Part with Him (John 13)

… Will you come first, Paul? Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew of his always-coming salvation, he asked of the world, unto the Father, having loved Israel, which were in the world, he loved them, unto the end, and supper being ended, the devil, having ennobled it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, sent the Son to betray. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from the Lord, and went to the Lord, he arises from supper, and there sang his joy, and took a towel, and covered himself. And after that he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disheveled feet, and wiped them with the towel with which he was covered. Then cometh he to Simon Peter, and said, Set up the way. Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do, thou dost not know. But thou shalt know hereafter. Peter 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 feet. Jesus said unto him, He that is washed, or if you like, bathed, needeth not seem to wash his feet, but is clean everywhere. And ye are clean, but not all, for in you all shall be clean. Therefore said he, Ye are not all clean. So after he had washed their feet, and 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 none greater than his lord. Neither is he greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happier ye if ye do them. I have a little bit of a problem to connect the truth that lies in this chapter here with what we have in the second chapter. But I feel that there is a line that runs through it, and I trust that the Lord will make it clear as I go along, the value that this house is teaching here in relationship to eternity. Because I believe that this chapter was meant for you and I to learn its importance as regards to the enjoyment of company with Jesus. I believe that is the basis of the case to the whole of this incident in the Lord's life. If I washed thee not, there was no part with me. Now then, to say a man can enjoy eternal life apart from Christ is nonsense. The enjoyment of eternal life that lies in the truth, the being in full communion and intimacy with the Son of God, and that's where I think the truth, dear brethren, of John 13, lies. But before we touch the feet, brethren, I should like to draw your attention to something of the greatness of our present Savior. But before I do that, it might be as well to just touch one or two points where we've arrived to in this book of John. I won't go beyond chapter 8 of this chapter. I gather you know the various chapters, or you have a little bit of an idea. Now in chapter 8 of John's Gospel, the thing which had to really be met was the Lord of God. Now it was impossible for you and I, beloved brethren, to know liberty from sin and liberty of life before that could be met. And I believe that the Son of God honors the Lord in John 8, but not at the expense of light, by his very manifestation of light. In John 8, there's a clear evidence that he was greater than the Lord. That's the first point I bring that we have in the importance of eternal life. But then, as well as the Lord, there lay under the condemnation. And so, he says, are there any accusers? And this is what the cross of Jesus says, beloved young believers. If there is such a thing as an accuser in the world, God's answer to the accusers is, there is my Son hanging upon the cross. The cross of the Son of God is the answer to every accusation. And so he said to the woman, where are those thine accusers? Not the condemnation, the accusers. Paul raises the question in Romans 8, who shall lay an accusation? She says, no one accuses me. Neither do I. Go and sin no more. Now in chapter 9, we have a different picture. We have a man who has been brought into this world, that the works of God might be displayed. I believe, the light and activity, if you like. This man was not born for sin, nor his parents either. But that the work of God might be manifested, not to him, but that the work of God manifested in him. Now I believe, beloved brethren, that manifestation of the work of God in the blind man was a consequence of the light meeting his dark benighted eyes and illuminating him to such an extent that the very first movement that he made in respect to his responsibility in this world, whether it was amongst his parents, or the Pharisees, or the neighbors, freedom from spiritual responsibility, what really sheltered him and guarded him was the mighty effect of what he had come under. He had been sent to the pool of Sidon and invoked in the light of sight. The light had given him sight. And if it had really exposed the fallacy of the Pharisees' position, it also brought to that dear man the importance of Jesus as Son of God. And this is what the light does with every one of us. If it has a negative effect, if it affects where we are held in bondage, and I gather that the blind man in John 9 sets forth you and I in our blind condition in God's Word. And the moment we come in contact with the Son of God, the light of the world, he dispels the darkness which we are held in, but he also reveals the power of the darkness that held us. That's the main point. We learn not only the darkness