Gospel of John chapter 13, please.
Gospel of John chapter 13, verse 34.
Now everything that I read here will be
the words of the Lord Jesus.
A new commandment I give unto you, that
you love one another as I have loved
you, that you also love one another.
Chapter 14, verse 15.
If you love me, keep my commandments.
Chapter 15, verse 4.
Abide in me and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself
except it abide in the vine, no more
can ye except ye abide in me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches.
He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.
For without me ye can do nothing.
And then a little while, and ye shall
see me, because I go to the Father.
We've been reading here the last words of
the Lord Jesus Christ to his own.
This took place, of course, the night before
he went to the cross.
Now all the words of the Lord Jesus
have weight and are important, but I don't
know about you, but I remember the last
words of people that I've known.
I think my own mother, who died just
four years ago this month in a hospital
in British Columbia, I remember her last words.
And I, and unless I become totally senile,
I don't think I'll ever forget.
Last words.
Interesting what the Lord Jesus spoke to his
own about, his last words.
Chapter 13.
Now I'm just going to refine and just
look at a few different things.
Chapter 13 we read, he told them, love
one another.
Just three words, love one another.
Then in chapter four, 14, three words, keep
my commandments.
Chapter 15, abide in me.
And then chapter 16, a little while, a
little while.
But first of all, in chapter 13, these
words, love one another.
Now we all know this.
This is well known to even the youngest
Christian that the Lord has told us to
do this, to love one another.
But notice what he says after that.
In verse 34 of John 13, he says,
love one another as I have loved you,
as I have loved you.
How has he loved us?
You know, as parents, sometimes we tell our
children, don't worry about what I do, just
do what I say.
You know, we tell them to do things
and maybe we're not a very good example
of what we're telling them.
The Lord Jesus wasn't like that.
And so often, what he told his people,
he was the perfect example of what he
wanted them to do.
Now, he says here, love one another as
I have loved you.
How has he loved them?
How has he loved us?
Look with me a little bit earlier in
chapter 13.
Let's read in verse 1.
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.
Verse 3, Jesus knowing that the Father had
given all things into his hands, and that
he was come from God and went to
God, he riseth 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, 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,
or different word here now, he that is
bathed, needeth not save to wash his feet,
but is clean everywit.
And ye are clean, but not all.
For he knew who should betray him, therefore
said he, Ye are not all clean.
So after he had washed their feet, and
had taken his garments, and was set down
again, he said unto them, 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, notice, ye also ought to
wash one another's feet.
For I have given you an example, that
ye 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 ye know these things, happy are ye
if ye do them.
He says, I've given you an example.
Do as I have done to you.
What had he done?
He'd washed their feet, and he says in
verse 14, Ye also ought to wash one
another's feet.
Now we know the Lord doesn't expect us
to physically wash one another's feet.
To me, it's pretty clear in verse 7.
He tells Peter, What I do, you don't
know now, but you'll know hereafter.
Later in verse 12, he asked the disciples,
Do you know what I've done to you?
Listen, these men, although they were fishermen, they
were not imbeciles, they knew that the Lord
had washed their feet.
What they didn't understand was the spiritual meaning
of it.
What is the spiritual meaning?
In these days, days in the New Testament,
people didn't have running water like we did.
And my understanding is that if they wanted
a bath, they would go to the public
baths.
They would be bathed all over.
The Lord talks about that.
But coming back home, dusty roads, perhaps sandals,
their feet would get dirty.
They wouldn't need to be bathed all over,
but they wouldn't need to have their feet
cleansed and washed.
The day the Lord saved you and me,
we were washed, we were bathed all over,
as far as the penalty of our sins
is concerned.
Washed whiter than snow.
That's what he's talking about in verse 10
when he says, He that is washed.
The word is bathed.
He says he only needs to wash his
feet.
What's the point?
When we are saved, we are cleansed once
and for all from our sins.
However, as we walk through this world, we're
defiled and we need cleansing from that defilement.
Brother, sister, the Lord wants you and me
to help one another with the defilement that
we all contract as we walk through this
defiling scene.
Well, let's bring it down to where we
live.
What is our attitude to our brother and
sister that we can see has some defilement?
For example, maybe there's a brother that that
smokes.
What's their attitude?
You know, some people, I had lots of
habits before I was saved.
Smoking, I didn't have difficulty giving up that.
But some Christians have a tremendous difficulty with
that.
You know, we can just write them off
and think they're subpar Christian or we can
help them with it.
