at the visitation Thursday evening
and those who were here for the service Friday. The Lord blessed
in our fellowship and blessed in the message and we continue
to pray for all of Carolee's family and we rejoice that she's
with Christ Jesus And we shall someday join her, and with all
the saints of God we will sing, worthy is the Lamb that was slain,
who has redeemed us unto God by His blood. And you continue
to pray for them. Let's ask God to bless again. This is such a serious few moments
for us as we seek to open this, the Word of Life, and as we endeavor
to get an understanding of the portion of Scripture that we
shall deal with this morning. Lord, show us our Lord Jesus
Christ and Him crucified, buried, risen, ascended, and exalted
for sinners. O God, gather us into the fold
of salvation. As so many of us in this building
and many who are watching can say by the witness of the Spirit
of God, We're His sheep. We're the sheep of the Lord's
pasture. He knew us. He chose us. He bought us. He called us so
that we heard His voice and we follow Him. And someday we shall
follow Him as our dear sister Carolee has just done, we shall
follow Him into the grave. And yet our souls shall go back,
Father, to be with You, even as was so of our Savior, of Carolee,
and of all of the people of God. We rejoice that You're so full
of love to Your children. And we ask now that You'd send
the Spirit of our Savior that he would go before the words
that I speak and make every heart prepared and ready to receive
the good seed of the word of God. Be pleased to speak to us
in power. Enable us to honor you, to make
our boast in you, to glorify your name for all that you are. And all that you have done, are
doing, and shall yet do for unworthy sinners like ourselves. For Jesus' sake we ask these
things, amen. We have been speaking about the
tabernacle in the wilderness, and last week we talked about
how that as soon as an Israelite drew near to the tabernacle,
to the outer court, when he pulled up the curtain, and entered into
that outer court, the very first piece of furniture he would encounter
or she would encounter was the brazen altar. This is where the
worship began. There can be no worship of God
apart from the shedding of the blood of an innocent victim in
the stead of the guilty. There just can't be any worship
apart from that sacrifice. This is the very basis of the
worship of God back then. That's the very basis of the
worship of God now. You've got to understand this.
There is no coming to God except through Christ and Him crucified. Because of the absolute holiness
of God and because of our defilement, God can only be drawn near to
by means of Christ and his sacrifice. The brazen altar was a busy,
busy place. It was the place of death. A
bloody, bloody spot it was. I gave you seven words to sum
up this brazen altar, and then I'm going to get to my subject
for this morning, which is the brazen laver, the very next piece
of furniture that you would encounter. Here's seven words that sum up
the significance of the brazen altar. First of all, the first
word is submission. If you would worship God, you've
got to be willing to submit in your heart to His way of salvation,
to His way of approach. Oh, God, make us willing. Make
us submissive to Your Word. It's not what you think about
things. It's not your opinion. Your opinion,
your thoughts, my opinion, my thoughts, they don't matter.
All that matters is God's Word. God give us grace to submit.
The first word is submission. The second word, sorrow. An Israelite
drawing near to the brazen altar did so because he was guilty
of sin. Guilt was the reason for the
existence of this brazen altar. I'm so sorry, Lord, for my sinfulness. and yet my sorrow will not put
any sin away. I do feel bad about my guilt,
don't you? I mourn my sinfulness, but that's
not gonna put my sin away. So therefore, there must be another
word, and that's the word sacrifice, submission, and then sorrow,
and then sacrifice. An offering to God of life, Life
forfeited. Life laid down. Life taken. Our Lord Jesus, He laid down
His life. He was the sacrifice for sin. Which leads me to the fourth
word, which is the altar, the brazen altar was the place of
substitution. An Israelite going to the brazen
altar was in effect saying, I deserve to die. Oh God, I'm guilty. I'm so full of sin. And I know
your word says the wages of sin is death. But Lord, I bring this
animal to you to die in my stead. And that's a picture of our Lord
Jesus, the Lamb of God, who died in the room, the stead, and in
the place for sinners. When the Israelite brought that
animal, he was saying, this animal will die for me, and I will live
because of its death. and because of the death of that
one of whom this animal is a picture. Our Lord Jesus. Yes, the altar,
the brazen altar was a picture of submission. Here we learn
submission. We learn and see sorrow. We see
sacrifice. We see substitution. And we see,
fifthly, satisfaction. The only way the law can be satisfied
with you and with me is for all of its demands to be satisfied. Death for sin. Christ died for
our sins according to the scriptures. That's what's pictured at the
brazen altar, satisfaction. Our Lord Jesus, innocent. He's
the sinless sacrifice. And He died. God's justice is
satisfied for all those in whose stead He laid down His life.
