Would you turn with me this morning
to the book of Numbers once again, the book of Numbers. We're going
to be looking at a continuation from last week, the subject of
the red heifer, subject of the red heifer, as it's brought out
in the book of Numbers chapter 19. Now, we have to be reminded from time
to time what it is to preach the gospel. And we find that
there are four basic elements of preaching the gospel. The
gospel as it's declared in the word of God, as we even find
here in the book of Numbers. Number one, we must tell the
truth about God. We must tell the truth about
God. We must tell the truth that He is a God that reigns. He is
a God that is high and lifted up. He is a holy God. We must
also tell the truth about Jesus Christ. And we heard some of
that this morning in the Bible class, that he is indeed our
high priest. He is our only mediator. He's
the only way of salvation that God has ever given to anybody
or everybody in the world. There's not different ways of
salvation. We also find in the scripture
that we must tell the truth about man. One of the reasons that
we're reading here in the book of Numbers is that God wants
those folks to know the truth about themselves. And the truth
about themselves is that we all fell in Adam and that we're all
sinners. And we need a suitable sacrifice
to take care of the problem. Someone to go in our stead. Someone to be our surety. Someone
to pay our price because we're not able. We cannot work it.
We cannot provide it. We cannot perform it. We must
have someone to take care of that. Must be a mediator. And a mediator that is a mediator
between us and that God that the Bible declares. And we find
we must tell the truth about salvation. We cannot tell the
truth about the other three things if we do not tell the truth about
salvation. And we can sum this up by the
word of Jonah, salvation is of the Lord. Old Testament. It is brought
out so clearly throughout the Old Testament, and we remember
that the Old Testament was all that Jesus Christ ever preached
from, and all that the apostles preached from, and all that the
prophets preached from was the Old Testament. So we're going
to find Christ there. We will find him today as we
look at this red heifer, this sacrifice that the Lord prescribed
for Israel. Now, we're going to be in the
19th chapter of the book of Numbers. And last week we read verses
1 through 10. I encourage you to read that.
Read the rest of the chapter. Brother Mike came in this morning
and said, I read the rest of that chapter and that's pretty
interesting. Well, it is. It is a very interesting chapter.
But here in the book of Numbers chapter Chapter 19, and I want to go
to verse 2. Numbers chapter 19 and verse
2. The scriptures share with us
here. There are six requirements imposed
by the commandment of God for this particular sacrifice. And this sacrifice is only mentioned
here in the book of Numbers chapter 19, and we heard it referred
to as we heard read in the book of Hebrews. It says, the ashes
of a heifer. There in the book of Hebrews.
Two places in all the Bible. Now, there are many people today
that are looking for or say they have found a red heifer so they
can go back and do the traditional sacrifices over there in Jerusalem. A person who believes what God
said about his son and what God said about his salvation are
not going to be tied up to that. We do not need that. That's already
been taken care of. Jesus Christ is all our hope
and all our salvation. Here in the book of Numbers chapter,
let's read verses 1 and 2. It says, And the Lord spake unto
Moses, and said unto Aaron, saying, This is the ordinance of the
law which the Lord hath commanded. This is a commandment that God
has given to the children of Israel. Notice this as it goes
on here, this requirement, it says, this is the commandment,
saying, speak unto the children of Israel that they bring thee
a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which
never came yoke. And then I want to read verse
3, And ye shall give her unto Eliezer the priest, that he may
bring her forth without the camp. and one shall slay her before
his face. And there's so much here that
I'm not sure that we'll ever get to the end of it, but we're
going to try to get a few things out of it. We notice here to
begin with, and we brought this out last Sunday, but I want to
just review a bit that this particular sacrifice was to be given by
all of Israel. It tells us there in verse 2,
that speak unto the children of Israel that they bring a red
heifer without spot. This is a requirement by them
to bring this sacrifice. It wasn't an individual sacrifice.
