In this sermon, the speaker tells a story about a man who asks a young boy to bring him water. The man uses the water to wash his feet before going to remember the Lord in the breaking of bread. However, as the man and others walk back to the village, their feet become covered in dust and leaves. The speaker then shares a conversation he had with a man named Mr. Brown, who claimed to have accepted Jesus as his Savior but then lived in sin for 20 years. The speaker initially doubts Mr. Brown's story but later realizes that just like pigs enjoy wallowing in smelly mud, some people may choose to live in sin despite knowing the truth of the gospel.

Now shall we turn again to that book of Exodus? This evening we're going to read about the laver. Exodus chapter 30. Exodus chapter 30, and reading from verse 17. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Thou shalt also make a laver of copper, and his foot also of copper, 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 generation. Now shall we turn to chapter 38, to see where they obtained this copper, not brass, where they obtained the copper to make this laver. Chapter 38, and reading at verse 8. And he made the laver of copper, and the foot of it of copper, of the looking-glasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Rather unfortunate that the word used there is glasses, because these were not made of glass, they were mirrors that were made of highly polished copper. The women in those days used these highly polished copper mirrors. During the war, the men in the services carried around with the mirrors that were made of highly polished steel, they were unbreakable. And so the word should be mirrors rather than glasses. They were not made of glass, they were made of copper. The amazing thing to me is that the women folk assembling there at the gate of the tabernacle of the congregation, willingly handed over their mirrors. I wonder what they looked like the next morning, when they hadn't got a mirror that they could use to titivate themselves up a bit, and make them look respectable. But they handed them over, those very things that were being used for self-admiration, and in some measure I suppose ministering to the gratification of the flesh, they were handed over to Moses. And from these they made the laver. Now shall we look at a few verses in the first epistle of John that will be helpful to us tonight, as we're looking into this subject of the laver. The first epistle of John, and we shall read first in chapter one. First epistle of John, chapter one, and reading from verse five. This then is the message which ye have heard of him, and declare unto you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say, now we are making a profession, 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 in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin. Now notice, not has cleansed us, not will cleanse us, but cleanseth. That's the present continuous tense. The blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say, again we are making a profession, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say, again we make a profession, if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Chapter two, my little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Now let us look at chapter three, verse five, chapter three, and ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. That's present continuous tense, sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth, continuing in sin, hath not seen him, neither or neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you. He that doeth, present continuous tense, he that doeth righteousness, is righteous even as he is righteous. He that commiteth sin, committeth, practiceth, continuous. He that can commit a sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose, the son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, doth not practice sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin. He cannot practice sin because he is born of God. In this, the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. Not in this is revealed the old nature and the new nature, but in this is revealed the children of God, and the children of the devil. Well now, we can turn our attention again to this wonderful subject, the tabernacle. And again tonight, I want to gather up what we've had. It's good to really consolidate this and get it before us afresh, because it's related to what we have as our subject for this evening. Now, we have seen that without a shadow of a doubt, God himself designed all this with regard to the tabernacle. He designed it, and he brought it in. And he so designed it that every bit of it would speak of his beloved son, the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he brought it in and brought it in a certain way. So that would also be helpful to us. And we have seen that when he did bring it in, he brought it in by beginning with his own very throne, that is the Ark, Mercy seat, Cherubim, and then coming out step by step until at last he's dealing with the priesthood. And in dealing with the priesthood, he reaches that place furtherness from the throne where he began. This is a picture of God coming out to the place of sin. And then we have seen that that same offering speaks of Christ. Christ on that cross made to be sin and made to be a sin offering. And God was in Christ. And he came out in Christ not to judge, not to condemn, but he came out to say, come let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Come, let us reason together. I've come out to where you are in your sin to make provision for you and to make it possible for you to become priests and to have access into my very presence. So having come out, he deals with the sin offering, the burnt offering, the offering of consecration to establish the priesthood. And then he went back into the altar of incense and