Let's turn to Numbers chapter
9. I was going to preach this message
the second hour, but this message shows us the work of our Lord
Jesus, and the next one will show us more of the effects of
this work. So I think this order would be
better. So this message may be a little longer, but the next
one will probably be a little shorter. Numbers 19, 1. I'm going to preach from this
whole chapter, so I'm just going to read a little at a time. Verse
1, And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, This
is the ordinance of the law, which the Lord hath commanded,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee
a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which
is never came a yoke. Our subject's the red heifer.
Now, in the law here, the Lord commanded that before a sinner
could come to the Lord's house and partake of the Passover,
he had to be purified, sanctified, he had to be washed. And this
was just washing ceremonially, but he had to be washed before
he could come up. You remember when the Lord was
at the feast on John 11, It says many came up out of the country
to be purified that they might take the Passover. That, as far
as the scripture reveals, was the last time a red heifer was
sacrificed to make this water of separation. That was the last
time. They went up there to be purified.
Now, in the news, you may have heard that Israel has these four
red heifers. Have you all heard about that? And what they plan to do is they
got these from Glen Rose, Texas, and they shipped them over there,
and they have them now. They put them up. They're examining
them. They have to be without spots, so they're looking them
over. And what they plan to do is they've uncovered the, apparently
the pool of siloam has filled in with sand. They uncovered
the pool of siloam. They're going to fill it back
up with water, and they're going to burn one of these red heifers. and they're going to make this
water separation, and then they think they will be pure, and
their next plan is they're going to build a third temple. But
in order to build that third temple, they're going to have
to tear down the Dome of the Rock, which is the Muslims' temple.
And the spokesperson from Hamas said that's why Hamas attacked
Israel, because of these red heifers, because of their plan
to tear down their temple and build the Jews' temple. You know, it's interesting, they
think that when they build this temple, that's when the Messiah
will come for the first time. And you know, when the Lord was
at that feast in John 11, remember how they were murmuring with
themselves saying, do you think he'll come to the feast? That's
what they, if they go through with this, and the Lord's pleased
to let them do it, that's what they'll be thinking is the Messiah
coming. You know, Zechariah said, He says that they will say, we
will build again the desolate places. And the Lord said, they
will build, but I will throw down. And he says, nations will
gather around Israel and go to war with them. And he says, and
at that time, the Lord will come and stand on the Mount of Olives
and the earth will split open, I suppose, by an earthquake from
east to west. And am I saying the Lord is about
to return? I don't know what the Lord will
do. No man knows the day or the time. But when I think about
that and I read those scriptures in Zechariah and Malachi, I got
excited. It made me hopeful that maybe
the Lord is about to return. One of these days, one of these
days, like if he came when they're going to do this, that would
be in about two or three weeks. And one of these days, we're
going to be within two to three weeks of the Lord coming again. That's amazing. But now they've
done this, they've had these rumblings before, and these wars
before, and had plans like this before, so we don't know, you
know, you don't know what the Lord's gonna do. But I'm hopeful,
I hope he's coming. That would be a good thing. But
you that are sanctified in the heart, you know that this sacrifice
has already been offered. And you know that Christ is the
red heifer. Everything that's shown here
and pictured here is glorifying Christ and the work he does for
his people. Hebrews 9.13 says, if the blood
and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifyeth to the
purifying of the flesh, just ceremonial. He said, how much
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit
offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
heard you inwardly from dead works, from the dead work of
trying to sanctify yourself and make yourself holy and righteous.
Sanctify you from those dead works to serve the living God.
