We return, please, to Numbers chapter 19.
I trust that today, as we consider this
important chapter having to do with the red
heifer, that we will realize that this is
the provision that God made for the people
of the congregation that is parallel to and
a counterpart of the provision made in the
labor.
Now, I feel that the truth concerning the
labor as being an indispensable point in our
progress into the full revelation of God's presence
in our lives cannot be too strongly held
and understood by us.
And so tonight we propose to deal with
that.
But this that we have before us this
morning is God's provision for the people of
the congregation.
Now, let's have two or three things clear
at the outset.
First, this whole matter of salvation is of
God.
Salvation is of the Lord.
He it is that has known our need
and he it is that has anticipated all
that we would need and has provided fully
for us in the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you can at this juncture understand that
God is on your side, that God is
for you, that God's concern is for your
well-being and your joy and blessing, then
you will have succeeded in casting off one
of the chains that's held many a Christian
in defeat and in failure and kept them
from blessing.
Somehow the God of this world, Satan, our
archenemy, seems to delight in deluding dear children
of God into thinking that God is either
indifferent to sin, unconcerned about it after they're
Christians, or he is impossible to please and
that there's a tremendous weight and burden pressing
upon them that they feel that he's held
a standard that they can't achieve, a walk
into which they can never fit, a life
they can never live, and that the Christian
life is going to be just one continuous
series of spiritual disappointments until finally they're finished
and they'll be taken into his presence.
Both of these are incorrect.
God is just as holy now as he
was in the Old Testament.
He hasn't changed in any way.
He hates sin today as much as he
did before the Lord Jesus died, and he
must deal with it as he did before
he died.
There's no change in regard to God's attitude
towards sin.
But certainly, if we rightly understood his grace
manifest in the Lord Jesus, it was to
enable you to live a joyful, happy, fruitful,
victorious Christian life.
And I think every Christian ought to buy
and have and read, if for no other
reason, the sheer delight of the title, this
book by Hannah Whitehall Smith, The Christian Secret
of a Happy Life.
Now, you ought to have that.
You ought to have it handy, because in
life there's so much that's unhappy and distressing
that you ought to have the testimony of
someone who had such a view of God
and such a relationship with him, that with
a full, singing, joyous heart, she could say,
The Christian Secret of a Happy Life.
And I hope if you don't have it,
you'll get it soon, because you need it.
Now, if God is holy, and he is,
and he hates sin, and he does, and
we are unable to walk the Christian life
as he's prescribed, and we can't, then what
are we going to do?
What's the answer?
Well, the answer is twofold.
There are two problems.
First, we must understand what to do in
the case we fail.
And secondly, we must understand how to avail
of ourselves of his grace so that we
won't have to keep on failing.
Now, we're dealing with the first problem today.
What did the Christian, the Old Testament believer,
for such we deal, what did he do
when he discovered that he had displeased the
one whose name is holy?
He couldn't go into the court of the
tabernacle to the laver.
You as a believer priest can, but the
Israelite couldn't.
And so God made provision for the people
of the congregation here in the red heifer.
And you must see this, then, as God's
means of providing for the cleansing from that
failure and disobedience and sin that comes into
the heart of a child of God after
they've been born into his family.
But we must make one other thing clear.
A child of God wants to please his
father.
The characteristic of those that have been into
the father's family is that they love the
children of God, as we saw in the
Bible study this morning.
We love the children of God, and we
know that we love the children of God
because we love God and keep his commandments.
You see, if you're a child of God,
you have a new heart.
God gave it to you.
When you came in repentance and in faith,
he not only pardoned your past, but he
gave you a new heart.
That is a new purpose, purpose to please
him, purpose to glorify him, to obey him.
And this is the new heart.
It's not new tissue, the old tissue, but
there's a new life, a new purpose, a
new reason for being when you've been born
of God.
And it is that Jesus Christ be praised,
that he be glorified, that he be exalted.
And this characterizes that new heart.
