You can go ahead and turn with
me to Numbers chapter five again, if you would please. Last time
we looked at the beginning verses of this chapter and we saw that
Numbers chapter five is all about the purity and the holiness of
God. God's glory is found in his purity
and in his holiness. Moses can attest to that. He
said, God, show me your glory The Lord said, no man could see
my face and live. It's gotta be perfect to be accepted.
We say that all the time, but it really does. Nothing less
than perfection will God accept. God can have no dealings with
sin, and as we saw the last time, there are three things represented
by sin here in chapter five, and that's leprosy, the issue
of blood, and the defilement from the dead. Sin, as you know,
like leprosy, it only displays outwardly what it's done inwardly. Before the outward effects are
seen, the inward damage is done. That's the way it is with sin.
It's not what goes into a man's mouth that defiles him, it's
what comes out, what comes from within, from the heart. It's
out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. Our blood is polluted. We're
defiled by the dead because ourselves were dead and trespasses and
in sin. And because of God's holiness
and his purity and his perfection and his righteousness, those
who were and are defiled, corrupt and unclean must be separated
from the camp." Got to go. Which very expressively, as you
know, pictures the church of God. And since God can have nothing
to do with sin, sin's got to be dealt with. No way around
it. In order for God to remain just,
sin's got to be dealt with. Our iniquities have separated
between us and our God, as we have seen many times. Atonement's
got to be made in the camp in order for the camp to be reconciled
to God. And in the same manner, the church
must receive propitiation for their sin. And that word propitiate
means to appease. It means to pacify. It means
to make peace with. It means to make amends too.
We've got to make peace with God. There's only one way to
do that. We can't in and of ourselves do that, make peace with God. Christ is the propitiation for
our sins, 1 John 2.2. Now I love to think about that. God himself doing for me what
God himself required of me. Now it's Christ whom God has
set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins, Romans
3.25. And John said here in his love,
not that we love God, but that he loved us. and sent his son
to be the propitiation, the appeasement for our sins. But Numbers chapter
five very well teaches us our need of Christ, as all the Old
Testament does. It all points to him. That's
what the Lord himself said. In the law of Moses and in the
prophets and in the Psalms are concerning me. And I think we've
seen that very much in our Old Testament studies. And I think
that we'll see that even more tonight if the Lord's pleased
to reveal it to us. Now, the verses before us tonight
show us something more of our unfaithfulness and God's faithfulness
to his son. I was going to say to us, but
really his faithfulness is to his son. And we received the
benefits of that being in him. That's why sinners must be in
Christ in order to be saved. God loves only in his son. There's no love for a sinner
outside of Christ. And our story tonight is the
story of two wives. Begin reading with me in verse
11. I'll read these and I have opened up several versions of
the scriptures this morning. And as I read the King James,
I also would look at some of the other versions. So I've put
in a few little things here that I've added to help us maybe understand
these verses as we go through them. But in verse 11, and the
Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak ye unto the children of Israel,
and saying to them, now watch this, if any man's wife go outside
and commit a trespass against him, what he means there, if
any man's wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him, according
to the NIV version. Verse 13, and a man lie with
her carnally, meaning having sexual relations with her, and
it be hid from the eyes of her husband and be kept close. It's hidden from her husband
and her impurity is undetected. And she be defiled if there be
no witnesses against her, neither she be taken with the manner,
though she's not called in the act having no witness against
her. Verse 14, and the spirit or the feelings of jealousy come
upon him, the husband, and he be jealous of his wife. He suspects
her of being unfaithful, but he's not sure. And she be defiled
or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him and he be jealous
of his wife and she be not defiled. If the husband suspects her,
whether she's guilty or whether she's not, then shall the man,
then shall the husband, verse 15, bring his wife unto the priest
and he shall bring her offering for her. The husband's got to
take an offering to the high priest for her. The 10th part
of a ephah, ephah, of barley meal, he shall pour no oil upon
it, put frankincense there on for it's an offering of jealousy,
an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity or wrongdoing to remembrance. Now this was an offering given
to prove whether or not the husband's wife was guilty of adultery. One commentary called it the
