I am thankful that Brother Loren
has already read this chapter, and we will not read it in its
entirety because that is done. But I was just thinking this
morning as I was sitting in my office about the subject of vows. What mutilation of this chapter
has taken place in the past when particularly preachers will use
it as a whip and a beating post. Now that's not why God gave it. Now let me say this, be careful
of what you promise. We have instructions about that
in the scriptures. Be careful what you promise.
We are going through the book of Judges now, and one of the
judges made a vow that he would offer up, he promised he would
offer up and sacrifice the first thing that came out of his home
if he could win. And the first thing that came
out of his home was his daughter. Before we get too far here, would
you turn with me to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 5. The
book of Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Here we have some instructions
about this very subject and The book of Numbers chapter 30 is
not about so much physical vows. We're going to look at this chapter
from a spiritual place, and we are thankful that our father
and our husband will disannul a vow that we made. We're thankful
that he interrupts, he gets involved, and disallows, disannulls, or
annulls that vow. But here in the book of Ecclesiastes
chapter five, verse one, it says, keep thy foot when thou goest
to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than give the sacrifice
of fools, for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash
with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything
before God, for God is in heaven, Thou upon earth Therefore let
thy words be few For a dream cometh through the multitude
of business and the fool's voice is known by the multitude of
words Now notice verse 4 when thou vows the vow unto God defer
not to pay it For he hath no pleasure in fools pay that which
thou hast vowed better. It is that thou shouldest not
vow Then thou shouldest vow and not pay so We are encouraged
in the Scriptures to keep our promises, but you know what? Almost all of them, in some way,
over time, are broken. So he's encouraging us here,
just sometimes it's better to keep our mouth shut. Well, let's
look at this passage of Scripture, and we find that there are several
actors This passage of scripture. We have a man Did you notice
what it said there in the book of Numbers chapter 1 or chapter
30? Numbers chapter 30 in verse 1. It says these words The Lord
Moses spake unto the heads of the tribes Concerning the children
of Israel saying this is the thing which the Lord hath commanded
and verse 2 if a man vow a vow Now did you know God only deals
with two men in the scriptures? He dealt with Adam and he dealt
with a second Adam. And all the way that he can only
deal with us is through an emissary, an ambassador, someone to stand
up for us. And that's what Jesus Christ
does for his church. He stands up. He is our advocate. He's the one that pleads on our
behalf, if you please. So God only dealt with Adam,
and he's dealt with a second Adam. And we look here as we
see this, if a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath
to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word,
he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth. And truly we find that the Lord
Jesus did exactly. He promised, He vowed, He said,
I will, He made a covenant of grace, and that will be carried
out explicitly, and He's carrying it out to this very day. Well,
as we look at this, in the case of a man making a vow, that vow
must be kept and can never, under any circumstances, be broken.
When we look at Adam in the Garden of Eden, it doesn't come out
and say, but I can almost see him when God shared with him
of all the trees of the garden, you shall eat but one. He made
some mental consent to that. He didn't argue with God over
it. Now we find a little later there's an argument that came
up, but there seems to be some mental consent to the fact that
there is a tree in this garden that I'm not supposed to eat
up. And then we find out that Adam went ahead and ate of that
fruit. And you know what we find with
regard to that? That Adam did something that
was so serious. It says he performed, number
one, he performed He intentionally was causing his own death. He
performed genocide, the deliberate killing of a large number of
people for a particular notion or ethnic group. He sent us all
into sin, the whole family of Adam, and he performed inficide. He killed us in our childhood
and our infancy. We find out, in sin did my mother
conceive me. He killed us in our absolute
infancy, and then He killed himself, he murdered himself in all of
this by knowing what he was doing. He was not an ignoramus. He knew
exactly what he was doing. And we find out he made a covenant
with death. And you know, as we find out,
he made a covenant, and that covenant is irrevocable. There is not one of us that can
get ourselves out of that problem. There's none of us that can get
ourselves out of the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Death
is all ahead of us. You know, if there's any proof
of the fall, it's in cemeteries. If the fall happened as it did