The sixth word, therefore, is salvation. Here is deliverance from the
curse of the law. Because without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission of sins. There's got to be salvation. In order for there to be salvation,
there has to be death. Deliverance from the curse of
the law. The seventh word I'll give you
to help you remember some vital things about the brazen labor
is the word symbolism. Here's a symbol. Here we have
an object lesson, and it is simply Christ crucified. And as you
in your mind's eye can picture a Jew bringing that animal to
a priest, the blood of the animal shed, its carcass lifted up upon
the brazen altar as it kicked and bleated, perhaps, if it was
a lamb, it would have. And therefore the priest tied
it to one of the four horns of the altar, maybe two of the four
horns. And then that fire, that fire
that leapt around that animal, consuming its carcass. We see the fire of God's wrath.
And we know that it fell upon our Lord Jesus, but it did not
consume Him. but rather He consumed the fire. And all of the wrath that all
of God's people would have suffered forever, our Lord Jesus, He fully
endured until He at last drank the cup of damnation dry. There is no condemnation, therefore,
to the people of God. Oh, there's so much to learn
from the brazen altar. But we must move on in our brief
tour of the tabernacle. And so the very next piece of
furniture directly in line with the brazen altar was the brazen
laver. Now here's something really interesting
about this. There's the brazen altar. Then
going in a very straight line. Next is the brazen laver. And
then you go through that first veil into the holy place, and
then you come to the altar of incense. That's what's in the
straight line. I know there's the table of showbread
over here, and there's a golden lamp stand over here, but I'm
talking about what's in the straight line. And this is significance,
and I thought about this this week. The brazen altar, that's
the place of sacrifice. The brazen laver, that's where
you're washed. And then you get to the altar
of incense. That picture is our Lord and
His mediatorial work. That is Christ, our mediator. Christ, our intercessor. And
then directly in line, though back of that veil that separated
the holy place and the holiest of all was the Ark of the Covenant
with God's law perfectly kept safe inside. And then on top
of that, the mercy seat. and that's called the propitiatory. That's the place of satisfaction
because that's where the high priest, that's where he had put
the blood of an animal when he went in there once a year. Here's some very vital truths
that you need to learn and you need to remember. The brazen
altar first, that's Christ our sacrifice. There's redemption. There's atonement. There's satisfaction
of law and justice. Then there's the brazen labor.
That's Christ who washes us. That's Christ who makes us every
bit as clean as we can be. And then there's the altar of
incense. That's Christ our mediator. That's Christ our go-between.
That's Christ our intercessor. And then the Ark of the Covenant,
that's Christ our law keeper. And the mercy seat on top of
that, that's Christ the atonement, Christ the mercy seat, Christ
the propitiatory, Christ the one who satisfied divine justice. There's so much to learn here.
There's so much to learn. You see, we must have the right
sacrifice. Brazen altar. We've got to be
washed and be clean. Brazen laver. We must have a
representative with God. Altar of incense. We must have
one who is divinely approved of God. Our Lord is the law keeper,
the ark of the covenant. The law is in the ark of the
covenant. And there must be the blood of atonement. That's the
mercy seat. Gospel truths. That's what this
is about. It's seeing gospel truths in
the Old Testament. Now let me read you the scripture
here that I have for you. Exodus chapter 30 and look at
verse 17. Exodus chapter 30 and verse 17. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, of brass. You'll notice that there's no
wood here. Other pieces of furniture, like
the altar, the brazen altar, was made of wood, but covered
within and without with brass. The wood picturing the humanity
of our Savior. But the brazen labor, it has
no wood. Because that which is pictured
here is not the humanity of our Lord Jesus, but the spirit of
Christ Jesus. And the spirit of Christ Jesus,
that is the Holy Spirit, has no body. The Word of God is always
accurate in presenting to us symbolism. So thou shalt also
make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass. What's the
foot? That's the base. That's the base
upon which it sits. So we have a laver of brass,
and his foot also of brass, to wash withal. This is for washing. And thou shalt put it between
the tabernacle of the congregation, that's the actual tent, and the
altar. And thou shalt put water therein,
fresh, pure water. Most likely, and the historians
tell us this, that there was like a kind of a spigot or a
faucet of some sort on either side of this laver. And then
those priests would come by and wash their hands and wash their
feet. And then there would be additional
water added to that laver throughout the day. So they'd wash their hands and
their feet. It didn't matter who it was,
whether it was Aaron or one of the priests, whoever came in,
if you're going to do business with God, you've got to be washed.
