My privilege to be here with
you folks tonight. Always enjoy coming and seeing
those that we've known for years and meeting new people and how
the Lord has blessed your church, blessed your pastor and the ministry
the Lord's given Todd here in Lexington. And I'm so thankful
and appreciate the privilege to speak to you this evening.
And I wanted to say this about, there's a lot of good things
that I could say tonight about Todd. And I don't want to take
up too much time. But that wedding ceremony yesterday,
that was, I think, the best I've ever heard. It was so good. And we're so happy for Austin
and Sarah. They're beginning their life
together. Pray the Lord's blessings upon
them. And I have to admit, I'm thankful they're going to live
in Houston. At least at first. Let's turn in our Bibles tonight,
if you will, to John chapter 13. John chapter 13, and I'm going
to read the first 17 verses. Now, before the feast of the
Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come, that He should
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 hands and that
he was come from God and went to God. He rises from supper
and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself.
After that, he pours water into a basin and began to wash the
disciples feet, to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was
girded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter,
and 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 wash 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 saith
to him, he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but
is clean every whit. And ye are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray
him, therefore said he, you 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? You
call me master and lord, and you say, well, for so I am. If
I then your lord and master have washed your feet, ye also ought
to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example
that you should do as I have done. 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,
happy are you if you do them. This passage of scripture, these
17 verses, there's so many lessons that we could speak from tonight. We might begin with the teaching
of the Passover in verse one. and speak about the fact that
the Lord Jesus Christ, he is our Passover. The Apostle Paul
said, Christ, our Passover is sacrifice for us. The Passover,
of course, I believe is the greatest picture, greatest type of redemption
in the Old Testament. And it was redemption by blood. And we know how important that
is. because it is with the blood of Jesus Christ that he has redeemed
his church. And then we might also go on
and speak about the love of Christ to his own that also is mentioned
in verse 1. That having loved his own, he
loved them unto the end. And this reminds us that he loves
his people and it seems almost as if he loves his people while
we are here in this world with a special love even. Having himself
been in this world as a man and being tempted in all points such
as we are, yet without sin, we know that he is able to be touched
with the feelings of our infirmities. So, having loved his own, just
to think about that tonight, each one of us here who know
him as our Lord and Savior, to think about his great love for
his people. And then surely we could benefit
by thinking on the humility of Christ. I see that pictured in
verse four, when the Bible here said, he riseth from supper and
laid aside his garments and took a towel. And that reminds us
that the Lord Jesus Christ, as the eternal son of God, who has
always existed without beginning, without end, one with the Father
and one with the Holy Spirit, always have been praised since
the creation of his creatures, that is, the angels, in glory.
And yet he laid aside his glory when he joined to himself the
body that was prepared him, clothed himself, we might say, even as
he this night clothed himself with a towel. So the eternal
son of God came into this world and clothed himself as a man. And great, the scripture says,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. To me, when I think about that
verse and that statement that Paul makes, the amazing, the
mystery to me is how we have in this one person, these two
natures. And they're not confounded. He
is God and he is man and yet joined together he is this one
person, the Lord Jesus Christ. But we see his humility when
he arose from supper and took the towel and girded himself
and then went around to his disciples to wash their feet. Now, it was
necessary that he become a man, we all recognize that, that he
might be our kinsman, redeemer, our goal. G-O-E-L, I believe
it's the way that's spelled in English, that Hebrew word. He's
our kinsman. He's bone of our bone and flesh
of our flesh. He had to be a man that he might
redeem us. He had to be God. He had to be
a man that he might suffer. He had to be a man that he might
die. He had to be a man that he might bleed, but he had to
be God that he might satisfy. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. But what I'm going to do tonight
is I want to point what I consider to be the two primary lessons
from this passage, and then I want us to consider one statement,
and especially one word from that statement. I see two primary
lessons. The first is that believers,
God's children, everyone here tonight who knows the Lord Jesus
Christ, every one of us who trusts in Him as our Lord and Savior,
and as you mentioned in your prayer, that God the Holy Spirit
has given us faith to rest upon Christ and Him alone. We see
that as long as we are in this world, we will continue to have
need of this washing. Whatever this washing signifies,
our Lord washing the disciples' feet, because our Lord told Peter,
if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. No part with me. He didn't say,
if I don't wash you, you have no part in me, but if I do not
wash you, you have no part with me." The fellowship, the communion
that we enjoy with Him as we go through this world, it is
necessary that we experience this continual washing, this