It was a sacrifice of all Israel. And we truly can see here that
as Israel is a type and a shadow and a picture of the church,
that it is the church that looks to this sacrifice. It is this
church that looks to the Lord Jesus Christ, the fulfillment
of that sacrifice. And it tells us that the church
is truly the ones that pierced Him. You know, all my religious
life I heard about people in the end are going to look on
Him whom they pierced. Well, unbelievers never pierced
the body of Christ, never pierced His hands and feet, never put
Him on the cross. Those who go out of this world
without Christ never did that. Who is it that pierced Christ?
It is the church that pierced Christ. It is their sins that
put him on the tree. It is their sins that caused
him to go. It is their sins that he must
pay the price for. Why is it said that Jacob have
I loved? Because he went to the cross
for him. Jacob was a scoundrel and a rapscallion
and all the other terms that we could apply to any human being,
you and I included. But Jacob have I loved. Why?
Because I love him in the gospel. I love him in Christ. I love
him before time. I've loved him with an everlasting
love. Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Why is it
that Esau was hated? Was he worse off than Jacob?
No. Probably he was someone we'd
have more fellowship with. But God never gave his life a
ransom for Esau. So he is hated. He's a sinner. He has sin abounding. And he
is going to be cast into the everlasting pit. But those who
Jesus Christ went to the cross for are the ones that will look
upon him whom they have pierced. We put him on the cross. It was
our sins that caused him to go It was his covenant of grace
interceding on our behalf and he's the one that laid down his
life a ransom for us Well, so Israel was interested and brought
this red heifer and presented it to Eliezer to take without
the camp. We also found out that this heifer
was red, which is an anomaly among the tribes of Israel and
their cattle. This is a rare color. We find, in fact, as we go back
to Jacob, that he took the ring-streaked and speckled ones. He took the
odd ones. Well, that certainly speaks about
the people of God. They're not the rare ones. We're
just common, ring-streaked and speckled. You know, there was
a time I'd be offended by being called a sinner, but now it's
something you put after your name. I remember that preacher
that didn't have any honor because he hadn't been to school and
didn't have any letters after his name. And so he put SS after
his name, Saved Sinner. That's what we are. That's the
letters after our name, Saved Sinner. And so we have an anomaly. We're looking for something very
particular. We're looking for something very
special. We're looking for something even as we find as Saul was,
he was head and shoulders above all those around him. We're looking
for this one. And we find out he's the Rose
of Sharon and he's the Lily of the Valley. We're looking for
this one. We're finding this one. So they're looking about.
I wonder as I was going over this, we're not told much about
how they went and found this red heifer. Now, that red heifer
would be a rare one out there in their herd. It wouldn't be
that difficult to find. But during the ministry of the
Lord Jesus Christ, we find that there were people who didn't
know Jesus and Jesus. They visited with Him, been around
Him, heard Him talking, didn't know the first thing about who
He was. There on the day of his crucifixion, he's standing before
the high priest, and the high priest directly asks him, are
you the Christ? Are you the son of the blessed? He says, I am. And you know what
the high priest did? We've heard enough. He spoke
blasphemy. That's what natural man would
do with the hearing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the
Living God. That's what Peter said, thou
art the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. And
blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal
this unto you, but my Father which is in heaven. So we have
that. Well, you know, as I thought about that, as they search for
a red heifer, may have been something like what we find over in the
book of John chapter 1. Would you turn there for just
a moment in the book of John chapter 1? There had to be someone
who noticed, someone who saw this, someone who was in their
herd, someone that had been traveling along. You know, when they were
begging for quail, they said, we want meat. Do you suppose,
they said, that all of the animals that we have would suffice to
feed us? That's what they said about their
herds. And so the Lord gave them quail. Head deep. Well, look here in the book of
John 1, verse 43. As we find the very beginning,
John 1, verse 43, And the following day Jesus would go forth into
Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me.
Now Philip was at Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
And Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, Now notice
this. We have found that special one. We have found that one who
has head and shoulders above all the rest. We have found him
who is red. We have found the rare one. What
does it say? We have found him of whom Moses
in the law and the prophets did write. Who is that? He goes on to answer it. Jesus
of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. From a natural context he was
the son of Joseph, but from a spiritual context he had no relationship
at all to him. Joseph was just another man.
