Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / May 14, 2023 | Numbers - A Holy Cow

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May 14, 2023 | Numbers - A Holy Cow · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Happy Mother's Day.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Jeremy McGrath, and I am the student ministry pastor here.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, this next service, my wife will be celebrating her first Mother's Day as we dedicate our three-month-old Genevieve, and Lord knows we need some divine help with that.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: So we're very excited to be celebrating along with all of you mothers.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: But I I also wanted to just point out that some of you today are gonna get to go and enjoy time with either your mother or with some of your children as you celebrate.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: But others of you, this is a really hard time.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: You have children who are estranged or even have lost children.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want to tell you that no matter which camp you're in today, whether this is a joyful day or a sorrowful day, that as TBCers, we love you, we respect, and we appreciate all that you do, and even more importantly than that, God does as well.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um so just know that there are people here for you today.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, before we get into this sermon, uh we uh we have a little fun discussion that we had planned for you between me and you go, this is Evan Will.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Evan didn't know we were gonna have this conversation until about 10 minutes ago, but um, that's alright.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: So what we're gonna do, Evan, is I'm actually I'm gonna tell you some famous idioms or sayings that that people use all around the world, okay?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna see if you know what they actually mean.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna start easy.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: The very first one I have for you here, this is this is a common American saying, I've got bigger fish to fry.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: I've got bigger fish to fry.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, we're gonna need a mic here.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: David, can you hand him the mic?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, sir.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: All right, Evan, what do we think?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: What do we think that means?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um bigger fish to fry.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: I would say uh there's bigger, bigger aspects to life, bigger things going on rather than focusing on the small picture.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's more stuff going on that you can focus on that's more important.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: I got I got bigger, better things to do, yeah.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And you'll be interested to know the French actually have this saying as well, but it's a little different.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's I have other cats to whip, which somehow seems worse.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Unless you're a dog person, you're like, I don't see a problem.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now we're gonna get a little harder.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: This one is a Cheyenne Indian idiom, okay?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: This one is are you still riding the goat?
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think that means?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Are you still riding the goat?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I do know that GOAT, uh, the acronym means greatest of all time.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: So are you still riding the goat?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: Are you still the greatest of all time?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: Is what I'm gonna take that to take that to me.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good guess.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, you are not even close.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um It's actually, are you still with your spouse?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now you don't have a goat though, right now, Levin, right?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: I do not have a goat.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have a goat.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, good.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: You're still in high school, you got a couple years.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: All right, we'll end we'll end with this one.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: This was my favorite.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is a Mongolian saying um May your mustache grow like brushwood.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: And here's a hint.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: You say this after something specific happens.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: May your may your mustache grow like brush brushwood brushwood.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's after after like your 18th birthday and you're an adult.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: May your mustache grow like another good guess, but again, another swing and a miss.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um so it's actually this is what you say instead of God bless you when someone sneezes.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now I really hope they don't say this to like the women, unless that's a thing.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like the women want really thick mustache hair.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: So so maybe when you hit 18, I will uh God will bless you with some with some really great mustache hair.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, give Evan a round of applause.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Evan, for helping us out today.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, so what was that silliness all about?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Where are we talking about metaphors and idioms?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I did that to remind you guys that all across the world we have phrases and words that sometimes stand for something different or symbolize something different than the uh normal meaning, right?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, for those of you who have been with us for the last couple months, we a couple couple months back we went through Leviticus, which is a book of the Bible, and then now we're going through numbers.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And if you guys have been with us, you've realized that the Hebrew culture, the ancient Israelite culture, not only had words that symbolize different things, but their entire culture just bled this symbolism, where their very actions and relationships had this intense symbolic meaning behind it.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: And today we are actually going to explore Numbers 19.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: And this chapter, perhaps more than any other chapter we've come to yet, just bleeds symbolism.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about that.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: But before we dive into Numbers 19, I think for those of us who are new today, we need to do a little recap so you guys know what's going on and where we're at in the story.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, Numbers is a book of the Bible that details the travel of the Israelites through the wilderness after they left Egypt, okay?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: And as you can imagine, it's not so fun being out there in the wilderness.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Israelites aren't having a great time.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And this is compounded by the fact that they are rebelling continuously against God and against Moses.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: We saw back in chapter 14 that their rebellion led to a pretty grave punishment, which is that God is going to prevent all of the adults who are still alive from entering into the promised land.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then last week, Connor covered chapter 16, where we saw Korah's rebellion.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: And in this rebellion, God actually killed a bunch of people by sending a plague.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: 14,700 died by the plague because of their rebellion and disobedience to God.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so what the Israelites, what's become painfully aware to them, or they become painfully aware of, is that rebellion leads to death.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Rebellion against God leads to death.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And as you can see, there was plenty of death to go around.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Not only were they dealing with a lot of death in this very moment, with all of these different people around them having died, but they were gonna continue to deal with death as the current generation was passing away.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And this is more of an issue, not just because it's it causes physical problems and emotional problems that come with the passing of those that are close to you, but in the Israelite culture, it also caused a major spiritual problem.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because you see, death was one of the most defiling things to an Israelite sense of holiness and cleanness before a holy God.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And for those of us who are Christian, we can kind of understand that a little bit, because we know that Adam and Eve, when they sinned, the curse that came upon them because of it was death.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Death symbolizes our uncleanness before God.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so their contact with death was wholly unclean and needed to be dealt with.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: And chapter 19 is going to help us see exactly how God was going to respond to this dilemma.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: So today we have this question that we're going to be going through as we consider chapter 19.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Does rebellion always have to lead to death?