That's what's pictured here. Now, first of all, we're sanctified
by the will of the Lord Jesus Christ who fulfilled the will
of God for his people. The Lord Jesus, by his will,
his willingness, he came and fulfilled the whole law of God
and took away that first covenant and established the everlasting
covenant of grace for his people, ordered and sure in all things. And that's what we have pictured
here in verse two. It says, the red heifer must be without spot,
wherein is no blemish and upon which never came a yoke. Why
red? Well, it pictures Christ covered
in blood. And he said his garments, his
peril is red. It says in Revelation 19.13,
he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood. Why? Because
he tread at the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty
God. Imagine if you tread out some
grapes in a winepress, how you'd be covered in red. And that's what Christ, that's
the picture of Christ on the cross. A heifer is a virgin female
cow. That's a heifer. The female is
the weaker vessel. And onward, Jesus took the weak
flesh of his bride. We're the weaker vessel. He took
the nature of God's elect, of the seed of Abraham. Hebrews
2 says, the children were flesh and blood, he took part of the
same. That he might destroy the devil and deliver us who through
fear of death were all our lifetime subject to bondage. It behooved
him in all things to be made like unto his brethren. He was
made of a woman, made under the law, made sin for us, made a
curse for us, and now he's made higher than the heavens. He reconciled
his people to God, and the other reason is because he has suffered
the weakness of our flesh, he knows we're dust. This is why
he doesn't deal with us after our sins. He's put them away,
for one, but he also knows the infirmities of our flesh. He
knew them without sin, but he knows how weak our flesh is. He pities us like a father pities
his child. He's so gracious and merciful
and tender with us. This heifer had to be without
spot or blemish. Over there now, they have four. I think they had five at first,
but now they only have four, and they're going over them with
a fine-tooth comb. Because if there's just one hair
that's just off-colored, it's blemish. Can't offer it. It's
gotta be, that heifer's gotta be perfect. And that picture's
our holy Lord Jesus. It's a virgin cow that's gotta
be spotless. And that picture's the holy Lord
Jesus Christ who knew no sin. How much more shall the blood
of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God? Purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God. And here's where I get this thing
of we're sanctified by the will of our Lord Jesus fulfilling
the will of God. Because this heifer upon which
never came a yoke, a yoke makes a cow go where it's not willing
to go. So this had to be willing, a willing offering. And the Lord
Jesus Christ sanctified us by his will In eternity, he willingly
became the surety of God's elect, promised to pay everything we
owed. He willingly took flesh. He willingly served under the
law in perfection. He willingly suffered the death
of the cross in place of his people. And I mean, we're talking
about perfect will. We're talking about, it can't
just, you know, you and me will suffer, but we don't really wanna
suffer. If we had our will, we wouldn't
be suffering. Christ willingly, Suffered he said no man takes
my life. I lay it down of myself He said
I gave my back to the smiters, and then it plucked off the hair
His people are sanctified by his will Not our will Listen
Hebrews 10 7 he said lo I come to do thy will O God by the witch
will we are sanctified through the offering of of the body of
Jesus Christ one time. So it's by his will, by his will. Now secondly, Christ took our
sin and he was numbered with the transgressors. It says here
in Numbers 19 and verse three, it says, and you shall give this
red heifer unto Eleazar the priest that he may bring her forth without
the count and one shall slay her before his face. Now why
Eliezer? Why not Aaron? Aaron was the
high priest. Eliezer was his son who was also
a priest. Because the Lord said in the
scripture Aaron had to be clean to offer sacrifices. And Eliezer
by offering his sacrifice is going to be unclean. Both Aaron
and Eleazar picture Christ. Christ Jesus in himself and of
himself. He's holy like Aaron. Holy, holy, holy. That's the
Lord Jesus. But in order for God to pour
out justice on the Lord Jesus Christ, he had to be made sin
for his people. He hath made him sin for us who
knew no sin. You see both in this picture? He made Him sin for us who knew
no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
Brethren, the whole purpose of the cross is to glorify God,
is to show the righteousness of God, how that God is just
and everything He does in judgment is perfectly just. He would not
pour out justice upon His Son until His Son was bearing the
sin of His people. He that justifieth the wicked,
and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination
to the Lord. He does everything in justice.
