Defiled and Defiling

Defiled and Defiling

(No. 2495)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, DECEMBER 13, 1896.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, APRIL
19, 1885.

"Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touches any of
these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall
be unclean. Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so
is this nation before Me, says the LORRD; and so is every work of their
hands; and that which they offer there is unclean." Haggai 2:13,14.

THE Prophet Haggai very wisely drew out from the priests a definite
answer to certain questions which he put to them. Then, upon their
authority, he could say to the people, "This is what your own priests
say and this is what you, yourselves, believe." This was taking them by
a kind of sacred guile and it was a powerful means of forcing home the
Truth of God to their heart and conscience.

According to the 12th verse, Haggai first put to the priests this
question, "If one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and
with the edge he touches bread, or stew, or wine, or oil, or any food,
will it become holy? And the priests answered, and said, No." Here is a
man who is holy–I mean, ceremonially holy–and he is carrying in the
fold of his garments, part of a holy sacrifice. Now, if he touches
anything, will he make it holy by that touch? The priests said, "No."
They could not say otherwise. So, if a man is, himself, holy, however
holy he may be, can he make another man holy simply by touching him? If
he speaks of good things, or does good actions, will it be certain that
he will, thereby, affect others by his good words and good works? Oh,
no! There does not seem to be that spreading power in holy things that
there is in unholy things! At any rate, not in those that are merely
ceremonially holy. Here, then, is a man who is, in a legal sense, clean
before God and he is carrying a holy thing in the fold of his garment,
but he does not, therefore, make that which he touches to be clean or
holy.

Then the Spirit of God, having by the mouth of the Prophet put the
Truth of God in that way, suggested to him to ask the priests another
question. "Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body
touches any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and
said, It shall be unclean." There is such a terrible contagion about
uncleanness that he who is affected by it spreads it wherever he goes.
Whatever he puts his foot upon, or touches with his hand, becomes
thereby defiled. We cannot communicate holiness, but we can communicate
unholiness! It will cause us labor and agony and anguish of spirit to
impart to another even one right idea–and when it is imparted, it is
not fully fixed in the hearer's heart till the Spirit of God comes and
works a miracle of Grace! But it is easy enough to communicate evil. A
lewd song may have but one hearer and yet never be forgotten! A wrong
action may never be chronicled by the public press, yet some little eye
that saw it shall have learned from the evil example something that
shall never be unlearned! The horribly contagious and infectious power
of sin, wherever it is displayed, is terrible.

But the thing to which I want especially to call your attention is
this. See what a picture is before us. Here is an unclean man–he has
touched a dead body and so become unclean–therefore whatever he
touches also becomes unclean. There is a loaf of bread. He has cut a
slice off it and all that loaf has become unclean! Here is a mess of
stew on the table– he has taken a portion from it and so made it all
unclean. There is a cup of wine. He has sipped it, or he may have only
touched the cup that contains it–but the whole of the wine is unclean!
Here is oil, which one would think would be medicinally useful without
being at all harmful, but this unclean person has put his finger to it
and it is unclean! Here is meat, or vegetable food of any kind–he has
touched it, so it is all unclean. I should not like to be that man–to
make unclean even a chair that I might touch! To pollute the very house
in which I dwelt, to be unable to shake hands with a friend without
making him defiled through contact with me because I was unclean! I say
again that is a dreadful picture and you must bear with me when I tell
you my fear that it is not only the portrait of the erring people in
Haggai's day, but also a life-like representation of some who are now
present–and of multitudes who pass for very good people in these, our
days! It can still be said with utmost truthfulness, "So is this
people, and so is this nation before Me, says the Lord; and so is every
work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean."

I. So this is my subject. FIRST, THE TERRIBLE UNCLEANNESS. And here I
will keep to my text.

If you want to fully understand the text, or to have it put into New
Testament language, you must look at Paul's Epistle to his son, Titus,
for there, in the 15th verse of the first Chapter, you get this same
picture in other colors–"Unto the pure all things are pure: but to
them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their
mind and conscience is defiled." They are themselves so impure that
everything becomes impure to them. Every man whose heart is not renewed
by Grace is in this sad and terrible condition!

