Psalm 51. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender
mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have
I sinned and done evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be
justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth
in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me
to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy
face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in
me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence,
and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation. and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors
thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Deliver
me from blood guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and
my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open
thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou
desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest
not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Do good in thy pleasure unto
Zion. Build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with
the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole
burnt offering. Then shall they offer bullets
upon thine altar. Let's pray together. Oh, Lord, our God, Our God, who
is above the heavens, who has created all things, who upholds
all things by the word of his power. Lord, we come into that presence. At least somewhat aware of how
great a God we worship. Lord, how thankful we are for
this written word. For this prayer of David's. Lord, cleanse us. Oh, be merciful
to us according to that loving kindness. Give us hearts that know that
only before thee and thee only have we done this evil. That we might come to thee and
beg for your mercies. For Lord, you delighteth in mercy,
and we praise you for it. Father, meet with us tonight,
send your spirit, anoint your preacher, all giving liberty
and boldness with which to proclaim Christ. But don't just anoint
him, Lord, anoint us the hearers. Open our ears. Touch our hearts
with your word. And Lord, grow us in the knowledge
of Christ Jesus and give us faith, Lord. Forgive us of our sins,
Lord. Again, they're against thee and
thee alone. and save us by your grace. Lord,
we pray for the sick among us. Oh, if it be your will, restore
their health, strengthen their bodies. But Lord, send your word
to comfort their heart, even in their distresses. Father,
we pray for those that are traveling. Return them to us safely, if
it be your will. All these things we ask in the
name of your Son, our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. Amen. I'm going to read down to verse
11 again. Well, no, I'll start in verse
four. We'll start at verse four. He rises from supper and laid
aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself. After that,
he pours water into a basin and began to wash the disciples'
feet and to wipe with the towel wherewith he was girded. Then
cometh he to Simon Peter, And Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost
thou wash my feet? Our Lord answered and said unto
him, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt
never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash
thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto him,
Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said
to him, he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet. That's all he needs to do, just
his feet needs to be washed. But is clean ever wit, and you
are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray
him, therefore he said, you are not all clean. Now foot washing is mentioned
several times and I'm gonna talk tonight about true foot washing,
what it really means. Foot washing is mentioned several
times in the scriptures. The first time it's mentioned
is when Abraham was sitting in his tent door and the Lord Jesus,
three men, he saw them far off coming and he rose up quickly
and had them to come into his house and turn in here. And he
said, and I'll get some water, fetch some water, and I'll wash
your feet. Stay here. And then the second time, one
of the times it's mentioned, let me show you, this is one
of the reasons. Look with me over in 1 Timothy chapter 5.
This is what it means, really means about washing feet. And
men and women in the scriptures where they wash feet. And this
has been carried to the extreme. Washing feet has been carried
to the extreme among lots of people. You know, they think it shows
their humility and shows, you know, that they don't care to
get down and wash somebody's feet or something like that.
Well, the idea is having a foot washing, public foot washing
among all the people of God after a Lord's Supper or something.
It's false. It's a false thing. Their understanding
is wrong. Absolutely wrong. Now if somebody's
sick, somebody's not able to do it, you're glad not only to
wash their feet, but you're glad to wash them all over. Count
it an honor to take care of one of the Lord's people and watch
out for them. But this is something about something
altogether different. Look here in 1 Timothy chapter
5 and verse 9. Let not a widow be taken into
the number under threescore years old. Now a woman that doesn't
have a husband, that's a widow, she's 60 years old, and you take
her in and the church be responsible for her, under threescore, having
been the wife of one man. Now watch this, well reported
of for good works, if she hath brought up children, if she hath
lodged strangers, now watch this, if she hath washed the saints'
feet, if she hath relieved the afflicted, if she hath diligently
followed every good work. Now when people there, they wore
sandals, some of them didn't even wear sandals, they went
barefoot. And when they come into somebody's house, One of
the first things that people done is they wash their feet.
They wash their feet so they come in their house, make them
feel comfortable, refresh them, get the dust off their feet.
