"For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ASHES OF AN HEIFER sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, PURGE YOUR CONSCIENCE FROM DEAD WORKS to serve the living God" (Heb. 9:13-14).

Numbers 19 is a most unusual chapter in the Old Testament. Through Moses and Aaron the Lord commanded the people to bring a red heifer - one without spot or blemish and which had never been under the yoke of service - and present it to the High Priest. The High Priest in turn gave the red heifer into the hands of Eleazar the priest to be taken outside the Camp and slaughtered there in his presence. It was not one of the sin-offerings of the Day of Atonement, nor was it one of the offerings of the people subsequent to the Day of Atonement - indeed, it was no "offering" at all, for no part of it was offered on the Lord's altar or eaten by the priests. It was sacrificed, but not in the same sense, nor in the same place, as these offerings - in the Court. It was not even killed by one of the priests, nor was its blood taken into the Tabernacle. The red heifer was taken outside the Camp of Israel, and was then killed and burned to ashes, - flesh, fat, hide, blood, etc. - except a little of the blood taken by the priest and sprinkled seven times toward the front of the Tabernacle (Revised Version). While the body of the heifer was being incinerated, Eleazar was to throw cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet thread into the burning fire. When all was consumed, the ASHES of the heifer were not brought into the Tabernacle, but were left outside the Camp, gathered together in a heap, and apparently accessible to any of the people who had use for them. Under the prescription of the law, a portion of the ashes was to be mixed with running water in a vessel, and a bunch of hyssop dipped into this water was to be used in sprinkling the person, clothing, tent, vessels, etc., of any one who contracted ceremonial defilement through touching or approaching a dead body. Thus, any one who became legally unclean through touching a dead body, was cleansed or purified by being sprinkled with water containing some of the ashes of the heifer.

The cleansing for which these red cows were prescribed, were of a peculiar kind, namely, specially for those who became CEREMONIALLY UNCLEAN by coming into contact with DEATH. The ashes of the heifer were not designed to remove MORAL SIN, it was only a ceremonial cleansing, called by the writer of Hebrews that which "sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh" (Heb. 9:13). Here is a man who is pure as a lily, he has loved God and obeyed the law and walked righteously with man and God. But he has touched something unclean. He has come into contact with a dead body. Because he has been so defiled, he cannot stay in the Camp, neither can he approach the Tabernacle; he cannot have fellowship with either God or man! "And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel that they put out of the Camp whosoever is defiled by the dead: both male and female shall you put out...that they defile not their Camps, in the midst whereof I dwell. Whosoever touches the dead body of any man that is dead, and purified not himself, DEFILES THE TABERNACLE OF THE LORD; that soul shall be cut off from Israel: because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean" (Num. 5:1-3; 19:13). The very presence of death caused all fellowship and worship to cease! Until the time he was sprinkled, he was kept out of fellowship with God, but when he had been duly sprinkled he was clean. He then proved his trust in the water of separation by boldly entering in and taking his place as a cleansed man. He was restored to his people and to the presence of God.

The typical uncleanness here set forth related to the body only, and of course the cleansing of the "water of separation" extended only to that. It was not designed to expiate moral offenses. It could only cleanse the body, thus meeting the requirements of the law, and removing the obstructions to fellowship with men and entrance into the presence of God. The ashes of the red heifer HAD an efficacy - removing ceremonial uncleanness, and in clearing the way for the one who had been polluted to be brought again to approach and worship God. Oh, the mystery of it! Ah, though we have committed no act of sin, though we have not knowingly rebelled against the will of the Lord in any thing, yet, because of our contact with the DEATH around us, the presence and influence of the flesh, the world, and the devil, how often have we felt far away from the presence of God! It was not sins that separated us - it was, rather, the NEGATIVE INFLUENCE of a realm of DEATH upon MIND, EMOTION, and CONSCIENCE!

The red heifer was pre-eminently a Wilderness type. It was God's provision for defilements along the way, and it prefigures the blessed provision of Christ to meet our need in passing through a DEFILING WORLD of spiritual death on our way into the fullness and image of God. Many who read these lines understand how they are affected by the spiritual death they contact daily in the world - how after a hard day in a smoke-filled office, engrossed in earthly things, dealing with ungodly men, listening to coarse talk and dirty jokes, surrounded by sin and perverseness - there is a stunting affect on the soulish emotions and the spiritual awareness, and often a time of quietness, seasoned with prayer and praise, is needed to cleanse the emotions and restore the conscious awareness of HIS LIFE AND VICTORY. Yes, we have touched the realm of DEATH, the DEAD BODY OF UNREGENERATED MAN, and there is an attachment of its defilement which must be purged, washed away in the flow of HIS LIFE.

