Good morning and would you join
me this morning in your Bibles in the book of Numbers. The book
of Numbers chapter 19. Numbers chapter 19. So we've been going through the
book of Numbers over the past couple of years. By God's providence,
we've come to this very interesting passage of scripture that has
to deal with what we know as the red heifer. Before I read the first 10 verses,
I just want to be reminded of the fact that the Levitical services
and ordinances were in themselves carnal. They were fleshly. and they only had an obscure
representation of the things spiritual and internal. Now it
turns out that there were many Jews that believed that these
actual services were beneficial to them. But there were a few
that understood that these services were only typical, pictorial,
that they were not real. They were not their real salvation. And we get to the New Testament,
and we find that the writer of the book of Hebrews said the
blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin. Animal sacrifices
could never take away sin. These were just obscure representation
of things that were spiritual. And Christ's sacrifice was of
spiritual benefit. The sacrifice of our Savior,
the Lord Jesus, on the cross when he gave himself, no man
took his life from him, but he gave it up. freely gave it up
on behalf of his people, on behalf of the church. That was spiritual. That is of spiritual benefit.
Those carnal earthly things were divinely appointed, though. We're
going to read this, that this sacrifice was divinely appointed
by Almighty God and was to be carried out with very specific
instructions. It was God's types and remembrances
of those things that are spiritual and eternal. So here's a type
and a shadow and a picture, but it is bursting over with the
blessings that are in type. The reality is just so rich in
spiritual blessings. In the sacrifice of Christ, there
is an innate glorious worth and efficacy that we do not find
in any of the Old Testament sacrifices. It is the Son of God's blood
and His body, not some created being that will satisfy the justice
of God. Now in Numbers chapter 19, I'd
like to read the first 10 verses of this chapter, and it shares
with us the sacrifice that is called the sacrifice of the red
heifer. The Lord spake unto Moses, verse
one, and unto Aaron, saying, this is the ordinance of the
law which the Lord, now notice the next two words, hath commanded. The Lord hath commanded. This
is something that he has prescribed, he has commanded to take place.
And this sacrifice is completely separate from all the sacrifices
that are recorded in the book of Leviticus. This is something
that God gave to them, and if we go back just a short time,
we will find out that there has been a multitude of rebellions
against Almighty God that has brought this up. Now, God had
this purpose from the very beginning. This is the right time and the
right place to bring it up. But we notice back just shortly
that the 10 spies came back with a false report. We have Korah
and his rebellion. We have the rebellion against
Moses and against Aaron by the children of Israel. And God now
says, this is the commandment that I give unto the children
of Israel, the ordinance of the law, which the Lord hath commanded,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel that they bring. This is going to be a group effort,
if you please. This is for Israel to bring.
They're to bring, what does it say? Bring thee a red heifer
without spot, wherein no blemish, and upon which never came a yoke. Never came yoke. And ye shall
give her unto Eleazar, the priest that he may bring her forth without
the camp, and one shall slay her before his face. And Eliezer
the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle
of her blood directly upon the tabernacle of the congregation
seven times. 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. 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 earth 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 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 is
a purification from sin, or for sin, excuse me. And he that gathereth
the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean
until even. And it shall be unto the children
of Israel and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them for
a statute forever. Now, I find this passage of scripture
most interesting. My mother was born in the days
of the old talkie movies, not the talkie movies, the silent
movies. And she told me a number of times of going to the little
theater in her hometown, and one of the funniest things that
could happen in one of those films was somebody putting too
much rice in the pot and boiling it, and it all boiling over into
the fire. Now, that's just a little bit
of what I see in this passage of scripture is that this is
so full. This passage of scripture is
so full about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As we see this
picture, now this mention, the mention of this red heifer sacrifice
is mentioned one time in the Old Testament. It is mentioned
one time in the New Testament, and I'd like to direct your attention
there. It's found in the book of Hebrews chapter nine and verse
13. Before we start looking at this, these are the only two
times that we have reference to this in all the scriptures.