You've got to have sacrifice first. That's very important. You've got to have the right
sacrifice, but then you've got to be washed. This is for Aaron and his sons. They shall wash their hands and
their feet thereat. Verse 20. When they go into the
tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, watch
this, that they die not. In other words, if they don't
wash, they're going to die. They'll die right there, right
on the spot. Or what's the rest of it? Or when they come near to the
altar to minister to burn offering made by fire unto the Lord. Even
if all they're doing is just offering a sacrifice at the brazen
altar, after they offer that sacrifice, they've got blood
on their hands. You men, and perhaps ladies too,
you've gone out hunting and gone deer hunting, and you've got
to slit it and drain the blood of it. You get blood on your
hands. Well, think of these priests who ministered there on behalf
of the children of Israel, ministering to God, offering those sacrifices. Their hands got bloody. And their
feet are dirtied because they didn't have any shoes. There
wasn't any shoes for the priesthood. And so they'd go up to this laver
and they'd get water and wash their hands, wash their feet
off like you do at the beach when you walk through the sand
and they got that water and turn on the spigot, wash your hands
off, wash the salt off, especially the salt and the sand off your
feet. That's the way it was with these. Look at verse 21. So they shall
wash their hands and their feet, and here it is again. Don't miss
this. I tell you, if God says something
one time, it's vital, right? He says it one time, that's one
time's enough. But if he says it two times,
now you better pay attention. 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 his seed, that is, throughout their
generation. Now, what was the labor for?
It's for washing. Well, who must be washed? Who
must be washed? Anybody who desires to draw near
to God for any reason. You cannot draw near to God for
any reason except to be washed. You can't draw near to worship
God, to thank God, to petition God, to fellowship with God. You can't draw near to God for
any reason whatsoever without, number one, a sacrifice. And number two, you got to be
washed. Got to be washed. Which leads me to say several
things. Number one, the impurity of men. Here we learn of the
necessity of purity in order to do business with God. Purity,
that's what God demands. Not the best you can do, purity. You gotta be cleansed. And yet,
that is an absolute impossibility for those of us who are sinful
people, and that's all of us. We cannot be a pure people. We're an impure people by nature. Man by birth and by choice and
by nature is one vile mass of sinfulness. We're filthy from
the crown of our heads to the bottom of our feet. Every man
at his best state is altogether vanity is what we read. And throughout
the book of God, the God of glory declares, thou art vile. Did you hear God? Thou art vile. We're like the lepers in the
Old Testament, smitten with leprosy. And if anybody came near them,
they had a cloth over their mouth and they said, unclean, unclean. That's all of us. We're lepers. Job said in Job chapter 40, he
answered the Lord and he said, behold, I am vile. Have said that and meant it?
I'm vile. Psalm 14. The Lord looked down
from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand and seek God. They're all gone aside. They're all together become filthy. The word is stinking. What does a filthy person need?
What does a stinking person need? He needs to be washed. Washed. We're so filth and we're so stinking
that it isn't that we're much of an offense to each other,
not spiritually, because we're all alike in that regard. But
the offensiveness is to God. We stink to God. We're an offense
to God. God who made us in His own image. And we've fallen. We've fallen
into sin, into misery, into the stench of unrighteousness and
ungodliness. We've got to have a bath. We've
got to be washed. Has the Lord ever shown you you're
dirty? And you need to be washed. Do
you want to be clean? Well, here's the second thing.
First of all, the impurity of men. The second thing, this is
the place of purity. It's a laver of brass, a brass
wash basin, or literally a brass wash pot, in which every priest was required
to wash before he entered the tabernacle of the congregation.
or even when he had offered a sacrifice on the behalf of others. Now,
both the altar, the brazen altar and the brazen laver were important,
but the altar of death came before the laver of washing. There is no washing except, first
of all, the substitute dies. There's no washing without the
blood of Christ Jesus. Learn this, after we see the
Savior dying for our sins and satisfying divine justice, then
we will realize that we're sinful people and we've got to be washed.
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? We've seen that. Are
you washed? Well, what was the necessary
first? The blood of the Lamb to be shed. and then for us to
be washed before God. In the brazen altar, we see Christ
dying for our sins, satisfying divine justice. In the brazen
laver, we see the work of the Spirit of Christ Jesus using
the word of the gospel, the word of the gospel causing sinners
to wash in that fountain open for sin. Let me give you a couple
of references. First of all, to the New Testament
in the book of Titus. The book of Titus chapter 3. Book of Titus chapter 3. And let me begin at verse 5.
