Continuous Forgiveness

We're not going to have a time of opening here. We're going to spend more of our time with thinking about cleansing and washing, as we've heard already this morning. Washing feet, taking communion together.

I'm going to read a passage here, a rather lengthy one. And then, I guess it was about a year ago, we went over some of these things. So let's go over them again here.

In John chapter 13, starting in verse number 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. And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray Him. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God and went to God, He rises from supper and laid aside His garments, and took a towel and girded Himself.

After that, He poureth water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded. Then cometh He to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto Him, Lord, dost Thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do Thou knowest not now, but Thou shalt know hereafter. Simon Peter saith unto Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.

Now you might ask the question, what does Peter mean? Or what does Jesus mean when He says, you don't know what I'm going to do now, but you'll know hereafter. Peter's going to need cleansing. He's going to deny the Lord.

He's going to need a deep cleansing. And the Lord's going to cleanse him, show him about this washing. Verse 10, Jesus said unto him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every wit, and you are clean, but not all.

For he knew who should betray him. Therefore said he, you are not all clean. So after he had washed their feet and had taken his garments and was set down again, he said unto them, know ye what I have done to you.

You call me Master and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. If I then your Lord and Master have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. In other words, follow my example.

For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord, neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If you know these things, happy are you if you do them.

Jump down to verse 21. When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit and testified and said, verily, verily, I say unto you that one of you shall betray me. Then the disciples looked one upon another, doubting of whom he spake.

Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake. He then lying on Jesus' breast saith to him, Lord, who is it? And Jesus answered, he it is, to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it.

And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the sop, Satan entered into him, then said Jesus unto him, that thou doest do quickly. Now there are two events here.

And these two events are symbolic events of something that is deeper, something that is having to do with our hearts. They are this event of feet washing. And then the Lord moves into the communion.

The communion is not specified here in John, although he talks about dipping the sop and giving it to Judas, it's much more specified in the other Gospels. But these events are symbolic and there are some materials here that have symbolic meaning. The bread and wine, and we all talk about this often, but the bread and wine that Jesus is about to give has symbolic meaning.

There's nothing in the bread. There's nothing in the wine. It's a symbolic meaning.

And the symbolic meaning is simply this. The bread, Jesus said, this is My body which is broken for you. The wine, this is My blood which is shed for you.

And so the bread and the wine have everything to do with the cross, have everything to do with the death and the suffering and the bleeding and the burial of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there's water here, and the bowl of water that Jesus used also has symbolic meaning. And that symbolic meaning is washing.

And it was mentioned here this morning. To be washed from iniquity, to be cleansed from sin. If you look down to verse number 8 again, this word cleansed is used three times in verse 8-11.

Peter said unto Him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. And Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me. In other words, you need to be cleansed, Peter, or else you can't have any part with Me.

Simon Peter said unto Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. And Jesus said unto him, He that is washed, there's that word, needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every wit, and you are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray him, therefore said he, you are not all clean.

So you have in this evening, you have bread, you have wine, and you have water. And that bread and wine is symbolic of the death, the sufferings of the Lord Jesus, that which makes atonement for sin, that which makes cleansing even possible, that which brings redemption. And then this water here is representative of being clean, of being cleansed.

Cleansed from sin. And if you look at verse number 11, the only one there that was not cleansed from sin was Judas. Verse 11 says, For he knew who should betray him, therefore said he, you are not all clean.

In other words, you're not all bathed. You're not all truly washed from your sin. There is one unbeliever amongst us, and that is Judas Iscariot.

And so these three, and we're going to have these three this morning. We're going to have bread, we're going to have wine, and we're going to have water, washing the feet. And I just want you to picture this.

The bread and the wine is what the Lord Jesus did on the cross, and then beautifully He comes, and with the water, He washes them and makes them clean. By the way, He's the one that does it all. We receive those things.

And then He tells us, now that you're clean, now that I've washed you and you're clean, I want you to go and wash each other. I want you to wash one another's feet. And we'll see what the meaning of that is here in a little bit.

