From Condemnation to Position in Christ

Cass shows how Numbers 5:11-28 is a picture of Christ and the Church showing how we have been condemned and the cup that Christ took on for us. He goes on to explain through various scriptures the difference between legalism and our liberty we have obtained through Christ.

We are complete in Christ!

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Speaker 0:09

Well, good morning again, everyone. Whoops. Make sure I turn this on. There we go. Is that better? I hope so.

unknown 0:19

All right.

Speaker 1 0:20

Well, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, thank you for all that you've done for each and every one of us. Thank you for our mothers. And Lord, just ask that as we get into your word, we would understand and apply more and more of it each and every day, that we'd be growing closer to you and we'd realize just how much you have done for each and every one of us. Not just by sending your Son to die in our place and pay for our sins, but placing us in you that we can live the life that you've called us to live. And so, Father, I do ask that you would use me this morning to communicate the message clearly, and just ask that we'd have attentive minds and hearts in understanding your word. In Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we're going to be in the book of Numbers. Numbers chapter 5, by way of introduction to our passage in Colossians. Numbers chapter 5. Probably not a real popular passage to preach on, but I trust that it will be a blessing to you when we go through this and have more of an understanding of it. Numbers chapter 5 and verse 11. It says the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, if any man's wife go aside and commit a trespass against him, and a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept closed, and she be defiled, and there be no witnesses against her, neither she be taken with the manner, then the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and he be jealous and she be defiled. Or, if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled, then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, a tenth part of a ephah of barley meal. He shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon, for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance. And the priest shall bring her near and set her before the Lord. And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle, and the priest shall take and put it into the water. And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord and uncover the woman's head, and put the offering of a moral in her hands, which is a jealousy offering, and the priest shall have it in his hands, the bitter water that causes the curse. So I'll just pause there for a little bit to go through a little bit of this. It may seem a little bit odd, but as we'll find out, there's a greater meaning to this. So what is going on here is if a man thinks that there's something going on, something's not quite right with his bride, with his wife, but there's no proof, no evidence, or anything like that. He's to take her before the priest, and she sits down, and the priest is gonna make this offering, and he takes the water, they take it out of the that brass laver. Remember, that's the the water that the priest would wash their hands and wash their feet with to get rid. It's a cleansing water. It was to to cleanse them of the mud and the dirt and the blood and everything like that before they entered into the holy place. They would take some of that water, and then they would take the dust off of the tabernacle floor and add to it. Remember, all the way back from Genesis 3, the the dust, the dirt was cursed for man's sake. And and so you have this concept of something that can cleanse, but also something that's cursed, and it's put together into this cup. And then they they hand it to this lady, and he says, This is bitter water that causes the curse. Now, if you remember when Moses brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, and they came to a place and the water was bitter, it was called Mara, bitter, bitter water. And what happened is God, Moses went to God and God said, Well, throw in this tree, throw in this wood into there, and it became sweet. And you have these examples of things that have greater meaning, because of what Christ did on the cross, the bitter becomes sweet. And all of these pictures we have throughout the Old Testament. But he says the priest is going to set the woman and the priest will charge her in verse 19 by an oath, and say unto the woman, if no man is lain with thee, and you've been and you've not gone aside to uncleanness with another, instead of your husband, you're free from the bitter water that causes the curse. But if you've gone aside to another instead of your husband, and you be defiled, and some man have lain with you beside your husband, then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The Lord make thee a curse and an oath among thy people. When the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell. And the water that causes the curse shall go into thy bowels to make thy belly to swell, thy thigh to rot, and the woman shall say, Amen and amen. Seems kind of odd, doesn't it? Um this uh the f this husband has this has this feeling that something's not right, that she's gone astray, been unfaithful, brings her to the priest, takes the water, throws the dirt in there, says, Okay, uh, you get to drink this. And if you've if you've been unfaithful, well, your