Two Additional Gleanings from the Passage

Introduction: Returning to John 13 for 'Gleanings'

0:03 If you did not know it until this morning, you now know that there is a prophet in our midst.

0:11 When Pastor Barker was leading the prayer meeting on Wednesday, he prophesied that we had not seen the last of John 13, 1 to 17. And I nodded in disagreement, seeking to prove him a false prophet. But we do turn again this morning to John chapter 13. John chapter 13, I read in your hearing as we have done for the past two Lord's Day mornings, verses 1 through 17.

0:46 Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own that were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And during supper, the devil, having already put it into the heart of Jesus, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he came forth from God and goes unto God, rises from supper and lays aside his garments. And he took a towel and girded himself.

1:28 Then he pours water into the basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he washed. He was girded. So he comes to Simon Peter, and he said unto him, Lord, do you wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do you do not know now, but you shall understand hereafter.

1:56 Peter saith unto him, You shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I do not wash you, you have no part with me. Simon Peter said, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said to him, He that is bathed needs not save to wash his feet, but is completely clean.

2:22 And you are clean, but not all. For he knew him that should betray him. Therefore he said, You are not all clean. So when he had washed their feet and taken his garments, and sat down again, he said unto them, Do you know what I have done to you?

2:45 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say, Well, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say unto you, A servant is not greater than his Lord, neither one that is sent greater than he that sent them.

3:17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. The past two Lord's Day mornings have found us considering together this account of Jesus washing the disciples' feet in the upper room on the eve of Gethsemane and Golgotha. And in an effort to focus, your attention on the central truths of this incident, as recorded in John 13, 1-17, I expounded verses 1-11 under the title, Jesus, the Savior of the Towel and the Basin.

4:02 And with our attention primarily riveted upon verse 8 as the key to this opening section, where Jesus said, If I do not wash, wash you, you have no part with me, it is clear that what our Lord was doing pointed far beyond a mere social expedient, that our Lord was very conscious on the eve of His crucifixion that He desired to give a kind of acted-out parable of the very way in which He would secure the redemption of His people. It was only as the Lord of glory

4:43 lays aside all of the trappings and accoutrements of pre-incarnate glory, takes upon Himself true humanity, and in that humanity humbles Himself unto death, even the death of the cross, in this way alone, would redemption be procured for His people, and no one can enter in to the glorious personal possession of that redemption, who is unwilling, for Jesus to be a Savior with a towel and a basin. There is a very flesh-withering, pride-destroying element of saving faith in which we must acknowledge

5:28 that only in the self-emptying, only in the servitude of Jesus can we find forgiveness and cleansing from our sins. And then last Lord's Day, in the second act, exposition, I sought to focus your attention on the secondary lesson of this act of foot-washing under the title The Disciples of Jesus, A Society of the Towel and of the Basin. And here the key verses are verses 14 and 15. If I then the Lord and the Teacher have washed your feet, you ought also to wash one another's feet,

6:10 for I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. And here our Lord establishes that one of the fruits of His redemptive grace, one of the fruits of that work that He does uniquely, He alone can do, procuring redemption by the laying down of His life, securing the cleansing from sin of those on whose behalf He dies, that when that redemption is embraced by His grace, His true disciples, they become a society of the towel and the basin. And following the pattern of their Lord, they become foot-washers one to another.

6:55 That is, they are willing, they find delight in stooping to the meanest offices of love for the real good and benefit of one another. Those are the quaint words of Matthew Henry. And so the very disposition, that moves the Lord Jesus to secure the redemption of His people by the operation of the Holy Spirit upon their hearts, becomes the disposition that they have in their relationships one to another. And because I was determined in the opening up of the passage to focus upon those two central lessons of the passage, the primary and the secondary,

7:40 the sight of Jesus, the Savior with the towel and the basin, the disciples of Jesus, a society of the towel and the basin, I had to exercise what I called, in trying to teach men to preach, the discipline of exclusion. There were many things in the passage, in the course of studying it, pondering it, and further this week, and going back and reading a number of commentaries on the passage, I had to deliberately pass over because in addressing it, addressing them, they would have diverted our minds from the central issues in the passage, and I was determined to do all within my power that whenever you looked at this passage, you would understand,

8:24 here are the two great central issues. The Jesus who saves is the Jesus of the towel and the basin, and all who are saved are part of the society of the towel and the basin. And I hope you can never read this, ever read this passage till you go to heaven, without thinking of those realities, because those are the central issues. However, the scriptures tell us that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction or training in righteousness.

9:05 And there are many marvelous principles and illustrations of doctrine in this passage, so that God willing, both this morning and this evening, we're going to go back to this field of John 13, 1 to 17, for what I am calling gleanings from the incident of the towel and the basin. Now you know what gleaning was in the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy chapter 24, and in two passages in Leviticus, God mandated to the Israelites that when they would harvest their crops, and they might forget a sheaf of grain, they were not to go back and get it. When they harvested their crops, they were not to go out to the very last inch of all of their boundaries.