out to the laver, these vessels of approach, to show us that he's coming out to make provision for us. And having made the provision, when we avail ourselves of what he has provided, then we may as priests make our way into his own very presence, that we may offer up those spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to him. Now we have looked at this, we have seen that sin offering, we have seen the burnt offering, and we've seen the offering of consecration. We have seen that all those three offerings are taking us to the cross of Christ. We saw how that these priests, heirs and sons, having been bathed and clothed in their priestly garments, we see that they're now brought into all the value of those three offerings. They identify themselves with the offerings by placing or pressing their hands upon the heads of those offerings. And then we see that all the value of what was done to those offerings is reckoned to them, it is made over to them. They stand before God in all the value of those three offerings, and it was God himself who brought those offerings in, and brought them in in that way. Because this was the only possible way that they could be established as priests, that they could have access into his presence. So we see that all this is typical, because Aaron was a type of Christ, our great high priest, and Aaron's sons are types of Christians, because every Christian is the priest. Peter makes that quite clear to us, that we have become a royal priesthood, a kingdom of priests. We are able to offer up spiritual sacrifices. So then now, as we are looking at this priesthood, and seeing how it was brought in by means of that sin offering, burnt offering, an offering of consecration, we are thinking of ourselves, how that we are brought into a priesthood, we are able to enter into the very presence of God, that we may offer up our spiritual sacrifices. And those three offerings are helping us. The sin offering is taking us to the cross. We saw that it was taken outside, only the fat kidneys, midriff, were burned in the altar. All that went up to God as a sweet savour. This is Christ, through the eternal spirit, offering himself to God without stop, as that sin offering. And then we see the sin offering itself, the carcass, with the head, the legs, the skin, the gum, all carried through the gate, through the camp, and in that clean place, outside the camp, then it is burned with fire. And these priests are there, and they're witnessing all that takes place. They have identified themselves with it. They have acknowledged, this is what we really deserve. They have watched that glittering bird doing its deadly work. They have seen those inward parts going up to God as a sweet savour, and there are the ashes falling down beneath that altar. Then they have seen that sin offering taken, and away outside, in that clean place, outside the camp, it was burned to ashes. And all the value of that was made over to them. This is God dealing with sin. And when we turn to the cross, that's what we are thinking of. Christ is a sin offering. God is there dealing with sin. God is there dealing with everything that is offensive and everything that is hateful. There's no sweet savour about it. And when we look at it from that point of view, God's point of view, that sin offering, there is nothing sweet about it. But now we turn to a burnt offering, and we see that the burnt offering is the other side. All of the burnt offerings went up to God as a sweet savour. They were identified with it again by the laying on of hands. They are brought into all the value of that which was accepted. It went up to God, or every bit of it went up as a sweet savour, accepted. Again we turn to the cross, and there we see that whilst the Lord Jesus Christ there was made to be sin, he's a sin offering, and there is all that is offensive and all that is hateful being dealt with, nevertheless we can see him also as the burnt offering. That everything that he accomplished there was glorifying God. It all went up to God as a sweet savour. And he himself, in all the value of that finished work of the sin offering, he went up, was received up, and he's there at the right hand of God. And he's there in all the value of his work on the cross as sin offering and burnt offering. And then we saw the offering of consecration. There we see the blood applied to the ear and the hand and the foot. The whole man is really now going to be consecrated, set aside for God. The filling of the hands with that which speaks of Christ, and then these were burned in the altar, going up to God as a sweet savour. Other parts were seized, and the priests had to partake of them in the holy place. They were experimentally entering into all that had to do with those offerings. And so we are brought in then in the same way, into all the value of Christ as sin offering, burnt offering, and offering of consecration. Now remember, it was a finished work. When these priests had been brought through all that, bathed, clothed, sin offering, burnt offering, offering of consecration, they had been established as priests before God. That work in the sight of God was perfect and complete. Of course, it was typical. It was typical of what was yet to come regarding Christ himself. But for the time being, and according to these circumstances, it was perfect and complete. They were established as priests. Now we too, we have been brought in as priests through all the work of Christ on the cross, the sin offering, burnt offering, and offering of consecration. It was complete, it was perfect, and we were established in that way before God in a priesthood which is perfect. It was brought in by God himself. Now we might say, well then, the priest could now enter upon their service, and they could make their way into the sanctuary, that they might have that communion with God. Well yes, they could. But whilst they