And this being without the camp, that's where unclean lepers were
put. That's where they were quarantined
away from everybody else. When the spotless, sinless, holy
Lord Jesus Christ bore the sin of His people, God numbered him
with the transgressors. That's where he suffered was
without the count. That's what Hebrews 13, 12 tells
us. It says, where for Jesus also
that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without
the gate. Christ told us, brethren, if
we believe on Christ and preach Christ, that he is righteousness
and sanctification for his people. He said, if you preach me and
believe me, you're going to suffer. Because man hates that message
because it gives him all the glory, gives Christ all the glory.
But the Hebrew writer said, let us go forth therefore unto him
without the camp bearing his reproach. And that's what we'll
do. He bore our sin. and our shame and our curse and
put it away. And when he's made you see that
what he did for you, you'll bear some little reproach from some
little sinner that wants to condemn you for believing and preaching
this gospel. Christ sanctifies. Here's the
third thing. Christ sanctifies, purges, makes
pure each of his people personally with his blood in regeneration. It says in verse four, and Eleazar
the priest shall take of her blood with his finger and sprinkle
of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation
seven times. The tabernacle represents the
whole church of God. It represents God's true elect
who Christ redeemed. And it was Eleazar the priest
who sprinkled the blood. Our Lord Jesus Christ Our great
high priest gets all the glory for sprinkling his blood within
our hearts through the Spirit of God. That's how he sanctifies
us and purges our conscience. We don't have room at all or
any reason at all to glory that sanctification is partly by us. We can't even boast that sanctification
is by us, partly by us with the help of the Holy Spirit. Christ
gets all the glory for making his people holy, sanctified,
the same as he gets all the glory for justifying his people and
making us righteous. When he's made sanctification
to us, that's when we give him the glory and we stop boasting.
That's how you can tell the difference between one who's really been
sanctified and one who hasn't. One who's been sanctified in
heart gives Christ all the glory Declaring him all in this work
because if the blood of these in the ashes of a heifer Ceremonially
cleansed how much more shall the blood of Christ purge us
inwardly from dead works That's what repentance is being made
to regard ourselves and all our righteousnesses as filthy rags
and Casting all our care on the Lord Jesus He sprinkled that
blood seven times. That's the number of perfection.
And brethren, when Christ laid down his life for his people,
he perfected his people. We're not perfect in ourselves
because we still have a sin nature. We'll never be. But we're perfect
in Christ. That's what he, when he does
give you this new heart and sanctify you in this new heart, he turns
you to behold Christ and how he perfected his people. That's
what he goes on to say in Hebrews 10, 14. By one offering, He had
perfected forever them that are sanctified, and he says, whereof
the Holy Ghost is a witness to us. God said, I'm going to write
my everlasting covenant of grace on their heart, and they're going
to know me, and he's going to declare in our heart their sins
and iniquities. I'll remember no more. What's
the result of that? where remission of these is,
there's no more offering for sin. The Hebrew writer said if
those sacrifices had really perfected them, really justified them,
really made them holy, they'd have stopped offering them. They'd
have ceased to be offered. When are you going to be turned
from dead works of trying to make yourself righteous or make
yourself holy when you've been sanctified in the heart by the
Lord Jesus? Fourthly, Christ bore the fire
of justice for his people. That's how he sanctified us and
justified us. It says here in verse 5, and
one shall burn the heifer in his sight. Her skin and her flesh
and her blood with her dung shall he burn. And the priest shall
take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet and cast it into the
midst of the burning of the heifer. There was no part left out here.
This whole heifer, everything about it was burned in this fire.
