I'll write a few to open your
Bibles to the Book of Numbers, Chapter 5. As I was preparing
for this message, it occurred to me, I can't remember the last
time I spoke from the Book of Numbers, but I read an essay
that was from a message preached by Brother Darwin Pruitt. on
this portion of scripture and it's quite good. Brother Darwin
seems as a special gift for being able to see the types and pictures
of the gospel to be found in the Old Testament. And he inspired
some thinking on my part, which is most of the time a good thing. Verse 11. Then the Lord said
to Moses, Speak to the Israelites, and say to them, If a man's wife
goes astray, and is unfaithful to him by sleeping with another
man, and this is hidden from her husband, and her impurity
is undetected, since there is no witness against her, and she
is not being caught in the act, and if feelings of jealousy come
over her husband, and He suspects his wife and she is impure, or
if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure,
then he is to take his wife to the priest. He must also take
an offering of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour on her
behalf. He must not pour oil on it or
put incense on it because it is a grain offering for jealousy,
a reminder offering to draw attention to guilt. The priest shall bring
her and have her stand before the Lord. Then he shall take
some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle
floor into the water. After the priest has had the
woman stand before the Lord, he shall loosen her hair and
place in her hands the reminder offering, the grain offering
for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings
a curse. Then the priest shall put the
woman under oath and say to her, if no other man has slept with
you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married
to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not
harm you. But if you have gone astray while
married to your husband and you have defiled yourself by sleeping
with a man other than your husband, here the priest is to put the
woman under this curse of the oath May the Lord cause your
people to curse and denounce you when he causes your thigh
to waste away and your abdomen to swell. May this water that
brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells and
your thigh wastes away. Then the woman is to say, Amen,
so be it. The priest is to write these
curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water. Then he shall have the woman
drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water will
enter her and cause bitter suffering. The priest is to take from her
hands the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the
Lord, and bring it to the altar. The priest is then to take a
handful of the grain offering as a memorial offering and burn
it on the altar. After that, he is to have the
woman drink the water. If she has defiled herself and
has been unfaithful to her husband, Then when she is made to drink
the water that brings a curse, it will go into her and cause
bitter suffering. Her abdomen will swell and her
thigh waste away, and she will become accursed among her people. If, however, the woman has not
defiled herself and is free from impurity, then she will be cleared
of guilt and will be able to have children. This, then, is
the law of jealousy when a woman goes astray. and defiles herself
while married to her husband, or when feelings of jealousy
come over a man because he suspects his wife. The priest is to have
her stand before the Lord and is to apply this entire law to
her. The husband will be innocent
of any wrongdoing, but the woman will bear the consequences of
her sin. We'll see how that bears on the
gospel. There's a blessed story in it. Now, the book of Numbers recounts
the time of the Israelites spent in the wilderness between the
times when they received the law and became God's covenant
nation in this world and the time that they arrived to enter
into the land of Canaan. Now, if you'll hold your place
there in Numbers 5, And look over at Hebrews chapter four. It was during this time. That
God made himself known to the Israelites. Not simply made himself known
that he exists or made himself known that they were his chosen
people. But he actually revealed Himself
to them over the course of time. There is a time when a man is
regenerated, when a woman is born again by the Spirit of God,
and God begins to make Himself known. It is the time of redemption. Just as God made Himself known
to the Egyptians and to the Israelites by virtue of those ten plagues,
And then his mighty hand and outstretched arm was used to
bring them out of Egypt and to escape from the clutches of Pharaoh.
