Let's turn to Numbers chapter
12. Numbers chapter 12. Sunday we looked at a question
out of Numbers 11 for our question series. And the next question
is in the very next chapter, in chapter 12. And it relates
to what happened in Numbers 11. So I wanted to go ahead and look
at it tonight. Actually, there are two questions
in Numbers 12 that God asked of men. The first one is found
at the very end of Numbers 12 verse 8. He said, Wherefore then
were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the second question is found
in Numbers 12 verse 14. The Lord said unto Moses, If
her father had but spit in her face, Should she not be ashamed
seven days? I've titled this, Why Were You
Not Afraid to Speak Against My Servant? First thing that we
see here is that depravity of the flesh is universal. It's universal. There's no reason
for any of us to elevate ourselves against anybody else because
we are all equally sinners. Look at verse 1. Miriam and Aaron
spake against Moses. These are brothers and sisters.
This is Miriam and Aaron and Moses. They are brothers and
sisters. Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the
Ethiopian woman whom he had married, for he had married an Ethiopian
woman. We see here that sin is in God's
people, in those that He calls by His grace. Here you have Aaron
and Miriam. They were among the distinguished
servants of the Lord. In Micah 6, verse 4, he said,
I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. God said that. He
said, I sent before Israel Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. Aaron and
Miriam were greatly blessed of God. Greatly blessed. Each of
them was chosen of God in Christ before the foundation of the
world. Each one of them, Christ stood as their surety. before
the foundation of the world, so that in Christ they were righteous
before God. And God the Holy Spirit had regenerated
both of them and given them faith and repentance to believe on
Christ. Each of them had been greatly blessed. And beyond that,
Aaron was called to be used of God. Both of them were. Aaron
was chosen of God from among his brethren to be the high priest
over Israel. And he was a great preeminent
type of Christ Jesus in that. And Miriam was chosen of God
to be a prophetess. That means she led the women. She was, when they crossed the
Red Sea, she led the women in song praising God for that. And she was a great type of Christ
in that. Hebrews 2.11 says, Both he that
sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one. Christ who sanctifies
and those he sanctifies are all of one. For which cause he is
not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church will I sing praise
unto thee. If we really sing, It won't be
because Eric is leading us. It will be because Christ is
leading us. He is the leader. And Miriam is a picture of that.
Now, we see here Moses too. Moses had married an Ethiopian
woman which was against God's word. So here you've got all
three of them are sinners. They're all three sinners. That
shows us, brethren, that all flesh is grass. All flesh. Me and you, believer, who believe
God, in our flesh all we are is sin. There's nothing good
in our flesh. I know that in me, Paul said,
that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. That's true of
me, that's true of you. To will may be present with us,
but how to perform that which is good we find not. Now, that's
the first thing. See, all sin is universal. It's in all men. Even the very
chiefest of those used by God in His church, they're sinners.
Alright, here's the second thing. Criticism of God's servants,
of His people, is sin and it leads to greater sin. All right,
look here. Follow this progression with
me. Miriam was the one who began this. She's mentioned first here. Always pay attention to the way
the words come in the scripture. She's the first one who started
this. Miriam did. And now it says, first one, and
Miriam. Now, if she had kept this in
her heart and went to the Lord and said, Lord, help me with
this, it wouldn't have went anywhere else. But that's not what she
did. She didn't keep it to herself.
Now look at this progression. Then Miriam spoke to Aaron about
it. And Aaron joined in in her critical
tongue against Moses. Verse 1 says, And Miriam and
Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he
had married. And then their critical tongue led them to demean Moses
and his office. It says here in Numbers 2, they
said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? You see it progressing? It started with just Miriam in
her heart. Went to Aaron. Now they're talking about Moses
and his office. They said, has the Lord indeed
spoken only by Moses? Now look at the next place it
leads to. With this critical tongue, they exalt themselves. Has he not spoken also by us? See where it led to? If God left
them alone, you know what they'd do right there? They'd split
off on their own and say, I can teach myself. I don't have to
have Moses. I don't have to have God's people.
