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May not have been here yesterday. We were taking up.
Recovery and Restoration as.
Brought before us in type in numbers 19.
So perhaps we could go on with that this morning.
Numbers, Chapter 19.
And I would suggest we're ready for verse 7.
Right.
Numbers, Chapter 19, verse seven. Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, And the priest shall be unclean until the even. And he that burneth her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the even. And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and lay them up without the camp in a clean place.
And it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel, for a water of separation, it is a purification for sin. And he that 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 strangest soldiers among them for a statute forever. He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean 7 days he shall purify himself with it on the third day, and on the 7th day he shall be clean, but if he purify not himself the third day.
Then the 7th day he shall not be clean. Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the Tabernacle of the Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water separation was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is yet upon him.
This is the law. When a man dieth in a tent, all that come into the tent, and all that is in the tent shall be unclean 7 days In every open vessel which hath no covering bound upon it is unclean. And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man or of a grave, shall be unclean 7 days. And for an unclean person they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin and running water shall be put thereunto 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 toucheth a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave. And a clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, on the 7th day, And on the 7th day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean. And even but the man that shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from among the congregation.
Because he hath defiled the sanctuary of the Lord.
The water separation hath not been sprinkled upon him. He is unclean, and it shall be a perpetual statute unto them. And that he that sprinkleth the water's separation shall wash his clothes. And he that toucheth the water separation shall be unclean until even, And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean, And the soul that toucheth it shall be unclean until even.
00:05:19
If you ask a question, if you should get an answer. So I asked the question, what does it mean for the red heifer? Well, I hope I don't spoil it, but I think it speaks of the humanity of Christ.
Read Really is the the root word is man, and man was made of the earth, and the Lord breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he become a living soul.
He was that was innocent humanity. When man fell, he became fallen humanity. When the Lord Jesus was born, he became holy humanity, but humanity. And so I really speak. It speaks of the Lord I believe as a real human. The Lord was not only deity, he was a real man human.
He was God as though he was not man. He was man as though he was not God united.
Those two natures were united to form one Christ. That's important because there is a doctor and a foot that he just put on humanity like a coat that he was not a real man. He was a real man. There was a man, there was division caused. There was a man's said that where man gets the idea.
That there were two natures united to form one person. I know not. That's heresy.
The Lord was a real man as we speak.
At the right hand of the Father.
Is a real man.
He wears our nature on the throne.
That is so wonderful.
God took the Lord Jesus. The Son of God took humanity into his person. He's identified with us.
A creature. He's not a creature, but he's identified himself with a creature in the sense that he's taken humanity into his person.
There's a man sitting at the right hand of the Father.
In the Godhead too. So I just wanted to bring that out. So when you when the the Jew even today and I heard this not a month ago that if there was one.
Gray hair.
In that red heifer it could not be used.
And there wasn't in the Lord. He was perfect, holy humanity.
So I just wanted to bring that out.
Thank you.
Just let me say this too. It was a heifer. And what does that speak of? It was it was a female and female in scripture speaks of subjection. This is another beautiful truth.
The Lord came of his own volition. Nobody made him come.
And take humanity into his person. He did it because he wanted to fulfill the will of his father.
And so he did it. He didn't have to do it. We're sitting here because of the sovereignty of God. You don't deserve it. You didn't choose him. He chose you.
You don't have a thing to do with it.
God chose you.
And so.
It's a wonderful thing to think that he took.
Our nature into himself. And he did it, you know, and he did it. He subjected himself to the greatest humility.
People called him a drunk, a wine diver. They spit in his face. They hung him on a cross. They pulled. They plucked the the hairs right out of his face.
They smacked him.
They whipped him, and he took it all. He submitted to it all to have you with him. He hung there, the most modest man in all the world.
Naked before a jeering crowd.
Isn't that beautiful?
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And so here in verse seven I would suggest we have.
Something very important brought before us.
There was a priest here that had to be involved in.
Arranging for all of this.
And there was one in verse eight who burned the heifer. There was one in verse 9 and 10 who gathered the ashes of the heifer. And later on in the chapter there was one who administered and sprinkled the water of purification.
