The Shepherd's Work

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Address—R. Thonney
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Let's start our meeting with #103.
We'll sing of the shepherd that died, that died for the sake of the flock. His love to the utmost was tried, but firmly endured as a rock.
I know how it is.
In the afternoon meeting, this is probably one of the harder ones to stay awake and I'm suggesting we stand up and.
Sing #103.
With.
Let's pray.
Let's go back first of all to our.
Chapter in John chapter 10 just to.
Reread a verse. We've been.
Thinking about a lot.
Verse 11.
I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
Now verse 16 and other sheep I have which are not of this fold.
Them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice.
And there shall be one full alternate reading is 1 flock.
And one shepherd.
Now go over to the 11Th chapter.
And we're going to read the prophecy of a man who.
Was not a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, but he occupied the place of the high priest in the nation of Israel and God used his mouth to say something that is quite significant. Let's read it, Chapter 11 of John.
Verse 49 And one of them named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider.
That it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people.
And that the whole nation perished, not in this spake he not of himself, but being High priest that year.
He prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation, and this is the part I'd like to draw attention to, and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.
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The purpose of the death of the Lord Jesus was to gather together in one.
The children of God that were scattered abroad. Wonderful to think about.
In chapter 10, we were reading about the Good Shepherd. Let's go over now to.
Hebrews chapter 13 to read about.
The title that the Lord Jesus is taking.
Perhaps we can say in this present time that we live in when He has gone home to glory.
And sent the Spirit of God down here into this world. He is still working as a shepherd. And to me it is wonderful to get the eyes on him. Brethren, you look around, doesn't take very long to get discouraged what you see. But when you look up and realize that there is above one who is still working as a shepherd.
To take care of his sheep.
Chapter 13 of Hebrews verse 20.
Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead.
Our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect.
In every good work to do his will working in you.
That which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Here we have the Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, and he is working now.
To perfect.
Us in every good work.
Sometimes, you know, we don't understand his workings. And I must say as I go around and see God's dear people in different countries of this world.
You know, brethren, life isn't easy anywhere I go. It's downright hard in lots of places and people often say why? Let me tell you, I don't have a whole lot of answers other than that we have a God who is above and that He is working to perfect.
In us His will in every good work. How He works that out I do not know. The verse that often comes to my own heart is the one in Isaiah 55 that says My thoughts, the Lord speaking, are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways.
That is certainly true.
He works in ways that I can't figure out.
And the verse that comes to me in that connection is, we know in part.
Don't judge the Lord by the difficult circumstances you may be passing through right now, because you only know in part one day He's going to pull the curtain aside.
At the judgment seat of Christ. And he said, I know you didn't understand it. I just ask you to trust me. And now I'm going to show you why I did it the way I did. And I'm convinced brother and sister in the Lord Jesus, that when we see it from heaven's side, when we see the wisdom and the power and the love.
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That were involved in every single circumstance in our life, we're going to say.
I wouldn't have wanted it anywhere else. He did it right. Right now we don't see.
At all. And it takes simple faith to trust the Shepherd. He's leading in ways we do not understand. But one of the things that really comes home to my own soul in these last days when things are hard, downright hard in so many other, in so many areas of life.
Don't mistrust the shepherd. That's what the enemy comes to you and whispers in your ear.
I hear it lots. God could have done better for me than this.
Why does the Lord allow this to happen to me? And the suggestion is that God is not as good as he makes out to be. That's the hiss of the serpent. Don't listen to it. God is as good as he makes out to be.
And He proved it. And if you want to know how good God is, don't look at your present circumstances that you only understand a very small part of. Look at Calvary. Look at that cross where God's beloved Son hung in terrible agony, not only physical agony, but the agony of his soul as He was made sin for us.
To pay the debt we owed, to pay it in full. He did the will of God in the face of the wrath of God.
And he finished that work completely.
Said it is finished and then God raised him from the dead. There is the fullest display of the truth that God is light and God is love that there will ever be. I'm sure when we get home to glory, we're going to see that every one of our lives is going to be a vivid testimony to the goodness of the heart of God.
In that coming day, he's going to display the exceeding riches of His grace in those ages to come.
In us, the church. But in the mean time, brethren, we're going to have to learn to simply trust Him. Don't give way to the doubts that want to flood into your soul. He is working, and He is working with this purpose in mind, as it says here, to make you perfect in every good work, to do His will.
