Good evening. We’re going to look at two passages this evening. Well, actually, one primarily. That would be Numbers chapter 5. But before we get there, let’s go to Mark chapter 7. I think that’s on page 1072 of your Pew Bibles. And Numbers 5 is on page 143. Let’s give attention to the very Word of God, Mark 7, beginning at verse 14.
And he called the people to him again and said to them, Hear me, all of you, and understand There’s nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him. But the things that come out of a person are what defile him. And when he had entered the house and left the people, the disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from the outside cannot defile him? since it enters not his heart, but his stomach, and is expelled. Thus he declared all foods clean.
And he said, what comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of a man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slender, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within. And they defile a person.
Now, if you turn in your copies of God’s Word to Numbers, as we continue our study there, we are in Chapter 5. Let’s give attention once again to the very word of God, Numbers chapter 5. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous or has a discharge and everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead. You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp that they may not defile their camp in the midst of which I dwell. And the people of Israel did so, and put them outside the camp, as the Lord said to Moses, so the people of Israel did. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the people of Israel.
When a man or a woman commits any of the sins that people commit by breaking faith with the Lord, and that person realizes his guilt, he shall confess his sin that he has committed. And he shall make full restitution for his wrong, adding a fifth to it, and giving it to him to whom he did the wrong.
If the man has no next of kin to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution for wrong shall go to the Lord for the priest in addition to the ram of atonement with which atonement is made for him. In every contribution, all the holy donations of the people of Israel which they bring to the priest shall be his. Each one shall keep his holy donations. Whatever anyone gives to the priest shall be his.
And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, Speak to the people of Israel if any man’s wife goes astray and breaks faith with him, if a man lies with her sexually and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband and she is undetected through what she has defiled herself.
And there is no witness against her since she was not taken in the act. And if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he’s jealous of his wife who has defiled herself, or if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself. And the man shall bring his wife to the priest, and bring the offering required of her, a tenth of an ephaph of barley flour. He shall put no oil on it, and put no frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembrance, bringing iniquity to remembrance.
And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the Lord. And the priest shall take holy water in an earthenware vessel, and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle, and put it into the water. And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and unbind the hair of the woman’s head, and place in her hands the great offering of remembrance, which is the great offering of jealousy.
And in his hand the priest shall have the water of bitterness that brings the curse. And the priest shall make her take an oath, saying, if no man has lain with you, and if you are not have not turned aside to uncleanness, while you were under your husband’s authority, be free from this water of bitterness that brings the curse. But if you have gone astray, though you were under your husband’s authority, and if you have defiled yourself, and some man other than your husband is lain with you, then let the priest make the woman take the oath of the curse, and say to the woman, The Lord make you a curse and an oath among your people. when the Lord makes your thigh fall away and your body swell. May this water that brings the curse pass into your bowels and make your womb swell and your thigh fall away and the woman shall say, Amen, Amen. And the priest shall write these curses in a book and wash them off into the water of bitterness and he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings the curse and the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain. And the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the grain offering before the Lord, and bring it to the altar. And the priest shall take a handful of the grain offering as its memorial portion, and burn it on the altar, and afterwards shall make the woman drink the water.
And when he has made her drink the water, then if she has defiled herself and has broken faith with her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and cause bitter pain. And her womb shall swell, and her thigh shall fall away, and the woman shall become a curse among her people. But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, then she shall be free and shall conceive children.
This is the law in cases of jealousy. When a wife, though under her husband’s authority, goes astray and defiles herself, or when the spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife, then he shall set the woman before the Lord and the priest shall carry out for her all this law. The man shall be free from iniquity, but the woman shall bear her iniquity.
As far in the reading of God’s Word. Amen. Would you pray with me? Our Father and our God, we thank you for this passage. As with other passages in the Old Testament, sometimes it’s difficult for us to fully grasp the meaning and certainly to apply it to our hearts. And so we pray, Holy Spirit, work powerfully now lead us, guide us through this passage for your glory, that we might, even tonight, be made more like Christ. We ask this in his name. Amen. Has your heart been cleansed?
As the Pharisees came to Jesus Christ and saw that some of the disciples were eating without ceremonially washing their hands, they ate in defilement according to the Pharisees. And so they asked that question of Jesus, why do your disciples not walk according to the traditions of elders, but eat with defiled hands?
