I already thought that's what
that was. Could we keep it short, stupid? You know, all joking aside, what Marvin said
is so serious. You know, if we actually really
knew this was the last time we would hear the gospel, it would
take on, really it would be serious. The seriousness of it is we do
not know. We do not know. But God knows. I believe God has gathered us
here this morning and this weekend. I believe that. And I pray that
God has given me a message for you. Sometimes, you know, as
preachers we struggle and thoughts come to our mind and we want
to Now, how are we going to get these things across? Only God
can do that. Only God can enable you to see
and only God can enable you to hear. And I pray he gives you
the ears to hear and a heart to believe. And if you do, you'll be a blessed
person. Turn with me in your Bible to the book of Numbers,
chapter 16. And if you have a Bible, I pray that
you'll I'm going to try to look at the whole chapter. I'm going
to try to read it. I mainly want to be looking at
verses 41 through 50, but I think you need to understand or see
something about the context of what was going on here in this
chapter. These 50 verses are not just
placed here to fill up space. These things were written for
our learning and for our admonition. So as we read these verses together,
and as we begin reading them, some of you, the story may become
familiar, and if not others, I pray that God would enable
you to see. It says in verse 1 of number
16, Now Korah the son of Ishar, the son of Koash, the son of
Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, and the sons of Elab, and on
the son of Pelah, son of Reuben, took men. And they rose up before
Moses, who was God's servant, God's messenger, and certain
of the children of Israel, 250 princesses of the assembly, famous
in the congregation, men of renown. Now, these would have been people
in the nation of Israel that they were looked up to. These
were men of renown. These were men of respect. These
are the men that rose up against Moses. With these other men,
there was these Korah, Dathom and Abiram and the main ringleaders,
but these other people followed them. Verse 3, And they gathered
themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And they said
unto them, You take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation
are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Wherefore,
then, lift you up yourselves above the congregation of the
Lord. When Moses heard it, He fell upon his face. He saw what
these people were doing. He knew that they were not just
rebelling against Moses. These people were standing up
against God. This is what's going on here.
I want you to understand this. Moses knew the seriousness of
it. He saw what they were doing. And he spake unto Korah and to
all his company saying, even tomorrow the Lord will show who
are his and who is holy, and will cause him to come near unto
him, even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto
him." Now, he makes that pretty plain, doesn't he? He said, tomorrow,
God's going to show everybody whom he hath chosen and whom
he hath caused to draw near to him. God's going to show everybody. This is what's going to happen
tomorrow. This do take you some censers. What I understand a
censer was a pot it could be made out of brass or it could
be made out of gold and they would take it and what they would
do they would take live coals. These are not coals that are
just about burned out. These are live red hot coals
from off that altar and they would put it in that censer.
And then they would take that precious incense and sprinkle
it on those hot coals. And you know what happens when
you sprinkle something, if it was liquid or whatever it was
on those hot coals, man, that smoke would go up. And Moses
says, you take your censers, Korah and all his company, and
you put fire therein and put incense in them before the Lord
tomorrow. And it shall be that the man
whom the Lord doth choose, he shall be holy. And he said, You
take too much upon yourselves, you sons of Levi. And Moses said
to Korah, Here I pray you, you sons of Levi. Seemeth it but
a small thing unto you that the God of Israel hath separated
you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to
himself, to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and
to stand before the congregation, to minister unto them. God set
apart the tribe of Levi to minister before him, and he hath brought
thee near to him, and all thy brethren, the sons of Levi, with
thee. And he said, and seek ye the
priesthood also, for which cause both thou and all thy company
are gathered together." He said, why are they gathered together?
They want the priesthood, the high priesthood. And what this is a picture of,
so you understand what's going on here, They are rebelling against
God's priest. God only had one high priest
at a time, and he could only continue until his death, and
then God would choose another high priest, and it was the one
that God chose. He didn't choose himself. God
chose him, set him apart, and this is a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ, God's high priest. And what they are doing here
is they are rebelling against God's priest. That's what they're
doing. He says, for which cause both you and all thy company
are gathered together. We've mentioned a couple of times
this weekend, God gathers his people. These people, they're
gathered together for one reason. They're gathered against the
Lord. And what is Aaron? What's this? That you murmur
against him. You've seen people just kind
of murmur a little bit. Who's he think he is? Aaron,
he's no better than anybody else. He's God's priest. Then you read,
touch not mine anointed. Now, in religion, people say,
oh, you better not speak against that preacher. He's nothing.