And that's what it says, if she's washed the saints' feet. If strangers
come in, she washes their feet, she makes them feel comfortable,
but then that whole hot, dusty desert, dry land over there,
wash that dust off their feet, wash that dirt off their feet,
make them feel at home. And that's what it was about.
But back over in John 13, but as our Lord washes these disciples'
feet, we see the true meaning of foot washing. You remember
I told you this morning our Lord's feet were anointed by Mary. You
see, His walk was always perfect, always perfect. He's holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners. He never took a false step. He
never, everything about Him was perfect. He did not need washed
in any respect as far as God was concerned like you and I.
He never got defiled the way you and I got defiled. Never
got defiled that way. But the disciples, you and me,
the saints, we don't walk perfectly. We don't walk perfectly in this
world. And our feet, their feet became dirty, defiled, and our
Lord Jesus Christ washes them here where I read to you. And
where he read, wash me throughly. Wash me throughly. Cleanse me. Purge me. wash me. And that's what our Lord Jesus
Christ says. But what a contrast here. And
I told you that this morning. Now look in verse 2, after loving
them that was all. He says, the supper being ended,
the devil now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son,
to betray him. What a contrast. The devil now
having put into his heart. He went from hearing about the
love of Christ and the preciousness of Christ and the heart of Christ
to hate. Just that quick. From the Savior
to Satan. From being called one of his
own to being called one that would betray him, become a traitor. Why this dark, why this dark
contrast, this troublesome statement at this place between chapter
verse 1 and verse 4, when he rises from supper, laid aside
his garment, took a towel, and girded himself? Well, I'll tell
you why it's such a contrast. It sets forth so much more beautifully. What follows? The grace and the
love and the power of Christ. It always shines more brightly
on a dark background. You know, when you go in to look
at a diamond or go in and look at a ring, they've always got
it on black. Black or a real, real dark blue
because it makes it stand out more, makes it shine brighter.
And the darker The situation that Christ comes to us in, the
more the grace of Christ, the more the love of Christ, the
more beauty of Christ shines forth, the darker the background.
And that's what a dark background he's doing here. And our Lord
Jesus knew all things that was coming his way, that he came
from his father's hands and was going back to his father. But
now let me show you several things here if I can this evening. The
first thing I want to talk about, our Lord washing these disciples'
feet reveals much of the character of our God and our Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. It says here He rises from supper.
He's sitting down, He's eating with these men. How would you
like to have a meal with the Lord Jesus Christ? Lazarus is
sitting there that the Lord Jesus raised him from the dead. And
he gets to sit down and eat a meal with the Lord Jesus Christ. How
would you like to be Martha who sat down a meal in front of him?
Here, master, sit down a plate of food in front of him. And I guarantee you, our Lord
Jesus would say, oh, that's wonderful food. I'm sure he commended her
very well. But oh, he rises from supper.
And oh, we see his humility, we see his meekness, we see how
that our Lord Jesus Christ truly, truly was a man of meekness and
lowliness of character, a man of the deepest humility that
ever was. They said there's not a meeker
man on the earth than Moses. Ain't that what it said about
Moses? Well, listen, Moses wrote about Christ. And so our Lord
Jesus in his humility and his meekness and his lowliness, look
what he said. He laid aside his garments. That's the first thing he did.