Now, if you're a counterfeit Christian, you have
theology without God, you have the plan of
salvation without the presence of the Savior, and
you're looking for some way that you can
ensure yourself against being caught and continue to
go on in disobedience to the Lord, then
there's nothing for you here.
The only one that has any part in
what we're considering is the one who wants
to please God.
The person whose desire is to please God,
and he's concerned about what he should do
when he fails.
And this is what we find set forth
in the red heifer.
Now, the ordinance is this, God commanded Moses
that a heifer, a red heifer, the color
scarlet always symbolizing sacrifice, the heifer being itself
a clean animal and worthy for sacrifice, that
a red heifer should without spot, no blemish,
upon which the yoke has never come, should
be brought to the priest, in this case
Eleazar, taken outside the camp and be killed.
There should be a pile of wood sufficient
so that without adding wood, the entire beast
could be burned.
Into this burning pyre upon which the body
of the heifer would be placed, he would
cast small pieces of cedar wood and hyssop
and scarlet, throw it into the midst of
the fire.
Then the priest would retire into the camp,
but he would be unclean until evening.
Another man, one clean, would come after the
fire had burned down and the ashes had
cooled, and would scrape the ashes together and
probably put them in a container of some
sort so that they wouldn't be dissolved by
the rain, and set them in a convenient
place outside the camp, so that when the
Israelites touched that which God forbade, did that
which was contrary to his will, there would
be the means whereby they could be restored
to fellowship again.
They would be necessary for the person himself
to recognize that he was unclean.
He would have to judge himself.
He would be walking in the field and
stumble on a dead body.
Now if he wished, he could have turned
around and pretended he hadn't been there, but
he knew that God knew.
He would see a bone and think it
was just a bone of a beast, pick
it up, only to discover it was a
human bone.
Or in the field, he would touch one
slain by the sword.
Or he would step on a grave where
the dead body was considerably below the surface
of the ground.
Now he would know this.
There might at occasions be someone with him
who could tell on him.
But if his only concern was that he
be protected from exposure by his friends, there
would have been many opportunities when he would
have been unclean and could have hidden it
from his friends.
So there had to be within this Israelite
a desire to be accepted not only by
the brethren, but by God.
Not only to be approved by his friends,
but to be approved by the Lord.
And thus he would have to judge himself.
He would have to come to someone that
was clean and say, today I touched a
dead body, I stepped on a grave, I
touched a bone.
Then he would have to ask this person
to help him.
And there would be three days that he
would be unclean from the time he requested
help.
And then he would be sprinkled, and then
on the fourth day he would purify himself.
But you must understand that there was something
else.
If he refused to do as God provided
and prescribed, he knew that God knew.
Now there were two ways that he could
be cut off from the congregation.
The first was that the people, knowing that
he had touched that body or stepped on
that grave or kicked that bone, would say,
what are you going to do about it?
And he could arrogantly say, nothing, it's my
business, not yours, and gone on.
And then they could have said, we'll not
have fellowship with you.
But you see, this cutting off from the
congregation wasn't just what the congregation did to
the individual.
There was someone else that was involved.
The Lord was concerned, and so he had
a way of cutting off their lives and
all that was dear and precious to them.
You'd like to read something of what would
take place?
Read Deuteronomy 28 and see, not now, but
sometime in the future, today perhaps, what was
involved when God began to deal with those
that were unclean and hadn't dealt with it
in the prescribed way.
I've told you in the past, and I
remind you now, just in passing, the five
things that happen to us when we sin.
Five things that take place, and you ought
to keep them before you.
You ought to have these things written down
on one of the white pages of your
Bible, that you might refer to them.
Your memories are good, mine is.
I can remember an amazing amount for about
two or three minutes, and then I begin
to lose it, and it begins to dissipate.
And I am confident that your memory is
somewhat similar.
And so I do trust that you'll write
down these five things and have them before
you, and that you'll realize what's involved in
what we're studying, because we're not simply interested
in an experience in the Old Testament.
We want it to be relevant to our
lives in the twentieth century, and especially to
our walk between today and next Lord's Day.
