As always, I want to bring you
a message from the Word of God. The Bible is God's inspired book,
God's Word. This is how God speaks to us. This is how God reveals Himself
to us. This is how God acts upon the
hearts and the minds of His people. This is our rule of faith, of
practice, And this is the power and the wisdom of God, the Word
of God. I'm reading from Numbers chapter
6, the fourth book in God's Word, the book of Numbers chapter 6.
It says, The Lord spake unto Moses, verse 22, The Lord spake
unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying,
On this wise Ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto
them, End of quote. Now, this is the blessing that
the Lord gave to Moses to give to Aaron and his sons, or that
is, the preachers of the Word, to bless the people. You hear
people all the time say, have a blessed day, or the Lord bless
you, or God bless America. Well, here is the blessing. This
is the blessing that God gave to His servant Moses to give
to others, to give to the people. This is the blessing. It does
not say blessings, although God's blessings are many, yet His principle,
His chief blessing is found here. And not one earthly thing is
mentioned, not one material thing is mentioned, because the blessings,
the true blessing of God is spiritual. The greatest blessing of all
is to hear God's Word and have Him speak to you. And here He
says, speak to, bless the children of Israel. Israel represents
God's chosen people. He's not speaking here to the
whole world, although God has a people out of every kindred
nation tongue under heaven, and they are called the true Israel
of God. But he uses Israel as a type,
as a picture, as a symbol of his people because God's blessing,
the blessing of God, the blessing of Salvation is upon His people. Psalm 3 verse 8 says, Salvation
belongeth unto the Lord. Thy blessing is upon thy people. Those who do not know God, those
who are not in Christ, those who will not be found in Him
in that great day are under the curse. But God's people are blessed,
blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
like Noah and his family, were found in the ark. That was the
blessing of salvation upon God's chosen people. Are you in Christ? Well, this is the blessing, he
said. This is how you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to
Aaron and unto his son. This is what they are to say
to the people. Now, the blessing, the greatest
blessing, the chief blessing, is God's Word. It's called the
Word of Life, the voice of God. If the Lord speaks to us, He
will only speak to us through His Word. And 1 Corinthians 1.21
says, "...it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe." We are blessed when the Lord speaks to us through
the preached Word. Revelation 1 says, "...blessed
are they that read the words of this book." Then it says,
"...blessed are they that hear them." There was an Ethiopian
eunuch One time a man sitting in his chariot reading Isaiah,
and he didn't understand it, and the Lord sent Philip, a preacher,
to him. And the preacher Philip said
to the man, do you understand what you read? And he, the eunuch,
said, how can I except some man show me? And that's what Romans
10 says. hear without a preacher, and
how shall they preach except they be sent? Oh, blessed are
they that hear the words of this book preached, preached clearly. So he says to Moses, to Aaron,
and the sons, to preach to the people these words. He said,
this is the blessing. This is the blessing. Now what
does the word bless mean? The word bless means to bend
the knee to, to kneel to. And we bless. We bless the Lord
by bowing to Him and worshiping Him. The Lord blesses us when
He stoops down, when He bends His knee, when He condescends,
when He stoops down. When Jesus Christ came down to
this earth, He was the blessing of God to human beings. He stooped down. He stooped down. Here's what it says to tell the
people. The Lord bless thee. Verse 24. Oh, the Lord bless thee. The
Lord. There are millions of persons all over the world who want that
man in Rome that they call the Pope to bless them. Others go
to a so-called church to have a man who is a so-called priest
to bless them. But those men cannot bless us.
The blessing of the Lord is the blessing we need. No man can
bless us. Only the Lord can truly bless
us. Only the Lord. If the Lord is
pleased to bless us, we will be blessed. Who is the Lord?
