Seven Meanings of the Foot-Washing

I want to say greetings again to everybody and certainly appreciate everybody being able to be here on God's Sabbath day. I know God is very pleased that we make an effort to keep his appointments and this is a very important thing that we do. And of course, we have the Holy Days coming up and those are very important appointments that we keep as well. And we need to be focused on them at this time of year, the spring festival season, particularly because we want to be prepared.

And that's what we've been, for many weeks here, going through different aspects of the upcoming Passover. And I was talking about the foot washing last time and I'm going to get right into it this time. One thing I want to mention by noting the time here is that time right since it seems like, okay, so we're a little bit behind today, but that's okay. Then I won't feel bad if I'm coming up on that here in an hour. But I know that there's a lot of material that I had to cover last time and I did not get very far. I told you this was going to be the seven meetings of foot washing.

And I went through two, but then I was looking at my notes again and I realized I did not even finish number two. So I want to get back into that and I'll just mention the points that I've covered thus far and then I will go right along to where we are. I know some people will be listening to this on the internet and they'll be able to listen to one and then the next and they won't need any review. So I hope since it's just a week later that we won't need much review right now, but I may have to mention a few things as we go. And of course I asked, what does the foot washing ceremony picture? And then I was going to go through seven things or areas with sub-points.

And here's what I've given so far. Number one, it pictures humility and loving service to others.

And the aspects I gave under that were a hospitality. That was a way that hospitality was shown to guests in the ancient world and it's to be our continuing responsibility to show hospitality to other people. And B, lowliness of mind. It certainly is your steaming others better than yourself. You're putting others on a higher position when you get down and wash their feet.

You are serving them. That's important. And C, is servant leadership. Of course, we think of this point that Christ made about when they were saying, who would be the greatest? And he said, the greatest is the one who serves. And I am among you as one who serves. I get down.

Here I am. Basically, they didn't fully understand this yet, but it became apparent in later times.

He was the great God who made the world and all people, basically. And he came to this earth as a servant to wash their feet and to die in their place. And that is a wonderful thing. And he set an example that we are to do that as well. A point D under this first point is forgiving one another.

That when we get down and wash one another's feet, it breaks pride. It helps us to reconcile with each other. It's difficult to get down and wash somebody's feet if you've got really something against them. And you know you better get it ironed out if you're going to actually do this and have it be meaningful. Otherwise, you would feel terrible, I guarantee you. If you think you have some really bad thing against somebody and you're getting down and doing the foot washing, that's going to prick your conscience. You're going to feel very bad about that. You're going to need to get that resolved. And you better do that beforehand because when you get to the Passover, you don't know whose feet you're going to end up washing. So it's something that you better be prepared. And of course, that comes to the next point, point E under this is honoring all without partiality. You know, Christ washed all the disciples' feet, and we're to be prepared to do that for everybody. There is no partiality. And again, when you get here, it could be anybody's feet that you end up washing. And you know, thinking about some people are very high and some people are very low and what that's about, and the idea of ranking people. But of course, when we come together, we are all brethren and we are all basically on the same footing, literally in that sense. And we come down and wash each other's feet. And we, by that also, symbolism are receiving those whom Christ has brought. And when we receive those that Christ has brought, we are receiving Him. And remember, He gave the whole example of He that does these various things to any of my brethren has done them unto me. And He has not done them to these my brethren has not done them to me as withheld. So we want to make sure that we are serving one another and helping one another in every way. And point number F under that was following Christ's example of loving service. And of course, we have this whole thing that He did. But that night, He told them that they were, you know, a new commandment I give you, He said that you love one another as I have loved you. So, you know, you also ought to love one another. And that's exactly parallel to what He told them in the foot washing. You know, as I have washed your feet, so you ought to wash one another's feet. It is a symbol of that loving service that we give to one another, exactly parallel those statements that He gave the same night. And then, of course, we have, you know, what we were talking about before was many examples of foot washing where people would basically wash their own feet.

Normally, you'd provide water for guests to wash their own feet, but this washing of another's feet was a pretty big deal. And we had the statement made by Abigail in the Old Testament, where she said she was there as a maidservant to wash the servants of her Lord's servant's feet.

And that's exactly what we are to be doing as well. Point number two, we got into that, was first of all, the main point here was being cleansed from our walk in this world, being cleansed from our walk in this world. Point A underneath that was, He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet. That's what Jesus said to Peter when they were having this discussion.

And basically, we know that He was talking about spiritual cleanliness in this discussion because He said, but you are all clean. So, you know, they didn't need a full bath. They only need their feet washed. He said, you're all clean, but not all of you, He said, because He knew which would betray Him. And that didn't mean that Judas hadn't taken a shower. It means that he was spiritually unclean because he was filled with sinful purpose and he was there. He was in the midst of betraying Christ and what an awful thing that was. But in the midst of that, I mean, we have an example there from that statement that what we're talking about in the foot washing is not only the symbol of humility as we often think of it, but also a symbol of being spiritually cleansed. Christ was cleansing the feet of His disciples and He does that. He told them that they ought to cleanse one another's feet. And again, there's a spiritual meaning in that beyond just humbling ourselves. There's a spiritual meaning of serving one another to be cleansed spiritually that helps us to cleanse one another spiritually. And B, under this point, was God's way of life is described as a walk. Many scriptures show that we walk before God, that we walk with God, and in our walk we are to be blameless. And that whole picture of a walk before God is being on a pathway, the way. That's the whole way of Christianity. All of these things tie together, the way of righteousness, until it becomes the highway of holiness for the whole world. We have this whole picture of walking in the way of God, and so we know, though, that we don't always stay on the right path. It says in Psalm 94, we mentioned, where it was stated, if I say, my foot slips, your mercy holds me up. So our feet can slip. The feet slipping is a symbol of sin that we trip and falter. That's an image of sin.

