Are You Part of the Great Unwashed?

The title of today's sermon. Are you part of the great unwashed?

Are you clean? But not all of you? Sound familiar?

I won't have you raise your hand, but maybe even those who are sitting, because we're fairly close quarters here. Hopefully all of you took a shower before you came. I won't ask, but hopefully you did, because it makes a difference. Is that why there's a space between you? He said a week ago. That's it. Between Tracy and you, there's a space there.

I bring what caused this sermon to come into my mind, because I did a sermon like this many years ago. Similar. But it came into my mind as I was listening to a podcast over a week ago, two weeks ago, and still got my ties back to the Tennessee Titans football team back in Tennessee. And so, one of the guys who was on there was talking about a former member of the Tennessee Titans football team. His name was David Stewart. He was also known as Big Country, because he was a country boy from went to Mississippi State. He was six foot seven. He said 313, but he was more like 350 pounds. He was a big boy. And so, he was told that he didn't have the best abilities. He wasn't the fastest. Ran a 525 40, which isn't too bad for a guy his size, but he didn't seem to have the quickness that many had. So, they said, this coach said, you're gonna have to do everything you can. You're gonna have to be Mr. Nasty out there, where at the end of the game, people don't want to come rushing you. So, David Stewart decided, as these other guys were relaying it, Stewart never relayed this as part of the podcast, was that he decided after a game on Sunday, Mr. Stewart did, that he would not shower the entire week. That means you would have workouts. He would be sweating. He'd begin the gym. He would not work out. He would not shower the entire week leading up to the game.

And then, he would only shower after the game was over. But then, he decided he wouldn't brush his teeth the entire week. And then, he added, the next is he started the day before eating garlic. So that when he played, the opposite player by the end of the game was wanting to stay away from him. Because they would go on the ground, which tack on the ground. He would slobber. He would do everything that a Mr. Nasty would have.

And his teammates said they stayed away from him till he went and had a shower. Well, he's retired now, so hopefully, and he's a farmer. And so hopefully, he doesn't live like that. And hopefully, none of us live like that. How clean are we, though? Are we glad to be clean? I know many of you, perhaps, have been somewhere, or the water was cut off, a hurricane might have come through, cut this out. Back in Tennessee, our farmhouse froze a couple of times in the dead of winter. We'd go three or four days without being able to take a shower. It's happened to me in the Caribbean before where water was cut off. You just had to mop down as much as you can.

Like to look at a cleansing, if we can. Like you to go with me to Luke 17. Luke 17 in verse 11. There's a story. The heading of this in my Bible says, Christ cleanses 10 lepers. You know the story? It said, Now it happened as he went into Jerusalem that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. Then as he entered a certain village, there met him 10 men who were lepers who stood far off. They were commanded to stay far away. One thing they did smell, because they really weren't allowed to take a shower, weren't allowed to get in the water in a bath because they were afraid they would pollute anything. So they literally just have to take a cup of water over them and that's it. And so these men, you can imagine how they smelled, plus their rotting flesh as a leprosy was beginning to consume their very lives. Verse 13, And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. So when he saw them, he said to them, Go, show yourselves to the priest. And so it was as they went, they were cleansed. Obviously, they were taking his advice. They left, and as they were walking, all of a sudden they were all healed, cleansed by the Savior. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, he returned and with a loud voice glorified God and fell down on his face at Christ's feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. Of all the ten, only one came back. Ten were cleansed, but only one was thankful for it. Remind you of Christ in that night?

You're clean, but not all of you.

And he said, Were there not found any who returned to give glory to God except for this foreigner? And he said, Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well. Beautiful story. Beautiful story for this leper. Beautiful story for his family, who finally maybe could reach out and touch him, who finally could come close enough to be held by his children, his parents, his wife, anyone who knew him who before they could not even do it. Think that cleansing made a difference in his life? Yes. Maybe it should have made a difference in the others, but were they thankful for it? Shows that they really didn't come back.

Wow.