happen, and God promised as a result of the fall death, we have it
all around us. We've had it behind us, all of
the generations behind us. We have it in our generation,
and we will have it in the generations to follow until God has saved
the last lost sheep, and then death is over for the saints,
and death just begins for those who are placed in hell. Now when we look at the Lord
Jesus Christ we find that he's called the second Adam and he
also made a promise. the next representative of a
great number of people and he was not a representative of everybody
in the world as Adam was. Adam represented the entire human
race from beginning to end. He has relationship, DNA could
be traced right back to him. We could go to him and say, here's
what has began, and we were in him. He represented us. He was
the federal head, and he stood in our place there. And if God
had chosen you or me to be the federal head, what would we have
done? Exactly the same thing. God had determined it, God had
purposed it, God had a lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
He had a book with all the names of those that He would save out
of Adam's race already written down, a covenant of grace, an
agreement between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
on how He was going to save all of Adam's fallen race that He
had chosen has already been put in order and in place, and it
will be followed out to the very nth degree. So he has a covenant. This one was and shall know as
the Word. John 1.1, in the beginning was
the Word and the Word was with God and hallelujah, the Word
was God. From everlasting to everlasting. I was told one time the only
way that we can get a clear view of eternity, remember the old
post toasty boxes that had a picture on the front and then there was
a picture and a picture and a picture and a picture, just went back.
You can't get to the end of it. Well, that's the way eternity
is. There's no end, no end, no beginning and no end. And that's
how long this covenant is, this vow that God promised that His
Son would bear the iniquities of His people on the cross and
be in full payment. Now, when we look at that chapter
of vows, we notice that there's some participants. We have women
involved. Now, when it says, the men, in
verse 2, that's it. That's all there is about men.
It says, if a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to
bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word, he
shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.
Now we go on and we have several different scenarios with women,
with young women, older women. And you know what he's given
us a type of? He's given us a picture of the church. He's given us
a picture of a relationship because he brings up husbands and he
brings up fathers, or should I say he brings up fathers and
he brings up husbands. Now, we have this said, that
if a daughter make a vow, a promise, now it doesn't tell us what it
is, but it's serious enough that the scriptures tell us, when
it is broken, the Lord shall forgive her. That's pretty serious. When this vow is in, someone
goes and says, it is null and void. I nullify it. The father
overhears it. Now, if nobody does anything,
it will stand. If God does not get involved
with us, the vow that we made in Adam will stand. There will
be nobody to break it. We can't break it. Our parents
can't break it. The preacher can't break it.
I bought a Bible over at the St. Vinny's, and you know I'm
going to have to put some paper over some of the pages if I ever
give it away, because right in there it gives you a long list
of how to come to Jesus and then sign your name right inside of
that Bible. That is terrible. There's no
truth in it. There is nothing in that that
is true. It's the contrivance of natural
man. And if God leaves us in that
condition, we will leave this life in that condition. But if
the daughter makes the promise and her dad overhears it and
he says, you know, there's only one thing I can do to deliver
my daughter from the problem that she's going to get in by
having this vow, this promise, I must get involved in it. I have heard it. And I don't
like it. And I need to revoke it. I need
to take away the obligation. You know, as we look at this,
the woman herself could not disavow it. The woman herself could not
get out of the obligation of it. But dad can. The father can. And whether she
likes it or not, he is going to take a stand. So often we hear the gospel in
our natural state and we say, my goodness, that's just too
bloody a religion. My goodness, I don't want that.
My goodness, that's different than what I've always been taught.
My church doesn't agree with that. But thank God Almighty
that He says, you know, that vow is going to be disannulled. And after it is disannulled,
and after we're set free from that vow, we say, thank you,
Lord, because I didn't realize the consequences, the total consequences
of that vow that Adam made on my behalf. That is a vow of death. That is, well, turn with me,
if you would, to the book of, let me find that. It's the book of Isaiah, chapter
28. The book of Isaiah, chapter 28. In Isaiah, chapter 28, this
subject is brought up. Isaiah, chapter 28, verse 18.
