appreciate seeing the contingent from Atlantic with us tonight and swells the ranks and takes the place of those that I preached away last night. They're probably home licking their wounds and will be coming back tomorrow night to take up the slack while the Atlantic folks go back to recuperate. When I saw the folks from Atlantic come in, I thought of the time that Tom McCullough and I put a tent up in Wood River, Illinois. We had it down on one of the main streets and it was just kind of a business section, you know, and everybody that came by were just people traveling more in connection with business than any reason that they lived there. So we had consequently a rather transient We had a different bunch every night. So the very first night that we opened up by Tom said to me, now look Glenn, he says, you outlined the chart. He says, and then I'll get up and I'll, what you don't hit, he says, I will. He says, okay, I'll outline it. We had a two-road chart up. So I got up and I outlined the chart and then stepped back and Tom took off, delivered a real good mess. He says, we're going to have a real good crowd tomorrow night. Next night we had a pretty good crowd, but it was a different bunch. Tom looked them over, he says, well, he says, you better outline it again. So I outlined the chart again and Tom preached another sermon. He said, we're going to have a good crowd tomorrow night. Now we had a pretty good crowd, but it was another bunch. Tom says, you better outline the chart again. About the fourth night, Tom says, you know, He said, you could outline that chart every night and say, I'll preach the same sermon. He said, we just have a new bunch all the time. Well, I kind of feel, for the sake of those that have come out tonight from Atlantic and you haven't been here to join in from the very start of things, I ought to say at least a couple of words about this chart and the tabernacle. See, we started Sunday morning with a study dealing with the court wall or the hangings of the court wall. And then at night we considered the typical significance of the pillars that supported those linen hangings. And they simply mean, as far as figures and pictures are concerned, two very wonderful lines of truth. The linen hanging represent or tell us what the world must have seen in the Lord Jesus. that broad expanse of spotless linen stretching all the way around the entire circumference of the tabernacle only to be opened up by a gate, divinely appointed, to tell us that had we tried to reach heaven with Christ as our model, we all would have missed it. His life would have condemned it. Thank God there's a beautiful gate here and it's composed of all those various colors that tell us of the varied characteristics of the Lord Jesus. And we're thankful for that. Matthew, Mark, Ruth, and John give us that picture. And then at night we were dealing with the story that the pillars had to tell. And that was quite different because the story that the pillars tell is simply this, what the world should see in you and me. And our job as believers in this world is to display the character of Christ our Savior. That's our job. At least that's what I feel mine is. Every Christian ought to consider his life to be spent that way. And then whatever, if you're a farmer, well then you just farm to pay expenses so you can keep doing that. And we don't do this as an option. We don't do it as a little side thing. This is the... This was the one responsibility of the pillar, and that was to hold up that linen hang. And I can't think of a better thing for a child of God to do. Then last night we turned our attention to the brazen altar. And of course this corresponds to the crossword of Christ. Someone has said that all of these vessels could be put within the confines of the of the brazen altar because the brazen altar was quite large. It was almost nine feet square and it was four feet high. And if this were true, then we might say that all of the blessings that we have come to us by way of the cross. The table speaks of fellowship with God. The golden altar speaks of worship and prayer. And the golden man stands speaks of testimony for our God. And this of course seeks the very presence of God. The thing that made the tabernacle valuable wasn't the gold and it wasn't the brass and it wasn't the silver and it wasn't the precious stones. They were all worth something, surely. But the thing that made this tabernacle so wonderfully valuable was the fact that the presence of the living God was there. Friends, if we had the most beautiful building in the world and we had wonderful rugs and wonderful upholstery. We had everything that man could devise to make a beautiful building, but there was no living God to come amongst us. What value would it be? It'd be better to meet under a haystack and have the presence of God or to meet in a cathedral without His presence. Without the presence of the living God, this thing was just nothing. And we need to remember that in our Christian testimony today. Let's not put the accent upon the tangibles and the materials, but upon that which the world doesn't see and can little appreciate, and not just the presence of God. If the presence of God is known among God's people, brethren, we can face any foe, and we can achieve anything. But if we don't have Him, all the machinery in the world isn't going to get the job done. And I'm afraid this is what we're running into in a lot