He laid aside his garments. He took off his clothes. He laid
aside his garments, and all the garments, beloved, and you think
about our Lord Jesus Christ laying aside his garments of his glory,
laying aside the garments of his deity when he came into this
world and veiled it in this old flesh down here so people couldn't
see his glory. And he laid aside his garments,
just laid them aside. What humility. And then when
he done that, he rushed and got a towel. And he wrapped that
towel around himself. And he wrapped that town around
himself, and oh, look what else it says there. And then he himself
took the water. He wretched got the water, and
he had a basin, and he poured the water into that basin. And
this tells us that everything that happens in this world, our
Lord Jesus Christ does it towards his people. He girded himself. He laid aside
his garment. He took the water and poured
it into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet. Now,
water in the scriptures is an emblem of the word. Wherewith
shall a young man cleanse his way, but taking heed thereto
according to thy word. And I read it to you this morning,
Ephesians 5, 26, where it said he sanctified the church. How? With the washing of water by
the word. This Word, He said, sanctify
them through Thy Word. Thy Word is true. And this Word
washes us and cleanses us and purifies us and speaks to us
in so many ways. But here He is, the Lord of glory,
the Lord of glory. dwelt in the bosom of the Father,
the Lord of glory, the King of kings, the very Son of God's
love, laying aside his garments. Look at me, you keep John 13
and look in Philippians 2 with me, just a moment. Philippians
2, look what it said over here. You know, laying aside, he humbled
himself, he emptied himself. And it says here about our Lord
Jesus Christ, look what it says about Him in verse 7, Philippians
2, but made Himself of no reputation. He's laying aside His garments
here. He's the King of kings and the
Lord of lords. He's the Lord of glory here.
And he made himself of no reputation. He didn't say, listen, you fellas
need to be washing my feet. Don't you know who I am? Don't
you know what power I have? No, no. He's dealing with his
elect now. And took upon him the form of
a servant. And you know it was the work
of a servant to wash the feet of guests at a feast, and he
took upon himself the form of a servant. And look what it says,
and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself. And
that word humbled himself means he emptied himself. He emptied
himself. And oh my, that's why when people
would say, that's why they wanted to crucify him, they said, you're
a man making yourself to be God. You're just a man. We know your
father. We know your mother. And our
Lord Jesus Christ laid His glory aside. Laid His power aside in
an instant like this. Laid everything aside. He laid
it aside and became a servant. and in emptying himself, laid
aside and girding himself. And I tell you, we see more of
His glory, more of His holy character and Him doing this for His people
than if He had not done it. You talking about glory, you
talking about majesty, you talking about power, you talking about
the Lord of glory, Getting down before the feet of sinful men
like you and me? Taking a basin of water, taking
off his clothes and taking a basin of water and pouring water in
it? And get down to your feet? Oh, listen, oh, the first thing
we see is his humility, his meekness, his lowliness. But yet he was
so full of grace and glory. See his holy character here.
And then secondly, look at the depth of his love and his grace. He's washing feet. Washing feet. Here's the thing, not only who's
doing it, it's the Lord of glory who's doing it, but look who
he's doing it for. You know who he's doing it for?
His own. That's who He loved, wasn't it? That's who He's talking about
here. He's doing it for His own. And His own which were in the
world. You know, people in glory don't
need their feet washed. People in glory don't need to
be cleansed from their daily walk. People in glory are perfect. They're the spirits of just men
made perfect. We're still in this world. We're
still in this world of sin and sorrow and grief and dirt and
filth and contamination. And you know how contaminated
your walk gets and you don't have to leave your house. You
don't even have to get out of bed. You can do it washing dishes.
You can do it in your wheezy chair. You can do it watching
television. You can get your feet defiled
riding a car. And, oh, look who he's doing
it for. That's what's astonishing to me, who he's doing it for. Ah, it's the fact that he even
humbles himself to behold the things in heaven, and then he
comes down here and dwells among us? And, oh, listen, he done
it for his own, which were in the world. We only need this
while we're in the world. And the third thing, look here,
the care and protection that he gives us all. It says here,
After the verse five, after they poureth water into a basin and
began to wash the disciples' feet. Foot washing, cleansing. And you know why he does that
for us? To preserve us while we're in this world. You just,
you know how many times have you prayed, Lord, leave me not
to myself. Leave me not to myself. And that's
what he's doing here. He's protecting and caring his
people in this world. He's protecting them, their feet,
and where they would go and what they would do. He gets down to
wash their feet to show them, I care for you, I protect you,
and I know you in this world. He prayed to his father in John
17. He says, take them not out of the world. I don't pray that
you take them out of the world. but that you keep them from the
evil one that's in the world. Father, they're not of the world
no more than I'm of the world. But he's not in the world anymore.