washing that is signified here. You know, these words were addressed
to Peter, but to all believers. to all of us this evening when
he said, you are clean every wit. That word that's translated
wit, it means throughout or whole, clean through and through. And
I looked that English word up, that word wit, we don't use that
very often in our conversations, but the dictionary defines that
word wit as, and I quote, a point, a jot, the smallest part or particle
imaginable. And that's how clean we are by
the blood of Jesus Christ. So clean that if a spotlight
of God's holiness was focused and shined in upon each one of
his children, we are clean. There's not the smallest speck
The point of a pen, however small that is. We've been washed from
our sins. He loved us and washed us from
our sins in his own blood. And that washing, we're clean
every whit. Not the least jot, not the least
particle, not the smallest atom of sin remains. Remember the
prophecy in Zechariah. I believe it's chapter 13, but
the prophet said, in that day, and I believe he's speaking about
that gospel day, in that day there shall be a fountain open
for the house of Israel and the house of Judah for sin and uncleanness. That fountain was opened when
the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, when he was nailed to that tree,
saved from his hands. We sang that just a few minutes
ago. And when that fountain was opened,
and by the word opened, it was common in that day to have a
fountain that was sealed. Now, fountain, of course, was
water, a spring, water bubbling up out of the ground, and they
would build a container, a wall around it, so only they could
use it. It was their fountain. It was
their spring of water, and it was all so important to them. But the prophet speaks of a day
when there would be a fountain opened. And that reminds us that
the Lord Jesus Christ, He is a fountain open for all who will
come. You look back to John chapter
7 and verse 37. And we see this here. John 7
and verse 37. Scripture here says, in the last
day, in the last day, that great day of the feast, and I know
you've heard this before, but on this particular day, evidently
water was brought and it was poured out upon the altar. It
was something the Jews had instituted at this feast, and our Lord was
there. And these people had come from
all over Palestine to Jerusalem as they were commanded to do,
three times a year. And this is the last day. They'd
come there to worship. And they're about to break camp,
as we were saying, go home. And the Lord Jesus Christ stood
up, the scripture here says, and he cried, saying, If any
man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He's a fountain open. If any man thirst, if any man
labors and heavy laden under a load of sin and guilt, if any man thirst, our Lord said,
let him come unto me. This fountain is open to all
who come unto him. The Scriptures almost close us
in Revelation chapter 2. Hope, if any man thirst, if any
man thirst, let him come unto me. Here in John 13, Judas was in
the room with our Lord's disciples. That is the reason for his words
in verse 10, but not all. You, you are clean every wit,
but not all because there was one there who was not washed,
who was not clean. Paul in Ephesians speaks of the
washing of the water by the word. Now I know that has reference
to a number of things, but the point I'm trying to make here
this evening is this, as long as you and I are here in this
world, we need the ministry of the word of God. If we are going
to have part with Christ, if we are going to have fellowship
and communion with Christ, then we need the ministry of the Word
of God. When we come here to gather together
or we read the scriptures in our home, the washing, our feet
need to be washed. As we go through this world, a desert, a wilderness, but also
we remember in Pilgrim's Progress, Vanity Fair, we pass along that
way too. And all of these things that
are of the world that entice us and that call us away from
Christ and our fellowship with Him. We continually need the
ministry of the Word of God. One of the saddest things I believe
that any pastor experiences, and I trust it's not the case
here, but when you see people begin to miss services, It's
a sad thing, isn't it, Todd? I mean, because we need the Word
of God. We need fellowship, the communion
one with another. And we need to hear the preaching
of the Gospel. We need to hear of Christ and
His great salvation for sinners. He's the living bread. He's the
living bread that gives life. And the life that He gives us,
that life must be sustained. And it is sustained by Himself. He is the bread that we must
feed upon. We come together to worship Him,
to hear of Him. And the second lesson, I believe,
that we see here is that believers... First of all, believers need,
while in this world, continued worship to have part with Christ.
That, I believe, is the first and primary lesson for all of
us. But secondly, believers need
to do As our Lord did in this sense, he served his disciples
and we are to serve one another. Now I've met some people over
the years who practice foot washing and I think At this time, when
our Lord was here, foot washing was something that was needful,
something that was useful because of the way they had the public
baths and because of the way they would have walked in the
streets, the dusty roads and all of that. And just to cool
a person down in that heat, the washing of the feet was useful.
But if we were going to have a foot washing service here tonight, I did take a bath before I came
over here, and I washed myself all over, washed my feet, but
if I knew we were going to wash each other's feet, I would have
washed my feet even more. I believe some people are mistaken
about that. I think this is doing service,
as you ladies serve one another. I know in our congregation, when
there's someone sick, and ladies prepare food and take to someone,
and men help each other. To me, that's the help, serving
one another, that we should practice, all of us. We call him Lord and
Master, and yet he served. He washed His disciples' feet.
