2495. Defiled And Defiling

No. 2495-42:589. A Sermon Delivered On Lord’s Day Evening, April 19, 1885, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

A Sermon Intended For Reading On Lord’s Day, December 13, 1896.

Then Haggai said, “If one who is unclean by a dead body touches any of these, shall it be unclean?” And the priests answered and said, “It shall be unclean.” Then Haggai answered, and said, “ ‘So is this people, and so is this nation before me,’ says the LORD; ‘and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean.’ ” {Hag 2:13,14}

1. The prophet Haggai very wisely drew out from the priests a definite answer to certain questions which he asked them. Then, on their authority, he could say to the people, “This is what your own priests say; and this is what you yourselves believe.” This was taking them by a kind of sacred guile, and it was a powerful means of forcing home the truth to their heart and conscience.

2. According to the twelfth verse, Haggai first asked the priests this question, “ ‘If one carries holy meat in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt touches bread, or stew, or wine, or oil, or any food, shall it be holy?’ And the priests answered, and said, ‘No.’ ” Here is a man who is holy — I mean, ceremonially holy, — and he is carrying in his skirts part of a holy sacrifice. Now, if he touches anything, will he make it holy by that touch? The priests said, “No,” they could not say otherwise. So, if a man is himself holy, however holy he may be, can he make another man holy simply by touching him? If he speaks of good things, or does good actions, will it be certain that by it he will affect others by his good words and good works? Oh, no! There does not seem to be that spreading power in holy things that there is in unholy things; at any rate, not in those who are merely ceremonially holy. Here, then, is a man who is, in a legal sense, clean before God, and he is carrying a holy thing in his skirts, but he does not therefore make what he touches to be clean or holy.

3. Then the Spirit of God, having by the mouth of the prophet expressed the truth in that way, suggested to him to ask the priests another question. “Then Haggai said, ‘If one who is unclean by a dead body touches any of these, shall it be unclean?’ And the priests answered and said, ‘It shall be unclean.’ ” There is such a terrible contagion about uncleanness that he who is affected by it spreads it wherever he goes. Whatever he puts his foot on, or touches with his hand, becomes defiled by it. We cannot spread holiness, but we can spread unholiness. It will cause us labour and agony and anguish of spirit to impart to another even one right idea, and then when it is imparted it is not fully fixed in the hearer’s heart until the Spirit of God comes and works a miracle of grace; but it is easy enough to spread evil. A lewd song may have only one hearer, and yet never be forgotten. A wrong action may never be chronicled by the public press, yet some little eye that saw it shall have learned from the bad example something that shall never be unlearned. The horribly contagious and infectious power of sin, wherever it is displayed, is terrible.

4. But the thing to which I want especially to call your attention to is this. See what a picture is before us. Here is an unclean man; he has touched a dead body, and so become unclean, therefore whatever he touches also becomes unclean. There is a loaf of bread; he has cut a slice off of it, and all that loaf has become unclean. Here is a bowl of stew on the table; he has taken a portion from it, and so made it all unclean. There is a cup of wine; he has sipped it, or he may have only touched the vessel that contains it, but all of the wine is unclean. Here is olive oil, which one would think would be medicinally useful without being at all harmful; but this unclean person has put his finger into it, and it is unclean. Here is meat, or vegetable food of any kind; he has touched it, so it is all unclean. I should not like to be that man; — to make unclean even a chair that I might touch, to pollute the very house in which I lived, to be unable to shake hands with a friend without making him defiled through contact with me because I myself was unclean. I say again, that is a dreadful picture; and you must bear with me when I tell you my fear that it is not only the portrait of the erring people in Haggai’s day, but also a life-like representation of some who are now present, and of multitudes who pass for very good people in these days. It can still be said with utmost truthfulness, “ ‘So is this people, and so is this nation before me,’ says the Lord; ‘and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean.’ ”

5. I. So this is my subject. FIRST, THE TERRIBLE UNCLEANNESS. And here I will keep to my text.

6. If you want to fully understand the text, or to have it put into New Testament language, you must look at Paul’s Epistle to his son Titus; for there you get this same picture in other colours: “To the pure all things are pure: but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.” {Tit 1:15} They themselves are so impure that everything becomes impure to them. Every man whose heart is not renewed by grace is in this sad and terrible condition.