Titus chapter 3. Verse five, not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by
the washing. This is what we're talking about.
by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. the washing of regeneration,
the application by the Spirit of God of the bloody sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only in that way can we be made
pure and holy and clean before God. And I want you to turn to
another reference with me, and it's back in the Old Testament.
It's the book of Zechariah. And that's the next to the last
book of the Old Testament, the book of Zechariah chapter 13. Zechariah chapter 13, the last
book of the Old Testament is Malachi. Just go before that
and you'll see Zechariah and I want you to look at chapter
13. In that day, in that day of redemption,
in that day of salvation, in that day when our Lord Jesus
satisfies divine justice honoring His Father, dying for our sins
according to the Scriptures, putting all of our guilt away,
bringing in everlasting righteousness. In that day, in that day, there
shall be a fountain opened. A fountain opened. For who? For the house of David. For all of God's true Israel. and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem."
Well, what's this fountain open for? It's open for sin and for
uncleanness. Are you one of those that's unclean? Say, I'm unclean before God.
Well, the fountain's open for you. It's open. It was open at the cross of Calvary. Open for washing, open for cleansing. Anybody in here filthy? Anybody
out there filthy? Am I talking to anybody who needs
a royal bath? Who needs to be washed? Well,
there's a fountain open for sin and for uncleanness. And there's
an inexhaustible fountain of living water to all who need
it. Oh, Spirit of God, show me I
need it. O Spirit of grace, show me how
filthy I am, and that there is for me a sacrifice, Christ Jesus,
and there is a brazen laver where I may wash and be clean. There is a place of purity. A
place of purity. But always remember the order
is, first of all, the brazen altar. than the brazen labor. There's got to be the sacrifice
first, and then the washing of regeneration. Think of it this
way. There had to be, before there
could be a Pentecost, had to be a Passover. Right? You with me? Before there could
be a Pentecost, of the Holy Spirit washing people in the blood of
Christ, washing them in the water of the Word of God, the Word
of the Gospel. Before the Spirit of God would
do that, before He even came in the fullness of His power,
Christ first of all had to die. You remember the Savior said,
or John wrote, the Spirit of God was not yet given. This is back in John. The Spirit
of God was not yet given because Christ was not yet glorified. The sacrifice had to be offered
and now, upon the basis of death that satisfied our holy God,
come to the fountain for cleansing. It's open. And I like to think
of it this way, it's open for business. It's open for anybody
who's been shown by the Spirit of God. They're filthy. I'm impure. Well, come to the place of purity. Now, here's the third thing.
Go back to the book of Exodus. This time, chapter 38. Here's the third thing. The source.
The source of the brass. Where'd they get this brass?
They didn't find it out there in the wilderness, I guarantee
you that. Well, where'd they get the brass from? Well, look
at chapter 38. This is interesting too. Chapter 38 of Exodus, verse eight. And he made the laver of brass
and the foot of it of brass, that's the base. They made it
of the looking glasses of the women assembling, which assembled
at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. You know
where this brass came from? Egypt. It came from Egypt. And the women
took these Egyptian looking glasses, that fine polished brass. That was their mirror. And then when Moses said, go
build a laver of brass, well then, all the women brought their
looking glasses. They brought their looking glasses.
Well, what's a mirror used for? To see what you look like. And you
know the Word of God is the looking glass that shows us what we look
like by nature. Oh, it'll give you an accurate
reflection of yourself too. It'll tell you what you are and
what you look like. But it also gives an accurate
reflection of who and what you are in Christ Jesus. And you look into that laver.
