Bibles again to John 13 John chapter 13 titled this message
if I wash thee not I Wash thee not we read through this depiction of Christ washing the feet of
His disciples, and all we see is an act of humility, of humbleness,
of Christian charity, one towards one another, and just being sweet
to everybody, and opening your home to folks, and giving them
all you got. You miss Christ. You miss the
person. You miss salvation. That's all
we got. Something for man to do. He says
in verse 1, we'll see who this is We'll see what He did. Throughout this story we have
here, we see Christ is God. He was one with the Father. The
Word was with God and the Word was God. And He came to this
earth and was made a man. The thing is too wonderful for
me. I can only see that through a
dim glass. We can't understand it. We can't
enter into those things. God Almighty. The triune God
and His Godhead and His Lordship was manifest into a body just
like us. He walked this earth for His
people. He lived for His people. He bore
the sins of His people. He died for His people. He was
buried for His people. He was risen for His people. That's been made one with Him.
Those put in Christ Before time ever was, when the Father purposed
it, to make a covenant of grace with Christ, put His people in
Him, loved them with an everlasting love. Made one with Him, He sat
down at the right hand of the Father, and He maketh intercession
for us. What a salvation we have. And
then He sends God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost comes to His people.
and informs them, announces to them what they are, the person
and the work of Christ that it's accomplished and that judgment's
settled. Verse 1 there in John 13, it
says, 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." That hour. Christ spoke of that
hour often, didn't He? His mother came to Him, that
first miracle, public miracle He performed, and said, we're
at this wedding and they run out of wine. He always said to him, Woman,
what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. My revealed glory, my exaltation
isn't now. That's what was on his mind,
what he was given to do. Those disciples asked him, Lord,
don't go to Jerusalem. Don't go. You've showed us what's
going to happen. Just stay here with us. Stay
with us a bit longer. He says in John 12, he answered
them, he said, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be
glorified. should be glorified. What's man's wisdom? Don't look
like glorifying to us, does it? From outside looking in. And
he told him, he said, now my soul is troubled. What shall
I say? Father, save me from this hour?
Should I ask the Father? He asked the disciples, should
I ask the Father to not give this hour to me? He said, for this cause, for
this cause came I unto this hour. That's why this hour is going
to happen on this earth. The whole earth is built around it.
It's the glorification, the exaltation, the completion of this work that
was given to Him by the Father. And all of that, you know what
the cause of that was? Why are we here? People have
been trying to answer that for eons, haven't they? Why are we
here? It was for the love of His own. The love of His own
for His children, His people, His sheep, His elect. It says,
having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto
the end. He loved His own. That is why
this hour is purposed by the determinate counsel and the full
knowledge of God. In love, this hour is purposed
because of Him, because of the love for His own. That's not
everybody without exception, is it? That's why he gives us
verse 2. And the supper being ended, the
devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's
son, to betray him. That wasn't his own. It was with
him. Sitting right next to him. Ate
a whole bunch of meals with him. Shared a sleeping bag with him.
That wasn't his own. He came here. This hour is coming
for the love of his own. having loved His own in the world,
those in those days, those that walked with Him, those before
Him, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Noah, all those before, all those
there that walked with Him as our Lord walked this earth, and
all those that came after Him, after His ascension, us in our
day. And if the Lord's pleased to let this earth keep spinning
for another couple generations, those to come. That's who they
were. He loves them to the end. What's
that end mean? He loves them to the end of our
physical lives. He loves them to the end of His
physical life on the cross. That's true, yes. But also we're
loved with an everlasting love. We only know lasting, don't we? It's only right now. We have
a memory of things that happened. We have anxiety of what's to
come. But we don't understand everlasting. We don't understand
eternity. Lord has put this in words we can handle. Something
we can chew on. Something we can understand. We were loved
with an everlasting love. It never began and it ain't ever
going to end. Boy, that's hope. What a gift. That's how we're called. Scriptures
say that's how we are drawn. We're drawn with an everlasting
love. That's how we're set apart. How you sanctified. How you anointed.
