THROUGH THE BIBLE - Numbers..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. So, brothers and sisters, as we always do every time that we read the scriptures, with reverent hearts and paying attention to each one of the words that we have in front of us. This time together, we're going to be reading Numbers chapter 19, and then we're going to be asking the Spirit to help us not only to read with faith, but also that he will help us as we preach the word and as we receive the word by his spirit, by faith, that we may be transformed and change in the image and likeness of our savior, Jesus Christ.

So number chapter 19, numbers 19. And this is the word of God. Now, the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, This is the statue of the Lord that the Lord has commanded. Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer without effect, in which there is no blemish and in which a yoke has never come. And you shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and he shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered before him.

And Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. And the heifer shall be burned in his sight. Its skin, its flesh, its blood, with its tongue shall be burned. And the priest shall take cedar wood and hiself and scarlet yarn and throw them into the fire burning with the heifer. Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water.

And afterward he may come into the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening. The one who burns the heifer shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water and shall be unclean until evening. And the man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place. And they shall be kept for the water for impurity for the congregation of the people of Israel. It is a sin offering.

And the one who gathers the ashes of the Haver shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. And this shall be a perpetual statue for the people of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them. Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days. He shall cleanse himself with water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean. But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean.

Whoever touches a dead person, the body of anyone who has died and does not cleanse himself defiles the tabernacle of the Lord, and that person shall be cut out from Israel, because the water for impurity was not thrown on him. He shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him. Verse 14. This is the law when someone dies in a tent.

Everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days. And every open vessel that has no cover fastened on it is unclean. Whoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who died naturally or touches a human bone or a grave shall be unclean seven days. For the unclean, They shall take some ashes of the burnt sin offering and fresh water shall be added in a vessel. Then a clean person shall take his up and dip it in the water and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there and on whoever touched the bone or the slain or the dead or the grave.

and the clean person shall sprinkle it on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day. Thus on the seventh day he shall cleanse him and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water. And at evening he shall be clean. Verse 20. If the man who is unclean does not cleanse himself, That person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, since he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord.

Because the water for impurity has not been thrown on him, he is unclean, and he shall be a statue forever for them. The one who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening. verse 22 and whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean and anyone who touches it shall be unclean until evening amen this is the word of the lord beloved of christ brothers and sisters And friends, what we have here in front of us in this chapter 19 of the Book of Numbers are those laws of purification or better. Perhaps that's the title they have in the ESV. If you have the ESV better, this is the water of purification.

We're using exactly the text here, the water for impurity. So we are going to be talking about the water for purification or better the water for impurity. And this was a water that was supposed to be prepared or put together by the priest. And the purpose of that water was to sprinkle on those people who were unclean, ceremonially unclean because they touched the dead or anything that is related to a dead person. So if in Israel, a person will touch a dead person or come in contact with a dead environment, even a tent or a house or even a vessel that was within the environment of death, then that person will become ceremonially unclean.

And the way to solve the uncleanness of the person was by sprinkling this water of purification. That is, in summary, what we have read here in Chapter 19. Now, please remember what I tried to say to you on Thursday when it came to death. I said, beloved of Christ, that death is an instrument of the divine justice of God. Every time that death is executed, that is a manifestation of the justice of God.

The wages of sin is death, right? So because of sin, death comes as the divine justice of God. We explained that on Thursday. So that means, Beloved of Christ, that every time that we read about death or that we see a dead body or that we see something that is related to death, that is a testimony, that is a witness to the execution of the divine justice of God. If you go to a funeral and then you see a person lays dead, that person dead is the testimony of the justice of God that has been executed because of sin.

Praise God if the person that is dead has been redeemed in Christ because death is not eternal for that person, but rather eternal life. But the death of the body and death in general is a testimony to the divine justice of God. Every time that we see something that is related to death, that should bring to our minds the divine justice of God. And for the Israelites, death was indeed a testimony of the justice of God. Not long time before this, many, almost 15,000 people had died.

