I've mentioned a number of times
in looking at various passages of scripture that my mother,
excuse me, my grandmother had in a chest of drawers some candy
boxes. Now there was no longer any candy
in those boxes, but there were family pictures. And they were
on that cardboard, hard, sturdy. And once in a while, us kids
must have got under her skin because she'd go get a box of
those pictures and let us look at them. And we'd look at those,
and there were family reunions, 1902 and 1905. I would ask Grandma,
who is this, and who is this? You know, many of those folks
that she knew at that time, she could not put her finger on.
But there was her husband, and there she was, and there were
her children. And she could identify those
folks. Well, I say that to say this, when we look here in the
book of Numbers chapter 5, the closing verses beginning with
verse 11 through verse 31, there is some wonderful pictures in
this passage of scripture, but I will be honest with you, I
cannot identify everything that speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I will leave that up to you. I'm not going to read this entire
passage of scripture. It's 21 verses long, but we're
going to read several verses of this and look at this. And
my desire is to find Christ and his ministry towards me as a
child of Adam, that he would present me faultless through
the blood of Christ before his throne of mercy. This I know
about this passage of scripture. It is supposed to be here. It is supposed to be in the Bible.
If it was not here, it was not supposed to be in the Bible.
But since it is here, it is supposed to be here. This passage is not
an aside. When I was in Bible school down
in Dallas, Texas, I was told that chapters 9, 10, and 11 of
the Book of Romans was a parenthetical statement and you could just
leave it out if you wanted to. Well, that's very convenient
when you don't believe what is in there. That is the message
of Christ to us and how it is brought to us over the centuries
and in eternity. This passage of scripture is
not to be taken out of scripture but left alone and viewed with
and through New Testament eyes. Now there's no problem. This actually was given, and
Moses gave it, but he gave it as a responsibility that God
Almighty gave him. This passage of scripture shares
with us about a woman that possibly was unfaithful to her husband
and her husband brings the subject up that he's possibly concerned
about her unfaithfulness and the process that they went through
to do that. So I'm going to leave it right
there. That's where we have it. This passage is also mentioned
in the book of First Corinthians chapter 10. Would you look there
with me? in 1st Corinthians Chapter 10, the Apostle Paul was led
to bring up this passage of scripture. Not this one per se, but all
of the Old Testament, the types, the shadows, and pictures of
our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the church of the sinful nature
of natural man, and the saved person that Christ saves. Here
in 1st Corinthians Chapter 10, And there in verse 11, we have
these words. Now, there's much being said
in this 1 Corinthians chapter 10, and it would be incumbent
to read that to yourself. I'm not going to take the time
to read it all this morning, but I do want to look at verse
11. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 11. Now, all these
things happened unto them for examples. Now underline that. He is talking about the Old Testament.
He's talking about Genesis through Malachi. All of those things
happened unto them for examples and they are written for our
admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come, the ends
of the earth. Now another translation all these things as types did
happen to those persons. So when we look at this passage
of scripture in Numbers chapter 5 beginning with verse 11 and
going through the completion of that chapter we're finding
here that there are types and shadows and pictures of some
very important things. and they're not to be overlooked,
but they are to be taken on. Now, all of these things happened
here in the Book of Numbers, Chapter 5, for our admonition. Now, if you notice, as we've
gone through Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, and Chapter 4,
and up to this point in Chapter 5, that the Lord is sharing with
us that he is a very orderly God. He is a God of order. He's not a God of chaos. He is
a God of order. He has ordained things to be
just as they should be. When we look at how the camp
was set up, He ordained it just like that. When He had the tabernacle
built, it was to be built just exactly like He decreed it to
be built. when he had someone appointed
as Moses or Aaron. He's the one that was involved
in their appointment. They didn't go out and volunteer
for the job, but God called them to that. Then we find that he
was very orderly in this Chapter 5 to share with us that there
were three groups of people that were to be put without the camp.