The one in the New Testament is found in the book of Hebrews,
which you turn there with me to Hebrews chapter 9 and verse
13. This is an allusion to that.
We have the heifers mentioned here. In Hebrews chapter 9 verse
13, we have these words. that take us back to that Old
Testament sacrifice that was given by commandment of God to
Israel. For if the blood of bulls and
of goats and ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean sanctified
to the purifying of the flesh, 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? Now, from the appearance, all
that those ashes that were brought up and put somewhere without
the camp, the only thing that they were going to be used for
is for purification of the flesh. And the rest of the chapter has
to deal with that, and we'll get to it in time. But here we
have, if that was for the sanctifying of the flesh, the purifying of
the flesh, how much more is the blood of Christ? How much greater,
how much more important, how much more valuable is it? The blood of Christ for our sanctification
and for the purifying of our spirit. I remember the words
of the Lord Jesus and while you're there in the book of Hebrews,
just move over to the book of John for just a moment. The words
of the Lord Jesus about Moses, because Moses was used as the
secretary to write this great book of numbers, also Genesis,
also Exodus, also Leviticus, also Deuteronomy. The first five
books of our Bible was, he was the secretary for. Now he would
admit if he came in here and was testifying on the fact, he
says, these words are not my words. These words are the words
that the Holy Spirit gave me, and I wrote them down. In the
original language, they were with perfection. In the original
language, they were without error. In the original language, God
gave him exactly what he wanted to give him. He gave him the
account of the creation. He gave him the account of Adam
and Eve's creation, and he gave him the account of the fall and
he gave him the effects of the fall that all men are in sin
and all men are without help and without hope and without
God in this world by our natural state. Moses was given that information. And then as we find through here,
we find that he was given many things here in the book of Numbers,
in fact. So here in the book of John chapter five, the Lord
shares with us what he had to say about Moses. In John chapter
five and verse 46, the scripture shares this. for had you believed
Moses. Now they said they believe Moses.
These are Pharisees. These are the religious people
of the day. How many people today say, I believe the Bible. I believe
all the Bible. And you read a certain passage
of scripture and the comment is, I don't believe that part.
Well, here it is. The same people are saying the
same thing in the days of the Lord Jesus in the book of John
chapter five, verse 46, for had you believed Moses. ye would
have believed me for he wrote of me. So everyone that God ever
reveals Christ to will understand that the message that Moses wrote
is the same message that Jesus Christ is carrying out during
his own personal ministry. And it is the message of the
gospel that we preach today. These verses are no exception. They are speaking of Christ. This sacrifice of this red heifer
is speaking immensely about our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he is the only one that can take care of the rebellion of
our own soul, just like it was for the rest of Israel. Nobody
could satisfy what was necessary. There must be payment for sin. And this is a picture of that,
but it is not the reality of that. Jesus Christ is the only
one that could fulfill all that was required to pay for our sin. He is the divine son of God,
and he has the ability, the wherewithal, and the interest in redeeming
his people from their sins. This sacrifice is not mentioned
in Leviticus. This sacrifice is mentioned only
in two places in the Bible. And this sacrifice was given
after the children of Israel had started their journey away
from the promised land. God shared with all those people
after those 10 spies came back with an evil report and almost
everybody believed the wrong report. How many believe the
report of Joshua and Caleb? Very, very few believed the report
of Joshua and Caleb. And the reason for Joshua and
Caleb's good report was not that they were better than those other
folks. It was because the Lord says, I gave them another heart. I gave them understanding. I
gave them what we would call the new birth and say they were
able to believe God. You know, we read in the book
of Hebrews about a man that was told that it was going to rain,
and it was going to rain so much that the earth was going to be
covered from the top of the mountains above. And you know what it says? Moses believed God. He'd never
seen rain. He'd never thought of rain. It
was not something he knew about, but he knew what God had to say
was right. God gave him the ability of believing
God. And in believing God, he prepared
for his family. Now, out of all the thousands,
maybe even millions of people that were on the face of the
earth at this time, and he was a preacher of righteousness,
eight souls were delivered. Now to the world, he was not
a very successful preacher, but to God, he was my faithful preacher. He declared by building the ark,
he declared by preaching the righteousness, that righteousness
is only found in my son, in the son of God. This sacrifice was
given after the children of Israel started their journey from Mount
Sinai, but it was really given after they had left the edge
of the promised land when we're turned back into the wilderness.