Jesus Christ was the special man. He was given to us, born
of a virgin. He did not carry the weight of
that sin that was brought down upon us, even as the children
of Adam. And so we have found him. Well,
someone probably came back to camp and said, guess what? Right
out here is that red heifer. And they went out there and they
got that red heifer and put a rope around her neck, or maybe she
just followed, I don't know, and came right up And it said,
this is the requirement, read for rarity, read for blood, very
special. This one, the Lord Jesus, we
find in the scriptures, He taught with authority and not as one
of the scribes. He was so different in His ministry
and in His message. Never man spoke like this man. He walked on water. He turned
water to wine. He healed the lame. He healed
the lepers. No man has ever done anything
like this. He was the special one, the rarest
of the rare. No one like him had ever walked
the face of the earth as He did. Now He came down and visited
at times. We have the pre-incarnate visits
of the Lord from time to time in the Old Testament. Who was
it that came down? Adam where art thou? Who was
it that appeared unto Noah? Who was it that appeared unto
Abraham? Who was it that appeared unto
Moses? Who was it? His pre-incarnate Christ came
down. Who was it that appeared, and
it was the Lord Jesus Christ that we find in Him. No one was
ever like Him on this earth. And then we find that this sacrifice
is different than most of the sacrifices that were offered
under the Levitical priesthood, in that it was a heifer. It was
a female cow that was brought. And we may ask, what does that
have to do? Well, we find, as we look at this and study about
it, that this particular sacrifice shows the identification that
God in Christ Jesus has with His church. There is such a union. that Christ has with his church
and he depicts it here in choosing this red heifer to be the sacrifice
that is going to be offered at this time. He identifies with
the elect. He identifies with his bride.
He identifies with them in life and in death. He identifies with
them as the bride and she, he is the head and she's the body.
What union we find the scriptures tell us between Christ and the
church. This church was looked at before the foundation of the
world, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world,
looked at with glory. God had said before time began,
I have loved you with an everlasting love. Well, if he loved his church
with an everlasting love, he also had everlasting all the
rest of his great truths and attributes on their behalf. He
had set them aside from eternity. He purposed them from eternity
and he was going to lay down his life for them in time. We read over there in the book
of Ephesians chapter 5 about husbands and wives and the Apostle
Paul concludes that whole section. He says, I speak of you about
a mystery. of Christ and His church, how
close they are, how much love He had for them. And so, as we
see this red heifer brought out of the herd, identified by the
color and identified by the sex, brought out and handed over to
Eleazar to be taken without the camp, to be offered as a sacrifice,
we truly see here the wonderful blessings of the Lord Jesus Christ
on behalf of His church. We heard read this morning there
in the book of Acts, would you turn with me to the book of Acts
chapter 20 and verse 28? I'd like to go over that one
more time in Acts chapter 20 and verse 28. We find the Apostle
Paul, as he's going to conclude his ministry with the Ephesian,
the Ephesian elders, said, I'll never see him again. I'll never
see you, your face again. He was going on. He was going
to end up in Rome. And here in Acts chapter 20 and
verse 28, he tells those elders, Take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers, to feed the church of God, now notice that last
part, which he hath purchased with his own blood. The church he purchased with
his own blood, all right. All of Israel presents this red
heifer, a symbol of the rarity and a symbol of the relationship
that the Son of God has with His church, brings it out, and
then we find that this red heifer had to have some other qualifications. If we go back there to the book
of Numbers chapter 19, and there in verse 2 it says, Speak unto
the children of Israel that they bring thee a red heifer. The
children of Israel bring it. It's going to be a red, it's
going to be a female cow, and then it says something else that
depicts to us that we're looking at a type and a shadow and a
picture, not the real. This is the Old Testament. You
know, as Brother Craig was mentioning today, the blessings of the New
Covenant was also for Abraham. The blessings of the New Covenant
was also for Moses. The blessings of the New Covenant
was also for Joshua and Caleb. For anybody throughout the Old
Testament that God revealed His Son to the Messiah, the blessings
of the everlasting covenant, the New Covenant, was on their
behalf. None of those people were ever saved by their animal
sacrifices. In fact, we find in the New Testament,
there in the book of Hebrews, it makes it very clear. He made
it clear to them, too. These are not the salvation.
