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"WASHED IN INNOCENCY."

A SERMON

PREACHED BY THE

REV. J. BATTERSBY

(Vicar of St. Simon's, Sheffield),

AT VERULAM DISTRICT CHURCH, LAMBETH, LONDON,
THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 5TH, 1878.

In the 26th Psalm, and at the 6th verse, you will read the following words :—

"I WILL WASH MY HANDS IN INNOCENCY: SO WILL I COMPASS THINE ALTAR, O LORD."

THIS Psalm was probably written by David when he was suffering great persecution from Saul, a full account of which is contained in the 24th chapter of the 1st Book of Samuel, to which I refer you. The Psalmist, under his difficulties, resorts to his God in confidence, and submits his case to Him. "Judge me, O Lord; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the Lord; therefore I shall not slide." He was willing that God, in this matter, should be his Judge. Indeed, he asks the Lord to test him, and to try him. He knew that Abraham had been tempted and tried of God, and that he had come out of the trial only the better for being tried. David, himself, was a type of the Son of God Who appeared in the flesh, and Who, when tempted and tried, came out of His trial and temptation the Conqueror over all His opponents and enemies. "Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart." thing to come before God to ask Him to be tried. me, prove me, test me, and see, O Lord, if there be me." Hear David's words on another occasion: and know my heart; try me, know my thoughts: be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalm cxxxix 23-24). I am inclined to think that there is much in the 26th Psalm that refers to Christ. The loving-kindness of the Lord was ever before the Psalmist. "For Thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes." What great loving-kindness! God's lovingkindness is everlasting and unchangeable,-it is not hot and cold like

It is a difficult "Try me, examine any wicked way in "Search me, O God, and see if there

ours, but it abides always the same. This loving-kindness God has displayed in Christ Jesus towards perishing sinners. Of this. fact David was not ignorant. His constant plea was the loving-kindness of the Lord. "I have walked in Thy truth." In the truth of Thy Word in Thy truth, Christ, Who is the way, the Truth, and the life. I have walked in Him—the Truth. It is a blessed thing to be able to say: "I have walked in truth; I have walked in the Lord Jesus Christ" (Colossians ii. 6). And after all, there is no walking holily, or righteously, but in Him. This you know by experience. The Psalmist says in the 4th and 5th verses: "I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. I have hated the congregation of

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evil doers; and will not sit with the wicked." The Church of God is a people separated from the world. You will see that this sanctified separation of the people of God from the wicked, is taught in these two verses. This distinctiveness has always been observed, it is so now, and must be so to the end. The children of God have always been accounted for a generation. They are so accounted now, and will be unto the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. seed shall serve Christ: it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation (Psalm xx. 30). In the 9th and 10th verses he prays thus: "Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men : in whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes." He was separated from them, and he desired not to be found in any way mixed up with them. "But as for me, I will walk in mine integrity: redeem me, and be merciful unto me. My foot standeth in an even place"-even in Christ-"in the congregations "of Thy people"will I bless the Lord." This is the desire of him whose heart was after the Living God. He had his infirmities, failings, and slips, but he was a man after God's own heart. I believe the real children of God wish to have as little to do with this wicked world as possible, and to live a separated and sanctified life of holiness to the Lord. They would, if they could, serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of their life." I will not at present enlarge further upon the Psalm, as I may have occasion to refer to it again before I conclude. I shall now proceed with the consideration of our text: 'I will wash mine hands in Innocency; so will I compass Thine altar, O Lord."

My text divides itself into two parts :-First, "I will wash mine hands in Innocency." Secondly, "So will I compass Thine altar, O Lord." These are the two natural divisions of the text, and I shall follow this order in bringing the subject before you this evening.

First, then-" I will wash mine hands in innocency.' I must make an observation or two before opening up the first part of the text. We read of divers washings in God's Word-natural washings, ceremonial and symbolical washings, miraculous washings, and spiritual washings. The natural or customary washings of the feet. You will remember the account of the three men who came to see Abraham, how, when he saw them, he gave directions that water should be brought that their feet might be washed (Genesis xviii. 4). They might be pilgrims, strangers, or travellers, but to supply them with water for the washing of their feet was the custom of the country. You all know that

the Jews had ceremonial washings. I shall not dwell at any length upon them now as I shall have occasion to refer to them again as I proceed. You may just glance, by the way, at the 9th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The Jewish ordinances "stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings." But the Apostle is very careful to tell us that these divers washings could never take away sin. There was failure in them, and yet they were God's ordinances. There was also symbolical washing. "When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying: 'I am innocent of the Blood of this just Person: see ye to it."" This is symbolical washing; the symbol of innocency. Whether Pilate was innocent is beside our point. I only quote the passage to shew you that he performed a symbolical act. There is another example, in the 22nd chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and the 16th verse: when Ananias came to see Paul. You know the account. Ananias said to him: "Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the Name of the Lord." Here are four things: "Arise." Well, Ananias was God's messenger who spoke to him, and with the word of command there went forth power. “And be baptized." Observe the Lord's ordinance :—" be baptized." We cannot ignore baptism, but look upon it as a Christian ordinance which the Lord Himself appointed. But we make no Saviour of it. God forbid that any one should. The next thing is: "And wash away thy sins." What is this? Was it something different from baptism? I am inclined to think so. It was a symbolical washing. Paul could not really wash away his sins. He never did really wash away his sins. And yet symbolically he did. You see this? And then what follows? Why just what we might expect, which is a practical comment upon my text: "calling on the name of the Lord." I need not enlarge. Paul's washing was a symbolical washing. Again we read of a miraculous washing. I must bring forward that wonderful case of Naaman, the Syrian. He thought, no doubt, that those rivers in his own country were far better than Jordan. But the Lord had not told him to dip in Abana, or Pharpar; but sent His messenger to this great man, for such he was, who told him that he must dip seven times in Jordan. At first he did not, but afterwards he did, and the result was a complete cure. The leper was made perfectly whole. This we call a miraculous washing (II Kings v). There is much spiritual teaching in this history of the leper cleansed. Then we read of spiritual washing in the 51st Psalm. When David comes before his God he does so as a penitent sinner. Now, there are sinners of two sorts. There are those who acknowledge themselves sinners in the general,-"Yes, we are all sinners," and there are those who acknowledge themselves personally and particularly to be sinners. David was one of this sort. Hence, he was led to cry out: "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy loving-kindness: according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my This is what I understand by spiritual washing. Now, if David could have done it for himself, he would not have required the Lord to do