"For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, PURGE YOUR CONSCIENCE FROM DEAD WORKS to serve the living God" (Heb. 9:13-14)?

The truth in this beautiful passage is the basis for the thoughts I would share in this study. We have seen that the water of separation did not cleanse men from sins, but only from a ceremonial defilement that prevented them from entering into fellowship with God. The apostle shows that the cleansing of the water of separation clearly pointed to the CLEANSING OF THE CONSCIENCE FROM DEAD WORKS, that we might serve the living God.

God is a great teacher! Long milleniums ago He initiated a program to reveal Himself to man, to restore man into relationship with Himself, and teach man His will and His ways. But God's revelation had to be given step by step. He could not give fallen man the full spiritual light all at once. God has employed masterly pedagogical wisdom. We teach our children by dividing up the subject-matter of education into a number of grades, running through a number of years. If we were to thrust all the subjects upon the child during the very first year, the child would become completely bewildered, and the result would be that he would not learn anything. But if we give the instruction gradually, in such a way that each portion of it is related to and is based upon the preceding, then the child will be able to follow along and will, after he has passed all the grades, have acquired it all. This was the method that God employed also when He enrolled Israel, that nation-child, into the school of His revelation, and conducted him through grade by grade. Now and then the Israelites would be disobedient and rebellious, and would refuse to learn anything in the class to which they had been promoted. Then they would have to be put back and take the grade over again. But God was compassionate and patient with His children, even though they were disobedient and not very willing to learn. And up through the centuries He finally succeeded in teaching His people more and more of His will and ways, until He at last could promote some of them to the higher school of SPIRITUAL WISDOM, that which began just as the fullness of time had come.

Up to this time God had taught with the visual aids of outward types and symbols, and in divers manners through the prophets, but now He sent His own Son to complete and bring to a consummation the revelation of Himself. We are told very clearly in the New Testament that the Old Testament revelation of God was both insufficient and imperfect, as the apostle points out in Heb. 9:9-10: "Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, which could not make him that did the service perfect, AS PERTAINING TO THE CONSCIENCE; which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation."

Here we are told that the imperfect thing about the Old Covenant revelation of God was the CARNAL ORDINANCES which had no power to PERFECT THE CONSCIENCE. And by them is meant the OUTWARD precepts, rituals, ceremonies, etc. Moreover, the writer mentions specifically the things he has in mind, namely, the many ordinances concerning meats, and drinks, and DIVERS WASHING. The Old Covenant stood in the things they had permission to eat and the things they did not have permission to eat; in gifts, sacrifices, and WASHING FROM CEREMONIAL DEFILEMENT. And lo, we are in the midst of ceremonial defilement, an uncleanness which has nothing whatsoever to do with sins, but with purely natural things. The Old Testament is full of rules and regulations which in the natural seem to be without any significance. It is almost as if the people were to ask, "Why, Lord, must we do these things?" and the Lord answers, "Because I TELL you to!"

As an illustration of this I might mention Uzzah, who helped transport the ark of God when David wanted it brought to Jerusalem. The oxen that were being driven became restive as they came near the threshing floor of Nacon, and the ark was about to fall out of the cart. Then Uzzah took hold of the ark and steadied it, so that it would not fall. "And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God" (II Sam. 6:3-7). His error was that he touched the ark, which, according to Num. 4:15, no one was permitted to do except upon pain of death. We cannot help asking: Why did God deal so harshly with this man, who, after all, was not intent upon doing evil at all, but, on the contrary, was intent upon doing a good deed, namely, preventing the ark of God from being damaged, perhaps even destroyed? Why was God on the whole concerned about outward precepts of this kind? They did not in any way take motive into account. And what was the object of such severe punishment as this?