But washing, and the washing of the feet, the idea of washing is mentioned in the New Testament a number of times. I'll just read a couple of examples here of being washed. Acts 22.16, Paul is giving his testimony of his conversion.

He talks about how Ananias comes to him and says, And now, why tarryest thou? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Wash away your sin, calling on the name of the Lord. Revelation 7.14, These are they which come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

So the blood of the Lamb. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus made their robes white. They were washed in the blood of the Lamb.

1 Corinthians 6.11 says, And such were some of you, talking about all kinds of evil, extortion, excess, but you are washed, you are sanctified, you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So this idea of being washed. Washed from sin.

So in this evening, as Jesus is meeting here with His disciples, the Lord is showing them not only the way which forgiveness comes through the bread, and through the wine, through the body and the blood of the Son of God, but also the application of that forgiveness. Don't be like Judas. Don't be like Judas who is unclean.

I want to wash you. I want you to humble yourself, Peter, and let me wash you that you can be clean. And so the Lord here, He washed their feet.

And it's a desire for the Lord here. He desires to forgive them. And I have no doubt He washed Judas' feet.

And He was saying to Judas, the bread, the wine we're going to take. I'm going to die and I'm going to shed my blood for you. And I want to wash you, Judas.

I want to wash all of you. The Bible says God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And so the Lord has provided the redemption.

Now He wants to provide the washing. And so it's the heart of God to want to forgive, to want to wash. I think of Peter's response here in verse number eight.

Peter said unto Him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Can you imagine what Jesus is thinking? Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus said unto him, Peter, oh boy, Peter, if I wash thee not, you have no part with me.

That's pretty serious there. If you don't let me wash you, Peter, you can't have any part with me. You can't be a part of my kingdom.

You can't be a part of my fellowship. And then the Lord goes on here, and we'll talk about this here in a minute, in verse 12 through 15, He encourages them to now wash one another's feet. Verse 12, So after He had washed their feet and had taken His garments and was set down again, He said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you.

Do you understand what just happened? You call Me Master and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet, for I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. And you know, we're going to see this here in a little bit, but God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.

He so loved. 1 John 4 says, If God so loved us, we ought to so love our brethren. And so if God has offered Himself up through His Son and He washes our feet, and He turns to us and says, you ought to love your brother.

You ought to love your sister, and therefore you ought to be willing to wash their feet. 1 Peter 4 says this, Above all things, you know, here when the Lord is showing us His death, burial, and resurrection through the bread and the wine, He brings up the first and the most important thing. If you're going to love your brothers, if you're going to love your sisters, above all things, have fervent charity one toward another, for charity shall cover the multitude of sin.

You know, the Lord could have said many things there. But first and foremost, by the way, how do we know God loves us? I think we know God loves us by the Son He gives us and the rain He gives us and how He blesses us with health and strength. But first and foremost, how do we know God loves us? Because He gave His only begotten Son.

The love of God was shown to us because God gave us His Son and He offered us forgiveness. Listen, you can show no greater love to an individual than for you to suffer for them and forgive them. Amen.

The greatest act of love ever shown to humanity was to take the crimes of humanity and forgive them. You can't say you love your brother if you're not willing to be forgiven. I mean, that's supreme.

That's the supreme act of love. I know you can give gifts. God gives gifts.

He gives us many things. But the act of love that's the greatest, that you can show your fellow brother and sister and you can show humanity, is to lovingly forgive. I don't know of any other example of being Christ-like than that.

There's no more supreme example. The cross is a supreme example of love and the cross represents not God giving us good weather or good health, but the cross represents Him being willing to forgive. So Peter says above all things, above all things, this is the greatest.

Have charity because charity will cover the multitude. So if you're here and in your heart you think you're a pretty loving person. Well, I want to ask you to check this out.

Are you a pretty forgiving person? Because love, much of what it is, is the ability and the willingness to forgive one another. Well, in verse 14, Jesus said, If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, if I cleanse you, you also ought to wash one another's feet. That's our admonition here.

Cleanse your brother. Clean him up. Forgive him.

Now there's an opposite story and you all are familiar with it, but I want to go ahead and read it. Turn with me to Matthew 18 here. And this is the whole story right here, but it's the flip side of it.