7. Here notice first, that common things are polluted by men of unclean nature. The apostle Paul, writing to the Romans, says, “I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean in itself.” Nothing that God has made, and that sin has not marred, is common or unclean in itself, “for every creature of God is good.” From that day when Peter, at Joppa, saw the great sheet let down to the earth, containing all kinds of four-footed animals, and creeping things, and fowls of the air, he was taught a lesson that he needed to learn, “What God has cleansed, that do not call common.” In and of itself, there is nothing that God has made which ought to be described as common. To the pure heart, everything is pure, but unclean men may make unclean every common or everyday thing of life. They cannot only make wine to be unclean, as, alas! is all but universally the case; but even bread, stew, oil, food, or anything that is in itself harmless, can be rendered impure when it comes to be touched by impure men, and used wrongfully.

8. Perhaps someone asks, “How can that be?” Well, common things can be rendered unclean when you make gods of them. If the most important questions of your life are, “What shall we eat, and what shall we drink, and with what shall we be clothed?” — if you seek first of all in this life merely these things, though they are not in themselves evil, they will become idols, and so will be unclean, for every idol is a defiling thing to those who bow down before it. Anything which takes your attention away from your God, is an idol; it is another god, a rival god, and so it is the most unclean thing possible. I mean just this, that, although your ordinary pursuits may be in themselves perfectly innocent, and may be commendable if they are followed out for the glory of God, yet if your first object in life is yourself and what you can get out of the common things of this life, you defile them by putting them into the place which belongs only to God.

9. Next, common things may be defiled by an excessive use of them. This may be done by gluttony. What a defilement it is of bread, the staff of life, and of those comforts which God gives to us for food, when a man makes his own belly into a god, whose temple is his kitchen. I do not know that the worst of the heathen can possibly degrade themselves more than epicures and drunkards do when they make those things, which in themselves are not evil, to become their gods, and indulge in them until, by their excess, they sink below the level of the beasts that perish. You can go to this excess with all kinds of things. The most common and apparent case is that of the man who indulges in strong drink; but all other common things are capable of being polluted in the same way, and they are continually being polluted like this.

10. Others pollute common things by wanting too much of them. The miser’s gold is cankered by his avarice. He who must always be acquiring more land, even if he has to banish everyone from the view of his windows, defiles his possessions. He who in trade is exacting towards those who labour for him, demanding more and giving less than is their due, defiles his trade; he makes a dunghill of his shop, and turns his traffic into treason against God. I need not go into details, because the thing is apparent to all men, and you can see how a defiled man, coming into a business which in itself is perfectly right, nevertheless defiles it by wanting too much of the goods for himself which God has entrusted to him as a steward to use for the good of others.

11. I am sure that we can also defile the common mercies of this life by ingratitude in the enjoyment of them. Are there not many, who eat and drink, yet never bless God for what they have; or who abound in riches, and yet out of all their wealth there never comes from their hearts any thanksgiving to God? They are, as good old Rowland Hill used to say, like the hogs under the oak, which eat the acorns that fall on the ground, but never lift up their thoughts to the tree from which the acorns come. These ungrateful people are willing to receive all the good things which God may give them, and they are greedy to get more; but the Lord never receives from them even the peppercorn rent {a} of a word of thanksgiving. Their hearts are set on the gifts of God, and they care nothing for the gracious Giver. Oh sirs, when you sit down without thanksgiving to your food and to your drinks, your tables are defiled, your platters and your cups are defiled, and every mouthful that goes down your throats is defiled, because you do not eat and drink to the glory of God!