But God is righteous in all that He does, even though we cannot always comprehend Him. To be incomprehensible is a part of His very nature as GOD. And when a God whose ways are past finding out reveals Himself, there must be something about His revelation which we cannot comprehend, as long as we remain "in part" realm. But a little we do seem to comprehend even here! Any one who has the least knowledge of child training knows that we cannot speak to a LITTLE child about MOTIVES, ATTITUDES, AND PURPOSES. The little one does not understand such things. What the child can understand is the ACT ITSELF and whether he has done what he was told to do by his father and mother, or has refrained from doing what he was told to do. In EARLY life a child develops obedience in just that way, by doing what his father and mother tell him to do WITHOUT KNOWING THE WHY AND WHEREFORE of it. Without any debate between parent and child as to why the child must do thus and so and not otherwise. This is exactly the way God dealt with that nation-child which He had adopted and begun to bring up. The first and foremost thing that He had to teach the children of Israel was unconditional obedience. That is why He gave them very clear and definite commandments and precepts of an OUTWARD nature - and required that they be PUNCTILIOUSLY observed! God, in outward type, established the Kingdom principle of unconditional obedience. Only afterward, through the spiritual power of the New Covenant and the quickening of the Holy Spirit did He reveal to His people the WHY AND THE WHEREFORE of it all - and the deep spiritual meaning and the higher reality in the Christ. Ah! it all HAD A MEANING! The children did not understand the meaning, they merely performed the outward symbol.

But now, blessed be God! the Christ has appeared as a High Priest of the BETTER THINGS that have come and are to come. And now we know "...if the ASHES OF AN HEIFER sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the PURIFYING OF THE FLESH: HOW MUCH MORE shall the blood of Christ PURGE YOUR CONSCIENCE from dead works to serve the living God!" The subject here is the conscience. How well the apostle wrote, "Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service PERFECT, as pertaining to the CONSCIENCE" (Heb. 9:9). It is a most remarkable thing that the conscience is never, in all the pages of God's wonderful Book, said to be cleansed from SIN. Believers are cleansed from sin. Our hearts are cleansed from sin. But never the conscience! The conscience is cleansed from DEAD WORKS! This makes it mandatory upon us to remove the shoes from off our feet and tread carefully upon this holy and mysterious ground. But at the same time it also holds out the promise to us that we shall here gain an insight into some of the most marvelous and glorious things in God's whole mighty work of transforming us into the perfection of Christ.

It is not difficult to understand the conscience. The word "conscience" is translated, in the Bible, from the Greek word "suneidesis" meaning, CO-PERCEPTION or A KNOWING WITH ONESELF. The root from which it comes means "to understand, to be aware, to see completely". When the Scripture says of Adam and Eve, "The eyes of them both were opened, and they KNEW THAT THEY WERE NAKED," it means that the eyes of their carnal understanding, sense knowledge, were opened and suddenly THEY KNEW THEMSELVES. Ones conscience indicates the nature of what he understands and perceives. To perceive right from wrong is one function of the conscience. To condemn or justify is another one of its functions.

Let us now consider the origin of the human conscience. When did it first exist, and how did it come into being? The word "conscience" is used 32 times in the New Testament, but does not appear at all in the Old Testament. This does not mean that the Old Testament has nothing to say about the conscience, but merely that it is spoken of in terms other than the actual word, for man's conscience is clearly one of the myriad things that had its beginning in the first three chapters of Genesis.

"And they were both, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed...and the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, lest you die. And the serpent said unto the woman, You shall not surely die: for God does know that in the day you eat thereof, THEN YOUR EYES SHALL BE OPENED, and you shall be as gods, KNOWING GOOD AND EVIL. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And THE EYES OF THEM BOTH WERE OPENED, and they KNEW THAT THEY WERE NAKED; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons" (Gen. 2:25; 3:2-8).

There is no doubt as to the innocence of Adam and Eve when they first came forth from the creative hand of God. As man stood in the garden, he was neither holy nor unholy; he was innocent, brought forth by the hand of God pure, innocent, undefiled, and to be sure, very untried and unproven. Man before the fall was in a primeval state, like a newborn babe. At that time he was not ashamed of his nakedness any more than a day-old infant is ashamed. This proves that within man there was NO CONCEPT OF GOOD AND EVIL, right or wrong, showing that there was neither the feeling nor the function of the conscience.