that held us, but we learn its terrible power. And we get with that, having received the light, we get that which is sufficient in itself. As John says in his epistle, If that about which you have received from the beginning abideth in you, ye shall continue in the Father and the Son. And so this blind man, he walked in the light. He had fellowship with the Son of God, though not in person at that moment, but he was in fellowship. In this respect, he knew that Jesus was more than a sinner. He wasn't a sinner. He couldn't be a sinner. He had learned the value of purity. In chapter 11, 10, we come to really meet the entrance of the door, you might say. If light has been diffused, both in a negative and a positive way in 8 and 10, now then, he says, we're brought to the light. The sheep hear his voice. They won't follow the darkness. They won't follow the agents of the darkness. They don't know the voice. They've heard the voice, the light of the world. They've come under his influence, and they won't go after strangers. They won't listen to them at all. What's the consequence? The sheep follow me. But who is the main meat and turn of life? The Son of God. They follow me. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Now to chapter 11. I come to chapter 11, and then the other thing he dealt with. If he dealt with the law in chapter 6, and he dealt with darkness in chapter 9, in chapter 11, beloved brethren, and hallowed him, he deals with death. He deals with death. This has happened, he says. He says, not, he says, for the simple reason that not as they, he says, this has happened for the glory of God and brethren. The glory of God was this, that God was more than a mask for death. God was the one who was going to destroy the cloud of death and destroy him who had the power. But that was only the negative side. He was going to bring in what he brought into Lazarus. He brought in eternal life. And he brought them all to the power of death. It held them in. And the grave clothes held them in abundance. He says, crucify them in death and go. I believe John's epistle does that. He crucifies you and lets you go. And you find that the man judges you. The apostle, Lazarus, he finds himself in the light. What light? The companionship of the eternal light, the Son of God. He sits down and suffers in chapter 12. No, but just for a moment in chapter 13. You find that we're stuck. We're stuck under death. We're stuck under the law. We're stuck under darkness. And now then, you know, he says, that you might have fellowship with us. We have brothers that were with the master in chapter 13. That you might have fellowship with us beyond death forever. And now then, we see what it takes to have fellowship with the apostles, the important factors in that blessed fellowship. And it's the Son of God himself. He's indispensable to every one of us. And now then, look at the beginning of this beautiful chapter. I'll have you on. I was just touched. I've been long in the interludes. Now then, in this first verse, now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that he's almost coming, that he's almost coming, he'll be carnal for the world, under the harbour, having loved his own world, he loved them unto the end. So this is the key point. What was going to happen was going to be anticipated if I'm leaving this world. He's almost coming. He's almost coming when the world will see him no more. And when he was going to leave then, in which you learn in chapter 14, the heart will be troubled. Before that takes place, he says, I must do a work that will give them the consciousness of my feelings, where I'm going to, the intimacy that will be theirs in that new position. He says, I've demonstrated in the way I act towards them, bless his precious name, to know them in verse 2. Suffer the anger. The devil hath now put it into the heart of Judas Gareth, saying, set the brake. And Jesus, knowing that the Father hath given all things into his hand, and that he comes from God, and went to God, he rises from suffering. O beloved brethren, can't you see really the importance of these two things? What the Son of God hath, and what the Father hath given him, and what the grace he hath given him. These three things are dealt in John 17. But what I want to press today, that if God in his infinite love develops in me the sentiments and the feelings of the Son of God, it will humble me. It will make in me a man full of compassion, a full of kindness, and a full of love. He knew this. And he knew that. And instead of rising and speaking at the beginning of these, Lord and Master, never a word about being Lord and Master. He was that. But he does not in that fashion. He answers us, O we mother brethren, is the enjoyment of eternal life, is the development and the revelation of God's word, making a sheet of pressure to your heart, is it be more than you, out of your sight altogether, like this dear man saw at Tarsus, he started, he was getting littler, and littler, and littler, the work of development of eternal life and its enjoyment. So now when he rises from supper, he must head into the garden to pray his Father, if it be possible, the cup might be passed