And also, of course, our feet get dirty, and they need to be cleaned. And we think of that again physically, that was happening at that time. But spiritually, as we walk in this world, and all the filth around us, we are initially baptized. He that is bathed, that is completely immersed and submerged, and forgiven of sins, and become a new person. That's what we go through in baptism, as Jesus said, needs only to wash his feet. And, of course, that washing of the feet was not only physical, that every year, and not just every year, but really all the time, we have to come back to God and be cleansed by Him, repent, and receive mercy, and change, and have our walk cleanse, have our feet cleanse from our walk in this world.

And then I mentioned to you the point C under this was ritual cleansing. In the Old Testament, we have these many examples of ritual cleansing. Of course, Moses was told to put the laver there at the temple so that the priests could wash their hands and feet before they would enter the service of God and do those things that he had commanded them. And that's a parallel to what and when that began, by the way, it said Moses was to wash them.

Moses was to wash the priests as he put them into service. And Moses was the mediator of the Old Covenant. Jesus Christ came as the mediator of the New Covenant, and he was mediating the New Covenant, introducing the New Covenant that very night. And when he did that, he washed their feet.

And, of course, their hands, no doubt, had already been washed there. That was something that the Jews commonly did. They washed their face and their hands before they would take of that meal. And actually, even before that, they would have typically been immersed in a full immersion and gone through maybe even washing their feet when they would come to the temple courts. That was something that was commonly done, too, because they could have contracted uncleanness if they walked in unclean person's footsteps, as we mentioned last time, so that they would need to make sure they were clean.

And actually, we have the point made in the Old Testament that they were supposed to be clean before they would take of the Passover. And we have the example of some who were richly unclean because they touched dead bodies, and they were not able to take the Passover on the 14th of Nisan. And that's why God gave one of the reasons God gave the provision for them to take it a month later on the second Passover was so that they could still take it if they were unclean in the instance of the first one, or if they were away on a journey or whatever the cause might be that they were not able to do at the first time.

And we actually have examples later in the Old Testament where people did do this at a later time at Hezekiah's Passover. It was a later time, and some were still not cleansed even then, but Hezekiah prayed that God would forgive them and that they would be accepted, and God did accept them. Because the more important point was not this physical ritual, it was the whole spiritual meaning of what they were doing and participating in fellowship with the whole community.

And so God, because of the difficult circumstances of that time, God did forgive them for not all being totally purified ritually. But the ideal was to be ritually purified, but that wasn't the ultimate ideal because that was only a symbol.

Because all of that ritual purification was supposed to be symbolic of a spiritual purity of being clean spiritually before God, and not having wrong attitudes and not being in a sinful way, but being righteous. And of course, that doesn't mean that we're to be perfect in our minds before we would come and take the Passover, because we can't be. I mean, part of the whole cleansing process is to understand that we need to be cleansed by God. We can't just sit out here and make ourselves righteous and then come to the Passover.

But we have to be in a right attitude. One thing I left off from that time, and I'll mention it to you now, if you still have your notes there, in that process of ritual purification, is there's an interesting chapter in Leviticus 14, and that's where we see that people who had leprosy and stuff had to go through a cleansing process. There were many things that people would be unclean for and have to go through a cleansing process. But one thing that's interesting in this context is that it says that they were to go through the ritual purification, you know, of immersion and being cleansed by the waters of purification, and that after that they were to bring a sin offering.

I find that very interesting because it's not that... notice that they would have to be actually ritually purified with water, which is a symbol of one's sense of being washed clean, before they would even bring the sin offering, which was the total cleansing picture.

If we think about this in context of the Passover, we find it very interesting because the Passover sacrifice, of course, symbolized many things. It was not exactly a sin offering, but it operated in one sense as a sin offering, because through it, you know, the death penalty is removed from us.

And that was not taken unless you were first ritually purified in water. I think that has to do with the fact that you have to be in the right frame of mind and attitude, you see, before you actually can receive that sacrifice to be forgiven. You can't just go there, sort of in a rottenness of mind and expect to receive God's atonement. That's not the way it works. There has to be some effort on our part to be cleansed, which is through this ritual cleansing and stuff like that, and also accepting God's work being done in our lives of cleansing us before we can actually receive that sacrifice. Now, when we go to the Passover to receive the sacrifice, we're not really receiving the sacrifice at that time. We're memorializing the Passover.

The Passover was Jesus Christ's one-time sacrifice forever. We don't have a sacrifice every year.

