I'm hesitant to read this whole
chapter, but let's do it quickly. Numbers 19, and let's begin in
verse 1. This has to do with the sacrifice
of the red heifer. We won't finish this tonight.
I'm going to look at the first nine verses. And the Lord spake
unto Moses and to 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 ye shall
give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring her forth without
the count, 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. And one shall burn the heifer
in his sight, her skin with her flesh, and her blood with 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." Did everybody find my text? Girls, don't be turning
while Papi is reading. Put your books up while Papi
is teaching. 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, and he shall bathe his flesh in water. And afterward
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, and bathe his flesh in water, and
shall be unclean until the evening. And a man that is clean shall
gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the count,
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 he that gathereth the ashes
of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean unto
the evening. And it shall be unto the children
of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among them, for
a statute for ever. He that toucheth the dead body
of any man shall be unclean seven days. He shall purify himself
with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be
clean. But if he purifieth not himself the third day, 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, 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 doth in a tent, all that cometh to the tent, and
all that is in the tent shall be unclean seven days. And every
open vessel which hath no covering bound unto it is unclean. And
whosoever touches one that is slain with a sword in the open
fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be
unclean seven days. And for an unclean person they
shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification
for sin, and run in water, shall be put therein in a vessel. And
a clean person shall take hyssop, and 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 toucheth a bone,
or one slain, or one dead, or a grave. And a 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, and wash
his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean
at evening. But the man that shall be unclean
and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from
among the congregation, Because he hath defiled the sanctuary
of the Lord, the waters of separation had not been sprinkled upon him,
he is unclean. And it shall be a perpetual statute
unto you, that he that sprinkleth the water of separation shall
wash his clothes, and he that toucheth the water of separation
shall be unclean until evening. And whatsoever the unclean person
toucheth shall be unclean, and the soul that toucheth it shall
be unclean until evening. I want to look, and it will fill
our time, concerning this helper that was slain. Here in verses
1 through 9, we want to look at the sacrifice itself for a
few minutes. In verses 11 and 22, the application
of that sacrifice, what it was for, was for sprinkling the unclean,
those that touch something or someone dead. Now, the offering
of this red heifer is distinct from all other offerings. It
has some things that are peculiar to it and it alone. And that's
one of the things that makes this so teachable and the reason
I wanted to look at it tonight. We'll look at that just in a
few minutes, but first of all, I want to look here in verse
2 at some things that are familiar. And you'll notice these. things
here in verse 2 that are familiar to all these sacrifices. Two of these things, that the
Holy Spirit guards even these pictures of Jesus Christ and
redemption by Him, that everywhere we are told this about these
sacrifices. He said there in the middle of
verse 2, speaking to the children of Israel, that they bring thee
a red heifer without spot wherein is no blemish. Now that's what
we read about all these sacrifices, isn't it? This heifer, they were
so particular and jealous about this heifer. John Gill was quoting
from some Old Testament Jewish writers that talked about of
all the sacrifices, the Jewish fathers were more jealous over
this sacrifice than any other. Because when they killed this
heifer and laid these ashes back, sometimes these ashes lasted
for years, for months and sometimes for years. So they were very
jealous over this sacrifice and this without spot has to do with
the color of the skin. She was to be a red heifer. And
these old Jewish writers said that they were so jealous and
careful with this sacrifice that they would take men and begin
at the nose and take their fingers and look closely all the way
back through the tail And if they found two hairs that were
not red, the heifer was rejected. If they found a black hair on
her nose and a black hair on her hip, or a white hair on her
nose and a white hair on her hip, she was rejected. She had
to be red. Every hair on the heifer had
to be red. So it had to do with being without
spot. And that's what the Lord Jesus
represents, isn't it? He's without any spot. He's as pure as he can be. He was born of a fallen woman.
