It's an honor to be here, to
be asked to preach again, and humbling thing. It's an honor and humbling, especially
to be asked, the only preacher, and to preach twice. I've said this before, and John
feels the same way. We're zealous for the truth and
we're jealous for our people, aren't we? We want them to hear
the gospel, hear the truth. The man we want them to hear is a
man that we have some confidence in. There's a trust that's been
entrusted with the gospel, Paul said, and I don't want to betray
that trust of our Lord. I want to preach the gospel.
Woe is unto me if I do not. And your pastor's placed trust
in me to preach to you. I take it very seriously. Don't
we, John? It's a humbling honor. John and
I, there's no man I see more eye-to-eye
with. We grew up, well, in the church
at Ashland. When was it, John? Seventy-eight
or nine? We were both born two months
apart. And we've been very close for
many years, John, Vicki, Mindy and I. And I know John feels
this way. There's no place he'd rather
preach than here. This is where you want to be,
Sunday after Wednesday. I feel the same way in Rocky
Mountain. But the next place that I look for or would want
to preach, it'd be right here. And I think you feel that way
about Rocky Mountain. You love those people. You know them well.
They know you well. You've preached there many times. And you may
not know this. You may not know this, but back
in 1985, John and I were members of the
church there in Ashland, and the pastor made us both elders,
and we began to preach and travel all over and fill in for different
preachers when they were away. And then there were some places
that didn't have a pastor, and we would go, two of us, like
the apostles would go out preaching together, and that was a good
time, wasn't it? 1985, he and I, went to Virginia and he was
going to preach in Reiner, Virginia, a little group there that met
in a cemetery, a little building there. And then I was to go on
over to Rocky Mount, Virginia. I had no idea where Rocky Mount,
Virginia was. Never been there before. 1985. So I dropped him off. I
think this, I dropped him off and I went over there and preached
Sunday morning. You preached in Reiner. You remember that?
Well, It said all that to say this. 1989 came, and the church
in Rocky Mountain was without a pastor. They wanted John Chapman to be
their pastor. They asked you, didn't they,
John? John said, no. No. Wasn't interested, were you? Don't you love and appreciate
and are thankful for God's providence? how this all turned out. And
years later, in his 60s, dropped everything, leave his home, leave
his family to come down here to Spring Lake. The lot is cast
into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord, and I'm
glad. I'm so glad. No place you'd rather be than
right here, and no place I'd rather be than Rocky Mount, and
if not Rocky Mount, right here. It's good to see you. We preach Christ and Him crucified
every time we stand up, don't we? That's our commission. God demands it. Senators need
it. That's the message of scripture.
Martin Luther said this. He said, I see nothing in scripture
but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Covered of cover. In the beginning,
God. The last two words, the end.
Christ is the beginning and the end. First and the last. Christ
and him crucified. This book is all about the redemption
that Jesus Christ came into this world to accomplish for his people.
For God's glory and his own glory. We preach Christ crucified. It's
not a motto. That's our message. That's our
mission. It's what we do. It's really what we do. What
we love to do. What we need to do. What we ought
to do. What we're called to do. We preach a person. We preach
Christ and his work, him crucified. We don't preach, though we know
what we believe, we preach a whom. We preach him, we preach him,
person, eternal life. Our Lord said this, this is life
eternal that they might know thee, not about thee, but know
thee, meet, be confronted by. know Him, love Him, those that
love God, know Him, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. Because no man knows the Father,
but the Son knows it, no cry. So this is not just a, this is
not a motto. This is our message in it. This
is our mission. That's what I want to do right
now. John 13, go to John 13 with me. This is a familiar story,
story of our Lord washing his disciples' feet. Now this is
not merely a story of an example in humility or service, though
it is. This is the story of our Lord's
condescension, our Lord's incarnation, the story of our Lord's great
salvation that He accomplished, the story of our Lord's ascension
and glorification. It's all right here. Our Lord
illustrates this in washing His disciples' feet. He shows all
of that. Who He was, where He came from,
where He came, who He came for, what He came to do, what He did,
and where He went, and where He is now. It's all right there
in this story. And that's the story, every story. That's the purpose of every story
in the scripture, all right? Beginning with verse one. Now,
before the feast of the Passover. Now stop right there. Passover. Well, that goes way back in scripture,
doesn't it? All the way back to Exodus 12.