An everlasting love. Purpose to be in Christ. A love
without beginning and a love without end. That He loved His
own to the end of the work that was on the cross. That's what's
important to us. That's what makes that an everlasting
love. Till that punishment was given. The end of that punishment. Everything the Father had to
put on Him. I'm about going down my road today gently considering
those things. That's just for me. to the end
of that punishment that the sacrifice was accepted. The Father was
satisfied. Why'd He have to do that? Why'd
Christ have to come and die? Because my life ain't acceptable
of God. I'm not. Well, I could just die, couldn't
I? Couldn't I go to purgatory for 10,000 years? My death ain't
acceptable. That's why it's eternal. It don't
measure up. Boy, that ought to give us just
a glimpse of the value of the blood of the Son of God. That
proves He's God. What an accomplishment. John
tells us later in his life, he's writing to us now, this recording
of the gospel that walked this earth, the good news that he
spent three years laboring with, unimaginable. But when John was
old, he wrote to us and he said, herein is love. Not that we love
God, But that He loved us. He loved His own. You know what
John 1.11 says? He came to His own. His own received
Him not. You know how dismissive we can
be? Oh, that's the Jews. Was I out looking for Him? Was
I trying my best to receive Him? He had to come in love. and loved
me until it was irresistible. That grace had to come to me.
And that grace had to be irresistible. I didn't want nothing to do with
Him. I was still enemies with Him. While He was on that cross, those men
chiding Him, and cussing Him, and spitting at Him, and plucking
at His beard, and poking Him, making fun of our Lord. Making
fun of their Lord. They didn't know it yet. I said,
Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. What
happens over an axe? Peter preaches to him. Just told
him what happened. Told him the truth. Oh, and our
heart was melted. He came to his own. His own didn't
receive him. Killed him. And then he slew us. Thanks be
to God, he slew us. That hour was coming. But he
loved us. And he loved his own. And he
sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. That's what else
John tells us. The hour was coming for those that He hath loved,
His own, and Christ was being the propitiation. He was being
that acceptable, bloody, beaten sacrifice. A bloody sacrifice. And this love for His own, the
Lord Jesus is going to show His own this act of love and substitution. And they will be taught of God.
He's going to reveal His love In His elect, happily and willingly,
He comes to us. Just as His condescension, when
He came to this earth, He did it willfully. Living for His
people, hanging on that cross, His burial, every bit of it was
willful. He said, you don't take my life, I'll lay it down. And
His resurrection and intercession always for us. It says in verse
3, Jesus knowing Jesus knowing that the Father had given all
things into His hands. What's that? The universe or
galaxy or whichever one's bigger. We have to invent words to try
to even get an understanding of what this means. Everything. Everything and if there if there's
one molecule that God doesn't control That's just I could just
preach on the sovereignty of God all day. I love it. It's
comfort for me If there was one grain of dust that floated through
this universe somewhere that God didn't control you better
go hide under a mountain You talk about Crazy times It's going
to unravel. But He knew. He knew that the
Father had given all things into His hands and that He was come
from God. That's where He come from. He
knew we began somewhere. There was a time I wasn't here
and then I was here. He didn't. He has no beginning
and no end. He was with God. He was God. He was come from
God. He knew and went to God. He knew
where He was going. We began. He has no beginning
and end. But if you and I knew that, He knew what was happening. He knew the work He was given.
He knew it came from God. And He knew He was going to be
resurrected. He knew what was going to happen. He had full
faith and assurance and hope. That's what was going to happen.
Now if you and I knew what we were going to... If we knew what
was going to happen today, I knew what was going to happen this
season. Would I just drop everything I was doing and go wash people's
feet? I probably said, leave me alone. I know what's happening.