We know that. I know some people, they can't
imagine making a statement that Mary was a fallen woman. Years
ago, Catholicism came up with this theory that Mary was immaculately
conceived herself. That she herself was born sinless. But she needed a Savior, didn't
she? She was a fallen woman in Adam like we are. But here is
the miracle of the birth of Jesus Christ. He was born of a fallen
woman, a sinful woman, but He was born without sin Himself.
There was no spot about Him anywhere. We talk about Christ upon the
cross and Him taking our sins and Him being made sin. And in all of that, we still
must hold to this precious truth that from his birth, even when
he said it's finished, he never did cease to be holy. He offered
himself without spot to God. The just for the unjust. And he was always that way, without
blemish and without... And he said you are not only
without fault, without spot, but this helper had to be without
blemish. That word blemish means no deformity. There couldn't be any scars upon
him or any injury that should sustain any place at any time. They had to look for that and
be careful that the helper had no blemish. You and I have no
idea. We have no idea what it is to
be a man without a blemish. A blemish in your character,
a blemish in your motives, a blemish in your thought, a blemish in
your words. There's only been one man that
lived without a blemish, and that was the Son of God. That's
why His blood is so precious. It's because of who He was. But He adds something here to
it. And this is peculiar to this sacrifice in verse 2, "...and
upon which never yoke came." This had to be a helper that
never had a yoke upon her. No doubt to be scarred by that
with a yoke rubbing against her shoulder, that would make a blemish.
But when you read this yoke in the scriptures, sometimes of
all the other things that it represents, to me and to others
here in this passage, It represents a forced or an unbearable burden,
a yoke, a burden that's unbearable, a burden that one is apt to resist
or rebel against. Have you ever seen the old picture
or video when you see a fellow driving an ox, he's plowing an
ox, or he's driving an ox, pulling his little buggy, and he's got
a little whip in his hand? Sometimes you see him, he's got
a little whip. And there's a reason he's got that little whip in
his hand. The ox don't want to pull that particular buggy or
that plow. It's doing it, but it's doing
it against its will. It's doing it because it's made
to do it. So when we look at it that way, and we look at the
Lord Jesus Christ, no such yoke ever came upon Him. How often
do you and I do things We do them simply because we know we
ought to do them. But boy, I tell you, we're almost
forced, aren't we? Sometimes we're forced to give.
Sometimes we're forced to pray. Sometimes we're forced to come
to worship. We just force ourselves. It's almost like a yoke, isn't
it? The Lord Jesus never was that way. He never was that way. In all His temptations that He
endured, all the labors all the self-denial, missing of his meals,
everything he did, he did it out of joy and did it out of
love and pleasure to his heart. Now, that's amazing. He counted
it the greatest of joys to serve his Father, even in his sufferings
and self-denial. In the volume of the book, he
said, it's written of me, I delight to do thy will. O my God, your
law is within my heart." Even in the time when he was in the
garden, in the agony of his soul, anticipating our sins that he
would die for in God's wrath. Even when he sweated blood, remember
what he said? Father, not my will, but thy
will be done. He had a yoke. No doubt he had
a yoke. But he said, my yoke is easy.
My yoke is easy. It's not a grievous burden to
me. It's not something galling my soul or my spirit. I delight to do my Father's will. So what a beautiful, beautiful
picture this heifer is of the Lord Jesus Christ. No spot about
Him. He's pure. No blemishes about
Him. And in all that He did, He did
it for the joy. of doing his Father's will, the
joy that was set before him. In verse 4, look at this, and
you and I have looked at this before, but I want to spend just
a little bit of time on this tonight. We're still looking
at some of the things that are familiar with all these other
sacrifices, but look in verse 4. 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. They killed the helper. Sometimes
they caught their blood in a vessel. Sometimes they catch it in his
hand, the palm of his hand. And he turned and he faced the
tabernacle. Now why did he turn and face
the tabernacle? That's where God dwelt. Remember we learned
that a few weeks ago? Build me a tabernacle that I
may dwell among you. And he would turn and he'd look
at that tabernacle door and he'd take his fingers in that blood
and he would sprinkle it towards that tabernacle. Seven times
blood towards the tabernacle. Now seven, I'm not much on numbers,
but one number in the Bible I do know what it means. And that's
the number seven is completeness. It's perfection. That's why we
have seven days. On the seventh day, God rested. That's the completion of the
week. Seven days in a week. If you'll study the book of Revelations,
you'll see in it this number seven throughout the Bible. The devil tries to imitate it,
but it is an emblem of completeness and perfection. There's seven
churches of Asia, the seven candlesticks, seven stars. There are the seven
spirits before the throne of God. Upon the head of the Lord
Jesus Christ, He said to have seven horns. What is that? Horns represent power or authority. He has seven of them. That means
perfect power, complete power upon the head of the Lord Jesus
Christ. All power is given to me in heaven and in the earth.
