“Go and Wash”

We want everyone to see how this section really ends with . . . he found the Son of God. He found the Son of God in his own sphere outside of everything here. See His humanity, able to see the humanity of Christ, what that humanity is, and the scripture, I think it’s prophetic in its bearing. The Lord made mud of the spittle, and anointed this man’s eyes. As the belovèd said, He made him . . . if possible, it made him more blind, that. That’s the thing to come to, that Christ as He was here, in flesh and blood, apart from His death, it makes you more blind, that’s all. Blessed as His humanity was, it makes you more blind; not less blind, but more blind. I think what is prophetic about this, is its bearing: that to be in fellowship all the time, apart from washing, it makes you more blind. If you’re close to the humanity of these men, makes you more blind, not less blind. In fact, the greatest blindness that there has been, has been displayed by those that have been amongst us. The greatest blindness, the greatest darkness, has come out in persons that have been in touch with the mud made from the spittle – in touch with it. The Lord says, ‘It must be this way.’ He says, ‘Must be more blind first, before you see.’ Put mud on your eyes, anoint them with mud made from His spittle. Spittle and mud together is intensification of His humanity, of His humanity as here. His humanity as here apart from His death – it makes you more blind, not less blind. People that want to see, and don’t see, are so in that condition, because they think the seeing involves a mental process, and involves a knowledge of facts; whereas seeing does not involve a mental process or a knowledge of facts, at all, but involves washing. The need amongst us is the water – application of the water. That’s what helps you to see. And you may say, ‘Well, I couldn’t help not seeing’; but the fact that needs to come home to you is if you do not see, it’s because you are morally corrupt in some sense or other. Somewhere or other, you are morally corrupt. Every one that has not seen, that is so of them – in some sense, they have been morally corrupt. It’s not enlightenment that you need, it’s water that you need. It’s not information that you need, it’s the death of Christ applied, that you need.