sin."

it for him. But he felt himself personally a sinner, a great sinner, and he wanted a thorough washing. Look at the 7th verse: "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." Here is spiritual washing, and spiritual cleansing, but it is only in the blood of the Lamb.

This leads me to consider our text somewhat more particularly. Let us look at the first part of it: "I will wash my hands in innocency." There is an allusion in our text to the ceremonial and symbolical washings of the priests, as described in Exodus, the 30th chapter, the 17th and following verses: "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 sons 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 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 for ever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations." The priests could not offer sacrifice on the altar, nor go into the tabernacle of the congregation without being first ceremoniously washed, cleaned, and purified. We shall see the teaching contained in this ceremonial as we open up our text. What is meant by the Innocency in the text? What is meant by being washed in Innocency? The extent of this washing—“ my hands "} Aye! and something more, you may depend upon it. The necessity for this washing: and that it is a personal washing. What a number of points we have in the very first part of our text.

Well, beloved, what do you think the Innocency is? Is it baptism, think you? No! Well, is it the Lord's Supper? No! Is it fasting? No! Is it our tears? No! Is it the confessional? can it be, then? This is a very important question.

No! Whatever
Let us look and

see if we can get an answer to it. I think we can in the 9th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, where we have ceremonial washing and the real spiritual washing in the blood of Christ contrasted: "But Christ being come a High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His Own Blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh"-ceremonial cleansing-"how much more shall the Blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God: Here is Innocency. "He offered Himself without spot to God." You may depend upon it this is the Innocency of the Psalmist. Spotless One, the Holy One, the Perfect One. And His Blood shall "purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God." Can you get anything more holy, more pure, and more innocent than the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? Can you? This is what I take to be the Blood of Innocency, or of the Innocent One. The angel which

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foretold His birth to Mary, said: "That Holy Thing Which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke i. 35). "The Holy One and the Just" (Acts iii. 14). The blood of Christ is the blood of God and the blood of man. Doubt ye my expression? Read the 20th chapter of the Acts, and the 28th verse. Christ is God's Innocency, God's Innocent One, God's Holy One, God's Blameless One. And this is the Innocency in which the sinner is washed. To be washed in the Blood of the Lamb is to be washed in the blood of Innocency. It is brought out by the Prophet in these words: " In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." What for? "For sin and for uncleanness" (Zech. xiii. 1). Here is the fountain of Innocency. Here is the fountain which cleanses from sin; and when this is done, God sees in the sinner neither spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing (Ephes. v. 27). Here is Innocency. Those who are cleansed in this fountain become like Him in Whose Blood they are washed. "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." Well may the blood of the Innocent One be called "precious blood" (I Peter i. 19). The blood of Innocency is beautifully set forth by other Scriptures in the way of illustration. When we look at the 9th chapter of St. John's Gospel, and read the account of the blind man, who, at the command of the Lord, went and washed in the pool of Siloam, and then came seeing, how striking the story. Jesus said unto the blind man, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam-(which is, by interpretation, Sent: Christ is the Sent One of God into this world to save sinners) -He went his way, and washed, and came seeing." There is no spiritual seeing without being first washed in the pool of Siloam-the pool of Christ's blood. Another illustration is the miraculous washing of the leper in Jordan. Why should not once dipping, or twice dipping, serve for the cleansing of the leper? Oh! it must be a perfect dipping in Jordan. And so it comes to pass that it must be a perfect dipping in the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the Blood of Innocency. The dipping of the leper seven times in Jordan was followed with perfect healing; and so being dipped thoroughly in the Jordan of Christ's blood, the leper comes out cleansed from all the leprosy of his sin. There remains no more spot in him. I see another illustration of this truth when I turn to the 4th chapter of the 2nd Book of Chronicles. You know that in connection with Solomon's Temple the command went forth that there should be a "molten sea" made, and that it should stand upon twelve oxen; and this molten sea was to be filled with water for the priests to wash in; and for the purpose also of supplying others with water to wash in. Now the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is just this molten sea in which believers are washed, and so become priests unto God. There is no drawing near to God without first being washed in the "molten sea"-the precious blood of Christ. I think the oxen which bore up the molten sea very beautifully set forth the ministers of the gospel, so much so, that I cannot refrain from making a remark upon them. It is said that the molten sea "stood upon twelve oxen, three looking toward the north, and three looking toward the west, and three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east and the sea was set above upon

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