No. 40 - WASH ONE ANOTHER’S FEET By: John J. Blanchard Saturday, March 20, 2004 This sermon is going to be for preparation for Passover 2004. It is just a few weeks away. The spring holy days are almost upon us. Today I want to focus on the use of our bodies and how God uses His body. We all know that we use our physical bodies to accomplish all manner of things in life. When we work, we accomplish physical things. We use the body to utilize the senses God gave us of seeing, hearing and feeling. But our body also carries the mind in itself. Within the skull is the mind that allows us to do certain things, and it is combined with, of course, the human spirit which allows us to reason. We go beyond the mind of an animal up to the level of mankind who is able to think and reason about all manner of deep things in life. Once a person is called into the body of Christ and given the Holy Spirit, then it contains a portion of God’s Holy Spirit as well. Each part of our physical body is suited for its particular purposes and job, so to speak. Our eyes, of course, are for seeing and for taking in information into the brain. Our ears do the same with hearing. Our nose and mouth each accomplish their own tasks. All of these form the face which is part of the head. The head is a very, very important part of the body because it has all of these sensory mechanisms on it. Our communication skills are there, and it houses the brain. We also need hands and arms. If you only had a brain and a face, you could not do much. You might be able to think of some wonderful things, but you could accomplish nothing in life. We use our brain to communicate messages to our arms and hands to accomplish work and get things done. The trunk of the body protects the organs that we need to keep life going: your heart, your liver, your kidneys. They are all located in the trunk of the body. The rest of the body needs those organs, even though they are unseen, in order to accomplish the things you want to do in life. Then it all stands on your legs. The legs give you the strength to move around, to lift and get places. As long as they have what? Feet! So today in particular I want to zero in on feet because the feet form the foundation of all that we just spoke about. The feet are the foundation that the body stands on. The feet are very important for balance. As a matter of fact, if you were just to remove the big toe off each foot, you would find it very difficult to be balanced. The feet are the foundation, and they are also very intimately involved with your balance. This means they are involved with your sense of direction and getting you from point A to point B. If you had no feet, it would be very hard to accomplish anything, because your body must be able to be moved from one place to another in order to accomplish the fine things that your mind is thinking about. Feet are very, very important. The interesting thing about feet is wherever they go, that is where your mind ends up. It is tied together. Your mind gives direction, but wherever your feet happen to take you, that is where your mind goes. We know that the mind houses both the human spirit and God’s Spirit as well. If the feet take us where we want to go and where we need to go, we need to be very careful where we are going. Your feet can take you toward tremendous accomplishment or they can take you toward failure in life. Your feet can take you toward safety or toward danger. Your feet can take you to a peaceful place or to a war. Your feet can actually take you to either good or evil. Your mind directs you, but your feet will get you there so feet are very important. We want to look today at God’s concept of feet. GOD’S CONCEPT OF FEET Many times we have seen in I Corinthians 12 that the body is a unified body with many parts. We do not need to turn there today. But of all of these parts the one that gets your mind, your body, your eyes, your ears and your hands to any location is your feet. The Bible has a lot to say about feet, because they can either take you to purposes of evil, as we just mentioned, or to good. When you are part of the body of Christ, your feet will take you to where Christ can use you well or where He cannot use you at all! It has much to do with the direction your feet carry the body. We want to look at a couple of scriptures. We are very familiar, as I said, with I Corinthians 12 so we will not turn there. Turn to Isaiah chapter 33 because feet are mentioned there. As a matter of fact, in this sermon I cannot possibly talk about all the places in the Bible where feet are mentioned. You may want to do a little study about feet on your own if you have time. We are going to cover some of the highlights and some of the important things about feet. We will try to tie them in with Passover. WALK RIGHTEOUSLY It says in Isaiah 33, starting in verse 14. “The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness has seized the hypocrites: ‘Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?’ He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, he who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil: he will dwell on high; his place of defense will be the fortress of rocks; bread will be given him, his water will be sure.” We have studied before what “dwelling with the devouring fire” is. Obviously, it has to be a good thing, because people who are using their body in a righteous manner will be there. They can dwell with that fire. We have looked at Acts where on the first Pentecost in the New Testament era, tongues of fire descended upon the apostles and the 120 present in that room. These tongues of fire are representative of the Holy Spirit that dwells in our heart. This is the devouring fire. Hebrews 12:29 says that our God is a devouring fire. We know that this devouring fire has to do with the Holy Spirit. If you want to be able to dwell with the Holy Spirit, it says that you must walk uprightly and righteously. It says we must despise the gain of oppression (not hurting people for your gain) and refusing bribes. This means if you are doing a work of God, you are not doing it for the money. You are doing it for God’s purposes. Stopping our ears from hearing of bloodshed means to stay away from violence of all sorts and shutting our eyes from seeing evil. Today that is very difficult. There is evil everywhere. It is present in television, books, magazines and movies. Everywhere you turn, there is evil being portrayed. In this day and age it is very difficult to keep our eyes from seeing evil. But God says if we try to do these things with our body, He will reward us by allowing us to dwell with the devouring fire. The main thing He starts out with is walking righteously. What we see with our eyes and hear with our ears has much to do with where our feet took us. Your brain cannot automatically transport you to that violent movie show. Your feet had to get you there. That is the sort of thing we want to focus on. What does God want us to do with feet? If you would, turn now to Psalm 119, starting in verse 57. Read to verse 64. What are we told here first? Turn our feet toward God’s way. We are to keep His commandments and be merciful and kind. We should be companions with those of like mind. That is what we are told here. It starts with how we turn our feet. Turn our feet toward God’s way of life. Put ourselves in the place where it is easy to be good and righteous. Avoid evil in everyway possible. Stay in the same chapter and drop down to Psalm 119:97. Continue reading verses 97 to 104. Here we are told by the psalmist that we turn our feet and restrain ourselves from the evil way so that we can learn from God. How can God teach us if we keep putting ourselves in bad places? If we keep putting ourselves in bad places, we are a danger and a threat to ourselves and possibly to other brethren. We need to always concentrate on where we are taking this mind of ours, the Holy Spirit and the temple of the Holy Spirit. Where are we taking it in our daily walk? Are we taking it toward good or toward evil? If we want to dwell with the righteous fire, we must continually restrain our feet and point them in the right direction. How we use our body is very important to God. That is how we show Him we are really serious about our calling. When you stop to think about it, together we form the body of Christ. Where we take our portion of the body is where we take Christ’s Spirit. It is very serious. We are carrying His Spirit for Him. He is working through His body. Just as I started out this sermon stating that we use our physical bodies to accomplish things in life, Jesus Christ is using His body to accomplish His purposes. When we take that body in bad directions, we are countering the good things He is trying to do. It is very, very important. That is why the discussion of feet is critical. Our mind directs our feet, but our feet are going to take us to where that mind says. We have to constantly restrain those feet from going off in the wrong direction. FEET ON THE MOUNTAINS If you would now turn to Isaiah chapter 52. God has some very interesting things to say about feet. Isaiah 52, verse 7: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” That is worth reading again. “How beautiful upon the mountains…” We have studied the mountains. Right now Satan’s mountain is over the earth, but God’s mountain is coming. Mountains represent government. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news…” This world is full of bad news. We bring good news to the world, and we proclaim peace. It is the peace that Jesus Christ will soon bring with His Millennium. We bring “glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” Verse 8: “Your watchmen shall lift up their voices, with their voices they shall sing together; for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord brings back Zion. Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem! For the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.” We are being told here we should be bringing news to the world and to our brethren like watchmen and use our voice. We should use the voice of God’s Church to bring good news and say that Christ is coming. We should say peace is coming back to Jerusalem and God’s Church will be healed. This world will be healed in a beautiful Millennium. If we do this, we are, in effect, forming the arm that God uses! The arm of the Lord is His Church. He is using His body, the body of Christ, to accomplish all of this work. Where does it start with? It starts with beautiful feet. We could take our feet toward proclaiming a horrible message and scaring people to death or we could actually participate in an evil way of life because we put our feet in an evil place. Or we can use the feet that God gave us to move the body of Christ in great directions and beautiful places proclaiming good news to people. It is very important. That is why God says if your feet are doing that, they are beautiful. You want to keep that in mind, because we want beautiful feet. THE FEET OF THE PRIESTS If you would, now please turn back to the Old Testament to Joshua. There is an interesting incident that takes place in Joshua chapter 3. Keep in mind as we are reading this that we know from the New Testament that God’s Church in this era since Christ came consists of His kings and priests. We discussed that before. We are carrying His holy vessels, and we are where the Holy Spirit dwells. Therefore, we are kings and priests. Now I want to go back and look at a physical incident involving the priests. We will start in Joshua chapter 3:5. “And Joshua said to the people, ‘Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.’ Then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, ‘Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over before the people.’ So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.” This is when Joshua was leading the people into the promised land. You will recall Moses was not allowed to take the people in, but Joshua was given that job. We understand this was actually a type of the Millennium. The Millennium is the real rest we are talking about (the real promised land). Here is the physical incident where Joshua is leading the people into the promised land, and he has told the people to sanctify themselves before they go into the promised land. Continue in verse 7: “And the Lord said to Joshua, ‘This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. You shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, saying, “When you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan.”’ So Joshua said to the children of Israel, ‘Come here, and hear the words of the Lord your God.’ And Joshua said, ‘By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites…’” All the enemies of the people would be driven out. It was a sign that this would happen. Continuing in verse 11: “‘Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan. Now therefore, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from every tribe. And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap.’” We see there is one representative from each of the twelve tribes who will follow the priests who are carrying the ark of God into the promised land. When all of these priests get into the river and their feet are resting on the bottom of the river, the water will start stacking up! It is going to stack up until this job is done. This is a real wonder, a real sign. What started it? The placing of the feet solidly on the bottom of the river is what I want you to notice. Continuing with verse 14: “So it was, when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest)…” So this is even more amazing because the river is rushing! It is overflowing its banks. We are not talking about a little creek. You can just picture the white water. You know how hard it is to stand in flowing water that has a lot of pressure behind it. That makes this miracle all the more amazing! Continuing in verse 16: “…that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan. So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan.” You can picture this water stacking up and stacking up higher and higher back for miles while three million people marched across! This did not take ten minutes. That water got to be incredibly deep. As long as those priests stood on firm dry ground and kept their feet solidly there, everybody was safe to cross over. It is interesting this river is headed toward the saltiest sea on earth: the Dead Sea, the salt sea. It is interesting when you look up the word “Jordan” in the Hebrew. You find out that it means to pull down or descend. It means to cast down, a descender. In theory the priests were crossing a river that pulls people down. It destroys people! But they were given feet that would not get pulled down. The miracle was from God. These men did not have extraordinary skill or strength to hold that water back and to make the bottom of the river not be slippery. God did that. All the people there witnessed this. It was a tremendous miracle from God. The river that feeds the Dead Sea, that should have pulled them down to their death, backed up on one side of them until it was way back allowing the people to enter the promised land. There are a lot of spiritual connotations to this that you can think of, but the miracle here that we want to talk about is what happened with these feet? It is a very interesting miracle that took place back in the Old Testament because now we are going to transport ourselves into today. We carry the temple of God. We all form the body of Christ which is the temple of God. Instead of God’s Spirit dwelling with that ark, it is now in the body of Christ. We need help in this life to avoid being pulled down. We are all preparing to go into the promised land. Just as Joshua was told to have the people sanctify themselves and follow the priest into the promised land and let