Mills, John Milton: The Person Of Christ 04 ~ Hebrews 9;11

Hebrews chapter nine. I want to read you from chapter nine ah and then look at the portion of which chapter nine speaks. I think you'll know something about it. Hebrews chapter nine, verse eleven. But Christ, having come and high priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of the heifer, suffering them that have been defiled, sanctify unto the cleanness of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Notice those words, the passage of a heifer. But before that, look at verse twelve again, very carefully. Verse thirteen: For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of an heifer, smoking them that had been defiled, sanctify unto the cleanness of the flesh. Those words, I'll come to them later in the will of God. Now, where is that portion about the red heifer being cleansed? Any brother know? Well, then I'll preach it again, Numbers nineteen. When it said the ashes of the heifer, you should have said Numbers nineteen. Numbers nineteen. What I will do is to give you some details that I was unable to give you in the last two Lord's Day evenings. Perhaps I'll give you some more information, and you'll be able to comprehend this chapter even better. All right, verse three. I can only read a few verses here and there tonight. And ye shall give her, that is the red heifer, unto Eleazar the priest, and he shall bring her forth without the camp, one shall slay her before his face, and so forth, and the heifer shall be burned. And now look at verse eight. And he that burneth her shall wash his clothes, and so forth. Verse nine. And the man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the chil- children of Israel for a water for impurity. It is a sin offering. Notice that clear explanation in the nineteen o one. It's an often. Verse ten: And he that gathereth 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. Verse eleven: He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven. The same shall purify himself therewith on the third day and on the seventh day, so he shall be clean. But if he purify not himself the third day, then on the seventh day he shall not be clean. Whosoever toucheth a dead person, the body of a man that has died, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from Israel, because the water for impurity was not sprinkled upon him. He shall be unclean. His uncleanness is yet upon him. And in these verses, notice, uh, about what defiles. Verse fourteen: This is the law when a man dieth in a tent. Everyone that cometh into the tent and everyone 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 in the open field touches dead bodies and so forth. And And for the unclean they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the sin offering, and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel. And a clean person shall take thistle 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 the bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the 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 him, and so forth, and so forth. Let us speak to God again in prayer. Our Father, we're thankful for all the pictures you have drawn for us to show us the meaning of things that you tell us with words, and so we pray that by comparing the words and the pictures, we shall better be able to understand. Let us know that our hearts are thrilled because you have given us this book. We rejoice that you have given us this holy scripture that we accept as being from the spirit of God. It is our life. Let us know that it is that which controls us. It is that which forms our philosophy, our outlook, our priorities of life. We are thankful, and may this ever be. And so prepare us now to receive it, cleanse from sin, empower, purify, and do all that is necessary to glorify thy son, in whose name we pray. Amen. Think very carefully how God treats the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ in Leviticus and how he treats it in Hebrews. In Hebrews, he says it's the blo- goat, or it's the blood of bulls and goats and the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer. Sanctify unto the purifying of the uncleanness of the flesh. Here's what he's done. He's taken blood from bulls and goats, and he's taken ashes, and he's made absolutely no distinction between them. Whatever the need was, it simply says they sanctify unto the purifying of the cleanness, uncleanness of the flesh. What the author has done in Hebrews is to take all of the various sacrifices in Leviticus and put them together and say that they all bring about the same efficacious work. But in Hebrews, we read chapter one, chapter three, chapter four, chapter five. We read about the blood of lambs and bulls and goats and rams. In the book of Leviticus, God takes the one sacrifice of Christ and breaks it down and spreads it out. And then in Hebrews, he takes all of these sacrifices because you can tell that is what he's doing when he mentions the bulls and the goats and the ashes of the heifer, and he makes absolutely no distinction between them. It was so meaningful to me when I grasped that. It emphasized the fact that we have the one sacrifice, Christ, and no matter how you speak of it, if you look upon him as a bull or as a goat or as a lamb or as a bird, it makes no difference. It is not a variety of sacrifices. It is but one sacrifice, the same, the identical sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary that God spreads before us in various ways, showing us how that one sacrifice is sufficient to meet us in all our needs as sinners after we are saved. Sinners saved by the grace of God. And for that reason, there is no distinction because the ashes of the heifer come from that one