The Red Heifer

The Red Heifer
A SERMON DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, AUGUST 30TH, 1863, BY THE REV. C.
H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"This is the ordinance of the la w, which the Lord has commanded,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring you a red
heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish and upon which never came
yoke: and you shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring
her forth without the camp and one shall slay her before his face."
Numbers 19:2,3.
THE true heading of all the books of Moses is to be found in the words
of Jesus, "Moses wrote of Me." Take the Lord Jesus Christ with you as a
key, and however difficult the riddles of Leviticus or Numbers may at
first sight appear, there is not one enigma in the whole collection
which will not speedily open and yield instruction. To the Israelites
themselves, these rites and ceremonies must have been rather an
exercise of faith, than a means of instruction. "I cannot perfectly
understand why this heifer is slain, or why yonder lamb is offered,"
said the pious Israelite, "but though I cannot understand, I believe
there is virtue in it all and I reverently do, even to the smallest
particular, that which God, through His servant Moses, has commanded me
to do."
To us, the types are not a dark mystery to perplex our faith, but an
open vision to delight our eyes. Having believed in Christ Jesus,
having received Him as the Father's Sent One and being reconciled unto
God by His death, we look back to the ceremonies of the old Law as the
patterns of heavenly things. We endeavor to discover some new light in
which the Savior's beauties may be set and to behold Him from some
different point of view, so that we may love Him the better and may
trust Him more. Now, the particular point to which the red heifer
referred, concerning Christ and His work, is just this–the provision
which is made in Christ Jesus for the daily sins and failings of
Believers.
In order to bring out our point clearly, we shall remark, first, that
even true Israelites are in daily danger of defilement. Secondly, that
there is a provision made in the Covenant of Grace for the removal of
the daily defilement of sin. And thirdly, that the red heifer most
beautifully sets forth Christ as being the constant purification of His
people, that they, having their consciences purged from dead works, may
have power to worship acceptably the living and true God.
I. It is undoubtedly true, that even THE TRUE ISRAELITE, THE TRUE
BELIEVER IN CHRIST, IS THE SUBJECT OF DAILY DEFILEMENT. My Brothers and
Sisters, we who have believed in Christ are free from sin before the
Divine judgment seat. The moment that we believe in Christ, our sin is
no longer ours. It was laid upon Christ and cannot be in two places at
one time. And therefore are we perfectly clean from sin before the eyes
of a holy God. This is justification, full, complete, everlasting. But
we are all aware, that in the matter of sanctification, we are not, as
yet, delivered from evil.
Sin dwells, though it reigns not in our mortal bodies. And since there
is sin within, there is the capability of the defilement of sin
without. Who has lived for a single day in this base world without
discovering that in all his actions he commits sin? Who does not
realize that in everything to which he puts his hand, he receives, as
well as imparts, some degree of defilement? How is it, my Brothers and
Sisters, that this is the case? The answer is easy, and it is to be
found in the chapter before us.
Some of our defilement arises from the fact that we do actually come
into contact with sin, here imaged in the corruption of death. Read the
eleventh verse–"He that touches the dead body of any man shall be
unclean seven days." We actually touch that dead thing and sin, by
overt acts of transgression. The best man living still pollutes himself
with evil. We have met with a few vain and ignorant persons who have
boasted that they were perfect, but we never believed in their
perfection, except so far as to concede that they were perfect in
self-conceit, in boastful arrogance, and infamous impudence.
"If any man says he has no sin, he deceives himself, and the truth is
not in him." The best of men are men at the best and while they are
men, they will sin. We find the Apostle Paul crying out because of
corruption and even using such strong language as this–"O wretched man
that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" We are in
close connection with sin, because sin is in ourselves. It has dyed us
through and through, staining the very warp and woof of our nature.
Until we lay aside these bodies and are admitted to the Church of the
First-Born above, we shall never cease very close and intimate
connection with sin.
Therefore, my Brothers and Sisters, we need to be constantly cleansed,
because we are always defiling ourselves. In fact, we are always
defiled because we are always touching the body of this death.
