I hope when we walk out this
door tonight, that his precious name will be more precious to
us than it was when we walked in here. Wouldn't that be a blessing? Now you noticed in reading Hebrews
chapter nine, verse 13, we read of the blood of goats and calves
and the ashes of an heifer. And this is a reference to the
red heifer. And I want you to turn back to
Numbers chapter 19. And I don't recall preaching
on this or. I've been thrilled by what this
passage of scripture has taught me concerning the ashes of a
red heifer. And look in verse 10 of Numbers
chapter 19. And he that gather the ashes
of the heifer. Shall wash his clothes and be
unclean into the evening. And it should be unto the children
of Israel and to the stranger that sojourneth among them for
a statute forever. Now, this chapter is about purification
for sin. Look in verse 11. He that toucheth the 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 you purify not himself the third day with the
ashes of this heifer, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.
Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead and purifieth
not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the Lord, 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. This is the law when a man dieth
in a tent, all that come into the tent and all that's in the
tent shall be unclean. Seven days, just like when a
leper was unclean, he couldn't come into the camp of Israel. Someone who had some contact
with death was not allowed in. They were unclean. Verse 15 and
every open vessel, which has no covering bound upon it. It's
unclean. And whosoever toucheth. anyone
that's slain with a sword in the open fields or a dead body
or a bone of a man or a grave, he shall be unclean for seven
days. Now, these verses speak of touching
death, coming into contact with death, and because of that, becoming
unclean. Now, if you touched a dead body,
or if you were in the tent of somebody who died, or you touched
a bone or even a grave, you were called unclean. And you were
shut out of the camp of Israel until these ashes of a red heifer
were applied to you. You were no different than the
leper, unclean by touching death. Now we're around death a lot,
aren't we? You know, I'm around, I don't spend as much time around
unbelievers as you all do, I realize that. But when I do, I come away
feeling dirty and unclean, impure. We're in something called a body
of death, the body of sin. We're in continual contact with
death. and defilement, so much so that
Paul said regarding his body, O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from this body of what? Death. I feel that I'm continually coming
into contact with death because I'm around. And I feel dirty. And I feel defiled. And I feel unclean. You walk through this world and
your feet get dirty. Now, this passage of scripture
speaks of purification for that defilement. I get dirty every
day by my sin and I need to be purified. I need to be washed. I need to be made clean. And
this beautiful picture of the gospel in the Red heifer and
its ashes tells us how this is done. Now look at chapter 19
verses 1 through 3. And the Lord spake unto Moses
and unto Aaron, saying, This is the ordinance of the law which
the Lord hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel
that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish,
and upon which never came yoke. And you shall give her unto Eliezer
the priest that he may bring her forth without the camp and
one shall slay her before his face. Now the red heifer was
to be without spot. A yoke could never come on it.
This speaks of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ without spot
and without blemish. And it was to be slain as a substitutionary
sacrifice. Now there is only one reason
for death. And what is that? Sin. Sin. This red heifer without blemish
was to be slain. Now let's go on reading. And
Eliezer the priest shall take of her blood with his finger
and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the
congregation seven times. And one shall burn the heifer
in his sight, her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, and her
dung shall he burn. And the priest shall take cedarwood,
and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the
burning of the heifer. Then the priest shall wash his clothes.
