Let's take our Bibles now and
turn back to Exodus chapter 30. And the subject of our lesson
tonight is the brazen labor. We're not told what it looked
like. We're not told if it was round or square. We're not told
how high it was or how close to the ground. We're not given
any measurements of how much water it held. We're not really
told a whole lot about it, except that it was made of brass. Made of brass. We're told only of what it was
made from. And unlike the brazen altar,
which was made of wood and overlaid with brass, talking about the
dual natures of Christ, the labor was made of solid brass. And
the reason for that is because the labor is a picture of the
work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit contains this
water of life without measure. So we are not told how much water
was in the labor. The Holy Spirit is God Himself. everywhere present, so we're
not given any measurements of its size or its shape. He is
Spirit. It's a picture of the work of
the Holy Spirit. In that day, old Zechariah prophesied,
there shall be a fountain open in the house of David, and to
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. I believe that it is the declaration
of this book, which is the testimony of God, and also the experience
of every true believer, every one born as a son of God, that
he is Now I want you to just think on that word for a little
bit. Bible. That's the word the Scripture
uses when men confess themselves to God. It's the declaration of this
book, it is the testimony of God, and it is the experience
of every heaven-born son of God. In the lamentations of Jeremiah,
he begins his petition to the Lord with this confession, I
am vile. That's where he begins. I am
vile. When the Lord took hold of Job,
remember his friends came out, the sorry comforters, and they
came out and just It was awful what they said to this man. But after a while, God got hold
of Job. And God spoke to Job as only
God can speak. And Job said, Behold! He said,
I am Bible. I am Bible. What shall I answer
thee? And then there's another story
over in the book of Samuel. You don't need to turn over there.
But David, when he brought the Ark of the Covenant back up to
Jerusalem. This is after the incident with
Uzzah. And he brought that Ark of the
Covenant back in to Jerusalem. And David put on it a linen girdle. A little sheer, as sheer as those
curtains. Probably more sheer than that.
Pure linen. He put on a linen girdle. He
had nothing else on. And he danced out before that
ark when it come into Jerusalem. And his wife, Michael, the son
of Saul, the daughter of Saul, she was up in the window of the
house looking down on her husband and saw him dancing naked before
that ark. And when he come in, she said,
boy, you think you're something. You ought to have seen. You knew
all them maids was all up down there looking at the king. What
a sorry king is what she was saying to him. And listen to what David said.
He said, it was before the Lord. I didn't dance before the maids.
It was before the Lord that I danced. who chose me before your Father
and before His house. He chose me. And I danced before
Him. I danced before Him. II Samuel
6, verse 22. Now listen to what He says. And
I will yet be more vile than thus. And I will be base in my
own sight. This was David's confession before
the Lord. of who He was. He was vile. He was vile. And yet God had
redeemed Him. Well, what is this vileness?
Well, I looked it up. It has all kinds of meanings.
It just depends on where it's used in the Scripture as to what
it means. But I'll give you several of the meanings. It means a low
estate. A low estate. A horrible condition. It means disgraceful. dishonorable
and shameful. It means to be without dignity. It means to be without morality,
worthless and vile. In Romans 1 it said, because
they would not follow after the truth, they would not follow
after that light which God gave them. Therefore, it says God
gave them up to vile affections. Men and women struggle in this
world to maintain, at least in their own minds, some sense of
dignity and self-worth. But the reality is that we're
all vile before God. We're vile. And if we're vile,
then all of our imaginations are vile. Those unregenerate
men pretending to be religious, pretending to be prophets of
God, Paul called them filthy dreamers, didn't he? Why? Because their imaginations were
vile. Vile. Vile in our imaginations. Every imagination. God looked
down on the sons of men and every imagination of the thoughts of
their hearts was only evil continually. Vile. And vile in our affections,
vile in our motives, and vile in our actions. For a natural
man to come to God, to worship God, to approach God, or serve
God in any way, necessitates a cleansing. He must be cleansed. He cannot come as he is. Now I read it to you there in
Exodus. He said, when you entered into the side of this courtyard,
this big 30 foot gate, that linen curtain was pulled back and the
first thing you saw was that big brazen altar. And then you
