Amen. All right. Well, we're there in Numbers chapter number 19. And of course, on Sunday nights, we've been going through a chapter by chapter series through the book of Numbers. We've been calling it Wilderness Wanderings because we have been wandering in the wilderness with the children of Israel through the time that they spent 40 years in the wilderness, of course, And tonight we find ourselves here in Numbers chapter 19, and we are going to deal with a very specific teaching regarding the sacrifice of the red heifer. And of course, at Verity Baptist Church, I do my best to try to preach all sorts of different types of sermons. And of course, we go mostly verse by verse, chapter by chapter through the Bible. But I try to preach sermons that are encouraging. For example, this morning's sermon, I felt like it was an encouraging type sermon. I try to preach sermons. Sometimes I need to preach sermons that are what we might consider a hard sermon or rebuking type sermon. This tonight is going to be more of an educational or informational sermon. And it's going to be just kind of teaching through this passage and helping you understand this teaching. And I'm just going to go ahead and give you up front, I'm going to outline this chapter and outline this lesson using four different headings. And I'm just going to give those to you up front just so that we can kind of move through those. But I want to talk about this red heifer. And I want to begin by talking about the fascination with the red heifer. And then I'm going to give you the facts regarding the red heifer. I'm going to give you the fallacies that are taught about the red heifer. And then we'll talk about the fulfillment of the red heifer. So I'll just give you those up front. Maybe you can, and I'll give them to you as well as we kind of go through them. If you notice there in Numbers chapter 19 and verse 1, the Bible says this, And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, This is the ordinance. And if you remember, we learned in the book of Hebrews. And the book of Hebrews, I mentioned this on Wednesday night. I'll mention it again tonight. Our study in the book of Numbers and the study in the book of Hebrews have really complemented each other very well. as we've been going through these passages. And we learned from the book of Hebrews that the term ordinance is a reference to the part of the law of God that we would call ceremonial. An ordinance in the Bible was something that was symbolic, a shadow, a religious ritual, not what we might consider like a moral or criminal law. Here, the Bible says, this is the ordinance of the law, which the Lord hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke. And I wanna begin with this heading of the fascination with the red heifer, because there really is a fascination out there today with this idea of the red heifer. And I understand that maybe you've never heard of this. I mentioned it this morning, and I had several people come up to me and say, I'm really interested in tonight's sermon, because I've heard so much about this. And I've had other people say, I don't know what you're talking about. I've never heard about the red heifer, which is fine. If you've never heard of it, great. I'd rather you not be exposed to false doctrine and false preaching. But there is a fascination out there. Just my own curiosity, just raise your hand if you have been exposed to this teaching about the red heifer, you've heard about the red heifer. Okay, so I mean there's like a quarter of you, so I guess the rest of you just go home, all right? I'm just kidding, don't do that. You know, but it's good to know these things because when you come across it, then maybe you won't be confused and you'll understand what it is. This afternoon, when I was reviewing my sermon, I went to YouTube, and I just typed into the search bar, red heifer. And here are the videos that came up. Just to kind of show you that there is a fascination with this, the first video that came up was called, Red Heifers Are Approaching the Age to Qualify for Sacrifice. It had 9.2 thousand views, and it was posted three months ago. Here's the second video that came up. Reports say the red heifer was born, another sign pointing to the end of days. It had 37,000 views. It was posted one day ago. The third video that came up was entitled Episode 1, Red Heifer and Biblical Prophecy. It had 23,000 views and was posted four months ago. The next video was called Red Heifer Update. It had 1,500 views. It was posted eight days ago. The next video after that was called Red Heifer in the Bible, What is a Red Heifer? It had 168,000 views. It was posted four years ago. And then the last one that came up, or at least this as far as I went, was called Prophetic Anticipation Builds, Unblemished Red Heifers for Temple Ceremonies Soon Come of Age. And it had 389,000 views. And it was posted six months ago. So you see that there really is this fascination out there, especially among the Jews and among those who promote the Jews and Zionists and people that are for the establishing of the temple and the reestablishing of the Levitical priesthood. This is a big deal for them. And just to give you just another kind of proof that this is something that people tend to be fascinated with, I remember the first time that I really, you know, became aware or saw people being fascinated with this idea about the red heifer was when I was a teenager, if you remember, that very unbiblical movie by Kirk Cameron came out called Left Behind. And it was about the rapture, and of course, it's wrong biblically. Everything in that movie is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that it's after the tribulation, so it's not left behind. But when I was a teenager, I remember watching that movie, Left Behind, and just show of hands, who's watched Left Behind before? Okay, there, more of you have watched Left Behind than know about the right effort. But in that movie, see, you weren't paying attention. Because if you remember in the beginning, in the beginning scenes of that movie, when they're talking about all this like end times prophecy, and they have, it was a long time ago that I saw this, but I remember there was like a scene where like some guy's coming out of a cave, and he's like supposed to be like one of the two prophets, it's like coming out to like, But in one of those opening scenes, there was a scene where all these scientific Jews had this red cow, and they're just inspecting it with magnifying glasses, and they're looking at it real closely. If you watch the movie, you might remember that. But that was just this idea of this red heifer. And there's this fascination out there with the red heifer, and the idea is that they need, the Jews need to find a red heifer in order to be able to sacrifice it to reestablish the temple and to reestablish the priesthood. That's why there's a fascination with it. There's all sorts of Christian farmers in the United States today that are trying to like breed a red heifer and they're trying to bring, you know, find this like perfect animal that can be sacrificed in order to establish the priesthood. That's the whole thing behind the fascination. Now that's the fascination. I'm going to talk about the fallacies here in a minute, but before