He said to have seven eyes. He has complete knowledge, complete
vision of all things, doesn't He? Everything is naked and open
in the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. So this number
7 means perfection. And when we look at it in that
sense, when the sprinkling of this blood, of this effort took
place, that represents to us a complete and perfect atonement
that Jesus Christ has made to the Father for sins. Perfect sprinkling seven times. A complete atonement Christ has
made for sins. I love this word here in verse
3. Andrew, do me a favor right quick.
In Hebrews chapter 1 in verse 3, you have a little translation,
don't you? Turn over there. I want you to
see the word they use. You're in verse 9. This water
of separation. It is a purification. It's a
purification for sin. And I think, I'm not for sure,
Andrew can look and see in Hebrews chapter 1 where He purged our
sins. If I'm not mistaken, this is
the same word, to make purification for sins. Is that what it said,
Andrew? Did you find it? Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3. The cleansing of our sins. Some
of them say it's the purification. The ASV and some of the literal
translations. The purification. Christ by himself
made purification. I love that word. How do you
make purification for sins. How do you make perfect purification
for sin? It has to be a perfect atonement,
doesn't it? It has to be precious blood. To make perfect purification
for sins, you would have to put that sin away. And Christ, in
offering Himself, has made a complete and perfect satisfaction for
all the sins that he bore, and the Father has perfectly received
that offering, and by that sacrifice, sins are perfectly purged. And if you are here tonight and
your faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ, then your sins are perfectly
purged away. For your sins He has made purification. They're gone. That's what that
sprinkling seven times means. I want you to hold numbers chapter
19 and look in the book of Hebrews chapter 9. The offering of this heifer is
referred to two different times in the book of Hebrews. Here's
one of them here in verse 9. Look at this. Chapter 9. If you'll
notice, In the 19th chapter of Numbers that I read to you, the
sprinkling of that blood took place only one time. One time. He didn't sprinkle it seven times,
then later on in the chapter you find him going back and getting
some more blood and sprinkling it again. He sprinkled that only
one time. Now what does that teach us about
the atonement? One time is all it takes, isn't
it? is all it takes. Why? Because it's a perfect redemption. Once is all that's needed. Once
it puts away sin, it puts it away. It doesn't have to be sprinkled
again. Look what he says here in chapter
9 of Hebrews. And let's begin here in verse
7, talking about the priest going into the holy and the most holy
places. And to the second, the second veil. We studied that
in one of our lessons, didn't we? went the high priest along
once every year, not without blood which he offered for himself
and for the heirs of the people. The Holy Ghost is signifying
that the way unto the holiest of all was not yet made manifest
while the first tabernacle was yet standing, which was a figure
for the time then present. in which were offered both gifts
and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service
perfect as pertaining to the conscience, which stood only
in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances
imposed on them until the time of reformation." Now, I want
you to go back sometime and study on this. I'm reading it. But
you need to go back and study some of this because, did you
just notice what I just read? These ordinances were imposed
on them until the time of the affirmation. But Christ being
come to an high priest of all things, of good things to come,
by greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands like Moses
made, 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, and what did he do? Obtained eternal
redemption for us. Why did he have to do that one
time? Because by his one blood sprinkling he obtained eternal
redemption. Read on in verse 13. For if the
blood of bulls and goats, and here it is, and the ashes of
men 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 to serve the living God? And by this one offering, he
obtained a perfect redemption, an eternal redemption. Seven
times. Seven times. Seven times. Perfection. Complete. Look in
the same chapter, Hebrews chapter 9, and look here in verse 25.