All four of them.
Were unclean as a result of that.
What does that teach us? It teaches us that while in the administration of things.
In and translating it into Christian terms in the administration of things in the Assembly.
Dealing with sin is sometimes a necessary thing, but I am defiled by it just the same.
Now, it wasn't the process of recovery that the defiled one had to go through. It took him seven days to be clean.
But the priest and the man that burnt the heifer, the man that gathered the ashes, the man that administered the sprinkling of the water, of purification, all of them, as it says here, had to wash their clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until the even.
Contact with sin always defiles.
I hope I say this very humbly, but in my experience I have sometimes seen.
Those in local assemblies who were perhaps the least spiritual, wanting to get involved in dealing with actions of discipline and so on.
Even the most spiritual ones in the assembly if they have to deal with sin and in some cases have to deal with some of the.
Sordid details of it in order to be faithful to the Lord.
We all still have an old, sinful nature that responds to that.
And so we need to be on guard. There needs to be that, as it were, washing of our own clothes, bathing ourselves and realizing that that sin.
Even though we have just had to investigate or talk about it as a defiling effect upon us.
One more point, I don't know if others have seen this, but it's certainly very true.
And we say it as a warning.
There are Christian books out there which you can buy, which are often written to detail some of the things that have happened in foreign lands and in various lives of those who have been.
Unbelievers and then who have been brought to the Lord?
And it has saddened me to see how frequently.
Some of the awful details of things that they did and things with which they were involved before they were saved, are printed in those books.
Why do they do that? Because it sells books.
It sells books. People buy that kind of a book because our old sinful self likes to read it.
Even a man of the world commented, And this would be at least.
Oh, probably close to 70 years ago, if not 75 years ago, when he was talking about an individual or a group of individuals who were psychopaths. That's a psychiatric term for those whose conscience in Christian terms, is so seared that it seems to have very little concern for doing some of the worst things.
And the comment was made by a secular individual in one of the big newspapers of the United States.
It might have been the New York Times. It said everybody deplored what those people did, but they said put it all down on paper so that we can read about it.
00:15:03
And his comment was We are all psychopaths at heart.
And so I say that to point out just briefly, not to dwell on it, how that it was very necessary for those who of necessity had contact with sin.
In purifying and helping the individual who needed to be recovered and to re restored.
They too had to recognize the potential defilement from that sin and to deal with that before the Lord.
That's why I say it. And again, not to dwell on it, but in a local assembly, it's far better if as few as possible have to investigate something and be involved with all the sad details because it's defiling.
Excuse me, excuse me?
Should that be taken up in a brothers meeting where you take up the gory details, but it shouldn't never be brought out to?
All the others in the assembly went, how do you do that? Then you take up these things, but you don't bring out all those things if there needs to be some discipline.
And a brother, another thing is a brothers meeting. It's it's become practice to have everybody there who's in in fellowship, young man, who should never be there when something's being discussed that is egregious.
It only defiles them, but then when you have because the brothers meeting has no power to discipline or do anything.
They can only suggest it's the assembly, isn't it that that makes the decision. You have to bring it out to the assembly.
Then what do you do? You don't bring out the gory details, do you? No, but the sin should be stated before the assembly. But the details don't have to be brought out.
What do you say, Don?
Maybe a little repetitive, but I think it's important enough to repeat if necessary.
When I made unclean.
And I have a nature.
In me that loves unclean things.
And if I'm exposed to it, my nature responds to it.
And the consequences? The word I'm defiled by it. And it's important to recognize that we live in a world system designed to appeal to my sinful nature.
And as a result of that, if I'm a young person or I'm an older person, it doesn't matter.
When I pick up my cell phone, when I take my computer and I go online, I'm only one click away from my defilement.
And the even the news manner in which news is presented today is in general in a defiling way.
Even the competition among those who want to tell me what's going in the world today, the very nature of their business is to be the one you want to see and look at and they're very well aware of what makes people use them versus someone else's media and in it is designed to appeal to sinful flesh and.
The consequences it is.
