Confronting Sin in the Spiritual Family

Significantly, we're on a subject night of which I'm an absolute authority.

To Timothy, his young protege, 1 Timothy chapter 5, verses 1 and 2, do not sharply rebuke an older man, double amen, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers, the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters in all purity. Action-packed couple verses of scripture. Now, the Lord, of course, uses beautiful metaphors throughout the word of God, and tonight we come to this marvelous metaphor with the Holy Spirit describing the church as a family. In that regard, we are meeting here tonight as a family. We don't have any old women or younger women, but we've got young guys and old guys. When you think of that concept of family, the word family, what do you think of? And I hope you think of loving care and intimacy, unity. There could be a number of other descriptives. The Lord

Jesus gave a command in John chapter 13 that we should love one another. Love is the distinguishing mark of the believing family of God. How will you know they belong to me? They will have love one for another. Love for God, love for each other is what is to set us apart as family. And love really is the backbone of the church. If we truly love each other, then it stands to reason that we would not want any one of us hurt, nor do we want to hurt anybody. But there is one element of love that is easy to overlook. In fact, it's probably convenient for us to try and overlook it. And that is, that element is the confrontation of sin. When we become aware of a brother or sister living a lifestyle of disobedient sin, and that's what disobedient is, we are commanded and at the same time love compels us to deal with it. Love for the individual, love for the church, love for the Lord. Our willingness to do so is really what marks us out as a loving family. Paul knew that. And he knew that confrontational love was so important to the church that he dedicates time to pass on to Timothy. And that's who he's instructing to, to build the church in that part of Asia Minor. So he's passing us on to Timothy, through Timothy, to others, including ourselves, how such confrontation is supposed to take place within the family of God. Now, the world's religions do it different. In Islam, you can get your head cut off pretty quickly. I sent two captains to the FBI academy, very, very prestigious, where they train local law enforcement guys in management and leadership and all that, 10 weeks. The first captain that went up there, they had a student, a police officer from Saudi Arabia. They've opened it up internationally. And he was caught cheating. So they pulled him in and confronted him. He admitted it. And they said, well, you're, you're going home. So they drove him to Dulles International Airport in

Washington, DC, was met there by an embassy official from the Saudi Arabian embassy. And he said, I want to apologize to you for the conduct of our citizen, and said, when he gets home, he will be immediately executed. And they went, excuse us? What did you say? He said, oh, they will execute him. He's embarrassed the king. If the king finds out, he will be executed. So they said, we don't want that on our conscience.

They took him back, let him complete the class, and gave him a certificate, not a graduation diploma, which is very attractive, but a certificate of completion. But they can be very harsh in a lot of parts of the world. Timothy was part of a church family located in Ephesus. The church there had sinning members, and we've been, we've been looking at this on Monday night and on my Sunday morning class. They had sinning members who had been lured away from sound doctrine by false teachers.

False teachers had infiltrated the church at Ephesus. And if you want to see the end result of all that, look forward into the second chapter of Revelation, where the Lord soundly condemns the Ephesian church. You've left your first love. You're orthodox, but you've left your first love.

They were lured away. The result was that many members had abandoned truth and godliness had fled the church. Now, let me give you a short list of the problems. They've included some of this. Some women had departed from their God-ordained role. They were trying to usurp the role of men in church leadership.

Some of the men aspired to be leaders of the church, although they did not meet the scriptural requirements for certain offices. False teachers were being allowed to teach false doctrine. Don't think that's something isolated, guys. That goes on all the time. I had some very good friends here, members of a real large church downtown, not a Baptist church. They were in class Sunday school one morning, and the teacher got up, and he said, you know, the lesson today mentions hell, but we all know in this enlightened age that there is no such thing as hell. Hell does not exist. It was just an example used, and there's no such thing as hell. Well, these two people went and complained to the pastor, who said that's the richness of our faith. He can believe his way. You can believe your way. We all just love each other. So that was going on in Ephesus. False teachers were being allowed to teach false doctrine. Some of the older widows were living impure lives, and some of the younger widows observed the older widows, and they too began to live impure lives. So Ephesus was a mess, and here Paul is trying to straighten them out by instructing Timothy, who will raise up, choose qualified elders to run the church. And so it has gone down through the century, down to the 21st century of the church. The church at Ephesus needed a mid-course correction, and who better to give it than the apostle Paul himself? Sin in the church had to be dealt with. There is nothing more destructive to a church than allowing sin to operate within the membership. And Paul has much to say about this in his letter to the sinning church at Corinth. And this is his instruction in chapter 5 of that great book.

