This has been good. They say
the older you get, the faster time flies. Well, I don't know
if that's what the deal is, but this meeting is just, it's just
blown by. And this is the last time that
I'm on the schedule to speak. And so I'll get to enjoy the
services in the morning. I'm looking forward to it. As
soon as I get done here, I'm going to enjoy listening to Brother
Don tonight and Brother David in the morning and Brother Don
again in the morning. But it's been good. I'm glad to be here. I appreciate the opportunity
and always enjoy seeing it. It's year after year. and once
a year, but it's good. Some of us are growing old together.
Some of us are growing up together. Whichever category you fit. Sometimes
I feel like I'm both of them. Numbers chapter six. Sixth chapter
of Numbers. Verse twenty-two. What's the
last thing that I would desire for you? I can't bless you. I don't, I can't do that. We
can bless the Lord. The psalmist, how many times
he said, Bless the Lord, O my soul, all that's within me, bless
his holy name. We just brag on him. We eulogize
him, that's what the word is. We eulogize the Lord God of heaven
by bragging on him. Now he blesses us differently. I desire the blessing of the
Lord on you as a congregation. The next couple of days we'll
be splitting up and we'll each be heading back to our respective
And probably for the most part, we won't see each other for this
time next year. But my desire is that the Lord
would bless you. And this passage of Scripture,
beginning with verse twenty-two, this blessing, it's read often at the end of
a meeting such as this, or on other occasions, as a benediction. And that's fine. It is our desire,
my desire for us as a congregation. But I want us to look at this
passage of Scripture, and I want us to think about it for a few
moments, and see what this means. He says, and the Lord spoke to
Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron, and
unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children
of Israel, saying unto them this, 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. And they, Aaron and his sons,
shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them." Now the Lord has blessed us,
he's blessed his people by giving us a sacrifice by which we are
accepted in his presence. He's going to have us know it.
That's the only way he can bless us, is through that sacrifice. He has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He said to his
prophet, Comfort ye my people. Comfort ye my people. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Comfort them. And the Lord appointed
a representative of himself who could publicly pronounce
his blessing upon the people. And he chose Aaron, a high priest. And he commanded Moses to instruct
Aaron how he was to speak to the people. And he gave him the
words that he was to say. Now Aaron was not only to offer
that sacrifice, not only to make intercession for the people before
God, but he was to bestow that blessing on the people in the
name of God Almighty Himself. has appointed one above all others
to bless his people. Our great high priest, the Lord
Jesus Christ, he's the one that's pictured here by Aaron and his
sons. Our Lord began his ministry with
the Sermon on the Mount and the word blessed. You preached on
that the other night, John. That's the way he began his ministry. And when he rose to heaven, having
completed his ministry, the scriptures say it was as he lifted up his
hands and blessed them. And when he comes again, and don't sit around and argue
about when it's going to be. Somebody asked me, well they
said, we don't want to, you know, to defend you. Talking about this I said you
won't offend me because I'm as ignorant as stump water when
it comes to talking about that I don't really care I Know he's coming and I tell
you what it's I hope it never becomes a test of fellowship.
It's When we think I said it's all theory and I said, if it
weren't theory of these men, I said, if the Lord wanted us
to know it, he'd have spelled it out a whole lot clearer than what
is spelled out in the Scriptures. That's just the way I feel about
it. The things that are important are spelled out very clearly,
aren't they? The rest of it, you can waste your time, and
Satan will lead you to waste your time trying to figure it
all out. Trust him. He's coming. And when he does,
he's going to come just the way he went. in like manner as you've
seen him go into heaven bringing blessings with him. He blesses
us today. And I think one of the words
that he uses to bless my heart more than any others is what
he speaks when he says, let not your hearts be troubled. You
believe in God, do you? Believe also in me. That's the comfort to know that
if I know there's a God, I know there's a mediator between God
and man. That man, that same God, Christ
Jesus himself, that's the comfort of my heart. I'd hate to know
there was a God without a mediator. To know that there was a God
without that one to go before him on my behalf. The curse is
turned away from us. Why? He's been made a curse for
us. The blessing was for the children of Israel, for them
only. Did you notice that? He said,
Speak unto Aaron, and unto his son, saying on this wise, Ye
shall bless the children of Israel. And verse 27 said, You are going
to put my name upon the children of Israel, for them alone. For them alone. Aaron wasn't
appointed to order. are given any words of blessing
to speak to those nations that were around and in Israel without
God. It was for the children of Israel.
