The ashes of the red heifer. The ashes of the red heifer. Now, trying to think about delivering
this message, any message that's preached where an unbeliever
could come in and not hear the gospel is a message that ought
not be preached. any message. And an unbeliever could come
in tonight and hear the gospel from this message. But this message
is not primarily directed to the unbeliever. Now generally
when I think of the messages I'm preaching, I don't think
of preaching to believers or unbelievers. I think of preaching
to men. and the appeal to them to believe the truth. But here
I think that this message, what is taught in this passage of
scripture, is primarily for the believer. The ashes of the red
heifer. Now, you'll notice in our text,
if the blood of bulls and of goats, that's talking about the
sacrifice in the tabernacle, at the altar, and the ashes of
an heifer." Now that's an utterly unique offering. This offering
was not done in the temple. Sprinkling the unclean sanctifies
to the purifying of the flesh. It ceremonially does that. Now when he says in verse 14, to purge your conscience from
dead works, there is a connection between that and this right or
sacrifice of the burning up of the heifer. you were to have
this heifer applied to you, the ashes of this heifer, when you
came into contact with something that was dead. That's the specific
reason for that. We're going to see that in a
moment. If you come into contact with anything that was dead,
you needed the ashes of this heifer. And that is why he goes
on to say in verse 14, how much more? Shall the blood of Christ
who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot
to God, purged your conscience from dead works to serve the
Living God." Now, before we look at Numbers chapter 19, let me
tell you exactly what took place. A red heifer. A female cow that
was red was slain as a sin offering and burnt up. And while it was
burning, cedar, hyssop, and scarlet would be thrown in while it was
burning. After there was nothing but ashes
left, someone would gather the ashes and bring them to a Clean
place. And they were reserved for if
anyone came into contact with death. If he stepped over a grave,
he was unclean. He was not allowed to take the
Passover. If he touched a bone, he was
unclean. He was not allowed to take the
Passover. If he went into a home where someone had died, He was
unclean. He was not allowed to take the
Passover. If he came into contact with death in any form, he was
unclean and unfit to take the Passover. And that is what these
ashes were for. The ashes of this heifer Running
water, living water would be mixed with this. It's mixed up
with this and a man would take a hyssop branch if somebody was
unclean and they would take the ashes of that sacrifice that
had already been made and sprinkle it on the man after three days. of his uncleanness, and then
four days later, after seven days, he would be sprinkled again,
and then he would be considered clean, and he was able to take
the Passover. Now, here's the person who this
will be meaningful to, the person in contact with death. Let me repeat that and think
about it. Who is this going to be meaningful to? The person
who has come into contact with death and is dirty and defiled
and unclean. And their cry is the same cry
as Paul the Apostle in Romans chapter seven, verse 23. Now an unbeliever cannot possibly
understand this. Only someone that God has saved
can understand this statement. Oh, wretched man that I am. Not I was, not I used to be before
God saved me. He's speaking in the present
tense. That's the way the language is written. Oh, wretched man
that I am, who shall deliver me, from what? From the body of this death. Now, most people that I've read
on that statement say this is an illusion. to when men would
be imprisoned, and as punishment, they would have a dead body chained
to their body. And they would have to smell
it, drag it around. What a horrible thing. That actually
happened. And Paul is saying, who shall
deliver me from the body of this death? Anything. that has my fingerprints on it is the body of this death. Now look in our text in verse
13, for if the blood of bulls and
of goats and the ashes of a heifer, talking about the burning of
the heifer and collecting its ashes and using it to apply to
the person who'd come into contact with death. It's a sacrifice
that had already been made, but those ashes are used in order
to apply it to that person who has become unclean. Two things he mentions, the sacrifice
of bulls and goats and the ashes of a red Now, he says, if these things,
ceremonially is what he's talking about. We know they didn't literally
cleanse from sin. They didn't literally sanctify. They didn't literally purify. What they did, they did ceremonially.
