Keep your Bibles open there.
John chapter 13 will be our text this morning. I've titled the message. Do you wash my feet? This passage
of Scripture, the brother Gary just read to us is not teaching
us that we ought to literally have feet washing services or
we wash each other's feet and so forth. And I'm really glad
for that. I mean, I've got ugly feet. I'd
be just ashamed for somebody to see them. My feet are so ticklish,
I can hardly wash my own feet. Just have somebody else do it.
I'm thankful that that is not what the Savior is teaching us
here. He's teaching us something so much better. So much better. So much better than a religious
ceremony. He's teaching us who the Redeemer
is. Who He is. And He's teaching us something.
of what it took for him to save the likes of you and me. And
then the second thing he's teaching us is giving us an example to
follow. And he tells us we'll be happy
if we do it. Not happy if we know it, but
happy if you do it. If you know it and don't do it,
you're gonna be unhappy. The Lord says you'll be happy
if you do it. So first, let's look at our Redeemer. See, what
did it take for him to cleanse his people from their sin? First,
it took the Redeemer's love. Verse 1. 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. Now, contrary to popular opinion,
God does not love every son of Adam. You know, one statement
of scripture should settle that forever. Jacob have I loved and
Esau have I hated. God loves his elect and only
his elect. And what an amazing statement
that the Holy God would ever choose to love any sinful son
of Adam, who's the opposite of him. God's electing love is a
marvel. And that's what John's talking
about here. He says that the Lord Jesus loved his own, his
own. Now, who were those his own?
If it's his own, it's somebody that belonged to him, right?
Who is his own? The elect that the father gave
him to redeem. And you know, one of the things
that makes God's love for his people so special and so appreciated
is this. God loves sinners. He doesn't
love good people. He doesn't love people who are
better than others. God loves sinners. John says
these that he loved were in the world. Now, who are people in
the world? We're sinful men and women, aren't
we? That's who the Lord loved. And there's just no way to calculate
the vastness and the depth and the preciousness of God's love
for his people. Scripture calls God's love for
his own an everlasting love. It's a love that doesn't have
a beginning and it doesn't have an ending. It's a love that never
wavers up or down in its strength It's always perfect. And God's
love, his eternal everlasting love means something. It means
he will have everyone that he loves. He said, I've loved you
with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn you, drawn you to Christ. Paul told the church
at Rome that God's love is so great, nothing can separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Nothing
can. Scripture also describes God's
love for his people as immeasurable. Paul told the church at Ephesus,
you can't measure the breadth or the length or the depth or
the height of it. It passes knowledge. But every believer knows it.
How do you know it? By experience. When God shed
abroad His love in your heart, you've experienced His redeeming,
life-giving power, haven't you? And the Savior put His love into
action. Now, love that does not act is
not love. It's something else, but it's
not love. The Savior put His love into
action. He humiliated Himself. by coming
down further than you and I can ever imagine. He humiliated himself
to become a man of flesh. My dad said one time, if we compared
how far we would have to go down to be a maggot, if we compare
that to how far the Son of God came down to be flesh, he said
that would be an insult to maggots everywhere. So much further. Oh, he humiliated himself. He
humiliated Himself to become flesh. He humiliated Himself
to live under His own law. He humiliated Himself to be subject
to His creatures. The King of all the earth was
subject to His creatures. He subjected Himself to that.
