Let us turn in our Bibles this
evening to Hebrews chapter 9. I want to read verses 11 through
14, Hebrews chapter 9. But Christ, being come and 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
of 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 to
serve the living God? Last Wednesday evening, I brought
my last message at this time from the letter of Ephesians. And for several weeks, I have
thought especially about the words in verse 13, the ashes
of an heifer, the ashes of an heifer. And I've thought of what
a person might think who is not familiar with the word of God,
with the scriptures. If they read that verse, they
saw those words, the ashes of an heifer. What could that have
to do with God? The ashes of a cow. What could
that have to do with God? What could that have to do with
salvation? This is just my thinking. If a person not familiar with
the word of God were to read this, the ashes of an heifer,
this is the inspired word of God? You say this book is inspired
and we read here of the ashes of an heifer. What about that? What could the ashes of a young
cow possibly mean? You say that this book is the
inspired word of God, but look at those words. I'm praying about a message for
us tonight. I've chosen to preach from these
verses. And I'm sure that most everyone
here in this congregation tonight that you are familiar and you
know what these words refer to, but it will be good for us to
be reminded once again of just what is meant by the ashes of
an heifer. I want you to look back with
me, if you will. We're going to look first, the
ashes of an heifer refer to an Old Testament type. You know,
there are many types in the Old Testament of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the antitype to these types. But I want us to look back. When
we think about the ashes of an heifer, I want us to go back
to Numbers chapter 19. Numbers chapter 19. And I'm going to read the entire
chapter. 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 you shall give her unto Eliezer
the priest that he may bring her forth without the count,
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 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 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 the even. And he that burneth her shall
wash his clothes in water, bathe his flesh in water, and shall
be unclean until the even. And a man that is clean shall
gather up the ashes of the heifer, 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 for sin. And he that gathers the ashes
of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until
the even and it shall be unto the children of Israel and unto
the stranger that sojourneth among them for a statute forever. 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 purify 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 dieth
in a tent, all that come into the tent and all that is 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 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 running water shall be put thereto in a vessel, and
a clean person shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, 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,
or one dead, or a grave. And the clean person shall sprinkle
upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day he
shall purify himself and wash his clothes and bathe himself
in water and shall be clean and even. 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 water of separation hath
not been sprinkled upon him. He is unclean, and it shall be
a perpetual statute unto them that he that sprinkleth the water
of separation shall wash his clothes, and he that toucheth
the water of separation shall be unclean until even, and whatsoever
the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean. and the soul that
toucheth it shall be unclean until even. The ashes of an heifer. Now I want to point five things
out to us in this chapter which we've just read. Number one,
the uncleanness. The uncleanness spoken of in
this chapter was ceremonial uncleanness. When a person became ceremonially
unclean, he had to be purified using the ashes of an heifer. An unclean person was not to
come among the congregation of God's people to worship. If a
man, we saw this two times in these verses, if a man failed,
to purify himself with the water of purification, which was the
ashes of that heifer. If he failed to do that, then
he was, the scripture says, two times, he shall be cut off from
the congregation. Now, it's not clear to me how
this man would be cut off. Either the civil authorities
would know that he had touched a dead body or something, and
he did not go through the process of cleansing himself, and so
he would be executed by the congregation. Or it's possible that God himself
would just kill him if he presumed Having the word of God and the
way to purify himself, if he presumed to come into the congregation
to worship God at the tabernacle, it's possible God would just
kill him. You say, would God do that? He killed two sons of
the high priest the day the tabernacle was set up. Why? Because they offered strange
fire before the Lord. Yes, God's very serious about
his word, isn't he? Very serious about this matter
of cleansing. But the main point that I wanted
to emphasize, first of all, is the uncleanness spoken of here
is a ceremonial uncleanness. The second thing is, this chapter
that we read It only speaks of a person becoming unclean in
some relationship with death. In some relationship with death. Now we know that there were other