Now we're thankful at the moment. We say, He's going against my
will. Hallelujah. My goodness, our will will take
us down to the pit. Our will is worthless. Our will
is nothing. We need a God that has a will
and He will carry that will out. We need a God that will get involved
with our foolishness, get involved with our sinfulness, get involved
and disannul that vow. Here it says, Your covenant with
death shall be disannulled. No better words, no greater words,
nor more pleasant words could be heard by the church than to
hear that God Almighty in Christ Jesus would disannul our covenant,
our vow of death. We have it hanging over us, but
God gets involved. This is my child. I am the father. I have heard
this vow, and it is a bad vow. I will get involved. I don't
care if she gets upset for a little bit, because after I get involved
and I disavow that vow, and they come to their own senses about
this, as the man that left his father and went off and lived
among the pigs, when he came to his mind, the right mind,
wanted with great gusto to go home and be with his father,
and in fact said, my father's servants are better off than
I am. I will not go be a son. I'll be a servant. I'll just
be a servant. And you know what, when the father
saw him, oh, the robe, the ring, the fatted calf, my son, which
was dead, is now alive. Well, when we come to our senses,
when God gives us good sense about the gospel, we rejoice
that he came and disannulled our vow, disannulled the vow
of death that we had. Now, the next scenario that we
have in there is a man, a husband, and his wife. Now, God is the
father of all his children, but he's also the husband of the
church. We are the bride. He's the groom. He's in charge. And you know,
the wife has made this comment. She's made a vow, a promise of
some kind, and the husband If he hears it and doesn't do anything,
you know what? That vow stands. And she's under contract, if
you please, to be obedient to it. But if the husband hears
that vow and he says, oh my goodness, she doesn't know what she's done.
She doesn't know what she said. She doesn't know the implications. She doesn't know the complications
of the vow that she's made. And it doesn't even draw it out.
But he is so concerned about his wife that he gets involved
and he stops it and says, I disannulled that. And you know what the Lord
said? I'll forgive her. on the basis of someone else
getting involved. The husband getting involved
here, it is so important, it's so valuable that God Almighty
get involved with us. We made a covenant with death.
We made a promise in Adam. We had, I don't know what kind
of, you know, I've thought a lot about this, but I just can't
get into it. What was Adam like before the fall? Because he was
not perfect. If he'd have been perfect, he
wouldn't have done that. God gave him the opportunity
and the only man that has ever walked the face of this earth
that had a free will. Now, we don't. Our will is complicated
by the fall, but he had the ability. And yet, God had already purposed
some things. One of the old theologians says,
oh, blessed fall. As a result of it, we know about
grace. As a result of it, we know about
a God that has loved us with an everlasting love. We have
a God that has purpose to save a people and deliver them from
sin and the consequences of it. We have a God that has a purpose
in mind for everyone. He has saved us and called us
with a holy calling, and He's going to carry that out. But
here we find that that husband overhears that vow of his wife
and says, uh-oh, this will be, and it must be, disannulled.
We cannot go on. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Job. The book of Job chapter 33. The
book of Job chapter 33. Job chapter 33 and there in verse
22. Job chapter 33 verse 22, yea,
his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers. If there be a messenger with
him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man
his uprightness, then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver
him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom. His flesh shall be fresher than
a child. He shall return to the days of
his youth. He will pray unto God. He will
be a favorable unto him. He shall see his face with joy
for he shall render unto man his righteousness. What a statement
is Job able to bring under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I have found
a ransom. This, what's it say there? Deliver him from going down to
the pit. Verse 24, I have found a ransom. And so the husband steps in and
says, no, no, no. We're going to break that covenant.
We're going to break that vow. We're not going to have it fulfilled.