we get into that, let's just look at the facts, all right? I'd like to just look at what the Bible says and what the Bible teaches about this red heifer, because there's really only one chapter in the Bible that deals with this concept of the red heifer, and we're in it. Numbers chapter Number 19 so let's let's just break down quickly this as quickly as I can this This chapter and help you understand what the Bible actually just teaches about the red heifer So you can have a biblical understanding then we'll talk about the fallacies and we'll try to make some points and applications regarding that notice numbers 19 look at verse 1 again in the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron saying So let's just Let's just kind of outline this chapter for you quickly, just so you can understand what is it exactly that the Bible teaches about the red heifer. And there are several things that we can gather from this passage. The first is this, that they were supposed to find a red heifer, and a heifer is a female cow, and they were supposed to find a red heifer, so not a brown cow, not a black and white cow or white with black, whatever, however it is. But there's to find a red heifer that is unspotted and unblemished and that was never used as a beast of burden. Notice the last part of verse two there. Without spot wherein is no blemish and upon which never came yoke. So a yoke would be something they would put on a beast of burden in order to get it to be able to take something or to carry something along the way with its strength. And the Bible says that it was supposed to be a red effort without spot, no blemish, and upon which never came yoke. Now, if you're familiar with the language of the Bible regarding sacrifices, specifically in the book of Leviticus, you know, this sounds very familiar because a lot of the sacrifices that were to be brought to the tabernacle to be done were to be without spot and without blemish. And that's pretty standard when it came to a sacrifice. Now something that's interesting about this sacrifice is that it was a red heifer. A heifer, again, being a young cow and being a female cow, whereas most sacrifices in the book of Leviticus were male. They were male lambs or male goats, they were bullocks, and they were to be a male sacrifice. But here we have this red heifer without spot and no blemish. So they were supposed to find a red heifer, unspotted, unblemished, and one that was never used as a beast of burden, according to verse number two. Notice verse three. So, give the red heifer. unto Eliezer the priest. Now we know that Eliezer is the son of Aaron. Eliezer is the priest. Aaron is the high priest. Eliezer will be the next high priest. But he's not yet. And they were supposed to give this heifer unto Eliezer the priest. And I want you to notice this little sentence, that he may bring her forth without the camp. So the Bible is telling us here that they're supposed to go find this red heifer, unspotted, unblemished, never used as a beast of burden, and then they were supposed to bring her unto Eleazar the priest, and he was to bring her without the camp. The term without the camp means outside of the camp, and this term is used throughout the Bible not only about other sacrifices, but specifically, most notably, about the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he was sacrificed without the camp, that he was crucified outside of the city of Jerusalem. But here, We're told that he would bring her forth without the camp and one shall slay her before his face. I want you to make note of the fact that they were to take her outside of the camp and then they were to slay her before his face, before Eleazar's face, meaning, you know, with him watching or him observing. And I want you to notice that this was done without the camp, verse 4. Now this phrase here can be a little confusing to maybe some people because sometimes people assume that when it says that he shall sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle that he was taking of the blood of this red heifer and then sprinkling it on the tabernacle. But we already saw in verse 3 that Eliezer has taken this heifer and he has gone forth without the camp. He's outside of the camp and he's not going to come back to the camp until verse 7. In fact, we're going to look at all of these verses, but just skip over to verse 7 real quickly. Notice what the Bible says, Then the priest shall wash his clothes, this is when it's all said and done, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp. So notice he's been outside of the camp since verse 3. He doesn't come back into the camp in verse 7. So when the Bible says that they slay her before his face, this happens outside of the camp. When the Bible says that he is to take of her blood with his fingers and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation, seven times, this is done outside the camp and when it says directly before the tabernacle, the way Hugh and I would say it today is that he was to do this in the direction of the tabernacle. So they were to take this heifer outside of the camp, slay it, and then take the blood and he was to direct himself towards where the tabernacle would be and sprinkle the blood before the tabernacle, in the direction of the tabernacle, of the congregation, seven times. Now, let me just say this, what's unique, there are some things that are unique about this sacrifice. One is where it's mentioned in the Bible. It's in Numbers chapter 19. Right in the middle of all these narratives, God, in the Holy Spirit of God, decides to put this chapter with this sacrifice. This reads like something we would read in the book of Leviticus. Now we've already gone chapter by chapter through the book of Leviticus, and if you remember when we studied the book of Leviticus, we talked about the fact that the book of Leviticus was really like a manual for the Levitical priests. It was a manual that told them how to do the sacrifices, what to do with the sacrifices. But here in Numbers 19, we have a new sacrifice added. It's very similar to some of the sacrifices in Leviticus, but it's different. than the sacrifices in Leviticus. It's also unique not only because of where we find it in the Bible, but also because of the fact that, as I already mentioned, it's a heifer. It's not a bullock. It is a female. And it is unique because of the fact that it's a red heifer. So it makes for good movies and YouTube videos because it's red, you know? But it is a unique sacrifice that is happening here. So we see that they were supposed to find this red heifer. We see that they were supposed to slay it and sprinkle the blood in the direction towards the tabernacle, though they were outside the camp, verses 3 and 4. Look at verse 5. And one shall burn the heifer in his sight. Whose sight? Alias of the priest. Her skin and her flesh and her blood and her dung shall he burn. Now the burning of a sacrifice is not that unique in the sense that in the book of Leviticus we have a burnt sacrifice and oftentimes a burnt sacrifice could be different types of animals, but a bullock was definitely one of those. So that's not that unique that they're burning the sacrifice, but I do want to point out a couple of things. That in Leviticus when you had the burnt sacrifice of