That was the beginning of their knowledge of God. That was God beginning to make
himself known. And he went on and made himself
known through the giving of the law. And then for 38 more years, During the book of Numbers, he
continued to make himself known. And you know, as we walk through
our lives, we are like those Jews in the wilderness. And God makes himself known to
us. He reveals himself to us in greater
degrees, it says here, though, in Hebrews chapter four, Excuse me, Hebrews chapter three,
beginning at verse seven. So as the Holy Spirit says today,
if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did
in the rebellion during the times of testing in the desert where
your fathers tested and tried me and for 40 years saw what
I did. Now, I say 38 years, they'd already
been in the wilderness for a couple of years before the book of Numbers
starts. But it wasn't long after that,
they came to the border of the land of promise, and God says,
go in. And they said, no, there's big
people in there, there's giants in there, and they'll just squash
us. And in unbelief, they rejected the promise of God, for He had
told them, go in, I'm giving it to you. But they wouldn't
believe Him, and they hardened their hearts, and the result
was, He said, verse 10 now, back in Hebrews 3, That is why I was
angry with that generation and I said, their hearts are always
going astray and they have not known my ways. I declared on
oath in my anger, they shall never enter my rest. Canaan represented
God's rest and he brought them to that rest and they said, no,
we're not going in. They wouldn't believe him. They wouldn't believe that even
though the inhabitants of the land, some of them were giants
like Goliath. They wouldn't believe that even
though there were great obstacles, naturally speaking, God was greater
than any obstacle they faced. One of the sayings I've seen
on Facebook, religious sayings, and I don't like many of them,
but this one I kind of like, it said, when Satan tells you
How big your problems are, remind him how big your God is. And
that's what they forgot. They didn't believe God, they
believed what they saw, not what they heard from God. Faith comes by hearing, not by
seeing. And they refused to go in and through their unbelief,
they forfeited the rest that would have been theirs. And for the remainder of the
time, it says, they saw what I did. God revealed Himself in
His justice, in His righteousness, and even in His mercy. Because
even though they rebelled against Him and wouldn't go in, yet for
the remainder of their time, while that generation died off,
He still caused the man of the fall, didn't He? You know, there's times that
we, through our unbelief, bring trouble. and discipline on ourselves. And God may hide His face from
us, His comfortable presence from us. He may deal with us
as a Father deals with children and bring us into difficult times,
but He never causes the manna to cease. Christ is always there. We may bring ourselves difficulty,
but we will not bring ourselves eternal death. The Lord God may discipline,
but He will never destroy nor abandon His people. And they learned about Him in
His mercy. They learned about Him in His justice. They learned
that believing God and acting on that which He has declared
is the way of life. And in this chapter, back in
Numbers chapter 5, God set down some rules designed to purify the camp of
Israel. Now, some of these rules may
seem harsh to us, given our modern sensibilities. The first part
of this chapter, it says if a person has an infectious disease outside
the camp, he can't live with the rest of the people. You put
them out until their malady is over, until their disease is
gone. And being put outside the camp
didn't just mean simply that you didn't get to associate with
your family and friends and all that. It also meant you were
cut off from the tabernacle. And that may seem kind of harsh.
Also, there was laws about making restitution if you wronged somebody. And under the law spoken of in
verses 5 through 10, you know, it couldn't be if you defrauded
somebody of $100, you couldn't just give them back the $100,
you had to give them back $120 and offer sacrifices and things
like that, you know. And then here's this story we
read about the test of an unfaithful wife. But remember here, there
are two things that will explain some of these harsh laws. First
of all, given the conditions of life in that time, These rules
were designed to preserve the community of God's people. When
there isn't medicine, diseases can spread quickly, infectious
diseases. And people with infectious diseases,
if they're allowed to live and associate closely with others,
they're going to spread their infection. And if wrongs are
allowed to go unaddressed, and offenders to go unreconciled,
before long you have chaos. And if unfaithful spouses are
allowed to go unchallenged, and if marriage and the vows associated
with marriage are allowed to be trampled upon without any
recourse, then society falls apart. Now that's just the surface
reason for these rules. But there's a more important
reason, and it's this, that it sets forth for us by way of illustration
that God demands purity among His people with whom He chooses
to dwell. He demands a purity among them. The church of the Lord Jesus,
and you can be turning over to Ephesians chapter 2, the church
of the Lord Jesus is more than a religious group. Sometimes it do us well to keep
in mind what God has made us to be. If we are His church,
we're more than just another religious organization in this
world. In Ephesians chapter 2 and verse
22, it says this, And in Christ you
too are being built together to become a dwelling in which
God lives by His Spirit. Now back yonder in the days of
numbers, where did God live? Well, we know that God's everywhere
at all times. But there was a special presence
of God in the Jewish nation there in that tabernacle. It was called
the Shekinah Glory. You don't find that word in the
Bible, but that's how the Jews referred to it. And it was God's
presence between the cherubim there over the Ark of the Covenant
in the most holy place of the tabernacle. God dwelt among the
Jewish people in a way that he did not dwell among the peoples
of other nations. And this was a tremendous privilege
given to this nation. And God demanded that that nation
which had been so chosen and favored by His presence, that
they be a pure nation. Likewise, Peter says that we
are a holy nation, a chosen generation. That we should sound forth the
praises of Him who has saved us by His grace. And those among
whom God dwells, from them God demands a purity. In the church of the Lord Jesus,
no infectious diseases are to be permitted or allowed
to remain. Heresies, roots of bitterness,
infighting, those things which transfer from one person to another.