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump. I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people. I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world or with the covetousness and swindlers or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world, but with any so-called brother, if he is an immoral person or covetous or an idolater or a viler or a drunkard or a swindler. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.

And if you are keeping score, that is 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 6 to 7. And I skip to 9 and 10 and then I skip to 11 and then I skip to 13.

So it is kind of a shotgun. The Lord Jesus, when he was on earth, spoke of discipline in a definitive passage in Matthew.

If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private. Well, underline that thought, fellas. You know, what do we normally do? Hey, you won't believe what Joe just did, you know. We get on the phone.

Show him his fault in private. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more, one or two more with you so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church.

And if he refuses even to listen to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. In other words, at that point, he would be out. And this actually happened with the man that was having an affair with his stepmother.

You remember that? If you ever hear that rumor, just shoot me. But he was in an adulterous affair with apparently his father's wife. Theologians believe that was his stepmother.

And he would not correct that behavior. He was put out of the church. In 2 Corinthians, it talks about the man who was formerly a great sinner who has repented and been brought back in. And a lot of theologians think it's the same guy, that perhaps he did finally repent.

We are commanded to confront sin. And, you know, there's some elders in here and deacons. I can't think of anything that's more gut-wrenching. Because, first of all, leading up to it, you always think it's going to go bad.

You just always assume. Some of us in here have been in those situations. It can be very difficult. And the first rule that we must follow is that any confrontation must be done in love.

If it's not love, we've lost it. Confronting in love. Do not sharply rebuke, but rather appeal.

Very sound advice Paul gives us through the power of the Holy Spirit. Sharply rebuke is a very strong term in the original language. It makes reference to a harsh or even a violent rebuke.

And, by the way, that's the only place that that word appears in the New Testament. We are not to use harsh words when confronting a sinning brother.

We're not to be violent when we do that. That would negate love. Appeal, though, is an interesting word. It means to encourage, to admonish, or to strengthen.

And that word appeal in the original language has the idea of coming alongside a weaker brother and lifting him up.

I mean, you can see where the Bible, a whole different approach than, say, the corporate world. Some of you are involved with. Within the church, we do not attack sinning brothers and sisters, nor do we gossip about them.

We are to lovingly confront them with the goal of strengthening them so that they will not sin. Or if they are sinning, they will stop sinning.

And the best way to do that is to turn them back to holy things in their walk. Appeal to them on that basis.

You know, go back and remember what it used to be like. All we have talked about to this point are general principles dealing with sin in the family of God.

And Paul will next apply these principles to the four groups within the church. The older men, younger men, older women, younger women. So first thing Paul is going to talk about is confronting older men, which might be the most difficult.

He talks about treating an older man as a father. Older men, and I'm sure I qualify, are to be respected. There has been some confusion over the years.

The passage is not referring to the office of elder. Some writers of commentaries have tried to say, well, Paul is talking about the elders. And that's just not true.

The idea here is that it's not the older man that Paul had in mind, the elders of the church. Timothy was a young man. But Paul instructs him, even though he's young, that if an older man in the church is sinning, he must be confronted with the sin.

But as a young man, Timothy and all the young men in the church are to treat older men in the church with respect, even when confronting them concerning sin.

It is the same level of respect, Paul says to Timothy, that you would have for your own father. And he passes that to us. The foundation for the treatment of older men in the church is found in the Old Testament.

Leviticus 19.32. You shall rise up before the gray-headed and honor the aged. I wish I had some gray hair right back in there. Proverbs 16.31.

A gray head is a crown of glory. Proverbs 4.1-4. Hear, O sons, the instruction of a father, and give attention that you may gain understanding, for I give you sound teaching.