For if the blood of the goats and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling
the unclean, sanctifies 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. And you see the connection? Purge
your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Now
turn with me to Numbers chapter 19. Here we have this sacrifice
of the red heifer. Chapter 19, verse 1. And the
Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, This is the ordinance
of the law which the Lord hath commanded, saying, Speak unto
the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer
without spot, wherein is no blemish and upon which never came yoke."
Now look in verse 11 of the same chapter. This is who this is
for. He that toucheth the dead body
of any man shall be unclean seven days. He shall purify himself
with it on the third day, these ashes of the red heifer, and
on the seventh day he shall be clean. But if he purified not
himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean.
Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that's dead, and purifieth
not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the Lord. And that soul shall
be cut off from Israel, because the water of separation was not
sprinkled upon him. He shall be unclean, his uncleanness
is yet upon him. 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. And every open vessel which hath
no covering bound upon it is unclean. And whosoever toucheth
one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead
body, or of a bone, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. And for an unclean person, they
shall take the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin,
and running water shall be put into the vessel, and a clean
person shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle
it upon the tent, and upon the vessels, and upon the persons
that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain,
or one dead, or in a grave. Now this special offering is
for someone who'd come into contact with death. You believe the gospel. You believe that the sacrifice
of Christ is sufficient to save you. You believe that his righteousness
is the only righteousness there is. You believe what Paul said
when he said being now justified by his blood. You believe. But you are in contact with what
Paul called the body of this death. Paul spoke of it. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? Now I believe that, hold your
finger there in Numbers 19 and turn to John chapter 13. I think
this will help us to understand what's being said. John chapter
13, verse 10. This is after Peter had said,
you won't wash my feet. And he said, if I wash you not,
you have no part with me. And then he said, don't only
wash my feet, but my hands and head too. And here's the Lord's
reply to it in verse 10. Jesus saith to him, he that is
washed. Now, that is in the perfect passive
tense. That means you are washed perfectly,
perfectly, completely, and will never need to be washed again.
That's how thorough this washing is. You've been washed perfectly. Passively means you didn't do
it. You didn't wash yourself. He
washed you. now unto him that washed us from
our sins in his own blood." Now this is said to every believer. You have been washed perfectly. No defilement, no dirt, no sin. He that is washed needeth not
save to wash his feet, But it's clean every wit. You are clean, but not all. He
was talking about Judas. He says you're clean every wit.
But there is one thing you need to have washed. Your feet. Every day when you walk through
this world, your feet are dirtied and defiled. And you come into
contact with death. And that's what foot washing
is all about. It's not so much about a ceremony where people
get together and wash each other's feet. I guess if you want to
do that, that's fine. But that's not the teaching. The teaching
is that I need my feet washed every day. And that has something
to do with what the cleansing of the ashes of the red heifer
has to do with. Numbers 19 speaks of daily washing
from contact with death. Now turn back to Numbers 19. 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. Now, this is a female cow. This is the only time that there's
a commandment regarding a female to be sacrificed. And what I
read, and it makes sense to me, says that the reason it was a
female cow is because this represents the weaker vessel. And the Lord
was crucified through weakness, the scripture says. He took on
the weakness and the frailty of sinful flesh. He wasn't sinful,
but he took upon the limitations of the flesh. He became flesh. He had a heart that beat. He
had lungs that heaved. He knew what it was to be tired
and weary. He took upon flesh." Now, why
was it red? It was to be a red heifer. And
when it says without blemish, without spot, it had to be completely
red. If it had anything that wasn't
red, it was no good. It couldn't be used. It had to
be a completely red heifer. Now, somebody's thinking, is
that the color red? Is there such thing as a red cow? That's
a reference to the Red Earth. Do you know Adam means Red Earth? And this is speaking of the perfect
humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't you love to think about
his perfection as a human? how he never sinned, how he loved
God with all of his heart and with all of his soul and all
of his mind, and he loved his neighbor as himself, the one
perfect holy man. I love to think of his life as
being that of without blemish and without spot. And then notice
it says in the last part of verse two with regard to this red heifer,
that had no blemishes, no spots, a perfect heifer. It never had
a yoke on it. Now, what's a yoke for? Well,
a yoke means, first of all, a coupling. You put a yoke on two oxen to
make them work together to double the strength to be able to pull. And a yoke is used to make the
animal go in the direction you want it to go. With regard to
this heifer, it could have never had a yoke on it. What that means
is, first of all, the Lord Jesus Christ, in His work in purifying
sins, He didn't have anybody helping Him. He didn't have me
helping Him. He didn't have you helping Him.