This is not something that God came up with on a rebound. I
appreciated what we heard this morning there. God was not caught
short by Adam taking of that fruit. God was not surprised
by that. God was not unprepared for that. In fact, God was totally prepared
for that. The scriptures tell us that he
had a lamb, and we know who that lamb is. That lamb is his son,
the Lord Jesus. He had a lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. He had a covenant, an eternal,
everlasting, blood-bought covenant prepared for what was going to
happen in the garden. If that had not been there, there
would have been no redemption for anybody. But he, by the grace
of God, he redeemed Adam and Eve and clothed them with skins
of animals, picturing the necessity that we have of a clothing called
the righteousness of Christ. Without it, we cannot appear
before God. With it, we are brought in. Come,
welcome to the throne of grace. because of the righteousness
of Christ. This sacrifice was not something that God came up
on a rebound, but this sacrifice was much in the purpose of God
as we're going to see here. I want us to remember again,
this sacrifice is mentioned twice in the Bible, once here in the
Book of Numbers, once in the Book of Hebrews, and no other
place. But the effects of this were
carried on for some time. Now, it is interesting. If you
go online and type in red heifer, you're going to find out that
they're looking for one so they can rebuild a temple and reestablish
animal sacrifices and there's nothing could be farther from
the truth in this world. When Jesus Christ cried from
the cross, it is finished. All sacrifices were over. There
was one sacrifice that took care of sin and that forever. It took care of sins, past, present,
and future, and that forever. And we're not looking for another
temple, and we're not looking for more animal sacrifices. In fact, God was so displeased
with Israel going on with animal sacrifices that in AD 70, He
had that temple dismantled, and stone from stone from stone was
dismantled, and all of the things that were in there were carried
off by a Roman general. He said, it is finished. Now, those who want to reestablish
that, I just cannot find that they have the first idea about
what God has intended in Christ Jesus, the Lord, to save his
people. Well, we find in here there's
something very different from all that Israel normally had. The requirement is for a red
heifer. Now we can go back earlier in
the book of Genesis and read that there was a brother, his
name was Israel. His name was going to be changed
to Israel. And you know, for his wages, what he was given,
his wages was ring-streaked and speckled animals. That's what
he was given. And really, that's what Christ
came to die for, was sinners. That's what it pictured. As he
was given these as his pay, the Lord was given the church, which
is without anything that could be attracted by God. God would
not look down from heaven and see, oh, there's that one and
that one. I know they're going to have
faith in me. My goodness. We find out that the covenant of
grace is not because of foreseen faith, but it is always because
of foreseen unbelief. There would have been no believers
if he had not had that in his covenant of grace. So we have
a red heifer. Now this color red is such a
rarity in Israel. It was such a rarity. There could
not be one black hair, one white hair, one yellow hair on this
critter. It was to be a red heifer, and
this is so significant. The rarity of this animal is
so significant because the Bible speaks of the rarity of the Son
of God. There is one like him. There
is not two or three or a dozen Christ. There is one Savior.
There is none other name given under heaven whereby you must
be saved. There is one Savior. There is
one that is so rare. Well, we read about this most
unlikely to obtain. It took a lot of looking and
checking and finding before they brought this one red heifer out.