You and I are. And oh, look what else he does
now. After he pours that water in the basin and began to wash
the disciples' feet, he had to go but one at a time. He had
11 men there. Well, Judas may have still been
there. It said that Satan just entered into his heart, but he
went by them. There's 12 men there he's going
to worship. And I don't believe he just wretched
in the pan and wiped them off. I believe that he actually washed
them. I mean, he took his hands and washed them. And then he says here, then he
cometh to Simon Peter and And Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost
thou wash my feet? Now he's going to teach us something
by the word. By the word did he tell Simon
here. And Simon says, Do thou wash my feet, Lord? Now it's
seeming like it's humility, but it's not. It's reverence for
Christ. I don't think he's irreverent
here. I don't think he's disobedient. I think he's absolutely astonished
And he wonders at the condescension of Christ, and he thinks he's
really, really, Lord, do you mean to tell me that you're going
to get down and wash my feet? It's not an act of disobedience.
It was a wonder at the condescension of Christ, astonished that the
Lord Jesus would do this thing. And I don't think it was just
an out-and-out rebellion against Christ. I don't think it's irreverence
even for Christ. It's astonishment, it's wonder,
it's full of astonishment. How can this be, Lord? And look what our Lord said to
him. Jesus said, what I do thou knowest not now. You don't know
what I'm doing. You do not understand what I'm
doing, Simon Peter. But if you'll just wait, you'll
know later, you'll know hereafter. And our Lord told him, oh, listen,
Peter, I'm teaching you something here. I'm teaching you something. You just be still. You just be
quiet. And I'll teach you something
here, and you'll learn something about me. You'll learn something
about yourself. You'll learn something about
your need. And you'll learn something that I'm the only one that can
meet that need. And oh, and I'll tell you something,
me and you, I must speak for me. I'll just speak for me. We
need to learn how to honor God. Simon Peter here wasn't honoring
God. We need to learn how to honor
God. Look with me over in 1 Corinthians 8, 9. 1 Corinthians 8, 9. We need to
learn how to honor God. Not question Him, not argue with
Him, not debate with Him, not say, why, Lord? Why, Lord? And God's going to get honor
from everybody on this earth. He's either going to honor himself
in grace towards them, or he's going to honor himself in justice
for them. But us that are God's people,
those that are His own, we want to honor Him. We want our minds
to honor Him in our thinking. We want the words that we say
to honor Him and glorify Him and magnify His blessed name,
His grace and His power. We want our hearts to stand in
awe of Him and wonder of Him and His greatness and His power
and His glory and His love and His majesty. We want our feet
and our hands to do the things that won't distract from the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we need to learn to do that.
And look what it said here. in 1 Corinthians 8 and verse
2. And even his disciples were ignorant
of much concerning our Lord's way. And if any man think that
he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet, as he ought to know. About the time you think you
got all your T's crossed and all your I's dotted, you're going
to find out there's a heapsot more T's and a lot more I's.
And you know what it said over in Galatians 5.3? It says, when
a man thinks he's something, when he's really nothing, he
just deceives himself. And that's what Simon Peter's
doing here. We need to learn from Simon Peter,
he needs to learn to honor God. We need to learn how to honor
God. And oh, look what it says here in verse 8 now. Back over
in John 13. Peter saith unto him, our Lord
just told him, says, you know, Peter, I'm going to teach you
something if you'll just listen. You don't know what I'm doing
now, Peter. So why are you asking? Well, Peter, he was a man of
extremes. One minute he's going to die
with Christ, the next few hours he denies him three times. And he stood up for Christ in
the garden and he cut off a man's ear. to defend Christ. So he was a man of great extremes. He was either, depart from me
Lord, I'm a sinful man, or Lord, I'm going to go to jail with
you if you have to. You know, he was a man of extremes.
