Jesus' act of washing his disciples' feet, as recorded in John 13:1-17, demonstrates his profound and unending love for his followers. This humble act, performed before his departure from the world, serves as a powerful example of service and humility for believers. The sermon emphasizes that while believers have received a complete spiritual cleansing through Christ's blood, they must continually keep their 'feet' clean through the washing of God's Word. This ongoing cleansing allows for intimacy with Christ, symbolized by leaning on his bosom, leading to rest, safety, knowledge, and the experience of God's love.
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returning our new testament to the gospel of john chapter thirteen beginning to read at verse one going down through verse seventeen by the holy spirit john has written now before the feast of the passover when jesus knew that the his hour would 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. 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 hands, and that he was come from God and went to God. He rides it from supper, and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with a towel where he was girded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter said 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. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt 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 bade, I'm using the correct translation, he that is bade, meaning a bath all over, needeth not save or only to wash his feet, but is clean every whit, and ye are clean.
But not all, for ye who should betray him, therefore said 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, Know ye what I have done to you. Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye 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 ye should do as I have done unto 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 ye know these things, happy are ye, if ye do then. Verse twenty-three, please. Just verse twenty-three. Now there was meaning on Jesus' bosom, one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. May God bless the reading and the hearing of his precious words. This morning we had a very solemn message, I'm sure, relative to the conditions of the days in which we are living, typified long ago by the days of difficulty and danger and apostasy in the nation of Israel.
and particularly in the Kingdom of Judah, as we studied the message from Jeremiah. I'm sure it's set before us the dangers of the end times in which you and I are now living. May I give my fellow believers tonight who are with us encouragement to be looking and expecting the return of the Lord Jesus. by all the indications of all that takes place in the world today. Surely the imminent return of the Lord Jesus is very near. We cannot prophesy, but we can reprocess it.
And God, by the Holy Spirit, has given to us prophetic scriptures telling what the end of the age will be. Again, may I re-adversize We are near the end of the Gentile Age. Sayesha, very briefly, if you would study the Gentile Age from beginning to the end, in its presentation so simply, you must read Daniel chapter three. When God gave to Nebuchadnezzar the greatest potentate the most illustrious ruler and king that has ever reigned over the nation, a dream which he forgot.
And it was only by God, through his servant Daniel, together with his companions in prayer, that dream was revealed and the interpretation given. And that dream of Nebuchadnezzar began hundreds of years before Christ came, but that dream in its interpretation is still going on in human history. When he saw that image with a head of gold, the breast and the arms of silver, the belly and tie of grass or copper, the legs of iron with the feet mingled with iron and clay, It was the illustration in God's presentation of the power of Gentile dominion until the Lord Jesus comes back to the earth.
For you may remember in the dream that was given to Nebuchadnezzar at the end a stone cut without hands, not the image upon its feet, at the end of its history, so to speak, and it crushed. to the floor. And the wind came and swept away what remained, but the stone that smuggled the image grew like a great mountain and filled the whole earth, typical of the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ in his coming kingdom. So much for the nation, but oh tonight we would like to give some comfort.
For you and for me, my fellow believers, for you and I, who are looking for the Lord Jesus to come, and praising him for that blessed event that will soon take us out of this world to be with him in the Father's house about. I know no greater anticipation that a Christian can have than to get out of the city of Florence and the whole world. I don't know how you feel about it, one dear man and as i was witnessing to him many years ago i would say over fifty some years ago over in near santa south carolina he interrupted my testimony i was giving telling him very plainly of my great joy of knowing i was going to heaven and i must have been very enthusiastic and why not For suddenly he burst out and said, Captain, wait a minute, you're not going there so soon, is you?
Two or three weeks later, the friend of mine who was with me told me that dear man had gone to meet his God. Suddenly he had died. I wondered where he went. But when the Lord Jesus comes, what a blessed hope it is for the believer. The joy of knowing. out of this world into the glories of heaven above and escorted to the with the Lord Jesus in the Father's house. When you come to the Gospel of John, one of the outstanding facts regarding the ministry of John's writings, he loved the Lord.
He wrote about him. He knew him. There was an intimacy in John's acquaintance with his blessed Lord. And wherever you read the writings of John, whether the gospel at the beginning, whether the epistles, and even the book of the Revelation, which he also wrote, he never began writing without, first of all, presenting the person of Christ. In the Gospel of John chapter one, The past glory, then the eternal sonship of the Lord Jesus, and his great glory in coming to the earth in grace and truth, being manifested in the flesh, is revealed.