had been brought into this position as priests by a work which in God's sight was perfect, they themselves were not perfect. They could still become defiled, and so God had to make provision for that. And he made provision for it in the labour. So now we have this thought before us, that whilst they are perfect with regard to the priesthood, they are not perfect in themselves. God himself has established them in that way. And yet, they may become defiled. And because of that, God makes provision for them. And he made provision by placing the labour between the altar and the sanctuary. And the priest must need to wash hands and feet at that labour. Now we looked at the altar last night, and we saw that it was made of acacia wood, that incorruptible kind of wood, the wood from a thorn tree, the only tree really that you meet within the wilderness, a tree that was triumphing over all the circumstances of the wilderness, and it speaks of Christ, his perfect humanity. And then it was overlaid with copper, not brass, with copper. And the copper is bringing before us the deity of Christ. So he was very man, and he was very God. And we saw last night that this must need be so. We cannot agree with people who will say that Christ was indeed very man. He was a perfect man, and then he was martyred. We believe that he was very man, and he was very God. And as far as we are concerned, it must be so. Otherwise, we're in rather a hopeless position. So then now we're looking at the labour, it was not made of acacia wood, it was made of copper. And the copper we saw came from the copper mirrors of the womenfolk. So that as we are thinking of the labour, we can only think of the deity, not of the humanity. And so there we have the thought that that labour brings before us Christ as the eternal word. He is the eternal word, his deity. And then the water contained blood. Oh no, it contained water. That water has two thoughts in it. It has the thought of the spirit. We have brought before us the fact that the rock was Christ, and the water that gushed from it is the spirit. And here they are with this water, in the labour. It is living water, and it brings before us the thought of the Spirit of God. But that water also brings before us the thought of cleansing Christ by the washing of water by the word. And so now we can think of these three things together. There is the labour, we have the eternal word, and there in the water we have the Spirit. And so the eternal word is applying the written word in the power of the Spirit, having in view our cleansing. Because this labour had to do with cleansing. The priests had already been bathed, and they had already been clothed in their priestly garments. They were not to be bathed again. But they had to wash hands and feet again and again, and the labour was placed there for that purpose. When they went into the sanctuary they must wash hands and feet, not bathe. Oh no, they were bathed once ceremonially down there, never again. Now every time they went into the sanctuary, they washed hands and feet, and it was a very serious thing, because again and again it says that they die not. So they must wash hands and feet thereat. Now then, as we are thinking of this work of Christ brought before us in the sin offering, burnt offering, and offering of consecration, the perfection, the completeness of that work, we realize we've been brought into all the value of that finished work of Christ on the cross, the sin offering, burnt offering, offering of consecration. Now if I said to you, tell me, when you personally accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, when you went to that cross and by faith you pressed your hand upon his head, you were identified with him in that way, tell me what was it that took place? What happened? You probably say, well, my sins were all forgiven. When I by faith identified myself with Christ on the cross, my sins were all forgiven. Now if I said to you, well, which sins were forgiven? You probably say, well, all my past sins. Right up to that moment when I identified myself with Christ on the cross, all my past sins were blotted out. They were all put away, never to be remembered again. Then I might ask you another question and say, well, since that time when you by faith took Christ as your Saviour and all your past sins were blotted out, have you not sinned again since then? Oh, you say, well, yes, of course we have. We say we have not sinned, oh well, we make him alive. Yes, we have, we've sinned again and again. Well now, what about those sins? Because when you went there and by faith identified yourself with Christ, you say all your past sins were blotted out. But since then you've collected a lot more. Now what are you going to do about those? Some will say, well, of course, I suppose we shall eventually stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and we shall be judged for those sins that we have committed since we accepted Christ by faith. But I think we can be very sure of this, that when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, it will not be for our sins, it will not be for the judgment of our sins. That judgment is already passed. Now if I was saying to you what happened to me, I would say, you know, when I went to that cross, when by faith I pressed my hand on the head of Christ, identified with him, you know what happened? My sins in the past, in the present, and in the future, were all blotted out once and for all. Of course I shouldn't talk like this. I mean, I shouldn't talk about having future sins, should I? But I'm trying to help you. I want you to realize that when we did, by faith, accept Christ as Savior, the whole question of sins was settled once and for all. Whether my sins in the past, or in the present, or in the future, all was settled right then when I accepted Christ as my Savior. I shall not come into judgment for my sins. My