You remember in the rebellion of Korah and the Reubenites, almost 15,000 people and not long time from here in chapter 22, people are going to die by the numbers, by the serpents. You remember that the poison of the serpents. Fire came from heaven to consume the rebel. The earth opened and swallowed up many of the rebels. Plagues from the Lord came and killed many of the Israelites.

Many serpents will come to destroy many of the Israelites. And many dead bodies will be within the context of the people of Israel. And that for them was a testimony. of the divine justice of God being executed among them. Every time, not only us seeing something that is death related, but also the Israelites, every time that they saw something like that bodies there, then that was a testimony of the divine justice of God being executed.

Now, beloved of Christ, the thing is that dead bodies that die in the context of the camp, they are not going to lift themselves up and take outside of the camp. So those who survived were the ones that were supposed to take the dead bodies and take them outside of the camp. That's why these laws of purification, of the water purification, are going to be very important. But the question that perhaps we need to ask ourselves before we get into the core of this chapter is, why would the Israelites need to purify themselves from touching a dead body that they did not kill and they were supposed to take outside of the camp? Why would they have to cleanse themselves?

Why would they become ceremonially unclean? And these the answer to this question, beloved of Christ, is just because of the symbolism of the ceremonial law given to Israel. Remember something. Remember when a worshipper will bring a burnt or an offering to the tabernacle, they were supposed to lay their hands on the animal. And that represented a transfer from the guilt of the person onto the animal.

And then the animal was will be slaughtered. And then there will be atonement there. There is this symbolism of transfer. So when a person came in contact with a dead body or with something that was in contact with death, there will be a symbolism of transfer of the death of that person to whoever was touching the dead body. And remember that the dead was simply a person who had received the execution of the justice of God, either naturally or because of rebellion.

Therefore, the person, by touching or coming in contact with the dead, will receive, transfer that death, if you want, in the same sense that the worshipper will do when they lay their hands upon the worshipper. Now, those faces are that you're understanding, right? Okay, very good. This is very important here, beloved of Christ, because then death is going to be a testifier and a witness for these Israelites. Not only when they saw the multiple bodies in the camp that the justice of God had been executed within the context of the camp and the people had died because of fire or place or whatever the judgment of God was.

But there will be a second reminder of the judgment of God and of the divine justice. And that is when they had to carry the body and take it outside the camp because that person was not completely, had not completely dealt with the death. The death was outside, but now he was carrying the uncleanliness because he had touched the dead. So this person will return to the camp. And he had to cleanse himself.

It says in verse 20 that if a person did not clean him or herself from the uncleanliness of touching a dead body or coming into the environment of a dead body, then that person has to be cut up from the camp. That's what you have there in verse 20. So that means that that person was given seven days to wash himself on the third and on the seventh day so that he will be able to remain within the context of the camp. Otherwise, the death that had been symbolical transfer from the dead body will actually complete its work, if you want. And then that person will be utterly removed from the midst of the people.

You're with me, right? So that is the water of purification. Then it comes. to the water of purification. And there I could make a case for the gospel, right?

Because the water of Jesus Christ is the water that cleanses us completely from all of our sins. There is no need of more water. And these waters purifies us entirely. And we could make a case for the gospel there very clearly. But there's something deeper in this chapter that I want you to pay attention to.

And that is in the water of purification or the water for impurity itself. Think about in the first verses when you can read it or you read it with me, you can read it later on in more detail how this water was to be prepared or made. I don't know what the word in English you use prepared, let's say. So this water of purification was meant to be prepared with a red cafer, a cow that the priest, in this case, Eliezer will take outside of the camp and then he will offer a burnt offering sacrifice with their cow, the cafer, And then they will burn the cow throwing into the fire, you know, he's up and cedar wood and scarlet yarn, all of these red things into the fire. All of that will be consumed and then it will become ashes.

It will become the ashes of the death. Then they were going to take those ashes and mix them with water. And this water, it was the water that was to be sprinkled on the person that wanted to be cleansed. That was the whole ritual. But if you pay attention to it, the person initially was made unclean because they touched something that was related to death.