Now, the church is never to become a court or be characterized by
that, where the members are constantly being held under a microscope
and examined in every little aspect of their lives. Because
brethren, you wouldn't have to get very close to find trouble,
would you? You really wouldn't need a microscope. In fact, I
won't even know that we would need glasses to find fault in
one another, if that's all we were looking for was faults.
What's being spoken of here is those things which are capable
of spreading from one to another, backbiting, gossiping, the spread
of false doctrine, the hatred and bitterness that arises over
legalistic and self-righteous judgment of one another. In the
book of Hebrews, it speaks of, be careful that there be no bitter
root spring up among you and defile many. Infectious spiritual
disease. And while I mention this, we'll
see how these things are handled in the church from this story
of the suspect wife. But in the church, no offenses
are to be left unreconciled. Let me say this to you, brethren.
There's no question that as human beings, we're going to do things
that upset one another from time to time. We hope it doesn't happen. But,
you know, let's be real, it does happen. Most of the time, the
offenses are small enough we can just forget. In fact, the
best thing is, is if we mature enough spiritually, it doesn't
matter how big the offense gets. If we're the offended one, we
say, forget it, I'm not going to worry about it. It's not worth
causing a ruckus over in the church of the Lord Jesus. I can
bear this. But we're human. And we've got
to realize that offenses come that we just can't let go of.
And the Bible instructs us that we must reconcile these things.
That we cannot allow there to be breaches in the fellowship
of God's people. Because once again, that's an
infectious thing. Two people fall out with each
other. I've seen it happen. Two people fall out with each
other and before long, The friends of this people won't have anything
to do with the friends of that people. And this whole family is on the
outs with that whole family. And this in the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And then this business of the
unfaithful wife, which is a picture of one who is a believer in another
Jesus and in another gospel. We read about that in 1 Corinthians
11. Paul says, I desire to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. So but somebody comes in and
brings in another Jesus and preaches another gospel and you receive
it easily enough. Oh, how serious it is. When someone
when someone who professes to believe in the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ is willing to listen to. And support a message
that is contrary to the message of Christ. Is, to put it this
way, is willing to be intimate with a Jesus other than the Jesus
preached in the gospel. Is willing to find spiritual
satisfaction and enjoyment in a gospel other than the gospel
that we received when we were saved. Now let's look at this
story and see what the church is to do about impurity within
its ranks, and we're going to do this all under the picture
or illustration of this suspected wife. Now it says here that occasion
would come when a woman might defile herself by being with
a man other than her husband, or that her husband would simply
become jealous, suspicious, And nobody's seen it. Now, you know, in most. Societies
in ancient times, women were. In a really. Well, second class
didn't even apply to them, it's a shame, but that's just the
way things were. And if a woman were even accused
of unfaithfulness. Her life was in her husband's
hands. And if he were jealous, she had
no recourse. If a heart of jealousy arose
up in him and he felt that he had been cheated on, it didn't
matter whether there was proof. It didn't matter whether anybody
had actually seen this happen. We see that kind of thing going
on in the Muslim-controlled nations now. Even going so far that if
a woman is raped, her family might kill her to preserve the
family honor. How awful. How barbaric. God demanded better of His people.