Very, very easy to become defiled.
And as has already been stated in the principle, because I have a fallen sinful nature, the very occupation with what is sinful.
In its nature defiles me.
And that's important to recognize, because there are many things in Scripture.
Set your mind on things which are above.
Not on things which are on the earth. Why? Because you're setting your mind on something that's pure and undefiling and satisfying to not the flesh, but to the new man.
00:20:03
And so I would just suggest.
Before you think you have to see the news, ask the Lord. Do I have a needs be? Is it necessary for me to carry out my life today? Do I need to know?
This, that or the other?
Because it is in general a very ready, willing and able to defile.
And Satan, who knows exactly by experience, doesn't know everything, but he has a whole lot of experience, more than we do, knows how to just make his take that first little step.
Of well, this this is all right.
And so we take the first step.
But then that only opens the door to the next one and the next one, and there is also an addiction.
That is developed in us, where we become under the control of that which we feast on, and so it's a very easy thing in the world in which we live with instant communication.
To be constantly exposed to that which has in its nature defilement connected with it, and here in this chapter, even those who have to deal with.
That which defiles.
Are made unclean because they're dealing with that which their whole nature, their sinful nature responds to. And so I just say.
It more warning to myself perhaps, than to you. It doesn't matter what age we are, we're never exempt because our flesh never changes.
And God has made a a provision.
To be kept.
But it's never.
Involves as it says later in the chapter.
The vessels were to be covered and not open because just to have an open vessel, that which was unclean had access to the vessel and so were to be vessels with lids.
In our in our care, in our activity and we, each one of us need to be conscious as the choices we make and even say, Lord, if I'm occupied with this song.
That activity and so on, am I going to have something which will appeal to my flesh?
And respond to it and cause defilement.
Someone raised the question yesterday between meetings.
Not that he didn't know what the word meant, but he said. I wonder if there are some who are wondering exactly what constitutes defilement.
Because here in this chapter.
What constitutes defilement is connected with death in some way. Isn't it a dead body?
Or even a grave, or a bone or something of that nature and a man that dies in a tent. It all has to do with death.
And I would suggest that in a simple way, we all remember that verse from Romans 6, The Wages.
Of sin is death and God's word connects.
Sin with death, we are dead in trespasses and sins according to Ephesians 2.
And so this, in our chapter concerning death, I believe, is a picture to us of what sin is and what the world is with which we are surrounded. Yes, we live and move in this world. We have to we do get our feet defiled just by walking through it. But what is defilement? It is the allowance in my life.
Of anything.
That is sin.
I can't stop, for example, a wrong thought from a lighting on my mind. I still have an old sinful nature. I have a besetting sin this way or that way, and I suddenly find that my thoughts turn that way. But I don't need to relish that thought. I don't need to turn it over and over in my mind and let it go down this rabbit trail and that rabbit trail. I can immediately act on what we find in Romans 6 and say.
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That isn't I anymore.
I have a new life in Christ. That old sinful self has no rights. I don't fight with it. I don't get upset about it. I just turn away from it.
Turn towards something that occupies me with Christ and with something better.
But supposing I let that thought reverberate in my mind, then eventually as man.
Is whether he's saved or lost as men think. So ultimately they act and the thoughts that we allow to mature in our minds and reverberate in our thoughts.
Are eventually going to translate into actions as Don was bringing out maybe small ones at 1St and then larger ones. As time goes on, the world gets involved. We decide that the world isn't as bad as the word of God says it is.
After all, you can have fun out there and there are pleasures in sin for a season and so on. And eventually we are in, as we say over our heads and then we need this chapter, the truth of it. So I would suggest in a simple way that's what defilement is and I am not only to avoid it in my own mind, but I am to avoid as Don has been bringing out.
Contact with it.
As we all pretty much have to have computers today in order to do our work at school in order to communicate pretty well. Necessary. But I don't have to allow everything that pops up on my screen or everything that's there, even the news media, to occupy my mind in such a way that it starts taking me down those wrong paths.
Well, not just.