Now there are five things that happen when
a child of God sins.
First, fellowship with God is broken.
We've seen that.
He said, cut them off from the assembly.
Cut them off from the congregation.
Allow them not to come.
If we walk in the light, as he
is in the light, we have fellowship one
with another.
Now all you need to have written down
is, fellowship with God is broken.
This is what happens when a child of
God sins.
Because our fellowship is based upon not our
intrinsic righteousness, but the brokenness of our heart
and the obedience of our minds and lives.
So sin breaks fellowship with God.
Now if you haven't known fellowship with God,
then you don't know when it's broken.
And so you have to ask the question,
when have you had fellowship with God?
When was the last time that God spoke
to your heart?
When was the last time the warmth of
his presence engulfed your heart, and you were
beneath the warm sunshine of the Spirit's smile?
Do you have, do you know fellowship with
God so that you would know when it's
broken?
You see, if you haven't known it, how
can you know when it's broken?
But if you've known fellowship with him, then
you know that when he's grieved, your grief,
there's an inner distress.
When you're walking in fellowship with him, there's
a rest, there's a joy, there's a peace,
there's a contentment, even in the midst of
difficulty.
But when something's wrong, when you've said something,
when you've thought something, when you've done something,
when you've wanted something, he's grieved, and you're
grieved, and that warm fellowship is broken.
Fellowship doesn't necessarily mean constant talking.
It's wonderful to see a mother and her
little daughter, you know, they can, little daughter
can take care of her family of dolls
and dishes on the floor in the corner.
The mother can take care of her family
of children and dishes and duties, food.
Mother's working there, and little daughter's over here,
and for 30 minutes and 45 minutes and
an hour, nobody says anything.
But they don't need to say anything, because
they're having fellowship.
Daughter's very busy with her responsibilities.
At four years old, your responsibilities can be
pressing.
And mother is very busy with her responsibilities,
and so minutes go by and extend, and
there's no conversation, but this warm fellowship, because
each understands the interest of the other.
And so fellowship with God doesn't mean you're
on your knees.
It doesn't necessarily mean that you're reading hymns,
or that you're reading the Bible, or even
particularly thinking about God.
But you just know everything's right.
Just know it's right.
And then when something comes in, and you
know it's wrong.
You, if you're in fellowship with him, you
know when you've grieved him.
Now what do you do?
Wait for the next revival meeting nine months
hence?
So that you can go forward on the
third night and deal with it?
You know what's going to happen?
In other words, we saw last week that
if you do, then every day for the
next nine months, you're going to find greater
sin, greater estrangement, greater difficulty, greater problems.
No, no.
The time to deal with it is at
the moment that you grieve the Spirit of
God.
Lord, what is it?
And he'll show you.
And then you deal with it then.
Fellowship with God is broken.
The second thing that happens when a child
of God sins?
God doesn't use him.
He's cut off from the congregation.
Oh, the Sunday school teacher that rides in
the car with her husband in the morning,
you know.
And they fuss all the way.
She brought the wrong meat and didn't fix
things right.
And so they just argue with one another
across the car.
And children sit in the back seat, sort
of cowering, wondering who's going to strike first.
And then she comes in and bows her
head and says, Now, Lord, bless the children.
Bless the lesson.
She's wasting her time, you know.
The place where the blessing was lost wasn't
there.
It was when the first word was spoken
in the kitchen that morning when they were
getting breakfast.
And instead of saying, I'm sorry, honey, forgive
me, they just let it grow from one
thing to another.
And it's gone on to just poison the
day.
She's going through the motions.
He's going through the work.
But the Lord's not in it.
Because he's not using her.
And she's trying to use him, but he
isn't using her.
So with preachers, so with everyone.
You see, God is very sensitive.
And he says, Be clean that bear the
vessels of the Lord.
And this is the kind that he uses.
And so the second thing that happens is
God doesn't use us anymore.
The third thing that happens when a child
of God sins is our prayers go unanswered.
Prayers are unanswered.
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the
Lord will not hear me.
And you say, well, it isn't too important,
you know.