Moreover, we get defilement, not only from our own actual sins, but
from companionship with other sinners. You will read farther on in this
chapter, "When a man dies in a tent: all that come into the tent and
all that is in the tent, shall be unclean." The mere being with sinners
defiles us. Christ could walk with publicans and sinners and yet incur
no danger. The great Physician could walk the leper house of this world
untainted by contagion, but this is not possible with us.
Even if the most honest and laudable motives shall lead us into the
company of the ungodly, though our only aim may be to bring them to
Jesus, yet their unhallowed conversation will not only vex, but defile.
It is not possible to look upon another man's sin, even to look upon it
with abhorrence, without receiving some degree of contamination,
because the thought of evil is sin. Our hatred of evil always lacks in
intensity–we do not detest it as we ought–and a failure here is a sin
of omission which pollutes. You may say you can go into evil company
and get no defilement–my Brothers and Sisters–I doubt it.
It may be absolutely necessary for you in your calling, and more
especially in your desire to bless others, to mingle with the ungodly,
but you might as well attempt to carry fire in your bosom and not be
burnt, or handle pitch and not be blackened, as to dwell in the tents
of Kedar without receiving uncleanness. This dusty world must leave
some mark upon our white garments–let us travel as carefully as we
may. "I am black because the sun has looked upon me," must ever be the
confession of the bride of Christ. This world is full of the
spiritually dead, and since we live, we must be often rendered unclean
among the sinful. And therefore we need a daily cleansing to fit us for
daily fellowship with a holy God.
Reflect, dear Brothers and Sisters, again, that one reason why we are
so constantly defiled, is our want of watchfulness. You will observe
that everything in the tent of a dead man was defiled except vessels
that were covered over. Any vessel which was left open was at once
unclean. You and I ought to cover up our hearts from the contamination
of sin. It were well for us if we kept our heart with all diligence,
since out of it are the issues of life. Good Mr. Dyer says, "The
Christian should lock up his heart in the morning and give God the key,
lest any evil should come in. And then when He unlocks it at night, a
sweet perfume of prayer will rise at eventide."
But alas, we forget to lock up our hearts. We do not keep our Graces
covered up. I believe that a man might go into the most sinful places
under Heaven without receiving defilement if he exercised a sufficient
degree of watchfulness. But it is because we do not watch that the
poisoned arrows wound us. I noticed the other day an allegory of a
candle in a lantern, with the motto, "One weak point is too much." An
enemy outside the lantern tried to blow out the candle. He blew all
around, but it was well-secured, until, at last, he found a single
crack and then through it he sent the destroying breath and soon the
flame of the candle was extinguished.
This is what the devil does with us. We may be guarded in nine points
out of ten, but our strength is to be measured, mark you, by the
strength of the weakest point. The devil will find out, sooner or
later, some crack through which he will attack us to our soul's evil.
Watch, my Brothers and Sisters, watch carefully. It is because you and
I fail here that we acquire this daily defilement and need daily to be
purified.
A yet more striking thought is suggested by this chapter–sin is so
desperately evil that the very slightest sin defiles us. He who touched
a bone was unclean. It was not necessary to put your hand upon the
clay-cold corpse to be defiled. The accidentally touching with the foot
a bone carelessly thrown up by the grave digger. Even the touching it
by the plowman as he turned up his furrow–even this was sufficient to
make him unclean. Sin is such an immeasurably vile and pestilent a
thing, that the slightest iniquity makes the Christian foul–a thought,
an imagination, the glancing of an eye. We may have shut out all the
world from our closet, and yet find we have not shut out sin.
We may make a covenant with our eyes and with our hands and with our
feet and with our lips, but still our wanton hearts will go after evil.
We have heard of some perfumes of which it is said that the thousandth
part of a grain would leave a scent for ages in the place where it had
been. And certainly it is so with sin–about its merest bone there is
an eternal pest–one sin of thought would be enough to destroy forever
all communion with God. Therefore, Brothers and Sisters, we are defiled
and need to be daily cleansed.