of places, to make a substitute for the presence of God and the power of God. We're just inventing more religious machinery. And you know that in order to operate machinery, you have to have energy. At least that's what we found out about a year or so ago. Tonight we'll open your Bibles to the Book of Exodus again, and this time we'll read our lesson from chapter thirty and we'll begin from the seventeen verse. Exodus chapter thirty verse seventeen will be considering the story of the brazen labor. And I sure hope you don't think that I'm going to be talking to you about ancient history tonight. We're going to go back where and when these things occurred and then we're going to bring them right up to nineteen hundred and seventy six right where you and I are tonight okay and the Lord spake on the Moses saying thou shalt also make a labor of brass and his foot also of brass to wash with all and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar and thou shalt put water therein. For Aaron and his son shall wash their hands and their feet therein. When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water that they die not. Isn't that striking? If they didn't wash, they would die. I'll have to confess. That seems a rather severe punishment for somebody that wouldn't wash his hands or his feet. But we're going to see that this signifies a tremendous truth that we need to lay to our hearts today. Or when they come near to the altar to minister to burn offering made by fire to the Lord, so they shall wash their hands and their feet. Please notice the second time that they die not. And it shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generation. We'll go back to these verses in a moment or two, but I want for the first few moments at least to make a comparison and a contrast between what the brazen altar signifies and what the brazen labor signifies. And I think as we go from one to the other, back and forth, in contrast and comparison, you will see, unfolding before your very eyes a most wonderful display of divine truth, at least it seems that way to me. When we look at the brazen altar, We're reminded of the finished work of Christ. When we come to the labor where the priest washed their hands and their feet, we're reminded of the unfinished work of Christ. We can say at the altar it's the accomplishment of the blood, of the sacrifice. When we come to the labor, it's not the action of blood, but the action of water, which is symbolic of the word of God in its cleansing effect. Also, when we come to the altar, we find it at the altar where the sinner gets his title for heaven. But when we come to the labor, it's where the saint gets his fitness for service. And mind you, it's salvation before service. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the religious world could ever get that straight? When it came through the tabernacle gate, It wasn't a labor, it was an altar. There was death there. There was a sacrifice there. And there the offer was made right before God. And then after having been made right before God on the grounds of a sacrifice, slain in his behalf, he proceeded from the altar to the labor. And you'll notice, look at this little cutaway portion here, if this speaks to the cross work of Christ, and this area over here and also pictures in here speaks of holy service for God, we see that between the cross and service for God there is a link. And this is what we're going to be thinking about tonight, how important it is. I see the salvation of God here, I see service for God here. Also, I see the judgment of God upon my substitute Christ Jesus here, but at the labor, it's self-judgment upon myself by own sin. Here God dealt with sin. Here the believer deals with sin. We might say also that here we have our relationship with God established and here we have our conduct with God maintained by the works of the water, the washing of the water of the Word. We can say that the altar was for all, but the labor was for priests only. Also again we find that this was the foundation of life, this was the foundation of holiness. The altar has to do with my position before God, and the labor has to do with my state. One has to do with position as pertaining to a place in the family of God, and the labor has to do with my experience as a believer in the family of God. Here it's an eternal position that is achieved by the one sacrifice here that was constant washing, day in and day out. I've only been saved once. And Christ died once. He'll never die again. And by virtue of the one sacrifice, I have been eternally cleansed. I need not come to the cross of Christ to be saved again and again, as some people like to teach. But, brethren, there are many trips to the labor. That's daily cleansed. This is eternal once and for all. This is something which is repeated daily in our life. We can say that here the lesson is, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission, and over here we can find this lesson, without holiness, no man shall see God. Well, we could bring many other comparisons, but I think those are sufficient for the time being. Now, last night when we were looking at the stories of a grazen altar, we found that the brass plates, that were provided for the brazen altar were received in a most unique way. We went to the sixteenth chapter of Numbers and we found that there were some men who rebelled against the order of God and they said to