We've got things pretty well controlled now.
Well, just wait a little while.
Mark Twain said about New England weather.
He said, if you don't like the weather
in New England, just wait a minute.
And we found that to be true.
I'm sure you have.
You think everything's peaceful and pleasant now?
Just wait a minute.
If you think that you can get by
without needing to pray, just wait a minute.
God loves you too much to let that
kind of an attitude continue.
You're going to find that very, very shortly,
you're on the place where you need prayer.
Very quickly.
It's terribly important that we should be able
to pray.
And prayer goes unanswered.
Now the fourth thing that happens when a
child of God sins is that he's exposed
to the ravaging attacks of Satan.
The Bible says, give no place to the
devil.
And so, if you do, then you know
full well the devil's going to take it.
I've often used the analogy, and you've probably
heard it, that the devil sends his hunting
dogs up around the Christian's life.
If we're walking in obedience to the Lord,
there's a picket fence, a board fence, that
surrounds us.
And for the spirit of the Lord, the
angel of the Lord, rather, encampeth about them
that fear him.
And he becomes a wall of defense.
Down in Missouri, in Hannibal, Missouri, Tom Sawyer
country, they had these high board fences, as
you recall, Tom hired, done by allowing the
children to pay him for the privilege.
But the nails would rust out.
And the board would get loose.
And it might be some little time until
Mother realized that when she sent her little
son out into the backyard, he didn't stay
in the backyard, because the nails had rusted
back into one board out behind the chicken
coop.
And he could lift that board and scoot
out to the neighbors, and lift it and
scoot in, and Mother didn't even know he
was gone.
Well, if he can scoot out, then something
else can scoot in.
And it's the devil that has his hunting
dogs sniffing around the fence of your life.
And when you allow sin, that beagle of
the pit comes up and smells it, and
he sends up a baying, and it echoes
down in the caverns of darkness.
And the prince of darkness dispatches a particular
pact that's going to hurt you, and they
come into business, they come into body, they
come into family, this, that, and the other
is touched.
Why, the fence is broken.
The fence is broken.
And that which is there, the fear of
the Lord, the angel of the Lord encampeth
about them that fear him.
Now it's been broken.
Oh, it's a terrible thing, terrible thing, you
know, to give place to the devil, because
there's a roaring lion, he goes about seeking
whom he may devour.
Poor people that haven't been in Africa think
that the lion goes roaring up and down
the jungle, hunting for some prey.
Do you know what would happen if he
let out one blast?
Every gazelle in the whole woods is going
to stamper just as fast as he can,
so in any direction from the sound that
he heard.
No, no, the lion doesn't roar until he's
had lunch.
Then he can boast of it.
And if you think the devil's going about
roaring, trying to get you, oh, no.
No, he's subtly creeping in, trying to get
you to do anything, that will grieve him
whose name is holy so that he can
get a hold of you.
Then when he has a hold of you,
then he'll shake his black mane and make
you rattle in his teeth and say, see
what I've done to him, see what I've
done to her.
Then he'll boast of it.
But right now it's all so quiet, so
subtle.
Wait until he's got his teeth in you
and watch the roar that comes.
Then the fifth thing that happens when a
child of God sins, he falls into the
chastening hands of God.
Falls into the chastening hands of God.
Now, dear Christian, if you don't stay away
from sin because of any of the other
four, if I had eloquent words enough to
do it, I would like to prove to
you that we'd better stay away from sin
because of this fifth one.
The Apostle Paul said it is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the
living God.
Have you?
I have some scars to prove it if
any of you would like to do it.
And I'm sure the rest of you have
scars as well.
It's a fearful thing.
You see, God chastens every child and he
scourges every son.
I know some people, says someone, that are
living in sin and they're seeming to get
by with it.
They're in the church.
They're just seemingly going on quite nicely.
Nothing's happened to them.
Oh, but do you realize what's happened to
them?
Don't you see what's happened to them?
God has taken a banner and spread it
across the street in front of their house
and he said to angels and to men
and to devils, the person that lives here
and claims to be mine and says they're
mine isn't mine at all.