I'm going to go do something else. Wouldn't I? Would we do
what Christ did? Be patient and serve the Lord's
people? If we had the mind of Christ,
if we had the spirit of Christ, if we had the faith of Christ,
we would. Wouldn't we? That takes an act of God for
us to do that, for us to serve His people willingly. Look, turn
over to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. Begin in verse 5. Philippians
2 verse 5. Let this mind be in you which
was also in Christ Jesus. Who? Being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God. That's who He
was. He wasn't here on this earth
yet and He was in glory with His Father who He was equal with.
They're warm. Why is that lamb provided? Why
does it have so much worth? Because it is Almighty God in
human flesh. It's Almighty God and He's girded
in the towel of flesh. He put on man. He put on flesh. He's girded
in that towel of flesh. He put off His robe of holiness
as God in heaven and He become a man with no comeliness about
Him. with nothing. It says in verse 7, But he made
himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men. He willfully removed
that holy, heavenly garment, and he girded himself as a man
just like many a servant. Why? Because he loved his own.
He loved His own. And that hour was necessary.
That hour that was to come. In verse 8, it says, "...and
being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." The wages
of sin is death. And where there's no blood, there's
no remission of sin. So He must come and bear His
own come and bear His own people, those He loved perfectly from
everlasting to everlasting, and He's going to draw them to Himself,
and He's going to show them what happened. He's going to reveal
that to them. And back in our text here in
John 13, this is a picture of what Paul was writing to us,
it's what John had seen. He said in John 13, verse 4,
And He riseth from supper, and laid aside His garments, and
took a towel, and girded Himself. After that, he poured water into
a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them
with the towel wherewith he was girded. He rose from that table
he was sitting at with his father. He laid aside his heavenly garments
and he took a towel. He took human flesh and put it
on him. He girded himself. A custom that happened back then
is the lowest servant In that house, they had visitors come
by, the master come home, or even the kids come home from
school. Whoever was the lowest ranking servant, they started
off being servants by washing feet. And so you come over and
have dinner with me, everybody take their sandals off when they
got to the door, and whoever was the lowest on the pecking
order, that was their job. They'd go over and start washing
feet. Just like you start in a restaurant, you start out washing
dishes, don't you? You get all the scraps off the
dishes, get all them dirty things off there, now you gotta wash
them. That's your first job. You've got to get after it. People
would come visit and they'd take off their sandals and they'd
wash their feet. And here in Simon's house, where they was
eating, they didn't have any servants to do that. They weren't
upper middle class. They didn't have those things.
So Christ did it. God Almighty did it. This is
to show you and I that He rose from His table with His Father
and the Holy Ghost and laid aside His garments and put on the flesh.
He girded Himself. And He filled that basin. filled
that basin. Well, it's that trench the other
day that Elijah had them dig around that altar with Ahab and
those 450 prophets of Baal, wasn't it? That water didn't run all
over. It wasn't out just to make its own little pass and be wasted,
was it? No, it was caught in a trench.
There's a basin there. That sacrifice wasn't going to
run all over haphazard, and this washing wasn't going to run all
over haphazard. It was contained, and it was confined to a specific
task. It wasn't a water hose, it was
a basin, and it was applied individually. One at a time. How does the Lord
meet His people? He meets us individually. It
ain't a group effort. One-on-one. And it's one man
wide. He comes to us and he washes
us. And that towel was girded. It was tied to him. He got this
great big old towel. He had his outer robe that those
men wore at the time, an undergarment. He took off that outer robe and
he put this big towel around him and tied it off real good.
And they went around to wash their feet. And I thought, you
know what? He just get a stack of towels. One for each person,
maybe. Watch this one. See, that towel's
dirty. We'll set that over there. Alright, give me another towel.
I'm going to wash your feet. That's what we would do. Why did He
do that? Why did He get another one? That
dust there is a picture of our sin. He washed it and He removed
it from the disciples' feet and it was attached to His garment.