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, a lot of the Israelites are thinking, yeah, it does.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, in chapter 16, we see they were afraid to even approach the tabernacles.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, man, God hates all of us because we've all rebelled and he's just gonna smite us dead if we get too close.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: But God's gonna put that assumption to the test here.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Does rebellion always have to lead to death?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: And to explore this point, or this question rather, we have two points.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: How God provides for the present, and then also how how he provides anticipates the future.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and then we'll end with some application.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, normally with students, when I'm downstairs preaching, uh I ask them after this point, are y'all with me?
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And they respond with a resounding, oh yeah.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I need you guys to help me out with that.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: So are y'all with me?
• 8:00
  unknown: Oh yeah.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, let's do this.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so if you guys want to open your Bibles here, we're gonna be in Numbers 19, and we're gonna start here with verses 2 through 10, okay?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: So it's up on the screen if you don't have your Bible, but go ahead and turn there if you do.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Starting here in verse 2.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is a requirement of the law that the Lord has commanded.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish, and that has never been under a yoke.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Give it to Eliezer the priest.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: It is to be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then Eliezer the priest is to take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: While he watches, the heifer is to be burned, its hide, flesh, blood, and intestines.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: The priest is to take some of the cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet wool, and throw them into the burning heifer.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And after that the priest must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water, and they may come into the camp and will be ceremonially unclean until evening.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: The man who burns it must also wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he too will be unclean until evening.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them Oops, we need to go to the next slide here, because you don't have it.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: There we are.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: They are to be kept by the Israelite community for use in the water of cleansing.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: It is for purification from sin.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the man who gathers up the ashes of the heifer must also wash their clothes, or his clothes, and he too will be unclean until evening.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: This will be a lasting ordinance both for the Israelites and for the foreigners residing among them.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Alrighty.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: So we're actually going to do very quick summary.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to get through all this whole passage, hit a couple highlights, and then later we're going to delve into the details and the things that we really need to focus on to understand what's going on.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: But the first thing I want you guys to get from these first ten verses is that God is commanding the Israelites to perform a new sacrifice.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is brand new.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: The priest and two of his attendants are supposed to go out and find a very unique and special animal, a red heifer.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually the only animal used for a sacrifice in the entire Bible that requires a specific color.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it has also has the most specifications, cumulatively, out of any other animal.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a very unique, very special animal.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: They're supposed to burn that and then keep its ashes, and we'll talk about what they're going to use it for a little bit later.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing I really want to point out here is the uniqueness of this animal.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, even today, uh, Jews who are part of the Temple Institute, which is the Jews who who hope for the rebuilding of the temple someday and the reinstitution of these practices we're reading about, they're constantly searching for red heifers, okay?