Then those people that were inside the camp, they were to be looked
upon circumspectly because we all are sinners before a thrice
holy God. It isn't just the outward things
that we've done. It isn't just the leprosy that
we might have. It is not just the issue that
we might have. It is not because we touched
a dead body, we touched ourselves. Those people were to be put out
of the camp and the rest of the people that were inside the camp,
don't get too proud of yourself because we too have a problem.
We have an Adam as a father and he passed on that contamination,
that sin, that death to us. This passage of scripture is
not here by mistake. Now, there's going to be a lot
of people that are going to say that this passage of scripture
should be done away with. No, it shouldn't. I've come to
the conclusion that people that have a problem, and I did before
the Lord saved me, I had a real problem with passages of scripture. People that have a problem with
passages of scripture, they often find fault with the Apostle Paul
on what he had to say about men and about women. They say, he
has no right to do that. Don't look at it as Paul's writing,
it's God's writings. He's the one that gave the word.
You're fighting against God. You're at enmity with God when
you find fault with the way he wrote his word. And just as it
is here, we're going to find fault with God if we say this
shouldn't be here or this is not the way it should be done.
Let's look at it through New Testament eyes and see that God
had a great message in this passage of scripture. And also we want
to say You will never find this kind of situation ever brought
up from a practical standpoint. It is brought up and this is
what to be done with it, but we don't find any husband ever
in the scriptures doing this. God is a holy God. He is holiness unto the Lord. This passage of scripture in
Numbers chapter 5 verse 11. Numbers chapter 5 and verse 11
it says, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, take it to the
bank. The Lord spoke unto Moses. This is in his word. Don't try
to remove it. But may God give us grace to
look at it from New Testament eyes. Speak unto the children of Israel,
and say unto them, If any man's wife go aside, and commit trespass
against him, and a man lie with her carnally, and be hid from
the eyes of her husband, and she be kept close, and she be
defiled, and there be no witness against her, neither she be taken
with the manner, The spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he
be jealous for his wife, and she be defiled. Or if the spirit
of jealousy come upon him, and she be jealous of his wife, and
she be not defiled. Then, verse 15 is where we want
to spend our time this morning. This is what is to be done. We
have, in this scenario, God is the director. He is supreme. He has ordered
in all things. We have the actors here. We have a wife, we have a husband,
and in verse 15, we're gonna be introduced to a priest. Three
characters. And we have some props here.
It tells us, he shall bring an offering for her. a tenth part
of an ephah barley meal, an earthen vessel, holy water, and this
is the only time in all the scriptures that the floor of the tabernacle
is ever mentioned. The priest is to take some dust
from the floor of the tabernacle and put in that water. In commentaries, I read, okay,
what about the man if this happens? Matthew chapter 5 verses 27 and
28 cover that. Let's just go over there for
just a moment. The Lord speaking in His Sermon
on the Mount had this to say to people and He brought it to
a heart problem and not just a physical problem. It wasn't
just a leprosy that people were faced with as they were forced
outside the camp. This is a heart problem. Matthew
chapter 5, verse 27, the scriptures say this. You have heard that
it was said by them of old time, thou shall not commit adultery.
Great words. But the Lord said, I say it to
you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath
committed adultery with her already in his heart. So the man is well dealt with
in the heart. All right. We find our passage
of scripture before us is much like what we find in the book
of Galatians chapter 1. Would you turn there with me?
The book of Galatians chapter 1. The apostle Paul was led to
write this letter to a number of churches. Now whether he wrote
several letters identical letters or had them copied by scribes
or whatever, but there were several churches that needed to hear
this message in the area of Galatia. It was a Roman province and there
were a number of churches there, a number of believers there,
and Paul had been given the word that there was a problem among
those churches. There was a problem between a
husband and his wife. That's what we boil it down to.