the bullock, the bullock was killed at the door of the tabernacle. So it was killed in the same place where most all sacrifices were done, which was at the tabernacle. And then that bullock after it was dead and after it had been gutted of certain things that God said to take it out and use certain pieces to give to the Levites, to give to the priests for them to eat. Then they were to take it outside of the camp and they would burn it outside the camp. So burning a sacrifice outside of the camp in and of itself is not that unique. But what's different with this one is that this one was brought outside of the camp slain, killed, and then it was completely burned. Her skin and her flesh and her blood and her dung shall he burn. Look at verse 6. Now let me just say this, the cedarwood and the hyssop and the scarlet, these are all three items that are also used in Leviticus 14 regarding the cleansing of a leper. And I'm not going to get into it tonight because I'm actually going to preach a different sermon next Sunday night where we go through all the foreshadowings that are found in this passage, but I want you to notice that they were to take the cedarwood and hyssop and scarlet and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer. So they have this heifer, they take it out there, it's a red heifer, without spot, no blemish, never had a yoke upon it. They kill it outside of the camp, sprinkle the blood seven times in the direction of the tabernacle, directly before the tabernacle, and then they were to burn the entire thing. And as it's burning, so they're supposed to burn the heifer, her skin, her flesh, and her blood. Because oftentimes what they would do with these other burnt sacrifices, they would kill it and they would pour out the blood at the altar. They would pour out the blood and then burn everything else. Here they even burn her blood, with her dung shall he burn. And then while it's burning, verse 6, they were to throw in cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer. So they completely burn outside of the camp, with some cedar wood, hyssop, and crimson, some sort of a crimson material, or material that is colored crimson. Look at verse 4, excuse me, verse 7. So notice, once it's all done, they burn it all up, they throw in the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet, then he washes his clothes, He bathes his flesh, and he shall come into the camp, so now he comes back into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the even. Look at verse 8. And he that burneth her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until even. Verse 9, so we see that to completely burn it, the priest and the one who burns it are to wash their clothes, bathe themselves, and go back to the camp. They were to be unclean. Look at verse 9, and a man that is clean, so it's now a different guy, because they're unclean as a result of what they've done. Notice that this is being emphasized. All of this is done without the camp. So another person, after the priest and the guy that burned the heifer get done, another person is to clean and gather the ashes and store them outside the camp in a clean place. And the ashes were to be mixed with water to make what the Bible refers to here as a water of separation. And it says that it is a purification for sin. Look at verse 10. And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer, just like the priest, just like the guy that burned it, shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the even, and he shall be unto the children of Israel and unto the strangers that sojourneth among them for a statute forever. So that's what they were supposed to do to sacrifice this thing, all right? Then you say, well, what do they do with this water that they sprinkled the ashes in? Look at verse 11. He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. And he shall, verse 12, purify himself with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean. But if he purify not himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean. Look at verse 13. 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 of separation was not sprinkled upon him. He shall be unclean. His uncleanness is yet upon him. So what they were supposed to do was take these ashes and put them in this water and then when somebody was defiled because they touched a dead body, They were to be sprinkled with this water of separation, which was water mixed with the ashes of the red ephor. And they were to do this on the third day after they become defiled with the dead body. And on the seventh day, and this was a ritual to cleanse them and purify them after they came in contact with a dead body. Does that all make sense? Hopefully that makes sense. We're just reading the verses. and explaining it. Now, those were the rules. That's what was supposed to happen. Find the red heifer that's unspotted, unblemished, and never had a yoke, slay it, outside of the camp and sprinkle the blood towards the tabernacle, burn the whole thing, and throw in cedarwood, hyssop, and crimson wool, or crimson material, whatever it was. Then the priest who burned it and the priest who oversaw the whole thing wash themselves, go back into camp. Another person who's clean gathers the ashes, stores the ashes, puts the ashes in water, puts it somewhere clean and keeps it outside the camp. And then he washes himself. And then when someone is defiled by a dead body, they use that water to sprinkle it upon them on the third day and on the seventh day in order to cleanse them from this ritual defilement. of being around a dead body. Those are the rules. Now, he's already alluded to it, but let's just look at the reason. What is the reason for this? Verse 14. So he says, when does this apply? When does this law apply? He says, this is the law when a man dieth in a tent. And all that come into the tent, and all that is in the tent shall be unclean seven days. And every open vessel, which has no covering bound upon it, is unclean." So he's telling them, look, when somebody dies, you walk into somebody's tent, your friend's tent, a loved one's tent, and they're laying there, they're dead. When a man dithes in a tent, he says, all that come into the tent and all that is in the tent shall be unclean seven days. And they said, if there's an open vessel, if they had a bottle of water, which I know they didn't have bottled waters back then, but if they had a bottle of water and it had no lid on it, then that was also unclean. Verse 15, And every open vessel which hath no covering bound upon it is unclean, and whosoever toucheth one that is slain, so if you touch, And look, when somebody dies, somebody has to touch them, right? They got to prepare the body, they got to carry it, they got to bury the body. He says, purification for sin and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel and a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in water and sprinkle it upon the tent and upon all vessels and upon the persons that were there and upon him that touched a bone or one slain or one dead or a grave. So notice again, if you touch a dead body or if there are things, a tent that is around a dead body, they were to take this water and sprinkle it with the hyssop, with the different materials here. They were to sprinkle the