judgment is passed in that cross. Now have we all got that? Have we all laid hold of that? That the sin question, regarding the whole of our lives, has been settled once and for all, and it was settled then when we, by faith, identified ourselves with Christ on the cross. That question of sins will never come up again. Now that is something that is very, very wonderful, that God, in his great love and rich mercy, has seen to it that we can have peace, perfect peace, because that question has been settled once and for all. Now remember, it has to do with judgment. These priests were brought into all the value of that finished work which we see in those three offerings, and they stood there before God in all the value of that, perfected, complete, but not perfect in themselves. They could still be defiled. We too have been brought into all the value of the finished work of Christ, complete, perfect, but not perfect in ourselves. So we get settled. As far as sins are concerned, we shall never come into judgment, but we may be defiled. And if we sin, are we to ignore it? If we sin, do we say, well, it doesn't matter, because all our sins have been dealt with. We're the past, present, future. So if we sin, it doesn't matter, but it does. Because, you see, whilst we have these priests down here brought into all the value of that, if they became defiled, they didn't say it doesn't matter. God said it does. If you become defiled, there's a labor there, and you must make use of it. When you go in, when you serve, you must wash hands and feet. Tell me, in the bringing in of the priesthood, when all this had been accomplished with regard to that sin offering, burnt offering, and offering of consecration, did they ever go back there a second time? No. When that was accomplished, they were priests, and they were able to draw near to God, but they had to remember the labor. When we, by faith, accepted Christ as Savior, that was something perfect and complete. We never go back there again. This is a mistake which is made by many today. The thought that we must, of necessity, go to the cross, and remain there at the cross, and make the cross to be everything. Whereas, as we shall see more and more as we go on with these talks, that the cross was not something in itself. It was a means to something else. So then, these were all brought in. They were bathed once ceremonially, and clothed with their priestly garments. They never went down there a second time to be bathed. Once and for all brought into all the value of sin offering, burnt offering, and offering of consecration, they never went back down there. When they became defiled in their service, they didn't go back again and start all over again. Neither do we. When we have been brought into all the value of that finished work of Christ at the cross, we never go back again there, to begin again, to believe again, for a second application of that precious blood. Never. We get that settled once and for all. But let's remember, all this we have in view, the judgment of God on account of sin, it's finished. Never again shall we be brought in. Never again shall we go back as if it had been brought in. What do we do? We remember there's a labor. If we sin, now then, we may. And if we do, if we do, if we do, then as God made provision for these, the priests, so he's made provision for us. If we sin, we don't go back again to Christ, the sin offering, the burnt offering, the offering of consecration. We don't go back again to be bathed and clothed with priestly garments. No, no, that's finished once and for all. We're established in the priesthood. If we become defiled, a labor. They made use of it, they washed hands and feet thereof. Again and again, we have a labor. Where is it? We read it in John. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I hear people preaching the gospel from that verse. I heard about it a while ago, speaking for half an hour on the radio, preaching the gospel from this verse. But this verse has to do with the children of God. If we walk in the light, we Christians, we the children of God, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ is some cleanseth, cleanseth, present, maintaining us, cleanseth us from all sin, day to day. The abiding value of that precious blood of Christ. And now, we ourselves, down here, if we sin, then this is our responsibility. If we sin, we must of necessity deal with God about that sin. If we sin, it does not touch that work of Christ, the sin offering, burnt offering, the offering of consecration. If we sin, it does not interfere with our salvation. That is something which is settled once and for all. Let's remember, with regard to that judgment of God, all that is settled once and for all. And if we sin, it doesn't touch it, it doesn't undo it, it doesn't destroy it, because that salvation doesn't depend upon us. It depends upon Christ, and there's nothing we can do that can undo what he has done. That's a finished work, and it's accepted by God. So that if we sin, remember, leave it there where it is. Do not carry over your sin into the realm of your salvation. Don't take your sin as a child of God, and carry it over into that question of the work of Christ on that cross, the sin offering, burnt offering, offering of consecration. Don't do that. Remember that now, if as a child of God you sin, it has to do with the labour, it has to do with communion. Down there, you have before you the force of judgment. Up here, with the labour, you have the thought of communion. With regard to judgment, shall not come into judgment. There is now no judgment for them that are in Christ Jesus. That's settled. If we sin, leave that. Don't carry it over there, leave it. If we sin, now we remember, there's a labour. So they wash hands and feet at the labour. If we confess our sins, he'll be faithful and just to forgive us, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and