Then the serpent entered with the bold assertion: "God knows that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, KNOWING GOOD AND EVIL." Let us now inquire how far Adam and Eve realized the serpent's promised advantage. This inquiry will lead us to a deeply important point in connection with the fall of man. God had so ordained it that IN AND BY THE FALL MAN SHOULD GET WHAT HE PREVIOUSLY HAD NOT - A CONSCIENCE - a knowledge of good and evil. This, man could not have had before. He could not have known aught about evil as evil had never been experienced. He was in a state of innocence, a condition of ignorance of evil and ignorance of good! Let all who read these lines meditate deeply upon this fact: Man in the image of God was NOT CREATED WITH A CONSCIENCE; the conscience is A PRODUCT OF THE FALL, the result of eating of the fruit of the tree of THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL. That knowledge, in fact, IS W-H-A-T THE CONSCIENCE I-S!

As soon as man fell by eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we read, "And the EYES OF THEM BOTH WERE OPENED, and they KNEW THAT THEY WERE NAKED...and Adam and his wife HID THEMSELVES FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD GOD amongst the trees of the garden." There is bitter pathos in this scene. Two people, for the first time conscience stricken, overwhelmed with a sense of sin and shame, furtively slink away into the shadows to hide from God! They had gained knowledge, but it was not the knowledge of God and Life; alas! it was merely the knowledge of good and evil. The very first knowledge that came was the knowledge of evil, the shocking discovery that they were naked, followed swiftly by a chilling fear!

Conscience means A KNOWING WITH ONESELF, and is, simply, the carnal consciousness of WHAT WE ARE in the blazing light of good and evil, right or wrong. Many are astray as to this; they think that the conscience will bring us to God! Did it operate thus in the case of Adam and Eve? Assuredly not! In the very moment when their conscience sprang into life within their bosoms, the first thing they did was to run from God and try to hide from Him, clothed in the fig apron of their own self-works! There is not one sinner in the whole universe who has ever come to God by his conscience. His conscience will justify or condemn, and when it condemns it will dictate that he do better, that he sew together some fig leaves of good works, that he do some outward religious thing to cover his nakedness before God! Millions have come to God by the command of His Word, under the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, but not one has been brought to God by his conscience! How can they? How can the sense of what I AM ever bring me back to God, if not accompanied by the faith of what HE IS? Impossible! In order to understand better what the conscience is, let us compare it with the instinct of animals. It, too, is a remarkable thing. Instinct tells the animal, in a way that we cannot explain, what to do in order to preserve its own life as well as that of its species. And in a way that is equally inexplicable the animal is warned through its instinct of those things which are dangerous or inimical to its well-being. The instinct of domestic animals has been weakened through association with human beings. In wild animals the instinctive faculty functions with perfect normalcy. We must frequently marvel at their ability to sense danger, such as poison, for instance. As far as we know, wild animals never eat natural poisons. We must make use of artificially concocted poisons if we would inveigle them into taking it. But regardless of how precisely and effectively animal instinct functions, it it, nevertheless, nothing more than an involuntary act, as everything else in animal psychology. It functions entirely automatically and by natural necessity.

Conscience, on the other hand, is a knowledge, a consciousness, not, like instinct, an inner compelling urge such as drives the animals and compels them to pursue the course marked out by instinct. Conscience is rooted in a deep inner consciousness of a LAW which addresses itself to man's conscious will, separating between good and evil, not to enforce obedience to it, but that the man might freely and without compulsion follow or not follow that law which he through conscience that man acquires consciousness of his humanity, differentiating im from the brute. It is through conscience that man learns that he is not under necessity, as animals are, to act as he has been programmed to act, but is ordained to act from a knowledge of good and evil. This faculty of KNOWING WITH, which man possesses, is exceedingly remarkable.

A sort of doubling of our personality takes place. The "I" takes a position, so to speak, outside itself and observes itself. It looks at self in the light of right and wrong. And then it pronounces judgment upon itself, upon its own actions and conduct in regard to right and wrong. Then comes that which is most remarkable of all. The judgment which the "I" pronounces upon the "I" is entirely objective and unbiased. A remarkable judgment seat indeed! In other courts of justice we require that the judge be a disinterested party in the case, fearing that his judgments otherwise might be prejudiced. But at the judgment bar of conscience it is the accused person himself who passes judgment!