No woman could be held judicially guilty unless someone were witness
to the fact. However, that didn't mean husbands
didn't become jealous. It didn't mean that there might
not that there wouldn't be any cause for suspicion. And how
do you deal with something if it's only a suspicion and there's
no way to come up with proof? And here we have a picture of
spiritual things. Now, it's obvious with many. that they do not believe the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, for they regularly worship according
to another gospel. They go to a religious organization
where a false gospel is preached. And that's like the unfaithful
woman whose unfaithfulness is evident to all. It's been seen,
it's been witnessed. And this law doesn't apply to
her. She's simply put out. And those that do not worship
according to the gospel are not members of the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when we have meetings like
this, we open the doors and anybody that's willing to come here and
sit quietly and listen, we're happy to have them, aren't we?
But membership within this church and within all the churches of
the Lord Jesus Christ is to be predicated upon an agreement
with the gospel that's being declared, isn't it? If someone came to me and said,
I'd like to be a member of your church, what would you have to
do to be a member of the church? And normally I say, well, first
thing I said, you need to listen to what we're preaching and then
confess that you agree with it. Because there's no use trying
to be a member of this church if you don't agree with what we're teaching.
And if they say to me, well, you know, I believe with what
you're saying, but I think a man's got to keep the law, too. And
I would just say, well, you know, you're free to come and keep
listening, but you're not free to be a member of the church because
that's not what we believe. That's not what the scriptures
teach. If they say, well, I agree with you and I really do appreciate
that you all believe in baptism for believers and by immersion,
and I tell you, a man's got to believe and he's got to be baptized
or God won't save him. Also, you need to sit down, listen
a while because you're missing the point we're making. That's
not what we preach here. Can't be a member if that's what
you're going to confess that you believe. But, you know, there are many
who will profess to believe the gospel and the doctrines right
down the line. I believe in free and sovereign
grace. And yet their conduct, and I
don't mean their moral conduct, I just mean the way they carry
themselves, it seems that they really, maybe that's not what
they believe. What do you do with such a person? Do you convene an assembly, a
council, a church disciplinary committee? Do you put him on
the hot seat and start asking him doctrinal questions? One thing that this whole story
teaches us is this. Matters of the Spirit are hidden
from the eyes of men. You can't know, I can't know.
If you tell me you believe this gospel, I'm going to take your
word for it. And I'm not going to go snooping
around. And I hope you don't snoop around
on me. One reason I found Discovered, you know, that I don't want to
snoop around. I'm afraid I just might find something. Because
as I said, we will offend each other. Now, we don't go snooping around,
but there is something we do. And we do it every week. And
we put every believer's profession to the test every time we meet. You see, the woman here that
is suspect is representative of everyone who professes to
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is only one way that
you can have any idea whether or not that profession is real. And this whole ritual with the
sacrifice of a grain offering and with this potion that the
priest makes up, and give the woman to drink, and the loosening
of her hair, and the pronouncing of curses, and the drinking of
the bitter water that brings a curse. All of this is a picture
of the preaching of the gospel. And here is how you purify the
church and keep it pure. You just keep preaching the gospel. And as it goes into those who
hear it, If that one is a faithful person, is truly a believer,
it will bring no harm to them. They'll delight in it. But the
same potion, so to speak, the same gospel delivered to one
who professes, but does not truly believe, will give them a horrible bellyache and cause them to wither up.
because they will not be able to find in the gospel that which they desire and seek. Now, let's look at some individual
points here and expand on this a little bit for a few minutes.