12. See, then, in how many ways common things may be polluted by men of unclean nature.

13. But, even worse than that, holy things are polluted by men of an unclean nature. It is a very sad thing to see how the most sacred things can be spoiled by the touch of unholy hands. You have all heard of Voltaire, and you know something of the character of the man. I should think that no one ever excelled Voltaire in a clever kind of blasphemy; yet I find him writing to a lady, — a lady of whose character the less said the better, — “My friends say everywhere that I am not a Christian. I have just proven them liars by performing my Easter devotions (mes pâques) publicly, so proving to all, my intense desire to end my long career in the religion in which I was born.” Only imagine a man like Voltaire, after blasphemously saying of Christ that he would “crush the wretch,” then going to eat “the sacrament,” as some call it; and I am afraid that, every Easter, there are many people of that kind, who have no respect for the Lord’s day, but because their “priests” choose to call the day “Good Friday,” they have great respect for that day, and they will come to the communion table then, although all the year long they have never had a thought concerning him whose death they profess to celebrate. It is a terrible thing that the innermost mysteries of the Church of Christ are often polluted by a godless, thoughtless man, who, nevertheless, for some hypocritical or formalistic reason, will come even to the table of the Lord, not hesitating to break through that guard of fire, “he who eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks condemnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.”

14. Brethren, it is not merely the Lord’s table that an unclean man defiles, but he pollutes the gospel by using it as an excuse for sin. Listen to him. He says, “The preacher proclaimed the mercy of God, so I am going to live in sin.” You are a brute beast to talk like that! Another says, “The minister told us that salvation is all of grace, and that a great sinner glorifies God when he is converted; so why should I not be a great sinner?” Oh horrible wretch, are you not accursed indeed, when you can turn the very grace of God into an excuse for your immorality and sin? “Oh, but!” says a third, “you say that salvation is all by the sovereignty of God; therefore I cannot do anything in the matter.” I know you, sir; you are in your own heart so defiled that you use the blessed gospel itself as the instrument of your rebellion against God. Such people are, alas! all too common; they touch with defiled hands the holiest thing, and so pollute it.

15. But what happens if these defiled people pray? Oh, how many prayers there are which only insult the Most High God! If you sit down, or stand up, or kneel, and call yourself “a miserable sinner,” when you neither believe that you are a sinner, nor suffer any misery because of your sin, what are you doing but provoking the Lord to anger by virtually lying in his presence? Is not much so-called praying just of that kind? It is an awful thing to repeat a form of prayer when your heart does not mean it. What is it but a direct insult to the Lord? Yet how can men who are defiled pray such a prayer as God will accept? They must be themselves cleansed first before their prayers can be accepted. There is nothing so holy, in earth or in heaven, that a man of defiled heart and conscience will not pollute it if he can only lay his hands on it.

16. Further, even good works are polluted when they come from evil men. See what it says in the text: “ ‘So is this people, and so is this nation before me,’ says the Lord; ‘and so is every work of their hands.’ ” Here is a charitable man, he has been giving away a great deal of money; yet see how he has defiled his liberality. He sounded a trumpet before him, he was ostentatious, he desired to be thought very generous; and so, every penny that he has given to the poor has been defiled. “Take heed,” says our Lord, “that you do not do your alms before men, to be seen by them: otherwise you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Therefore when you do your alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may have praise from men. Truly I say to you, ‘They have their reward.’ ” There is no reward reserved for them at the resurrection of the just, for they have had their reward already.

17. Here is another man, and though he is not renewed and regenerate, he is in his way a very religious man. But why is he religious? Partly, out of fear; still more, from custom; possibly, just to please his friends, or to have a good reputation with his neighbours. Is not all that simply defiling religion?

18. I have also known some men to appear very humble just to gain their own objective; and when an unrenewed man puts on humility merely as a cloak, I was going to say that he is devilish, for the very humble man who aims at making some gain by it — the Uriah Heep {b} of the novelist, — is one of the most despicable of all people under heaven. When even that precious grace of humility is touched by his hand, does he not defile it until it appears loathsome in the eyes of men?

19. I have seen that same man become sternly righteous in order to take vengeance on his enemy. “I must do the right thing,” he says; and he speaks as if it was most painful to him to have to do it; but all the while there is someone whom he hates, and he is determined to crush him. He will have his pound of flesh, or the utmost farthing of his debt, and he tries to excuse his malice by saying, “You know, we must sometimes make an example of wrong-doers.” Yes, other people have been very foolishly charitable, and have passed by wrongs done to them; but he is going to be a defender of everything that is upright, yet he does it merely to gratify his desire for vengeance. Is he not defiling holy things and good works by touching them? Yet is this not often the case with bad men? They defile to the nth degree even things that appear to be good.