But he's God's preacher. Well, he's talking about touch
not mine anointed. The anointed is Christ. He's
the prophet. And let me tell you a little
secret this morning. The Lord Jesus Christ is the apple of
God's eye. Would you stand by and watch
somebody touch the apple of your eye? Not in a heartbeat. This is what's going on here. Everything in this book, everything
in this book points to the apple of God's eye. That's it. And when you speak against him,
and murmur against him and rebel against him, but I want you to
see God doesn't take it lightly. This message is about him. In
verse 12, And Moses sent to call Dathan, Abiram, the sons of Elab,
which said, We will not come up. Is it a small thing that
thou hast brought us up by the land that floweth with milk and
honey to kill us in the wilderness? Do you see what they're talking
about? They're calling Egypt the land that flowed with milk
and honey. Now, come on now. Anybody of any sense knows better
than that, but that's what they're saying. You brought us up from
a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us here in the
wilderness. Except thou makest thyself altogether
a prince over us. Moreover, thou hast not brought
us into the land that floweth with milk and honey, or given
us an inheritance of field and vineyards, and wilt thou put
out the eyes of these men We will not come up." Moses was
very wroth and said unto the Lord, Respect not thou their
offering. I have not taken one ask from
them, neither have I hurt one of them. Moses said to Korah,
Be thou in all thy company before the Lord, thou and they and Aaron
tomorrow, and take every man, here it is again, his censer,
and put incense in them, and bring ye before the Lord every
man his censer, 250 censers thou also and Aaron and each one with
his censer. He said you bring your censers.
You know what he's saying? You know he's challenging them.
Allowed to challenge them false prophets. He said go pray to
your God. Moses said if you want he said
if you won't come what this what this censer in this instance
is a picture of The true incense and the censer is the merits
and the blood and the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he's saying, you bring your censers? Okay, if you think you want to
stand before God, okay, you bring your censer. You bring your merits,
you bring your presumed righteousness, and you come stand before God,
and God's going to decide this matter. And this is the issue this morning.
Men want to bring their censers. They want to bring their incense,
and they want to offer it unto God, and they think that God
will accept it. As I was reading this, you know,
you see them idiots. That guy wears that fish cap
on his head and claims to be holy, and he walks around, he
swings something. You know what he's swinging?
That's incense. That's what he's doing. You know
when they said they used to do that? They said it was when the
king was going to ride down through the town, You know, the king,
everybody would be in procession just waving at the king. This
was before hygiene. They'd wave this incense to kill
the smell. It'd give off this aroma. What
do you think your merits give off? He says your righteousness is
filthy rags. Look that up what that is. That's
pretty plain, isn't it? And you want to wave that? before
God and expect God to accept that. That's what's going on
here. This is the world in which we
live. Men think that they are accepted based on something they've
done or thought or felt or hope to do. God has one priest. He has one
censer and one incense, and that's the only one he. Do you see the picture? I want
you to see this. Verse 17, And they can take every
man his censer, and put incense in them, and bring you before
the Lord, every man his censer, two hundred and fifty censers,
thou also, and Aaron, each of you his censer. So you see, there's
two hundred and fifty of these people. They're going to stand
before him with their censers. And they took every man he censured,
put fire in him, and laid incense thereon, and they stood in the
door of the tabernacle of the congregation with Moses and Aaron."
