Now, can we turn please to John's Gospel, Chapter One, for a couple of verses. John's Gospel, Chapter One, verse ten. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God, or the children of God, even to them. that believe on his name which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God now back to Mark's Gospel chapter fourteen verse twelve Mark fourteen verse twelve and the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the Passover? And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him. And wheresoever he shall go, and wheresoever he shall go in, Say ye to the good man of the house, the master says, Where is the guest chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room furnished and prepared there make ready for us. And his disciples went forth and came into the city and found as he had said unto them, and they made ready the Passover, and in the evening He cometh with the twelve. John chapter thirteen. John chapter thirteen and verse one. 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 it into the heart of Judas is carried, Simon's son, to betray him. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God and went to God, he rises from supper, and laid aside his garments, and took a towel and girded himself. After that he poured his water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with a towel wherewith he was girded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter says unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter says unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon answered, Simon said unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. And Jesus said to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. And ye are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray him, therefore he said, You are not all clean. So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments and was set down again. He said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? 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 he know these things, happy are ye if he do them. May God bless the reading of his precious words. Shall we pray? Blessed God, our Father, we thank you for this wonderful book we have in our hands. We thank you for the details of this book, the way that it all fits together with no mistakes. We thank you for the record given of the earthly pilgrimage of thy beloved Son. And as this morning we go into the upper room and enter into the last phases of his lifetime here on earth, we pray thou subdue our hearts, quietness in thy presence, Speak to every heart, we pray, these search us through and through. And, O Lord, change these lives of ours and make them just what thou wouldst have them be. We thank thee for the way thou art dealing with each one of us, in thy wondrous pattern and plan, thou art forming and making us. We pray that again this morning we might feel the pressure of thy hand and feel and hear thy voice speaking to us in our Savior's precious and worthy name. Amen. Well, I think the last talk I gave on John's Gospel, and we've been going through John's Gospel when I have been speaking here on Sunday mornings for quite a long time, and I think I'd like to go on with it and finish it. I think the last time I spoke, I think we called our subject Night Falls, night falls upon the children of Israel. At the end of that twelfth chapter, they rejected the Lord Jesus. And from then he doesn't deal any more with Israel, but only with his disciples. There was a break at the middle of the thirty-sixth verse of the twelve chapters. It says in the thirty-sixth verse, While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus and departed and hid himself from them. And though they done so many miracles, yet they believed not on him. And that was the break. And that's where the Lord Jesus separated himself. He departed from them and never again did he go back to Israel next time. He comes, he had come in judgment and he had come to set up his kingdom and reign and rule over Israel. But this time they rejected him. And although he had pleaded with him and we've gone over twelve wonderful chapters together of his pleadings with them, We reach now the final stages of this wonderful Gospel. We reach in the middle of this thirty-sixth verse of the twelfth chapter, what I'm calling the period of conference. We've gone through the various periods in the life of the Lord in the Gospel of John, but now it's a period of conference. I've entitled our talk this morning, The Lord Alone with His Disciples. The Lord alone with his own. The Lord alone with his own. These sections here, this section, chapters thirteen, fourteen, and usually included with thirteen, fourteen, we get fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, are generally known as the upper room ministry. That's not exactly true because at the end of the fourteenth chapter he says, Arise, let us go hence. And I think at that moment he left the upper room and went down towards the Garden of Gethsemane, but it's generally known as the Upper Room Ministry. And in our conference meetings here over the years, and we've had seven winters of conference here since I came here anyhow, and we've had wonderful ministry, and several of the speakers have spoken on the Upper Room Ministry. I remember Mr. Tyrannus Wilson giving wonderful, wonderful talks, and we have the tape recordings of them on the Upper Room Ministry. I remember John Bramhall giving wonderful talks, particularly on this thirteenth chapter and so on. But this is the stage we have come to in our studies. The Lord alone with his own. The things we get in chapters thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen are peculiar and unique to John's gospel. You don't get them in what we call the synoptic sense, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. They're not in those three gospels, these things. I did read you from Mark purposely how the Lord Jesus told them. They came and said, Master, where would thou that we prepare the Passover? Where do you want to eat the Passover? And he told them. He sent two of them. He said, you