Turn with me, if you will, please, again,
to the Gospel by John, for that's our
main source of meditation during this week.
Gospel by John, and we're reading this morning
from chapter 13.
John 13 and 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.
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 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 what 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, I shall 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 unto him, He that is washed,
or bathed, needeth not save to wash his
feet, but is clean every which.
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, 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.
I speak not of you all.
I know whom I have chosen, but that
the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth
bread with me hath lifted up his heel
against me.
Now I tell you before it come, that
when it is come to pass, ye may
believe that I am."
There's another one of our I am's that
we have been considering a little in these
studies this week.
I thought perhaps I should run quickly over
what we have been touching on the mornings
of this week, and just remind you a
little bit, perhaps, of what we have been
touching on.
Some of you may not have been here,
especially those of you who went on the
partial rapture the other morning and then came
back again.
Some of you will remember, at any rate,
that we started off by considering from chapter
8 the timeless deity of the Lord Jesus,
and that was when he was contrasted in
his conversation with the Jews with Abraham, and
he said so marvelously, so startlingly, so arrestingly
before Abraham was, I am.
We began our considerations of the I am's
with that stepping stone, with that platform, if
you will, and it is, of course, as
the most sublime, I judge, of all of
them that he should say that, particularly after
the conversation he had had with the Jews
in chapter 8.
Timeless deity of the man who came, as
we were noticing in our little study regarding
the trilogy of the cities in Bethlehem, and
he who came to Bethlehem through the medium
of the virgin mother was he who was
before all time.
It was he, it was not another, it
was not an impersonation of him, it was
he himself who came and walked amongst the
disciples and amongst the Jews as well as
the Galileans when he was here.
The timeless deity of the I am, and
then we went from there to chapter 4
and also chapter, there was another one, wasn't
there?
No, it's chapter 6 first, yes.
In my advanced age and state of decrepitude,
I'm not remembering some of these details that
I should have done so, in chapters 6
and chapter 18.
The second one that we looked at was
that of his total or absolute sovereignty.
Chapter 6, we saw him walking on the
sea of Galilee as he returned from the
miracle of the loaves and When he showed,
he demonstrated that this one who was from
eternity, we say eternity past, there's no such
thing with the Lord, you understand.
Eternity past is our way of speaking of
something which was before time, but he was
always before time, and things then of course
will come after time, won't they?
I was listening to a brother preach just
recently, and he was telling his audience and
preaching the gospel that it was time they
made their decision for Christ, because you see
the day is coming, he said, when there'll
be no more time.
And he was telling them what eternity is,
that eternity is timeless.
But that is good terminology I suppose, but
it's not very good theology, because eternity is
not a timeless period.
Eternity is endless, but not timeless.
Time began when God created the heavens and
the earth.
And as long as there is matter, there
is space, and as long as there is
space, there is time.
Regardless of what you're considering, if you have
a planet out there somewhere and another planet
over here, well then in order to go
from one to the other, there must be
time.
Same thing happens between the neutrons and the
protons and the atoms.
Time is very infinitesimal, but there's time.
For as long as there's space, there has
to be time.
So we used to sing, we used to
say of course, that time ends and then
eternity.
And we sang that hymn very frequently in
my younger days in the preaching of the
gospel.
Time ends and then eternity.
But hymns are beautiful, they're pretty, and some
of the choruses are quite diddy-like, but
they're not all good theology.
And we must not base our theology upon
hymnology, because hymnology is not necessarily good theology.
And hymnology says time ends and then eternity.
Well, it's not so, because time never ends.
And in our language, God describes himself, and
he describes that which is yet to be,
with two plural words, unto the ages of
the ages.
And you know if you have ages unto
ages, then you have time, don't you?
Otherwise the word is meaningless.
That's the way God describes himself, and that's
the way he describes the endless existence of
all his subjects.
Unto the ages of the ages of the
ages.
That's time.
And so time does not end, then eternity.
And anyway, when you stop to think about
it, you know, eternity always has been.
And this globe of ours is merely hanging
in eternity.