That whole tabernacle, every bit of it, this was before there
was a temple. All that tabernacle depicts Christ. The door, the
brazen altar, the laver, the table of showbread, the altar
of incense, the mercy seat. It's all Christ. And they're
standing before this tabernacle. You can imagine these people
standing before God Almighty. That's what they're doing here. Standing before God. Arrogant. Isn't it? This pictures us. Proud. It says in Matthew 7,
it talks about people after they die. You don't change after you
die. When people die lost and the
tree falls, that's how it's going to lie. They stand before God
and they're going to say, we've prophesied in your name. done
all these many wonderful works, they're dead, they're thinking
still the same. They're thinking that God's going to receive their
incense based on what they've done. Isn't that it? And that's
what's going on here. Verse 19, And Korah gathered
all the congregation against him into the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation. And what's this? And the glory
of the Lord appeared into all the congregation in that tabernacle. In the holies of holies is where
God came down and dwelt in a cloud, and it was called the Shekinah
glory of God. And it says the glory of God,
and where the glory is, that's where God's presence is. And
where the glory is, that's Christ. But it's like we beheld his glory. Now you'll see this. These people
are seeing his glory. These people saw Christ. They
never saw Christ. These people saw him and never
saw his glory. These people are standing here seeing this and
they don't see anything. And the Lord is speaking to Moses
and to Aaron saying, now watch this, separate yourselves from
among this congregation. What does our Lord say? Come
out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord. That's
what he says. I hear people say, well, I love
Christ and I love the gospel, but they go sit and listen where
a man lies on God. He don't believe the gospel.
No, he doesn't. No, he doesn't. He said, you
separate yourself. He said that in the book of Revelation.
Come out of her, my people. This world. They're looking to their merits
and their righteousness and they think that every one of them,
it doesn't matter if it's Catholic or whatever brand you want to
put on it, that's what they're trusting in. And they expect
God to accept it. He don't accept it. And he says
here, get away from these people. Why? God is getting ready to
do something. That's what I want you to say,
God is getting ready to do something. Gabe said we hear what's going
on in this world and it's scary, but let me tell you something.
God is getting ready to do something. God has a people. He's going
to save every one of them. When he saved them, we're done
with this mess. That's it. God's going to get ready. He's
getting ready to do something out here in these verses. You should separate yourself
from among this congregation that I may consume them in a
moment. And they fell upon Moses and
Aaron, interceding before God. They fell upon their faces and
said, O God, the God of the saints of all flesh, shall one man sin,
and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation? Yes, he did.
Wherefore, one man's sin entered into the world, and death by
sin. So death passed upon all men. speaking to the congregation.
He noticed what? He's speaking to Moses. He ain't
speaking to the people. He's speaking to Moses, and Moses
is going to tell the people what God said. The Lord's speaking
to Moses, saying, speaking to the congregation, saying, Get
you up from about the tabernacle quarter, Dathron and Abiram. Moses rose up and went to Dathron,
Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. He's speaking to
the congregation, saying, Depart, I pray thee, from the tents of
these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed
in their sin. So they get up from the tabernacle,
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram on every side. And Dathan and Abiram
came out and stood in the doors of their tents in defiance, and
their wives, and their sons, and their little ones." Does that not bother you to read
that? You are an influence on your
children. For good or bad. And I've seen
pictures of this tabernacle, and there'd be people standing
outside their tents, and here they are standing. A man with
his wife standing beside him, and here stands his children. And Moses said, verse 28, Hereby
you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works. for I have not done them of my
own mind." I didn't come up with this. This ain't what I decided. I'm just the man delivering the
mail. Now listen, do you see what's going on? Do you get the
picture? Moses saying, if these men die, the common death of
all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men,
then the Lord hath not sent me. God is going to let everybody
know whom he chose. That's right. Moses knows who
God is, he knows who the high priest is, and he knows it ain't
these bunch of clowns. Moses is serious here. God's
serious. Listen. Look in verse 30. But if the Lord make a new thing
and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, with all
that appertaining to them, and they go down quick into the pit,
then you shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord. And it came to pass, as he made
an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave
asunder that was under them, and the earth opened her mouth
and swallowed them up, Their houses and all the men that appertained,
and the core and all their goods, they and all that appertained
to them went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed
upon them, and they perished from among the congregation."
To me, that's sobering to read that. Isn't it? God did a new thing. Somebody
said, like, the earth couldn't stand their weight. And the earth
literally opened up and Barnard said they went to hell without
packing a suitcase. Didn't it? And it didn't just
open on them. It closed back on them. You said
did God do that? God did it. Like I said the other
day, God's a consuming fire. Do you think, do you think You
think I think we can stand before God in our own little censor. You you you provoke God. Listen
to me. God is a gracious God. God is
a merciful God. But God said in Proverbs chapter
one, he said, I've called and you refused. He said, one day
you'll call and I'll laugh at your claim. You know what it
says? Isn't that the same God? Can you imagine seeing this?