I must not fail to remind you, also, that sin, even when it is not
seen, defiles, for you will observe in the chapter that a man was
defiled who touched a grave. The bones might be buried deep down so
that he could not discern them. And over those bones the grass might
have grown in green hillocks, decked with a few sweet flowers and yet,
if the Israelite did but touch that grave with his foot, or with his
hand, he was defiled. Oh, how many graves there are of sin–things that
are fair to look upon, externally admirable but internally abominable!
Such-and-such a custom is tolerated, no, it has become fast fixed in
society and who shall find fault with it? Yet, many of our customs are
but the graves of sin and many of our actions, which we think so
admirable, have loathsome rottenness within. Too much, even of our
sanctuary services, is comparable to a whitewashed sepulcher. Those
sweet hymns, the unanimous and hearty shout of praise, the earnest
prayer, the reverent deportment–all those, I say, may be but the
whitewashed sepulcher. For our thoughts may be going abroad after all
sorts of mischief, and so our very sanctuary services may be but the
green sods which conceal the loathsomeness of sin.
O dear Friends, this is enough to startle us! We sin enough to our own
knowledge, but how much of sin we commit of which we are not aware who
shall possibly tell? Sins unknown! I have often reminded you of the
expression in the Greek liturgy, "Your unknown sufferings." It is such
a blessing that there are unknown sufferings for these unknown sins. We
are ignorant of the heights and depths of Jesus' love. Thank God that
there is a vast atonement whose vast efficacy we must leave in
ignorance, just as there are sins of ignorance utterly undiscoverable
by us.
Only one more thought here. I would have you notice, dear Friends, that
the Jew was not only in danger of defilement in his tent and when he
walked the roads, but he was in danger in the open fields. For you will
observe that it says that if he touched a body that had been slain in
the open fields, or a bone, he should be unclean. For all he knew,
there might have been a battle there. Perhaps he thought, "Well, this
is out of the way of men. I see no footprints, no tracks here," and he
walks carelessly across the green fields. But, though he knows it not,
there lies in his way the corpse of old who had been killed by
misadventure, or murdered by his fellow in strife. He stumbles upon the
body and lo, he is unclean!
You may go where you will, but you cannot escape from sin. If you take
the wings of the morning and fly unto the uttermost parts of the sea,
sin is there. If you make your bed in Hell, it is there it reigns. If
you seek the cover of midnight, is not midnight the very noon and
carnival of evil? If you enter the Church of God, you shall find it
there–high and low, rich and poor, polite and uncivilized–you shall
search all ranks and positions of men, but sin is everywhere. And until
we mount with eagles' wings to dwell before the Eternal Throne, we
shall have to complain that we are daily in danger of defilement.
II. This brings us now to change the subject, by observing THAT A
PURIFICATION HAS BEEN PROVIDED. A constant expiation is prepared. As
Hart puts it–
"If guilt removed, return and remain,
Its power may be proved again and again."
The ransomed Church of God needs daily to be washed in the Fountain and
the mercy is that the precious blood shall never lose its power, but
its constant efficacy shall abide till they are, everyone of them,
"Saved to sin no more." Beloved, there is a propitiation provided for
daily defilement, for first of all, if it were not so, how melancholy
were your case and mine!
Suppose we were Israelites, true Believers, and then to have sinned, as
we certainly should do? Then, Beloved, at once we should be cut off
from all privileges. The unclean person had no right to go up to the
house of the Lord. He had no participation in its solemn worship. For
him there was no glory of sacred praise and no prevalence of earnest
prayer. You and I would have no right to Christ, no adoption, no
justification, no sanctification–for the unclean person has no right
to any of these. And as we should have no privileges, so we could have
no communion with God.