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because this is such an important and integral part of the ritualistic purification in Jewish culture.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I have a picture here of a couple years ago, uh, one of the Jews went out to go examine a red heifer out in Texas.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: And as you can see, he's putting up a magnifying glass to it, and the reason is if he finds more than five hairs that are black, gray, or white, it ain't red.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't count.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so he has to examine every single hair to make sure this is the perfect animal.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: The last time I saw someone inspect something with this much like concentration was the last time my mom inspected the bathroom that I had cleaned.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: I had to redo it.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: I always have to redo it.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um there's your there's your Mother's Day analogy for you, okay?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, this is a very unique, special animal, even more so than any of the other sacrifices that have come before.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason is because the thing it is attempting to clean, these people and their taint that comes from death is extremely intense and extremely pervasive, even more so than other forms of uncleanness that we've covered so far.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's continue on here as we go to verse 11 through 12, and we're gonna jump to 14 and 15, or 14 through 19.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever touches a human corpse will be unclean for seven days, and they must purify themselves with water on the third day and on the seventh day, and then they will be clean.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: But if they do not purify themselves on the third and on the seventh day, they will not be clean.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is the law that applies when a person dies in a tent.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone who enters that tent and anyone who is in it will be unclean for seven days, and every open container without a lid fastened on it will be unclean.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone out in the open who touches someone who has been killed with a sword, or someone who has died in natural death, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave will be unclean for seven days.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: For the unclean person puts some ashes from the burned purification offering into a jar and pour fresh water over them.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then a man who is ceremonially clean is to take some hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle the tent and all the furnishings and the people who were there.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Then he must also sprinkle anyone who has touched a human bone or a grave, or anyone who has been killed, or anyone who has died a natural death.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: The man who is clean is to sprinkle those who are unclean on the third and seventh day, and on the seventh day he is to purify them.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Those who are being cleansed must wash their clothes and bathe with water.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that evening they will be clean.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, another little summary here of what's going on in these verses.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we just figured out how these ashes are being used.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: The ashes of the sacred animal are going to be mixed with some purification water, and anyone who comes into contact with anything associated with death, whether it's a grave or an actual dead person or a bone, must be purified with this water for seven days.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the things that I want to point out about this process, and you're just gonna have to trust me on this, we'll get to it later, but this process that God gives them for purification is actually extremely simple and accessible compared to other sacrifices and purification processes.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: But it's also exceptionally thorough in its cleansing.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not gonna give too much away now, because I, like I said, we're gonna get to it, but but just to give you guys a little example or picture in your head, the difference between this purification process and a lot of the ones we've already covered would be like the difference between cutting your grass with shears or scissors and cutting your grass with a lawnmower.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: I actually found out in the 1700s, that's how the rich people used to cut their grass.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: They get a bunch of servants and bring around with like some scissors and stuff.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, so very, very hard and laborious process to do it that way as opposed to a lawnmower and not as effective, right?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna be as even unless I'm mowing, because somehow it still ends up uneven.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to cut the blades, make the blades sharper, I don't know.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: Someone help me out with that later.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a simple and accessible process, but it's also extremely thorough in its cleansing.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do the last couple verses here, verse 13 and 20.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: If the people fail to purify themselves, after touching a human corpse, they defile the Lord's tabernacle.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: They must be cut off from Israel, because the water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on them, they are unclean, their uncleanness remains on them.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: But if those who are unclean do not purify themselves, they must be cut off from the community, because they have defiled the sanctuary of the Lord, the water of cleansing has not been sprinkled on them, and they are unclean.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: So we have two verses that say essentially the exact same thing.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: That if you fail to go through this purification process as an Israelite, you will be cut off from Israel.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: But this doesn't just mean cut off from the community of the Israelites.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I'm gonna submit to you that this means literal death.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: If you fail to purify yourself, God is going to set himself against you and seek your death.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna explain again later on why we know this to be true.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, so we just hit the broad picture.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: We kind of know what's going on here.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: We know what the purification process looks like, but now let's let's really dive in and analyze some of these finer points and see what the symbolism communicates about the importance of what's going on.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Alright?
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna do a little drawing, which I'm sorry in advance because my stick figures are barely uh barely good enough for anyone to see.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: But for those of you who are good at drawing, feel free to draw along with me and try to do something better, okay?
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Especially any of the kids in the room, go ahead and take out a pencil and a paper and let's see if you can best me, all right?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: So the very first thing I want to draw your attention to, in verses 9 and 17, is we note that this purification process stands apart from others because it requires a past sacrifice.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: It requires a past sacrifice.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, what do I mean by that?
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, most of the other purification processes that we see throughout Leviticus and Numbers, they would last a certain number of days, and then after the person was considered pure, they would have to bring an animal to sacrifice, to finish the process.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: But here, there is no animal sacrificed at the end of the allotted time.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, they rely on the animal that had already been sacrificed, right?
