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[0:00] Behold, I wish to direct you to the chapter we read, the 13th chapter in the Gospel according to John, and particularly to the account given regarding the Lord washing the feet of Peter.

[0:25] So, from verse 5, Needeth not, save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit, and ye are clean, but not all.

[1:34] It is written of God that he is a God of order, a God of decency and a God of order, and that is so true.

[1:49] Faith approves it well. Now, I want you to notice with me this evening the order of the scripture. It was never written haphazardly, even though this Gospel according to John was not written until AD 60.

[2:11] 60 years after the events had taken place, yet God the Holy Spirit brought back to the mind of John, back to his recollection, every word the Saviour spake and every event that took place in complete accuracy.

[2:32] When I speak though of order, I mean this, that up to the present, the Lord had been showing himself unto Israel.

[2:43] But in this chapter, that was now finished. He comes to the present, he comes to the upper room with his disciples to partake of the Passover.

[3:03] And his eyes are up to heaven, up to the Father, and his eyes are upon his own.

[3:18] You know, there's a little verse in the preceding chapter, and it is verse 36. These things spoke Jesus and departed and did hide himself from them.

[3:38] He was now hiding himself from the crowds. He had come unto his own, and his own had received him not. Now, he turns from them into this upper room, and begins to comfort his disciples in the knowledge that the following day would be the day when he would be the Passover lamb.

[4:16] You know, friend, in the previous chapter, we have it recorded of Mary coming to the Saviour's feet.

[4:31] But she anointed those. She didn't wash them. She anointed his feet. He needed not for his feet.

[4:43] Though he traversed this world. And I want you to notice, in the first verse of our chapter tonight, the Lord Jesus refers to the world as this world.

[4:59] And I believe he did that because this world, to him, must have been terrible.

[5:11] Terrible. But as he traversed it, this sin-laden globe, yet no defilement could come to him.

[5:25] Holy, harmless, and undefiled. He was anointed. He must have the preeminence, friend.

[5:40] He must have the preeminence that was decreed by the Father. This is my beloved Son. His feet were anointed. But ours, like the disciples, they need washing.

[5:56] Now let me teach you something. How often we've heard men speak about the washing. And they speak in this connection about the blood of Christ.

[6:12] About the fountain opened for sin and all uncleanness. And if they do not actually say the words, yet they infer that we have to be washed again and again and again in the blood of Calvary.

[6:30] Calvary. But you know that is not true. We are washed once there. Once only.

[6:43] By one offering, he hath perfected for all time them that are sanctified.

[6:59] Can't you see? If we don't grasp that and believe that, we are robbing the Saviour's blood of its efficacy.

[7:13] We are saying that we have to be cleansed again and again in that fountain. Opened for sin and uncleanness. No, friend.

[7:24] When God the Holy Ghost brings a poor sinner to the Lord Jesus and he believes in him with all his heart.

[7:35] It is a testimony that that soul was washed.

[7:46] And he therefore becomes a new creature in Christ. No, beloved. When we speak about washing in this connection, it is water.

[8:02] It is water. The Saviour took a basin and the water and he girded himself with a towel to wash the disciples' feet.

[8:18] Now, notice. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands. And that he was come from God and went to God.

[8:32] Oh, the immensity of this. He knew that he was come from God. He knew that he was the eternal Son.

[8:44] He knew that he was God over all and blessed forevermore. He knew his own deity. He knew the sacred humanity.

[8:59] With which his deity was eternally conjoined. He knew that he was the eternal Son. He knew that he went to God. And yet he took a towel and girded himself.

[9:14] And became like a slave to minister unto these poor disciples.

[9:25] Friends. Friends. Friends. Friends. Does that evoke in your heart as it does in mine? Love.

[9:37] Love to this one. God. Love to this one. How his eyes were upon them. You know, earlier on, just at the beginning of the Lord Jesus' ministry, he went up into a mountain and he sat down and he taught the multitudes of people.

[9:54] Commonly called the Sermon on the Mount. When he gave the manifesto of the kingdom of God. But not now.

[10:08] There are these twelve and one of them a devil. But even the presence of that one does not deter his loving heart.

[10:19] In doing what he determined. To do for them. You see, they were the love gift of the Father to him.

[10:32] Every elect vessel of mercy is the love gift of the Father to the Son. When we speak of election, we speak of electing love.