We speak about eternity past, and we speak
about eternity future, or from the way you're
facing me, it's eternity past over there, and
eternity future over this way, left to right,
I suppose.
But actually, the globe and the whole universe
is hanging in eternity.
Eternity is up and down and around always,
and so we have now become creatures of
eternity.
We are presently living in eternity.
You're not too sure about that?
Well, it's a rainy morning, and you know,
we can't expect too much, can we?
Very well.
Now, so the Lord spoke about his absolute
sovereignty.
He walks upon the water.
He has subjected beneath his own feet, and
all the circumstances of life that his people
meet, and wherever they meet them, and whatever
the circumstances are, whatever the opposition is, he
walks on the stall, his absolute sovereignty.
But then we went from there to chapter
18, you will remember, and we saw our
Lord facing the angry mob when they came
to take him.
And there he showed in what appeared to
be his hour of weakness, his hour of
loneliness, for the disciples are all in the
motion of forsaking him and fleeing from him,
as he stands facing his enemies, the traitor
and those whom he had brought with him
in order to arrest the Lord.
You remember how he displayed once again his
absolute sovereignty, for he stands seemingly helpless in
the presence of his hateful enemies.
And when he asked them whom they sought,
they said, Jesus of Nazareth, and he said,
I am.
And when he said that, again he displayed
his absolute sovereignty, and they fell backwards to
the ground.
And that was our second study this week.
And then our third study was his unlimited
capacity, for we went to John's Gospel, chapter
4, and we found out that he has
the ever-abundant source of living water, and
that water we discussed a little bit in
detail in connection with the woman of Sychar's
well.
And we saw that the refreshment which she
had sought, the rest, the peace, the companionship,
the love, the care which she had sought
and had not found to be satisfying, our
Lord said that which he would give would
be water springing up into everlasting life.
And he was unlimited in the abundance of
his supply of living water.
And then from there we went to chapter
6 again and discovered that that unlimited abundance
was applicable to the bread of life.
And he used the example of the miracle
of the loaves and fishes, and he gave
us that marvelous discourse that we still have
trouble with sometimes, don't we?
And I expect you went home and thought
about it and said, well, Brother Dave got
us up beyond the ankle tonight.
That was kind of deep water when we
started talking about eating the flesh of the
Son of Man and drinking his blood.
So he has showed himself to be unlimited
as well in the abundance of his supply,
the supply of living water and his supply
of living bread, the living bread which came
down from heaven.
And then we went from that to see
him as the light of the world, the
light of the world in chapters 8, 9
and 12.
And we looked at that in brief and
saw that our Lord is the unsullied one
who moves into all the circumstances of life,
shows himself as the light of the world,
ready to reveal and ready to heal.
That was our study from chapters 8, 9
and 12.
Now, this morning we've come to chapter 13,
and I want to consider with you now
something about what I'm going to call his
incomparable humility.
We all know the story about the feet
-washing, how our Lord, in his sovereignty, because
you see, you remember it said at the
beginning, Jesus knowing, that's verse 3, that the
Father had given all things into his hands.
What did he do when he was conscious
of the fact that the Father had put
all things into his hands?
You know, the connecting link between some verses
that we have in scripture, we do not
always perceive, we don't take advantage of them.
The gospel preacher loves to preach on John
3 and 36.
I have done it myself many times in
the years gone by.
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life.
He that believeth not the Son shall not
see life, but the wrath of God abideth
on him.
And the gospel preacher often uses that text.
And when he sits down beside a concerned
person who is looking for salvation and clarity
and assurance, he reads that text with him
or her.
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life.
And then, of course, the question comes, does
the inquirer believe on the Son?
And the answer to that question, in sincerity,
determines whether they have life or whether they
do not.
For he that believeth on the Son has
everlasting life.
And he that believes not the Son shall
not see life, but the wrath of God
abides on him.
And there's the question put to them.
And you know why we use John 3
and 36 with such frequency?
I think I have yet to hear the
gospel preacher base verse 36 on verse 35.
Can you remember what it is?
Now, I'm going to challenge it.
You can't look it up.
You're not allowed to look it up, you
see.
I want to know, those of you who
repeat John 3 and 36 with alacrity, with
ease, do you know what 35 says?