You know the Lord Jesus is referred to and I think it was mentioned by someone in the 5th chapter of first Peter. I'd like to read that verse too. And this is something that is future. He's referred to as the shepherd. Once again, the 5th chapter, first Peter and verse.
For here Peter who is given charge to feed.
The lambs and the sheep of the flock of God is.
Passing that charge on to the elders that were among them. And he says in verse four, And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory, that they doth not away. I love the way the Spanish translation reads here. It's the Prince of the shepherds.
He is the Prince of the shepherds and oh, the glory of that day. If you and I have been involved, and this is what I want to encourage you to, dear young people, you don't know the effect you have on your fellow young people to be somebody, to steer them in the right direction at the right time. You can either have a very negative effect or you can have a very positive effect. I remember when I was a young person.
Growing up and there were tendencies, there were circumstances that were negative in my vicinity.
God used a young brother to steer me.
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In the right direction and I thank God for that young brother that steered me that way at a crucial time. Young people don't realize how much effect you have on your fellow young people. Make sure that you are being an influence in the right direction because you too can be used in this work that the Lord Jesus is doing of shepherding His sheep.
I'd like to go first of all to some examples of how the Lord Jesus.
Shepherded his sheep, you know, it says. Maybe we should read it in.
Matthew's Gospel. Just to get it straight, it's a quotation from Zechariah, but it is quoted in Matthew chapter.
26.
Verse 31 Then said Jesus unto them.
All ye shall be offended because of Maine.
This night, for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. We've read about gatherings here, we read about scattering, and scattering is a very tremendous reality amongst God's people here. It was the death of the Lord Jesus that it was referred to.
Smite, the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered abroad. They couldn't understand it when Jesus was crucified. They thought he had come to set up his Kingdom. And when the shepherd was hung on a cross and died, they were completely disillusioned.
You know, sometimes we don't listen very well to the Word of God. We have our thoughts and our ideas, and they're not always right ideas we get. We need to constantly challenge our thinking by the light of the precious Word of God that we have in our hands. That's why it's so important to be reading the Scriptures daily.
Anyhow, when the Lord Jesus was smitten the sheep.
Were scattered, and when he rises from the dead, he begins the work.
Of regathering those poor scattered sheep.
To me, it's so instructive to see the way the Lord Jesus worked in his dear people to bring them back to himself. And I just like to briefly go over it because it's such an encouragement to me. Let's go over to John's Gospel chapter 20. The first one he appeared to in Resurrection was Mary Magdalene.
Kind of a challenge to us brothers. I think that he didn't appear to.
One of the disciples, The 12 disciples or the 11 at that time?
No, it was a woman he appeared first to. Why?
Why did he appear to marry Magdalene first?
The only answer I have, and perhaps there are other reasons, is that Mary's heart be true to Jesus.
Completely true to him.
She wasn't very intelligent. She really hadn't listened to what he had to say before he died.
Or else she might have been like Mary of Bethany, not been there, but she was true hearted to Jesus and to me this is extremely precious.
How is your heart toward the person of the Lord Jesus, dear brother, dear sister?
Does it be true to Jesus?
You know, I was challenged the other day when we were down in Argentina. We were in the city of Tucuman where there's a small assembly.
Lemoyne Smith and I and we had to leave fairly good time early hour the next morning and we were in a taxi on our way to the airport and pulled up to a stoplight and.
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Since economic times have been hard there, why there was this man selling newspapers?
At the corner and.
Now they're all, all the cars are stopped. So you'd run along beside the cars seeing if anybody wanted a newspaper. And as he came by the taxi were in Lemoyne held a calendar out to mullet calendar and gave him a calendar and he ran on by. But when he realized what it was on the calendar, he came back and he stuck his head in the window. He says Jesus is my life, Jesus is my love.
He's gone to prepare a place for me.
And he's coming back soon. Again, the light switched to green and the taxi took off.
So the warmth, that brother's heart.
I've never broken bread with that brother.
I've never known him before, may never see him again on this side, but his heart was beating true to Jesus.
And sometimes I see brethren I break bread with.
And other things are so much more important.
But the meetings don't seem to be important. Or Jesus isn't it?