This is so uncommon among their herds. We read concerning our
Savior that He is called, in the Song of Solomon, chapter
five and verse 10, He is called the Chiefest Among Ten Thousands. The Chiefest Among Ten Thousands. He is so rare, you're not gonna
find Him everywhere. But when He reveals Himself,
He is with us. All right, and then we find there
was a king, the first king of Israel, his name was Saul. That
king, when he stepped into the crowd, the scriptures tell us
that he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders
upward. Can you imagine a man step into
the group of all of Israel and you didn't have any trouble picking
him out of the crowd because he was head and shoulders above
the rest. Now, when it comes to the holiness
and righteousness and all of the necessary elements, we can
see our savior is head and shoulders above everyone else. And I'm
using that just as a figure of speech. There is no one to compare
him with. We cannot compare him with any
religious person that has ever lived. We cannot compare him
with any preacher that has ever lived. We cannot compare him
with any of the high echelon people. He is head and shoulders
above everybody that's ever been on this earth. He was born of
a virgin different than anybody else has ever had. Two people
were created of the dust of the earth, Adam and Eve. Adam was created of the dust
of the earth. His wife was created from a rib from her husband. But everybody else has been related
to Adam by birth. And because Adam fell, he brought
sin upon all peoples, and our Savior could not be touched by
that sin of affliction. He could not be touched by that
relationship. He was given a body like unto our body, but the Bible
tells us so clearly, yet without sin. He never thought of sin. He never had it go through his
mind. He never committed a sin. He had none of that. He was the
perfect, perfect, righteous, holy, undefiled Son of God. The Bible tells us, I am the
rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley. So one of a kind,
so beautiful, so attractive, so eye-catching. When God reveals
him to his people, there is no one else that will take his place.
No one else will substitute for him. He is the one that all the
people of God are attached to with such clarity. In the book
of Deuteronomy, would you turn there with me to the book of
Deuteronomy chapter 32? This is that red, that red. He is that red picture of that
red heifer. Here in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 32. Here
he is spoken of as a rock, but he is so different than all other
rocks. Deuteronomy 32. Deuteronomy 32
and verse 31. For their rock is not our rock. Now there seems
to be some semblance to it, but he's not our rock. Deuteronomy
32 verse 31. For their rock is not our rock. And you know what? Even our enemies
themselves being judges, At one time, there was a whole
flock of people sent after the Lord to bring him in for a conversation
with some of the authorities. And those people, they came back
and they said, where is he? Where is he? And you know what
their comment was? No man ever spoke like this man. He's not... He's not trying to
get us to join some religion or some church. He's not trying
to get us to do what normal religious people try to do. He's not trying
to get us to sit down and admire Him for what He wants us to get
involved in. No man ever spoke like this man. And when he taught, he spoke
with authority and not as the scribes. He was someone so special. He was someone so rare, someone
so untypical from everybody else. When he came, he did not come
in fine robes and expect everybody to bow down. He didn't do that.
He was born of a virgin laid in a manger. And he wore street
clothes like we do. He did have one piece of raiment
that was without seam, and they gambled over that. This red, would you turn with
me over to the book of Isaiah chapter 63, as we think about
this red. Now, not only does it declare
his rarity, but it also declares his purpose. There is something
about this red heifer It's rare, took them some time to find him. Those shepherds that were announced
that he had been born, today is born unto you in the city
of David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord. You know what
had to happen before they could find him? He is in a manger and
he's wrapped in swaddling clothes and his mother is there. And
you know what? They went and searched and found him. He was
so rare, but to find him, you had to have perfect instructions.
And so it is with God's people today. You must have perfect
instructions. And those instructions are the
gospel. What is the gospel? Number one,
we need to know something about God. God's an offended party. Mankind has sinned against a
thrice holy God. What does the Bible, what's the
gospel declare about man? Man's a sinner before God. Death
is due them, the soul that sinneth it shall die. And what does the
gospel declare about the Son of God? He is the only Savior.