As a rule the judgment which is expressed deals with some particular thing which we have done or are about to do, something that we are saying, thinking, or feeling. However, it may also pass judgment upon our whole being. At all times it tells us how our actions, words, thoughts, feelings, or what we ourselves are compare with its standard of good and evil. Conscience expresses itself sometimes before, sometimes during, and sometimes after the act involved. BEFORE it either encourages us to carry out our contemplated action, or advises us not to do so. DURING the act the voice of conscience is weakest, as a rule. That is when it is most difficult for conscience to gain a hearing or to make itself heard. We are either preoccupied with what we are doing or are under the sway of passion, with the result that the voice of our conscience is either partly or completely stifled. AFTER the act conscience usually speaks most strongly, either approving the deed and expressing satisfaction with it, or protesting against it and producing inner unrest and anxiety.

The problem with the human conscience is, first, that it is a product of the fall; second, it is a conscience with power to condemn you for wrong-doing, but with no power to compel you to do right; and third, it is totally undependable so far as the kingdom of God is concerned, being CONDITIONED by the external influences of THIS WORLD. To understand the truth of what I now say you have only to observe the life of a child. In their first bloom of innocence children can readily develop a sense of what is right. But as they grow older, deprived of original simplicity, imbibing of the voices, concepts, and influences of the world around them - parents, friends, teachers, television, movies, books, etc. - they become affected by the values they learn from these sources and their conscience becomes CONDITIONED TO JUDGE RIGHT AND WRONG BY THE STANDARD OF WHAT THEY ARE TAUGHT. Your conscience is like a computer into which data has been fed from childhood on. Your "computer" gives out the information that has been fed into it!

As a consequence of his deficient knowledge of the nature, will, and ways of God the conscience of the natural man functions deficiently and erroneously in various ways. This we have abundant opportunity to observe in the moral and religious life of the heathen, both in the past and in the present. Thus we observe that religiously the conscience of the heathen leads him in his worship to bow down to man-made things instead of to the Creator and to perform the emptiest and most meaningless kinds of ceremonialsm. His conscience leads him to grotesquely paint and hideously cut and disfigure his flesh. We observe also that the conscience of the heathen approves of acts in connection with divine worship which are openly immoral, such as sexual intercourse with the temple prostitutes in honor of the gods! We observe, furthermore, that the conscience of a heathen can require him to lie, steal, and murder in the name of the gods.

The conscience takes the shape of the things it is fed. The conscience of a Hindu has been conditioned to believe that a cow is an especially sacred animal, to be revered. His conscience would smite him were he to kill and eat a cow! What mental anguish he would suffer if he were required to dine with you at the local Steak House! But if one is raised in a Catholic home he knows quite well that a cow is not sacred, and his conscience is not pained by eating beef, but, if he bends his knee before the idol-image of a saint, his conscience will approve that, because that is how his conscience has been conditioned! But another, raised in a Baptist home, his conscience conditioned by Baptist values, if he bows before an image his conscience will not let him sleep!

This brings us to a most marvelous verse of Scripture in Heb. 10:22. "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, HAVING OUR HEARTS SPRINKLED FROM AN EVIL CONSCIENCE." When quickened by the spirit of revelation this passage staggers the imagination with its wonders. Such things are too wonderful for me! In our carnal state while yet our eyes are dim through the ravages of sin and death and the weak and insipid rule of the conscience, we can but see through a glass darkly. But now comes the word: "Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience" - having the "evil conscience" or the "defiled conscience" REMOVED FROM OUR HEARTS by the cleansing blood of the Christ!

I have shared the following experience before, but would share it again in this connection. I was raised in a Pentecostal home. So, upon arriving at young manhood I had acquired a PENTECOSTAL CONSCIENCE! It was shaped by the doctrines, practices and traditions of the Pentecostal movement in the area of south Alabama where I lived as a boy. In those Churches there were many rules and traditions, some of which have changed through the years. For example, the women were not allowed to wear facial makeup of any kind, and lipstick, especially, was a sin! Short or curled hair was sinful. Women could not wear slacks and their dresses must be long, with long sleeves and high necks. Bright, splashy colors were worldly. And then, no jewelry of any kind was permitted - not even a wedding band!