But like the leper, God cleansed us, didn't he? And he cleanses us, continues to cleanse us by his blood every single day. Because I pray that that blood would take away my sins every morning, because it is by that blood that my sins are taken away. They're not covered. They're taken away. Daily. We use that cleansing, don't we? It's so strange if you had a board here, you could actually show the marks of our sins. And if you used a magic marker, here, here, here, and here, and that the only thing that could take that away would be the blood of Christ. That's a beautiful picture. Something scarless, something red has to be put over to take away all those marks. Incredible understanding that we have. But then we also have the understanding of baptism, don't we? And how we enter the water, and it cleanses us. The old man goes down. The new man, the new creation, as it says in Colossians, comes up. Beautiful picture. That cleansing of the water. Wipes away, takes away all sins as you've ever had. You come up out of that water as new as a new baby child comes into this earth.

And then you actually have what Jesus Christ talks to. Jesus Christ talks to Nicodemus in John 3 and tells him about being born, or being actually cleansed of water and spirit. So, in a way, we are baptized with the Holy Spirit. It's given to us. We're cleansed by the water.

And all our sins are forgotten. Forgiven. And then we are given His Spirit. And the most beautiful part, we're saved from death with eternal life. We are saved from death. Now, we may pass in this life, but we have eternal life. It's all laid out for us. This is what the divine plan of God was.

Clean and unclean before God was and is very important. It was back then, and it still is today. And one day, this whole world will understand just how important cleansing is. I went to a dinner party in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, one of my customers. Lovely lady. She worked in Washington, D.C. She was involved in various things, and she would have a dinner party. I can't remember her name. She doesn't remember either. And so, I did a lot of work. She was older, and I would just check on her. And so, she would have dinner parties. She would invite various people there of different, all different walks. And we went a time or two, just because she asked. And I met this, and so at that time, I was actually going around speaking in various areas of Tennessee and Alabama and Kentucky. And she knew it because I would always bring up something. She would always have a biblical question at different times for me because she said, well, I was in a church, but we didn't read the Bible. That was a preacher's job. And so, she would always have these questions. And so, I never made a big deal of it. I was a deacon, and so that's part of what we do. And she then would tell these people, he's kind of a part-time preacher. And so, she would, he owns a construction company, but he also preaches on the side. She said, I think he wants to be Jesus, she told her. So, she had a great sense of humor and everything. And so, she, on the evening, she had us over, and this young couple were there, a woman, maybe in her 30s, whatever. And so, she introduced me the same way she always did with this kind of funny thing. And the lady gets out, well, she and her husband shakes my hand and tells his boy. And then, she rose, and she said, well, she gave me her name, and she said, I'm part of the great unwashed.

Part of the great unwashed. And I said, well, there's quite a few like you out there. And I said, never had any religion. She said, yes, I did. I've had the same religion all my life. And I said, well, what religion is? She goes, me. Me. She said, I just make my own. And, you know, we. But I never forget that she said, yeah, she was never baptized and didn't really want to be baptized. And I just thought later, someday, yes, you will. You'll want to be when you know your mind is open. Because clean and unclean to God is very, very important. And it should be to us. It's a door that he opened to us that many of you walk through. And it's so important if we can't go back with me to Deuteronomy 23. Deuteronomy 23. In verse 9, I found this interesting. I know you would too, as he's given instructions because they're about to enter the promised land. This isn't like it was before. This is new. This is the younger people. So he was laying this out. But he said in verse 9, when the army goes out against your enemies, then keep yourself from every wicked thing. Interesting. Wicked thing. And then he says, if there is any man among you who becomes unclean by some occurrence in the night, then he shall go outside of the camp. He shall not come inside the camp. But it shall be when evening comes, and he shall wash with water. And when the sun sets, he may come into the camp. This cleansing seems to be an obsession with God in a way. And also, you shall have a place outside the camp where you may go out. What was he talking about? And when, and you shall have an implement, something to dig with, among your equipment. And when you sit down outside, sit down outside, you shall dig with it and turn and cover your refuse. To simplify everything, yes, Dale.

But here is the big point. Why? For the Lord your God in 14. For the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and give your enemies over to you. Therefore your camp shall be holy. Holy. It's not holy unless God is there. But because his presence there, it's holy. Our houses, think about your house.

