Address—T. Priestap
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Courage to see the subject, And my heart was warmed as we read in John 13. And we looked at the washing of water by the word of our feet. And I would like to, if I could, this afternoon, invite you to come with me to a foot washing.
I hesitate to say that I would like to be the one to wash your feet because.
I feel that it would be perhaps something that I would not be worthy to do.
But I believe that we have in our hands this afternoon the water. We have the word of God.
And I would hope that your heart would be prepared to have your feet washed this afternoon along with me as we open the word of God together, and then, as we would perhaps have a little few minutes at the end to take a warm towel, as it was mentioned this morning, and to be encouraged.
And so I feel there is a real need. I have a burden on my heart this afternoon, dear brethren, not only for those who are young here, but for those of us who might be middle-aged, and for those that might be perhaps a little bit older. And I would hope that you would not be like Peter this afternoon and feel that you would not like to have your feet washed, because the Lord Jesus wants to wash each one of our feet this afternoon.
I will try to be gentle as I apply the water of the word, but I would ask you to remember that it is his precious word, his water, not mine.
You know, as I thought about this, I remember some words that Albert Ajos said many years ago. He said that the desire of the Lord for each Christian is to have a happy pathway, an abundant entrance, and a full reward. Our life has purpose as believers. If you would just turn with me first of all to the 15th chapter of John's Gospel, I'd like to look at one verse there having to do.
With God's Purpose for Your Life, John, Chapter 15.
And verse 8 says, Herein Is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. The purpose of your being here and my being here is that we might glorify the Father by bearing fruit here in this world. Ephesians 110 tells us that it is the purpose of God.
That in the dispensation of the fullness of time.
That he might gather together in one all things in Christ. And so God the Father has a purpose, and that object, that purpose is his beloved Son. And if I could just put it this way, if we could take these two verses together, it is that God would like to replicate.
His beloved Son, in your life and mine here in this world, that is what fruit is all about. You know we are here to bear fruit for the Lord Jesus Christ, but there are hindrances that come in along the way.
You know, if I could just kneel down now by your feet and take a look at your your feet. I have to take your your shoes off and your socks because I have to inspect exactly what the need is. And if you have been out where there is a lot of dust and dirt as I look at your foot, I'd have to say, well, there is a lot of dirt on that foot. There is a lot that's going to have to come off, and it might even be a little bit painful.
If it hasn't come off for a long time, some of those things were mentioned this morning here in our meeting.
That there are sins of the flesh. There are things that are obvious, things that you could even see from a distance. Perhaps it talks about how some sins go before. That is, they're very obvious to people around. We're living in a day, brethren, when there are defilements that never came into the assembly before. We're living in a day when there is alcohol abuse. We're living in a day when there is drug abuse.
We're living in a day when there is sexual abuse, where there is homosexuality and all of these things. Are these things only outside of the assembly. I wish I could say that that were true, but I've had visits with too many young people that have told me otherwise. These are things that we might say are very obvious, the sins of the flesh.
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Alcohol.
Drugs.
Had a young man that.
We were together in northern Michigan last December.
Put a question in the question box and said that he felt that he had absolutely no control over alcohol in his life.
There are some very difficult and serious problems.
And we need to take the word of God and apply it to those very, very serious situations and be aware that we're living in a world with much defilement. A brother commented to me just before this meeting that he hates to see his daughter walk out the door of his home because he knows what the world is like out there. There is defilement on every hand. It has come into the home. It is upon the street corner. It is in the drugstore where you.
Walk in. You almost cannot avoid the defilement that you run into.
But you know, if I could go down now to another little layer on your feet and mine, There are what are called, I heard, a believer, someone who had lived a life of the flesh and had been saved and come out of the very definite sin. And she made the comment that since she had become a Christian, she was now more aware of Christian sins. Christian sins What? What do we mean by that?
Those are some things we might cover up a little bit.
Maybe a little bit of gossip where we kind of allude to this is so that we might be able to pray intelligently.
About the person. Or we might have a little bit of pride that we look down upon people who look down on people.
Or we are very smug and feel that we have everything and we look down on other believers.