turn right at that altar and there's the laver. It stood between
that altar and the tavern. And what this is telling you
is that first you have to come through this altar. First thing,
a sacrifice must be offered. A substitute must die on that
altar and suffer the judgment of God. And the very next thing
that has to happen is the pool. You've got to come to the laver
and be washed. The Holy Spirit must take what
was done upon that altar and put it in your heart and cleanse
you. to cleanse you. And it didn't
matter if they were going into the tabernacle to worship and
serve God and eat the meat and eat the bread in the tabernacle,
or if they were coming back to the altar, no matter which way
they went, you couldn't go either way without stopping at that
laver. Had to stop at that laver. And
that's what this laver is all about. Now let me give you several
things tonight concerning this laver of cleansing. First of
all, I want you to notice its location. It was divinely ordered
to stand between the altar of burnt offering and the tabernacle
proper. The brazen altar, that's where
the substitute was slain. The brazen altar is where divine
justice was appeased. The brazen altar is where the
blood of the sacrificed was shed for the sinner. And then the
tabernacle is where God dwelt with His people. That's where
God dwelt. When they communed with God,
they communed with Him in the tabernacle. It was the place
of fellowship and communion with God. It was the place of worship
where the holy meat and bread were eaten by God's priests. And it was also where priestly
intercession was made. And the labor stood between the
two. You could not go from the brazen
altar of sacrifice to the golden altar of worship except by way
of the labor. First is atonement and justification,
then is sanctification. First is the blood, and then
is the water. When that soldier cast his spear
in our Lord's side, what came out? Blood and water. It wasn't water and blood. It
says blood and water. That's the order. That's the
order. And then secondly, consider its
materials. Brass and water. Brass speaks of strength and
also speaks of judgment. Whatever took place at this labor
had something to do with God's judgment. It had something to
do with the sinner and his sin. Now turn with me to Exodus chapter
38. Exodus 38.8. And He made the labor of brass,
and the foot of it of brass. Now watch this. Of the looking
glasses of the women assembling. which assembled at the door of
the tabernacle of the congregation. These looking glasses were made
of solid brass and polished to a real high sheen so that they
would reflect their image somewhat like our mirrors do today. And they saw themselves in a
vain reflection in these brazen instruments. They saw themselves
in a vain reflection in that which spoke of God's judgment,
and put on a little make-up, look into those brazen reflections,
and they put on a little make-up, put on a little powder, fix themselves
up, until they themselves found satisfaction with what they saw
in the mirror. And God took those vain instruments
And He made them, He reformed them. And He formed those into
a bowl into which water was put to wash. And He gave them a different
reflection when they came to the pool. God will take these
instruments of vanity and He'll rearrange them in such a way
as to reveal to them their need of cleansing as well as the way
to be cleansed. And then thirdly, I want you
to see its necessity. Exodus chapter 30 and verse 20,
he said, they shall wash with water that they die not. That they die not. Verse 21,
so shall they wash their hands and their feet that they die
not. Twice, he told them. The labor
is not something you can overlook. You can't approach God apart
from that labor. That labor is as important in
approaching God as that sacrifice. You can't do without it. You
can't do without it. You can't bypass it. Thousands
today think they can. They think that this thing of
salvation is a one-time experience, it's a one-time acceptance of
something that they were told. They passed by there, they saw
the sacrifice, they accepted the sacrifice, and they go on
their way pretending to worship God. You can't go in that tabernacle
until you go through that labor. And that labor speaks of the
work of the Holy Spirit of God. Our God is holy. Uzziah, the king of Israel, attempted
to approach him in a manner other than what he was commanded of
God. And God smote him with leprosy
and he died outside the camp. And oh Isaiah said in Isaiah
6, when king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. Then I saw the Lord. Oh Uzzah, he attempted to steady
the ark. God killed him on the spot. And
Aaron's two sons brought strange fire to the tabernacle. Fire. Fire? Huh? Picked up a burning ember out
of that thing and brought strange fire into the ark. When they
did, God killed both of them. Killed both of them. I'll give you another example.
Moses got angry at Israel. And he took that staff. And it
smoked that rock twice. And God said, you're not going
in to the promised land. I'll bury you on this mountain.