20. And, dear friends, the text adds that even sacrifices are polluted when offered by unclean men:“ what they offer there is unclean.” Their lamb, their young bull, their fine flour, their olive oil that they pour out at the foot of God’s altar, — all becomes defiled. There is what professes to be a public thanksgiving to God; and it is turned into a show to the glory of men. Whenever the unregenerate world brings anything to God as a sacrifice, what a wretched mess it makes of it! It becomes only another occasion for sinning against the Most High. Supposing a heathen should come in, on Christmas night, when professedly Christian people are supposed to be celebrating the birth of Christ, and all their cups are full of wine, they can scarcely stand for staggering, what would he think the Christ must be whose birthday they are celebrating? An unrenewed man cannot touch anything without spoiling it; wherever he goes, he is a spoiler. The sea has often been strewn with wrecks which have been caused by the greed of merchants, and the world is full of the tombs of men who have been hurried to their graves by other men. Truly did the poet sing, —

    Every prospect pleases,
    And only man is vile.

21. It is a mercy that unrenewed men cannot enter heaven; if they could, heaven would not last as heaven for even five minutes. There would be another hell created if unrenewed men could walk among the palms and harps of the glorified. You may do what you like with a man, but as long as he is unclean he spreads his defilement wherever he may lay his hand.

22. That is a picture of every man who has not been born again; it is not a pretty picture, is it? Did you come here expecting me to say pretty things to you? I have not learned the art of doing that; but in the name of God I assure you that this is true, and I pray his Spirit to convince every unregenerate person that it is true. In your present condition you cannot do any good works, you cannot serve God; what have you to do to declare his statutes? Everything you do will displease him until you are born again. “Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”; — he cannot even see it; — and further, “Unless a man is born by water and by the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” He will have to stand shivering outside its walls, but of that kingdom he cannot be a subject until he has passed from death to life, and has been made a new creature in Christ Jesus, and so has been cleansed from his sinful defilement.

23. II. So I have kept to my text; but now I am going to run right away from it, to speak on THE ALL-SUFFICIENT REMEDY.

24. Where can we find a better type and figure of that remedy than in the chapter which I read to you just now from the Book of Numbers? In Numbers 19 we have a type of the great remedy, and a striking account of the uncleanness which it removed. I shall not attempt a full exposition of the rites used for purifying the unclean; but I would have you notice that, first of all, in order for the removal of uncleanness, there was a sacrifice. There was a red heifer, without spot, which had to be slain. There could be no kind of purification except through death; and there can be no cleansing of your defilement, my brother, except through the sacrifice of the Son of God. The red heifer and the lambs and the bulls under the old covenant died to teach people that the punishment of sin was the forfeiture of life, and these creatures died in the place of the offender, so that he might live. They were all types pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of God who, in the fulness of time, came and took on himself his people’s sin, and stood in his people’s place, so that he might die “the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God.” There is no hope of your ever being made clean except through the blood of him whom God has presented to be the propitiation for sin. Please, do not kick at this doctrine; for why should Jesus die at all, if you could be saved without his death? And if there is not everything in that death that is necessary for your cleansing, what do you propose to add to it? It seems to me to be sheer blasphemy to think that anything you can feel, or do, or give, can be worthy to be added to the great sacrifice of Christ. I wish you would say, “If this is the way of salvation, by a sacrifice offered in my place to be accepted by me, I will gladly and joyfully accept it.” This is the great truth: “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.” There is no other cleansing, and there is no need of any other; just listen to this text, and believe what it says: “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was on him; and with his stripes we are healed.” Is that not enough for you?