This is coming from Mark chapter 7. And if you know that passage, as we’ve read a portion of that tonight, Jesus first responds to the Pharisees saying that, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. That statement by Jesus Christ, their heart is far from me, is very important for us tonight as we come to this passage in Numbers.
The hearts of the Pharisees needed to be cleansed. And because apparently they weren’t, they didn’t grasp the root of defilement. Jesus then teaches his disciples that it was nothing that comes into the man which defiles him, but it’s everything that comes out that defiles. What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of a man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery.
That passage in Mark 7 is very helpful now for us as we seek to open You hear this fifth chapter in Numbers. Up to this point, as we’ve studied this book, we’ve seen that the people have been numbered. They’ve been counted. They’ve been listed. A census has been taken.
And then Moses begins to focus upon the Levites. Remember, this is all in the context of them getting ready to head toward the promised land. They haven’t started yet, really, in earnest. Everything here at the foot of the mountain is in preparation for heading out to the promised land. And so the Levites have now been numbered. They’ve been separated.
They’ve been given particular tasks with regard to the tent of meeting or the tabernacle, a centerpiece of worship, the dwelling place of God amongst his people in the nation. Tonight, Tonight we get to this passage which deals with the cleanliness of the camp. As some here have been at the camp this weekend, cleanliness is important, you know that. But Moses here is talking about spiritual cleanliness.
The camp grounds have been assigned. Each tribe had their particular location where they were to camp. The order of marching has been set forth. They knew how they were going to place from place to place to place. The labor of the Levites has been written down.
And so now Moses turns to keeping the camp clean, spiritually clean, remembering that the living God was dwelling amongst his people. And so this camp of one million plus people needed to be free of spiritual defilement, at least on the outside, such that the living God would remain with them.
As we go through this passage tonight, it’s almost as if there are three different things going on, or three different situations that Moses is dealing with. The first is the defilement which occurs through the leper, or one who has a discharge, or one who has touched a dead person. The second is with regard to the person who has sinned. And then finally, the test for adultery, so to speak. As we go through these, I want you to see a progression from the external to the deep internal, as Moses, in a sense, is drilling down into our hearts.
I might sum up this particular chapter in numbers very simply this way, the Lord Jesus Christ blesses the people of God by cleansing them from the defilement of sin. The Lord Jesus Christ blesses the people of God by cleansing them from the defilement of sin. Tonight, we’ll see that in three heads, very simply.
First, putting sin off. Secondly, fighting sin with confession. And finally, mortifying sin. As we go through this passage, this chapter tonight, I want you to begin asking yourself that question, has my heart been cleansed? Well, first, putting off sin.
If we remember the words of Genesis 2 regarding Adam’s work, he was to work the garden and keep it, meaning keep watch over it. watch such that sin would not come in to the garden. That was his work, and we know that he failed. And so sin comes in, so to speak, through his heart. And now we have this entire chapter here in Numbers about seeking to cleanse the camp from sin. This proclamation here in this chapter five, in each of these three different parts, was a proclamation to be made to the entire nation.
Verse one, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, command the people of Israel. Verse five, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the people of Israel. And verse 11, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the people of Israel. All the people, the entire nation was to be given these commands, as opposed to numbers in Numbers 3, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, do this, Moses, bring the tribe of Levi near. Or in Chapter 4, the Lord spoke with Moses and Aaron, take a census of the sons of Kohath. Number lists the Levites, a specific command to them.
But this one, these commands in Chapter 5 were to be given to the entire nation, which is significant, because all were under the obligation to cleanse the camp, to keep it clean spiritually. It’s conveying to the people of God as they’re nearly ready to set out to the promised land. It’s as if Moses was saying to the people, keep the camp clean. It’s the dwelling place of the living God on earth. This work of the cleanliness of the camp is to be done by the entire nation. and it would be constant, and it was to be robust, and one day it would be complete, but not yet. And so before the Israelites set out, they received this reminder that the entire community, the entire church, so to speak, was to be keeping or guarding their camp, that which was assigned to Adam, now is being assigned to the entire nation. Keep your camp clean.
There’s an overarching call here in verse 3. You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp. Now, we know that that is directed to the leprous, the one with the discharge, and those who had touched the dead body. But that’s the overarching call, put out, or as Paul would put it, put off. Do not defile the camp in which the Lord dwells. Keep watch and act to cleanse the camp for the Lord is holy and you are to be holy. That’s the premise. That’s the theme. It should be the theme for the church as well, shouldn’t it? Keep the church holy. Keep it clean spiritually. And so Moses begins with those who have become unclean. Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous or has a discharge and everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead.