You don't look too enlightened about that one.
Well, now, 36 depends on 35.
And this is one of those things that
we often do with Scripture.
We take a verse out, we put it
in a frame and hang it on the
wall, or we put it in our memories
and hang it up there, and we don't
actually know what the mat is around the
picture.
You know, you have to have a mat
on the frame, don't you?
So, what is verse 35?
The Father loves the Son and has given
all things into his hands.
Believe on the Son and you'll have everlasting
life.
Isn't it the natural outcome, 36 of 35?
Isn't this the reason why he that believes
on the Son has everlasting life?
Because the Father loves the Son, and he's
put all things into his hands.
Therefore, he that believes on the Son has
everlasting life.
It's an interesting thing, I think, if we
just check ourselves up now and then and
say, oh yes, I know that verse real
well.
I wonder what the verse that comes before
it says.
And I wonder what the verse that comes
after it says.
Because, you know, I've seen verses taken out
of context and put on a wall and
hung in a church building, and they have
no more connection with what they're saying to
the congregation at all.
I used to frequent gospel halls and preached
in them in many parts of Canada and
other parts of the States, and so many
times, hundreds of times, I think I've seen
a text at the front of the building
on the wall behind the speaker, and it
would say, gather unto me my saints, they
that have made a covenant with me by
sacrifice.
Some of you remember that one?
Oh, come on, some of you are as
old as I am.
And I used to sit in the audience
and look at that text.
Come, gather unto me my saints, those that
have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.
I said, isn't that wonderful?
Here we are, gathering here now because, and
based upon the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.
So we're gathered unto him.
And then one day, you know how your
wheels kind of spin around sometimes, especially if
the preacher's kind of dealt, and you're looking
around and you're looking at these texts and
you're thinking about these texts, you're not listening
to what he's saying, and you're looking at
these texts or you're looking at the architecture
or whatever you are, and I was looking
at this text, you know, gather my saints
unto me, those that have made a covenant
with me by sacrifice.
How marvelous that is.
I wonder where it is.
It must be in the New Testament somewhere.
Of course, you know it isn't.
No.
And so when I looked it up and
I said, I wonder, does this have to
do with the New Testament church?
Sounds like it, doesn't it?
It doesn't.
When you look it up and you discover
what the context is, instead of it meaning
that the believers come together to remember the
Lord and the Lord suffered to break bread,
it means rather God's going to call his
people together in a future day because he
made a covenant with them by sacrifice, and
they have turned their back on the covenant,
and he's brought them through great tribulation, and
he's calling them together to judgment.
But I don't think any of the brethren
that painted that text and put it in
a frame and hung it on the wall
did it with the view that the audience
would look at that and say, oh, on
the basis of the covenant of the sacrifice,
God's going to call us to judgment.
They never thought of that, did they not?
Those of you who have seen it know
that the reason they've got it there is
because they've applied it to a New Testament
church that has nothing to do with a
New Testament church.
But we take it out, we put it
in the frame, we hang it on the
wall, and there it looks real pretty, doesn't
it?
Yeah, that's like how we apply the 122nd
Psalm to the weather.
This is the day which the Lord hath
made.
Some of you heard me on that one.
Yeah, this is the day which the Lord
hath made.
Well, well, well, uh-huh.
They didn't sing that one in the boat
when they were crossing the Sea of Galilee
and thought they were going to drown.
Well, it has nothing to do with the
weather, of course, as you know.
But it's a pretty little chorus.
This is the day.
Yeah.
Now, here's a passage of Scripture, too, in
agreement also with John 3 and 36, 35
and 36.
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all
things into his hands, what did he do?
What did he do with that kind of
trust?
What did he do with that kind of
authority?
Go over to chapter 17.
When you get to chapter 17, you remember
he's speaking to his Father, and he says,
As thou hast given him authority over all
flesh, as thou hast given him power or
authority over all flesh, he's talking to his
Father.
The 17th chapter of the Gospel by John
is so often misinterpreted, alas.
And here the Lord is speaking with his
Father, and he says, Father, the hour has
come.
