Gooding, David: 2 - The Laver: Cleansing by Water

Thank you, good sir, for your very warm words of welcome. And on my own behalf, you are very welcome to this second session of our lectures on the Old Testament tabernacle. Now, in our first session, we observed that when God ordered Moses to make him a dwelling place amongst his people, God mapped out the road by which his people could come and approach him. So let's look again, just to remind ourselves, of the basic plan of the tabernacle. You will see it up there on the screen. Or as I point to it now, the road of approach to God was marked out by certain sacred vessels that marked that road of approach in towards the presence of God. There was, first of all, this very large altar, called the bronze altar, at which sacrifices were offered and the blood of animals shed, that God might forgive his people. For the testimony of the Old Testament is this, that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. And I have given you, says God, of the great ceremonies on the Day of Atonement, I've given it to you to make an atonement, for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul by reason of the life that is thereby laid. Then in the second place comes this bronze laver that was filled with water. And if we follow the road right in, we come s- thirdly to the golden altar of incense that stood immediately in front of the veil, and thus immediately in front of the throne of God. There were two other vessels here in this first compartment, the one on the right hand being the table of the bread of presence, and the one on the left hand being the golden lampstand. But as far as the road in towards the presence of God is concerned, these are standing on each side. The main road is first that altar, then the laver, then the golden altar of incense, and behind the veil is the symbolic throne of God, the ark with its so-called mercy seat, its propitiatory of solid gold, a slab of solid gold laid on top of the chest that formed God's ark, and from the sides of the propitiatory, the cherubim with their wings outstretched. So we noticed again in our first session that these two vessels in the court had something in common. They both provided cleansing. The altar provided cleansing by blood. The laver provided cleansing by water. And in our first session, we noticed, therefore, the significance of that cleansing by blood, for it pointed forward. In the words of scripture, these were shadows of the good things to come. That is, they were shadows of the glorious blessings that would come with the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. So these animal sacrifices were but, uh, symbols pointing forward to the great reality that was the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary. You say, why did God go to that trouble? Well, when I was a child, my parents gave us, and I had five brothers and sisters, my parents gave us a toy shop, you see. It kept us quiet, perhaps their hope was, of a wet Saturday afternoon. And it was a shop that sold sweets, you see. Of course, the girls were in charge of the shop, how not? And, uh, they dispensed the sweets. Then we were given money. Toy money it was, it wasn't real money. So we had to come to the girls and order the sweets and pay the toy money, do you see? Well, even when I was an infant, I, I knew the sweets weren't genuine, they tasted horrible if you try to eat them. And I knew the money wasn't real money. But you see, my parents were a little bit crafty, weren't they? They were teaching these infants right from the earliest time onwards that even sweets cost money. Which served us in good stead when we grew up a little bit further and we had to deal with real sweets and real money. And God, in his mercy to the people of Israel in their spiritual infancy, you'll excuse the phrase, won't you? He taught them the cost of sin. The shedding of the blood of animals. If you'll excuse the term once more, was toy money. It was impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should put away sin. Poor dears, the animals know nothing of a bad conscience. It's we human beings who sometimes go to bed with a bad conscience. That is the glory of being human, and the burden. And God was teaching his people in the days of their spiritual infancy the cost of sin, and in parable how the cost might be paid for. It was fulfilled, of course, in the coming of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, who with his assembled apostles around him chose to be remembered for all time in the form of bread and wine. And of the wine, he said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for many. Thus do we remember our Lord primarily as the one who gave his body and his blood for the forgiveness of our sins. But tonight we come to the laver, and it provided cleansing by water. And we can ask ourselves, therefore, at the beginning of our study, why did there have to be two types of cleansing? Cleansing by blood and cleansing by water. Our immediate next step, of course, is to ask ourselves whether the Christian gospel offers us two kinds of cleansing. Does it speak of cleansing by blood and then of cleansing by water? And the answer, of course, is yes, it does indeed. I can cite you the verse if you care to mark it, the reference at least. Hebrews epistle and chapter nine. Beginning there to read from verse eleven. Hebrews nine and verse eleven. But Christ, having come a high priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling them that have been defiled, sanctify unto the cleanness