Well, on the cross, Christ gave himself entirely to the justice
of God. He bore the justice of God, the
fire of God's wrath entirely. That's how Christ entirely, perfectly
justified and sanctified his people in himself. Cedarwood
and hyssop and scarlet were thrown in there with this burning effort. Cedarwood's fragrant. Hyssop
is represents the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
scarlet is his blood. And our Lord Jesus Christ so
pleased the Father by his faithfulness, by bearing our curse in the fire
of God's justice, he so satisfied God that his offering came up
as a fragrant smell to God, just like cedar wood. Now, fifthly,
Christ continues to renew us and work this sanctifying work
in our heart to make even our worship and our service clean
by his blood. Look here, these men did this
service for God, and everyone that took part in this service,
this holy service, they're obeying God, and everyone that took part
in this were unclean. They had to be washed. Look here,
verse seven. Then the priest shall wash his
clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water. And afterward
he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean
unto the evening. Verse 8 says, And he that burneth
her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in
water, and shall be unclean unto the evening. Verse 10, And he
that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes,
and be unclean unto the evening. and it'll be unto the children
of Israel and unto the Gentile. This is be so of all God's elect
Jew and Gentile. See, even the men that did this
service, or the man that did it, I don't know if it was just
Eliezer or if he had somebody there helping him, but anybody
involved in this was unclean. What did we learn by that? What
we're doing right now is unclean if it wasn't for Christ's blood.
Even our worship and our preaching and our singing and our praise
and our service to God is unclean if it was just of us, because
we have a sin nature and sin's mixed with everything we do.
And so everything, one, we have to be purged inwardly so that
we actually really truly worship God. You just can't come in here
and worship God. God has to make you worship him.
Sometimes you come and hear the gospel and you've got so much
on your mind you can't even focus. It's those times when the Lord
renews you and quickens you inwardly by his word and makes you hear
him. That's when you worship. And
everything we do can only come to God and be accepted through
Christ, our perfect sanctification, our perfect justification. Now,
sixthly, Due to our sin nature, we become defiled even when we
don't know it. Even when we don't know we're
defiled, we become defiled. The law declares us defiled. Anywhere you turn, anywhere you
go, anything you do. That's what Paul meant when he
said, in my flesh dwells no good thing. Paul said, in my flesh,
he said, because of my flesh, I don't do the things I want
to do. The things I don't want to do, that's what I do. And
that's the picture here. Look at verse 11. He that touches
the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. You touch
a dead body every day, every second of every day. How so? If the spirit of Christ be in
you, your body is dead because of sin. Spirit's life because
of his righteousness, but your body's dead because of sin. See,
we got a sin nature mixed with everything we do. Now look, and
he'll purify, he shall purify himself with this separation
water on the third day and on the seventh day he shall be clean.
But if he purified not himself the third day, then the seventh
day he shall not be clean. Whosoever touches the dead body
of any man that's dead and purifies not himself, defileth the tabernacle
of the Lord. Here the tabernacle of the Lord
is picturing God's holy place, the holiest of holy. We can't
even pray to God and approach God unless Christ has made us
pure in heart so that we see that the only way, the Hebrew
writer said, we can come to God is we have boldness because we
have a holy high priest at God's right hand and we come through
his blood. That's why we say We pray in
the name of the Lord Jesus. God's people really mean that.
We really are saying to God, we're not coming to you, Father,
except through Christ our righteousness and our holiness. And if man that doesn't purify
himself of this water, he says, that soul will be cut off from
Israel because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him. He
shall be unclean. His uncleanness is yet upon him.
Listen to this, what that's saying. You sitting here now, who have
not believed on Christ, you're responsible to believe on Christ. And if you haven't believed on
Christ, there is no approaching God. You can't come any other
way, but through the blood and righteousness and holiness of
Christ Jesus, you'd be cut off. This is the law. When a man doth
in a tent, all that come into the tent and all that's in the
tent shall be unclean seven days. And every open vessel which hath
no covering bound upon it, it's unclean. In other words, if an
unseen microscopic thing, a dead thing, was in their water and
they drank it, they're unclean. whether they saw the thing and
knew about it or not, they're unclean. He goes on to say there,
whosoever touches one that's slain with a sword in the open
field or a dead body or a bone of a man, if even walks over
a grave unmarked and unknown, he'll be unclean seven days.
