The Bronze Basin

Intro

I’d like to start this morning by asking a question. What is the dirtiest you have been? Can you remember a time when you were so dirty you couldn’t stand how dirty you were. The only thing you could think of was getting into a shower. I know when it was for me. Earlier this year I am sitting in my office on a wednesday afternoon getting ready for Wednesday night alive. and Ronnie Shell comes into my office and says we got a problem. Not words you want to hear. And he says a pipe from the kitchen is leaking into the basement closet in the youth room. they are coming to fix it in the morning but we have to move the stuff it leaked on today so they can get to it.

So we go down there and to our horror we discover that the pipe had leaked on some tarps I was storing down there which meant all oily leftovers from the kitchen garbage disposal had leaked and was being held in these tarps. So Ronnie and I who were both dressed for church had to shop vac the oily terrible smelling water up and then cut out part of tarp to get to the next deposit of water sitting in the tarp.

things are going pretty well Ronnie and are getting some of the water on us but not too bad. and then it happens. I pull on a piece of tarp that I thought all the water was out of and all the sudden I feel oily water run down from my thigh down my leg into my shoe. In that moment all I could think about was getting to a shower. Washing my hands wasn’t going to cut it I needed a shower. Have you ever been so dirty like that. That immediately your priority was becoming clean as soon as possible?

Today as we continue in our series and look at how the pieces of the tabernacle point forward to Jesus we are going to see how the priests would cleanse themselves but more importantly we get to see how you and I can be cleansed from our sin that is far dirtier than any garbage disposal water.

Exodus 30:17–21 CSB

The Lord spoke to Moses: “Make a bronze basin for washing and a bronze stand for it. Set it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it. Aaron and his sons must wash their hands and feet from the basin. Whenever they enter the tent of meeting or approach the altar to minister by burning a food offering to the Lord, they must wash with water so that they will not die. They must wash their hands and feet so that they will not die; this is to be a permanent statute for them, for Aaron and his descendants throughout their generations.”

The Bronze Basin was basically a giant cup filled with water. There were two distinct times it was used. the first was When a priest entered service for the very first time. Moses would use the basin and wash the priests entire body. This was declaring them clean for service in the tabernacle and it only happened once. Then they would wash just their hands and their feet everyday so they would be fit to go into the holy place and to serve the people at the altar.

When it came to that first washing that first cleansing what we see from that is.

1. We are Cleansed by the Cross Forever.

The priests were cleansed fully one time. It never had to happen again. They gave a sacrifice on the altar and then Moses washed them fully. He gave them a holy shower. and that sacrifice and the cleansing was enough for them forever. Just like for us no matter who we used to be we are washed completely by the blood of Jesus and become something new.

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 ESV

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Just as the priests sin and earlier life were washed away For us today. If you come to faith in Jesus by acknowledging he is the only way you go through that gate, you accept the sacrifice of Jesus as strong enough to save you, then you are washed clean forever. Paul is saying in these verse you used to be all of these things but since you were washed now you are sanctified and now you are justified.

But here’s the reality as we go through life things happen, we do things that make us feel dirty. so dirty that we feel like we need to run to the shower. That we need to washed completely again. growing up going to church camps I would see the same students get saved and then resaved the next year. Cause they felt dirty and thought how can I be washed clean and still feel dirty cause of my sin.

Believers who have been washed with the washing of regeneration don’t need that washing anymore. The cleansing effect of the new birth is not to be repeated.

If you truly accepted God’s gift of salvation through Jesus. You don’t have to get resaved, rewashed, everytime you mess up. It is not lather rinse repeat situation. and this is why. If we think we need to reapply a second application of the blood of Jesus that shows we dishonor it.

If we have to reapply it, it clearly wouldn’t be very effective. But as the entire Bible screams out from the tabernacle through the New Testament. The sacrifice is strong enough and we are cleansed by the cross forever. He died to make us clean, he lives to keep us clean, we are made just as clean as his precious blood can make us, whiter than snow.

But that begs the question if we are cleansed by the cross forever and we don’t have to get resaved everytime we sin. What are we supposed to do when we feel dirty, we know we have messed up, and we may not need get resaved but it feels like we do need something.

Remember I said the Bronze basin was used to wash their whole body one time. but they also used it to was their hands and their feet everyday. before they went into the Holy place where they walked into the light of the candlestick which pointed to Jesus the light of the world, where the ate the shewbread the bread of life before they stood before the atlar of incense, They washed their hands and their feet.

Ephesians 5:25–26 CSB

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word.

2. We are Washed by the Word Daily

We have been cleaned by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross once and forever, but we need to be washed by the word daily. Water is used to symbolize God’s word all throughout scripture.

By the blood of Christ we are justified, then by the water of the word we are sanctified.

Sanctification is the lifelong process where God, through His Spirit, transforms believers to become more like Jesus in holiness, character, and obedience.

We are born again at the cross, and then we are cleansed and sanctified through his word applied in our lives by the Holy Spirit.

So as Christians what are we to do when it feels like we are far from God, when it feels like our whole world is caving in, when our mistakes are piling up? do we doubt that we have been cleansed by the cross, and go back to the altar to get resaved? no we simply do what we should be doing everyday and go back to God’s word and let the Holy Spirit wash us with the word. so that we can continue in the process of being made more like Christ every day.