[10:44] And did not Christ manifest his love in the laying down of his life?

[10:57] He purchased and redeemed these in love. He paid the full ransom money in love.

[11:09] For these. And are they not called by the Holy Ghost in love? Sinners are not wept to Christ.

[11:25] They are drawn with the cords of everlasting love. It is love. It is love. It is love.

[11:36] Love. That is divine. Now we mustn't confuse. Divine love with natural love.

[11:48] You'll go very wrong if you try to do that. What is before us reveals clearly what the old prophet meant when he said of God, my ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts.

[12:11] We get an indication later on of what Peter thought. And friend, if I may speak, in this way, time after time after time, we have to learn this, that our thoughts are not the thoughts of God.

[12:31] I like the way what we sang in that first hymn. 132. I must quote it.

[12:52] His love no end or measure knows. No change can turn its course. Immutably the same it flows from one eternal source.

[13:10] And we learn it. It can be a sad learning. My ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts.

[13:22] Oh, how! His love is beyond all dimension to his own, but it's divine love. And divine love cannot love sin.

[13:34] That is why he comes to the disciples to wash away himself the defilement of sin.

[13:45] in their feet. Daily contact with the world. Daily contact with sin.

[14:01] and here is the provision. And here is the provision Christ himself to wash.

[14:14] Well, might it say having loved his own that were in the world he loved them to the end. What does it mean? What does it mean? He loved them to the end.

[14:25] The end of what? He loves his people in this world to the very end of their lives.

[14:44] To the very end of their sinning. To the very end of their backsliding. to the very end of their hardness of heart. He loves.

[14:58] He loves. For God is love and God is light. Nor can that love ever change its course. And now heaven is ablaze with that love.

[15:20] Savior then took a towel and girded himself. You know, if we go back to Leviticus we can see all of this that takes place in this chapter.

[15:34] All of this in the Levitical law. You get the altar, you get the basin, the lava and you get the entrance into the Holy of Holies.

[15:52] Here was the sacrifice. Here was the person who had transferred by putting his hands upon that head of the beast. Sin transferred as the sin is transferred to the Lamb.

[16:14] You know the poet's words, my faith would lay her hands on that dear head of thine. And then to the lava to the washing and then into the Holy Place.

[16:30] Oh friend, Christ knew that he was about to depart unto the Father. the joy that filled his heart was twofold, love to the Father and love to his own because the love that he had to his own was the same love that the Father loved him.

[16:54] There are not two kinds of divine love. There's one. There's one. love to the uttermost and such love must have an object.

[17:16] Oh, it's not right when we just simply speak about love. those know the love of God who are the objects of that love.

[17:28] The objects of that love. And here they were. You know, it would be quite in order for a fisherman to wash another fisherman's feet.

[17:44] feet. But can we begin to comprehend the feet of these poor men was being washed by the Lord himself?

[17:58] Now we can see and come to terms with that scripture. He took upon himself the form of a servant. And beloved, he delighted in it.

[18:11] Another word for servant is minister. He ministered unto them. Now under the old Levitical law, if one had a servant, you had him for six years.

[18:26] He was your slave. He was your bond slave. And if after six years, the time had come to set him free, he didn't want to be free.

[18:40] He so loved his master. He so loved his task. He would come and they brought him to the master. And he stated that he didn't want to be free.

[18:54] He wanted to abide in the master's service. And so, they used to take an awl and pierce it through the doorposts of the house.

[19:06] His ear was there. and he was forever in that service. Can we begin to entertain the thought that Christ is serving in heaven now?

[19:25] He is a minister of the true sanctuary which God hath pitched and not man.

[19:38] in one of the parables he speaks about the end. When the work of grace is done, when all the elect of God are in heaven and he speaks of them as his guests and he says, and the son of man shall serve them.

[20:03] Dear friend, you've heard me say before, if it were not for the advocacy and the intercessory work of Christ at the right hand of the Father, we wouldn't last five minutes here below.

[20:17] We wouldn't. He ministers to us from heaven. He ministers grace.

[20:32] He ministers help. He ministers love. He ministers wisdom. He ministers perseverance. He ministers comfort.

[20:48] All a gracious God can give and all a helpless soul can need. You'll never find him deficient.

