Join me today, if you would,
in the book of Numbers chapter 19, the gospel according to Numbers. This last week, last Sunday afternoon,
Nancy and Sam and I drove to Lakeview, about a six hour journey. Beautiful country out through
there. I think it's just beautiful. And there is some things that
I need someday to stop and look at. And that's all of those historical
markers. Most of the time when I go down
there, I'm in such a hurry that I don't take time to stop and
read those markers. Historic markers. Fremont's expedition
went right down through there, and there's several markers about
that. Well, I hope at least a little
bit I've used that same principle in looking at the scriptures,
slow down, look at the scriptures. What a blessing it was this morning
to go through that book of Luke and over to the book of Exodus
and slowing down and looking at those scriptures about the
Passover and then to look at it as the Lord instituted his
supper. And by the way, Lord willing,
next week we will come to the Lord's table. In this 19th chapter
of the book of Numbers, we've been looking at the red heifer,
the sacrifice of the red heifer, the consuming of all of the red
heifer, and outside the camp. And the requirements for the
red heifer are much like the requirements that we read about
for the lamb that was to be the Passover lamb. It was to be without
spot, without blemish. It was to be absolutely unique
in its color. And also, it had never been in
a yoke or never had plowed. Probably an animal like that
had been a friend of a family's. It was accustomed to being around
people. and it was unique in its color,
and it was unique in its form, and all of those things. And
we find how that tells us of the requirements of a savior
to save the people of God. There must be a unique one, not
the common run, must be unique. And we find only that one is
the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, God with us. Emmanuel being interpreted,
God with us. And we noticed that with that
red heifer, it was to be totally consumed. Every portion of it
was to be consumed. And the place of that where it
was consumed was very specific to it. That was without the can.
this particular sacrifice was not part of the typical Levitical
sacrifices. It was to be separate from that,
and we find also that that is so true about our Savior, that
when He was crucified, it was not part of the typical sacrifices
that went on there in the temple. Now, it was brought to my attention
just recently, something that I had forgotten about that temple
in the days of the Lord Jesus. There was a number of pieces
that are in the tabernacle that were not in the temple in the
days of the Lord Jesus. They did not have the mercy seat
there. They didn't have several of the objects that are in this
tabernacle there. So in reality, every time the
high priest went in on the day of atonement, he's going to a
hollow room. The issues are, the things are
not there. And, you know, we just look at
that in retrospect, what a sham it was for what they were doing
when they had the Lamb of God right in front of them. This
lamb went out and was slain without the camp. He did not have the
Levitical priesthood there overseeing this. In fact, they were mocking
him and saying, if you'd be the Christ, bring yourself off of
the cross, just as those two that were crucified with him
were saying, if thou be the Christ, save yourself and us. And then
by the mercy and grace of God, we hear one say, Lord, we're
getting what we deserve. Remember me when thou enterest
into thy kingdom. Well, here in the book of Numbers
chapter 19, and I want to begin reading with verse 7. Numbers chapter 19 and verse
7. I should read this entire chapter,
and I hope you will as we go through it. Just read the rest
of the chapter because there's so much in this passage of scripture
after the red heifer. And after the burning of the
red heifer, the consumed body, and the ashes of the red heifer,
and all of that stuff, we find here is the reason for it. Here
is the reason given. After the sacrifice, the reason
is given. It tells us in 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 until even. And he that burneth her shall
wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and
shall be unclean until even. And a man that is clean shall
gather up the ashes of the heifer, and shall lay them up without
the camp in a clean place, and shall be kept for the congregation
of the children of Israel." Now notice this, for a water of separation,
it is a purification for sin. That's what these ashes are going
to be used for. Now we'll turn to the New Testament
in just a moment and notice that it was for the flesh. It never
was intended to clean anything or to even typically clean anything
but the flesh. It was like using a hand soap,
if you please, just typical. You're not going to get any deeper
than the skin. And it was pictorial of what
is absolutely necessary, that we need a cleansing that we cannot
accomplish on our own. It is a for the children of Israel,
for a water of separation." Now you notice there again, as we
heard read over there in the book of Exodus chapter 12 this
morning, it is for the children of Israel. It is for the children
of Israel, a water of separation. It is a purification for sin. and he that gathereth the ashes
of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until
even, and it shall be until the children of Israel, until the
stranger that sojourneth among them for a statute forever. Verse
11, now this verse starts a repetition about deadness, about dead bodies,
