May it please God to bless us
together this evening as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
book of Numbers, chapter six, and we'll read verses 24 to 26. The book of Numbers, chapter
six, reading verses 24 to 26. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. The Lord make his face shine
upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee and give thee peace. These words are very wonderful
words and we note that the Lord spoke to Moses and telling him
to speak unto Aaron and unto his sons saying on this wise
ye shall bless the children of Israel saying unto them. So that's the reason why sometimes
this is referred to as the Aaronic blessing. Well it is a very wonderful
statement and we can really consider it as the Old Testament benediction. We know what the benediction
is in the New Testament. And here we have this statement
of these three situations where the Lord is referred to on three
occasions. And I do not know Hebrew myself,
but I understand that each name here of the Lord, of course,
is Jehovah, but it has slightly different accents on it. So therefore
it refers to three, if you like, separate persons and yet one
person. And so we can think that here
we have a wonderful evidence of the Trinity in the Old Testament. Many people, you see, are ignorant
of such truths and many people do not like to confess the Trinity
at all. But how wonderful it is if God
gives you and me faith to believe that it is so. And so here in
this account, and these few verses really stand out, don't they,
by themselves. The previous part of the chapter
refers to the situation of separation with the Nazarite. And here we
have these very clear and very important statements that Moses
was told to speak to Aaron and his sons, that they might be
able to bless the children of Israel. And so, no doubt, this
blessing was used on multitudes of occasions as the priests and
errant held up their hands to bless the people. Well, the statement
here really, it falls into the six elements in these three verses. The first one is to bless thee. The second is to keep thee. The
third is to make his face to shine upon thee. The fourth is
to be gracious unto thee. The fifth is to lift up his countenance
upon thee. And the sixth is to give thee
peace. Well, it will surely be an amazing
blessing if all of us enter into these six favours, these six
influences of the Holy Spirit, so that we may understand the
glory of them, and the wonderful truth of them. And so we're told,
the first is, the Lord bless thee. Well, that is really a
very great and a very comprehensive statement, isn't it? And that's
perhaps to bless us in a number of ways, to show to us, first
of all, that God has called us, that God has chosen us, God has
elected us, that God has predestinated us. It's all of his favour and
all of his mercy and such a glorious truth comes within such a statement. The Lord bless thee and that
means the Lord to show you and me that we are amongst those
that I've just referred to, those who are indeed blessed with this
wonderful favour. And also, then we can think of
the election, and then think of those who are adopted into
the Church of Christ, the family of God. What a wonderful blessing
it is to be adopted. Those of us who had, of course,
no real position, and the Lord comes and calls us, and we find
that we're adopted into that great and glorious family of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then to be blessed with that
wonderful favour of being justified. Justified by faith. What a blessing that is. To receive
the gift of faith. To believe the great truths of
scripture. To believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, this wonderful favour of
believing, the wonderful faith to believe, the wonderful blessing
therefore of being justified by that faith. And as we know, of course, that
the New Testament in Romans tells us so very clearly about the
wonderful occasion of Abraham, who was justified by that faith
which he was given. It wasn't something that he possessed
naturally, it was that which God gave him when the Lord told
him to, of course, leave his native country and go out and
leave Ur of the Chaldees and to travel around and eventually
come to Canaan and then to receive that promise that he would be
the father of multitudes which were to be born through him.