The Lord God, the Lord Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ, they are
one and the same. The Lord bless thee. May the
Lord stoop down, condescend to speak to you as He did to some,
as He does to some. The Lord bless thee. Oh, this
is the blessing of all blessings is if the Lord God, the Lord
Jesus Christ will speak to you, will bless you. And verse 24
says, The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord keep thee. Now, keep means a few different
things. Keep means to not throw away,
to not cast out. To keep it is something you want
to retain. Oh, the Lord is going to cast
out many of the sons of Adam in that great day. Scripture
says He's going to fold up the earth like a vesture and throw
it away and cast it away. Many will be cast into outer
darkness. Some he is going to keep forever
and never cast out. Those have chosen his elect. Christ said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come unto me, and he that cometh to me I will
never cast out. It's not because anyone is worth
keeping, but because God is merciful. God is merciful. If you can call
yourself unworthy, if you can call yourself a sinner, if you
call yourself, if you believe that you're not worth preserving,
not worth saving, not worth keeping, then perhaps the Lord may indeed
save you and keep you. He called upon it. The Lord bless
thee and keep you. The word keep means to protect,
to watch over, to defend, to keep from harm, to keep from
falling. God's people are kept by the
power of God. What is the power of God? His
word is His power. His gospel is His power. Scripture
says Christ is the power of God. Oh, may the Lord Jesus Christ
keep thee, watch over thee, protect thee, defend thee, keep you from
harm, keep you from the evil one, keep you from the world,
keep you from sin, unbelief, keep you from ignorance, keep
you from despair. It's His power. We cannot keep
ourselves. Oh, may the Lord keep thee. Keep
also means to provide for. As we would say of someone or
something, it's an easy keeper. He's an easy keeper. He doesn't
need much. Well, we're not easy keepers.
We need everything. We need everything provided for. If the Lord is our shepherd,
we shall not want for wisdom. We shall not want for righteousness.
We shall not want for sanctification. These are things we need. We
shall not want for companionship. We shall not want for food or
rain water, anything necessary we shall not want if the Lord
keeps us. The Lord keep thee. And then
he goes on to say, the Lord make his face shine upon thee. The Lord make his face to shine
upon thee. Now, no man has seen God at any
time, has seen His face. He said to Moses on the mount
in Exodus 33, no man can see my face and lip. However, Scripture
says that God was manifest in the flesh. The Son of God came
down here, the image of God, the express image of God, equal
with the Father. God said, call His name Wonderful
Counselor, the Mighty God. Call Him God. Call the Son of
God, God, the Everlasting Father. Jesus Christ said, He that hath
seen Me hath seen the Father. And 2 Corinthians 4 verse 6,
it says, God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
has shined in our hearts, or that is, some people, those He
has revealed Christ to, has shined in their hearts to give delight
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The Lord make his face shine
upon thee. He that seeth the sun and believeth
on him will have everlasting life and he will raise him up
at the last day. We don't see the Lord Jesus Christ
now. We haven't ever seen his face,
but we shall. that we see His face in the Scripture. We see His glory. We see His
person. We see His work. We see Him clearly. The great
blessing of the Lord is to see who Christ is, to see what salvation
is. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, may the Lord bless thee by making His face, by you looking
into the face, the person, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And may the Lord be gracious unto you. Number 625 says, The
Lord be gracious unto thee. The Lord is gracious. Grace is
a gift. Grace is an act of God. Grace
is not an offer. Grace is something God does for
His people, to His people, in His people. Grace is something
bestowed upon them, done to them. It's the gift of God, the unspeakable
gift. It's the gift of life. It's the
gift of righteousness. It's the gift of mercy, grace,
peace, pardon. Oh, the Lord be gracious unto
thee if He blesses thee by making Christ's face seen by thee his
glory, he is gracious unto thee." That's the grace of God. Salvation
is by grace. Oh, by grace are you saved. And
he goes on to say, the Lord lift up his countenance upon them.
God does not smile upon this world. God is angry with the
wicked every day, Scripture says. God is angry. The wrath of God
is revealed from heaven, Romans 1 says. Clearly, clearly seen. But oh, if the Lord is gracious,
He will lift up His countenance, smile upon thee. Who does He
smile upon? Jesus Christ and those who believe
His Son, those who look to His Son. The Lord lift up His countenance
upon thee and give thee peace." Where does peace come from? You
don't make your peace with God. No, Scripture says that Jesus
Christ made peace by the blood of His cross. That the chastisement
of the peace of God's people was laid on Him. The whipping
they deserved, He took. and He made peace, reconciled
His people to God. He is the peace of God. We don't
make peace. Christ made peace by the blood
of His cross. Oh, if the Lord is gracious to
thee, shows the face of Christ to thee, the person that works,
smiles upon thee, He will show you that Jesus Christ is your
peace. You have peace with God if you're
found in Christ, if you look to Christ. That is peace. And
he says in verse 27, in closing, in this blessing, they shall
put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them."
My name, what is his name? God. Well, behold what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon some that they should be
called the sons of God. Christians, Christ-followers,
Christ-lovers, those loved by Christ those whom Christ died
for, those who are found in Christ are Christians. Oh, God says,
I will bless them. Salvation belongeth to the Lord,
and His blessing is upon His people. May the Lord bless thee. Amen.