and approaching dead bodies, and finding dead bodies, and
finding a bone of a dead body. And all of these things are brought
up in this last section down to verse 22. And this is the
reason for these ashes. This is the reason that these
ashes will be used. And in the Jewish translation,
the Torah, it mentions the dust of the, there are not a lot of
this material that's going to go into that water that's going
to be used. It's symbolic, there must be the death of an innocent
in order to save the guilty. And this must come by water,
as we just heard that this morning too. So notice here in verse, Verse 11, he that touches the
dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. He shall purify himself with
it 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. Now, what does this have to do
with us today? It is the gospel in type. It
is the gospel in picture, as we notice here. It is the water
of separation. Would you turn with me to the
book of Hebrews chapter nine and verse 13? And we've read
this a number of times with regard to this 19th chapter of the book
of Numbers, but we need to read it again because it is a reminder
of what is going on here. It is pictorial. It is typical,
it's sharing with us the gospel of the Lord Jesus. It is the
preaching of Christ and Him crucified. Here in the book of Numbers chapter
9 verse 13, Hebrews chapter 9 verse 13, for if the blood of bulls
and of goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean
sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, Now, this was used
symbolically to show purification. Some of this ash was put into
water, as we're going to read a little later here in the book
of Numbers chapter 19. And this was taken and hyssop was used
and sprinkled upon people. And it was used to symbolize
the purification, the putting away of sin. Well, here in the
New Testament, The author, the Holy Spirit led the writer, the
secretary of this book to write these things about it. The ashes
of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctify to the purifying of
the flesh. Verse 14, how much more shall
the blood of Christ? How much more shall the blood
of Christ? This is typical. It's pictorial.
It's only on the outside. But the blood of Christ has the
ability of cleansing to the heart. Now, you know, I've heard people
say, and probably I said it in my religion, I would never dip
into a tub of blood. I just never do that. Well, symbolically,
we better do that or we won't have anything. Spiritually, we
must be as washed in the blood of the Lamb. It's absolutely
contrary to our thinking process as human beings, but the spiritual
things of God are absolutely contrary to our human thinking
as human beings. We have the idea that we can
go without having this kind of cleansing, that our own works
are able to take care of the problem, and yet God in every
passage of scripture declares that the humanity is unable to
take care of the problem itself. The need is that the Son of God
must come and take care of the problem. In Zechariah chapter
13, would you turn there? Oh, let's finish that verse 14
first in Hebrews. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge your sins? conscience from dead works to
serve the living God. Now, what does that mean? It
means that God takes care of every thought that we had that
was contrary to the gospel. He purges that out of us. He
puts it behind us. He said, you're not gonna fall
back on this believing that works is okay anymore. You're gonna
find out that's been purged out and you're gonna rest in Christ
and rest in the blood of Christ and rest in the work of Christ
forever. Well, now turn with me, if you
would, to the book of Zechariah. When we were going through there,
we came upon this passage of scripture in the book of Zechariah,
the gospel according to Zechariah. And it tells us here in Zechariah
chapter 13 and verse 1. Zechariah chapter 13 and verse
1. An old author got a hold of these
words and he wrote a hymn. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. and plunge beneath that flood
removes all our sinful stains. Now I misquoted that a little
bit. Here it tells us in that day. Now that day so often means
to me that gospel day when God brings us the gospel. When we
are privileged by the grace of God to have everything that we
believe thrown out. when God would take what we have
held to so tenaciously and put it aside and presents to us,
declares to us the truth of the gospel that Jesus Christ and
Jesus Christ alone is the only Savior and says in that day there
shall be a fountain open. That's when we really are able
to recognize that God has made a preparation for all the needs
that we ever had. And he's the one that is taking
care of not only the preparation, but getting us to the tank, getting
us to the blood of Christ. There is a fountain open to the
house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Symbolically sharing
with us. It's to the church. It's to Israel
the spiritual Israel and notice what it's for for sin and for
uncleanliness Now this is the only fountain that is ever going
to be given and it's the only one that takes care of the problem
that came as a result of the fall our sin our own sin and
the sin that was passed on to us and Now, this whole situation
reminds me of a man over in the book of 2 Kings. Would you turn
there with me? 2 Kings, 2 Kings 5. In 2 Kings 5, we have a leper
that was mentioned by the Lord Jesus to a group of people, no
doubt family and friends, there where he grew up in Nazareth.