Here in the book of Galatians chapter one, beginning with verse
six, Galatians chapter one, verse six, and the rest of this book
is dealing with the subject. It tells us here in the book
of Galatians chapter one and verse six, I marvel that ye are
so soon removed from your husband to another lover. Isn't that
what it's saying? I marvel that you are so soon
removed from your husband to another lover." Well, it says,
from him that called you into the grace of Christ to another
gospel. I am marveled that you are so
soon have taken this one as your husband and now you are with
another lover. And he goes on to share with
us that's not another gospel, or that is another gospel, that's
not the gospel because they wanted to incorporate their works into
grace. and he spends the rest of the
book like he does through many of the books of the New Testament,
sharing with us that salvation is by grace and grace alone,
that it is completely from God, salvation is of the Lord, and
that he has given us a gift. We are not the participants in
it, we are the recipients of it, and when we adulterate it,
we are doing exactly what we find in the Old Testament, thou
shall not commit adultery. We find that he spoke to many
of his people and said, this is the same thing that happens. You are whoredom with those idols. You are in whoredom with those
other things. And I am a jealous God. He's a jealous husband. God is
a jealous husband. We do not plan to comment on
every verse of this passage of scripture, but we want to spend
some time on verse 15. So if you'd go back to Numbers
chapter five and verse 15, we have a husband. It tells us in
Numbers chapter five and verse 15, these words, then shall the
man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering
for her a tenth part of an ephah of barley meal. He shall pour
no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon, for it is an offering
of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance."
Now let's look at that verse of scripture and hopefully we
can look at it from New Testament eyes. We have a husband. Is not the Lord Jesus the husband
of his church? And is he not a jealous husband? He is a very jealous husband
for good reason. And it's to our benefit that
he's a jealous husband, that he cares about the church. He
does not want his people going after other idols. By his grace,
he protects us from that. In fact, he shares with us that
when he saves us by his grace, he takes away all of those idols
that we did have. If you would turn with me to
the book of Numbers Chapter 25. Move over here to Numbers Chapter
25. There's an incident that takes place here, and it's just
amazing that the children of Israel would do what they're
doing here, but it's just a natural thing for a natural man to do. Most of Israel, National Israel,
were just nothing more than natural men. They were not born again. They were there as a picture
and a type and a shadow, but they were not born again. In
fact, we find that most of them died in unbelief. That's what's
recorded in the book of Hebrews. Most of them died in unbelief.
It didn't make any difference that they were the children of
Abraham. Most of them died in unbelief. Who are the true children
of Abraham? Those that God saves by his grace
are the two true children of Abraham. That's what Paul brings
up in the book of Romans. Not all Israel is of Israel,
but Israel are the true children of Abraham, saved by grace, not
dependent upon works. That's who the true children
of Abraham are. Well, here in the book of Numbers,
we have the children of Israel committing some great atrocities
towards God. They are pictures of what we
have here. We have those that are going after idols, and they're
committing great atrocities as a result of going after these
idols. Most of the time, that's exactly
what happens. It's surprising how many religions
are based upon this nonsense here as brought out in this passage
of scripture, the fornication that took place. Well, here in
the Book of Numbers Chapter 25, and there in verse 11, the scripture
says this, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron,
the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel,
while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consume not
the children of Israel in my jealousy. He did destroy a lot
of the children of national Israel as a result of this, but he wants
us to know here, I'm a jealous husband. As he shared through
the Apostle Paul with those saints in Galatia, I am a jealous husband
and I'm so shocked that you so soon are turned to another lover. Well, if they are really turned
to another lover, they never were Christ's wife to begin with.
I have to be very careful. Because, you know, there are
people that I thought could never have any hope at all, and the
Lord saved them by his grace. I know what the Church of Jerusalem
was like when Saul of Tarsus was saved. Can any good thing
come out of Tarsus? Saul was saved by the grace of
God and it was turned around his life so much that we find
God's grace is demonstrated in him in such a great way. But
you know what? He demonstrates that in everyone
he ever saves. Saul or Paul is just not a super
Christian. He's just like everyone else
that God ever saves. It's a miracle of God's grace. God shares with us in this passage
of scripture, and let us look in the book of, go back to the
book of Exodus, if you would. The book of Exodus chapter 20.