Or any type of pride would just do just fine for that kind of a sin. And that kind of hurts if we really want to be honest with ourselves and open the word of God and see that in my own heart that I have a a lot of pride. But you know, there is something that goes down even another layer. It gets down a little bit closer to the skin, and that is the sins of omission. You know, as believers, we have a purpose here in this world.
And we're living in a day, and I believe it's true among us.
Where there is a giving up of the study of the word of God.
Where we do not even know how to approach studying the word of God. I've got some conversations with some recently that have really astounded me, have made me realize that we have not done a good job of communicating the truth of the word of God in a practical way. There's a giving up of prayer.
Spending time in personal prayer, there is a giving up of reading the word of God in the home.
Of communicating these truths to our children.
There is a giving up of evangelical zeal of going out with the gospel.
To others there says in James that for he that knows to do good and does it not. To him it is sin to not show love, to have a lack of love in my heart for my brethren, or perhaps I have unforgiveness in my heart. You know one of the ways that we deal with this, I think very.
Kind of brush it over is that?
We might get up in a meeting and there's someone that is doing something we don't like.
Rather than going to that individual and love and seeking to be a help to them.
We will mention the thing in such a way in a group.
In a large group that everyone in the room knows who we're talking about.
And yet we have never gone to that individual.
And so there's a breach that comes in between brethren.
We can be so good about how we do that and that that hurts to get down to those kinds of things.
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If you would turn with me please, to Ezekiel, chapter 34.
Because I believe that.
This is a conviction that I have, and I hope that I can say this gently, and I hope that I can say it with real humility, because I feel that it really speaks to my own heart. For those of us who have responsibility in an assembly for teaching and for pastoring and shepherding the Lord's people, I feel that these verses speak to us, and these verses come very close to the skin. In verse two, it's the Son of Man prophecy against the shepherds of Israel.
Prophecy and saying to them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherd's, Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves.
Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat, and you clothe you with the wool. You kill them that are fed, but you feed, not the flock, the disease to have you not strengthened, Neither have you healed that which was sick. Neither have you bound up that which was broken. Neither have you brought again that which was driven away.
Neither have you sought that which was lost, but with force and with cruelty have you ruled them.
Verse 18 Seemeth that a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture. But you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures, and to have drunk of the deep waters. But you must follow the residue with your feet. And As for my flock, they eat that which you have trodden with your feet, and they drink that which you have fouled with your feet. I have to confess to your brethren that I have not done a good job when it comes to communicating the truth of the word of God. I believe this is a fundamental problem.
And I have not walked in a way that would be encouraging to my brother, and I believe that we could apply here the fouling of the water with the feet.
That this water and we're speaking about today that we are to take and to wash one another with, to cleanse one another with. Have we by our walk followed the water, muddied the water, so to speak, made it not clear, made it harder to see the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he is really like if I fail as a Father. And I think, I think there are many here that could feel the same way that I do that in many respects.
Those of us who are fathers have failed in many ways with our children.
To the extent that I do that my children fail to see what God the Father is really like, you know that in the world today it is very difficult to talk to children.
In the Gospel that come in to the Sunday School about God the Father.
Because there are a lot of homes today that don't have fathers where the fathers that they have are cruel.
Or are just not a bad not a good example for the kind of father they should be, and it's very difficult to relate.
To a father that is that kind of a father. Very difficult.
And so have we, so to speak, followed the water with our feet.
Now there's a remedy to this. Turn over to Romans chapter 12.
Romans, chapter 12.
In connection with fruit bearing.
Just been interested. Recently we had a Bible study in her home and we went through the 15th chapter of John's Gospel.
The connection with bearing fruit and we know because we've heard it many times.
About that fruit bearing chapter that there's pruning that has to go on and in the Bible study that we had in our home, I asked one of the ladies. There was a lady there that came in and I asked her.
I just asked the group if anyone was there that had raised roses that grew roses and she raised her hand. She said that that she grew roses. I said what happens to roses? I'm not a very good one. I'm not a very good horticulturist and I don't do a very good job of raising roses. But but and So what happens to rose is that you don't prune. While she said they go wild after a while and pretty soon after they grow wild then usually the Rose after a while it will die.