Here in the book of 2 Kings 5, We have the beginning of the
account that the Lord shared there during his ministry about
a man by the name of Naaman. Now, Naaman is an illustrative
of all of us. He is a leper. He is going to
try to find some place for help. And when he is given the absolute
of how to take care of this problem, he's going to rebel against it.
The prophet doesn't even come out and speak to him. He just
gives it to someone else to do. And this is the only way that
you're gonna be cured. You follow these instructions
without reservation and you will be cured. And he rebels against
it. He is going to exercise his free
will. And it's always wrong. All right,
notice with me here. Naaman has been told that there's
a prophet in Israel that can take care of his problem. He
goes over to Israel, remember he's not from Israel, he's from
Syria, Gentile. Many lepers are in Israel in
the days of this prophet and not one did God deal with but
Naaman the Syrian. He's declaring God does his business
as he does his business. All right, so he went to the
king and the king is just shocked. How in the world am I supposed
to take care of this problem? Well, Elisha said, send him over
here. And in verse eight, and so it
was so, and it was so, when Elisha, the man of God, had heard that
the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the
king saying, wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come
unto me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.
So Naaman came with his horses and his chariot and stood at
the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto
him. I'm so thankful that God sends
messengers to people, individuals, wherever they are, in whatever
circumstances they are. Sometimes the people travel to
the messenger, and sometimes the messenger travels to the
people, but he is going to get the news where he wants it to
be. There's one man, Assyrian, that
is going to have this request. Elisha sent him a messenger saying,
now hasn't even heard the problem, but he says, here's the solution
for it. You know what? We don't need
to share all that we've ever done for God to deal with it.
We all know the problem. I've said this before. We don't
go around in the cities of refuge and asking, why are you here?
And why are you here? And why are you here? You know,
that may happen in churches, but it doesn't happen in the
kingdom of God because everybody knows why they're there. We're
sinners by nature, we're sinners by practice, and we're sinners
by choice. And that's why we're in the city
of refuge, why we're in Christ. Well, Elisha didn't have to go
out there and say, well, I see you've got leprosy on all your
feet and arms and hands and head and hair and everywhere else.
He knew the problem. So he said, sent a messenger
him saying, go and wash in Jordan seven times. Now, it's not Jordan
that's going to cleanse him. It's not, where he read over
there in the book of Numbers chapter 19 that if you have touched a dead body,
that there is a solution for the problem, to be sanctified,
to be, have this taken away, the problem of this. And someone,
I asked someone the other day, have you ever touched a dead
body? And they said, no. And I said, have you ever shaved?
Have you ever washed your face? Yes, we've touched a dead body. Now, maybe not in the literal
sense, But we are dead by nature, dead in trespasses and sin. We
cannot get away from the problem. We cannot remove ourselves from
the problem and we cannot clean up the problem. So everyone that
is touched a dead body, the solution is you must be purified from
sin and you must do it on the third day after this incident
has taken place. We'll get over there in just
a moment. But notice this, Elisha shares with him, this is what
you must do in order to remove your leprosy. And the gospel
says, this is what you must do in order to be saved from your
sins. Trust Christ and don't move a
muscle. Well, we find out that that's an impossibility, and
then we find out that it is the Lord that provides us the trust. It's the Lord that provides us
the faith. It's the Lord that gives us everything
that is necessary, and we find out that the request that he
has made upon us that we didn't agree with and didn't want to
respond to is exactly what is necessary, and he provides it
for us, and we find out that has taken care of the problem.
I've been saved by the grace of God and nothing else. All
right? Now, Elisha's in a mess here.
Go wash. Thou shall be clean. Notice verse
11. And we'll probably face that
in chapter 19 of the book of Numbers, because it does say
that if you do not cleanse yourself on the third day, you will not
be cleansed on the seventh day. You don't have any cleansing.