This is not hope in this. This is a picture. This is the
type. I'm going to give you the antitype
in time, at the right time, in the fullness of time. He sent
forth His Son. made under the law, brought forth
by a woman. Well, we have here that this
red heifer is to be without spot. You know, we get into the book
of Malachi and we find that the children of Israel were producing
all kinds of sacrifices to be presented. In fact, the prophet
Malachi brought up and says, would you give that to your mayor? Would you give that to your leaders?
Would you give it to your king? And they'd have to say, oh, no,
no, no, I wouldn't do that. That would be a shame, because
it would really reflect on my position. Well, they were giving
it to God. And he just, that is not right. Well, we have here
that this prescription for this sacrifice, like all the sacrifices
that we read about in the book of Leviticus, they were all to
be without blemish and without spot. The lamb that was used
for the Passover was to be without blemish and without spot. These
are typical pictorial of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who was without blemish and without spot. Without outward blemish
or without internal spot. without any problem. They didn't
halt. They didn't have a bad eye. They
didn't have a sore. They didn't have a problem about
them. And internally, as best as they could tell, there was
no problem with them. This is speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is the only one that we actually
know that there was no internal problems. He didn't have a problem
with sin. He didn't have a problem with
his father. He wasn't in rebellion against him. He had not eaten
of the forbidden fruit. He came down and spoke to Adam
afterwards. This was the perfect Son of God. This is the one that could be
the sacrifice for sin. Now, as a picture, this red heifer
was to be a sacrifice, like all the other Levitical sacrifices
were, without blemish and without spot. Bring the broken. Don't bring the odd. Don't bring
what you can't sell. Bring the best of your flock
without blemish and without spot. Without spot, another requirement
that could only be fulfilled in Jesus Christ the righteous
because we have great blemishes and we have spots. as we age. When we went through the book
of Leviticus, it talked about if you had a blemish, there had
to be something done about it. And we all have physical blemishes. I showed a picture of my grandfather's
grade school picture with a whole host of other people. And I said,
pick out my grandfather. This was to a bunch of boys in
a class. And two boys picked him out.
And I says, how did you do that? And he says, because he has large
ears like you do. Well, I never thought that I
had large ears till then. What blemishes we carry by nature. pimples, moles, we have these
blemishes that are totally unacceptable to be the sacrifice. And besides
that, we have blemishes on the inside, in which we read in the
book of Jeremiah, it says, the heart is deceitful above all
things, and desperately weakened. Nobody knows about that, but
us, and even us don't know enough about it. We don't know. We cannot
comprehend the effects of the fall, how far it was. But we do know this, that when
Jesus saves us, He saves us from our sins and we're thankful.
You went to the depths for us. You went to the pit for us. You
went to the blemishes and spots for us. In the Psalm, would you
turn with me to the Psalm 18? Psalm 18 and verse 30, we read
here about the wonderful nature of our Savior, that God is so
careful to give us such word about His Son that we might,
in revelation, in seeing Him, be so blessed to see that He
is the spotless Son. that there is no problem with
him, that he was accepted by the Father. All these other sacrifices
were brought, that they were to be without spot and blemish
from a human standpoint. But this one, that natural man
would say, I don't want him, crucify him, crucify him. God
the Father could say, this is my beloved son. Even the church in an unconverted
state would vote against him. Even they would pierce him. And
until we're born again, we'd go down the same road that the
thief on the cross would say, if you be the Christ, get down
and get us off of here. Well, we don't think about that,
but that's the same words that the thief that Jesus Christ saved
had to say. He was in that way with that
other thief for a while until the Lord revealed the Lord. And then he was able to say,
Lord, remember me when you enter your kingdom. And how do we know
that it was effectual? We're getting what we deserve. In the book of the Psalms, Psalm
18, verse 30, Psalm 18 and verse 30, the scriptures share this. As for God, his way is perfect. The word of the Lord is tried.