What about the teenage believer and we happen
to get in their car and maybe they
ask to drive their car and we turn
on the key and this music comes blasting
out just about knocks us out of the
driver's seat and we say, How can they
listen to music like that?
How about the believer that gets discouraged so
easily because of circumstances in their life?
You know, some of us are more prone
to discouragement than others.
Maybe things at work, things in the home,
things in the assembly and they just, you
know, you find them discouraged.
Or how about the brother that's a workaholic
and you say, you know, doesn't he realize
what this is doing to him and his
family, the assembly?
All he does is work.
I've just mentioned a few things.
Listen, there isn't one of us here this
afternoon that isn't affected by the world.
We didn't grow up in a bubble.
We don't live in a bubble.
The world has an effect upon us.
And I'll tell you, our attitude to one
another with our faults and failures, our shortcomings,
the effect the world has upon us, it's
critical.
What's our attitude?
You know, we can take the attitude of,
say, the Pharisees and, you know, they would
stand at a distance, point their finger and
say, Look at those dirty feet.
And we might talk to this one now
and, Did you see so-and-so?
Can you imagine listening to that kind of
music?
You know what?
I smelled smoke on them the other day.
You know, we can gossip away or we
can take a sword and cut those feet
off.
And unfortunately, I've seen well-meaning believers take
another believer to task and go up one
side and down the other and just chew
them out for what they perceived was wrong
behavior.
Unfortunately, I've also seen it when the person
that was so well-meaning and thought, you
know, they were doing the right thing, they
were totally wrong, totally wrong.
The person hadn't done anything.
Love one another as I have loved you.
You know, it seems to me one of
the biggest challenges that you and I face
in Assembly Fellowship and the day in which
we live is to get along with one
another.
We are all so flawed and we all
need grace from God, not only to be
the people God wants us to be, but
to put up with one another.
Love one another as I have loved you.
Listen, the Lord Jesus washed the disciples' feet,
even Judas.
Is there any believer that you wouldn't want
to wash their feet?
If I then, your Lord and Master, have
washed your feet, you also ought to wash
one another's feet.
For I've given you an example that you
should do as I have done to you.
I want to tell you, I thank God
for Christians, especially in my younger years as
a believer, who took time to help me
with things in my life that needed changing.
Sure, they could have just read the riot
act, chewed me out.
You know, the Lord Jesus girded himself with
a towel and he got down by those
disciples and he had a basin and he
washed their feet.
You know, if we're going to help one
another, and I say this to myself because
I'm no paradigm of excellence here at all,
but you know, to wash somebody's feet, you
need to get low and you need to
get close.
The towel and the basin.
And I feel that, I know in my
own life, this is lacking.
In the society in which we live, it's
so easy to be independent, live in our
own little worlds.
And so many of God's people are hurting.
Oh, they have a smile when they come
to meeting.
Brother, sister, the Lord deals so graciously with
our failures, does he not?
Shouldn't we deal graciously with others?
You know, I would think in the days
in which this was written in New Testament
times that it would be very refreshing if
your feet are dirty and, of course, they
didn't drive around in cars, maybe feet would
be very refreshing to have your feet washed.
You know, I think there's many believers that
are weary.
They're weary.
And their walk isn't as clean as they
would like.
We have a choice.
We can point our finger at a distance
and say, look at that.
Can you believe it?
We can even speak to them strong words.
Or, in love, we can try to get
close to them and take the low place
and try to help them.
Help them, kindly, because that's what the Lord
Jesus does with you and me.
Love one another.
Then the Lord says in chapter 14, keep
my commandments.
You know, it seems that some of us
were big on the love.
Others of us are big on the commandments.
But the Lord Jesus is the perfect example.
And here's the example here.
Love one another.
That's first.
But here it is in verse 15 of
chapter 14.
He says, keep my commandments.
You can't get around that.
Both are commands.
To love one another, to keep His commandments.
Both are equally true.
And He says, as the motivator for keeping
His Word, He says, if you love me.
I enjoyed that hymn our brother Dick gave
out this morning, Lord Jesus, I Love Thee.
And it's well that we should sing that
from our hearts.
But you know as well as I do
that our love for the Lord isn't just
shown with our lips, but with our life.
And our love for the Lord can be
measured by our obedience to His Word.
Christianity is very practical.
I can say I love the Lord Jesus,
but if I'm not keeping His commandments to
that degree, I don't love Him.
Now it goes without saying that if I'm
going to keep His commandments, I'm going to
have to find out what they are.
And young believer, this is just one reason
why we read His Word.
If we love Him, we try to find
out what does He want me to do.