9:50 They would leave corners in the field, and they were not to go back and reap those corners. When they shook their olive trees, and when they picked their grape vines, after the initial picking, they were not to go back and find every single grape and shake out every single olive. They were to leave those things as gleaning, as gleanings for the poor and for the stranger and the sojourner that might come through the field. So the gleanings are that which is left over after the major reaping.

10:21 Well, we've done the major reaping of the central issues of this passage. Now we go back to the field for gleanings from this passage, or if you want to drop that imagery, some additional observations and applications of the foot-washing narrative. So you with more mathematically inclined minds who don't like imagery, who don't think in images, you take the second title. These are additional, see, the language of mathematics, additional observations.

10:51 That's more pure light, not imagination. Additional observations and applications of the foot-washing narrative for those of us with a little more poetic streak. These are gleanings from John 13, 1 to 17. Now if you've not heard this, the two expositions, may I commend them to you.

11:12 You will find them on cassette tape and now, thankfully, on CDs, and they are in our church library. You can loan them, or you may purchase them from the Trinity Book Service, and it would be a shame if all you thought about are the gleanings. I trust if you were not here for the expositions, you'll obtain them, listen to them, and by God's help absorb them, assimilate them, and by God's grace, God's help again, respond to them in faith and obedience. But not knowing exactly how we'll make our way through these things, I purpose to cover four of those gleanings this morning, and then three this evening.

11:53 The four this morning are a bit on the heavy side of the instructive and the searching and the warning. Tonight's gleanings are in the consolatory, comforting, encouraging. There'll be more vinegar this morning, more honey tonight. But remember, all Scripture is profitable for both convicting as well as instructing in righteousness.

Gleaning 1: The Distinction Between Initial and Progressive Cleansing

12:21 So I'm not embarrassed at all, and trust that God will bless us as we go back into this field and look at the gleanings that await us. And the first one is this. The foot washing incident contains a striking explanation of the distinction between the initial and the progressive cleansing from sin based upon the sacrifice of Christ. Let me give it to you again.

12:51 The foot washing incident contains a striking explanation of the distinction, and I should add, and the inseparable relationship between the initial and the progressive cleansing from sin based upon the sacrifice of Jesus. As we saw in our exposition of verses 1 to 11, the primary lesson of the foot washing is that Jesus himself must wash us from our sins or we are none of his. Verse 8b.

13:33 If I do not wash you, you have no sin. You have no part with me. Words could not be clearer, plainer, more blunt, straightforward. If I do not wash you, you have no part with me.

13:53 Jesus is telling us that he himself must wash us from our sins or we are not his people. And furthermore, by taking the place of a servant with the towel and the basin, Jesus is demonstrating that the way he washes us is by his own humiliation leading to the abandonment and the suffering of his cross. That's why he could say, what I'm doing now you do not, you cannot understand, you will understand hereafter. As yet they were utterly blinded to any notion of a Messiah

14:38 who comes to his messianic rights by means of rejection, of suffering and of death, much less the death of the cross. They are utterly stupid and blind and dull and unresponsive to any such idea. And the Lord is conscious of that. And so he says, you will not understand the real significance of what I'm doing now.

15:02 But after my death and my resurrection and the descent of the Holy Spirit, then you will understand and you will see that in what I have done, I have acted out in this open, visible parable the very essence of redemptive grace through my sufferings and death. And in the words of verse 10, we are given, I'm sorry, but in the midst of this central issue, we have the record of Peter's impulsive words and Jesus' response. I remind you of them. Verse 9.

15:35 Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said to him, he that is bathed needs not save to wash his feet, but is completely or wholly clean. And you are clean, but not all. Now in the words of verse 10, we are given this striking explanation, both of the distinction and the inseparable relationship between the initial, and the progressive cleansing from sin based upon the sacrifice of Jesus.

16:13 The truth of verse 8 is in no way compromised by the subsequent words. Jesus said, if I do not wash you, you have no part with me. Jesus washes. Jesus washes in the virtue of his own precious blood.

16:29 But then he goes on in response to Peter's objection and then Peter's flip-flopping to the other extreme. You're never going to wash my feet. And now he says, you're going to wash not only my feet, my head, my hands, anything else that you can wash, Lord. Jesus uses this occasion to set forth in the most explicit way this distinction and inseparable relationship between initial and ongoing or progressive cleansing from sin.

17:03 Both of which Jesus effects, both of which are rooted in his sacrifice on behalf of sinners, but there is a distinction as well as an inseparable relationship. And Jesus speaks of it in language that those sitting there would have understood. He says, one who has had a tub bath needs only a sponge bath of his feet and he's completely clean. Get the imagery with me.

17:34 Here is a man in first century Palestine. He's been out in his field all day. And as you know from other portions of the word of God, even from this portion, when a man was preparing himself for manual labor, he ordinarily did not leave on his long outer robe. He would take it off and would be stripped down to something that looks like loose-fitting knickers or something similar to that.