thigh's gonna rot. It's gonna affect how you walk, and and your belly's gonna swell, uh, you're gonna you're gonna look like you're you're pregnant, but you're not. You're not bringing forth life. So he goes on to say, the priest shall write these curses in a book and blot them out with the with the water, with the bitter water. And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causes the curse, and the water that causes the curse shall enter into her and become bitter. Then the priest shall take the jealousy offering out of the woman's hand, shall wave it the offering before the Lord, and offer it upon the altar. The priest shall take a handful of the offering, even the a memorial thereof, and burn it upon the altar, and afterwards shall cause the woman to drink the water. So the concept would be here's this book that he would be writing out all these accusations, and then he would take this a cloth and put it in that water, that bitter water, and blot it out of that book, and then wring it back into that cup, and that's what she would be to drink. And it says in verse 27, and when he had made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass that if she had been defiled and had done trespass against her husband, that the water that causes the curse shall enter into her, become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot, and the woman shall be a curse among her people. And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean, then she shall be free and shall conceive seed. So if she if she's defiled, if she's gone away to another person, another man, uh then she's gonna be be kind of limping the rest of her life, her belly's gonna swell, uh, but there's no life there. Uh she's not pregnant. But if she she's been faithful, then she has life, she has, uh she will conceive and she will uh bear a child. Very interesting. And uh anytime I've taught this, uh one of the first things that comes up is oh, what about the man? Well, you know, what if the what if the the man, uh the wife is jealous of the man and the man uh does does he have to go before the priest? Does he have to go through all of this? Does he have to have the drink the bitter? No. And your first reaction is, well, that's that's kind of misogynistic, isn't it? I mean, it's good for the guy, but what well, as you go through scripture, you'll find that these are pictures that have to do with Christ. Okay? Uh Christ is our our, he is the groom. Uh, we are the bride. He does nothing wrong. The problem is always with us. And so you see this, these pictures uh throughout the scripture. Even in a Jewish wedding, the the bride would have to have a cleansing before she got married. And it was always a picture of what Christ was and the church. So he says, but if if she's not, if she's been faithful, then she's going to produce life. This is the law of jealousy, verse 29. When a wife goes aside into another instead of her husband and is defiled. Or when the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous over his wife, and shall set the woman before the Lord, the priest shall execute upon her all this law, then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity. So let's go into that picture. Turn with me to Matthew, gospel of Matthew, verse uh chapter twenty-six Matthew twenty-six. And I'll start at verse thirty-six. And he began to be sorrowful and very heavy. And then he said unto them, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death. Stay here and watch with me. And he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed, saying, O my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. And he came to his disciples and find them asleep. And he said unto Peter, What, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray. That you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. He went away a second time and prayed, saying, O my father, if this cup may not pass away from me except I drink it, thy will be done. And he came and he found them asleep, for their eyes were heavy. And he left them, went away, and he prayed a third time, saying the same words. So Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane, and he's praying, saying, Let this cup pass from you. Well, what cup is he talking about? Well, we know from the book of Revelation that uh there's a cup of wrath going to be poured out on the world because of their unbelief, but this is something different. Now let's go to our passage in Colossians, Colossians chapter 2. That is just by way of introduction and background. Colossians chapter 2. Remember what Paul had been writing to the church, letting them know that in Christ is everything you need is hidden, all the wisdom and knowledge, all of that. You have you are complete in him. You have everything you need to live the life he's called you to live. And the warnings about don't be led away with enticing words, with the traditions of men, uh, with the rudiments of the world. Don't fall for those things because they will take you away from Christ. And you have everything you need in Christ. And then he brings up in verse 13, chapter 2, verse 13, he brings up what we were. Uh what we were is in you, being dead in your sins and uncircumcision of your flesh. In other words, remember, uh, after we believe in Christ, we've been circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. He separated us from our flesh. We don't have to serve our flesh anymore, our sin nature. He says, but you were dead in your sins and uncircumcision of your flesh, but now, or he hath quickened together with him. He's taken you and placed you in Christ and forgiven all trespasses. He's forgiven you all trespasses. Not some, not all. Well, how did he do that? Next verse, verse 14. Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that were were against us. The law. When we think of the law, could we ever obey it perfectly? No. We cannot uh love God with all our heart, mind, and soul. In other words, there is one God and worship him and him only, perfectly, forever, each and every day. No, we fail. Uh never bear false witness. Not even the little little lies that we do, not even those. Bearing false witness. How are you doing today? Oh, I'm fine. How many times have we said that when we're not fine? All the time. We don't even think of it. That's just our normal reaction sometimes. All the Jesus said, if you look after a woman to lust, you've committed adultery in your heart already. Those are the ordinances that are written out against us. Now you could you imagine the condemnation if all of the accusations, because God knows everything, He's no, He knows everything you've thought, He knows everything you ever did, and you can imagine if He wrote out every single sin and blotted that out and put it in a cup and handed it to you. And if you drink that, you receive the condemnation, the curse. See, we have to move from that condemnation because our our husband, our bridegroom, took the cup from us and drank it himself. That's the cup he's talking about in Gethsemane. That is the sins of the world and the wrath being poured out on him. See, we have to move from that idea of that condition of our condemnation to the position of being in Christ. You see, he did everything, he took the wrath of God, he's forgiven all of your sins, he's blotted out everything that you did wrong, everything that you thought of, everything that you said. He blotted that out, and he gave it to Christ, and Christ took it, because that was the only way that we could be forgiven, and he took it upon himself. He took the curse upon himself. He blotted out the ordinances that were against us, which are contrary to us. He took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. He died for our sins so that we can be forgiven. Verse 15 says, Having spoiled the principalities and powers and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Remember, he didn't he didn't stay dead, he rose from the grave on the third day. So let no man judge you in meat or drink or respective holy days or new moons or Sabbath days. There's gonna be three areas here that Paul tries to talk to the church and convince them to show them what not to do. Just like the enticing words in the traditions of men and the rudiments of the world. Now he's gonna say, so don't let anyone judge you in these meat and drink offerings or what you eat, what you drink, respect of holy days and new moons or Sabbath days. Don't let someone judge you in those because, verse 17, which are a shadow of things to come. But the body is of Christ. So don't let someone start to tell you, well, you know, you don't worship on the right day. You you should worship on this day, not that day. Well, I'm glad it's Mother's Day. It works out perfectly. Because on Mother's Day, what do we do? Uh we usually maybe call our mom, say we love you, mom, maybe get her flowers, uh, maybe take her out to eat and do this. What if you did that two weeks ago? Would someone say, well, that was that was foolish. You did it on the wrong day. Well, why would you tell your mom you love her on that day? It's not Mother's Day. Why would you bring her flowers when it's not Mother's Day? Why would you take her out to eat if it's not Mother's Day? Because I love my mom. I'm gonna do that every day. Well, what you you shouldn't worship God on this day. You shouldn't work, shouldn't you worship him every day? Shouldn't you rest in what he's done for us every day? He says, don't let no one judge you on those things. Don't don't let someone think that, hey, you're worshiping God and it's just you're not doing it right. They're a shadow. You see, they're they're missing the point. Do you remember um David when he was hungry? He goes, and him and his men are starving. They go in and they eat the showbread. Well, that was unlawful. But what was the principle? Hey, his life and the life of his followers are more important than this. There's a principle there, it was a shadow of things to come, not to follow by the letter. Remember when Jesus would heal someone on the Sabbath, and what the Pharisees what are you healing on the Sabbath for? That's work. You're supposed to rest. He goes, If you had a sheep that fell into a pit, wouldn't you take the sheep out? How more important is someone than a sheep? You know, they were missing the point. Those things were pointing to Jesus. We could go on and you could do a whole study through the Old Testament of all the old uh what we would call rituals or sacrificial systems and how they point to Christ. Verse 18 says, Let no man beguile or deceive or trick you out of your reward in voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he had seen not, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. See, there were some that were accusing the church of, oh, you guys are so arrogant, you think you can have a relationship with God the Father? You think you can do that? No, you can't do that. You need to be more humble like us, and we don't worship God, we would never dare do that. Uh so we do the next best, we