In Exodus chapter 20, we have this passage of scripture. The
Lord, he's a jealous God. Exodus chapter 20, verse five. For thou shall not bow down thyself
to them nor serve them idols. For I, the Lord, am God, am a
jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
under the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. I am a
jealous God. And in that same book, Exodus
chapter 34, would you turn there with me? As we look at God sharing
with us that he's a jealous husband, he has jealousy over his people,
he has an interest in them, He has an eternal interest in them.
He has eternal life to give them, and he is going to watch over
his bride with great care. He has the power to do that too.
In the book of Exodus chapter 34, we find out in fact his name
is Jealous. That's one of the names of God
is Jealous. Exodus chapter 34 and there in
verse 14, For thou shalt worship no other
God. For the Lord, whose name is Jealous,
is a jealous God. Don't turn aside to this side
or that side. What did we hear in the Bible
class this morning? It's not the earthly things that
we have that means God is blessing us. By and large, it's the other
way around. There is such a worship today of prosperity gospel that
if God loves you, you're going to have two chickens in every
pot and a Ford in every garage. But that's just, oh my goodness.
What is it that's really important? Every spiritual blessing in Christ
Jesus. I'm a jealous God and holy is
my name. As we go back here to the book
of Numbers again, chapter five, verse 15, we find that this husband
in bringing his wife, notice what he does here. Numbers chapter five and verse
15. Notice what he does. He shall bring, the man shall
bring his wife to the priest. What an important statement is
made here. The husband brings his wife to the priest. He shall bring his wife. The husband brings the wife and
he brings his wife to the priest and it is truly the the priest
that is the only one able to do anything about the problem. Now as we look at this from New
Testament eyes, the one that loves his bride with an eternal
love brings us to the great high priest who will make complete
atonement for us. Our husband brings us to the
great high priest. Now, it just happens to be that
they're one and the same. We have one Lord, one Savior,
we have one high priest, we have one husband, we have all of these
things summed up. He is a faithful high priest,
is what we bring out, what's brought out in Hebrews chapter
two and verse seven. He's a faithful high priest.
You know, as his husband brings his wife, he brings her to the
priest. He brings her to someone that
can help with the situation. He's not a counselor. We're gonna
find out he's gonna have an atonement for it. He's gonna have an issue
for this to take care of the problem. This we heard read there
in Hebrews chapter 3. Would you turn there again in
Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 1? This high priest that we're brought
to, this jealous God brings us to the high priest who is able
to deal with the issue in Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 1. The book
of Hebrews has a lot to say about the priest, the high priest,
the Lord Jesus Christ as the priest, the priest after the
order of Melchizedek, without beginning, without end, a priest
that has always been a priest for his people, one that has
the ability of dealing with the problem of his people. And here
in Hebrews chapter three and verse one, wherefore, holy brethren,
partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle, and high
priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. So we have apostle, high
priest, and Christ Jesus in the same person taking care of the
problem for his church. We have not a high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. You know,
this priest that God brings us to knows about what we're like. He knows that we're children
of the flesh. He knows that we're the offspring
of Adam. He knows our difficulties. He's
been touched with the feeling of our infirmities in every way
yet without sin. He doesn't have that problem
that we have. Never had it, never will have
it. He was never a sinner. He was put on the cross and became
sin for us by imputation, but he was never a sinner. We find
that this high priest being one, a high priest after the order
of Melchizedek. And then it tells us when the
husband shall bring his wife, notice here in numbers again,
chapter 5 and verse 15, this is what he brings. Then shall
the man bring his wife unto the priest and he shall bring her
offering. She doesn't have the ability
of bringing her own offering. The husband brings the offering.