18:01 And he would be in his field working. And under the hot Palestinian sun as he swept and the dust was stirred up as he worked in his field, cultivated whatever he was doing, dust would stick to his flesh and so in the folds of his flesh in the back of his neck there'd be little furrows of accumulated dirt mingled with the sweat. His hair would be caked with the dust that had clung to the sweat that had worked its way out upon his head. He would have dirt up his nostrils like we get when we do yard work on a hot day.

18:36 You get it up your nostrils. It isn't very pleasant, but you do and so would they. So he was dirty. And he comes in from his field as the sun begins to make its way down in the western horizon.

18:48 And what does he do? He goes to the place where he can take a complete bath from head to foot. And he gets in his situation of his bath, whatever it was in that cultural setting, and from head to toe. It's like the old Saturday night baths we used to have.

19:04 You guys don't know what life is all about. To be in a large family, one draw of bath water, and you fought for who could be first because you didn't change the water. It was one draw of bath water. One after another, you'd go in and take your bath.

19:20 All right? So he has his bath from head to foot. And he gets all the stuff out of his nostrils and out of his ears and out of the creases in the back of his neck. And I mean he is bathed, bathed.

19:31 He's clean. From head to foot, he's clean. And he goes and he puts on his Sunday go to meet and best inner garment, outer garment, because he's going out to eat tonight. It's going to be not a banquet.

19:44 It's going to be a special meal with some of his special friends. So he gets himself all ready, takes his wife, and they walk hand in hand for a half a mile down a dusty, dirty road. And he arrives at his friend's house. And as soon as he's welcomed in, what does he do?

19:59 He looks down and he sees that his feet are now dirty. He'd had a real good bath. His feet were as clean as the bottoms of a baby's foot in a bassinet when he left home. But now they're dirty.

20:11 And what does he do? Does he say to his host, look, look, look, I've got dirty feet. Can you show me to the place where I can take a complete bath? The men would say, well, that's ridiculous.

20:21 You obviously have had your complete bath. All you need is to have your feet washed. And so he gets the basin and he says, and he provides for him, or his servant provides for him, the means whereby to have his feet washed. And then he again can look himself in the mirror and say, I am clean completely.

20:43 Now that's exactly what Jesus is saying here. He that has had a tub bath from head to toe and yet has accumulated some dirt in his journey only needs to have the sponge bath of his feet, and he is completely clean. He uses the occasion of Peter's unbridled, sincere enthusiasm to teach this vital lesson of Christian experience. The lesson is, he who has had his tub bath

21:24 needs only his sponge bath and he is completely clean. What is our Lord teaching here? He is teaching what is taught throughout the rest of Scripture, taught with great precision in the epistles, that there is an initial cleansing from sin which is graciously given the moment the vilest sinner lays hold of Christ in repentance and faith, and that cleansing need never be repeated. That he is bathed from head to foot,

22:08 never need he bathe again. That's what our Lord is teaching, that there is a once for all bath in the labor of his own precious blood that constitutes us clean men and women, clean boys and girls. Let's look at a couple of passages that clearly teach this. That's why I say it contains a striking explanation of this very blessed reality.

22:43 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Now remember, these Corinthians were never, never going to make it into the circle of what we would call the most advanced, the most holy, the most sanctified, the most mature believers. Paul has been addressing all kinds of problems in the opening chapters. He's addressing serious problems in this very chapter from which we quote.

23:11 But notice what he says of these Corinthians in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 11. Having named some of the grosser forms of sin that characterize their pre-Christian life, he says, such were some of you. You were, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. What is he saying?

23:45 He is saying when in response to the revelation of God's mercy and the promise of His grace in the person and work of Jesus Christ, that's what the name of our Lord Jesus Christ is. It's the revelation of God's mercy and gospel privilege in the person and work of Christ, attended by the operation of the Holy Spirit of the Holy Spirit. What happened to these Corinthians? They were washed.

24:14 They experienced the head in the virtue of the blood of Christ and by the power of the Spirit of Christ operating in their hearts. They were washed. You mean this Corinthian bunch had a right to view themselves as washed ones? Precisely.

24:39 With all of the dirt that was yet on their feet, of divisiveness, of pride, of skewed thinking about gifts and how they should function with their lack of love, they had mess and dirt and dew on their feet. Paul says you're washed. They were washed and their washing was as definitive as non-repeatable as their justification and as their initial definitive statement. The sanctification by which they were set apart from the dominion of sin and the world unto God,

25:23 these are non-repeatable provisions of grace. You were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

25:37 Acts chapter 15. Just going to look at a few passages that underscore this blessed distinction and inseparable relationship between initial and progressive cleansing. Here in Acts chapter 15, you'll remember there is a discussion about the whole question that is taken up in the book of Galatians. Do we need something more than Christ to be saved?

26:03 And so various ones are speaking and Peter is declaring what God did when he preached to Gentiles and how God was pleased to save them without taking them off to the local rabbi and having them circumcised and giving them a booklet of kosher meats and drinks, etc. So we read about that in Acts chapter 15 beginning at verse 7. And when there had been much questioning, Peter rose up and said unto them, Brethren, you know that a good while ago God made choice among you that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So they hear and they come to faith while Peter is preaching.