An honest question. Some of these things go to 14. The 14th verse. It says this is the law when a man dieth in a tent. You can't prevent that.
I just what?
And it says all that come into the tent and all that is in the tent shall be unclean 7 days.
There's other things. The 13th bird whosoever toucheth a dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself to file at the Tabernacle of the Lord.
And that soul shall be cut off from Israel. What we said yesterday, that there was probably 600,000, who knows 38 years who were going to die in the wilderness, he said. All those who had brought back an evil report would die. So let's get out. It averages out to 40 people a day died and somebody had to bury them. What's? What's the difference? We have to be occupied with that. What? What's the difference?
We'll all try to answer that and maybe others have some thoughts, but.
It seems to me that yes, there are occasions in our lives when we are exposed to sin. For example, when I was in university I worked in a big company in the city where I live and some of the men who with whom I worked and some of the bosses that I had.
Use rough language sometimes filthy language.
Times.
You tried to get away from it, but sometimes you were there in the office and you couldn't help but overhear somebody telling a dirty joke on at the next desk or something like that. Things like that we are exposed to in the world in which we live, and I feel for my own soul that.
That is really what is brought out here. That is, there are things to which you and I are exposed all the time.
In our lives.
But I would only say, and this is only the way it comes through to me, the tent seems to me to imply something more. Because people lived in a tent, seldom would it hold one man, and so it implies something more. And I believe it points out what we might call corporate defilement. Where?
If there is, for example, evil in an assembly which is not judged whether doctrinal or moral, evil.
God looks upon everyone in that local assembly as being defiled by it. It's not that they can say, well, I'm not the dead man or I wasn't the man that touched him.
00:30:03
Everybody in that tent was affected by what happened there and it had to be dealt with. There had to be purification. So that this chapter has many different facets to it, dealing with an individual, dealing with contact in the world.
Dealing with what might happen in a local assembly. It covers a wide variety of defilement and I would suggest the application depends on the circumstances, which we're talking about. In the New Testament. That helps, that helps.
Trying to understand it's important to know what death is.
In its character and its nature.
James James Chapter 2 Says the body without the spirit is dead.
And the root thought in death is separation. And so when one spirit is removed from one's body by God, that person is physically dead.
The body without the spirit is dead, and there's a separation between the body and the spirit and the soul at the time of physical death.
The second death, which is a death of judgment, I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and those who were not found written in the book of life, were cast into the lake of fire. And it says, this is the second death.
Because it's not the physical death of the separation of the spirit from the body, but it is the eternal separation of a soul.
God.
And that's the worst part of what we call hell or the lake of fire is that eternal separation from God.
But when there is death in the physical sense in this chapter is using it in the physical sense to bring out a moral lessons to us?
When a body is separated from the soul and spirit and there's death, the process.
Of corruption immediately starts when the Lord Jesus was told of the imminent death or the sickness of Lazarus and he came. Lazarus had been dead 4 days and put in the grave and he went there and Martha says to him, but he's been dead for days. The idea was you don't want to open it up because the corruption.
That is started is 4 days alone.
And that's the nature of sin.
When I sin, it separates me.
From fellowship with God.
Not in the eternal sense. If I'm a believer, it's as we use the expression, it's a loss of fellowship, but it is connected with death in that it is a separation.
From my relationship enjoyed with my God.
And consequently, there are certain things that we become occupied with.
Some in this chapter of necessity, but God in himself can have no fellowship with them.
Because of his own holiness.
He abhors sin and in no way does he compromise himself to have an association with it.
And consequently, if I'm identify if I'm occupied with it, it brings in that separation.
That is connected with death and is described in its general sense in this chapter, and in fact I think the most frequently used word in the whole chapter, if you added up all the words, is probably the word unclean. And that makes the unclean has the sense of in that thing I am not fit.
For the presence of God.
I well remember as a child it was a rule.
The rural household that everyone of us as children had to come to the dinner table with our hands clean. We had to have washed before we came and sat down to dinner and sometimes.
My mother would say to us individually, Donald, have you washed your hands? And you know what happened? If I appeared without them washed, I was sent off to do it.