You see, he has become unclean and come in contact with this
heifer. And he shall bathe his flesh
in water and afterwards he shall come into the camp and the priest
shall be unclean until the evening. And he that burneth her shall
wash his clothes in water. You see, he came in contact with
her and he became unclean. And he shall bathe his flesh
in water and shall be unclean unto the even. And a man that
is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and lathe
him 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 for sin. And this is what this is all
about, a purification for sin, a cleansing, a washing of sin. Now, what I thought What I think,
what I know is glorious about this. Before the defilement took
place, this red heifer was put to death. That's greatly significant. Before I had anything to feel
dirty about, this red heifer had been slain. And remember,
its ashes were to be put up. And when someone became defiled,
when someone became dirty, when someone became unclean, this
heifer had already been slain. Now, first thing I want to point
out is this. Believer, you feel dirty because of your sin. It's
a horrible feeling. Dirty, filthy, defiled. But do you know that the sacrifice
for that sin has already been made? It's already been taken
care of. You've already been made clean. before you feel anything or not. This ashes of a heifer was already
there. Christ is called the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. The sacrifice came before the
contact with death. The sacrifice came before the
defilement. The sacrifice comes first. Before
there was ever a sinner, there was a Savior. Isn't that wonderful? Verses five and six, 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 fire. Now, after this heifer was put
to death, they would burn it and they would put three things
in the fire. Cedar, what cedar? It's the hardest
wood. It's the wood that was used for
the great construction projects because it was so durable. And
this cedar speaks of the duration of the sacrifice of Christ. It
never loses its power. It never becomes old or ineffectual. You may commit the same sin a
hundred thousand times. And indeed there are sins you
and I have committed a hundred thousand times, but the blood
still has all power to wash away and put away that sin. It never
becomes ineffectual. It's always fresh and powerful
before God. Now we sing that hymn. There
is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel's veins.
I would love that hymn. Sinners plunge beneath that blood,
lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day, and there may I, though vile as he,
wash all my sins away. Now here's the one verse of that
that I wish it could change. Dear dying lamb, thy precious
blood shall never lose its power till all the ransomed church
of God be saved to sin no more. No, it'll never lose its power,
period. Period. Before the foundation
of the world, when I had no existence or conscious existence, the blood
of Christ was my standing before God. And in heaven, when I've
been saved to sin no more, and I don't sin anymore, and I stand
perfect before God, perfectly conformed to the image of Christ,
I'm going to be just as dependent upon the blood of Christ then
as I am right now. It's the blood that keeps us.
This blood was shed before there was any defilement, and it's
always powerful. It'll never lose its power. Now,
the next thing thrown in was hyssop. What was hyssop for?
Well, you remember the Passover, hyssop was put in the blood to
put over the doorpost. Hyssop was used to apply the
blood. Now, here's one thing that, here's
something else that thrills me. I can't apply the blood. He does. I can't apply this blood to myself.
Only God can apply the blood, the hyssop. David said, purge
me with hyssop. And I shall be clean. Look in
verse 18 of Numbers 19. And a clean person shall take
hyssop. Notice it's a clean person. You
know, you couldn't apply the blood. If you were unclean, you
couldn't do it. It had to be a clean person who applied that
hyssop. Now, I can't apply the blood
to myself. It's God that does it. It's Christ. It's the Holy Spirit who does
it. He's the clean person who applies the blood to my conscience. A clean person shall take hyssop
and dip it in the water and sprinkle it upon the tent and upon all
the vessels and upon the persons that were there and upon him
that touched a bone or one slain and dead in a grave. The clean
person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day and
on the seventh day and on the seventh day he shall purify himself.
Wash his clothes and bathe himself with water and he should be clean
and even you see it's a clean person who applies This blood
only God can apply the blood and thank God. He does apply
it he's the one who applies it to my conscience and then scarlet
was thrown in to this burning red heifer a Grub worm. This is what scarlet was a grub
worm was crushed and it was used to die now my washing I My purification
for sin comes from Christ being crushed, and that's what washes
away my sin. Purification for sin. This is
what this Red Heifer is all about. It's for purification for sin. Now look in verses 7 and 8 of
this passage of Scripture. Then the priest shall wash his
clothes. and he shall bathe his flesh
in water. And afterwards he shall come into the camp and the priest
shall be unclean." Did you hear that? The priest shall be unclean.
Coming into contact with this red heifer, the priest himself
is unclean. And he that burneth her shall
wash his clothes in water and bathe his flesh in water for
he shall be unclean unto the evening. Now those who came into
contact with this heifer during this time became unclean because
this spotless heifer became unclean. This spotless heifer became unclean. And what that tells me is Christ
on the cross. This is so mysterious. I'm scared
even when I tell you every time I talk about this, I get nervous.