I think that's why the Lord appeared to Mary. First of all, He appreciates a heart who is true to Jesus, wasn't well instructed. And there are so many of those brethren sometimes we criticize because they're not in the right place perhaps, or they don't know their doctrine properly.
Not discounting doctrine. It's important. Very important.
But let's remember how much value the Lord Jesus.
Puts on true heartedness to Him. Mary was true hearted to Jesus. Let's read this account because it's so touching to my own heart. I know we've read it before, brethren, but I'm not going to apologize for going over it again. Verse one, the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark.
Any ladies like to be in the cemetery when it's still dark by themselves? Here was one.
She wasn't thinking about herself, she was thinking about somebody else.
Seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other disciple.
Whom Jesus loved and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together. The other disciple did outrun. Peter came first to the sepulchre, and he's stooping down and looking in, saw the linen clothes line and went. Yet when he not in, then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie.
And the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw and believed the linen clothes had just been vacated, and under the weight of those spices that were in those, that sheeting that was wrapped around his body.
It was just laying there because His body was not there any longer. He had risen from the dead. He saw, He believed, for as yet they knew not the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again into their own home, unto their own home. But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping.
And as she wept, she stooped down and looked in into the sepulchre, and see two angels in white sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.
How interesting, I've always thought I'd kind of like to see an Angel. Maybe we have seen him. We didn't realize they were because they appear in human form as they did to Abraham. He saw three men standing there. One was the Lord and two were angels and we have seen him. Don't know, but I think they keep their themselves out of line of vision because they are not the object of faith. The Lord Jesus is the object of faith. But here they are sitting there.
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And.
They say, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord. Isn't that beautiful? First she says to the disciples, They have taken away the Lord. Now she says, My Lord, and I know not where they have laid them.
And when she had thus said, she turned herself back. She was not interested in angels.
And saw Jesus standing and knew not that it was.
Jesus, isn't this beautiful? I think this is a tremendously beautiful way that the Lord Jesus gently brings back those scattered sheep to Himself. Jesus said them to her woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? Didn't he know? Sure he knew, but he drew her out. I think that is so beautiful.
When you're trying to be a help to somebody, allow them to express.
Their feelings give them a chance.
She supposing him to be the gardener.
We have our suppositions, don't we, brethren?
Saith unto him, Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
Jesus saith unto her.
Mary.
That's a touching scene, Mary. It was the shepherd calling his sheep, and instantly she recognized his voice. Mary It didn't seem to be.
What she saw, she didn't seem to recognize him when she looked at him, but it was when he called her by name. She immediately turns herself. She had turned her back on the gardener, but she turns herself back.
And said unto him, Rabboni, which is to say, Master Jesus said under her, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father and two, but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my father and your father, and to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that they had spoken these things under her.
Mary wanted to have the Lord Jesus back again as she had known Him before.
He said in a gentle way. No, Mary, you're not going to have me.
Like you had me before, don't touch me, you're going to have me in a new way. And that's what we have in Second Corinthians chapter 5 when it says, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now knowing him, hence no more.
No, we don't know him after the flesh. We know him now in resurrection.
We are united to him in resurrection. And then he tells her, go to my brethren, and tell them, I ascend unto my Father and your father. This is the gospel of John, brethren, bringing us into relationship with God as Father. Oh, what a tremendous blessing and communicated first to this dear woman.
Whose heart be true to Jesus?
Here Mary Magdalene is back on track. She had gotten to see her Lord if they'd like to go.
To Luke's Gospel Now, chapter 24.
To talk of.
A couple people.
One was.
Cleopas and the other doesn't give his name.
Since they were both going together to their home in Emmaus.
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Why, it could easily have been his wife.
Man and a woman doesn't say so he can't say definitely, but let's read this. Behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus. To us from Jerusalem, about 3 score furlongs, about 7 miles the way we would calculate distance.
And they talked together of all these things which had happened, and it came to pass that while they communed together and reasoned.
You know when you don't have the Lord clear before your soul, all the reasoning in the world doesn't resolve anything. Here they are, they're walking together, they're talking about what's happened, their reasoning, but nothing comes clear.
But it says here Jesus himself drew near and went with him. What a beautiful text. Jesus himself drew near and went with him. Do you know the Lord is with us, brother? He has promised never to leave us, nor to forsake us.
He said before he left to go back. He said, lo, I am with you alway.