Can you imagine being Cora's neighbor? Can you imagine standing
over there going, oh my goodness. What in the world just happened? I've never heard of anything
like this before. This is a new thing. What I think
God's doing here is setting an example. Don't you think he makes
some examples out of people? But what I want us to see, this
is all of us. This is who we are by nature.
We don't want God being God. We still, even when we're regenerated
and saved by God's grace, we still feel like there's a little
bit of good in us, don't we? When you say, and what's the
first thing you do? You say, well, you've got to fix it. Don't you? Verse 34 says, in all Israel,
that were round about them pled at the cry of them for they said
lest the earth swallow up us also." Man, this, this, this scares
me to death. This scares me. It's a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Isn't it?
We're going to get to the grace in a little bit. Listen to me. It's a miracle
that as I stand and we sit here this morning, that God don't
open the earth and send us to hell or life. Isn't it? Not one of us are exempt. And
they fled. Man, it could happen to us. It could happen to us. It talks
about people that are unbelievers. It says they have no fear of
God before their eyes. Everybody wants to talk about
that one message. I don't know how many Jonathan Edwards preached,
but boy, that one message everybody still talks about. Sinners in
the hands of an angry God. I've heard a lot of people say,
but they said when he just read that sermon, just read it. They
said when he read it to his congregation, they went to sleep on him. They
said he went somewhere to preach and asked him, said, Mr. Edwards,
would you preach? And they said he went. over to his horse and
reached in the saddlebag and pulled out the same message.
And here's a different effect this time. They said people were
hanging on the pews, screaming, saying, is there no mercy with
God? He said, it's like you're on
a spider web above the pit of hell, and God ain't obligated
at one second to keep you out of hell. And that's a fact, isn't
it? Now, I don't understand all this. It's not real clear, and I couldn't
get a lot of help from anybody else, but I think it was Dathan
and Abiram. They were the ones that went
to hell alive, but look in verse 30. What about them other 250?
And there came out a fire from the Lord and consumed the 250
that offered their incense. As they stand before God, that
fire of God came out. Fire in Scripture always represents
God's wrath. You've seen fire consume wood.
That's what this time it consumed them. What's going to stop it? Did they actually thought their
incense is going to stop this? That's what they thought. Or
they wouldn't have been standing there. And Lord's begging to Moses saying,
speak it to Eliezer, who was Aaron's son, the son of Aaron,
the priest, that he take up the sensor out of the burning, their
sensors were left. Scatter thou the fire yonder,
for they are hollowed. The censers and those centers
against their own souls, take these censers and let them make
them broad plates for a covering for the altar, for they offered
them before the Lord. Therefore they are hollowed,
and they shall be a sign unto the children of Israel. And Eliezer
the priest took the brazen censers, where they had burnt their offerings
And they made broad place for a covering of the altar. Why? To be a memorial unto the children
of Israel. You see what they did? You see,
when our men died, and here lay their censers, and he just said,
you go get them censers. You mail them down and make a
covering for that altar as a memorial so people will remember. Said,
what's that for? God killed 250 men. You say you want to remember
that it's a memorial of what somebody did and somebody did this as
a memorial. What's down in front of this table? That's a memorial.
This is due in remembrance of me. He doesn't want you to forget.
And God did this as a memorial so you wouldn't forget. Take
heed, brethren, lest there be in you an evil heart of unbelief
in departing from the living God. You know what he's saying? So you get the picture. To be a memorial to the children
of Israel that no stranger, which is not of the seed of Aaron.
Come near to offer incense before the Lord and he be not as core
and as of his company as the Lord said unto him by the hand
of Moses. And he's not through. Can you imagine being the rest
of the children of Israel? We don't know how many they were.