We are taking the bread and wine as we do as a memorial of his sacrifice. But even then, to take that in memorial, to actually memorialize that sacrifice, we first need to be in a cleansed mind frame before we go before God to receive that. I gave you the examples, of course, of being clean to take the Passover, and how even in the New Testament, it mentions how people were going up to be purified before they would take of the Passover. The Jews were concerned about contracting uncleanness on the day that Christ was being tortured because they thought that the next night was the Passover. They were actually one day late on the time frame there, but that's a different subject. I'm going to get into all of that. Now, I want to come to point D on this second point. Again, remember the overall second point here is being cleansed from our walk in this world. Point D is that we are to avoid uncleanness in our walk. We are to avoid uncleanness in our walk. That just stands to reason by what we've been talked about. It's not that we just are hopping around in this world and contracting uncleanness so that we can not worry about it because we're going to be washed and renewed with God. We need to be focused on making sure that we are not contracting uncleanness during our lives. Turn over to Psalm 119.

Psalm 119, again, we see this metaphor about walking in this world before God and keeping our walk clean. Psalm 119, this whole ode to the law of God, you can read here in the first two sections of this under the olive, verses 1 through 16 will read, Blessed are the undefiled in the way. Notice that term. Notice the way that's worded. Blessed are the undefiled in the way. So there is a way that we are to be going in and walking in, but blessed are the undefiled in the way. And again, defilement has to do with this sense of being clean as opposed to being unclean. You're not dirtied. And we think of this ritually, but we're really concerned with God's righteousness here, and we see it right in the next words.

Who walk in the law of the Lord. Notice two things there. Who walk. It's a walk, again.

It's the way they are undefiled who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity. They walk in His ways.

Again, it's about walking in God's ways. You have commanded us to keep your precepts diligently.

Oh, that my ways were directed to keep your statutes. So again, how we walk, where we walk, what we're doing. Then I would not be ashamed when I look into all your commandments. I will praise you with uprightness of heart. When I learn your righteous judgments, I will keep your statutes. Oh, do not forsake me utterly. Now we have a next section here. Look at this point as continued, and notice the wording. Verse 9. How can a young man cleanse his way? Notice the way that we're walking. And how can we cleanse our way? It's about being cleansed as we walk in that way. By taking heed according to your Word. The Word of God is what cleanses us. We see that mentioned in the New Testament. We'll look at that here in a little bit. With my whole heart, I have sought you. Oh, let me not wander from your commandments. Notice again how we're talking about how we walk and where we walk. We're talking about wandering astray. We're talking about walking.

That your Word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Blessed are you, O Lord, teach me your statutes. With my lips I've declared all the judgments of your mouth. I've rejoiced in the way of your testimonies. As much as in all riches I will meditate on your precepts and contemplate your ways, I will delight myself in your statutes.

I will not forget your words. That is the ways of God that we are to walk in are these laws, statutes of God. When we do not do that, we are defiled. Blessed are the undefiled in the ways of God. We need to maintain that as we're able to. In this whole picture, brethren, uncleanness is obviously sin. It is moral filth. We're told in the New Testament, turn over to the book of James, and I don't think I marked down a verse. I can't off the top of my head find it, but I'm sure you came with a search where you easily find it. It's where it's actually stated in the Bible as well in the New Testament that all uncleanness is sin. Sin is uncleanness, and they are equated as a point. But a verse that I do have is here in James 4.

In James 4, verse 8, we are told, draw near to God. Actually, the previous verse tells us to resist the devil because he's trying to lead us into wrongdoing. Verse 8, draw near to God, and people draw near to you.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. So cleanse your hands, you sinners. So you see, being cleansed again, washing in that sense, is to get rid of sinfulness, to be rid of that. We're told in Ephesians 4, if you'll turn over to there, Ephesians 4, Apostle Paul here wrote, and we'll read verses 17 through 20. He said this, I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles or of the nations walk in the futility of their mind. So don't walk like they walk, because there's a way of walking that's wrong, and that's what they're doing, and don't walk like they walk. Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that's in them, because of the blindness of their heart.

They have no direction. They're aimless in their wandering in their walk, and their walk is completely contrary to God. Who being past feeling, it even says, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work, notice, all uncleanness, with greediness, or covetousness. In other words, their whole way is unclean. Their walk is unclean, but you have not so learned Christ.

That is not the way we are to walk, and we need to make sure that we're not walking that way.

And if we flip over to chapter 5, we can see here immediately after this, we'll read verse 2.

Actually, verse 1, therefore be imitators of God as dear children, verse 2, and walk in love as Christ. So that's how we are to walk. We're not to walk in uncleanness, but it says, and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us. Remember what he said? A new commandment I give you that you love one another as I have loved you. So we are to walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma.

Skip down to verse 8. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. So that is the way we are to walk. But we were once darkness, and that's an important point. But we've been washed and cleansed of that in our lives, but evidently we still get dirtied because that's why these admonitions are given here. That brings us to point E.

Point E, actually I think I might have one more thing to say on where we just were. Let me show you real quickly here. Yeah, I want to say before we go there, let's look at Colossians 3 really quickly before we get to point E. But Colossians 3 gives us an instruction. Colossians 3 we see in verses 5 through 9. It says, therefore put to death your members which are on the earth.

And again, I want us to notice in this, if we were already perfect, there would be no need for this instruction. This is given to Christians, those who have been forgiven generally in their lives.

But Paul says, therefore put to death your members which are on the earth. And what members are on the earth, the chief members, you know, are hands and feet. That's what we're talking about, what we do with our bodies in this life. And our whole bodies, of course. And the first thing mentioned here is fornication that we're to avoid, sexual immorality. And the next note, see, is uncleanness. We are to avoid uncleanness, getting dirty, getting filthy. Does that mean you can't play in the sandbox? That's not what it's talking about. It's obviously talking about moral impurity. We are not to get unclean morally. And as we continue here, it says, verse 6, Because of these things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. Again, it's a walk. You walked that way before in uncleanness.