But on the cross, I read just this week where somebody said
Christ became accountable for our sins. Oh no! He didn't become
accountable for our sins. My sin was made His and He was
made sin. Something far more horrible than... Somebody says, was Christ sinning
on the cross? Of course not! He didn't sin on the cross but
something worse took place. He was made sin. All the hell that's... He was
made a curse, the scripture says, made sin. And so when the priest
touched and came into contact with this red heifer, he became
unclean because of the uncleanness of the victim, the heifer. That's so mysterious. It's so... Look in verses 9 and 10. 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 should
be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for
a water of separation. It is a purification for sin.
And he that gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his
clothes and be unclean into the evening. And that person who
came into contact with the ashes, it should be unto the children
of Israel and to the stranger that sojourneth among them for
a statute forever. Now this ashes of this heifer
were gathered up. The sacrifice has already been
done. And we see the ashes. We see
our sins purged away. They are no more. Now I've already
read verses 11 through 16 about what happens when you come into
contact with death in some way. Now let's pick up in verse 17.
And for an unclean person, This person who's come into contact
with death, who's become dirty, who's become defiled, for an
unclean person, they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer
purification for sin. and running water shall be put
into a vessel." You take these ashes and water from a spring,
running water, it'll be put into a vessel. And a clean person
shall take hyssop and dip it in the water, that water mixed
up with the ashes, and sprinkle it upon the tent, upon all the
vessels, and upon the persons that were there, whoever came
into contact with death, and upon him that touched a bone,
or one slain, or one dead, or in a grave, and the clean person
shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day and on the seventh
day." Now remember this process took seven days. There were two
different sprinklings. One on the third day. Now what's
that referring to? I bet everybody here knows. That's
when our Lord was raised from the dead on the third day. I
was clean. I was clean. I was justified. I was made clean
on the third day when our Lord rose from the dead. Well, what's
the seventh day all about? The seventh day The seven Spirits
of God we read of. It's the seven Spirits of God.
Let's talk about the God, the Holy Spirit. Remember where it
says the seven Spirits of God that proceed from the throne?
God, the Holy Spirit takes this and applies it to me, applies
it to my conscience. And he reveals this to me. Now
I was cleansed when Christ was raised from the dead. I was cleansed
when I believed, when God, the Holy Spirit gave me the grace
to see. He applied the ashes and the
water to my conscience and to my heart. Hence, I am clean and purified. Now, turn back to Hebrews chapter
9. Hebrews chapter 9. For if the blood of bulls and
of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean
sanctifyeth, to the purifying of the flesh. Now, here's what
this ashes of the red heifer did. Two things. It sanctified
and it purified. Sanctified. That means it made
me holy. That's what the application of
this does. It makes me holy. What's holiness? Well, there's
a lot of things I can say about holiness, but one thing you call
holiness is without sin. without sin. It made me without
sin. It purified me. It washed away
my sin. It's all about the death of Christ.
That's those ashes. I walk through this world. I
get dirty. I come under influences that make me even dirtier. I
just feel dirty. I'm defiled. And the only thing
that cleanses me and washes away my sin and purifies me is the
application of the blood of Christ by the Spirit of God to my heart.
Now, I was cleansed on that third day, but I've become aware of
it when God the Holy Spirit applies this to my heart. These ashes,
the sin put away, that sacrifice that took place. The blood of
Christ actually purifies and sanctifies. The ashes of the
red heifer pictures what the blood of Christ actually has
done. Now, His blood signifies His
death. His death. I think it's Easter. It's kind of weird in a way,
if you think about it. I mean, I want to say this right. One day a year to celebrate something
that we're rejoicing in constantly, I think it's kind of strange.