person, sprinkle the tent, sprinkle the all these different things in order to purify. Verse 19, And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day. And on the seventh day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be unclean at 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 of separation hath not been sprinkled upon him, he is unclean. And it shall be a perpetual statute unto them, I want to read that because I just want you to notice what it is that is going on here and what the Bible actually teaches about this. Now, I want you to understand a little bit of the context, okay? Because of the fact, you say, well, why would God just kind of put this here and start talking about a bunch of dead bodies and how to deal with dead bodies? And if you've been with us through the book of Numbers, then this might click for you and it might make some sense as to why God just kind of all of a sudden it seems like And of course we know he didn't do that, but it seems like he just kind of chose a random place to give this new sacrifice, to deal with dead bodies. But if you consider the fact that just a few chapters ago in Numbers 16, there was a plague that killed a lot of people. So there was a lot of dead bodies. And in a few chapters from now, Numbers 21, we're going to have another famous story where the fiery serpents kill a bunch of people. Remember Moses has to raise up a brazen serpent and people have to look at the serpent so that they can live. So we know that they had situations and circumstances where they had a lot of corpses, a lot of dead bodies they had to deal with. But even more than that, and I'm not going to get too much into this tonight, but we'll cover it when we get to chapter 20. But here's what I want you to understand. From Numbers 19 to Numbers 20, there is a separation of 37 years. When we read Numbers chapter 1 to Numbers chapter 20, we're dealing with about a 1 to 2 year period towards the beginning of the children of Israel leaving Egypt. When we go from Numbers 19 to Numbers 20, we jump 37 years. And I'll prove that to you and I'll show that to you when we get to Numbers 20. The only reason I bring that up is to remind you that if you remember, the children of Israel already went to Kadesh Barnea. They already went to the border of the Promised Land. And if you remember, because of their lack of faith, 12 spies went in, 10 came back with an evil report, 2 came back with a good report. Because the children of Israel feared and believed the 10 report, God cursed them and He said that they would wander in the wilderness for 40 years. And He said that that generation would die in the wilderness. So the entire nation of Israel, when we're talking about the adults, which would be 20 years old and up, all die between Numbers 19 and Numbers 20. Those 37 years, a lot of them die. And if you consider, you know, the numbers, we obviously don't know for sure how many people there were in that wilderness. But we do know from Numbers Chapter 1 that there was 603,550 men eligible to go to war. That's 603,550 men who were 20 years old and up. If you consider the fact that a lot of those men probably had wives and a lot of those men probably had kids, we're talking about 1 million, 2 million, 3 million, maybe 4 million people that make up the nation of Israel in the wilderness. And if God said that a whole generation was going to die before they enter into the Promised Land 40 years or 37 years after this event, then a lot of people are dying. I mean, they're probably having 100 people die every day. So it kind of makes sense because if you remember God's will was not for them to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. They were supposed to go into the promised land. But because they were going to be in the wilderness and they were going to deal with all these dead bodies and pretty much someone was going to be dying every day. I mean multiple people dying every day and there's going to be a lot of this dealing with dead bodies, burying dead bodies, doing these things. Then He gives them this red heifer sacrifice to help them be able to cleanse themselves and purify themselves for dealing with these dead bodies. Because if you consider the fact, this was kind of a way to sacrifice in advance. Because in Leviticus, they had all these sacrifices. And they were supposed to bring these sacrifices, whether it was a bullock, or whether it was a goat, or whether it was birds, this took time. And when you talk about a burnt sacrifice, it takes a long time to burn a body. And especially when we're talking about something the size of a bull. So what God was allowing them to do was to do this one time, take all the ashes, put them in water, and then kind of sprinkle people. So as people are being defiled by dead bodies, instead of everyone having to sacrifice an animal, they could just take these ashes that have already been burnt up and they could sprinkle people along the way. So they were sprinkling people and helping people be undefiled for coming into contact with a dead body the way Catholics sprinkle people, you know, for baptism. You know, it was an easy way to kind of deal with it because they're coming in contact with so many dead corpses, so many dead bodies throughout the 40 years. Hopefully that helps you understand why it is, in a practical sense, that God put this here. Now, I also wanted to read through that whole passage because I want you to understand what the Bible is teaching. Now let's just quickly talk about the fallacies. Okay, we talked about the fascination, we talked about the facts. Let's talk about the fallacies. And this is a problem that I have when people ask me about stuff like this and it's like, what they're asking about is not in the Bible. So they're like, what are your thoughts about the red heifer bringing in the third temple? And I'm like, I have no thoughts about the red heifer bringing in the third temple. The Bible doesn't say. Well, let me just ask you this. We just read the whole passage. Did you read anything in there about you need a red heifer to build a temple? Was there anything in there about ... I mean there was definitely a sacrifice and there's definitely a purifying and there's definitely a defilement. Nobody's arguing that. Is there anything in there about this is required to bring about the Levitical priesthood? This is required to build a temple? Was there anything in there about that at all? The answer is no. So you say, well, where do people get this idea then about needing a red heifer to establish this temple in Jerusalem? And the answer is they don't get it from the Bible, they get it from the Talmud. Now let me just help you understand some things real quickly. And like I said, this is more of an informational type sermon, but go to the book of Mark, Mark chapter seven, if you would. Mark chapter seven. And while you turn there, let me just read to you some things to help you understand. There is a book that the Jews use called the Talmud. It is not scripture. It is not part of the Bible. Let me just read this to you and maybe if you're not familiar with it, you can understand it. The term Talmud is a Hebrew word that means study. And the Talmud commonly refers to a compilation of ancient teachings regarded as sacred by the Jews. In