Sometimes when you know the inspiration
for a hymn, it makes it a little more meaningful to you. In the
middle 1800s, there were two brothers, Andrew Bonar and his
brother, Horatius Bonar, who were both ministers in the Presbyterian
Church in Scotland. Andrew Bonar wrote the biography
of Robert Murray McShane. was a contemporary of theirs
who died very young. Wrote a commentary on the book
of Leviticus. He was dying. His wife had been in caring for
him as best she could. Horrible fever. She'd wiped his
brow, got him calmed down. And while she waited for her
husband to die, went into the parlor in the next room and sat
down and wrote, Fade, Fade, Each Earthly Joy. Jesus is mine. Gives that hymn special meaning. Farewell mortality, welcome eternity,
Jesus is mine. Turn with me to Exodus chapter
30. Man by nature is a mass of sin,
polluted and filthy. From the crown of our head to
the soles of our feet, nothing but sin. And throughout the book
of God, the God of glory declares, thou art vile. Our thoughts,
he speaks of as vile. Our affections, he declares to
be vile. He even speaks of these bodies
as our vile bodies. And if ever the Lord God is pleased
to make a sinner know himself, that sinner will confess with
a horrid sense of shame before him. Like Jeremiah of old, I
am become vile. Hold your hands here in Exodus
30. I'll get to the text in a minute. Turn to the book of Job. When the Lord has mercy on a
sinner, when he causes a man to see himself, causes a man
to see the Lord Jesus and causes him to see himself as he is,
he gives us a shocking awareness of how vile we are. Thank God
he doesn't cause us to know fully how vile we are. I doubt we could
retain our sanity if we really knew how vile we are. But this
is what Job said in Job chapter 40, verse 3. Job answered the
Lord and said, Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer thee? I will
lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will
not answer, yea, twice. But I'll proceed no further.
I can't say anything else before God. I'm vile. Has the Lord shown you how vile,
how dirty you are, how corrupt, how polluted, how filthy? Do
you want to be clean? If so, I've got a message for
you. That question is the title of
my message. Do you want to be clean? Here in Exodus chapter
30, the Lord God commands Moses to make a laver of brass, a bronze
wash tub, a tub or a basin in which every priest was required
to wash before he did service in the tabernacle, before he
approached the altar, or before he entered the door of the tabernacle,
he was to wash his hands and his feet in this laver. Exodus
30 verse 17. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and his foot
also of brass, to wash withal. And thou shalt put it between
the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt
put water therein. For Aaron and his son shall wash
their hands and their feet thereat. when they go into the tabernacle
of the congregation, they shall wash with water that they die
not. Or when they come near to the
altar to minister, to burn 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. Now the altar and the laver are
both essential. A man could not approach God
without the blood of the sacrifice offered upon the altar. If he
did, he would be slain. And he could not approach God
without the washing set forth in the laver. If he did, he would
be slain. In the brazen altar, we see Christ
dying for our sins. In the labor of brass, we see
the work of God, the Holy Spirit, causing sinners to wash and be
made clean in the fountain open for sin and for uncleanness. Turn, if you will, to the book
of Zechariah, Zechariah chapter 12. The work of the Holy Spirit is
that which is described by the Apostle Paul as the washing of
regeneration. The washing of regeneration. That is making us clean on the
inside by the new birth. Making us clean on the inside
by the imparting of grace and righteousness. It's described
for us as the washing of our records clean by the sacrifice
of Christ, but then the washing of our souls plunged into the
fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. Look in
Zechariah chapter 12 verse 10. I will pour upon the house of
David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace
and of supplications. I will pour out my spirit upon
my elect and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced
and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only
son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness
for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a
great morning in Jerusalem. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. There shall be a great morning
in Jerusalem, as the morning of Hadrim in the valley of Megiddo. Verse 1 of chapter 13. In that
day, in that day when there is a great morning in Jerusalem,
in that day when I pour out my spirit upon you, there shall
be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. The fountain opened
by God's justice when the sacrifice was made, but the fountain opened
to you in the day when God poured out his spirit upon you. The
labor here in Exodus chapter 30 comes after the altar. First the cross, then Pentecost. First justified by His blood,
then sanctified by His Spirit in regeneration. We're told in
John 7, 39, I read to you a little bit ago, for the Holy Ghost was
not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. The Spirit
of God could not come upon men until Christ had been received
back into glory, having been accepted of the Father because
His work was finished. But weren't those men in the
Old Testament converted? Didn't they have the Spirit of
God? Were they not born again? Of course they were. The work
of the Lord Jesus was finished before the world began. He is
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And based on that
work finished from eternity, those men were given the Spirit
of God in time as they walked on this earth and given faith
in Christ. But our Lord Jesus must come
in time and he must be sacrificed in time and he must be made manifest
as the lamb slain from the foundation of the world in time and so when
he finished his work he went back to the father and the Holy
Spirit is Manifestly given on the day of Pentecost and given
now in the new birth So the Holy Spirit is he who comes to us
as the result of Christ finished work at Calvary Turn to Galatians
chapter 3 Brother Bob read this to us a moment ago in the office.