It says, verse 14, and if feelings of jealousy come over her husband,
And he suspects his wife, and she is impure, or if he's jealous
and suspects her, even though she is not impure, then he is
to take his wife to the priest. Now, who is this priest? Who does he represent? Our Lord
Jesus Christ. That's who. Do you want to know
whether or not you are a believer? Go to Christ. He's the only one
who can tell you. He is the word of God, the living
word of God, and it says the word of God is living and powerful
and sharper than any two edged sword and able to divide between
joints and marrow and is able to discern the thoughts and intents
of the heart. One of the Best things I can
do for you. In fact, the only valuable thing
I can do for you, if I'm like this jealous husband. And Paul
acted not so much that he was a jealous husband, he was actually
casting himself in the likeness of what we would call the best
man, who was in charge of the bride until such time as the
wedding took place. And he said, I'm jealous over
you with a godly jealousy. Now, what's the best thing for
me to do for you? Every week, every time I stand
in this pulpit, bring you to that priest. I can't see your heart, but he
can. I can't reveal your thoughts,
but he can. And I don't mean that he'll reveal your thoughts
to me. That's irrelevant. He'll reveal your thoughts to
you, because you might not know what your thoughts are. I know this. I'm going to stand
before God someday. I don't want there to be any
surprises. I don't want to stand before
God and find out like those who have been boasting in themselves,
who said, Lord, didn't we do this? And didn't we do that?
And didn't we do this other thing? And all in your name. He'll say,
depart from me. I never knew you. I don't want
to hear that. I don't want to go to God thinking
everything's OK, only to find out nothing's OK. And the only way my heart is
ever going to be taught and the only way your heart's ever going
to be taught about these things is to be brought before the priest. Says he must also take an offering
of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour on her behalf. He must
not pour oil on it or put incense on it because it's a grain offering
for jealousy, a reminder offering to draw attention to guilt. Now, when I, as a preacher, as
a pastor of a congregation, charged with the responsibility, when
I say the responsibility of your souls, I don't mean that I can
save you or cause you to be lost. I think you understand what I
mean. I'm responsible to tell you the truth. And one of the truths that I
am responsible to tell you is your sin. You know, it's in the
reminder offering. You know, we talk about the cross
of the Lord Jesus Christ and how that's a testimony of God's
love, and it is, and how it's a testimony of God's mercy. And boy, is it. You know what
else it's a testimony of? The absolute unswerving justice
of God and the unavoidable wrath of sin. that he executes against
sin. If there's anything that the
cross tells us, it tells us this. God is holy. God is just. God is righteous. And he will
not let sin go unpunished. Do you think that there was a
way to save your soul without punishing the sin that you've
done? Do you think if there had been
a way to do that, he would have done what he did to his son?
Did not his own son say, Father, if there's any way this cup can
pass from me except I drink it? And what was the Lord saying?
He said, Father, if there's any other way for me to save these
people without suffering, without The crucifixion without being
cut off from you. There's any way to do this without
me enduring the penalty of sin. And then the Lord said, but not my
will, your will be done. And what was God's will? God,
who is holy and just and can by no means and will by no means
clear the guilty, said, son, the only way. For me to bless
them. Is for me to curse you. The cross tells us that we are
horribly sinful. Well, I'll have you know, I'm
an American. Well, you're a horribly sinful American then. But we've risen above all that.