God fight their battles against all of these enemies, we who are existing and alive at the very end of the age are getting ready to go into the Millennium. We need to beg God for help to sanctify ourselves and cleanse ourselves so that our feet will not slip and take us down into the salt sea. We understand this to be Satan’s sea. We do not want it to destroy us before we make it to the promised land. This is what God was portraying physically back then when they were getting ready to go into their Millennial land. A SOLID PATH Now, if you would, please turn to Psalms chapter 18:35. “You have also given me the shield of Your salvation; Your right hand has held me up, Your gentleness has made me great. You enlarged my path under me, so my feet did not slip.” Here we are seeing a prayer in which we are told if we want to have feet that will not slip, we have to ask God to give us a good solid path and to guide our feet. That in itself would be a Bible study that we do not have time to go into today, but there are many scriptures where we are told that God’s word is a lamp for our feet. Stay on the straight and narrow path and not veer to the right or to the left. Stay solid so that your feet do not slip out from underneath you and you go down. We also find that there are scriptures that say if you do go down, God will lift you back up! There is a hymn that we sing that does not come to mind right off the bat but David says when the waters were swelling high and I needed You, You rescued me. We understand now what David was saying here. He was not drowning somewhere in the Mediterranean or he was not having an experience like Paul who was shipwrecked. He was talking about the sea of Satan’s thoughts pulling him down. When the waters of Satan were swelling high in his life, he needed to be rescued. Put my feet on solid ground. It is the spiritual miracle of what physically took place with the priests as they were getting ready to cross into the promised land. Satan always wants to pull us down to drown in his attitudes. He wants to pull us down into his sea. God will definitely deliver us and protect us if we call upon Him and if we try to direct our feet in the way that they should go. BEING PULLED INTO THE PIT Turn now, if you would, to Psalm 40:1. “I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth, praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord.” There is a lot in those few verses now that we understand feet and miry clay. Miry clay is wet clay. If any of you have ever tried to walk in wet clay, you know not only is it extremely slippery but it sticks to you and wants to pull you down. I have been on construction sites where your feet get to be about two feet across with stuck clay and you can hardly move. That is what miry clay is. It is trying to pull you down because of the water that is in it. Here the Psalmist, David, is saying please rescue me because it is pulling me down into the pit. We know who dwells in the pit. That is Satan. When he gets you slipping, you are going down spiritually! God knew this would happen. David understood the principle. He said when that happens, I cry to God and He picks me up. He sets my feet on solid rock. What is that rock? Christ is that Rock. He sets me on solid ground where I am safe on Jesus Christ, my rock. That is why we need to ask God to help us when our feet are slipping because we are only human. It is going to happen to all of us at one point or another. It will happen probably quite a number of times in our lives after we are called. When we feel ourselves going down, the water is swelling high and our feet are going out from underneath us, beg God for help. He will then deliver us. That is the point being made here by David. We will be rescued from the pit so Satan cannot pull us down into that pit. STUMBLING AND PICKED UP Now, if you would, turn to I Samuel because these principles have stood the test of time. I Samuel has an interesting prayer by a woman who knew that Samuel was called by God for a special purpose. Remember the story of Hannah? She offered a prayer for Samuel. I want you to notice as we read this prayer that it has definite implications for those of us alive in the last days. I Samuel chapter 2, verse 1: “And Hannah prayed and said: ‘My heart rejoices in the Lord; my horn is exalted in the Lord. I smile at my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation. No one is holy like the Lord, for there is none besides You, nor is there any rock like our God. Talk no more so very proudly; let no arrogance come from your mouth, for the Lord is the God of knowledge; and by Him actions are weighed.’” We should not be arrogant. We need to know God is weighing our actions (our deeds), and we need humility. Continuing in verse 4: “‘The bows of the mighty men are broken, and those who stumbled are girded with strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, and the hungry have ceased to hunger. Even the barren has borne seven, and she who has many children has become feeble.’” This is starting to talk about the Church now. The Church is stumbling and weak. Those who were full of bread are without bread. Those who had no bread get bread and get strengthened. We know that bread is the truth. The Church bears seven. Continuing in verse 6: “‘The Lord kills and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and brings up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and lifts up. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap, to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory.’” We are talking about the Millennium, our rulership and God blessing His Church. He allows the Church sometimes to stumble so that He can pick them up when they have humbled themselves. He gets them cleaned up and ready to dwell with Him. THE FEET OF THE PILLARS Continuing in the last half of verse 8: “‘For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and He has set the world upon them.’” We are told in Revelation that the Church are the pillars. They are the spiritual pillars of the earth. The earth is going to rest on the pillars (on His Church), and God has to make sure those pillars are not going to slip anymore. We are tried and tested. We humble ourselves, and then God will bless us. Then, indeed, the whole world will be blessed. Continuing in verse 9 where this will assure us that this is the case. “‘He will guard the feet of His saints, but the wicked shall be silent in darkness.’” How do the pillars get strong to help hold up the earth? God takes care of their feet. He takes care of the feet of the saints, and He puts us on the Rock of Jesus Christ. This is where we get a solid, firm footing. We are out of the miry clay and out of the river that wants to pull us down. We are away from Satan’s attitudes, and we are protected. We can dwell with those burning fires. The Holy Spirit can be in us, and we have become part of the pillars that God is using to support a spiritual government for the entire earth. Continuing in verse 10: “‘The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces; from heaven He will thunder against them. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to His king, and exalt the horn of His anointed.’” Of course, the King is Jesus Christ and His anointed are His saints. God will put our feet on solid ground, if we continually strive to turn them and restrain them from doing evil, and put them in a good place and try to take our feet toward righteousness. Then we are blessed with His help. We must show effort. We must show intent. If we are slipping just like King David was slipping, God will help us without a doubt. He promises that. It is a sure thing. So God will guard those of us who are striving to use our body. Specifically we are talking today about our feet to do His will. How beautiful are the feet who bring good news. NOT SWIFTLY RUNNING TO EVIL Now, if you would, turn to Proverbs chapter 6 where we get a few warnings. There are a few things that we need to be careful of. Proverbs 6, starting in verse 12: “A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth…” Your feet take your face where it is going to go. Wherever you go speaking horrible things, God says you are worthless. Verse 13: “He winks with his eyes, he shuffles his feet, he points with his fingers; perversity is in his heart, he devises evil continually, he sows discord. Therefore his calamity shall come suddenly; suddenly he shall be broken without remedy.” Obviously we do not want to be judging people, pointing our fingers, condemning them, nor do we want to have a hard heart or be sowing discord. Then we are spiritually using our feet the way they should not be used. Verse 16: “These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.” We do not want any of these labels on us, brethren. We want feet that are slow to do evil. We want to constantly be thinking no, I do not want to do that. We need to be constantly checking our mind to make sure it is not directing our feet in an evil way. This proud look that is spoken of, God cannot use people without humility. We have to recognize the source of strength and the source of forgiveness is God. There is no pride in us, brethren. We should not be prideful. Obviously we should never lie. Tell the truth the best that we can always, and do not shed innocent blood. I know none of us are murderers here so how does this apply to us? When we hurt someone spiritually and we tear them down, there is spiritual blood being shed. God does not like that. He hates that. Therefore, do not shed innocent blood. Do not hurt our brothers and sisters. Do not devise wicked plans, either in our physical lives or in our spiritual life with our brethren. Do not be a false witness and do not sow discord but bring peace. Remember, how beautiful are the feet that bring peace. We want to sow peace among the brethren. If you would, please, turn to Proverbs chapter 19, starting in verse 1: “Better is the poor who walks in his integrity than one who is perverse in his lips, and is a fool.” We have to walk in integrity. It is better to be poor and walk in integrity than to be very rich and walk with a lying tongue or a perverse tongue. Verse 2: “Also it is not good for a soul to be without knowledge, and he sins who hastens with his feet. The foolishness of a man twists his way, and his heart frets against the Lord.” As I said earlier, we do not want to hasten with our feet to do evil. We are all going to make mistakes, but it is quite a different thing if we are constantly turning our feet into directions that are bad for us spiritually or physically. We want