Likewise in his epistle, he cannot begin it without speaking of the one who is the word of life. Telling that the fellowship, belonging to the Christian family, our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Likewise the great book of the Revelation. Now it's the book of prophecy. It's a dark book. And the larger part of it. Telling of the awful judgments that have become upon the earth. But he cannot begin writing them till at first in chapter one. He presents the greatness and the glory of that one who's coming.
As he describes them. John knew the Lord. and loved him without question of doubt very very dearly now when you read his gospel the chapter that we have just read from those are preceding chapters tell about the Lord coming to his people Israel and the signs or the miracles which he performed to prove who he was that manifested glory when you come to chapter thirteen There's a definite break in the rest of the world where you find the Lord Jesus speaking to his own people.
We turn from the subject we had this morning in relation to the world and the nation of the world. And we come tonight to this little portion where the Lord Jesus is concerned about his own people. For may I please bring before your hearts as well as my known, in the midst of all these events that are transpiring today, the greatest treasure that the Lord Jesus has upon the earth are his people. Whether they meet humbly or wherever they may meet lonely, he's concerned about his own.
From the chapter that we have read very briefly, let me say, from verse one through seventeen you've got first of all the revelation of his marvelous love in verse one and down through verse two and three you know how it begins before the feast of the Passover when Jesus knew that his followers come and that and that he should depart out of this world after the father Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them to the end. It does not mean there was an end to his love, never.
For there was no end to it. He loved his own which were in the world. My beloved, please may I say, you and I, I confess it readily, are absolutely unable to comprehend how much he loves us. I don't know how you feel, but I'd rather sing he loves me than I love him. I'm glad to sing I love him, but I want to tell you it means more that he loves me. We used to sing a little chorus. He loves me, he loves me. Oh, the wonder is such a thought that he loves me.
I never can love him as I ought, but he loves me. My beloved let's recognize, as he is about to depart from the world, go back to his father by the way of Calvary and the tomb and resurrection, he loves his all, which were in the world. May I again pause for just a moment, reflecting? He loves his own that are in the world. I'm sure we can never boast how much we love him. But we can surely boast how much he loves us.
A marvelous love. Now what follows is a marvelous act. And may I suggest to you, I know one of the greatest speeches out of that act when he watched the disciples speak. that most theologians and most teachers of the Word of God, myself included, have certainly suggested it's one of the greatest demonstrations of his humility. When none of the other disciples were willing to wash the other sea, it was the Lord of Glory that stood, laid aside his garment and stooped down, taking a basin of water with a towel, and washed the disciples, too. A marvelous time.
But what was the motive? Thusily indicated and showed his humility, for there's something better than humility, it showed his love. When he washed those dirty feet, and if you want to believe in feet washing, make sure you wash dirty feet now. That's what he did. He washed their soiled dirty feet. What a marvelous thing. And then, as you well know, as we've went to the end of the reading, throughout down to verse seventeen, to his disciples he told them, I've given you a wonderful example.
You ought to wash one another's feet. And one can recognize, may I give you this all? First of all, most of all, he was concerned about his own. His people. Don't do it believe it upon him. We sang that him, I tried to, I know. It's a very difficult one to sing. Shall I empty hand and be when I come to the crystal sea and so on, when I meet my Lord? But may I say, greater than your affection and devotion to the Lord in seeking the Lord is his devotion and love, and particularly for his own.
And he set an example for that. What I have done due to one another, and I'm sure you fully believe, so it's not a question of literally washing feet, to prove our obedience to him in doing it for one another. Love one another, pray for one another, consider one another, carry one another's burden, forgive one another, all that you may read. in the scriptures regarding the responsibility of the believer for one another. So you've got in the whole story down through verse seventeen a wonderful love, a wonderful and marvelous act, and left for you and for me a wonderful and marvelous example.
But I want you to know this with me as we have announced in our subject on the bulletin. There are three things that are very precious here. that can be taken to our hearts with blessing. In that which the Lord did on this occasion, let me go to verse ten first of all. I'm going to bring some verses out in their moral and spiritual order. In verse ten the Lord Jesus said to Peter, He that is vain, now may I again say from the Greek word, it is one who's had a complete back. He that is vain needeth not vain to wash his feet, but is clean everywhere, and ye are clean, but not all.