He subjected Himself to being made sin for His people. The
Holy Son of God agreed to be made sin for His people and to
have his father turn his back on him and to suffer all of God's
justice against that sin. You know why? Because he loved
his people. That's why he came down that
far, because he loved his people. Look at verse two. In supper
being ended, the devil, having now put into the heart of Judas
Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him. Now look down at verse 18. I speak not of you all. I know
whom I've chosen, I know my people. But that the scripture may be
fulfilled, he that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel
against me. Now I tell you before it come,
that when it is come to pass, you may believe that I am." The
Lord Jesus Christ loved his people so much, he let Judas go do what
Satan put in his heart to do. Now, obviously the Lord could
have stopped Judas from doing that, couldn't he? Obviously
he could have. He could have stopped Judas from going to betray
him. He could have not let Judas know where he was gonna be, but
he let Judas go do what was in his heart to do, to take him,
to slaughter him, to humiliate him, to do all these things,
to be taken and to be made a sacrifice for the sin of his people, because
he loved his people so much, he determined he would be the
sacrifice for their sins. That's the Redeemer's love for
his people. Secondly, this is what it took
for the Redeemer to redeem his people. It took his sovereignty. Verse three, Jesus, knowing that
the father had given all things into their hands and that he
was come from God and went to God. Now the man, Jesus of Nazareth
knew all things. He knew what was getting ready
to happen. He knew he was getting ready to be crucified, to be
slain, to suffer and die, rise again the third day and go back
to the father. He knew all that was going to
happen. He knew the secret thoughts of men's hearts. I mean, he knew
what was in Judas's heart. He knew all the secret plots
and plans and things of the Jews. He knew the secret sins of all
men. He knew those things, but not because the Lord Jesus was
a fortune teller. No, sir. The Lord Jesus knew
everything that was going to happen because everything that
was getting ready to happen is what he purposed to happen before
creation. Before creation, the Lord purposed
every event in human history. And then time began and the events
of human time are just the unfolding of God's purpose. I don't know,
does anybody read a newspaper anymore? But if you want to read
today's newspaper, I'll tell you what it is. It's just the
unfolding of God's eternal purpose. This is what God purposed to
happen today. That includes everything. Big
events, small events, things we notice, things we don't notice.
It includes Adam's fall in the garden. Now God's not the author
of sin, but I'm telling you, he ordained that Adam would sin
and fall. You know why? So that his son
would get all of the glory in redeeming his people out of Adam's
fallen place. God oversaw, he overruled even
the sin of man to accomplish the redemption of his people
and the glory of his son. This includes the sacrifice of
Christ. God was on the throne at Calvary, just like he was
every other day. At Calvary, men committed the
worst crime that's ever been perpetrated in God's creation.
They tortured, they slaughtered, they committed slander against
the only holy, righteous man to ever live. They put him to
death in the worst way, the most painful way, the most humiliating
way they could think of to do, and rejoiced while they did it. But you know why all that happened?
God determined before for it to be done. God purposed that
every event at Calvary happened exactly the way that it did,
so there would be a sacrifice for the sin of his people, that
there would be a lamb slain. God purposed the cross so there'd
be pure, precious, sinless blood that was shed to pay the redemption
price of all the sin of his people. The Lord knew, he knew what was
getting ready to happen. He knew who would betray him
because he's the one that ordained Judas to betray him. He said
in verse 11, for he knew who should betray him, therefore
said he, you're not all clean. The Lord knew Judas was gonna
betray him, because he determined that it would happen for the
foundation of time. And he had David write about
it in the Psalms. See, all this is happening here
in this chapter and what's leading up to the cross, it's all happening
to accomplish the will of the Lord Jesus Christ in the redemption
of his people. And I want to tell you what,
the same thing is true today. The same thing is true today.
Everything that's happening in our world, everything that's
happening in our lives is all happening for the glory of Christ
and the redemption of His people. God has ordained from all of
eternity that this little group will be out here on this country
road, it snows and we got to cancel services and you know,
you get power outages, we got to cancel service, Meet in the
dark with flashlights and stuff. God has ordained this little
place be right here because he's got a people he's going to save.
He's got a people he's going to feed. He's got a people he's
going to. He's going to instruct and comfort and he's got a people. That's everything that's happening. Whether we see the connection
or not is all happening for this reason that Christ get the glory
in redeeming his people and it's his sovereign power. that ordains
it all and brings it all to pass. Now here's the third thing it
took for the Redeemer to save his people. It took the Redeemer's
humiliation. Verse four in our text says,
he rises from supper and laid aside his garments and took a
towel and girded himself. And he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the
towel wherewith he was girded. Now the Lord and Master, he took
off his outer robe, the garment that he would wrap himself in.