He didn't have the angels helping Him. Now, I know they were there
in Gethsemane's garden, but they weren't with Him on the cross.
He didn't have His Father helping Him. He said, my God, my God,
why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping
me? He had no help. What he did,
he did by himself. No help, no creature aid. My works were not needed. Your
works were not needed. Hebrews 1.3 says he by himself
purged our sins. Now, what do yoke use to do? It's used so you can direct that
animal and make them go which way you want to go. Lord Jesus
Christ did what he did willingly. He didn't have anybody directing
him as to you got to go this way or that way and forcing him
to move. No. He said no man takes my life
from me. He was no victim. No man takes
my life from me. I have power to lay it down.
I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my Father. Everything He did, He did willingly. When He was
made sin, He was made sin willingly. When He went to the cross, He
went to the cross willingly because He loved His Father, because
He loved His people. There was no constraint put upon
Him. When He drank the dregs of that cup, He did so willingly. When he drank my sins and brought
them into his own body on the tree, this wasn't forced upon
him. He did this willingly. Isn't that beautiful? The Lord's
perfection, no spot, no blemish. He did what he did without help,
without aid. He did it all by himself and
he did it willingly. Now, verse three. And you shall give her unto Eliezer,
the priest, that he may bring her forth without the camp. Where
was the Lord's name? Without the camp. Without the
camp. He shall be brought forth without
the camp and one shall slay her before his face. And Eleazar
the priest shall take of her blood with his finger and sprinkle
of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation
seven times. The tabernacle of the congregation
represents the church of the living God. This is not the tabernacle
that had the holy of holies. Quite often we'll read the tabernacle
of the congregation, and this represents the church. And one shall burn the heifer
in his sight. Her skin, her flesh, her blood
with her dung shall he burn." Completely burned up. This speaks of the suffering
of the Lord Jesus Christ. His suffering, the wrath of God
as the sinner's substitute. Burned up. Verse six, and the priest shall
take cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet and cast it into the
midst of the burning of the heifer. Now here this heifer is, hadn't
turned to ashes just yet, but on fire as a sacrifice for sin. And what is thrown into this
fire? Cedarwood, hyssop, and scarlet. That's a material, scarlet
material. Cedarwood. What is the strongest
wood? What did they make the temple
with? Cedarwood. This speaks of the strength of
the blood of Christ. How strong? Strong enough to
make my sin to be expunged from the universe and make me perfect
before God. What strength. The hyssop. Well, what was hyssop used for?
Well, do you remember in the Passover where a hyssop branch
was dipped into the blood of the Passover lamb and used to
go over the doorpost and lentil? This has to do with the application
of the blood. Now, you don't apply the blood
to yourself. The Lord does, and this has to
do with the application of that blood. I never will forget listening
to one of those preachers that got in a lot of trouble, but
I remember him saying with regard to his sin, he said, I put that
sin under the blood. And I thought, so, oh, you put
the sin under the blood? No, you don't have the right
to. You can't just up and decide to put your sin under the blood.
Only God can apply that blood. And that's what that hyssop has
to do with God applying the blood. And then scarlet, that scarlet
material. It's what was one of the layers
of the, in the temple and the tabernacle and the veil. But
what was it that was put in Rahab's house when they came in to destroy
Jericho. You remember a scarlet thread,
a scarlet rope hanging down. And when they saw the scarlet
rope, the scarlet thread, and my dear friends, there's a scarlet
thread going through every page of the Bible. The scarlet thread
was the difference between her and her family and everybody
else. Everybody else was destroyed.
