Gooding, David: 2 - The Laver

Well, once more, a very hearty welcome to this second of our lectures. The model that you see before you, ladies and gentlemen, is an attempt to reconstruct most of the details of an ancient temple that was built by Moses and the Israelites somewhere about thirteen hundred or perhaps a little more BC. Sometimes, critical scholars have suggested that the account we have of this, uh, tabernacle building in the Old Testament is a little bit of religious fantasy. The argument used to go that a building built like that, where the, uh, sides are made of wood and the curtains, the coverings are made of various curtains and then outward, uh, uh, scales, a seal skin. The argument used to go that such a building would not be practical. Uh, give a rainstorm or a sandstorm, as occasionally occurs in the Sinai Peninsula, where this thing was in use, and they say the, uh, weight of the water on the roof and the sand would collapse the whole thing in next to no time. And then they point to the fa- what to them seemed the excessive use of gold inside, uh, that, uh, building. And they thought this too came from the world of legend and fairy story. But, uh, further research brought to light, of course, that a thousand years or more before this, uh, tabernacle was built, the pharaohs of Egypt had royal pavilions, uh, for His Royal Majesty's use. They were made in, uh, a way very similar to what this was made. They had, uh, wooden sides, wooden poles, and then they had curtains of various kinds hung over the roof, and inside there was furniture. And of course, if the biblical, uh, record be true, then Moses, who was responsible for having the building built, had himself been brought up in the Egyptian palace and knew well the custom of buildings in those parts. And as for the apparent excess of gold, you can't see it tonight, incidentally, because most of it's inside, but once more, let me renew the invitation after the lecture to come up and examine the insides and to see them at close quarters. The, uh, use of gold inside is everywhere abundant, and, uh, this too was made a, a, a basis of questioning the historicity of the whole thing. But as Professor Millard of Liverpool, uh, has pointed out and collected the evidence, gold was far more common at that period in ancient history than you might imagine, and certainly more common than it is now. And throughout the civilizations of the Near East, it was plentifully used. We may rest assured, therefore, that the tabernacle, the original building, was an historical building. Let me now mention its main f- uh, its two main functions in history. The one function, of course, was that it provided for the Israelites a center to which they might come and worship God, and where God might communicate with his people, both his laws and his character, and what was the way of approach to him? In addition, as we saw last night in our lecture, the ancient tabernacle and all its rituals were deliberately designed by God to be, so to speak, a picture in advance, a parable, if you like, a foreshadowing of what God's son, the Messiah, would be like and what he would do for mankind and for the whole world when he came into our world. It perhaps has occurred to you, if you have thought of these things seriously, that if the Christian claim is true, and Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of the Creator of the universe, then it would perhaps be unlikely that God would have sent his son into the world simply out of the blue, as we say, without any forewarning, without any preparation, suddenly sending him into the midst of history. Most unlikely, in fact, it was not what happened. Because of the measureless significance of the entry of God's Son into our u- our world. Then God spent centuries, according to the Old Testament, preparing s- preparing people's minds, giving them concepts so that they might the more readily grasp what the Messiah Jesus Christ was about, and what work he would do, and what benefits bring for us human beings. In our studies, therefore, this week, we shall be combining both of those functions. What this tabernacle meant for the people of Israel these three thousand years ago, what they learned about God and the way by which human beings may come and approach God and find him. But at the same time, we shall learn lessons from that also that will be of profound significance for our understanding of Christ and of the New Testament. Because when the New Testament talks of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and describes the salvation that he has for us. It very often uses, metaphorically now, the language, uh, of this ancient tabernacle. So last night we acquainted ourselves with the ground plan of this building and its court. Just let's look at it again. There it is, you'll see. It was a smallish building, about fifteen feet high, fifteen feet across, and about forty five feet i- in length. It was a portable building, for it was made for the use of Israelites as they were moving slowly through the, uh, wilderness of Sinai from Egypt to their promised inheritance in Palestine. It was in a court that guarded the sanctity of the precincts of the building. And then, as you came through the gate, which was at the east end of the building, you met the first of a number of pieces of furniture that marked the roadway in from the outside into the holy presence of God. The first of those was the big altar, which was used for the offering of sacrifices, gifts to God, and sacrifices for sin. If we move further directly towards the tabernacle, the next piece of furniture was the so-called laver. It was a vessel filled with water and was there for the cleansing of the