adultery test. Verse 16, and the priest shall
bring her near and set her before the Lord. And the priest shall
take holy water in an earthen vessel, and that means clay jar,
and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle, from
the tabernacle floor, the priest shall take and put it into the
water. And the priest shall set the
woman before the Lord and uncover the woman's head, which means
loosen and unbind her hair, and put the offering of memorial
in her hands." He's actually placed in her hands the reminder
offering, which is the jealousy offering. And the priest shall
have in his hand the bitter water that causes the curse or brings
the curse. And the priest shall charge her
by an oath. He's going to make her promise
to tell the truth. And saying to the woman, if no
man hath lain have committed adultery with thee, and if thou
has not gone aside to uncleanness with another, speaking of another
man, instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter
water that calls it the curse. But if thou has gone aside to
another instead of thy husband, if you've gone astray while married
to your husband, and if thou be defiled, if you've made yourself
impure by adultery, and some man hath lain with thee beside
thine husband. Then the priest shall charge
the woman with an oath of cursing." Put the woman under this curse. And the priest shall say unto
the woman, the Lord make thee a curse and an oath among thy
people when the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot and thy belly
to swell. Now, most Bible scholars take
that to mean that the woman's womb was to shrivel up and that
her belly was to swell so that she couldn't have children. That
was a real curse in this day. It was just any woman that wasn't
able to have children was thought to be cursed. They thought themselves
to be. Verse 22, and this water that
calls it the curse shall go into thy bowels to make thy belly
to swell and thy to rot, or your womb to miscarry, "'And the woman
shall say, amen, amen.'" And I think the NIV says, so be it,
which is what amen means. "'And the priest,' verse 23,
"'shall write these curses in a book, "'and he shall blot them
out, "'wash them off with the bitter water, "'And he shall
cause or make the woman "'to drink the bitter water that calls
it the curse, "'and the water that calls it the curse "'shall
enter into her and become bitter. "'And then the priest shall take
the jealousy offering," this potion, that concoction that
he's mixed up out of the woman's hand, "'and shall wave the offering
before the Lord "'and offer it upon the altar. "'And the priest
shall take a handful of the offering, "'even the memorial thereof,
"'and burn it upon the altar, "'and afterwards shall cause
the woman "'to drink the water. "'And when he hath made her to
drink the water, "'then it shall come to pass that if she be defiled,
"'if she made herself impure, "'and have done trespass against
her husband, "'committed adultery against him, "'that the water
that calls it the curse "'shall enter into her and become bitter,
"'and her belly shall swell and her thighs shall rot, "'and the
woman shall be a curse among her people. "'And if the woman
be not defiled, but be clean, "'then she shall be free, cleared
of the guilt, "'and shall conceive seed, she shall have children.'"
And this is the law of jealousies when a wife goeth aside or stray
to another instead of her husband and is defiled. Or when the spirit
of jealousy cometh upon him, the husband, and he'd be jealous,
and that means suspicious over his wife and shall set the woman
before the Lord and the priest shall execute upon her all this
law. Then shall the man be guiltless
from iniquity and this woman shall bear her iniquity, bear
the consequences of her sin if she be guilty of adultery. Now that's a lot to read, I know.
And I'll do my best to try to explain that spiritually speaking. Now here in Numbers 5, as we
just read, we find a precept that God gives here to Israel. And it was a precept given to
soothe the spirit of jealousy in the heart of a husband who
suspected his wife of committing adultery. Please understand that
this woman is not yet proven guilty. She's only suspected
by the husband to be unfaithful, according to verse 13. To be proven guilty of adultery
was an immediate death sentence in these days. If you remember
in John chapter eight where the Pharisees caught that woman in
the act of adultery, they said we caught her in the very act
of adultery. They said to the Lord Jesus, the law says that
she's to be stoned. And then they asked him, what
do you think? What do you say? And of course, you remember that
story very well. The Lord stooped and roped, and
then he told them if they're at the end, if Heavis without
sin cast the first stone, and they, one by one, left. She was caught in the act. She
could have been stoned right on the spot. The law says that
she's to be stoned. But the woman spoken of here
in Numbers chapter 5 is only a suspect. She's not been caught
in the act of adultery. She's not been seen by an eyewitness. She may have acted suspiciously. Maybe some accusations were stirring
around the camp, and they were heard and got back to the husband.