I'll take you up and let you see it, but you're not going
to enter in. You're not going to enter in. He didn't set the
Lord apart before the people. He didn't sanctify the Lord before
the people. He struck that... Christ ain't
going to be smitten but once. But once. I'm telling you, God's holy,
He's just, and He's righteous. Those who come before Him must
be clean. And man in this flesh and in
this world is not clean. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
64. While you're turning, I'll quote
this Scripture to you from Job. Job said, what is man that he
should be clean? What is man? that he should be
clean. And he that is born of a woman,
that he should be righteous. Behold, he that is God putteth
no trust in his saints, yea, the heavens are not clean in
his sight. How much more abominable and
filthy is man that drinks iniquity like water. Now look here in Isaiah 64 and
verse 6. But we are all. Isn't that how many people she's talking
about? She is all of them. Well, that must be the old English.
No, I think all means all. I think it meant all then, I
think it meant all in the days of Christ, and I think it means
all right now. We are all, he said, as an unclean
thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And we all
do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us
away. Man in this world and in this
flesh is unclean. His mind, his thoughts, his motives,
and all that he says and does is unclean. And so long as he
sojourns through this world and in this flesh, he needs cleansing. He needs cleansing. And this
cleansing is as necessary as the blood of Christ. We've got
to be cleansed. Alright? Now, fourthly, what
does all this mean? All this brass and looking glasses
and bowls and labors and all these. What does that mean? What
is all this washing? What is all this about? Well,
this labor pictures the work of the Holy Spirit of God. And
the primary work of the Holy Spirit is a two-fold work. Both
are works of cleansing. Both of them are. Turn with me
to Titus chapter 3. This was my subject this past
Sunday. First of all, this labor is typical
of the washing of regeneration. Titus chapter 3 verse 5, not
by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to
His mercy, He saved us by the washing of regeneration and the
renewing of the Holy Ghost. In regeneration, a new man is
formed in you. Colossians 2, verse 11 says,
We are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting
off the body of the sins of this flesh by the circumcision of
Christ, buried with Him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with
Him through the faith of the operation of God. who hath raised
Him from the dead." We are raised with Him. We are born of God. And regeneration is known by
its revelation of God. That is what regeneration is
all about. Men want to talk about a change
in their life and call that regeneration. They want to talk about some
point of reform in their life and they want to call that regeneration.
They want to go back to that altar that they nailed at, or
those tears that they cried, or whatever it was, and they
want to call that regeneration. Regeneration is all about a revelation. It's all about a revelation.
Now listen to this. This is eternal life. Would you
say a man born of God has eternal life? Well, sure he does. He's born of God. This is eternal life, that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou
sent." That's what it is. That's how regeneration is known. It's known by its revelation.
Paul describes it in 2 Corinthians 4, 6, as God shining in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. That's what it is. Regeneration
is known by its revelation. And it is this glorious light
that cleanses us, cleanses us from the vanity of our minds
and from the principles of this world and their philosophy, from
vain religion and from the many false faces of the prince of
darkness. Cleanses us. Cleanses us. Why? Because we know the truth.
We know the true and living God. Man starts talking about being
justified by his works. Don't try to sell me on that
story. I know God. And I, God, am not going to justify
a man based on his works. He'll justify him based on the
works of Christ. And then the second work of the
Holy Ghost is His abiding in us and maintaining and growing
our faith and cleansing us daily from our sins. One man said this,
sins forgiven in the court of heaven are not soon forgotten
in the court of conscience. Conscience remembers. God said,
I remember them no more. They are gone in the sight of
God. But we have an enemy, and he is subtle, and he knows how
to, he finds an open door to that conscience. And He comes
in and He begins to pollute our conscience. He begins to take
away our hope. Oh, I tell you. Listen. If you were a true child of God,
you'd be more prone to study and worship than you would be
to the world. Huh? If you were a true child
of God, you'd be more ready to worship More generous to give,
more willing to serve, more earnest to pray. Your lust and passions
give you away. Your greed and pride evidence
your guilt. Huh? Satan comes in and he begins
to lay these things that you know full well are true. You
don't pray like you ought to pray, do you? I don't either.
I don't either. Does that cause you trouble?
It does me. It does me. And Satan's standing
right there. He's standing right there. Why? You call yourself a Christian.
