Purity in the church is founded on the teaching of Christ and is synonymous with holiness and sanctification. The sermon uses Jesus' washing of the disciples' feet in John 13 to illustrate the need to address pride, presumption, and perversity before fellowship can be fully realized. This act demonstrates Christ's servant leadership and provides an example for believers to follow in their interactions with one another. The passage reveals that while regeneration provides a complete cleansing, progressive sanctification through the Word of God is necessary for daily walk and continued purity.
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Like this morning, to read the passage in the Gospel by John chapter thirteen. John chapter thirteen, we commence at the beginning. Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that if you depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him.
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hand, and that he was come from God and went to God, he riseth from supper and did his right assurance, and took a towel and pierced himself. After that he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with a towel, for with he was here. Then come unto him, Simon Peter, and Peter said unto him, Lord, shall thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do, thou dost not now, but I shall know hereafter. Peter said unto him, I shall never wash my feet.
Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said to him, He that is washed me, need not save the wash of his feet, but is clean every whip, and ye are clean, but not all. For you who should betray him, therefore said he, ye are not all clean. So after you've washed their feet and taken his garments and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have 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, he 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 say unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither he that is sent, greater than he that sent him. If you know these things, haughty, are ye, if you do them. And we got out his blessing today, probably bringing it his word. Yesterday morning we were mentioning the fact that in First Corinthians, the first four chapters has to do with unity, the unity of the church.
That unity was in danger of being broken at Corinth, but the great principles, the great unifying principle that we find the scripture, we find its outline form in those first whole chapters. So there we get the unity of the church. And then we were pointing out, too, that the next three chapters, chapters five and six and seven, has to do with purity. I thought this morning, I want to speak about this. The purity. on the church. Remember yesterday morning we were pointing out that the basis of all unity is the teaching of Christ. And certainly the basis of all purity we find in the teaching of Christ.
As a matter of fact practically every fundamental doctrine of teaching in the New Testament we find it in germ on the teaching of the Lord Himself. So this beautiful passage that we have read here this morning, I think we get some very definite principles concerning this great subject of purity. The word that we usually use about it is holiness. And by the way, that word holiness is the same word as sanctification. Both in the Old Testament and in the New, the two words are synonyms. Holiness, sanctification, purity. And that's a very practical subject.
And I'm going to read this passage this morning and use it as the basis of what we want to say. about this great subject of practical holiness and sanctification in the life of the believer. I've been a Christian a long time, and I think all the times that I have ever heard anyone preaching on holiness or sanctification, as it comes in the fingers of one hand, seems to be a subject that's avoided. The reason for that is that some people will go to an extreme and speak about these things on the top of our complete sanctification, on sinless perfection. And some people will make claims of that kind.
But I think anyone that knows anything at all about the human heart and their own heart, I think never will make a claim of that kind. But the word of God is some very beautiful thing to say about it. And it's not that we just want to occupy our minds with it just for a few minutes this morning. You notice in the passage that we have read together is that final address of the Lord Jesus in the Upper Room, before he was to get seminated cross. And I believe that in that Upper Room ministry, we get seven great fundamental doctrines of Christianity. These things that are mentioned here in Jeremiah, we find them opened up for us in the epistles of the New Testament.
But here we get the fundamental principles concerning seven great fundamental doctrines. and certainly holiness and sanctification is one of them. You notice they're gathered together here at the table. And the Lord Jesus is about to open his heart and give that lovely love to the teaching. But before he does, if he realizes that there's something wrong, there was an unhappy feeling among us as we were sitting at that table. I believe that the man responsible for that was John. You know, generally when we think of the Apostle John, we think of an old man a hundred years of age graciously going in and out among the churches and among the believers and saying, rather, love one another, love one another, love one another.