so we are restored to fellowship. Because the moment you go into sin, then your fellowship and communion with God is broken. You may still go on. You may still go on serving the Lord. You may still go on preaching or teaching. But remember, that if there is sin in your life, if you have not made use of that labour, then what you do may show up one day as being wood hay stubble. It may show up as being a dead loss. You see? Why? Because, you see, whilst your sin does not interfere with your salvation, it does interfere with your communion. And so you may be serving the Lord with sin in your life, and it may please the Lord to use you, or to use what you do, but when you are manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, and all this comes out, then it's wood hay stubble. Because you were not in fellowship. You were not a vessel unto honour, a vessel meet for the Master's use. So let's remember, it's very important that we, as the children of God, remember that we have a labour, and if we confess our sins, he'll be faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse from all unrighteousness. Remember, we never go back again. They never went back for that to be repeated, but they went to the labour again and again. We never go back to that cross for all that to be repeated, but we remember we have a labour. And again he says, if we sin, we have an advocate with God. No, that would be down there. If we sin, we have an advocate with the Father. We are in a relationship. We are the children of God. He is our Father, and if we sin, we have an advocate with our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, ever living to make intercession. So let's remember this. You know, out yonder in Africa, I found a great deal taking place there that was very helpful. Our Africans out there, Christians, they didn't have their houses, you know, with their baths and wash hands, basins and water laid on. They lived in huts. And when they wanted water, they had to go down to the river for it. And they never built their villages near the river, because they got too many mosquitoes. So usually the village would be about a mile away from the river. And so the women had to go down morning and evening to bring up pots of water. They had their water pots, and they carried them on their heads. And they would fill the water pot in the morning and bring it up to the village, and that water had to last all day. And then they would go down in the evening and fill it up and bring it back, and they had to take care how they used the water. Now every Saturday, the men used to go down to that river, and the women. The men went to one part of the river where there was a natural basin formed, and there they took off their clothes, and they gave them a good washing, and they hung them up to dry. And then they bathed themselves from head to foot, and they used a piece of pumice stone to scrub the feet. And they got themselves all clean, nice, bathed, ready for Sunday morning to come to remember the Lord in the breaking of bread. And then when the things were dry, they sat there in the sun, they put their clothes on and make their way back to the village. But you know, it was a mile from the river to the village, and it wasn't a nice clean pavement to walk on. It was just a track, a path in and out, in and out, through the bush and through the grass, you see. So when these men left the river, they were clean, they were bathed from head to foot. But by the time they got to the village, walked out of the path into the wideness of the village, they looked down at the feet, and the feet was covered with dust and leaves and what have you. And they would look at the feet, and they'd look around, and if they could see a boy somewhere, they would say, ha, see him wearing white gaits, he's not cool, no. Come on you, stick him over here. He says yes, and he bows his knee and says, what can I do for you? He says, look, just slip into the hut there and bring me some water, will you? You want to drink? No, you just go and bring me some water. Is it to drink? Poor little boy, he knows he'd get caught taking water, which is not for drinking, he's going to get a hiding. Is it to drink? He says, now look, you go and bring me some water, I just want a little water, you see. Bring me water and a calabash, you see. So the boy looks around and he comes back and says, here, quick. So the man takes it. Now what's he going to do? You reckon he's going to start pouring that water on his head and try to bathe himself and clean? No! He's bathed, he's clean, it's only his feet. And so he sees a rock, a stone there, and he puts his foot up and he pours a little water on and he washes his feet, you see. That's it. Down at the river he was bathed from head to foot, he was clean. But walking along the path he became defiled and it was necessary, when he arrived at it, to wash his feet again. Now you have this in the Word of God, you remember? I picture this to myself in my own simple way. There was the Lord with his disciples around the table. They were reclining, not sitting up to the table as we do, they were reclining around the table on their elbows, I suppose. And then I see the Lord suddenly, he rose from supper and he laid aside his garments, a very significant act, laid aside his garments and then he took a towel and he girded himself, and I can see him going out and he came back in with a jug of water and a basin. And he went to one of the disciples there and he put the basin down and he stretched out his hands for the disciples' feet. And then he began to wash his feet, pouring the water on his feet as he washed them. And then he wiped them with the towel. And then he moved along and he did the same with the next one. And then I said to myself, well I reckon that third one was probably Simon Peter, you know. And so the Lord put the basin down in front of Peter