Here note, first, that common things are polluted by men of unclean
nature. The Apostle Paul, writing to the Romans, says, "I know and am
persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself."
Nothing that God has made and that sin has not marred, is common or
unclean of itself, "for every creature of God is good." From that day
when Peter, at Joppa, saw the great sheet let down to the earth,
wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts, creeping things and
fowls of the air, he was taught a lesson that he needed to learn–"What
God has cleansed, that call not you common." In and of itself, there is
nothing that God has made which ought to be described as common. To the
pure heart, everything is pure–but unclean men may make unclean every
common or everyday thing of life. They can not only make wine to be
unclean, as, alas, is all but universally the case, but even bread,
stew, oil, meat, or anything that is, in itself, harmless, can be
rendered impure when it comes to be touched by impure men and used
wrongfully!

Perhaps someone asks, "How can that be?" Well, common things can be
rendered unclean when you make gods of them. If the most important
questions of your life are, "What shall we eat, and what shall we
drink, and with what shall we be clothed?"–if you seek, first of all,
in this life merely these things–though they are not, in themselves,
evil, they will become idols and so will be unclean, for every idol is
a defiling thing to those who bow down before it. Anything which takes
your attention away from your God is an idol–it is another god, a
rival god–and so it is the most unclean thing possible! I mean just
this, that, although your ordinary pursuits may be, in themselves,
perfectly innocent and may be commendable if they are followed out to
the Glory of God, yet if your first objective in life is yourself and
what you can get out of the common things of this life, you defile them
by putting them into the place which belongs alone to God!

Next, common things may be defiled by an excess in the use of them.
This may be done by gluttony. What a defilement it is of bread, the
staff of life, and of those comforts which God gives to us for food,
when a man makes his own belly into a god–whose temple is his kitchen!
I know not that the worst of the heathen can possibly degrade
themselves more than epicures and drunks do when they make those things
which, in themselves, are not evil, to become their gods and indulge in
them until, by their excess, they sink below the level of the beasts
that perish! You can go to this excess with all kinds of things. The
most common and most apparent case is that of the man who indulges in
strong drink. But all other common things are capable of being polluted
in the same way–and they are continually being so polluted.

Others pollute common things by excess in the keeping of them. The
miser's gold is cankered by his avarice. He who must always be getting
more land, even if he has to banish everybody from the range of his
windows, defiles his possessions. He who in trade is exacting towards
those who labor for him, demanding more and giving less than is their
due, defiles his trade. He makes a dunghill of his shop and turns his
traffic into treason against God! I need not go into particulars
because the thing is apparent to all men, and you can see how a defiled
man, coming into a business which, in itself, is perfectly right,
nevertheless defiles it by excess in the keeping of the goods which God
has entrusted to him as a steward to use for the good of others.

I am sure that we can also defile the common mercies of this life by
ingratitude in the enjoyment of them. Are there not many who eat and
drink, yet never bless God for what they have? Or who abound in riches
and yet out of all their wealth there never comes from their hearts any
thanksgiving to God? They are, as good old Rowland Hill used to say,
like the hogs under the oak which eat the acorns that fall on the
ground, but never lift up their thoughts to the tree from which the
acorns come. These ungrateful people are willing to receive all the
good things which God may give them and they are greedy to get
more–but the Lord never receives from them even the peppercorn rent of
a word of thanksgiving!

Their hearts are set upon the gifts of God and they care nothing for
the gracious Giver. O Sirs, when you sit down without thanksgiving to
your food and to your drink, your tables are defiled, your platters and
your cups are defiled, and every mouthful that goes down your throats
is defiled because you do not eat and drink to the glory of God! See,
then, in how many ways common things may be polluted by men of unclean
nature.