Easter. You know, Easter? What, this one? Oh, the resurrection
of Christ, the blood of Christ, the death of Christ. That's something
that is always before our eyes by the grace of God. It's not
something we acknowledge one day a year, or 364 days a year, or 23 hours a day. It's everything. He is everything
at all times. And so you've got to admit, Easter's
kind of weird, isn't it? All the stuff they do. It's funny, my neighbor's an
atheist, he says he is, and I see him get up this morning, him
and his wife and kid, and going to church, you know, and I thought... His blood sets us apart to be
holy. Christ, the priest by the eternal
spirit, offered himself without spot to God. That makes me think of what the
Lord does for us. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ loved the church and gave himself forth that he might cleanse
it and wash it with the washing of the water by the word, that
he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing. That's what the blood of Christ
does. It purifies it, sanctifies. Now, the writer says, purge your
conscience. from dead works to serve the
living God. Now there's no serving God unless
my conscience is purged from these dead works. Now the conscience, I preached
the message on this two or three weeks ago. There's an accusing
conscience, there's a seared conscience, there's a good conscience. What's a good conscience? A good
conscience is a conscience that has nothing to feel guilty about. If I have a good conscience,
that means there's... I don't have anything to feel guilty
about. Now, accusing conscience, you have something to feel guilty
about. A seared conscience, you may not feel guilty, but you
still have something to feel guilty about. But a good conscience
is a conscience that has absolutely, positively nothing to feel guilty
about. I've never done wrong. I've never
sinned. There's nothing for me to feel
guilty about. Now it's true. I feel guilty continually. There's always, I've always got
the reason to feel guilty as far as my life. That being said, I have nothing
to feel guilty about. That's what the blood of Christ
does. It makes me to where I really do not have anything to feel
guilty about. I'm justified. You know what justification means?
Not guilty. If I'm justified, that means
I stand before God without guilt. guilt. Christ washed away my
sins. There's no sin for me to be condemned
for. It's gone. I stand with perfect righteousness
before God. I have nothing to feel guilty
about. Now you purge your conscience
from these dead works. What are these dead works? Dead
works are any works that you do that contribute to your salvation
in any way. That's a dead work. If you begin
with letting God save you or whatever it is people, that's
a dead work. If you think there's something that you can do that
makes you holy or makes you more like Christ, that's a dead work.
If you think you're gonna be rewarded some higher position
in heaven because of something you've done, that's a dead work.
Purge your conscience from dead works. Believe the gospel. Believe
that you really are righteous before God, perfect before God
without sin. That's what justification's all
about, and you really can't serve God until your conscience is
purged from dead works. Now, I realize that as long as
we're in this flesh, we're gonna have to do some purging. I wish it wasn't that way, but
that's the way it is. Purge your conscience continually from these
dead works to serve the living God. Now, here's a scripture
I believe that will illustrate this. Turn with me to John chapter
three. John chapter 3. You know, the
Bible says the same thing in a whole lot of different ways.
But it's always the same. John chapter 3. Let's begin in
verse 18. Our Lord says, He that believeth
on Him is not condemned. Why? Because there's nothing
to condemn me for. In Christ, I am not condemned. There's nothing to condemn me
for. My sin's been washed away. I stand perfect before God. He
that believeth is not condemned. I love when our Lord said to
that woman who was taken in adultery in the very act, He said, Woman,
where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She
said, no man, Lord. He said, neither do I condemn
thee. Go and sin no more. The reason he didn't condemn
is because it wasn't because he was washing that horrible
sin she committed under the rug. He put it away. It's gone. His
blood paid for it. There's no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus. You know, we couldn't even respect
God if he would let sin go unpunished, could we? Not really, not deep
down. We couldn't respect him. It would be taking away from
his moral government. But no, He's always going to
punish sin. And the reason somebody's not condemned is because there's
nothing to be condemned for. Sin's been washed away. Now let's go
on reading. But he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. That one who doesn't believe
is condemned. Look in verse 35 of this same
chapter. The father loveth the son and
hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the
son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. It continues on him. It's there
to stay. It's not gonna leave. Now that
one who does not believe is condemned. Verse 19. And this is the condemnation. that light has come into the
world. And what wonderful light this
is. The light that's come into the world is the light of how
God can save me, be just, and yet justify me. Even when I am
in myself, I'm unjust. That's the light He's speaking
of. Light has come into the world. The light of how God can accept
a sinner for Christ's sake. Now, here's the condemnation.
Light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather
than light. because their deeds were evil."