He took that off and he laid it aside and he wrapped himself
in a towel. Now this is the outfit that the
lowest slave wore in a house. The lowest slave would be identified
by this outfit. And the lowest slave in a household,
here's what the lowest slave would do. Other slaves could
even look down on this slave. wrapped in a towel, because this
slave's job was to wash the feet of people who were coming into
the master's house. This was the lowest job. It was
the, just, it's humiliating to have this job. You just wanted
to, I guess, do a good job of it so you could move up to a
different job. Didn't have to be the low man on the totem pole
anymore. And that's how the Lord of glory
clothed himself in front of his disciples. Now you think of that. And that's a picture of what
our savior did to come save his people from their sin. When the
appointed time came, the father's appointed time came for his son
to be born of the virgin, to be born a real baby, to be born
as a man, made under the law, our savior, the son of God, arose
from his throne in glory. He's the prince of glory, the
light of glory, the subject of glory. He rose off of his throne,
and he stripped off his glory as God. He took it all. He laid it aside for a time,
and he clothed himself in human flesh. He clothed himself in
flesh that's just like our flesh, yet without sin. Now, you and
I will never understand, even in glory, we'll never understand
how humiliating that was for the Son of God. to take off his
glory as God and humble himself to become what we are. Not just
where we are, but to become what we are. Limiting himself to the
weakness of human flesh. Now we know he still had all
power as God, don't we? But he never one time used his
power of God to perform a miracle, to do something for the comfort
of himself. He didn't do that because you
and I can't do that. He limited himself to human flesh
so that he could be the representative of his people. So he could be
the second Adam, the second representative. You and I think we would be humiliated
to be taken from our homes and be made the lowest slave somewhere.
There was a movie, Jen and I watched one years ago, was it 14 Years
a Slave? where this man was, you know,
he was a pretty prosperous fellow and they took him, slave catchers
took him and took him into the deep south and made him a slave
again. Just how horrible that was for him to live that after
he spent his life in freedom, you know. Think how awful that
would be for us. And that's nothing, nothing compared
to how far down the Lord of glory came to become a man. He set
aside all of his glory as deity, and clothed himself in human
flesh, so that people that did not know him said, this is just
a man, and he makes himself God. We're gonna stone him because
he's making himself God. This is just a man. We know his
father, his mother, his brothers and sisters. They didn't see
a glow over his head. There wasn't a glow all around
him that identified him as someone different than all the rest of
the sons of Adam. They thought he was just another common, ordinary
man. The omniscient one clothed himself
in weakness. The ancient of days became a
baby. The almighty, the eternal one
grew from a baby to a child to a full grown man. Now here he
is. He's with his disciples who have
faith. They believe he's the Messiah.
They believe he's the son of God. Peter spoke for all of them,
said we believe and we're sure of this. You're the son of God.
They watched the son of God dress himself as the lowest servant
and do the job of the lowest servant. He began working his
way around the room and washing, bending down, stooping down on
his knees in front of them and washing their feet. They were just shocked into silence. I mean, have you ever had something
happen that's so shocking you just You can't say anything. You don't even know what to say,
so shocking. There were no words for their
Lord and their master, the Son of God, humiliating himself to
wash their dirty, stinky feet. But really, if you think about
it, everything the Savior did was shocking, wasn't it? It was
shocking. Don't you imagine that the angels
were shocked into silence? when they saw the humiliation
of the Son of God becoming a baby, living under the rule of Joseph
and Mary. Don't you think they were shocked
by that? Don't you think they were shocked at how they watched
Him be perfectly obedient to His own law, to make Himself
under His own law and then obey it perfectly, to do everything
it took? And I'll tell you that the Savior
stooped that low because He loved His people. because it's the
only way that they could be saved from their sin. The only way.