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They will die. Well, what an excellent picture for the Christian that doesn't get pruned. You know it's painful to be pruned. If you could talk to a plant, if a plant could talk, if a rose could tell you how it feels when it's getting pruned, it would it would share with you how painful that pruning process really is. But here in Romans chapter 12 and verse one, Paul says, I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God.
That you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Present your bodies a living sacrifice. If I could just draw a little word picture for you, it would be that you would lay yourself upon an altar, and you would allow the Lord Jesus to come along with his pruning shears, and He would come along, and He would identify.
All of the things in your life where my life that he wants to get rid of. And if we really were willing to make our bodies a living sacrifice, we would say trim it all off. I want to get rid of everything that's a hindrance. Anything that keeps me back from following the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to have it trimmed off. And the Lord would come along, perhaps. And there might be some things of the flesh that would have to go, perhaps.
Your heart is one that you really have trouble with. The flesh. You have to have that taken care of. Or maybe it's the cares of this life that have to go. Maybe it's pride that must go. Maybe it's just being too taken up with something here in this world. And so the Lord goes down through each one of these things on this list, and they're painful as they come off. It's not easy to give these things up.
But the Lord takes his expert pruning shears and He trims them off. Why? Why does He do that? Oh, that there would be real fruit, real fruit in your life. And in my life, you know, there were some that that came to the Lord, and the Lord wanted to apply the pruning.
Knife to them wanted to brought before them the fact that there was some real some things that had to go in their life. I think of the rich young ruler in Mark Chapter 9 that came to the Lord Jesus and he came and he knelt before him and he came and called him good master and all of those things. And the Lord Jesus identified one thing in his life. He said one thing thou lackest go and sell all that thou hast and come take up the cross.
And follow me. And it says he went away, said because he had great possessions he was very wealthy. He couldn't give up that one thing that kept him back from the Lord Jesus Christ. Or are you willing this afternoon to let the Lord focus the word of God?
Upon that need in your life to bring the water to that point, that defilement that has to come off, It might not be so apparent as the real deep down dirt that we talked about, but there's a need in your life. You know, it's very easy for us sometimes to go down. Some of us go to the some. Some of the brothers in Toledo have gone down to the rescue mission and preached the gospel. And when you go down there you see some people who really have lived in the dregs of society.
Very easy to see the dirt, you know. In fact, the physical dirt is even very obvious. But you know there is a there's a defilement that is very subtle that comes into our life. Are we willing to let the Lord really come in with the light of his word and on it Before him? Paul had some things that had to go. Paul had a lot of religion. Paul had covetousness, it tells us in Romans Chapter 7 and had to go with Paul. He was willing to let the Lord.
Get down to those areas in his life and and cut them off.
Peter had self-confidence. It had to go. In John 21 we see the Lord Jesus very carefully taking Peter right down to the point where he could get rid of that problem that Peter had. Thank God that Paul allowed the Lord to do that. That Peter got to the point in his life where he was willing to let the Lord take those things away. But you know there was another one that I can think of in the Old Testament, Samson.
Had a problem with his eyes, What he saw, the lust of the flesh. He looked upon women and he enjoyed what he saw. You know, that is a serious problem today. A serious problem We may be thinking that as long as we haven't actually committed a sin of.
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Of immorality that everything is fine, but you know it starts in the heart. That's why the Lord Jesus said.
He's a look at the final woman to lust have committed adultery already with her in his heart. We need to be faithful to the Lord in our heart. Turn to mark Chapter 9.
Mark, Chapter 9.
And verse 24.
We won't take time to read this entire account, but here we have a father.
Bringing a child to the Lord.
This child was possessed of demons. This child was one that was completely out of control. He was one that fell on the ground, wallowing. And the man came. The father came, and he confessed to the Lord that he could not do anything with this child.
You know, brethren, would be refreshing if we would just realize that we need to bring our children to the Lord and own our failure. This man came to the Lord, and he owned his unbelief. What was the result? The Lord cast out this deaf and dumb spirit. He took this child and he healed this child. And then the disciples came, and they said.