25 Nor yet that he should offer
himself often, as those priests entered to the holy place every
year with the blood of others. For then must he often have suffered
since the foundation of the world. But now once in the end of the
world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself." And as it is appointed unto men once to die, you don't
die but once to him. Christ died one time, just like
everybody else. And after this, the judgment.
So Christ was once offered, once, once, once. to bury the sins
of many, and to them that look for him shall he appear the second
time without sin unto salvation." A complete atonement, a perfect
atonement. Look on in chapter 10. Look in
verse 11. Look here in verse 11. Hebrews chapter
10. And every high priest standeth
daily, ministering and offering oft times the same sacrifices
which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified." Whereof the Holy Ghost is a witness to
us. For after that he said before,
this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,
saith the Lord, I will put my laws in their hearts, I will
write them in their minds, and their sins and iniquities will
I remember no more. Now where remission of these
is, there is no more offering for sins." Perfect atonement. A perfect atonement was offered
by Spotless Lamb, the Son of God. And a perfect atonement
was accepted of God. Now, chapter 4 of Hebrews, and
let me quote these to you, but you'll know where I'm at. He
exhorts us to enter into a complete rest in our conscience, in our
hearts. And here's what he says in verse
1 of Hebrews chapter 4. Let us therefore fear lest the
promise been left us of entering unto his rest, any of you should
come short of it. And in Hebrews 4, verse 3, For
we which have believed do enter unto rest. And verse 10, For
he that is entered unto his rest He also has ceased from his own
work as God did from his. And then in verse 11 he says
this, Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest
any man fall after the same example of unbelief. Now what rest is
he talking about? A rest for our conscience. How
does the conscience rest? By believing in a perfect atonement. That's how it rests. I have some
straying thoughts of my own and some that I got off of C. H. McIntosh. Let me read some
of these things to you and see here what he said. Here is what
C. H. McIntosh said. He said, The
blood of Christ has been shed and presented to a holy God as
a perfect atonement for sin. This, when simply received by
faith, must relieve the conscience from all sense of guilt and all
fear of condemnation. There is nothing before God except
the perfection of the atoning work of Christ." Now listen to
this, there is nothing before God but the perfection of the
atoning work of Christ. The truth of this is seen in
the fact that our risen Savior is seated at the right hand of
God, which he would not be unless a complete and perfect atonement
had been made and accepted. Can it be possible that with
a perfect work to rest upon, our souls should never know perfect
rest? Has the blood of Jesus done nothing
more for us than the blood of heifers? Has it not? Has the blood of
Jesus done no more for us than the blood of heifers did for
a Jewish worshiper? And this is what he says too.