I remember when as a boy preacher I wanted a tie pin to hold my tie in place. I thought about the tie pin for a long time before getting up enough courage to go and buy one. I purchased a rather plain, gold colored one. I shall never forget the day when I put it on, stood before the mirror, looked at myself, and said proudly, "Preston, you've really done it!" Then at once my Pentecostal conscience smote me and I took the thing off! You see, my conscience had been formed in the Pentecostal tradition and I thought that was salvation! Shortly thereafter a fresh and marvelous moving of the Holy Spirit swept over my life, quickening, bringing glory and spirit of revelation from God; there came a new and wonderful UNVEILING OF CHRIST to my heart, and for the first time in my life I saw the bondage of tradition, the commandments of men taught as the doctrine of Christ, for the pitiful thing it is. The blessed Spirit of God turned the searchlight within and I saw that just as the sinner needs his heart cleansed from fornication, adultery, lying, drunkenness, cursing, and all the ungodly works of the flesh, so did my heart need to be cleansed from the traditions of religion - SPRINKLED FROM AN EVIL, CONDITIONED, WARPED, DISTORTED, PERVERTED, RELIGIOUS CONSCIENCE! How desperately the Lord's people need much of this purging, for in many of us our conscience still labors under the hangover of multiplied man-made-standards, duty-bound rituals and ceremonies, and dead letter-of-the-Word ordinances and observances.

"And for unclean person they shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel: and a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave: and the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even" (Num. 19:17-19).

This running water, this Living Water is none other than the eternal Spirit and Word of God Himself. It was given to take away the defilement of death, as that which stood between God and man; not the iniquities which separate between God and the sinner, but some DEAD THING by which the people of God are defiled. Hear, oh man of God, and give earnest heed, you Sons of God! "For if the ASHES OF AN HEIFER sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the PURIFYING OF THE FLESH: HOW MUCH MORE shall the blood of Christ PURGE YOUR CONSCIENCE FROM DEAD WORKS to serve the living God" (Heb. 9:13-14).

He who writes these lines testifies to those who read them that no one can serve "the LIVING God" with "DEAD works". Dead works are the fruit of spiritual deadness, they have no spiritual life in them, no life through Christ from the living God. Some think that "dead" means "sinful" works. These certainly would be dead weight upon the conscience. Yet here "dead works" are not crimes and immoral conduct but rather all formal, empty, false religious observances and self-invented works whereby men would seek to please and serve God.

In those Old Testament days, then, when any was defiled by contact with death, the ashes of the red heifer were brought. It was a female sacrifice, and a female sacrifice free from any blemish, a red heifer taken in the time of that heifer's prime, when the heifer was not only alive herself but able to produce life. The heifer was slain and its blood and everything burned and the ashes kept. The defiled man was brought near, the ashes applied by means of running water; and after suitable interval the man was regarded as clean once more. Ah! We, in a more real sense, have been defiled by contact with the death of DEAD WORKS dictated by an evil conscience! You see, they spring not from a spirit that is alive, quickened by His Spirit, and able to produce life; they are dead works, the product of a creature that is in God's sight dead. They spring not from the fount of all true life, they are dead and as such are obnoxious to God. When the apostle speaks of dead works he does not have in mind the gross works of the flesh, sorry as they are, but much even that goes by way of religion and dresses itself in fine vestments and uses spiritual-sounding phrases and inspiring music and beautiful pageantry and good works; which if it spring not from a conscience that has been cleansed and quickened by the blood of Christ, is all dead works and utterly obnoxious before Him who is THE LIVING GOD. I tell the truth when I say that there is much about us that has been dead, and much of our service, if we are not careful, can spring not from a spirit guided by the Holy Spirit, but from the flesh, done by rote, because we have always done it that way. And when we touch that realm we have touched death, and are defiled by death. We need cleansing, and, thank God, we have it. For if the ashes of a heifer sprinkling them in those days purified their flesh contaminated by death, HOW MUCH MORE shall the blood of the Christ PURGE YOUR CONSCIENCE FROM D-E-A-D  W-O-R-K-S to serve the Living God!