If God had left them alone, that's where they'd have went. I've
seen that. You've seen that. That's what happens. And it starts
out. It starts out with just this
word. Just this critical tongue. A
mighty horse. You take a mighty horse. And
he's big and he's stout. He's a stout horse. And you know
that horse can be turned with a little bitty bit put into his
mouth? You can turn his whole body,
whichever way you want it to go. Take a ship, big giant ship. You see these big new cruise
ships they have? They're thinking of outlawing
them, they're so big. Huge, hold 10, 12, 13,000 people. That ship is turned by a little
bitty rudder. Turn it wherever it'll go, that
whole ship. James said, even so the tongue is a little member
and it boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little
fire can kindle. A little fire, it just starts
that little spark and can burn the whole house down. That's
what's happening here with Miriam and Aaron. The tongue is a fire,
James said, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members.
It defiles the whole body and it sets on fire the course of
nature, and it's set on fire of hell. You can look behind
all this right here. Satan's behind every bit of it.
He's behind every bit of it. He's always behind it. Every
kind of beast, every kind of bird, every kind of serpent,
every kind of things in the sea is tamed. We've tamed all kinds
of things, but you know what can't be tamed? That thing that's
between our teeth. The tongue. It can't be tamed. Can't be tamed. James said, it's
an unruly evil full of deadly poison. He said, therewith bless
we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men which
are made after the similitude of God. And he said, out of the
same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brethren, these
things ought not so to be. Let's get to the source of this
criticism. Where did it come from? Where did it come from?
Well, the Lord said this. He said, out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaks. We've got to go further than
the tongue. We get to the heart of this problem. It's the heart.
Their speech about Moses marrying this Ethiopian woman, that was
a pretense. It wasn't a real issue. That
wasn't a real issue. Their real problem was envy and
strife in their heart. That's where the problem was.
In Numbers 11, you remember Moses called those 70 men and God poured
out His Spirit upon them. Moses obeyed God in that. God
told him to do that. Moses obeyed God in that. But
Moses didn't consult with Miriam and Aaron about that. And it
made them envy Moses and it put strife in their heart. And so
they began to speak. That's what they were truly offended
about. When they said here in verse 2, hath the Lord indeed
spoken only by Moses? Has he not also spoken by us?
This was the heart of their problem. They were upset that Moses was
calling the shots and they weren't given some preeminence in this
thing. Brethren, guard the tongue. Now
listen, don't hear gossip or critical talk, don't read it,
and don't do it. Don't hear it, don't read it,
and don't do it. If you see it on Facebook, don't
read it. If you see it on webpages and
blogs, don't read it. Just don't read it. If we're
inclined to speak against brethren, or to hear it, or to read it,
it's coming from our own fleshly heart, it's not from God above. And James 3 says it's earthly,
It's sensual and it's devilish. That's what it is. James 4.11
says this, Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that
speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh
evil of the law, and judgeth the law. That's right. The Word. The Word. Christ said don't do
it. And Christ is the Word. He's the Law. He said don't do
it. But if thou judge the Law, you're not a doer of the Law,
but a judge. And men will say, that's what
men will do. They'll accuse somebody of not doing what they think
the Scripture says they ought to do. And that makes us not
a doer of this Word. The Word doesn't say do that.
That makes us a judge. a judge of the word, not a doer
of it. There's one lawgiver who's able
to save and to destroy. Who are we to judge another?
Christ is the lawgiver. Christ is able to make His people
stand or to destroy them. Go to Him. Don't speak it to
others. Now here's the third thing. As
believers... Now listen. First of all, we're
all sinners. Secondly, We see that critical
talk, speaking about others, about their sin, it's going to
lead to greater sin and division. Now here's the third thing. Don't
miss this. As believers, we should always avoid giving anyone cause
to speak against us. Look at the end of verse 1. It says, For Moses had married
an Ethiopian woman. He had done it. He had done it. He'd done exactly what God forbid.
He had done that. And he'd done exactly what they
accused him of. Look over at 1 Peter chapter
4. 1 Peter chapter 4. Let me give
you this while you turn there. And listen carefully to what
I'm going to tell you here. When you're committing a sin
in front of folks, whether they're your brethren or not, they may
not say anything to you at the moment. May not say a thing to
you. What Moses had done in taking
Zipporah for his wife, that was old news. That was old news.