God cannot immediately commune except with perfectly holy beings. He
does now commune with the imperfect– but then it is through a perfect
Savior–and He cannot commune directly with you and me while sin abides
in us. He has to look upon us as purified through Christ Jesus and
being, therefore, wholly clean–or else it were not possible for Him to
walk with us, and to manifest Himself to us. The ultimate result in the
Israelites' case would have been death. You observe that he who did not
purify himself was cut off from Israel. First, cut off by
excommunication, so as no longer to be a sharer in the citizenship of
Israel.
And then probably cut off, either by the executioner, or else by the
sudden judgment of God through plague, or fiery serpent, or some other
terrible means. And certainly if you and I, though Believers, could
live for a season without being purified, carrying about with us the
daily defilement of sin–before long it must end in spiritual death and
in utter destruction. But thanks be unto God, He has provided against
these terrible consequences.
But think again, Beloved, the Lord must provide a daily cleansing for
our daily defilement, for if not, where were His wisdom, where His
love? He has provided for everything else. There is not a lack a saint
can know, but God has furnished a supply. Out of the riches of His
glory in Christ Jesus, our necessities are all supplied. But if this,
this glaring, this soul-destroying need had not been provided for, how
could we call Him our Father and trust in Him? How could we know Him to
be the only wise God, our Savior? A failure would have occurred in a
most important point. Beloved, the love, the wisdom, the complete
wisdom of God demands that there should be such a purification
supplied.
The work of our Lord Jesus Christ assures us of this. What is there
opened for the house of David, for sin and for un-cleanness? A cistern?
A cistern that might be emptied, a water pot, such as that which stood
at Cana's marriage feast and might be drained? No, there is a fountain
open for sin and for uncleanness. We wash, the fountain flows. We wash
again, the fountain still flows. From the great depths of the Deity of
Christ, the eternal merit of His passion comes everlastingly welling
up. Wash! Wash! It is inexhaustible, for it is fountain-fullness. Is it
not said in Scripture, "If any man sins, we have an Advocate"? Why is
Christ an Advocate today? Only because we need an Advocate every day.
Does He not constantly intercede yonder before the Eternal Throne? Why
does He do that? Because we need daily intercession. And it is because
we are constantly sinning that He is constantly an Advocate–constantly
an Intercessor. He Himself has beautifully set forth this in the case
of Peter–after Supper the Lord took a towel and girded Himself and
then, taking His basin and His water, He went to Peter and Peter said,
"You shall never wash my feet." But Jesus told him, "If I wash you not,
you have no part in Me." He had been washed once. Peter was free from
sin in the high sense of justification, but he needs the washing
ofpurification. When Peter said, "Lord, wash not my feet only, but also
my head and my hands," then Jesus replied, "He that is washed"–that
is, he who is pardoned–"needs not, save to wash his feet, for he is
clean every whit."
The feet need constant washing. The daily defilement of our daily walk
through an ungodly world brings upon us the daily necessity of being
cleaned from fresh sin, and that the mighty Master supplies to us.
Methinks I see Him at this very day still girded with that towed, still
with that basin and flowing water, going round to all His saints,
coming round to us, Brothers and Sisters, and saying, "I have washed
your feet, I, your Master and your Lord. And you are clean every whit."
There is a provision then. The work of Jesus Christ just meets the
case.
Moreover, Beloved, the work of the Holy Spirit also meets the case, for
what is His business but constantly to take of the things of Christ and
reveal them unto us–constantly to quicken, to enlighten and to
comfort? Why all this, but because we are constantly in need,
perpetually being defiled, and therefore needing perpetually to have
the purification applied? Best of all, facts show that there is a
purification for present guilt. The saints of old fell into sin, but
they did not remain there. David cries, "Purge me with hyssop and I
shall be clean: wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." Peter denies
his Master, but he does not always remain a blaspheming, ungrateful
coward.
No, he comes back again to his Lord and Master and makes the avowal,
"You know all things. You know that I love You." You and I, I hope, can
give a better proof, still, that we have tried it ourselves. We
remember that dear hour when first we came to Christ. Oh, it was no
fiction, no dream. We were weighed down with a thousand sins, but one
look at Jesus took them all away. And since that time we have often
been cast down. There may be some of you who escape from doubts and
fears. If you do, I greatly envy you, but I think that most of us get,
at times, in such a position that we cry with David, "My soul lies
cleaving unto the dust." You feel as if you dare not come into the
Lord's Presence. You cannot hope that He will hear your prayer.