priests as they entered their ritual duties. Then there came, as you see in the model and here, hanging upon five pillars, what is technically called the door to distinguish it from the gate. This is the east end. This is the door into the tabernacle. It was a beautiful curtain of linen with the colors blue, purple, and scarlet in woven into it. Enter that door and come straight on the road, leaving aside the two pieces of furniture on left and right, and coming aside and going straight, coming, leaving them aside and coming straight on, you'll come to a small altar, not to be confused with the big one outside. This was a small altar made of wood overlaid with gold, and its function was not to have sacrifices offered thereon, but to offer incense at it, and frequently at the hour of prayer, when the priest officiated on behalf of the people and, uh, lifted up their prayers before God, he would stand at that altar and offer incense as he did so. After that altar was the second veil, hanging on four pillars, known generally as the veil because it was by far the more important of the two veils. That was the veil that hung between the first division of the building, called the Holy Place, and the second division, which was called the Most Holy Place or the Holy of Holies. Inside there was the Ark of God, and on it a slab of pure gold, called in many English translations the Mercy Seat, uh, more technically the Propitiatory, the place where propitiation was made, that covered the ark. Inside that ark primarily were the two tables of stone that contained God's written law. Ark and mercy seat, therefore, were the symbolic throne of God. Into that, uh, second division, the most holy of all, no one e- entered except on one occasion in the year, uh, the Day of Atonement, the Yom Kippur, uh, the high priest was allowed to enter there on that year, performing the necessary services. The Yom Kippur, incidentally, is still, uh, celebrated by, uh, believing j- uh, Jewry. It is this around this time of year. It is the Day of Atonement, their most solemn day in all the Jewish religious calendar. What we noticed, therefore, in our first lecture was those, uh, vessels that lie on the road in from the outside in towards the presence of God. And we observed the fact that they not only marked out the road into the presence of God, but they themselves, each one of them, contained a significant message. These, at each of these, if people stopped to think what they stood for, God was making known certain things about his own character. And at the same time, pointing out to the people the provision that he was making, that they, his creatures, spite of their sins, might come and find God and enjoy fellowship with him with a happy and clear conscience. So in our first lecture, we stood by the first piece of furniture, the great altar, called the altar of burnt offering, or sometimes the brazen altar, because it was made of wood overlaid with, with, uh, bronze. And we notice its special function, the offering there of the sacrifices for sin. It was, so to speak, the first thing that God spoke to people about as they drew near to his presence. For when each of us as individuals thinks about God and thinks about the possibility of getting to know God, then sooner or later the question arises, what about our sins? Indeed, for many people, God talk, as they call it, isn't always welcome, because God talk almost automatically raises questions of conscience, questions of sin. It was the message proclaimed by that altar that God must take sin seriously. He cannot just brush it under the carpet. He must judge sin, says the Bible. And some people think that that is a hangover from primitive s- a stage of religion. It's not so. And other people think that God must be a savage God if he is concerned to punish sin and all that, well, certainly he's holy. But then, of course, it is his love likewise that demand that sin be dealt with. You'll see, perhaps I live down your street or your road, and you've often observed how I drive dangerously. So as one of these days, I, a bit too much on me, you know, and I drive my car at undue speed down your road, and I knock over your daughter of thirteen years old and kill her. So what now? Well, I suspect the neighbors will come out and nearly lynch me. But after it's passed some while, then people will have forgotten it, won't they? And tend to, well, let's forget it. I must tell you that God will never forget it. If I don't repent of that sin, God will hold that sin against me for all eternity. Why's that, you say? Well, because God loves your daughter, that's why. And divine love will never agree to the notion that in the end, well, it didn't matter all that much what I did to your daughter. It is a sentimental, superficial notion about sin that says that we ought to forgive and forget it. God cannot just forget it. Penalty of sin, says God, must be paid, not out of vengeance, but to hold up God's sense of values. And that is number one function of God's holy retribution, to maintain values. Does it matter if through my carelessness and silly self-indulgence I kill your daughter? What is your daughter valued at? What does her life mean? And the love of God that loves her with an eternal love. We'll never say my sin doesn't, didn't matter. But then God's love has provided, so says the Old Testament, so the New. A way that the demands of his law, the standards of his value, can be upheld, and yet the sinner be pardoned. And in those ancient ceremonies that took place at that altar, the principle was laid down that God allowed them to bring a substitute for the sinner. They brought a lamb, maybe, laid their hands on its head, and solemnly in the