sacrifice on the cross. Whether you offer a bull or a goat or a bird or a ram, it makes no difference. It is still the one sacrifice of Christ, and when you read of it broken down in Leviticus one, three, four, and five, it is still that one sacrifice. God is just letting you see how, when you sin, God categorizes that sin, and he takes that fullness of the sacrifice of Christ and applies it to meet that particular sin that you have committed. God does this, but it all springs from the one sacrifice, and God does not distinguish them in Hebrews. But he does tell us this, that these sacrifices in the Old Testament were not without some power. It said that they sanctify to the purifying of the uncleanness of the flesh. Here is a man, and he is unclean, and when he is sprinkled, when the sacrifice is offered, then the man is sanctified through the purifying of the uncleanness of the flesh. But then immediately he contrasts it with the precious blood of Christ that not only cleanses the flesh, that cleanses us in a shadow, in a pattern, but it cleanses us inwardly. It cleanses us so that we can be saved from our dead works to serve a living God. That is the contract. But what we have read and studied in the Old Testament is according to the pattern set forth as given to God, by God to Moses. This is the pattern. And so when we are reading about it, we see that it actually sanctified to the purifying of the uncleanness of the flesh, but when the blood of Christ was shed, it sanctified to the purifying, to the actual uncleanness of all our being, and this is what God wants us to see. And I told you some months ago that even though your sins had been forgiven, that you were accepted in the beloved, that you will never come into judgment, you've passed from death unto life. Still, as long as you live down here, God is holding you accountable for the sins that you commit, and they will be dealt with in a judicial way, and it will be dealt out to you as to some of the experiences you have in life. I taught you that from Matthew chapter eighteen, and this is what we have in Numbers chapter nineteen. If the great day of atonement took care of the sins, that's a picture of the one sacrifice of Christ, and yet here is something else that springs from it, and it is this. Whereas if by faith we receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, and we are justified by faith, then it says in first John one nine, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And we are told that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses us from all sin. Cleanses us from all sin, but I thought it did. Do you not see that this ash of the heifer sprinkling cleanses also from the sins that were committed after the great day of atonement. And so the blood of Christ is sufficient once and for all to give us a sure place in heaven, and it is sufficient also to maintain unbroken fellowship, to restore our souls as well as to save our souls. But if a man in Israel were asked this question, have you been redeemed by blood out of Egypt? God with an outstretched arm, has he delivered you by blood and by power? He could say yes. Well then, your sins are taken care of permanently? He would have to say no. That even though the blood had been applied with the hyssop then, still there are other sins that are committed, and hyssop again is used, and the ashes of the heifer have to be used to sprinkle that man to cleanse him again. Not for redemption of the soul out of Egypt, for the maintenance of fellowship and communion with God. I cannot go into that distinction now, but do not think that just because you're going to heaven, that you don't have to confess your sins, that you are above reproach, and that you are immune from God doing anything to you if you commit sins as you go along the way. That's not it at all. It speaks about God forgiving sins in a twofold way, and he forgives them in a twofold way by having forgiven us all our trespasses, and yet he says also that if you do not forgive your brother, neither will God forgive you. What I need to be forgiven if he's already forgiven me. That's what I'm talking about. These sins that we commit in life after we are saved, they shan't bring us into eternal damnation, but they do bring us into a judgment that can result even in death, as I've shown you from First Corinthians chapter eleven. And so keeping that in mind, now in look in Numbers nineteen, look, I want to see about this. Here is the sacrifice that is used not from a sin like adultery. If a man committed adultery, this water for impurity, the sprinkling of the ashes of the heifer, isn't what would be used. If a man smote another, this is not the offering that would be used, but it is fellowship with those who are dead in their trespasses and in their sins. You see how, again, God is showing us that when we commit different sins, some of them require different sacrifices. Now, the efficacy all springs from the one sacrifice of Christ, but this ash from the heifer is for the defilement that comes from fellowship with those who are not bound up in the bundle of life with Christ. And this is why this water of the ashes of the heifer has to be sprinkled upon you. All right, this is how it happens, and I want you to notice this in verse eleven. If you touch the dead body, then you're unclean. And if you come into a tent where a man has died, you're unclean. If you were in the tent when he died, you are unclean. And let me ask you, how long, some brother tell me, how long, and you listen carefully, does the man remain unclean? How long? He remains unclean forever. He remains unclean seven days if he cleanses himself. Did you notice that? Look carefully, and I'll show you. He's only unclean seven