The Ashes Of The Red Heifer

~ THE ASHES OF THE RED HEIFER ~

What is the meaning behind the Ashes of the Red Heifer and what significance does it offer Christians today?

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(The following was given by Val Black at Faith Christian Fellowship, Shenandoah, Iowa at the Wednesday evening service on April 30, 1997. It was in response to the announcement of the first unblemished Red Heifer to be born in Israel in 2000 years. Although it may seem outdated in terms of the news of a red heifer being born at that time, the message of the Ashes of the Red Heifer is still the same and affects the Body of Christ today.)

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What is the meaning behind the Red Heifer and what significance does it offer for Christians today?

Turn to Isaiah 46:9-10, "Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, (10) Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure"

There is no God like the God we serve. He says, "Remember the former things of old" This is God speaking to Israel. He’s telling them to remember those days of miracles when He brought them out of Egypt, how He parted the Red Sea and destroyed Pharoah’s army, how He provided water for them and fed them with manna from Heaven while they roamed the desert for 40 years. He says, " Remember those things and know that there is none other like me". This is also for the every Born-Again Believer who has been redeemed by the Blood of Jesus Christ. We’re not to remember the sins of our past but God would have us to remember the miracle of our salvation. We are to remember how we were brought out of the pit of destruction by the power of the Holy Spirit. How He brought us into the Light and planted us on a Rock. And that Rock was Christ.

God is omniscient. He knows every end of every beginning because He IS the Beginning and the End. He says, His "counsel shall stand", in other words what He says, goes. Every word that proceeds out of His mouth does a work and never returns to Him without accomplishing that thing that He wants it to do. (Isa 55:11) If He said it, He’ll do it, if He spoke it He’ll bring it to pass.

"And I will do all my pleasure". There He is announcing to the world that He is sovereign. No one tells Him what to do. Everything we ask for must already be in His will. You can confess something until you’re blue in the face but unless it’s in the Holy will of God it will never happen. He is the Potter and we are the clay.

There are a lot of "religions" in the world today but there are three important factors that set them apart from Christianity.

Number one: every founder of any religion is either dead, buried and, still in their graves or on their way. Only our Lord Jesus Christ has conquered death, risen from the grave and gone to sit at the right Hand of His Father, and then promised to come back to pick us up!

Number two: No "religion" has ever predicted the future and had it come true 100%. The reason is, the gods (little ’g’) of "religion" only know two things, the past and the present. They can guess, but they can’t predict the future. Every time a recorded prophecy is fulfilled the world should know that there is no God like our God. He is a Triune God . . . . Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Three Persons yet, One God.

I said there were three factors that distinguish Born Again Believers from religion and have named two.

Number Three is the fact that true Christianity is NOT a "religion". Neither is it a club, a society, fraternity or a league. It’s not an organization or an association, or a brotherhood.

It’s knowing Someone very special - - in a very special way. It’s knowing the Creator of all things on a personal, first-Name basis. Someday the whole world will know Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords but, in the meantime, we can simply call Him, "Jesus". And we can call His Father, Abba or "Daddy".

The world refers to us as "Christians" and rightly so. In Heaven, where it really matters, we’re known as the Children of God and the righteousness of Christ. We’re the redeemed, the Church of the Firstborn, the salt of the earth, a chosen generation and a peculiar people because we’ve been bought with Blood. We’re a "holy priesthood", the temple of the Holy Spirit, we’re overcomers and more than conquerors thru Christ Jesus. No member of any "religion" can ever make that claim.