from him. And with that weight upon his mind, and with the terrible consequences that involve, he finds time to give a little bit of sympathy, a little bit of love, for those who are going to have the heart's trouble, when he was going to speak further down here, O beloved brethren, he rises from supper, and he goes on supper. He's got to do a work on Epiphany. He's got to remove from her. That was what gathered in the world. And it took an energy, it took love. He was pure, he was holy, but that which was on her feet wasn't a call to himself. They had gathered it. It wasn't a call to his mind. He wanted to be perfectly in the light, in all suitability, both not only in position, and not only in constitution, but also in practice, and in feeling. And this is what I'm giving you, O beloved brethren, if I come under the influence of the love of Christ, in dealing with my failures, in dealing with my sins, when I gather in this world, he'll deal with me in a sympathetic way. And he'll always give me the feeling that he knows exactly what I'm passing through. I needn't tell you about the symphony of the high priest, Henry Hebrews. It's not here I gather. But he's the advocate here. The one who really gives us to realize that he's got us by his heart, that it's sort of a blessing that he wants to go up there. But he doesn't want to go up there and you and I to feel it at a distance from himself. He wants us to feel here the nearness of the position up there. That's what he wanted. That's what part means here. It didn't mean part with him down here. He was leaving here. He told them that. It was part with him up there, if you like, the heavenly calling. And so now then, here it is, the sight is gone. I gather, beloved brethren, the layman's sight is gone and he didn't want to impress him with the greatness of who he was. Oh, there are brethren who don't need to know. They might give a little thing away. But they don't in the position to hold. And it doesn't humble the man, really. It makes a man feel ashamed of himself. But this man, he's laid aside his garments. Bless his precious name. And here he is, in all the humility, in all the humbleness of love. And what's he going to do? He's going to get him to feel how he feels for the heart. This is love. Brethren, this is love. Love and expression. And dealing with a heart which is going to be troubled while he was going to lie in the grave for three days. And so he lays aside his garments. Bless his precious name. And then heaven laid aside and got his garments. What's his next thing? In the end of verse four, he girded himself. Oh, how do you go about the Lord's work, beloved brethren? How do you go about it? Is it half-hearted? Would you rather not be too old than make them go to it? That's not girding yourself. He girded himself. He wasn't going to have anything hinder him. He wasn't going to have anything to tell the Lord. He was going to be thoughtfully wrapped up in what he was going to be engaged in. May the Lord give you in the high arts energetic hearts and the energy of faith to represent the Lord, my Lord and Master, with girded garments. He girded himself. And then after having girded himself there in the verse four, in the verse five, he poured the water into a basin. No people get the water. No junk get the water. He poured the water into a basin. This is the blessings of the Lord and beloved brethren. He's got everything. He could have given us instructions. He could have told us to do this and do that. He does everything himself. Oh, beloved brethren, have you seen the brother who's faltering? Who's losing heart? He could have somebody else wearing ungirded garments and get the water and get the towel yourself and use it. He gave you the full support. You only get half the support if you only get the water and not the towel. He got the water and the towel and he girded himself and there, bless his precious name, he was going to make them feel. Oh, he's going to make them feel he's interested in their welfare. It's a walk down here. He's not concerned about their eternal position. That was a certain matter between him and his father. He's concerned about the position down here, the walk in the world. And there's no one who's concerned about you, young man or young woman. There is not a person in this universe concerned like the Son of God with regards to your welfare. And the beauty about it is he wants you to know it. He wants you to know it. And in the getting of the know, there's nothing better, nothing sweeter. Do you think that these dear men would ever forget the sins of them just prior to his death? On the eve of his death, would you think, would they? Peter said to John, do you remember the night? John, do you remember the night when he took the boat? We never thought he was going to take the cross. We never thought he was going to die. He took the towel, and he took the water, and he washed my feet. And we didn't know, we didn't know the deep significance of this beautiful life. We never thought for one moment he's going to leave for the next moment. But what a blessing it was. Hasn't it left an effect upon our hearts? Hasn't it made your life dignified, endless, and