In Matthew chapter 18, starting in verse 21, the same Peter here who wrote a fervent charity covers a multitude of sins. He asked the Lord a question in Matthew 18 verse 21. It says, Then came Peter to Him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I wash his feet? He didn't learn this lesson yet.

I forgive him. Lord, how many times do I have to wash my brother's feet? How many times do I have to forgive him and cleanse him? In essence. And Jesus said unto him, I say not unto thee unto seven times, but unto seventy times seven.

You all know this story, but I'm going to read it here. Verse 23, Therefore is the kingdom of heaven like unto a certain king which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which owed him ten thousand talents.

But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. That's the same attitude that woman had that came and bowed before Jesus and actually washed his feet with tears.

Have mercy upon me and forgive me. And she washed his feet with tears. Verse 27, Here's God's heart.

Then the Lord of that servant was moved with compassion, praised God for that, and loosed him and forgave him the debt. The Lord washed his sins away. Here's a servant who's had his sins washed away, and he's cleansed from his sin.

Verse 28 starts out with that word. It changes the entire flow of the parable. but the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants, so much for that fervent charity, which owed him a hundred pence, and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, pay that thou owest.

And the servant fell down at his feet and besought him, saying, have patience with me and I will pay you all. He went down to the feet also, probably wept, probably his tears were weeping on his feet. Have compassion on me and please forgive me.

And he would not. Verse 30, I'm not gonna have, I'm not gonna wash you. Went out, cast him into prison until he should pay the debt.

Boy, he just got out of that prison. So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry and came and told him to the Lord all that was done. By the way, this is a grief to the body of Christ.

Let me just bring this up. This is a grief. This is a grief to the family of God.

It's a grief to the servants of God when people in God's kingdom don't forgive one another. And here's a good example of to be like a child. Jesus said, except you become his little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of God.

My little boys here, they can fight and carry on. And in the next five seconds, they forgive, hug, and they go on and you never bring it up again. Now we need to be like little children, forgiving and forgetting.

Verse 32, then his Lord, after he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant. Oh, you know, we talk about wickedness a lot. We talk about wickedness and we mentioned fornication.

We mentioned lying. We mentioned immodesty. But you know, the Lord says this is wicked.

Wicked. You, by the way, this was a servant that was cleansed. You wicked servant.

Wicked. You know, we need to have priorities right. We need to direct real wickedness to where real wickedness is.

There is nothing any more wicked than being unforgiving after you have received forgiveness. Thou wicked servant. I didn't say that.

The Lord said that. You wicked servant. The Bible says in Proverbs 16, an ungodly man, an ungodly man digs up evil.

And in his lips there's a burning fire. Instead of burying evil, instead of cleansing away, instead of forgetting about it, he continues to dig it up. I have a little simple illustration here to read.

I would give it to you by memory, but I don't want to mess it up. A man who was telling his friend about an argument he had with his wife commented, oh, how I hate it. Every time we have an argument, she gets historical.

The friend replied, you mean hysterical. No, he insisted, I mean historical. Every time we argue, she drags up everything from the past and holds it against me.

That's being historical. Digging it up. You know, you bury things, and you go back and dig it up.

The Bible says an ungodly man digs up evil. We're told in the Bible that God casts our sin into the deepest sea. You know, nowadays we have these submarines and we have this mindset that you can go down to the deepest sea.

Some of these submarines go five miles underneath the water, and they find ships down there and see our sins can be found out. But you know, when this was written, you couldn't get to the deepest sea. It's impossible.

So the Lord's not into digging them up. But it's wicked. I want to emphasize that this morning.

Oh, thou wicked servant. I have forgiven you all this debt. Why are you not forgiving your brother and your sister? Verse 33, shouldst thou not also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due him.

So likewise shall my Heavenly Father do also unto you, if you from your hearts forgive not every one his brother his trespasses. I have forgiven you through my blood and through my body, and you forgive one another. By the way, we say this every morning, Sunday morning.

We know what we're saying. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. By the way, that's in the Lord's Prayer. That's a big issue.

That's right at the center of Christianity. This is how you pray every day. And I want you every day to make sure that you're cleansing your brother's feet.