Glorify thy Son.
What hour is he talking about?
That thy Son also may glorify thee.
How is the Father going to glorify the
Son, and when is the Son going to
glorify the Father?
What's he talking about, the hour?
And then he goes on to say, As
thou hast given him authority over all flesh.
What's he going to do with that power?
What's the expression of true power?
What is the evidence of real authority?
What did he do here?
Knowing the Father put all things into his
hands, supper was ended, he got up from
the table, he divested himself of his outer
garments, he took a towel and girded himself
in the garb, in the habit of the
household slave, and he got a basin with
water and got down to wash his disciples'
feet.
What has that got to do with the
Father giving all things into his hands?
Well, when we came to the close of
our reading, verse 19, again it's another I
Am, isn't it?
When you go back over to chapter 17
that I've just mentioned to you, and he
says, As thou hast given him authority over
all flesh, what to do?
That he should give eternal life to as
many as thou hast given him.
Now, what we conceive to be authority in
our days, as far as position is concerned,
position of authority means that everything comes this
way.
As the centurion said to the Lord, you
recall, he said, I'm a man under authority,
and I say to one servant, go, and
he goes, and I say to another servant,
come, come, and I say to another servant,
do this, and he does it.
Now then, why should you have to come
to my home to cure, to heal my
servant?
Just speak the word.
Those are your servants.
Here's a man who has a grasp of
the magnificent power of the living word of
the Christ.
You just speak the word, and my servant
will be healed.
I'm not worthy that you should come under
my roof.
When I first read that, you know, and
spoke a little bit about it years ago,
I thought this man was very arrogant.
Lord, you don't need to come under my
roof.
I'm a man of authority.
I say to a servant, go, and he
goes.
I say to another one, come, and he
comes.
Here's authority in action, commanding, demanding.
That's not what he's saying at all.
Sounds arrogant, doesn't it?
But it's not arrogant.
It's not even a man filled with his
own self-importance and the authority that he
has over a hundred soldiers, as well as
those under his care as a centurion.
No, what he's saying is, Lord, I have
this authority, but I'm not worthy that you
should come under my roof.
I'm not worthy of that, but if you,
in your authority, just speak the word, and
your word knows no boundaries, and it knows
no distance, it is always active in its
authority.
Just speak the word, and my servant shall
be healed.
Actually, it was a confession of humility, but
we thought, because of the way he said
it, it was an expression of self-importance,
because I have these servants, and I tell
them to do what I wish, and they
must do it.
So, he says the Lord's authority is so
superior to his authority.
Now, in John chapter 17, when the Lord
speaking to his father says, I was given
him authority over all flesh, what's he going
to do with that authority?
He's going to give eternal life.
He's going to give.
It's going out from the authority, not coming
to the authority.
We're used to that kind of authority, aren't
we?
If we have authority, well then, let's just
let everybody see it, right?
Let them know that we have authority, and
we express authority by demanding or commanding.
The Lord expresses authority in John 17 by
dispensing, giving out eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him, and then he
went on to explain the purpose of eternal
life, that they might know he is the
only true God, and so on.
That's a beautiful subject.
Now, coming back to this case here, Jesus
knowing that the Father put all things into
his hands, what's he going to do?
He's going to make a demonstration of true
authority.
Authority which is God-like, authority which proceeds
from our Lord himself, is authority which is
expressed by humility.
We don't know that kind of authority, do
we?
But you see what he is doing?
He is showing us that true authority recognizes
that we are under authority, and we must
express this by humility.
Let's just look at that.
So, what does he do?
He rises from supper, lays aside his garments,
and took a towel and girded himself.
After that, he pours water into a basin.
He's really acting as the household servant, isn't
he?
And he begins to wash the disciples' feet,
and to wipe them with a towel, wherewith
he was girded.
And so, we have the interesting story of
our Lord expressing authority, expressing the fact that
all things are put into his hands, even
the disciples' feet.
He has a marvelous study, hasn't he, our
Lord?
It is so contrary to ourselves.
You run up against something like this, and
you say, oh, the Father's given all things
into his hands.
What does he put into his hands?