not a shame? Hasn't it made you feel how beautiful it is to our heart? And brethren, the more he washes your feet, the more dearly he'll be come to you. Oh, the beauty of that blessed man. And so, down in verses, where am I told? Verse 5, he poured out the water from the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was going. And there he comes to sign Peter. There's always, you know, there's always some of us who take exception to the general rule of faith. We want something out of the ordinary. We want to be someone different to somebody else. So Peter thought, well, he would take an exception. He thought it was a disgrace, I suppose, for the Savior to do such a menial act. He thought probably it was a serious matter. And so he says to the Lord, Peter, he says, Peter, he says to Peter, I said, Lord, just now wash my feet. The feet, he says, my feet, he says, it was in the boat with stinking fish. Since a fisherman's feet, the Lord of Glory would never wash my feet. I wouldn't allow him to wash my feet. Oh, what grace he was missing, wasn't he? Wasn't it wonderful grace Peter was missing here? No one should never wash my feet. Oh, what a tragedy it is if you've never had your feet washed by Jesus. Have you had your feet washed by the Son of God? Have you known what it takes for him to restore you as the psalmist says in Psalm 23? He restored my soul. Oh, we love it, brethren. Have you felt it? When you made a little slip and you gathered up a little bit and you did like the Lord to have a little thing and you knew about it and you occurred the way you knew about it. Oh, wasn't it nice? Wasn't it nice? When there have you come and drawn the end of yourself, you got on your knees and he drew the end of you and he removed the sin and he gave you the feeling of the way he felt about the living. Oh, what a serious thing to do. Isn't it a normal thing? Well, the Lord said to Peter, all of a sudden you appreciate you know, the gold, the holiness the purity and so the washing of the feet here was developing under one hand a decided taste for the purity of the light of God but with it a decided hatred and this isn't development of holiness and a decided hatred of evil. So he said to Peter now verse 7 Jesus answered and said what I do thou knows not but thou shalt never wash my feet Jesus answered my worsening mouth thou hast no part with me that's the secret now that was all it was for the Lord says I'm washing your feet for you to have intimacy and relationship with me in a new order a new place it's quite obvious in chapter 12 he had said there was no part with him he had made that perfectly clear the corner of it was alone it didn't matter who the man was he had made it possible that you'd be able to have part with me in the new place and he says if I don't wash your feet he said you won't have a part you'll be afraid he said you wouldn't want to be with me but he says and you get the feelings in my heart as regards to your true interest that lie in my heart your true position is my welfare and he said I want to convey to you by this simple I want you to feel at home in my presence but he says if I don't do it you'll never want to be in my presence you'll never feel at home in it and you won't have it and so Peter he got a grip he got his eyes open oh he says if washing your feet gives us part with him why I'll probably get heaven he says he washes my whole body he says not my feet he says wash my whole body give us a good foot to do it and he got to be born again once he got to be born again twice this is what the Lord means here he that is made he that is born again he's a new man in Christ a new creature he's got to get the things passed and done with now then he says he doesn't need he says to be washed save his feet and so this is the seed of healing of new birth brother now in the verse let me say Jesus said but he that is washed will attain he that does not say that he washes his feet but is clean every week and he was clean and then he says he referred to judas but not all didn't mean part of Peter wasn't clean didn't mean at all and he says it's your feet he says they take it away i've been and he summoned the Lord in the manner which is worthy of faith he says i wanted to represent me in the Lord's manner and he says you don't need to be washed over again you're clean every week now i've chosen properly because we'll have one more thought verse 12 so after he had washed their feet and taken his garments and was set down here he said to them know ye what i have done to you ye call me master and lord and ye say help me and everything necessary you require to wash your brother's feet know then he says i've set you an example know then there's another thing i touched before i closed he says you won't he says you will drown out your worries but he says you know hereafter and i think they learnt in a manner which was serious what the lord had said in john 17 they are not of the world even as i am not of the world it's one thing for the lord to say about you and i but then it's another thing for the child of god to turn around and say it's worthy true lord and i and the love of the holy god may god bless his people …