You're cleansing your sister's feet. Peter says, how many times, Lord, do I have to cleanse it seven times in a day? No. Seventy times seven.

Well, let's go back to John here again. I understand that many times, and I think servanthood is something that's mentioned here in this passage that we're to be servants. But I think that the heart of the passage has to do with cleansing your brother.

Washing your brother and sister. Look at John 13 again with me. John 13, verse 15.

For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done unto you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant, and you and I are servants. You know, that servant went out.

That servant of the king went out and found his brother, his fellow servant who owed him something, and that servant cast him into prison. The servant is not greater than his Lord, neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. I like verse 17.

If you know these things, happy are you if you do them. Now, if you remember Matthew's passage there, it says, I'll deliver you to the tormentor. Torment is where hell is.

Bible says there'd be torment today and night forever and ever. That's suffering. That's torment.

That's sorrow. Heaven is a place of happiness, of joy. Everyone there is forgiven.

And the Lord is basically placing your hearts with those in hell. I mean, if you're going to hold people accountable and dig up old stuff and just not forgive, your heart's not in heaven. Certainly your heart's not in heaven.

Your heart's in the other place. Amen? Happy are you if everybody is clean? And you don't have to carry any bitterness and unforgiveness for it. Happy are you.

You look at people's faces sometimes. You don't just watch people. You know that they're just so deeply burdened in their hearts, and they're so bitter and so angry, and they're carrying along with them unforgiveness.

Someone hurt them. Someone offended them. They're just not going to let it go.

Listen, I wouldn't wish that on anyone. You're either going to get tormented if you don't deal with it, or you're going to be happy if you do. Happy is the one who does.

So I'm leading up to this, but we're going to wash each other's feet. Yes, it's an act of humility, and we need to be humble. Yes, the servants.

And by the way, oftentimes it wasn't the servants. You know, that was the rich people. You know, when Abraham, the three angels came, and one of them was the Lord.

When they came there in Genesis, and they met Abraham, and Abraham did three things. There's a picture of salvation there. We don't have time to go into it.

Abraham did three things to those angels. Number one, he said, stay right here. I'm going to get some water.

You can wash your feet. They washed their own feet. And that's a picture of us.

We need to wash our own feet. You know that? When you sin, you need to come to the Lord and say, Lord, forgive me. I need to be cleansed.

First John 1.9. Sometimes though, if you sin against your brother, your brother needs to wash your feet for you. Happy are you. I think it's hard for us to understand washing of feet, because it's not something we do.

I have these shoes on. It's kind of awkward, I know. We come up here, and we'll take off our shoes and socks.

But in most of the world, like in Honduras, and in Africa, when I was in Africa, in most of the world, you go to places, people have sandals, or they have real simple shoes, and some of them are barefoot, and they're walking all day long, and it's common for people to get filthy feet. And so you come to someone's house, there was a basin of water, so that when you come there, you just wash your feet before you enter. We do that in the sense, we take our shoes off before we come into someone's house.

But you know, we don't wash feet today, because we're wealthy, we're affluent, and we have socks, and we have shoes, and we have automobiles. We don't oftentimes walk to where we go, and if we do, we have paved roads, we don't have dusty dirt roads. But in those days, they walked almost everywhere, and they had sandals, and they had dusty roads, so their feet were dirty on a regular basis.

And the idea of washing your feet was something you did three, four, five, six times a day. I wanna share something with you that helps understand this. Look at John 13, verse 10.

This is the thrust of what Jesus is saying to Peter. In verse 10, Jesus said to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every wit. And you are clean, but not all.

Now, there's two washes here, and there's two different words, and these words are important. One word is the word l-o-u-o, which is a Greek word to mean to bathe the whole person. For example, if you went and took a bath or a shower, you'd use this word.

The other word is the word nipto, which means to clean your hands or to clean your feet or to wash your face. It's a part of your body. And notice what Jesus says in verse 10.

He that is washed, that's the word you've been bathed. I have washed you through and through from the top to the bottom. The blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed you through and through.