Galatians, the third chapter. The laver was filled with water.
Water used in Scripture to symbolize two things. And it's always difficult
for me to determine which. Water is used in Scripture to
symbolize both the Word of God and the Spirit of God. In this
place, I'm confident, it is used to symbolize the Spirit of God
who makes effectual the Word of God, bringing sinners to plunge
into the fountain open for sin, Christ Jesus the Lord. And the
Spirit of God comes upon us directly as a result of redemption accomplished
by Christ. Everywhere the blood was shed,
the Spirit of God comes in the symbolism of this water. Blood
shed here at the altar, the priest comes from here to the laver
and is washed. And everybody who comes to the
altar comes to the laver, and only those who come to the altar
come to the laver. Galatians chapter 3, verse 13.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. being made
a curse for us for it is written cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree now watch this that the blessing singular not blessings
not blessings the blessing singular of Abraham what the blessing
The singular blessing of which God spoke when he said to Abraham,
in thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth
be blessed. That the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles. And the whole passage is talking
about God revealing how that he would have mercy on the Gentiles.
He says that Christ redeemed us for this purpose that the
blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus
Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. That we might receive the promise
of all life and grace by the Spirit through faith. Well, we
receive it by our faith, but We receive it through the faith
of Jesus Christ. The blessing is given to us before
we believe, otherwise we couldn't believe. The blessing is ours,
the gift of the Spirit, the gift of life because of redemption
through the blood of Jesus Christ. All right, now the first thing
I want you to see about this labor is found in chapter 38,
over in Exodus chapter 38. These latter chapters of Exodus
get to be very repetitive, so I'll have you refer to it. Exodus
chapter 38. This laver was made of bronze,
strong, strong metal, shadowing forth the Lord Jesus, the one
of whom the Spirit speaks, to whom the Spirit always points.
Christ, our strength, He came to save us from our sins, to
perform the mightiest work God ever performed, the work of redemption
for our souls. In Exodus 38 verse 8, we find
that the materials for this labor of brass were from the women
the Lord brought out of Egypt. That's the first thing I want
you to see. The labor was made from mirrors brought to Moses
by these women who worship God. And he made the laver of brass
and the foot of it of brass of the looking glasses. Now, you
may look at that and scratch your head a little bit and say,
well, how on earth did he mold glass mirrors into a laver? They
weren't. They were pieces of brass beaten
out and polished that the women brought with them from Egypt.
