Got your Bibles? I want you to turn to John chapter number 13, please. I'm going to read a collection of verses from this passage. I think it will be a blessing to you. I want to encourage you and feed you in the Word of God. John chapter number 13. Are you there? And verse number 1. I'm going to read down to verse 10, then I'm going to jump to verse 21, all right? The Bible says, Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew His hour was come, that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them. unto the end. And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him, Jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and he was come from God and went to God, he rises from supper and laid aside his garments, and took a towel, and girded himself. And after he poured water into a basin, and he began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded, then cometh to him or cometh he to Simon Peter? And Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered," now listen, stay with me, "'Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter said unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him," boy, listen to this stern rebuke, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me." Now, there are a lot of folks that have confused that, and I'll explain that in a moment. Simon Peter said unto him, now when he said that, look what Peter said, Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. He said, just give me another bath, a whole bath. And Jesus saith unto him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. And ye are clean, but not all. And we know he was speaking about Judas Iscariot. Now go down to verse 21. And when Jesus had thus said he was troubled in his spirit, and testified and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. Then the disciples looked one to another, doubting of whom he spake. Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter, therefore, beckoned to him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake. He'd been lying on Jesus's breast, saith unto him, Lord, who is it? And Jesus answered, It is he, it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Simon, or Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. That's a pretty good passage of Scripture. I want to preach on this thought this morning, and I want you to focus. I know this is Valentine's weekend, and by the way, Valentine's Day actually is a pagan holiday. I don't know if you all know that or not. but is a pagan holiday, but it does bring out some good things now, and we show love to our special one on Valentine's Day, and I did get Brooke about everything she needed for Valentine's Day. She said, what about Marguerite? I took her out to eat. We didn't fuss the whole time we ate, but we fussed a little. But in this passage of Scripture, we see a great example of the love of God for us. I thought I'd just preach from this thought, He loves me. Congregation, will you do this for me? Just us do it together. Let's all say together, He loves me. One, two, three. One more time. One, two, three. He loves me. Does that do anything for you? He loves me. In this passage of Scripture, I'm going to show you three things and three areas in which He loved His brethren in this passage of Scripture. Number one, in verse number one, we notice His love of the brethren. I want to tell you, He called twelve disciples. Eleven of them had the goods. One of them was lost, because he was the son of perdition, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. Now, there's lots you can say about Judas. I'm not going to go into all the theology about Judas. But I want to tell you, he was a lost man. He was a disciple. By the way, you can be a disciple and follow, but not be saved. Come on, help me. But let me say something. You can be saved and not be a disciple. But he was a disciple, a follower, but he was not saved. But Jesus said, I'll love them unto the end. You know, there's a lot of people that doubt eternal security, just can't get it in their mind that they're saved forever. Can I tell you something this morning? He loves me to the end. He loved me till He went to Calvary, and He died on Calvary's cross and paid for my sin. That, and by the way, He still loves me. He's right at the right hand of God, making intercession. He loves you this morning. When the world says, He doesn't love you. He loves you. When you're being battered with problems and you wonder why, He loves you. Thank God He loves us this morning. He has a love for the brethren. He has a love for His church. He died for the church. He bled for the church. He did it all for the church. Somebody help me. He loves His church. And by the way, I'm a part of this church, and I'm a part of the body of Christ. You said, how'd you become a part of the body of Christ? I got saved by the grace of God. And you said, how'd you become a part of this local body? I was baptized, scripturally immersed in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And that's a doorway into the local church. And I'm glad He loves us. He loves us in the body, but He loves us in this local body. Well, glory. Now, let me go into the second place, because here's where I'm going to dig some nuggets out of the next two things. Really, point three is where I want to get to. Not only did He have a love of the brethren, but He loved them at the bath. He done something. They had their supper. They had their Passover. And he did something that absolutely, absolutely turned them around. Absolutely blew their mind. He got a basin out, got his twelve disciples there, and he took a towel and gargled himself. And he asked them to take their sandals off. And he started washing the feet. Now, let me say something to you. There are some churches that are unscriptural in this area, but I'm not. It ain't going to hurt me. What's it do? Washing feet is not a church ordinance. And he says, what you do now, you'll do later. He's not talking about setting up a church house. There's only two of those. And that's baptism and the