You cannot grasp the promises, they seem too good for such as you. You
cannot look up to Christ to call Him Brother. "Abba, Father," falters
on your tongue. But, have you not known what it is to look to your
Redeemer again just as you did at first? And then your love and joy
have come back to you again once more, as if it had been a new con-
version. And you have gone on your way rejoicing–you that only
yesterday were hanging your harps upon the willows and refusing to sing
to the praise of your Lord!
My dear Friends, if this were not a great Truth of God, some of us
would die in despair. I am sure if I might not still come to Jesus as a
sinner and still rest in Him, expecting to be cleansed from all
defilement, I do not know that there would be anything in the Bible
which could yield comfort to me. I must have a remedy as broad as the
disease. I must have a supply as deep, as wide, as constant as my
needs, and, thanks be unto God, here is just such a supply! The foulest
sins Jesus takes away and when our hearts have backslidden from God He
does bring us back. Why, some of us have appeared in our own
consciences to have gone into the very belly of Hell, and yet the Lord
has brought us up again to the gates of Heaven.
Ah, it does not take many minutes to work this change. Sometimes I have
felt all God's waves and billows rolling over me till I was ready to
despair under a sense of my own unworthiness. And yet the next moment I
have been able to read my title clear to mansions in the skies. And
believing on Christ, I have had full fellowship with Him! This is the
power of purification–thus is it that the application of the precious
blood of sprinkling always works, when faith, through the Holy Spirit,
brings it to the conscience. May you and I know this by our daily
constant experience of it– that there is a daily purification for
daily defilement.
III. But now, Beloved, I bring you to the chapter itself. THE RED
HEIFER SETS FORTH, IN A MOST ADMIRABLE MANNER, THE DAILY PURIFICATION
FOR DAILY SIN. It was a heifer–an unusual thing for a sacrifice to be
a female. And we scarcely know why it should be in this case, unless
indeed, to make the substitution more evident. This red heifer stood
for all the house of Israel–for the whole Church of God. And the
Church is always looked upon and considered in Scripture as being the
spouse–the bride–always feminine.
Perhaps, to make the substitution obvious and complete, to show that
this heifer stood in the place of the whole seed of Israel, it was
chosen rather than the customary bullock. It was a red heifer. Some
think because of its rarity, for it was very difficult to find one that
was red without a single spot–for if there were one white or black
hair it was always rejected–it must be wholly and entirely red. Some
think that this was to signify how unique and unrivalled is the Person
of Christ. How extraordinary–the only One of His Father–the only
Redeemer of souls. Of such matchless virtue and of such glorious
pedigree, that no angel can match with Him, neither any of the sons of
men, for a moment, be compared with Him.
Probably, however, the red was chosen only from its bringing to the
mind of the Israelites the idea of blood, which was always associated
with atonement and putting away of sin. Surely, my Brothers and
Sisters, when we think of Christ, we always associate Him with the
streaming gore, when we are under a sense of sin. At other times we
think of Him as white and ruddy, as Perfection itself. But there is no
point about Jesus which the trembling conscience loves to rest upon so
much as that red crimson blood of His.
We have heard complaints sometimes made of our theology, that there is
too much blood in it. "The blood is the life thereof." If there were no
blood in our preaching, there were no life in it, no joy, no true
power. It is just because we love to extol that precious blood, that
God is pleased to honor the Word and make it comfortable to saints and
make it the Word of quickening to sinners. I am sure, dear Brothers and
Sisters, sometimes when we have sung that verse–
"His dying crimson, like a robe, Spreads over His body on the Tree," in
the presence of that blood-red mantle, we have felt the next lines to
be no imagination, but a sober fact–
"Then am I dead to all the globe, And all the globe is dead to me."