They have a spurious testimony and a counterfeit
claim because God never touches the devil's children,
never lays a finger on them.
He knows this is all the heaven they're
going to have and when they die it'll
be hell forever and he's not going to
cheat them out of the little thing for
which they've sold their souls.
But God knows that this is all the
hell that his child is going to have
and it'll be heaven forever and so he's
perfectly willing to deal with his children and
get us ready.
And so if you can live in sin
and not be chastened simply had God clearly
just claimed you as his own you don't
belong to him.
He scourges his own children but he doesn't
touch those at all.
So this is the consequence.
This is what it means to be cut
off.
Now let's go back for a moment.
What does this sacrifice of which we read
mean?
Oh can't you see the beautiful picture of
our Lord Jesus Christ?
Without spot was the first prescription.
This red heifer must not have any blotches
on it, any spots on it.
Speaking of our Lord Jesus in his sinless
purity.
Can you not realize that here is the
one person in history whose life has been
scrutinized more diligently than any other one for
he's the only one of whom it was
said he was without sin and to the
day there's never been charge leveled against him.
In fact his worst enemy said this man
has done no sin.
I have betrayed innocent blood.
There is no evil in him.
And God the Father said this is my
beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
Notice also it said it should have no
yoke.
Our Lord Jesus never had the yoke of
sin.
You've had it.
You know what happens.
You know what's happened in your heart.
You know how that you've been yoked to
habits and yoked to attitudes and yoked to
traits of which you had no choosing and
from which you find in yourself no losing.
You've borne a yoke.
A yoke of failure, a yoke of disobedience,
a yoke of sin.
This was no yoke on him.
He was without yoke.
He'd never been harnessed.
The only yoke he knew was the yoke
of total submission to the Father's will.
He said my yoke.
What is his yoke?
I do always those things that please the
Father.
I came not to do my own will
but the will of him that sent me.
This was his yoke.
And so our Lord Jesus perfectly fulfills the
tithe.
He's the only one that could be without
spar wherein there is no blemish and upon
which yoke never came.
But you see something else here.
Our Lord Jesus is pictured not only by
the red heifer, the sacrifice but he's also
pictured by the priest as well.
He began for us by being the victim.
He went to the cross in our place
instead.
Our Lord Jesus died the just for the
unjust that he might bring us to God.
He was made to be sin for us,
he who knew no sin.
Into that fire where he died was cast
the cedar wood of our iniquity and the
hyssop of our rebellion and the scarlet of
all of our crimes against the righteousness of
God.
Into the place where he died was cast
all of our sins in tithe and in
picture.
It wasn't his but it was cast upon
him, was cast toward him.
He bore it in and of himself.
Now he died for us but you see
it doesn't stop there.
It isn't just that the Lord Jesus died
but he lives again.
And the testimony of the word is he
is able to save unto the uttermost all
them that come unto God by him seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
And so here he is not only the
victim but he's also the priest.
And he it is now that witnessed that
sacrifice and he it is that's acquainted with
us.
And so you have a high priest that's
touched with the feelings of your infirmity.
He knows you.
He knows me.
And we've been tempted in all points like
as we are and yet without sin.
He's known the pressure.
He's known the test.
You say oh if he only knew my
life he'd knew your life.
What is the problem in your life?
You say need?
Poverty?
Well our Lord had no place to lay
his head.
One garment that given to him and bread
that only came from the kindness of the
people.
For when he left the carpenter's shop he
left all behind.
And so you say well he's known never
known loneliness like mine.
Oh I'm so alone in this city.
Don't you realize that out of loneliness is
why I fail the Lord.
Out of loneliness is why I'm sinning.
Yes I realize that.
I recognize that probably a great proportion of
the crimes that are committed in this city
are committed out of loneliness.
But don't tell me my Lord didn't know
loneliness.
For there was one night in Gethsemane's garden
when all the men got up after they'd
been listening to him speak and they said
well time to go home, go to bed.