The words of this beautiful passage of Scripture cast a ray of eternal hope across the gloomy of human tradition and ritualistic religion with its static creeds, ordinances, ceremonies and programs that for centuries have blinded men's minds and made their feet to stumble and lose their way so that they have become lost from the glorious and eternal reality of THE LIFE OF GOD IN THE SPIRIT. Oh that men might know that it is the Holy Spirit alone who makes men alive, and it is the Holy Spirit alone who must lead us into all truth and bring to fulfillment the purposes of God in our lives. Oh that men might know that we are servants of THE LIVING GOD! and our spirits have been quickened by His Spirit that we might live by His Life. The flesh with all its slavish forms of religion and dead works, profits nothing. Fill you mind and life with as many doctrines and rules and programs as you like. It profits you nothing. Celebrate Mass every day of the week, if you so desire. It profits you nothing. Be baptized, join the Church, attend meetings, take communion, serve on the committees, if you wish. It profits you nothing. Give all your goods to feed the poor, or give your body to be burned. It profits you nothing if you have not been quickened by the Living Christ, for you are still dead and chained by the power of inbred sin. Tradition and forms of religion and godliness can do nothing for men except cause them to walk in blindness. Men do not need religion. Men do not need external ordinances, rituals, rules and regulations which merely soothe the human conscience, giving the illusion that the Living Christ is being served. They are one and all DEAD WORKS. Men need Christ. They need to KNOW HIM! Christ is the light of men and the light of the world, and all who follow Him will not walk in darkness but have the light of life, having their conscience PURGED FROM DEAD WORKS TO SERVE THE LIVING CHRIST. Once we begin to serve the Living God we find no further use for any of those dead works, for they carry with them the stench of death.

"Oh," you say, "I cannot give up all these beautiful religious forms I have known for so long!" I do not hesitate to tell you, precious friend, that you will never walk as a Son of God until you do. I speak plainly because it is necessary. You will never know the fullness of His presence nor the greatness of His power until the blessed "water of separation" has been applied and your conscience has completely has completely and forever been cleansed from dead works. As long as the defilement of the dead carcass of Babylonish religion clings to your flesh, you cannot and will not enter the Lord's Camp, nor will you be permitted to approach His Tabernacle, nor will your feet tread within the precincts of His glory. You are shut out to behold but dimly from afar the glory of the Lord upon those whose hearts have been purged from the defilement of death. DEAD works! Why will you cling to the defilement of that which is DEAD? Oh, why! Have you not learned, precious one, that God never takes aught from us, without giving us something better! He removes the symbol, to give us reality; breaks the type, to give the substance; smashes the form to give us the essence; releases us from the natural to give us the spiritual. Oh, trust Him, my brother, and dare let go, that you may take; to be stripped of the garments defiled by death that you may become clothed with glory and life!

There is only ONE FORM in the whole universe to be desired, and it is the one created by God Himself. Milleniums ago the great king Nebuchadnezzar gazed in transfixed wonder upon this form and cried out in astonishment, "Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the FORM of the fourth is like THE SON OF GOD" (Dan. 3:24-25). Paul, by the divine wisdom given him, penned these words of truth: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the FORM OF GOD, thought it not robbery to be equal with God" (Phil. 2:5-6). Think diligently of what the apostle has told us in speaking thus: "My little Children, of whom I travail in birth again until CHRIST BE F-O-R-M-E-D in you" (Gal. 4:19)

Sadly, the great apostle wrote to young Timothy, "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a FORM OF GODLINESS, but DENYING THE POWER thereof: from such turn away" (II Tim. 3:1-5). The "form of godliness without power" is an abomination, but a FORM OF GODLINESS WITH POWER is a mighty thing. Not a form of religion, but the FORM OF GODLINESS, or God-like-ness. Without a form you have no power. If you have some gunpowder, it may be a pound weight, and scatter it in a plate and set fire to it, there is no power to it: but ram it into a cannon, put a bullet there, and you had better stand out of the way of the power: for it is very real! The Sons of God are being prepared, pressed and formed in the processings of the Father, not as power dispersed, but as power concentrated. Under the dealings of His hands His nature and glory and power are being built into us, formed in our lives, for a day of unveiling. The Christ must be FORMED in us! He cannot dwell "loosely" within us, only casually experienced. HIS LIFE must be meticulously PRESSED into every facet of our life until HIS FORM becomes all that is seen in every circumstance and situation.

Forms without power are forms without Christ. Forms without power are a curse. All forms of praise and prayer and religious activity which have no power in them are abominations. The Church that has a form without a power ought to have been buried long ago, and all who are in contact with them are defiled by death. Power goes into form; living does not always contain power. Empty forms are dead carcasses that defile; living forms embody and express all the power of the indwelling life. The only form that does contain power is the FORM OF THE CHRIST as He is formed in truth and reality in our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit. All forms which are not HIS LIVING FORM IN US are DEAD FORMS and men are defiled thereby. But now, when the "running water" of HIS LIFE is sprinkled upon our hearts by the "clean" heavenly Man - how much more - HOW MUCH MORE - with what an infinitely effectual cleansing must our conscience be cleansed from dead works to serve the Living God!