of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And we notice at once how in the language of the New Testament, the blood of Christ is said to cleanse our conscience. That is its function. Because when we human beings sin, our conscience, if it is still working, sometimes the conscience doesn't work, does it? I have an alarm clock, and very often it goes off too early in the morning. I reach out my hand and s- push it. That stops it. But if you do it too often, it no longer functions. And if we try to suppress our consciences, then the danger is they will stop to function. But where the conscience still functions, when we sin against God, our conscience registers guilt. How can we remove it? Not by pretending that sin does not matter. God has a provision for cleansing our conscience from guilt, and that is the precious blood of Christ. That works simply in this fashion. When we sin and our conscience registers guilt, we realize that if that guilt is not somehow cleared, we must wa- one day face the penalty of the sin that has incurred that guilt. And that can worry us. The blood of Christ cleanses the conscience from guilt, because when we understand it, Christ died for our sins according to the scripture. He bore the guilt of our sin as though it were his own. He was made sin for us, says the New Testament. And the penalty having been paid. For those who trust Christ, there is no more penalty to pay. Oh, thank God for the wonder of it. And there is, to put it in New Testament language, there is therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. So then, we have, through the blood of Christ, cleansing of the conscience from guilt. Why then do we need any further cleansing? The cleansing by water that the New Testament speaks of is to be found, for instance, in the Epistle to the Ephesians and chapter five. Epistle to the Ephesians and chapter five, beginning halfway through verse 25. Paul is in process of urging Christian husbands to love their wives, and the standard he holds up to them is the standard of Christ's love for the church. Even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed it 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 it should be holy and without blemish. So here we have it explicitly said, there is for us God's provision of cleansing by water. But this time it is not for cleansing our conscience from the guilt of sin. It is for cleansing our personalities from what the Bible here calls spots and wrinkles and all such things. Which I want to suggest are defects in our personalities and characters. There's a difference between guilt and wrinkles and carbuncles, is there not? You'll see, here's a good man, and he's just bought a new car, so he now has two cars. And he goes to work in the old one, being a gentleman, and his wife is given the new one, you'll see. And she goes downtown, um, and you know what cars are, have a mind of their own, and it bashes into some other car and bumps the side of the car very badly. So she comes home and cooks him a very good dinner. And then when she, uh, thinks the time is right, she spills the beans. She said, you know, I, I, I, I, I, I was downtown this afternoon. You were? Yes. And I saw my friend, uh, you see, Phyllis, and while I was talking to her, the stationary car in front reversed somehow, or or or somehow it happened, and it hit the side of our new car. And the husband says, you, you're not telling me, have you, you'll bash up the new car? And at first he's irate. Oh, but he sees the tears are coming, and in his mercy he relents, you see, and says, never mind, you weren't hurt, were you, my dear? No? Well, no, it's only a bit of iron, and well, I- I'll pay the bill, yes. What a nice chap he is. He- he forgives her the guilt of having, uh, bashed the car up. But some later, some months later, he's at breakfast and reading the paper, of course, but happens to look over the top of it and sees his wife. He says, my dear, what is that on your cheek? It looks to me inflamed somewhat. Is that a nasty carbuncle or something? Quite spoils your beauty, says he. Then what does he say? Well, never mind, I forgive you. Well, of course not. You don't forgive carbuncles. What does he do then? Well, he says, I must get you to a consultant forthwith to remove this unsightly blotch upon your beautiful face. Yes? Two different things. He forgives the guilt of having bashed the car up. Doesn't forgive the wrinkle and the carbuncle. But in his love and devotion, of course, he seeks to get the medical advice that will remove these blotches and blemishes. There are two sides to our salvation, aren't there? There's the blood of Christ that removes the guilt from our hearts, our consciences. There are these other things. And we don't need necessarily to look in a mirror to see them. These blots and wrinkles and blemishes, defects in our personalities and characters. Too selfish, too critical, liable to lose my temper all too quickly, without compassion, without fellow feeling, enjoying a bit of gossip. All those unpleasant and sometimes ugly things that stem out of our imperfect personalities and characters, blots and blemishes. As people will say, well, he's a very nice man, but ah, yes, but. Does it matter? If the guilt of our sin has been put away, and we're guaranteed that there's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, do these defects in our personalities and character matter? Well, of course they do. And we are told in these heart-moving verses that Christ, in his sheer love for his bride, that is the church of Christian people, gives himself in his love for the