In the days of Rome, and some of the remnants of Roman history were in the old country of England and Wales and so on, there was known as the public Roman bath. And in those days the public baths were accessible. for one to many. They'd have bathtubs like we have in modern history today. But rending their way homeward from that bath, their feet were soiled as thus they walked with their sandals down the dusty, worn, and oftentimes dirty robes. And when they entered into their home, if you've read your Bible in many places, It's a customary thing when entering the home to have the feet washed, even though they'd held that, that makes the feet clean.
And so the Lord Jesus, on this occasion, he washes their feet. Look with me in verse nine. I want you to notice what he did. After that he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, to wipe them with a towel where we would gird it. morally and spiritually his dear disciples had a bath clean everywhere through the word he exposed the power of the word of God clean as they listened to his ministry and his message of redemption and salvation they were you cannot deny every one of these men here except Judas was clean everywhere.
That's the context there. But he takes the basin just to wash their feet. Then Mali, the rest of the bath, they needed the basin of water to keep their feet clean. You go back to the Old Testament in the days of Levitical economy. In the days of Moses, to the Old Testament priesthood, and the tribe of Levi. When any child of God in that day in the tribe of Levi, the family of Aaron came into the priesthood to officiate, you could read it in Leviticus chapter eight, the very first first thing that Moses had done with Aaron and his foster they had a bath.
but they never had another bath. That one ceremonial bath was once and for all. Now, beloved fellow believer, may I indeed rejoice with you that when you found the Lord Jesus as your Savior and I found him as mine, I got a bath all over it. Quoting from first John chapter one, verse seven, The blood of Jesus Christ did some cleanse us from what? All sin. Never need to do it again.
What a joy to know. May I say in contrast to our message of the morning and the conditions in the nation and in the world of nations. Isn't it a nice blessing to realize I've had my spiritual death? I trusted the Lord Jesus as my Savior. You remember the old hymn. Let me quote you know it well. Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the land? Are you fully trusting in his grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the land? Yes, I'm washed.
in the precious blood of the Lamb. For you know you were not redeemed with corruptible things, wrote Peter, such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without God. And oh, beloved, may I say again, please remember when you trusted Christ, and I trusted him too, we had a complete path. My soul was cleansed. My soul was made clean before God. And that's never to be repeated.
The priest cannot say it again. You can't get faith all over again. You need not get faith all over again. But may I say the transaction that was made when you took Christ as your Savior was forever. Forever. And you remember what God said in Egypt long ago when the children of Israel were redeemed out of it from death and judgment. And the blood was over the house, the doorpost and the sidepost of each house of Israel. When I see the blood, I will pass over to you.
And may I say this? There wasn't an Israelite inside of the house that could see the blood. If he had put the blood on the doorpost, that was all that was required. And all he had to do was stay inside. He was sheltered under the precious blood of the national land. And so it is for you and for me the joy of knowing when I say Christ, I'm under the blood of Christ forever. Amen. The power in the blood. In him we have redemption through his blood.
And the redemption, I hope you know what it means. It means when he saves you, he promises to bring you to glory. Amen. The night I got saved, I knew I wasn't going to hell, but I was bound for heaven. I'll never walk the truth of that. Thank God. He put my... He did not reach me. He lifted me from sinking sand. He lifted me from plains of night to plains of life. In love, he lifted me. Thank God he's never needing a stand.
But I said, you know what? You may have some dirty feet. You know what it means. I tell you, you can't live in the city of Florence. Everybody thinks it's a wonderful place, and it may be. But I want to tell you, there's a lot of dirt around here. Moral dust, too. And you and I as children are traveling through this world. Our feet become soil, meaning our walk. We need a bath. We don't need a bath, but we do need a basement. And that was in the Old Testament day. When the priest, though he never had another bath, he used the basin of water very much.
For if you look back in your Old Testament, when that priest had to officiate in any way, no matter how small or detailed, his work may have been in his ministry in the temple or in the tabernacle, the very first thing before he began doing this thing, He had to wash his hands and feet in the labor of water. And if you study your Bible, if you take the temple with all of its vessels, or the tabernacle with all of its vessels, the most used vessel by the priest, was not the altar, was not the altar of incense, and so on.
But it was the labor of water. Every time he ministered before he could do what was his duty, he had to wash his feet in hand in the water of labor. And I'm sure you recognize what the Lord's telling you here. It's not washing literal teeth, but morally and spiritually, keeping your feet clean as you walk down here. And the Lord is setting before him. Let me quote its words that Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter five. The ministry of the basin of water to the whole church.
Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that in my sight if I can cleanse it by the washing of water by the word. Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if the Lord could wash all the dirty feet of the Christians in this place? Mine included. By the washing of the water of the Word of God. The joy of knowing when you study the Word of God, when you meditate upon the Word of God, you're washing your feet.
Oh, he's washing them for you. For I believe it typifies the present ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven above. Our great high fruit. For we have a throne of grace to come to, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And we come with our need and say, Lord, please wash my feet while I'm going through this world. And may I say again, the Bible the book is the basin of water. Wherewithal till a young man cleansed his way, wrote the psalmist, thy taking heed thereto according to thy word.
Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee. My beloved, please may I say frankly, we need to keep our feet in this book, so speaking figuratively. It's only, may I point it out in two ways, first of all, collectively. To keep the assembly clean means that as an assembly of things, we should be keeping and obeying its word. Individually, in our hearts and minds, and our daily walk, and our daily relationship, only by the word can we be kept clean.
It's the basin of water. Oh, my beloved, used to be. The lovely thing when the Lord washes feet, he wipes them too. And he did on that occasion, girded with a towel, he wipes them. And may I give you this thought that's so unusual. In love, he washed the feet of Judas too. Now Judas wasn't at the Lord's Supper. I'm sure of that. When it was in peace. From other scriptures. But he was there when the Lord washed his feet.
And again may I say. I cannot explain it. He loved Judas. No he would never wash his feet. May I go further. Did you ever notice in Matthew's Gospel when Judas tried to betray the Lord Jesus? When he planted that kiss of betrayal upon the Lord? Chief? When you think of it, he kissed salvation, they never got it. But when he kissed him, Jesus said, Friend, wherefore thou thou come? Call them friends.
One is well written when I was a young chap. I remember reading many years ago when I was with eighteen, I believe. The writing of a dear servant of God of the old country. And he called it the last bleeding of love. For may I say, Judas never went to hell without the Lord having proved his love. And even in the moment of betrayal, he fled, fled. Why do you do this? Even knowing the wickedness of his heart and the doom to which he was gone. Oh, beloved, such love is too wonderful to understand.
But he washed their feet. Peter objected, Lord, you're not going to wash my feet. Remember what the Lord Jesus said, if I wash thee not? Thou hast no harm with me. Now, he didn't say I'll have nothing to do with you. He said, Peter, if I don't keep your feet clean, you won't go along with me. That's what he meant. My beloved, if you and I don't keep our feet clean, we're not going along with the Lord very well. Now walking close to him, he has to keep our feet clean. And though Peter didn't touch with me, said, Lord, not my feet, but my hands and my head.
Wait a minute. He said, Lord, you don't need another bath. You just need to keep your feet clean. Now, what will it do for us? First, we've had the bath. Second, we have the bath. Go down to verse twenty-three. Let me read in verse twenty-three. I'll read the context a little bit further on. Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom, one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake, regarding the traitor. He then lying on Jesus' breath, said unto him, Lord, who is that?
There is no question of doubt, if you read very carefully through this gospel, John more than one time rights of himself as being the disciple, not who loved Jesus, but the disciple whom Jesus loved. He never puts his own name in. He leaves it for anyone who will lean on that Muslim of Christ. But may I give you a thought in the spiritual progress and development of the soul's spiritual history. From the back we go to the faith the very precious Word of God where we learn more of the grace and the love and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
What's the purpose, Mary? We sang that in tonight. I believe we sang it this morning in the worship meeting, near to the heart of God. But where you have John leaning on his bosom, none of the other disciples did. But there's no question of doubt they could have. But John did it. John did it. May I give you the thought? The beginning of John's Gospel, chapter one, verse eighteen. No man has seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he made him known.
There you see Christ, the eternal Son of God, in the bosom of the Father. And when you come to John thirteen, there you see a sinner saved by grace on the bosom of Christ. Can I raise a question for your heart as well as my nose? Have you got to the bosom? Are you leaning on Jesus, friend? Are we as we stand so near to him? near to impart. I tell you, may I give you the thought quickly, a few thoughts. When you get to the bosom of Christ, may I say, you'll find rest.
Rest, rest. Oh, the joy of realizing. The rest. for the heart, weary heart. Please, may I say, are you troubled? Have you troubled him? Get to his heart. Lean on his bosom. We used to think that old hymn, Leaning on the Everlasting Arms. May I be reminded of what Moses said, that he wrote long ago and spoke to his own people. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. May I say, you can't go down any further.
