Well, I've been looking forward
to it a lot, too. It's good to see you. If you would, turn over
to Numbers chapter 30. Numbers, the 30th chapter. Once you get there, Numbers chapter
30, verse 1. It says, and Moses spake unto
the heads of the tribes concerning the children of Israel, saying,
this is the thing which the Lord hath commanded. If a man vow
a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath, listen to this, 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 as far as human qualities
or characteristics go, I admire reliability just above everything
else. So if I have someone who is in
my sphere of influence who is someone who says I'm going to
be there tomorrow at 6 a.m. and I know that barring some
sort of disaster out of their control, they're going to be
there. I can count on them. I can rely upon them to do that.
I hold that person in very high esteem. I think it's a great
quality, something I want to bolster in myself, something
I want to give to my kids. Emphasize this. Be a reliable
person because if you are, Everyone in your sphere of influence will
benefit from you being that reliable person. Your boss will be able
to trust you. Your family will be able to trust you. You will
be uplifting and you will be helpful to the people around
you. This is something we should take very seriously. When we
give our word, when we say, I will do this to the very best of our
ability, we should do that thing. It's only right. Now that's not
what our text is talking about here though. What this is talking
about is a man vowing a vow, making a promise unto the Lord. A man saying, Lord, God, I... That's what this is talking about.
And what it very clearly says is if a man does that, if he
vows a vow unto the Lord, his soul is bound. It is literally
in captivity. It is chained. It is imprisoned
to this vow. He must do what he said he would
do. And since the stakes are that
high and the command is such that you must honor your vow,
that means there are consequences if you don't. Now, when I read
that and I think about that, here's the very first question. Scripture. Jacob in Genesis 28. He was a Bethel. He said, Lord,
if you do these things for me, I'll
give you a tenth of everything that you gave me. back to you. And you fast forward a little
bit further, you go to 1 Samuel 1 with Hannah. Hannah's barren.
She doesn't have kids. And she goes to the Lord and
she says, if you give me a man-child, I'll give him back to you. I see a lot of women out here,
especially those of you who have children, how hard would that
have been for you? Take your three judges. Judges 11, everybody
remember JEPTA? He vowed, he said, if you give the victory in that battle, when
I It's his own daughter, his only
child. Remember what he did? He paid
his vow. It's a very serious thing, this
thing of vowing a vow to the Lord, but what I draw your attention
to is this, is that in each of those circumstances, those three
examples I gave you, there's a common theme. That vow is always
attached to a sacrifice. There is always sacrifice involved
in a vow every single time, and we'll get to that here in a while.
But first, the question, should a man be vowing a vow unto the
Lord? I'm very thankful that the Lord
just makes it very plain for us, and He answers the question
Himself. Go over to Matthew chapter 5 real quick. Matthew chapter 5, and look at
verse 33. Matthew 5, 33. Our Lord speaks
directly, and he says this, he says in verse 33, again, you
have heard that it's been said by them of old time, thou shalt
not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto Lord thine elves. And he is referencing Numbers
chapter 30. He says, you've heard of this from old time. You know
this is written in the law. Don't forswear yourself. You
vow, vow unto the Lord, pay your vows. You make an oath, honor
your oath. That's what you've heard. That's
what the law always said. Now, what I love about this is
this. The Lord is his own interpreter. This is his word. He's the one
who wrote it, and he's the one who gives the proper interpretation
of it. And so he's going to do that in verse 34. Look here.
He says, here's what this means. But I say unto you, swear not
at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by earth,
for it is footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city
of the great King. He says, this is the interpretation
of that law. Don't do it. Neither shalt thou swear by the
head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. He gets directly to the heart
of the issue. Here's the reason. Val, Val, because you don't have
any power. You're not sovereign. The years
go on. What happens over here? All those
hairs become gray, right? And what power do I have? What
power? None. We don't have any power. That means any time a man would
vow a vow on the Lord, Lord, I'll do this. I give you my word,
I'm going to do this thing. In return, in that situation,
he fails every single time because he's completely dependent on
the Lord. And what does that tell us? What's
the point of all that? It's this, the only one who can vow a vow
sure that he keeps his vow every single time is the Lord himself.