cleansing away of these spots and blemishes and wrinkles, so that eventually he may present the church to himself, an all glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. So now, what has the washing by water got to do with it? Let's do a little research, and first of all, read the Old Testament scriptures about that laver, and see what its position was and what its use was. So in Exodus chapter forty verses six and seven, we are told where the laver was placed in the ancient tabernacle. This is Exodus chapter forty and verses six and seven. And thou shalt set the altar of burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, and thou shalt set the laver between the tent of meeting and the altar. It is there, as you see in the model and in the basic plan. It stood between the door and the altar. That will become important when we now think of its usages. Go back in Exodus, if you will, to chapter twenty nine And verse four. This is the instructions for the induction of the priests. Exodus twenty nine and verse four. And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tent of meeting and shalt wash them with water. That is to bathe them all over. Why at that position? Because that's where the laver with its water stood. It had its use, therefore, for the bathing all over of the priests at their induction. We may call that the once and for all bathing in water. Then let's go to chapter thirty, verses seventeen to twenty one. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Thou shalt also make a laver of copper, of of bronze, and the base of it of bronze, to wash withal. Thou shalt put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein. And Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat. When they go into the tent of meeting, they shall wash with water that they die not. Or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn an offering made by fire unto the Lord, so they shall wash their hands and their feet that they die not, and it shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations. So now we have noticed two things about that laver and its water. For the priests, there was a once for all bathing all over, washing all over at the laver on the occasion of their induction. That never needed to be repeated ceremonially. But over against that once and for all bathing, there was a constant rinsing of hands and feet whenever they drew near to minister to the Lord, or whenever they came to the altar to offer sacrifice to the Lord. Hands and feet, therefore, had to be rinsed, washed. But that too was a shadow of the good things to come, wasn't it? For I'm now going to quote you directly from the New Testament and from a lesson that our Lord Jesus taught his apostles in the upper room, just before he went to die for them on the cross at Calvary. And for that purpose, I read at some length from the Gospel by John and chapter thirteen. The Gospel by John and chapter uh thirteen. m Verse three. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he came forth from God and goeth unto God, rises from supper, and laid aside his garment, and took a towel and girded himself. Then he pours water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel by which he was girded. So he cometh to Simon Peter. Peter says to him, Lord, do you wash my feet? Jesus answered and said to him, what I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt understand hereafter. Peter saith unto him, you will never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, if I don't wash you, you have no part with me. Simon Peter replies, Lord, then not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus says to him, he who has been bathed, that is bathed all over, needs not except to wash his feet, but is clean every bit of him. And you are clean, but not all, for he knew him that should betray him. Therefore he said, you are not all clean. And the thing that might immediately strike us as we've read that passage is that it recalls what happened at that labor. There was the once and for all bathing all over in water, followed thereafter by a constant rinsing of hands and feet in the water of that laver whenever they came to minister to God. And here is our Lord using the very same metaphor. He talks about a bathing that is all over, that needs not be repeated. But then he talks about a constant washing of the feet that does need to be repeated. So what does that all mean? You see, I'm grateful for Peter if you don't tell him when you get home to heaven that I said this, uh, do you see, but um, I'm grateful he made his mistakes, because I could very well have made the same mistakes myself if he hadn't gone and made them for me, you see. And when the Lord came to rinse his disciples' feet, Peter objected. Good old Peter. I could wish all the others had objected too. To think the Lord washing his feet? That was a job of a slave to do. You'll never wash my feet, says he. Said, oh Lord, if I don't wash you, you have no part with me. That sounds very solemn. We shall have to think what it means in a moment. Then Peter, being Peter, he could never do things by halves, could he? He went to the other extreme. Well, Lord, if that's so, well, not just my feet, my all over, you see. Good old Peter. Like his enthusiasm, you know. How could you not be enthusiasm, uh, enthusiastic in the presence of Christ and in the presence of his great salvation? It is a marvel, is it not? So Peter says, well then, hmm, not my hands and my feet merely, or my feet merely, but all over. Come, come, our Lord said, slow down, Peter. He who has been bathed