the Record of Rabbinic Teachings that explain, excuse me, it is a Record of Rabbinic Teachings that explain in great detail how the commandments of the Torah are to be carried out. So when Jews refer to the Torah, What they are referring to is what we would call the first five books of the Bible. or sometimes referred to as the Pentateuch, the Book of Moses. We're talking about Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. That's what they call the Torah. And then the Talmud is a book that explains to them the Torah. It is the record of rabbinic teachings or teachings from rabbis that explain in great detail how the commandments of the Torah are to be carried out. The Talmud is made up of two separate works. The Mishnah, which is primarily a compilation of Jewish laws written in Hebrew. And the Gemara, which is the rabbinic commentaries and discussions of the Mishnah written in Hebrew and Aramaic. So just think of it this way. You have the Torah, which is the first five books of the Bible. And then you have the Talmud. The Talmud is like a commentary. on the Torah. And it's all these rabbis over the centuries just kind of giving their thoughts about how they're supposed to interpret and what they're supposed to do. So here's what happens. You have something in the Bible that we just read. We just read the whole chapter on it, right? Find a red heifer, unspotted, unblemished, make sure yoke isn't on it. take it outside the camp, slay it, sprinkle the blood towards the tabernacle, burn it, throw wood, the hyssop wood, the scarlet, you know, the cedar wood, the hyssop and the scarlet, and take the ashes, put them in water, and when people die and they're defiled, you can sprinkle the water on them, and that's a quick way to undefile them on the third day of the seventh day, because you're gonna have a lot of dead bodies to deal with. That's what the Bible says. But then this talmud, it adds all these extra things. So it has, and I'm not going to go through and just give you all the things, but here's just some examples. It tells them that it has to be at least three years old. It tells them that it has to be naturally born, can't be born as a Caesarian. Did we read anything like that in Numbers 19? It tells them that it can't have mated with a bull. It tells them, and this is a big one, that it cannot have any other colored hair. Now, and look, again, look at, you're in Mark, so don't look at it, but when you look at the passage there in Numbers chapter 19, it says, this is the ordinance of the law of the Lord, which the Lord hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring a red heifer without spot, Now it was to be unspotted and unblemished. That is pretty standard for sacrifices. But where does it say it can't even have one white hair? It can't even have one black character. Because that's what these Jews, they'll take these like magnifying glasses and they're like looking at these, you know, red heifers and they get born and there's a red heifer born and then they have to watch it for three years and make sure that, and they've got all these silly rules that a bird doesn't land on it, that this doesn't happen, that that doesn't happen. They have all these rules that are added in the Talmud. And by the way, let me just say this, a lot of, because people, Christians think like, oh, the Jews follow the Torah. No, they don't. They do not. Jesus said that if you would have believed Moses, you would have believed on me. I wish the Jews followed the Torah, then they might get saved. What they're following is this book called the Talmud, and that's where they get all the silly stuff. Because you look at Jews and you're like, none of that's in the Bible. Silly hats with curly hair, none of that's in the Bible. The way they dress, all these things, none of that is in the Bible. That's more Amish than it is biblical. But where do they get it from? It's this Talmud where all these rabbis, you know, because, and look, it started all the way from the time of Christ. Let me give you some examples. Look at Mark chapter 7. Look at verse 9. Mark chapter 7 verse 9. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandments of God, that ye may keep your own traditions. This is Jesus speaking to the Jews. And then he goes on and gives them an example of how they've done that. He goes on and tells them there in verse number 10. Isn't that a command from Moses? Moses said, Notice what Jesus said, verse 13. Making the word of God of none effect through your traditions. which ye have delivered, and many such like things ye do." Jesus said, you take the commandments of God and then you add all these other things to it. and you make the commandments of God of none, he says verse 13, making the word of God of none effect through your traditions, which ye have delivered, and many such like things do ye. So look, when people talk to me about like, what do you, this red half-haired, he can't have a white hair. It's like, that's not in the Bible. You didn't get that from the Bible. You got that from a bunch of anti-Christ, Christ-rejecting Jews and their Talmud. Let me give you another example. Go to Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15. Look at verse number 1. Matthew chapter 15 and verse 1. Matthew 15 1, the Bible says this, Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, So they're going to ask him this question. Why do thy disciples transgress the traditions of the elders? What are they saying? What are the traditions of the elders? There are these rabbinic teachings. There are these writings and these teachings from the elders. They ask him, why do thy disciples transgress the traditions of the elders? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. But he answered and said unto them, why do ye also transgress the commandments of God by your traditions? They added all these extra rules and extra laws. Now look, mom's always worried when I preach on this. Wash your hands, kids, before you eat, okay? But washing your hands before you eat is not a religious thing we do. It's not like, I didn't wash my hands before. And obviously, you know, this is like a ritual. They didn't even wash their hands. They weren't even using soap. It was like this traditional religious thing. But here's the thing. The Bible doesn't talk about that. They made that stuff up. They added that. He answered and said unto them, verse 3, Why do ye also transgress the commandments of God by your traditions? For God commanded, saying, Honor thy father and mother, and he that curses his father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whosoever thou mightest be profited by me, and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandments of God of none effect by your traditions. By the way, just so you understand, when the Bible says, honor thy father and thy mother, that is a command given to adults to take care of their parents financially when they come to the age where they cannot care for themselves. There are two commandments that are given to children. One is to children who are living under the authority of their parents. That is the commandment, obey your parents. Children, obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. But then the command that's given to both children and adult children is to honor thy father