The Bronze Basin

POD: Come to the fountain of life

Bible Passage: Exodus 30:17–21, Hebrews 10:19–25

Introduction:

I want to thank all of you for the great privilige for me to have the opportunity to preach God’s word here today.

It is such joy to see and feel the kind of encourgement that has been extended here in our church.

Especially consideiring the fact that we live in an age where so many wrestle with the question of thier identity. As a result of this struggle, we are left with a gnawing void in our hearts, longing for a true sense of belonging.

The struggle that we face is completely understandable because it is an intimate part of our nature as created beings. We are made as sociable beings, designed to thrive in a community.

One of the greatest joys that a person can experience today is a true sense of belonging.

As I have been meditating on this reality, the Lord reminded me of the great blessing that my family and I have received in finding a home here in this church family. A true sense of belonging.

While I wasn't raised by any of you, I can truly feel the warmth of family when I fellowship here with my church.

The joy that this warmth brings in being welcomed in with a loving embrace is such a precious experience and it is something that all people long for.

The desire to be a good person and to be liked by all is embedded in every one of us. However, we are all victims of sin and fall short of this goal.

The evils of sin corrupt our hearts, shattering our union with one another and ultimately with our Creator, leaving us isolated in darkness.

Even as christians, we experience this struggle and don’t always live as lovingly and unitedly as we desire.

How conscious are we of our sins? Can we say with certainty that we are 100% aware of all of our mistakes?

To make matters worse for us today, in today’s world, so much of our identity is formed in the digital realm that it has become even easier to hide our sins in the real world.

Perhaps that offers you some comfort.

If so, Imagine for a moment, if you lived in a world where our sins were a physical condition, like leprosy on the skin. The more you sin, the worse the disease. How conscious of your sins would you then become? Would you not run as quickly as you can to find a cure? search your nearest chemist warehouse to find a skincare solution? Or perhaps just try and cover it up with a jacket?

Well, whether we can physically see our sins or not, the truth is that we know its there, and not only are we aware of our sin, we also know that we can’t remove them either.

Our passage which was read for us today places us in the middle of a construction site.

The Israelites have been freed from Egypt and are now wanderers in the desert, with only God as their guide. Although the Israelites have been freed from their slavery in Egypt, they were still slaves to their own wickedness, and when things got rough they began questioning God, flirting with the idea of returning to Egypt their former slave masters and even replaced the God that brought them out of Egypt for Golden Calf of their making to worship.

Despite the seriousness of their sins, God provided for them not only a place to worship Him, but a way to be cleansed of their sins.

In the construction of the tabernacle we are given the blueprints for how they were instructed to build this place of worship and in it we see the details of every bit of furniture has been specified for them and by analysing each item we can see God’s intentionality in using these objects as visible pictures for the His people, pointing back to God, and revealing more of who He is.

Today's focus as the passage reads is on the bronze basin.

1. Purity Through Preparation

Exodus 30:17–19

The basin is a washing station, in simple terms it is a bowl that is filled with water and placed on a stand.

Notice first the placement of the basin. It is located between the altar of sacrifice and the the tent of meeting, God’s dwelling place.

The altar is the only way for the common man in the ancient world to interact with the divine, because God’s presence due to the plague of sin in the people, is shrouded in darkness behind the curtains of the tabernacle.

A separation exists between God and His people, and this basin of bronze is the only object that sits between the altar and the tent.

The altar of sacrifice is a bloody and messy part of the worship. An animal is slaughtered and in the process, the priests are always covered in blood by the time they are finished.

The High priest must then go on behalf of the people into the tent where God’s presence resides.

But it would be improper for the Priest to enter into God’s dwelling place in this state because he is now unclean.

So, a provision was necessary.

V 20 says that the priests were commanded to wash their hands and their feet, lest they die.

Such a severe warning.

Notice that God specifies the hands and the feet in the washing.

God’s word in Ps 18:20 speaks of clean hands as a symbol of innocence.

and the feet in Prov 6:18 as a symbol of the inclinations of an individual.

Together it symbolises the state of both the heart and mind of the individual.

God doesn't want us to just be clean on the outside, He wants us to also be clean on the inside.

There is also no excuse for the priest, The basin stands alone, impossible to miss. This means that it is solely his responsibility to ensure that he is completely clean before entering the tent.

The basin is a picture of our Lord Jesus. Specifically, the cleansing work of Christ by the shedding of his blood.