It was attached to Him. It left them and was on Him. That dust is our sin. It's wet
dust. It's mud. You know what that
is? Miry clay. Man. Red dirt. And He did this
for His own, for His children, and He bore their body on that
tree. He bore our mud, our sin. And
that doesn't... It's not the representation of
my mud. It was my mud. When the Father
looked at Christ, He saw I was clean, he was muddy, and he bore
it. He bore everything that meant.
Things we can't even enter into, he bore it. This is not just
an example of Christian humility. This is how men and women are
made just before a holy God we offended. That's substitution
and satisfaction that man can't accomplish. That's what that
is. Peter didn't see that at the time, did he? He knew the
Lord walked with him a long time, but he hadn't entered into this.
He hadn't understood it. Look here at verse 6, John 13,
6. Then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord,
dost thou wash my feet? You gonna wash mine too? And
Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not
now, but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter yanked his feet back a
little bit, didn't he? Hold on now. He questioned the Lord. I don't condone Peter questioning
the Lord, but I understand it. He didn't know yet what this
represented, but Peter knew that that was God in the flesh. Peter
knew he was a sinner. That was his Lord and his God,
and he knew he ought to be washing Christ's feet. That's what he
knew. I'd probably say the same thing.
Lord, I need to wash your feet. Don't wash my feet. I want to
be like Eli. It's the Lord. Let Him do what
He seems good. What seemeth good to Him. Oh,
if we could wait on the Lord. If we knew that we didn't know
much, that'd serve us well. We could just hush and wait on
the Lord. That would serve us well. This religious world all
around us, they have answers for every little thing. And then
they write books to make those things bigger than they are.
They got answers for everything, but they don't even know what
the question is. Giving answers for everything they don't know
the questions are. Like that blind man that was healed. Everybody
come to him. How? How'd this happen? How'd
this happen? How'd this happen? And ask who? Who did this? Am I blind too?
Just don't know it? Right now, we that know the Lord,
we know Him. We know a person. But there is
so much more we don't know. things too wonderful for us to
enter into. We see in part, we know in part,
but we know Him. And that growth in grace and
knowledge and understanding, that's a slow growth because
it comes through experience. The Lord takes His time with
us. He doesn't just tell us things. He shows them to us. He makes
us know them. We have to live it and breathe
it. And then you get a good handle on it, don't you? A little bit
at a time. A little bit at a time. He didn't overwhelm his children.
It feels like it. Oh, it feels like it. But just
like him growing pains when you're a teenager and you're shooting
up real fast. Boy, it just aches, don't it? Growing. There's some
aches that come along with growing in grace, too. Because there's
a new man being created. There's a new bone being created.
There's going to be some pain with that. Oh, how thankful we
ought to be. How eager we ought to be that
it be slow. We're His. That's our Father. We know Him.
That's life. We have life. Boy, we ought to
be eager for it to be slow. Well, Peter's just like me, though,
isn't he? He's headstrong. It says in verse 8, Peter saith
unto Him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Never. He went from humility, Lord,
are you going to wash my feet, to demanding and correcting the
Lord. Do you see a difference there?
How fast we are to jump to correcting the Lord, the Almighty God. He said, never. He'd said that
before, hadn't he? Peter was so adamant. He was so resolute.
He was standing strong all the time, wasn't he? Lord, these
others, they may forsake you. I'll never forsake you. Never. Men claim this and many aspects
of religion that it's for the glory of Christ that they must
do their part. They must never do some things.