My Master, His face covered with bloody sweat, with ruby drops of blood
around His head. My Lord with His back like a river of gore, where the
accursed whips have beaten Him–His hands streaming with founts of
crimson, and His feet flowing with rills of scarlet, and His side
giving forth a rich waterfall of His heart's blood–He never seems so
lovely as when thus I see him arrayed in "a vesture dipped in blood."
"Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This
that is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of His
strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Why are You
red in Your apparel and Your garments like He that treads in the wine
vat?"
This is the glorious Savior, mighty to save and never seen so mighty to
save as when He is robed in crimson. Let it be the red heifer. It shall
ever bring to the mind of the pious Believer the remembrance of Him who
trod the winepress alone.
It was a heifer without spot. This denotes the perfection of Christ's
Character–"not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." Born
without any human defilement, conceived immaculately through the Holy
Spirit. "That holy Thing which is conceived in you," said the angel to
the Virgin. Without any natural defilement such as we receive, He felt
not the taint of original sin.
Then the heifer must be without blemish. Our Christ, as He had no spot
of original sin, has no blemish of actual sin. "The prince of this
world comes and has nothing in Me." He became like unto us in all
points, but always with this exception–"yet without sin." Observe that
this red heifer was one where there never came a yoke. Perhaps this
sets forth how willingly Christ came to die for us. Not forced from
Heaven, but freely delivering Himself for us all. "Lo, I come to do
Your will. In the volume of the Book it is written of Me, I delight to
do Your will, O God." Not dragged to His death. "I lay down My life of
Myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up
again. No man takes it from Me." The free Son of God wears no yoke,
except that yoke which was easy to Him and that burden which was light,
the yoke of love which constrained Him to lay down His life for His
people.
An interesting circumstance about this red heifer is that it was not
provided by the priests. It was not provided out of the usual funds of
the sanctuary, nor yet by the princes, nor by any one person. The
children of Israel provided it. Why? Why, that as they came out of
their tents in the desert, or their houses in Jerusalem and saw the
priests leading the red heifer, every man and every woman and every
child might say, "I have a share in that heifer. I have a share in that
victim which is being lead out of the city to be consumed." Brethren, I
wish–oh, I would to God I dare hope that every man and every woman
here could say, "I have a share in Jesus Christ," for that is the
meaning of this national provision, to let us see how Christ shed His
blood for all His people. And they have all a part and all an interest
in Him.
If you believe in Him, though you are the weakest of all His children,
you have as good a share as the strongest. He is as much your Christ as
He is the Christ of an Apostle, or of a martyr who went to Heaven in a
chariot of fire. I hope, Brothers and Sisters, that you see this and
are assured that you have an interest in Him. As we noted what this
victim was, there is yet to be observed what was done with it. Again,
let me beg you to refer to your Bibles, to see what became of this red
heifer.
First, it was taken out of the camp. Herein it was a picture of Christ.
That He might sanctify His people with His own blood, He suffered
without the camp. Without the camp was the place of uncleanness. There
the lepers dwelt. There every defiled person was put in quarantine.
Jesus Christ must be numbered with the transgressors and must suffer
upon Mount Calvary, outside the city gates, upon that General Tyburn of
criminals, "the place of a skull." The people of God are to be a
separate people from all the rest of the world. They are not to be
numbered with the dwellers in this world's city. They are to be
strangers and pilgrims and sojourners, as all their fathers were.
Therefore, Christ, to set them an example of separation, suffers
Himself without the camp.
When taken without the camp, the red cow was slain. A dying Savior that
takes away our sins. Brethren, we love Christ the Risen One, we bless
Christ the living, pleading Intercessor, but after all, the
purification to your conscience and to mine comes from the bleeding
sacrifice. See Him slain before our eyes. Let us sing with Watts–
"My soul looks back to see The burdens You did bear When hanging on the
cursed Tree, And hopes her guilt was there." When the heifer was slain,
Eleazar dipped his finger in the blood as it flowed gurgling forth. He
dipped his finger in the warm blood and sprinkled it seven times before
the door of the Tabernacle. Seven is the number of perfection–to show
that there was a perfect offering made by the sprinkling of the blood.