I remember when my wife and I were
first married, and there were different times that
she would say, honey do you like, and
she'd, you know, meatloaf, or I'm glad she
never said you like chopped liver.
But different things she would ask me if
I liked this.
Why was she asking me that?
Because she loved me and she wanted to
please me.
We've been hearing, didn't Apostle Paul say that?
Lord, what do you want me to do?
And that's why, one reason why we read
His Word.
You know the Word of God is not
a buffet.
It isn't picking out this, or we all
have our favorite sections.
The whole Word of God.
He doesn't say if you love me, keep
some of my commandments.
Keep the commandments you like.
He says if you love me, keep my
commandments.
And I look at that as the whole
Word of God.
Brother, sister, do we love Him enough to
submit to His Word?
And you know, again the devil might make
us think that if we submit to His
Word it's going to be, you know, drastic,
and no fun, and my life's going to
be ruined.
Listen, there is tremendous blessing, there's tremendous joy
in living for the Lord.
Nothing can compare to it.
Walking with the Lord Jesus, having fellowship with
the living God, letting Him guide your life,
letting Him as a Word have His hands
on the steering wheel of your life.
Listen, He is able to do exceeding, abundantly,
above all that we can ask or think.
And anyone who has ever let Him be
the Lord of their life has never regretted,
never regretted it, as has never been the
poor.
My friend, our Lord is gracious.
He wants to bless us.
He knows what's best for us.
And if we just want to do our
own thing, go our own way, He might
allow that in measure.
But we're the one who's going to suffer.
Someone might say, you know, I would like
to love my brother and sister, but you
know, it's hard.
I'm selfish, and sometimes I do dumb things.
It's hard.
Somebody else might say, you know, I love
the Lord, I want to keep His commandments,
but, you know, I'm so sinful, I can't.
Well, listen, the Lord knows what we're like.
And so in chapter 15, the next three
words we read, to me, is the answer
to how we can love one another more
perfectly, how we can keep His commandments more
perfectly.
What is it?
Verse 4 of chapter 15, He says, abide
in Me.
Abide in Me.
I'm so glad that we don't have to
live the Christian life in our own ability.
We couldn't save ourselves.
We can't keep ourselves.
It's all about Him.
Abide in Me, He says, and I in
you.
Now listen, to me there's a positional aspect
to this, and there's a practical.
If we're saved, we're in Christ.
The moment we trusted Him, we rested in
Him, and our position is secure.
Nothing can take us out of His hand.
But there's that resting in Him moment by
moment, in a practical way, living in the
good of my union with Him.
You know, I get some help in understanding
what He means to abide in Me by
the picture that He uses.
He says, as the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself.
He says, the branch cannot bear fruit of
itself.
Now, you know the picture.
I don't know much about grapes, so I'm
not going to go there, but just a
branch in a tree, whether it's a peach
tree, apple tree, you know that that branch,
if it's separated from the trunk, there's not
going to be an apple or peach on
the end of it.
The branch cannot bear fruit of itself.
You and I cannot produce fruit for God
on our own, and I take fruit primarily
to be Christ's likeness, the fruit of the
Spirit, love, joy, peace.
That would characterize Him.
It's character, first of all.
Now, what makes that peach?
What makes that apple?
It's the sap flowing through the trunk and
out through the branches.
What is it that produces fruit in your
life and mine?
It's the life of Christ.
We're in Him.
The Lord wants us to rest in Him,
depend on Him, moment by moment, let Him
live His life out in us.
And maybe a sort of parallel thought, looking
at it a different way.
In Galatians 2, Paul says, I've been crucified
with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ
lives in me.
And this life I live in the flesh.
I live by faith, trusting the Son of
God, who loved me and gave Himself for
me.
I want to stop and leave, leave a
little room at the end here.
But the last thing we read about, the
last three words, the Lord Jesus said, a
little while, a little while and you shall
see me.
Now, I know the context here, He was
probably speaking they would see Him in the
resurrection, but I want to apply it this
way, brother, sister, a little while, a little
while, and we're going to see Him.
I enjoyed gathering around the Lord Jesus this
morning.
I've enjoyed being at this conference.
It draws our hearts to Him.
What is it going to be like when
we see Him?
A little while.
It could be a very little while.
And have you ever thought what it's going
to be like to look into His eyes,
this One whom having not seen, we love?
And I wonder what will be the first
words that He'll say to us.
I'll tell you what a moment that'll be.
He says, a little while and you shall
see me.
Last words of the Lord Jesus Christ, love
one another, keep my commandments, abide in me
a little while.