Regardless of how the world will make you feel like the blood of Jesus cannot wash you clean enough, it can and if you have placed your faith in Jesus it has. It’s done its over. God will never declare you too dirty to be a part of his family. Sometimes we can feel that way and we need the complete cleansing again but our feelings do not dictate our position with God the blood of Jesus does.

When we start to feel the weight of our mistakes we don’t run to get resaved we should run to encounter God in his word to be washed by the word. I don’t know where you are at this morning but I would guess more than a few of us have been beaten down by life. You’ve been let down by your own mistakes and cycles of sin. You may even feel imposter syndrome just being in the room this morning. Thinking if these people knew about how dirty I feel I wouldn’t even get a how’s it going? If that’s you this morning I just want to blantatly ask you are you being washed daily by the word?

Are you making it a priority. Cause if you haven’t washed your hands of course they are going to be dirty. If you haven’t spent time in the word and you’ve not been thinking about how grateful you are that you have been cleansed from your sin. Then all you will see is the dirt on your hands in front of your face. You will slowly start to to believe the lie “maybe the sacrifice wasn’t that strong after all”.

Don’t believe the lie wake up every day and be washed by the word.

Why?

3. We are washed to Worship and Work.

When the priests would start their day they would wash at the basin then they would go into the holy place and worship. They would stand before the altar of incense and pray for the people. They would talk to God and declare his holiness. But they would never do this until they had washed at the basin.

The image that we are given is not one that says in order to come to God you have to clean yourself up first. No we can’t clean ourselves up that’s why there is one gate. Jesus’ sacrifice makes us clean. but what we do see is that as followers of Christ we can’t approach God without clean hands and clean hearts.

Here is what I have observed in my own life and I wonder if you have as well. The quality of our worship depends on the quality of our hearts, not the quality of the music.

I have attended conferences with the best worship leaders in the country leading worship and felt nothing. because at the time I wasn’t washing daily in the word I had unconfessed sin. My heart and my hands were dirty. So i couldn’t feel the presence of God. It wasn’t because he wasn’t there. It was because I hadn’t prepared myself to worship. Likewise I have been in Haiti. being led in worship by one guy with a guitar under a mango tree with no soundsystem or slides in another language, and felt God’s presence and was able to give him unhindered praise. not because the music was better, it wasn’t but because my heart and my hands had been washed.

Maybe for you Worship on sunday morning has felt flat for you and you have blamed the song selection, the atmosophere we are in a gym, but I want to pose the question for you this morning what have you done to prepare your heart to enter God’s presence? have you been washed by the word all week? have you prayed for the service? Have you prayed that the Spirit would fill our worship leaders? do you pray for me throughout the week that God would give me wisdom as I try to prepare give you answers from his word? Be washed in the word so your heart is ready to worship, not just every sunday but everyday wherever you are.

The priests weren’t monks they didn’t stay in the holy place with God all day. They worshiped then they went out into the courtyard and they got to work.

We are also not called to be monks. We are not called to live at church singing and praying 24/7. We are called to be washed by the word so we can not only worship with clean hands and a clean heart but work with clean hands and a clean heart.

We have been saved to serve. Serving is a crucial part of the sanctification process. You cannot say I am becoming more like Christ who by his own definition came to serve and not serve. Jesus served by giving himself completely, how can we say we are becoming more like him when he gave his life and we don’t even like to give one hour a week.

Jesus didn’t save you so you could sit he saved you so you could serve.

The church is plan a, plan b, and plan c, for telling the world about the eternal and abundant life they can find in Jesus. The church is not a building the church, is not a 501c, the church is you. Every Christian. That means you are plan a, plan b, and plan c for telling the world about the eternal and abundant life they can find in Jesus. Those classmates, those coworkers, if you have ever prayed God would reach them guess what he did he sent them you.

Man that sounds like a lot of pressure. and it would be if we had to do it alone and If you try to do it without being washed in word. I can tell you because I have tried. I’ve tried serving in my own strength and it left me ineffective and feeling empty.

Ill be honest. We need help. Every ministry we have is at capacity for the number of volunteers that we have. We need you to stand up and serve. But I’d rather have 5 people who are dedicated to being washed in the word so they can serve in the power of the spirit, than 50 who are trying to serve under their own strength.

Conclusion

Have you been washed in the word this morning? are you trying to work for God without being washed by the word and you feel unsatisfied? are you trying to worship without being washed by the word and you feel unsatisfied?

There is only one answer for you this morning and wash your hands and your feet with the word. I am not just talking about reading your Bible. To be washed in the word you read it, you work to understand it, but then you live it out through the power of the Holy Spirit. You may feel overwhelmed with the mistakes you have made, you may think you are too dirty to be made clean again. If that is you this morning I want you to know that once you are a child of God you can never be too dirty for your heavenly to not want to pick you back up out of the dirt when you fall. You are still covered by the blood.

But in order for that relationship to keep improving you got to be washed in the word. Maybe this morning as we take communion you need to spend some time humbling yourself and asking the Holy Spirit to enable you to live out what you know to be true in His word.

Maybe you are here today and you have never been cleansed by cross. You know that you are still dirty. but for the first time this morning you know what you need to do about it. You need to run through the gate this morning and accept the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross so you can be made clean today and forever.

The priests couldn’t enter God’s presence without being washed. We can’t either. But Jesus has washed us once and for all with His blood.

Communion reminds us of that. The bread and cup show us His body broken and His blood poured out to make us clean.

As we come to the table, we’re not proving we’re worthy—we’re remembering the One who makes us worthy.

1 Corinthians 11:23–25 CSB

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”