What's this saying? God's law, this is God's law.
In God's law, all the law of God declares me and you guilty. Just because we're conceived
in sin, We're guilty in Adam. And then because of this, everything
we do, even as sanctified holy children in whom God has worked
his work, because of our flesh, we're touching a dead body all
the time. That's why Christ has to continue to renew us and purge
our conscience to keep looking to him. It's all of him. We don't
realize how sinful we really are, brethren. We all, as an unclean thing. All our righteousnesses are filthy
rags." The voice said, crying. He said, what shall I cry? All
flesh is grass. And the goodliness, we're not
just talking about our sins, we're talking about our goodliness.
Our righteousnesses are filthy rags. Now how's your flesh going
to be mortified? Which is what we saw Thursday
night. It's not going to be mortified by our flesh, by our strength
and our ability. How's it going to be mortified?
The Lord said in Isaiah, the grass withereth, the flesh is
mortified, and the flower fadeth. All our righteousness become
unrighteousness to us one way, because the Spirit of the Lord
bloweth upon it. We're regenerated one time. And
God creates a new holy man within us and we're holy. But we're
renewed. We're renewed all our days. We're washed and our conscience
is purged so that we continue in faith, trusting Christ alone.
And it's Christ alone that sprinkles the blood. It's the washing and
renewing of the Holy Spirit. He's the only one who makes us
put off the old man and put on the new man. Remember Paul said,
by the renewing of your mind, put off the old man and put on
the new man. That's what we saw in Romans eight. If you through
the spirit, mortify the deeds of the flesh. Yes, he'll make
you, he'll make you see your sin as sinful and he'll make
you hate it and despise it. And he'll turn you from it to
Christ, but he'll do it in such a way you give him all the glory
for doing it. You won't boast it that you put off the old man
and put on the new man. That's a different spirit I was
talking about Thursday night. You hear men boasting about their
holiness and how they've sanctified themselves and how holy they
are. You're not hearing that in God's people. They're going
to say, the Lord did it. I didn't do it. We start minding
the things of the flesh. Paul talked about that in Romans
8. And we hear that, and self-made holy men think that means sinful
things, immoral things. It includes that. But he's talking
about when we start minding touch not, taste not, handle not, and
start thinking we've made ourselves holy or righteous by our works. And he said, there's only one
way that dead flesh is going to be mortified, and that's the
spirit of Christ quickening you inwardly. Paul said, I'm crucified
with Christ. And yet, yet I live, yet not
I. The life I live, I live by the
faithfulness of Christ. He's the one that purges my conscience
and keeps me looking only to Christ. You know what we do when
this work is done? We may have been praying, just
like Saul of Tarsus was praying, praying, praying, and he never
prayed. He was in his flesh, he was just saying prayers. But
whenever the Lord worked this in his heart, the Lord tore down
an ass, behold, he prayeth. You know what we do? Then we
cry, Abba, Father. We call on Him to be our all. Then the Hebrew writer says,
we draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, looking
to Christ only, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience
and our bodies washed with pure water, the blood and ashes of
the true Red Ephraim. Now, lastly, Is there anybody
defiled? Anybody defiled? Christ is the
fountain open for sin and uncleanness. Look here, verse 9, back up there,
he says, a man that's clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer
and lay them up without the camp in a clean place. and it shall
be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for
a water of separation. It's a purification for sin.
You know who that clean man is and you know where that clean
place is? It's Christ Jesus at the right hand of God our Father. And look here, verse 17, and
he said, and for the unclean person that shall take of the
ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin and running
water, Should we put thereto in the vessel? That's why they're
under covering the pool of Siloam and filling it up with water.
They want running water. That was water that ran down
into that pool from springs above. Look in your margin, if you have
a King James translation, the margin says that's living water.