What is the difference by being touched with the water of purification that contains ashes of a very, very dead? animal in this case. They are, in a sense, still being touched by something that represents death, right? This is the water of purification. Well, the simple answer to that is atonement.

Atonement is the simple answer to that. They were purified with the water of purification because those ashes represented atonement. These red caper was taken outside of the camp to be offered by the priest as a sacrifice for the sin of the people. And then those ashes, even though they were representing death and the justice of God, they also represented the forgiveness of God. So when you put together death plus the acceptance of the forgiveness of God, then you have in a very simple way of defining it, you have their atonement.

So then these waters were the waters, if you want, of atonement that were sprinkled upon the person who was ceremonially unclean. And therefore, once the waters of this atonement were sprinkled on him or her, then that person will be cleansed and then will be ceremonially prepared to continue in the different rituals of the Israelites. Now, here again, I have another case for a gospel presentation, right? Because the problem that the Israelites had is that this cleansing was temporal. They will receive this sprinkled water, which was the atonement, the red heifer.

But if they touch another body once again, they will have to repeat and repeat and repeat the process as many times as they became or become ceremonially unclean. The atonement of the Old Testament was temporal, or better, the effects of the atonement in the Old Testament were temporal, were praise to God. The atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ is eternal. The effects of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ is eternal. But now, the deeper question that I want us to see here is this.

Why is the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, or better, What why are the effects of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ eternal compared with the temporal effects of the atonement under the Old Testament? Again, brothers and sisters, I'm going to present something very important to you. So this is the question that I want us to answer from these texts and then from scripture. Why? Why are the effects of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ eternal?

That is, that once a person receives the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, there's no need of any other atonement. It's like once for all. Why the effects of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ do not have to be repeated? And why the effects of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ are not only legal, but transformational, if that is a word. That is, that you are transformed.

It's not only that you're forgiven, but that you're transformed. Well, it comes by comparing the red heifer and the waters of purification with the waters of purification of the New Covenant. And the answer to that question of why is that the effects of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ is eternal is just simply this word. You've learned many words in theology, but perhaps this is going to be another important word for you to understand or have been the occasion you've heard about justification and sanctification and adoption and all of these words. But here this word vindication, the reason why the effects of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ under the new covenant are eternal is because of the vindication of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Again, the reason why the effects of the atonement in the New Covenant are eternal and not temporal, as in the Old Covenant, is because of the vindication of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think about this. And I will define, of course, this word, but I will define it by explaining what the Old Testament is not. And then we will explain what the New Covenant is. The ingredients, if you want, of the waters of purification under the Old Covenant were the ashes that represented the atonement of the Red Heifer together with the forgiveness of God, if you want, by accepting the sacrifice of the Red Heifer that had been offered outside the camp.

Those in the ashes represented the purification in the water. It was simply the atonement. But the Lord Jesus Christ, when he comes, he does something greater than atoning for our sins. You see, the red caper or the cow in the old covenant received the fire from the high priest in symbolism from God. And then the red caper of the cow died as a sacrifice for the people.

And the cow remained dead. But when you come to the New Testament, you have the Lord Jesus Christ dying upon the cross, offering himself as a sacrifice, receiving the wrath of God in fullness. There is death and there is forgiveness from God. But praise be to God that the Lord Jesus Christ did not remain dead. But on the third day, he was vindicated by his father.

He was raised by the power of the Spirit, Romans 1, and he was declared to be the Son of God. And by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, those who receive the sprinkling of the waters of the new covenant do not receive the ashes of death, but receive the resurrected life of the Lord Jesus Christ. So if you were going to see the spiritual waters of the new covenant, then you have the atonement of Christ, but also you have the vindicated life of Christ. And that water that we receive from Jesus Christ is the water that has the washing of regeneration. Because we don't only receive forgiveness of sin, but we receive the life of the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So that, beloved of Christ, when you die, and your body is turned into ashes because of the life that is in you. You are not like the red caper in the Old Testament that he was temporal in effect and died and remained dead. But we have the life of the Lord Jesus Christ resurrected unto newness of life because the water that washed us was the living water of the Savior Jesus Christ. Praise be his name. Amen.