Isn't that... I'm just... I'm donefounded. That even in this picture, that
we never find this issue brought up in scripture again, even in
this picture, that the Lord would share with us that it is the
husband that brings the offering. She comes, but it is him that
has the offering. This tells us so much about our
Savior. You remember when Abraham and
Isaac were going up on that mountain? Abraham had been commanded to
go offer his son, his only begotten son. This is the son of promise. And it tells us in the book of
Hebrews that Abraham believed if he had to slay him, he was
going to raise him up again. They were both going to come
down off of that mountain. But they're going up there on
that mountain, and Isaac has enough interest in this whole
affair that's taking place. He says, Father, here's the fire,
and I'm carrying the wood. But where is the lamb for a burnt
offering? And Abraham's comment on this
is just so completing. The Lord shall supply himself
a lamb for a burnt offering. Now he's going to take care of
it from a physical standpoint up there and that's what we find
out. that Abraham is ready to slay his only begotten son on
that altar, do exactly what God had commanded him, and yet his
hand was stayed, his knife was not used, and there in a thicket
caught by his horns was a ram for a burnt offering. Yet we
find out that nothing else would ever do. The blood of bulls and
goats could not take away sin. It must be the pure blood of
the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So he provided his own lamb for
a burnt offering. He provided his own lamb to go
to the cross. He did not depend upon you or
I. He didn't depend upon the wife
to take care of the offering. He depends on the husband to
take care of the offering. the one that is there delivering
his bride. This offering, God takes care
of it and we find out that this is a, well, let's just look there
in the book of Numbers chapter five and verse 15 again. This
is the offering that was brought. Verse 15, shall bring her offering
for her a tenth part of an ephah of barley meal. Now, among all
the grains, this was the lowest one. Of all the grains that Israel
was going to harvest, this is the lowliest one. This is the
simplest one. This is... hmm... It's undecorated. It's so... Well, it just speaks
of our Savior. Lowly, your King comes. Lowly and riding upon the colt. Lowly. He didn't declare His preeminence,
but He is preeminent. He came born of a virgin laid
in a manger. He wasn't born in a castle. He
wasn't born in the king's house. He is describing to us as a servant. He came as a servant. He became
a servant on the behalf of the church. He became a servant on
the behalf of a husband. And truly, that's what a husband
is to the wife, is a servant to her, to take care of her,
provide for her. An ephah of barley meal. This
amount was exactly the daily ration of manna that children
of Israel to pick up every day. A tenth of an ephah. Just exactly
the right amount. No extra, no slack. We have the offering as given.
Our husband presented himself as a lowly one, humbled, just
like barley. And that barley flour, in order
to be flour, had to be crushed. To be of benefit for this sacrifice,
it had to be crushed. And how that speaks of our Savior,
He must give His life a ransom for many. He must give His life. He must go to the cross. There's
no other way that He could save His bride than to go to the cross
and shed His blood for His people. And then it tells us there in
the book of Numbers chapter 5 and in verse 15, the latter part
of that, it says, they're not to put any oil or frankincense
on it. It's not to be spiffied up. That's
interesting. Just plain. Grain. Barley grain. A picture of the
humility of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, when he came. He
is not, and then, for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering
of memorial, now notice this last part, bringing iniquity
to remembrance. As the gospel is declared, it
is incumbent to declare to everyone we are ruined by the fall. It is the responsibility of the
prophet. It is the responsibility of the
missionary. It is the responsibility of the
teacher. It is the responsibility of the
pastor to remind us continuously that we are ruined by the fall. There is a reason that this is
here and it goes on to tell us they're bringing iniquity to
remembrance. Every time we take communion
service, we're taking communion service because it took his blood
to redeem us. When we go down into the waters
of baptism by his death and burial and resurrection, this is a remembrance
of iniquity. We're reminded of that every
day when we look, In the mirror we're reminded of that. We're
natural men, we're natural women, we're natural children before
God, and we have this great thing about us. We're the children
of Adam, but God is merciful to save sinners from their sin. We find this brought out when
Jesus spoke in Matthew chapter 20 and verse 28. In Matthew chapter
20 and verse 28, as we find the Lord speaking about what was
ahead of him, what was going to come upon him. In Matthew
chapter 20 and there in verse 28, we find that the Lord speaks
about buying somebody, buying something, buying a wife. Buying
a wife with his blood. A ransom price must be paid.