26:47 Remember Acts 10. And God who knows the heart bore them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit even as he did unto us. And he made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. These Gentile dogs had their hearts cleansed when they came to faith.

27:16 This was that initial non-repeatable cleansing in conjunction with coming to faith. Look at Titus 3 and verse 5 described again in somewhat different language but it's the same reality. Titus chapter 3 and verse 5. Not by works done in righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy he saved us.

27:44 Through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior that being justified by his grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. In conjunction with justification made heirs, joint heirs with Christ, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, overtones of adoption. In conjunction with their justification and their adoption they experienced the washing of regeneration. When they were regenerated,

28:28 when they were brought to new life there was an initial definitive head to toe unrepeatable washing by God's grace. There's a beautiful picture of this in the book of Zechariah. Now those of you know that's where I've been in the Old Testament devotions. You've got a little devotional in prayer meeting from Zechariah.

28:51 Now you're going to get an illustration. There are some lovely things tucked away in some of these minor prophets with so much that is difficult to understand. Turn to Zechariah if you will, please. Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.

29:06 Second last book in the Old Testament. We read this unusual vision. Chapter 3. And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and standing at his right hand to be his adversary.

29:24 Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary. So here's Joshua the high priest. Satan the adversary standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke you, O Satan.

29:38 Yea, the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and was standing before the angel. And he answered and spoke unto those that stood before him, saying, Take the filthy garments from off him.

30:00 And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with rich apparel. And I said, Let them set a clean mitre or turban upon his head, upon his head. So they set a clean mitre on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by.

30:24 What a beautiful picture of what God in grace does to every penitent believing sinner standing in the presence of God filthy. And God removes the filthy garments. God clothes us with rich apparel. Sets a white turban upon our head and says, He is clean.

30:51 He that is bathed needs not save but to wash his feet. And he is totally, completely clean. That's why Jesus could say, coming back now to John 13, Here Peter has just blurted out things that were an evidence of his ignorance. His, in a sense, his insubordination.

31:17 The Lord comes to wash his feet and he says, No Lord, I'll be the Lord. I'm going to call the shots. You talk about dirty feet. He had some dirty feet here.

31:25 Dirty feet with his ignorance and with his carnal blurting out hands and feet and you won't do this and you shall do this and all the rest. But what does Jesus say of him and of the others? Of the whole eleven? He says, You are clean.

31:41 Well they weren't clean. Ah, but they were clean. They had dirty feet right there. They had dirty feet spiritually.

31:49 And there's going to be more evidence of their dirty feet. In a short while this very Peter is going to take oaths and say, I don't know the man. All the others are going to be a bunch of cowards and flee. Leave their Lord.

32:03 Others will not watch with him in the garden of Gethsemane, disappointing him. Their feet will be smirched and dirty and foul. But Jesus says, You are clean. You are clean.

32:15 You are clean. And the only one who wasn't clean was Judas. But not all. And then John gives his editorial comment in verse 11, For he knew him that should betray him.

32:27 Therefore he said, You are not all clean. But apart from Judas, they were all clean. Why? They had had the once for all, non-repeatable bath that comes to every believing sinner.

32:39 And though Christ did not yet die because they were attached to him in faith and love, the virtue of that death of him who is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world that made Abraham clean and Joseph clean and Isaiah and the prophets clean, these were clean in the virtue of the blood that he was about to shed on their behalf, applied to them in the mind and heart of God on the basis of him who is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. But now there is a progressive cleansing from sin that is given as we continually go to Christ to be continually washed by Christ.

Scriptural Support for Progressive Cleansing

33:23 Remember, he is the washer. If I do not wash you, you have no part with me. And he who gives the initial head-to-toe bath is the one who continues to grant us the daily cleansing of our soil sheet. 1 John 1, verses 7-9 Here is the continuous cleansing that is repeated times without number.

33:50 1 John 1, verses 7-9 If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son continually cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, if we say, Oh, I have the bath from head to toe, my feet never get soiled. If we say we have no sin that needs the continuous cleansing of the blood of Jesus, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But the one living in the light of truth is then the one who does acknowledge his dirty feet.

34:35 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There is the continuous cleansing from sin. 2 Corinthians 7, verse 1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves of all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. He had already said to the Corinthians in his first letter, You are washed!

35:07 Now he says, You need continuous washing. Cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit. And so our Lord, in this very intimate upper room setting, sets before us this striking explanation of both the distinction and the inseparable relationship between the initial and the progressive cleansing from sin based upon the virtue of his own precious blood. Now, I want to underscore the importance of our understanding this distinction.

The Importance of Understanding This Distinction

35:45 And understanding the inseparable relationship. These distinctions and relationships are not the stuff given in the Bible so that theologians can write books. They are there because they are vital to the interest of the souls of the people of God. And it is crucial that where our Lord makes these distinctions, we grasp them and live in the light of them.

36:15 Now let me describe the explanation and experience of the child of God to try to persuade you of this fact. Under conviction of sin, before we are brought to repentance in faith, we see our sin as making us guilty in the court of heaven. We see our sin as criminal, wrath-provoking, hell-deserving reality. We have legal culpability before the judge of the universe.