all over doesn't need except to rinse his feet, but is clean every wit. The commentators of the Bible help us here. You'll see, they point out the customs, eh, eh, that were in those times. If a rich man down the street had invited you to evening dinner, of course you had a bath before you went, you see, not to offend either him or the fellow guests. Then having bathed and put your decent suit on, then you walk down the street to the rich man's house, do you see? And in the course of walking in your sandals down the sandy path, the old sand would collect around your feet and irritate your toes. When, therefore, you arrived at the door of the rich man's house, you would find a slave there. And his task, appointed by the master, was to rinse your feet. Not to bathe you all over again, but to rinse your feet. It is that kind of metaphor that our Lord is talking about, and pointing to this wonderful fact. This washing of the water, by the water, it has two functions in a believer's life. There is the washing, the bathing all over that never needs to be repeated. Then there is the constant rinsing, washing of the feet that needs to be constantly repeated. And perhaps you're saying we wish our lecture would talk in plain, straightforward language. What on earth is this bathing all over that never needs to be repeated? Well, I'm going to cite you an actual case, and it is the case of Paul the Apostle and his writing to Titus, and he's telling Titus what happened when he got converted. Titus was working in Crete. He and Paul had both evangelized in Crete. Now Paul had left Titus behind to appoint elders in each of the churches they had founded. But the dear Christians in Crete at that time were difficult characters, you know. One of their own number, a poet of their own, had said, according to chapter one of Titus, that Cretans are always liars. They promise to take a Sunday school class for you, promise most faithfully, and then not turn up. How do you run a church like that? Always liars. Evil beasts. They tear your character to pieces by their gossip. What else were they? Gluttonous, evil bellied, says the authorized version. That is, they took everything they could get and gave nothing. Difficult characters, weren't they? I hasten to add that Christians in Crete nowadays are not like that, or not all like that. I had some very dear friends in Crete, and they were marvelous believers. But this was first generation, converted from paganism. What about these defects in their characters? And what practical provision has God m- has God made for dealing with these personality defects, both in the Cretans and, of course, in us. Let's read from chapter three, where Paul says to Titus, put them in mind to be in subjection to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready unto every good work, to speak evil of no man, not to be contentious, to be gentle, showing all meekness toward all men. You might think that's a tall order for Cretans. Wow. I met a gentleman when I was in Crete, up in the mountains. His wife had got converted. And in those days, Cret- Cretan gentlemen wore a kind of, a funny kind of a trousers, the seat of which ba- uh, no, hung down to the ground almost. I, I can't explain the tailor, uh, style, but they had a big sash round their middle, and in the middle was a machera, a dagger, of course, and they knew how to use it. When his wife got converted, he vowed to kill her. Mercifully, he was taken ill before he got the chance. Was taken down to Heracleion, and the believers there visited him in, in, in the hospital and were kind to him. He subsequently came to faith in Christ, and I saw him now tamed and in his right mind. How did it happen? What is God's answer then? Well, Paul says in verse three to Titus, for we also ourselves were in days gone by foolish, disobedient, deceived, having serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. Paul is telling Titus, don't act as if you were superior, Titus. We preachers ourselves had our defects. What did God do with them? Here's Paul talking still. But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward man appeared, not by works done in righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy he saved us through... You say, surely through the blood of Christ. It doesn't say so here. Because Paul is not dealing with the guilt of sin. He's dealing with personality defects. He saved us. Now let us listen particularly well. But according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Oh, God be thanked. God has made provision not merely for the cleansing of the guilt by the blood of Christ. He's made provision for the dealing with our personality defects. How? And this is something to praise God for. Not by saying, now look, you're saved now, you're forgiven, and you're right ready for heaven. Now try your hardest to improve. No, no. He saved us, says Paul, not by works done in righteousness which we did ourselves. He saved us through his mercy by the washing of regeneration. New life. Nothing short of it. That once and for all washing performed by the Holy Spirit. That wonderful renewal. Saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us. Notice the metaphor. He poured out upon us. This is the great work of regeneration performed for a repentant believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. The bestowal of God's Holy Spirit, the work of regeneration. I'm not preaching you anything new, I trust, nor subversive. For you will all remember what our Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, now will you not? Our Lord said