go to the city, and you'll see a man carrying a pitcher of water. Now that was a unique sight to see in Jerusalem. It was the women that carried pictures of water, not the men. I lived for many years in the Middle East and in Egypt and in Israel, and I never saw a man carrying a pitcher of water, but I saw many, many women, either on their shoulder or on the top of their head, carrying a pitcher of water. and it was the woman's job. But here's something unique. They couldn't make a mistake if they saw a man carrying a pitcher of water. That's the one that the Lord intended. He said, you follow him and go into the house where he goes in and say to the good man of the house, let's read it exactly, say to the, I think he calls him the good man of the house, The master says, Where is the guest chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room furnished and prepared there made ready for us. The disciples went, they came to the city and found just as he said to them, and made ready the Passover. It's rather unique, it's rather wonderful, you know, that This was the last Passover. In John's Gospel, three passovers are mentioned. There's one in the second chapter. There's one in the seventh, I think it is. And this one in the third. Those were the three passovers of the period of the Lord's ministry from thirty years of age until he was crucified. Three passovers are mentioned. But it's very remarkable to think that the Lord had no home. He had no house. He had no kitchen. But the lamb was roasted. The table was laid in a large, I like the words, a large upper room. Because the Lord and his disciple had thirteen people were sitting around that table. And in a large, the Lord had it all ready. I don't know when he told that disciple to do that. When he told the good man of the house to do it, I don't know. But the Lord had it all planned. And when they came and said, Lord, where do you want us to eat the pastor? He said, it's all prepared. You just go. And you follow my guidance. The guidance is this. See a man with a pitcher of water? Follow him. Go on in and say to the good man, where is the guest chamber? And he's going to show you a large upper room furnished. Out in Jerusalem today, they have a large upper room. I've been to it. They say, this is the room of the Last Supper. Who could say whether it is? The Lord said of Jerusalem, there should not one stone be left upon another. And in that awful, awful destruction of Jerusalem in AD seventy, it seems to me everything was destroyed. But somebody has probably built a room there. Anyhow, there is a place. And to go there and see a table, furnished, it gives you some... thoughts anyhow I think the spot where the room is shown today is probably roughly in the same spot or place or near about where it was in the Lord's time but the Lord had it already Matthew and Mark and Luke tell us about this last Passover feast they tell us about the Lord meeting with his disciples. But they don't tell us in detail all that he said as John does. And yet it's remarkable that John leaves out some of the things which to us seem to be so important. To those of us meeting here this morning, one of the great and most important of things in our life is to be at the Lord's table on the Lord's day morning. We like to hear the words of the Lord Jesus, given in the upper room this do in remembrance of me, and we love to respond. I feel that's the one thing God, he asked us to do. Remember me, and we do it. We come Sunday morning to remember him. And it's always puzzled me if John was the disciple of love. If John was the disciple that leaned upon his breast at that Passover supper and listened to the throbbing of eternal love, if John is all that we know John to be, why in the world didn't John talk about the Lord's supper? He didn't, you know, he doesn't mention it. It means so much to my heart. What did it mean to John's heart? Well, I suppose when John, John's Gospel, I understand, is the last book that was written, last New Testament book that was written. John was an old man probably about ninety when he wrote this book. And I expect he had read Matthew's account and Mark's account and Luke's account. And he probably read many of the things that were written by Paul and so on. And perhaps he didn't think it necessary to go over that again. He was giving us truths that the others had not given. However, he does not mention the Lord's Supper as we have it in the other Gospels. And yet I think there are deep truths in here which are connected with the Lord's Supper, which we'll come to in a moment. So there are some of the comparisons between the Synoptic Gospels and John's Gospel. I'd like to speak for a moment on this wonderful little term, His own. 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. What a wonderful title. Having loved his own. Now, this term, his own, occurred in the first chapter of John. I read it to you just now. It says he was in the world. The world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own. and his own received him not. Now when we get to the thirteenth chapter, this little word, this little term, his own, has an altogether different meaning to what it had in the first chapter. He came unto his own. And I think when we were talking about that months ago in that first chapter, we pointed out, and we might refer to it again during our talks, that the term his own, he came unto his own, refers really to his own things. Because in the Greek it's a neuter word, ta-izia. Ta-izia means the things, plural. But they're neuter things. It's not masculine or feminine, but it's plural. He came to his own things. He's ta-izia-ilthian, says in Greek. He came to his own things. But then it changes. He came unto his own and his own received him not, then it's another term. Instead of ta'izia, it's eizie, and that is masculine plural. And that refers to his own people. He came to his own thing, but his own people received him not. His own people received him not. So he calls there in the first chapter, he calls the Jewish people his own. He came to his own, but his own received him not. And for all those twelve long chapters of John's Gospel, he's been talking to his own people and pleading with them. And as I said just now, night fell upon the house of Israel and they rejected the Son of God and decided to crucify him, his own. But here the scene changes altogether. Now he leaves the world behind. Now he leaves the Jews behind, and now he climbs the staircase and goes into a large upper room furnished and gathers around him twelve men, and he calls them his own. What a different meaning to that little term, his own. Go back again to John's Gospel, and I read to the first chapter, and I read it purposely. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name. Tell me, who were really his own? Those to whom he came, the Jewish nation? Or those that received him in the twelve verse? He came unto his own, his own received him not. but as many as received him, to them he gave authority to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name. Israel alone were those in the twelfth verse, they that received him and believed on him. And this is a vital question for you and for me this morning. I see some people here whom I have never met before, and I don't know whether you've had the wonderful experience I have had, and have received the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, I don't know. But the verse I read is this, as many as received him, to them he gives the authority, the right, the title to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name. And today God is in business in this world, in one great business, winning men and women to Christ. That's God's business in the world today. The gospel to be preached throughout all the world and thank God for all that's going on in preaching the gospel and winning men to Christ. And God is taking men out of the Jews and the Gentiles, men and women and boys and girls and building a church. And every true believer in the Lord Jesus is in that church. And these are the ones he calls his own. Are you his own this morning? Can you look back to a moment in your life when you accepted Christ as your personal Savior? If you can, you're his. As many as receive him. I like the sequence. Put it backwards. As many as received him to them gave the authority to become sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Let's put it backwards. Believe on him, receive him. It's believe, receive, become. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Receive him as your Savior, and you become a child of God that moment. And then you're his own. Let's go on, our talk goes too fast. Let's look a moment at the word supper being ended. It needs a little explanation. Supper, it says, verse two, and supper being ended. Now, this is not a really exact translation in the King James here. If you look at many other versions, you'll find it's put a little differently, and all the commentators agree, And the Greek puts it this way. Really, in the Greek it says supper being. That's just what it says. Supper being. It doesn't say ended at all. Supper being. I think if I were to translate it, I would say supper is served, you know. It's already. Supper is served. As we would say, dinner is served. Come on, come and sit down. And really in the Greek says supper being. Some translated during supper. not supper being ended, but during supper. The devil now having put it into the heart of Judas, his character to betray him, betray him and so on, supper during supper. But supper was served. It was already. It seems to me that the Lord Jesus wanted, before they even took part in this supper, he wanted to have their feet washed, you know. And that's how it's put. Support being not ended, it hadn't started as a matter of fact, it was already this time. And Jesus knowing all things, what a wonderful verse. Look at it, verse three. Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he was come from God and went to God. What wonderful statements. of the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's no doubt here in John's Gospel. John's Gospel is called the Gospel of the Son. He that believeth on the Son has everlasting life. And here John repeats it again, that he was come from God and went to God. He was the eternal Son of God. No mistaking here. Isn't it Jesus was an example? It isn't that Jesus was a prophet. It isn't that Jesus went about doing good. All that is in it, but it's more than that. Jesus Christ was the eternal Son of God. And he that believeth on the Son that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is the one that gets eternal life. Jesus, knowing that the Father has given all things into his hands, and that he has come from God and went to God, he rises from supper. Now I have noted six movements here. Six movements. Look at him. He rises from supper. One. He laid aside his garments. Two. He took a towel and girded himself. Three. And after that he poured water into a basin. Four. And began to wash the disciples' feet. Five. And to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. Six. Six specific movements. in the actions of the Son of God on this memorable occasion. I think of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was rich and yet for our sakes became poor. Here's the supper, and it was the practice, and it was the common regulation of that day that before they ate for supper, their feet would be washed. that when they came in they wore sandals in those days they had no tarmac roads like we have they only had dusty roads now some of us our minds can go back to the days before we had tar covered roads and to go out driving in a buggy in the old days we get covered and covered in dust but This is what they had. You couldn't walk down the road without getting your feet all dusty and dirty. And when you came in, in a house, the hostess, the host, arranged that someone had to wash the feet. That's what had to be done. And, of course, there was always a slave to do it. That was a slave's job. That wasn't a job for the Lord and Master. That was a job for the slave to get down with a bowl of water and wash their dirty feet. And here they are gathered in the upper