He did that a long time before this. And Miriam and Aaron had
never said a word about it. They never said a word about
it. Your friends may not say, your brethren may not say a word
to you when they see you doing it. But as soon as your friends
are offended because of the gospel, that's the first thing they're
going to bring up. First thing they're going to bring up. Aaron and Miriam hadn't said
a word about any of this, but when they got offended because
Moses did what God said to do, the first thing they brought
up was his sin. First thing. Now listen to the scripture right
here, 1 Peter 4, 14. If you be reproached for the
name of Christ, happy are you. Be happy about that. Be real
happy about that. For the spirit of glory and of
God rests on you. On their part he's evil spoken
of, but on your part he's glorified. But, look at verse 15, but let
none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evil doer. That includes everything. or
as a busybody in other men's matters. In other men's matters. Turn over to Titus 2. Titus 2. Look at verse 1. Titus 2 verse
1. Right before the book of Hebrews. Speak thou the things which become
sound doctrine. This is what Paul told Titus.
That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in
charity, in patience. The aged women likewise, that
they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers,
not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may
teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love
their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good,
obedient to their husbands. Now here's why, right here. That
the word of God be not blasphemed. I'm tired of hearing the Word
of God blaspheme because of us. If you've heard me say anything
that seems too practical to you, that's why. That's why. Young men likewise exhort to
be sober-minded, now watch this, in all things showing thyself
a pattern of good work. in doctrines showing uncorruptness,
gravity, sincerity, sound speech, that cannot be condemned. That he that is of the contrary
part may be ashamed, our enemies, that they may be ashamed having
no evil thing to say of you. Whatever it is that I have to
put away, God's Word, And the honor of God and the glory of
God and the glory of His house is more important than that.
Whatever it is. Whatever it is. Now, holiday
parties are coming up. Holiday. I don't know why this
came to my mind. But remember who you represent. You represent
Christ Jesus the righteous. Christ Jesus the righteous. And
you remember this. You know we have a tendency to
get like to a company party or something like that and think
these people won't ever come to the church. They won't ever
come to the house of God. They might. God's done stranger things. They might. And God may call
them to this place right here. And so don't give anybody any
reason to reject the gospel because of you or to blame you in the
future. I'm telling you, when they hear
this gospel and they start getting offended, the first thing they're
going to bring up is, I saw you do so and so and so and so. That's
right. And excuse themselves for not
hearing it. Now, that ought to really offend us. It ought to
really offend us. I do not want to be the cause
of anybody not at least just sitting and listening to the
Word of God. Do you? Alright, here's the fourth thing.
When you are spoken against, always depend upon God to hear
and to defend you. Look here, verse... Numbers 12,
look at verse 2 at the end there. Numbers 12, verse 2 at the end.
And the Lord heard. The Lord heard. He heard Miriam
and Aaron. And it says, verse 3, Now the
man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the
face of the earth. Here's what that means. The Lord
heard and Moses in meekness kept his mouth shut and watched the
Lord defend him. That's what happened. Child of
God, know this, God always hears when His child is spoken against.
He always does. And He defends His child. He
hears all things, He knows all things, and He'll defend His
child. They say, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God
of Jacob regard it. Understand, ye brutish among
the people, and ye fools, when will you be wise? He that planted
the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall
he not see? That's Psalm 94, 7 and 8 and
9. He that planted the ears, shall
he not hear? He that made the eye, shall he not see? Look at
Psalm 38. And know this too, know this
too. Christ Himself hears us, He hears and He defends us. Look
here, Psalm 38. Moses was meek above all men
on the earth, brethren, but more meek than Moses was the man from
heaven. The God-man was more meek. He
could stand and say, come, learn of me, for I'm meek and lowly
in heart. There's not another man that could say that, but
the God-man can. He's more meek than Moses. And
look here what he said, Psalm 38, 12. They also that seek after
my life lay snares for me, and they that seek my hurt speak
mischievous things and imagine deceits all the day long. But
I, as a deaf man, heard not. I, as a deaf man, heard not.