What's the Passover about? About what? Who? Paul said, Christ,
our Passover. was sacrificed for. Christ is
the Passover, the Lamb of God, taketh away the sin of the world,
a world of His people. Before the feast of the Passover,
when Jesus knew, verse 1, that His hour was come, His hour,
the hour, the cause for which He came into this world, for
which He was sent into this world to be crucified. Right before
he went to the cross, he said, now is my soul troubled. He said,
but what shall I pray? Father, save me from this hour? No, no. For this cause came I
into this world. His hour, his time was to go
to, he came to this, into this world made of woman. In the fullness
of time, God sent forth his son, made of woman, made under the
law to redeem them. That's why he came, came to this
world. to go to the cross, to bear the sins of God's people
on Calvary's tree, to become a curse for them, to put away
their sins by the sacrifice of himself, to finish the work,
to accomplish redemption for them, to bring in an everlasting
righteousness, to impute that righteousness to his people,
to pay for their sins and go back like the high priest of
old and offer his own precious blood on the mercy seat before
God and sit down and wait till all his people are brought back
to him. Now, I just preached the gospel. That's why I came. That's his hour. That's why I
came. It all led up to that hour. It
says in verse 1, that he came into, 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, his own. They were given to him by the
father. He said that in John 10, didn't he? He said, all the
father giveth me shall come unto them. The sheep that God gave
him. He came into this world to lay
down his life for his sheep. Not all people. Christ did not
die for all people. He died for his own. He died
for his sheep. He came for his own. Given to
him by the father, loved by the father, given to him in a covenant,
loved by him, And it's whose names are written on the palms
of his hands, like the high priest of old, whose names are on his
shoulders. You're going to bear them all
the way to glory. Whose names are on his breastplate, his heart,
and his heart, his mind, and his heart, and his love, and
his hands in his hands, given responsibility for his people,
his sheep. He said, all that thou hast given
me, I have lost nothing. So he came. And they were in
this world. And Christ didn't do this for
the world, did he? He didn't pray for the world.
He didn't die for everybody in the world. He died for his people
that were in the world, his spiritual Israel, to take them out of this
world. And it says, having loved his
own, which were in this world. It's always shocks everybody,
but God does not love every single person in this world. He doesn't. Right here it says it plainly
that he loved his own that were in the world. John said this,
he said, we're of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
Here it is, let me quote this to you in 1 John 4. It says,
in this was manifested the love of God toward us. Who's us? And in 1 John, he says, beloved,
beloved, beloved, beloved, doesn't he? Over and over again, beloved.
He calls them little children. He calls them brethren, doesn't
he? The beloved, that's who he's talking about. The love of God
toward us, the brethren, the beloved, not willing that any
of us should marry. So he sent his son. God sent
his only begotten son into the world that we, who? The beloved. His own might live through him.
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us. See that? This is particular
love. Particular love, sovereign love, electing love. And sent
his son to be the propitiation for our sin. God's people, their
sin, the beloved. Having loved his own that were
in the world. God loves His own, Christ loves
His own, His own people. And that love, that love of God,
that love of Christ is sovereign love, particular love, it's electing
love, it is effectual love, and it's eternal love. Having loved
His own that were in the world, He loved them how long? To the
end. And the scripture says, world
without end. Jeremiah 31.3. I've loved thee
with an everlasting love. Who's he talking about? God's
people. I've loved thee with an everlasting
love. It means it never ends. Therefore.
You see, it's effectual love. It's saving love. Therefore with
loving kindness have I drawn them. Everyone that God loves,
everyone that Jesus Christ loved, he saves. If you had the power
to love those you love, would you save them? If you had the
power, would you? Well, God has the power then.
Christ had the power and he exerted that power and he saved all his
own. He said, not one of them shall
perish. Not one. It's effectual love. All right,
look at verse two. It says, now supper being ended.