We haven't risen above anything. I thank God that our society
is probably the freest society in the world. I thank God that it's one of
the safer societies, that we believe in the idea of justice
even if we don't get it accomplished all the time. I'm glad that I
live in this community where I feel quite safe. But the cross tells me that with
all our advancements to become this wonderful American civilization,
We are still horribly sinful. As I've said before, you can
measure the seriousness of the disease by the power of the medicine
required to cure it. And if it took the death of the
Son of God to save us, how wretched we must be. And so this offering
is brought as a reminder of guilt. A person cannot say they believe
the Lord Jesus Christ until they have been made aware of their
guilt and acknowledge their guilt. It is no faith in Christ to think
that you didn't need saving. It's not faith in Christ to think
that that the Lord Jesus is just tickled pink with you because
you've been so good. Faith in Christ begins with an
understanding that there is a horrible breach between me and God, and
nothing but the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ can heal that
breach. In verse 16, the priest shall
bring her and have her stand before the Lord. Now I, like the jealous husband,
every week bring you to the priest and tell you about our sin and
direct your attention to him. And when Jesus Christ will prove
his people, he will bring them into the presence of his Father. If I know there's guilt on me,
the last place I want to be is in the presence of the Lord. Now, I want you to imagine yourself
in the position of this woman. This is getting scarier and scarier
if you're guilty. If she has been impure and her
husband becomes suspicious and jealous, uh-oh, maybe he knows. And if that suspicion and jealousy
grows enough, he feels he has to initiate this. Get more serious. And I got to go see the priest. No telling what he's going to
be able to figure out. And then the priest tells me that he's
going to bring me into the presence of the Lord himself. See, here's
the thing. Your unbelief may escape my eye. It will not escape his. You could
come and be associated with his congregation. You could have
been in the starting group and you can be here for the whole
time of my ministry, however long that happens to be. And
you may have me convinced that you believe the gospel. But God sees better than you
and me. Bring her before the Lord. For here's where things of the
Spirit are revealed. You know, one day all of us going
to be brought before the Lord, aren't we? And in that day, you
shall be known. For good or bad. It will be revealed to you, and
I don't know what Judgment Day is going to be like, whether
we're all going to be standing around taking turns or what, you know,
it's pretty much irrelevant to me. But I know this, it is the
day when men will be revealed as they are and God will be revealed
as he is. It says, then the priest shall
take some holy water in a clay jar and pour some dust from the
tabernacle floor into the water. What's this representative of?
It's the gospel. So how does this water mixed
with dirt and put in a clay jar. How does that represent the gospel? Well, first of all, you get a
little clue there when it says it's put in a clay jar. Paul
says we have this treasure in clay jars. I guess in this story, I'm kind
of represented twice. I'm the suspicious husband. And
I'm the clay jar. Neither one of them is a particularly boastful image. But God's preachers, they're
nothing to them. That's why I don't like titles. I mean, what title do you give
to a clay jar? His Holiness, the clay pot. It
doesn't make sense, does it? Reverend Dirk. But that's all we are. We're
vessels of clay. And while the things that we
say may be of eternal value to you, the preacher himself is
of no value at all. And yet there is within it, according
to this, using this illustration, this holy water. The water of
God's Word, which is holy indeed. What should I preach to you?
That holy water. Holy means set apart. There is
a gospel. Oh, and I can't emphasize this
enough. There is a gospel and everything else is not the gospel. And even if sometimes my flesh
gets all mixed up with this and it sounds like I'm trouncing
on people because they believe contrary to this, that's really
not what my purpose is. What I want you to know is what
the gospel is. Lest the water that I deliver
to you be unholy water mixed with the foul works of men. Holy water. The priest puts holy
water in his vessels, in his clay pots. Any man sent from
God will be full of that holy water. But then it mentions dust
from the tabernacle floor. What in the world is that? And
why would you take this holy water, which was probably from
the laver, that basin that held some water, probably from that,
why would you put dirt in it? Well, what was that dust on the
tabernacle floor? How did it get there? That's
the dust that is in there because of the priest's work going in
and out as he approaches God on behalf of the people. It is
representative of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, our priest,
as he goes into the presence of God for us. To offer himself
for us and then is there to make intercession for us. The dust is the token of the
work of the priest. And therefore, we have this pure
water, which is representative of the word of God and this dust,
which is representative of the work of Christ. This joined together
is what makes up this potion that brings a curse or a blessing. And the priest is to pronounce
this curse. He says, I'm going to give you
this water. And he loosens her hair, and that's an indication
of openness, honesty. And he gives her this mixture
of water and dirt. Now, understand, there's no magic
power in it. You say, this is just proof that
the God of the Jews was one or more of those gods and, you know,
of the many gods, the mythical and mysterious gods that people
worshipped. And they were just a bunch of backward people, believed
to magic potions. No. This water with a little
dirt in it had no power to reveal anything. The only reason it ever worked
is because God made it work. Because he alone knew. the situation. And so he sets up this ritual,
which has no power in and of itself to accomplish anything.