Lord's Supper. Somebody say amen right there. But what he'd done, he got up and he poured it. And, you know, Simon Peter always got to open his mouth. They just, people like it. They can't keep their mouth shut. Just got to open it. And Simon Peter said, what are you doing? He said, you're not going to wash my feet. He simply looked at Jesus. He ain't going to wash my feet. And you know what the Lord said? If I don't wash your feet, you have no part of me. Now, before you go off on a limb, you're wrong if you think this. Oh, you're saying he's not saved? That is not at all what he was saying. What he was saying is, you're not going to have fellowship with me. You're not going to have a walk with me. Then he got all shook up when he said, you ain't going to have a part of me. And Simon said, hold it, hold it. If that's what you're saying, give me a bath all over. But listen to me, if there's ever a time this proves eternal security, you know what he said? He is washed. Don't have to take a bath to save his feet. Help me. Hey, by the way, you get saved one time. You get washed in the blood one time. Somebody help me right there. And why was it the feet that was washed? Because it is the feet that gets dirty when you're walking. Can I say this? What is it about us that needs washed each day of our life? It's our feet. He was setting an example for us later to walk in humility and to walk into the fear of God. And, hey, by the way, there's a lot of people I know that don't have the fear of God. Let me tell you, I fear God. I fear what God can do to me. I fear what God can do to others. Listen, you better get a good wholesome fear of God. Am I preaching? But what he done, he washed her feet to clean her walk. He said, you're going to do this later. And by the way, he told in 1 Peter, you know what Simon Peter says? Put on the garment or put on humility. How many people believe what's wrong with this world right now? We've got too many proud people. Some folks have just forgot where they come from. Now, if God's blessed you financially and God's blessed you greatly, you ought to raise your hand up and thank God, because you could be in hell right now. You could be in a worse place right now. But God loves you, and He loves you to the end. But He not only loves the brethren, but He loves us and pays us and shows us an example of us walking for the Lord in humility. Amen? Peter, I think Peter got the message. And by the way, the first time you make an error or a mistake, it doesn't mean you're lost. The first time you sin, it doesn't mean you're lost. If you've been washed in the blood, it happened one time and one time only. Somebody say, Amen. I'm glad. I'm glad I'm not like some denominations that I have to come and think, well, Lord, I made a mistake this week. Lord, have mercy. Do I sin every week? Not every week, every day. That's what Mark tells me anyway. And every day, I'm in the flesh. But I want you to know I'm saved by the grace of God. And God doesn't see that sin. You know what He sees? He sees His Son's blood. He sees His Son's righteousness. Thank God. And there's one thing that's got to be washed, and it's my feet, so I can keep walking, keep having a testimony. And by the way, there's only one way to have a testimony. It's for you to love God, and He to love you. And you walk in His love, and walk in His humility. Glory. Actually, that's really not what I want to preach on. I want to preach on this last one. Look down to verse 21, and I'll conclude. What we know so far? The love of the brother. He loves me. The love at the bath. We need our feet washed because we're in a dirty, filthy world. But I want you to notice the love in the bosom. Now notice what was going on here. They're at the table. They're at the table. And there are a whole lot of going on there. You know, they're eating Hey, go out with a bunch of bandits. You can't get a word in edgewise. They just run their mouth and put food in, and run their mouth and put the, hello? And you can imagine what was going on at the table. And Jesus said some profound things at the table. He said, there's somebody there that's going to betray me. And I'm about to get happy right here. And there was one That was right there. Right there in his breast. Simon Peter wasn't there. And what Simon said, ask him who it is. Well, why didn't Simon ask Him who it was? Why didn't Thomas ask Him? I'll tell you why. There's just one of them right here. Number one, you know what we all need to do in our relationship with God? Get as close as we can. I personally think what's going on in our churches today and in Christianity today is, let's just see how far we can stay away from God and get away with it. Somebody help me. And that's just about where most Christianity is today, just about as far as they can get from God and get away. We want to have the name, we want to say, oh boy, I pray for you, but just as far as we can to get away with, no, no, no, no, we ought to get as close as we can and see how much we can stand of it. Somebody say amen. I tell you what my desire, my desire is not to please you. My desire is not to please people. My desire is to please Almighty God. I feel like if I please Him, you'll be pleased. Because you don't want a preacher that's out away from God. You want one that's messing up. You say, can you be close to Him when trouble comes? By the way, that's some of the best times I have when trouble comes. Hey, anytime, anywhere, you just get close to God. Hey, there's some of you this morning, you love God, you've been saved, but you're not close like you used to be. You listen to junk you shouldn't listen to. You say things that you shouldn't say. God have mercy. He wants you close. But you're out here saying, I wonder how much I can get away with. And by the way, He will show you how much you can get away with. If you're saved, He'll chasten whom He loves. By the way, I'm saved, and I want you to know how I know I'm saved. He'll beat the devil out of me once in a while. I love. That's how I know I'm saved. But there's a