Do not abandon my instruction. When I was a son to my father, tender and the only son in the sight of my mother, then he taught me and said to me, Let your heart hold fast my words, keep my commandments, and live.

Proverbs 30.17. The eye that mocks a father and scorns a mother, the ravens of the valley will pick it out, and the young eagles will eat it. And then, of course, Exodus 21.17.

He who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. It was a tough standard in the Old Testament. The same level of respect we are commanded to show our father should be shown to the elderly man in the church that is being confronted with his sin.

And you might recall, you should recall, if you're here yesterday morning, the name Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar. We heard Chris preach on that. Daniel, probably the only person in the kingdom, or one of the few, had the courage to confront the great king Nebuchadnezzar's sin.

But he did it in such a way as to show respect both to his person and to his office.

Listen to Daniel 4.27. Therefore, O king, may my advice be pleasing to you. Break away now from your sins by doing righteousness and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor in case there may be a prolonging of your prosperity.

Very gentle way that he dealt with Nebuchadnezzar. And then we have what is perhaps the classic confrontation of a younger man dealing with an older man in the New Testament.

This is in Galatians 2, verses 11 to 14. But when Cephas, everybody know who that is? Peter. But when Cephas came to Antioch, this is Paul writing, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.

Well, he's talking about Peter. Apostle Peter. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles.

Now picture that. Peter's over there having lunch with Gentiles. But when they came, that's Jews, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision.

He had fear that the Jews would criticize him. The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy.

But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, if you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?

I mean, that's a strong rebuke coming from Paul to the older Peter. Paul confronted Peter for wrongdoing, but he did so with respect and difference to his office.

He did so by addressing Peter with a question. He just asked him a question. And I'm sure Peter, as he's pondering the answer, is going, oh, my gosh, what have I been doing? You know, the Gentiles showed up and you withdrew.

And you went and sat at the Jewish table. All of them Christians, all within the church. Now, you're over on the Jewish table. You know, there should not be a Jewish table or a Christian table in the church.

When we confront someone in the church over sin, do so with respect. That is doubly so when we are confronting an older man, an older man.

Well, what about the younger man? To the younger men, treat them as brothers. We treat the older men as fathers. Treat the younger men as brothers.

The Spirit of God, writing through the Apostle Paul, links the words younger men with brothers. He joins those two words.

And just as we treat the sinning older men as fathers, we treat these young men as our brothers. Listen to how the Apostle John handles this in 1 John 2, verses 9 to 11.

Powerful, powerful words.

Both Peter and Paul exhorted believers to love their brothers in the church. And put it in context, fellows. They were isolated. They were living in a hostile world.

And you know what? So are we. So are we. The writer of Hebrews said that we should continue in the love of the brethren.

But such levels of love were not intended to preclude confrontation for sin. Church can't allow that to go on.

In fact, the Lord Jesus commanded that if your brother sins, go and rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him. Forgive him. Listen to how Paul handles this in the letter to the Thessalonians.

Now we command you, brethren, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life, and not according to the tradition which you receive from us.

If anyone does not obey your instruction in this letter, take special note of that person, and do not associate with him so he will be put to shame. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

Isn't that great? Don't treat him as an enemy, but as a brother. 2 Thessalonians 3, verses 6, and then 14 to 15. When younger men are confronted in the church with their sin, we are to exercise brotherly love.

We are to be guided in such confrontations with humility. Now here's a difficult one, confronting older women. The older women are to be confronted as mothers.

And let me say something, deacons, elders, Christian brothers. If you ever have to confront an older woman, don't do it alone.

Don't do it behind closed doors. Probably have your wife there. I will always remember Dr. Billy Graham, the secretary of 55 years, was being interviewed.

And the interviewer said, tell us, what's it like to be alone with Dr. Graham? He said, I don't know. I've never been alone with him. What do you mean? He said, I have never been alone with Dr. Graham.

If I go in his office, the door is wide open. There are 50 people who can see us and hear us. He said, Dr. Graham is never alone with women, unless it's Ruth, his wife.