He is a buckler to all those that trust in Him. As for God,
His way is perfect, and if we follow the life of the Lord Jesus
Christ through from birth to the cross, we find what Pilate
summed up, I find no fault in Him. Nothing. There is no fault in Him. That's
what God the Father declared about him in his birth. That's
what God the Father declared about him in his life. And that's
what God the Father declared about him in his death. There's
no sin in him except imputed sin. He did not become a sinner. He had my sin put on him. As
we follow this through, Mary, his mother, was declared this
when she was informed that she was going to be the one to bear
the Son of God into this world. Therefore also that holy thing
which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. That
holy thing, that holy child, that you shall bear." What a
statement. There's only one holy and that's
God. And then he says, be holy as I am holy. And without holiness,
no one will see God. What does that all mean? We better
have the holiness of God placed at our account. In him was no
sin. In the book of 1 Peter chapter
2, would you turn there with me as we think about this great
necessity from conception without human seed, with only the seed
of God, holy, harmless, and undefiled. Here in the book of 1 Peter chapter
2 and verse 21, 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 21, It says this, for even here unto
where you call, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving
us an example that ye should follow his steps, who did no
sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. When he was reviled,
revile not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously. What a statement. When he was
reviled, he didn't return it. He didn't retaliate. He's the
son of God without spot. And there is no blemish. There's
no defect. There's no moral stain. It doesn't take long for the
children of Adam to demonstrate both of these issues. As I heard
this morning looking at a newborn baby, what a beautiful little
sinner. I came forth from my mother's
womb speaking lies. Who said that, David? In sin
did my mother conceive me. It wasn't the act that was sin,
but we just get it on conception. We have that inherent nature
that we hear read about in the book of Romans, in Adam all died. You know, spiritually, I heard
this the other day, spiritually speaking, we are still born when
we're born. There is a death there that has
no remedy in our own effect, has no remedy in our own prayers,
has no remedy in our own works, has no remedy in our own tears,
has no remedy in anything that we do. We're stillborn and we
just can't get out of the mess we're in. We need intervention.
Well, that's one of the pictures that we have here with regard
to the red heifer. Here is a picture of the intervention.
We have a sacrifice, and it's a required sacrifice. It tells
us about the Lord Jesus, that he had no blemish, he had no
spot. This is what the scriptures tell
us so clearly. The heart is deceitful above
all things, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. And then we are thankful for what we read about the Lord
Jesus. He is fair. Turn with me to the
Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon, if you would.
In the Song of Solomon, we have such wonderful account of the
love between the Lord and his church. Such beautiful terms. It was
said among the Jews that a young man couldn't read the Song of
Solomon until he was 30 years old. Well, they were only looking
at it from a physical standpoint. We want to look at it from a
spiritual standpoint. We want to see what blessings
we have in Christ. He is our husband. We're his
bride. And here it tells us in the Song
of Solomon, chapter 4, verse 7, Song of Solomon chapter four
and verse seven, thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot
in thee. What the church looks at the
Savior and says, you are so beautiful. Well, in fact, the church says,
as she's asked by the daughters of Jerusalem, here in the Song
of Solomon, what is so important about your husband? So important
about this one. Well, He's altogether lovely. Summed up here, thou art all
fair, my love. There is no spot in thee. There's no imperfection. You
know what that means? When He went to the cross, He
could be the sacrifice, the one-time sacrifice for sin. He could put
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He is without blemish
and without spot. He offered Himself without spot
to God. This is the offering. Turn with
me to the book of Hebrews chapter 9, if you would. Hebrews chapter
9, as we see so much of the Old Testament fulfilled here in this
book. But you know what? Old Testament
believers had some knowledge of this. It's written down for
us, and we'll thank God for it. But they had some of the same
thing. They knew that they were not saved by those sacrifices.