A basin of water.
What does he take into his hands?
A towel.
What does he do with his hands?
He washes the disciples' feet.
Now, this subject of feet washing, as you
know, is practiced sometimes in some areas with
some groups of people.
In fact, I was talking with a lady
once, and she used to attend a certain
congregation where they practiced, literally practiced, feet washing,
in keeping, they thought, with John chapter 13.
It seems to me they never really saw
the basic lesson in John 13.
But anyway, they were practicing feet washing.
So, I asked her how they did it,
and when it happened, and how did they
get along with it?
And she said, well, we just did it
once a year, but we did practice the
feet washing in our congregation.
And I said, well, now tell me, how
do you get along with this thing anyway?
How does it work?
Well, she said, I'll tell you.
Ann said to me, now look, you and
I are going to make an agreement.
I don't want, for the life of me,
to have to wash Mary's feet.
And I don't suppose you want to wash
Mary's feet either, so why don't we agree
that we'll wash one another's feet?
And then we won't have to wash Mary's
feet.
See?
So, she said, that's what we did.
When the feet washing time came around, she
said, we just got into a position where
Ann and I, we had each other picked
out, and we knew what we were going
to do.
So, I washed Ann's feet, and Ann washed
my feet, and somebody else had to wash
Mary's feet.
We didn't have anything to do with that
problem at all, so we just let it
go by that way.
That's how we arranged it.
And then she says, one day I thought,
I don't think that's what the Master meant.
No, it wasn't what the Master meant.
This thing that is supposed to be a
lesson in humility had got to the place
where they had wiped away all the humility,
and they were making choice of what they
were going to do by the ritual, which
was contrary to the essence of the example.
Easy to twist these things, isn't it, sometimes,
for our own convenience?
So, somebody else had to look after Mary's
feet.
There was something about Mary's feet that neither
one of the two wanted to have anything
to do with it.
All right, now, the Lord comes to Peter,
and Peter says, thou shalt never wash my
feet.
In verse 7, the Lord said, what I
do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt
know hereafter.
And I think that should be sufficient for
us to realize that this wasn't an example
that was meant to be carried out literally,
physically, because they knew what he was doing
there.
They knew when they put their feet into
his hands.
They knew when he took the water and
washed their feet.
They knew when he dried them with a
towel.
But he says, what I'm doing now, you
don't know.
You don't know what I'm doing now, but
you will understand it later on.
And I think that's sufficient for me, at
any rate, in my simplicity, to realize that
this was never meant to be an actual
physical example.
It was never meant to be a ritual
or a practice physically.
So, he says, what I do thou knowest
not now.
Peter said, you'll never wash my feet.
Jesus answered him, if I wash thee not,
thou'st no part with me.
So, in comes Peter again.
He's always getting himself into a corner, and
then valiantly tries to get out of it.
So, he says, oh well, if that's the
case then, not my feet only, but also
my hands and my head.
Peter was either all in or all out,
wasn't he?
He was either totally submerged or he was
walking on the water, one thing or the
other.
No halfway measures with good Simon.
So, Jesus said to him, explaining this in
verse 10, he that is bathed need not
save just to wash his feet, that's all
he has to do.
But he actually is clean every whit, and
ye are clean, but not all.
And you know, when it says clean every
whit, the first thing you think is, oh,
they were totally clean.
But then when he says, but not all,
then he clarifies this.
He's not thinking about the person, he's thinking
about the individuals, because he has Judas in
his mind.
So, he said, ye are clean, but not
all.
And then he's not referring to the person,
but he's referring to the people that were
there, because he knew who should betray him.
It's good that that clarification was put for
us in verse 11, wasn't it?
Or we would think that it meant something
else.
So, after he'd washed their feet and had
taken his garments and was set down again,
he said unto them, you know what I've
done to you?
Now, here it is.
You call me teacher, and you call me
sovereign.
You call me your teacher, you call me
your lord.
I'm putting these things together.
He says, you say well.
You are correcting what you say.
I am your teacher, and I am your
sovereign lord, and because of that, then I
have given you an example that you should
do as I have done to you.
I am your teacher.