We can't understand why we weren't able to do this, the Lord said. This kind only comes out by prayer and fasting.
We have to realize there are some things today we really do not have an answer for. We don't have an answer for them. But if we come to the Lord and we own our failure, we own the fact we don't have an answer. The Lord will bring healing in this situation. You know that is really the answer for us is to come humbly before the Lord and honest confession like this man did and own at the foot of the cross.
That we have sinned. We have failed. We have not done what we were supposed to do. We have omitted to do many things. We have committed many things. There's to be healing. If there's to be a real work of the spirit of God, then we need to be honest. We need to see the need. And like Nehemiah, we need to build.
In Ezekiel chapter 36, you just turn back there.
Please for a moment because.
Were a little short of time, we might want to get the towel out now.
We've applied the word of God to some of these things.
And I'd like to look at Ezekiel chapter 36.
Ezekiel 36 verse 33 Thus saith the Lord God in the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities, I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, And the waste shall be builded, and the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. You know this picture here is of a desolate land, one that has no fruit at all. You may be in that condition this afternoon.
You may have in your life done some things that you feel that you just have no value anymore to the Lord. There is. If you look back upon your life and if you look back upon the recent past in your life, you feel that is basically desolate, that you haven't done the things that the Lord wanted you to do. You haven't glorified the Lord here in this world. And perhaps you feel that it's your opportunity is lost. You're like Peter. That said, I go a fishing. I might as well give up.
Because I have failed the Lord. Well, it says here that there is a desolate land shall be tilled. A plow, a sharp blade first has to be applied to that desolate land. I was in a photography studio yesterday and I saw a box with some looked like some dirt in it. It was all dried and it looked very desolate. And I asked him what they were doing and they said they had to create a scene of a desert.
And so they brought all of this dirt in the sand and clay and they they put water on it, but then they dried it very quickly so that it would crack. And I'll tell you that probably from a cameras perspective at least, it looked like a desolate desert.
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With nothing growing in it at all, that can be like many of our lives.
But you know there is.
There is hope. There is a promise here that says that it will be tilled. That is, we have to apply the knife. There has to be that self judgment. God does not want to leave you in that condition, but you have to be willing to let him apply the knife. There has to be the painful aspect of the plow that has to come in. First the word of God honestly confronted in your life and then it says that they shall say verse 35 This land that was desolate is become.
Like the Garden of Eden, this land that was desolate the.
Blooming fruitful, you know. I just say this by way of application.
But it's to me as if the reason why God uses the expression Garden of Eden here.
Is that the Garden of Eden as it's pictured, is as it was before sin came in? That is, the Lord can restore you. He can bring you to a place of blessing again.
He can take you back in your life if you have failed the Lord. I would urge you here.
This afternoon, if there is a young person that has allowed sin to come into your life.
If there are those of us who are middle-aged, who have allowed the sins of omission, apathy, to come into our lives, we have not done what the Lord asked us to do. If we have responsibility and we realize that there are real needs in our assembly that are not being addressed and we haven't done the right work of a shepherd, that we would be willing to allow the Lord to take us back, to restore us back to this position. And it says.
The waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced and are inhabited. Then the then the heathens that are left round about you shall shall know that I, the Lord, build the ruined places. If he doesn't do it, it won't be done.
The Lord is the one who builds the ruined places. He can take a ruined life and he can rebuild it. I have a younger brother.
That all of his life was involved in narcotics and various things, and just recently.
He accepted Christ as a savior. What a change in that life. I can't believe it. I went down and spent a few days with him.
I can't believe it's the same person we knew. We see that happen. We know what happens for those who are born again.
But for those of us, perhaps that have left our first love a little bit that have grown cold in our soul.
That have allowed the world to come in, that have by sins of omission the cares of this life, whatever it may be.
We have allowed the defilement of this world to come into our hearts.
God can build the ruined places.
He can make you fruitful. He can make your assembly fruitful, your family fruitful. You may feel as a parent that you have blown it completely as a father or a mother, because your children have not gone on with the Lord, and we need to acknowledge that. We need to be honest before the Lord if we have seen failure in our families or failure in our lives. God does not despise.