Now that was when he was a hundred years of age, but he wasn't always a hundred years of age. And if we look at John's character in the Gospel, we find as a young man, he needed some teaching and he needed some training. Remember when the Lord saw him and his brother James, he put a name upon us. He called them the sons of Bonerges, the sons of Thunder. Bonerges the sons of Thunder. He said, oh, I am... wouldn't be too sure. But maybe John at that time had a great big, thundering voice.
And it was rather aggressive. As a matter of fact, who were reading the Gospels at one time, first of all, his mother, her name was Salome, came to the Lord, and she said, something to ask of you. The Lord said, what is it? She said, I want in the kingdom, one of my sons to sit on the right hand, and the only to sit on the left, on the kingdom. I want one of them for the Prime Minister, and I want the other ones for the Secretary of the Treasurer, and the Kingdom. And I think the Lord must have felt kind of sorry when he heard that. And that one Gospel defines that the origin of that God came from Salome, the Mother.
She had very high ambitions for her boy. But in another Gospel we find that James and John themselves, they came to the Lord, and they had exactly the same radiation. We want to sit one on the right hand and one on the left. Now, I think you're possibly one of the youngest members of the apostolic man. And they were pushy. Some just conjured. And the Lord said, Are you able to drink the cup that I shall drink now? And that said, We are able. Well, they said, You will drink of that cup. And certainly they did. I don't think they realized what the Lord meant. But I believe that both of these men did drink of that cup. James was the first Christian martyr.
They hid him, then he acted the apostle. But the other man lived until he was a hundred years of age, and of secular history is worth anything. Rightly, at the end of that time he died as a martyr too, as an old man. He certainly was managed to be out of darkness when he was in the last decade of his life, and secular history said that he was taken home to heaven and gained a nurse in a vet. of water and oil. That's what they say. Oh, the Lord said, you will drink of that cup. But he said, those two positions of the kingdom are reserved for those for whom it is so again to my father. Now the other, the other disciples, they were upset.
And if they're sitting at that table, they were all upset with James and John on the kind of what they had said. What was wrong with John when they were sitting there? I would suggest that there's pride. And at the first thing, there are actually three conditions here that the Lord had to deal with before it starts to seem at all. And the first was that one happy feeling that they're sitting at the table before the Lord starts to speak. John, pride. But there's another man sitting there in his name as Simon Peter. And Simon Peter on a number of occasions when the Lord had warned him about what was going to happen to him, He says, no, Lord, I go to prison and to death.
He said, I'll never deny you. The others can't. Though all of these should deny the event shall deny. And he was thrown on his throne and his brother, and he said, what he was going to do, why? He said, I'm willing to go to prison and to death. And the Lord quietly wandered. He said, before they can't close twice, he goes to deny you three times if you ever knew me. He's sitting on the table. What's wrong with him? One man it was pried and the other it was presumed. He didn't know his own heart. He said of twenty-four horses, and now the Lord was blessed for me that he ever knew him. But there was another man sitting there, and on this person he had thirty pieces of silk.
Before he had sat down at that table, he had made a contract with a scribe and the Pharisees and the leaders of the Jewish nation to sell the Lord for thirty pieces of silk. the person here. The Lord was the only man that knew that. Now here's the condition. With John, it's his pride. With Simon Peter, it's presumption. But with Judas' scarred, it's perverse. Now before the Lord can do anything change, he has to be of the ghost of the condition. And it's absolutely beautiful to notice the way it sounds. First of all, there's a lovely, lovely intimation of love.
with him. Jesus having loved his own, which in the world he loved them unto the earth. He loved them unto the other most. And if I had read the whole chapter, God will find it at the end, the Lord says this. He says, By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if ye have loved, one to another. There are some very dramatic things here in the chapter, but notice it's completely in shall open love. love at the beginning and love at the end, but then these three conditions that have to be dealt with right to the center. Then we read these words, Jesus, now that the Father had delivered all things into his hands, that he came from God and went to God.