Three categories. Three categories of the unclean mentioned here. The leprous and Leviticus. We’ve already gone through Leviticus. Well, not here, but Moses has already gone through Leviticus. Leviticus 13, when a person has on the skin of his body a swelling or an eruption or a spot and it turns into a case of leprous disease on the skin of his body, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest, one of his sons, and the priest shall examine. Brought to the priest. Moses doesn’t say, well, go to the medical doctor.
No, no. This was a spiritual event. The priest was then to examine this one, and if the examination found that this one was leprous, he shall pronounce him unclean. It was a declaration. It was a proclamation. He shall pronounce him unclean. Now, the priest had work to do in terms of telling this one what to do now, but he was determined to be unclean, and according to this particular command in numbers he was to be cast out, separate the unclean one, after the declaration had been made.
Similarly, the one with the discharge, command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous or has a discharge. This comes from Leviticus 15. The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and said, speak to the people of Israel and say to them, when any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean. Now, that word unclean is, if we open up a Hebrew lexicon or dictionary, you’d read it’s a state of ceremonial uncleanness. It wasn’t that this person needed to take a shower. They were ceremonially unclean, meaning they couldn’t come and worship God. They would be unwelcome.
It certainly applied to both men and women. Listen to Jeremiah as he writes about the city of Jerusalem, how lonely sits the city that was full of people. This is after the city had been run over, the people had been exiled, removed because of their sin. How lonely sits the city that was full of people, how like a widow she has become, she who is great among the nations. Her uncleanness was in her skirts. She took no thought of her future. In Lamentations, Jerusalem is personified, but she represents the people of God. And Jeremiah writes that her uncleanness was in her skirts.
It was within her personally, each individual that had been removed, exiled, so much so that the temple had to be completely destroyed and ruined. Yes, those who had a discharge were also declared unclean, ceremonially unclean. And then finally, the one who touched the dead. Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp, everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead.
Death was and is unclean. For the wages of sin is death. See, death flows from sin. Death is the result of sin. And death is so connected to sin that we can say, I think we can clearly say, death is dependent upon sin. And so there’s this sense that death is the representative of sin. Death is the external manifestation or the demonstration of the end of sin. And so if sin is unclean, then the definition of death must be that it follows its master. it must also be unclean. So to touch death means that you bring that uncleanness upon yourself. So the call was to put it out, clean the camp, put out the unclean.
It’s a theme, isn’t it, that we have as the Lord is now dwelling amongst his people in the tent of meeting in the tabernacle. The presence of the tabernacle, the comprehensive gathering of the church of the Lord. These things are unknown to us today. We don’t have a tent of meeting. We don’t have the entire church centered around one tent. But for the Israelites, it was a reality, a physical reality. God himself was in their midst in the tent of meeting.
And as a result, they, the tribes, the individuals within the tribes, the individual people of God had an obligation. to make sure the camp remained clean and undefiled. And so this cleanliness meant that they had to be actively about the work of removing uncleanness and defilement from their midst.
And Moses begins with leprosy, that disease which was manifested on the skin of individuals. It would apparently start small but would build and spread, possibly throughout an entire person’s body. It represented uncleanness. produced blemishes that could be seen externally. And those blemishes represented defilement, so much so that people could see it. The priest would be able to determine just from looking externally that this person was defiled by this disease. And so lepers could not remain within the community, within the camp of the people of God. The disease was an external manifestation of an internal defilement.
It was representing the very presence of sin. Think of that. Why did leprosy exist? Where did it come from? When God made everything, when he called into existence everything by the word of his power, there was no leprosy. Everything was very good. So how does it arise? It’s part of the curse, isn’t it?
The curse which Adam brought about upon himself and upon the world, upon the earth, by and through his sin. As a result of his fall from grace, this leprosy, this disease, comes into existence by and through the curse which came about through the sin of Adam.
And so leprosy does, in a sense, manifest internal sin. And so it must be cast out, along with the discharge And the touching death, leprosy, leprous, needed to be cast out. That’s the picture. The one who has leprosy, the one who’s unclean, must leave the camp so that we who are left can remain clean and undefiled. Just like Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden of Eden and be cast out. They had defiled themselves. And so the leprous one had to leave. is required to be exiled from the people of God, removed from the dwelling place with the most high God. It may be difficult to see how this applies to us today. Leprosy discharges, touching the dead, God dwelling in a tent. But it’s a graphic picture of casting out the unrepentant sinner.