What is he teaching them?
He is teaching them that to be invested
with authority, he must do it, exercise it
all with humility.
That's something we fight all our lives to
learn, because when we get authority, we like
to exercise it the way we think authority
should be exercised.
But the Lord says, no.
The Lord says, no.
You call me your teacher.
I am teaching you.
He had been teaching them all through, particularly
this gospel by John.
As we, the little things we've been noticing,
and I was going over some of them
again this morning.
Dear me, we've only about half started this
subject, but anyway, he said he had been
teaching them, and now he's teaching them by
his own personal example regarding how you use
authority.
How do you use authority?
By serving.
I didn't draw to your attention the other
day when we were considering the temptations in
the wilderness, but it is of interest to
know that when the adversary asked the Lord
to fall down and worship before him, he
didn't actually say to worship him.
He said to worship before him, and by
the way, when you go to Ephesus, you'll
find that in the message to the churches
too, that the time will come when the
Lord would bring those who are their enemies
to worship at their feet, or to worship
before them.
That's the idea of the position, not necessarily
the dedication.
So, the devil says, if you just come
down and worship before me, then I will
do this and this and this.
The Lord answers him, it is written thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him
only shalt thou serve.
And when he repeated it, he put the
two things together.
Worship is service, and service is worship, and
he put them both together.
Now, we separate them.
We think worship is something all distinct by
itself, and service is out there somewhere separated
from the act of worship, but the Lord
didn't say it that way.
The Lord quoted Deuteronomy, making them complementary.
They go together.
They don't have service on one hand, and
worship on the other.
You don't have worship over here isolated.
No.
To worship is to serve, and to serve
is to worship.
And these are complementary.
These belong with each other.
They're not segregated.
They're not separate.
And that's what he did in the Temptations,
and that's what he's showing here.
You call me teacher, and you call me
Lord.
You say, right, for so I am teacher
and Lord.
Then, if I, your teacher, and I, your
sovereign, have washed your feet, then you should
wash one another's feet.
You should attend to the necessities of each
other, and you should do it in an
act of humility.
That's something that's very difficult for us to
learn.
It's contrary to our nature.
It's contrary to our nature to think that
authority is expressed by humility.
We don't put those things together, do we?
Just alas, is we don't put worship and
service into a complementary relationship.
No, we go in to worship, and when
we worship, we do that by our singing,
or by the expression of our praise, or
by our personal meditation.
And then we go out to serve, in
to worship, out to serve.
It sounds very nice, brethren, but you know
it's a dangerous thing to think of, because
our service is worship, and our worship is
service.
And that's what the Lord is saying here.
Now, if you call me master and Lord,
or teacher and Lord, you say, well, for
so I am.
Here's another one of our I am's.
If I, then, your Lord and master, do
you notice how he switched the titles?
You call me master first, and then you
call me Lord.
Well, that's what I am.
But if I, then, your Lord first, and
your teacher second, he switches the titles.
I've washed your feet, ye also ought to
wash one another's feet.
I've given you an example, 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, that's an apostle, greater than
he that sent him.
If ye know these things, happy are ye
if ye do them.
Now, the Lord seems to bring this all
to a climax by saying this, I've not
spoken about you all, because I know whom
I have chosen.
There's a word that you can marvel at.
I know whom I have chosen.
And he's troubled in spirit, and he says,
one of you shall betray me.
He said it at the supper.
He had said it earlier on, and now
he says it again, and he becomes troubled
in spirit.
That's verse 21.
And he says, I know whom I've chosen,
and he chose the one who was to
betray him.
Why?
That the scripture might not be broken.
Our Lord puts himself in subjection to the
inspired scripture of the Old Testament.
How much more should not we?
Right?
Our Lord does not rise above and countermand,
or to revoke, the Old Testament scriptures.
When he says that in connection with the
law, he adds to them.
He goes beyond them, but he doesn't revoke
them.
This is what the law says, but I
say this.
And he hasn't revoked anything, because he said,
heaven and earth shall pass away before one
small portion of the law should fail.
But what he does, he goes beyond this,
and he adds to it that which it
didn't have.