And it's a high price. It's a high ransom price. I was
reading just the other day about those first settlers at Jamestown. All of them were indentured servants. They had to work. That's how they're going to pay
for their freedom. When it comes to Christ, there is no work that
will pay for our freedom on our part. there's only work on his
part that will pay for our freedom here in the book of matthew chapter
twenty inverse twenty eight we find the lord jesus sharing with us, verse 28, even
as the son of man cannot be ministered unto, but to minister and to
give his life a ransom for many. This is the remembrance of sin.
It's ever before us, the Lord died for my sins, the Lord paid
for my sins, the Lord took care of my sins, the Lord put my sins
as far as the east is from the west and will not be brought
up again, But that's why he came. He came to deal with that. He
has obtained eternal redemption for us. Hebrews chapter 9 and
verse 12. Would you turn there with me?
Book of Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 12. We have this wonderful
statement about the effectiveness. Now our husband, He handles all
things well. He takes care of all the price.
He takes care of all the sacrifice. He takes care of us getting us
to the priest. He takes care of the offering that must be
made. He takes care of what the priest is going to do because
he becomes the priest. He's going to deal with the sacrifice
because he's a sacrifice. He's going to deal with the lamb
because he's the lamb. He's going to have his sins,
our sins imputed to him. He's going to know what it is
to have sin put upon him. He is going to hear his father.
He's going to say to his father, excuse me. Father, why hast thou
forsaken me? Because I have become sin. Well,
here in the book of Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 12, we have the summation
of this. What the Lord Jesus Christ did
there on the cross was so effective, effectual, so powerful. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 12,
the scriptures share this. He says, neither by the blood
of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. What
a glorious statement. This husband can take care of
the problem because he takes us to the priest. And he's the
priest. And the priest is going to take
an offering. And this offering for us is the blood of himself,
the Lamb of God. He's going to do that glorious
thing of blotting out. Turn with me to the book of Colossians.
Colossians chapter two. Verse 14, Colossians chapter
2 and verse 14. If you follow that incident through
that's presented in Numbers chapter 5, it's going to be evident whether
this woman did the unfaithfulness or she didn't do the unfaithfulness.
God's going to bring it out. He's going to display it. Here in the book of Colossians
chapter 2 and verse 14, it says, when the Lord went to the cross
blotting out the handwriting of ordinance that was against
us. The Old Testament's against us. The law's against us. There's nobody that could be
saved by the law. You say you're going to be saved
by the law, you have to keep the whole law. Nothing is exempt. And not just for a day or a minute
or for a second, but for all your lifetime. And we know we
can't do it. We fail on every side. But this
is what we hear from our husband. I have blotted out the handwriting
of ordinances against you, nailing them to the cross. Colossians
chapter two and verse 14, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances
that was against you, which was contrary to us and took it out
of the way, nailing it to the cross. You know what? The wife feels free. All the
handwriting of ordinances that were against us were nailed to
the cross, never to be brought up again. How full and free is
the salvation that our husband provides for us by presenting
the correct offering to the correct priest, and by the correct blood
of the lamb, takes care of all the issues that we have. And
so a few, of those in the picture of God's grace can be brought
out from Numbers chapter 5. I will leave the rest up to you.
Lord willing, next time we'll pick up in chapter 6 and we have
the Nazarite.