36:44 And the great concern of our hearts is how can this holy God, who is a righteous judge, who knows my every sin and has said that the wages of sin is death, how can this God do anything other than banish me to hell as a guilty sinner? But further, we see our sin as making us defiled and polluted in the presence of this holy God and therefore not only legally barring us from heaven, but morally unfitting us for the purity of heaven. We see our sin

37:27 to be vile, detestable, noxious filth that makes us unfit for heaven. So here we are barred legally from heaven, barred experientially. In the language of my little track, we've got a bad record and we've got a bad heart. We've forfeited a title to heaven and we have no fitness for heaven.

37:49 Do you know that reality? Or am I just talking words? That's what God shows us about it. That's the reality of who and what we are as sinners.

38:02 Then into that context comes the gospel. Thou shalt call His name Jesus. He shall save His people from their sins. And we hear how that in Jesus and that perfect life that He lived and that death that He died under the curse of God.

38:21 God can be just and the justifier of the one who gets into Jesus. And that in Jesus we can have a righteous title to heaven. That's the gospel. But what about this fitness stuff?

38:37 My sin has made me vile, odious, polluted. I have the stench of wretched spiritual body overcoat coming out of every pore. God says, I'm going to take care of that as well. I'll cleanse you in the blood of my Son.

38:58 I will by the virtue of His blood and by the Spirit, I will cleanse you from your sin. I will wash you. I will make you clean. I will make you fit for heaven.

39:13 And so we embrace the Lord Jesus and though we may not conceptually have all these things outlined for us, if you're a true child of God, I'll say yes, I lay hold of Jesus not only as my picket to heaven, but as the one who would deal with the rottenness that I am as well as the guilt of what I've done. And if you haven't come to Jesus to have the rottenness of what you are dealt with, it's very doubtful you're a Christian. If all you want from Jesus is a title to heaven and no concern of your fitness for heaven, you've got a heaven of your own making. And the child of God,

39:54 God, wrought upon by the Spirit, laying hold of Christ, in the wonder, my sins are all pardoned, I'm cleansed, I'm washed. And long before he discovers whatever God did in that justifying grace, and in that initial cleansing, it didn't so fix him up that he still can't sin. And he finds to his grief, I still think jealous thoughts. I still think unclean thoughts.

40:24 I can still speak nasty, biting, cutting words. I can still be selfish and self-centered and insensitive to others. What do I do with this reality of the dirt that I cannot deny is upon my feet? Well, you see, at this point, if you don't understand the distinction between the initial, once for all, non-repeatable cleansing and the ongoing cleansing, you're going to be crippled.

40:55 As a Christian, you need to be able to come to God through Christ and say, oh God, I've been washed. I'm clean. Yes, I'm clean. I have been washed. And Lord, in the virtue of that washing,

41:16 I come to you in Jesus' name. Lord, look at my dirty feet. I was shaved of my dirty feet. They're my feet, and it's my dirt.

41:28 But Lord, you've said he that is bathed completely needs not save to wash his feet. Lord Jesus, you're the savior of the towel and the basin. Wash me of that filthy thought. Wash me of the sin of those cutting words. Wash me of the sin of those selfish responses to my husband or my wife.

41:57 Wash me of my insensitivity to that need in my child. Wash me, Lord, as a Christian boy or girl of my snottiness to mom and dad and my meanness to my brother and sister. But you see, you know what you're coming for. You know there's a difference between coming to God through Christ for a bath or a foot wash. And the Lord Jesus

42:21 wants you to know the difference. And if you don't know the difference, you're going to keep coming under guilt and under bondage. And under uncertainty. And you say, I can't deny that the sins are yet there. How can I be washed

42:38 and act like this? Well, you could ask the question here. How could Peter and James and John and Andrew be washed and act like they did? But Jesus said they're clean. Some of you are sitting there with

42:53 a wrinkled brow saying, what's Pastor Dryden? I'm just trying to help you see what Jesus is trying to teach us. We've got to grasp the distinction between the ones for all and the bad and the ongoing, continuous cleansing. If we don't understand that distinction, grasp and live in the light of it, we will be guilt-ridden, unstable, and not be able to make progress in the Christian life. However, if we do not grasp and live in the light of the inseparable relationship

The Inseparable Relationship and Proper Order of Cleansing

43:31 between the initial and the conditional, we will not be able to make progress in the Christian life. Continual cleansing. We will be self-deceived. You see, anyone who's been bathed from head to foot has demonstrated, I don't like dirt. I don't like dirt. From here to here, I don't like.

43:59 You came to Christ to be washed. If you don't like dirt, you don't like it when you see it on your feet. So that none who have been bathed are indifferent to their footwork. If I do not wash you initially and continually, you have no part with me. Though these are distinct,

44:24 they are inseparable. They are inseparable. And the evidence that I am washed once for all in that bath that needs no repeating is that I'm dead serious about my foot washing day by day. They're inseparable. Separate.