days if he cleanses himself. Look very carefully at verse twelve. The same shall purify himself therewith on the third day and on the seventh day, so he shall be clean. But if he purify not himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean. Now, how long is the man unclean? You have to say, if he purifies himself, seven days. If he doesn't purify himself, he's unclean forever. It's not that when a man committed a sin, time cleanses him. This is a mistake of many of the people of God. There are some who have done things in the past. Let's say that here is a person who has made an adulterous union, and at first the Christians are upset, but then after a while, let's say a year or two or ten years, someone says, well, it happened so long ago, certainly this thing still isn't looked upon as sin. He is unclean forever. This is what you have to understand. He is unclean seven days if he purifies himself, but if he doesn't purify himself, no amount of time will ever remove that sin. Do you see that? It says if he purify not himself on the third day, he shall not be clean on the seventh day. And so all of you who have committed sins and you say, well, I did it so long ago, but now I didn't confess that sin, uh, but I think since it's been so long, time has erased that sin. Time can never erase a sin. The only thing that erases the sin here is the sprinkling of the ashes of the heifer. Now, if you want to limit the time that you're going to remain unclean, then you have to apply the ashes of the heifer. But even if you do, you are still unclean for seven days. And that is why, when someone does something that is wrong and he is defiled, even though he is prepared to restore his soul, and even though he's prepared to get clean and make things right, it does not mean that the moment he begins to, all is well. God says a complete period of time has to pass before that man is clean. Now, I won't go into that anymore. I wanted you to see that. Let me ask you another question. Suppose your brother sin against you, and you go and rebuke your brother. If you repent, what are you to do? You don't have to be afraid of answering that incorrectly. If you repent, you forgive him. Well, what if you go and refuse your brother who sins against you and he does not repent? What are you to do? Some brother with a heart of love says, forgive him anyway. But that stands. It says in Luke seventeen, if he repents, thou shalt forgive him. But this scripture is telling us that if a man does not have sprinkled upon him on the third day the water for purification from the sins of defilement, it says that he is not clean the seventh day. And you have no right to say to a man, well, even though you don't repent and even though you continue in your sin, my heart forgives you. Why, you are sinning, and you are involved in disobedience to what is set forth in God's word in forgiving a man who has not subjected himself to this aspect of the sacrifice of Christ that is waiting for his use outside the camp. And so, Christian, don't be so loving that you violate the word of God. This is what some do. They're so tolerant, they say, I have a heart of love. I cannot reprove and rebuke. The Lord said, as many as I love, I reprove, I chasten. And so, if you love the Lord more, then if he, when you rebuke him, if he repents, you forgive him. If not, it's not that you hold a grudge against him, it is simply that there must be held in abeyance the restoration of this man's soul until he is restored to the Lord, for this. Look, please, at verse thirteen. It is not that you have anything against it. It says, whosoever toucheth a dead person, the body of a man that hath died and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the Lord. He brings his contagion in among you, and when you in your love allow him to come in, you have been defiled, and this is what God is telling you. There must be repentance, and there must be restoration. And even if the man is going to be restored, it is not that God does not love him, that God holds a grudge against him and says, well, let him, uh, stay out there, uh, and let him suffer for what he's done. God said there is a proper amount of time. Seven is the number of completeness. There is a complete cycle of time in which this restoration is necessary to take place. I could tell you more about that from Leviticus fourteen. I shan't do it tonight, but please note that when a man confesses his sin, still before he is restored to full fellowship, there is a period of time. Let me just interject this quickly. When John Mark sinned and left Barnabas and, uh, Paul. Barnabas, before the seven days, understand how I'm applying it, before the seven days wanted to restore him and use him again. The Apostle Paul, understand how I'm using this, said, no, the seven days aren't up. How do I know? Because at a later date, when Paul thought Mark had been restored and the cycle had run its course, he said, bring Mark, he is profitable unto me. But there are those who would rush him back into the camp as being clean, and God says the cycle of time has to happen. It says in second Corinthians about a man who has sinned, sufficient unto such a one is the punishment that was inflicted by the many. But if you accept that man before the punishment does its work, then you are sinning against God. And so keep in mind that two numbers are mentioned, and I want to tell you about them now for a moment. In the other sacrifices, and this is why I was telling Brother McNeil tonight that, uh, I would have preferred only you who had been here Sunday night to hear, because even you who have heard, I have not time to explain everything to you. For those that came in having known nothing, how could I tell them? But all