These looking glasses of the women assembling, which assembled
at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. These Jewish
women had these mirrors made of brass, beaten out and polished,
fine pieces of brass, shiny that they would hold to look in to
print and put their hair on, put their makeup on, just like
you ladies do. They were looking glasses and
they brought them to Moses because God had given them to them when
they came out of Egypt. everything having to do with
the worship and service of God throughout the wilderness, Israel
brought with them out of Egypt. And these looking glasses, they
brought to Moses, and Moses took the brass of these looking glasses
and fashioned it into this laver that was filled with water. Let
me show you three things here that I think are important. First
and foremost, the laver portraying our Savior was made from that
which was contributed by women. So our Lord Jesus Christ is the
woman seed. He is that one who came by the
woman and not by the man. He is made of woman, made under
the law to redeem them that were under the law. Second, that which
was once used only for vanity, What else would you use a mirror
for? You ladies have little desks, some of you do, in your bedrooms
or in your bathrooms and they're called vanities. That's what they're used for,
is for vanity. We're as guilty as you, I acknowledge
it, but that's what the mirrors are for. Nothing but vanity to
make yourself look better. that which was used for nothing
but vanity is brought by worshiping women to God Almighty for the
worship of God and he accepts it and uses it to portray his
own son. Third, as the mirror shows a
person's face, so the only way we ever really see ourselves
as we are is when we come to Christ the labor of our souls
and wash in him. When like these women, we stand
at the door of the tabernacle and see ourselves in the light
of his presence, in the light of the presence of a holy, sin-hating
God like Job, we acknowledge, we abhor ourselves and repent
in sackcloth and ashes. We behold Christ crucified And
we see ourselves abominable, filthy, and unclean. And yet,
looking upon the Savior in faith, bathing our souls in this laver
of brass, we begin to see ourselves as we really are in Him, justified
and sanctified and righteous and without spot, forgiven of
all sin, holy. undefiled. While we recognize
what we are by nature as we bathe in this labor, the more we bathe
in this labor, the more we continually look away from self to Christ
crucified, the more clearly we see both what we are by nature
and what we are in him. Now, here's the second thing.
The labor was made for the cleansing of God's priest. Its purpose
was cleansing. It was a big wash tub standing
between the brazen altar of sacrifice and the door of the tabernacle.
In verse 20 of Exodus 30, there's a strict command issued. No priest
was allowed to touch the altar or pass through the door of the
tabernacle who didn't wash his hands and feet in this labor. No defilement can approach God. But this, and it's sweeter than
honey, he who demands such purity, he who demands no defilement,
provides the purifying stream. The Lord who says that you must
be cleansed, that you must be perfect to be accepted, brings
near his cleansing laver and he says, wash and be clean. Eternal love divides the plan.
Eternal wisdom drew the pattern. Eternal grace provides the basin. But by whom can it be filled?
Only by Christ himself filling it with his precious blood. And
there is virtue, merit, efficacy in the blood of him who died
in our stead at Calvary, whose blood fills the labor for cleansing.
Wash the sin that pollutes you. this hell dark stain that's upon
us. Wash it with all human nature
knows to use or all that man can bring. Wash it with every
tear of repentance the whole race could produce. Wash it with
all the rivers after rivers of religious rites and ceremonies
and the stain only blackens. It never gets better. Your sins
and mine Many they are black and vile. Their sins are aggravated
with sinning over and over again against light, against knowledge,
against conscience, sinning continually, sinning in everything we do.
Satan beholds and accuses us and we behold and accuse ourselves
and we're accused before the law of God until we wash in the
blood of Christ. You mean, Brother Don, until
we were washed? Well, sort of. Sort of. The work was done before the
world began. It was finished at Calvary. But
we continually wash ourselves, don't you? If we confess our
sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and the
blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all unrighteousness. It continually cleanses, continually
purges away guilt, continually cleanses the conscience, continually
makes us stand before God clean. With the hand of faith, bathe
in the fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins.