That's a good rule. I know Don, when he counsels women, Cherie's there. And that's the way it should be. Treat older women as we would treat our mothers.

And I try to do that here. Maxine Schnitzer to me is Miss Maxine. Eunice Dull is Miss Eunice. And so on. Diane is Miss Diane.

She's going to be 65 this Sunday, by the way. You didn't hear that from me. Treating our older women as mothers is directly commanded in the Word of God.

Deuteronomy 5.16. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. Proverbs 1.8.

Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and do not forsake your mother's teaching. Proverbs 6.20. My son, observe the commandment of your father, and do not forsake the teaching of your mother.

Proverbs 23.22. Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old. These are great Old Testament passages on how to treat women in the church.

But what about instruction in the New Testament? Again, we appeal to the Apostle Paul. Therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see, my crown, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.

I urge you, Euodia, and urge Cynthia, to live in harmony in the Lord. Indeed, true comrade, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

You can find that in Philippians chapter 4, verses 1 to 3. What's going on there? Two women in the church were feuding. They're arguing.

Who wants to be between two fighting women? Anybody here? Right? Volunteer? They're fighting. And in so doing, they are harming the cause of Christ in the city of Philippi.

But note how Paul dealt with them. He responded to their harm with great grace and gentleness. I mean, it's just the master at work here.

He rebuked them, but at the same time, noted their service to him and to the gospel. He says, you've shared in my struggles for the cause of the gospel.

So he's getting them on common ground here. Wait a minute, wait a minute. We're in this together. You know, it's all about the gospel. And Paul truly treated these women as he would treat his own mother.

It's a masterful way to do that. And Paul was the master at it. Probably the most sensitive is confronting younger women.

And we all have to really think that through. You're going to need some help. And people with you probably of the opposite sex.

But we are to treat the younger women as sisters in all purity. Part of the role of the church and church leaders is to protect the purity of the younger women.

And guys, let me tell you, that's a major challenge in our day, isn't it? That is a major challenge in our day. I've seen survey after survey that says the young people in the church really, when they're out in the world, have the same attitude.

It's like they're worldly. I mean, they're in the church for a couple hours on Sunday and maybe an hour on Wednesday and then it's right back into the world.

So it's a difficult time. Very difficult time. We are called as leaders to protect the purity of the younger women.

Paul commands Timothy to treat such women as if they were his sisters. Now, what does that mean? Well, in the first place, he said, you have no room for lust after any woman.

And that's tough. That's difficult. We live in that age. I mean, I've told you before, you know, you've got women on TV with little lawns selling hammers for Ace Hardware. Madison Avenue understands the hot button and how to move merchandise.

We live in a day when many high-profile pastors have fallen because they became physically involved with a woman in the church, and dare I say, or with a man.

And we've had high-profile pastors fall because of that. He is supposed to be dealing with them spiritually, but instead was attracted to them sensually.

And, you know, you can go down the line here. We've had megachurches, megachurch pastors that have fallen.

One can only imagine what went on mentally that built up to that, that it just built up to that. God classifies that conduct as incest in the spiritual family.

I'm not talking about physical necessarily, mental, mental incest within the family. Why? She's a sister. She's our sister. He's our brother.

Young pastors are being destroyed because of their conduct with women in the church. I saw this firsthand when I was chief the first time in a church up in Dewey, and this woman was infatuated with this young pastor.

And actually, he came to Dr. McBride, and for those of us who knew Mike well, we knew he was a pastor to pastors. And I think that was really his calling to be a pastor to pastors.

And we had many a hurting pastor come cycle through this church. And this young pastor came to Mike who called me, and this woman was bats.

Boy, there were bats flying around inside. And finally, she faked kidnapping, thinking she would be, he would be drawn to her through that.

Literally faked it. And we put police resources into it. We had to treat it as real, and it was a terrible thing. And he ended up leaving that church. He escaped with his wife and children.

Went to another church. He didn't abandon the ministry. He had done nothing wrong. But she had the lure out. And she was trying to set the hook. Trying to set the hook.

The pastor, the associate pastors, the elders, the deacons, and all Christian men in the church are called to protect the purity of such women.