Even so, Jesus has perfectly presented His bloody sacrifice.
Now mark, all this does not purify. I am not yet come to that point.
Atonement precedes purification–Christ must die and offer Himself a
victim, or else He cannot be the Purifier. All this is necessary, but
the vital part of the purification comes presently. They then took the
body of the slain heifer, which was an unclean thing and made everybody
unclean who touched it, and laid it upon a pile prepared for its
burning. They consumed it utterly–its skin, its flesh, its blood, even
to its dung–not a single thing must be left. This sets forth the pangs
of the Savior, His great and terrible agony upon the Cross. His real
death, His real forsaking by God. It sets forth how God accounted Him
unclean, how our Master was compelled to say, "My God, My God, why have
You forsaken Me?"
The heifer does not burn on the altar, it never smoked within the holy
place as did the bullock which was God's offering. This was a foul and
guilty thing. The man who killed it became foul. He that gathered the
ashes was unclean, and even the priest himself had to wash his
garments. This sets forth how Christ was numbered with the
transgressors, how the iniquity of His people was laid upon Him, and
how the Lord, "made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him." You will say, "A strange
thing that those who touched the sacrifice should be made unclean."
Yes, but types, like other emblems do not run upon all fours.
Therefore you must look at it in the light intended–who was it that
put Christ to death? Were they not unclean? Were not the Roman soldiers
unclean? That ribald mob who shouted, "Crucify Him, crucify Him"–those
eyes that gloated themselves with the agonies of His tortured body? And
are not you and I, who helped to put Him to death–are not we ourselves
unclean? No, I go farther. If I today gather the ashes and bring them
before you–if I seek today to be as the man who sprinkled that
purifying water, am I not unclean? Do I not feel that even when I am
speaking best of my Master, I am sinning still, for I cannot speak of
Him as I would?
And, my Brothers and Sisters, what makes you feel so unclean as contact
with Christ? Is it not true that the very same Christ who takes your
sins away, first makes you feel your sins? "They shall look on Him whom
they have pierced and they shall weep and mourn for their sins." The
same Savior who takes tears away when we look to Him by faith, first
brings those tears to our eyes when we look and see Him die. It was
right, therefore, that He should first make those unclean who touched
Him and then afterwards should make them clean through another touch of
His purifying power.
When the whole was fully burnt, or while burning, we find the priest
threw in cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet. What was this? According to
Maimonides, the cedar wood was taken in logs and bound round with
hyssop and then afterwards the whole enveloped in scarlet. So what was
seen by the people was the scarlet which was at once the emblem of sin
and its punishment–"Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as
snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
Everything you see still continues of the red color, to set forth
atonement for sin.
Inside this scarlet there is the hyssop of faith, which gives efficacy
to the offering in each individual. And within this is the cedar wood
that sent forth a sweet and fragrant smell, a perfect righteousness,
giving acceptance to the whole. One delights to think of this–in
connection with Christ–that, as there is a daily witness of our
defilement, so there is a daily imputation of His perfect righteousness
to us. So that we stand every day accepted in the Beloved by a daily
imputation, by which not only is daily sin covered, but daily
righteousness given to us. We are, therefore, every day as much
accepted as we shall be in that last great day when He shall receive us
to His glory everlasting.
The essence of the matter lies in the last act, with the remains of the
red cow. The cinders of the wood, the ashes of the bones and dung and
flesh of the heifer, were all gathered together and carried away and
laid by in a clean place. According to the Jews there was not another
heifer killed for this purpose for a thousand years. They say, but then
we have no reason to believe them, that there have never been but nine
red heifers offered at all. One in the days of Moses, the next in
Ezra's time, and the other seven afterwards, and that when Messiah
comes He is to offer the tenth, by which they let out the secret that
they do look upon the Messiah as coming in His own time to complete the
type.