Paul speaks of it as he writes to the church at Corinth. A man present, a sexually immoral man among them, who apparently they knew about and allowed him to remain, unrepentant in his sin. And Paul writes them in such strong words, you are arrogant. Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. Clean the camp. Cleanse the church. You are to deliver this one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
Numbers 5 is this picture of what Paul speaks of with regard to the church and cleansing the church from casting out unrepentant sinners. But it’s even a greater picture than that. It’s a picture of casting out personal sin from within your heart. It’s a graphic picture of what Christians are called to do with their own sin. So if you’re trusting in Jesus tonight, you’ve been called to cast out sin. Not that sin is a thing.
No, we read that from what Jesus preached to his Disciples, what comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of a man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, and so on. And so the call, like this passage in Numbers 5, is to remove it from the dwelling place of God. As the Spirit abides in you, as you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, Your call is to cast out everything which is in opposition to God, which is sin, to put it off. Just like the one who was leprous, who was forced out of the camp, you’re called to be engaged in actively pursuing the casting out of sin from your heart. So the call tonight is to plead with the Spirit, isn’t it? To continually change your heart to hate your sin more and more, because as you love your sin, and I know that’s our nature in Adam, You’ll never desire to remove it.
It has to be that which becomes so ugly, so wretched, like leprous blisters upon the skin, so filthy that you must turn your eyes away from it. You see the analogy? You see the connection? Do you see the illustration that leprosy is to your sin? You must hate it if you’re going to cast it off.
And consider this, the Lord is so much closer. Think of those Israelites who were kind of far away, one of the camps that were way away from, could barely see the tent, but I can see the cloud of fire, cloud and fire. But the Spirit isn’t down the street. No, he dwells within you. That’s a gift from the Lord Jesus Christ and from His Father that He’s given you the Spirit to abide in you. So He’s much closer. The call then is for you as a believer tonight, as the Spirit continues to abide in you, to call upon Him to help you cast off your sin. cleanse your heart, that place where the Lord is abiding within you.
That brings us to our second point, fighting sin with confession and restitution. Here’s the second category, so to speak. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the people of Israel. When a man or woman commits sin, any of the sins the people commit by breaking faith with the Lord, and that person realizes his guilt, he shall confess his sin that he’s committed.
This camp needs to be cleansed. It needs to be cleansed of sin and impurities, of anything that would defile the place where God has chosen to dwell. We see this portion in the midst of chapter 5. He shall confess his sin that he has committed. Sin can’t remain.
And so we see this second way of removing it from the camp. If we’re seeing that progression, we’re seeing very external as we begin with the leper and with the discharge and with touching the dead, very external. And now Moses is beginning to move to the internal, isn’t he?
Confessing sin, a breaking of God’s law. Sinning against a brother or sister by possibly taking something that didn’t belong to them or damaging their property. Something with regard to their relationship to one of their brothers and sisters was amiss. They had committed sin in some way, and so they were called to come before the Lord their God, admit wrongdoing, and certainly come before their brother or sister whom they had sinned against.
And confession. Confession meaning very clearly, very simply, I have done you wrong. I have broken God’s law, I’ve sinned against God, and I’ve sinned against you. This is what I’ve done. Confession. Opening your heart that not only the Lord would see, but your brother or sister whom you’ve sinned against would also see what you’ve done. Confession.
This would come from the heart. It had to come from the heart, because that’s where the sin came from. And so this confession would lead not only to a relief, so to speak, in the person’s heart who’s confessing, but it would also lead to unity within the camp as relationships between brother and sister, or sister and sister, or brother and sister would be restored. Don’t you see that? The sin here that’s spoken of is sin against one another in the camp. As this confession is spoken of, as it comes from the heart, there is this restoration of this relationship that was broken, certainly with God first, but then with a brother or sister against the one against those that were sinned against. You see this need to confess in John’s gospel, don’t we, or his first letter.
If we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But this confession was designed to be caught up and connected to restitution, which is a big word meaning to make the person you’ve wronged whole again. You’ve done something and you have taken away from something that they owned or possessed or something has been damaged. And so this restitution was this idea of making the person whole again, the one you’ve wronged, and repairing the damage that you’ve done as part of the cleaning of the camp, isn’t it?