Don't walk that way anymore. But now you yourselves are to put off all these. And it gives a list of things we don't do. And verse 9, Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man through his deeds. That's the way we're to live, is having put off that old man in that old way of walking in that old manner of living. But now we're at point E on this point. Point E is we still sin.

We still sin, but Christ cleanses us. We still sin, but Christ cleanses us. Now, we shouldn't just live a whole life of practicing sin. That's what we were totally cleansed from. But we stumble still in our walk, and we fall into wrongdoing and sin. And we see this in the Bible in a number of places.

But one place I would just refer to, you don't have to go there. It's a passage you probably know very well. It's Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 7 is, in a way, an encouragement to us. Because Paul is talking there in Romans chapter 7, that's where he says, you know, the good that I want to do, I don't do. And the bad things that I don't want to do, that I find myself doing. He says, but it's no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God that it will deliverance us through Jesus Christ our Lord. That is the message of Romans 7.

But Romans 7 is not meant to say it's okay to just go around sinning, because we'll be fine.

That's not how it's an encouragement. It's actually a reality, a point of reality, that we can look at our lives and see that we're not totally right all the time. But the encouragement is that here was this apostle of God that we know was a great man of God who was still stumbling and sinning. We don't know all what Paul was doing or thinking. A lot of sin is just in the mind. And so we know that he was sinning still, and he knew he was sinning still, and he was very regretful over that. And so are we, brethren. But the point is that we can be encouraged to know that there is no expectation that we are constantly perfect. That's just not the way it is. But we should strive for that, and we should not be content with being imperfect, and we should not think it's okay to be imperfect.

It's not, and that's why Jesus Christ died for our sins. He died so that we would not do these things, and ultimately we won't. But we're going through a process in this life now of overcoming, and hopefully we will be doing less and less bad things as we are purified more and more.

And one place I will have you turn to is 1 John. 1 John, if you'll flip over there, you're told by the apostle here, and this is chapter 1 verse 6, if we say that we have fellowship with him, with God, and walk in darkness, so we're not to be walking in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. If our walk is a walk in total darkness, is a walk in total darkness, then we are not with God. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, because he's in all of us.

And the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. Well, I think, yeah, well, it did that, but no, his blood still is what cleanses us. It's a perpetual cleansing that we have, and we can be thankful for it, that it's always there, that we always live under grace through that sacrifice. Verse 8, if we say that we have no sin, he is not talking to unconverted people, he is talking to converted people. And he's saying, if we say, we, this is John included, that we have present tense, no sin, then we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we think that we are perfect, then we don't understand at all what God requires of us, frankly. Because God requires wholehearted, perpetual, constant devotion in our minds, and which one of us has that constantly through our lives. We don't have that.

We should, but we don't. And if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Verse 9, if we confess our sins, that's what we have to do, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and I want us to notice the next words, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You say, well, he did that before, and we were baptized. Yes, he did. But that was in the end. There's still unrighteousness that we do now, and we're still constantly being cleansed through the work of Christ, as our high priest and mediator of this sacrifice that he gave himself for us.

And he also helps us to live in the right way. And notice what follows. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Now, this isn't an excuse. We can't just say, well, see, we can just sin in the screamer, that's fine. Because notice what John then writes, chapter 2, verse 1, and there's no break here in reality, chapter-wise. I mean, we can read this straight on. He said, My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin.

Hey, he's not saying, I'm writing this to you so you can feel fine that you're sinning. He's saying, you are sinning, and I am sinning, and we are all sinning. But I'm not writing, but we have, you know, Jesus cleanses us from sin. I'm not writing this so that you will keep sinning. I'm writing this so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, if anyone does sin, then we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. He's there to intercede with the Father for us on a regular basis and help us in the way we should go. In verse 2, And he himself is the propitiation, the atonement for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the whole world. Ultimately, all who wish to be part of this way of life can receive the same. And that is a wonderful thing. But, you know, this is an excuse us from going astray because he continues here. Verse 3, Now by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. So you can't say, well, I just live lawlessly and I'm forgiven. No. We're to be, in general, walking in the light.

And it says here, we know him if we keep his commandments. He who says, I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in him. And he who says he abides in him, notice this, ought himself also to walk just as he walked. That's the key. It's a walk.

We're to walk just as Christ. But we fall and we sin. And because of that, we have an advocate who continues to help us on this path. Ephesians 5, we are in a process. We are to, we have been purified from our walk, you know, from the way of this world. We were in darkness.

Now we are in light. But occasionally, or maybe even often in a sense if we think about it, if we're talking about just stray wrong thoughts, this we fall out of a complete fellowship with God because we sin. And oftentimes we immediately are repentant, and that's very good. Sometimes we go for longer and are not repentant. You know, David went a fairly long while he was not repentant and ended up in a terrible mess. We never want to get there because we may fall out of fellowship completely with God ultimately and be lost. We want to make sure we're continually being renewed in this process. Ephesians 5, Galatians, I'm in Galatians, let me go to Ephesians. Ephesians 5, and verse 26, it's talking about the marriage relationship in Christ as the husband. But in this process it says, in verse 26 of Ephesians 5, that he, Christ, he gave himself for the church, it says in verse 25, verse 26, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word. So that is a process of being sanctified, set apart, and cleansed. This is what we want to be cleansed by Christ. Remember Christ said, if I don't wash you, you have no part with me.