Dr. McBride, of course, was my chaplain at the police department. I remember him riding around one night, and they got a call at a hotel room. And there's about ten guys in there playing poker, and there's one really attractive seventeen-year-old member of our church.

Girl. And boy, she got him aside and said, you're not going to tell my dad, are you? And he said, no, you are. I'll be there when you tell him. But you're going to tell him.

And she went into panic mode. Because she wasn't supposed to be there. We are to guard and protect the purity of women. There are six steps in the book of Proverbs that give practical advice on how a man can maintain purity in relationships with younger women and, in fact, with all women.

And the first thing is avoid the look. Easy to say, hard to do, but avoid the look. Proverbs 625, do not let her catch your eyelids You can do this on Wednesday night, Monday night.

Can't do this in here on Sunday morning. Do not let her catch your eyelids. Job talked about this in 31.1, I have made a covenant with my eyes.

How then could I gaze at a virgin? How can I do that? I've already made a covenant with my eyes. I should do this every morning. And some mornings I do, and some mornings I forget, but it's, Lord, protect my eyes, my mind, my reading, my day, you know, from that which is sinful.

Sometimes it works. Sometimes I fail. Avoid the look. Avoid the flattery. And that may be my downfall because I like to joke like at City Hall with some of the girls in accounts receivable and all of whom are, you know, old enough to be my granddaughters.

Avoid the flattery for the lips of an adulteress drip honey and smoother than oil is her speech. Proverbs 5.3. So not only do we shun the look, but don't fall for flattery and don't be given flattery unless it's to your wife.

Avoid the thoughts. Boy, he's drilling down, isn't he? He is drilling down. Do not desire her beauty in your heart.

And let me say this, guys. That's where the battle is at. That's where the battle starts right there. Lust is born in the heart and we all battle it.

The statistics are that 98% of Christian men lust and the other 2% just choose to lie about it. That's the battle. It's right here and that's what gives birth to it.

Do not desire her beauty in your heart. And we have a responsibility for that. And can I add this and I'll be in a lot of trouble. Christian women have a responsibility too.

Does anyone ever get appalled at some modes of dress in the church? I'm telling you guys it shouldn't be so. My wife had the courage this was many, many, many years ago back in the 80s of correcting a girl, a young girl who came here and sadly and it was, it actually turned out to be true she started crying because she wore something very suggestive and she said this is the only dress I have.

Her dad was dead, her mom was in prison, I mean it was a sad deal. Of course, what did Diane do? Check book and headed to Dillard's, you know. And I'm still paying that credit card off.

Do not desire her beauty in your heart. This is a good one. Avoid the rendezvous. Avoid the rendezvous.

And I saw among the naive and discerned among the youths a young man lacking sense passing through the street near her corner and he takes the way to her house in the twilight in the evening in the middle of the night and in darkness and behold a woman comes to meet him dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart she is boisterous and rebellious her feet do not remain at home she is now in the streets now in the squares and lurks by every corner.

Proverbs 7 verses 7 to 12 great great advice there and you see how this is building from the look to flattery to thoughts and now what's the guy doing?

He didn't go straight home he drives by her house he parks and he's watching she spots him and comes out avoid the rendezvous say again a man lacking sins yeah okay in addition to the rendezvous avoid the house do not let your heart turn aside to her ways do not stray into her paths for many are the victims she has cast down and numerous are all her slain her house is the way of shield descending to the chambers of death wow isn't that going to be a thrill in eternity Proverbs 7 25 to 27 avoid the house now I'm

I'm stupid when it comes to all this pretty naive you know I remember checking into a hotel in Conway Arkansas a year many years ago and a little girl checking me very attractive nice looking girl and it was raining to beat the band I thought we were going to have a tsunami and she said oh I was hoping she said you got the last room and I said yeah I did yeah she said I live an hour and a half north I was hoping to get the last room because I need to stay you know I said oh sorry I cheated you out of that she said not a problem she said it's a big room got a king sized bed I said good is it non-smoking yes non-smoking okay plenty of room in there I said okay 30 years later I said wait a minute what was she saying to me I'm telling you it was 30 years and I thought my stars Diane actually asked me I've been all over the world you guys know the story 44 countries she asked me have you ever been propositioned