They must always do something else. They must serve. They must
carry part of the load. Oh, you ain't going to wash my
feet. Never. I'm going to have a hand
in this. I'm going to help you. No, you
must be made one with Christ. You must be made He must be made
your surety, a hundred percent. He must lift you out of the miry
clay. That means He's going to get
underneath you to lift you out. Outside of speaking about our
Lord and His promises here in the Scriptures, I should not
be so concrete and absolute in my words. I should. I may do
something, I may not do something. Well, I'd never do that. No,
you just might. Give it a couple days. Let some
things change. But we should be absolute on
the Lord's promises. He said, I'll never leave you
or forsake you. Never. Boy, my nevers don't matter,
do they? Now his does. His does. That's something you hang your
hat on. That's his nail on the shore place right there. He says there
in verse 8, Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my
feet. And Jesus answered him and said, If I wash thee not,
thou hast no part with me. Notice the Lord didn't say, if
I don't wash your feet, you don't have any part with me. He said,
if I don't wash thee, thee. Well, maybe we ain't talking
about foot washing, huh? The Lord's showing them something. Might be teaching them something.
Who does the washing? Christ does. That's who takes
that sin away and bears it away. His body on the tree. Making
them whole. Giving them a holy nature in
them. Inability to sin. Christ does
the washing. What's washed? Half of it and you've got to
do the other half? I'm going to get behind your ears, but
you've got to do your hands and your feet. No, the totality of
the person is washed. Complete. Complete washing. What are His own washed in? It's
only His own that's washed. What are we washed in? Just water
that's in a basin? The blood of Christ. We're washed
in His blood. There in verse 9, Simon Peter
saith unto Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands
and my head. Lord, don't just wash these feet
that walk sinfully through this earth every day. My walk was
terrible. Wash the works of my hands, everything
I lay a hand to. Wash the thoughts in this wicked
mind that I'm stuck in. Wash me all over. Hearing the
gospel preached, hearing of the person and the work, who He is,
holy, unblameable, unreprovable, the Almighty God in human flesh,
who Christ is and what He did. In love, that hour came. He took
all that mud, that's me, this dirt of this earth and He bore
it and He cleansed me. Hearing of that does not make
a person say, boy I need to get my life squared away, I need
to start living right, I need to get on the straight and narrow.
I'm going to have to quit smoking and dipping and chewing and cussing
and carrying on with people that do. I'm going to have to start
living right. No, when the Spirit moves on a sinner's heart through
the preaching of the Word, through the preaching of Christ, Him
and Him crucified, they're like Peter. They beg throughly and
thoroughly, completely, to be washed. Lord, wash me. Wash all of me. You're the only
one that can wash me. Come to me. They willfully submit. They'll knock you out of the
way to get to Him. And they beg, Lord have mercy on me a sinner.
Lord have mercy on me. He does this for His own who
are still living in this world. And there's still some here because
this world is still here, isn't it? We're still housed in this
body of death. That's who He does it for. It
says in verse 10, Jesus saith unto him, He that washeth He
that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean
every whit, and ye are clean, but not all." What he's saying
there is, that's worded kind of funny for us in our day, is
that if he's that's washed, you're ever bit clean, only thing you
need washed is your feet. What's that mean? Well, physically. This was common knowledge back
then, and some places it still is. About everybody I know has
got running water. They got plumbing in their homes.
So you go take a shower, and then you put on house shoes or
whatever you want. You're already in the house. But they used to have
common baths, old Greek bath houses, Roman bath houses. And
so you'd leave your home, and you'd go, and you'd take a bath.
You'd be clean all over, and then you'd walk back home. Well,
you walked on dirt streets, dirt paths, through fields and deserts
and everything else, and your feet got dirty. So all you had
to have was your feet clean. I've experienced this. I've lived
for extended periods of time in a place that didn't have a
shower, and you had to walk in flip-flops 100 or 200, 300 yards
to go take a shower, and boy, you feel just clean. You got
all that sand washed off of you. Oh, it feels so good. And then
you knew you had to walk back. And from here down, you're going
to get you some wappies or something. You're going to have to clean
your feet when you get home. It'd be nasty. You're clean from there
up. You bought by the blood of Christ, you are every wick clean.
