan Spence. And he said, I don't mean that. He says, I mean, where are you from? What? What church do you go to? And I said, well, I'm with a group of Christians who meet in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he, he thought for a moment, and he said, brethren, and I said with a small B, if you put a small B on it, it's OK And he said, I know the brethren. He said, what a wonderful group of Christians. I was so delighted to hear that at the table.
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And he said, I was just over in India and I met some of the brethren over there. And he said these brethren, the one thing about the brethren, he said they get up from the Lord's table where they remember the Lord on Sunday morning and they don't go home and go to bed, he said they go out and preach the gospel.
I'm so thankful for this comment. So they kind of exercised my own heart quite a bit. But here he riseth from supper and he did not go home and go to bed. He had a job to do.
And the next step is that he laid aside aside his garments, that is that which surrounded him. And it takes some spiritual energy to lay aside those things that surround us. And as you brought out just to to put on that new garment, to be to make sure that the garments that we are wearing are clean. And he took a towel third step, and girded himself.
That is, there was some preparation on his own part. Before he was going to to wash his disciples feet, he had to have a towel. He had to gird himself.
We we might think of that verse about having our loins girded about with truth. That is our own life has to be in order before we're going to do this. And then verse 5. And he poured water into a basin that is there was a portion of there was a portion of water that he was going to use to.
Cleanse his disciples, feet and brethren, I just say, the more I go along in life, the more I am amazed at how.
This book, the Bible has within it a portion for our needs today we're running into difficult problems. Today when we're talking about washing others feet, we're running into problems defilement that we haven't seen before. But there is a portion of the word of God that is able to cleanse away that defilement. And then we notice that He began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them.
With the Tau wherewithy was girded, I think sometimes people mention the temperature of the water and they mentioned that feet washing is something very gentle, something that should be very delightful in a sense. But we come to this point where the Lord Jesus came down to the level of his disciples feet. And this is something so absolutely amazing to think of the Lord Jesus Christ taking the place of a servant and coming to the point where he would unstrap.
The the the sandal that a person was wearing take off this shoe and come into contact with this defilement and put it in the water and cleanse it. And this is where we have problems, brethren. We have problems coming down to that level. We have problems knowing where the defilement is. We have problems and strapping the shoe. Or sometimes we have problems letting someone do this to us. This is something that should be so delightful.
So so should have such a soothing cleansing effect that we would say I want it to happen again. So the Lord Jesus did that, but he did not leave that that foot drenching wet. He took a towel and he wiped the foot until it was dry and that person could now be normal state again. I just say that these are some steps that our Lord Jesus Christ went through so that we might also carry on this cleansing process with one another.
It has been said that the foot washing is illustrated in the first Epistle to Corinthians, where we find 10 different soilings that were true of that assembly and corn.
So the first chapter is like the foot washing. But then when you come to the second chapter, second epistle, I should say did I say chapter? The first epistle of Corinthians is the foot washing the 2nd epistle. If you read it slowly, you'll find the nice warm towel that the apostle used. And that is an essential part, isn't it? Not only to do the foot washing, but to see that there is comfort with a nice warm child towel to encourage.
I understand that.
The one that was to do this service.
Was a slave.
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And hear the Lord of glory.
Lays aside his garments that he was wearing at supper.
And girds himself and does the service of a slave.
That they might have part with him.
I want to say too that if we just get the idea from John 13 that the foot washing is to remove that which is gross.
Immorality.
All the evils that gross things that you find in First Corinthians, for instance.
I think we're going to miss something.
It's the removing of that which connects us with Earth.
As we walk through this world, we pick up the dust of this world. Our feet get dirty. We pick up its ways. We pick up its speech. We pick up its thinking. We pick up its habits. We pick up its talk.
We pick up its way of doing business. We pick up this religion.
All of these things we have to have our feet in his hands, and we have to have these things which would rob us of fellowship with a glorified Christ. That's the point of the chapter. He's in glory. He's not here.