You'll always find the everlasting arms underneath you. You can rest upon the bosom of Christ. There's rest. But there's not only rest. There's safety. There's nature. Nature. The joy of knowing. Here's the thing in old England. It was often used at funeral times, I recall as a boy. But it had another truth. It's precious. Safe in the arms of Jesus. Safe on his gentle breath. Thereby his love all shaded, all shadows.
Sweetly, my soul can rest. When you put your head on your pillow tonight, put it on his breath. Say, Lord Jesus. Let me lean on you. There's grace. And there's grace. But not only that. Look at our chapter, please. The Lord Jesus has told them that someone, one of them, is going to deny and betray him. And you have Peter in verse twenty-four, beckons to John. Now look, John, you're a lot nearer to the Lord than I am. Ask him, oh, it is. And John asked him, Lord, who is it?
On the breast of the Lord Jesus, there's not only rest, there's not only safety, there's knowledge. Knowledge. There's knowledge. He tells his secrets. He tells what he wants us to know. The closer the nearer we get to him, leaning upon his breath, there's knowledge. Peter realized the child. Peter said, you're here.
And he who is leaning on Jesus' breath was the nearest one to say, Lord, who is there? Beloved, please, may I say again, I need it. Whatever the difficulty and trials, I did again hear it to his men. Really not? There's knowledge. And we saw this morning from verse three to one thirty, Christ is made unto us what? Wisdom. And what a joy to realize, from the bath to the paces, he would bring us to his place.
But there's not only breadth, safety, and knowledge, best of all, says love. Says love. As you have it in the verse, now there was leaning on Jesus' bread, one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. And what John is saying, and you find it five times, I believe in the whole gospel, he particularly is mentioned as the disciple whom Jesus loved. You read the New Testament. You will find that John the Apostle writes more about love than any other writer.
I recall correctly, a lot of times since I found it, about eighty-five times in his Gospel and particularly in his Epistle, how much he fills it with love. Ninety-five times that love Which he enjoys. God is love. And the joy of knowing. The child of it. Can enjoy that love. And may I sing. When we get to glory. The best thing we're going to enjoy. It's not the glory. But the love. Of the Lord Jesus. It's good to know.
That we'll be able to sing. That will be glory for me. That I said that first. Go with me to Ruth. Ephesians chapter three in closing. In closing Ephesians chapter three, let me read part of the prayer of the dear apostle. In Ephesians chapter three, the end of the chapter is prayer. Let me read if I may, in verse fourteen, for this cause I bow my knees unto the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with mind by his spirit and the inner man.
And note, that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith, that he being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all faith what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know what? The love of Christ, which hath knowledge, that she may be filled with all the fullness of God. My beloved, there upon his bosom, there is not only knowledge, but there is the revelation of his love.
What a blessing. Now, isn't that different from what the world's going to get? Amen. What's the waiting, the wicked of the world? What's the waiting, even dear Israel, nearing the great tribulation when they'll have the worst trouble they've ever had in all their history? The worst for Israel is yet to come. The best for you and me is yet to come. All because we have a bath, we have a basin, we have a roof, a lid upon. And that'll get you through, too. May God help us in need to rejoice in the knowledge.
We've had our eternal bath. You know, wouldn't it be nice if a boy could get one bath a year in his grave? I remember when we first moved south and my little fellow saw all these black boys around. He said, Dad, do you really have to wash? I do what he meant. My beloved look, when you think of your soul, he makes you whiter than snow. Whiter than snow. Do not say to pray in Psalm fifty-one, wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. And what it's showing to know, we pass the bat.
I hope there's no one here that hasn't had the bat. I hope I can smell you clean. You know what I mean. You've had your skins washed away. And then the basin. My beloved, keep your feet in the basin. Don't let your feet get smelly and soiled and dirty. As you walk through this scene, walk with him and lean upon his book. Shall we pray? Oh, Blessed Father, we thank you for thy precious words We thank you most of all for thy beloved son, his marvelous love, the marvelous act that he did, and he's still carrying it on, washing our feet today.
And the marvelous example he said, Lord, please help us to follow your example. But oh, above all, Lord, help us to realize that we who know the Lord Jesus, we've had a bath, our soul has been made clean, through the precious blood of Christ. Lord, help us to enjoy and use the basin more. Thy holy word. Thy word is a lamp under my feet and a light under my path. Broke this on it. And Lord Jesus, we believe that whole reason for it is to bring us to thy bosom closer. And if we get close to thy bosom, we'll fulfill what we were singing.
We'll be near to the heart of God. We think of the dear old hymn as we close, nearer, still nearer, close