It's very possible that gossip had spread, didn't make it true,
but nonetheless, whatever the reason, the husband had a suspicion
and a spirit of jealousy. He had some suspicion of her
unfaithfulness. But according to the law of Moses,
a man could not just take matters into his own hand. If he was
proven wrong, it would first bring reproach to him and to
his wife, and more importantly, to God. So he couldn't take matters
in his own hand, but because of the husband's love of his
wife, the Lord gave this precept, this test, so to speak, to determine
and reveal the truth. And by this precept, this test,
this spiritual prescription, a guilty woman would be either
condemned or justified, either guilty or innocent. And let me
add that this, as I mentioned, this speaks of
a loving, caring husband. And I say that because No other
than a loving husband would be jealous in a sense that where
there's no love for a wife, there's no jealousy. A man wouldn't care
what his wife did, but this man did. He loved his wife. He cherished his wife. A man
that loves his wife, I know, trust his wife, but this was
not a baseless suspicion or accusation. There were many reasons for this
man to be suspicious. And in this passage, two women,
two women spoken of, two completely different women. Now, the first
woman is an unfaithful wife. She pretends to love her husband.
She pretends to admire him. She pretends to be submissive
to him. She brags on him when she doesn't
mean it. She sings his praises, but she
is but a pretender. Now, there are many today who
sing praises to their heavenly husband, who pretend to love
and admire and submit to him who do not in their hearts. They
are very well pictured by this unfaithful woman. And not just
women, but men too. Those who profess to know and
love Christ. Now secretly this woman is involved
with another man, but there are no witnesses. There is no accuser. She's never been caught in the
act, like that poor woman they brought before the Lord, even
though all the gossip is true. So then we have the second woman,
and we have here a faithful and a loving wife that's falsely
charmed. Her reputation must be restored
in order to satisfy her jealous husband. And none of the gossip
that's been said about her is true. She must be vindicated. Now hear me on this. I think
this all come together as we go on. This is an inward work
of God alone, that God alone is doing, that proves both guilt
and innocence. That whole thing that we read
there, that spiritual prescription, that concoction, that potion
that the Lord had drawn up. Brother Darwin in a message back
in 2012 called it a spiritual elixir. a potion, so to speak. And it proved whether or not
she was guilty or innocent. That's what God does when the
gospel's preached. Boy, that's such a picture of
the gospel. It's a savor of life unto some,
and it's a savor of death unto others. And boy, I tell you,
I long to be and desire to be faithful to my Savior. I don't
want to be unfaithful to him. But God gives this precept, this
test to reveal the heart of this man's wife to him. This is very
important to remember. Men and women talk about being
delivered from this, and they talk about being delivered from
that. Well, the Lord saved me from this, and the Lord saved
me from that. And most everything that they mention is works of
the flesh, things of the flesh. I remember my dad telling me
one time, long after I'd gotten big enough where they couldn't
make me go to church, and he'd come in and he said, well, he
said, The pastor today wrote a full page article in the bulletin
and also in the newspaper, the local newspaper about smoking. And he said, and he had just
finished preaching a whole series on why a man shouldn't smoke
or drink a beer. And my dad said a lot of men
got convicted and a lot of men quit smoking and drinking a beer.
He said, but I doubt very seriously if any of them got saved. And he was exactly right. I told
him that he was right because salvation is not being forgiven
of things. Salvation is being forgiven of
sin. Conviction of our sin is what
causes us to call out to Christ. Forgiveness of our sin is what
we need. True conviction and sorrow of
sin is to see that everything that you do and everything that
you are is contrary to Christ. And that's what takes mercy and
grace because men and women by nature won't believe that of
themselves. It literally is, and we say it
all the time, but it literally is to take sides with God against
ourselves. You're right, Lord. The Lord
Jesus told that Canaanite woman, he said, it's not right to take
the children's bread and give it to dogs. And she didn't go,
well, I beg your pardon, I'm no dog. Did she? She said, no. She said, yay,
Lord. A dog is what I am. But even
dogs get the crumbs that fall from the Lord's table. We take
sides with God against ourselves. We agree with God as to who and
what we are by nature. True conviction and sorrow of
sin is to see what we are and to grieve with God, with what
God says we are. And that's not all, it's to hate
that it's so. It's not to glory in our sin,
it's to hate it. Isaiah said, woe is me, I'm undone. Job said, I abhor myself, I hate
myself. Paul said, oh wretched man that
I am. And each one of them said it
with sorrow in their hearts. Oh, I tell you, I wish that I
wasn't the way that I am. I mean that. I wish I wasn't
the way I am. What could be more devastating
to a loving husband than the pretended affection of his wife?