But look what he said here in verse 8, Peter saith unto him,
thou shalt never wash my feet. Now, he's saying things And a
man ought never say, Lord, you never tell God what he's not
going to do. Tell the Lord what he's not going
to do. Tell the Lord he can't do this. Lord, thou shalt never
wash my feet. Wash everybody else's, but you
ain't washing mine. Well, our Lord put him in his
place real quick. Jesus answered him, if I wash
thee not, thou hast no part with me. Peter should have listened
to our Savior. He should have learned to watch.
He should have learned to wait. He should have learned to listen.
And what Christ said to him, but Peter says, you'll never. You'll never. Oh, my. Oh, Lord, whatever you do, just
do what you will. Huh? Oh, listen, and I'll tell
you how different is God's ways in our ways, God's thoughts in
our thoughts. He uses the weak to confound
the mighty. Here's the son of God humbling
himself, and he confounds all the mighty of the king. You think
our president would get down and wash his cabinet's feet? But he takes the weak to confound
the mighty. And he takes the very foolish.
How foolish it is. You're the king of kings, the
lord of glory. You're fixing to leave here and
go back to heaven. And here you are, you're washing
these. That's the most foolish thing
I ever heard tell of. He couldn't be anybody that would
wash somebody's feet. He just, that's something a servant
does. Oh, God's ways are different than ours and his thoughts than
ours. And thank God he's not like us. And I'll tell you one
thing, bless his name, he doesn't treat us after the way we act,
after what we say. Now, if he had treated Simon
Peter the way he talked and the way he acted, what do you think
would have happened? All right, you don't want me
to worship Peter. You don't have no part with me. And just went
on to the next. But that's not the way our Lord
treats his elect. He knows exactly what we're going
to say. He knows exactly. That didn't surprise him that
Simon Peter said that. He told Simon Peter after he
said, you know, I'm going to go to jail with you. I'll go
to prison. I'll even die with you. He said, I know that's what
you want to do, Simon, but I know what you're going to do. You
know what you're going to do? You're going to deny me three
times for the rooster crows in the morning. He went from cutting
a man's ear off to deny him. Go to defend him and then he
denied him. I tell you that's a, you think,
you think, that's why, oh, I know that in me, in my flesh dwells
no good thing. And oh, but instead of treating
Simon Peter the way he acted, you know what he treated him
with? Grace, love, forgiveness, pity, compassion, and oh, listen,
and he says, oh, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Oh, if I wash thee not, and I
tell you something about it, if our feet get washed, the way
our Lord's talking about it, he's the only one that can do
it. We can't wash our own feet like our Lord washed us. No,
no, I know people you know where you got to live a holy life like
this You got to live a holy life like that and you can't live
this way and you can't live that way Listen the only way I'm gonna
live is the way God saved me by grace That's the way I'm gonna
live Seen a fellow debating the other day about you know I'm
going I believe of salvations by grace, but I believe you got
to do this and I got to do that I ain't putting no butts on it
No, no, no. I know me too well. I know me
too well. And he said, if I wash thee not,
if I don't wash you, you can't wash yourself, Simon Peter. You
can't cleanse your walk yourself, Simon Peter. And no part with
me to say our Lord to say no part with me. And what he means
by that is no portion of what I do. Huh? No part of what I'm doing? No part of my death? No part
of my blood? No part of my righteousness?
No part of my forgiveness? No part of my justification? No communion with Christ? No
fellowship with Christ? No participation with me? When
our Lord told Simon Peter that, you know what he said? He got,
he got, he understood then what our Lord was talking about. Look
what he said in verse nine. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord! Don't just wash my, wash my head
even. Start at the top and go all the
way down. That's what he said. Oh, he couldn't
bear the thought of not having a part with the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, not my feet only. but also
my hands. My hands, they're contaminated
too. And my head, cause my brain and
my imagination. The fact that I would tell you
that thou'll never wash my feet. There's something wrong with
my mind. Oh Lord, wash my mind too. Wash my mind too. Something wrong with it to make
me say that you'll never wash my feet. And oh Lord, he says,
what I, what he's saying is, Lord, I want to part with you.