44:46 But inseparable. And there's a significance in the order. The problem with some of you, you're trying to get the dirt off your feet, and you've never been bathed from head to foot yet. You're trying to deal with this sin and that sin and the other sin, and you've never gone to Jesus saying, Lord, wash me from head to toe. I believe there's some of you sitting here now, today,

45:15 this is your problem. You've got the foot washing and the tub bath reversed. And you think, when you get the feet washed enough from this, that, and this, the other sin, you can work your way up and eventually get yourself clean to the top. No, no. They've got to be in that order.

45:32 He that has had a tub bath needs not save to wash his feet, and he is completely clean. Tub bath first, sponge bath second. There's an order as well as an inseparability.

45:49 Now, as you sit here this morning, has God helped me to make this plain enough that you at least begin to see and grasp? The distinction. Has the Spirit of God helped you to see it from the scriptures? Jesus was not playing games. He was setting forth the great reality that would grow out of

46:10 all that he was about to accomplish in the next hours when he laid down his life on behalf of his people. Well, that's gleaning number one. I'm not going to get to four this morning. Don't worry, you won't be here until quarter after one. But I do want to take a second,

Gleaning 2: The Fruitlessness of Privilege Without Inward Grace (Judas)

46:31 and it's this. The foot-washing incident not only sets before us so graphically this distinction between initial and continuous cleansing from sin, but the foot-washing incident constitutes a convincing manifestation of how fruitless are the best of spiritual privileges without the transforming power. Let's begin with the foot-washing incident of the Inward Grace.

47:08 The foot-washing incident constitutes a convincing manifestation of how fruitless are the best of spiritual privileges without the transforming power of Inward Grace. Looking at our passage, next to our Lord Jesus and the Apostle Peter, the most prominent person of theding ways. The most prominent person in the foot-washing...

47:37 narrative is Judas Iscariot, Simon's son. Before the act of foot washing, Judas is there. Verse two, during supper, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Iscariot probably referring, Iscariot, a place in south Judah, Judas from Judah, Simon's son to betray. There's Judas. Before the foot washing, the Holy Spirit shines upon this man, Judas. Judas

48:20 again is before us at the end of verse 10. Jesus said, you are clean, but not all. He was conscious of Judas. John then gives his editorial comment, for he knew him that should betray him. Therefore,

48:35 he said, you are not all clean. And then subsequent to the foot washing, Judas becomes the primary one in focus. Verse 18, I speak not of you all, I know whom I have chosen, but that the scripture may be fulfilled. He that eats my bread lifts up his heel against me. And then verse 21

48:58 in following. I speak not of you all, I know whom I have chosen, but that the scripture may be fulfilled. He that eats my bread lifts up his heel against me. And then verse 21 in following.

49:01 I speak not of you all, I know whom I have chosen, but that the scripture may be fulfilled. He that eats my bread lifts up his heel against me. And then verse 21 in following. And verse 30 shows Judas going out into the darkness.

49:09 Judas very much in the foot washing scene. And I'm persuaded that whatever other purposes may be there for mentioning Judas so frequently. One of the great lessons that is highlighted here is what I'm calling a convincing manifestation of how fruitless are the best of spiritual privileges without the transforming power of inward grace.

Judas's Abundant Spiritual Privileges

49:41 Now think for a moment of all the outward spiritual privileges given to this man, Judas. Let's work our way back from the upper room where God incarnate washes the feet of his betrayer. Let's work backward through Judas' life to the point where we find him as a little boy in Kiriath and think of the spiritual privileges with which this man was literally inundated.

50:23 And yet here in the upper room it is his heart is a rich and fruitful field to betray the Son of God. How? How could it be?

50:41 Go back to Kiriath, here in the land of Palestine, among all the nations of the earth, the one place where God had deposited his saving truth.

50:56 What did it mean to be born in Israel in those days of darkness before the coming of our Lord Jesus and the descent of the Spirit and the diffusion of the gospel to the ends of the earth and the unfolding of the new world? In the New Testament scriptures, Paul answers that question in Romans chapter 3 and again in chapter 9. He says, What is the advantage of being an Israelite? What is the profit of circumcision?

51:27 Much every way, first of all, that they were instructed with the oracles of God. The one nation that had special revelation given to it.

51:39 Judas of Kiriath never knew what it was like not to be surrounded with the light that came from the Old Testament scriptures. He would have been sent as a boy to the local Sabbath school, the little, I'm sorry, synagogue school. His knowledge of life and of reality would have been filtered through the Old Testament scriptures. He would have gone every Sabbath to the local synagogue.

52:12 He would have heard the reading of the scriptures. He would have sat down at the Passover table, while Father explained to him the significance of this feast. He would have gone up to Jerusalem with his parents as the boy Jesus did. Think through all the privileges Judas had from his mother's womb.

52:38 Surrounded with those privileges. An elect among the elect.

52:45 He happened to live at the time that we read about this morning, the fullness of the times. When God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law. And we don't know precisely how, but He is drawn by the news of this young rabbi out of the northern part of Israel, out of Nazareth, who is preaching and words of grace flow out of His mouth. Who is validating His preaching by touching lepers and cleansing them.