Moses, why we're just as good as you are and we're just as important in God's sight as you and so move over and make room for us. And so there was a contest. These men came out with their two hundred and fifty censors. There were two hundred and fifty princes and they stood in the door of their tent. And Moses said, God is going to decide. And God is going to show upon whom his authority rests. And God said, separate yourselves from these men. He says, I'm going to finish them off. And Moses said, if these men die an ordinary death, he says, then God hasn't sent me. And you remember how the Scriptures tells if the earth opened up, and these two hundred and fifty men with their wives and their children. I'll tell you when I read that, it scared me. Mind you, they went down with their wives and their children, and I asked myself, why in the world would God pour down those little tops? And I think there's a very solemn lesson in it for us, that the sins of the parents are oftentimes the sins of their own children. And we need to think about it. My failures will find me again in my own children. This is something that's hard to face. But brethren, I see it more and more as I deal with people today and all sorts of situations and problems and things, I realize how important it is that There be perfect tranquility in the home, but be that as it may. These men sank down into an awful death, and then they were the only thing that remained were these two hundred and fifty brass fences, copper. And they were melted down and pounded out and made into broad plates, and these broad plates were attached to the side of a grazen altar. And did you know God says every time you look at that, he said, it's for a memorial. There never came a person to offer a sacrifice, but when he stood by that graven altar, his eyes rested upon those brass plates. And what did it remind him of? It reminded him of the holy character of God, that God has got to punish him. There is no other way out. God must deal with sin in judgment. Now this occurred, thank God once and for all. But we find that what transpired at the altar and what transpired at Calvary's cross as a once-for-all matter is to be reflected in the believer as he daily passes judgment upon his own life. There's a reason for it. One of the reasons why some Christians get weaker instead of stronger is because they're very careless about judging sin in their life. It's very easy, you know, to just kind of slip by. You know, we didn't watch our kids. They'd come out in the morning and say, when we say, well, did you wash? Oh, yeah, I washed. They might do, you know, kind of a cat job. You know how a cat washes. That's it. You might not notice it's the first day and maybe the second day, but about the third day, you see their face is shining. You go back here and it's kind of gray. You know, everybody knows how kids do that. It piles up after a period of time. God is teaching us the necessity of daily judgment, daily judgment. All right. Now, turn over to the thirty-eighth chapter of Exodus for a few scriptures that tell us where they secure the copper for the brazen labor. Exodus thirty-eight and verse eight. Just one little verse, but it sure is a good one. And he made the labor of brass and the foot of it, of brass, of the what? What's that? Of the what? The looking-glasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. say that's unique to say the least. The labor was made out of the brazen looking-glasses of the women. And these were godly women that assembled at the gate of the tabernacle. And Moses said, you're naked from this brass and this copper. You see, they didn't have glass mirrors like ladies that got the day. or men for that matter, they had pieces of copper and they were highly polished so they could see a reflection of themselves in it. And so you can see that the very copper that we used to bring about the labor gives us a little idea what the labor is for. We look at the copper that went into the brazen altar, we see We see somber notes. We hear judgment sounds. We hear the groan of a dying sacrifice. We hear the crackling of flames. And there's look. And there's death. And there's dying. But over here, women gladly gave up their looking glass. And they made the labor of it. And the reflection. And so the Word of God, this picture is the action of the Word of God, and isn't the Word of God like a mirror? No, I don't know whether any of you farmers ever look in a mirror or not. But I noticed a day when I drive my car, and you'll see a lady with her car at the stoplight, and she'll stop, you know, look up at the mirror and she'll... And they'll do little things, you know. They've got little curls in them. I noticed that the fellows do the same thing. At least they do something that the women don't do. They even take their combs out. And they claw. They claw. Sometimes the light's green and they're still clawing away. Well, I'll tell you sometimes you can't even get in, you know, because the fellows are as busy looking at themselves as the women are. You see, when you look into that brass, that highly polished brass, you saw a reflection of yourself. Friends, if I want to see how God sees me, I go to the Word of God and I look in the Word and I see a reflection of myself. And you know that the mirror doesn't lie. I was walking down the street one day looking in the windows of a store and then I happened to let my... gazed glance not at the