Look back at Isaiah chapter 42. You know, this isn't just something
that was revealed to us when Christ came. This was prophesied
throughout the Old Testament. Isaiah 42 verse one. Behold my
servant, Now who's the Lord talking about there? His Son. He didn't
say behold my Son. He didn't say behold God. He
didn't say behold the omniscient one, the eternal one, the omnipotent
one. He said my servant, because that's
what he's gonna become. My servant whom I uphold. Mine
elect, I chose him to be my servant in whom my soul delighted. I've
put my spirit upon him He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard
in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break,
and a smoking flax shall he not quench. He shall bring forth
judgment unto truth, and he shall not fail nor be discouraged,
till he has set judgment in the earth and the isles shall wait
for his law. This was prophesied to us in the Old Testament, that
the Son of God would become a servant and he'd get the job done. He'd
get the job, whatever job it is that the father sent him to
do, this servant's gonna do it and do it perfectly. He perfectly
accomplished the redemption of his people through his humiliation
to become flesh and to suffer and die for the sin of his people. Now that is utterly amazing.
We really ought to think about that often. how the Prince of
Glory humiliated himself to save the likes of me and you. It's just greater than you and
mine can comprehend, but that's what he did. It took his humiliation. Then fourthly, in order to redeem
his people from his sin, the Redeemer had to do the work.
Now he humiliated himself to be clothed as a servant, but
as a servant, he had to do the work. It says there in verse
five, after he poureth water into a basin, he began to wash
his disciples' feet and to wipe them with a towel wherewith he
was girded. Now the Lord of glory stooped down. Can you think of
this? These disciples, he had to be
so patient with them. He taught them so plainly, yet
they did not understand. He taught them of his glory. He taught them of his work of
redemption. Oh, the preciousness of that.
And then immediately afterward, they began to argue who's gonna
be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Who's gonna sit beside
him in glory? Oh. And the Lord of glory stooped
down on his knees in front of him and began to wash their feet. Now considering who was doing
the washing, I'm just confident of this, the disciples' feet
had never been so clean in all their lives. And this foot washing
that the Lord did, it also refreshed his people. I bet that felt better.
If anybody was like me and had ticklish feet, this didn't tickle
their feet. This didn't bother me. Oh, the
Lord refreshed them. You know he did such a perfect
job of that because everything he did was perfect. But the Lord
did more than wash the dust off their feet. He performed this
foot washing as a picture of the work that he came to do for
his people. The Lord of glory came down from
heaven to earth to be the servant to wash his people, to make them
clean and holy and pure by washing them in his precious blood. You
know, redemption is not just covering up sin with a coat of
paint. Tell you a little secret, whenever
we do painting jobs at the house, You know, I fancy myself a pretty
good painter. I can get paint on the wall where it belongs
and, you know, not other places. And I'll just kind of, eh, you
know, wipe off the wall a little bit, you know, and Jane says,
did you wash that wall down good? You know, eh, you know, I just
paint over the dirt. I figure it's fine. Jane, she
washes the wall. Redemption is not covering over
sin with a coat of paint. Sin is not ignored by God. in the redemption of his people.
Sin is gone, washed away so that it's gone under the precious
blood of Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
son, cleanses us from all sin. Cleanses it away so it's gone
and you're clean. Now that's a work we can never
do for ourselves. We can't cleanse ourselves of
our sin. We can't make ourselves presentable in God's sight. You
know, we try to work out our own righteousness to present,
you know, to wear into God's presence, present ourselves in
our, you know, righteousness that we've woven. God said it's
filthy rags. He doesn't mean just dirty. He
means defiled with sin. Defiled with sin. We can't straighten
up and fly right. There's no point in trying to
tell people to straighten up and fly right because we can't
do it. We need somebody else to cleanse us of our sin. We
need somebody else to make us holy and righteous in God's sight. And that washing can only be
done by the blood of Christ. See, this cleansing that our
Lord's talking about, what he's picturing is making his people
holy, making them truly holy, making it so they have no sin.
This is vital. This is vital. This is not God
pretending there's no sin there. This sin being actually gone
is so vital. There's no salvation without
it. This is what the Lord is getting ready to tell Peter.
Peter, if I don't wash you, you don't have any part in with me. You don't have any inheritance.