00:35:06
Before I was by my mother, considered clean to sit down and enjoy the fellowship of the meal.
And so it is in coming into the presence of God.
And if you or I come into the presence of God, unclean.
We are defiling his bill at use the application the tent, because the Spirit of God, who will have no fellowship with uncleanness, is hindered in His operations, and instead of being able to occupy with Christ and Himself, there is more the necessity of the occupation of the identification.
Of that which is unsuited to the cleanness of his presence, that it be judged and removed. And that's the principle on which some of these verses, when they speak of death, and why, were unclean in the presence of death.
Can I suggest a couple thoughts as to these ashes? We've talked at length about the uncleanness, but in verse.
Verse 9. The ashes are gathered up and put in a clean place.
And verse 12.
There's the application.
Of these Ashes and I just have enjoyed the thought.
Of the ashes that there's no heat.
And there's no fuel.
And again, that takes us back to the enjoyment of the cross.
All God's wrath against our sins.
Was completely.
Let's put it like this. Somebody said one time that of all the offerings that the fire consumed over the years, the Lord Jesus on the cross was the first offering that consumed the flames.
There is no more heat. There is no more rat against our sins.
And also the thought of the Ashes. There's no more fuel.
God's not dealing with our old nature anymore. It's been set aside at the cross.
If I am defiled or I allow sin, he's dealing with me, the new man. Stop that stuff.
Resist it. Walk with me. He's not dealing with the old man. There's no heat.
And there's no fuel in the Ashes and that is the basis of recovery.
That's where we start, if we've gotten away from the Lord, is to get back to the cross.
Lemoyne Smith told me 50 years ago. He said. It's the cross that saves us. It's the cross that keeps us and it's the cross that restores us.
And it brings in our affections too, doesn't it, Randy? And that's why it's so important.
To get hold of what we have here.
Those ashes were laid up.
As you say, the fire had passed through, the heat was gone, the fuel was gone. But what was left? The memory. The memory. And so you and I have the memory of the sufferings of Christ.
Which the Spirit of God would bring before us when we are to be restored.
We can get into what the third day and the 7th day mean in a moment or two, but.
Those ashes bring before us the memory of the sufferings.
My heart, my affections, must once more be engaged with Christ in order to think that.
Here I am.
And as was expressed in prayer and in what we have had before us.
The Lord Jesus Christ came down into this world, went all the way to Calvary's cross, suffered.
In a way that you and I will never understand, in those hours of darkness and for what reason, to glorify God, as to sin, but then, as far as you and I are concerned, to make us fit for God's presence.
00:40:11
And when I sin, what am I doing?
I am.
You might say.
Adding to those sufferings of Christ.
Now, does that mean Christ has to suffer all over again? No, of course not. Because God with his foreknowledge knew ahead of time that I would commit that sin, and that's why I can be restored. But at the same time, here I am doing that which caused.
Untold pain and suffering to my blessed Savior, and when that gets hold of my soul, that is really what brings me to real repentance.
When I have sinned initially, usually the reaction is what in our English language we call remorse. I am upset about the consequences of it. I'm upset because other people may know about it. I am upset because of what it may have done to my life.
Family or to other people whom I know and love. But I have to get right to rock bottom. And as you say, Randy, go back to Calvary's cross and realize that I have indulged myself in that which ultimately caused the pain and suffering in those three hours of darkness. I believe that's what the ashes would bring before us.
May I take a few minutes?
I not used to doing something like this, but I'd like to talk especially to the children here that they kind of understand the concept of why we're reading this.
I wasn't here yesterday.
But we're going to go through this story kind of rapidly again and then.
Talk about the application we're making.
There was a priest and he was supposed to go and find.
A female, you might say. A cow.
That had never had a baby yet.
An innocent animal and they would take it.
And they would. He would have a person kill that innocent.
Big animal and the blood would come out and they would do things with his blood.
Before the the Tabernacle.
Then another person.
Would take that dead cow and put it on this altar.
And they would burn that whole cow. Everything. The horns, that the skin, even every part of it, would be burned and the smoke would go up.