inner part of the store window but at the glass itself and I saw a reflection of myself and I jumped. Boy, I mean, it was terrible. I said, boy, I look old. I look bad. Well, the mirror doesn't lie. And the Word of God doesn't lie. Now let's come back to a few practical scriptures and I'm going to give you a little test tonight. For test number one, turn to Hebrews chapter ten, and I've told you some contrast between the altar and the labor. So you can see that the altar reminds us of the historical work of Christ and the cross and the labor reminds us of the daily judgment that the Christian exercises in his own heart as he looks into the Word of God. And of course, if you don't look into the Word of God, then of course you don't know what you look like. If I hadn't looked in the window, I wouldn't have seen myself and I wouldn't have been so scared. But I tell you, I get a lot scareder when I look in the Word of God and see what I look like or what I should look like and don't look like. All right, Hebrews ten. Now I want to read this verse, and as I do so, I want you to practice something. I want you to listen with both ears, and as I read the verse, I want you to see if you can find the altar in that scripture and the label. Will you do that? Alright, here I go. Hebrews ten, twenty-two. Let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. having our heart sprinkle from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. No. Can anybody see the altar there? All the women see it. Well, I'll give you a little help. Where it says, our heart sprinkle from an evil conscience, that's the word of the altar. That's the work of Calvin. Our heart sprinkles from an evil conscience. That's why it says in baptism that baptism is the answer of a good conscience for God. You know, some people today got the idea that sinners get baptized in order to get a good conscience. Oh, no. The Bible says that baptism is the answer of a good conscience. You see, you get a good conscience when you vindicality. You get a good conscience when you see the blood of Christ puts away sin once and for all. Then you have a good conscience. And the word sprinkle in the Old Testament, whenever blood was sprinkled, we're told that it means that whatever was sprinkled came underneath the value of it. That's why when you get to Exodus chapter twelve and they sprinkle the blood, you know, they apply the blood. You get to the Ark of the Covenant and you know the priest, he sprinkled the blood once on his feet and he seven times in front. And what it simply means that whatever is sprinkled comes underneath the value of it. So that when the heart are sprinkled, it means that the... unregenerate sinner when he comes to Calvary the value of the blood of Christ covers him and he comes underneath the value of the shed blood and he has no longer an evil conscience he's got a good conscience and that's why he's baptized because he's got a good conscience now and it answers it answers how he answers in the figure the type of the death to bear on the resurrection of Christ. When he goes down on the baptism, he answers in the face. Well, you say, where's the labor? Well, that's very easy. It says, and our bodies washed with pure water. He's talking about something which was very familiar to a Jew, to a priest. And, of course, this refers to the work of the labor. Alright, now you know how to do it, don't you? So I'm going to have you one more time. And we're not going to plunk you on this one in Hebrew. That was just a warm-up. But now go to Ephesians chapter five. And this is for real. This is for peace now. Ephesians five, verse twenty-five. Husbands love your wives. Even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself forth that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the words. All right, where's the altar? Christ loved the church and gave himself forth. That's the way. Christ loved the church and gave himself forth. That's the altar. That's the altar. Where does the labor come in? Verse twenty-six. that he might sanctify and the force of this is that he might continue to separate unto himself this church and cleanse it with the washing of water how by the word that's the action of the lady and what's it all about well verse twenty seven gives you the purpose that he might present it to himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy without blame. That's the purpose. Verse twenty-five tells us of the past work of Calvary at the altar. Verse twenty-six tells us of the present work of the Word of God in our life. And verse twenty-seven tells us of the future purpose. that God has to bring His Redeemed One, that He persists here, that He maintains here, He's going to bring them to a complete place of glorious perfection, to be displayed before the wandering eyes of this whole universe. It's amazing. So we're in between two great points. If you're saved tonight, you stand between this point, redemption, And glorification, we're to be concerned about sanctification, how that we can maintain in our experience what we occupy in our position. I suppose to maintain an experience is one thing and to have a position is another. When two people get married, they occupy a position as a husband and wife. But to maintain that relationship in the right perspective, that's something else. I really wished whenever I pronounced them husband and wife that meant that when they went out the door, everything