While in the Old testament system, only the High Priest could enter into God’s dwelling place, in the New Testament, all of God’s people are part of the royal priesthood. We all share in the privilege of having access to God and dwell in God’s presence.

But, sadly, we are not completely freed from the grip of this world. We are still in a war against the evils of this world, and along the way, we continue everyday to fall short and stumble in sin.

We are called to be holy as Jesus is holy. Yet we get dirty.

How do we keep our hands clean?

Examination

The first step is to recognise our need for washing.

Just as the basin reminds the priest of his responsibility, we too ought to be reminded that nobody else is responsible for your sin but yourself.

It is a common part of our daily ritual to look in the mirror and clean ourselves up before we head out of the house.

In the case of the priest, to wash himself he must first proceed to bend down and look into the basin and observe what needs cleaning.

The Lord could have instructed for the basin to made out of any material. it could have been wood or even stone. so why did the Lord choose the bronze? Flip a few chapters over to Exodus 38:8 “He made the basin of bronze and its stand of bronze, from the mirrors of the ministering women who ministered in the entrance of the tent of meeting.”

The basin was made from the mirrors of the women. Because of this the basin’s reflective nature can now serve as a mirror that reveals his uncleanliness. He is able to see the blood that needs washing off.

But it is not blood that stains us, it is our sin. Now, while we can't go into our bathrooms and say “mirror mirror on the wall, who is the greatest sinner of them all?”

In st. James’ epistle, God’s word is described to us as the mirror that reveals to us our sins.

God’s word is perfect. it has no flaws, there could never be a purer, more purer mirror than the Word of God because God is perfect.

Just as we look intently into a physical mirror and the longer we stare, the more we notice the flaws in our skin. The more and more we delve into and meditate on Gods’ word, the more it will reveal our sins to us. God's word is not just mere words.

It is God speaking to us.

I've heard it said that “If you want to hear God speak, read your Bible. If you want to hear God speak audibly, read your Bible out loud.”

It is how God reveals himself to us while also revealing to us who we really are.

How often do you look into the mirror of God’s word? How often do you make it a habit to hold God’s holy word up against your life and examine yourself?

Do not be afraid to allow God’s word to expose the sin in your life. The only way to treat a problem is to first diagnose it

What use is complaining about the consequences that sin brings in our lives if we don't read God’s word?

A recent song opens a verse saying “ we got dust on our bibles, brand new Iphones. No wonder why we feel this way!”

Do not be so connected that you become disconnected from your heavenly Father.

Read God’s word, let it expose your imperfections, how else can you root out sin, if you’re blind to it?

We must however go on from merely seeing our sin.

2. Perpetual Cleansing Needed

Exodus 30:20–21

The priest, after looking into the water, must physically take up the water and wash the blood off from his hands and feet.

It is vitally important that the cleaning process is done thoroughly. Not one drop of blood can be left on his skin.

For God is a holy God and cannot dwell in the presence of the unclean.

you see, to be holy is to be set apart. God not only hates sin. He is so perfect and pure that sin cannot remain in his presence.

Isaiah, a prophet of the Lord, when he stood before God in all His glory and majesty, cried out in Isaiah 6:5 saying: “Woe is me! For I am lost;

a literal translation of this text would read more like “woe is me for i am undone.” as if his whole body was unraveling like the same way in which we would unravel a christmas present.

What would cause Isaiah to react in such a provoking way, let's read on:

“for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

He is a sinful man, He is unclean, and God is Holy, Holy,Holy. God is not just Holy, but thrice Holy.

as the shadows by nature disappear once light is brought into a room

No sin can remain in His presence.

Action

After looking in the reflection of God’s word, you know and I know, that we too are unclean people.

Picture yourself for a moment in this Exodus passage.

You’re at the basin, blood dripping down your hands. you look up towards the tabernacle and see that what awaits you behind the veil, is the perfect all powerful God of the world. His fury burns against the wicked, to walk through that veil, in an unclean state would result in immediate death.

However, the water is not only there to reflect our dirtiness. it is given to wash us. So that we don't have to worry about passing through the veil in an unclean state.

How glad are you to have that water present.

without a second thought, just as we would, the priest would then proceed to wash himself as deeply and carefully as possible.

Beloved, the water in this basin is a foreshadowing of the cleansing power in the blood of Christ.

What do we believe concerning The Atonement?

We believe, That He has presented Himself in our behalf before the Father, to appease His wrath by His full satisfaction, by offering Himself on the tree of the cross, and pouring out His precious blood to purge away our sins, as the prophets had foretold. - Belgic Confession Art 21

The confession of faith that we as a church stand on, highlights the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus in purging away your sins and mine.