worship angels. And they were acting like they were so uh uh humble, and yet they weren't. They were puffed up by their fleshly minds. And what they're really saying is Christ's sacrifice is not sufficient, it was not good enough for you to have a relationship with God. So don't even think of it. Don't even think that you can pray to God or worship God. You you have to go and worship angels. Taking away from Christ's sufficiency. And Paul reminds him that because of what Christ did on the cross, because he's blotted out all the laws and ordinances that were against you, because he took the wrath upon himself, because he's placed you in Christ, don't let no one judge you and how you worship God, don't let anyone deceive you and trick you out of your reward by following, by not realizing what Christ has done by worshiping angels or anything like that. You can worship God, you can follow after him, God can use you. His death was sufficient. Verse 19 says, and not holding the head. Now, this is also referenced back in verse 10 of chapter 2. He says, You're complete in him who is the head. Now, we get that picture, right? Christ is the head, the church is the body of Christ. When the head tells my body what to do and it does it, it works fine. If my body starts moving, contrary to what my head is telling it to do, we would call that convulsions, right? And if my b my head is telling my arm to do something and it won't do it, we call that paralysis. Sometimes I wonder is that the church today? Moving contrary to what the head is telling it, or not moving at all when the head is telling it. He is the head. He is over all. And these people were not holding to the head. He says, not holding, not submitting yourself to Christ, from which all the body, by joints and bands having nourishment, ministered, and knit together, increase with the increase of God. See, when the body functions properly, responding to the head properly, it's nourished, it grows, it increases. Wherefore, in verse 20, if you are dead with Christ, so you've been placed in Him, so you've died, you're free from the rudiments of the world. Why, as though living in the world, you're subject to its ordinance. Touch not, taste not, handle not. So he's asking the question: if you're dead to the things of the world, why would you submit yourself to those laws? Don't touch that. You want to be spiritual. Well, here we've got the list of rules of what to do and not to do, how to dress or how not to dress, when to worship and when not to worship, all of these things. He says, which all are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men. Why would you follow the doctrines of men? Why would you not follow after Christ? You're dead to those things. He goes on to say, which have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship and humility and neglecting of the body, not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh. They may look good on the outside. You know, the Pharisees did during the time of Jesus. The disciples uh were amazed when Jesus offended them. Don't you know you offended the Pharisees, the the holy rollers, uh how you know the the more righteous than anyone? And yet Jesus would say, Your righteousness has to surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees? They may look good, but they may not. So, how does this work between uh our liberty in Christ, following after him, and not falling into a legalism or uh or licentiousness or anything like that? How do you judge when I do or when I don't? Well, I'll give you some examples. Uh turn with me to the book of Acts. Now talking about Paul and Timothy here, but when he came to Derby and Lystra, and behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a certain woman which was a Jewish, but and believed, but his father was a Greek, which was well reported by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. Him would Paul have to go forth with him and took and circumcised him, because the Jews which were in those quarters, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decree for to keep, and the and were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem. And so the churches established in the faith and increased in number daily. So when it came to Paul and Timothy, when they were trying to reach the Jewish people and stuff, they said, Timothy, it's going to work a lot better. We're going to be able to reach these people better if you just go ahead and get circumcised, because they know who you are, they know your father is a Greek, and so on and so forth. And so he did. Now let's compare that to Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2. I'll go through the first five verses there also. Galatians chapter 2. Then 14 years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, I took Titus with me also, and went up by revelation, and communicated unto them the gospel, which I preached among the Gentiles, but privately to them that were of reputation, lest by any means I should have run or had run in vain. But neither Titus, who was with me being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privately to spy out our liberty, which we have in Jesus Christ, that they may bring us into bondage, to whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. So you see very much a contrast there. Timothy, yeah, go ahead, get circumcised. Titus, no way, not having it. Why is that? Well, with Timothy, it was, well, let's, we're gonna have to, we're gonna want to reach out to these Jews, and that's gonna benefit. So we you have the liberty, you have the freedom to do that, to reach out to those people. But when the people say, oh no, if you want to, if you want salvation, if you want to follow God, then you have to do these rules, they say, No, we're not doing it. We're not having anything to do with that. Why? Because it would just confirm, it would, we would be putting ourselves into bondage, we would be confirming what you're teaching that to be saved you have to go through a ritual. You see the difference. You see the difference. Again, we'll be back in Galatians here, so you might want to keep your finger there, but uh, I want to hit 1 Corinthians chapter 9. 