A conscience fully cleansed with the blood of Christ is freed from that inner gnawing demand to participate in the activities of the harlot Church system. A conscience fully cleansed with the blood of Christ is delivered from that haunting sense of insincerity and hollowness which renders boldness of access to God an impossibility. It can look to God without a shadow of a cloud. The light of God's face shines clear on the conscience, and through it on the heart. We live in the dispensation of the Spirit - the Spirit of God's Son, who has been sent for this INTO OUR HEART. It is the dispensation of the inner life, in which we are brought into the inner sanctuary, the secret place of His presence, and the inner sanctuary is found within us, - in that secret inner place where none but God's Spirit can search out. In that hidden depth is the house God has prepared for Himself; there, in the INNER MAN, the Holy Spirit will reveal, in a way that sense and reason cannot apprehend, the power of Christ's blood to bring us nigh to God and God nigh to us. It is an inner work!

Oh, let us believe the infinite mysteries with which we are surrounded! And above all, this mystery too, that within us, THE BLOOD OF CHRIST, THE WATER OF SEPARATION - that mystery of mysteries - is being applied and kept in full action by the eternal Spirit, cleansing us from all the defilements of the death realm, from all the negative influences of the flesh, the world, and the devil, and all the dead works of the religious systems imposed upon us by a corrupted conscience, and revealing now GOD'S LIFE WITHIN US, that we may SERVE THE LIVING GOD IN US!

As the living God, He is all, and does all and fills all - the ever-present and ever-working God. Cleansed from our contact with the death of religion WE KNOW THIS GOD and have fellowship with Him and serve Him. TO SERVE THE LIVING GOD. What a word! The glory of the New Creature is to reveal God, to be a vessel in which He can pour His fullness, a channel through which He can show forth His glory, an instrument for working out His purposes. This is what man was created for in the image of God. This is what the New Creation Man is being formed for today. The whole object of redemption is to bring us back to a life in the living reality of God. It is for this the Holiest of All was opened to us by the blood of Jesus. It is for this our conscience is cleansed in the blood, purged from dead works. A life in the Holiest of All is a life in which everything is done under the sense of God's glory and presence, by the inworking of His power, and to His glory; a life that has no object but to live by the life of God and to do His will.

Praise God. a people is being formed to walk with God, the change is on and we are being changed! Thus, as the defiled Israelites were sprinkled with "the ashes of a red heifer", so the Holy Spirit brings to our hearts and consciences the power of the life of Christ; and as the one outside the Camp defiled by the dead had also to bathe his flesh and wash his clothes, so we prove what it is to have ourselves and our near surroundings brought under the purifying work of His Word and the cleansing action of His Spirit, and thus to have fellowship with all who are so cleansed and with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

We were gloriously freed from all sin by the death of Christ typified in the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement; but we are now being wonderfully cleansed from the defilement of our contact with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and the myriad dead works of self-effort and carnal religion, to serve the living God. Until every area of our conscience is purged from DEAD WORKS, from LIFELESS RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES, we are yet defiled by death and are separated from the fullness of His life. It is not a question of whether we attend some Church or don't attend, or whether we are "busy" for God or have been drawn aside to "wait" upon the Lord; it is a matter of serving the LIVING GOD, not our conscience, and of being LED BY THE SPIRIT as to where we go, what we do, and how we live out every aspect of our lives, daily. If our fellowship is in some harlot Church system and if we are constantly going, going, going, and doing, doing, doing in the Church program because our religion-conditioned conscience dictates that we must, that is one thing; but how much better to have the conscience cleansed from the demands of all this slavish activity to simply BE WHERE THE FATHER WANTS US, DOING WHAT THE SPIRIT DICTATES. Ah, the defiled human conscience is being cleansed from the contamination of dead works, replaced by THE LIVING SPIRIT OF THE CHRIST WITHIN, HE is becoming LORD, blessed be His wonderful name!

To be continued......................

                                                                                                              Part 3

J. PRESTON EBY - P.O. Box 371240 - El Paso, Tx. 79937

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