The blessing which our Lord Jesus Christ blesses, that blessing
with which he blesses, is for his people. for those to whom he gives eternal
life, and all others are cursed." Now, this blessing, it comes
to us through a priest. Everybody, not anyone, could
bless the people. Spelled out, specifically, who's going to
bless the people. God's high priest alone, who
offered sacrifice for the people, could bless the people. And once
a year, That high priest went into God before the people. He went in with the blood, not
without the blood. When all of his solemn duties
were finished within that veil, he came out. He put on those glorious garments
which for a while he had laid aside, and he blessed the people. as he was authorized to do. He blessed us. We cannot get a blessing from
God except through the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those
who were blessed were those who were represented by that sacrifice. Those for whom that blood was
carried within the most holy place. Those for whom that blood
was sprinkled on that mercy seat, they're the blessed. There has
to be a sacrifice. There has to be a sprinkling
of that blood before that blessing can meet us. The Lord God of
heaven bestows all His spiritual blessings on us in and through
Christ who died for us. and who has ordained that one
mediator between God and man. And this priest, it was an intercessory
prayer for the people. He cried, the Lord bless thee. He didn't walk before the people
and say, bless you my children. He can't do it. The Lord. The Lord bless you. This is God's
man crying out to Jehovah that he would bless and keep his people. And our high priest ever liveth
to make intercession for us. He says, I pray for them. I pray
not for this world. But for them which thou hast
given me." That's our safety. He said to Peter, Simon, Simon,
Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you. I
prayed for you that your faith fail not. And you know, he's
the only one that can do that. He's God's representative. And
he speaks with the authority of his office. As I said, I desire
this for you, but I can't bless you. But the Lord Jesus Christ
can command a blessing to his people and bestow that blessing
on his people. And when he speaks it to us,
you can marker down it's a sure blessing. There went out with
these words a divine power which made that form. into reality. That form of blessing became
a real blessing. This was God's blessing delivered
in God's name. God was in Christ reconciling
this world unto himself. Christ is the wisdom of God,
the power of God, and in the wisdom of God there can be no
mistake, and in the power of God not one word can fail. And
I tell you what, if God's appointed the priest to bless us, and has given the very words
that that high priest is to speak in this blessing, he'd compromise
his own honor and glory if he were ever to turn back from it,
if he were ever to turn back from this blessing. But he's
not going to do that. You'd have to quit being God,
and he's not going to do that. You know, this blessed me when
I read these words, that this blessing is going to continue.
It wasn't dependent upon the life of one man, Aaron. Moses said it was to speak unto
Aaron and unto his sons, those who were going to come after
him. God's always going to have a high priest. Everyone's going
to die. There's no doubt about that.
But the blessing is going to continue in his seed. There's
always going to be a high priest to bless the people with this
blessing. We're always blessed in the Lord. And you know something else I
noticed about this passage of Scripture? There's no limitation
as to how often or when. He just said, on this wise ye
shall. That's the way you're going to
do it. Whenever. Not how many times. Not when
to do it. Just how to do it. You know,
the Jews, they have a tradition that says that Aaron blessed
the people every day after that morning's sacrifice. After the
offering of that morning's sacrifice. I don't know when they did it.