53:17 Opening the eyes of the blind. He's fascinated as He hears and says, and He sees and He's drawn into the circle of His followers, one of His disciples.

53:29 Until we read in Luke chapter, Mark chapter 3, that out of the mass of that general following, Jesus sovereignly chooses twelve. For what purpose? Look at the language of Mark chapter 3. It's so significant when we think of Judas.

53:47 Mark chapter 3, and we read in verses 13 to 15, And He, Jesus, goes up into the mountain, calls unto Himself whom He Himself would. And they went unto Him, and He appointed twelve that they might be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach, and to have authority to cast out demons.

54:23 And then we have the names of them, and the last one named, verse 19, Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him. In the parallel passage, in Matthew 10, there is a more fulsome description. He gave them authority not only to cast out demons, but to raise the dead.

54:44 Think of the privileges, Judas of Kiriath, surrounded with the light of special revelation, with all of the influence of all covenant ceremonies and rituals established by God. And now, He hears incarnate deities speaking, who spoke as no man ever spoke. He hears His words of grace and power, sees His mighty deeds, becomes part of His followers, and now, sovereignly appointed by Jesus to be with Jesus, and to be commissioned by Jesus. He knew what it was

55:26 to perform miracles in the name of Jesus. He knew what it was to be in the most intimate contact with Jesus as Jesus, and to be in the most intimate contact with Jesus as Jesus. And He knew what it was Jesus itinerated throughout Galilee and made his trips down into Jerusalem and entered into the joust with the religious leaders. He saw him in his utterly sinless, impeccable life,

55:52 heard his words, saw his manifest power. And furthermore, he was even given a special task within the twelve. For John 12, 6 says he kept the box or the bag. He was made the treasurer.

56:07 And we bring him all the way down to that night before the crucifixion. And in that upper room, Jesus himself kneels before Judas,

56:23 washes his feet, and Judas hears him say, If I do not wash you, you have no part with me. Now I want to ask you something. Could any man from infancy to adulthood be surrounded with more and more? And greater spiritual privileges than Judas?

56:47 Yet this passage says, the devil literally having cast into the heart of Judas to betray him. The devil found in that man fruitful soil to betray the Son of God. Why? All of that privilege devoid of the power of inward grace was given to him.

The Frightening Reality of Judas's Example

57:25 Why? Why? Why? Why?

57:25 Why? Why? Why? Why?

57:26 Why? Why? Why? Absolutely.

57:30 I tell you, it has made my soul shudder as I've pondered this passage in the last couple of days.

57:45 All the others were clean, but not Judas.

57:53 You see where I'm going in my application?

57:57 I hope some of you children and young people are already trembling.

58:05 You, like Judas, through no choice of your own, were born the elect among the elect in a home where the light of special revelation touches the entirety of the fabric and climate and function of that home. You can't remember when the Bible was not a part of your life.

58:31 Mom and Dad, at great cost of time and energy, some in the home, some by sending you to the Trinity Christian School, have sought to give you a view of life that is filtered through the light of God's Word in your light. As we read this morning, we shall see light outside the light of Scripture. All is darkness.

58:56 You've had all of that surrounding you.

59:01 And though Jesus in the flesh is not here, He is in a special way in the assemblies of His people, where two or three are gathered in my name. There am I. You've been brought into the orbit where Jesus is present, where Jesus speaks, where Jesus exerts His power, not primarily in physical healings, but in spiritual healing. In spiritual healings, He opens blind eyes and cleanses defiled sinners, and you've seen His work in others.

59:33 Yet you sit here this morning, and your heart is fertile soil for the devil to plant in you the betrayal of Jesus.

59:50 Because you think that somehow or other, with no effort and endeavor on my own, all of this privilege will somehow, will somehow produce something good. No, no, my friend. It produced nothing good in Judas. It only increased his culpability and his damnation.

60:14 And that scares the litter out of me. Does it scare you? Does it scare you, children? Does it frighten you to where you're ready to say, Oh God, I won't let this day close until I know I have inward grace.

60:36 Until I know that Jesus has washed me and that I am clean. I won't pillow my head tonight until I know that my heart is not fertile soil to betray Jesus, but a heart so attached to Jesus that I'll confess Him if necessary, even unto death. The incident of the foot washing sets before us. this frightening reality that the best of spiritual privileges

61:19 is utterly fruitless without the transforming power of inward grace. I'd hope to bring the flip side of that in the life of Judas, but in the interest of time, I won't. But let me say this.

Analogy of Spiritual Blindness and Detached Retinas

61:51 One of the most frightening things in the experience of the past weeks when I had that excessive hemorrhaging in my right eye and was virtually blind, could only see light and darkness, that's all, couldn't see my hand that far in front of my face because I was blind looking out.

62:10 The eye surgeon was blind looking in. He didn't know what was going on. And one of his fears was that the retina might be detaching.

62:19 And so I had the four ultrasounds of the eyeball trying to see if the retina was still intact. And then he said to me this. He said, Reverend Martin, he insisted calling me Reverend. I didn't want to be called Reverend, but he called me Reverend.