We're going to get involved in here. Someone needs to get involved
that knows something about the consequences of that vow, and
so God the Father, the husband of the church, gets involved
and delivers us from the vows that we made in our foolishness,
in our unlearned state, in our fallen state. If you'll turn
with me over to the book of, we come to another group here,
it tells us there in the book of Numbers chapter 30, it comes
to a group and it's mentioned there's two in one verse, we
have widows and we have the divorced lady. In the book of Romans, would
you turn there with me? Romans chapter seven, it brings
up widows. Romans 7. Now this is an interesting
passage of Scripture. Now, if you continue as a widow, you will bear your own vow. That's
what it said. Widows shall bear their own vow.
they shall keep their own vow." Well, I think it's interesting
when we turn to the book of Romans we find out that Paul was led
by the Holy Spirit to bring up a woman whose husband has died. Is that a widow? Yeah. And what does it say here? Now,
if this widow, this woman whose husband has died, continues on
in her widowhood. Now, I'm not trying to imply
anything physical. You know, that decision is your
decision. If your husband dies, it's your business what you do.
If you want to stay in an unmarried state, hallelujah. If you want
to get married again, hallelujah. I'm not going to go there. You
know, my wife's grandmother, Harding, was asked one time,
if grandpa dies, will you ever remarry? And she says, oh, no,
no, no. Oh, you love him so much. Oh. Well, why wouldn't you remarry?
Well, number one, I could never find another man with his good
qualities, and Lord only knows I don't want another man with
his bad ones. So she had the right not to marry. But in this
passage of scripture, if a widow in a spiritual context continues
as a widow, it means, as we read here in the book of Romans, that
she got herself by herself, in herself, out from under something. the law, she got religious, she
joined a church, she's doing something religious, she's made
a decision, and she's no longer, under her own thinking, married
to Adam. She's got herself out of that
relationship. You know, by nature, we're under
Adam. We need somebody else. So she
figures that she's got herself out of that condition. Well,
listen to what we have here in the book of Romans chapter 7
and verse 1. Know ye not, brethren, for I
speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion
over a man as long as he liveth. For the woman which hath a husband
is bound by the law to her husband, so long as she liveth. But if
the husband be dead, she is loose from the law of her husband.
Now look at the next one. So then, if, while her husband
liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. But if her husband be dead, she
is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though
she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should
be married to another. Don't stay in your unmarried
state because, and God will not allow us, the only people that
will pretend to stay in an unmarried state in that condition will
be those who are self-righteous and don't need to have this relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ. He goes on to say, become dead
to the law by the body of Christ that ye should be married to
another even to him who is raised from the dead. Who are we married
to? We're married to Christ. He's
the one that got involved with us in our widowhood, if you please. Now, if we're going to remain
that way, if we're just going to remain religious, if we're
just going to remain self-righteous, if we're just going to remain
attached to a church, we don't want anything else, then the
vow will stand. But if He becomes involved in
our state, and He comes to us, and woos us as He does by the
Holy Spirit, and we're brought to Christ, then you know what?
We are married to another. And this is what He said, even
to him that is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth
fruit unto God. Now, the next lady in that passage
of Scripture is the divorced lady. You know, in the Old Testament,
there is more said about immorality when it comes to spiritual things
than it ever says about physical things. Now, physical immorality
is wrong. I'll just say that right here.
It is wrong. But God spoke about Israel being
immoral committing adultery as a nation far more than we find
out that he said anything else to anybody else. The law said
thou shall not commit adultery, but he mentions concerning Israel
in their natural state that they have committed adultery. They
have left me. They've gone after another, and
they are like those who would build a cistern. that could hold
no water and refuse me the water of life. He uses that. So a person that is divorced
in a spiritual context will stand on their own vow. If they will
not, and we cannot by nature, will not submit to the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We stand on our own. We will
face the fullness of our vow. But thanks be unto God that he
gets involved to those that were committing great, heinous crimes
of spiritual adultery, falling after this God or that God, church,
whatever it was, falling after them, and then by the grace of
God, he brings us the gospel, and we're brought out of that,
and we see the nonsense of it, by the grace of God, he says,
now, I am yours, and you are mine. I have given you a new
heart, wherewith you shall love me, and we do. Well, God wrote about a bill of divorcement. Going back to the book of Numbers
chapter 30, Verse 10, and if she vowed her And if she vowed in her husband's
house, or bound her soul by a bond with an oath, and her husband
hear it, and held his peace at her, and disallowed her not,
then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she
bound her soul shall stand." You know, the Lord said this. I will have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy, and whom I will, I'll harden. But if her husband hath utterly
made them void on the day he heard them, then whatsoever proceedeth
out of her lips concerning her vows, or concerning the bond
of her soul, shall not stand. Her husband hath made them void,
and the Lord shall forgive her every vow and every binding oath
to afflict the soul. Her husband may establish it,
or her husband may make it void. I will have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy, on whom I will, I will harden. It is my choice. If her husband altogether hold
his peace of her from the day to day, even he establish her
vows, or all her bonds which are upon her, he confirmeth them,
because he held his peace at her in the day that he heard
them. But if he shall anyways make them void, after that he
hath heard them, then he shall bear her iniquity." You know,
that just reminds me of a passage over in the book of Isaiah, so
would you join me over there? The book of Isaiah chapter 53.