And all that would be left would be ashes.
And.
Listed all over No, it wasn't over. They would. Another person would come and they'd scoop up the ashes.
And they would save these ashes.
Now everybody, as we've talked about it, everybody that was concerned with this, the priest got defiled, the person that killed the animal got defiled, the person that scooped up the ashes got defiled.
And then what would they do with these ashes?
They were saved for when somebody got defiled.
That they would take some of these ashes and they would put them in water.
And they would sprinkle it on the person that had got defiled. Or we're going to call it sin.
And they would remember that that cow.
Had to die.
So that they could be made clean. The cow didn't have to die again, over and over again. It was just one time. But the person had to keep getting clean over and over again by taking those ashes.
Putting them in the water and.
Verse 12 it says they were supposed to do it themselves and verse 19 says.
00:45:06
A clean.
Person shall sprinkle upon the unclean the third day and the 7th day, and on the 7th day he shall purify himself and wash his clothes and bathe himself, and shall be clean at even like was mentioned the person that got defiled.
It was a process of seven days, but the person that put the sprinkled the ashes, that touched the ashes that put them on, the person that was unclean, they were defiled to until the even.
And the application is.
That we need to remember the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And apply it to ourselves for.
Present.
Feeling clean?
And I'm going to read a couple verses in one John, the application of this.
One, John. One.
And verse 7.
It's talking about fellowship.
With the Father and with the Son in verse 7. And if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.
Now here's the part. And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son. That's God's son cleans us.
From all sin, that is the application of that cow that died. We're going to call it the red heifer. A heifer is a cow that never had a baby yet.
Perfectly clean. The innocent one that died.
Cleanses from all sin.
But if we say that we have no sin.
We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, that's what happens when someone says I've sinned and I need to apply the.
Work of Christ on my life.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
That is, when someone feels completely clean, even if they've sinned, even if they've been defiled, they can say Christ has has died and I can be clean. I can feel comfortable. I can have fellowship.
If we if we say that we have not sinned, we make him, that's God a liar, and his word is not in US.
Now the next verse.
My little children, I hope you children are listening.
These things I write unto you that you sin not.
But, and if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
If we sin there, there is a way to get back, a way to have peace, and it's the application of what Christ has done.
And the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ there on the cross as the fire of God came down on him and burned everything up, and all that's left is the memory that that.
I want to say senesis. What is ashes? What ashes?
We are the ashes.
Mixed with the water.
Applied to our lives.
By ourselves and by other people that even get unclean by helping us out.
00:50:06
There are two things.
Two sets of things.
That get burned up.
In verse 4/5.
We have the heifer.
Now so burn the heifer in his sight. Everything of the heifer. The skin, the flesh, the blood, the Dong Auburn.
That's not all.
Or 6.
These things are cast into the midst of the fire in which the heifer is being burned.
Peter Wood, The Hyssop, the Scarlet.
Cast into the midst of the burning of the heifer.
In verse five, it's as we've had multiple times. It's the Lord Jesus Christ.
The perfect, sinless holy One.
And identified and put into the same fire.
Is everything that we are in the flesh and everything that inspires us to do. What's wrong?
The pride of man and so on. That motivates us to our activities in the flesh.
And both are burned together, and the consequence of the burning of both and commingled in that way is ashes.
And it's important for us when we're judging ourselves.
As is necessary in purification.
God takes the water of the Word.
And brings our souls into the memory.
Of that which took place when I.
In my sinful flesh.
Had to be the Lord Jesus to himself to take my place and to be identified with my sins and with what I am in my nature.
And the consequences of that in death.
And ashes. And so it is that when job.
Was being worked on by the Lord for his blessing to bring out to job something in himself that was not.
Holy and pure before God.
Joe was made by God a righteous man, and because he was a righteous man and he knew it.
He took the credit for it.
Cedar wood.
And he wanted, he said to God, I'm not going to give up my righteousness. And he then charged God and said, you've put me in dust and ashes.
When Job got to his third day, if you will, and his 7th day, he said. Instead of saying God, you put me in dust and ashes.