25. Turning again to this Book of Numbers, you will notice that there was a burning; for this heifer, after being killed, was burned outside the camp. This burning signified that sin was very hateful to God, that he could not bear to have it where his people lived. Sin must be put outside the camp, and then as a dead thing it must be burned with fire; and the heifer which was supposed to bear that sin must suffer that doom. Jesus also, when he took our sin, suffered outside the gate. I want you, dear friends, to feel that sin is a hateful thing; you can never be purged from it while you love it. Shut it out from your heart; as much as possible, shut it out from your thoughts. Since it put Christ outside the camp, you must put it outside the camp. There is no cleansing a man from sin while he lives in sin; and there is no possibility of forgiveness while sin is indulged in and delighted in. You must leave it; it must be burnt as dung, over the wall there among the filth and refuse of the city, and be put away altogether from you; in type of which you see your Lord slain on a cross, as if he, too, had been a felon, “made a curse for us: for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.’ ”

26. Looking again at the type, you will see that there was a water of separation. The ashes of this red heifer were to be put into running water; — not stagnant, but flowing, running water; and a mixture being made with it, it was to be sprinkled on the people as a water of separation, or purification. And, dear friends, you and I must have the Holy Spirit pouring in on us the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ to make us clean. There is no purification for you, my friend, except by the Holy Spirit. There must be the water as well as the blood; they must both come to purge the conscience from dead works so that we may be clean, like the priests of old, and go into the holy place, to present acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. You must have the blood to take away the guilt of sin; and you must also have the water to wash you from the pollution of sin, so that you may be sanctified and set apart for the living God.

27. You will notice, too, that there was an application of all this with hyssop. Hence David says, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.” Faith is, as it were, that little bunch of hyssop. Hyssop was a small plant, as I suppose, insignificant enough in itself, and of no use except for use in sprinkling. It was dipped into the blood, and then the guilty one was sprinkled; or into the water with the ashes, and with it the unclean one was sprinkled, and made clean. You must have this faith if you would be saved. The blood of the paschal lamb would not have saved the Israelites in Egypt if it had not been smeared on the lintel and the two side-posts. The scarlet line would not have saved Rahab if she had not fastened it in the window, to be the sign that her house, with its inhabitants, was to be spared. “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.” It is all you have to do, and this he enables you to do. Just simply believe that Christ is able to save you, and rest yourself on that dear heart which was pierced for you. Put yourself into those blessed hands that were fastened to the cross, and you are saved. The moment you believe in Jesus, your sins are gone, — all of them, for there is no halving sin. There is a solidarity in sin, it is one great mass; so that, the moment a sinner believes in Christ, all his sins, past, present, and to come, are gone, and gone for ever. “To come,” you say, “how can that be before they are committed?” Did not Christ die, not only before we committed any sin, but before we had any existence, and yet even then, in his death, he put away the sin of his people. If you believe, your transgression is forgiven; you are “accepted in the Beloved”; and, as surely as you live, you shall one day stand before that burning throne, “without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing,” and you shall have no fear.

    Bold shall I stand in that great day,
    For who aught to my charge shall lay?
    While through thy blood absolved I am
    From sin’s tremendous curse and shame.

28. See, beloved, how simple this deliverance from impurity is. If the impurity was terrible, yet the remedy is so perfect, so complete, so available, that my heart dances while I tell you about it.

29. Finally, this remedy must be applied to our whole nature. Remember that nineteenth verse that we read: “And the clean person shall sprinkle on 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 clean in the evening.” If you, dear friend, would be clean in God’s sight, you must be washed from head to foot; not merely with the washing of water, but with the washing of the Holy Spirit. “What is holiness?” said a clergyman to a poor Irish boy. “Please, your reverence,” he said, “it is having a clean inside.” And so it is, and you have to be washed that way, — washed inside, washed in your very nature. The fountain of your being has to be cleansed, the source of all the pollution is to be made white; and how can this be done by any man for himself? This great purification can only be accomplished by a wonderful work of grace, by the power of the Holy Spirit; but then the Holy Spirit is pledged to do this for everyone who believes in Jesus. It is a part of the covenant: “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, I will cleanse you. I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you.”