This is the part, this is the desire of every believer. I want
to part with Christ. You know, the only people that
want to be saved is people that saved. Look with me in Psalm
139. The world don't understand that.
Religion don't understand that. Fundamentalism don't understand
that. I've got a no-show religion. Well, I know that Christ died
for sinners, and I'm a sinner. I know that Christ's blood's
cleansed from all sin, and I am not trusting anything I am, anything
I've done, anything I've said, anything I've ever been involved
in. Only thing I trust, and the only person I trust, the Lord
Jesus Christ and His righteousness. That's it. His work. His person. And I'll tell you, you know,
you find somebody that says, well, there's something wrong
with you if you want to be saved. I'll tell you why I say, Lord,
I want to be saved because I know how deceitful my heart is. And I know if the Lord, I have
been saved, I am being saved and oh, God saved me. And as
old Barnard said, one of these days we're going to be plumb
saved. We'll go, go to sleep. Here, wake up in
glory. That's what you call blood saved. But oh Lord, he said, I want
to have a part with you. Wash my head, oh my head. The fate of my brain would say
such things to you. That my hands, oh they've sinned
too. wash my feet. And this is what
believers, this is what they want. Look what he said here
in verse 24 of Psalm, verse 23 of Psalm 139. This is the way
we are. Search me. Search me, O God. Search me. Search me. Search my mind. Search my heart. Search my will. Search my affections. Search my motive. Search my desires. Search my will. Search me. Know my heart. Know it. Oh, Lord, know it. Try
me. You mean you want God to try
you? You want God to put you in a
trial, and to try you, and to put you in the fire, to put you
in a great trial? Yes, try me, Lord. And know what
my thoughts will be when you do try me, when you do search
me. Know what I think, know what
I feel, told please. And then he said, and see, And when you know me, and when
you try me, and you see what my thoughts hear when you do
that, and see if there be any wicked way in me. Oh, don't you think it was a wicked
thing for Simon Peter to say, Lord, you'll never wash my feet. That's an awful thing to say
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell him he'll never do something. And if there be any wicked way
in me, you lead me away from that, and you lead me in the
way of everlasting. Have you ever prayed that prayer? If I was to throw this glass,
take it outside, I couldn't break it here. But if I was to take
this glass outside and just throw it down, it'd shatter it to pieces. And it would take a miracle for
that thing to be put back together just like it was. Well, I think,
and this is only me now, I'll quit preaching and tell you what
I think. I think that believers want to be shattered like you'd
shatter a glass, just break us Break us, break us, and then
put us back together, Lord, because we ain't got sense enough to
do, we cannot do it for ourselves. And whatever it takes to keep
me trusting you. You just, if I've got this Peter
in me that says you'll never, break me, break me, break me,
crush me. Oh, listen, and oh, I tell you
what, our feet represents our walk. If Christ and His Word
never cleanses our walk, and I tell you this, if a person
consistently walks in filth and doesn't walk in the Word and
walks according to Christ and the love of Christ and the desire
of Christ, our Lord says, you have no part with me if Christ
doesn't walk. And then look back with me over
here in verse 9. Look in verse 9 with me now. Oh Lord, not my
feet only, not my hands only, but let us all listen. And then
our Lord answered, look at our Lord answered to him in verse
10. Jesus saith unto him, he that
is washed, he that is washed, he that's been bathed, his whole
person is cleansed. It's already been washed. Where
you been washed at? The blood of Jesus Christ, His
Son, cleanses us from all sin, having forgiven you all trespasses. Hebrews 10, 14 says, He hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. And he says this,
he said, it's the feet that needed to be washed. The person is already
clean. It's the feet. It's the feet.
but you're clean ever went. You're clean all over. It's the
feet that need washed. The person's already clean. And
I'll tell you something, beloved. Our standing is perfect. There
is therefore now, right now, no condemnation to them that
are in Christ. Our standing is perfect. We're
justified. We're righteous. We stand without
sin in God's sight. We're clean ever went. But look
what it says here again. Not only did He wash our feet,
but look there in verse 5. It said he began to wash the
disciples' feet and wipe them with the towel wherewith he was
girded. He not only washed their feet, but he also wiped them
off. He don't leave anything half done. He didn't wash them
and then tell you to dry them. He doesn't. He's going to do
it all. He washes them and then he wipes them. Oh, and then our Lord said, he
that has his feet washed, he's clean every whit. You don't need
to be washed again, only your feet, you're clean. And I tell
you something, when Christ says you're clean, believe me, you're
clean. Ain't that right? And whatever
else matters, but look what he says, you're clean every whit. And you are clean, but not all.