It's natural for us to be occupied with our thoughts and feelings
about the blood of Christ. rather than the blood itself
and God's source of it and God's acceptance of it. Since the blood
of Christ has been perfectly presented to God and perfectly
accepted of God, why introduce the question of my interest in
it and my feelings towards it as though it wasn't complete
without something of my own added to it. Does my feelings, does
my experience, does my faith, does my appreciation or appropriation
add anything to that blood that has been perfectly offered to
God and perfectly accepted? Do I rest in my interest in Christ,
or do I rest in Christ Himself? That's a good question, isn't
it? Sometimes young Christians and sometimes old Christians,
we cannot enter into this rest, and it's because we're looking
to ourselves. What do I think about? How much
do I believe in it? Am I appropriating it? Do I appreciate
it? But it's not these things that
gives us grounds for the rest of our conscience. It's not our
interest in the blood that makes it effectual. It's not our faith
in the blood that makes it effectual. It's the blood itself. Do we
rest in our interest, in our faith, in our thoughts, in our
appreciation, or do we rest in the blood itself? God doesn't
look in our appropriation to the blood. He doesn't look upon
our feelings about the blood. He doesn't even look upon our
faith in the blood. He looks at the blood. When I
see the blood, I will pass over you. So the rest for our conscience
has a complete and perfect grounds, and that is not even our inners,
not our thoughts, but the blood itself. That's wonderful, ain't
it? And we're so apt to stray and look to ourselves and our
own feelings and our own thoughts and our own estimation. But that's
why we lead to doubts and keep finding rest for our soul. These
ashes, look back over here again in our text. The ashes. Don't
forget. Don't forget this. Get this down
in your heart. That when that priest took that
blood and sprinkled it seven times, he was sprinkling it towards
God. who was there in the tabernacle.
And he was showing that he was making perfect atonement and
that God was willing to accept that atonement and rest in that
atonement and to be satisfied. That's what you and I must look
to. That's what we must receive. That's what we must excel. What
he has done in our place and in our stead. Here in chapter
19 of Numbers, and in our text, verse 6, they burned This heifer
put up on a stack of wood and burner, and the priest shall
take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the
midst of the burn of the heifer." When he stood there, when this
man came there to gather up those ashes, he looked down in those
ashes, and he knew what was there. And if he had faith in his heart
and understanding, he knew what all of this represented. This
cedar wood, it represents the endearing atonement of Jesus
Christ. Cedar wood. I remember when we
came to Indiana, we had a fence, one of these little wire fences
around our house. And I don't know when it was built. It was
old. We tugged it down. But you tuck
those cedar posts up and it's almost like the day they put
them in. That's why they used to use cedar poles to make fence
out of. Fence poles. They're endearing. It's endearing wood. They threw
this cedar wood up on top of this heifer to show us, to represent
to us, the atonement of Jesus Christ was an endearing thing. It wasn't a passing thing. Dear
dying Lamb, your precious blood shall never lose its power. Never
lose its power. That's a long time, isn't it?
And John saw the Lord Jesus as a lamb that had been slain, still
there in heaven today. His blood is just as fresh. His atonement is just as effectual
as it's always been, like this seed was. And then they threw
in hyssop. This shows the purging power
of that sacrifice. What did David say about the
hyssop? Purge me with hyssop. Purge away my sin. The blood
reaches deeper, doesn't it? then the stain has gone. What
can wash away my sin? The same thing that washed that
thief's sin away, there upon the cross when Christ died. Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. But this scarlet, a lot of people
have different, and I imagine there's a lot of different things
this scarlet would mean. They threw in this scarlet. It
could have been the scarlet wool. It could have been the color
scarlet, red. But scarlet in the scripture
represents sin. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. So when this fellow came here
to collect these ashes, to run water over them in a vessel,
and he looked down in those ashes, what did he see? He saw something
that was enduring. A sacrifice that was not fleeting. An atonement that was so perfect,
never could quit atoning. Never could quit putting away
sin and forgiveness of sin. He saw this hyssop purging of
sins. And you know something else he
saw? He saw his sins destroyed right before his eyes. Because
there that scarlet was. And all that was left of the
scarlet was ashes. Where was the sins? It was ashes. Burned up. Destroyed. What do we see when we look to
Christ and Him crucified? What do we see when we see Christ
upon the cross? Brothers and sisters, we see
sin destroyed. They lay in ashes before our
feet, just as this scarlet. And they take these ashes and
they kept them up. And they saw in them all of these
things that you and I have been talking about. But all of these
things are familiar. Let's go quickly on to some of
the ways in which this sacrifice was different, and I won't keep
you much longer. We're running out of time. Here in verse 3
and verse 5, here are some ways this sacrifice differed from
all other sacrifices. As far as I know, this was the
only one like this. You remember when we studied
over in Leviticus chapter 1 through 6 about the sacrifices? One of
the things about the sacrifices that was peculiar to all those
sacrifices, you remember where each sacrifice was killed? Before
the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Remember that?