Now here's the condemnation. Men love darkness rather than
light because their deeds were evil. They wouldn't come around
that light because of what that light exposed. This is the condemnation
that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that
doeth evil hates the light. Neither comes to the light, lest
his deeds should be reproved." The reason a natural man has
no love for the gospel and no love for the light of the gospel
is because all the gospel does is expose all of his deeds to
be nothing but sin. That's it. All the things that
he's resting in, all the things that he's trusting, all the things
that he has confidence in, it's exposed as nothing but sin. That's
what the gospel says. You know, the gospel says that
every time I breathe, I sin. I sure can't be saved by anything
I do. Now, if you're hoping in your works in any way, this messes
all that up, doesn't it? And that's why the natural man
hates the gospel. Now let's go on reading. For
everyone that doeth evil hates the light. Neither comes to the
light lest his deeds should be reproved, but he that doeth truth. And this is what believing the
gospel is. It's a doing of the truth. I love that phrase. He
that doeth the truth. The truth is something you do.
It's not just something you give adherence to. It's something
you do. It's something you practice.
It has something to do with faith. He that doeth truth, he comes
to the light. that his deeds may be made manifest."
Now, are you willing to come to the light and have all your
deeds exposed and made manifest? How does that sound? Does that
sound attractive to you to come to the light that all your deeds
may be made manifest? Now, that one who does the truth
He comes to the light that all his deeds may be made manifest,
that they are wrought in God, that they are worked in God,
that they are worked by God. Now here's why I can come to
the light. Because I know that when Jesus Christ kept God's
holy law, you know who else did? I did. every single one of his
people. When he worked out a perfect
righteousness, you know who else did? I did. Literally? Literally. Actually? Actually. Whatever
he did, I did. His deeds are my deeds. What about when he came to John
the Baptist? And he said he wanted to be baptized.
And John the Baptist said, I have need to be baptized with thee.
He cometh down to me. I can understand that. I would feel very hesitant
if the Lord wanted me to baptize him. Can you imagine how you'd
feel? And the Lord said, suffer it thus to be so, for thus it
becometh us to fulfill. all righteousness. You see, when
Jesus Christ fulfilled all righteousness, He did it as an us. He did it
as a representative for every single one of His people. And
the reason I can come into the light and not be afraid, actually
enjoy coming into the light. My deeds were worked by God,
wrought by God, wrought in God, so that all I have done It's
nothing but good. Isn't that wonderful? And that
defilement that you feel, it feels bad, doesn't it? It's a horrible feeling. What
is it that takes care of that horrible feeling? Having the
blood of Christ applied once again to your heart, to your
mind, to your conscience. where you purge your conscience
from those dead works. You know, whenever we present
our works to God in any way, you know what it is? It's presenting
filth to Him. It's presenting dirty rags to
Him. That's not good. How would you feel if somebody
presented you dirty rags to appease you? No, we purge our conscience
of those dead works to serve the living God, believing on
Christ. It's believing the gospel. We purge our conscience from
dead works to serve the living God. Now, here's what I want
to ask myself, and I know we can't do it unless God enables
us. I realize that. I realize that. But I, you know, I want
to be somebody who believes what God says, don't you? I want to
trust him. Now, he says, To every believer, you're not
condemned. He that believeth is not condemned. Nothing to
condemn him for. Believe it. Believe it. You know, the hardest
thing you're ever called upon to do is to simply believe what
God says. To believe that I'm without sin. And I know I commit sin daily. You know, this red heifer, it's
kind of like foot washing. You know, it's the Old Testament
version of foot washing. You know how our Lord said, he
that's washed needed not to be washed, save his feet. But it's
clean every whit. But you get your feet dirty and
you walk through this world, this is the same thing. You get
your feet dirty. This is to the Israelite. Contact
with death. But what is it? purifies me. With that red heifer being spotless,
yet sacrificed, the death of Christ, burnt up, accepted, my
sin burnt up, taking that ashes, mixing with the water, the Holy
Spirit, taking that and applying the same gospel to me once again. Here's another reason why we
have to continually hear the gospel. I'm so thankful for the
ashes of a red heifer when it pictures the blood of Christ
being applied to me once again. Let's pray.