You know, it's sort of like the Lord's table. Our Lord said,
when you do this. when you do it. It tells us how
to do it, but when it comes to how often, it just says when
you do it. Just do it in remembrance of Him. That's the reason. Some
do it every service. Some do it once a week. Some
do it once a month. Some do it once a quarter. Some do it once a year. Some
every five years. It's just when you do it, do
it in remembrance of me. And that's what he told Aaron.
This is the way you're going to bless the people. When you
bless the people, this is the way you're going to bless them.
And look at this blessing. Verse 24. First thing he says
is, the Lord bless thee. Go back in Exodus 34 with me. You see who's going to bless
us? The Lord. Who is He? Jehovah! Jehovah! The Lord's given Moses the law
there on Mount Sinai. In Exodus 34 verse 5, And the
Lord descended in a cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed
the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before
Moses, and he proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah, the strong one. Who's he? Who's Jehovah? Merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant. in goodness and truth. That's
who Jehovah is, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the
guilty. If He ever did, we'd have no
hope. What good is redemption? He's just. He never changes. That's the only reason we haven't
been consumed. Visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children
and upon the children's children unto the third and to the fourth
generation. And if you don't believe that,
look at yours. Jehovah. That's what, that which
makes this such a precious blessing is that it's this merciful one,
this gracious one, This long-suffering one, this one who's abundant
in goodness and truth, this just one is blessing us. Blessing
us. And there's no limit to the goodwill
of the infinite, merciful one. When he blesses, it's after the
manner of his sovereign almightiness. Then he said here, and keep thee, and keep thee. If you want to turn back there,
if you don't, just listen. But Genesis 28, verse 10. Genesis
28, verse 10, and Jacob went out from and went toward Heron. And he lighted upon a certain
place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set.
And he took up the stones of that place, and put them for
his pillows, and laid down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed. And behold, a ladder sat upon
the earth." the top of it reached to heaven.
And behold, the angels of God ascending and descending it,
and behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God
of Abraham." There's that Jehovah again. Jehovah, the strong one
of Abraham, thy father, the God of Isaac, the land whereon thy
lies, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. and thy seed
shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad
to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the
south. And in thee and in thy seeds shall all the families
of the earth be blessed. And behold," catch this, I am with thee, put
lights around this thing, that's what that behold means, it's
the marquee You've been down to Reno, or I guess that's up
or over, but anyway, wherever it is from here. You know what
the marquee looks like at night? Everybody competing for your
attention. Well, let this get your attention. until I have done that which
I have spoken to thee of." And when the Lord God of heaven
keeps, guards, and protects us, who can be against us? Then he went on to say, verse
twenty-five of number six, the Lord make his face to shine upon
thee. or there's not anything that
can shine on us like the face of Jehovah." Back in Exodus 34,
verse 29, "...and it came to pass, when Moses came
down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses'
hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wished
not," do not, that the skin of his face shone while he talked
with him. And when Aaron and all the children
of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and
they were afraid to come near him." Verse 35. And the children of Israel saw
the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone. And Moses
put the veil upon his face again until he went in to speak with
him. His face shone. Oh, that the
Lord God of heaven would make his face shine on us as he did
on Moses this day. Then he says, not only make his
face shine upon us, but be gracious unto us. Be gracious. This is the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. In Exodus 22, verse 27, that last part of that
verse, And it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that
I will hear, for I am gracious when he crieth unto me, that
I will hear, for I am gracious." This is the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. You know, that's found eleven
times in the Scriptures, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul uses it ten times, and it's the last words
of Revelation. the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let the Lord God of heaven be
gracious to us. That's doing for us what we don't
deserve. He provided a substitute. Provided a substitute And then
he says in verse 26, number 6, the Lord lift up his countenance
upon me. You know what, that has to be
approved, accepted, and favored by God. Oh, they lift up his