And so that unity and restoration is being set forth. Sometimes we think our restoration needs to be only with God, and it does, but it’s not only. This restoration, this restoration of unity and community was happening within Israel, or was to be happening within Israel. And it was a blessing. This confession, this restitution was a blessing. Do you see it? Because there was restoration of unity within the camp. There can be no cleansing if there is an if there’s unrest, if there’s no peace. And so this confession, this restitution brought about peace within the camp. It brought about unity.
Do you see that? Do you understand confession that way as a blessing? Do you understand it as a means of cleansing? Not that you can cleanse yourself. Only Jesus’s atoning sacrifice can truly cleanse you. But do you understand confession as kind of a release valve?
Now, I don’t know much about plumbing, but I do understand there are times that pressure can build up within appliances or maybe even your hot water heater. And so if you want to replace that hot water heater, my understanding is the first thing you need to do is relieve the pressure. There’s a pressure valve, and let the pressure off the tank. As we sin against the living God, As we sin against our brothers and sisters, there is a buildup of pressure, so to speak.
Within our hearts, it’s called guilt. Certainly a guilty feeling that you’ve done wrong against God and against the one you’ve sinned against here on earth, but also the guilt of judgment bearing down. How can it be released? It’s only by the atonement of Jesus Christ, isn’t it? But it’s also pursuing confession.
In that verse we just read from John’s first letter, if we confess our sins, what’s the next part of that verse? If we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us. See, that’s exactly what Moses was calling the people to do. Confess your sins and be cleansed. the camp clean, confess your sins. It is that, if I can put it this way, that release valve. It removes the pressure of guilt. He’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That brings us to our third point, mortifying sin. And there’s a sense of progression within our heads, putting off sin, confessing sin, and now mortifying sin.
Most of this chapter five is dedicated to this particular head, this particular topic, and we see it as the jealous husband, or as this particular Bible puts it, the test for adultery. And if you think of this chapter as a progression, you’re seeing now the external in the first paragraph, and then we dive into the internal in the second paragraph, and now in this third paragraph, we’re diving deeply into the depths of the heart, that which is clearly unseen.
The jealous husband. Jealousy. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the people of Israel. If a man’s wife goes astray and breaks faith with him, if a man lies with her sexually and is hidden from the eyes of her husband, it’s hidden, she’s undetected through, though she has defiled herself, there’s no witness against her. See the difference between the paragraph that we just came out of? There were witnesses. People knew that they had been damaged, they’d been injured, they’d been hurt. But here in this passage, there are no witnesses against her.
And so her husband, if the spirit of jealousy comes over her, there’s a process to go through where he takes his wife to the priest, and the priest, with his wife, engages in this process, this test. In all, Moses is saying here, put sin to death, or revive the one who is innocent. The woman who breaks faith, who is unfaithful, who is an adulteress, can’t be, in a sense, fixed. I’m not saying that there’s no forgiveness for adultery.
Please don’t understand that. What I am saying is, through this test for adultery, what we see is, if this woman did engage in adultery and this process shows that forth, that there’s pain in drinking this water, this curse comes upon her through this bitter pain, her womb swells and her thighs falls away. She becomes a curse among her people and she can’t bear children. There’s death because she can’t bear children. It points to the need to mortify our sin. And so, in a sense, she can’t be mended. There’s no restitution available, and no confession is sought. It’s a test for faithfulness.
If the woman remained pure, then there’s a sense in which she’s restored, she shall be free, and she shall conceive children because she didn’t defile herself. She remained faithful to her husband. But if she did defile herself, it seems clear that as a result of the curse, this woman would not be able to conceive children in the future, and so it points to death. Breaking faith with the husband, this marital contract being broken, the camp cannot withstand this broken faith, this broken marital contract and so she becomes a curse for all to see.
Stay away from this. Many brides today put on pure white wedding gowns to their marriage ceremony. Why? It’s a proclamation. Pure white wedding gown, the covering, the clothing of the bride is a tremendous sign and symbol of purity. As the bride puts on the gown and walks down the aisle and approaches her fiancé, soon to be her husband, she is saying by her dress, I’m pure. I’m here for you, for you alone. I have not strayed after other men, only you. I’ve reserved myself for you. This is a sign, this is the symbol that the white wedding gown proclaims. You see, and that’s what Jesus will have. A pure, blameless bride. We could even say that Jesus is jealous for the purity of his bride, the church.