Turn w/ me to Hebrews 7:25 “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”

Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

Are you walking daily by the Savior's side? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Do you rest each moment in the Crucified? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? It seems so easy to appreciate the provision of the water in the basin.

But how much do you appreciate the provision of the blood?

Jesus’s atonement on the cross cleanses our souls. All our sins, past present and future are absolved in the blood of Jesus and as result, we are no longer unclean in God’s sight. We no longer have the weight of our sin and shame hanging above our heads.

More than that. This freedom is eternal.

Our text in Exodus 30:21 ends saying: “They shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they may not die. It shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his offspring throughout their generations.”

The provision of the blood holds an eternal promise for us.

It shall be a statute forever.

Not maybe, or hopefully. He assures us that it will be a statute. A point of reference to be reminded of His love.

The promise of the Gospel is that we are made clean forever. We have no reason to fear because Jesus has secured our salvation through His death on the cross on a promise of love that extends across all eternity

3. Presence with Confidence

Hebrews 10:19–24 “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

What an honour it is, to be united to our saviour not by merit of our own but by the shedding of His blood on our behalf, and in doing so have been given full access to God. He has adopted us into His family and as a result all the benefits of God’s grace and love are ours.

While once we were estranged in darkness, isolated and broken. In the light of the Gospel we are given an identity -Children of God.

We are given a sense of belonging - A home in the Celestial City.

More than that, as a church, the body of Christ are given the great privilege of being the literal hands and feet of the saviour so that we can fulfil Christ’s mission in extending His Love and grace to all those who are still in the darkness.

So walk, dear saints, walk in the confidence that we are held in hands of a saviour who has not only cleansed us of our sin, but has called us as His own and has united us to himself in perfect love, so that we may persevere through the pain and the strifes of this life while carrying out the task of the great commission of our Lord in redeeming the world to Himself, until that day when we pass through the veil of this mortal life and are welcomed home to see our glorious Lord face to face.

But as you walk, remember to take one last glance back at the basin.

And see Christ.

If you look at the surrounding passages in our text in exodus 30, you will notice that every piece of furniture is given specific dimensions.

How tall, how wide, how long. Not one detail is missed.

All except the basin. it has no dimensions given.

The priests are given the freedom to make the basin as big as they’d like. Symbolically its dimensions are endless.

This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. All are bidded to come to Jesus because there is no limit to the saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You see, the mirror of God’s word shows us all our need for a saviour and then by the washing of Christ’s blood, we are not only cleansed of our sins but are also granted an inheritance of eternal life in Jesus.

If you have yet to know this Christ, take heart, for today is the day of salvation.

There has never been, nor ever will be, a soul who comes to Jesus and not find him to be a perfect and able saviour.

His grace stretches as far as the east is from the west. It knows no bounds.

And the Basin stands before you too.

It is an invitation

There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Immanuel's veins; And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains

So come, come to the fountain of life and be cleansed.

Let us bow our heads now and pray.

AFTER THE SERMON

Gracious Father of all mercy, we are eternally thankful for your son who by His Sanctifying blood continues to pour his benefits of grace and love upon us.

Lord, you have chosen and called us, justified us and set us apart, so we pray that by the grace of your Spirit that we will continue to walk this life in a manner that is pleasing in your sight. Challenge us, correct us and rebuke so that we may be moulded more and more into the likeness of our matchless saviour Jesus Christ.

Precious Jesus, you were born for us, and you lived and died for us. You have given us blessings for this life, and for a better life to come. We are left awestruck in wonder of the grace that you have given us and want nothing more than to exalt your name in the highest.

Lord, your blessings hang in clusters, falling upon us. They envelope over us like mighty waters on every side.

And now, Lord, you have fed us with the bread of life, your word. we have eaten the food of angels. Bless it, we pray Lord, make it health and strength to our souls, as we strive and prosper in the building of your kingdom, until our obedience reaches the measure of your love-you who have done everything for us.

Grant this, dear Father, for your Son's sake, our only Savior.

We pray that to the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, three persons, one most glorious, incomprehensible God, be all honor, glory, and praise forever, amen.

Soli Deo Gloria

We have know come to the time where we will be distributing the offereing baskets, the blue bag is for the work of our church here at Dandenong, and the red bag is for our denominations mssion work being done over in India.

As the bags go around the music team will lead us in a song of response to our God, titled, Not what my hands have done.