presence of God, the lamb was slain and its blood shed. Not that the shedding of the blood of an animal did anything in itself. It was a symbol. The beginnings of God's lessons, what you might call toy money, if you like, by which God began to teach people the true value of things and of people, and the honor of his law that upholds his values. So that the penalty was transferred, so to speak, from the sinner to his substitute. And the sinner could be pardoned. We saw in our first lecture how the, what the New Testament comments upon that. It says that was but a, a, a shadow, a picture in advance of the coming reality. When God would rise up to cope with that colossal problem, that is the sin of this planet, and do so by providing the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. That is, God in the person of his Son, the God who declared the penalty, himself bearing it now, that the penalty be, uh, affected and exhibited the universe through, and yet the sinner that accepts God's substitute may be forgiven. Number one basic lesson, therefore, in that tabernacle, beneficial to the people of the time, but pointing forward to the great event in history, which was the incarnation and the cross of Christ. And we read together and rejoiced in our hearts with the marvelous guarantee of God's word, talking of the sacrifice of Christ, it says this man, Jesus, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down, the price paid, the penalty exacted. And because that sacrifice was infinite in its value and completed, God's promise runs like this. Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. So the contrary to much popular notion, they who avail themselves of this great sacrifice of Christ do not have to wait until they arrive the other side of death to know whether they have finally been con- forgiven or not. They can know it now. That sounds shocking to some, but it is the fact. We can know it now, in the here and now, that as far as the guilt of sin is concerned, then the whole thing has been settled in our behalf by what Christ did for us at Calvary. God is more loving than some people think. He doesn't propose to torture people throughout life with the uncertainty whether at last they will be forgiven or not. If they will come God's way and put their trust in Christ and the veil of his great substitutionary sacrifice, they can know it in the here and now. That is the glory of our Christian gospel, and be absolutely certain that there is now and never shall be any, there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Now, you know, when people hear that stated in sort of simplistic terms, as I have just stated it, sometimes it causes a problem, and they will say, but come now, if we can know that our sins are forgiven, as you say, and our account cleared before God, would not that mean that thereafter we should be free to live more or less as we please and ind- indulge ourselves and paint the town red or whatever, and according to you, we should still be forgiven? That can't possibly make sense, can it? Well, no, uh, uh, no, that is perfectly true. So that our next lesson tonight, in this tabernacle model, and then in the reality that is our salvation in Christ, will answer that problem. How it is that the forgiveness that God offers us in Christ does not lead to careless living and antinomianism. Only the answer that this will give might be a little different from what perhaps we are expecting. So now I shall have to work you hard. I'm sorry for that, but then I see how valiant you are, uh, how great are your powers of endurance. So we come to the second vessel there in the court, as you see it, this big, uh, laver, as it is called. It is in two parts, according to the directions. The vessel here, there was the laver, called like that because it was a vessel for washing at. It would be filled with water. Then the text talks about its foot, but nowhere does the tes- text describe what the size, shape, or so forth of the foot was. So people have to guess. We're not told, I suspect, because it wasn't of any particular importance. It was full of water, for at that, uh, uh, laver, the priests would draw water whenever they came to minister at the altar or inside the building. They would first wash their hands and feet by water from, with water taken from that laver. And there it is up there. As I said last night when I showed you the picture, the artist has taken considerable liberties, as you perceive to see, uh, by having the priest wash his dirty feet right there at the foot of the laver. It was unlikely to be so because in Jewish thought that would have defiled the water and the laver itself. The water would be taken from it and then used for the rinsing of the feet and the hands. It is doubtful whether there would have been any water, so to speak, in the foot of it. That then was its function. So that now we shall notice an interesting thing, uh, that the, uh, two vessels here in the court have a something in common, if you notice. Both of these vessels were for the purpose of cleansing. This vessel offered you cleansing by blood. This vessel offered you cleansing by water. And the question immediately arises, why you would have to have two kinds of cleansing. Why wouldn't one be enough? Well, there it was, that is the sheer fact historically, that in that ancient tabernacle, the cleansing was offered by first by blood and then by water. That serves to remind us that when the New Testament comes to talk of our salvation provided by Christ, it too talks of cleansing. Moreover, the New Testament talks of two kinds of cleansing. Let me go slowly, because sometimes people find this a little difficult to comprehend. Though they believe it, they haven't put the two things together sometimes. The New Testament talks of cleansing by blood. For you who like references, one John, first epistle by John, chapter one and verse seven. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus, his son cleanseth us from all sin. Here the New Testament talks specifically of cleansing by blood. Let me cite you now a reference, again in the New Testament, of cleansing by water. This is Paul's ep- letter, his epistle to the Ephesians, verse twenty five following. It begins with an exhortation to Christian husbands, love your wives, and proceeds, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water through the word, that he might present the church to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that they should be holy and without blemish. So here then, the New Testament talks of cleansing by water. Two types of cleansing so that ri- uh, Christians might, uh, be glad and rejoice in their wealth. Two types of cleansing. Cleansing by blood, cleansing by water. What does it mean? Well, first we should notice what the Bible says about cleansing by blood. It is a metaphor, of course, drawn from the practical usage of the ancient world. It doesn't mean that in some sense we are cleansed literally by the blood of Christ. When the scripture talks about cleansing through the blood of Christ, it talks about the cleansing of our conscience. Let me read you the passage, and you who collect references, this is Hebrews chapter nine. Hebrews chapter nine. And we read, first of all, verse thirteen. And here is a Jew, and he's writing to Jewish Christians. And he starts by referring to the customs of the ancient tabernacle, and says, if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling them that have been defiled, sanctify unto the cleanliness of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Here then, spelt out in simple terms, the blood of Christ cleanses our conscience. And you say, how does it do that? And, and, and why does our conscience need cleansing? Well, for this simple reason, that when we have sinned, if our conscience is working as it should, our conscience will register a sense of guilt. Of course, you can bash your conscience like I bash my alarm clock in the morning. I set it to go off when I ought to get up, and then the thing goes off strictly at that moment. Stupid thing, why can't it give me an extra quarter of an hour, do you see? And I reach out my hand so very often, I confess it to my shame, and bash it hard, disturbing my imperial slumbers, do you see? Aha. And you can bash your conscience like it too. Till it no longer works. I have no conscience about doing that, says somebody, and that being something obviously wrong. That's an alarming state to get into. For if I bash my alarm clock too many times, it will no longer go. And I shall slumber on the sloth of the wicked. When my conscience registers guilt, and how will it ever be cleansed? For the guilt it registers is a reaction, whether I know it or not, to the law of God written on my heart by my creator, and the law of God expressed in his word. And that law has its penalties attached. How can my conscience ever be cleansed? When scripture says the blood of Christ cleanses our conscience, it's a shorthand for saying that if I, in true repentance, have put my faith in Jesus Christ as my savior and my substitute, and I perceive that Christ bore my sin in his body, he was the sacrifice that suffered the penalty of God's holy law on my behalf and paid my debt, so that my debt now is cancelled, and I'm free, forgiven, justified, not by some effort of mine, but by the righteous sacrifice of Christ, and God can acquit me. And when I realize that, my conscience is at peace. As some hymn writer put it, peace, perfect peace. In this dark world of sin, the blood of Jesus whispers Whispers. peace Peace. within. Within. Reconciled to God. By the sacrifice of his son. That cleanses my conscience. Why then should I need any other cleansing? And the answer to that is that the water doesn't cleanse my conscience, so to speak. Let's look at what, uh, that passage was saying that we read in Ephesians chapter five. I'll read it again to you. Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that they should be holy and without blemish. Here, this is not a question of cleansing away guilt. It's a question of dealing with disfigurement. In the literal le- at the literal level, here is a dear lady, the loved wife, uh, of the devoted husband, and one day or other she has a pimple on her cheek or an abscess on her nose or something, which quite spoils her beauty. The husband doesn't find fault and condemn her and say, you'll have to pay the penalty for that. I didn't, uh, marry you for you to sprout pimples like that, Juicy. Take you to the law court. No, of course not. On the other hand, he wouldn't be content to see her constantly sprouting a pimple on the end of her nose, of course not either. But in his devoted care, would seek all the necessary medicaments to remove the offending blotch. And if the wrinkles came too soon, before sixty, he might even supply some vanishing cream, you see. Because out of his love, he'd want the dear lady to look as beautiful as ever she could be. That is the figure that God uses of Christ and the church, the church being not the building, but the people of God. And Christ loves as a man loves his, his bride. But Christ's love is realistic and realizes that all of us, however long we've been Christians, we carry our blots and our blemishes, don't we? Not of our faces, but of our characters and personalities, yes? And one man excuses himself and says, I have a short fuse. Well, we all find that