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so they're relying on this sacrifice that happened in the past.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is supposed to be an altar, that's supposed to be some wood, and we got a little fire there, okay?
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: See, we we're tracking, that looks pretty good.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, some of you are like, okay, what's the big deal?
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Whether the sacrifice happens in the past or in the future, it's all the same thing, right?
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Why is this significant?
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let me give you this example.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: A couple months ago, my refrigerator light went out, and as you men know, it's a very complicated process to like uninstall and install a new light bulb, right?
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, so you know, I'm I'm not yet up to that level yet.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, so instead of just going out and getting a new light bulb, anytime I have to like reach into the back of the fridge and I'm looking for something gonna pull out my phone and shine the light, right?
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Every time, every time I go in the fridge, that's what I gotta do, right?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of just going out, getting a light bulb, installing it so that every time I can reap the benefits of my past work.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: You see the difference there?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's kind of what's going on here.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: God is making it simpler and more efficient for the people of Israel right here by relying on this past sacrifice.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go to another thing I want to point out.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: We find also that the purification was complete.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: The purification was complete.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: What do I mean by that?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's lots of symbolism that's used in this passage to communicate that when the purification process is done, the people are completely clean.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Not partially, completely purified.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: One of the ways that we see this is actually by the numbers that are used and presented in this passage.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: If you know how many men perform the sacrifice, if you're looking at your Bibles, how many men.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I held it up, I cheated.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: Three, three.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then they're also, while the bull or the heifer is burning, they're supposed to throw hyssop and they're supposed to throw red yarn and cedar into the fire.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Three.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then during the purification process, on the third day, they're supposed to be cleansed.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason this is important is because in the Hebrew Bible, the number three often stands for completeness, right?
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Think of the Trinity.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: Or think of the angels saying that God is holy, holy, holy, is completely holy.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh during the temple era, the men of Israel had to present themselves to the temple three times.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you guys here, you hold uh three meals a day as sacred, right?
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Any three-meal day people in here?
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Does a Pop-Tart count for breakfast?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because then I'd fit in your club, okay?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yes?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, alright.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a three-person a day too, then.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, three, the number three represents this completeness.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then we have the number seven.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's the amount of total days they had to be purified.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: And this was very common for purification, is the amount of time allotted.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the seven also stands for completeness or divine perfection.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: How many days was the world created?
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Seven days complete, and then God arrested, right?
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we have this we have this complete purification that goes on, and the symbolism to really communicate to the Israelites that it is indeed complete.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: But not only is it complete, but we get some additional information as to what is complete.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: We find that the inner being, the inner person, is actually being cleansed.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Inner cleansing is going on.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Alright.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: How is inner cleansing going on?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, remember, I told you at the very beginning that this is a very unique animal that's being sacrificed.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's red.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's a heifer, which means it's a very young cow who hasn't calved before, and it can't have a yoke on its back, and it has to be free from all impurities.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's a lot of things.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's a very unique animal.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: There's very few of those around.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: And even more than this, this is this is the super cool part, the blood of the animal was actually burned with the entire offering.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason this matters is because no other offering through Leviticus or through Numbers actually saw the blood being burned with the animal.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: The blood would usually be sprinkled or poured in front of the altar, it wouldn't be burned.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Except the only other place we find this is with the Day of Atonement.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: One of the most, if not the most sacred, purification rites, where they would say sacrifice an animal for the sins of all of Israel for that entire year.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason this is a And the reason why the blood might be included at this time is because it was believed the blood itself would take the sin of the person who was sacrificing the animal.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was the blood that actually purified that person's sin and allowed them to stand before God again.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so we see here that the blood being burned by this very, very unique and special animal allowed such a disgusting inner taint of sin to be cleansed.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna draw this man here.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: Got some legs, and he's got he's got all that sin inside of him, okay?