And so he tests faithfulness, doesn’t he? In a significant sense, this call, this command, this procedure was a test of faith, a test to determine, to prove the faithfulness of this particular wife to her husband. And so in this way, this procedure, this process builds upon what has already been set forth, casting out the unclean, casting out that which is not of faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. Confessing sin and restoring that which had been wrongfully taken or damaged, Casting out the unclean are all acts of faith, trusting that the Lord Jesus Christ will forgive as sins are confessed, and in faith, restoring the one who’s been harmed, knowing that the Lord will provide, given that extra fifth, testing faith. In a sense, this whole chapter is about testing faith. But here, in this portion, with the test for adultery, it becomes even more explicit and clear. It’s evident.
This passage should cause us not only to think upon faith, but also to think upon our God, whose name is Jealous. That’s what we read in Exodus chapter 34. Take care lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land with which you go, lest it be a snare in your midst. You shall tear down their altars, break their pillars, cut down their asherim, for you shall worship no other God for the Lord, whose name is Jealous. Is it Jealous God? Isn’t that what this passage is setting forth? He wanted his people to be clean, pure, that he could stay with them, so to speak. He’s jealous. He was jealous for their purity. He was jealous for their worship.
What is the single greatest problem that the Israelites had that brought about their exile, their destruction of Jerusalem and the temple? You might consider that was their failure to give Worship to the living God alone. You might consider that the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom of Israel strayed after other gods. That they were not merely neglecting the worship of God who had delivered them from oppression and slavery in the land of Egypt. No, they refused to worship within their hearts, their deliverer and longed after and desired false and foreign gods or idols.
The Israelites so desired to be like the nations that surrounded them that they took wives from these heathen and pagan countries and were led astray, led away from God, away from true worship. And thus the jealousy of God burned against his people as they worshiped those idols, foreign gods, unknown gods.
I should be asking tonight, what is it for God to be jealous? What is it for him to be jealous? We can understand a jealous husband, but that arises from human passions. A husband is jealous for the purity of his wife, and most of the time it’s good and right, but many times it’s not. What about the jealousy of God? What does it mean for God to be jealous?
I really think the only way we can understand that is by thinking about Christ, thinking about why he’s coming back, why he’ll return. First, there’s the judgment of everyone, the separation of all people into sheeps and goats, those who will live with him for eternity and those who will live in hell and damnation and the burning fires for eternity. The judgment. Second, condemning the unrepentant, the wicked, to hell and damnation and eternal death. And then finally, the third, gathering all those who have trusted in him for their salvation.
He’s returning for his bride. He’s returning for that group of people that his father has set aside, his father has chosen, his father has worked in to change their hearts from stone to flesh, to unbelief to belief. Jesus is returning for his bride, and so she must be blameless.
She must be pure, clean. And so he’s jealous. He will not have a blemished wife. He will not have a bride who has not worked to cleanse herself from her defilement before he arrives. Now, we know that can only be done by the work of the Spirit, but that’s Jesus’s jealousy. He won’t have an unclean bride. He’s jealous for the purity of his bride, and so he’s so jealous that he will ensure that she’s clean. that Jesus himself, by and through his spirit, will ensure that his bride is blameless on the day that he returns. Yes, he calls you to work at it, but the only way you can do it is by and through the work of Jesus through his spirit in you. And so our constant prayer, brothers and sisters, should be, oh, Lord Jesus, please, please work.
Work to cleanse me this day. Work to cleanse me this hour, removing sin from my heart, reminding me that I’m to be wed to you. I’m to be married to you eternally. And so make me ready. Give me your white robes that I may wear those and have those on when you come for me, when you come for the church. Dress me. Have me, all of me. Remove any uncleanness from my heart. Purify me.
Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ does bless the people of God by cleansing each one from the defilement of sin. Jesus was so clear. Sin is not anything external, as the Pharisees thought. Sin is everything internal. And only Jesus Christ, by and through his atoning sacrifice, as he applies it to you, by and through his spirit, can bring you to himself as that blameless, that pure, that beautiful bride dressed in his royal, pure robes. Praise be to God. Amen.
Heavenly Father, what a joy it is to think about what Jesus is doing right now. We thank you that he has indeed ascended to the throne, and as a result, he has sent his spirit. We thank you, Holy Spirit, that you are about the work of cleansing us day after day, hour after hour. We pray even now, help us to hate our sins more and more, and to love your law. Guide and direct us that we might be ready for our bridegroom to return. Dress us in his beautiful, righteous robes. We ask all this in Jesus’ name, amen.