He's the only one that laid down his life that could pay a ransom
for many. He's the only one. Well, here
in the book of Isaiah, Chapter 63, we read these words, as he
is, he's got red dye on him. Notice this in Isaiah chapter
63. Isaiah chapter 63, and there
in verse one through three. Isaiah chapter 63, the question
has come up. This isn't a question. Who is
this that cometh from Edom? with dyed garments from Basra,
that this, that is glorious in his apparel. Here's someone important. I've never seen anybody like
him. Never seen anybody like him. Who is this? Traveling in
the greatness of his strength. I that speak in righteousness. The answer, I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine
apparel? That word red is the same word
we found over there in the book of Numbers chapter 19 about a
red heifer. How are you red? Wherefore art
thou red in thine apparel and thy garments like him that treadeth
in the wine vat? You know, it used to be if you
had grapes and you wanted wine, you stomped them by foot. And
if you got your clothes in it, you were stained with that red
dye of Wine, that juice. He says, you look like you've
tread in a wine vat. Who is this that comes from dyed
garments? Now those two names have great
insignificance. We're not going to that at the
moment. Where he was from, from Edom with dyed garments from
Basra. Glorious in his apparel. You know, to the believer, to
the saint, to the child of God, those garments dyed red by his
own blood is so valuable. It was His blood that redeemed
us. It was His blood that set us
apart and goes on. I have trodden the winepress
alone. No, the Lord Jesus Christ, even
when He was headed for the cross, all of His disciples left Him
and the scriptures tell us because He would do it all alone. There would be no one that would
say, I helped Him out. He is 12. One was the devil,
left and hung himself. The other 11, we say, Peter,
he denied him. The rest of them did too. You
know, when it comes down to it, what Peter and the rest of the
disciples and what Judas did are almost identical things. One was purchased, one was not
purchased, 11 were. It's the only difference. My goodness, when God saves us,
He doesn't make us perfect. We're sinners. We continue to
sin. We sin more than we ever want to, but we continue to sin.
What does that mean for us? I paid for you in full. Anything over, I'll still pay
for that. I'll take care of all your sins. You will not stand before the
Father. You will not stand before me. And you will not stand before
the Holy Spirit and answer for one sin. I've answered for them
all. And the church says, thank you,
Lord, because left alone, I could not answer. I have trodden the
winepress alone, and of the people there was none with me. Died
red, red heifer, died red, blood red, red by the blood of the
sacrificed one. blood that was taken and presented
to the father just as the high priest would go into the holy
of holies our savior went first presented his blood before the
father obtaining eternal redemption for his people because he laid
down his life a ransom for many in the song of solomon chapter
5 and verse 10 my beloved is white and ruddy and that word
ruddy is the same word red You know, the word Adam means red. Turn with me, if you would, over
to the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 15. 1 Corinthians, chapter
15. It talks about the two Adams.
Now, why does it talk about two Adams and nobody in between?
Well, the reason is each of them are representatives of their
race. Each of them are representatives
of their people. The first Adam was a representative
for the entire human race. He was our representative. And
people would say, well, if I'd have been there, I wouldn't have
done that. That's a little presumptuous. Adam represented us in the Garden
of Eden. And he represented us, and when
he sinned, he put us all in the same vat. All are sinners. First Corinthians chapter 15. And there in verse 45. And so it is written, the first
Adam, the first representative, the first one to represent people.
It says in Adam, all died. You know, there's an open discussion
going on in religion of how dead is dead. The Bible says all died,
and yet almost every preacher I ever knew in religion believed
that there was enough good left in man that he could, of himself,
volunteer and say, I accept you. And the other said, so dead that
it took God to raise you. And you know what the truth is?
So dead that it took God to raise us. That's his promise. He would
raise us all from the spiritual dead. Here in 1 Corinthians chapter
15, verse 45, and so it is written, the first Adam, first man Adam,
was made a living soul. And the last Adam was made a
quickening spirit. Now, why would we need a quickening
spirit? Because we're dead. We need someone
to raise us. We can't answer the call. We
can't come forward. We can't do anything of our own.
Our free will is not free when it comes to spiritual things.