Where that scarlet thread was, there was mercy. There was grace. She was accepted. Now this is
all put in these ashes. And finally, the burning takes
place and there's nothing left but ashes, a pile of ashes from
this big old red heifer that is killed, slain, and these things
added, and they take the ashes and put it in a clean place.
Now get this, this is a sacrifice that has already been made. Now, somebody comes into contact
with death. If you're a believer, and this
is something only a born-again child can understand, if you're
a believer, and I say this because one time somebody said to me,
it's about time we left Romans 7 and went into Romans 8. That's the most foolish thing
I've ever, I don't know if I've ever heard anything more foolish
than that. If you're a believer, Romans 7 is your experience all
the time. And it's healthy. It's not wallowing
in unbelief and wallowing in sin. It's the healthy attitude
of a believer towards sin. Didn't David say, the man after
God's own heart, the beloved Oh, God said regarding this man,
his heart beats with mine. What a man, David. David said,
my sin is ever before me. There's never a time when it's
not before me. We have the ashes of the red
heifer, a sacrifice that has already been made before the
defiling of the sin, laid up in a clean place, ready to be
applied. Then we read in verses 11 through
17 of coming into contact with death, or 11 through 18. Then
in verse 19, and the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean
on the third day and on the seventh day. Now here's this man that's
unclean, he's come into contact with death and he has two applications
of these ashes. One on the third day, what's
that a reference to? You know as well as I do, the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. One on the third day
and then one on the seventh day. He's sprinkled again. Now there's
two views as to what this seventh day represents, and I believe
in both. I think one is correct, but both
are true. One is that you are not going to be seven being complete.
You're not going to be complete in your experience until we put
this body down dead and then we'll experience complete completeness. It'll be ours in our experience. That's true! I wouldn't deny
that. But isn't the Spirit of God,
doesn't John say in Revelation, speaking of the seven spirits
of God. I think seven is a reference
to God the Holy Spirit taking this blood and applying it to our
hearts. The third day is the actual completion
of what Christ did on the cross, and then the Spirit of God takes
the blood and applies it to us. Now, what about the running water? What about the running water?
Water was to be put in those ashes, living water, running
water. That's the same thing that happened
in the cleansing of the leper. If you will remember, water was
taken over that live bird. One bird was slain, its blood
applied to the live bird and water came over that bird. And here, running water is mixed
with the ashes. What does this water represent
here? Well, listen to this scripture.
And I think this is exactly what Paul is referring to. Husbands,
love your wives as Christ also loved the church and gave himself
for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing
of water. And this is what he's referring
to. These two sacrifices were water, the washing of water by
the word. The water represents the word,
hearing the gospel once again. It's not enough to hear the gospel
once, is it? It's not. You hear it over and over and
over and over again. You're dirty, you're defiled,
you're sinful. You believe the gospel, you believe
what Christ accomplished, but the only way that your conscience
is purged is by the washing of water by the word, by the hearing
of the gospel. You're dirty, you hear the gospel
of His blood again, and you're cleansed once again. This is
a daily thing. Hold your fingers there in Numbers
19 and turn to 1 John 1. 1 John 1. If we say verse six, if we say
that we have fellowship with him, a lot of people make that claim.
I fellowship with God. I pray. He hears me. He speaks
to me. I have fellowship with God. If
we say we have fellowship with God and walk in darkness, we
lie. And do not the truth. But if we walk in the light,
the light of how God saves sinners by Christ, that's what that's
a reference to. If we walk in the light as he
is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. The fellowship
of the gospel. And the blood of Jesus Christ,
his son, cleanseth us from all sin. Now let's go back to Hebrews
chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9. For if, for, for, that means
he's basing what he's saying now on what he said just before.