ways that a person could become unclean. He could become unclean
by his food. There were certain dietary laws
that were given to Israel, certain animals they could eat, certain
animals they couldn't eat. Birds they could eat and couldn't
eat. Those in the waters, fish and
things of that nature. And so there was other ways that
a person could become unclean. He could become unclean, a woman
would become unclean by giving birth to a child. There are so
many ways in the law that God gave unto Israel by which a person
could become unclean. He could become unclean by wearing
clothes that were prohibited. If he had on a robe that was
made out of two different types of material, he could become
unclean. He could become unclean if he
had a, was an ox and a horse pulling his plow together. He
could become unclean, a man could become unclean by the seed that
he sowed in his fields. There were many ways, many ways
in which a man could become, a woman could become unclean. Could have an issue from his
flesh in some way. and he would be unclean, unceremonially
unclean, and not allowed to enter into the courts of the Lord. But this chapter that we read,
the only thing here that we read about that would render a person
unclean had to do with death, a man's bone. He could walk over
a grave, unsuspectingly, and be unclean. He could be out plowing
and turn over a bone and pick it up. He was unclean in many
ways. But the third thing I mentioned
here is that a person could become unclean by doing that which was
right, by doing that which we would say was well. A man's father
dies, what needs to be done? Well, the body needs to be buried,
of course. That would be something that
was well, and yet in doing even something that was well, the
man who did it would become ceremonially unclean. And they had a lot of
funerals, let me tell you. You know, this was given to them
when they were in the wilderness at the very beginning. They were
40 years, and I tried to figure out, a little while ago. They were there 40 years, and
I thought if there were 600,000, all of the generation 20 years
and older died while they were there in the wilderness for those
40 years, except those two men, Joshua and Caleb. But they had
several funerals every day. They had several funerals. Every
tribe had funerals every day. And that was something that was
necessary. Something that was needful, something
that was good. But yet, in doing that, a person
would become ceremonially unclean. Now the fourth thing I would
point out is this. That the red heifer, the ashes
of a heifer had to be a red heifer. And she was red all over. She
didn't have any spots. She did not have any blemishes.
She was red all over. If you notice that in verse two
here in Numbers chapter 19. It says, 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 the
yoke. Now you cannot read that. those
specifications for this red heifer and not see that it is a type
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The animals that were used in
sacrifice, lambs and bullocks and sheep and goats, they all
had to be without blemish, without spot. They could not offer unto
God some animal that was somehow sick or deformed or anything
like that? Well, because they were all a
type of picture of God's dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know in Him there was
no sin, there is no sin. He's a perfect, we sang that
hymn a few minutes ago, all the glory of the Lamb It's the glory
of all Emmanuel's land, right? All the glory in heaven belongs
unto the Lamb, without spot, without blemish. And then it
says, the heifer could not have had a yoke upon it. Now, why
do you put a yoke on an animal? You yoke an animal up to make
that animal work. Make that animal do what you
want him to do. Lord Jesus Christ, he did what
he did willingly. He was not coerced, he was not
forced. He said, no man taketh my life
from me, I lay it down of myself. The red heifer had to die, had
to die before the priest. Now the Lord Jesus Christ, he
is our high priest who offered himself without spot, without
blemish, willingly unto God. But this was not a regular sacrifice. All the sacrifices are given
in the book of the priest, Leviticus. You've got the first five chapters
there, and you read of those various sacrifices, the burnt
offering, meal offering, the sin offering, the peace offering.
You've got all of those sacrifices there to teach the priest the
types concerning a sacrifice for sin. But this is given in
the book of Numbers and officially it wasn't a sacrifice for sin,
but yet the animal had to die and its blood, the priest would
take the blood and sprinkle it directly toward the tabernacle. The animal was not sacrificed
on the altar, the brazen altar. It was outside the camp. And
then they would set the whole thing on fire. The flesh, the
skin, everything about him was burned up, about her, rather,
burned up. And while she's burning, the
priest throws in some scarlet, some cedar, and some hyssop into
the fire. All of it, and it was all burned
outside the camp. The ashes of an heifer. Then
there was a man who was a clean man, that is, he was not defiled
himself, so he gathered up the ashes and he put them outside
the camp in a clean place. They were kept outside. So that
when a person became ceremonially unclean, he would have a A clean
person, a friend or brother, someone, he would have that person
go out and gather up a few of those ashes in a cup of some
kind, pour water over them, and then sprinkle that water of purification
on him and on his tent and on the vessels inside his tent.