And I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth. And thus
I was as a man that heareth not, and whose mouth are no reproofs. Why? Why did he do that? For
in thee, O Lord, do I hope thou will hear, O Lord my God. He
was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.
He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before
shears his doves, so he openeth not his mouth. Not because he
was weak, because Christ was meek. You see, Moses was meek,
but Moses, he spoke back sometimes. Christ went to the cross, brethren.
Look at Isaiah 50. I know we looked at this recently,
but I just like this so much. Isaiah 50. When we talk about Christ being
meek, you know what we're saying? He believed God. He believed
the Father. He believed the Father would
provide and protect Him and deliver Him when He went to the cross
for His people. Look at Isaiah 15 verse 6. I
gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked
off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Why?
Why not? For the Lord God will help me.
That's why I did it. For the Lord God will help me.
Therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face
like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. Why?
Why? How can you know that? He is
near that justifieth me. Who will contend with me? Let
us stand together. Who is my adversary? Let him
come near to me. Behold, the Lord God will help
me. That's Christ speaking. That's
Christ speaking. Who is he that shall condemn
me? Lo, they shall all wax old as a garment, and the moth shall
eat them up. Now here he applies the word to us. He tells me and
you what to do, brethren. He says, you that fear the Lord,
you that obey the voice of His servant, are you walking in darkness? You got raging bulls around you,
and men gaping upon you, and men accusing you, and shaming
you, and causing you all kinds of trouble? Here's what He says
to do. Christ says this, trust in the name of the Lord and stay
upon your God. Why? Christ is proven to us,
brethren. He's faithful. He's God our Savior. And He's faithful. He will deliver
us. Look here. And all you that kindle
a fire and come past yourselves about with sparks, you that want
to walk around and puff and huff and say things about God's people
and separate yourselves and walk in your own light, He says, go
right ahead. Walk in the sparks you've kindled.
This shall you have of mine hand. You shall lie down in sorrow.
Now that's our Savior talking, brethren. That's our Savior.
Christ was Moses' surety. He was his surety. He was his
righteousness, his sanctification. He was his shield and his defender.
He was his wisdom to keep his mouth shut and depend on him
to save him. And so Moses did that. And is
it the same with you? We have that wisdom. We don't
always have to open our mouth. We do more harm doing that. I've
had to learn that the hard way. We do. Be meek and trust God. Alright.
Now watch this. Back in our text, Numbers 12,
as we watch the Lord defend Moses and we hear these great things
that God speaks about Moses, I want you to think about Christ.
Think about Christ. And I want you to think about
our unkind words and manners toward our Lord Jesus. Now listen,
the Lord called Moses, and He called Aaron, and He called Miriam.
He heard all this, and He called them to the door of the tabernacle,
and He came down in the cloud. Remember who the cloud pictures?
Christ. That's how He always comes down
to His people, in Christ. And look here, verse 6. And He
said, Hear now my word. Hear now my words. If there be
a prophet among you... The prophet was just the Old
Testament preacher. That's what they were. If there's
a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him
in a vision, and I'll speak unto him in a dream. But now watch
this. But my servant is not so. My
servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all my house.
God said I'm going to speak to him in a special way. Now Hebrews
3 tells us here what he says here. It quotes this verse and
it says, Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house. But it says, but Christ was faithful
as a son over his own house, whose house we are, whose house
Moses was. He's faithful as a son. Now look
here, verse 8. God says, with him I'll speak
mouth to mouth. even apparently and not in dark
speeches, and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold.
Wherefore then, knowing this is how special my servant is,
wherefore then were you not afraid to speak against my servant,
Moses?" That's how God spoke with Christ. And that's how Christ
has spoken to us, brethren, and He's made us one with Him. He
says there, I'll speak with him mouth to mouth. You say, Christ
spoken with me mouth to mouth? If you know the gospel and believe
the gospel he has. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel for therein is the righteousness of God revealed.