Now in light of our Lord's amazing love, this is amazing love that
he would come down here and love such unlovely creatures. The
supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart
of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him. Hold on right
there. The devil put in his heart to
betray him. But didn't the Lord say that he chose all of them
and one of them was his betrayer. He chose Judas to betray him. Yes, he did. Is that not right? Everything. He's the head of
all principalities and powers and rulers, even the spiritual
rulers of darkness. The devil is God's devil. He
can only do what God allows him to do. Now it says, the devil
put in this man's heart. Our Lord didn't have to make
him do this. This man was under the possession
of Satan at this time. And so is everyone held captive
by him at his will according to God's will until God, until
Christ comes and leads captivity captive. All he had to do, all
Christ had to do was leave him alone and he's going to betray
him. You understand? He didn't make
him do this, he just left him alone and his own Depraved will
sold Christ for about $100. And that's what everyone does by
nature. It's what everyone does until
God shows them the pearl of great price, until God reveals Christ
to them. And then they buy the truth and
they won't sell it for anything. Betrayal is a terrible thing.
You know that? There's a difference between
betrayal and denial. Peter denied it. That's bad enough. Betrayal. Simon Judas betrayed
him. He gave him over. He turned him in. He sold his
friend. Called him Lord. Sold him for
$100. That's about what 30 pieces of
silver were. What if John, that someone hated
him, he had enemies that were out to kill him, and he and I
got together and we went out somewhere and I had plotted to
turn him over to these people for $100. It's unthinkable, isn't it? The altogether loveliest
son of the Most High God was sold by this man for $100. The
unsearchable riches of Christ, $100. What will men give in exchange
for their soul? What do people give in exchange
for their souls? Who is interested in the unsearchable
riches of Christ? Who sees in him the altogether
lovely one? Who sees in him that there's
nothing worth to him, everything's beneath him, that he's all and
in all? Who sees that? Only those that God gives eyes
to see. Otherwise, people have no interest in him at all. This
place, you know, you could have a yard sale, you could put a
sign up in front of your yard, yard sale, junk for sale, worthless,
no good junk that I'm throwing out of my attic. I'm going to
give it to Goodwill if you don't come by it. And people will flock.
You can't find enough parking places. But you stand up and
announce the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ. and get a sparse little crap.
But like your pastor was saying, how blessed we are. Oh, how blessed
we are if we know, if we believe that there ain't nothing in this
world worth Christ. He's everything. He'd believe
that. You'd need him. You'd esteem him as all in it
all. I told you, you know, Simon Peter
denied him. Down in verse 38, our Lord said,
before the cock crowed, you'll deny me thrice before the cock
crowed. Twice. Denial, and we all deny him,
don't we? We do. And that's bad enough. We deny him and our unbelief
and our murmuring and complaining denies our Lord. Our silence,
when we ought to speak up, denies our Lord. Our sins are denial
of Him. But God's people, when it's all
said and done, wouldn't trade Him for anything. and lay down
their life for him. Simon Peter, he really wanted
to do that. He showed that. The Lord let
him do that, didn't he, in the garden right before they took
him. He let Simon Peter take out his
sword and he's gonna take on everybody. That was his Lord
whom he loved. Judas, you can have him. I don't
want him. How about you? Verse three says this, Jesus
knowing that the Father had given all things into his hand, all
things, all his people, the covenant, responsibility for them, their
souls in his hand, their eternal warfare in his hands. Aren't
you glad? Aren't you glad our Lord has
hands? These false preachers everywhere, they all say that.
Without exception, God has no hands but your hands. But if
salvation's in our hands, we're lost on it. We're gone. But our
salvation is in good hands. It's in the hands of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're in his hands. As said, he said, I've graven
you on the palms of my hand. We're in his hand. God has given
all things into the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ, our savior,
our covenant head, our surety. He took full responsibility for
all the people that God gave him and he accomplished their
redemption by himself in his name. It says in verse three,
he knew that he was come from God and went to God. Now, here's
the story. Here's what happened. He's going
to illustrate here. He's going to show them and us.
They're not going to understand at the time, but we will tonight.