We should serve one another. Now the rest of the time, I want
to take this statement in verse 7 that our Lord made, what I
do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. And I want to speak for just
a few minutes, just a few minutes on this word hereafter. I'll
say more on my third point, but my first two points will be very
very brief, but this word hereafter. And first, let me emphasize this. The word hereafter, of course,
means an after time or another state. First, each and every
one of us here tonight, we have a hereafter. Every person has a hereafter. Our Lord told about one man in
Luke chapter 16. He happened to be rich. This
is not the reason he was sent to hell and lifted up his eyes
in hell being in torment. But that was his hereafter. That
was his hereafter. And then there was another man
our Lord spoke about. This man had been a thief. He was being punished, being
put to death as a felon. We know he was crucified on one
of the crosses alongside our Savior. And our Lord told him
his hereafter. And what a blessed hereafter
that is. He looked at our Lord and he
said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
And our Lord said, today Now this is his hereafter. Today
thou shalt be with me in paradise. I was convicted in preparing
this message. I think sometimes as believers
we concentrate and we love to do this, thinking about the hereafter
of believers, of God's children. What a blessed hereafter that
is. But let's not forget that everyone
has a hereafter. And some, their hereafter is
like the man our Lord described in Luke 16. It is a hereafter
that is a place of suffering, a place of torment. Each one of us tonight, if we
could just think for a moment, we have a hereafter. I heard
the story one time of a Supreme Court Justice by the name of
Wendell Holmes, Oliver Wendell Holmes. And a young man came
to visit him. I believe he was a high school
student. And he was excited to get an audience with this man,
this great man on the Supreme Court. And Mr. Holmes asked him, he said, son,
what are your plans? And he said, well, I plan to
finish high school this year. And the judge said, well, After
that, what are your plans? He said, well, I plan to go to
college, and then I plan to attend law school. And the judge said,
then what are your plans? He said, well, I hope to practice
law and maybe one day become a judge. And the judge said,
then what are your plans? And he said, well, hopefully,
maybe one day I would be appointed to the Supreme Court like you.
That's a lifetime appointment. And then the judge said, and
then what are your plans? And he said, well, I haven't
thought about that. And he said, son, you need to
go home and think your life through. There's a hereafter for each
and every one of us here tonight. And the second point I would
make about this, this hereafter is eternal, is eternal. There will never be another hereafter. Once you and I have left this
world and have entered into that hereafter, there'll never be
another hereafter that. Remember this passage from Revelation
chapter 22, when the apostle was told, he that is unjust let
him be unjust still, and he that is filthy, let him be filthy
still, and he will be filthy forever. In his hereafter, he
who leaves this world filthy in his sin, not having been washed
from his sins in the blood of Jesus Christ, he that is filthy,
let him be filthy still, and all throughout That man or that
woman's hereafter, that will be their position, filthy. And then the scripture said,
he that is righteous, let him be righteous still. And he that
is holy, let him be holy still. That will be the hereafter of
God's people. Holy, righteous. Now my third point, I want to
speak a little bit about our Lord's words when he said to
Peter, what I do now, thou knowest not, but thou shalt know hereafter. Let me bring three things out
from those words. Now there's much that our Lord
is doing. There's much that our Lord does
in our lives and the lives of our friends and our relatives
and our fellow worshipers, that we do not know and we certainly
do not understand. But our Lord tells us here, we
shall know hereafter. If you notice his words, what
I do. What I do. Now there's comfort
for the child of God in recognizing that he that is the Lord Jesus
Christ, that He is the ruler of providence. Now some people
are content to believe that everything happens by chance, by certain
fixed laws, and some people talk about luck. But I don't see how
thinking about any of those things could ever bring anyone comfort
or peace. But I do see how it produces
peace for us to believe and to know that the Lord Jesus Christ,
that He is the ruler of providence. You notice above that in verse
3, he said, or John said rather, Jesus knowing
that the Father had given all things into His hands. What I do, He is the ruler of
providence. And we know that when something
is said to be given to Christ, it's speaking of Him as the mediator,
as the God-man. As God, all things are His, always
have been and always will be. But when we read that something
is given to Him, this is speaking of Him as the mediator, as the
man, excuse me, the man Christ Jesus. And He is the one who
is on the throne tonight. He's the one who has the scepter
in His hand, and He's the one who is reigning and ruling. He's
the ruler of all providence. In John chapter 5, in verse 17,
He said, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. I work, that's present
tense. He continues to work. Every breath
Every breath that you breathe, every breath that I breathe,
He gives that to us. In Him, we live, we move, we
have our being. He's the ruler of providence,
of all things. In Colossians, the apostle wrote,
for by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are
in earth visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, All things were created by Him
and for Him, and He is before all things, and by Him all things
consist. The Lord Jesus Christ, He is
the ruler of poverty. What I do, what I do. Sometimes we have a difficult
time in recognizing things that happen in our lives, that this
is the Lord. It's the Lord who's doing this.