He's the only one who can make a promise and then honor that
promise and ensure that that promise is honored. One who is in absolute and utter
control of all people and all things at all times. He is the
source of all power. He's omnipotent. Let me tell
you what that means. That does not simply mean that
he is power is sourced and stored, holds it as he sees fit. I mean,
if a man has any power, it is on loan from God himself. He's the one who has all power. Now let me show you a scripture
real quick. Turn over to Hebrews chapter six. I think you'll enjoy
this. Hebrews 6 and look at verse 13. For when God made promise to
Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself. Now, why does a man swear by
something? I swear on my mom's grave. I
swear on this. I swear on that." Why does he
swear? He's offering collateral. He's saying, in the event I don't
keep my word, you can have this. You can have this piece of collateral
right here. The Lord said he looked around
for something to swear by. He said, I couldn't find anything
greater than myself. Take me. I will offer myself. That is, in fact, my collateral.
He couldn't find anything greater than himself. Go on reading.
Verse 14, saying, surely blessing I will bless thee. and multiplying
I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise, for men verily swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife,
wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise
the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that
by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to
lie. that we might have a strong consolation.
You know what that means? Not only does he have the power
to ensure that when he vows a vow to himself, he has that power
to ensure that he keeps it, he is sovereign, he is omnipotent,
he can't lie, which means if he makes the promise, he must
follow through with it. His very Godhead rests on it. Now, One last thing I will tell you
about this before we move on is there are obviously consequences
for not paying a vow. This is what it says in James
5, 12. It says, but above all things, my brethren, swear not,
neither by heaven, neither by earth, neither by any other oath,
but let your yea be yea and your nay be nay, lest you fall into
condemnation. There's a consequence for failing
to follow through with paying your vow. Now, this is my question. What if I have? What if I have vowed a vow unto
the Lord and I can't come up with the goods? I can't keep
my vow. Is there any hope for me? Or
is it just condemnation? Is that it? Thank the Lord there
is hope. Go back to your text. Numbers 30, look at verse three.
It says, if a woman also vow a vow
unto the Lord, and bind herself by a bond, being in her father's
house in her youth, and her father hear her vow and her bond, wherewith
she hath bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace
at her, then all her vows shall stand. And every bond wherewith
she hath bound her soul shall stand. But if her father disallow
her in the day that he heareth, not any of her vows or of her
bonds wherewith she hath found her soul shall stand, and the
Lord shall forgive her, because her father disallowed her. Here's an exception. You have
a young woman, one who is unmarried, a damsel, living in her father's
house. She lives under his roof. She sleeps in his bed. She eats
his food. She is her father's daughter. He is the source of
her life. And she makes a foolish vow in
that house. Says, Lord, I'm going to do this.
And her father hears that. And he knows she can't come up
with the goods. She can't pay the vow. He has a decision to
make. He can do one of two things. Number one, he can hold his peace.
He can choose not to intervene. And if he does that, what that
means is this, the vow stands. She now is required to do whatever
it is she vowed unto the Lord to do. And if she doesn't, there's
consequences. There is condemnation. But there's
another option. He can choose to intervene. He
can stand up and he can disannul. He can void her vow. And when he does that, what does
it say in the text? She's forgiven. She is completely and utterly
forgiven. That foolish vow is made void.
It never happened. She's completely scot-free and
off the hook. And you go on reading through this, what you find that
also applies to the husband and the wife. Look at verse six.
And if she had it all in husband when she vowed, or uttered all
of her lips, wherewith she bound her soul, and her husband heard
it and held his peace during the day that he heard it, then
her vow shall stand and her bonds wherewith she bound her soul
shall stand, but if her husband disallowed her on the day that
he heard it, then he shall make her vow what she vowed, and that
which she uttered with her lips, wherewith she bound her soul
of none effect, and the Lord shall forgive her. Same thing,
the husband to the wife. The husband hears this foolish
vow of his wife. He can stand up and say, no,
I disannul, I do not allow it. Or he can hold his peace and
the vow stands. One of the two. Those are the
two options. But there is a caveat. There is a catch. Look at verse
15. But. If he shall any ways make them
void after that he hath heard them, then he shall bear her
iniquity. You see, it's not that simple.
It's not that simple. The husband just can't stand
up and say, I make them void. to know the void. Now forgive
her. No, it's not that simple. She still made the vow. She still
couldn't come up with the goods. There are still consequences
for what she did. And here's how it works. If the
husband stands up for his wife or the father stands up for his
daughter and disannuls that vow, you know what he has to do? He
has to do everything she vowed to do. He has to follow through. And also this, He has to suffer
the consequences of the fact that she couldn't come up with
the goods in the first place. Now, I can almost say at this
point is that's the gospel. Amen. That's the end of it. But
let's talk about it, right? What is this? This is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of humanity, we all vowed
a vow. We're going to see that here in a second, that we could
not keep. We break our vows every single day. We can't keep the
law. Because of this relationship
we have with the Lord Jesus Christ. God is our father. Christ is
our husband, the elect. We have a special, permanent
relationship with God himself for us, his children. He stood
up, he says, I disannul that vow. It's a bad vow. And the father says, absolutely.