and thy mother. An adult child doesn't have to obey his parents, he's not under their authority anymore, but he does have to honor them. And the word honor is closely tied throughout the Bible with this idea of financially taking care of someone. I'm explaining this to you because I want you to understand what's going on here. Jesus is telling them, you transgress the commandments of God by your traditions. Then he gives an example, and the example he gives you may not be familiar with. He explains to them that God commanded, honor thy father and thy mother, and he that curses father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, whosoever shall say to his father or mother, it is a gift. So here's what the Jews, they came up with this thing. where they said, well, God said that we're supposed to honor our father and mother. But if we take all of our wealth, and then we just say that it's for the house of God, then we don't have to take care of our parents anymore. That's what Jesus is talking about, verse five. But ye say, whosoever shall say to his father, his mother, it is a gift. I can't take care of you. I've dedicated all my riches to the temple. By whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me. Well, you were supposed to be profited by me, but I can't help you anymore because I've dedicated it all to the temple. Verse six, and honor not, here's what Jesus said, you are not honoring your father and your mother, and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. He says, thus have you made the commandments of God of none effect by your traditions. And here's what he's saying. They were finding ways to get around what God actually told them to do. by coming up with all these fake laws and traditions that God never gave, that Moses never gave, that are not written in the Bible at all. And today they've compiled all those and they put them in a book and they call them the Talmud. So all this silliness about we need a red heifer to build a third temple, we need a red heifer to institute and bring back the Levitical priest, all that stuff, none of that is in the Bible. We just read the chapter about the red heifer. There was nothing in there about that. Now there is stuff about being defiled in the sanctuary because anytime that you were defiled, it was defiled to the sanctuary. It's all rituals. It's all religious things. There's ordinances. They're symbolic. They were foreshadows of things to come. So that's what the Jews teach. And what the Jews teach doesn't come from the Bible. It comes from the Talmud. Now let me just explain to you why the Jews are wrong. And I'm just gonna give you several examples or several arguments regarding why it is that the Jews are wrong regarding this teaching. The first is proof from the text itself. And proof from the text is this, and we've already talked about it, but it's this, that there is absolutely no mention of establishing a tabernacle or temple or Levitical priesthood in Numbers chapter 19. Right? I mean, we just read it, the whole thing. What did it say? And this is how you commission the tabernacle. And this is how you commission the priesthood. You need this to build a temple. I mean, Solomon missed it when he built the first temple. There is absolutely no mention of establishing the tabernacle or temple in the Levitical priesthood. But not only that. And here's the part that I think is interesting. And I don't know, maybe you don't think it's interesting. I think it's interesting. I don't know. When you're the pastor, you can preach whatever you want. But I think this is super interesting. And it is this that, and I've said this before, and I often think this, I feel like the devil wants to mock the Word of God and Christianity. And look, the Jews' religion is a devil religion. You say, I don't think you should say that. Really? Jesus said that. He called them the synagogue of Satan. But obviously, all false religion is of the devil. But here's what's really interesting to me, is that false religion often takes what the Bible says and does the exact opposite. You've heard me say that before, and I just, to me, I look at that and I think to myself, like, man, the devil is good. Like, he's bad. He's really good at being bad. Because he's really good at just making Christianity look stupid. Right? And you've heard me give the examples. Jesus says, let me give you an example to pray. Don't pray this. Don't repeat this vainly. Don't chant this. I don't want you to do like the heathen do and pray this vain and repetitious prayer. And then the Catholics are like, I have an idea. Let's take that prayer and chant it. And it's just like, what? How? I mean, to me, like, how can that be? How can you look at a passage of scripture where Jesus says, they asked Jesus, teach us to pray. He says, I'm gonna teach you how to pray, I'm gonna give you a pattern for prayer, but don't pray this over and over like the heathen do, chanting and repeating it, and then people will take that and chant it and repeat it. How can that be? You know, the Jehovah's Witnesses. The Bible literally teaches that of the rapture, we go up, 144,000 come down. Jehovah's Witnesses teach, no. Everyone comes down, only the 144,000. I mean, they literally teach the exact opposite. And it's like, how can you look at the Bible and get that? And this is what we see here. It's, to me, God put Numbers 19 in this portion of Scripture. There's a practical reason. I've already explained to you. A lot of people are going to die between Numbers 19 and Numbers 20. 37 years are going to pass. Lots of people are going to die. So God tells him, hey, since you're going to be dealing with dead bodies a lot, let me give you an easy way to undefile yourself that doesn't require all of you having to burn a sacrifice. Let's just burn one outside the camp. We'll put it in water and all of you can use it. That's the practical reason. But then I think there's also a strategic reason why God did this. Let me back up for a second and just give you one more proof regarding the text. Did you notice that everything was outside the camp, without the camp? This sacrifice is unique in the sense that the whole thing happened outside the camp. Even the burning of a bullock in the book of Leviticus, which was very similar to the burning of the red heifer, it was slain at the door of the tabernacle and then burnt outside the camp. This one, everything happens outside the camp. You even kill it outside the camp. Say, why does God do that? I think God does that just to make a point. Because I think God knew that later down the road, a bunch of unbelieving Jews are going to say, this is what's required. to sacrifice, in order to create the tabernacle, the temple, to create this third temple. And it's a sacrifice, it's one of, it's unique in the sense that it has nothing to do with the tabernacle. The whole thing is done away from the tabernacle. So that's proof from the text that this is not needed to bring in a third temple. And that's, and let me just say this, we don't need to be trying to bring in a third temple. The Antichrist is going to sit in that temple. We as Christians don't be donating money trying to help the Jews build the temple. First of all, donating money to Jews is already just craziness. They should be donating to