Now there are four different statements concerning the day of him and the glory, the majesty, the dignity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus knowing, oh, he knew all of the inner hearts of those men. He had that attribute of deity of a missing. Jesus knew that the founder had delivered all things into his hand, his deity. But he came from God. Oh, he knew where he came from. The heavenly heights. And he knew where he was going. And that he went to God. And these four things at the back prior to this beautiful picture, he rose from summer, and laid aside his caravans, and he takes a towel, and he heard himself.
Who do you think that was directed to? I would suggest that was directed to John. The man sitting there, moon earth, sun's a thunder. It was directed at him. On the Lord laying aside, taking it, laying aside that part of his arm, with a towel, laying it aside. On them taking a towel, a sleeve, a breath, on the beard himself. On the next thing the Lord did, he was done upon his knees. And he started the motion with me. Now to me that's very, very problematic. So the first attitude of Christ here, I think it was directed at the man that was pushing, the man who wanted the greatest gifts from the kingdom, gifts directed to him.
And I think that John did learn the lesson. I would like to follow up through John's life. Well, thank you for that this morning. But he certainly did learn the lesson. So the Lord, he takes the position of the servant. And he gets down upon his knees, and he comes to the second life. That is Simon Peter. And he starts to wash his feet. And Peter, he remonstrates with them. I think he was in Paris. And first of all, he said, do you wash my feet? And then he said, you'll never wash my face. And the Lord said, if I wash, he laughed. You have no part with me. I'm awfully thankful for that little preposition. No part with me.
That was fellowship. He didn't say no part in me. That was relationship. Peter was a real genuine believer. But he made mistakes. We all do. The Lord said, unless I wash No parts, that's me. And then Peter, he first said, Well, that's the way you feel about it. Not only my feet, but also my hands and my head. And then the Lord, he is in a wonderful revelation. He is in his days. Jesus has saved the waters of his clean every day. Now there's a very, very sober lesson here in connection with purity.
And I believe that the basis of all the teaching concerning purity, unsanctification, and holiness in the New Testament was based on this lovely saint, and that upper level. It's key that it stays. That's the path of regeneration. You know, when we come to Christ, there are a number of things that take place simultaneously when we put our faith and trust in Christ. First of all, we unite through the head, through speaking by that yesterday morning. members of the body were united to the head. Not only that, but the Holy Spirit comes into well. And the third thing that happens, we're sanctified.
So that word sanctified, that means to sanctify us. And that is the ideal of sanctification. It's positional on every true believer, when they trust Christ on how that band, the band of regeneration, All their sins are taken away. The past is completely wiped out. And we thank them for that. Our sins are forgiven through the precious blood. And we find a path to the path of regeneration. But then, the Lord shows that after that, as we walk through this defiant sin, we need to keep washing. And that is a progressive sin. Day after day, as we walk through this heinous sin, our people come to fire.
And we need... is, first of all, the bath, and second is the basin. And the water. The water of food. Word of God. We need to apply it day after day in our life. So this is the teaching that the Lord gave to Peter. And this opened up for us. Here we get the example. But as we look through the epistles of the Apostle Paul and the Apostle John and the Apostle Peter, we find the application of what Peter was taught that day, sitting there in the upper land. So there's a third condition here. The man sitting there called Judas Iscariot.
The Lord, he and only you, what has happened, briefs the sitting ground at that table. Judas Iscariot had gone to the leaders of the nation, having contracted to sell the Lord for their key pieces of silver. That was the price of his wage. That was this attitude of the Lord, the price of the slave. And he was sitting there with thirty pieces of silver, all his price. And the Lord said, He said, My clothes shall be. He said, Very thou shalt, you, one of you shall betray me. The other was a shovel of surprise. Well, to say, Lord, who is it? None of them suspected Judas. I think he was a very honored leader.