But, even worse than that, holy things are polluted by men of unclean
nature. It is a very sad thing to see how the most sacred things can be
spoiled by the touch of unholy hands. You have all heard of Voltaire
and you know something of the character of the man. I should think that
nobody ever excelled Voltaire in a clever kind of blasphemy, yet I find
him writing to a lady–a lady of whose character the less said, the
better–"My friends say everywhere that I am not a Christian. I have
just given them the lie direct by performing my Easter devotions (mes
paquess publicly, thus proving to all my lively desire to terminate my
long career in the religion in which I was born." Only fancy a man like
Voltaire, after blasphemously saying of Christ that he would "crush the
wretch," then going to eat "the sacrament," as some call it! And I am
afraid that every Easter there are many people of that sort, who have
no respect for the Lord's Day, but because their "priests" choose to
call the day, "Good Friday," they have great respect for that day, and
they will come, then, to the Communion Table, though all the year long
they have never had a thought concerning Him whose death they profess
to celebrate! It is a terrible thing that the innermost mysteries of
the Church of Christ are often polluted by a godless, thoughtless man
who, nevertheless, for some hypocritical or formalistic reason, will
come even to the Table of the Lord, not hesitating to break through
that guard of fire–"he that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and
drinks condemnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body."

Brothers and Sisters, it is not merely the Lord's Table that an unclean
man defiles, but he pollutes the Gospel by using it as an excuse for
sin! Listen to him. He says, "the preacher proclaimed the mercy of God,
so I am going to live in sin." Brute beast are you to talk like that!
Another says, "the minister told us that salvation is all of Grace and
that a great sinner glorifies God when he is converted, so why should I
not be a great sinner?" O horrible wretch, you are accursed, indeed,
when you can turn the very Grace of God into an excuse for your
wantonness and sin?" Oh, but," says a third, "you say that salvation is
all of the Sovereignty of God, therefore I cannot do anything in the
matter." I know you, Sir, you are, in your own heart, so defiled that
you use the blessed Gospel, itself, as the instrument of your rebellion
against God! Such people are, alas, all too common–they touch with
defiled hands the holiest thing and so pollute it.

But what happens if these defiled people pray? Oh, how many prayers
there are which only insult the Most High God! If you sit down, or
stand up, or kneel and you are, "a miserable sinner," when you neither
believe that you are a sinner, nor suffer any misery because of your
sin, what are you doing but provoking the Lord to anger by virtually
lying in His Presence? Is not much so-called praying just of that sort?
It is an awful thing to repeat a form of prayer when your heart does
not mean it. What is it but a direct insult to the Lord? Yet how can
men who are defiled pray such a prayer as God will accept? They must be
first cleansed before their prayers can be accepted. There is nothing
so holy, in earth or in Heaven, but a man of defiled heart and
conscience will pollute it if he can but lay his hand upon it.

Further, even good works are polluted when they come from evil men. See
what it says in the text–"So is this people, and so is this nation
before Me, says the Lord; and so is every work of their hands." Here is
a charitable man–he has been giving away a great deal of money, yet
look how he has defiled his liberality! He sounded a trumpet before
him. He was ostentatious, he desired to be thought very generous and
thus, every penny that he has given to the poor has been defiled! "Take
heed," says our Lord, "that you do not give your alms before men, to be
seen of them: otherwise you have no reward from your Father which is in
Heaven. Therefore when you give your alms, do not sound a trumpet
before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,
that they may have glory of men. Verily I say to you, They have their
reward." There is no reward reserved for them at the resurrection of
the just, for they have had their reward already!

Here is another man and though he is not renewed and regenerate, he is,
in his own way, a very religious man. But why is he religious? Partly,
out of fear! But still more, from custom! Possibly just to please his
friends, or to stand well with his neighbors. Is not all that simply
defiling religion?

I have also known some men appear very humble just to gain their own
ends and when an unrenewed man puts on humility merely as a cloak–I
was going to say that he is devilish, for the very humble man who aims
at making some gain by it–the Uriah Heep of the novelist–is one of
the most despicable of all people beneath the sky! When even that
precious Grace of humility is touched by his hand, does he not defile
it till it appears loathsome in the eyes of men?

I have seen that same man become sternly righteous in order to get
revenge on his enemy. "I must do the right thing," he says, and he
speaks as if it was most painful to him to have to do it. But all the
while there is somebody whom he hates and he is determined to crush
him! He will have his pound of flesh, or the uttermost farthing of his
debt, and he tries to excuse his malice by saying, "You know, we must,
sometimes, make an example of wrong-doers." Yes, other people have been
very foolishly charitable and have passed by wrongs done to them–but
he is going to be a defender of everything that is upright–yet he does
it merely to gratify his desire for vengeance! Is he not defiling holy
things and good works by touching them? Yet is not this often the case
with bad men? They defile to the last degree even things that appear to
be good!