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: All that taint from death, and uh and then we have that sprinkling of the blood, okay, that's coming in to take away that impurity.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: But not only is the inner impurity being cleansed, but we also see symbolism that's trying to communicate even the outer impurity that comes from death is being cleansed.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: How do we see that?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: Let's write this here.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: So you guys remember, we've said this already, that hyssop, cedar, and red yarn was tossed into the fire with the bull, or with the heifer rather.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason this is important is because the only other time we see all three of these things together during a purification sacrifice is when the priests are actually healing lepers, people who have skin diseases.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason is because they believed that cedar was resistant to rot, and that hyssop had this like uh symbolic ability to cleanse or to purify or purge, and the red string was associated with that blood, right?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: That blood that removes sin or taint from the individual.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so, right here, the priest using this, God telling the priest to use this, is communicating to the people look, we're also going to be cleansing this symbolic impurity that death brings to your outward body, okay?
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: And going back to this complete cleansing idea, I just want to want to bring this up.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: So remember we have these numbers that are showing the purification is complete.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: Then we also are bringing in the blood that's showing that your sin is being completely taken away.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then we're bringing in these aspects of like healing the outer body and saying, yeah, and even the outer person is being completely healed.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: So like Israel's the ugly lady who walks in, and God is like the makeup artist who's just throwing everything he's got to make sure this person is beautiful and she turns out great, okay?
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's what God is doing right here.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: He's using more like a symbolism to cleanse the people than any other sacrifice we've ever seen.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have this, we have this outer cleansing as well.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna draw some cute little clouds that show God's divine energy coming down, and we'll do like a little tombstone with an R.I.P there.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do a little dude coming out.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: He just he just got healed from God, his outward body's looking good.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Alright.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: I dare you to do better than that.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: That looks good.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Alright.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: We got two more.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Hang with me.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: We got two more.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: The next thing that we look at is that the sacrifice is extremely simple and accessible.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: We said this already, right?
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna prove it to you.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Why is this sacrifice extremely simple and accessible?
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um the first thing that we note is that the Israelites who were impure from contact with the dead, they didn't have to leave the camp.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: And this is unheard of.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: Anytime the Israelites were impure, they they had to remain outside of the camp because the camp was holy.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: That was God's space, and he couldn't have any unholiness in it.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: But for some reason, God allows the people to remain inside the camp here.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have to go outside for it.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Not only that, but we also see, as we said before, there's no sacrifice afterwards.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's easily accessible and simple for the people.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason this is important, like if you just are really thinking through it, I'm gonna use this as an example.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: In Leviticus, after a woman would give birth, she was considered unclean for a certain amount of time, and she would have to sacrifice either a goat or a goat and a pigeon, or if she was a little more poor, she could do two pigeons or two doves.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: All right?
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: And like, just think about this.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Just it think if God had like required it for this sacrifice.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: The dude who was like giving the doves out, right?
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: He probably would run out at some point, and then you have like some woman who just gave birth, who's still recovering, running around and like catching her own dove.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you're poor, you have to catch two.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: I just that just doesn't seem fair to me.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so it like it's very, very inconvenient, very hard, and you're giving of yourself constantly, but here God's saying, I already provided.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to give anything else.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: I provided.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: We're keeping this simple, we're keeping this accessible.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, the last thing that makes this so simple and accessible is that anyone could do the purification process, or administer it rather.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't require a priest.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: It says anyone who's clean can purify someone who's unclean.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: And this is also significant because it is the only time where a priest doesn't have to take part in the purification process.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: You've heard me say that a lot, right?
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is the only time, this is the only time.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: This is.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: I want you guys to be catching on here how unique and how special this process is compared to everything that has come before.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so we see that it's that it's simple.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna draw some kind of meandering lines to show something complex, and then we'll draw like a big, big X through it.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I wanted to draw some lady chasing after two doves.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not good enough for that.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: So uh let's see what you guys can come up with.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe maybe one of the talented kids can do that.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: Last one.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: We find that continued impurity leads to death.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I told you guys this, but I can give you proof for it.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna do that now.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is the only place in Scripture where we see the punishment for failing to purify yourself is to be cut off from Israel, specifically all those words, cut off from Israel.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: And even more significant, we find that the reason God says he's cutting them off from Israel is because they have profaned the tabernacle, which is where God was said to reside.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: And wouldn't you know it in Leviticus 15, 31, the penalty for defiling the tabernacle was death.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is the most severe punishment God has ever doled out for failing to purify yourself.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: Not only are you excluded from the community, but God is saying, I'm setting myself against you, and death will be the fruit you bear if you fail to purify yourself.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna draw one more dude, some tattered clothes here.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is our dead guy.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: He's got a little stink lines coming out here.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe a couple flies going around.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta have X's for I's, right?
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta have that, okay?