They'd go off two or three here two
or three there and when they'd all gone
the Lord Jesus was alone in Gethsemane's garden.
You know why?
Because nobody asked him to go to their
home.
Oh I think that everyone that has a
home in this city ought to realize that
God wants to make that home a mission
station for lonely hearts.
I hope if you're going home to dinner
that you take somebody home with you.
Oh you know dear friend if you'd stand
at the door and ask God to guide
you and take someone home and share the
crust of bread with you you know that
there might be that you could save someone
from a crime today just because you've extended
a hand of human love.
You realize that?
For as I speak and say our Lord
knew loneliness I do not for a moment
condone the fact that we've often become so
indifferent to the plight of others that we've
closed our hearts to their needs Thou seest
thy brother have need and shut up thy
bowels of compassion how dwelleth the love of
God in their man But our Lord knew
what it was to see his disciples disperse
to their home and no one invited him
and so he took the long robe that
covered him and lay him down and slept
upon the rock a long lonely night He
knew what it was when his disciples went
to sleep and left him wrestle alone and
he knew what it was to say, my
God, my God why hast thou forsaken me
Listen, there's nothing that you'll ever know but
what our Lord Jesus has tasted it for
you Never fear He's a priest that made
full provision by his death went without the
camp and died just for the unjust that
he might bring us to God wherefore Jesus
also that he might sanctify the people with
his own blood suffered without the gate and
so the entreaty comes to us today, let
us go forth therefore unto him without the
camp, bearing his reproach Though it was without
the camp he died, he died as the
sacrifice having cast in upon him all of
our sin and failure and iniquity and then
he's the priest that lives to intercede for
us, doing all our needs The priest put
his finger into the blood as the lamb,
as the heifer was killed, seven times he
sprinkled it before the tabernacle, speaking of that
perfect presentation of the blood of God's eternal
Son There is, this is the only place
where God and the sinner can meet Here
where the blood is atoned and the conscience
of the sinner now can rest in the
fact that God has accepted the death of
his Son When you understand this then you
realize that the blood sprinkled seven times before
the door of the tabernacle speaks to us
of the fact that God has completely judged
sin in his Son and that when you
come to that place where he judged sin
and see yourself worthy of that death repent
of your sin and receive Christ, then your
sins are washed away by the blood, the
blood is sprinkled once, sin has been put
away once, once offered was the blood of
the Lord Jesus, but now we find that
the red heifer is killed and burned in
order that there might be provision made This
red heifer the ashes of which were so
tenderly and carefully gathered, was that there might
be remembrance made of Christ's death, for when
they came to that clay pot containing the
ashes, of what were they thinking?
The heifer died, its blood was sprinkled It
brought them back to the place of remembrance
of sacrifice Now the purpose of the ashes
is to provide for the removal of the
defilement that's acquired in our daily walk.
God didn't take his people and put them
inside the court of the tabernacle and refuse
to allow them to go out, lest they
should touch a dead bone, lest they should
step on a grave He didn't do that,
and my friend God loves you too much
to do it with you.
He's going to allow you to go back
perhaps someday in your lifetime square, with the
source and snare of your temptation The Lord
Jesus isn't going to put you in a
little box and tip you out to Seattle
so that you can't be in Times Square.
He may let you go to Seattle, but
it's after he's dealt with you and shown
you the provision of his grace to keep
you when you walk through Times Square And
so he didn't take his people and confine
them.
What he did was to let them go.
But you see, he did something within them
so that they didn't want to step on
the grave They didn't want to touch the
dead body.
They wanted to be clean They wanted to
please him.
Has God done that to you?
Has God given you a passionate desire to
please him?
A consuming longing to please him?
Is this true?
Do you want to please God?
Is it?
Well, then look at it for a moment
Scarlet speaks of your sins your glory and
your plight Cedar and Hyssop speak of your
nature, what you've done what you are.
I am crucified with Christ.
There the priest cast him the scarlet of
our sins and the cedar and hyssop of
our nature and it was burned there.