us. So you have the proof from the text. And this is the part where I think it's crazy. This is where to me it gets looney tunes. Proof from the context. Okay, you say, what do you mean by proof from the context? Well, number one, when we get to Numbers 19, which supposedly is, this red heifer is needed to build the temple, to have the priest, to build all these things. When this happens, keep in mind, the tabernacle has already been established. The Levitical priesthood has already been going. When we get to Numbers 19, the children of Israel have already been wandering in the wilderness. Remember we went through Numbers chapter 1, Numbers chapter 2, Numbers chapter 3, Numbers chapter 4. Remember we got to chapters 8 and 9 and 10 where he told them how they were to wander in the wilderness. Remember when they started wandering in the wilderness and they have to take the tabernacle apart and they have to carry it in a certain way and certain families of the tribe of Levi were supposed to do certain things. The Levitical priesthood and the tabernacle is already up and running. But then you have this chapter that teaches you how to establish the Levitical priesthood and the tabernacle. I mean, is God just like disorganized? Like he's like, oh, I forgot. You guys were supposed to do this. Now, just in case you might think like, well, maybe God did forget. Because there's a lot of Christians out there that are super Zionists. And they just love everything Jewish. They just think the Jews are awesome. You think I'm joking, but there's literally churches all over this country that will have an American flag and a Jewish flag in their church building. And both are wicked nations. Let me tell you something. So the Bible is interesting to me because I think God put this chapter here very strategically. And you say, well, what do you mean by that? Think about where we are in the book of Numbers. Think about what we've been studying in Numbers for the last several chapters. Numbers chapter 16 is one of the most famous chapters in Numbers. We spent several weeks in Numbers 16. Do you remember what it was about? It was about Korah. It was about Dathan. It was about Abiram. It was about Korah getting 250 princes to follow him. And it was about the congregation of the children of Israel following these individuals and what is it that Korah was trying to do? Do you remember? You don't have to answer out loud. But do you remember? What was the whole point? What was the whole thing? Korah was a Levite who wanted to be a priest. Korah was trying to remove Aaron from his position of high priest and make himself high priest. God opened up the earth. The Bible says that the earth opened their mouth and swallowed up Korah and Dathan and Abiram and Dathan and Abiram's family and they went alive into the pit. Why? Because it was God's way of saying, no Korah, no Dathan, no Abiram. You don't get to be the priest. I chose Aaron. He's the priest. Then God sends fire from heaven and burns up the 250 princes that followed them. Again, God reiterating, I didn't choose you, I chose Aaron. Aaron's the priest. Then in chapter 17, they take the 12 staffs of the 12 leaders of the tribes, put them in the tabernacle, come back the next day, and Aaron's rod budded. And again, one more. So chapter 16, what's the big takeaway? God chose Aaron. God made Aaron the priest. He made him the high priest. He made his sons the priest. They are who God chose. Don't try to take their position. Then chapter 17, Aaron's rod that budded. God again saying, I chose Aaron. I didn't choose any of you guys. I chose Aaron. Then we have chapter 18. What was chapter 18 about? It was about Levitical priests and the Levites. Remember that? And it was about God, again, reiterating. There's the priest, there's the Levite. These are two different positions. The Levite does certain things, the priest does certain things. And he's emphasizing, I chose Aaron. Look, you know what's been the theme leading up to this chapter? Is that God had already chosen Aaron. And then the Jews, they don't read the Bible, because they read the Talmud, they don't read the Bible. But if they read the Bible, they would read like, oh, number 16, God chose Aaron. God chose Aaron's sons. They're the priests. Oh, chapter 17, Aaron's rod that budded. God chose Aaron. God chose Aaron's son. Oh, chapter 18, the Levites, Korah, Dathan, Abiram, are different than the priests. God chose Aaron. Chapter 19, this is how we establish the Levitical priesthood. How can that be? Do you understand what I'm telling you? I don't know if I have the communication ability to really help you understand what I'm saying. They tell us, we need chapter 19 to establish the high priest. The chapters leading up to it, God is just killing people, killing people, killing people. I already picked the high priest. I already picked the high priest. I already picked the high priest. You know what that tells us? It tells us this. Chapter 19 is not about how to establish a priest. It's pretty well established that God wants Aaron to be the priest. And to me, I'm like, out of all the chapters you could have picked to establish the priesthood, that's the one you chose? It's like chanting a prayer over and over that Jesus told you not to! It's that crazy! Look, the context of the book tells us this is not establishing a Levitical priesthood. Because the context is all about God chose the high priest already. And then the passage itself, the text itself, no mention of establishing a high priest. Okay, but let's look at proof from other texts. Because I gave you proof from the main text. I gave you proof from the context. Let's look at other texts. Go to Exodus 29. Exodus 29. Here's another biblical proof that Numbers 19 is not about establishing a Levitical priesthood. That Numbers 19 is not about establishing the temple. Now, of course, in Exodus, we're establishing the tabernacle. The temple isn't built later to Solomon, but it's the same idea. The temple just replaced the tabernacle. Exodus 29, look at verse 1. Exodus 29, verse 1. And this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them. Unto who? Well, it's going to be real clear here in a minute, but I'll just tell you. It's Aaron and his sons. You know what this chapter, Exodus 29, is about? It's about how to establish a priesthood. That's actually what this chapter is about. They should be, if they want to establish, re-establish the Levitical priest and whatever, they should be going to Exodus 29. Why are they going to Numbers 19? You know why? Because they're blinded. Because they can't even understand the Bible. Because unsaved people can't understand the Bible. Because they don't even care what the Torah says. They're just following the Talmud and all of it is a bunch of garbage. Exodus 29 and 1. Look at verse 4. Remember they had special garments. He's telling them. take Aaron and his sons to the door of the tabernacle wash them with water and then take the garments and put upon Aaron the coat and the robe of the ephod and the ephod and the breastplate and gird him with the curious girdle of the ephod and I shall put the Maitre upon his head, and put the holy crown upon the Maitre. Then shalt thou take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head, and anoint him. And thou shalt