Your head's clean, your hand's clean, but your feet's still
in the dust of this earth. We still walk through this world,
don't we? Our salvation, it's eternal. It's life in Christ
right now, but we still walk in this world. Still all around
us. We're still in these bodies of
death. I know we're led by the Spirit, and I know we walk by
faith, but our old man ain't dead yet. We haven't shed that
body of death. Our Lord taught us to pray, didn't
He? He said, lead us not into temptation. Father, keep us from
sinning. Keep this dust of the world off
of me. Keep me off of me. But He also
taught us to pray, forgive us our sins. One of the old Puritans,
he wrote it this way, I wake up in the mornings praying to
the Lord to keep me from sinning. Every morning I wake up, Lord,
don't let me sin today. And you know what happens every
night when I go to bed? Lord, forgive me for all the sinning
I did today. That's what this whole body is, isn't it? We need
mercies new every day. We need our pure minds stirred.
We need to be reminded of the person that is our salvation
every day, who is our washing. We need to be reminded of the
person that is our heaven, that we are going to when this life
is over. Verse 3 it says, Jesus knowing that the Father had given
all things into His hands and that He was come from God and
went to God. The Lord knew that, didn't He?
I'm glad I don't. I'm glad I don't know my end. I'm tickled to death I don't.
How the Lord walked this earth knowing exactly what His end
was. Knowing what was coming and still walked in perfect faith
and humility and love to the Father. Can't even imagine that. I was made here. But I know Christ
came from God because He is God. And that work He did was on my
behalf and on behalf of all His people. All of His own. And when my appointed time comes,
I'm going to Him. Because of who He is, what He
did, and what He promised His people. We have that assurance,
don't we? But not everybody. A lot of people
think they have that assurance and they don't. That's not everybody.
A lot of people watch themselves and they lie to themselves and
say, I accepted Jesus. I helped him. He's my co-pilot.
I'm going to go be with him when this life's over. That ain't
what the Lord taught, was it? Not all. Not all. Not even the
people there that got their feets washed that day. That hit me. That study has got a whole lot
of tears on the floor. Look here in verse 11. For he
knew who should betray him, therefore he said, ye are not all clean.
I've learned a lot the last couple of years from how our Lord treated
Judas. But in this context, why did
the Spirit move John to write this here? To record the Master
saying, you're not all clean. We know Judas was there. We know
that now, don't we? Verse 2 told us that. Judas was
there with them. Why is he telling us that again?
Well, they're all washed. Physically. Even Judas. But it
wasn't that physical washing that was miraculous. Physically
getting in that pullover ain't going to do you nothing. If the
Lord baptizes you in the heart and the Holy Spirit, if He's
going to work in here, you're going to get in the pool. That's
going to happen. But doing that outward physical
activity ain't of no benefit whatsoever. It's a heart work. It's a heart work. That's who was life giving. Not
what was life giving, who was life giving. It was the person
of the Lord and His work at Calvary. That's what did it. just as it
is for you and me. After all the work's done, Christ
is now on His throne in glory. We're informed about it. That's
in our day. Look here in verse 12. So after
He had washed their feet, after that sin was laid on Him, after
He had made His people clean, and He had taken His garments,
that's plural, isn't it? That towel He had girded around
Him that took that mud off Him, people, off their feet, it's
away, put away, as far as the east is from the west. Our sin's
gone. And He put on His other garment,
His robe of righteousness. He put that back on. And was
set down again in that right robe. He's seated at the right
hand of the Father. And He said unto them, Know ye what I have
done to you? That's amazing, isn't it? I see
this in part. We see this in part. You know what He's done
for us? Do we really know what Christ
has done for His people? The hour's coming where you're
going to see this play out. He's telling them, but I've washed
you. I've washed you. I've forgiven you. I've came
and washed you. I've bore your sins away. I've
saved you. I've saved you. And He gives
them instruction here. Multiple times a day, we are
told to forgive the trespasses of our brethren. 70 times 70.