Take take the issue of religion I've mentioned if you lower, if you listen to the character of the Ministry.
That is given today by the leading Christian teachers in Christendom.
It's on this level that the Church is here as a viable force to correct the ills of society.
That Christians ought to get involved in politics, social reform, correcting the various wrongs that are here. Get rid of abortion. That awful evil, and it is.
Get rid of ***********. That awful evil. And it is. But is that what we're called to? Is that why we're left here? We're left here to represent a heavenly Christ.
Where those that are passing through but not to get involved with this world, we are strangers and pilgrims here.
And we leave the world where it is.
Now what I'm saying now is strange to many an ear.
I hope not to our ears, for we should have heard these things over and over and over again through the years that we are a heavenly people.
And we're not of this world, and we can get so involved in things here, though they may not be grossly evil or immoral at all, just legitimate pursuits of this life, but so involved in them that we're robbed of our heavenly fellowship with the glorified Christ.
And I believe that's involved in the feet washing. We need more than just to have the gross things removed, but we need to have those things removed that would set our sights earthly earthward and to have our sights heavenward. Notice the key verse is.
Verse 8 Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet.
Jesus answered him. If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.
He wants us to have fellowship with himself in the glory as a heavenly Christ.
Well, that's almost lost today in Christendom, and the truth of the rapture is being given up.
Quite rapidly today. How can I hold to the truth of the Rapture when I don't believe that I'm a heavenly man any longer, That I'm an earthly man and that I'm down here to get things right, Corrected down here. That Christianity is just another earthly religion? If that's the truth that is being preached over and over again in various ways that I've lost Christianity.
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Have lost it. I have lost my identification with a glorified Christ.
At last, the truth that I'm a heavenly man. Why are we here then? To correct the world? No. Why are we here? To manifest the character of Christ in a world that has turned him out, doesn't want him. We're privileged of manifesting that same life that was lived out in all its blessed fullness in him. That eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested to us, that was lived out in perfection, in a man now that's been given to us.
And he wants that continued in you and me. But that can only be continued if we're strangers and pilgrims on earth.
And identified with a heavenly man. So he washes our feet that we might have part with him. So it goes beyond the gross defilements of earth. It goes beyond those things. And it involves our not partaking in politics, the political arena, the social arena, the all of that that the world has to we have another world that we belong to.
And that's the world he's entered and soon we're going to be there.
Well, we know how miserably we fail in these things, the speaker.
Especially so I realized this, but still, it's the truth of God and it's what we need to have before our souls. And it involves, as I said earlier, dispensational truth. We're heavenly people and the Lord washes our feet that we might have part with him where in the glory.
Sometimes feel we know these things and we hold them. We value them. We enjoy them as a doctrine. But what effect have they in our practical daily life? Do they affect our practical life day by day? Now, I couldn't take part in the affairs of this country if I wanted to, for I'm not a citizen of this country.
And brethren, our citizenship is in heaven.
And I'd like to read a verse.
2nd Corinthians 5 and verse 20. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ that be reconciled to God, for he has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
As our brother said, we represent one that has gone to the glory. Our citizenship is in glory.
And we have no part in the affairs of this world other than to pass through it on our way to the glory.
There's a verse in, I don't know whether it's numbers. I'm not sure If somebody could help me out. Children of Israel were going to pass through the land of Edom and they would go by the highway, they would pay for the water, they would pay for whatever they got.
But they would only pass through on their feet and brethren. This should be our attitude as we pass through this season. We go through it on our feet, going on to a heavenly country to be with Christ and glory that is our home and that should reflect in our daily walking ways.
I'll read the verse. It's in numbers 20. Verse 17. Let us pass. I pray thee through thy country. We will not pass through the fields nor through the vineyards. Neither will we drink of the water of the wells. We will go by the King's Hwy. We will not turn to the right hand or to the left until we have passed that borders.
Beautiful verse to set forth the Christian's path through this world, isn't it?