And then you see the exercise of that faith a good number of
years before that promise came into effect. And then when Isaac
was born, what a testing time that was to him, when he was
told to go and offer up Isaac, because in Isaac really was wrapped
up his religion. You know, we read the account,
don't we? Perhaps we read it very glibly,
but I think the great test of Abraham's faith, there was the
fulfillment of the promise of God in giving him that son, Isaac. And now he's told to go and offer
him up as a sacrifice. Sometimes we're called in our
life to have things tested in our religion. What a blessing
it is if God gives us like faith that Abraham did. He didn't hesitate. No, he believed God. He believed
that God was able even to raise up Isaac from the dead. Well,
the faith that he possessed, the faith that he was given,
was accounted unto him for righteousness. And you know we need the same
faith today. We need to be blessed with that
believing faith that it might be accounted unto us for righteousness. The Lord bless thee. What a favour
that is, to receive that God-given faith to stand firm under all
temptations, all opposition. That's when faith is truly tested,
when things are not going smoothly, when things are going in what
we might perceive to be an opposite direction. We might think, well,
however, can this be right? Well, be encouraged, read if
you're doubtful about that, read the 11th of Hebrews and see there
the many wonderful examples of those who were given this faith
to believe that that which God had said to them would come to
pass. It was tested, it was tried,
but there was a good outcome. And so it was and it is the blessing
of God. So when we hear this word, the
Lord bless thee, let us realise in some measure what it really
means. It's not just a superficial statement. It's a wonderful thing
because what it means is that through the blessing of God,
we are established in the truth of God. The Lord blesses his people so
that they are established in the great truths. To come to
that place of establishment, you and I perhaps need much of
our so-called religion to be left behind, to be burnt up. We don't want to come down to
the end of our days with that which is just of the flesh. just of the flesh. I was saying
to Frank this morning, Martin Luther, he wrote a few lines,
and one of the lines was this, that feelings are deceitful. We have to be very careful about
feelings, because we can be encouraged by the devil, that we want something
to happen, we want something to occur, and therefore we attribute
some feeling towards it, and believe therefore it emanates
from God. Well, let us not rely on feelings. Let us rely upon
the promises of God. That's what the saints of old
did in the Word of God. That's what Abraham did. He was
relying upon the promises of God. And we shall know that they
will not fail. And so when we hear this word,
the Lord bless thee, that is to be blessed, to have God's
word established in our heart and to realize that the Lord
will indeed go on to preserve us. He will sustain us in the
hour of temptation. We must not think that we will
not come into the hour of temptation. Remember, temptation comes upon
all men and the Lord Jesus Christ was tempted in all points like
as we are yet without sin. Let us not think that we should
avoid temptation. It is the path of the true Christian. And it's a blessing when the
Lord upholds us, so that we are blessed. The Lord bless thee. And that really then leads us
on, doesn't it, to the second point, which says, and keep thee. Well, I wonder if you know what
it is to be kept. I wonder if you young people,
you children, know what it is for God to stand by you and to
keep you. You may say, well what do you
actually mean? What I mean is this. When there
is some temptation put before you and you think that would
be rather nice to be involved in and rather nice to go along
with, yet you are stopped and you're able to say, That did
not I because of the fear of God. Now what that means is this. You were kept from doing something
which would not have been for any spiritual good but may well
have brought you into much difficulty and much opposition in your soul
and you may have much cause to regret some action that you may
have been coerced into by worldly, well-meaning friends, but into
situations which would not profit your soul. Well, if you've known
the help of God, and what is it? It's the keeping power of
God. And it is a wonderful blessing. And the Lord keep thee. We know those well-known words
that Peter said, kept by the power of God. Why do you think
Peter was ordained to write such words? Peter knew very well what
it was to be left to himself for just a mere moment, as it
were, so that he denied the Lord Jesus Christ. And let us not
think that we're a strong character, and let us never think If we
hear of someone doing something wrong and evil, to say, well,
I would never do that. Because, I can tell you, left
to yourselves, left to myself, we will fall into every sin.
Every sin. And therefore, it would be a
wonderful blessing to know what the apostles said, kept by the
power of God. that's why we have such a word
like this, and keep thee. Well may the Lord indeed keep
every one of us in the hour of temptation. Let us not forget
the devil is always there, always trying to tempt us, always trying
to cause us to doubt the word of God. That's his The ploy that
he commenced with in the Garden of Eden, he caused Adam and Eve
to doubt the Word of God. And he still used that ploy very
successfully, especially when there's something that your nature
and my nature goes after. You see, what did Adam and Eve
see? They saw that beautiful fruit.
They saw how attractive it was. And you see, given half a chance,
They disobeyed God and partook of that fruit. You may think,
well that was a terrible thing. So it was. But if you look at
it on face value it was really quite a small thing. But of course
it was a great thing. Never think there is such a thing
as a small sin. Never think, well I can just
do that and it won't really harm me. it won't really affect me. Never give in to the temptation
of Satan. And therefore, to know the desire
of this wonderful statement here, and keep thee. Well, the apostle
knew what it was to be kept, he said, kept by the power of
God through grace. Unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. And that keeping power that the
Apostle desired was to bring honour and glory to God and it
would be a good thing if in our lives we're able to testify of
how the Lord has delivered us. How the Lord's given us strength,
perhaps to stand firm. Perhaps the Lord has done something
in our lives, produced some situation which we've been delivered from.
There was that great temptation we feared We fear greatly how
we'll be able to stand. Well, if you have temptations
like that, pray to God that he will give you strength, that
he will keep you, that he will help you, and you can believe
the Lord will hear such a prayer. And so here we have this statement,
the Lord bless thee. and the Lord keep thee, kept
by the power of God. And then we come on to the third
point. The Lord make his face to shine
upon thee. Well, what does that do? It brings light, doesn't it?