Because Christ did. Forgive the sin. Just wash it
down the drain. Run some water over it, just
like you're washing off somebody's feet. Get rid of it. Because
of what He's done for us. There in verse 13 it says, You
call me Master and Lord, and you say, Well, for so I am. If then your Lord and Master
have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet.
Are you saying that I ought to just take whatever sin it is? I mean anything. that a child
of God commits to me, in front of me, around me, and I ought
to just wash it away like it's dirt off of somebody's feet?
Yep. That's exactly what he's saying. Put it away. Put it away. We need to forget the sin of
those that Christ died for because He has. He has. And that comes at a great price.
He's put those sins away. That's what Paul wrote to us.
He said, who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
How am I going to accuse my brethren? You ain't doing that, probably.
Y'all ought to be like me. Y'all do this, y'all do that.
How could I even say those things? I would never do that! I'm about
to get taught different, ain't I? This outward act that was performed,
this wasn't an ordinance. Some people where I grew up,
I don't know about any out here, but they would practice washing
each other's feet, and they'd do it quarterly, or every six
months, or once a year. And this is a daily thing. Multiple
times a day. Every time you come inside somebody's
house, people walk down the street, oh I forgot eggs, I gotta run
back to the store. Come back home, you gotta wash your feet
again. He's in this world, you gotta wash your feet again. Every
time you come home, you gotta have your feet washed. And he
says in verse 15, for I have given you an example, not an
ordinance, I'm giving you an example, I'm showing you something,
a type of picture that you should do as I have done to you. Those
who are His own, those who have been washed in the blood, they
will have a heart of forgiveness, and mercy, and fruit of the Spirit,
and longsuffering, and all those things, and it's going to overflow
out of them. Those scriptures say our cup
is going to run over. It's going to overflow. It's
going to abound out of you. Verse 16 says, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. Neither
he that sinned is greater than he that sinned. That's what I
was telling you before. You can serve the Lord's people
and not serve the Lord, but you can't serve the Lord and not
serve the Lord's people. He served His people, didn't He? He washed
their feet. He cared for them. He wept with
them. He laughed with them. He hugged
them. We're going to have to do the same thing. He's going
to have us with Him. Verse 17, if you know these things, Happy
are ye if you do them. Every time we give, we forgive,
we love, we're long-suffering, it's because we know these things.
That's the source of it. That's why we do these things.
Because we know these things. And boy, we're happy to do them.
Happy to get to do them. What a great opportunity. The
Lord's let me serve His people. We see what He's done for us.
The condemnation that I rightfully earned, the sin that was mine,
I committed, I was the sin, chief of sinners. He put that on that
garment that his gird tied up to him. And he said, I'll put
my garment away. I'll take care of that. All that I've been forgiven.
How couldn't I forgive somebody that's just having a bad day?
Or they're having a bad year? Or the Lord ain't grow them yet.
They just don't know them no better. Turn over Ephesians 4 and I'll
let you go. Ephesians chapter 4. That attitude of seeing what
He's done for us. Paul writes to the church of
Ephesus, there in verse 29. Ephesians 4, 29. Let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth. But that which is good to the
use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed
unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, all wrath,
all anger, all clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice. Be kind one to another. tender-hearted,
forgiving one another. Why would we do that? It's so
fun to be mad sometimes. High on anger. How would we do
all these things? Even as God for Christ's sake
hath. That's before, that's today,
and that's forever. Hath forgiven you. What a motivation
it is. When He brings us to remember,
like that song, in our hymnal. Living, He loved me. Dying, He
saved me. Buried, He carried my sin far
away. Rising, He justified. Freely. Forever. One day He's coming. Oh, glorious
day. This One that saved us, this
One that girded Himself in human flesh, bore me, put me away,
gave me His righteousness, made me righteousness of God. He's
coming again. This One that saved me. If I
don't go to Him first, if He don't take me home to glory,
He's coming. Oh, what a day that will be.