to use our mind and the Spirit that God has given us to direct our feet into good paths and proclaim good news. We need to bring peace and not discord. People should feel very comfortable around us, and we should not be harshly judging them or assailing them in any way. We do not want to lead them down the wrong path or devise evil things for them. When we do these good things and we keep ourselves pointed in the righteous path, God will be very, very pleased with us. We should be using the body of Christ in the way that He intended by directing our feet in places that we should go. WASHING OF FEET I want to take this information that we have gathered from the Old Testament and I want to leap into the New Testament. Because it is very important to take this information and then start applying it as much as we can spiritually. I want to turn now to John chapter 13. There are some scriptures we traditionally read at the Passover. With all the information we just gleaned, you are going to find that these words mean a whole lot more now. John chapter 13, starting in verse 1 and read to verse 17. We read this every year at the Passover. Christ is instituting here something He wants done on a memorial basis. He said to Peter and to the apostles present, you are not understanding this right now, but you will later. They did eventually. We need to fully understand now because washing of feet is integral to Passover. But why is it integral to Passover? All that background information we just gleaned out of the Old Testament is going to help us. Let us start with what we have known for years. MORE THAN HUMILITY Washing each other’s feet is an act of humility. That we have understood for many, many years. But there is much more, as we have seen in the Old Testament, to beautiful and clean feet than just humility. Humility is the starting point. God cannot use anybody without humility, but there is much more going on here than just humility. Christ had humility. He did not need to wash the apostles’ feet. He could have just said, “Be humble.” No, He was showing something. We want to get into that, because what He was showing was something major. It is very, very important because He said I want you to wash one another’s feet. There is a formula working here. Christ spoke to Peter and to those present who were clean. Peter had said wash my head and my hands. He said, no. If you are already clean, you do not need to be cleaned again. Just your feet need to be clean. Christ died for our sins. He did it one time. That cleanses our mind and our head. It cleanses us of old actions. Your sins are gone. At our baptism we all get an equal and level playing field. After baptism we are all clean. There are no more sins. They are gone; they are wiped out! God has done this because of Christ’s death. We are cleansed by His blood. But when you look at these words here, He said but you still have dirty feet! What happens? We get up after our covenant with God at baptism and we sin again. How did we do that? Our feet took us to the wrong place. We go through life walking about, and we sin. FORGIVE EACH OTHER FOR WHERE OUR FEET TOOK US Christ can forgive us for our sins, but can He make us forgive each other? No! He cannot make us forgive each other. We are going to look at that scripture in a few minutes. But the point is, He said wash one another’s feet. Now you need to start forgiving each other. From this point forward when there are offenses (you get dirty feet amongst each other), you need to wash one another’s feet. Forgive one another! I am forgiving you your big sins. I am getting you cleaned up and getting you ready to start bearing fruit for God, but as you continue to go through life and offend, wash one another’s feet. We are going to see this principle and develop it as we go through here because it is very, very important. Turn now, if you would, to Luke chapter 7. We are going to develop this point because it is very important. It is what we do in the body of Christ with each other. It is our part to play, you might say, in Passover with one another and our lives together as well during the entire year. Luke 7, read verses 36-39. This woman was a well recognized sinner. This guy is saying if He is really a prophet, He would not allow this. Continue reading verses 40-50. There is a tremendous lesson here for the Pharisee and for us. This woman was a big time sinner, but because she was forgiven so much, she loved Christ so much for having forgiven her. The Pharisee, in his own eyes, was quite a righteous fellow. He did not need forgiveness, in his own mind. He was forgiven very little so he did not love very much. It was all a figment of his imagination. When we sin we are guilty of breaking the whole law, so he was just as much a sinner as this woman. Because he thought so much of himself, he was forgiven little so he loved very little. The woman was humble enough to realize I had so many sins and this wonderful prophet was here to help me with my sins. She loved Him very much for that. She was forgiven a lot and loved a lot so there is a tremendous lesson for us here. AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS I want to back up to Luke chapter 6 and start reading there in verse 37. “‘Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use it will be measured back to you.’ And He spoke a parable to them: ‘Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch?’” Christ was saying here judge and you will be judged, condemn and you will be condemned. But if you forgive, you will be forgiven. You will be forgiven according to the amount you forgive. If you are very parsimonious, very stingy with forgiving, you fall into a ditch because you are blind. You also lead whoever is following you into a ditch. It is measured back to you in equal proportion. If you forgive very little, God says I will forgive you very little, which was the Pharisee’s problem in chapter 7. He was holding this woman accountable for everything she had ever done wrong. He was very unforgiving so he could not be forgiven much. Therefore, he did not love much. The principle holds true. If you would, back up to verse 27 of chapter 6 Christ has this to say. We will read to verse 36. Now we can begin to grasp what Christ is talking about here. The Father forgave people while they were still evil and still unthankful, as we were. When we were called into the Church and forgiven at baptism, we were not held accountable to a certain standard. God did not tell us I am not going to baptize you until you are this perfect and until you have wiped out all of these sins from your life. None of us would ever attain the point where we could make a covenant with God at baptism! God says now you go out and do that. Forgive others, and it will be forgiven to you in like measure. At baptism we are all forgiven the same. It is what we do from that point forward! How much have we learned to forgive and not judge each other in the body of Christ? This is what counts. Are we washing one another’s feet; are we forgiving each other’s debts? You will notice He talks about credit here and He talks about debts (those two debtors) with the woman who wiped Christ’s feet with her hair and cried on His feet. Because the principle is if you are holding someone who is in your debt and they have offended you, if you will not forgive that debt, God cannot forgive our debts. We have been accumulating debts since baptism. All of us are accumulating debts. We wipe out those debts according to how we wipe out the debts for others, which are offenses. At baptism we are all equal, but from that point after, it is up to us to develop a forgiving, nonjudgmental attitude toward our brothers and sisters in the faith. If we refuse to forgive, God has no choice but to not forgive us from that point forward. That is what He was telling the Pharisee and vicariously us today. From after baptism onward, how we apply these principles in our lives will determine how much forgiveness we are going to receive. It is very, very important. We must forgive one another as God forgives. If you would please turn back to Matthew chapter 6. We will look at the model prayer. Matthew 6, starting in verse 5. We are going to see how Christ said this is very important that we pray this way. Read Matthew 6:5-12. Sins are debts. It is up to us to forgive the debt of others. WE DETERMINE THE MERCY WE RECEIVE Continue reading in Matthew 6:13-15. It is scary. At baptism we are all equal. After that point, we are in charge. We are actually in charge of how much mercy we are going to receive! It is directly tied to how forgiving we are. I did not write these words, God did. It is very important that we understand the concept. Do not set ourselves up as everybody else’s righteous judge. Forgive offenses of others and hope that we will be forgiven by them. But if we forgive others, God will forgive us. It is very, very important to learn these things so that we have forgiveness in our account. It is credit in the account that God keeps for our lives. That is what Christ is talking about. Now, if you please, turn to Matthew chapter 18:21. “Then Peter came to Him and said, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?’” Peter thought that was pretty good, up to seven times. “Jesus said to him ‘I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.’” Do you think Peter walked away calculating in his head thinking that is a lot, but I can do that. I will forgive him 490 times and then I am going to pound him! No more forgiving his debts! No! Seventy is the lifespan of a man (three score and ten). Christ is saying to do it right, forgive seven lifetimes. In other words, perfect forgiveness is forgiveness as long as you live. Seven is the number of perfection. He said never stop forgiving. I am not going to stop forgiving. I do not want you to stop forgiving. I want to be able to forgive you a lot when I return. If you forgive constantly, I will wipe out all of your sins. I will not hold you accountable for anything, because how we measure out forgiveness to others, is how it will be measured out for us. Continue reading in Matthew 18:23. “‘Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.’” Here it is talked about as accounts again. He wanted to settle up accounts with his servants. Verse 24: “‘And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.’” This was a huge debt. “‘But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, “Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.” Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.’” Verse 28: “‘But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii…’” This is a very little amount. “‘…and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, “Pay me what you owe!” So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.” And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done.’” Verse 32: “‘Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?” And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses.’” TURNED OVER TO SATAN We are talking about the body of Christ, our brothers and sisters in Christ. God wiped out our huge debts at baptism. If we are not going to forgive each other the little debts we have against one another, we get turned over to get thrashed by Satan. If we do not learn to forgive, we could lose our eternal life, because the way it is measured out is by how much we measure it out to others. We must learn to compassionately forgive one another and get that credited in our account before Christ returns. For us it is very serious because that could be any time! Indeed, we have to learn it before we die if we are called and have the Holy Spirit. How we use the body of Christ in our lives, how we use our body and how we point our feet in the direction we go, minimizes our offenses toward one another. Do not get into an evil place, but when we do, forgive each other. Do not hold it against one another and build up guilt in the body of Christ. Satan is the one who wants us to feel guilty all of the time. He wants the body to hate itself. He wants us to hate one another and for us, indeed, to hate ourselves because of our sins. We see here that if we forgive one another, the guilt in the body of Christ is reduced. People feel happier. They will be contented. We will be a unified body and not judging others. We will not be pointing fingers at or condemning one another. We will help each other wash each other’s feet. FORGIVE ALL YEAR LONG We do not just wash each other’s feet at Passover once a year. We wash each other’s feet all year long. We just go through the physical motions at Passover, but it teaches a lesson. It takes humility to ask for forgiveness and it takes a lack of pride and power to forgive the other person. When we do that on a daily basis, we are washing each other’s feet. Then the body of Christ remains clean, because then Christ can keep forgiving us. This way we have a clean body. That is why Christ said I will take care of your mind and your heart (or the big things), if you wash each other’s feet when you stumble over each other and harm one another. If you keep doing that, I will take care of the rest. Christ is saying I cannot get you to forgive each other. I can forgive you, but I cannot make you forgive each other. That is what you have to do. That is why we are included in the Passover service. He could have stopped with the bread and wine. But He said before you do this with the bread and wine, wash each other’s feet. Before you come to the Passover, examine yourselves. Make sure you have washed each other’s feet before you ever get here. You are just going to go through the physical motions to show you have actually done this in your life. Then you are ready to take the Passover worthily. If you have not washed each other’s feet on a daily basis, then you are taking the Passover unworthily. Christ cannot forgive you. It is a waste of time! Because at Passover are we not renewing our baptismal covenant? We want our sins wiped away again. We cannot be holding grudges and be against one another. If we are holding each other accountable and piling guilt on the body of Christ, we can go through the Passover and waste our time! That is what Christ is saying. Hopefully by the time I return, you will have understood this lesson. You will have everything forgiven. God has a wonderful reward. We need to learn these critical lessons while we still have time because time is fleeting right now, brethren. We need to settle accounts with humility, with gentleness, with abundant mercy and abundant forgiveness. Settle our accounts and wipe out our debts. Do not pile guilt on one another. Forgive one another. Then God will, indeed, have great pleasure in forgiving us all of our debts when He returns. Wash each other’s feet daily. Do this between now and Passover so that we can take the Passover worthily. We will be able to go through the physical motions in humility knowing that in our real physical day-to-day life we have, indeed, washed each other’s feet and prepared for the Passover. Then we will be able to take it in a proper manner. Forgive and we shall be forgiven. When we are forgiven, we are very powerful against Satan. He cannot pile debt on us. He cannot pile guilt on us. He will not have power to divide the body. If we will not forgive and forget, we divide the body of Christ. We see that this has happened throughout the Church. There is way too much judging, harsh treatment and vengeance being taken. When we do that, the body of Christ falls apart. Then you have a head without feet. There is a head without hands or eyes. The blind follow the blind into the ditch. That need not be the case in our congregation here or anywhere else. We need to pray for the body of Christ and learn more lessons. Let’s gain this tremendous insight and valuable tool of washing each other’s feet. Let’s get this done before Christ’s imminent return!