and put his hands out for Peter's feet and they were not there. Peter got them behind him, you see? He took them underneath out of the way. And so the Lord put his hands out for his feet, they were not there looking for them, and then he looked at Peter, and Peter was waiting for that. And when the Lord looked at Peter he said, what are you going to do? I'm going to wash your feet. Never. They may let you wash their feet, but no, you're not going to wash my feet. And the Lord looked him straight in the eye and said, Peter, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me, no fellowship with me if I wash thee not. Oh, well, wash my hands, wash my head, bathe me from head to foot as long as I have fellowship with you. Ah, Peter, you don't know what you're talking about. You see, Peter, he that is bathed, see it? Bathed from head to foot, needeth not save to wash his feet. And you're clean. It's that feet, the feet washing, that's it. And so we are faced with the same thing. This is what we have here. They were brought in, they were perfect and complete as far as their priesthood was concerned, but in themselves they were not perfect. We are the same, not perfect. We still may stumble, we still may fall, we still may sin. If we do, thank God we haven't got to go back again and start all over again. Thank God we're not saved today and lost tomorrow and saved the next day and go on and on, hoping that when it does happen to us, it will happen just that time when we are saved. Isn't that dreadful to go on like that from day to day? No, no, let's get it settled once and for all, that's it. His work finished, his work complete, and all the value of it made over to us shall not come into judgment. I grant. And then we still need a labor. There is this defilement. Now notice, whilst it's true that God has made provision for us in that labor, that we can confess our sins and he will be faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, restore us to that fellowship, he'll never bring us into judgment for sin, but he's willing and ready to cleanse so that we have that fellowship with him. Let's remember that we are not to take things for granted. We are not to make light of sin. We are not to think for one moment that because we've been brought into all the value of the finished work of Christ and shall not come into condemnation that our sins, past, present and future, have all been dealt with, therefore it doesn't matter if we do sin. We may not do that. If we sin as the children of God, it's a very, very serious thing. If we make light of sin, then there's something wrong somewhere. Because no true child of God can make light of sin. Because a true child of God has been to that cross and he has entered into the meaning of Christ's suffering there at the hands of the Holy God on account of sin. He would never, a child of God, a true child of God, would never make light of sin. Neither will a child of God practice sin. He that is born of God does not practice sin. He may sin. He may stumble, he may fall, but he will not practice sin. He will not live in sin. So that if you find somebody saying, I am a Christian, I am a child of God, I've been born again, and they live in sin. Living in sin is a contradiction. There is evidence that they were never truly born of God, if we are to accept what the Word of God says. Standing in the hall down in South Africa, I remember a man coming through the doorway, and I was standing talking to three or four of the brethren there. The man came walking in and came right up to me, and he says, You're Mr. Brown? I said, Yes. Pleased to meet you, Mr. Brown. You know, Mr. Brown, he said, Twenty-three years ago, I came through those doors, I sat here, and I heard the gospel for the first time. And that night, I heard the gospel for the first time, I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. I was born again, I became a child of God. That night, twenty-three years ago. Mr. Brown, the very next day, I went deeper into sin than I've ever been in it before, and I lived in sin for twenty years. But three years ago, God restored me. I said, Do you expect me to believe that? He said, Don't you believe it? I said, I can't. You mean to tell me that that night, you heard the gospel, you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you became a child of God, you were born again, and the very next day you went into sin, you lived in sin, you were in sin for twenty years, as a child of God? As far as I am concerned, you were saved three years ago, not twenty-three years ago. He that is born of God doth not practice sin, doth not live in sin, doth not continue in sin. He may sin, he may stumble, he may fall. People try to tell me, well, there was a man saved, you know, and he was in fellowship for a year or two, he took a Sunday school, or he preached, or he helped, and so on, and then something happened, and he backslid. How long ago was that? Oh, round about fifty years now. When was he restored? No, he never was. And you reckon he was a backslider? He was a true child of God. He was saved, and for a year or two he seemed to go on, and then for fifty years he'd been a backslider, and he's going to die as a backslider. Is that a child of God? The evidence is against it. The only evidence I have that a person is truly a child of God is this, that he goes on, that he keeps on. The moment he turns back, I've got nothing. The moment he begins to live in sin, I've got nothing. Maybe backslider, it's a very difficult thing, a backslider. I said to an old farmer one day, you've got a very nice farm here, he says, yeah, like to walk round it? I said, yeah. He says, uh, quite a while, you know, it's quite a few miles to get round my farm. I said, well, I don't mind, if you mind fifteen or twenty miles, I say. Oh, he said, not that far. Well, I said, right, I'll walk with you all round your farm, I'd like to see it. So