And so, when he's speaking here, he says,
you call me master and Lord, and you
say, well, forso I am.
Now, if I'm your sovereign Lord, and I
am your teacher, this is the teaching I'm
giving you today.
And the teaching he's giving him that day
is a sovereign Lord, girded with a towel,
with a basin of water in his hands,
and the apostles' feet in the basin, as
he washes them and dries them with the
towel.
And yet, he says, as he looks at
them all, he says, I know whom I
have chosen, and one of you shall betray
me.
And he's troubled in spirit.
The sensitivity of the Lord Jesus, looking at
the consequences of what he knew, the man
whom he knew he had chosen, is remarkable.
Because you say, well, in his omniscience, he
chose them.
That's true.
In his omniscience, he chose them.
But look, brethren, that didn't affect his emotional
reaction, his spiritual reaction to the fact that
he that eateth bread with me has lifted
up his heel against me.
I marvel at that, because we harden ourselves
against something.
We steel ourselves so that we don't show
any weakness emotionally in something that we've brought
upon ourselves perchance.
Here's our Lord, and he's chosen the traitor.
And he's chosen the traitor that the scripture
might be fulfilled, he that eateth bread with
me has lifted up his heel against me.
It's the most perfidious thing, the most treacherous
thing that you could conceive in the culture
and customs of the Old East.
To eat bread, and then lift up his
heel against him.
To sit at his table, and then go
out and sell him for thirty pieces of
silver.
There's nothing baser.
There's nothing more crass than that.
There's nothing more infamous or treacherous than that.
That's what he's saying.
I've chosen you, and I know whom I've
chosen.
And he was troubled in spirit because of
the fate of the man whom he had
chosen, and what he was going to do
that the scripture might be fulfilled.
One thing more, and then I close.
Now I tell you before it comes, verse
19, that when it has come to pass
you may believe that I am.
There it is again.
The I am of the absolute knowledge of
what was going to happen, and what was
happening, but the tender reaction of his heart
because of the destiny of the man whom
he had chosen.
Difficult to rise above that, isn't it?
It's difficult for us particularly.
I think we all have it in us
that if someone does us wrong, I was
telling the folks here about my, well, someone
very important to me, has said more than
once that she'd be quite disappointed if Fidel
Castro ever got converted, if he ever was
saved, if he ever got the Lord's blessing,
never mind the Pope.
And she says, I'll be terribly disappointed if
I ever hear that he's converted.
You say, well, just a minute, my dear
sister, don't you understand that you must be
loving and forgiving and embrace the possibility that
all men might be saved?
Yes, but listen, when you've lain in bed
at three o'clock in the morning, and
listen to the firing squads operating just across
the field from where you're lying in bed,
night after night, and know that every time
you hear the volley fired, someone's crumpled to
the ground.
It's difficult.
It's difficult in the limitations that our human
nature carries with it.
To say of the person responsible for that,
I hope he gets converted.
She says, I'll be terribly disappointed if he
does.
I don't think he should ever be in
heaven.
Well, we must not judge one another.
Depends on the circumstances, doesn't it?
And where we are, which is the reason
for why we say something at the time
and in our failure.
But the Lord has no such reality.
The Lord has no such limitation.
The love of God is broader than the
measure of man's mind, and the heart of
the Eternal is most wonderfully kind.
And we can't understand how the Savior, who
knows that the traitor is going that night
to deliver him into the hands of the
enemy, and he's going to go through all
kinds of ignominy and shame and disgrace before
he hangs upon a Roman cross, could be
troubled in spirit because the man that ate
bread with him lifted up his heel against
God.
So we pray.
Our Father, we thank Thee for this one
who rises so magnificently before the vision of
our hearts when we consider the glories of
this glorious Savior and all that He has
been to others and all that He is
to us.
And in our weaknesses and in our frailty
and lack of being able to rise to
the level of the example that He has
given to us, help us nevertheless to glory
in His perfections and to glory in His
grace.
We commend us to Thee this morning, asking
again Thy blessing on our brother Ed and
all those who need Thee particularly in this
way this day, through the Lord Jesus and
in His name.
Amen.