What could be more hurtful than to know that the heart of your
wife burns for another man and not for you? You men think about
that. You know what I'm talking about. What would cause a man
more emotional turmoil than to imagine his loving wife in the
arms of another man? I can't think of anything that
would. What does it take to save a sinner? Well, first the accused
woman has to be brought by her jealous husband to the priest
of God, to the minister of God. And this is not speaking of the
high priest, but it's speaking of the common priest who ministered
in the things of the tabernacle. And I don't doubt that that if
the husband was jealous, so very likely was the priest. More than
likely, it was the same priest before whom she made the vows
of marriage. You know, the apostle Paul said,
I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I have espoused
you to one husband that I may present you a chaste virgin to
Christ. Second Corinthians 11, two. You
know, Christ and his bride are one. A bride and her husband,
when married, they enter into a holy union together. It says
the two become one. So is Christ in his church. That's the example of that. And
for the most part, I'll just tell you right now that I do
not enjoy performing marriage ceremonies. I just don't. I do occasionally because I,
like and enjoy the person that asked me to do it. But most of
the time, very seldom do I have any confidence that both parties
know the Lord and the seriousness of what they're entering into.
In most cases, they're destined to fail. I can think of several
marriage ceremonies that I've officiated where the parties
are no longer married and weren't for very long. Probably more of the people that
I married are not married than are. And as you know, marriage
pitches Christ and his church, it pitches Christ and his bride,
Christ and his body. Very serious thing. Ephesians
5 makes that very, very clear. Men and women marry today and
they take it just so lightly. I read just today that 44.6%
of marriages today end in divorce. And that's probably down a little
bit because today most people don't get married, they just
live together. So the percentage of divorces has gone down because
people don't get married to begin with. They have children and then they
move in together, then they get married. And it's just backwards. Well, back to our study, that's
another. When the wife is under suspicion
and the husband will not tolerate adultery, he brings his wife
before the priest. That's what we see here. Physical
adultery typifies spiritual adultery. Men and women who profess to
be married to Christ, who are not faithful to Him, commit spiritual
adultery. That's the picture we have here.
Physical adultery represents a heart that loves the things
of this world. Our Lord said, love not the world,
neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. Well, that's pretty
plain, isn't it? No man can serve two masters.
He'll love the one, hate the other. He'll cling to one and
forget the other. We're not capable of having two,
we're just not. And Christ will not tolerate
or share the love of his bride with another. It's spiritual
adultery and God's priest or God's preacher must settle the
issue. Now, I hope to show you how.
They please God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. And the wife has got to be brought
by her jealous husband to the Lord to be dealt with. And he
does so through the preaching of the gospel. This is the only
place that the hearts of men and women will be exposed. And
that's in the preaching of God's gospel. The gospel alone is the
only thing that exposes whether or not Christ's people truly
love him. Now, secondly, I would have you
to see that the jealous husband must provide the offering required
according to verse 15. By the command of God, the jealous
husband must not only bring the wife, but he must provide the
offering required for. She's to bring offering, but
she doesn't have anything to bring. All she has to bring is just
a questionable reputation. The rumors are flowing. The loving husband provides the
offering for her. I know you see the type. This
is a token and an offering of Christ's love for his bride. He takes it for her. He does
for her and provides for her what she cannot provide. He provides
what she must bring before the Lord. Just like when Ruth, I
was thinking about Ruth the day she gleaned in the fields, her
and Naomi, they have nothing. She's gleaned in the fields and
Boaz spotted her and he told his men, he said, let some handfuls
of purpose fall for her that she may glean them. They were
a token of his love for her. Those handfuls of purpose were
provided for her by Boaz. What a picture that is. This
offering is not to be anointed according to verse 15. It's not
to be spiced up with frankincense. It's not to have oil put on it. This is a jealousy offering.