You look into that laver. and you see that in him, you're
made the righteousness of God. What about that? Look into the
looking glass. And here's the fourth thing,
very quickly. Here's the punishment for not washing. What's the consequence
of not washing? Well, I've already noted it to
you back in chapter 30, the penalty was death. I don't need to say
much about this. That's pretty self-explanatory. Wash and be clean. If you don't
wash, if you don't wash, you'll remain unclean. And you'll remain
unclean forever. And I'll tell you, you will remain
unclean forever if God leaves you to your will, if God leaves
you to your way, if God leads you to your thoughts, you'll
forevermore remain unclean. Give me grace to look into the
looking glass of Your Word, which gives me an accurate reflection
of what I am, who I am, what I'm like by nature. And give me grace to believe
on Christ Jesus. And then to look into the looking
glass again and see that in Christ Jesus I'm washed. I'm clean. And then I want to point out
the continually, there is a continual washing in this basin. It is estimated by some of the
Jewish historians that the average priest working in and about the
tabernacle, he would wash his hands and his feet more than
100 times a day because his hands He gets his hands washed and
his feet washed, and perhaps he goes in and he maybe trims
the lamp stand, adding some olive oil, maybe doing something with
the table of showbread, and then burning incense, and then he
goes back out, and any time he starts to come back, he's got
to wash all over again, a hundred times. I tell you, you and I,
Now, we've been washed in the blood of Christ Jesus. We've
been washed in the water of the Word of God, and so we're clean
before God. But we also need daily washing. Our Lord taught that in John
chapter 13, when He washed the feet of His disciples. He came
to Peter and Peter said, Doth thou wash my feet? And our Savior said, well, if
I don't wash you, you don't have any part with me. He said, well,
wash me all over. And the Savior said, he that
is washed, he don't need a total bath. He just needs the feet
washed that come in contact with the world. Every day we need
to come again and again to our Lord Jesus. Oh, Lord, cleanse
me. I'm a sinner. I'm saved by grace. I'm made the righteousness of
God in the Lord Jesus. But Father, I'm still a sinner. And I confess my sin to you. And I know you're faithful and
just to forgive me of my sins. And to do what? To cleanse me. To cleanse me, even me. from all unrighteousness every
day I need to wash. This is continual washing. And
then let me show you something else here real quick. In chapter
30, look at verse 26. Chapter 30, and thou shalt anoint
the tabernacle of the congregation therewith, and the ark of the
testimony, and the table, and all his vessels, and the candlestick,
and his vessels, and the altar of incense, and the altar of
burnt offering, with all his vessels, and the laver in his
foot. You notice how it always adds that, and the base. and
thou shalt sanctify them that they may be most holy whatsoever
toucheth them shall be holy. So we can say the same thing
about the laver that was said about the altar, the brazen altar.
If that water touches you, you're holy before God. Men may not think you're holy,
but you see, men don't even know a definition of holiness. They
think holiness is women wearing a long dress and keeping their
hair up in a hornet's nest bun or something, you know. That's
holiness. That's holiness. And not going
hither and yonder in places and not doing this, not doing that.
Well, I'm living a holy life! You want to know what holiness
is? Be better to ask this. You want
to know who is holy? God is. You want to know something
about holiness? Hates sin. Despises iniquity. That you? You say, well, nobody
can say that. I know. That's in your heart.
That's in your heart. God's people hate sin and love
holiness. and we're made holy. Christ is
our sanctification. One last thing, and I've given
you pretty much the basics of the brazen labor, but you know
what isn't mentioned? I've read every reference in
the Old Testament that has to do with the labor. You know what
is never mentioned? How big it's supposed to be.
I found that to be interesting. No size was ever given. All we
read of is the brazen laver and its foot or base. Was that an
oversight by the Spirit of God? No, of course not. Here's what
I take away from that. That laver with all that water
in there, it's big enough to wash anybody who wants to be
clean. He said, okay, that's what I
take away from this. So it don't matter who you are.
It doesn't matter. That's more grammatically correct.
Excuse me, apologies to the teachers. It doesn't matter what you've
done, what you are, how great your guilt is upon your conscience. This labor open for washing and
for cleansing. It's big enough for you to wash
in. And I'll tell you this, sinners have been coming to this labor
based upon the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ Jesus. Sinners
have been coming to this labor of brass for years and years
and years and still the water is there. The water of the word
of God, the water of the gospel. You come and wash. And be clean. Don't matter how big a sinner
you are. Because actually, we're all big
sinners. But the water's still pure, and
it will still cleanse the vilest of the vile. Well, let's pray. Thank You, Father, for the glorious gospel of Your
free and sovereign grace. And oh, how we love these pictures. of our Savior, of this great
salvation. We see Him at the brazen altar,
Christ crucified for us. There's the blood shedding. And
therefore, upon the basis of the satisfaction of justice by
the death of our Lord Jesus, The Spirit of God comes and convinces
us that we need to be washed. And we come to Christ the laver,
Christ the brazen laver, and we wash. We wash in the Word
of God. We wash in the Word of the Gospel
that says this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. O Lord, enable all
of us to look into the looking glass of your Word and see an
accurate reflection of us in self, in Adam, in our sinfulness,
and then believing the Lord Jesus Christ. May we look again into
this looking glass and see an accurate reflection of how you
see us. For the Lord Jesus has made us
to be, we are made to be in him wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption that according as it is written,
he that gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. These things we
ask in the name of Christ Jesus with thanksgiving. Amen.