They knew they were saved by the Messiah. That's the one they
look to. And here in the book of Hebrews
9, verse 12, the scriptures say, "...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." And the church
stands outside in the choir and says, Hallelujah! He has obtained
eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls, and
of goats, and the ashes of a heifer," here's the other place in the
Bible where this sacrifice that we're reading about in the book
of Numbers is mentioned in the New Testament. If the blood of
bulls, and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling
the unclean, sanctified to the purified of the flesh, how much
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit
offered himself without spot to God purge our conscience from
dead works to serve the living God. The blood of Jesus Christ
without spot and without blemish. He offered himself to God. He was the sacrifice that we
so desperately needed. And yet we would not have identified
him as the sacrifice. We would have gone blindly along
thinking that we could provide the necessary element. I'm different
than everybody else. That's what we thought. I'm different
than everybody. I'll be able to handle it. Well,
they didn't through the Old Testament. They didn't through the New Testament
either by themselves. It was by the grace of Almighty
God. He has washed us. He has cleansed us from our own
sins in His own blood. Natural man will not stand for
that. Born-again believers just say, thank you, Lord, that you
would go to that extreme, the death of the Son of God. You
know, the sixth element, the sixth requirement that is brought
out over there in the book of Numbers chapter 19 and verse
2, it has six of them there, offered by the children of Israel.
Red, heifer, without spot, without blemish. Sixth one, it says,
not a yoke was ever placed on it. It was never for plowing. It was never for carrying a burden.
There was not a yoke. A yoke, a device lifted over
the shoulder is attached oxen for performing work. You know,
most of the kids today don't know what that kind of yoke is.
It's an anomaly. I don't know what that is. Yoke,
that's what's in an egg, isn't it? Well, this is a yoke and it was
used for oxen, for pulling a burden. And yet it is a requirement with
regard to this red heifer that this red heifer never carried
a burden. It was not that way. You know,
in a very real sense, everyone that has ever been born from
Adam's children to this day until the end of the world, however
long that will be, everyone that has ever been born has a yoke
upon them by birth. It is a yoke that has been given
to them by their hour, Father Adam. It is a yoke, a burden
of sin. There's no better way to put
it than it is a yoke imposed upon us by the fall that we carry
around and we will carry it to our dying day. Now there's someone,
God has prescribed someone to take care of that yoke. And that
is the Lord Jesus. It is impossible to remove this
yoke. You know, a cow can't do that.
A cow depends on someone else to have that yoke removed. I
think the first real ox yoke I ever saw was out here at the
Discovery Center. They had one there that had been
used on oxen. They would carry wagons, pull
wagons out across the Oregon Trail. These oxen had that over
their shoulder and around their neck. And they were hooked to
a wagon and they pulled that wagon. They said that oxen were
much better off than horses or mules pulling. Weren't quite
as fast, but they got the job done. Well, they couldn't take
the yoke off alone. They took someone else. We're
crippled. We can't take the yoke off either. There is a deadness towards God
that has so permeated us. Carnal cannot help the spiritual. Now, new birth is what's required.
Our carnal body cannot take care of the spiritual. The only thing
that we can take care of is carnal. We take care of feeding ourselves,
physical food, putting physical clothes on us. We can do that.
Until maybe I get too old and have to have my wife do it for
me. I don't know. But when it comes to spiritual things, the
carnal cannot help the spiritual. That's a real issue that many
people have. The Lord spoke of a yoke upon
His people. Turn over to the book of Isaiah,
if you would, Isaiah chapter 10. There was a yoke put upon
His people, Isaiah chapter 10. Isaiah the prophet was used to
write about this yoke. This red heifer was to not ever
have a yoke. You know, as time went on, and
I was reading on the internet, and you can read anything on
the internet, and if you type in Red Heifer, the first thing
you're going to be led to is eschatology, which is absolutely
incorrect. There's no value in this for
eschatology. I was told that they need the
ashes of this new heifer so they can cleanse the new temple. Well,
if you read, it was never used on the old temple. It was used
on people. Read the rest of the chapter.
It's used on people, sinners, people who have touched a dead
body. people who are dead have touched a dead body. Alright.