And he said, from faith to faith. From Christ the faithful to that
faith that he gives. Mouth to mouth. He speaks this
gospel in our heart. He speaks it through the Holy
Spirit. He said in John 14 He would do that. He said, I'll
pray to the Father and He's going to send a comforter and He's
going to teach you all things. And he says here, even apparently
and not in dark speeches. You know, the Galatians didn't
see Christ crucified. And Paul was there preaching
to them and he said, by this gospel, he said, you have heard
in your heart apparently. You hadn't heard in dark speeches.
He said, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set
forth, crucified among you. That's the same true of us. Have
you ever heard the gospel preached and it was just like you could
see it? Just like you could see Christ? Just like he was there
crucified and it was just so real in your heart? And look
here. He said, "...the similitude of
the Lord shall Moses behold." Moses saw the Lord when he saw
his glory from the cleft of the rock. But believer, we've been
made to see the express image of God. We've been made to see
the fullness of the Godhead in a body through faith. Paul said,
God commanded the light to shine out of darkness and He shined
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He's spoken with us this way
in our heart. And these things are so of every believer. And
because they are so of every believer, If anyone ever speaks
against one of Christ's people, they're speaking against Christ.
That's right. Wherefore then were ye not afraid
to speak against my servant Art, and my servant Ravi, and my servant
Scott, my servant Eric? He'd just be the same because
we're one with Christ because He's spoken to us this way. One
special, in a special way. Don't that make you want to put
your hand on your mouth? Who is He that condemns? Who's
going to say a word? Who's going to criticize God's
sheep? It's Christ that died for them.
Christ put their sin away. And now He's risen and He's ever
living, speaking their names before God the Father in heaven.
And we're going to stand down here and criticize their names?
Here's the fifth thing. God's chasing in hand makes us
behold our sin in the light of our Savior. Alright, look at
verse 9. The anger of the Lord was kindled
against them. Now you bear in mind Miriam and
Aaron are their chosen, saved children of God. The anger of
the Lord was kindled against them. Now watch. And he departed
and the cloud departed from off the tabernacle. He removed his
presence there for a moment. And look what happened when he
did that. And behold, Miriam became leprous white as snow. And Aaron looked upon Miriam
and behold, she was leprous. She became a leper. That fast. How did that happen? God just
removed his presence. That's all. That's all. I want
you to notice two things here about this chastening. First
of all, You remember when Moses was in the presence of God and
had communion with Him, when he came down off that mountain,
he had to put a veil on his face because his face shone with such
glory from the Father. That's the presence of God. That's
God indwelling His people. That's what happens when He indwells
His people. When He entered in that sanctuary,
it was sanctified and His glory filled that house. When He enters
in a center, it's the same way. But now Miriam's face is leprous
because God departed. He departed. Brethren, now sin. Sin we know is a transgression
of the law. But sin, as far as the nature
of sin, is not something that God puts in us. Not at all. Think about it. Sin is God removing
His presence from us. That's how Adam became sin after
he transgressed. After he broke the law, God removed
his presence from him. He didn't have communion with
him. That's how he became sin. That's how the iniquities of
his people were laid on Christ. God didn't put something in Christ.
God removed his presence, and I don't know if that's how to
say it, but It's something to that effect. He did so little
by little. We saw that the other day about how progressively Christ
said, my soul is suffering. It went further and further and
further. Even in the Garden of Gethsemane, whenever God strengthened
him, God didn't come and strengthen him. The Father didn't. He sent
an angel to do it. God was removing away until it
culminated in Christ crying out, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? He turned his back on him. I
don't know how to say that exactly, but here's what I want you to
see. Part of our chastening comes whenever God reminds us that
if He removes His Holy Spirit from us, all we are is sin. We're lepers. That's all we are. If He departs and removes it
from us, that's all we are. It's just dead sinful flesh,
just like Miriam was when God departed, when He removed His
presence from her. And this is part of our chastening.
God makes us see that about ourselves. And then here's another thing
He does. Look. Aaron looked upon Miriam, and behold, she was leprous.
Aaron was the high priest. His job was to examine the leper. And to determine whether or not
the leper was leprous. That was his job. Here is his
sister. Let's put it in these terms.