And, dear Friends, the text adds that even sacrifices are polluted when
offered by unclean men–"that which they offer there is unclean." Their
lamb, their bulls, their fine flour, their oil that they pour out at
the foot of God's altar–all becomes defiled! There is what professes
to be a public thanksgiving to God, but it is turned into a show to the
glory of men! Whenever the unregenerate world brings anything to God as
a sacrifice, what a wretched mess it makes of it! It becomes only
another occasion for sinning against the Most High. Supposing a heathen
should come in, on Christmas night, when professedly Christian people
are supposed to be celebrating the birth of Christ, but all their cups
are full of wine and they can scarcely stand for staggering? What would
he think the Christ must be whose birthday they are celebrating? An
unrenewed man cannot touch anything without spoiling it! Wherever he
goes, he is a spoiler. The sea has often been strewn with wrecks which
have been occasioned by the stupidity of merchants–and the world is
full of the tombs of men who have been hurried to their graves by other
men. Truly did the poet sing–

"Every prospect pleases, And only man is vile."

It is a mercy that unrenewed men cannot enter Heaven! If they could,
Heaven would not last as Heaven for even five minutes. There would be
another Hell created if unrenewed men could walk among the palms and
harps of the glorified. You may do what you like with a man, but as
long as he is unclean, he communicates his defilement wherever he may
lay his hand.

That is a picture of every man who has not been born again! It is not a
pretty picture, is it? Did you come here expecting me to say pretty
things to you? I have not learned the art of doing that, but in the
name of God I assure you that this is true, and I pray His Spirit to
convince every unregenerate person that it is true! In your present
condition you cannot do any good works, you cannot serve God–what have
you to do to declare His statutes? You cannot do anything but what will
displease Him until you are born again. "Except a man is born again, he
cannot see the Kingdom of God"–he cannot even see i t! –And further,
"Except a man is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into
the Kingdom of God." He will have to stand shivering outside its walls,
but of that Kingdom he cannot be a subject until he has passed from
death to life–and has been made a new creature in Christ Jesus, and so
has been cleansed from his sinful defilement.

II. Thus I have kept to my text, but now I am going to run right away
from it to speak upon THE ALL-SUFFICIENT REMEDY.

Where can we find a better type and figure of that remedy than in the
chapter which I read to you just now from the Book of Numbers?
[Exposition at end of sermon–was always read before sermon–EOD.] In
Numbers 19 we have a type of the great remedy and a striking account of
the uncleanness which it removed. I shall not attempt a full exposition
of the rites used for purifying the unclean, but I would have you
notice that, first of all, in order to the removal of uncleanness,
there was a sacrifice. There was a red heifer, without spot, which had
to be slain. There could be no sort of purification except through
death, and there can be no cleansing of your defilement, my Brothers
and Sisters, except through the Sacrifice of the Son of God. The red
heifer and the lambs and the bulls under the Old Covenant died to teach
people that the punishment of sin was the forfeiture of life–and these
creatures died in the place of the offender that he might live. They
were all types pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of
God who, in the fullness of time, came and took upon Himself His
people's sin and stood in His people's place–that He might die–"the
Just for the unjust, to bring us to God."

There is no hope of your ever being made clean except through the blood
of Him whom God has set forth to be the Propitiation for sin. Kick not
at this doctrine, I pray you, for why should Jesus die at all if you
could be saved without His death? And if there is not everything in
that death that is necessary for your cleansing, what do you propose to
add to it? It seems to me to be sheer blasphemy to think that anything
you can feel, or do, or give, can be worthy to be added to the great
Sacrifice of Christ! I wish you would say, "If this is the way of
salvation, by a Sacrifice offered in my place to be accepted by me, I
will gladly and joyfully accept it." This is the great Truth of
God–"The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin."
There is no other cleansing and there is no need of any other! Listen
to this text and believe what it says–"He was wounded for our
transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of
our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." Is not
that enough for you?