of you, you should have known all of these things. Now, in one of the other sacrifices, the third day is mentioned. What sacrifice? The peace offering. All right. In another sacrifice, running water is mentioned. In fact, in two other sacrifices, running water is mentioned. I tell you this to show you that the way you understand one sacrifice is by seeing the similarity between it and other sacrifices. That's why I knew that this was a varied, a varied aspect of the sin offering. You see the similarity between them. There are differences, but still it's a ramification of the sin offering. And so, in the peace offering, you have the third day. Now, I'm going to tell you, you have the third day mentioned in various ways, and when you have the third day mentioned, it is the day of resurrection. I told you that the ashes in the second position tell us of the resurrection of Christ, but now the very fact, and wouldn't you think if you were unclean and you wanted to be made clean, get the ashes upon him the first day. God says no, get them upon him the third day. And then, well, why not every day? No, the third day and the seventh day. Remember two R's, because the third day speaks of resurrection, and the seventh day speaks of rest. On the seventh day, God rested. And so when on the third day, this is, I told you that Eleazar was Christ in resurrection, and because of that, he who supervised this ritual on the third day, a man that is clean, crinkles the ashes of the heifer, bringing to mind the efficacy of Christ who is alive in heaven, as well as the efficacy of Christ who died upon the cross of Calvary. And God uses it again and again. Let me just quickly tell you about it so you'll get the connection. When Hezekiah was sick, it said, on the third day you shall be raised up and go to the house of God. And so Christ, who died on the third day, he was raised up, and he said, I go unto my Father and your Father in my Father's house. That's evident. But now, let me show you how it's used again in the peace offering and get the connection. That's why I delight to give a series of meetings. In the peace offering, the resurrection of Christ is brought out. When they eat it, they cannot eat it on the third day. Why? Because meat that is unrefrigerated, you leave it out, and you see what happens. It becomes, uh, it begins to become contaminated and tainted. And by the third day, God said, I'm taking no chances. There might be the suspicion of corruption and tainting in that meat, and the Lord Jesus is he who said, Thou wilt not give my soul to see corruption. Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou, uh, give thy Holy One to see corruption, and therefore it could not be eaten the third day, because to eat something that was corrupt, that was a sacrifice, would be fellowshipping on a Christ who saw corruption that did not rise the third day. And here are the ashes themselves speak of resurrection, and their sprinkle on the man the third day, showing that it is not only Christ who died, but Christ also who is alive, who makes good that one sacrifice upon the cross to your soul, and he does it this time by the sprinkling of the ashes of the heifer. And so the third day is to let you know Romans eight eleven. Don't turn to it now, just remember it. And the same thing I told you about running water, it's the same symbol in Leviticus fourteen. This is the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God with Christ in death, and the Spirit of God with Christ in life. How do I know that? Romans eleven is the Spirit of God who gives life to our mortal bodies. This is the Spirit of God of life, uh, with Christ in life. Whereas in Leviticus fourteen it is the Spirit of God with Christ in death. I read it to you, but listen to it again. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot unto God? The eternal Spirit is symbolized by the running water, and so here is the Spirit by whom Christ offered himself. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God? That is the Spirit of God with Christ in death. And here, the same Spirit, you see, running water, and that wor- word is living water, and John seven tells you exactly what it is. Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This speak ye of the Spirit of God. And so, as the Spirit of God was with Christ in death, by the Spirit he offered himself, here is the Spirit of God in life, in the resurrection of Christ. I won't go into all the details. I've given you that clue, and you can figure it out for yourself. And because of this, God has told us that this is what takes place. Now, let me emphasize this once more. The contradiction is that whenever a man that is clean takes these ashes, mixes them with living water, and sprinkles them, this which cleanses defiles. You say, how can that be? It is God insisting that we understand that the only cleansing virtue that is in the ashes is the fact that at one time they were made unclean. It says in Galatians chapter three, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having been made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And it says in second Corinthians five, the one who you know sinned, God made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And so God says, every time you touch that which is going to make a man clean, I want you to understand that it was made unclean before it could make you clean. God insists of the reality of his son being forsaken upon the cross of Calvary, his son being made sin, his son being made a curse, no matter however others might explain it away, God says it is a reality, and that is why when a man came and he touched that which makes clean, God says, I want you to remember that before it could make clean, it