I am crucified with Christ, said Paul But
notice for just a moment It's a very
solemn thing to walk with God in such
a world as this.
God knew your nature and God knew the
possibility of your sin, even after you were
forgiven and pardoned, after you were under the
blood God knew that if you walked down
the path that he was going to be
able to deal with you.
You see, God can cleanse from sin, but
my dear he can't condone sin He can
cleanse, but he can't condone There is a
difference, there's a tremendous difference God can't condone
it, but he can cleanse from it Let
me ask you as you look at it
today, as you think about it today What
were the bones in your past?
What were the graves in your past?
What were the dead bodies in your past?
And I look at some of you and
know that perhaps the bone of your past
was self-pity feeling sorry for yourself and
out of self-pity you would do things
which were wrong You felt so sorry for
yourself And so here was a dead bone
out of your past And God wants you
to walk in a straight way, but as
you walk back there you kick that dead
bone and again you begin to feel sorry
for yourself Have you come to the place
that you deal with self-pity as a
sin instead of a weakness?
For sin it is Perhaps I look at
someone that says, you know The dead bone
of my past was jealousy.
I was so terribly jealous of people If
anybody got something I didn't have, my heart
just rose within me with rage that I
should be deprived and they should be honored
Jealousy Dead bone, dead body Perhaps someone says,
you know the dead bone of my past
was immoral thought And so you'd walk along
the way and you'd see something pictured here,
you'd see a book, you'd see this and
that, and you'd kick it And like a
little child that sees a stone and kicks
it from school all the way home, you'd
just keep on kicking it, keep on letting
it go in front of you And when
you get home you're grief-drawn Listen I
don't know what it is, but you know
You know what those dead bones scattered around
in the path you take are You know
what those graves of shame are upon which
you've stepped You know where those dead bodies
of grief and heartache are You know I
know, you know And do you know something?
The evidence that you have a new heart
is when you touch the bone When you
touch When you touch When you kick Your
heart is grieved You're burdened You're filled with
heartache Oh, dear one today I plead with
you in the name of Jesus Christ to
realize what was needed I hope that when
you think of it, you'll recognize that the
results of sin, this broken communion and separation
that began on the first day, the beginning
of conviction on the third day, and confession
and cleansing as it's pictured on the seventh
day, is what God wants, though it isn't
days that are involved You can do it
at once But the three steps are there
When you find that you've stepped on a
bone or a grave or kicked something or
touched something that's grieved God in your own
heart You know what the procedure is Instantly
declare it to be sin and set yourself
apart I have sinned Don't excuse it Don't
apologize for it.
Don't cover it Don't rationalize it Deal with
it as sin It is sin Deal with
it as sin Then as you begin to
realize what has happened, confess it forsake it
as sin and confess it as sin This
is what the Spirit of God wants us
to see.
A man would come in from the field
and he'd go to his neighbor who was
clean and say, Today I stepped on a
grave.
Oh, something out of my past rolls up
and I stepped on it and I'm unclean
Pray for me I kicked a bone, I
touched a dead body The friend you have
to whom you go is the one who's
the red heifer and the one who's the
priest He's the friend that's thicker, closer than
a brother For he's not only the sacrifice
he's not only the priest but he's your
friend to whom you can come and you
can say, Lord Jesus, today my heart was
filled with bitterness, my mind was filled with
uncleanness I said I did and I confess
it as sin I hate it as sin
and then he breaks you back to the
ashes of remembrance of his death and you
realize that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son cleanses us from all sin but there
isn't any cleansing until you go to your
friend in confession Lord Jesus, I've sinned He's
your friend Oh, he's the sacrifice and he's
the priest but he is your friend This
is what I want you to see He
has your name engraved on his hands and
he holds his hands up to the Father
and says, see Father, here's my friend that
stepped on a grave and touched a dead
body and kicked a bone and it's sin
and so then there's the ashes mixed with
the water and there's the sprinkling of cleansing
and restoration of fellowship Let's bow and pray
Have you today come into this house in
the week past you stepped on a grave
Have you?
I did.