It was all killed within that curtain. That's where they brought
them. Where was this heifer killed? Did you notice that? Without
the cap. The only sacrifice that we have
that atoned for sin that was killed outside the camp. And I want you to notice this
in verse 3. Look at it again in verse 3. In the last three verses, the
last line, bring her forth without the camp and one shall slay her
before his face, the priest, They slew her before his face. He had nothing to do with the
slaughter. And look in verse 5. And one shall burn the helper
in his sight. So the priest, and this is the
only sacrifice I know of, that the priest were passive in it. He watched them as they slew
the helper outside the camp. And he watched them as they put
her on the fire and burned her. The priests remained passive. Now what does this teach us of
Jesus Christ? It teaches us what some of the
other sacrifices do not teach us. And this is why this is a
very interesting sacrifice. And it teaches us this, that
Christ was passive in his sufferings and in his death. Other sacrifices
tell us that Christ gave his life, No man takes my life. I lay it down on myself. Here,
this sacrifice teaches us that they took it. They took it. And when the Lord Jesus said
no man takes my life, what He meant with no man takes my life
by force. No man forces me to give up my
life. My hour, when it comes, I will willingly give up my life.
But here, this teaches us that they took His life. He was passive
in it. And the Scripture says, you have
taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. In all of his sufferings when
they came and got him there in the garden, he did not open his
mouth, did he? He did not open his mouth. He
was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and like a sheep before his shearers
is done, he opened not his mouth. They whipped him. They slapped
his face. They stripped him naked. They
put the robe upon him. They delivered him to the will
of the people. And what did he do? Nothing. He looked on. He was like an
observer. While they slapped him, while
they cursed him, while they beat him, he was passive. He was passive. He did nothing. He gave himself
to the will of the people. That is the first thing that
speaks up. A lamb to the slaughter and a sheep before his sherd
is done, so he opened not his mouth. But secondly, we see something
else in this. This speaks of Christ's rejection
by this world. It speaks of his rejection in
his sufferings and in his death and his atonement. And it speaks
to this, our identifying with him in these things. All the
other sacrifices. The priest was in on it. All
the priest's sons was in on it. Many of the congregation was
standing around, no doubt, the wall, there on the fence, looking
and watching them kill. Everybody was interested in it.
No doubt, some hollered, Amen. Thank God for a sacrifice. But
in this one, the sacrifice of the heifer teaches us of Christ's
rejection. Now, I said this was spoken of
two places in the book of Hebrews. You can leave chapter 19 and
let's go over and look at Hebrews chapter 13. It speaks of Christ's
rejection by this world and His sufferings and atonement. And
it speaks of our identification with Him in it all. Look at Hebrews
chapter 13 and look in verse 12. Hebrews chapter 13 and verse
12. Wherefore Jesus also, that he
might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without
the gate, outside the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto
him without the camp, bearing his reproach. Verse 12 says he
sanctified us. He sanctified us. He suffered
and sanctified us. He purged us. He washed us. He
set us apart to God. He redeemed us. We are not ashamed
of that, are we? We are not ashamed of that, are
we? We own the death of Christ. We own the benefits of His death.
Then we must not be ashamed to bear His reproach for doing that. He suffered outside the gate. If we reap the benefits of His
death, Let us be willing to bear the reproach of his rejection. Let us go forth. Can you imagine what this meant
to these Hebrew Christians? These were people that were worshiping
in the temple. They still have the temple. Now he is telling them, go forth. The Pharisees were still in the
temple. The Sadducees. The Sanhedrin. They still hated
Christ. They still hated the atonement.