bring his sons, and put coats upon them. And thou shalt gird them with girdles, Aaron and his sons, and put the bonnets on them. And the priest's office shall be theirs for a perpetual statute, and thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his son. You know what we're reading in Exodus 29, verses 1 through 9, is how to establish a Levitical priesthood. That's actually the chapter that tells them how to establish it. This happened way before Numbers 19. But go to YouTube, get your theology from YouTube, and they're like, the way you establish a Levitical priesthood, and then they pull some chapter out where it's like, Levitical priesthood's already been established. Tabernacle's already been established. Not only that, but God's been killing all sorts of people in chapter 16 and 17 and 18, telling people, I've established the priesthood. And then that's a chapter you want to pick? That's crazy. That just shows how blind people are. That just shows how lack of knowledge people have. regarding the Word of God. By the way, let me say this, when they established Exodus 29, when they established the priesthood, there were sacrifices that had to be done. There's one sacrifice called the burnt sacrifice that seems a lot like Numbers 19. Let's look at it. Exodus 29 10. And thou shalt cause a bullock. I want you to notice, it looks a lot like the red heifer, but it's very different. In the first sense, it's a bullock, not a heifer. Male, not female. And thou shalt cause a bullock to be brought before the tabernacle of the congregation, and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the bullock. This was like the way that we ordain preachers into the ministry. We have a special service, I preach, then they come up and I lay hands on them. This was the ordination service for the priests. This is how they did it in the Old Testament. They brought a bullock, Aaron and his sons put their hands upon the head of the bullock, verse 11, and thou shalt kill the bullock before the Lord, where? By the door of the tabernacle. Is it without the camp? No, they killed it by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And thou shalt take the blood of the bullock, is it sprinkled seven times towards the tabernacle? No, and put it upon the horns of the altar with thy finger, and pour all the blood beside the bottom of the altar. And thou shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards, and the call that is above the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and burn them upon the altar. It is a sin offering. So I want you to notice, this sacrifice is similar, but it's not the same. Now, I can understand if you just read it, you're like, oh, it's really similar. But when you actually read it, it's not the same. It's a bullock, not a heifer. One's killed at the door of the tabernacle. The other one's killed out of the camp. The blood is poured and put upon the altar. The other one, the blood is sprinkled toward the direction of the tabernacle. One is, certain parts of it are taken out and burned at the altar, and then the rest is burned outside the camp. The other one is killed outside the camp and completely burned outside the camp. I understand that they're similar, but they're not the same. And look, I'm not going to read this whole chapter, but just skip down to verse 44. Exodus 29, 44. And I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar. And I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons to minister to me in the priest's office. And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt. that I may dwell among them. I am the Lord their God. Exodus 29 is literally the chapter on how to establish the Levitical priesthood and how to commission the tabernacle. But that's not what the Jews, look, this should tell you, don't tell me, oh, the Jews follow the Torah. No, they don't. Moses is up in heaven and he's just shaking his head like these guys. They're looking for some red heifer. And look, do you really think that Moses was just out there with a magnifying glass, like, we gotta find a red heifer with no, again, have one white hair. That's made up. That's not in the Bible. Go to Hebrews chapter nine. Hebrews chapter nine. If you start backwards from Revelation, you have Jude, third, second, first John, second, first Peter, James, and then the book of Hebrews. We'll finish up right here, Hebrews chapter nine. We talked about the fascination with the red heifer. We talked about the facts about the red heifer. We talked about the fallacy of the red heifer. Let's quickly end with the fulfillment of the red heifer. But let me just say this. When it comes to the red heifer, there's all sorts of foreshadows of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is true. Like what the Bible actually teaches is pretty amazing. And I don't have time. I knew that I wouldn't have time tonight to cover all that because oftentimes what we have to do before we can teach what the Bible actually teaches is we have to like undo all this false teaching. But next week, we're going to look at the foreshadows of Christ in the sacrifice of the Red Heifer, and we're going to go through the chapter and run verses, and I'm going to show you a lot of different, how there's a lot of symbolism and foreshadows of the Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross, and how it's similar to the Red Heifer, because really, that's what the sacrifice was about. It was about the fact that it was foreshadowing the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the red heifer is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Hebrews chapter 9 verse 11. But Christ being come and high priest of good things to come. by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Look at verse 13. That's the red heifer. Because only the red heifer is a heifer. All the rest are bullocks. All the rest are bulls. For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. The red heifer is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what these Jews need to be doing? Instead of looking for some red heifer that has no white hairs and no black hairs, they should be looking for Christ. Because he's the fulfillment of this sacrifice. And we'll look at all the symbolism regarding that next week. Let's bow our heads and now we'll pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you. And we thank you for your word and the fact that we have the Holy Spirit and we can study these passages and look at them. And obviously the sacrifice of the red heifer was an important sacrifice. You gave it in scripture for a reason. It was unique in many ways. But Lord, help us to always look at the Bible in its context. And help us to not get wrapped up in these things. Because the truth is that there's a lot of false teaching out there, and we need to try the spirits. We need to search the scriptures daily to see whether those things are so. Lord, I pray you'd help us to be Bible-believing Christians who love the Bible, study the Bible, know the Bible, and care about what the Bible says. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, we're gonna have Brother RJ come up and lead us in a final song. I just wanna remind you that we do have the clipboards out there for the work days. So if you don't mind, man, especially if you have