Until the end of the world, until the end of the age, is with us. His personal presence, with every one of his people individually, that's a reality. Sometimes we don't feel like he's with us.
Young sisters some time ago said to me, it seems like the Lord just abandoned me. I got so many problems.
I said to her.
Will you please read?
Hebrews 13/5.
And six. And she read it and I said, what does it say? He says, you'll never leave me nor forsake me. I say, OK, your feelings say that he's left you. The word of God says he will never leave you. Now what are you going to believe your feelings or the word of God? She says, I guess I better believe the word of God. I said, yeah, I think that's the best route to go.
Feelings go up and down like a seesaw with the Word of God remains constant. Always trust God's Word, He's always with us. So here He comes, He goes with them.
Their eyes were holding that they should not know Him. So often we don't understand that He's right there, brethren. Oh how many words we would desist saying if we realized Jesus is right here.
Oh, how many places we wouldn't go if we realized he's with us at all times.
Verse 17 And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these, that ye have one to another as ye walk?
And are sad. And the one of them whose name was Cleopas.
Answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem? That's what he was to them.
And hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days.
And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty indeed, and word before God and all the people, how the chief priests and our rulers can delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. And beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done.
Yeah, in certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre.
And when they found not his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels which said that he was alive and certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre and found it. Even so, as the women had said that him they saw not. Isn't this interesting? I think it is so instructive to if you want to be a help to somebody else, you're going to have to learn to be a good listener.
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Sometimes people just pour out their heart. Remember Brother Eric Smith telling me when I started traveling with him into South America, He said, you've got to learn to listen. If you don't listen, people are just waiting for you to stop saying what you're saying so they can keep on talking. Let them get out what's troubling them. And that is a very helpful instruction. And we see that the Lord Jesus himself did it. He could have said to them, whoa, stop right in your tracks, don't go another step, I'm the Lord.
Didn't do it.
He walked those seven miles. How long does it take to walk 7 miles? I suppose it was hilly country. I would guess between anywhere between two and three hours. That's quite a bit of time.
And the Lord in a rush to get everything taken care of. We get in a rush, you know, not the Lord. To me, this is so beautiful.
We don't help when we get in rush about things. I'm not saying that criticize anybody out here because I get in a rush way too much of the time, brother, but this is something that really attracts me to the person of the Lord Jesus. He took all that time, walk all that way, all the way to Mass. He never said, hey, go back, you're going the wrong direction. Never said it.
Never said it. He walked right alongside of them.
But notice in verse 25 he begins to talk after they had gotten out what was.
On their hearts then he said unto them.
O fools, and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken, you know reproof is in order.
And this is pretty correct and serious reproof. I'm not suggesting anybody.
Of us call somebody else a fool. The scripture tells us not to do that, but the Lord could because the Lord knew the hearts as we don't know them. But reproof is in order. Brethren, what Heinz said at the end of the meeting is good love is faithful, faithful are the wounds of a friend. And sometimes we need direct words.
But brethren, let me suggest something when direct words are necessary, something that Albert Haygel used to draw our attention to quite a bit that I have found extremely helpful. Turn over to Don't lose your place there. In Luke, turn over to Romans chapter 15.
And verse 14.
I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren.
That ye also are full of goodness.
Filled with all knowledge.
Able.
Also to admonish one another.
And our dear brother used to make mention of this. Admonishment is necessary at times, brethren. I have needed my share of it, and thankfully there were those who were able to give it to me. Thank the Lord for that. But notice the order. Admonishing does not come first. What comes first?
You're filled.
You're full of goodness, second filled with all knowledge, and 3rd able also to admonish one another.
Just to put that into perspective if I need.
Some admonishment and there is a brother who comes up to me.
To take care of that task, which is not an easy task.
If he is one who has been known for his goodness and seeking sacrificially, seeking my good.
And then he's filled with all knowledge. He understands the problem that I'm in.
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He doesn't understand just one side of the question. He understands the complete thing.
Then when admonishment is administered, it has tremendous effect.
But brethren, if those first two things are not in place, it has negative effects sometimes, and so may the Lord help us to be exercised in being a help to souls. This is part of shepherding. Admonishment is necessary. But if I'm going to admonish one, let me ask these two questions first.
Do I have I sought the good of this individual? Does he understand that?