Christ said, if any man's thirsty, let him come unto me and out
of his belly shall flow living water. That means the constant,
continual, flowing, renewing of the Spirit of our Lord. That's
how this work's done in the heart. A clean person shall take hyssop
and dip it in the water. Christ takes it, dips it, and
comes with his blood, verse 19. And here's what he does. And
the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third
day and on the seventh day. And on the seventh day, listen
now, he shall purify himself and wash his clothes and bathe
himself in water and shall be clean an evening. What does this
washing of ourselves typify? Christ said, I will pour upon
the house of David and upon the habitants of Jerusalem the spirit
of grace and of supplication, and they shall look upon me whom
they have pierced, and they'll mourn for me like one mourns
for his own son. It pictures faith. It pictures
repentance and faith, having our minds changed that So that
we don't see any goodness in any ourselves our nature or anything
we've done So that we turn and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
alone when the Lord called Paul He said he's a chosen vessel
unto me to declare my name and through the preaching of the
gospel Christ Jesus does this he said to open their eyes and
to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan
unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance
among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. That's what we're talking about.
Does that mean you're gonna stop sinning? Well, you may, you will
put away some outward sins, but that's not why you're holy. You're
holy because he did this work in your heart. That's the result
of Him making you holy. You turn to Christ and you find
you're all in Christ. The running waters, the washing
and renewing of the Holy Spirit. And Christ works this in such
power that when He does it, no flesh will glory in His presence,
but you'll say, all praise and honor and glory to the Lord.
He's made righteousness unto us and sanctification unto us. Has he washed you inwardly right
now? Has he been, he's doing it? This
is how he does it, it's through this word. If he has, then come
and plunge in the fountain. Well, you want me to come down
to the front? No. You just look to Christ. Ain't
that how they say from the serpents in the wilderness? Anybody that
looks will live. Listen, Zechariah 13, one, in
that day, there should be a fountain open to the house of David and
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. What do we say when we come to
the Lord? We come confessing what David did in Psalm 51. Against
thee and thee only have I sinned. All my righteousnesses, my acts
of righteousness are sin, and I was conceived in iniquity.
All I am is sin. That's true repentance. and we
beg him, Lord, would you purge me with hyssop? What do we see
here? The clean man took hyssop, dipped
it in this water, and purged the people with it. You cry out,
Lord, will you come and purge me with hyssop? Then I'll be
clean. I'll really be clean. And then I'll teach others that
this is the only way they can be clean. He said, if we confess
our sin, that means not just some bad things you did, That
means everything you are and everything you have ever done,
good and bad, if we confess our sin, He is faithful and He is
just to forgive us our sins. That's our righteousness because
of Christ that justified us. That's not all. And to cleanse
us, that's just sanctifying work in the heart. keeping you looking
only to Christ and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
You see, if you can call on him and confess you are nothing and
Christ is all, he's already washed you. It's the only way you'll
do it. And he says, and I'll continue
to cleanse you, keep you looking to me. That's the gospel. This nonsense that's going on
over there, ain't nobody gonna be made pure by that. It's just
going to be some poor dead red heifer burned in a fire and some
old stale water from the pool of Siloam. This is the living
water by which we're sanctified. If that did it ceremonially back
in Moses' day, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God,
purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? I pray he blessed that. Let's
go to him. Our Father, we thank you for this word. We thank you,
Lord, that you have worked this in the hearts of our brethren
sitting here in our own heart. We pray, Lord, you continue to
renew us and quicken us. Don't ever let us look to the
works of our hands to think we've made ourselves righteous or holy.
Keep us looking only to Christ. Lord, mortify our flesh today. Make us disregarded as a dead
thing by turning us to Christ above and making us behold him.
This is our need. This is the health of our soul. This is our need. No matter what
else in this life you provide, we'll be thankful for it. But
Lord, we need this work done in our hearts continually. We
confess to you, Lord, we are sin and all our works are sin. We need to be found in Christ's
righteousness alone. For his sake, Lord, for the sake
of our great high priest, we ask you to receive us and hear
us and work this for us. Amen.