But he says, this is how I'm going to make it so that justice
will be done one way or the other. And he would cause these things
to happen, not the potion, but in the spiritual reality, the
potion, the gospel will accomplish this. In that one, in whom there
is no impurity, and in whom there is no unfaithfulness to the Lord
in terms of faith, in terms of believing the gospel, they drink
it down, that holy water, those works of Christ, and it has no
ill effect on them. They love it. They could say,
fill her up again. Give me more. And just as a pure woman who
drank this potion devised by the priest, put together by the
priest, she would drink it and there would be no ill effect.
And that would settle the matter. But for the unfaithful one, for
the wife who had been with another man, God would cause this potion
To make her abdomen to swell and it said her thigh to shrivel
up. Now, I don't know if she actually got a gimpy leg or what
it was. The notes here at the bottom,
I've got a study Bible, it's got some notes. It says that
probably what it was indicating was miscarriage and barrenness.
Which for a woman in this day, if she couldn't bear children,
she was counted to be worthless. Now, understand, we don't we
don't hold to that opinion, but the scriptures were written according
to the customs of the day. And a woman who could not bear
children. Was considered to be under a curse. To lose a child. To miscarry. Was considered to
be a curse from God. There are those who sit and listen
to the gospel. Maybe they have to. They claim to believe it. They
claim to believe Jesus, but if the gospel is preached and the
more clearly the gospel is preached and the more the grace of the
gospel is laid out, the more it upsets them. They get a bellyache. They can't hardly stand it. Now, they may be able to cover
for it. It may be you and I will never know. But sometimes here's
what happens. It's so irritating. They begin
to cause trouble. The church is rarely ever to
take action against anybody. I know churches that the And
I'm going to have to wind this up, but I've heard of churches,
you know, they get together, you've got a church made out
of 10 people and they think they've got to have some kind of constitution
and they'll spend 50 pages describing the process of church discipline
and how to kick somebody out. Is that what you really want
to do? Oh, it's a rare, rare thing that the church ever has
to take action. But someone who becomes so irritated
by the gospel. That they cannot peaceably dwell
among the people of God. Such a one is under a curse from
God. But let me sum this up now. Here's
how you judge people. You preach the gospel to them.
And you just keep preaching it to them. And it will reveal whether
or not they believe. If they believe the gospel. The
preaching of it will prove no irritation to them. They won't
be hungry and after something else. If they don't believe. It's going
to irritate them. And it's going to be proven that
the Lord Jesus Christ is not their true love. That they may
have made a marriage vow to him, but they hadn't kept it because
their heart is still somewhere else. And the week by week hearing
of the gospel will grind on them and irritate them. It'll be very
hard for them to dwell among the people of God. Not because
they're any worse than them. That's just the power of the
gospel. For, you see, The gospel has a power to attract God's
people, and it does. It will seek and find every one
of them and bring them to Christ. It has another power, too. It
will drive away every goat. So do we need the Grace Community
Church? Do we need a disciplinary committee?
We already have one. It's our high priest, the Lord
Jesus Christ and his father, the judge of all the earth. And
all we ever have to do is what we've been doing now for 25 years.
Bring everyone who professes the name of Christ, bring them
to that priest. Bring them and hey, he'll bring
them into the presence of the Lord and set before them that
bitter water that brings a curse. If you're not a believer. But if you are, the utterance
of the priest here was, if you are pure, the water, the bitter
water that brings a curse will not hurt you. And brethren, one of these days
you'll stand before God. And you will be judged by the
bitter water that brings a curse. And if you are a believer, it
won't hurt you. But if you've been playing games
all these years, oh my, may God make each one of us faithful.