An honest heart.
That's willing to own exactly where they are. And, brethren, if there is one thing that I feel in my own heart that we need to do, it is to own exactly where we are.
And to be honest before the Lord about our real state, because that is the only way that God can bless us, and then he will build the ruined places. Turn over now to.
Philippians chapter 3.
And verse 13.
It is good when we get to this point.
Of honesty, of self judgment, of allowing the word of God to penetrate, of allowing the knife to come into my life. That we now.
Have before us.
The object for the Christian heart.
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Philippians 313 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth onto those things which are before I press toward the mark. For the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, we need an object before our hearts, the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
We need that first love that will motivate us as believers to want to please him, to want to have that fruit in our life. You know, it does no good to just attack the conscience and leave the heart ungained because the conscience attacked and reached even without the heart. As Brother Darby said, I can paraphrase him. We'll do what it did to the very first man that will leave him cowering behind the trees of the garden.
We can become very exercised about the lack of attendance at permitting and at reading meetings in a gospel meetings. But if we don't reach the heart, if the heart is not attracted by Christ, it will not be attracted by anything else. It is the love of Christ that constrains us. That is what constrains us. We need in our ministry to hear. I would say this to those who.
Teach the Word of God. We need to have the truth expounded topically.
We need subjective ministry that explains the truth of the word of God. I am amazed when I see some of the younger ones coming along.
With the lack of knowledge of the truth, we can say that they should be reading it, and that is true.
But God holds the teachers and the shepherds accountable for the lambs.
We need to do a better job of communicating the truth of the word of God.
We need an object before it hurts the result we find in verse 17.
Paul could say, Brethren, be followers together of me.
And mark them which walk so as you have us for an example. Paul was not one who muddied the waters with his feet. He could, say, be followers together of me, not only by what he said, but by his life. He was an example. We need examples. We need to see those who are happy in the Lord.
Who have joy in their hearts that have a desire to be an encouragement? The younger brother. And you know, there's one thing I heard the leadership wants to define as someone who says come, not someone who says go.
The Lord Jesus said, come take up the cross and follow me, Paul said. Follow me, follow me and follow those who have followed us as examples. We need that.
And one final verse, 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
In verse 10.
I would like to close with what all of this should be in view of for each one of us. I've heard a brother here that is here recently comment about how these verses have really been before his own heart recently in connection with his life.
Verse 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
That everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done.
Whether it be good or bad, brethren.
Each one of us that are believers here this afternoon is going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Paul is looking forward to that date. He was looking forward to that moment when all was going to be revealed. He loved the appearing. He was looking forward to that as one who had been faithful.
Oh, I wonder, do we look forward to that moment? I believe this is something we should have before our hearts.
In all the responsibility that the Lord would have us to.
Assume here in this world, how clearly do I reflect? Do you reflect the Lord Jesus Christ to those around us, To our neighbors? To those who are poor?
To the poor, the gospel is preached.
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To those who we come in contact with at work, do they know that we love them?
Do we show by our actions that we care about them? Are we reaching out to them?
These are all things that the Lord Jesus did when he was here in this world. Or do they just look at us and say that's a very religious person? They go to a lot of meetings, but they've never taken the time to stop and talk to me.
I thank God that there was one.
That stopped and talked with me one day because I was not raised in a Christian home.
And had they not taken the time to stop and talk with me about the Lord Jesus Christ? In fact, they set aside an evening.
To talk to me and I know that they prayed for my soul and as a result I was saved.
Oh, I hope that just these few remarks this afternoon might stir us up.
To first of all take the word of God and let the Lord wash our feet. Let him take the word, the the plow, and bring it into all the aspects of our life, whether we are young this afternoon here or whether we are old. I think every one of us has some defilement that we could let the Lord wash off and then let us just confess to Him very openly.
Where we have failed, and then let us have before us the object before it hurts the precious.
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one for whom we wait, brethren, at any moment we're going to be in His presence, perhaps today, and we will stand before Him as those who must give account.
May we have it always before our hearts we sing #46.