to Nicodemus, unless a wa- a person is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus didn't understand it. How can a man, when he's old, enter his mother's womb again and be born? Didn't make sense to him. Are you the teacher in Israel, the rabbi concerned with teaching Israel, and you don't know these things? Said to man, be born of water and the spirit. How should Nicodemus have known about that? Well, he was a rabbi, of course, and knew his Old Testament like the back of his hand. Then why hadn't he taken notice of those great chapters in Ezekiel where God prophesies the restoration of the nation of Israel? And he likens them to bones of men and women that have long since dead, cast out on the earth. How should they be revived? And the first thing is, according to that prophecy, that God was going to sprinkle water upon them, to cleanse them. Now, obviously, that is a metaphor, isn't it? It's nothing to do with Christian baptism. God was going to sprinkle water, metaphorically, on these hosts of dead bones and clean them. But that still left them dead. There was something more to be done, not just clean- cleansing them. Then the prophet is told to prophesy to the wind, to the spirit, to the ruach, which in Hebrew can mean a wind or the spirit of God. For it's not enough to cleanse dead, unclean bones. They need new life. And God summoned the Holy Spirit to come and give these dead people new life. That is the wonder of the miracle of the gospel. Cleansed from the guilt of sin by the blood of Christ, but not now you do your hardest to live a holy life. Not that to start with, at any rate. But this, the wonderful gift of God, being born again, regenerated by water and the spirit. Nicodemus should have known it, for that's what God said through Ezekiel. Now he's being taught it face to face with our Lord. Marvelous, isn't it? Let's lose an illustration. Here is me. I've got a dear friend, and unfortunately he's died. Died some years ago, but I, I, I, I, I've read about him, and I value him, and I think I'd like to see him living again. So I get permission and I dig out and exhume his bones. Poor chap, just bones, and they're all mixed up with the dirt in which he was buried, and a few old worms have got at him. Mm-hmm. I say he shouldn't look like that. I'll, I'll wash him, clean these old bones, you'll see. So I wash the bones. Difficult job when the s- when the person is half, you know, disintegrated. Is that enough? No, of course not. You want new life. I can tell you how to get it. Take an acorn, leave him down there, take an acorn and put it in his grave. And then it grows up, out of the very grave itself. New life! Where there was nothing but death before. A clumsy parable, that, of what Christ does for us. By his spirit, he brings us to see the uncleanness of our sins and our ways, and brings us to repentance over it. But thank God he doesn't leave us there. The wonder is that Christ gives us his Holy Spirit to produce new life within us. Life of the children of God. That is a once and for all experience. And thousands of preachers have preached on it. So you won't mind me, will you, i- if I spend a half a minute preaching my- myself. Have we been regenerated, born again, and received the Spirit of God. Have we that new life of which the Savior spoke. Like forgiveness of sins, it is a free gift. And everyone who repents and trusts the Savior, whether he or she knows it or not, in them God begins to plant the new life that they have in Christ. Glorious, isn't it? And it never needs to be repeated. This is the bathing all over. But then our Lord, in applying his parable, distinguished, did he not, for Peter and the rest, between the bathing all over that needs not to be repeated, and then the rinsing, the washing of the feet. So when Peter eventually, in his enthusiasm, said, Lord, not my feet only, but my hands and my head and all over, our Lord gently corrected his excess of enthusiasm. You don't need Peter, because now you are clean, because of the word I have spoken to you. And that, incidentally, is how we get God's Holy Spirit in the first place, is it not? We are born again by the incorruptible seed of the word of God, who lives and abides forever. But then our Lord insisted that in addition to the once and for all bathing that needs not to be repeated, that Peter, like the rest of us, would need the constant washing of his feet. Because, as the preachers put it, as we walk this world and can't avoid having contact with it. Sometimes our minds and then our actions become dirtied. And as believers, we need to let the Lord do his work with us, to wash away the unpleasant, unclean things, the wrinkles, the carbuncles, the pimples, and all the other weaknesses in our personalities. That is a long time business, that is. We shall still need it until we get home to glory. But it's a something that our Lord, in his sheer devotion to us, has promised to do. He loves the church, you see, and gave himself for her, that he might cleanse her by the washing of water through the word, that eventually he might present the church to himself, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. What a marvelous prospect it is. Do let your mind dwell on it. One of these days, the Savior, in all his rightful glory, and I nearly said pride, shall present the redeemed to his father with exceeding joy. I wonder whether the father will say to him, and where did you get this bunch of people from? I can almost hear him saying, I got them from a place called Ocram. And the vast multitude of the redeemed won't know where Ocram was