This is a test that will expose the wife's heart. This is a ceremony
instituted by God by which she will either be condemned or justified. It can't be doctored up. It can't
be spiced up. The suspected wife must be brought
before the Lord. Third thing, verse 16. Why not
a counsel? Why not a jury? Well, first of
all, they don't have any witnesses. There's no witnesses. There's
no evidence, just suspicion. The Lord is the only one who
can manifest the hearts of men and women. Only God can make
spiritual things known. Only God can reveal the heart,
the true heart of this woman. Only the Lord is able to manifest
the unseen truth. As you know, the natural man
receives not the things of the Spirit of God, they're spiritually
discerned. We've talked about it many times.
That word means manifested. They have to be spiritually manifested,
revealed in order for us to see. You know that. Chris Cawthorne knows it. He
said for years, he said these were just words now that I see
their life. God reveals that. Nobody but
Him. Spiritually manifested and seen. But he, speaking of God the Father
and God the Son, he that is spiritual judgeth, he can determines all
things, yet he's judged of no man. Only God can bring to light
the hidden things and make manifest the counsels of men and women's
hearts. Now, when the jealous husband
brought the accused wife to the priest to partake of this spiritual
prescription, this concoction, this potion, it was always effectual. It was effectual in the sense
that it always worked out the way God purposed it to work out. And fourthly, because this holy
prescription was prescribed by God, that's why. God commands a potion to be mixed
and he gives it to the priest and this prescription is very
specific and it's gotta be followed to the tea. The command of God
is for the priest to take holy water and put it in an earthen
vessel, a clay pot, and take it into the holy place and then
sweep the dust off the floor. Mixing it with that holy water
contained in the clay pot. And that dust is swept from the
floor is both a symbol of death and a symbol of life. Man was
made from the dust of the ground and God breathed into him the
breath of life. So it's a picture of life. And then at the same time, when
a man gives up the ghost and breathes his last breath, his
last breath is done, the breath of life leaves him, he will again
return to the dust. The Lord said, for dust thou
art and to dust shall thou return, Genesis 3.19. After the tabernacle floor is
swept, the water of life and the dust of the earth was then
mixed together. And there you have the gospel.
Well, how so brother David? Well, Christ is the water, the
holy water from heaven that gives life and he's the seed of Abraham. He was made flesh of our flesh
and bone of our bone and he's the God man and he is the gospel. There's no salvation in any other
name than in his. Thou shall call his name Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins. Paul described
salvation as God's treasure in an earthen vessel, and that's
talking about Christ. What will justify or condemn
this suspected woman? Only the gospel message. Only that spiritual prescription
that was digested by the accused wife. Now, there's really nothing
in this prescription of gods that would cause the woman's
thigh to rot or her belly to swell. In and of itself, physically
speaking, this prescription was really nothing but dirty water. The accused woman knew that to
some degree. She knew that this potion wouldn't
expose her, or I can assure you, she wouldn't have drank it. She
would have put up a fuss. Well, I'm not drinking that nasty
water. But she thought, well, this will clear me. There's no
way that this concoction can prove me to be guilty. So she drank it. And in doing
so, she believed she had nothing to fear and nothing to expose
her and nothing to bring a curse upon her, just a water in a clay
pot with a little dirt in it. But you see, this is a spiritual
concoction. This is a spiritual prescription. put together by the great pharmacist
of heaven, God Almighty. This prescription is God's gospel
that we preach. He makes it effectual to whom
he will. He will have mercy on whom he'll
have mercy. He'll have compassion on whom
he'll have compassion. And whom he will, he hardeneth. Well, what are you saying, brother
David? He's God. He does what he willed in the
army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. He
saves whom he wills. He passes by whom he wills and
none can stay his hand and none can question him and say, what
are you doing, God? According to verse 17, the preacher
represented by the priest is to mix the potion per God's instruction
He places it in the hands of the accused and he instructs
her to drink it. Now listen, everything else is
up to God. Everything else is up to Him. That's as far as the priest,
that's as far as the preacher could go with it all. What does
that mean? That means salvation's of the