The glorious light in the face of Jesus Christ. What a blessing it is to be favored
with light like that. What a blessing it is to know
that God does come and God does give light still in this day
and age in which we live. And in the second epistle to
the Corinthians, the apostle tells us these great and glorious
words. For God, who commanded the lights
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. And so we have this statement
here, the Lord make his face to shine upon thee. Oh, what
a mercy it is if the Lord shows us this great and glorious light,
and it's to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. And the Apostle, he goes on to
encourage us, but we have this treasure, and it is an amazing
treasure, isn't it? If the Lord shows us that light,
as we see the light in the face of Jesus Christ, the light of
his countenance. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels. That means ourselves. We're not
any great situation, any great person. We're just an earthen
vessel. And why is it that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us? Now, tonight, what
a wonderful favour for you and me if we're blessed like this. The Lord make his face to shine
upon thee. And the Lord does shine into
our hearts. And it shines into our hearts
and brings us out of that situation of darkness. And there is only
really light to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no
light in this world. The world is darkness. We live
in a dark world, but bless God if he's come through his power
and reveals to us the wonderful work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The light shines, the power of
God. The excellency of the power may
be of God and not of us. We realize then that it's not
of the flesh, It's by the power of God that has produced this
glorious understanding into our heart, the knowledge, blessed
knowledge it is. You know, we seek knowledge,
don't we, in many things. Let us not forget one thing is
needful. The knowledge of Christ is more
precious than gold. The knowledge of Christ is the
most valuable thing that you and I can possess and therefore
what a mercy it is if the Holy Spirit comes upon us the Lord
make his face to shine upon thee and this desire this blessing
has been granted to us so that we are favoured and we bless
God for it and the Apostle he goes on to just illustrate the
life of the Christian, because we sometimes might think, well,
of course, if that was granted to me, or if it has been granted
to me, or if it is granted to me, then it will be all plain
sailing. Says the Apostle, we are troubled
on every side, yet not distressed. Why? because of this great and glorious
light which has shined into our heart. We are perplexed. Yes, we are sometimes perplexed
because of the difficulty of the way, but not in despair. We don't despair because we're
trusting in God, because the light has come. And it's been
revealed to us in the face of Jesus Christ. Persecuted. Yes, we will be in one way or
another. The children of God, the people
of God cannot avoid persecution in one way or another. But when
that persecution occurs, To realize the promise of God to those for
whom this light has shone, the light of his glorious countenance,
not forsaken. The Lord does not forsake his
people. Sometimes he hides his face, but he doesn't forsake
his people. They're not forsaken. They never
will be. They cannot be cast down. Well, we may be cast down. The
devil would have us always cast down. Sometimes we are cast down
because of our failures, because of the sinfulness of our hearts,
the evil thoughts of our mind. We are cast down. We may think,
well, I deserve to be cast out, the word says, but not destroyed. receive this great and blessed,
wonderful favour of this light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ, will not be destroyed. And so the Apostle tells us,
always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. So it's what the Apostle desired,
was it not? What was that? Fellowship with
his sufferings. Fellowship with the Saviour.
He knew what a great blessing that was. And it was to be viewed
in the light as he saw the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,
in that wonderful finished work of salvation. And so he tells
us, always bearing in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body,
for we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus'
sake. And the life also of Jesus might
be made manifest in our mortal flesh. Well, you can read on,
that's the fourth chapter in the second epistle. of Paul to
the Corinthians, and it's a very beautiful little chapter which
directs us so clearly in these important issues with regard
to this great and glorious light shining. The Lord make his face
shine upon thee. Well, has the Lord Jesus shined
upon us? We've seen that light, that light
in his face, that light which has shone to us. that he, the
great and glorious God, has come down and condescended to give
his life that you and I might possess life, and that eternal
life. Our little life on this earth
will soon vanish, but if you and I receive that gift of eternal
life, oh, what a wonderful, wonderful blessing that is, something which
will never be removed once in him in him forever it is an eternal
blessing and so to make his face to shine upon thee and then we're
told and be gracious unto thee what does that mean it means
to receive the grace of god receive his grace and what is his grace
well i'm sure you know i've told you many times It's the unmerited
favour of God. To receive the unmerited favour
of God. And how we all need it. How we
all need to receive His grace and therefore how important this
is. And be gracious unto thee. Well, has the Lord been gracious
unto you? Has He been gracious unto me?