Look in verse 11, but Christ being come a high priest of good
things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not
made with hands, that is to say not of this building, 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, for if the blood of bulls and goats," that's talking about
the temple sacrifice, the tabernacle sacrifice, and what we've just
been reading about, the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the
unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh, how much more? How much more? Shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, how much more does the blood of Christ purify you
than ashes? What they did was only ceremonial.
It was only representative. But how much does the blood of
Christ actually purify you? Now look what he says. Purge your conscience. Now this is spoken to a believer.
Purge your conscience from dead works. And remember the context,
this is about coming into contact with death. Purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God. Now, look in Hebrews
chapter six, he mentioned these dead works before. Therefore,
leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go
on to perfection, not laying again the foundation, and here's
the first thing he mentions, of repentance, a change of mind. Repentance from dead works. Now, dead works are anything
that has the fingerprint of death on them. Anything that has the fingerprint
of unregenerate flesh, sinful flesh on it, anything performed
before you were regenerated or anything your old man has done,
no matter how religious, it's a dead work and your conscience
will never really be satisfied by anything you do. Now, understand
this. I want to say this as, I just
want to say it. This is not saying in any way
that my works, my character, my conduct, the things that I
do is not of critical critical importance. Faith without works
is what? Dead. Being alone. Now when I think
of the Beatitudes, that has to do with character, doesn't it?
That's the character of a believer. Poor in spirit. Meek before God. mourning over sin, hungering
and thirsting after righteousness, pure in heart, a peacemaker,
merciful, being persecuted for righteousness sake. Every one
of those things has to do with the character of the believer. This is a description of the
believer. When I think of the fruit of
the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. That falls
into my conduct. So this is not saying in any
way that what I do is not of critical importance. Faith without works is dead. Amen? Amen. That being said, do you or are
you allowed to get any assurance of salvation because of how you
do, what you do? No. That's where he's saying
purge your conscience from dead works. Now, like I said, I love
that passage of scripture in 1 Peter 3, verse 15. where he says, always be ready,
always be ready to give an answer to every man that asks you a
reason for the hope that's in you. You know what that means? Hadn't happened yet in my experience.
I hope it does one of these days. But somebody is going to see
the way I treat them in a nonjudgmental, merciful, gracious, loving them,
really seeking their best interest, not using them, not manipulating
them, and they're gonna see the way I treat them. And they're
gonna say, give me, they see the way I handle providence,
the bad things that happen, the way I conduct myself during that.
They see that and they say, Give me a reason for the hope that's
in you. Tell me what it is." And then we could joyfully say,
here's my reason, Christ died for my sins. I have no other
hope but that. Now, when he's saying purge your
conscience from dead works, he is saying your conscience can
never be satisfied by anything but the blood of Christ. Is that you? Your conscience
can never rest or be satisfied by anything but the blood of
Christ. The blood of Christ is what gives
our conscience nothing to feel guilty about. Think about that. I have nothing
to feel guilty about. The blood of Christ has put away
my sin. Now, as our feet get dirty, the
sacrifice that was already made, the red heifer is once again
applied to us in the hearing of the gospel. And the writer
to the Hebrews says, purge your conscience. Don't try to satisfy
your conscience with your dead works. Don't try to satisfy your
conscience with anything you do. Strike it out. Look to Christ only. Look to Christ always. Nothing more. Nothing less. And nothing else. That is the
only way you purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God. Now, I want you to remember four
times we read in the scripture that just shall live by faith. What is faith? Looking to Christ
only. And if I try to satisfy my conscience
with my works, I'm dishonoring the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God. Isn't that a beautiful picture
of the ashes of the red heifer? That's the blood of Christ. applied
once again to our conscience so that we find our acceptance
only in what he did. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you that.
The sacrifice of the sun. By your spirit. The one offering
already accomplished is applied to us over and over again. Lord, we confess we get our feet
so dirty and we are so thankful that we're clean every wit and
that we're to continually look to your son. Bless this message
to our understanding and our prophet for the glory of your
name. In Christ's name we pray, amen.