[21:01] We owe. He owes us nothing. But we are debtors to grace. We are debtors to his ministry. And friend, to me, it's wonderful here in this chapter that the holy Lord should wash wash the feet of poor sinful men.

[21:25] How low he's come. I spoke about the heights of the love of God, but look at the depths. Look at the depths. Have you ever washed anybody's feet?

[21:41] Have you? feet? I sometimes see pictures of feet which my daughter brings home from the hospital. And I've said to her more than once, I don't know how you do the job.

[22:02] Deformed. Ulcerated. But Jesus washed their feet.

[22:15] He washed their feet. But Peter, of course, took exception to this. He cometh to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?

[22:31] And Jesus answered and said to him, what I do thou knowest not now. But thou shalt know hereafter. I believe the Lord was reminding Peter there was a hereafter.

[22:48] Oh, yes. He knew that they would forsake him before 24 hours was over. He knew that Peter would deny him thrice.

[23:02] But what he did he did that they might remember and that they would know exactly what he'd done.

[23:14] I believe this verse stretches right into heaven when we shall know him as he is.

[23:30] the same yesterday, today, and forever.

[23:42] Still the God-man, though honored above all and exalted above all, rightly so, one, but still loving each one whose feet he had washed.

[24:03] You know, what does it mean, friend? Let me come to it. What's it mean to have our feet washed in this way? it is more than simply confessing our sin and receiving forgiveness.

[24:27] Yes, I feel it's more than that. it has to do every wit with the word of God, not what are the folk at Chalepin about, but it has to do with the word of God, and it means our being brought daily to the word of God, washed by the water of the word.

[24:58] And, friend, the word of God, I wonder if in your heart it's like this, when you go wrong and bring defilement to yourself, and you can go wrong, you know, in your heart just as much as you can in experience, those hidden evils of our hearts, hearts, where we have wrong views of the Lord, wrong views of the word of God.

[25:38] And when we come to the washing, to the washing of the water of the word, there's a washing in depth. Oh, the Pope washes every year so many feet in the Vatican, but they're all nice and clean before he starts.

[25:57] But do you know what it is to be able to say with the poet, daily to feel myself undone will make me haste to kiss the sun.

[26:21] What a mercy. Peter said, thou shalt never wash my feet. Oh, Peter, Peter, Peter. Still the same Peter.

[26:40] I can't say that Peter didn't love the Lord intensely, he did bless him. But Peter here is showing not the love of Christ, you know.

[26:54] No, he's not. I've tried to teach you there's nothing sentimental about the love of God. And to be truly spiritual is not to be truly sentimental.

[27:07] A lot of people think sentimentality is spirituality, and it isn't, friend, it isn't. My preaching, I bring you to the word of God every time, every time.

[27:18] Peter, Peter, wasn't thinking right, wasn't seeing right. Boy, I know what he said, sounds wonderful.

[27:36] But the Lord rebuked him. Peter, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me, what did he mean by that?

[27:53] Beloved, to have a part with Christ is to have communion with Christ. Mary hath chosen that good part.

[28:07] She wanted communion with Christ. She wanted to hear his word, she lived on his word, she lived for his word, she fed upon his word.

[28:22] Poor Martha was so cumbered about with much serving and other things, and she brought a lot of it on herself.

[28:36] But Mary hath chosen that good part that shall not be taken away from her. No matter how men or devils tried, the Savior said that good part should never be taken away from her.

[28:56] And he says to Peter, hear, if I wash thee not, if I don't wash thy feet, Peter, you have no part with me because I cannot mix, I can have no communion.

[29:19] Holy love, holy love is the love of Christ, and holy love can have nothing to do with sin.

[29:32] He hates sin, but the gospel is this, he provides the remedy, he provides the remedy.

[29:46] Oh, when Peter grasped it, and this is what I love about dear Peter, you know, in a flash, he was turned about, not like the parable, but the man who had two sons, and he asked them to go and do something.

[30:17] And remember, if I can recall it, the one said he would go, and he didn't.

[30:31] And the other one, he said no, but then he went. Which of the two sons was right?

[30:44] Peter was like that man who had a change of heart. Lord, not only my hands, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.

[30:58] Peter, there's no need to wash your head, no need to wash your hands. You have been bathed in the blood of the lamb, but there's need to wash with water your feet because of the defilement.