This is a cleansing process, and he is our the one. And how is he doing it? With the washing of water by the Word. Now, the water is in one sense a symbol of God's Holy Spirit, but it's also a symbol of God's Word. It's a symbol of blessings from God. There are many aspects to water and its ability to help things grow and to help us grow and help us live in the way that we should. And, of course, the Word of God is teaching us what's right, and it's helping us to change. We're also told in the Bible that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. The Word of God is powerful, we're told in the Bible. It is a sword that is able to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart and help us to get focused where we need to go. And as we are using this Word, we are told—remember it was asked in Psalm 119, how will a young man cleanse his way by your Word and following it? This is the way to be washed and to be cleansed, is by the Word of God. Jesus himself is the Word of God, the living Word. And this is the living Word in print, is our Bible. This is Jesus Christ revealed, his whole way. And what he is is all revealed to us in this book that we've been given. He is manifesting himself to us through these words, the words of life, and they are what cleanse us. And it is an amazing picture that we are part of. And Titus 3, if you'll flip over there, Titus 3 and verse 5. It says here by Paul, not by works of righteousness, which we have done.

This is talking about how God is showing his kindness toward us. But when the kindness and love of God, our Savior toward man, appeared. That's the previous verse. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy. So there's other verses that tell us all our righteousness, there is filthy rags. We cannot generate what we need to do to save ourselves. It just cannot be done. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us through, notice this, the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. So there again is this washing process. That there is a regeneration, a re-enlivening.

Whenever we come back before God, repentant and sorrowful for what we've done, there is a process of regeneration. He washes us. He brings us back to newness. We think, well, we were purified at baptism, yes, but we are in a constant process of purification with God and of even regeneration, where it's sort of like if we are sinning or drifting, and it's like we're deadening in a way, and we're being re-enlivened through this work of God and the Word of God. And it says, renewing of the Holy Spirit. Another verse tells us, you know, the inward man is renewed day by day. When we pray to God and we seek him in his Word, there's a renewal of our inward man through an infusion of the Holy Spirit, which we are supplied on a regular basis. If we don't do that, ultimately, the Holy Spirit is quenched in us and we become lost. But as long as we renew that, there is a perpetual renewal. There is a renewal of God's mercies. They are new every morning, we're told.

Lamentations, a beautiful verse. But also, there is a renewal of us as people, and it is ongoing, and it is part of this cleansing that God does. Turn over to Hebrews chapter 10.

See this amazing verse about the sacrifice of Christ and what it has done for us and what it continues, in a sense, to do for us. Hebrews 10 verses 19. I think you probably hear more about this in upcoming weeks here, but Hebrews 10 verses 19 through 22 we'll read, Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. So we're able to do this. The way of access to God is open by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He consecrated for us to the veil, that is His flesh. I won't go into all the details of this, so just say that what Christ did in His sacrifice opened a way of access for us directly to God.

And having a high priest over the house of God, this is what I really want to focus on here in verse 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, notice this, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. So again, there's a washing with pure water, and we're really talking about the spiritually pure water of the Word of God and His Holy Spirit and the blood of Christ. The sprinkling, the blood of sprinkling it mentions, and this whole process is a cleansing. We are cleansed.

I mentioned before, we're cleansed through blood, water, and fire. And these are cleansing agents, and the Holy Spirit is involved in, of course, as part of the water and the fire.

Fires are also trials. That's a cleansing process. And the blood of Christ and sacrifice, the blood of sacrifice, which He is the ultimate. These things lead to being cleansed and purified.

Verse 23. Let us hold the confession of our hope without wavering for He who promised is faithful. This is the way we cannot waver and stay in the right path, is through this continual work of renewal and being washed with pure water. Number three, point number three.

Now we're done with point number two. How about that? That's great.

Number three, submitting to the need for Christ's sanctification. Our question here is, or our issues here, what is foot washing symbolized? Coming to number three, it symbolizes submitting to the need for Christ's sanctification. We think, well, we're in this process.

There's a cleansing from our walk in this world, but going through the foot washing process symbolizes our submitting to the need for Christ's sanctification. Point number A under this, point number A is, sanctification is the process of being made holy. Sanctification is the process of being made holy. That's what sanctification means. Sanctification means being set apart.

Sanctified is to set apart. The word saint comes from the same idea as sanctified.

It means set apart for God's holy purposes. We're set apart to Christ. In this process, we are constantly in a regular process of sanctification. We are told by Christ in Matthew 5, 48, he said, be therefore perfect or become perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. We are to become perfect or blameless. You think, well, we're not perfect now.

And when we come before God and submit to Him, we're not perfect yet. No, we're not. But it's a command that we become perfect. We have to go, how do we do that? Well, we have to be in this whole process that we've been describing of coming back to God repentant and He will help us to grow.

We are to be purified. We're in the process of constantly undergoing a purification. I'd like you to notice here in Hebrews 10, if we're still here in Hebrews 10, let's look at verse 10.

Something interesting. It says, by that will, the will of God, we have been sanctified. We have been sanctified. I almost noticed the words here. We have been sanctified, said apart to God, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Notice that. We have been sanctified through the body of Christ. So you say, well, we're sanctified. Yes, we are. We are saints.