Can you imagine the requirement imposed by God upon Israel that
this is what you must do? And someone says, I don't have
to do that. That's just common, isn't it? That's everybody's
reality. By nature, I don't have to do
what God says, I can do it on my own. Well, right there in
Israel, after people giving the red heifer, watching it being
consumed, the ashes taken aside, and the instructions given, there
are gonna be people that say, it isn't for me. Well, that's
exactly what Naaman said, but Naaman was Roth. What does Roth
mean? Pretty upset. Naaman was pretty
upset. In fact, he confesses and went
his way and said, behold, I thought. Boy, that's the gospel, isn't
it? Behold, I thought. The thoughts
of men fill hundreds and thousands of pages of commentary. The best
commentary on the Bible is the Bible, and thank God for a few
men that see that. but millions of pages had been
used up on, I thought. Well, Naaman said, I thought,
he's confessing here. We get to hear him these thousands
of years afterwards. And this is just a normal man
speaking about the requirements imposed upon him. I thought he
will surely come out to me. Oh, you're going to do, the prophet
is supposed to bow. and stand up and call on the
name of the Lord, his God, and strike his hand over the place
and recover the leopard." Notice how he has it all figured out. I thought this is what God's
gonna do. Well, are not Havana and far, far rivers of Damascus
better than all the waters of Israel? We got water over where
I live and it's just as good as the water over here. Well,
we find out none of the water's good. Isn't this just as good as what
the prophet has said? And how much we say that before
the Lord ever saves us. Isn't this just, I'm doing just
as good. I'm just, people say, you know,
I'm not perfect, but I'm better than most. Well, goes on to say,
and his servants came near and spake unto him, thank God for
servants. Come along, these servants that
come along and say, spake unto him saying, my father, if the
prophet did bid thee to do some great thing, wouldest thou not
have done it? Sell all your property and give
it to me and you'll be okay. Wouldest thou not have done it?
Look at what the Sadducees and the Pharisees were doing during
the time of Christ. Can you imagine the time consuming
process of counting out or weighing out celery seed, dill, wheat for tithing? What consumption of time, so
that they had, I thought this would do it. Well, wouldest thou
not have done it? How much rather than when he
saith unto thee, wash and be clean. Then went he down and
dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying
of the man of God, and his flesh came again like unto the flesh
of a little child, and he was clean. Now, I've had people tell
me, this is what you need to do. You need to be baptized.
Look at that. That's not what he's talking about. He's saying,
follow the instructions of the God of heaven. All right. Naaman was washed as instructed,
and he is brought up by the Lord in the New Testament, and they
picked up stones to kill him. You know why? Because they had
their own water to dip in. They didn't do what that man
of God told Naaman. They had all of their things
figured out just like he did. Well, let's go back to the book
of Numbers chapter 19 and look at this section again for just
a moment. As we notice, the Lord goes through
here and says, this is the reason for the burning of the red heifer. This is what has taken place.
And now this is what it's gonna be used for. I'm answering the
questions as they come up. So here in the book of Numbers
chapter 19, it tells us there in verse 11, he that touches
the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. I find
it very interesting that if you touched a dead carcass of an
animal, you know how long you were to be unclean? One day. Leviticus chapter 11, verses
24, 27, and 39. If you touched a dead carcass of an animal,
you were unclean until even one day. If you touch the dead body of
a human being, you are unclean for seven days. And the prescription
of how to take care of that uncleanness was prescribed by God with the
use of the ashes of a red heifer. If a person touched a dead animal,
they were unclean for one day. If he touches a dead man, he's
unclean for seven days. And it apparently is attempting
to teach us that it's the peculiar impurity of a man before Almighty
God. to show his sinfulness seven
times worse, if you please. Just an illustration, seven times
worse. What does it mean, totally depraved? It's seven times worse than we
thought. What does it mean? Death is the
fruit of sin. This declares all those dead
in sins are defiled and defiling, and there is no human way out
of the mess we are in. We're defiled and we are defiling. We'll encourage other people
to be defiled with us. You know, Job said in Job 14
verse four, and I think that's in the bulletin there in one
place, it says, who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. From a human standpoint, we cannot
bring ourselves an unclean person out of an unclean. It's an impossibility,
we're both tainted. And in the book of Isaiah 64,
would you turn there with me? Isaiah chapter 64, there in verse
six, Isaiah 64 in verse six, we read these words about this
situation. Isaiah 64 in verse six, but we
are all as an unclean thing. And all our righteousnesses,
our good works, our attempts, Naaman, your righteousnesses, are as filthy rags. And we all
do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, shall be taken
away. They're everywhere. We don't have anything. Now,
God has made this absolute demand upon anybody that touches a dead
body. This is the prescription for
it. Naaman, this is the prescription, even though there is good water
over there where you came from. This is the prescription for
it. Friends, neighbors, You may have your ideas, but this is
the prescription for sin. It's the blood of Christ. It
is a sacrifice for sin. It is a innocent dying for the
guilty. So let's look over here as we
peer up into this in the book of Numbers, going back there
again in Numbers chapter 19. And we notice this prescription
is given by almighty God to the children of Israel. And apparently
there was just like any other time, There were those who said,
it's not for me. I'm not going to follow that.