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: Alrighty.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and then we have death.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: There we go.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: So we've we've covered all of this.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: We've covered a lot of the symbolism within this passage.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we have our answer to our original question.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Does rebellion have to lead to death?
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: God in his mercy still desires his people to be free from death if they would but purify themselves.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: He gives them away.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: But what does this have to do with us?
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: And more importantly, like I said, it with the second point we're going to consider, what does this have to do with pointing to something in the future?
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: Take a look at our images up here.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: Can you think of any other sacrifice that happened that has all of these elements?
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: A sacrifice that happened in the past completely cleanses someone?
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: Inner cleansing and outward cleaning.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Any anything coming to mind there?
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: Can someone say hashtag Jesus?
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: So so for those of you who who aren't seeing it, let's let's just break this down super quick.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: We have a sacrifice that happened in the past.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus dying on the cross happened in the past.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: But this past sacrifice, it's complete.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: It completely purifies us.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it's all it's all finished.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing more that needs to be done.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: We're totally pure now in Christ.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's supposed to be the empty tomb.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry for those who just think it's a bunch of squiggly lines.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: We also have uh inner cleansing.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: This this belief in Christ purifies us before God from all sin.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have the blood of Jesus.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what the heck that is.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just getting worse and worse here.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: This is supposed to be the blood of Jesus.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: We'll put Jesus here, it cleanses us from all of our inner sin.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: But we know that it's not just our inward being that's being restored.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: We also know that our we're going to receive an outward cleansing.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna receive new bodies in the new heaven and the new earth.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: And they're gonna be perfectly pure and incorruptible.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: But we also know this is so simple.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: To access this, to access this gift and sacrifice of Christ, we don't need to try harder or be better.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: All we need to do is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we will be saved.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's simple and accessible for all.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: But guys, here's the reality.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: Even though this is a simple process, and even though it can cleanse everything we are because of this past sacrifice, if we don't take the leap, if we don't purify ourselves, if we don't believe, we're not just gonna die, we're gonna be suffering an eternal death apart from God.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't this cool?
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, like this is this is a book.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: I just want you guys to know this is a book that was written thousands of years before Jesus.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: And all of this symbolism points directly to him.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: All of it.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the only people I see nodding your heads in excitement are the conspiracy theorists in the room.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm not crazy, I'm not making this up.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not the only one who thinks this.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: The writer of Hebrews points this exact thing out.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: Let's read chapter 9 and chapter 13 here.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Starting in chapter 9, the blood of goats and bulls, and listen to this: the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean, sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: How much more then will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our conscience from acts that lead to death, so we may serve the living God.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then continuing here in chapter 13, the high priest carries the blood of the animal into the most holy place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp, just like our heifer was, right?
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his blood.
• 32:51
  unknown: Man.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you're an unbeliever today and you just think the Bible is composed of all of these random stories that are totally disconnected and often aren't congruent in any way, look at this.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: And this is this is not an isolated incident.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible is full of symbolism that points to Christ conclusively.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I just think that's so cool.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: So this is cool, right?
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: That we've uncovered some deeper symbolism or meaning within the passage that points to Jesus.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: But what do we actually do with Numbers 19 today, besides just stand in wonder at how awesome our God is and the forethought with which he put the body or wrote the Bible with?
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I have two messages for us from Numbers 19.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: The first is the message of the cross, and I'm speaking to those of you who do not call yourself a Christian.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: To those of you who do not believe that Jesus came and died for your sin.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the question the Israelites were asking in Numbers 19, you need to ask yourself today.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: Does rebellion have to lead to your death?
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: I have bad news, good news, and bad news.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the bad news.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: The bad news is just like the Israelites were defiled by death, man, you and I and everyone in this room were even more defiled by it.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says all of us are sinners, all of us fall short of the glory of God.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the hard reality is we can't just try harder and be better.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: You can't provide the sacrifice for yourself to make things right with God, just like the Israelites couldn't with this red heifer.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the good news: God did provide a red heifer for you and for me and for all of us here.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the unique and perfect being of Jesus Christ.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: He died on the cross as a sacrifice for us, taking the penalty we deserved, which is death and being taken away from God's people and forever banished from his presence.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: He took that punishment on himself so that we could be clean before God.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the deal: just like with the Israelites, that sacrifice doesn't just apply to you automatically.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta purify yourself, like we said earlier.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the way to do that is to believe, the Bible says, to believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and confess with your mouth that he rose from the dead.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: But guys, indecision is no decision at all.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: Indecision is telling God, no, I don't believe, I don't want you.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you don't purify yourself, you are going to continue to be impure and be separated from God and your sins for the rest of eternity.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so decide now.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: You can be pure now.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: Man, I hope you consider this.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because I know myself and all of these people here would love to have a new brother and sister in Christ today.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I would love to see you in heaven with us, celebrating your purification from our Heavenly Father.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: But what about for the Christians in the room?