That's why we're saints, because we are sanctified. We have been sanctified and we live as saints of God. We live as people who are set apart. And that is very true. But I want us also to notice verse 14. It says, for by one offering, He is perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

Those who are being sanctified. You say, well, what does that time out? Some people think, well, maybe that's just talking about new people coming in the church that are on a process of being sanctified. But it doesn't really follow that way. We're talking about us still, brethren.

We have been sanctified and we are being sanctified. There are two different things going on here.

You see, we have been sanctified when we first came into the church and we received the forgiveness through Christ's sacrifice. We were baptized at that time. Since then, we have been sanctified.

We have been set apart to God as His saints. We're His people. But the sanctification is not over because we get dirtied and defiled. And by that, we're causing a break in fellowship with us and God and we need to continually have that renewed and restored. And that process is the process of continually being sanctified. It's just like in the Bible. It talks about those who have been saved.

Yes, we have. By the sacrifice of Christ, we've been rescued from death. When He died for us and we received that, we were saved. But another passage is talking about that we are now being saved.

We are in the process of currently being saved because we know from other passages that He who endures to the end will be saved because He won't ultimately be saved until you endure to the very end. So it ties in directly with this idea that we have been sanctified and set apart, but we are still being set apart through this ongoing process of sanctification. So again, our overall point here is submitting to the need for Christ's sanctification. And we saw the first thing here, A, sanctification is the process of being made holy. Now we come to B, and that is that the one washing also represents Christ. Maybe you never thought of that, but you ought to. And I want to give an example. I want to tell them what I'm talking about. I'm talking about in the foot washing process. When we are washing one another's feet, you think, well, when I get down to wash somebody's feet, I'm serving Christ because remember Christ said, He that does it to the least of these does it to me. So if I wash the feet of the brethren, then it's like I'm washing Christ's feet, like I'm serving Him, like I'm submitting to Him and giving my life for Him. But brethren, when you get down to wash another's feet, you are also representing Christ who lives in you. Christ lives in you, and this is what we need to remember this. Christ dwells in us. Remember in Galatians 2.20 Paul said, nevertheless, I have been crucified with Christ. My old life is gone. He said, nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. So for all of us, the life that we live is Christ in us. He is living in us, and when we serve others, who's really serving those others?

Jesus Christ is serving those others through us. We don't take the credit. All glory belongs to God.

Let's remember that. So when we do any righteous works, we shouldn't glory in ourselves. We should just be thankful to God that He is leading us in His way. It's not that He does it for us. Some people have a wrong idea about this. They think that God just does everything for us, that Christ in us does everything for us. No, He does it through us. We are to cooperate in that process, but we are the lower player in this partnership. He is the leader, and we are following Him in every righteous thing we do. And when we serve our brethren, He is serving them through us.

And it's more than that. Turn back over to John.

John 13, where we began with the Passover. In John 13, verse 20, we looked at this before, but we were told there, Jesus said, and remember, He washed the feet, and then He said, You also ought to wash one another's feet. And there, verse 20, He said, Most assuredly I say to you, He who receives whomever I send receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me, receives the Father. So, yes, it is very true that when we wash somebody's feet, it's like we're washing Christ's feet, but when we wash somebody's feet, we're also acting as members of Christ, as His instruments, to wash the feet of another.

And if you think about it, it has to be this way because Jesus said He is the one that's going to wash her feet. We're told in 1 John 1, verse 3, that we are to have fellowship, and our fellowship, truly it says our fellowship is with the Father and Christ. Our fellowship is with the Father and Jesus Christ. In 1 John 1, 3, we're told that. Now, how is that true? I say, well, we're here, and we're fellowshiping together as God's people, and it says truly our fellowship is with the Father and Christ. How is that so? Well, is it just because in our own minds we're communing with God while we're here? No, that's not it. That's part of it because God lives in us, and we are to have a constant and regular fellowship with the Father and Christ. Let the Father and Christ live in all of God's people, so when we fellowship with the people of God, we are fellowshiping with God and Christ. We're all members of Christ, and we are members of one another. This is a very deep and profound picture that we're given in the Bible in this respect. He said that we are to follow his example. He says, I have washed your feet, so you also ought to wash one another's feet. But is that just because we're doing what he did? Remember, he said, if I don't wash you, you have no part with me.

Think about that. So that wouldn't exactly go to only washing one another's feet if it was only just us humanly doing that. And I will stress this again in just a moment.

This is provided through the fellowship of the Church, brethren. This is how we are washing one another's feet in a spiritual sense. If you think about this, it makes total sense. We are to be cleansing one another. He said, well, we can't do that. We haven't sacrificed ourselves. Well, we should be sacrificing ourselves, laying down our lives in whatever way we can for each other. But of course, our sacrifice doesn't atone for the sacrifice of others. Of course, that's true. That was all Christ. But we are to follow his example in giving of ourselves for others. And not just that, we are to help others remain clean spiritually.

We are given that responsibility in the Bible. We're actually told this, you know, that we are to be helping one another, to be guiding one another, to be teaching one another, to be exhorting one another, to be helping one another to stay on the right path, to be able to keep our feet clean from our walk in this world. It is not just each of us as an individual. It's not like, well, it's me and you, God. It's not the way it is. God has a people, and we are all dependent on one another because he lives in all of us, and he intends to work through us. Now, you think, well, I'll help somebody over here. I'm just, it's just me helping that person.