Now you have to do everything they vowed to do. I got to punish
you. You suffer in their stead, they're
forgiven, they're free. And that's exactly what he did. Now this thing of a vow. At the
heart of this is the concept of covenant. What's covenant? you enter into a promise with
someone. I am going to do this. It's normally followed by that
person saying, and I will do this. You hold up your end, I
will hold up my end. The entire human race, all of
humanity, we all entered into a covenant with God, and that
was in the garden. Remember Genesis 2? Lord said, you're here in
this garden, you're upright, you're innocent, you're pure,
you have no sinful nature yet, and here's the deal. One rule,
one law. Don't eat of the fruit of the
knowledge of good and evil in the day that you eat thereof,
you shall surely die upright and innocent, not sinful and
evil like you and I are right now. Upright and innocent with
one rule, one law. We couldn't keep it. We couldn't
come up with the goods. We fell, we broke our vow. All of us in Adam broke our vow
unto the Lord. We are vow breakers, oath breakers. But still this, I find this very
interesting. When we were upright and innocent
in Adam, we couldn't keep one rule, we couldn't keep one law.
But now in this fallen, sinful state that you and I find ourselves
in, we think for some reason we can rectify the situation,
we can reconcile ourselves to God by keeping many laws, by
many rules, by honoring his law. Now, what is law? What is salvation
by works? It's really simple folks. It's
Christ and that's it. You have to have the blood of
Christ, but you also have to have your warm reception of him by
your own will. Foolishness. You have to have
the blood of Christ, but you also have some good work sprinkled
in there, right? Show that you've actually made some progress,
things like that. You have to have the blood of Christ, but
you also have to do this. That's the melding of grace and
works. That means it's all works. Salvation by works is always,
Lord, I will do this and you will do that. Whatever you fill
in the blank with is, that's what I have to do. That's salvation
by works. It's a damned system. It does
not save because man can't keep the law. Let me show you that. Turn over to Nehemiah 9. At this point in Nehemiah, the
children of Israel find themselves under Babylonian captivity. And they are absolutely miserable.
And they want to be free from captivity. They want freedom.
They want liberty. And they're gonna petition the
Lord for it. Let's see how they go about it. Nehemiah 9, look
at verse 36. Nehemiah 9, 36, behold, we are
servants this day. And for the land that thou gavest
unto our fathers, to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof,
behold, we are servants in it. And it yieldeth much increase
unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins.
Also, they have dominion over our bodies and over our cattle
at their pleasure, and we are in great distress. All right,
start off pretty good. That's absolutely true. They
were in great distress. They were in great captivity. It's
because of their sins, because of their idolatry. They had turned
to other gods. They said, we need help. Well,
how are you going to go about getting it? Verse 38, and because
of all this, we make a sure covenant and write it and our princes,
Levites and priests sealed unto thee. Well, let's see what they
wrote. Go to chapter 10. Look at verse 29. This is the covenant they entered
into with the Lord. The brethren, their nobles, and
entered into a what? A curse. That's what the scripture
would call this covenant they entered into with the Lord. A
curse. And into an oath. What were they going to do? What
did they propose? To walk in God's law, which was given by
Moses. Their proposal. Lord, we're in
great distress. We need delivered from this captivity. Here's what we're going to do.
We'll keep the law. All those things that Moses desired, Moses
wrote down. We'll keep it. We'll do it. In
exchange for that, you'll deliver us out of our captivity. Sound
good? And it's interesting to go on to dig a deep hole. They don't just stop there. A
whole lot of stuff we're going to do. We're going to stop intermarrying.
They had a whole lot of nations around them at the time and they
were intermarrying with them. Things like that. So we're going
to stop intermarrying. We won't do that anymore. They were notorious
for not keeping the Sabbath. They said we won't engage in
any kind of type of commerce on the Sabbath. No more buying
and selling. Things like that. We're going to stop all that.
We're going to start tithing. to make sure that the Levites,
they have what they need and they don't have to work so they
can give themselves to the priestly duties and to the temple and
things like that. We're going to do that. And we're
going to keep this temple up, right? We're not going to let
it go into disrepair. We're going to do all these things.
They dig a real deep hole. And I would challenge you, go
home this afternoon, read chapter 10 here, right? And then after
that, read chapter 13. And you know what you'll find? I didn't do all of them. Nehemiah comes back, barely anybody
speaks Hebrew. Hebrew language is just about
as extinct. He said, why doesn't anybody speak Hebrew around here?