He's going to show them, he's going to illustrate what he came
to do. He's going to show them and us where he came from, why
he came, what he did, who he did it for, and where he is now
by washing their feet. All right, look at it, verse
four. It says, he rises from supper. I'm sure he had the chief
seat. You see that idolatrous painting
of the last supper. Don't put one on your wall, whatever
you do. There's no description of our Lord. It's idolatry to
put a so-called description of Christ. But you see that, and
he's always in the middle and all his disciples. over there
on the side. Well, I'm sure, I'm just certain that they gave
him the chief's seat. He told them that. You know,
don't take the chief's seat, take the lower seat. But he is
greater that comes in, you have to move. They all wanted to be
around him, so he's in the middle. He had the chief's seat, and
he gets up. All of a sudden, he gets up from that chief's
seat. And it says he laid aside his
garments. He took his clothes off. Now,
I believe that he literally took all of his clothes off. Now, you know, if we, if there
was no sin, we wouldn't need clothing. You know that, that
clothes are only the result of sin? That Adam and Eve in the
garden were naked, no shame, because they had no sin, they
had no lust of the eye, no lust of the flesh, they didn't need
clothes. Clothes are only a covering for sin. In that man's depravity,
he's proud of that which is only meant for a covering for sin.
Clothes, fig leaves, these clothes. Our Lord could be without clothes
and be unashamed. He had no sin. He has not yet
made sin. And what a picture this is of
Him stripping Himself on the cross. But He stripped Himself,
no shame. And He took this towel, verse
4, He took a towel, a common... but clean cloth, probably. I'm quite certain it was linen.
There's no record of cotton being grown
or used over there. They used linen as flax. So he
took this linen. Those of you who know scriptures,
you know who wore linen. It was the high priest and his
He took this towel, probably made of linen, and he said he
girded himself with that. And verse 5, and after that,
he gets a basin, he gets a vessel, an empty vessel, an earthen vessel. And he begins to pour water,
he poureth water into this vessel, careful not to spill a drop.
He's very careful with this water, and he pours that exact amount
needed to wash the feet of 12 disciples, exact amount in this
empty vessel. Careful not to spill a drop.
You're not going to spill a drop on the ground. You're not going
to waste it. Are you with me? Are you reading between the lines?
He pours that into this vessel and then he stoops down. He has
to stoop. He has to bend his knees. And
he bends down and begins to wash the disciples feet. Now back then, this was a common
courtesy. Back then it was needful. Back
then everyone wore sandals or some poor people were barefoot
and that hot, dirty, dry and arid land and their feet were
filthy and stinking and they needed their feet washed constantly. So he's doing something that's
needful. Their feet are dirty and filthy. So he bends down
and you know, why is it our feet are so ugly and so stinking? That's the lowest part of our
being, really. Stinking feet. The Lord of glory,
are you with me now? He bends down and starts washing
their filthy, stinking feet. What is this a picture of? Now
here's the story. You know, and I believe there's
disciples that they got silent when they saw him get up. They
never knew what he was going to do. You know, they follow
him everywhere. They didn't know where he was going. They didn't
know what he was going to do, but they were following him.
They were following like sheep. He's the shepherd. They don't
know where he's going. He does. They don't need to know. Just
need to follow him. And he got up, where's he, what's
he gonna do? They all were maybe talking and quit talking. And
they got up and he takes his clothes off, silent. Every eye
on him. And they watch him. Take this,
go over and get this towel and wrap himself in this towel around
his loins and get this basin and vessel and pour this water
in it. And then he walks over and stoops
down right before Bartholomew or Thomas or one of them. Stoops
down and starts, and it's silent. They're all thinking to a man,
all of them except Judas. They're all thinking, what a
thing for our Lord and Master to do." That's what they called Him,
Lord and Master. They didn't call Him Jesus. They called Him Lord,
because that's who He was. That's what He said. You call
me Lord and Master, you say, well, that's who I am. That's
what they called Him. He was their Lord. And they thought, what a thing
for our Lord and Master to do. What a thing for the King of
glory, our Lord, to do, to stoop so low, to strip Himself like
this. Were they ashamed for Him? Were
they embarrassed? What a thing for our Lord to
wear a towel. What a thing for our Lord to
do, stoop down. and wash our feet. But brethren,
this was not his greatest condescension. This was no condescension at
all compared to what he's gonna do, what he came to do. You mothers, when your children
were born and you wiped every part of their body, The worst
parts, didn't it? Huh? Did you think anything about
it? Did you think you were condescending?