In Isaiah chapter 53 we have this glorious chapter. I used
to think it was one of the few gospel chapters of the Old Testament,
but I found out it is just one with all the rest. It is clear
here, though, what we read. In Isaiah chapter 53, it is so
clear, it is so descriptive of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. You
know, it was this passage of scripture that our friend, our
brother, an Ethiopian eunuch, we don't even know his name,
was going over, reading, when God sent him a preacher, someone
who knew something about the gospel. And that man was reading
the 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah, and that man, Philip,
said, do you understand what you're reading? And he said,
how can I understand except some man teach me? And beginning at
the same place, he preached unto him Jesus. Now, the Lord saved
that man. That man went back to Ethiopia.
You know what he did on his travels as he went back? He went on his
way rejoicing. even though he was going back
to a pagan land, probably didn't have much gospel there because
he didn't hear anything there before, but he went on his way
rejoicing. Well, here in the 53rd chapter
of the book of Isaiah, and there it tells us in verse 5, He was
wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We have turned everyone his own
way. You know, that's one thing about
the fall. It had no respect to persons. Sheep and goats alike
died in Adam. Adam all died without respect
to persons but here in the sixth verse of the 53rd chapter of
the book of Isaiah he said there's something about this group of
people that Jesus went to the cross for and they're called
sheep all we like sheep have gone astray we've turned everyone
to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him a the iniquity of
us all. What did that husband say? I
will bear her iniquity. I will bear, I'll be glad to.
You know, that's the one thing about, well, there's many things
about the Lord, but this, it just strikes me how glad he was
to bear our iniquity on the cross. He had an everlasting love for
these people. God, the Father, God, the Son,
and God, the Holy Spirit were in such love with each other
in a oneness that is hard for us to understand, and their will
and purpose in the covenant of grace was all one, and when they
loved with an everlasting love, the Son loved His people with
an everlasting love, and He was just glad to bear their iniquity. It would be on purpose, but would
accomplish exactly what He determined to do, and that was bear their
iniquity. You know, the consequences of
having Jesus Christ die for everybody on the face of the earth is way
Bad, way bad. But He bore the iniquity of His
sheep. It goes on to tell us here, He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter. As a sheep before her shears
is dumb, He opened not His mouth. And drop down to verse 11, He
shall see the travail of His soul. He shall be satisfied by
His knowledge. Shall my righteous servant justify
many? For He shall bear their iniquities. He became sin for us but never
became a sinner. He bore our iniquities. I'm so
thankful as I read through this chapter of the Book of Numbers
that the father and the husband got involved in the foolish vow. It was so foolish what Adam did. And he was in the transgression. But this one, the husband and
the father says, I will bear their iniquity. And the last
verse, going back there to the book of Numbers chapter 30. Verse 15, But if he shall in
any way make them void, after that he hath heard them, then
he shall bear her iniquity. And then, these are the statutes
which the LORD commanded Moses between a man and his wife, between
a father and her daughter, being yet in her youth, and in her
father's house. So to have a father, to have
a husband that would bear our iniquities, set us free, I say yea and amen. Brother Mike.