Our own belief is that a red heifer was always found when ashes were
wanted, and as there were hundreds and thousands of persons defiling
themselves, the place where the ashes were kept was much frequented and
much of the purifying matter required. The ashes were to be put in a
vessel with running water and the water was sprinkled over the unclean
person who touched a body or a bone. By this process the ashes would
require to be renewed much oftener than once in a thousand years, in
order that everyone might have his portion. Does not this storing up
suggest that there is a store of merit in Christ Jesus? There was not
only enough to make us free from sin by justification, but there is a
store of merit laid up that daily defilement may be removed as often as
it comes–
"Here's pardon for transgressions past, It matters not how black their
cast; And, O my soul, with wonder view, For sins to come here's pardon
too."
From all the sins I shall ever commit there is a purification laid by
to cleanse me. The seven times sprinkled blood has put these sins away
before the Judgment Seat of God and the ashes which are laid by shall
put my sin away from my conscience, purging it from dead works.
The ashes were to be put with running water. Running water is ever the
sweet picture of the Holy Spirit–"He leads me beside still waters."
The Holy Spirit must take of the things of Christ and reveal them unto
us. Purification is made in Heaven by the finger of Christ–seven times
He sprinkled His own blood–but on earth, in our conscience, it is made
by the Holy Spirit. The Holly Spirit must make Christ precious and
efficacious to us. What is Christ on the Cross? What is Christ in the
grave? Nothing to any man till the Holy Spirit makes Him Christ in the
heart. You will hear many complain that there is no beauty in Christ
that they should desire Him–it is to them dull work to hear of Jesus.
Ah, Beloved and well it may be–but when the running water comes, when
the Spirit of God gives quickening and cleansing to the heart and makes
us love things Divine, then there is nothing so precious, so
inexpressibly desirable as the ashes of a slaughtered Savior.
Observe that it was applied by hyssop. The hyssop was dipped in water,
and then the unclean was sprinkled. Hyssop is always a type of faith.
"Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean." Our faith, like a little
sprig of hyssop, is dipped into the blood, or dipped into this
cleansing water which flowed from the side of Jesus, and so the remedy
is applied. Brothers and Sisters, believe in Jesus more fully than you
have done and you will feel the power of His propitiation. He is God.
He became Man. He suffered–those sufferings are able to take away sin.
You need have no guilt on your conscience, but be clean, rejoicing in
Him and accepted in the Beloved. May the Lord give us to know more
fully the mysteries of this red heifer and the joy of pardoned sin.
I will close by remarking that if there is any Believer here who has
fallen into sin, if there is one who has lost the Presence of the
Lord–if you have grown cold and dead, if you are conscious of having
backslidden, if you have begun to doubt whether you are a child of God
at all–here is in Christ just what you want. Ah, but you say, you have
fallen so often, sinned so constantly. Yes, but here are ashes for
every day, cleansing for every hour, for every moment. Look upon your
Lord and Savior. God is intending to forgive you not once only, but to
cleanse you every day. He has taught you to forgive your brother not
seven times, but seventy times seven–and do you think He will not do
what He tells you to do? Ah, He will forgive you a countless number of
times, yes, every day.
If you will seek daily cleansing in Christ, you shall have communion
with Him. You shall stand in His presence and rejoice with joy
unspeakable and full of glory. This is no privilege reserved for the
few, for all of us have–every child of God has–an interest in this.
Let us come, therefore, boldly and pray the Master now to apply again
this purification of Christ, that we may again live near to God and
delight ourselves in His society.
And as for you that have never believed in Jesus, let me remind you
that this is not for you. You need to be washed for the first time in
the blood. O Soul! What a loathsome being you are out of Christ! Why,
you are all over black from head to foot and black within as well as
without. What you need first is washing in the blood. You shall have
the washing of water, of which we speak, another day. The blood of
Jesus can cleanse you from all sin. Trust to Him and He shall save you.
Trust Him now. Come now. May the Spirit help you to come that you may
be saved, both now and forever. Amen.