Let's say there's a guy over here. He's kind of straying on something. We're not to be judgmental.

You know, we're told how we would approach things. If you see somebody overtaken in a fault that says, approach one in the spirit of meekness and gentleness, and knowing that you could fall in the same thing, you're not supposed to be high-minded and thinking you're so great.

But you are supposed to make an effort to help others in whatever way that, you know, they need to be helped, and we need to be careful when we do that because we can be, you know, get on a high horse. Remember, Jesus also talked about take the beam out of your own eye before you help get the splinter out of the brother's, somebody else's eye. But he didn't say you're not to help somebody get something out of their eye. I mean, there is a time for that, and certainly if you see big problems that somebody's going through, you don't just march up and tell you, you need to do this and this and this. We need to build bonds of friendship and closeness where we have a position where we're respected enough by people that we can talk to them about these things. And if we do, what are we doing? Is it you as an individual helping? You should not think of it that way.

And that's the mistake, is to think that's just me. No, you go to God first. You ask Him in prayer to help you, and guess who helps that other person? Jesus Christ, through you, helps that other person.

So that's part of... so you have, in a sense, washed that person's feet.

You've helped to cleanse them from their walk in this world, and you've done it because, not because of your own self, but because God and Jesus in you has actually helped you to wash that other person's feet, figuratively speaking. This is, again, a very deeply profound and meaningful thing that we do in the foot washing. We often don't think about this, that we are... we think about maybe serving Christ, but we also should think about the fact that we are representing Christ in serving others when we wash people's feet, and that is a high honor, rather, that we would represent Christ in this way. Turn to a Hebrew... if you're in Hebrews 10, I'll have you go back there in Hebrews 10. We were just here, but I want to... I want you to notice something about what we just read, because this is an interesting context. Hebrews 10, we were just here.

Hebrews 10 brings us to...

and this is in... we'll look at verse 19, where we were here a minute ago.

It says, you know, again, having boldness to enter the holiest, a new and living by verse 20, and verse 22, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water... notice that. That's what we've been talking about in the symbolic sense, a heart sprinkled, excuse me, and our bodies washed with pure water, but let's continue now. We didn't continue before, so let's continue. Well, I think we did mention this verse, but let us hold the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promises faithful. Now, notice the next statement, verse 24, and let us consider one another. This is in the same context, brethren, of being washed. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. That is what we do for one another. That is part of washing one another. We are to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. That is an incredible parallel here, that we are to continue in this process of being washed with pure water, and what helps us in that is the fellowship of the church and being together as the people of God and exhorting one another to love and good works and to remaining in fellowship with God. This is part of helping one another to be washed and cleaned, and it is an amazing picture in that regard. Here's more about this. Number C under this. If Christ does not sanctify us, if Christ does not sanctify us, we have no part with Him. Now, I didn't make up that statement.

That's exactly what we read in John 13. That's what Jesus said to Peter. You know, we don't usually think about this when we go to the Passover, what we should, because when we go to the Passover, we think about washing one another's feet. We don't think about Jesus coming up to us and saying, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part with me. And we don't think about the person who's washing our feet representing Christ washing our feet, because it has to be Christ washing our feet.

And if He doesn't wash our feet, we have no part with Him. But who's He doing it through? He's doing it through His people. He's doing it through our brethren, and we are representing Him and washing the feet of others. This is a very meaningful picture. And by the way, we will lose salvation if we don't remain in this process. And it depends on us remaining in this fellowship process. And if you're still here in Hebrews 10, I can show you that in the next verse, because we were just told in verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as a manner of somebody exhorting one another, so much more as you see the day approaching verse 26, for if we sin willfully after we've received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fire indignation which will devour the adversaries. That is deadly serious. That is the unpardonable sin. And how incredible it is that it is immediately following this statement about maintaining this exhortation of one another in the fellowship of the body of Christ. If we cease from that, if we cease from that process of being washed, of washing one another and helping one another and exhorting one another and going to be in fellowship and gaining from each other what Christ has to give us through one another, we're in danger of what we're told right here. We are in deep danger if we don't remain. And that's why Christ said, if I don't wash you, you have no part with me. If I don't wash you through one another, through you washing one another's feet, and that's the spiritual picture, if I don't help to keep you cleansed and purified through the fellowship that you have with me, through the body of the church, you will be in danger of being lost. You will have no part with me.

And that's very serious. But thankfully, we don't really have to worry on that as long as we stay in the process. Because as Paul also said in this book, and he warned them in chapter 6 about the danger of falling away, but he said, but I'm confident. We think better things concerning you.

I don't think you're going to go this way. He was trusting that they would stay in what they should be doing. I remember seeing something once about baptism. I think I mentioned this to you a while back when I was watching this program on baptism. I found it very fascinating. Although I didn't agree with all of it, it was James Tabor, I think, was in it. He was the main one with this proposal that the way that the people cleanse their feet or where they put their foot when they went into a baptism at the time of John's baptism, it was about John the Baptist. Anyway, the point was being made in this program that somebody else, one of these other people, it might have been Jody Magnus or some other PhD. I can't remember who it was right now. I need to go back and watch this so I'll never give this officially. In the sense of writing this up, I will get the quote exactly.

What she was saying was that in that time when people would go into the mikvah to immerse themselves, typically they would immerse themselves. They would go in themselves and themselves descend into the water and come up. Normally, somebody else didn't immerse you.