He carried the plan. He was the treasurer of the apostolic plan. Who is it? And the Lord said, He it is to whom I shall give the staff. I understand that that action was something that was done to another guest, Dr. Alfred Ederstein, in his exposition of the passage of this high, called it not one, and the meaning of it. He said at the Passover feast, if the father of the family or whoever was in charge of the ceremony there at the Passover, that he wanted to show a favor. threw them on the gates. It was the gross lamb, the bitter herbs, the unleavened bread upon the table.
And it was just a portion of the lamb and the unleavened bread and the bitter herbs. And he would dip it in the dish. And he was handed to that person. It was an act of honour under Speng. But I believe that what the Lord did there was a stamp of the man's conscience. He said, He it is to whom I shall give a son. And he wrote and he handed it to Judas Iscariot. And he says, what do you do? Do it for a time. Get it over. And believe that he happened to escape the thought. He went immediately out. And then the dramatic statement. And it goes now. He was excluded from the table.
You know that some people say that Judas Iscariot was sitting at the table when the Lord took the bread and the cup. And instituted. They called the day the Lord suffered. I think that John makes it perfectly clear that he excluded them before that happened. It was at the Passover, the Passover feast, but later at the end of that feast, the Lord, he takes the bread, on the cup, and for the first time he institutes what he called the Lord's Supper. But before he did that, I believe he excluded the tree. He went immediately on it, and it was night. And then the flag was lifted. on the Lord, he could go ahead on teaching.
So here are three conditions. First of all, it was pride with John. Secondly, it was presumption with Peter, but it was perversity with Joseph's word. And the Lord had a deal with those three things before he decided to teach. Now, there's something I believe that we all can learn from that. My beloved, brethren, sit at this moment before the Lord can teach it any way, He has to deal with things that may be heard on our heart. If there's any pride there, all that has to be taken away. If there's any presumption there, the Lord has to deal with that. And certainly if there's any perversity there, the Lord has to deal with that.
So the script teaching that we find here, parabolic teaching, connected with the basins and the fast, is the physical, fundamental fact behind it is this truth. purity, holiness, and sacrifice in the hearts and in the life of the believer. Now, if we want to salute the doctrine connected with it, we have to turn over today that this is in Romans. Remember the Apostle Paul and Romans, the first section of Romans, chapters one to three, to get there at the very fundamental facts of the gospel. We find, first of all, the pagan world.
and the very vivid description of the pagan world in chapter one. And then we get the world of education and culture, on Exodus, Delphi. And then the world of religion, represented by the Jews, on the Apostle, after outlining, he sees a conception of humanity. He brings them all in, gives them before God. And then he opens up the great truth. It's the great truth of justification, Isaiah. Romans chapter three. And as he goes on, chapter six, in seven, on the eighth, he opened up this great truth of purity. Holiness and sanctification.
So the Spirit gave us the grace and labor that we see in the light here. What is the holy name? Well, asked the Christ. Shall we continue in sin that bread may abound? Oh, said the God, for bread. Why shall we that are dead to sin? that they longer they're in. And it was in through quite a long discussion here concerning practical holiness and sanctification in their life. Oh, thank God we have unsanctified set apart for God the moment that we've been with him, Christian. But our little life down here, we have to learn progressively what holiness and sanctification ought to do.
Many, many things in my life when I became a Christian, I didn't realize it or say, I started to read my Bible and read the Word of God. I certainly found out that they were not according to the mind of the Lord of God. It says, Confessment of Laban, do the wrong sign. The Apostle Paul uses three words about the old condition that we lived in before salvation. He speaks there about the old man. And he speaks about the flesh. And he speaks about the body of sin. Now those are three terms, and again, I don't believe there's any in it. What is the old man?
We're told that the old man is just like an old cook or an old dress. That has become sighed. Take it off, take it off. Lay it on one side. That's the old man. You know, things that we know perfectly well, that are not right. Well, we take them off and we lay them to the one side. And as somebody said, they never put it on again. unless you want to do some dirty work. Now the old man is the old handless, not the handless of what that is. Take it off, they will at one time. But the second term is the flesh. We're never told to put off the flesh. As long as we live down here, we'll have the flesh here.