or is. Never mind. Part of the bride that Christ shall present to the Father without any spot or wrinkle or any such thing. The constant rinsing, the washing of the feet, therefore. Why is it important? Well, as our Lord observed to Peter, if I don't wash your feet, Peter, you have no part. Now notice exactly the preposition he now uses. He doesn't say you have no part in me. He says he, you have no part with me. With him in what? In his work of evangelizing the redeemed. Here's me. And you know what? The young chaps, I'm tempted sometimes to call them louts, do you see? And they will play football across the road. And standing up against my laurel hedge that I have tended with great care over the years, they kick footballs. And the man that's supposed to be in goal doesn't catch the ball, and he goes right through my hedge and breaks the whole thing down. And I boil inside. And in that moment, uh, suppose I saw their parents coming. And perhaps I say to them, now look here, I'm tired of these brats of yours destroying my hedge. And I carry on like that. And just as they're going away and discussing, oh, and I've forgotten, we've got some special gospel meetings on a- a- at our place. Would you like to come to our gospel meetings? What do you suppose they would say? And if as a businessman I've done a sharp deal with them, how can I then sincerely invite them to hear the gospel? Will they even come? If you don't let me begin to cope, says Christ, with those defects, then you will not have part with me in my work of seeking the lost and tending the redeemed, or it will be limited. This then is what is at stake. To sum up then, these two vessels in the court, the first two vessels on the road into the presence of God, both offer cleansing. The altar cleansing by blood, a foreshadowing of the blood of Christ, which cleanses from the guilt of sin. The laver standing for, first of all, the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. And when b- when we are born again, and our bodies, if you like it, bathed with pure water, with a bathing that never needs to be repeated. And then the constant use of his word by his gracious spirit in our lives, as we take Christ seriously and seek to face our particular difficulties of behavior and character and personality, and seek his grace, not necessarily for some lightning cure overnight, but in the process of developing godly self-control. And thus, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, losing some of our wrinkles and spots and blemishes. Lest you should think I have made all this up, I now want to read to you in self-defense more than anything else, but then I think you will, you will accept the authority of what I'm about to read to you now. And this is Hebrews chapter ten, And I shall read from verse nineteen onwards. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us a new and 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, as you see from the verb sprinkle, sprinkled by the blood of Christ. Nowhere in the New Testament does it speak about our bodies being bathed in the blood of Christ. Our clothes sometimes are said to be washed in the blood of Christ, but not our persons. Here is the word to be used. Uh, do you see our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, that is by the blood of Christ, and our body. Pray, notice this next bit. Washed. Bathed all over. The same word as our Lord used in John thirteen. Our uh bo- our body washed with pure water. The direct cleansing and regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. This is no new doctrine, is it? We have an ancient hymn that runs like this. Let the water and the blood from thy risen side which flowed be of sin the double cure. Cleanse me from its guilt, that is by the blood of Christ. Cleanse me from its guilt and power, that is by God's Holy Spirit. My time is gone. Can't resist telling you a secret. Well, it's not so much of a secret, you see? And I speak of a something that goes quite beyond me. That laver was made of bronze. And you say, where did Moses get the bronze from to make it? The book of Exodus tells us he made it from the mirrors of the women who served at the tabernacle. Mm. Marvelous women. Not, uh, I can speak from experience, but mirrors were very important to ladies in those days. They didn't have glass mirrors, of course they didn't. They had made of bronze and beaten as best they could, and they were inclined to distort the face, you see, somewhat. But the dear ladies put up with that, you see, because, well, the use of mirrors is important, as it is to gentlemen too, particularly when they shave. And mirrors were expensive. And they surrendered this means of bodily beauty for spiritual sanctification. That's not to say that Christian women or Christian men should look frumpy. But God help us to get our proportions in life well balanced. In view of the Savior's earnest expectation to present us without blemish, spot or wrinkle, with exceeding joy before the Father. Let us see life in its true proportions, and put the greatest emphasis on our progress in spiritual holiness. Shall we pray? Blessed Lord Jesus, we have spent long tonight listening to thy word and have seen thee coming forth to minister to us, even as thou didst to thy apostles long ago. We thank thee, Lord, for the glorious expectation. Thou will present us to the Father one of these days. Help us to cooperate with thee now, we do beseech thee, that we may perfect holiness in the fear of God. So dismiss us now with thy blessing, we pray, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.