[ZNPaaneah]

God’s building must have a definite boundary line. Within that line everything belongs to His building; outside of that line everything belongs either to Babel, Sodom, or the treasure cities. Today’s fallen Christianity does not have the proper, necessary boundary line. Such a boundary has never been built up; it has never been drawn. The people are still participating in idols, sins, and treasures of worldly enjoyment. They have never experienced the brass altar and the brass laver. They have never been judged and been put to death on the altar or cleansed and purged by the laver. If we would practice the church life and share in the building of God, we must first experience the brass altar with the brass laver. Then we will have the brass sockets laid as the foundation of the boundary line. It is by such experiences that the boundary line of God’s building is drawn. (Witness Lee, The Vision of God’s Building, Chapter 5, Section 4)

This is an interpretation of the account in Exodus concerning the tabernacle, the brass sockets and brass laver.

I would say the reality is in Matthew 16 and this rebuke of Peter. Jesus drew the very clear boundary line for the church. On one side you have idols (tabernacles to Moses, Elijah, and Jesus), sins and treasures of worldly enjoyment -- Peter succumbing to the temptation of the "prince of this world" to seek out the kingdom without the cross.

In Matthew 16 Jesus makes it very clear you have to first experience the brass altar with the brass laver before you can enter into the church He is building.