And #2 do I really understand the problem completely? It's happened too often in my own experience, brethren, that I've understand one side of the question, and then a little later I understand another side of the question, and my feelings completely change. And so if I go to admonish with just a partial understanding of the problem, I'm going to do more damage than good. May the Lord help us.
Brethren, admonishment is necessary, and the Lord admonished these said, O fools and slow of heart, to believe. And sometimes we need a little bit of a shake to get the listening mode in place so that we can listen.
We don't listen very well sometimes.
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
I'm back in Luke 24 again, verse 27, and beginning at Moses and all the prophets he expounded unto them.
In all the scriptures, the things concerning himself, I think this is so beautiful.
He opens the Scriptures to them. Oh brethren, the power of the precious Word of God to a soul who is true to Christ, he may be off track, but if his soul is true to Christ, the power of the Word of God cannot be underestimated, cannot be overestimated. It is tremendous. So the Lord opened the Scriptures.
To them all those Old Testament scriptures, verse 28 and they drew nigh into the village.
Whether they went and he made as though he would have gone further, isn't this gracious? He doesn't impose on them that they have to take him in. No, he makes as though he's going further.
Ever homeless stranger thus dearest friend to me. But they constrained him, and said, Abide with us for his toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at me, he took bread, and blessed it, and break it, and gave to them.
And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him, and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another. Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures? And they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the 11 gathered together, and then that were with them.
No complaining, it's too far to go tonight, let's wait till tomorrow when they got their eyes open to Jesus, to His person, His glorious person.
They knew exactly where they belonged, and they turned and went back that very night. Brethren, I'm convinced that so much of our problems are because we get our eyes.
On Brethren.
We get a full diet sometimes of fried brethren, and then we take off in another direction.
Brethren, we need.
To turn to the Lord.
To get our eyes different. You can see the tendency in my own heart.
And it's a natural reaction, wanting a place amongst the brethren.
God deliver us from such thinking.
It will only bring trouble when we are in the presence of the Lord of glory.
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How can we think in such terms? When we get our eyes open to Him and to His glory, we'll know where we belong. And it wasn't too far to go that very night, even though it was on foot to go back to Jerusalem to tell the news they'd seen the Lord. Well, we're not going to be able to take up. I wanted to talk about Peter too, you know Peter.
Says in verse 34.
They said when they got back there, the Lord is risen indeed and it appeared to Simon somewhere in there he had come in contact with Simon Peter.
And that was what was referred to in one of our readings here as the private encounter.
Of the Lord Jesus with Peter. You know when we fail first of all.
In the course of restoration is private restoration with the Lord to deal with the Lord individually. Until that happens, there can be no public restoration and Peter is restored in John 21 to publicly.
Take a position of feeding the lambs and the sheep of the flock of God, and it's so beautiful to see it. Peter goes back to fishing and you know, I've thought about that a lot. That's where Peter met the Lord the first time.
And he was perhaps a bit disorientated. Was it right for him to go back fishing? I don't suppose we could say it was right, but maybe, he said. That's where I met Jesus the first time.
And you know the Lord met him there the second time again. Sometimes when souls get off track, they don't know where to go to start over again.
So he goes back where he met the Lord the first time, and the Lord met him there the second time. I think that's beautiful, brethren. And he gives him his Commission, and it was an important Commission.
But before we finish this afternoon, I'd like to turn to another portion in John's Gospel, chapter 13, that I think is so helpful in connection with shepherding. Because the Lord Jesus is risen, He's ascended, He's at God's right hand, but he is working there as a great high priest and our advocate.
And.
He is doing what we have here in this chapter.
Washing our feet.
Now this is not just a mere physical thing, no feet speaking the word of God of our walk.
And sometimes we contract contamination from this world. Let's read here a little bit now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that is hour was come, that He should depart out of this world into the Father, having loved His own, which were in the world, He loved them unto the end.
His love is never going to change, brethren.
It's love to the end, all the way home.
To the uttermost, it says in Hebrews Chapter 7, and supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simonson 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. O the majesty of this person we're talking about, what does He do in that position? He rises from supper.
Laid aside his garments.
Took a towel and girded himself. After that he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter. 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 oyst 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 and my head. Jesus said to him, He that is washed needeth not to save, not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit, and you're clean but not all, for he knew.
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Who should betray him? Therefore he said he, ye are not all clean. So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Knowing what I have done to you, ye 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, verily, I send to you. The servant is not greater than his Lord.