This morning I had raisin walnut oatmeal. I chose to eat that. I had a young preacher in my
office the other day and I had some, I call them crumpets. I
had some cookies and I had a little bar and this and stuff. And he
sat down and he picked out one and started eating it. And I
said, you just showed me a wonderful Bible doctrine. He says, what's
that? I said, you demonstrated the
Bible doctrine of election. He said, how did I do that? And
I says, you chose one and left the rest alone. Robert Hawker said his grandchildren
were the best to prove the Bible doctrine of election of any he
had ever seen. Set the table, they'd come up, I don't like
greens, I don't like fruit, I take this, you know? And that's the
way we are. And when God does it, people
get upset. But if God hadn't, there would
be no one saved. Now that word atom there, that
word atom means red. Both of them mean red. Atom,
the first atom was created out of red dirt. The second Adam
was not created out of red dirt, but he's called the same name
because he's a representative of all his people. And all his
people make the church. Did you notice there when we
read over in the book of Numbers chapter 19 that this was an ordinance
and a command to Israel? I find no Philistines in there. I find no Hivites in there. I
find no other people in there. This was for Israel. And Israel
is a picture and a type and a shadow of the church. Now, there's a
whole bunch of national Israel at that time that had no understanding
at all about God's grace. There were a few. Joshua and
Caleb, we know for a fact. Moses, Eliezer, Aaron, they had
some knowledge about God because it had been revealed to them.
Adam was revealed the fact that he was the representative of
the entire human race. Jesus Christ, before the foundation
of the world, it was made known by him, I will represent my church. Now they're unable of themselves
to ever get out of the mess they're gonna be in, but I represent
them, and when I go to the cross, I will be that significant one
that is so rare out of all the human race, there is none like
me in all the human race ever born. I am head and shoulders
above them, if you please. I am white and I am ruddy, if
you please. I am the rose of Sharon, and
I am the lily of the valley, if you please. But all that does
is prove that I am one of a kind. I am God come in the flesh. I am Emmanuel, God with us. I am the rarest of the rare.
One out of the billions of people that have been on the earth is
this one. And this is the savior of his
people. Red. My beloved is white and
ruddy, the chiefest among 10,000. He is red because of his own
blood and he's red because of his own rarity. This sacrifice
is about understanding and believing what Christ accomplished at the
cross. The next thing that's said about
this is a rarity too. A red heifer. Most of the sacrifices
were male. There were a few of the sacrifices
under the Levitical priesthood that were male or female, and
just a couple that were female only. I would like to read just
a little bit about this. Turn with me to the book of Numbers.
There's just a few verses in the book of Numbers. Excuse me,
Leviticus. Leviticus. In the Levitical order of things,
we have a number of sacrifices that were laid out. And when
we went through here, we found out that this is of their own
voluntary will, and probably there were very few of these
sacrifices that actually took place, because a sinner is a very valuable thing. The Holy Spirit hath made him
thus. We may say we have sinned, But
we have, in our natural state, we will never say, I've sinned
enough to undergo God's judgment. Most of our sin and our reaction
to it is, I'm sorry I got caught. Most of our sin is never actually
towards God. It's towards our mother, our
dad, our brother, sister, family, friends, someone like that. But
when God saves us, we realize that he was the offended party.
He is who we sinned against. David said, against thee and
thee only have I sinned. Now he'd done a terrible thing,
but he realized that the sin was against God. And then it
trickled down against the lady against her husband, against
Israel, against, but against thee and thee only have I sinned.