The old nature. If this man born again, do you have it here? And I think that they need to learn that. flesh is the old wicked nature with which we were born and will have it until that moment when the Lord takes us off. The flesh. On the body of sin. The body of sin. My body. It can be an instrument of righteousness, but it can be an instrument of carrying on wicked, wicked way to sin. The body of sin. So the apostle there, he uses a lovely illustration of baptism on one of me in chapter six. When we go down into the waters of baptism, we confess that we're identified with Christ in his death.
He died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried with him. But then, when he was raised again, I was raised with him to walk in the dunes of life. Thank God the Holy Spirit of God and the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. I have it in my heart. And thank God we've given the power to overcome sin in our life. But... same time that flesh is always there. And in chapter seven, the apostle Paul, he speaks about conflict and will have it as long as we live down here between the flesh and that you like in Christ Jesus. Thank God that we only recognize the fact that we have died with Christ.
We have been buried with them and raised to walk in Jesus' life. And we are teaching of the apostle Paul in those three chapters. And if anybody tells me that those of any struggle They don't have any conflict between the flesh and between the spirit of life and Christ Jesus. Well, they're not like me. God knows. Every day I have to ask the Lord, Lord said before being a woman, old man. And I think we all need to do that. And these people that talk about going to a conference and that have some experience in there, what are they doing? Well, they don't sin any longer. and I have this wonderful experience, and I don't know anything at all about this country, but certainly some of the ideas.
And if I know anything at all about my own heart, I know that from day to day, I have to ask the Lord to keep me, and keep my feet, and keep my thinking, so that I don't do something before I go to the other time that could mar my testimony and spoil anything that I've done during my... The appalling, thoughtful quality was into that in chapter seven, but then he forgot the chapter eight. And he tells there about the wonderful, wonderful experience of living under the power of the Holy Spirit of God compared to today. But the conflict is still there, unworthy, until that moment that the Lord takes us home. I was reading in another place throughout the other day that lovely scene in Revelation chapter four.
And by the way, that scene that John saw when it was taken up in spirit up to heaven. There are so many items there that have their illustration in the tabernacle in the wilderness. Among other things he saw was a sea of glass, clear mistresses. You know, in the Old Testament the priest, when he went in to perform the worship of God, he had to wash his hands and feet before he went in to perform that service. But when we get home, When we arrive in the presence of God, it will no longer the sea of water. That is what it will be. There will be a fast lever to the tabernacle, but it will be a sea of glass.
Hear your scripture. Thank God for the done man, for the old man. For the done with the flesh, and for nothing there, but the sea of the sea. Everything else is completely eliminated. And looking into that sea of glass, will see a perfect reflection of the purpose Christ himself. And the work of the Holy Spirit that is made us more like Christ. And that this wonderful experience of sanctification and fullness of purity in our hearts and lives may be realized. This is the object of the Holy Spirit that's on the dead, looking at the murder of the Word. This is the process of sanctification.
It's a quite a progressive record. coming more and more like the Lord Jesus. And so God said, I want protection for the real life. May God bless His Lord. In other words, our blessed God and Father, we do thank these, our gallows, for these beautiful examples that I wear. And our Father, we thank the first blessed Lord that He was willing to get done upon His knees and take the slave earth and perform that beautiful, beautiful example with the feet of the strife. And our Father, we thank thee that that is his word today. We thank thee that we have a part of faith with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
And our Father, we're told that if we sin, we have that part of faith, an advocate for the Father, Jesus Christ. And we thank thee that he come and confess any failure or sins we have. And all the other sins we take away. But, O Lord, we do pray. that this professes sanctification down here may be consummated. We pray, our Father, that from day to day can be become more like that blessed one who was the perfect example. Help us, we pray, to keep clear from anything that was done in our testimony until that moment ever came. These are our desires. We commend them, too. Thanks be to them.