Here in the book of Isaiah chapter 10 verse 20 it says, And it shall
come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, don't
you like running into words like that? In that day, that gospel
day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the
house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote
them, but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel,
in truth. The remnant shall return, even
the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God. For through thy people
Israel be as the sand of the sea. Though my people be as Israel
as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return. The consumption
decreed shall overflow with righteousness. For the Lord God of hosts shall
make a consumption even determined in the midst of all the land.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, of O my people that
dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian. He shall smite
thee with a rod, and shall lift up thy staff against thee after
the manner of Egypt." What did the fall do? That very thing. For yet a very little while,
and the indignation shall cease, and my anger in their destruction.
And the Lord of hosts shall stir up a scourge from him according
to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb. And as his
rod was upon the sea, shall he lift it up after the manor of
Egypt, and it shall come to pass in that day that his burden shall
be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck,
And the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing. Hallelujah. You mean there is someone that
can take care of this yoke that I've been carrying around? One
man called it a burden that he carried on his back. this yoke,
yoke of sin imposed upon me. I had no choice. I was born with
it. I grew up with it. And if without God's meeting
me, I'll die with it. You know, we're going to be sinners
all our life. The Lord never promised in this life to save
our flesh. I'm thankful He restrains it.
But he never saved it. He saved our soul. Now when he
comes back, he'll give us a new body like unto his glorious body.
That's when we'll have that body. But we're not gonna make this
body any better. The only thing that happens to
us is God is merciful to restrain us. Now sometimes he lifts that
restraint and look what we do. Look what Moses did. Look what
David did. Look what Solomon did. So we
should never say, I'd never do that. Lord, be merciful to me
and keep me restrained. Keep this body restrained. But
in salvation, he takes that yoke. He says, and what does he do
with it? Well, that's one of the wonderful
things about the Lord Jesus Christ going to the cross. He took that
yoke and it was imposed upon him. He took our sins in His
own body on the cross. He's the one that took the yoke
of all His people and placed it upon Himself. What does it
say in the 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah? Lord laid on
him the iniquity of us all. Thank God Almighty that he, by
the blessing of salvation, could take that yoke that we were born
with and impose it to the Savior. And the Savior could take it,
and guess what he did with it? It was burnt up in the sacrifice. No longer to be held against
us. We will never stand before God. If He saved us, we'll never
stand before God and answer for anything. If we have to answer
for one sin, we're guilty of it all and we're not saved. But
since He's taken care of it completely and totally, took the whole yoke,
He has put sin away. The Lord hath laid on Him the
iniquity of us all. He put Him in the yoke. It wasn't
his yoke, but he put our yoke upon him. He never was born with
that yoke. He was never born with sin. He
never had that issue. He never had that problem. He
was always righteousness of God. And he put it upon, he bore our
sins in his own body on the tree from a from a pictorial standpoint,
he took that yoke that he tells us about taking off here in the
book of Isaiah, and it was a huge yoke by the time it became all
our sins. All of his people, time and eternity
placed upon him, and yet he took it, willingly,
on the behalf of his people, And the father poured out his
wrath and indignation upon him, as if he were a lawbreaker. And he paid the very last bit. All of it. What does he say about
the sheep that was lost? He goes out to the hills and
he findeth it and he layeth it upon his shoulder. We're His burden. How glorious this all is now. Go back to the book of Numbers
for just a moment. Numbers chapter 19. And there in verse 3. Now you're going to bring this
children of Israel, you're going to bring this red heifer, without
spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came a yoke.
And you shall give her unto Eliezer the priest, that he may bring
her forth without the camp. You know, we think logically
he's going to be involved in the slaughter of this lamb, or
this red heifer, excuse me. but he wasn't. Look at here,
and one shall slay her before his face. The Lord Jesus was
not crucified in the temple. He was not crucified by the law. He was crucified without the
temple. He didn't have that fleshly Levitical
priesthood over him. He was crucified without the
camp, on purpose, to show that he is not affiliated with this. It was his type in shadow and
picture, but he's not under this. He is a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. And we'll pick that up, Lord
willing, next time. Brother Mike, if you'll come.