That's probably millions of them. They've done seen what God's
done, done witnessed it. You wouldn't have thought anybody
would have said a word, no, would you? You would have thought everybody
would have just tied a rag around their mouth so they wouldn't
say nothing. Verse 41, but on the morrow, all the congregation
of the children of Israel murmured against Moses. Man, that just shows how wicked
we are. It doesn't matter how much judgment you've seen, that's
not going to change your heart. The goodness of God leads a man
to repentance. It talks about in the Revelation, it talks about
God sending hell, whether that's literal hell, I don't know, down
upon men. And it says they blasphemed God for the hell. The rich man
wound up in hell and he said, send Lazarus back from the dead
that he can testify to my five brothers that they don't come
to this place. He said if somebody was risen from the dead, You
know, people say, oh, they believe. No, they wouldn't. They have
Moses and the prophets. Unless God's grace does something
to your heart, this is us right here. We're going to still murmur
against God. Now, this is not just part of
them, this is all of them. All the congregation murmured
against Moses and against Aaron saying, you've killed the people
of the Lord. It's your fault. They didn't
kill him. God killed him. Ever since the garden, man wants
to blame somebody. Isn't that it? People say, well,
God didn't have anything to do with that. Let me tell you, if
it happens, God had everything to do with it. Tim James said
one time, he said, you want to know what God's will is? Just
read the paper. That's it. Read on. So here's the rest of
my murmuring. It came to pass, verse 42. When the congregation were gathered
against Moses, against Aaron, that they looked toward the tabernacle
of the congregation and behold, the cloud covered it and the
glory of the Lord appeared. And Moses and Aaron came before
the tabernacle of the congregation and the Lord said unto Moses
saying, get you up from among this congregation that I may
consume them in a moment." And they fell on their faces.
This ain't the first time Moses begs for these people. Begs them. You better be thankful. Somebody
pray for you. God said, you just get out of
the way, Moses. He said, and I will consume them in a moment. Don't you see what Moses tells
Aaron to do? And Moses said to Aaron, take
a censer and put fire therein from off the altar and put incense
and go quickly into the congregation and make an atonement for them
for there is wrath gone out from the Lord. The plague is begun. And Aaron took that great high
priest, as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation.
And behold, the plague was begun among the people. And he put
on incense and made an atonement for the people." So you see what's
going on. And Aaron ran down and stood between the dead and
the living. And the plague was staying. Now they that had died in the
plague were 14,700 men, besides them that died of the matter
of Korah. And Aaron returned to the tabernacle and to the
door of the tabernacle, the congregation, and the plague was stayed. So do you see the picture? Moses is standing here. And he
sees God's wrath begin to break out on that congregation. And
he tells Aaron, he said, you go get a censer, the censer. And you go to that altar where
that sacrifice has been made. And you take live coals from
off that altar. And you get incense and put on
that, on that censer, on them coals. And you run in, you go
to those people. And before Aaron can get there,
there's 14,000. I picture them just falling over
like stonewood, like dry stubble. But what their censure couldn't
do and what their censure wouldn't do, Aaron's censure did. He stood between the dead and
the living and the plague What's going to protect you?
What's going to protect me? I need a high priest. I need
someone that will stand between the dead and the living and stop
the wrath of God Almighty from consuming everyone. If it was not for God having
a very small remnant, we'd all be like Sodom and Gomorrah. Everybody
knows what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah. God consumed that
place. So Aaron here, a picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Why would Aaron run down to where
those people was at? I'll tell you. If you've done,
say it. He loved them. They didn't love
Aaron. They wanted his head. They wanted
his office. They wanted his robe. They wanted
his miter. They wanted to... We don't want
him reigning over us. We will not have this man. But
Aaron ran down there. He loved him. When we were enemies,
he gave his life for us. He ran into the mist. You know,
Aaron's Well, I can understand he's probably over 100 years
old. Can't you see this man? Waving that censure. Because if I don't, they're going
to all perish. God will consume them all. This is the sinner's only hope. Most, I mean, Moses could pray
for him, but Moses, the picture of the law, the law can't save
you. And our Lord, as obedient unto that law, he said, this
is what you do, and that's what he did. And I never read that
Aaron never opened his mouth. He didn't go down there empty
handed, he didn't go down there with pleas. Well, God, you know,
they didn't really mean it. Now, you love them all. He went
down there, you know what he was bringing? That incense represented
the perfect righteousness, his merits, his obedience. That's
what he took. Or God would have killed Aaron.