In a week when God brought me face
to face to see a grave that I
thought was buried and I stepped on it
But oh, when I went to my friend
and told him that I'd sinned in this
attitude I was so glad that he brought
me to that place where the ashes were
and the water was and there's cleansing How
about you?
Have you stepped on a grave this week?
Have you touched a dead body?
Have you touched a bone?
Have you come into a house of unclean?
What's happened?
Can you say today, oh, I want to
be clean, I love it I'm so sorry
that it's like this in my heart I
don't want to go the way I came
I want a medium Are you prepared to
deal with everything that grieves him?
Judge it forsake it confess it and go
today in brokenness knowing cleansing and restoration to
fellowship God knew the walk you'd have But
the evidence of the genuineness of his work
in your heart is your desire for brokenness
and cleansing And so while we wait just
a moment, I'm going to give opportunity for
any of you who wish to and need
to to come to the place where the
ashes of the red heifer are and where
you have remembrance made of one who died
that you not only would be saved from
hell, but saved from sin and if you're
willing to meet him in brokenness he'll meet
you in cleansing Just this word God spoke
into your heart and you say yes, yes
there's been that in my life which has
grieved him but today I'm at the utter
end of myself I must know cleansing I
must know restoration to fellowship I can't go
as I came and I want to do
it today I want you right now to
testify to your hatred of sin and holy
purpose to be clean by standing right where
you are, would you do it right now
while we wait just stand and in your
standing state yes I am at that place
where I must I can't go as I
came, I've got to deal with all sin
all uncleanness will you stand in brokenness, in
need right now this is the place of
repentance this is the place of dealing say
oh you're making it very hard oh no,
no not hard not if you've seen yourself
not if you've seen him it isn't hard
stand right where you are and in your
standing say yes, yes I'm willing to meet
him anyone, anywhere, upstairs or down we're not
going to linger long now how many of
you would say this if I did what
I ought to do I would have stood
pray for me I didn't do what I
ought to have done, pray for me would
you raise your hand I won't embarrass you
I just want you to thank you, yes
I see it I see it other of
you if I had done what I ought
to have done yes I see it, God
bless you other of you yes I see
that, yes God bless you other of you
so many, if I had done what I
ought to have done I would have stood
anyone else now let us all stand together
for the benediction and prayer we thank thee
our Father for these whose hands have been
raised who said if I had done what
I ought to have done I would have
stood for there's been estrangement, there's been sin,
there's been failure I've touched the unclean thing
I've stepped on it O Father of Jesus
show them that even now if they are
but willing to meet thee on thy terms
if thou art willing to meet them they'll
come, acknowledge their sin, judge it, forsake it
confess it, there is cleansing, we pray for
them that there'll be no real rest or
peace until this matter's settled we wouldn't, we
would ask thee Lord not to let them
escape but out of love and tenderness draw
them by any means that's necessary into the
place thou hast had them fill thou knowest
many others Lord whose hearts are clear to
thee and known to thee we ask thee
Father for Jesus our Savior's sake to breathe
upon us until sin will appear exceeding sinful
and we will be as a people all
of whom have learned brokenness and have broken
before the Lord and have learned to stay
broken this is what we see here Father
that the broken and the contrite heart thou
does not despise, the arrogant the proud, the
haughty are cut off from the congregation but
the broken for then thou'st made provision so
granted we shall be a broken people, knowing
that in our brokenness we release his grace
and life and power and to that end
bring us Lord that none are excluded and
none are remitted, Lord there have been those
that have been praying for years for revival
and yet when it comes to a matter
of dealing with their own heart they're unwilling
to break or bow or bend before thee,
show them that there will never be revival
until it's on thy terms of humbling ourselves
unto the mighty hand of God, we thank
thee for those that have met thee in
thy reviving love and whose hearts thou art
refreshing and blessing and drawing on into thyself,
include us all Lord, let none be omitted
in the breaking of the branch now may
thy grace, mercy and peace from Father, Son
and Holy Spirit be and abide with us
now and until Jesus comes again Amen