Well, the great source, the great point of vision here, of being able to see here, the great point of that was the point that he washed. He went, washed, and he came seeing. I’d say it’s order, here – it’s order. This is order, this. He says, ‘Go and wash.’ That’s the order. That’s the Lord’s order – the Lord’s order to people that don’t see here, around here. It’s not optional; He says, ‘It’s a commandment.’ He says, ‘Go and wash.’ What that means is, He says, ‘You’ve got to deal with the filth that’s in you, by the application of My death to yourself’ – His death to yourself. It is always so, that you can’t see because there’s moral corruption inside; and it’s not the first storey always, and it’s not the second storey always, and it’s always the third storey – always. It’s always that. You can go by Daniel’s image, if you try to work out what I am saying – if you can, because it’s rather . . . I admit, it’s abstruse what I am saying. Why should I explain in any case? But I am telling you the facts. The water’s needed in regard to your third storey, very much. You need your belly full of water. Your belly is where the greatest corruption is. And the eyes – it says, “the eyes of your heart” (Eph. 1 : 18) – that’s the second storey (more or less explaining to you what I mean); and the connection then between the three storeys – and the water’s needed for all three. But I say again, it’s needed for the belly. You need your guts right. You need guts, but you need them right. And that’s the reason why people can’t see. People can’t see because their guts aren’t right   the belly’s not right. Water for the belly   not ‘meats for the belly.’ The Lord said that, He said, ‘Meats for the belly’ (1 Cor. 6 : 13). You’ve got to understand that, that the belly is for meats, too, he said. But here is a question of the washing – a question that you’re under orders. That is the last preaching of the day, and that’s the orders, so I think the Lord’s giving the orders, too. ‘You go and wash.’ It’s not a question of feelings, it’s not a question of how I feel about matters, it’s a question of whether I am obedient, whether I accept the Lord’s orders – the Spirit’s orders; and whether I get to grips with reality, and not beat around the bush, but get to grips with reality, and come to this conclusion: that what I’ve known of all these men that have led in the recovery, has only had one result, and that is more blind than ever. More blind, because I have known them, than if I hadn’t known them. That’s the truth naturally, you know. It’s the truth. People say they have been stumbled by him. They have not been stumbled by him, they have been blinded by him; and it’s his humanity that’s blinded them. That’s what it is. And the only solution is, if that mud’s been put on you, the only solution is to wash it off. And you’ll find that you find another Man, another order of humanity. ‘Son of God,’ He says, ‘do you believe in Him?’ (John 9 : 35) – another kind of humanity. I tell you, that man wasn’t living where people think he was living. He wasn’t living there. He wasn’t living the kind of life you even think he was living. He was living in flesh and blood, but he was living by “the faith of the Son of God,” Gal. 2 : 20. He was living in relation to another order of things, that spiritual order. He had a spiritual order in flesh and blood. And if you get washed, and you can see this, you see something. And I tell you, one of the greatest things to see is that Aberdeen enforced that by example, the difference between male and female, and masculine and feminine. The greatest thing, I think in a way, that has been the exemplification of the truth – so pointedly, in such a definite sense, that you cannot mistake it once you see it. But you got to be morally clean, you got to be morally washed, before you see a thing. You can sit down with brethren, and listen to them trying to explain things to you, for a millennium, and you’ll understand nothing, apart from the water. This scripture, brethren, is the order amongst us. Order! – not an appeal, it’s an order. He says to him, ‘You go and wash.’ And mostly it’s so – mostly it’s so, that the mud has been put on our eyes. It’s mostly so, amongst us. Mostly the brethren have been affected by the humanity of these men, in some way. It’s been applied in some way, and it’s the humanity of Christ that’s come through in some way. You’ve sensed it somehow; and what you’ve sensed is it’s a mystery. It’s not clear, but dark. Not obvious – you say, ‘There’s mystery about this; something strange about this.’ That’s right to feel like that. That shows that you are observing something there that’s not just in the natural order of flesh and blood, at all. You are observing that there is something there that’s beyond that, and it’s mystery because it’s in it. I hope you’re in touch with that. The thing is to get through. The way to get through is not to get your mind straight – not that. It’s to get your belly washed clean. That’s the trouble. You need a stomach pump. That’s what you need. You need it right now, too. I hope you sisters agree with my language, because it’s too bad if you don’t! But that’s what you really need – need all the filth out, and they need so much water in, that you can’t hold the stuff any more. That’s what you need. Get flushed right out. That’s what He says here, you know. He says that here. You might say, ‘It doesn’t read like that here.’ But it means that here. It means just that here. Filled up with filth, and there’s some filth working in any one that doesn’t see that there’s a moral corruption working in them, and the Lord is the answer. His death’s the answer, and the water is the answer. We don’t only preach the forgiveness of sins. We preach a gospel that settles your state as well. We preach both. A great weakness amongst us is that the two aren’t in balance. I think the blood has more or less got its way amongst us. Our brother did that, and we have to stick to that – the value of the blood. You keep it current every day – forgiveness of sins through the efficacy of His blood. You keep that, every day. But I think the weakness amongst us is that the water’s not there in an equivalent sense with the blood. The water must be there, in one way, as much as the blood. It says, “Not by water only, but by water and blood,” 1 John 5 : 6. He came by both. The Spirit bears witness to both, not to the one, to both. So your sins are forgiven, you say, that’s fine. Your sins are forgiven, that is fine – but what about your state? Is your state in accordance with the forgiveness? Because the Lord would make your state in accordance with the forgiveness that you’ve got, that both things are equivalent. Not only are you right judicially before Him, but your state is also right.

It’s something to covet, you know, something to covet, to see the Son of God. Something to covet,to understand what these men’s lives were, and what it still is, amongst us. ‘Though dead, they yet speak’ (Heb. 11 : 4). That’s wonderful, that – they still speaking – speaking to us today, too. We don’t want any other rubbish, we want their voice. We want to hear their voice. ‘The dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and when they hear, they live’ (John 5 : 25). It’s always been so. It’s a great encouragement amongst us, in regard to those that seem to cause trouble in their teens, and older: the encouragement is that you show more patience. Wait on God, ‘for when the dead hear His voice, they live.’ Count on that, and the Lord has confirmed the patience of the brethren time and again. You go by the problems mainly, but you need to go by the victories more, that there’s been victory after victory amongst the brethren. Isn’t that so? There’s been person after person that in your . . . in the shortage you’ve had of the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ – you would have dealt with that position; the shortage you’ve got of the spirit of the supply of Jesus Christ. You would have done it – you would put them out. The Lord says, ‘My grace is sufficient for that. My patience is sufficient.’ And it’s always the age and the time to pull people through, and you can almost be sure – you can almost be sure – that almost always, the Lord will answer it in victory. The victory is that ‘they hear the voice of the Son of God,’ – not the voice of some man, but ‘the voice of the Son of God, and they live.’