was going to be hunky-dory from that time up. And I've often thought that we spend more time in preparation for the wedding than we do the marriage. There's a lot more people ready for the marriage than they are for the wedding than they are the marriage. The wedding only takes a few seconds, but the marriage of the whole life involved there. It only took me a moment to come to Christ and to trust Him as my Savior. And here I learned day by day what God saved. Here I learned what He is and what I am, and oh, how important it is. All right, I want to think with you for these closing moments then about some of the practical aspects of the labor. Would you turn to Isaiah chapter fifty-two and verse eleven, and we're going to really make time now. Isaiah fifty-two and verse eleven. The importance of Cleanliness, keeping clean, sure to counsel with God, I think are brought very nicely out in some of these verses. We'll read one here in Isaiah fifty-two verse eleven. He says, Depart ye, depart ye, go out from then, touch the unclean things, go ye out of the midst of her, be clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. Now this is true of the priests. They officiated here in the holy place. They work with the vessels and the different flesh hooks and the pans and the shovels and so on. And so God said, if you're going to operate in the service of God here in the tabernacle, he says you're going to have to have clean hands. So the injunction is, be clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. If we're going to serve the Lord, one of the requisites is that that servant has clean hands. When our kids were growing up, I well remember that my wife would jump up and she'd point her finger at Robert or at Danny or Curtis and she'd say, you get into the bathroom and you wash. For my eye off, get in there. You get in there. You get in. And I don't want another peep out of you. You get in there and you wash. You're a filthy looking thing. And he'd get in there and my, you see, you know, dirt going up to his elbows. Robert, I always thought he was going to be a garbage man. Sanitation engineer. I used to come around the backyard and I could see the rest of the kids, but he only saw Robert's feet sticking out of trash cans. He'd haul more junk home than anybody ever saw. And he was the dirtiest kid of the bunch. And so invariably he had to go in for another run-through and the bathroom would get cleaned up. Now, Robert, even when he sat at the table with a dirt and grime on him, he had just as much right to be around the table as the other kids had by virtue of the fact that he was born into our family. He was just as much a son. But you know, he may have had a right to be there, but mother said he wasn't fit to be there. It wasn't a matter of whether he had a right. That was established by birth. but he wasn't fit to be there. And so he had to go back, and by the action of the water and the soap, he came back, and he was fit to sit at the table. He always had a right to be there. And if you're a Christian, you'll never forfeit your rights. As a child of God, thank God, everyone that's been saved by the grace of God is going to be with the Lord Jesus in heaven. And I tell you, as we travel along the way, we find out sometimes we're not really fit to be doing what we should be doing, because we let defilement come in. Psalm twenty-four, verse three. That's just going back to the left a little bit. And when you get over to Psalm twenty-four, you read here, Verse three, who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in the holy place? He that hath had clean hands in a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul under vanity, nor sworn deceitfully? Who shall stand in his holy place? Now this has to do with approaching the Lord. Those that have clean hands. You ever notice how when you leave home and you tell the kids, now look, please. Please, when we leave for a half hour, please don't tear the place down. Can we trust you for a half hour? Could you do that much? Oh yeah, we can, yeah, we'll be good. If you come back, there's something wrong. If you've got five kids, There's four angels standing there, and there's one kid in this, and you know who the guilty one is immediately, because he doesn't want to come out and approach him. He wants this. When sin came into the world, what did Adam and Eve do? They got away as far as he could. And so my Bible tells me that those that would approach the Lord only do so as they know what it is to keep and a kind of spiritual or moral clemency that befits the presence of the Lord. You know, if there's things in my life or on my conscience that shouldn't be there, it's awfully hard to pray. It's awfully hard to come into the Lord's presence. When these kids that had done something wrong, hesitated to come out, it simply meant they'd felt uneasy in our presence until we got the thing out in the open. Sometimes took quite a bit of doing to do it, but we generally got it. The third thing is in chapter twenty-six and verse six and seven, I will wash my hands in innocency, so will I compass thine altar, O Lord. Here we have another aspect of Christian service. He says, I will wash my hands, and then he says, I will compass the altar, thine altar, O Lord, that I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all thy wondrous works. So here we have testimony. That's why I was telling the fellows in Atlantic when we had our