He that is bathed needeth not save to nipto, wash his feet. And that's a small section of your body. Now, we don't think about it this way, but I don't think it's this way in Russia either.

It's cold there a lot of times. But when I go to third world countries, Bolivia, Columbia and places like that, you go take a bath. I didn't take a bath in a river.

I didn't take a bath in a lake, but oftentimes people do. This is just, they didn't have showers. They didn't have baths for thousands of years.

They had to go down to the river and they had to go down to the lake and they took a bath. And so they're cleansed. And that's what Jesus did.

He cleansed us from all of our sin. And you get out of the river, get out of the lake, and you start walking back to your house. What happens? Your feet get dirty on the way.

You know what that's like in the third world countries you've been there. You take a bath, but by the time you get, you know, we get out of these showers, our feet are clean and we walk on this beautiful linoleum or tile and we have these nice clean rugs and we put on our socks and shoes and everything stays clean, but that's not realistic around the world. Feet get dirty because the feet are in contact with this world, the earth.

And so it's hard for us to understand this concept. One can be bathed and yet still need a continual washing of the feet. I can be forgiven, thoroughly forgiven.

I'm saved, I'm born of the Spirit of God, but I need a continual daily cleansing of my feet. So you and I have been bathed in the blood of Jesus. We had a bath.

When you got converted, you had a bath. You were washed. It wasn't a part of your body, your hand was washed or your feet were washed or a little bit of your face was washed.

He washed you from your iniquity. He cleansed you on the day you were converted. You are washed from your sin.

Now as you go through life, you're gonna come in contact with sin and temptation in this world and you're gonna maybe fall. You're gonna have to say, Lord, I need my feet washed. And my brother did me wrong and I need to go and wash him.

He washed me. We need to make sure our hearts are clear with each other. So we are two things.

We are washed through and through when we're born again, but we are to wash our feet continually. And one sister asked me recently here and just bring this out this morning. When you're bathed and you're washed completely when you're converted and then you go out and you're heading back to your house and maybe you stumble into sin and fall, all you need to do is wash your feet.

You don't need to go back and take another bath. You don't need to go back and take another bath because you've been cleansed. So if you sin as a child of God, you don't have to go back and be saved all over again.

You know, this mindset is, I was washed from my sin, then I went out a day later, I sinned. That means I need to go back and get another bath. No, it doesn't mean that.

You need to have your feet washed. So as a believer in Jesus, you are washed. You're bathed.

That's the word that's used, you're bathed. But every day you need to keep your feet clean. By the way, one way to make shipwreck of your faith is to not keep your feet clean.

You need to make sure you're making daily confession, daily acknowledgement. You need to make sure, as the Bible says, if there's ought against your brother or your brother have ought against you, you need to forget your prayer time and go make it right. It's important that you make things right on a day-to-day basis.

Wash your feet. Though 1 John 1.9 says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's washing your feet.

He'll cleanse your feet, just like He did with the apostles. I'll wash your feet. So I'll say it this way, positionally you're cleansed.

You're a child of God, you're cleansed. But as you go through life, you need to wash your feet on a regular basis. Spiritually speaking, you need to confess your sin to the Lord.

You need to make it right with your brother and sister. And you know, I love nature and I've shared this with you so often. I keep doing this.

But God has designed this natural world to teach spiritual truth. And it's all over the place. And the more I think about it, every sermon I teach, I think, how's this portrayed? I'm getting more and more into this idea of nature shows us this somewhere.

But you see this, how God designed a family. I was born, March 21st, 1959, a mahoor. I have been a mahoor ever since.

I was born into the family. I became a mahoor. When I was five, six, seven years old, I didn't do things all right.

And my mother didn't say, you're no longer a mahoor. No, I was a mahoor. I still am a mahoor.

I was born a mahoor. When you're born again, you become a child of God. You're washed.

But sometimes, as a mahoor, I didn't do right. And that caused my fellowship with my parents to be hindered greatly. In spite of the fact that I was a mahoor, I still had to frown displeasure at my parents.

And every child here knows what that's like. You're in the family. But you're not in good standing with your authority.