Turning again to this Book of Numbers, you will notice that there was a
burning, for this heifer, after being killed, was burned outside the
camp. This burning signified that sin was very hateful to God, that He
could not bear to have it where His people lived. Sin must be put
outside the camp and then, as a dead thing, it must be burned with fire
and the heifer which was supposed to bear that sin must suffer that
doom. Jesus also, when He took our sin, suffered outside the gate. I
want you, dear Friends, to feel that sin is a hateful thing–you can
never be purged from it while you love it. Shut it out from your heart
as much as possible! Shut it out from your thoughts! Since it put
Christ outside the camp, you must put it outside the camp. There is no
cleansing a man from sin while he lives in sin and there is no
possibility of forgiveness while sin is indulged in and delighted in!
You must stop it–it must be burned as offal, over the wall there among
the filth and refuse of the city–and be put away altogether from you.
In type of which you see your Lord thus slain upon the Cross, as if He,
too, had been a felon, "made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed
is every one that hangs on a tree."

Looking again at the type, you will see that there was a water of
separation. The ashes of this red heifer were to be put into running
water–not stagnant, but lively, running water–and a mixture being
made with it. It was to be sprinkled upon the people as a water of
separation, or purification. And, dear Friends, you and I must have the
Holy Spirit pouring in upon us the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ to
make us clean. There is no purification for you, my Friend, except by
the Holy Spirit. There must be the water as well as the blood–they
must both come to purge the conscience from dead works that we may be
clean, like the priests of old, and go into the Holy Place to present
acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. You must
have the blood to take away the guilt of sin and you must also have the
water to wash you from the pollution of sin, that you may be sanctified
and set apart to the living God!

You will notice, too, that there was an application of all this with
hyssop. Hence David says, "Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean."
Faith is, as it were, that little bunch of hyssop. Hyssop was a small
plant, as I suppose, insignificant enough in itself and of no use
except for use in sprinkling. It was dipped into the blood and then the
guilty one was sprinkled–or into the water with the ashes–and with it
the unclean one was sprinkled and made clean. You must have this faith
if you would be saved! The blood of the Paschal Lamb would not have
saved the Israelites in Egypt if it had not been smeared on the lintel
and the two side posts. The scarlet line would not have saved Rahab if
she had not fastened it in the window, to be the mark that her house,
with its inhabitants, was to be spared. "Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and you shall be saved." It is all you have to do–and this He
enables you to do. Just simply believe that Christ is able to save you
and repose yourself on that dear heart which was pierced for you!

Put yourself into those blessed hands that were fastened to the Cross
and you are saved! The moment you believe in Jesus, your sins are
gone–all of them, for there is no halving sin! There is a solidarity
in sin–it is one great mass! So that the moment a sinner believes in
Christ, all his sins–past, present and to come–are gone, and gone
forever. "To come," you say, "how can that be before they are
committed?" Did not Christ die, not only beforewe committed any sin,
but before we had any existence? And yet even then, in His death, He
put away the sin of His people. If you believe, your transgression is
forgiven–you are "accepted in the Beloved!" And, as surely as you
live, you shall one day stand before yon burning Throne of God,
"without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing," and you shall have no
fear–

"Bold shall I stand in that great day, For who anything to my charge
shall lay? While through Your blood absolved I am From sin's tremendous
curse and shame."

See, Beloved, how simple is this deliverance from impurity? If the
impurity was terrible, yet the remedy is so perfect, so complete, so
available, that my heart dances while I talk of it to you!

Finally, this remedy must be applied to our whole nature. Remember that
19th verse that we read–"And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the
unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and on the seventh
day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in
water, and shall be clean at evening." If you, dear Friend, would be
clean in God's sight, you must be washed from head to foot–not merely
with the washing of water, but with the washing of the Holy Spirit.
"What is holiness?" said a clergyman to a poor Irish boy. "Please, Your
Reverence," he said, "it is having a clean inside." And so it is–and
you have to be washed that way–washed inside, washed in your very
nature! The fountain of your being has to be cleansed, the source of
all the pollution is to be made white! And how can this be done by any
man for himself? This great purification can only be worked by a
wonderful work of Grace, by the power of the Holy Spirit! But then the
Holy Spirit is pledged to do this to everyone who believes in Jesus. It
is a part of the Covenant–"Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you,
and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your
idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart, also, will I give you, and a
new spirit will I put within you."