I want you to look at a verse in Job with me just a moment.
Job chapter 23. Now when I read in the book of Job,
one of the first things I do, I always search back to find
out who's speaking. If it's Job, or one of his friends,
or Eliphaz, or God. Now these are the words of Job
here. Job chapter 23, and we use verse 13 quite a bit when
we speak about God's immutability and His sovereignty. He is in
one mind, and who can turn Him? What His soul desireth, even
that He doeth. Now listen to what Job says in
verse 14. For he performeth the thing that
is appointed for me. He performs that which he has
appointed for me. And many such things are with
him. What comfort for the child of
God to know that he who loved us He who gave himself for us,
and he who will come again for us soon, that he is the ruler
of providence. And everything that comes in
our life, whether it's small or big, something we consider
to be some big thing or some most minute matter that comes
in our life, it comes by the hand and by the authority and
by the power of Jesus Christ. thing I see in this statement
of our Lord's, thou knowest not now. Thou knowest not now. And the
point I would make here is there is a call for continued faith. Continued faith. In Romans 1,
Paul makes this statement and he quotes from Habakkuk, the
just shall live by faith. Well, who is meant by the just?
The just are those who are justified, those who trust in Jesus Christ,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect. It is
God that justifies that righteousness, which is revealed in the gospel,
that righteousness that Christ worked out as a man when he was
here by his obedience in every thought, every word, every deed
to God, absolutely obeying the Father in every way, and then
His obedience even unto death. That's the righteousness that
is revealed in the gospel, and that's the righteousness that
is imputed or charged, counted to everyone that believes. And
it is that righteousness that is perfect righteousness The
righteousness of God, because He is God, it's that righteousness
that allows God to be both just and the justifier of those who
believe in Him. The just shall live by faith.
We trust in Him and we receive life, we are justified, but we,
as we continue in this world, we continue to live by faith,
by faith in Christ. That's another reason why we
need the ministry of the Word. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. There are many things, as I've
already said, that happen in our lives that we do not know,
but we continue to trust in Him because we know that He is in
control. He is in charge. In this world,
we shall be defended We shall be preserved, we shall be made
happy, not by our own merits, but rather by the faith in Jesus
Christ and him alone. The just shall live by faith. And the last thing, in his words,
thou shalt know hereafter. The promise of perfect knowledge. Paul said, now we know in part. Then shall we know as we are
known. What is it that we shall know? Thou shalt know hereafter. What
is it that we shall know? Well, things that have made us
greatly grieve. Those things that have caused
us tears and heartache and sorrow will be seen then to have been
the causes of the greatest joy. Dark clouds which appeared to
threaten our destruction will then reveal the love behind them
which was concealed. And things which perplexed us
concerning God's ways with us will then be made known. There's
a scripture in Deuteronomy, I'm sure you're familiar with it,
It says, the secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those
things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever,
that we may do all the words of this law. What is secret? The secret things belong unto
God. What is secret? His eternal decrees. We do not know them, we cannot
pry into them. It is enough for us to know what
I do now, that Christ is the one who is doing it. And after,
we shall know. But what are those things that
are revealed unto us? You know, it's funny that some
people just have a tendency, when they read the secret things,
then they think, well, that's what I want to know. That's what
I want to search into, the secret thing. No, those things belong
unto God. But the things which are revealed
belong unto us and unto our children. And what are those things that
are revealed? God has provided the remedy for
our sins. He sent His own Son to be the
propitiation for them. He is the remedy for our sins. That's revealed to us, isn't
it? Aren't you thankful that belongs to us? God has promised
to never forsake us, to never leave us. That's a special promise,
isn't it? That's revealed unto us. God will make all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. That's revealed unto us. But
it is by faith that we walk. The just shall live by faith. You may be familiar with the
words of this hymn. They were written by a man who
suffered with depression, great depression. He was a friend of
John Newton. When John Newton was at Olney,
pastor there, this man, William Cowper, lived close enough. There
was a pathway from his house to the house of John Newton. One time, at least once, he tried
to destroy himself and was not successful in that. But he wrote
these words, God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the
sea and rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable minds of
never failing skill, he treasures up his bright designs and works
his sovereign will. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage
take. The clouds you so much dread
are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his
grace. Behind a frowning providence
he hides a smiling face. His purposes will ripen fast,
unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err
and scan his work in vain. is his own interpreter, and he
will make it plain. Thank God, one day we shall know. Hereafter, each one of us will
meet in that hereafter. What he told that dying thief,
today thou shalt be with me in paradise. That's the greatest
hereafter any of us could ever have, to be with Christ and to
enjoy him forever. May the Lord bless these words.