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: For those of us who have been purified by Christ, and we know that He is our Savior and that we have a restored relationship between God.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I want to point out here.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: Only through Jesus, for now and always, always, what does that mean?
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think some of us, maybe in this room, might think that the only thing we needed Jesus' sacrifice for was that one moment of purification, right?
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: We believed, and the sacrifice of Christ was credited to us and cleansed us before God, and now we're good.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, the Israelites, they needed to continue to use the ashes of the red heifer.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because they were constantly coming into contact with death, and they were constantly needing purification.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: And now our salvation is never in question, but but I think the reality is for us Christians, we always need Jesus.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's always making us new.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: And we need to recognize that.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then you guys are nodding your heads, and I, you know, this is something we've heard before.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: But check your pulse.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: Does what we believe isn't manifesting in our actions.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, just a couple weeks ago, I was I was ashamed to find, right before I was going to preach a sermon down with the students, I hadn't sought God's aid a single time.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: I hadn't prayed for guidance as I researched and studied his word.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't pray for wisdom as I constructed the outline.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: And right beforehand, I didn't pray that God would give me a heart of love for those that I was preaching to and that they would have receptive ears.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: You think the one thing that you absolutely need God for to explain his word, I would seek a little bit of help, right?
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: But I didn't.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: And there are those of us in this room who do this in other ways.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: We say that prayer and dedication to his word and in communion with the saints, it's an important and imperative thing to make sure that we're continually being renewed, right?
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's this reliance and dedication to a life in Christ.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yet, these things can easily take a back seat, especially when our life gets hectic, right?
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you have said, I don't have time to pray, as opposed to, I'm so busy I need to pray?
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: The latter should be our attitude, right?
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: That we're at the end of ourselves, we're so overwhelmed, we need God more, but so many of us say, no, I just need to keep my head down and focus on this myself.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'll I'll go back to God when I got more time.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps you find yourself in a season where you just seem to have handled a bunch of sin.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: You've you've gone through the valleys, you've conquered a lot of things, and you're feeling pretty good, right?
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so you start praying a little less often.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: You start seeking, not seeking the sin in your life as much, because yet you feel pretty good before God right now.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: And you say, I don't need to, I don't need to pray and ask God for aid in this area because, quite honestly, I'm doing pretty good right now on my own, God.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, there are probably some of us in this room who have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, but you've given up living a life of constant purification.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you come to church every once in a while and you try to do good things so that you feel good about yourself.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, no, that thing with Jesus that happened 30 years ago.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna ride my golden ticket into heaven, right?
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: But the problem is, guys, we're missing out so much if we're not on a mission to daily fall more and more in love with our Heavenly Father and becoming more like him.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: You are missing out.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's what God has for you.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so if any of these struggles I've described fit you, just remember we need not only rely on Jesus way back when we were saved, but we continually need to rely on him every minute of every day of every hour.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks be to our Heavenly Father who lavishes so much grace and mercy on us.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: Dear God, I thank you for your mercy that's finally come through here in Numbers 19.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, all we've seen for so many weeks as we've gone through Numbers is your wrath and your anger against a people who deserve it.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: A people like us who are rebellious and are selfish and go against you and question you constantly.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: Though Lord, you have just shown us that not only did you desire to provide a way to bring your people back way back then, but you also are providing a way for us now through Christ.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: I pray, Lord, for those in this room who have not yet purified themselves with the sacrifice of your son.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: I pray they would do so today, Lord.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: I pray you would reveal yourself to them.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: I pray for those, the others in this room, those of us who are your sons and daughters, that we would live in this complete reliance and submission and dependence on you, knowing that through this, through this continual purification that comes through your sacrifice, our inner being would be made new, and that everyone would know us as those who are your followers and who love you dearly.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: We pray all of this in your name, Lord.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you all.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: Go in peace.