That we're able to declare yes. He has been gracious. He has
come to me. He has revealed himself unto
me as he does not unto the world. And I rejoice in the blessed
and glorious crucified Saviour. And my friends, these things
are very special. And they're very blessed as his
children are led into the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
through His grace, through His favour toward us, that we're
able then by faith to view the Saviour on the cross at Calvary,
dying, finishing that work His Father gave Him to do, in order
that He might stand in our place as our glorious Saviour, and
that one who today is in glory as our advocate, as our high
priest, that one who takes our case and presents it to his father. It is all because of his grace. Well, the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And so have we the evidence tonight
that we are possessors of his grace. We all need to be. It's
not just something which is academic. It's something which you and
I need to know in our hearts. And that means through the work
of the Holy Spirit. That means the power of God has
come upon us to convince us of our true situation before a holy
God and has shown us the way of salvation, the grace of God. and be gracious unto thee." Well,
what a mercy then tonight, to have the evidence that we are
possessors of the grace of God. Remember, as the Apostle said,
it is by grace we're saved. Through faith, let not of ourselves,
it is the gift of God, not of works that any man should boast.
What a favor tonight. To be able to find in our hearts
God's grace. And so we have this wonderful
statement. The Lord make his face shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee. And then to come here to
this penultimate statement. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee. What does that mean? It means
to know that the Lord has looked upon us. The Lord's looked upon
us. He's watched over us. In those
days when we were outside of the gospel, the Lord's watched
over us. He looked upon us. He's never, never taken his eye
off us. Lift up his countenance upon
thee. were able to, by faith, as John
the Baptist said, to behold the Lamb of God, to take it away,
the sin of the world. Lift up his countenance upon
thee. Remember the Apostle Peter, in that judgment hall, denied
his Lord those three times with oaths and curses. You may think,
what a terrible thing to do. Well, it is, but only you and
I will be in the same situation, but for being kept. But what happened? The Lord turned
and he looked upon Peter. What did that do? Well, it had a wonderful effect
upon him, didn't it? You know, the arrow of conviction
went right home. Immediately, he remembered the
words of the Saviour. Yes, the Lord lifted up his countenance
upon him. What was the effect? He went
out and wept bitterly. You know, he was truly sorry
for his sin. It wasn't just a mere acknowledgement
of his sin. There was a blessed conviction
so that he went out and wept bitterly, realizing how he'd
failed his Lord and Master. But you see, the Lord was gracious. The Lord loved Peter. We have
many occasions, many references, of course. Later on, when the
Lord rose from the dead, when he singled out Peter in a particular
way, and no doubt the effect upon Peter was such that he was
able to write the blessed words in his first epistle when he
speaks of the precious the light of Christ. He knew the value
of it. He knew the need of it. The Lord
left up his countenance upon thee. What a blessing, isn't
it? When the Lord looks upon us, whatever condition we may
be in, I think he looks upon us. He doesn't pass us by. He looks upon us. We have the
evidence of that look because of the greatest effect it makes
upon us. And then finally, and give thee
peace. Well, the Lord gives his people
peace. Peace by his cross. That's my friends, where there
is peace. As we look up to the Saviour,
we look to the crucified Saviour, we realise what he has done.
in taking away our sins. And therefore, through that glorious
transaction, we have peace with God. Isn't that amazing? Vile, hell-deserving sinner,
peace with God. And it's through the blessed
death of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And give thee peace. Now this is a peace which is
not the peace of time. This is a peace of eternity. This is the peace of God which
passeth all understanding. This is a peace which only the
people of God know and it's a glorious blessing and it's a glorious
favour because it brings us outside the things of time and it lifts
us up into that eternal state to realise that one day by his
grace we shall be in that place where there is only peace. No
warfare, no trials, no troubles, no sorrow, no sighing, but peace
forever and ever. Well my friends tonight, may
we have the evidence of the blessed anticipation of being found at
last in glory. and to be a partaker of this
peace of God which does indeed pass all understanding. Well, these six points that we
read here tonight in these wonderful three verses, may they be a blessing
to us and may we realise what a favour it was in those ancient
days for Aaron and the priests to be able to hold up their hands,
to bless the people in this way and desire this. And surely it's
the same today. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. The Lord make his face to shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee and give thee peace. It's a very personal statement
to every one of us. And may it be true. And may we
thank and praise God for all his favours from whom all blessings
flow. Amen.