Here's one he dearly loves. And he sinned. He sinned. But she was made a leper. And
he was let go. And this is what broke his heart.
This was his chasing to break his heart. He was brought to
look upon this one he loved who became a leper in his place so
that he didn't become a leper. That's the second part of our
chastening. God makes us to see if he removes
his presence from us, from his spirit from us, we're nothing
but sin. And then he brings us to behold our dear loved one
the Lord Jesus Christ who was made sin for us so that we could
walk away free. And when he does that, here's
what happens. By this chastening hand, God
brings us to cry out for forgiveness to the very Redeemer whom we
have offended, just like they did to Moses whom they had offended. Look here in verse 11. Aaron
said unto Moses, as soon as he did this, he sees this leprosy,
he sees that she's a leper, he's not. As soon as God makes us
see we're nothing but flesh, if he leaves us, as soon as he
brings us to see Christ again who bore our sin for us, This
is what we do. He cried out unto Moses, the
very one he had offended. We cry to Christ, the very one
we've offended, and say, Alas, my Lord, how beseech thee, lay
not the sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly, wherein
we have sinned. And this is the other thing we
do. We not only confess our sin, we say, let her not be as one
dead. We pray for our brethren. Let
her not be as one dead of whom the flesh is half consumed when
he cometh out of his mother's womb. You know, you can tell
when God has made a person to know their sin in their conscience. You can tell it. You can tell
it. It's sad. It's sad that, you
know, we can learn the doctrine, we can talk the talk and all
this stuff, But there's little things that just give us away.
And I'll tell you what, when a person hasn't been made conscious
of their sin by God, they defend themselves and they blame others. That's what they do. And if it's
a believer and he's fallen into sin, he'll keep on doing that
for a while. He'll defend himself and he'll blame others. But when
God brings you again to see you're nothing but sin, that's when
they'll confess their sin and they'll beg Christ for mercy
from their sin and that's when they'll start praying for their
brethren, for forgiveness for their brethren, even the ones
they have offended them. Miriam had brought Aaron into
this whole mess, and yet he's sitting there praying for her
now. You see that? If we confess our sins, He's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make Him a liar and His word's not in us. Do you remember, brethren,
do you remember going around and carrying your sin around
with you and being convicted of it, but refusing to confess
your sin? blaming others, it was always
somebody else's fault. And wasn't that a heavy weight?
You're miserable. Absolutely miserable. But just
when God brought you to really confess your sin to Him, and
He made you to see I've forgiven you of all your sin, wasn't that
weight lifted off? You could be honest with God.
What a blessing! What a blessing! We can be honest
with God. Alright, here's the sixth thing.
Christ intercedes for us so that our sins are forgiven by God.
Look at verse 13. Moses cried unto the Lord, saying,
Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee. Moses was the one they
spoke against. Moses was the one who interceded
for them. You see this? Christ is the one
we've sinned against. And Christ is the one who intercedes
for us. Heal her now, Lord. Heal her now. because we have
Christ for our advocate, because we have Christ as our propitiation,
our seat of mercy. That's why God is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins. That's why when we come and confess
our sins, He's faithful to do it, because justice demands it. Justice is our friend, brethren.
And He's just to do it, because in Christ, He's just and He's
the justifier of the believer. My little children, these things
I write unto you that you sin not. And when you sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And
He is the propitiation for our sin. Not just for ours right
here in this little place, but for His elect people all over
this world. He's the propitiation for our sin. So when He's brought
us to repentance and He's brought us to cry out to Him, He prays
for us with the Father. And we're forgiven. It's gone.
It's forgiven. Here's the seventh thing. Though
God forgives us our sins, God will leave His chastening hand
upon us till His appointed time. And His appointed time is when
He has brought us to be ashamed of our sin and to reverence Him.
That's His appointed time. Look at verse 14. The Lord said
unto Moses, Now, I believe here from what it says here that when
Moses prayed and said, heal her now, I believe the Lord healed
her right then. But the law said you have to stay outside of the
camp until you're examined and it's proven you're not a leper
anymore. But look at what the Lord said. The Lord said unto
Moses, if her father had but spit in her face, should she
not be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut out from the
camp seven days and after that let her be received in again.