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 19. Paul writing to the church there says, For through for though I be free from all men, yet I've made myself a servant unto all, that I may gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews, to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them under the law. To them with that are without the law, as without the law, being not without the law to God, but under the law to Christ. In other words, Paul says, you know, I'm without the law to the Gentiles, I don't follow the Jewish law under the Gentiles, but I still follow the law of Christ. In other words, I'm not going out there and sinning with them or anything like that. He says, To the weak I became as weak that I might gain the weak. I made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. So he says, when it comes to evangelism, when it comes to reaching the people, I don't mind. I have the liberty to do certain things or not to do certain things so that I can reach them. To me, the example would be like if you're uh at work or you have a neighbor, and let's say they're they're Muslim and you want to reach them. You want to get them to the gospel, you want to see them get saved. And so uh you invite them over, you probably wouldn't invite them over uh for eggs and bacon, right? Probably wouldn't go over too well. So you've got the liberty to say, no bacon today. And maybe you can get a chance to share the gospel with them. But let's say you're at work and you're at the break room and you're having ham sandwich, and they try to say, you shouldn't be eating that. That's offensive to God. No, I have the freedom to eat whatever I want. You don't let them put you under bondage. Do you see the difference? When you want to reach someone, you can set things aside. You have the freedom and the liberty to do so. To reach them. But don't let someone come up to you and say, Well, if you are really a Christian, you should do this. You should eat that, you should, you should dress this way, you should drive this kind of whatever it is. No, he died for my sins. I'm complete in him. I am, I don't need to do anything to gain his righteousness. He freely has given it to me because of his death on the cross. Everything he says, I'm not living under that condemnation, I'm not holding that cup of all my wrongs and rights. I don't have to do anything to fix it. He took it from me. He put it upon himself. He did it all. Let's go back to Galatians chapter two. I'll pick it up at verse eleven. But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles. But when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them were of the circumcision. And the other Jews disassembled likewise with him, insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. So Peter is there with the Gentiles, and they're having a picnic, they're having BLTs. Everything's just fine. And then the Jews come, I go, ooh, I'm not eating that. Not hanging around you guys. I'm gonna go over to buy them, have roast beef or whatever. Paul came withstood him. He says, How dare you cause division? How dare you act like they're not saved or they're not as good as anyone else. Verse 14 says, When I saw that they walk not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter, before them all, if you, being a Jew, live after the manner of Gentiles and not do as the Jews, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as the Jews? We who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentile, knowing a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. So there's a difference. When you want to reach someone, you can do certain things and not do certain things so you don't offend them or drive them away, so you have a chance to reach them. But let no one tell you, well, you need to do this to be righteous. You need to do this to live the Christian life. No, we are complete in Him. He's given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings. We move from that place of condemnation to a place, to a position in Christ where we have everything. And all the world wants to do is say, Oh no, you need to do this, you should do that.

unknown 33:18

No.

Speaker 1 33:19

He's done it all. We simply follow after him. We respond to our head. We are the body of Christ. He is our head, and we follow after him. Let's pray. Father, thank you for all that you've given each and every one of us that have believed in you, trusted in what your son did for each and every one of us. By taking our sin upon himself and the curse. Thank you that you've placed us in him, that we are dead with him, we are risen with him, and that we can walk with you. So, Father, I do ask that each and every day we would be relying on you and serving you. Thank you again for the opportunity to be here in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you be willing to stand with us?