Or another way of saying it, I don't deserve what's happened to me in my life and so on. He turns it around and he says I abhor myself.
And repent.
In dust and ashes, and that is what the water of the word does in the applying.
To our souls it brings us to that memory and that self judgment. Where we would say with Job, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.
He was a man who had life, that is, life with God. It wasn't the point at which Job was saved, as we would say.
Even though that word doesn't quite apply that way to Joe, but.
The way in which he would say he had life with God.
But he had to judge himself into that which was separating him from fellowship with God.
And so it is with us, we the Lord, when there's something in us that we have done, we not only have to get into the Lords presence, but we have to get into the why.
The reason why we did it not just the thing we did, but why did we do it.
00:55:03
There are people who said in the word of God I've sinned.
But what we have in this purification process goes beyond just the act itself.
I saw a picture of man in the flesh, said to Samuel. I've sinned.
Judas, after he denied the Lord, he said, I have sinned. But in either case was there the flying of the of the ashes, if you will, to the person? Neither one we will find in glory.
But for us, we have to go through a process where God takes his word and we're taken to the Word, and the Spirit of God uses that word.
To bring to us that activity that makes us.
Judge what we've done and what we are that did it.
And then we can again have fellowship with God in purity and truth.
In that connection, it doesn't hurt to repeat what we said yesterday, and that is that if we would remember that the cedar wood Speaking of man in his greatness, the hyssop Speaking of man and his weakness, and the scarlet Speaking of human glory, if we remembered that all of that had been dealt with at the cross.
We would not fall into sin so easily. As Dawn has pointed out, that was burned up too. And if all of those things were kept in mind, it would be the antidote to our getting into the situation where we need the application of the water mixed with the ashes.
And so John 13 would be something that we do a daily, but this actually is.
Unique thing. It's not something that you would think but would be needed daily, but maybe in the life of someone during his lifetime. Is that right? I mean this is not something like John 13 where you you walk through the world and you get your feet dirty and you need them cleansed at night by the word of God.
That's daily, but this is not something daily.
This is something that is kind of unique.
Yes, it's the same principle as we mentioned yesterday, but it carries us all the way so that we would have ministry to know how to deal with very serious sin. And I thought it was very apropos what Brother Dan Brimlow brought out and that is that in verse 12 The individual was to purify himself, but then later on we find it was necessary.
For another to sprinkle the water of purification. And so there are OK, there are sins in our lives that.
We can sprinkle the water of purification on ourselves and in that sense.
It doesn't have to involve somebody else, a happy thing, if that's the case, and there are other things which, as we pointed out yesterday, have to come to the attention of others because.
Speaking in New Testament terms, we are so far away from the Lord that we are not in a fit state to sprinkle the water on ourselves.
And so both can be involved. And of course, even if someone else is involved, I personally am responsible if I am the one that's defiled, to get into the Lord's presence, to look to him and to.
Repent and get back to where I realize how serious that sin is in the sight of the Lord.
And that's really, and I know our time is we only have a few minutes, but that's really what the third day is, I believe.
Scripture brings in the seven days as perfection of restoration.
But combining what we have said in the last half hour.
The third day is if we could make it in a very simple phrase.
The full realization in God's presence of the magnitude of sin in the presence of grace.
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Now that is in the presence of holiness as well, but I believe this chapter would take us deeper than that. It's one thing for a man to sin for me to sin against a holy God.
That happened in the Old Testament, but it's another thing for you and for me to sin not merely in the presence of holiness, but in the presence of love and grace.
That is, we have by grace seen all our sins, if we're truly saved, dealt with it Calvary's crops. And we have seen the awfulness of what sin is to God in those three hours of darkness. We have seen the one who went through all of that in order that we could be saved, so that we have sinned, not merely in the presence of holiness.
But in the presence of love and grace. And so the third day is the full realization in God's presence of the magnitude of sin in the presence of grace.
That can take time 3 days as symbolical.
I can well remember, and this dates me a little bit. I can remember our late brother Paul Wilson ministering on this back at a conference and I can nail the date right on. It was in 1962.