You call yourself a Christian. But I tell you, when this conscience
is bathed in God's labor, it comes away clean. It comes away
clean. Christ died for sinners. That's
what we got to be reminded of that every day. He died for sinners. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. That's what I am. And I sin. And like Paul, when I would do
good, evil, I don't care when it is. I don't care when it is. Oh, when this conscience bathed
in God's labor, it comes away clean. Now, fifthly, let me show
you something here about this chosen vessel of God. It was
the water which gave life, and it is the water which cleanses.
Now, let me give you two Scriptures here to help illustrate what
I'm talking about. In John 4, verse 10, our Lord
was speaking to the woman at the well. You know the story. And our Lord asked her, said,
give me a drink. And she said, how is it you being
a Jew ask of me, a Samaritan, to give you a drink? You know
the Jews don't have anything to do with us, and we don't have
anything to do with you. Why would you ask me that? Well,
here's what our Lord told her. He said, if thou knewest the
gift of God, if you knew that, And who it is that saith to thee,
Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would
have given thee living water." Living water. That's that water
of regeneration. That's that water of life. And
this cleansing water is the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. It
is the water that cleanses, but it's water in a brazen vessel,
a vessel not hot from the coals of the fire that consumed the
sacrifice, but cool and refreshing water held in the vessel of satisfied
justice. Both the altar and the labor
both spoke of judgment, but the labor speaks of judgment satisfied. Judgment satisfied. It speaks
of that judgment accomplished on that altar. And it takes that
satisfied justice and it cleanses you. It cleanses you. This Gospel is the seed of regeneration. You can take your time and you
can see here the cleansing and the whole nine yards that I've
talked to you about here in 1 Peter chapter 1 beginning up there
in about verse 22 or 23. talking about purifying ourselves
and so on, talking about being born again of that incorruptible
Word of God. And he comes down to verse 25,
and he said, But the Word of the Lord endureth forever, and
this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you. Listen to how Paul describes
this to the Corinthians. He said, Who then is Paul? Who is Paul? And who is Apollos? You all are putting a lot of
stock in these men. And Paul was an apostle, that's
true enough. Apollos was a preacher, true
enough. But he said, who are we? We are
ministers by whom you believe, even as the Lord gave to every
man. And he said, therefore I planted,
and Apollos watched, And God gave the increase. That's how
it works. That's how it works. There's
only one labor. The same water that brings life
into the soul cleanses us daily and keeps on cleansing us. Listen
to this, Ephesians 5.25. He said, Husbands, love your
wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for
it, that He might sanctify it. Listen now. with the washing
of water by the Word. Turn with me to 1 John 1, and
I'll wind this thing up. 1 John 1, verse 6. If we say that we have fellowship
with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light,
as He is the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say we
had no sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth is not in you. If we
confess our sins, He's faithful and just. When did that happen? That happened on the altar. Well,
when did the cleansing take place? After labor. And what's this
cleansing all about? It takes that accomplished salvation
of that altar. And He cleanses your conscience
with that blood sacrifice. He's faithful and just. to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If
we say that we had not sinned, we make Him a liar and His Word
is not in us. Now let me leave you with this
solemn warning. Wash that you die not. Any other way to God will result
in death to the sinner. You want to hang on to those
old professions. You want to hang on to this world's
philosophy. You want to hang on to those
ways that they learned from the Gentiles. You want to try to
incorporate God. We actually watched a thing on
television the other morning. I thought my wife was going to
have a fit. They were talking about a relationship
between the Lord Jesus Christ and Superman. Now, I'm telling
you, if you want to hang on to this world's philosophies and
this world's deceit and all of these things that they talk about,
and they were just serious as they could be, I'm going to tell
you what's going to happen. You're going to die. You're going
to die. That's not how you get life.
You get life from this labor. You get cleansing from the life. And that cleansing is maintained.
We are not of them. Isn't that what Paul said? We
are not of them who draw back under perdition. They went out
from us, John said, because they were not of us. If they had been
of us, they no doubt would have continued with us. Why? Because
the Holy Spirit of God abides in the believer. He abides in
the believer. Any other way to God will result
in the death of the sinner. No other way prepares us for
worship and cleanses our hands and feet that we may serve God. God help us to learn that lesson.