The Lord is saying what he said over in Hebrews 12, 9. He said
we've had fathers of our flesh that correct us and we gave them
reverence. Shall we not much rather be in
subjection to the father of spirits and live? He's saying if her
earthly father had corrected her, this wouldn't be over right
now. She would be corrected until
she was ashamed of her sin and she was brought to reverence
her father. And he said, it's going to be the same way with
me. Same way with me. Let her stay out of the camp
seven days. You know, that is a great correction. To not be
able to come to the house of God. That was the correction. She couldn't come to the house
of God. She was shut out from her brethren. Now, you're to
an unbeliever, unregenerate man, that wouldn't be correction.
And if she'd have been left where she was saying, well, God's spoken
by us just like He's spoken by Moses, and who does Moses think
he is? If she'd have been left in that
spot and kicked out of the camp, she'd have went on her merry
way, smoking her pipe and thinking, I'm good to go, I don't need
Moses anyway. But now, She's thinking, Lord,
let me back in the house. Let me come back to my father.
You see, children, when your parents correct you, it's not
all that bad. It really isn't. They hadn't
turned you into a leper. They hadn't forbid you to come
to the house of God. They hadn't put you out of the
house and made you stand out on the doorstep and say, till
you fall down on your face and beg to come back. That's what
God did to Miriam. That's what God does to us sometimes.
What He does to us sometimes. And it's right. It's right. It's
good. It's good. But look what He did
this. Look what He said here. That same Heavenly Father said,
after that, let her be received again. Let her be received again. Not doubted again, received again. Not to have her sins brought
up again, received again. Not to be chastened again, received
again. Bring her back in the house.
Received of holy, holy, holy God. Accepted of God. What do
you think, Miriam, when she came back into that house? You think
she came in there stepping high? You reckon she came back into
the camp with her chest poked out? She came back humble, didn't
she? Here's the eighth thing. Our
sin affects everybody in the church. The people couldn't move
forward until Miriam's sin had been dealt with by God. Look
at verse 15. Miriam was shut out from the
camp seven days and the people journeyed not until Miriam was
brought in again. There's a couple of things you
can see here. One, sin is going to affect everybody in the church
because We've got to wait for God to correct His people. We've
got to wait for God to bring His people to submit in faith
to Him and trust Him so we can all move along. Can't leave anybody
behind. But you see here too, God's not
going to leave anybody behind. He's going to carry them in His
bosom and Christ is not going to lose any. He's not going to
lose one. Here's another thing we see here. Sin makes us go
backwards. It makes us go backwards, not
forwards. From Hazaroth it was a straight shot to the promised
land. They were right there on the border of Canaan. But from
there they went further from the promised land to Paran. Look
at verse 16. It says, And afterward the people
were moved from Hazaroth and pitched in the wilderness of
Paran. They didn't move forward, they went backwards. They went
backwards. So here, go home remembering
this, brethren. By God's grace, by Christ's blood, by the Holy
Spirit applying that blood, We have forgiveness with God. All
you who have been called by His Spirit have forgiveness with
God. Forgiveness. But never take sin lightly. God
didn't. He stopped the whole camp from
traveling to deal with one woman's sin. God doesn't take it lightly. Don't commit it and don't uncover
it. Moses had done something wrong.
And Miriam did something wrong by uncovering it, and bringing
Aaron into it, and trying to cause all this division. Thank
Christ by serving Him so as to never be chargeable by this world
for our sin. You want to thank Christ for
what He's done for you? God's people do. Do you want to thank
Him for what He's done for you? Live your life in this world
so as never to be chargeable by anybody. And I know you've
heard me say it, you've heard other preachers say it. I don't
care what any man thinks. And I don't care what other men think. But
I do care when it comes to making other men not hear the gospel.
I do care. I do care. And when you sin,
remember, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ
the righteous. When you fell at everything you've
heard here tonight, and you fell at it miserably, maybe before
the night's over, Remember, we've got to advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is our mercy seat, where God
forgives us. Amen.