That he may see no unclean thing among you and turn away from you. See why it's so important about this clean and unclean? He wants, he wants to dwell with us. Emmanuel. He, but he is so pure, so holy that even Habakkuk said, you are too pure holy to see anything unrighteous. He understood. And I think that's so important for us, being his people. And not only that, but he talks about washing with water. And it's so important.

God takes three chapters in Leviticus, and you should all know them. He takes Leviticus not only does 11, but he takes three separate chapters. Leviticus 13, 14, and 15. And it's all instructions on being clean before him. He's having to tell this nation of people who came out of paganism. That's all they knew. That's how they lived. And they were slaves. And now God is building a nation with these slaves. And why did he bring all these instructions about what's clean and unclean? Go with me to Leviticus 26. Leviticus 26, and you probably already know this. Leviticus 26, verse 12. Oh, God says what? I walk among you. And I'm your God.

You shall be my people. How can we ask for anything more? Because we are. We are His people. We are His nation of people today. He's just like He was training them and instructing them to become that great nation. We are being instructed to be in that kingdom, which is so much greater than the nation of Israel. He says, I don't want you just there. I want you to be kings and priests. Very humbling when you see this, that that's what He's saying to the church today. You know, we try to do what's right. You know, most of us, you know, but we're going to stumble. We see that as we examine ourselves, and we try to do better every year and evaluate ourselves. And we try to do better every year and evaluate ourselves. But He wants to dwell with us.

He wants that relationship. And it's only because He loves us so much that He let and watched His Son die so that He could have a relationship like no other with us so that we could be cleansed every day, 10 times a day, 50 times a day, if you need it, so that you can be just because of that blood. You just have to ask His forgiveness and actually mean it. And what happens? He wants to spend more time with you because now you're clean. That's why I guess it was just so important.

I mentioned it earlier. I won't really turn there, but John 13, verse 9. That night at foot washing, let me see. Not all of you were clean. Who wasn't clean? Why wasn't He clean? Didn't He have His feet washed?

Yes. And what did He already have? He had blood on His hands, didn't He? Whether He had received the money at that time or whether He was about to receive it, He had already made the deal. It was blood money, wasn't it? That's why the that's why Sadducees couldn't take it back. It was blood money.

And Christ knew it. And Christ washed His feet.

You ready to wash your enemy's feet? I hope we can. I don't think we have enemies of any, if anyone in here. It's a very loving, caring church.

Then He says in verse 10, but you are not all clean. And that had to blow the disciples' mind. Who? You know, they even said, they look around like, is it you? Is it you? You ever taken three showers in a day? I have. Anybody here? I'm the only one.

Oh, yes, yes, yes. Take one in the morning, then go out and do work in the yard. Tracy, you all right? Darren, you work construction, Clive, right? Whatever you do. Phil, I'm sure you have two. And then you get dirty, you come in, and you have to meet, so, hey, do this. Can you take too many showers? Can you be too clean? Not for God, you can't. And for most of us in here, I doubt you could be. A day of atonement. As you get into that, you realize that the high priest that day, he had a golden bathtub that he would have to wash himself every time he went in and out of the sanctuary that day, the Holy of Holies.

Even when he had to light, just light the candles, he had to come in and change clothes because it was coming before God. God wanted to make, and he made that crystal clear that, no, you have to go above and beyond because God is so holy. And he wanted the people to see just how precious it was to be holy. And that God wanted that relationship.

You know, the sad part was most never. Three million people, most didn't even get it. And he went through all those instructions, three million people. But they worked for us. They helped us to see just how important it is. I don't know, Jeff, you studied it quite a bit when you booked and so forth.

I had one that said he actually took five baths and you went in and out. And each time he had a new set of clothes that they were put on just because it's so when he went into the Holy of Holies. We cannot be too clean before God, brother, at any time. Because he is pure. He is clean. And he is holy. That is what he is. And that is what he wants us to become. So it's so amazing a God walking, walking on earth as Jesus Christ did in human form.