So when God reveals himself to us through the gospel, we find
out I've offended God. Thank God for his mercy. Mercy can only be given, as we
heard this morning, only God only gives mercy to offenders. We can't command mercy, we beg
mercy. And we find out we're only begging
mercy after the Lord saves us. We don't have the capabilities
of that. Once he gives us the new birth, we say, oh, be merciful
to me, the sinner. Well, here in the book of Leviticus
chapter 3, would you look there in chapter 3 and verse 1? Chapter
three in verse one, it says, and if his oblation be a sacrifice
of peace offering, if he offer it of the herd, whether it be
male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the
Lord. All right? Chapter three in verse six, and
if his offering for a sacrifice of a peace offering unto the
Lord be of the flock, male or female, he shall offer it without
blemish. In chapter four, Turn with me
to chapter four of the book of Leviticus in verse 28. Chapter
four in verse 28. Or if his sin, which he hath
sinned, come to his knowledge, when he shall bring an offering,
a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin,
which he hath sinned. Now this is an offering for sin
that you don't even know you committed. If it come to you. But it says, shall be a goat,
a female without blemish. And then in chapter five and
verse six, would you turn there? Chapter five and verse six. These
are just several of the offerings that are mentioned here in the
book of Leviticus. And most of them, a male without blemish
and without spot. Passover lamb, male without blemish,
without spot of the first year. Verse six of chapter five, it
says, and he shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord
for his sin, which he hath sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb,
or a kid of the goats, for a sin offering, and the priest shall
make an atonement for him concerning his sin. Well, we see most of
the time that there was an offering was made male. without blemish,
without spot. This particular sacrifice is
like two others. It was to be a red heifer, a
female cow that was brought before, taken out without the camp by
Eleazar the priest. And we're going to jump ahead
here a little bit. I can see this is going to be
continued because a male or female taken without the camp and he
turned it over to someone else. You know, the law never was involved
with the sacrifice of Christ. He never did it under the Jewish
religion. He was without the camp on purpose. He was not sacrificed as a lamb
on the altar. He was taken without the camp.
It's without the religion that was going on there, without all
of that stuff. And he was done according to
God's eternal purpose. A sacrifice set aside without
the camp and only under the view of Almighty God. Well, we'll
get to that. Several times we notice here that this took place.
What does this mean that he's going to be represented as a
female heifer, a red heifer? What does that mean? Well, I
see in here that there's such a unity between Christ and his
church. You have Christ, you're gonna
have his church. They're inseparable. They have
been inseparable from eternity past. That's why the covenant
of grace was made to begin with, was for Christ and his church.
As we see him here, he is taken out without the camp and he is
sacrificed, but the scriptures tell us we died in him. We were buried with him. We were
raised with him. We're sitting at the right hand
of the Father in Him. So it would be just appropriate
that God would command Israel to bring out this red heifer,
a rarity. such a rare color to depict the
rarity of the Savior and also share with us that there was
such a unity between Jesus Christ and his bride that it was pictured
here a number of times in the book of Leviticus but this time
in the book of Numbers that he who lived in perfection would
perfect his body. He would perfect the church.
She died when he died, she was buried when he was buried, she
arose when he arose, she ascended when he ascended, and Hal is
sat down at the right hand of the father, and guess what? Shall
come with him when he shall come again. All of this is so tied
together and he knew exactly who he was dying for when he
went to the cross. There was no unfilled boxes. He didn't go there to make people
savable. He went to the cross to save
his people. That's a wonderful Savior, a
Savior that actually saves his people, and a Redeemer that actually
redeemed his people. Redemption has to do with a problem
that we were in. Most of the time that we find
it in record, it was someone being redeemed out of slavery
or out of prison. It doesn't mean we were not affected
by the fall. It means we were very affected
by the fall and we needed someone to redeem us out of the house
of the fowler. Well, the red heifer, not one white
or black or yellow hair that would disqualify. Nothing but
the Holy Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ would fulfill this
prophecy. And then we find, and we're gonna
stop here, but go back with me to the book of Numbers chapter
19 and verse two. Chapter 19 and verse two. Numbers
chapter 19 and verse two. And here we have these glorious
words. This is the ordinance of the
law which the Lord hath commanded, saying, speak unto the children
of Israel that they bring that they bring to thee a red heifer, now notice
the next part, without spot, wherein is no blemish, upon which
never came yoke. Every one of us were yoked by
sin when we were born. but he never came with you. We'll
stop there for this morning. Brother Mike, if you'll come,
and we'll pick this up, Lord willing, next week.