out very soon, to see. And another is mean as mean could be. And the other seems as if incapable of always telling the truth. And the other is haughty, and the other is, uh, cowardly. And then come all those other sins. And their effect is to defile the person. Describing God's eternal heaven, the Bible puts it this way: Blessed are those that wash their robes, that they might have right to come to the tree of life and may enter into the gates of the city, for outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters and everyone that loveth and maketh a lie. You see, sin doesn't only incur a penalty, it defiles the sinner. We all know what we mean when we use the metaphor, don't we? We say, that was a dirty trick, that was. And hence the man who did it has defiled himself. We need not think here, concentrate on those obviously filthy sins and may regret our modern so-called freedom, where marriage and sex are desecrated in almost every program on the BBC. And the paucity of the sense of humor of many, uh, performers is indicated because the only thing that they can get a joke of is some form of sex perversion. That is filthy. That is defiling what is sacred. And it defiles the person's mind, as well as their persons. If I keep on telling lies, I am a lieful person. And my neighbors will come to see that I am not a man to be trusted. I'm like a s- what looks like a solid beam of wood, but when you go to rest yourself on it, you find it's corrupt inside and collapses in sawdust at your feet. It's been eaten through. Sin defiles the person, and it distorts the character. And frankly, you know, if God could only grant us forgiveness of the guilt of sin, but had no way of dealing with the defilement of sin, we should be in a sorry state, shouldn't we? This is where then the significance of this second piece of furniture lies. If the altar provided cleansing by blood from the guilt of sin, this provided cleansing by water from defilement. Of course, in those far off days, it was literal water, and if the priests were going to officiate acceptably to God inside that holy shrine, then their hands better be clean, do you see? I mean, physically clean. They must attend to hygiene. But it was more than that, wasn't it? It was a symbol of the need for inner cleanliness, moral and spiritual cleanliness. You parents will have observed it in the teaching of your children, won't you? How would you ever begin to teach a child that certain deeds are morally dirty, filthy, unclean, if you didn't, first of all, teach it literal water, how the little hands have been all muddy in playing in the garden and squeezing worms and snails and things, and a- a- they must wash their hands and make their hands clean. You start with that kind of lesson, don't you? As they grow older in life, they'll find out there's more than hands get dirty. Characters are, are persons. We talk of a murderer having, a murderer as having blood on his hands. Yes. What has God to say about this then? Well, let us not be Pharisees and suppose that we are perfectly clean and all others defiled. What does God say about this kind of defilement? The laver was there to, um, uh, provide cleansing. It points us once more, as do all things in this ancient tabernacle, to what Christ himself would do and offer us over this very practical question, our cleansing. To explain it adequately in the short time available to me, let me just remark that when we come to the New Testament and the cleansing that God offers for our characters and our personalities, that cleansing comes in two stages. There is a first cleansing that our blessed Lord referred to as a bathing all over, once and for all, that never needs to be repeated. And then there is a constant rinse- rinsing of the feet. Our Lord here using still the ancient metaphors. What then is this first cleansing, this radical cleansing? I suppose the classic place, the text in the New Testament is that of our Lord's conversation with the Jewish rabbi, Nicodemus. Learned rabbi, with years of study behind him, knowing his Old Testament backwards and forwards and inside out, came to see this, what to him was a popular preacher, came by night. And our Lord suddenly turned on him and said, Nicodemus, let me tell you this. Unless a man is born from above, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Then, to emphasize it added, except someone is born of water and the spirit, he cannot see, let alone enter the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus, rabbi though he was, professed himself absolutely nonplussed. It didn't make sense. It doesn't make sense for a lot of people still. What was Christ talking about? Couldn't be talking about physical birth. He had enough sense to see that. Well, then what was this being born from above and born of water and of the spirit. Well, the learned rabbi ought to have known, because he should have known his prophets. In the prophecy by Ezekiel, chapter thirty six, the prophet was given by God to prophesy of Israel's eventual spiritual and national restoration. And of that, God said through the prophet that he would sprinkle water on his nation, and they should be clean. And then he would put his spirit in their hearts. Two things, water and spirit. Water to cleanse away their defilement. Spirit to produce new life. That was God's recipe in the Old Testament, and it is at once obvious, ladies and gentlemen, isn't it? When God said that one day he would sprinkle the whole nation of Israel with water and they should be clean, he wasn't talking about any kind of ritual water. It is a pity, ladies and gentlemen, when people take symbols and then come to look at them as though they were realities. It happened to