62:32 He said, you must call me on my personal beeper number day or night if you begin to see a dark curtain coming down gradually. Call me immediately. It's an indication your retina is detaching and you must undergo emergency surgery to address it.

62:56 What's it mean when the retina is detached? You go blind.

63:01 That thing that God, God has made with its cones and rods to receive the images and transmit them by the optic nerve to the brain. When that is detached, sight is gone. There were several times when the hemorrhaging formed clots that looked like the curtain coming down. And I tell you, it was frightening.

63:28 I don't scare easily, but I tell you, I was scared.

63:33 I confess without shame, the thought of going blind was frightening.

63:39 But I tell you, there's something more frightening than physical blindness.

63:44 To have the shade of divine light that enables us to grasp light, to have God say, all right, you want darkness? I'll give it to you. And for God to detach your spiritual retinas. And the Bible teaches God does that.

64:03 He has blinded their eyes.

64:09 Some of you, shut your eyes to the light that comes through the Godhead. You're not the example of mom and dad. The light that comes from family worship. The light that comes sitting here today.

64:22 And you say, no light, no light. I want no light, I want no light. The time comes when God says, you want darkness, I'll give it to you. And your spiritual retinas are detached.

64:33 And you'll sink into hell.

64:39 That's what happened to Judas.

64:42 That's what happened to Judas.

The Progression of Sin and Warning to Youth

64:46 The scripture says he was a thief. He was covetous. Where did it start?

64:52 Maybe his little boy, he saw a dime on his daddy's dresser. And when he went to take it, he knew the law of God. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not covet.

65:02 And he turned away from that light and took the dime and put it in his pocket. Had you or I seen him taking him aside and said, Judas of Kiriath, you're just a little boy, but I saw you steal that dime from your daddy's dresser. Do you know that that spirit of coveting and thievery, if you don't deal with it one day, you will be prepared to hand over incarnate being for thirty hunks of silver. Little Judas would have looked and said, Oh, mister, I wouldn't do that.

65:37 But he did it. And there was a connection between that first dime and the thirty pieces of silver. Just as there's a connection with some of you sitting here,

65:50 the lustful thought, the glance in that catalog, at that flyer that comes to the house, and the lust, the lustful burning of thought. Some of you boys entertain. If I were to tell you, the day will come when you'll sell your virginity. You'll violate your marriage vows.

66:12 Break up your family. Oh, no. Yes, some of us know it. All too experientially, not in our own lives, but in those we dearly love.

66:33 I tell you, kids, you've got to stop messing about with these issues of the light that God is bringing on your spiritual retinas, nudging you by His law, drawing you by His gospel. It's time to stop mucking about with these issues.

66:57 When you find in your Bible that there's a special hell for eight-year-olds and ten-year-olds and twelve-year-olds, come and tell me and show me where it is. I haven't found it yet.

67:11 It says, Judas went to his place. And you'll go to the same place.

Jesus' Invitation and Concluding Prayer

67:18 Now, why? Jesus, as then, so now, is among us with a towel in the basin and He says, Oh, my dear boy, my dear girl, nothing would thrill me more than to wash you. Think of it. Jesus is glad to wash us.

67:42 It's got to go to Him. I was struck with that driving it today. Suffer the little children to come, come to me and forbid them not. I said, Lord, we're not forbidding the children to come.

67:53 We're behind them, pushing them.

67:56 Nobody in this place puts a barrier between you kids and Jesus. That's what the disciples were doing. Parents were bringing their kids. They were apparently old enough to walk.

68:06 Brought them to Him, put them down. And when the kids began to come, the disciples said, Hey, get away. He's got no time for you. Jesus said, No, no.

68:13 Suffer the children to come to me. He didn't say suffer the parents to bring them to me to get some water on their head. Let the children come to me. Let them come and jump into my arms.

68:25 Let me smother them with the tokens of my love and my grace.

68:31 Dear children, you're not forbidden in this place. Dear young people, nobody forbids you. We nudge you. We urge you.

68:38 We do everything but drag you to Jesus. But we can't take you to Him.

68:49 God help you. God help you. As you think of that upper room and the Jesus with the towel in the basin, and in the midst, Judas, this greatly privileged man who didn't get there overnight. There were signposts all along the way where he shut his eyes to light.

69:15 And as the light got brighter, he had to shut them all the tighter until God says,

69:22 Darkness is what you want. Darkness is what you'll have.

69:37 Our Father,

69:40 our hearts are sobered by these realities. And we can only, we beg of you, that you would make your truth effectual in the hearts of men and women, boys and girls, even in this place today. We thank you for the way our Lord Jesus has so patiently taught us that having been once cleansed, in that initial cleansing, we need never have a bath again. And yet there is the provision for our daily stains.

70:14 And for this, we thank you. And as we have contemplated the lessons of this man, Judas, we pray that you by the Holy Spirit would write them deeply upon all of our hearts and that fruit would be born to your praise. Have mercy, have mercy, Lord, upon the children, the young people in this place.

70:42 Lord, do, do for them what you alone can do.

70:49 We plead in Jesus' name. Amen.