Well, see, outside he's just like us. But inside, see, he was fully man and outside, but he was fully God on the inside. That spirit, he was full of the spirit. Amazing. You know, we clean fruits and vegetables before we eat them. Don't you, Maria? I've eaten plenty at your house. Well, not plenty. I had to eat some, but yeah. But yes. Why do you wash fruits and vegetables? What? Pesticides? What? What else? Your worms?

How about bird droppings? Okay. I had a dog that wanted to go to the, when I went out to go to our garden, and he just had to use one of my plants. Right? Yes, but I'm also going to wash it. And so most of us don't see any problem. We, without cleansing those fruits and vegetables, we can become sick, won't we? There's a very good chance of that.

And he realized without cleansing from God, we can be sick from the world, sick from the world, because it will contaminate us. That's why we go through some of these exercises, these disciplines, if you can call it that, that we do every year. I know many of you have done this all the time, and sometimes it can be laborious. It can also be like, well, you know. So, you know, I try to look at it every year in a different way, because I don't want it to be just another year, another time.

My 50th foot washing, my this, no. I wanted to have new meaning, and I think we do need to have new meaning every year. We rejuvenate it. I get rejuvenated in my job when I have the opportunity to baptize someone, because I see that passion. I see that, you know, that excitement in them as we go through counseling, and then that day of, I mean, I get juiced.

I thank God that I'm able to have a part of that, and makes me realize, boy, I didn't take mine as serious as I should have all those years ago. But it's kind of like you parents, right? You parents raise your kids, and then you see, you try to make them better than when you had it.

You try to instruct them so they do not have to go through the pain that you had. You help, and you do this kind of stuff. See, this is what God is trying to do with his children. Not only us, but also the world. He just wants us to avoid pain. And as Jeff was talking about, have some peace. Have some peace. It's amazing, Jeff, because I've had people say to me, oh, I don't believe that PTSD stuff. They're just weak. Yes, I worked with enough. Yep.

There's things that people deal with. I happen to be a little bit more than I do. When I was in Tennessee for four days earlier this year, a few weeks ago, the guy who ran in my mother's log home, he's on disability for it. He's 32 years old. He was in Afghanistan for three years. He's in total of six years. So yeah, he was over there for four, five. The last year he was there, he was a helicopter. He was a gunner on a helicopter. And spent 783 hours in combat, fighting, not just flying around. And here, he's sitting there and ISIS was, the Taliban was shooting at the chopper as it's trying to help get men in and out. And on the bottom, as he's sitting there, he said, I just hear that ping, ping, ping, where I'm sitting as they are, the shots are hitting that plate under him. And he said, you should try that when you do it so much. And then try to go to sleep that night. You wake up, ping, ping, ping. Because all it takes is one of those penetrating.

I'm sad, Jeff. And it's that there are people who don't believe that exists. I worked with quite a few guys that came home from Vietnam. I hired a few guys. And yeah, they were dealing with it. But why do I bring this up? Well, not just because Jeff did, but because God understands what we're like, our flaws, our pathetic lives sometimes that we go down past. He wants us to have the same compassion and love on our fellow man. The way Christ had it on everyone. Right, Donna? I mean, until you have health problems that you just can't, right, John? I mean, it's just nobody can understand. We have to be like Christ. And that's what this whole thing is about. Our kind of our purpose is for God to make us selfish human beings who like ourselves to love other people more than we love ourselves.

That's what this whole thing of washing feet, drinking wine, and eating flatbread is all about. That's the big picture. I bring that up because nobody ever painted that picture for me. All the years that I took it, it was more like, this is what we need to do. Oh yeah, well, you do this and do that. And it was regimented. It was like duty. No, it's more than duty. It has to be so much more than duty because it has to be in here. That's why he gave the incredible story about that Samaritan leper. He was a stinking leper, and then he was a Samaritan on top of that. Everybody would have let him go. But Christ didn't. Can we help people? God's going to bring people into your life. He did this year. I guarantee if you sit there and had time, God brought people into your life, not for you to convert them. That's his job. But for them to see you, for them to get a reflection of what a Christ like person is, and he's going to do it again. And you know, if you're going to do it again this coming year, I need to be there that night and say, God, I'm ready to go again. I need to be renewed. And I hope all of you will think that same thing. So it's not just the same old, same old. Let me wrap this up because I can't keep you too late. Jeanne's yawning and looking at her watch, so I better speed it up. I know with that look.