Satan sees no flaw because Christ has washed it away. More importantly,
God sees no flaw because Christ has washed it away. And bless
God, faith sees no flaw because Christ has washed it away. But
we still have a problem. We still have a problem. Sins
forgiven in the court of heaven are not soon forgotten in the
court of conscience. And oh, how Satan would raise
Moses up against us. We can't forget what we used
to do. And I reckon we shouldn't. I
reckon we shouldn't. Look to the rock from which you're
hewn, to the hole in the pit from which you're digged. I reckon
we shouldn't. I urge you, don't talk too much
about it. wallowing in the mire and liking it too much. But we
can't forget what we once did. And we can't forget what we did
today. Just can't. Oh, how it torments
the conscience. How we sense guilt Satan cannot
destroy us, but if he would, he would make us take our whole
journey between here and heavenly glory in the terrifying fear
of hell and its torments. Constantly raising sin before
us and accusing and condemning us as you had the picture of
Joshua in Zechariah chapter 3. as he would raise up Moses to
condemn us. The Lord Jesus, our mighty advocate
and intercessor, stands forth and declares that we are brains
plucked from the burning, and sets afresh the linen garments
of the priesthood upon us, and the crown of the king upon our
heads, and declares that we're his. And in one day, he took
away our sins. And Moses, is silenced again
to the grave. The law cannot condemn. One day last year, I wrote this
hymn with this regard. Compassed with trouble and distress,
when fears possess my mind, Savior, I long to see your face for grace
and peace divine. With broken heart, And waiting
long beneath this crushing load, I own my sin, confess my wrong,
and stretch my hands to God. My wretched heart, my God, I
mourn, and for my sin I weep. With every lust obscene, I burn
and sink into the deep. As Satan raises Moses up. I was studying that passage in
Joshua, or in Judges, excuse me, I'll get it right in a minute,
in the book of Jude at the time, about Michael contending with
Satan. Satan raises Moses up and roars
against my soul. Lord Jesus, my poor cause, take
up and make your servant whole. Arise, O Lord, shine forth in
grace. Your precious blood apply. Embrace
my soul, dear Prince of Peace. Blessed rock, higher than I. The only refuge for our sin-stained
souls, our polluted, sin-stained, vile souls is the laver of God,
Christ Jesus. While the polished brass of the
laver reveals the uncleanness. The water reveals the cleanness. And it is this which the Spirit
of God does in the convicting work of the Spirit. You remember
in John 16, when the Spirit is come, he who comes as a result
of the sacrifice made, when the Spirit is come, when he comes
to you in regeneration and conversion, when he comes to convict you
of sin, he convinces you of sin, your sin. and of righteousness,
righteousness finished by the blood of Jesus Christ and of
judgment, of judgment done, finished, because Christ says, I go to
the father and the prince of this world is cast out. These
are the things he comes and brings to our minds as he brings us
to the labor. Third, this labor of brass, as
I've already hinted, speaks of the work of God, the Holy Spirit.
We're not told that there are any dimensions to this laver. I looked pretty carefully and
I couldn't find any. We're not told what size it was or what
shape it was. All we're told is it was a basin
and it had a foot. That is, it was a basin and it
sat on a pedestal. So the folks who do these bottles
like this sort of imagine it's a bowl. Like one of those pedestal
sinks you might have in your bathroom, only much bigger. But
we're not given any dimensions. And it's not made of wood and
overlaid with brass. It's made of brass, just brass. No size, no dimensions are given.
Was that just an oversight? No, no. When God leaves something
out, it's just as important as when he specifies something.
There's no wood in this laver because the laver speaks of the
work of God the Spirit as much as the work of God the Son. And
this work speaks of Him who is God alone, not God and man. This work of the Spirit is the
work of God's grace in us. The laver, unlike the altar,
unlike the Ark of the Covenant, doesn't have any rings. with
staves running through it, to pick it up and carry it from
this place to that. How come? Was that just an omission? Oh, no. The wind bloweth where
it listeth. You hear the sound thereof, but
cannot tell from whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth. So is everyone
that is born of the Spirit. The Spirit works freely and sovereignly
in the hearts and lives of men. And the work of the Spirit is
connected intimately with the work of the Son because the two
cannot be divided. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 36. Ezekiel
36. The new covenant, the covenant
of grace, is not just a covenant speaking about justification,
not just speaking about redemption, not just speaking about our sins
being put out of the record book of heaven. The new covenant is
a promise of the Spirit and of life in the Spirit. Yes, Ezekiel
chapter 36. Verse 25. Then will I sprinkle
clean water upon you and you shall be clean from all your
filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. Now,
that's an experimental thing. Cleanse from your idols. Cleanse
from all your filthiness, experimentally so. And a new heart also will
I give you and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I'll give
you in heart of flesh. The work of the spirit, I repeat,
is as necessary as the work of the sun. The work of the sun
is a work of redemption performed for us. The work of the spirit
is a work of grace performed in us. We must be redeemed and
we must be regenerate. We must be justified and we must
be sanctified. We must be declared righteous
and we must be made righteous. We must have the righteousness
of Christ imputed to us and we must have the righteous nature
of Christ imparted to us. In other words, we must be made
new creatures in Christ Jesus the Lord. Our title to heaven
is to be found in Christ, only in Christ. Our fitness for heaven
must be gotten from him. The blood which bore all our
pardon and confers all peace earned and bestows all the supplies
of sanctifying grace by the Spirit. Here's the fourth thing. Notice
the connection between the altar of sacrifice and the laver of
cleansing. Like all other vessels, there
was blood connecting the two. The laver was sprinkled with
the blood of atonement. like all the other furnishings
in the tabernacle. The labor could not be reached
by any except those who came by blood. The spirit did not
come until after the work of atonement was finished. When
Christ entered into heaven with his own blood, then he poured
out his spirit on the day of Pentecost, thereby signifying
these two things. First, Christ the Messiah has
come, and he is enthroned, seated on his throne. His kingdom has
come. He's inaugurated as king, as Lord over all, and he pours
out his spirit upon all flesh. The labor, though, had to be
filled with water. It had to be filled with water.