Well, it was because they were intermarrying, and their children
now spoke another language. And he said, well, where's the
Levites? Where are they at? And they're
like, oh, they're out in the field. They're tilling the ground so
they can have something to eat. He said, I thought you were going
to tithe. I thought you were going to take care of them. Yeah, we didn't do that.
Oh, what about the Sabbath? Why are all these merchant tents
set up on the Sabbath day? Yeah, we didn't do that either.
And he said, well, what about the temple? At least you did
that, right? You kept up with the temple. They had taken one
of their enemies and given one of their enemies a room within
the temple. That's how much disrepair they
had fallen into. Everything they said they would do, Lord, we
will do this. We will honor your law. We will
do it and do a bit of it. And folks, that's salvation by
works. Whatever we say, I'll do it. Lord, I'll do this. If
you'll reward me with salvation, it won't save because we won't
do it. We can't do it. We are sinners,
dead in trespasses and sins. Our only hope is grace, sheer
and utter grace. Now, we broke our vow and we
broke our vows. Notice that both those words
are used in our text, vow and vows. We broke our vow in Adam
every single day with every breath, folks, because of this sinful
nature we have. We break our vows. We break God's holy law. And here's where it leads us.
Go back to your text. Numbers 30, verse 13. This is where we're left. Verse
13, every vow and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her
husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void. We were born upright, innocent,
in Adam. We broke our vow. We fell, fell
into sin and condemnation. We break our vows daily, and
this is where it puts us, in the hands of a sovereign God,
and he can do whatever it is he wants to with us. According
to His will, He can save any one of us. He wants, and it's
right. According to His will, He can
damn any one of us. He wants, and it's right. Whatever He does
is right because of what we have done. We're not victims. We're
not victims to Adam. We're not victims to the sovereignty
of God. I broke my vow. I break my vows. Therefore, I
sit in these sovereign hands, and He can do with me as He sees
fit. And we see that from our text.
In our text, The father, the husband, he had a decision to
make. If his daughter or his wife made a foolish vow, he had
two choices. One, he could just not intervene. Just decide to do absolutely
nothing. I want you to paint the picture
here, give you the appropriate illustration. Let's say the daughter
to the father. It's not just any daughter-father
relationship. This daughter, she hates her
father. absolutely despises him. She lives under his roof, she
eats his food, she sleeps in his bed, but she absolutely despises
him. She is constantly trying to take
over the house, push him out of the way, run out, get away,
and she makes this foolish vow. Lord, I'm going to do this, and
he knows she can't come up with the goods. If that father were
to hold his peace and just not intervene, Has he done wrong
by her? No, he hasn't. She's the one
who decided to make the foolish vow. Nobody pushed her into it.
She's the one who hates her father. He has done absolutely no wrong
by her by saying, you're on your own. You've made your bed. But
how gracious is it and how wonderful it is if he stands up and say,
no, I disannul the vow. But she hates you. I know. But
she's constantly trying to leave. I know. But she vowed a very,
very foolish vow. She should have known better
than to do this. I know. Put it on me. I'll do what she
said. I'll suffer the condemnation.
What do we call that, folks? We'd call that the election of
grace. That's what we'd call it. That before the world began,
The Father chose a people to save. The Lord Jesus Christ stood
up and said, I will intervene for them. I will go for them. I will suffer the punishment.
I will do whatever is necessary to make them acceptable before
you, Father. That's the election of grace. And here's what I've
noticed about this, this election, this choosing of a people before
the world ever began. This is not a generic choice.
I think when you talk to people, especially people in Calvinistic
circles, they think of it that way. It's a generic choice. He
just chose randomly. There's absolutely nothing generic
about this. There are relationships defined
here. A father to his daughter, a husband to his wife. When I
leave here after this, right, I'm going to take some kids with
me. And I'm not just going to walk through the halls and grab
random kids and shove them in and take them back home. I'm
going to find my kids. They're mine. They are my responsibility. I'm going to get my kids. I'm
going to put them in the van. When I leave here, I'm going
to leave with a woman. I'm not going to grab a random woman
and put her in the van. wife is right there. I'm going
to go find my wife. I'm going to get her. I'm going
to put her in the van. We're all going to go home because
we are, in fact, family. This choice that was made before
the foundations of the world were ever built, this had nothing
to do with it being generic. It's based on an eternal union,
a family. If you're a believer right now,
all your hope is in Christ and Him crucified alone. Understand
this. God The eternal God, the independent God, the sovereign
God is your father. Consider that for a moment. What
is a good father? He provides. He protects. He teaches. He nurtures. He corrects. That's a good father
in this world. How much greater is God the Father,
your Father, who provides perfectly, who protects perfectly, who corrects
lovingly and perfectly, who works all things. Our Father is so
much. It's so much better than an earthly father. I can't control
all the circumstances around what's happening with my kids,
but the father with his family, with his children, he is always
working all those circumstances together for our eternal good
at all times. I love the statement he makes
here. This is Matthew 7, 11. Our Lord says, if you then being
evil. Now, If you can't answer to that
name, there's no reason for you to listen anymore because I have
nothing else to say to you. But if you can answer to that name,
evil, sinner, listen all, God is your father. If you then being
evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much
more shall your father which is in heaven give good things
to them that ask him? You have an open door with God
the Father right now through the Lord Jesus Christ, and here's
the promise. He says, you being evil know how to give good things
to your children. How much more do I know how to give good things
to my family, to my children? Ask. Couldn't possibly ask too
much. For spiritual blessings, yes.