homiletic class. I've known some men that were tremendous speakers, but you know their lives didn't measure up to what they were preaching. Not that God expects us to be. super spiritual or anything like that. But God expects a person to display something of the character, the one that he's seeking to represent. And I always like what Paula Holliday said in which she saw several years ago. She says, you know, God can use a cracked vessel, but God can't use a dirty one. And I never forgot. And then in Job seventeen in verse nine, He tells us that cleanliness is necessary for power with God. All right. I'm going to go over to John chapter thirteen. And let's bring it up to the New Testament teaching as best we can. The importance of cleansing is that I might do service for God, that I might approach Him in worship. that I may bear an effectual testimony for him, that I may have power, good God. I sure wish I had more of it. And then the warning is, he says, that you die not. It seems kind of extreme that a man would have to die if he didn't wash. Can you imagine a priest who officiates here, serves in the tabernacle? If he were to pass by the brazen labor and not wash his hands or his feet, can you imagine him being stricken in death? Doesn't it seem that the judgment would be out of proportion to the crime? Wouldn't you say that just refraining from washing your hands and washing your feet is an exceedingly small thing? Haven't you folks ever eaten a sandwich or... even eating a meal? Maybe you didn't get around to wash your hands. I know you women probably are very clean, but have you ever sometimes, in the excitement and the haste of things, maybe grabbed a broom and swept a little bit, and then you began to prepare some food, and maybe, you know, well, did your husband take you out and say, no. I suppose that kids have eaten tons of dirt. They tell us now that some of it's good for you. God bind them. Oh, thank you. It seems to me to be perfectly honest with you that the punishment seemed almost out of proportion to the Christ. And I ask my heart tonight, and you ask your heart as well, what is God trying to teach me? What is God trying to tell us when men who were priests were stricken in death if they didn't wash their hands with people? What is God trying to tell us? It's certainly not a two-cent lesson, isn't it? For anything that takes a man's life, there's certainly nothing to be set aside of no consequences. I'll tell you what God is teaching us today. And if the church ever had to learn it, it's got to learn it. or we're in desperate circumstances. And that is that without pulling, none of us will see love. We're living in a permissive society today. We're living in a day when it's perfectly all right to do this or the other thing. We have two young couples in our assembly who are in fellowship now after God had saved them, who lived as a husband and wife would without being married. Because it says marriage is a failure. Why marriage? And they live together until God saved the marvelous story of his grace. And first one couple came and the other couple came and said we want to be married. And we know that we've been living in sin, but we didn't know anything. We've got young people in our assembly today whose whole history is is a history of drugs and drunkenness, vice and sin. I just never saw anything like that. But I'll tell you what I praise God for. That when God saved some of these men and these young women, it straightened out their life. It changed their thinking. It changed their motives. And it seems to me that at this late date, The church has got to reevaluate its thinking about practical, spiritual cleanliness before God. I'm not here to contend with people, Christians, who may have habits that I don't approve of. I'm not even here to cast any thoughts about whether a Christian should drink or not drink a beer or pop a little tobacco. Because I can tell you, friends, I believe that there are some things inwardly that are worse than smoking. I'm not here to do that. And I would be God. that if a man could lay aside his tobacco and lay aside his beer can, that he could say, thank God now I'm clean, because, friend, that is the smallest part of it all. I'm not talking about people like that. I'm talking about people that probably never even chew bubble gum. And we have got that kind of a devilish nature that causes us to sit in judgment and to cause friction and all kinds of... unseemly things in the fellowship of God's peace and fast and social. I believe that if ever there was a time when we need to realize that God wants us to be experimentally what we are in our position, it would be a grand day in many a Christian home, be a grand day for many a boy and girl, and certainly would be a red-letter day for the attendants. I don't have to tell. Friends, I don't have to tell people what's wrong. I didn't have to tell these fellows when they were on dope, when they got saved and leave their dope alone. The Spirit of God showed them that. I don't have to do that. And the Spirit of God tonight, my friend, is doing his work right now. Because I'm reading you the Word of God. And as I read you the Word of God, the Spirit of God, it's going to apply that word to you. I'm not going to do it. The Spirit of God will apply that word to you and He will apply the word to me. And if I let that word do its work, you know what's going to happen? There's going to be a cleanse. Now