Lord. That means that we water and we plant, but God's got to
give the increase if there's gonna be increase given. And
fifthly, the priest is then charged to declare and make clear both
the curse and the consequences of the wife's actions, if she
be guilty or if she be not, according to verses 21 and 23. And that's
exactly what we do in our preaching. We declare what God says in this
book. And to some, as I said a moment
ago, it's a savor of life and to life and to others, it's a
savor of death and to death. I said, Sunday, when the gospel
is preached, some believe and some don't. These things have been written
in a book. And the preacher declares both the curse and the blessings. And he makes the accused to acknowledge
that how God purposed it to be in this book, it would be. The only way for this holy curse
to be blotted out was for her to drink this bitter potion and
wait on God to reveal the end. We hear the gospel. To some it's effectual and to
some it's not. So she waits and she drinks and
she waits. Her destiny's not left up to
chance. Her destiny and her and is predestinated,
is predetermined by the sovereign will and purpose of God Almighty. All of our destinies are. Whatever God determines, whatever
God wills, whatever God purposes, she must confess in a loud voice
one word, but she's to confess it twice. Amen, amen. So be it. however it may be,
so be it." If she's justified and returned
into arms of her loving husband by the priest, she's to say amen. And if she's not returned and
forever damned and forever lost, she is also to say amen, so be
it. For God does all things well. Now I know you see the picture
by nature, we're each and every one that suspicious guilty bride. We are. Yet the precept of God concerns
two women, doesn't it? Or maybe it doesn't. One woman
is guilty and the other woman is totally innocent. But what's
your own experience of grace? Could both women be the same?
Well, spiritually speaking, they are. We are both that condemned wife
and that perfectly innocent one. How so? Well, in and of ourselves,
we've committed spiritual adultery. We've been unfaithful to our
heavenly husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I know I'm not perfect,
brother David, but I'm not all that bad. No, you're a whole
lot worse than you think. You've committed adultery against
the one that loves you and gave himself for you. And the sooner
that you're honest before God concerning that, the sooner God
may do something for you. Guilty and deserving of death
we are, yet in Christ we stand redeemed, forgiven, and made
perfectly faithful. In our adultery, God either gives
us over to strong delusion that we might believe a lie, and if
that's the case, we rot from within. Just like this woman
was said to do. But true believers, the true
children of God, The sheep of God that we talked about Sunday.
Oh my. True believers, they're redeemed
from the curse of the law by Christ being made a curse for
them. Now remember in these verses, this is God talking and he's
teaching Israel as they walk through the wilderness to the
land of promise. That's what we saw in the book
of Exodus and that's what we see here in the book of Numbers. That's what we're doing in this
world. We're just passing through. We're just pilgrims. This isn't
our home. We're heading to that final destination
that God has prepared for us. So we need to pay attention here.
This is written for our learning, as we say all the time. But this old man within us, Such
a wicked and an adulterous creature. This old man within us being
our best friend, we do every wicked and adulterous thing that
he desires for us to do. We just follow right along. We
want to be his friend so bad. And there is pleasure in sin
for a season. But as we drink this spiritual
prescription of the gospel that God prescribes us, we'll either
find ourselves loving this present evil world more than God's beloved
son, or by God's grace, we'll love Christ who loved us, gave
himself for us and died for us. It's always one of those two
results. But if we love Christ, our spiritual husband, if God
enables us to be faithful to Him, my, my, the bride is returned
to her husband, we read free, free. She's returned innocent
and she's free. No sin, no more accusations,
no more rumors. She's been proven innocent. Made
innocent, made the very righteousness of God and they're the one that
loved them and gave himself for them. And the husband's jealousy
and suspicious is gone and he takes his bride in his arm forever. Where do you stand before God?
What do you say as you stand before God? As you hear this
gospel, as you drink this spiritual prescription that God provides,
what do you say? What think you of Christ? Well,
just maybe God will be pleased to bring you into the arms of
Christ and make you to be his faithful bride forever. That's
certainly my prayer for you and me both. May God be pleased to
make it so, for Christ's sake.