I'm not going to get my white clothes stained with those ashes.
All the excuses that are always given. You know, I was just down
with some family and there was nobody there that wanted to be
talking about Christ as the only Savior. We talk about anything
else. That's just the way it is. We shouldn't be surprised. I remember my dad coming home
from church and we turned the TV on because we wanted to watch
a football game. He says, those people should be in church. What's
their incentive? What's their incentive? What
are they going to hear when they get there? They're all okay anyway. Very few ever heard anything.
Here in the book of Numbers chapter 19, there in verse 11 again,
shall be unclean seven days, touching a dead body. You drop
down through here, if you find a soldier that's been slain in
the field, if you touch a bone, if you touch a grave. Mike has
talked there in the book of Luke about those people that avoided
those whitewashed tombs so much. Well, it goes right back here.
I'm gonna be inconvenienced. I'm gonna be unclean for seven
days. Well, he shall purify himself
with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be
clean. But, and we notice that so clearly
as we read through the scripture, there's always that. I love it
when it comes from God's side, but God. But when it comes from
the human side, it is always in error. But if he purify not
himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean. The unclean person shall take
some ashes, mix it with water. We'll find that is a little farther
in here. And that water with those dust of ashes, a symbol
of death on your behalf, a symbol that an innocent died to put
away your sin. and you must do it exactly as
prescribed. And if you decide that you're
not going to do it, it tells us later into that same verse,
then the seventh day he shall not be clean. What does that
mean to us? Well, we find that the third
day is mentioned a number of times in the Bible, but the most
important third day to us is the resurrection of Christ very
early on the first day of the week. Three days after he was
crucified, he came forth from the tomb just like he promised.
And what did he do in order to come out of the tomb? What did
he do to satisfy the law, satisfy righteousness, satisfy his father,
and satisfy the ability to procure his people from their sin? He
gave his life. He shed his blood. That's exactly
what he did. And he did it on purpose. It
was not a mistake and they did not take him by error. He was
turned over by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God and he was there on the cross. He shed his precious blood. He
gave his blood. He was the innocent dying for
the guilty. Now on the third day, this application
was to be made. On the third day, the Lord Jesus
Christ demonstrated to the world and was pleased to enter into
his father's realm once again because he satisfied everything. He put away sin forever. He gave
everlasting life. What is it? The ninth chapter
of the Book of Daniel. Just give me a moment here. It
just flashed in my, let me look here for just a moment. The Book
of Daniel. I believe it's the ninth chapter. the things that he did when he,
at the 70 weeks. Oh, here we go. Verse 24, there
we go. 70 weeks are determined upon
thy people and upon thy holy city. Now notice this. These
things were done by the Lord at the end of the 70 weeks. I'm
not waiting for this. It's ours. What's it say? To
finish the transgression. To make an end of sins. When did that happen? At the
cross. And to make reconciliation for iniquity. When did that happen?
At the cross. And to bring in everlasting righteousness. and to seal up the vision and
prophecy and to anoint the most holy. Who is the most holy? It certainly was not the temple.
The most holy is our Savior, the Lord Jesus. So these are
the accomplishments that God has said was gonna take place
when our Savior accomplished what he came to the world to
do, lay down his life, a ransom for many. Blood was shed on the
behalf of his people and has put away sin forever. Well, if
you remember back over there in the book of Numbers, that
if you did not do that, well, let's say if you did do it, the
seventh day you'd be clean. If you did not do it, the seventh
day you would not be clean. What's that mean for us? The third day, your blood took
care of it. then you would have that eternal
rest. There would be no judgment. You would be at rest with yourself,
but more importantly, you would be at rest with God. Turn with
me, if you would, over to the book of Hebrews chapter four.