30. “Oh!” one says, “that would be delightful; but I am afraid that I would fall away, after all.” That you shall not do, for here is another covenant promise: “I will put my fear in their hearts, so that they shall not depart from me.” Oh glorious promise! That crowns it all. I want you, dear friends, to have a faith that can believe God, and say, “I have given myself over to Christ to save me to the end, and he will do it; and I commit my soul to him, not for this next year only, but for all years and all times; and I give myself up never to have any claim on myself again, to be his for ever and ever.” What does he say to that? He answers, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” You see the double picture; Christ has his people in his hand, and then his Father comes, and puts his hand over the top of Christ’s; and all who believe in Christ are in that double hand of the Son and of the Father, and who shall pluck them from there? We defy earth, and heaven, and hell, ever to tear away any soul that is once in the grip of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who would not have such a glorious salvation as this?

31. Oh you defiled ones, come to him who alone can cleanse you! And when he has once cleansed you, remember that you will have need daily to wash your feet, and you shall find him waiting to wash them; but you shall never need such a complete cleansing as he gave you at the first. There shall never be a repetition of that, for “he who is bathed, only needs to wash his feet, but is entirely clean.” May the Lord give you that cleansing if you have not had it; and, if you have had it, rejoice in it with all your hearts. Amen and Amen.

{a} Peppercorn rent: A very small, insignificant, trivial rent. OED. {b} Uriah Heep is a fictional character created by Charles Dickens in his novel David Copperfield. The character is notable for his excessive humility, obsequiousness, and insincerity, making frequent references to his own “humbleness.” His name has become synonymous with being a “yes man.” See Explorer "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uriah_Heep"

Expositions By C. H. Spurgeon {Nu 19 Ps 51}

19:1. And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, —

This ordinance was not given to Moses on Mount Sinai, but in the wilderness of Paran, after the people had broken their covenant with God, and were condemned to die. You know that the 90th Psalm — that dolorous dirge which we read at funerals, — called, “A prayer of Moses the man of God.” Well might he write that Psalm, for he lived among a generation of people who were all doomed to die within a short time, and to die in the wilderness. This ordinance was especially appointed to handle the cases of those who were rendered unclean by the frequent deaths which occurred. There was to be a simple and easy way of purification for them; and the teaching of this chapter to us is that, inasmuch as we dwell in a sinful world, there needs to be some simple and easy method of cleansing us, so that we may be able to draw near to God.

2, 3. “This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring you a red heifer without spot, which has no blemish, and on which never came a yoke: and you shall give her to Eleazar the priest, so that he may bring her outside the camp, and one shall kill her in his presence:

This was not a usual sacrifice, for the beasts offered were as a rule males; but this was to be a special sacrifice. It was not to be killed by the priest, as other sacrificial offerings were; but the Lord said, “One shall kill her in his presence.”

4. And Eleazar the priest shall take some of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle some of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times:

This makes it a sacrifice; otherwise, it scarcely deserves the name.

5, 6. And one shall burn the heifer in his sight; he shall burn her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung: and the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer.

All was to be burnt, and then the ashes, the essence and product of it, were to be preserved to make the water of purification needed to remove those constant defilements which happened to the people of the camp. So, the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, which are the very essence of him, are perpetually preserved for the removal of our daily pollution.

There was also the essence of cedar wood; that is, the emblem of fragrant immortality, for cedar was an unrotting wood. “And hyssop, and scarlet.” There must be the humble hyssop used, yet there must be some degree of royalty about the sacrifice, as the scarlet colour suggested; and all this is mixed with the blood and the flesh and the skin of the creature, to make the ashes of purification.

7. Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterwards he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the evening.

What a strange sacrifice this was, for even when it was offered it seemed to make unclean all those who had anything to do with it!

8, 9. And he who burns her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the evening. And a man who is clean-

Now we come to the merit of Christ, for who is clean except Christ?

9. Shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and store them outside 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.

This ceremony does not represent the putting away of sin, that is typified in the slaying of the victims; but it represents that daily cleansing which the children of God need, the perpetual efficacy of the merit of Christ; for this red heifer was probably killed only once in the wilderness. According to Jewish tradition, there never have been more than six killed. I cannot tell whether that is true or not; but certainly the ashes of one single beast would last for a long time if they were only to be mixed with water, and then the water was to be sprinkled on the unclean. So this ordinance is meant to represent the standing merit, the perpetual purifying of believers by the sacrifice of Christ enabling them to some to the worship of God, and to mingle with holy men, and even with holy angels, without defiling them. In the fullest sense, it may be said of our Lord’s atoning sacrifice, “It is a purification for sin.”