Neither is he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If you know these things, happy are ye if you do them. Here is the Lord Jesus, and what we have here is really a picture of what He is doing at the present time in the glory.
You can imagine.
Feet, they probably had sandals on them. How dirty they get sometimes how smelly they can get to and hear the Lord of glory, Tremendously wonderful to think about it, brethren gets up, lays aside his garments and takes a basin of water and puts himself.
At the feet of the disciples to wash their feet. So beautiful. You know, if you're going to wash somebody's feet, you're going to have to lay aside your garments. Your garment speaks of what you may be in society. You know a soldier by his garments. You know a policeman by his garments. You know a doctor by his garments. At least in a hospital.
And so all that you may have in ranking in society at large, if you're going to be a help to others who may have contracted some kind of contamination, you're going to have to lay that to one side. You're going to have to get down at the feet of those that need their feet washed.
You know, sometimes I think we just don't know how to get down.
Remember.
Brother Paul Wilson, he often suggested this chapter for readings at conferences and I remember him talking about it and he says sometimes we use a long handled brush to wash our brethren's feet and it doesn't work very well.
No, brethren, we shouldn't use long handled brushes.
We need to get down there right at their feet. And he also said sometimes we use scalding water or maybe some other time we use freezing water.
I don't think that's what the Lord Jesus did.
And then it says he wiped their feet with the towel with which he was girded.
Oh brethren, this is such a beautiful example for us to learn from. He left them comfortable. Sometimes I have to confess, rather than I've gone to perhaps try to help somebody, but I'm afraid when I left, I left those people feeling totally uncomfortable. Sorry I messed up. I didn't use the towel to dry the feet. He left them feeling.
Refreshed.
And comfortable.
The Lord help us to meditate these things so that we can be a help to one another. It's not just one that does it for all the rest. We are to do this one for another. And foot washing is perhaps to wash away some contamination, but it is also to refresh. And that's what the Lord did this and it's interesting.
Peter was also always a person given to extremes.
But I'm sure glad we have Peter, because we make a lot of the same mistakes and now we know the Lord has to say to us in our mistakes first. He says, Lord, you Peter, I'm sure felt properly. The Lord was worthy of a place of honor and me. You're going to wash my feet, Lord, never.
00:55:15
Brethren, he's interested in our dirty laundry.
And he's there and he's applying the water of the word in these days of special meetings.
To address some of those things that perhaps otherwise are not addressed.
May the Lord help us to respond to Him and can I say a word to our young people?
Sometimes, you know, it may seem that the older brethren don't really understand my problem.
Maybe they don't.
But let me tell you.
Look beyond your brethren. There is that great Shepherd of the sheep and the glory above who is using perhaps a poor, failing human instrument to wash your feet and take it from the Lord. Don't take it merely from the brethren. If you're just looking at brethren and what they did wrong and what they said wrong, you're not going to get the blessing.
You'll get the blessing when you take it from the Lord.
Still remember when I was younger I spoke in a public meeting one time and her brother came up to me afterwards and said quite sharply he said, did you say such and such? Bob said yes, is that what you meant? Said yes, that's what I meant.
He said if that's what you meant, go home and get down on your knees and ask the Lord what it means, because you're really badly mistaken.
The old water started boiling inside, Let me tell you. Thankfully, I didn't let any words out of my mouth. I turned and walked away. I got home, I was uncomfortable.
I got down my knees and said Lord.
How am I supposed to understand this?
And the Lord showed me, Bob, you were kind of proud that you had spoken pretty good and I wasn't pleasing to me. And I used that instrument. Maybe it was a little rough on you, but don't you hold it against him. It was me trying to deal with you about being proud. Brethren, take everything that happens, even maybe a brother who speaks a little bit brass to you, Take it.
From the Lord, you're going to find that the Lord does not make mistakes. Your brother may make mistakes. The Lord never what He allows to happen in your life and mine. And if you can take it from the Lord, you're going to find there is a very real blessing for you in it. Well, brethren, let me just quote that verse in Hebrews again. It's such a comfort to my own heart these last days.
That we live in.
So much confusion on every side, but listen to this again. The God of peace that brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His will working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ to whom?
Be glory forever and ever. Amen. Let's thank the Lord.
Father, thanks for thy precious word.