You don't have any part. You can't be a partaker of my
righteousness and my sacrifice and everything that I'm getting
ready to do. If Christ does not wash me white as snow without
sin, then Christ is not my portion and I'll be damned. If Christ
does not wash me, if he is not everything that I need, my wisdom,
my righteousness, my sanctification, my redemption, if Christ is not
my all, if he doesn't do all the saving for me, then I have
nothing that I need. Scripture says that without the
shedding of blood is no remission. When I quote that verse, Often,
I would think, I bet you everybody here can just finish that statement,
finish that verse as I start saying it. Without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission. And that's so true, it's vital.
But you know what? Without washing in the blood,
there's no remission either. We must be washed in the blood
of Christ if we would be accepted by the Father. The blood must
be shed and the blood must be applied. It must be. And that's
what the Lord's talking about here. The washing he's talking
about is not a washing of the flesh. What he's talking about
is a washing of the soul. The soul. I know he's not talking
about washing the flesh. You know how I know that? The
Lord washed Judah's feet. Can you imagine such a thing?
The Lord washed Judah's feet. And Judah's was reprobate. So
he's not talking about an outward thing, is he? It's the washing
of the soul. in the blood of Christ. Everyone
that the Savior washed in his blood, they're clean through
and through, through and through. Then fifthly, this is such a
comforting point, the Redeemer's success. Verse six, then cometh
he to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord, does not
wash my feet? Jesus 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 saith
to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but
is clean every whit, and you're clean. but not all, for he knew
who should betray him, therefore said he, you're not all clean. Now here's the question we're
looking at this morning. Lord, does thou wash my feet?
My feet? You know what Peter's saying
is, Lord, I'm not gonna allow you to do that. Lord, this is
too far beneath you. I'm not gonna allow yourself
to humiliate yourself like this in front of the likes of me.
You're the master. And I'm the servant. Everything's
backward here, and I'm just not gonna allow it. Now I can understand Peter, his
reverence. I mean, what he, you know, Peter,
like so many of us, is talking before he knew what he was talking
about. This came from a feeling and a thought, a heart of reverence.
So I can understand Peter's reverence in that. Reverence before our Lord is
so important. We must be reverent with our
Lord. I'm a big fan of reverence. It's
never right for us to question the Lord. It's never right. What
Peter's saying, he thinks he's being reverent, but he's being
the opposite. He's questioning the Lord, isn't he? It's never
right for us to question the Lord. But I understand what Peter's
saying, that this is not the way it's supposed to be. I bow
before the Lord. The Lord doesn't bow to me. But
you know what? In order to save us, our Lord
had to stoop further than we can ever imagine. You know, I
know people today who say, and they say it because they think
they're being reverent, You know, they love to argue. I wish this
would ever go away, but about Christ being made sin. I've actually
had people say this to me. I'll never say that. I'll never
believe that because I love the Lord too much. I'm too concerned
about his glory to ever say that he was made sin. And I know they're
trying to be reverent. They think they are, but here's
the problem. Scripture says Christ was made sin. That's questioning
God. Now listen, you're not gonna
understand it and I'm not either. The Father made him sin for us. Him who knew no sin. Can't understand
that. But I believe that's the only
way a sinner like me can be saved. I do believe that. We can't understand
it. But now we better be saying what
Scripture says because to not, that's not being reverent, is
it? And even though we don't understand the depths of it and
how God did this, I do know this, the Savior had to stoop that
low. However far he had to stoop,
he had to stoop that low to take our sin away from us and put
it away. And when the Savior suffered
and he died, he completely and utterly cleansed his people from
all their sins. You're missing the main part
of the story and the glory of the gospel. If you start arguing
about what it means that Christ was made sin and here's the lead
of the story. His death put away all of the
sin of all of his people. That's the story. That's the
story, and that's why the Lord told Peter. Peter, you're clean. Now you're clean. You're clean
everywhere. Because you've been washed in
the blood of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
You're clean, you're spotless, because in just days I'm going
to go be sacrificed for you. Shed my blood to put away your
sin. You've been washed in the blood of Christ. Well, if they're
clean every whit, why is the Lord washing their feet? Because every believer goes through
three washings, three cleansings. First, there's a judicial washing,
a washing before God's justice in law is being washed from our
sin in the blood of Christ so that it's gone, so that he has
made his people truly innocent of all charges. So because the
law has been satisfied, God can justly bring his people in his
presence. And the proof that the sacrifice
of Christ did that is His resurrection. I talked about that in the lesson
this morning. The Father made Him sin for His people, and Christ
put away all of that sin by His precious blood. He justified
and cleansed all of His people from all of their sin, and the
proof of it is He was raised from the dead. If there was any
sin left on Him at all, He could not have been raised from the
dead. So His blood put away all the sin of all of His people. He washed His disciples Then
he rose from the dead, he went back to glory. That's what's
pictured when the Lord in a minute is gonna put his garments back
on. See, he just humiliated himself for a short time. Then he put
his garments back on. He clothed himself as who he
is, in deity again, and that's the only way he'll ever be seen.