Did you, Rebecca? No. It's love. It's something
that needed to be done, didn't it? It wasn't condescension to
you. It was love, and they couldn't do it for themselves. So you
did it for them out of love. It wasn't condescension. Something
they needed to do. to have done, but this is a story
of his great condescension. You see the Lord of glory, the
Lord Jesus Christ left heaven. He was seated at the right hand
of the Majesty on high, seated in the heaven, surrounded by
the angels, surrounded by the heavenly hosts who loved Him,
who adored Him, who sang to Him, who sang His praises in the holy
hill of the Lord. Holy, holy, holy. Everything
and everyone is holy and loves Him. And one day, In the fullness
of time, He gets up from His throne. Did the angels stop? What's He
doing? And they beheld this, Peter wrote,
which things the angels desire to look into. They watched Him. What a mystery! God manifest
in the flesh. They watched the King of glory
take off His royal robes, His glorified body. and enter the womb of a woman.
What's he doing? Now where he came from and to
where he came is infinite condescension. The holy hill of the Lord to
this cesspool. You understand? Sure we do. We live here in Sodom. this quagmire,
this slime pit called Egypt, this dung heap. He left that. Why would he do that? Where's
he going? What's he doing? And this is
his glory, because there's some that he loves on that dung heap,
in that cesspool. They can't get out, Bill. They can't get out. He's coming
to get them out. They're in the world. He's going
to take them out of this place. Only one way to do it. This is condescension. He stooped
down. Oh, how far did he stoop? And he took a vessel, an earthen
vessel, his own body. A body has to have prepared him.
a vessel and emptied himself. On Calvary's tree, our Lord poured
out his soul unto death. The Lord, God required blood. It's the blood that maketh atonement
for the soul. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. So Jesus Christ poured out his
own precious blood for the redemption of God's people. to pay for these
worthless worms, these creatures that he loved. Boy, that's condescension. That's infinite condescension.
Having loved his own, greater love hath no man than this. He
lay down his life. He paid a ransom. He said, deliver
them from the pit. They're in the pit. I found the
ransom. What is it? It's himself. He
paid the ransom for his people. Oh, man. Now, did our Lord finish,
did he finish washing all of their feet? Look at verse 12.
It says, after he had washed their feet, he did it, didn't
he? He finished washing them, finished
washing all of them. And then he, took his garments,
look at verse 12, he took his garments, he took his robe and
put it back on, and he sat down. You know what that's saying,
don't you, Brother Craig? How blessed are your eyes, they say.
How blessed are your ears, they hear. And when Christ had purged
our sins, Hebrews says, he went back to the right hand of the
majesty on high and sat down. He took his glorified body back
and went back to the right hand of God and sat down, having accomplished
the redemption, having obtained eternal redemption for God's
people. He sat down. And he asked them, he asked them
at this time, verse 12, he said, do you know what I've done to
you? Do you know what I've done for you? One time, John, remember, he
said, do you understand? He was talking to him for a long
time. He said, do you understand? He said, yeah, we understand.
No, he don't. He really don't. We know in part,
don't we? If we really knew what our Lord
has done for us, what all he did for us, it wouldn't be a
dry eye in this place. Never would be, any time the
gospel. It wouldn't be a quiet person in this place, we'd all
be shouting hallelujah. Do you know what? You and I know
now, we now know what he'd done, what he's done for. Look at this,
I love this. Don't you love Simon Peter? I
love Simon Peter. Verse six, our Lord came to Simon,
Peter's gonna wash his feet. Old Simon, and Simon said, Peter
saith unto him, Lord, Are you going to wash my feet?" Old Simon, you know, he meant well. He really did. He loved the Lord.
After he denied Him, oh, he was brokenhearted over it, wept bitterly.
But Buddy, when the Lord called him back, I heard you preach
from that, he called him back, he dove in the water and couldn't
get to our Lord fast enough. And the Lord asked him first
thing, he asked him, Simon, lovest thou me? Yes, Lord, you know
I love you. I denied you, I'm heartbroken
over it, but I love you, you know I love you. He did, didn't
he? He did. And the Lord told him
he's going to deny him. No, not me. I'll never deny him.