"Oh!" says one, "that would be delightful, but I am afraid that I
should fall away, after all." That you shall not, for here is another
Covenant promise–"I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall
not depart from Me." O glorious promise! That crowns it all! I want
you, dear Friends, to have a faith that can believe God and say, "I
have given myself over to Christ to save me to the end, and He will do
it. And I commit to Him my soul, not for this next year, only, but for
all years and all times. And I give myself up never to have any claim
to myself, again–to be His forever and ever." What does He say to
that? He answers, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they
follow Me: and I give to them eternal life; and they shall never
perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father,
which gave them to Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck
them out of My Father's hand." You see the double picture– Christ has
His people in His hand, and then His Father comes and puts His hand
over the top of Christ's! And all who believe in Christ are in that
double hand of the Son and of the Father–and who shall pluck them from
there? We defy earth, Heaven and Hell to ever tear away any soul that
is once in the grip of the Lord Jesus Christ! Who would not have such a
glorious salvation as this?

O you defiled ones, come to Him who alone can cleanse you! And when He
has once cleansed you, remember that you will have need to daily wash
your feet and you shall find Him waiting to wash them! But you shall
never need such a complete cleansing as He gave you at the first. There
shall never be a repetition of that, for, "he that is bathed, needs not
but to wash his feet, but is clean every whit." May the Lord give you
that cleansing if you have not had it and, if you have had it, rejoice
in it with all your hearts! Amen and Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: NUMBERS 19; PSALM 51.

Numbers 19:1. And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying.–This
ordinance was not given to Moses on Mount Sinai, but in the wilderness
of Paran, after the people had broken their Covenant with God and were
condemned to die. You know that the 90th Psalm–that dolorous dirge
which we read at funerals–called "a prayer of Moses the man of God."
Well might he write that Psalm, for he lived among a generation of
people who were all doomed to die within a short time, and to die in
the wilderness. This ordinance was especially appointed to meet the
cases of those who were rendered unclean by the frequent deaths which
occurred. There was to be a simple and easy way of purification for
them–and the teaching of this chapter to us is that inasmuch as we
dwell in a sinful world, there needs to be some simple and ready method
of cleansing us, that we may be able to draw near to God.

2, 3. This is the ordinance of the Law which the LORD has commanded,
saying, Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red
heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which ne ver came
yoke: and you shall give her to Eleazar the priest, that he may bring
her forth outside the camp, and one shall slay her before his face.
This was not a usual sacrifice, for the beasts offered were, as a rule,
males–but this was to be a special sacrifice. It was not to be killed
by the priest, as other sacrificial offerings were, but the Lord said,
"One shall slay her before his face."

4. 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. This makes it a sacrifice. Otherwise it
scarcely deserves the name.

5, 6. 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 All was to be burned and then the
ashes, the essence and product of it, were to be preserved to make the
water of purification needed to remove those constant defilements which
fell upon the people of the camp. So the merits of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which are the very essence of Him, are perpetually preserved
for the removal of our daily pollution. There was also the essence of
cedar wood, that is, the emblem of fragrant immortality, for cedar was
an unrotting wood. "And hyssop and scarlet." There must be the humble
hyssop used, yet there must be some degree of royalty about the
sacrifice, as the scarlet color implied–and all this is mixed with the
blood and the flesh and the skin of the creature, to make the ashes of
purification.

7. 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. What a strange sacrifice was this,
for even when it was offered it seemed to make unclean all those who
had anything to do with it!

8. 9. And he that burns 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. Now we come to the merit of Christ, for who is clean
except Christ?

9. Shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up outside 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. This ceremony does not represent the putting away of sin–that is
typified in the slaying of the victims–but it represents that daily
cleansing which the children of God need, the perpetual efficacy of the
merit of Christ, for this red heifer was probably killed only once in
the wilderness. According to Jewish tradition there never have been
more than six killed. I cannot tell whether that is true or not, but
certainly the ashes of one single beast would last for a long time if
they were only to be mixed with water and then the water to be
sprinkled upon the unclean. So this ordinance is meant to represent the
standing merit, the perpetual purifying of Believers by the Sacrifice
of Christ enabling them to come to the worship of God, and to mingle
with holy men, and even with holy angels, without defiling them! In the
fullest sense, it may be said of our Lord's atoning Sacrifice, "It is a
purification for sin."