Water so a fellow could stand there and look in this polished
brass reflecting his face and wash his hands and I see a little
dirt right yonder. Just washing that. Clean himself
up. Had to be filled with water.
Where did they get that water? Where could they possibly have
gotten that water? They're out in the desert. Where'd
they get the water? You'd be astonished you didn't
think of it immediately. Moses was commanded of God to strike
a rock out of which flowed streams of water. And that rock was Christ
who followed them through the wilderness. At the altar then
we see blood atonement. At the laver, we see cleansing
by the blood, both needed and both supplied by God Almighty
in the gift of his son. You remember when they came,
the soldier did, and shoved that spear into our Savior's side? John tells us, forthwith came
there out blood and water. I wonder why he didn't say water
and blood. Because the blood comes first, then the water.
The blood of atonement, then the water of cleansing. The blood
of justification, and then the water of regeneration. And we
read in Ezekiel chapter 47, how that the water, water flows from
under the altar. It flows from the north side.
and the east side and the west side and the south side flows
through all the earth until it reaches the sea. The sea representing
throughout scriptures the nations of the world where the isles
of the sea are. And when the water flows into
the sea, then the waters of the sea are healed. and fishes of
every kind gathered wherever nets are into the kingdom of
our God by the gospel of his grace. Shelby and I were over
in Kansas City a couple of weeks ago. Brother Steve Carpenter
gave us a tremendous, tremendous illustration of the gospel net. He said, in the scriptures, the
gospel is never compared to a hook. Never compared to a hook for
two reasons. The fish, you can't get them
with a hook unless you put bait on the hook. I can't tell you
how many times I was taught in evangelism classes to set the
hook and get the fish. You can't possibly get the fish
to bite the hook unless you put artificial bait on the hook,
some kind of bait. And the second reason is, in
order to get the fish to take the bait and the hook, you've
got to lie to the fish. The gospel is compared to a net,
a net that's cast. Peter fished all night, James
and John. The Lord Jesus came to him and
said, I want to make your fishes of men, cast them down on the
other side of the boat. And Peter said, Lord, I've been doing this
a while. I know how to fish. You're a
carpenter. I'm a fisherman. Nevertheless,
at your word, we will cast the net on the other side of the
boat." And he cast the net down and started to pull the fish
in, and the net began to break. And Peter said, Oh, Lord, depart
from me. I'm a sinful man. You see, when
you cast the net, as men look at it, the catch of the fish
depends entirely, altogether, on the luck of the draw. Throw
your net in, hope some fish are there. No, not now. Throw it
in next day, hope some fish are there. Keep throwing it in, hope
some fish are there. And if you throw it in the right
place, you'll catch some fish. And regrettably, lots of fellas
look at preaching that way. We got to find the right place,
there'll be some fish there. No, no. You just keep casting the
net and God puts the fish where the nets cast. and they're drawn
both the good and the bad into the nets. We are ourselves washed
in the blood of Christ by God the Holy Spirit plunging us into
the fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins.
And now, washing, we're made clean. They must be clean who
would come to God. and there's only one means of
cleansing. That means of cleansing is Christ Jesus the Lord. The
washing of regeneration is the new birth. It is the work
of the Holy Spirit giving us life in Christ and planting Christ
in us. May God has blessings now to
his word for Christ's sake. Amen.