we began to walk round the farm, and he showed me the fields here and there, and what was growing, and coming on very well, going to have a real big harvest. And then he said to me, as we were going along, he said, you know, it's very difficult, this farming. He said, I've had my ups and downs, but I've been blessed of God. So I said, I'm pleased to hear it. And then I could hear somebody groaning. We were going up a bit of a rise, and I could hear somebody groaning, and I looked at him, and he wasn't taking any notice, and the groaning became louder, and I looked at him again, I thought he must be a bit deaf. We walked on, and I hear this groaning louder and louder. So I said to him, hey, I say, can you hear that man groaning? What man? I said, listen, that's one of your farm labourers, I said, he's got hurt, he's dying, listen. Come on, he said, that's not one of my farm labourers. Well, I said, there's some man there, I mean, that man's dying, listen to him groaning. Come on, he said. So we went up the rise, and then he said, look, and there was a sheep. And the sheep had got too near to a ditch full of mud and slime, and it had rolled into it, and it had managed to scramble out of it again. And it was lying there on its side, and it was rubbing itself, trying to get this slime and mud off it. And it was groaning like an old man. I was sure it was an old man. He said, no, he said, it's a sheep. So I said, well, do they often do that? Yeah, he said, whenever a sheep gets down there, he said, they get out, and they, he said, they try to get it off, you know, they get down on the sides, and they wriggle about. He said, they try to get it off. They don't like it. I said, well, why is it that they like that? Well, it's just because they're sheep. So I said, oh, is that right? Come on, he said. So off we went, and as we were going along, he suddenly said to me, oh, look at that little lot down there, he said. Look at that lot down there. And way down in the corner of the field, it had been raining, and there was a lot of water down there. And he said, look at that lot down there, and there was about twenty pigs. And these pigs were racing around, you know, and they would go headlong into this water, turn upside and roar, and they were screaming their heads off. And I said to him, well, I said, they, they, they seem to be having a good time, don't they? Oh, and he said, they love that. Well, I said, that stuff's a bit smelly, isn't it? Smelly, he said, it stinks. So I said, but they love it. He said, look at them, look at them, they're wallowing in it. So I said, why do they love wallowing in that? And he looks at me, he says, well, just because they're pigs. But they're sheep. Oh, no, no, no, he said, they're sheep. No, no, he doesn't like it. But they're pigs. Oh, they love it. Yes, a true child of God. He'll never love sin. He'll never wallow in it. He'll never practice it. He may sin, he may stumble, he may fall. And he may find himself in a very difficult position. He may find it very hard to get out of it. He needs help, he needs prayer. But if he's a true child of God, he'll know he's in it. And if he's a true child of God, he'll want to get out of it. And if he's a true child of God, he'll want to get out of it as soon as he can. But if he can just be resigned to it and wallow in it, the evidence is, he was never born of God. So let's beware. God has made provision for us. We can confess our sins. He'll be faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse and restore us to that fellowship, and so we can go on. Have you got that? Well, now, that's helped you. We've gone over it again, and we've got that settled, haven't we? Don't carry over your stumbling and falling and sin. Don't carry it over to the realm of your salvation. You'll have no peace at all. That's complete. That's finished. He's there for you and as you, as he was there on the cross, for you and as you. Finished. But your fellowship, your communion, your service, that's the big thing now, from day to day. Remember, the labor is needed so that we are maintaining that fellowship. He will do it up there as our advocate, but we've got another advocate within, remember, the Spirit of God, and he will not leave us, and we'll be obliged to get there to that labor. Well, now then, all that you might think, well, isn't that wonderful? We've got it all. No, you haven't. So you come on Sunday morning and then we'll be going a bit further, you see, and we begin to realize now how wonderful all this is, that God has brought all that in, not as something in itself, but as a means to something else. That God brought all in that in that has to do with the cross, not as something in itself, but a means to something else. What is that something else? You come on Sunday morning and Sunday evening, and I'll tell you something about it. Shall we pray? Our God and our Father, we again thank thee for thy help as we have looked into this subject once again, that which was very precious to thyself, that which was designed of thee and so designed that every bit of it would speak of the person and work of thy son. And we have been going over this night by night, and we have been helped of thee, and we do thank thee. And now tonight, at the close of these meetings for this week, we do thank thee, our God, for what has come before us, and ask of thee that thou have followed us up in the power of thy Spirit, and make it over to us in such a way that we shall rest, that we shall have peace, that we shall have that fellowship and communion with thyself, be able to give unto thee the glory due to thy name, and worship thee in the beauty of holiness, and offer up to thee our spiritual sacrifice. So we thank thee and ask thee that thou continue to help us, as again on Sunday we begin to go into this subject. We ask it in the name of thy beloved Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.