room. There's no slave there. He's alone with his own. I sometimes ask myself the question, why in the world didn't one of those twelve disciples say, I'll be the slave. I'll wash his feet. But not one of them. Not one of them said, I'm going to wash the feet of all these men. They've got dirty feet. Somebody's got to do it. There's no slave to do it. I'll be the slave. No. Do you know what they were arguing about? You read the other gospel. They said, They were arguing who's going to be the biggest in the kingdom. And who's going to be on the right hand and the left hand of the Lord? And who's going to be on the right hand of the left hand, thy right hand, left hand in the kingdom? They weren't thinking one moment about washing somebody's feet. They weren't thinking of taking a lowly place. They were thinking of all the big positions they were going to get when the Lord set up his kingdom. And so the Lord begins to teach them a lesson. He says, I, your Lord and master, wash your feet. And the Lord of glory rose from the supper table and took a towel and girded himself and poured water into a basin. and wash their feet. Do you know how he had to do that? He had to kneel down into it. You can't wash people's feet standing up. The feet are very low, and you've got to get very low, and you've got to kneel down to wash a person's feet. I should never forget the last time I ever saw my old dad, I didn't intend to say this this morning, but I'll never forget it. He was ill. And I was living in Glasgow, Scotland, and he was living in Bristol, England, some four hundred, there's four hundred miles away. And my sister phoned and said that he was not, my brother phoned. My brother was here a couple of weeks ago. He said, Dad's not well. I think you should come. Next week is Easter. Why didn't you come and spend the Easter with us? I said, I can't do that. I'm booked to speak at a conference, but the week after I'll come. And Vera and I took off on the Friday night when the work was over and went down, got there early in the morning, and I went out. And he said to me, Saturday, he said, I won't be going. He wasn't fit to go. I won't be going to the Lord's table tomorrow morning. I'm not well enough. And I said, I won't be going either. Because I said, I'm coming over early in the morning. I'm going to spend the morning with you. And when I got there, he said, I'd like you to do something for me. He said, it's not a very nice job, but I'd like you to do something. I said, Dad, I'll do it. And I know exactly what you want me to do. He said, you don't know. I said, I do. I said, you want me to wash your feet? Cutting your toenails. He said, dead right. He said, dead right. How did you know? I said, well, somehow I guessed it. And, you know, I put the... kettle on the fire as we do over there, did over there. And I got a kind of a bath thing right in front of the fire and I put his old feet in the warm water and I soaked him for a long time and washed his feet and cut his toenails. And that night we had to go back to Glasgow and he drove in the back of the car. My brother-in-law drove us and going to the railroad station he leaned over and he said, Bob, you know, That was a very humble thing you did for me this morning. He said, you've got to get down on your knees to do that. That's the last words I heard him say, except goodbye. You've got to get down on your knees to do that. And this is what the Lord Jesus did. He got down on his knees and he washed the dirty feet. What a wonderful, wonderful example. The Lord Jesus gave us on that night, Jesus knowing all things. Now, he knew what was going to happen. He knew he was going to be arrested. He knew he was going to stand before Pilate and Caiaphas and Herod and all these people. He knew he was going to be scourged and he knew he was going to be crucified and die. He knew all that. He knew all things. I tell you, if we knew... what was going to have good job, God's hidden from our eyes the things that are going to take place tomorrow or the next day or the next few months. We don't know. Yet I sometimes wonder if we didn't know. We might be different. I love our conferences and, you know, I don't miss a conference meeting. But if I'd known that my brother was going to die, I'd have missed a conference meeting one night every week and gone down to see him and talk with him. Can I do it? Now he's gone. But if I'd known I would have done that. We don't know. I tell you what, we better be kind to one another. I'm learning lessons. We haven't got long. And we might as well be kind to one another now. And if there's some feet washing to do, let's put a side off pride and take off our garments as the Lord did. And take the towel and get down there and wash one another's feet and do something kind for one another. We might as well do it because we don't know what's going to happen. Jesus did know. It says he knew all things. And when he knew all things, then he took the towel and girded himself and washed their feet. Let's hurry. He comes to Peter and Peter says, No, Lord, you're not going to wash my feet. Now let's get back to this what Peter says. Peter said, Thou shalt never wash my feet. And Jesus said, If I wash thee not, thou shalt have no part with me. He doesn't say no part in me. Now watch that. You see, We were in Adam, and the moment we're saved, we're in Christ. That can never be changed. We're in Christ. But the part with me is something different. To be in him is union. To have part with him is communion. To be communion. And he said, you can't have real communion with me if I don't wash your feet. The Lord saved us. He cleansed us. The Lord says, he that is bathed, there are two Greek words here. He that is bathed, the Greek word is luo, is bathed. He's had a real bath all over. And then needeth not save to wash his feet. The Greek word is nipto. It's just like you wash your hands and face. That's the other word. And the Lord said, he that is bathed, needeth not just to wash his feet, that's all. Now what does he mean? He means this, that you and I, when we were saved, we were cleansed by the precious blood of Christ. Our sins were put away forever, washed by the blood of Christ, as far as the East is from the West, so far as He removed our transgressions from us. He's put our sins behind it back. We'll see them and know them no more, and we'll never stand before the great white throne of judgment to give account for our sins, because the Lord Jesus gave account and paid the account of our sins at the place called Calvary, when He bore our sins in His own body upon the tree. Our sins have been washed away. We don't have that again. You don't get saved twice. Once you're saved, you're saved forever. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. What does he mean then? Oh, he means this, that when I walk through this world of sin, I can get dirty feet. My sins are put away, yes, but because I've got an old, sinful nature, I still sin. And that's what we've got to deal with. And this washing of the water, we get it referred to in Ephesians chapter five, the washing of the water of the word. The water is the word. I read about that man that carried the water on his head and took it into the upper room. One day I was amazed as I read it. I suddenly discovered what he took that water in there for. The Lord said, you follow a man carrying a pitcher of water. What did he use that water for? I think that's the pitcher of water the Lord took and poured into the bowl. There's a great lesson here. Before they went to the upper room and later on the Lord introduced the, what we call the last supper, where the Lord introduced the, I mean the breaking of the bread, the drinking of the wine. And before they took part of that, the Lord washed their feet. And I think that you and I, before we come to the Lord's table on Sunday morning, we've got to meet a man with a pitcher of water. And that water's got to be poured into a basin. And somehow we've got to get with the Lord. And we've got to have our feet washed because Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, I do and say and think all sorts of things which are not pleasing to the Lord. And that has to be put right. The union is all right, but the communion has got to be put right before I come to the Lord's table. What a wonderful lesson the Lord is teaching us here. And so Peter submitted. And Peter gave the Lord, reverently I say this, he gave his foot into the hand of the Lord. Think about a minute. Did I can put my foot into the hand of the Lord? You see, we walk with our feet. That's to say, my walk can be entirely controlled by his blessed hands if I'll only do it. Peter resisted but held out his foot and let the Lord take his foot and wash it. And the Lord wants to take your feet and mine and he wants to guide every step we take for his glory. What if we're prepared to do that? Let him have our feet this morning so that he can make our life what he wants them to be. Just one other thought here. The Lord says, after he'd washed their feet, verse twelve, and taking his garments and sat down, he said to them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me master and Lord. I like this, especially in this day. You see, we get so much of this calling him Jesus. You see, that was his earthly name. I don't think any of us would go to President Nixon and call him Dick, do you? I don't think so. We call him Mr. President. And he said, you call me Master and Lord. And that's what they did. They didn't call him Jesus. You can't find any case where the disciples go and speak to him and say Jesus. They say, Lord and Master. You call me Master and Lord and you do well. Let's learn the lesson in these days when everybody's calling him Jesus. Why don't we give him his title? I love it here. Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus Christ is Lord. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. He call me, Lord and Master, Master and Lord, 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. He should do as I have done to you. Then I say to you, The servant is not greater than his Lord, neither he that sent him greater than he that sent him. If he know these things, happy are ye if he do. Beloved, what's the lesson we're going to learn? I think we must learn that we have to wash our feet. Examine ourselves and get with the Lord and wash our feet before we go to the supper. But I think this, instead of criticizing one another and talking about one another, we better start taking off our coats and girding ourselves with a towel. We better get down on our knees and pray for one another. And we better get with one another. If some brother is wandered off the track and out of the way, let's do what the Lord says. If I then, your Lord and Master, wash your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. If I can kneel down, I am the Lord and Master. I am your Master and Lord. If I can kneel down and wash your feet. Surely you can kneel down and wash one another's feet. May God help us. May his word be applied by the Spirit of God into your heart and mind that we might put this into practice for his glory as we go along together day by day, month by month. I don't know how long we'll be together here at Park at the Palms till he comes again. Shall we pray? Blessed God and Father, we bow before thee. We thank you for thy precious word. Blessed Master, we bow before thee, Lord Jesus, and we submit ourselves to the word of God. O Lord Jesus, how we adore thee, and how we marvel and wonder at thine infinite grace, the maker and the creator of the ends of the universe can stoop down and kneel down and wash disciples' feet when somebody there should have said, I'll be that slave, I'll be that servant. But O Lord, our wondrous, thou didst become the slave, and thou didst become the servant. Help us, the Lord, Lord, this morning to put our feet into thy hands, that they may be washed, and that the pathway we take and the road we walk might be the road and the way thou wouldst have us walk for thy glory. We pray thou to apply these truths from thy precious word and make us more worthy of the great love thou hast bestowed upon us. We ask it in our Savior's precious and worthy name. Amen. Thank you.