I know our kids yell bloody murder when mama washed their ears. If you ever thought anybody was getting killed, you ought to hear a kid getting washed. You think it was murder? I don't know how you see it. Not that pain. It's very good. So we come to John chapter thirteen. We have the Lord Jesus who is operating the truth of the labor and what is he doing? Well, the supper was ended and Judas went out. Jesus rose from supper and he laid aside his garments and he took a towel and he girded himself and he He came over to the disciples and what did he do? He began to wash their feet. And as he came around washing their feet, he came to Peter. Peter no doubt had been watching Jesus as he was making the rounds and Peter was all ready for it. You might know Peter would. He came to Simon Peter and Peter said to him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do, thou knowest not now. Now that shows me that he had more in mind than literal foot washing. Because he says, What I'm doing now, you don't know. If he only had in mind literal foot washing, then he never would have said that. He says, What I'm doing now, you don't know. Then he says, Thou shalt know hereafter, because I'm going to explain it to him. Peter said unto him, Well, thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part of me with me. And aren't you glad he didn't say you have no part in me? There's our altar and our labor again. It's at the altar that I get my part in Christ. And it's at the labor where I have my part with Christ. Here is salvation and here is the service. And Jesus says, Peter, if I don't wash you, you're not going to lose your part in me, but Peter, you're going to lose your part in me. And that broke Peter's heart. Good old Peter, when he heard that, he threw in reverse. He says, he said, wait a minute. He says, Lord, if that's what it is, he says, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. and put some head and shoulders on when you're doing it. God damn. Do me up good, Lord. Isn't that like to you? No, he's gone completely in the other gear. And Jesus said to him again, he had to straighten them out again. He says, he that is washed, needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every week. And you are clean, but not all, referring to the rest of you. Referring to Judas, no doubt. or he knew who it was that would betray him and so on. You see, the illusion is to the old-time bathhouse where they would wash, and then when they would step out and go to their home, they got to their home, they walked over dusty roads. They didn't have to take a whole bath again. They simply just had to wash it. Jesus says, Peter, if you've been washed, if you've been bathed, and you have been... thoroughly cleansed in the bath of regeneration. You don't have to be saved in here, but you've got to wash your feet. You see, it's our walk and it's our spirit. It's what I do and where I go that has to have cleansed. And I like it. The Lord Jesus washed the feet. I don't know what kind of water he needs. I know when I get up in the morning and I hit that bathroom over there at Leo's house, boy, that water is cold. And so I give that faucet a wing to the left, and then I whistle the Aggie Doodle, and then I put my hands in there, man, it's hot. And I decided that hot water and cold water sure aren't friendly things to get washed. So then I move over to the middle and I get a delightful, nice, bland kind of water, just nice to wash. Sometimes when we try to wash the Christian's feet, we come along with cold water, haven't we come along with scalding water? And I always think about that man that was preaching in Kansas City at a conference, and I'll tell you... He had a masterpiece of a sermon. He was telling about a man that was going out to do some foot washing. And he had his face set like a clock of sour cups. And somebody says, where are you going? He said, I'm going foot washing. You ever see a Christian look like that that's coming over to your house and you need to get your set right? And this Christian says, well, wait a minute. He said, did you bring a pound? He says, I've got my Bible. He says, I've got the water. He says, what more do I need? Here's the water of the Word. Yeah, but did you bring a towel? I don't know what you mean by a towel. And then I learned that. That that towel, he says, represents the Spirit whereby the Lord Jesus washed the towel. It was girded around him like a surf. And he took his place. in a lowly fashion at your feet. Friends, when you go to help God's people, and you don't come standing over their head with a basin of cold water or scalding water, but you approach them the way the Lord Jesus did. You know what? You can be a blessing. I found out that there's lots of God's people wanting help today. Did you Christians ever think about trying to be a help to someone? footwashing means that you apply the word of God to that person's life so that he gets help. Everywhere I go I find Christians need help. Christians need to be helped. And this is something that we can all do. First Corinthians chapter eleven and then I guess I'll have to bring this to a close. We see how the water operates in our life in a personal way. First Corinthians chapter eleven. Oh my. You say that's in connection with the Lord's Supper. Sure it is. And it says that if a person eats the bread and drinks of the cup unworthily, verse twenty seven, he shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine who? Let him examine himself. And so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eats and drinks unworthily Eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. Now, please notice that this is an adverb here. It's describing how he eats. It's not a question of whether he should be there or not. That's all that's said. He's a Christian. He's a right to be there. But this is for a person who has a right to be at the Lord's table. But he hasn't been pre-active at the late... He hasn't been in the Word, and the Word hasn't been doing its sanctifying work. And therefore, Paul says he should examine stuff. Otherwise, he's going to drink judgment to himself. And he says, For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. I wonder if God feels any differently today about Christians being clean than he did back. when the tabernacle was standing. I'll be very honest with you. I doubt that those priests even knew the spiritual concepts that we know. These were pictures. Today we have the antitrust. We have the understanding of it. Do you think that God's standards have changed? Do you think God's people have changed? Do you think that we're any cleaner today than we were then? No. I think we're just as needful as ever. And the teaching, as I see it, is this, that if I don't exercise self-judgment in my life, then I'm going to leave myself open for the disciplinary judgment of God. Now, it could be to the extreme that God would have to take someone away. That's pretty solemn. I would certainly hesitate to say... That just because a Christian died somewhere that God is taking away for that reason. I hope none of you ever say things like that, that's cruel. That's positively wicked. I would be the last one to ever venture a reason why a Christian is removed. But I can say this much that the Scriptures teach that he has removed some because they didn't remove the department that God had to remove. the Christian in the way. That's Solomon. Because holiness becometh the house of the Lord. Well, I'm going to end on a good note. I suppose the very fact on the end is probably about the happiest note of all. But it is a good note, I think, in Revelation chapter four. I think you'll agree. We have the labor in the tabernacle. We see the labor today in New Testament times as being represented by the Word of God and how we look in the Word and how we examine our life and put judgment upon ourselves. Then we find the Revelation chapter four, a nice picture in verse six, a little look into the future. And notice what it says, because we see the labor again. It says, and before the throne there was a sea of glass. Now in the temple they had what they called a sea. a sea of glass like unto crystal. And in the midst of the throne and round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes before and behind and so on. But we find before the throne there was a sea of glass. And what is going to happen in the coming day when the earth battles are over and the stress and strain is gone. And we finally slip away from the scene of the conflict and the place of the fire. What's it going to be like? Verse twenty-seven of Ephesians find that he might present himself a glorious church not having sponsor, rigor, or any such thing. And then that peace that was saved from the sin of the altar, maintained by the cleansing, sanctifying works of the Word of God in their life, they're going to stand before their God on a sea of glass, not water, but on a sea of glass, And remember that those ladies took these looking glasses and looked, and what did they see? A reflection of their things. And on that day, the redeemed are going to stand on the sea of glass, and they're going to reflect the final, complete perfection of the grace of God that's been achieved at last in the life of every day. You want to reflect on that, then who do you suppose is going to get this off? Our Lord Jesus is going to get it off. Isn't it nice? Yes, it is. So tonight, that's the story. As best I can tell it about the labor. I wish I could tell it better. But if I've done only this much tonight, I've helped you to see that there's eternal cleansing here. And there can be daily sanctifying, victorious cleansing here in the Word of God. As we allow the Word of God to do its work in our life, then you and I will be able to live better for Him. And when He comes, we will not be ashamed before Him in His presence. Gracious Father, we look to thee tonight. For thy blessing upon thy good word, we thank thee, Father, when first we heard the gospel of thy grace, and it brought us face to face, with Him who bore the consequences of our sin and put them away. And then, Father, we thank thee that we have thy written word to which we can come, to which we can apply our hearts and see ourselves as thou the seeest, where in our Father we can find that kind of cleansing and strengthening for the daily walk, that we can carry out our roles as husbands and wives, sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters in the assembly of God's people. And certainly, Lord, that we might be better ambassadors for Christ in this world. Father, if somehow, some way tonight, we've been encouraged to come in to the washroom and spend a little time that our hands might be clean, that we might serve thee. better than we did today. Then, our Father, it's been worth it all, and we give thee our praise in Jesus' name. Amen.