was made unclean. It was made poor. It was made. It was made a curse, and God reminds them every time this cleansing ash is applied. It makes unclean the man that touches it, and then it makes clean the man upon whom it sprinkles. Remarkable. God says, I'm not going to let you forget certain things. All right, just this. And it says concerning the two days that on the seventh day he shall be clean. Let me ask you this. If you are aware that you have sinned against God, and the Spirit of God has made that a reality in your soul, and you know that you've sinned, when you follow God's instructions and do what he's told you to do, can you not feel as assured in your soul that you have been cleansed from those sins? Because the same God who tells you that you were defiled tells you that you have been cleansed by the using of the ashes for purification from sin. Do you understand that? What do you think of a man who says, yes, I've confessed my sins to God, but still I feel so uneasy. Why? If you have done exactly what God told you to do, in as much as you took by faith the fact that he told you you were a sinner, can you not accept by faith that he has forgiven you your sin and cleansed you from your sin? There are some whom God has forgiven, but they have not forgiven themselves, and so the only way that I'm going to experience the joy of the seventh day is knowing the power of the third day, to know that Jesus Christ ever liveth to make intercession for me, for me to know that, as he said concerning Simon, he said when Simon was going to deny, he said, Satan hath desired you to have you that he may sit you at meat, but I pray for thee that thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted, restore thy brethren, strengthen thy. Christ said, I prayed, and I'm telling you that my prayer is going to be efficacious, and this is what brings the rest. The rest knowing that Christ had the right hand of God ever living to make intercession for us, knowing that the blood of Jesus Christ has efficacious power, not only at one moment when we trust him as sinners, but throughout the entirety of our lives. It not only has power to save our souls initially, but it has power to restore our souls and cleanse us and restore us to communion with God throughout the entirety of our lives, because these ashes lasted generation after generation, and the only thing I'm concerned about is if they last as long as I live, and that's what God wants me to know. But they lasted throughout all of the- these generations. If- if you read, they only had to sacrifice just a few, the smallest number of the ashes of the red heifer because they lasted. You see, it just took a pinch of the ashes mixed with the water, and they could be sprinkled again and again and again. This is what God wants you to know. All right, just this. Think carefully and figure it out for yourself. Twice, God has spoken of his Son incarnate, and he speaks of it in the same way. If your mind thinks through Christ and his incarnation. In Exodus chapter sixteen, when the manna comes down from heaven, this is Christ incarnate. He said, I am the bread of God that came down from heaven. And God said, you are to take this manna, you are to take an omer full of manna, and you are to lay it up, and you are to keep it. Notice, lay it up and keep it. And the omer full of manna is kept in the ark of the covenant. And God says for this reason, and this thrilled me when I saw it, I didn't see the Lord Jesus when he was on earth, but I'm going to see him in heaven in glory. But God says, put that manna in the ark of the covenant and keep it so that the children of Israel can see what I fed you with when you were in the wilderness. You understand what God is telling you there? That this is preserved, and when I get to heaven, it isn't lost. This earthly life of Christ isn't lost, but just as much as men today can take photographs of what took place on earth, and then we can see them. It says this manna is laid up, not the ashes, like the ashes for purifying, that the children of Israel may see what I fed earlier generations with when they went in the wilderness. Now think on that. God said, I want you to keep it, I want you to lay it up in a certain place, but this is laid up in a golden pot in the ark of the covenant. Hebrews nine will tell you. But this ash that is saved is kept, and it's laid up without the camp, not to look upon and admire and see what was done, but to experience the perpetual efficacy of the cleansing power of the one sacrifice of Christ. And so God has laid those two things up. I'm so glad that I can look and see what Christ has done, but I'm so glad that there is power still to cleanse and restore my soul. And so this is a little bit more. I didn't exhaust it yet, but a little bit more explaining to you the ashes of the red heifer. The time is gone. Let us pray. Our Father, we are so thankful for all that thou dost tell us about thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Yea, his one sacrifice is sufficient for us in all our need. We're not even aware of all our need, and yet thou art aware of it. You spread it before us, and you show us step by step how Christ is sufficient for all of these things. And so let us rest secure. Perhaps some of us have been defiled, have had fellowship and touched things that we should not. Let us understand that as surely as touching those things defiles, so surely does the sprinkling of the ashes of the heifer cleanse from that defilement on the third and on the seventh day. And so let us realize the power of Christ in resurrection, and let us experience also that rest that comes. And prayer home. Keep us and bless us, we pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. I live.