the Jewish people. They had all sorts of ritual regulations about washing and were diligent to ba- to keep them. So much that on one occasion they criticized our Lord's disciples for not washing before they ate. And they weren't complaining about their lack of hygiene, they were complaining because they had broken the rules about ritual cleansing. And our Lord's reply was this, oh gentlemen, you're not adult enough to see this, that it's not that that goes into a man that defiles him, spiritually, that is, morally. It's that which comes out of the heart of man that defiles him. Evil thoughts, concupiscence, lust, hatred, anger, jealousy, envy, and all that ugly brood. It's not the food going in that ceremonially defiles you. It's the thing that, things that come in our hearts and coming out in expression in our behavior that defile us. And it stands to reason, doesn't it, that water, however holy, couldn't possibly reach that source of defilement. What then? Our Lord described it, as I s- as I said, by this double thing, born of water and the spirit, cleansing and new life. He added to Nicodemus, he said, you know, what is born of the flesh is flesh, what is born of spirit is spirit. Don't be surprised when I tell you you must be born from above. It is here that this cleansing becomes more radical than some people think. It's not a question of just doing our best to keep Christian standards. It's nothing less than a real new birth, at which point we receive a new life and a new energy. That is marvelously important. Suppose, ladies and gentlemen, you were faced with a corpse, and it was showing signs of now beginning to go corrupt, and you thought this wasn't nice for dear old Tom to be in this state, so you got out your scrub brush and scrubbed him. What use would it be? Dead. Perfume him how you like, he'll remain dead. But suppose when he was put in the grave, you planted an acorn in the grave with him. Out of that grave would come an oak tree eventually, a new life that never was there before. Have you got that? That's what Christ proposes to do with the person that trusts him. He gives them a new spiritual life that they didn't have before. The old thing is still there, but what's different now is they have a new life and a new power. That's God's realism, you know. He doesn't come as on the side of me and say, you nasty little-minded coward, you. Try and be better. That would be unrealistic. He says, my man, you need a radical revolution. You need a new beginning. You need a new life, and with it a new nature. And says Christ, I can give you, I can implant that new life. That is not to say that the person who trusts Christ is forthwith perfect, far from it. Just as the acorn will take time to grow into the oak tree, so this new life, being, so to speak, the life of a spiritual babe, will take time to grow. It is nonetheless real. This is salvation. Therein is the marvel of it. It brings a new life that is the life of God's spirit within. For failure to see it, you know, some disappointments occur. Some people think that to be Christian, they better observe what Christians do, and then do as many of those things as they can to the best of their ability. They have a go to try and live the Christian life. No use, really. The effort is good, but you don't become Christians in that sense by doing what Christians do. It's the other way around. You receive new life through Christ, and then you begin to do what Christians do. Peter the Apostles had to bring that home, do you see, to his contemporaries, for there were many of them that had made that mistake, thinking that you become Christians by doing what Christians do, without this inner change that is being born of God's spirit. So he used the old Greek fable. Do you remember it? In those far off days, people didn't have bathrooms in their houses unless they were millionaires. They had to go to the public baths, do you see. And uh, this uh pig, so it was, eh, been watching the local ladies go down to the bars, you know, and particularly how they came out. When they came out, they were stunning, poor. Flesh, beautiful, anointment, lips and all that, beautiful dress, earrings and things, and speaking like refined ladies. So the sow decided, why shouldn't it be a lady? If that's what you do to be a lady, it would do what they do, would do that. So it went down to the par- bars and paid the attendant the money and got itself scrubbed nice and pink with its curly tail, do you see, and then put on a dress and an uh and a jewel in its snout, and then came out, and it had noticed the ladies walking on hind legs, so it tried it going up the street, you see, very pleased with itself. It had become a lady so soon, and all went well, until it came across a pool of muddy water, and before you knew where you were, your would-be lady pig had dived into the water and was wallowing in it mud, glorious mud, you know. Why? Because it had been cleansed outside. There had been no change inside. And genuine Christianity is a salvation not by our effort at self-improvement. It is to come and let Christ work within us, this miracle of God's grace, the creation of a new life within. That is being born again. The great Christian Apostle Paul wrote at one stage to a junior colleague of his who had been left behind in Crete to strengthen and shepherd a Christian church there in Crete. And the Cretans, you know, were a difficult crowd. One of their own se- self said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies and liars. Raw material was very, very poor. How would you get those folks to behave? And Paul, to encourage his younger colleague Titus, he says in chapter three of Titus, well, remember Titus, my boy. You