There are many Christians who are in the family, but they're not in good standing with their heavenly father. So they're living a life that is a troubling life. And they're not keeping their records clear on a day-to-day basis and staying humble before the Lord and their feet washed.

And that's reality. So someone asked me last week, if I go out, I'm going 80 miles an hour in a 50-mile-an-hour zone, and I'm spinning, and I crash into a tree and wreck, do I go to hell? I'm a Christian. No, you don't.

I didn't repent. Well, you didn't get saved. You didn't get saved that way.

You got saved by coming to Jesus and humbling yourself. You become a part of the family of God. You're a member of God's family.

So driving 80 miles an hour is not wise. It's sin. It's a violation of God's law.

But if you go out and speed today, you don't have to be reconverted. You don't have to be baptized. So positionally, you're a child of God.

Jesus said, I've cleansed you all, except for one. Now you are cleansed. You need to wash your feet and wash one another's feet on a day-to-day basis.

Well, let's keep looking here in John 13. I'm getting to the end here. John 13, verse 14, I mean, if I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

Notice this word is not the word bathe. It's the word wash. You can't bathe me.

You have no ability to do what Jesus can do for me or for you. There's no way you can bathe me of my sin. Only the blood of Jesus can do that.

But you can wash my feet. You can say, brother, you've offended me. Brother, you've sinned against me and I'm going to forgive you.

You can wash me. But that's what the Lord is encouraging us here to do. Wash one another's feet.

And Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus. I'm going to read it for you. You don't have to turn there.

I'm going to ask you to turn to one more verse. But in Ephesians 4, verse 29, here's what he says, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Do you know what that is? That's being a part of the family and mom and dad are grieved.

Mom and dad are grieved at how you're living. Mom and dad are grieved at what you're doing. You're a mahoor, but you're not acting like a mahoor.

You're a Christian, but you're grieving your father. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, here's where we're getting into the feet washing, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice.

Malice. I'm going to do that person harm. I'm going to hurt them with my words.

And be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another. Notice this, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven, the king forgave you. Now, why are you going to go out and grab your servant, fellow servant by the neck? Try to take him under.

Well, one more verse I'd like you to turn to before we do our feet washing here. It's 1 John 4. Let's read together. I mentioned this verse earlier, but I want to finish with this.

1 John 4, verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.

That's amazing. How do you know when you're born of God, do you love your brother? The Bible says if anyone hates his brother, he's a murderer. And you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. Now, verse 9, and this was manifested to the love of God toward us because of God. Here's how God showed his love.

God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. God sent his Son that we might get a good clean bath and live. Verse 10, here in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the perpetuation for our sins.

This is God's expression of love to us. I want to forgive you. I want to cleanse you from your sin.

I love you. I don't want you to be separated from me. And so verse 11, beloved, here's to us, if God so loved us, we all ought also to love one another.

God so loved us, he gave his only begotten Son to bring us forgiveness. We ought to love one another. So much so that forgiveness is the first and foremost thing in an expression of our love.

Children, can you forgive your parents? Parents, can you forgive each other? Brothers and sisters, can you forgive each other here? Or maybe there's other brothers elsewhere that you need to forgive. I know we had a revival and I know this is a redundant message. We had a revival about bitterness and unforgiveness, but it's high on the list of things that's important to the Lord.

So we wash each other's feet. And I realized that washing feet is a sign of humility and that's a good thing. First and foremost, this is a picture of cleansing.

My brother has dirty feet. My brother has done me wrong, stepped on me, but I'm gonna forgive him and I'm gonna cleanse him. And that's where the heart of God is.

And I want all of us to be happy. I hope you don't go to bed at night or live your life just tormented with the past, what people have done to you, this thing and that thing. And I've told you before, you know that it's a problem in your life when you think about it a lot.

Bring it up again. Now what that person did to me. I'm all over it.

Relive it. Don't be tormented. God is able to take care of it.

So we're gonna just wash each other's feet. I hope there's no one here that has anything against each other. And let's do it this way today.

Let's have the men over here, ladies over here, maybe you brothers can move off that front pew, but let's just maybe have two volunteers to start us off. We don't have very many here this morning. Thank you.