second thing here. Boy, wasn't there some love there? Boy, I feel God's love when I'm in His bosom. But notice what Simon said to him. Ask Him. Well, Simon, you ask Him. You want Simon wasn't close enough to ask anything. I wonder how close you are this morning. I wonder how close we are this morning. Simon said, to ask Him, let's go betray Him. Well, John was in a pretty good position. Number two, not only the closeness, but the closeness of his hearing. Now, you say something to me, will you? Thank you. Most of you didn't hear that unless you got on the microphone. But if I didn't have my mic on, you wouldn't have heard it. See, when you're close to God, you hear things others can't hear. You know who a visionary is? You know who somebody is that has a vision for God, and a vision to do great things with God? It's him that has his head right in the breast of the Lord, and he hears the things that others can't hear. Why do you think God put a pastor to lead the church? I'm not the head of this church. That's Christ's job. But I am the undershep. And I need to be as close as I can. Our leaders need to be close. Our families need to be close. Listen, this church is almost full in the wintertime. We need to be close enough to hear from God that we can know what God wants us to do. Well, I'm glad that I've got a God that's listening to me. I'm not over here trying to get away with something. I'm just trying to be as close as I can that I might hear something. Somebody help me right there. How long has it been since you really heard from God? Your problem is you're not saved, that you're not saved. The problem is you're out here, you can't even hear God. But you come and get snuggled up, you'll start hearing things others can't hear. I've had people do this to me a lot. Where did you get that from? Man, where did you get that jewel from the Bible? I read the same thing you read. I'm not getting that. You ever thought about it? God gives them jewels to those that are leaning in the brass. I know some people that got such an insight with God, and it's not because they got a doctorate. It's not because they got an education. It's because they're close. How close are you this morning? You know, some of you have been out on dates with your wife, and you've been close, and you've talked a little bit more than you usually talk, and it's felt real good. How about talking to God every day, and knowing when you talk, He listens! He hears! Simon Peter, who would open his mouth in a moment, couldn't even hear Christ, couldn't hear Him. So he asked somebody else to get up there who was already there. And lastly, not only do you have a clearness of hearing, you have chosen speech. Now, I'm going to say something to all of you. Every person in here has the same access to God as everybody else has. Am I right? The problem might be, here's what might be the problem. Some of you say, I don't get my prayers answered. I don't see anything good happening to me. Are you there? Hello? See, if you're there, You get to say things to God. Others can't say. By the way, there's one thing you can't do and be out of fellowship. You can preach and be out of fellowship. You can sing and be out of fellowship. But you can't pray and be out of fellowship. Because your prayers ain't going to go up. Somebody help me preach right there. You ain't going to make them up. You're not going to be able to get to the throne of grace. You're just not going to get your prayers answered because you're not in the bosom. And you're not able to speak to God. God help me this morning. If I could just get over this truth, He loves me and He wants me in His bosom. There's so many blessings in His bosom. I don't want to be like every other Christian that spends 99% of their time in some social thing. I want to be close to Jesus. I want to give Him more time than others give. I want to get in His bosom. I want Him to speak I want to be able to be a preacher, but not only for now and what I have done, but I am expecting greater things because I'm trying my best to get close and to get the touch of God. Oh, listen, families, if you ever need your family close to God, it's today. If you ever need your Christianity to be close to God, it's today. Unless some of you are blind, God's been doing miracles every Sunday. And that's about because there ain't anybody special here, because I ain't. But I've chosen this. I just want to hear from you, Lord. It's so good to be like this. It's so lonely when I'm not close. Some of you in this room, you've been saved, but you out here, just seeing how much you can get away with. And God says, I want you right there. My hero outside of the Lord Jesus Christ was my Father. The only thing could have been better if I had more years with Him saved. He was saved in my church. When you came to my church, if you've seen Him, you've seen me. Because he's just as close as he can. He often told me, he said, I want to catch up on what Christianity is all about. And he said, boy, I believe you've got it. One day I was about as discouraged as I have been in my life. I mean, everybody gets that way. And Dad saw it. Dad never said much in church, but he got up behind the pulpit, walked up there, said, I need to say something to you, boy. I actually said, John David. When this mom said, John David, or dad said, John David, I'm in trouble. I said, what dad? He said, what you got your head down? He said, he looked at me and here's what he said, you're the best pastor a man, a dad could have. Boy, I was hallucinating, because we were tight. And he said, I want to tell you something before I die. And one week later, he had his accident. I want to tell you, well done. I'd be on my way to hell if it wasn't for you. And look what you've done in this little small church. How many of y'all think I was lifted up? But let me tell you what lifts me up more is to have my head here and know that my Savior feels like I'm doing a good job. It doesn't matter what people think you're doing, it's what the Savior thinks you're doing. I am here for them.