[31:22] God, oh, Peter, how quickly he was turned about when he saw what was involved here. Now, we mustn't be amazed at this.

[31:41] Just the same as I was preaching to you last Lord's Day evening, doubting Thomas how quickly he was turned about. my Lord and my God.

[31:57] He was the only one, the only one to confess the deity of Christ in such a way. My God, my God.

[32:13] I love him. Oh, how he doubted, but changed, and this is grace. This is the ministry of grace. This is the ministry of this washing.

[32:29] He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit, and ye are clean, but not all.

[32:43] Beloved, when the Lord blesses our souls, when the Lord drops a word into our hearts, when he warms our hearts, when he makes us know our littleness, our frailty, our poverty, and shows us by faith the riches of his grace, it is because we are clean.

[33:05] Because we're clean. The altar, the lava, the holy of holies, the blessed place. communion, communion with Christ, because you're clean.

[33:20] Your sin is forgiven, your sin is put away, never to be remembered anymore. Can't you say that you have known your bowels melt for him?

[33:39] how sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear. It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, and drives away his fear.

[33:53] And when this comes, it is because sin is forgiven. Thou hast a part with Christ, and a part that shall never be taken away.

[34:04] one with him, in eternal union. Having loved these, he loved them to the end.

[34:16] Oh no, Peter, you need not be washed all over again. That would make a mockery of Calvary, make a mockery of the blood, once and for all shed, perfecting, I love that word, perfecting forever.

[34:43] Do you feel perfect? No, nor I. We have a case for him, and it will be to the very end, Lord, my feet unclean.

[34:58] It's a wilderness journey, a wilderness journey, but he will wash us, for he says he will present us faultless before the throne of his glory.

[35:19] He'll not be ashamed of any one of us. Oh beloved, it's time we began to look at things as we are enabled by the Holy Spirit, the way that God looks at his people.

[35:36] You're looking within, you're looking at your circumstances, and you become the most wretched man, wretched man.

[35:48] You begin to be like Bunyan's Mr. Fearing, Mr. Faintheart, God. But oh, when we take hold of the Saviour's strength, how different it becomes.

[36:08] It's not for anything in our wretched selves that he loves us. God forbid he loves because he will.

[36:20] He loves because he glories in it. He delights in it. He's glorified by it. Having a part with these, these are mine.

[36:38] And they will all come. They will all come. Sometimes loved ones speak of ministers and they say they want to see fruit to their ministry.

[36:50] Yes, they do. but friend, I go further than that. I know every elect vessel of mercy will come.

[37:04] I know they'll come. That's not because of me or anybody. If there were no churches, chapels in the whole of the world, every elect vessel of mercy would be saved, every elect vessel of mercy would love the Lord, because it is the work of a triune God.

[37:32] If I wash thee not, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. wash me, or I die.

[37:59] Ah, we need it. you know, it was a desire for this washing that made David pray as he did, Lord, search me.

[38:18] Search me, oh Lord, and try the reins of my heart, and see if there be any wicked way in me. There's a man who wants to be washed, washed, any wicked way.

[38:37] Am I, am I going wrong? In any way, bring a heart to it.

[38:50] Show me, Lord, when I'm going wrong, direct my feet, direct my heart, into the love of Christ, and unto the patient waiting for him.

[39:01] Am I trying to run before I can walk? Am I saying that I'm something when I'm nothing? Am I telling the truth? Am I deceiving? Here's a man who wants to be washed.

[39:20] Well, might these people be called the salt of the earth. I'll leave it here.

[39:34] Just give you a few thoughts on the matter. Oh, there's much more to be said. Probably I'll take it with me when I go away this weekend, unless the Lord gives me something else.

[39:49] But what a delightful theme. And all done, friend, in the virtual shadow of the cross, the agonies of Gethsemane, the agonies of Calvary, revealing to us the necessity of this washing, the necessity of this teaching.

[40:25] The Lord help us to believe. And in believing, rejoice. when are you going to start enjoying the gospel?

[40:40] That's what I want to know. Enjoying the gospel. The things that are freely given to us of the Lord are to be enjoyed and we can rejoice though it be with trembling.

[41:01] And when the apostle is speaking about these things, he says, rejoice in the Lord. And again I'll say, rejoice in the Lord always.

[41:15]  Amen.