I mean directly you knew and I said well one time in London she said well she bristled she said don't you think you should have told me about that when you got home I said well probably but it was a man and it wasn't anything I was real proud of it wasn't anything I really wanted out it was this guy how you doing I'm okay where you staying over here alone where you staying over there alone I hope avoid the house and biggie here avoid the touch we've dealt with that in this church avoid the touch Levi stand up you're okay I'm not going to embarrass you very much come here Levi is a woman Levi wants a hug

Levi wants a hug in church fellas this is how you do it everybody like you didn't have to look you know what I'm doing that's how you do it you're making it good looking good looking man that's how you hug a woman in church not your wife that's how you hug a woman avoid the touch and I'll tell you what it has been the downfall of ministries been the downfall of ministries some of you know what I'm talking about so she seizes him and kisses him Proverbs 7 verse 13 avoid the house avoid the touch that was the final step that culminated in immorality that final step right there a very necessary part of

Christian ministry is dealing with sin in the church it has to be dealt with it's the cancer in the church and what do you do when you have cancer you cut it out and it's painful and it hurts but then there is treatment you may have to go through additional treatment sometimes that can even be painful but we have to deal with it within the church here we've learned how to confront the sins and transgressions of older men younger men older women younger women but I left the most important step out and I want to hit that last because it is so important we're talking about confrontation confronting sin the very first place we are to confront sin is in our own heart that's where the battle rages that's where the battle rages keep short accounts with

God how do you do that go to him daily go to him if necessary hour by hour moment by moment in confession and cleansing your heart before him confessing known sin for instance go to him and you know let me and one I heard one guy say look whatever you think you're hiding from your wife from the church from your friends you're not hiding from God right it reminds me of the man who lost his wife and children in the car wreck and he told Dr.

Swindoll I'm mad at God have you told him and he said no I don't want him to know so they just sat there for a while in silence and then he said he knows already doesn't he the Lord knows our heart he knows our minds down to the subconscious the heart is deceitful and desperate and wicked who can know it the answer to that is God knows it down even to our motives in our subconscious to do things confession of known sin is vital 1 John chapter 1 you should memorize that and then go ahead and memorize the other four chapters but 1 John in chapter 1 and the Holy Spirit wrote these words through John says this if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness now pick that apart for just a moment if we confess our sins that's the

Greek word homo it implies name it God already knows what we've done go to him and tell him Lord this is what I've done and you already know what I've done whatever it is lust or whatever name it to him try to step out of yourself leave yourself over here get over here with God and look at it with his eyes and say I see this with your eyes I see this sin with your eyes and I confess it to you it is a violation of scripture violation of your word and of your will and if we do that and by the way that is not a salvation passage 1 John is written to believers in fact 1 John is really kind of the blueprint for Christian living that in the sermon on the mount but this is not believers confess this is not salvation if we confess he that is the triune

God is faithful and just so he combines what faithfulness and justice or justification he combines those two to forgive us our sins and then guess what he does and cleanse us from all unrighteousness now what is that cleanse us from all unrighteousness I would suggest and I've read this by other guys he not only cleanses us from the sin that we confessed he cleanses us from the sins we have forgotten to confess the sins we may have committed and not even realized we were committing sin he cleanses us of all those sins let me suggest to you what this passage really is this is foot washing this is a foot washing passage church when the

Lord came to the disciples and said I'm going to wash your feet foot in mouth Peter said you're not about to wash my feet he said Peter if I don't wash your feet you've got no place in this ministry well foot in mouth Peter said well give me a bath clean everything Peter I didn't say that you've already been made clean I would hope everybody in here has been made clean by the blood of Christ through salvation but we pick up the dust of this world what is that that's sin and we've got to wash our feet we've got to ask the Lord to wash our feet we confess the dirty sin we pick up on the journey and he cleanses us he washes our feet so to speak cleanses us of all unrighteous

I like to say that's the foot washing passage in the letters of John