Now this apostle is writing to them and says it's time to go
forth. Those who are rejected, those
who are blasphemed, those who would still kill the Son of God,
they do not believe on Him, it's time now to go forth without
the count. Leave these legalists. Leave
these self-righteous. Go forth. Can you imagine the
reproach? Can you imagine telling your
neighbor, you won't see me in the temple Saturday morning?
You won't see me bringing another sacrifice? You won't see me observing
holy days and new moons? I'm going forth. It meant something
Go forth. But not just going forth, but
going forth to bear his reproach. He was rejected by religion.
He was scorned by religion. He was crucified by religion.
And now the apostle says, go forth from that religion that
hates him. And go forth unto him without
the count. But don't forget this, he said.
You're going to bear his reproach. If you're going to have an interest
in his death, If you're going to enjoy the benefits of His
dying, then you have to go forth to Him without the capital. There
it is, reproach. There was a dear lady, a dear
friend of ours, called me a few days ago, and she was going to
this one church. She wanted to go to this church,
and she sent me the doctrines of faith. But I told her, you
know, this is something you're going to have to be persuaded
of in your own mind. You know, I can suggest things
to you and try to help you what I can, but this is something
that if they hate Christ, if they hate His gracious redemption,
if they hate His Lordship and His ownership, then go forth
from them. But I don't know them. Those
places that you may be in and the situations that you may be
in, you are going to have to determine and be persuaded in
your own mind. Is it dishonoring to my Lord
to be here? If it is, go forth. Go forth
unto Him without the gate. And it was time that these Hebrew
Christians leave the Sadducees, the Pharisees and Sanhedrin and
the priesthood and the sacrifices and go forth to him without the
gate. And what he is saying here, give
up on the Aaronic priesthood. Give up on the biblical priesthood
for a better one. Christ is better. Christ is better. Give up on the other one. And
come out to Christ which is better. Give up the shadows for the substance. Give up the pictures for the
person. Give up the doing for the done. Come out. Come out. Be identified
with Christ in His reproach and in His suffering. And each one
of us will have to be persuaded of that in our own minds. I can go some places and scratch
around and get some things, but when they start telling me that
God loves everybody. He loves everybody the same and
Christ died as much for Judas as He did for Peter. And brothers
and sisters, I'm sorry, I'm coming out. When someone tells me that
imputed righteousness is imputed nonsense, I'm coming out. When
somebody tells me that God looked down through time and He chose
who He saw would believe and He had respect to a person, I'm
coming out. Let them say what they will.
I'll bear his reproach, won't you? Let us go forth unto Him
without the camp. That's where the heifer is, isn't
it? That's where the sacrifice is. That's where the atonement
is. That's where Christ is. That's where Christ is. I'm sorry
to say it, but it's always been this way. You won't find Him
in the camp. If you're looking for Christ
in the camp, He's just not there. He's not there. One of the reasons
I wanted to teach this lesson, a few years ago, a lady called
me and she said, I don't know who she was, never heard from
her since, but she called and she said that she had heard we
preach grace and she wanted to come here. And I talked with
her for a few minutes about grace. And come to find out, she didn't
know what grace was herself. But she got off on this heifer,
and the rebuilding of the temple, and all of that stuff. And she
said, did you know? I think probably the way she
did say it, she said, you don't know that they got the heifer
over there already to offer. They've got the red heifer to
offer already. Well, I'll tell you what they
better do. when they get the red heifer. Two things, they
better be very careful. They better be sure they've got
that temple set up. They better be sure they've got
a high priest that God will accept. Because if he takes that blood
and he starts sprinkling it, and he's not sprinkling it towards
that temple, and he takes that blood in his hand and he's not
a high priest that God will accept, he might as well be sprinkling
pig's blood Ain't that right? That's been five or six years
ago. I bet that old heifer's getting pretty old now. Probably
got some blemishes. See how silly that is? No, we've
got to sacrifice. That's the kind of stuff right
there we come out of. We come out of that stuff. Come
out. Come out from there. Look to Christ.