Oh, it’s encouraging then to be on a line that’s moral. It’s not encouraging to be on a line that’s mental, because all that a mental line leads to is a fiasco in “philosophy and vain deceit,” Col. 2 : 8. That’s what it leads to – a fiasco, in philosophy and vain deceit. A moral line leads to glory, it leads you out of the world. It leads you to the Son of God. Forgiveness of sins alone doesn’t lead you there. I admit that a person whose sins are forgiven would love Christ for that. “She loved much,” (Luke 7 : 47) it says, ‘because she was forgiven much.’ That’s true, I admit that; but forgiveness of the sins doesn’t lead you right out of this world. Your state must be so, that you can penetrate into what is spiritual, and understand it. And you cannot penetrate into what is spiritual if your belly is corrupt. You need lots of water in there, there’s no doubt about it. Some people here need a good flush out – all the rubbish out, and pure water there. When pure water’s there, you know, you begin to feel fine. There’s nothing that affects a person’s constitution more than their stomach. If your stomach’s right, you feel fine. Anything sluggish with your stomach, anything wrong, you begin to feel sluggish, begin to feel like you’ve got a headache or something or other. Spiritual headaches amongst us are far too common. There’s no need for that amongst us spiritually. So the Lord says, He says, ‘I say, Go.’ What marks you then in the way of getting morally right? What marks a person that gets morally right? Obedience! Nothing hyperspiritual, or anything! Just obedience! What is it then? It means this, that you should look into the death of Christ. You should look into that, what His death means. Look into that, how His death has removed your state. It has removed it. It’s removed your state from before God. The difficulty with persons is they . . . (we all tend to do it almost unconsciously) you attempt to continue your own line of things before God. And God says, ‘It’s not that line of things that I am looking at all, I am looking at Christ. And I look at you, in Christ, only. Only so!’ The Lord wants us to come to that more and more. And you’ll find out what your state is by His word. ‘You take heed to His word. You cleanse your path’ (Ps. 119 : 9), you cleanse everything, really, by His word, taking heed to His word.

Well, may we be helped then, brethren, to see the water, the washing, needs to be amongst us. The Lord’s ordering the washing – He’s ordering it. He’s not appealing, He’s ordering. He says, ‘Go and wash.’ If you don’t wash, you are disobedient to Christ. If you wash, you are obedient, and it’s through obedience that you come into the blessing, what is spiritual. What is spiritual is greater than anything else. All God’s thoughts are wrapped up in what is spiritual. All God’s greatest thoughts, greatest conceptions, greatest ideas – all spiritual. And God insists that they remain so. That’s just to keep men out, and women out, who are not right. He did it to keep them out. And He’s ironical about them, that they can’t get in. The scriptures are full of His irony. That’s how He pushes the devil down. He’s ironical about the devil, and people that are on the devil’s line. He laughs at them, too: ‘Look at him! He thinks he’s got something, he’s got nothing!’ God says that. ‘Look at him! He’s corrupt, and he thinks he’s got something, and he’s got nothing.’ Look what He’s done to those men. Those men were corrupt. They preached the blood, but they didn’t use the water. That’s what they did. They preached it right to the end. They were insisting on the blood. They were copying another man; and what they didn’t copy, what they didn’t do what he did, was he washed, and they didn’t wash. He was obedient, and they were not obedient. He wasn’t listening to his lusts. If you are listening to your lusts in yourself . . . – it’s easy to do it, easy to yield to lust in yourself, easy to yield to covetousness in yourself. What you going to do today? Are you going to yield to that, or yield to the Lord’s voice? His command is, ‘Wash. Go and wash in Siloam.’ The whole thing is obedience. Even on His side, He was sent. All it means is you do that, you come to a state, and it’s a state to covet   you can covet that, there’s no sin in that   a state to covet. When you come to purely what is the work of God, it doesn’t covet, it’s not envious. Wonderful, relaxed kind of state, that, where you are not wanting what other people have got, but you are content with what you’ve got. You’ve got the Son of God, the centre of another world.

May we be helped then, brethren. I say once again – I say it once again, because it is needed right here – I think it’s the Lord’s command: He says, ‘Go and wash.’ I don’t think it’s an appeal, I think it’s a command. If you are going to show yourself to be a christian at all, you will hear His voice, and you will go to that “pool.” And you know what the “pool” is – it’s the application of the death of Christ to your state, so the corruption is removed, and what remains is a pure state that God can work with.