And at the end of seven days, and they did that on the third
day, But at the end of seven days, the man washed himself
and he was clean. He could come back into the congregation
before the tabernacle. And the last thing that I would
point out here is this was the only way of purification. There wasn't two ways. There
wasn't three ways. There was one way, just as there's
one way to God. And Jesus Christ is that one
way. Now, let's go back to Hebrews,
just a few minutes, Hebrews chapter nine. Verse 14, the apostle said, how
much more? There's a comparison here. comparison
between the lesser and the greater. The defilement of an Israelite
who lived under that law was in his flesh. But here the apostle
speaks of a believer, a believer's conscience. that has been defiled
by sin. So the comparison from the lesser
to the greater, first of all, the lesser. His flesh was rendered
unclean, but now the greater, a believer, a child of God, by
sin, his conscience has been wounded. The defilement of the
Israelite was lesser, while the defilement of the believer's
conscience is by sin and greater. That was by touching a bone or
something of that nature. That defiled the flesh, but now
we're talking about a believer who sins, who disobeys God in
some way. For instance, if a man buried
his dad. His father died and he had the
responsibility to take his body out and bury it outside the camp
somewhere. Now his conscience would not
be grieved. He's done something good. He
did something necessary. But we're talking about something
here when a man or a woman, a child of God, sins and their conscience
is convicted. Their conscience is alarmed. The defilement here is of the
conscience, when a believer is defiled because of sin, of some
sin of which he's guilty, and he knows he's guilty. He knows
he's guilty. He is a child of God and sins,
but he doesn't cease to be a child of God. He is a child of God,
he sins, he falls, but he's still a child of God. There's a scripture
in Ecclesiastes where Solomon said, there's not a just man
upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. There's not one
of God's children who does good and yet does not sin. The ashes
of an heifer given for ceremonial cleansing is the lesser while
the blood of Christ is the greater. How much more, the apostle says,
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? The apostle John
in 1 John said, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us How are we cleansed? To cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Well, just before that, he said,
the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, that is God's son, cleanseth
us from all sin. I like this illustration of Daniel
Parks. Now, Daniel Parks is a missionary
down in the Caribbean Islands, but he gave this illustration. A man in an airplane, 35,000
feet high. He gets out of his seat and gets
in the aisle and he stumbles and falls. Now get this, he's
up there 35,000 feet in an airplane. He stumbles and falls. He falls
just a few feet. He's helped to arise. and continues
on his way, for he is safe in the airplane even when he falls. Similarly, a man in the heavenly
places in Christ stumbles and falls, but he does not fall to
the earth and perish, just like that man in the plane. He falls,
but he doesn't fall 35,000 feet to his death. So a child of God
stumbles and falls, and we all do. We all know what we're talking
about here. We stumble, we fall, we make
mistakes, we sin, and our conscience is grieved, but we don't fall
to the earth and perish. We're helped to arise. God, the
Holy Spirit, in the ministry of the word of God, helps us
to arise. and continue on our way toward
Emmanuel's land, because we are safe in Christ, even when we
fall. We've seen that an Israelite
could become defiled many, many ways, many times, even when doing
that which is good, he could be defiled. So many ways we all
offend, the apostle James said. This text doesn't speak so much
about our relationship to God as it does our fellowship with
God. Our relationship with God, when
a person is born of the Spirit of God, whatsoever the Lord doeth
is forever. That's not going to change our
relationship. Being a child of wrath and then
being born again of the Spirit of God and brought into the family
of God, we will always be in the family of God. But our relationship,
or our fellowship, rather, with the Lord, sin breaks that fellowship. And it reminds me of our Lord's
words in John chapter 13 when he washed his disciples' feet.
Remember he came to Peter, and he said, he that is washed needeth
not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit, and you're
clean, but not all. Let me break that verse down.
The not all refers to Judas. There's the 12 disciples, the
Lord Jesus Christ washing their feet. that not all refers to
Judas. He was never saved, he was never
washed, he was never cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. Being clean every whit, what
did the scripture said? But is clean every whit referred
to all 11 of the disciples, all believers. We're not half washed. We're not partly washed. No,
when he cleanses us, and he does, washes us, then we're completely
clean. And you are clean. But then he
said, need it not save to wash his feet. That refers to every
child of God. Every child of God. As we walk
through this world, we know that we live in a fallen world and
we still have a sinful nature. And yes, as we walk through this
world, we continually need to have our feet washed. The ministry
of the word of God. And we have a high priest who
has entered into the most holy place. We have an advocate with
the father when we sin and he is our propitiation and that
never changes. How much more? That's the point. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge us, wash your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God? When we fall, we have an advocate. We don't have to go looking for
some ashes somewhere. No, we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. We confess our sins
and we are forgiven for Christ's sake. Well, I pray the Lord will
bless this word, all of us here tonight. As I said, those words have been
on my heart for several weeks, and I pray that it's been a blessing
to everyone here tonight. What a blessing to know that
Christ ever lives to make intercession for us, that his blood cleanseth
from all sin, and that relationship, that fellowship, rather, with
the Father may be restored when we fall and when we sin. It's
like there was a means for the Israelites when they become ceremonially
unclean. So there's a way for us when
we fall and become unclean. And that fellowship with the
Father is hindered in some way. And the only thing to do is to
ask for forgiveness. And he's faithful and just to
forgive us our sins. All right, Bill, if you will,
let's sing a verse or