She did cut my hair and did a good job this week. I thank you very much for that. Let's go over to Psalm 23. Sorry, Psalm 24. Psalm 24, I bet you got it up there. If I don't have it here. Psalm 24. Oh, this is such a beautiful, beautiful Scriptures here. Because in verse 3 it says, Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Who may stand, what? Holy place! Holy place! He's saying the question, who's going to be in his kingdom? Who wants in his kingdom? I do. So let's see what he says about this. He says, He who has clean hands and a pure heart.

He's not lifted his soul up to an idol, nor is swollen deceitfully. But who has clean hands? Is he talking about, we didn't wash our hands before we, you know, ate some food? No. He's not talking about this. But have clean hands. We're not, we don't murder somebody. We don't have, we don't have guilty hands. Remember the pilot? You know what he said? When he didn't find Christ guilty, he didn't want that on his head. So what'd he do? He stood before him and he washed his hands. He said, My hands are clean. That's what God wants from us. Not only a pure heart, but because a pure heart comes from the inside out, but the clean hands come from the outside in. It's what we do.

It's the, it's the door we open when everybody else is like, what are you doing?

For somebody at a store. It's the clean hands and a pure heart when they give you too much change at Publix and you take it back and they look at you like you're an idiot. Because we can't keep it because it's not ours because, because we represent the king. Because our, our family's rich. We don't need his, we don't need anybody else's money. He gives us exactly the right allowance in each and every one of our lives. God wants us like Christ. He wants us clean on the inside and the outside, even down to what we eat. See, he was so, he wanted this so, it isn't like, well, I don't want you eating that because it's not good for you. No, it's so, so he brings this because he knew why he made creatures. He, he knew, he designed these creatures, these scavengers to eat from the bottom of the ocean, bottom of the water, clean the land, and that was their job. And it wasn't to be eaten. That's why he has cleaner and clean. But look at it. Let's go there if we can. I'll try, I'll try to get through this quickly. Leviticus, you don't have to put up with me next week. So, maybe if I do go a little bit. Let's, let's go to Leviticus. Where am I going? 11? Yeah, 11 verse 41. Here he goes in of, and I love this, the heading of my Bible says, the purpose of dietary laws. Well, it need to keep you well. We think, oh, it's so much more, it's so much deeper than that. Let's say, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth shall be an abomination. It shall not be eaten. Whatever crawls on its belly, whatever goes on all fours, whatever has many feet among all creeping things that creep on the earth, these you shall not eat, for they are an abomination. You shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creeps, nor shall you make yourself unclean. Unclean. Going back to that clean. With them, lest you be defiled, for I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy. For I am holy. Remember Peter said it later in the New Testament? Neither shall you defile yourself with any creeping thing that creeps on the ground. For I am the Lord God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. And he said, You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. He wants us not to eat it because he wants us to be clean like him.

That's just because, oh, our bodies may take it. My grandfather lived to be 94, and he ate squirrel, he ate possum, he ate everything, and loved pork. He would turn down a big steak or lamb just to eat pork. And he lived to be 94. So it's not that some of our bodies can't take it. Most can't. But it's like there's a bigger purpose here. He wants us like Christ. He wants us like him. Holy. And these are one of the things that make you holy. I had a minister in church tell me one time, Well, that's kind of a physical thing. You know, I wouldn't really consider it, you know, it's more like a physical sin than a spiritual sin. I said, Really? Have you not read this? This is tied to being holy. Now you're getting into the spiritual. Now you're getting into this. I'm going to go to Romans. Romans. Well, now I won't go to Romans.

Think about Ecclesiastes 12 verse 6. Many of you know it, right? Jeff, I didn't give you this one. I don't have it. As many of you know it. Remember your Creator.