Isn't that right? Aaron's two sons tried to offer
a strange fire before God and he killed them. I can tell you, if I'd have lived
in the Old Testament, if I'd been there, or if you've ever
been chosen as a man to be a high priest, would it not scare you
to go in there? You'd be terrified. That's the sight. God is a God
of justice, isn't He? Like I said, the world's never
heard that. They say, well, God loves everybody.
He won't send anybody to help. We just read today, He will. that Aaron was God's ordained
high priest. He was chosen to this. It says
in Hebrews 5, no man take up this honor upon himself, but
Christ is a priest forever after the Lord, not through the Leviticals
tribe. He's from the tribe of Judah, from the Chisadach, without
father or mother, without beginning of life or end of days. Listen, but so much was Jesus
made a surety of the Better Testament. And they truly were many priests
because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death.
But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. And because of that, he is able
also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for you. What's that? That's
his intercession. Do you think about God praying
for you? And when he told Peter, he said,
Peter, Satan has desired you, that he may sift you like wheat,
and I'm going to let him. But Peter, I pray for you, that your faith don't fail. Somebody prayed for you. That's
my child. Aaron is a picture of our mediator. There was only one man that day
that could save Israel. And that's Aaron. And there's only one mediator
between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. And Gabe said,
I wish I could hold that too. That God became a man. That he was weary with his journey.
That he had nowhere to lay his head. Why? To save his people. He ran down there in their midst. That's what he did. Leviticus 16 talks about this
when the priest would go in to make an atonement one day a year. He said, he shall take a censer
full of burning coals to fire from off the altar before the
Lord with his hands full of sweet incense, beaten small. This is just how I think about
this, how they got that incense. It says it was beaten small.
I think it was ground down so small that they just ground the
juice right out of it. And God said, you make it exactly
the way I tell you to make this incense. And he spread with a
handful of incense, beat it small and bring it within the veil.
And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord
and the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that
is upon the testimony that he died. Now anyway, he didn't die. He says, man, what a Have you ever smelled a real
rose? Everybody compares every other
flower to a rose, isn't that right? He's the rose of Sharon. He goes, man, that smell. And
I accept that incense. And that's the only reason you
don't die, is because of that incense. As Aaron went down there to our
mediator, our high priest, here's what the atonement was saying,
that sweet incense, you must march over me in my atonement
to get to my people. Isn't that it? I can see the
plague coming. I can see Aaron run down and
get right at the edge of the people, right between death and
living, and death stops at his feet. It couldn't touch him. Let me
ask you a question. What will you plead to turn away
the wrath of God? Like Marvin said, we're all guilty.
We think we can look back somewhere and find a time or a feeling. I pray I'm believing in Him right
now. If I've never loved thee, Lord, let me love today. If I've
never believed, if I've never cried out, God enable me to cry
today. I tell you, it's Christ or judgment. It's Christ or hell. If you try
to bring your own righteousness and merits before God, we will
all perish just like Corey. We'll all be the same. He's my
only hope. Aaron was the only Savior, and
he was an unaided Savior. When our Lord went into the garden,
he went alone. He tread the winepress alone.
He was in the hall of justice alone. When he was on the cross,
he was alone. And he saves his people. He's
not trying to save his people. He saved them. I can guarantee if I'd been in
Israel that day, I said, thank goodness for a savior. What a
savior. Hallelujah, what praise his name. I've seen little children standing
beside a little daddy. Why aren't we still alive? Because
they're stood in our midst. It was just like the children
of Israel when they were in Egypt on the Passover. That blood was
sprinkled on that door and judgment could not cross it. Aaron was the great divider between
the dead and the living. Behind him was death. Behind him, living. Those behind him, equally sinful. But between the dead and the
living stood the atonement." Wave in that sense. He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. This is all that separates the
dead and the living. When you are filled with doubts
and we often are. I tell you, I love that song. Because that is me. Tis a point
I long to know. Often it brings me anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I His or am I not? If I love, why am I thus? Why
this dull and lifeless frame? Hardly sure can there be worse
who have never heard His name. I need and you need. someone
to stand in the gap for me. He said, I saw a man among them
and didn't find the one because there's not but one. And that's
Christ. I plead my righteousness. I have
none. You know what I have to plead? His blood. His righteousness. His merits. That's the sweet incense. Amen.