But when you come to John the Baptist, he was baptizing people. That wasn't the norm. It said normally nobody else would immerse you unless you were a child, maybe, or if you were infirm, unable to do this for yourself, then somebody else would do it. I thought that is interesting, spiritually speaking, because to be baptized, to be put into the water, we really can't submerge ourselves. We can't wash our sins away on our own. We can't go out in the water and just dunk ourselves and be cleansed. Somebody has to put us under because we are infirm, because we are spiritually infirm. We are incapable of cleansing ourselves and we must be cleansed. John was cleansing people, and then of course Christ's apostles were cleansing people. Again, it was really God cleansing the people through the actions of His servants in that case.

That's the same today when we're baptized, but if we think about the foot washing in the same context of a spiritual cleansing, it's the same, is it not? Because we saw that the regular and common practice was for people to wash their own feet. When you would get to somebody's house, you would come in and they would give you water, and you'd wash your own feet, and you would cleanse yourself.

But there's a statement here. Christ says, if I don't wash you, you have no part with me, because He has to do it, because we are incapable of cleansing ourselves. We must be perpetually cleansed through the work of Christ, through Him, and He does it through His Word, and He does it through His people, and He does it through all manner of ways that we can be grateful that He's working in our lives. He is in the process of cleansing us, and if He doesn't do it, we're doomed! We cannot save ourselves. If He does not wash us, we have no part with Him. And I'll end on this point today, and I've gotten through point three. But that's okay, brethren. I think you can see that this is a good study, because this comes to all facets of our Christian life.

It's not just about the Passover, and we definitely will have this as a focus of the Passover, but we should have this as a focus all the time, because living the way of washing the feet of the brethren has to do with our continuing service and helping one another. It's not only at the Passover.

So this brings us to point D, which is my last point under point three here, is that we must submit to God, even if it's strange or uncomfortable, we must submit to God even if it's strange or uncomfortable. You know, I remember when I first came to this, this seemed like a very bizarre thing that we do. We do the foot washing.

And it is. I mean, yes, some other people do that, but the whole idea of it seems very odd to us.

And it's especially odd out of the cultural context of having dirty sandals from walking on the roads. I mean, that might make it a little bit more normal-seeming if we were to do that in that context today. But we still, you know, even at that time, it was an oddity that somebody else would wash your feet, especially somebody else who was brethren or your master would wash your feet.

That was absolutely unthinkable. And yet it was a necessity, Christ declared.

Well, here's the deal with this. We must learn, I mean, in a spiritual sense, because we think we submit to this strange thing as a process of being cleansed physically. But think about this in spiritual terms. And overall, I would say that we should learn to trust that what God says to do is right. We should learn to trust that what God says to do is right. You know, there's many things like this. Even if we think of, we put out leaven for a week. We don't eat unleavened bread. That's a very odd thing. You know, but we do it. It's not as odd as an Easter Bunny laying eggs, by the way, but it's, which is, we don't do that. But it's strange in a way, although it has practical purposes of spring cleaning and things like that, and that's very helpful. But there's other things that we do. You say, well, why would we do this? Remember when Elisha told, I think it was Nehem, and the Syrian to go wash it in the Jordan, you know, the seven. Why would he do that? In fact, he wouldn't do it. It seemed too strange to him, and finally he did it, and it worked because it was what God said to do. God tells us to do things, and sometimes they're strange, but we have to do it. Now, I'm not really talking about foot washing here. I'm talking about our whole life before God.

When I say, wherever God is directing us, and whatever God is telling us to do, and whatever God is showing us we need to do, we need to trust that whatever God says to do is right, even if we don't get it. We're given a verse in the Bible that says, a good understanding of all those who do His commandments. I remember Mr. Armstrong writing about when he first kept the Holy Days.

They didn't know what they symbolized. They didn't understand the purpose. He just started doing them, and in the doing of them, finally revelation came of what they meant, and that's how it is. A lot of times we just have to do what God says, and then we'll come to understand it, and probably we won't come to fully understand it. We'll grow through this life, and ultimately it will all make total sense when we are ultimately changed. You know, we are to have total surrender to God. That's what we're exemplifying here. We're to be totally surrendered to God. I'll give you one last verse as a reference.

One you probably might know as a memory scripture, but it's Hebrews, not Hebrews, Acts. The book of Acts 532.

It looks at Acts 532, which says that God gives His Holy Spirit to those who obey Him. Now again, that's a very interesting verse because we know from Romans 5.5 that God's love is poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, and in the love of God is obeying God's commandments, 1 John 5.3. So it's actually through the Holy Spirit that we can obey, but nevertheless we're told in Acts 5.32 that God gives His Spirit to those who obey. Initially, we have to make an effort and step out to trust and obey God and do what He says, and then He will give us the power to carry through and to continue in that way, and He will supply us with more of His Spirit as we continue to walk in His ways. And we will gain more understanding as we continue to walk in His ways, and we will understand why we're doing things, but we won't understand all of it, and it doesn't matter. What we need to learn to understand is just to trust God and do what He says, and it's all going to work out. All of this is part of this process of being cleansed from our walk, of submitting to Christ's sanctification, of this ongoing process of being cleansed by God. As we picture in the foot washing, what a wonderful picture we're being given, and I'll continue on this series with other points. I won't promise that I'll get down the next time, but I think we have a lot to think about as we go into the foot washing this Passover.