Now, he's Lord Master again, because he descended back into
heaven, because he did the job of a servant. He cleansed his
people from all of their sins. But the second washing is washing
experienced. Look at Titus chapter three. It's washing experienced in the
new birth. Titus chapter three, verse four. But after that, the kindness
and love of God, our savior toward man appeared. not by works of
righteousness, which we've done, but according to his mercy, he
saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which is shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. It's the washing of regeneration. You and I are so defiled by sin. There's nothing that will disinfect
us but the blood of Christ. Our works won't do it. Our morality
won't do it. Endless religious ceremonies
won't do it. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood
of Jesus. And this washing of regeneration
is when there's a new man born and that man is clean. He's sinless. He's sinless. Born in the hearts of God's elect
by God, the Holy Spirit. The old man, the old man, the
flesh is completely and utterly sinful, and that's all he ever
can be. Because he's born from sinful seed. But the new man
is born from the sinless seed of the word of God. So he can
never sin. And that new man is clean and
he's holy. He can never be made filthy again. That's cleansing experienced
in the new birth. When you're forced to live with
this filthy old nature and the clean new nature, that's clean
everywhere. But the third washing is a continual washing. And the
kind of illustration that the Lord is using is how they bathed
at that time. Everybody didn't have bathtubs
in their house. They would go to public baths
and they'd wash and, you know, get clean and they'd dry and
they put their sandals on and they'd walk home. Well, when
they walk home, their feet got dirty and dusty in the streets,
didn't they? When they got home, they'd wash their feet. Now they're
clean. Well, that's the believer. You're
clean everywhere. The Father's washed you in the
blood of Christ. The Holy Spirit's caused a new
man to be born. He's clean, he's holy, he's righteous. He'll never be sinful. But our
feet have to be washed, don't they? As we walk through this
world, our feet have to be washed because you can't help it. When
you walk through this world, you're affected by this world.
You're affected by its ways. You're affected by its thoughts.
You're affected by its selfishness. You're affected by everything
that's in this world. You can't help but be affected
by it. The dirt of this world can't help but get on us because
we're flesh. It appeals to our flesh. Spending
time in this world, you know this is true. It affects the
way you think, doesn't it? It affects the way you feel.
It affects what you desire. And then, you come hear the gospel
preached and your wagon gets fixed. Done. Your feet are washed. It's the washing of your feet
by the word. David said, Psalm 119 verse nine,
wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way. And this is
not just a young man, it's old man, it's all of us. By taking
heed according to thy word. Where our feet are washed by
the preaching of the word. You know, I said earlier that
when the Lord washed the disciples' feet, He refreshed them too,
didn't He? Well, as you walk through this
world, you get pretty parched. It's dry. You get hungry, don't
you? Well, God's people are refreshed by hearing the Word preached.
It's not just a doctrinal dissertation. It's a refreshing of the soul.
It's washing our feet. Our feet are washed just by being
with each other. Just by being with each other.