He said, they may. He meant that. But the Lord had
to teach him a lesson. The Lord had to break him. The Lord had to show him himself,
show him what he'd be without the Lord. And that's it. But
he came to Simon to wash his feet. And Simon said, Lord, you're
not going to wash my feet. No way. I'm not going to let
you wash my feet. One time he, the Lord said he
was going to Jerusalem and what all was going to happen to him,
and Simon Peter said, no, no, Lord, no, no, this can't be. Remember that? Get behind me,
Satan. Satan desired to sift. See, our
Lord let Satan have Judas. He let him sift Peter. He didn't
let him have him. There's a difference. But Simon
Peter meant well, and he said, Lord, no, don't wash my feet,
please. And here's, look at what our
Lord said. He says in verse seven, the Lord
answered, verse six, come to Peter, Peter said, Lord, dost
thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto
him, what I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. So then Peter saith unto him,
Thou shalt never wash my feet. And our Lord answered him and
said, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part in me. If I wash
thee not, if I don't wash you, you have no part in me. Are you
with me? Christ said, if I don't wash
you, you have no part in me. Who's doing the washing? Him, salvations of the Lord,
you see. It's His love. It was His love
that made Him come to His own that He sovereignly chose. It
was His choice. He said, you didn't choose Me,
I chose you. It was His will, not theirs,
His will. It was His righteousness that
He imputed. His robe He took off and put
on them, right? It was His blood that He shed
for the remission of their sins. Salvation is of the Lord. And
everyone in glory knows it. Everyone in glory knows who saved
them. And that's who they're singing
to. Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His
own blood. Salvation is of the Lord. You
see, this is not a doctrine. This is people that know a person.
This is people that know whom they believe and who it was that
saved them. I may have told you this, but
there was a man one time that came into a place, Mindy was
working for Gabe at a music store, knew this man well and he came
in one day and he was all excited and he told her, he said, he
said, I got saved the other day. And she wasn't smiling and she
said to him, I'm sorry to hear that. Hey, it took him back then. shocked
him. He said, well, what do you mean
by that? She said, if the Lord had saved
you, you would have said so. I said, that's what I meant.
No, no, that's not what you said. You said, I got, I got saved. I accepted Jesus. I let him into
my heart. I made a decision. I made a choice. I made him Lord. Oh no, oh no.
Nobody in glory is saying anything like that. If they don't know,
if Christ doesn't wash them, they have no part in him. If
they don't know who washed them, they don't know the song that
they're singing. They're not going to have a part
in that heavenly choir, are they? To sit in that heavenly choir,
you have to be washed and you have to know who did it. And
you're going to give him all the glory for it. You're going
to say so. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. Are you saved? Yes, the Lord
saved me. What if someone laid down their
life to save you? Literally laid down their life
to save you. Would you be going around saying,
I let him save me? What if that's somebody's son
that sacrificed their life? Somebody's son, you went around
bragging about, I let him save me. He couldn't have saved me
unless I let him. What do you think a father would say about
that? Well, I ain't gonna save you.
I'm throwing you out of here." That's what God's going to do
to everybody that steals His Son's glory. Everybody in glory,
they know who saved them. They know who loved them. It
wasn't not that we loved Him, but that He loved us. Not that
we called on him, that he called on us. Not that we chose him,
but he chose us. Not that we came to him, we rejected
him, but he accepted us. He loved us. He washed us. And these people that had their
fig leave and these people that go through the... We have this group down in Rocky
Mount that looked like the Amish. They're called German Baptists.
And I know some of them, and I like some of them. They're
likable people. They're moral people and all that. And they
wear their black clothing. They look so holy and all that.
They think they're holy. But they don't believe that Jesus
Christ is their only hope of salvation, that Jesus Christ
must wash them from their sin, that Jesus Christ must sanctify
them, that all of their salvation is in Jesus Christ. They don't
believe that. And their holiness is what they do. And that's an
abomination to God. If righteousness come by the
law, if cleansing comes by anything we do or don't do, Jesus Christ
died in vain. It's the blood that make the
tomb. It's the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from
all sin. Nothing else, nothing more, nothing less. The blood
of Christ. If I wash thee not, you have
no part in that. No part, no place in heaven.