But not all of them were that were there. And why does he say
that? For he knew who should betray
him. Therefore, he said, you're not
all clean. In less than an hour, Judas would go forth here and
sell his master for 30 pieces of silver to go and betray the
Lord Jesus Christ. And now when he says you're not
all clean, not all of you, this isn't a matter of losing spiritual
life. This isn't a fellow having life
and then losing it. It's not a fellow being saved
and then being lost again. When he talks about Judas here,
he says you're not clean. There's one of you that's not
clean. All the rest of you is clean. This isn't a matter of
losing spiritual life. But the revelation that he never
had life to begin with. If a man doesn't have the life
of Christ in him, you know what he's going to do? It's not a
sheep becoming unclean. It's not a sheep getting lost. What it is, it's a dog returning
to his vomit, a sow to her wallowing in the mind. This was the son
of perdition. He was a thief from the day he
was born. He was born with a heart that
was against God, against Christ. He was a son of perdition. God
did not make him do what he did. He did what his nature was. And
Simon Peter just got through saying, Lord, you'll never wash
my feet. But he never sold the Lord Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. And then when our Lord said,
you have no part with me, look how Peter reacted. Oh, Lord,
just go to washing, go to washing. Start, start, start quick. And old Jesus, all he's thinking
about is, I wonder how much money I'm going to get for him. I wonder
how much money I'm going to get for him. And all listened. We used to
sing a little chorus here. I forget exactly how it goes.
I want to love Jesus in my heart. I want to love Jesus in my heart.
And I don't want to be a Judas in my heart. I don't want to
be a Judas in my heart. I'll tell you what. Lord Jesus, you know what he
did for us today? He washed our feet. He washed our feet. You feel
like you got your feet washed today? This morning talking about
the love of Christ, loving his own. Tonight, oh Lord, just wash
me, just wash me, cleanse me. and I cleanse me and I shall
be clean. Wash me, and what did David say?
Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Amen. And that's what we say, Lord.
That's why we get up and say, Lord, forgive me. Lord, forgive
me. Lord, forgive me. Our blessed, blessed, blessed,
blessed, and blessed Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, and all
God, our Father, our Savior. Thank you for the day. Thank
you for your goodness. Thank you for being with us.
Thank you for your word, all your word, so cleansing, so powerful,
so instructive. We see all so much of our flesh,
and then yet, Lord, we turn around and see your wondrous grace,
your wondrous power, your blessed and merciful love, pity towards
us. Instead of treating Simon Peter
with anger, treated him, rebuking him, Lord, you just
spoke to him a word. And Lord, you broke his heart.
You made him ready and willing to be washed. And Lord, we're
ready and willing for what your will to be done in our lives.
And Lord, if there's any resistance, if there's any rebellion, if
there's any uprising in our souls, Lord, subdue it. Speak to us
and make us fall down prostrate before you. Lord, we need you. Oh, how we need you. And not
only do we need you, but we want you. Oh, how we want you. We
want, oh, to know you. Want to know you. want to know
you, converse with you, love you, and to experience your love
in our hearts, and know what it is to know you. Oh, God, we
want to know you. And Lord, as these dear saints
now go to their homes, go to their jobs, go back to their
lives after this evening, Lord, they're going to have to face
the world, going to have to go on the job, Going to have to
have a lot of vanity and vexation come their way. Lord, protect
them and preserve them and keep them. Manifest your love and
power to them. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Did you hear what
Jesus said to me? They're all taken away, away. Their sins are pardoned and you
are free.