Before the silver cord is loosened, and they, what golden bowl is what? Broken. Broken.

He's talking about, it's a metaphor for the human body. When our minds, that silver cord is, we can't remember what we once remembered. We're not as sharp as we used to be. And we get older. Remember your Creator. And the what? I love it. I don't have a golden bowl, but I have a bowl I eat cereal in in the morning. Okay. And so he compares us to this bowl.

Our bodies are like this bowl. How clean is your bowl? How clean is your bowl? Have you considered that it matters? Now some of us are more, have more round bowls than the others. Okay. Some are a little deeper than others. But what matters to God is that we, as His bowls, are clean. Clean. Inside, outside.

Yesterday I ate in this bowl. And I washed it and it was clean.

I also washed this bowl in His blood. And I was cleansed. It was clean.

I think that it matters so much for God that we take care of the interior as much as or more than the exterior. Because the exterior is going to one day fade away, as tint as it's called. It's temporary, but the inside, the character, the Holy Spirit we've been given, it will live on. Oh, we can tithe. Keep the holy days a Sabbath. Maybe we don't even curse. And boy, everybody will say, that's a, boy, that bowl looks good. Don't they? Oh, that's a good-looking bowl. But God knows what's inside here, doesn't He?

This is us. This is what He wants to see. It's important. It's so important that there were actually two different places. I have five minutes. Okay, I'll quit. Remind me of that. Matthew 23. Because we can't be like other spiritual leaders. We have to be like our spiritual leader. Matthew 23. Matthew 23, verse 25. 23, verse 25. Where am I? There it is. He said, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgences. Blind Pharisee first cleaned the inside of the cup and the dish, that the outside of them may also be cleaned. This is a cup of tea, tea Mary made for me yesterday. I left it in the car. It's nasty because I left some in there and then it just, you know, I don't even want to get water and put it in here and drink it. Why? Because it's dirty. It's filthy. It's not clean. It looks clean on the outside, but it's not clean on the inside. Brethren, what are we? Do we spend more time on the outside because everybody sees it, and less time on the inside, which mainly only our closest friends, our mate, or God, knows what's inside there. Go with me to Luke. Luke 11. I loved how Luke put it. Luke 11. Luke 11 and verse 39. Then the Lord said to them, Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and, there's that incredible word, wickedness. Would that describe us? Wickedness? I hope not. That's what it's time to clear that plate. It's time to clean the bowl. It's time to clean the cup. Foolish ones, did not he who made the outside also make the inside? We get to do that. You know, you live in your houses, right? And we'll get in there and we'll clean that house.

Where would God prefer you to spend more time? The house or the heart? House or the heart? The heart. He liked both, but we're to spend more time because that's the part that's going to live for eternity and we get that chance. Cleansing is a big deal to God, brother. He had Naaman go down and dunk himself how many times? Seven times and Naaman go, you're crazy! Why? I got other rivers and he said, no. What was it about? It was about following God's instruction. That's what it was all about. And you remember the woman in Luke, Luke 7, you don't have to turn there. She came there, Christ was invited to the house and this woman came there and she came and she did what? She washed his feet with her tears and did what? Light them with this. And they say they knew what kind of woman she was. She was a sinner. She was a prostitute. That's what all the commentaries say.

This woman knelt down their tears and washed. You remember what Christ said about the one who invited him in, the Pharisee? You didn't give me what? You didn't give me water to wash my feet. So here, this woman knelt down on her hands and knees and was crying tears and picked up that nasty, filthy, dirty stinking foot and she washed it with her tears.

You know it didn't matter to her? Because why? She knew she was one of the great unwashed. And she wanted to be cleansed. And it was her clean heart coming to Christ that mattered. Brethren, it's our clean hearts, no matter who we are, no matter what we do. Take that to God.

Because see, she felt as filthy as his feet when she came to him. You will meet people who feel so filthy.

How will you treat them in the next year?

But now she was cleansed and forgiven. Brethren, her bowl was clean. So during the next days and weeks, how clean is your bowl?

How clean is this bowl? That's the question God wants to know.