We have, if this happens on the third day, if the blood of Christ
If he applies that, it's not us applying it, it's the blood
of Christ being applied to us. Payment for us. Here in the book
of Hebrews chapter four. Hebrews chapter four. Read this
with me. Hebrews chapter four beginning
with verse four. For he spake, God spake in a
certain place of the seventh day on this wise, book of Genesis. And God did rest the seventh
day from all his works. And in this place, again, if
they shall enter into my rest, seeing therefore it remaineth
that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first
preached entered not in because of unbelief, again, he limiteth
a certain day, saying, David, today, after so long a time as
it is said, today I will hear his voice and Harden not your
hearts, for if, that should have been Joshua, for if Joshua had
given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of
another day. There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. Now, when God saves us, he brings
us into the perfect rest. He brings us into the Sabbath.
He brings us into the true seventh day. He brings us into the fulfillment
of what God declared there in the book of Genesis that on the
seventh day he rested. And he says, when God saves you,
you will stop from your works. You will no longer be depending
upon your works. Notice here in verse 9, there
that remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God for he that
is entered into his rest he also has ceased from his own works
as God did from his. What a wonderful statement that
God makes with regard to our works, that when God saves us,
we cease from it. We come to peace, we come to
rest. So if that blood is applied,
that Jesus Christ would save his people from their sins, just
like he promised, then when it comes to the eternal day of rest,
we're at peace. Death will not be. something
that we don't want to happen. It will be stepping into eternal
peace with God. Now the person who says, on the
third day, I will not have it. He says on the seventh day, you
will not have it. There will be no peace. There
will be no rest. It will be eternal work against
God. Let us labor therefore to enter
into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief." What happened there in the wilderness? You know,
as God prepares them for an astronomical number of people going to die.
Why? He's already told them, all of those over 20 years of
age are going to die off. In 38 years, they're all going
to die off. What preparation is he making?
When you enter into a tent and there's a dead person there,
here's the problem. and it must be taken care of
this way. When you see this man dead, when this man is dead,
when your parents are gone, when your brother's gone, when everybody
else is gone, when they've all died, here's the prescription
for it because we are dead and we are defiled and we defile
as we walk through this world. And the only hope for anybody
is the blood of Jesus Christ or the cleansing that comes from
it. And that's going to be symbolized
by that red heifer's ashes, burnt to a crisp beyond recognition,
nothing left. No sin shall be left over from
the death of Jesus Christ and his shed blood on the cross.
Nothing will be left over. It will be completely consumed
and paid for. And so it is here, as we look
in this 14th or 19th chapter of the book of Numbers, this
red heifer, Benefits of the death of the
red heifer is going to be used for the cleansing of sin from
a typical standpoint. And the benefits of the shed
blood of Jesus Christ are for the reality of benefits. On that
third day when he came out of the tomb, just as he promised,
it was a symbol to everyone, those who didn't want it to happen
and those who did want it to happen. Those who didn't want
it to happen said the disciples stole his body and paid money
to have people tell that story. Those who realized that he had
truly come out of the tomb said hallelujah. What he had to say
was exactly true. And we read about those words
from Paul and Peter later in the works of the New Testament.
Whoever is not cleansed his sins by the blood of Christ shall
never be cleansed. Turn with me to the book of Revelation
chapter 21. Revelation chapter 21, verse
11. It's chapter 22 and verse 11. He that is unjust, let him be
unjust still. He which is filthy, let him be
filthy still. And he that is righteous, let
him be righteous still. And he that is holy, Let him
be holy still. You know, most of the eschatology
movement in the last 100 or 150 years has been simply over the
need for a second chance. And it's not in the scriptures.
There's no second chance. And you know what? Salvation
is not by chance. It's on purpose. God saves his
people from their sins on purpose. Nobody is up for chance. Those
without Christ, he that is unjust, let him be
unjust still. It's gonna go on and on and on. So just going back to the book
of Numbers for just a moment, chapter 19, book of Numbers chapter
19. Verse 12, he shall purify himself
if he touched a dead body. Verse 11, purify himself with
it on the third day and on the seventh day he shall be clean.
But if he purify not himself the third day, then the seventh
day he shall not be clean. Whosoever touches the dead body
of a man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle
of the Lord, and that soul shall 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." What a statement. Without the blood of Christ,
the uncleanness is still upon us.