You ever once in a while, we have a men's lunch and I tell
you, I come home from that just bouncing and so happy. Our feet
are washed as being with each other. You know, it's seeing
y'all here this morning. I've been so long, so I've seen
almost everybody. It's refreshing. It's washing
your feet to be able to see each other. It's an opportunity to
show our love one for another. That's refreshing. And that's
what the Savior talks about next. We've seen what it took for the
Savior to redeem his people from their sin. But now here's his
example. Verse 12. So after he had washed
their feet and had taken his garments and was set down again,
he said unto them, know you what I've done to you? You call me
master and Lord and you say, well, for so I am. If I then,
your Lord and master, having washed your feet, you also ought
to wash one another's feet. For I've given you an example
that you should do as I've done to you. Verily I say unto you,
the servant's not greater than his Lord. Neither he that has
sinned greater that he that sinned him. If you know these things,
happy are you if you do them. Now this can't be stressed strongly
enough. The Lord Jesus Christ, first
and foremost, is our Lord. He's our master, he's our savior.
But he is also our example. And he says here he gave us an
example to follow and you'll be happy if you do it. People
are seeking happiness, they just want to be happy, happy, happy,
happy. You wanna be happy? Do this, follow his example. Well, how is it that we wash
one another's feet? It's by having no task, seeing no task that's
too insignificant, too low for me to do for you. That's how
we wash one another's feet. Our Savior lowered himself to
do everything it took to save the people that he loved. And
you and I will be happy if we do the same thing. Sacrifice
of ourselves to do for our brothers and sisters. That's right. Happiness
will not come from others doing for you. And we all think we
like to be the big important guy and sit around and everybody
serve me. Happiness doesn't come that way. Happiness comes by
us serving others and doing for others. That's exactly right.
Whenever you see a need, I don't care what it is, Reach out and
feel it. I promise you, you'll be happy.
I promise you, you will. The last time we met here on
a Sunday, we had a baptismal service, and after the baptismal
service, this is what I've always done. I always take all the wet
stuff, take it home, wash it and dry it, and bring it back.
And one of the ladies said, now would you let me do that? I'd
like to do that. I really would like to do that.
And I had to make myself think for a minute. Yes, if you'd like
to do that, that'd be wonderful. And you know what, that washed
my feet. That was something I did not have to do that afternoon.
And I just bet you a dollar that made that woman happy to be able
to do that. It's washing one another's feet.
If it's a big thing, by all means do it, but it can be small things,
whatever it is. You know one way we wash one
another's feet is by forgiving one another. Isn't it refreshing
when somebody forgives you? It's refreshing, isn't it? And
it's necessary, because believers still sin, and from time to time,
we're going to do something to hurt our brother's feelings.
Well, you wash their feet by forgiving them, forbearing, putting
up with them, just like the Lord has done for us. Why should I
forgive them? Why should I put up with them?
Because the Lord puts up with me, that's why. Because the Lord
has forgiven me, that's why. I think in every message I ever
preach, I tell you, look to Christ. If you would be saved, if you
would have life, you look to Christ. And if you would wash
one another's feet, do the same thing. Look to Christ. You want
to know how to be a good husband? Look to Christ. You want to know
how to be a good wife? Look to Christ. You want to know
how to be a good child? Look to Christ. You want to know
how to be a good friend? Look to Christ. Look to the friends
of sinners. You want to know how to be a good neighbor and
be a good citizen? Look to Christ. You want to know how you should
treat your enemies? How am I going to deal with my enemies? What should
I do with them? You want to know? Look to Christ.
You want to know how to be a good member of this body? Look to
Christ. Look to Christ. Looking to Christ
will take care of every situation we ever find ourselves in. Looking
to Him will find Him to be our Savior. And looking to Him, we'll
see an example that we can follow. All right, I hope that'll be
a blessing to you. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father,
how we thank You for this teaching of Your Word, this example that
You gave us, this picture You gave us, of what it took for
you to redeem sinful men and women like we are. Father, I
pray you'd cause that to break our hearts and cause us to look
to Christ, to trust him, to trust him fully and completely, knowing
what he suffered, what he willingly endured shall be successful. We'll save all of his people
from all of their sin. Father, cause it. bind our hearts
to him that we trust him and father cause it to be an example
that we show our love one for another that we would care for
one another act upon the love that you've given us one for
another to be a help and encouragement to each other father it's in
christ's name for his sake and his glory we pray amen all right
sean