Take away my sin by the blood of Christ. Give me a righteousness
that actually stands your test. Bring me to repentance. Change
my mind. Give me a heart full of faith.
Give me the new man in Christ Jesus. Give me these things.
Do those sound like good things? Then ask for them. He knows how
to give good things to his family. He just promised he will give
good things, ask for them. For material possessions, for
the things we need in this life, for wisdom, for guidance, for
confidence, yes, ask for all those things. Nothing will be
denied you. That is good. And I think that's
the most beautiful fail safe about the whole thing. I don't
really know what's good. I got an idea of it. I have some
thoughts on what's good for me and what's not, but I don't really
know. But here's the fail safe. He knows exactly what's good.
and he withholds what is not. So when I ask for the thing which
is not good, thinking it is, and I'm met with silence. That
ever happen to anybody? You ask for something, you ask
for something, you ask for something, you're just met with silence. What does
that mean? It means it's not good. It wasn't
good. That's why he withheld it. And
what a great fail-safe when I'm asking for that thing that is
not good, and I don't even know it. He withholds that and only
gives me that which is good. And how much does he give us
that is good that we don't even ask for? So much greater. Not only is God our Father, if
you're a believer, Christ is your husband. And I love this. This is Ephesians 5.25. It says,
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church
and gave himself for it. I love the illustration of marriage
because it pictures the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ
for his particular people, for his bride, but it frames it in
the only way we could possibly understand it. It is through
union with the Lord Jesus Christ, eternal union. So, plus we're
trying to talk here. This eternal union between Christ
and his people, this is where we understand redemption. Christ
standing up before the foundations of the world ever built and him
vowing a vow. him for his bride, for his family,
saying what Judas said to his father, I will be surety for
him of my hand, shout that require of him. If I bring him not unto
thee and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. That is Christ's vow to his father
concerning his church. And he kept his vow. He did exactly
what he said he was going to do. Now I said it's framed in
union with Christ. What is necessary for that vow
to be honored? I have to be perfectly righteous.
Absolutely perfectly righteous. I am in Christ because he kept
the law. I kept the law in him. Every
member of the elect kept the law on him. This is what Paul
says in Romans 3 31. It says, do we then make void
the law through faith? God forbid, day we establish
the law. He didn't come and just say,
well, we're just not going to worry about the law as it concerns you folks.
No, no, no, no. He established the law. The law
is now completely satisfied with everybody Christ died for. That's
the vow I could not keep. I said, I will keep the law.
I couldn't. He kept it for me. I kept it in him. Consequences. There are consequences for my
sin. He became our sin. Our sin was put in him. The father
rained down his wrath upon him and now the sin is gone. The
law is completely and utterly satisfied. God is completely
satisfied with everyone who is in Christ Jesus. Now, conclusion
here. Go over to Psalm chapter 50. Psalm 50, look at verse 14. By his grace, this is one vow
every one of his people keeps. Offer unto God thanksgiving,
and pay thy vows unto the Most High. Notice there's a colon
there, which means that is going to be explained in the next statement.
And call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee,
and thou shalt glorify me. Now this is one vow that every
one of his people makes, and by his grace, this is one we
all keep. We call upon his name. We call
upon him to save us with absolutely no help from us. Him doing absolutely
everything that's involved in that salvation. And I love the
promise behind this. He says, you vow that vow. Call
upon my name. Call upon me and my power to
do everything. You do that, I will deliver thee. And what we find later on as
this journey goes on and on and on is the only reason we cried
out with that vow in the first place, Lord save me. It's because
he delivered me first. That's it. All right. I hope
that was helpful for you. Good to be with you this morning.