We've been enjoying the love and the loneliness of Christ in this chapter, and I wonder if John brings before us a thought. We've been talking about how the love of Christ should work in our hearts and all of these things, and it's a lovely thought. In the first chapter of John's Gospel, we find God through the Spirit declaring who the Lord is. He's the word of God.
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In the 13th chapter and in some of the other chapters of John's Gospel, indeed perhaps all of them, we find the Lord's showing us who he is.
And then if we go to the 21St chapter which our brother Dan referred to before.
The 25th verse, it says there are also many other things which Jesus did to which if they should be written and so forth. We find now that John has seen who he is and when John sees who the Lord Jesus is, he says there's nothing on this earth that can contain the things that Jesus is. And so we find revealed to John that heavenly scene where those will be gathered around the Lord Jesus in Revelation 5.
And they're going to see him as the slaying Lamb. And he has the privilege of foretelling, of foreseeing, as it were, the worship of the Lord in the sphere that could contain the things which Jesus is. And it brings out our worship and our worship to Him. Certainly the earth could not contain him, but the glory can and does, and that's what draws out John's John's worship in the Revelation.
But we find that John ends his ministry.
Yenza's ministry by saying.
Saying there Even so come Lord Jesus when the first of John's ministry, we find God proclaiming who the Lord Jesus is.
At his first coming. But in the end of John's ministry, we find John having seen who the Lord is with a view of what is to be his and to be ours in that eternal scene.
And now we find whereas in the beginning of John's ministry we find it, the Lords coming proclaimed, Now in the end of John's ministry we find that John is asking for his second return. That's the work of Christ in us, the work of the Spirit in US. Is it not to see His love, to see who he is, to see his loneliness, to give us guidance for the practical walk, and to see there the value of this person?
And as John leaned on his breast in this chapter, we find now he once he desires his return.
There are no instructions.
In the scriptures, for those who are kings in the forest, we're in authority. When Christians fit in those places, they're they're really giving the wrong image of Christianity.
I think that I'm putting something up in the in the kind of a paraphrase way, Darby.
I think we always need to remember that God is able to exalt the basis of persons and whoever is elected is God's man. I don't think it's God's mind at all that we should try to evaluate presidents and those that aren't authority or even act somewhat as cheerleaders for this one or that one. Because I know that the knowingness of our heart is such that if we were able to go to the polls we would probably be conservatives and middle class Republicans.
So foot foot washing brethren, just this too. And it sum up what has been said here. Foot washing is something that is for all those who are believers. It is not we are not to carry this job on with the world, to try to clean up the world because Jesus said later in verse 10 he that is washed or bathed needeth not saved to wash his feet. So what the world needs is salvation. They need it through the preaching of the gospel.
The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. But what other believers need is foot washing and this is something that is carried on within the church. And as our brother Hendrick said, not only does it is it effective in washing away the the grosser defilements, but all defilement and that is the amazing quality of the Word of God and it has a cleansing effect on one another.
Isn't there also an element of our fellowship with the Lord? If we pick up the filament along the way by then that destroys our fellowship with the Lord. And it's also John's ministry in his first epistle where we're told that if we.
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Confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and grant us from all unrighteousness. So the foot washing can be that which would.
Realigned us of our fellowship with the Lord or the loss of it, as we wash each others feet, we can encourage one another. And so the Lord in our portion here. Chapter 13. And Peter. When Peter said, Thou shall never wash my feet, Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Now I'm sure we can look at that in two ways. One is that we're not bathed. Why? We have no part with the Lord. That is, we have to be born again. We have to be washed with the water of the Word to be saved.
But then in the sense of the defilement and the washing of the feed, why that can destroy our fellowship with the Lord and have to take care of that defilement. And we can help one another by foot washing and restore that happy communion which is the portion that we should all enjoy. And so in that sense we can help one another. And the foot washing, I believe, is very important, particularly in the day in which we live, where there is so much defilement on every side.
Can hardly escape it. So we have to be kept pure and holy, and we have to help one another. And then we have our full part with the Lord Jesus. We sing number 88.