10. And he that gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes,
and be unclean until the evening: and it shall be to the children of
Israel, and to the stranger that sojourns among them, for a statute
forever That was the remedy ordained by the Lord for purifying the
defiled. Now notice what made this remedy so necessary.

11. 12. He that touches 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 purifies not himself the third
day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean. I wonder whether that
is a revelation of our being justified through the resurrection of
Christ, which took place on the third day after his death, and then our
being brought into perfect rest, which represents the seventh day,
through the wondrous purifying of our great Sacrifice, the Lamb of God?

13, 14. Whoever touches the dead body of any man that is dead, and
purifies not himself, defiles 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 La w, when a man dies in a tent: all that come into
the tent, and all that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days.
Think, dear Friends, what a solemn and yet what an irksome ordinance
this must have been! Why, according to this regulation, Joseph could
not have gone to see his father Jacob, and to be present at his death,
without being defiled! You could not have watched over your consumptive
child, or have nursed your dying mother without becoming defiled, if
you had been subject to this Law of God! And everything that was in the
tent, or in the house, became defiled, too.

15-16. And every open vessel, which has no covering bound upon it, is
unclean. And whoever 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. This Law was, indeed, a yoke of bondage which our
fathers were not able to bear! It was meant to teach us how easily we
can be defiled. Anywhere they went, these people might touch a bone or
touch a grave, and then they were defiled, and you and I, watch as
carefully as we may, will find ourselves touching some of the dead
works of sin and becoming defiled! It is a happy circumstance for us
that there is the means of purification always at hand! We may always
go to the precious blood of Jesus and may once again be washed
clean–and be made fit to go up to the house of the Lord!

17-22. And for an unclean person they shall take of the ashes of the
burned heifer of purification for sin, and running water shall be put
thereto in a vessel and a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in
the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels and
upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or
one slain, or one dead, or a grave: and the clean person shall sprinkle
upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and on the
seventh day he shall purify himself 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 has defiled the sanctuary of the
LORD: the water of separation has not been sprinkled upon him; he is
unclean. And it shall be a perpetual statute to them, that he that
sprinkles the water of separation shall wash his clothes and he that
touches the water of separation shall be unclean until evening. And
whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the soul that
touches it shall be unclean until evening. This ordinance was partly
sanitary. The Egyptians were accustomed to keep their dead in their
houses, preserved as mummies. No Jew could do that, for he would be
defiled. Other nations were accustomed to bury their dead, as we once
did, within the city walls, or round their own places of worship, as if
to bring death as near as they could to themselves. No Jew could do
this, for he was defiled if he even passed over a grave! So they were
driven to what God intended they should have–that is, extramural
interments, and to keep the graveyard as far as they could away from
the abodes of the living. The spiritual meaning of this regulation is
that we must watch with great care against every occasion for sin and,
inasmuch as there will be these occasions and we shall be defiled, we
must constantly go to the Lord with a prayer like that of David in the
51st Psalm, which we will now read.

Psalm 51:1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving
kindness according to the multitude of Your tender mercies blot out my
transgressions. There may be some people who think themselves so holy
that they cannot join in this Psalm. I can, for one, and I believe that
there are many of you who can join with me. Just let us, for the time
being, forget all others and let us come, each one for himself or
herself, with David's language on our lips or in our hearts so far as
it applies to our individual case.

2-19. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For lacknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me.
Against You, You only, have I sinned and done this evil in Your sight
that You might be justified when You speak and be clear when You judge.
Behold, I was shaped in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, You desire truth in the inwardparts: and in the hidden part You
shall make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be
clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy
and gladness that the bones which you have broken may rejoice. Hide
Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a
clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not
away from Your Presence; and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore
to me the joy of Your salvation; and uphold me with Your gracious
Spirit Then will I teach transgressors Your ways; and sinners shall be
converted to You. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, God of my
salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O
Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You
desire not sacrifice; otherwise would I give it: You delight not in
burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken
and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. Do good in Your good
pleasure to Zion: build the walls of Jerusalem. Then shall You be
pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offerings and
whole burnt offerings, then shall they offer bullocks upon Your altar