see, we also, says the apostle, we also in times past were foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, and hateful and hating one another. Now, you know, if you'd have come to Saul of Tarsus and said to him before he got converted, Saul of Tarsus, do you know what? You're living in hatred and envy and evil malice. That's you? Well, you'll have to watch out for your head. Might have decapitated you, like he had many Christians thus dealt with. Because when he was religious, he felt he was really something, he made such spectacular progress in moral development. When he met Christ, he began to see himself as he really was. As he grew in the grace of Christ and looked back upon his past, he now saw himself in a very different light. In the way God had always seen him. Then how did God save the man and turn him into the marvelous Christian apostle he was? He tells us here how it was done. When the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward men appeared, not by works done in righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. That marvelous miracle, that once and for all accomplishment that God effects by his Holy Spirit in the hearts of those that come repentantly and trust the Savior. The washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. That is a once and for all thing, but it has to be followed by another kind of washing, which was the lesson our Lord taught his disciples on the night before he suffered the cross. He said, now you must let me rinse your feet. The person that's been bathed all over, thereafter doesn't need to be bathed again. All he needs is to wash his feet. The idea is that somebody going to a marriage feast, for instance, would take a bath in the afternoon. But as they journeyed the little distance from their house to their guest's house, their feet would become gritted with sand. When they got to the door of their host's house, a slave would be there, not to bath them all over again, they didn't need that, but to rinse their feet that had become defiled by their journey through the sandy road. So believers, being born again of God's Holy Spirit, will never need that operation repeated. But as we walk through this world, our feet get defiled, so, so to speak. Tempers get frayed, don't they? Hurtful words are spoken. Sometimes temptations yielded to. And the believer is conscience, conscious stricken before the Lord. How can we be cleansed? The answer is, through scripture, that we come to God through his word and allow his holy word to show us ourselves, expose our wrong attitudes and our wrong actions, our wrong speakings, our wrong behavior. We seek the Lord's pardon, and we seek now the practical help of the Holy Spirit to face those weaknesses and overcome them and be delivered from them. So should our constant exercise be. A Sunday by Sunday we come, for instance, to celebrate the Lord's Supper. We're expected through God's word to judge ourselves and confess our sins and seek the grace of the Holy Spirit to overcome them. Cleansing through the water of the word, then. First of all, regeneration and new life, and then the constant cleansing. So our Lord taught. And so, as we conclude, let us notice a certain thing about the tabernacle here. The way into the holiest of all. Shall we have the pan up once more to see the way in? The ground pan. Tonight we have been stationed there by that second vessel, the laver. We've passed by the altar, we've come to the laver, now are ready to move on into and towards the presence of God. Cleansing by blood, then cleansing by water, to make us fit to enter and come near to the presence of God. Listen now as the New Testament sums up our lesson for us. It says as follows. That we, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us a new and a living way through the veil, that is to say his flesh. And having a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. That is sprinkled by the blood of Christ. Therefore cleansing our conscience and giving us peace with God. Our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience and our body bathed all over with pure water. Forgiveness and the new birth, the blood of Christ and regeneration, the washing by the Holy Spirit. These two things prepare us to come and meet God and enter his presence. There is a third thing, says the verse. We have a high priest over the house of God, and as we enter, he will take us by the hand, so to speak, to lead us into God's most holy presence. But as of his ministry as our great high priest, we must talk tomorrow. Cleansing by blood, cleansing by water. As our hymn reminded us, let the water and the blood from thy riven side which flowed be of sin the double cure. Cleanse me from its guilt, by the blood of Christ, of course, and from its power, by the regenerating work of God's spirit. Shall we just ask God's help to remember and then to understand his word? Let's pray. Our Father, we do praise thee for thy divine realism, so that thy salvation meets us in our real practical need. We bless thee for thy salvation that is true to its name. A great real work that thou dost do for us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, as we have sought to understand these things tonight and exercised our minds, we pray thy grace help us to recall and memory and remember what we have heard and to seek thy word that we might further understand it. But above all, seek to pursue these things until we can assure in our hearts that we have experienced this double cleansing through the blood of Christ from the guilt of our sins and the washing of regeneration by thy Holy Spirit. To this end, bless our study, we pray, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.