Oh, man. Simon Peter, now look at this,
and let me close with it. He said in verse 9, Simon said,
well, Lord, don't just wash my feet. Wash me all over. Wash my feet, wash my hands,
wash my mouth, wash my eyes. You know how Peter's feeling.
You remember when the Lord revealed himself in that boat, but all
the fish, the Lord had all those fish get in the net and couldn't
take them in the boat. There's so many of them. Peter
hit his knees. He thought if he knows every
fish in the ocean and commands him, he knows every thought in
my sinful mind. And he said, oh, depart from
me, Lord, I'm a sinful man. And here he's thinking about
his own sinful self and he thinks, oh, my mind, my heart, my mouth,
my thoughts, my everything, I'm sinful, I'm unclean, I'm unclean
all over. Lord, wash me all over. Wash
me throughly from my iniquity, David said. Cleanse me from my
sin. Purge me with hyssop and I'll
be clean. That's what he's thinking. You know how he feels. You know
who's clean? It's those that feel themselves
to be unclean. You know that? You know who Jesus
Christ came to cleanse? Sinners. I mean Romans 7 sinners. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. You know the story over in Leviticus, how the leper had
come to the high priest in chapter 13, how the leper would come
to the high priest? I know John preached on that.
And the only person pronounced clean was that fella that had
leprosy all over him. He couldn't find one good spot
on his body. And he came to the high priest,
Johnny, and he said, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. And the
high priest said, clean. I don't understand. I do. Because
that's who Christ came for. He said, I didn't come for the
righteous. I came for sinners. The well
don't need a physician but those that are sick. Peter said, cleanse
me all over. And our Lord said, you're clean.
He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet. You're
clean. You're clean. Not all of you. He didn't come to lay his life
down for Judas, but for his own. You're clean. Not all of you.
He knew who would betray him, so he said, you're not all clean.
But not your feet, he said, your feet. Now what is it, what is
it that is in contact with the earth all the time? Our feet. our feet, always. We can't, we
can't, gravity holds us down. Sin seems to keep us on the ground,
just can't, our feet, your feet are on the ground, that's your
lowest part, and our flesh, the spirit is willing, but the flesh
is weak, and the flesh is sinful. The flesh, the flesh, the flesh,
we battle with this flesh, we feel so unclaimed on And so our
Lord tells us that you got to keep coming back to the water
of his word. You got to keep coming back to
hear the gospel of Christ to him crucified. And let me ask
you how you feel. When you come in here feeling
sinful, you've been out in the world and your thoughts and your
mind and your heart and everything, you feel so rotten and stinking
and filthy and just... And you come in here, Brother
Doug, and your pastor gets up and preaches this gospel of Christ
and Him crucified, full, free, final, effectual, eternal redemption
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. How do you feel? Clean. Washed through. Your mind's been
cleansed from the world. Your eyes have been opened, washed
with milk, fitly set. Your ears have been opened. Your
mouth full of praise and all that. And you walk out of his
place, you feel like flying, but no, you still got flesh.
And you're not out that door for 30 minutes. And you get dirty
again. So you keep coming back. That's
who needs this gospel. That's who needs this water,
isn't it? That's who needs this blood. You keep coming back,
keep coming back. And then he said, if I, your
master and Lord, have done this to you, you do it to one another.
It was an example in service. It was an example in humility.
He said, I've stooped to do this for you out of love and humility. You do the same for one another.
You know, we come into this world living for ourselves, loving
ourselves. We come in this world wanting
other people to serve us. No one. When you're born, you
want people to do something for you. But our Lord said, it's
more blessed to give than to receive. It's more blessed to
serve than to be served. And so what happens is the new
birth, when you're born again, you deny yourself. You deny yourself,
everything about yourself. And you take up the service.
You're in the service of your Lord, to his people. And that's
how you serve him. You wash his feet. Who are his
feet? Us. his body. We wash them, don't we, with
this water, with the word and seasons like your passion. May
the Lord bless that for his glory and honor and for your good.