10. And he who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the evening: and it shall be a statute for ever for the children of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns among them.

That was the remedy ordained by the Lord for purifying the defiled; now notice what made this remedy so necessary.

11, 12. He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean for seven days. He shall purify himself with it on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean; but if he does not purify himself the third day, then on the seventh day he shall not be clean.

I wonder whether that is a revelation of our being justified through the resurrection of Christ, which took place on the third day after his death, and then our being brought into perfect rest, which represents the seventh day, through the wondrous purifying of our great Sacrifice, the Lamb of God.

13, 14. Whoever touches the dead body of any man who is dead, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel: because the water of separation was not sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him. This is the law, when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent, and everything that is in the tent, shall be unclean for seven days.

Think, dear friends, what a solemn and yet what an irksome ordinance this must have been! Why, according to this regulation, Joseph could not have gone to see his father Jacob, and to be present at his death, without being defiled. You could not have watched over your consumptive child, or have nursed your dying mother, without becoming defiled, if you had been subject to this law; and everything that was in the tent, or in the house, became defiled, too.

15-16. And every open vessel, which has no cover fastened on it, is unclean. And whoever touches one who is killed with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean for seven days.

This law was indeed a yoke of bondage which our forefathers were not able to bear. It was meant to teach us how easily we can be defiled. Anywhere they went, these people might touch a bone or touch a grave, and then they were defiled, and you and I, watch as carefully as we may, will find ourselves touching some of the dead works of sin, and becoming defiled. It is a happy circumstance for us that there is the means of purification always at hand; we may always go to the precious blood of Jesus, and may once again be washed clean, and be made fit to go up to the house of the Lord.

17-22. And for an unclean person they shall take some of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, and running water shall be put into a vessel and a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, and on all the vessels and on the people who were there, and on him who touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave: and the clean person shall sprinkle on 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 clean in the evening. But the man who shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from among the congregation, because he has defiled the sanctuary of the LORD: the water of separation has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean. And it shall be a perpetual statute for them, that he who sprinkles the water of separation shall wash his clothes; and he who touches the water of separation shall be unclean until the evening. And whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the soul that touches it shall be unclean until the evening.’ ”

This ordinance was partly sanitary. The Egyptians were accustomed to keep their dead in their houses, preserved as mummies. No Jew could do that, for he would be defiled. Other nations were accustomed to bury their dead, as we once did, within the city walls, or around their own places of worship, as if to bring death as near as they could to themselves. No Jew could do this, for he was defiled if he even passed over a grave; so they were driven to what God intended they should have, — that is, interments outside the city walls, and to keep the graveyard as far as they could away from the houses of the living.

The spiritual meaning of this regulation is that we must watch with great care against every occasion for sin; and, inasmuch as there will be these occasions, and we shall be defiled, we must constantly go to the Lord with a prayer like that of David in the 51st Psalm, which we will now read.

1. Have mercy on me, oh God, according to your lovingkindness: according to the multitude of your tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

There may be some people who think themselves so holy that they cannot join in this Psalm. I can, for one, and I believe that there are many of you who can join with me. Just let us for the time being forget all others, and let us come, each one for himself or herself, with David’s language on our lips or in our hearts so far as it applies to our individual case.

2-19. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done this evil in your sight: so that you might be justified when you speak and be clear when you judge. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part you shall make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; so that the bones which you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, oh God; and renew a right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence; and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation; and uphold me with your free Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways; and sinners shall be converted to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, oh God, you God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness. Oh Lord, open my lips; and my mouth shall proclaim your praise. For you do not desire sacrifice; otherwise I would give it: you do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, oh God, you will not despise. Do good in your good pleasure to Zion: build the walls of Jerusalem. Then you shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then they shall offer young bulls on your altar.