And he said I have seen times when it took 15 years before the 3rd day was reached.
Sad to say, I have seen cases where it took longer than that and so.
The third day it may take a shorter while, it may take a longer while, but it does take some time.
We don't recover rapidly from a serious sin. There needs to be time for the Lord to work in our hearts and consciences. There needs to be time for the Lord to bring before us the reality of what we've done in His presence.
And it doesn't happen in a serious sin overnight.
We get a wonderful example of that and Peter, don't we?
Where we all know what Peter did.
As they led the Lord to trial.
He says here in John 22 on Luke 22. Excuse me.
And.
And and verse 60 And Peter said, man, I know not What I'll say is immediately while he's yet spake the crew.
And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. That was the look of love.
And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, and how he had said unto him before the **** crowed, Thou shalt deny me thrice. And what did Peter do? Well, the the heart was engaged then, wasn't it? Because the Lord looked on him with that look of love. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. And that's just what you were talking about, didn't?
He realized the impact.
Of what the Lord was going to go through on his behalf at the cross.
And we see later on the 7th day when.
The Lord after resurrection.
Met with the disciples and he took Peter aside, didn't he?
He says, Love us out, me more than these. And Peter had to confess. Thou knowest all things, thou knowest I love thee. And then he got the Commission, didn't he feed my sheep?
Beautiful example of what you were saying.
I just want to recap something that was already said.
I want everybody to listen.
Everybody knows what I'm talking about. I don't need the graphic. If you have secret sin in your life, I have had secret sins.
The best.
Way to stop having that secret sin is to look at the cross.
And to know that the Lord Jesus suffered for that sin.
That is the best way to stop that sin. I want to read a song.
That many of us know, I think it pretty well says what we need to say.
The name of the song is how deep the father's love for us.
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How deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure, that he should give his only son to make a Wretch his treasure. How great the pain of searing loss. The father turns his face away.
As wounds which mar the Chosen One bring many sons to glory.
This is the verse. Behold the man upon the cross, my sin upon his shoulders. Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers.
It was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished. His dying breath has brought me life. I know that it is finished. I will not boast in anything, no gifts, no power nor wisdom. But I will boast in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection. Why should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer. But this I know with all my heart. His wounds have paid my ransom. Why should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer.
But this I know with all my heart. His wounds have paid my ransom.
If you're stuck and you have a secret sin and you confess it.
And you cannot stop and you find yourself doing again. Look to the cross and think the Lord Jesus.
Suffered for that sin.
That is the strongest force of motivation, to look at that cross, to stop what you're doing.
Finn destroys. It destroys families. It destroys barrages. It destroys. You need to be scared of sin. It's like a bomb. If we had a bomb, we'd have a bomb squad in here. Sin destroys. It's terrible. It's volatile. It's serious business. That's what we're talking about here.
Just one final remark, Ted. I think that's excellent. If we would deal before the Lord in His presence with those secret sins that no one knows about, we wouldn't have to have someone else sprinkling the water of purification on us down the road when that sin becomes public, would we?
Maybe we could just say this. Sometimes when we've sinned, we listen to the lie of the devil, that somehow God's mad at us, somehow he doesn't want us anymore. In Proverbs 2813 it says he that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsake at them shall have mercy. And I just want to say, dear beloved brothers and sisters, that mercy starts coming the moment we turn it is true.
Bill, that restoration does take time because as Don was saying and others have said, there's when something like that happens, there's something wrong in us. The sin, it's not just an act, it's it's who we are. It's so important to realize that God loves us and He's on his way in mercy right now. The moment we turn to him, if we confess, if we own it and we're just naked before him, we just say, Lord, you know all about it.
You know all about it. I'm all yours. And justice, That's what Job had to come to.
No defense, no justification, Lord you know, and justice be cast, as it was already shared so beautifully upon him, upon the cross, in mercy.
He comes in for us and it's beautiful. He loves us. He wants us back. Don't listen to the lie of the devil that says God doesn't want you anymore because it's not true. It's a lie.
#71 in the back.
21 with your finger.
Oh my say you're closer.
My name.