countenance upon us. This isn't a frown. It's the
Lord God of heaven smiling on us. Oh, I tell you, you know your
children, they'll do something and they'll look at you for your
reaction, don't they? And when they see you frowning,
they know that, uh-oh. But when they see you smile,
they get so happy. That's what he's talking about
here. It's for the Lord God of Heaven to smile on us. Why can't
He smile on us? Because He approves of us. He
accepts us. We've been favored by God in
Christ. Psalm 11, the psalmist said,
"...and the Lord put out my trust. How say ye to my soul, flee as
a bird to your mountain? For though the wicked bend their
bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may
privately shoot at the upright in heart. Let the foundations
be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" But he said, "...the Lord
is in his holy temple." The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes
behold, his eyelids try the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous,
but the wicked in him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon
the wicked he shall reign snares, fire, and brimstone, and an horrible
tempest. This shall be the portion of
their cup. For the righteous Lord loveth
righteousness. His countenance, His smile, His
favor doth behold the upright. And then the writer here, Moses,
tells us here that the Lord told Aaron, saying, Not only may the
Lord make his face shine upon you, be gracious to you, the
Lord lift up his confidence upon thee, that he may give you peace. This is that peace of God which
passeth all understanding. Psalm 4, the psalmist said, Hear
me when I call, O God of my righteousness. Thou hast enlarged me when I
was in distress. Have mercy upon me and hear my
prayer. O ye sons of men, how long will
you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love vanity
and seek after leasing, after lying? But know that the Lord
has set apart him that is godly for himself. I call unto him. Stand in awe of Him, and sin
not. Commune with your own heart upon
your bed, and be still. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness,
and put your trust in the Lord. There be many that say, Who will
show us any good? Lord, lift up the light of Thy
countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my
heart. more than in the time that their
corn and their wine increased. And then he says that after the
countenance, the light of his countenance on us, he said, I
will lay me down in peace and sleep. For thou only makest me
dwell in safety. Many, many, many a night have I laid down with this verse of scripture
being repeated by my limbs and in my heart. Because I know only the Lord
God of heaven makes me to dwell in safety. The sad thing is I
only think about it when I'm lying down in a dangerous situation,
but we don't know danger. The Lord blesses His people according
to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus. And let me finish
by showing you this. The name of the Lord is mentioned
three times in this passage of Scripture. The first thing He
said is, The Lord bless thee and keep thee. Here's the blessing
of the Father. It's the preservation of His
love for us. He alone keeps us from falling.
We're kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. And then again, verse 25, he
says, The Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious
unto thee. And this means that glory and
favor of God toward us in Christ Jesus. Here's God the Son. It's the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. In heaven the Lamb is the light
thereof. There's no light for us except
through the Lord Jesus Christ for God to make His face to shine
upon us and to be gracious to us. It's in Christ. And in the
last time, verse 26, the Lord lift up His countenance upon
thee and give thee peace. This is God the Holy Spirit.
You know, for the Lord to bless me and to keep me is one thing. For His face to shine upon me
and be gracious unto me is another thing. The fullness of this blessing
comes when I know it. when he makes his countenance,
he lifts up his countenance upon me and gives me peace. That's
when I know. And that's the work of the Holy
Spirit of God bringing this home to my heart. That's when I know
that the Lord blesses me and keeps me. That's when I know
that the Lord makes His face to shine upon me, that the Lord
has been gracious unto me, when God the Holy Spirit brings it
home to my heart, causes His, lifts up His countenance upon
me, and gives me this peace. It's when the Spirit of God,
the Comforter, speaks words of comfort to my soul. And then the Amen. They shall
put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them."
The Lord Jesus Christ is authorized by God to put the name of God
upon His people. And when His name is on a thing,
that's His promise to preserve it. It is. The world may curse
us, but if the Lord God of heaven blesses us in Christ, the curse
is like the wind. I will bless him," he said. I
will. I will. He has the power to do it. That
means he's going to do it. Here's absolute certainty, based
on the eternal faithfulness, eternality, and immutability
of God Almighty himself on his people, for his people. 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. Thank you, and may the Lord bless
these words to our hearts.