Good morning, and as you're turning
in your scriptures to Numbers chapter six, again, I just wanted
to thank you for the many kindnesses that you people have shown us
for several years now, and we're hoping that those kindnesses
might be added to next year when you might allow your pastor and
his family to come and minister. We talk often one to another. We talk about our saviour, our
great God. Our brother Clay read those verses
from 2nd Timothy. Timothy was a man riding proud
on his horse to Damascus. There was his list of all his
credentials. He had credentials that started
in his mother's womb, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. Remarkably, he
had credentials that I haven't heard another man ever boast
of. Before the law, he was blameless, esteemed, above almost all other
students in those schools of religion in Jerusalem. he met God he met God in the
face of the Lord Jesus Christ and he never got over it brothers
and sisters he says in those verses that we read he's abolished
death and brought life and immortality and to light through the gospel. You've just heard the gospel
declared. We come here as earthen vessels
but with a treasure. The treasure is not us. The treasure
is the Lord Jesus Christ. We just have never got over how
glorious He is. He's like this multi-faceted
jewel. Every time you turn to another
facet, there's just this beautiful light and glory reflected. That's
what this Word is, isn't it? It shines a light. Shines a light
from God on our Saviour. Shines a light on us. This is eternal life. that you
know him, that you know him. It's said of the Scottish preacher
Robert Murray Machein, he was just dying for people to be saved. We just long, we long for the
Lord Jesus to be glorified. Thy glory is great in thy salvation. His glory is going to be great,
whether He saves or He doesn't save. His glory is great. This is eternal life, that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou
hast sent. In Numbers, there are these beautiful
verses of blessing. what verses of blessing they
are. Turn with me to verse 22. And
the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and his son,
saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel,
saying unto them, 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 then a verse that is something
similar to what we just read in Malachi. And they, Aaron and
his sons, shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I
will bless them. The greatest blessing, the greatest,
greatest blessing that God can bring to you is for God to shine
that light. Paul had seen much light in this
natural world, hadn't he? He saw the Lord Jesus And what
was that light compared to the light of the brightest thing
he'd ever seen was the sun. He saw a light. He saw the Lord
Jesus brighter than the noonday sun. Our job as gospel preachers
is to hold up the Lord Jesus, to have him high and lifted up. High and lifted up before you. High and lifted up, just as those
apostles in Luke 24, we have the record of the Lord Jesus
going into heaven, departing this world. Luke 24, verse 50. Our great high priest, having
finished the work the father had given him to do, finishing
his work as that great high priest, like Aaron who is a type. Verse 50, he led them out as
far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and he blessed them."
Children of God, what a picture. How would they picture him in
heaven as they pictured him here, high and lifted up and blessing
his children. Aaron is a type of our Lord Jesus. All of those pictures in the
Old Testament are shadows. A shadow needs three things. If we opened that window and
Will stood before it, you need three things, don't you, for
a shadow. You need an object, and you need a light, and you
need a place, for the shadow of the object to fall. That's exactly what the Old Testament
pictures, isn't it? The light of God shines on his
dear and precious son, that lamb slain from the foundation of
the world, and that shadow falls on the earth. And it's right
for us to look to the shadow, to look to the object, and to
see the light of God shining upon the Lord Jesus Christ. We have this great high priest,
this great high priest that's gone into the heavens, and he's
gone into the heavens to bless, to bless his people. And through him, we have that
better hope, as Hebrews 7 says, by which we draw nigh unto God. The Lord promises, the Lord swear
and will not repent. Our great high priest, a priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. He has an unchangeable priesthood,
our great Lord Jesus. Wherefore he is able to save
them to the uttermost. I love that word, to the uttermost. I was a sinner, lost, lost sinner,
moral, righteous, and for a long time, religious. I just haven't got over meeting
the Lord Jesus. I didn't meet him. He didn't
come to me. until my 40s, so I have a record
of living in the darkness of this world. The thoughts and
the imaginations of the heart of the natural man are only evil
continuously. What we thought, what I thought
and what Paul thought and what many of you think is light and
righteousness is darkness and blessing. We followed our own
heart and we followed this world. Our thoughts were darkness, our
words were darkness, our deeds. We were dead, says God, dead,
walking around dead. The heart of man, says Jeremiah
79, is deceitfully wicked and beyond cure. It's a heart of
stone, completely unresponsive to anything from God whatsoever. Isn't it wonderful? The great
hope of the gospel The great hope of the gospel is that God
doesn't adjust the stone. God, in sovereign grace and sovereign
mercy, because of these eternal promises, because of that finished
work, just comes and he rips out a heart. That's what he did
to Saul on that day. That's what he did to me 15 years
ago, and you never get over it. You never get over it. All of
what you think is worthy, all of what you think is your foundation,
all of what you aspire to and esteem to, becomes, as Paul said
in Philippians 3, all of that record of him. From the time
of his conception, he had a record. And he says, it's just done. Brothers and sisters, it's just
done. This is no place. This is no
place to build your nest. This is no place of security. God has placed a sure and certain
condemn sign over everything you see out there. We come from countries that have
done remarkably well in this world and we have been blessed
in material ways from all of that, but what's it all worth? What's Australia worth? Dust,
says Isaiah, a little bit of dust on the scales, and you will
know better. Together, all of us, all of Western
civilisation, all of its attainments, it's likened to you going down
to the store and buying your potatoes and saying to the man
as he weighs them on the scale, Will you please remove Australia? America, Western civilization. Brothers and sisters, this is
not a place. This is not a place to build
your nest. This gospel is a glorious gospel
of a great God who promises blessings and he comes in blessing to his
people. This was often spoken, this prayer,
this blessing that we've read after the morning sacrifice and
probably after the Day of Atonement. It's a blessing that only comes
after the finished work of the Lord Jesus has been represented
before this people. There is no blessing There is
no blessing apart from the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
wonderfully, it's a Trinitarian blessing. The word Lord has little
marks on it in the Hebrew. Each time it's mentioned, it
has another little mark on it as if to distinguish the three
of them. This Trinitarian blessing, blessing
of the Father, the Lord bless thee and keep thee. The blessing
of the Son, 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. I just thought we would just
briefly go through and see if the Lord can bless his word to
us as we look at these Trinitarian blessings. what great blessings
they are. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. This is the blessing of the Father.
The word to keep means to guard, to watch, to preserve, to exercise
great care of. Clay told us about the jewels. God's jewels are particularly
and perfectly kept and greatly cared over. It's to be kept in
a state of grace and blessing, to be kept from Satan and the
power and the prevalence and the dominion of sin. As Psalm 121 says, it's to be
kept by God. Kept by the power of God through
faith. I reckon that's a pretty good
keeping. I like that sort of keeping. Kept day and night. I will water it every moment,
says Isaiah 27.3. Lest any hurt it, I will keep
it night and day. Guarded by angels. Kept blameless at the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Blameless in that great day when
he comes. Kept, preserved, guarded. Where is our life? Our life is
now hidden in Christ, in God, Colossians 3.3. What a place,
what a place to be kept by God. These blessings from the Father
aren't they? To be eternally known, to be eternally foreknown,
is to be eternally loved, united to the Lord Jesus in a covenant
sealed, adopted by God, made heirs, and joint heirs with Christ,
made the righteousness of God in Christ. So often we become
familiar with the terms of the scriptures, the terms with which
God names and calls and describes his people. It is good to go
slowly, brothers and sisters, Good to meditate and think deeply
the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, sanctified by God the
Father. To have Christ is to have all
of God the Father's delight now and forever. Blessed, we are
blessed as children of God We're blessed when we see it, and we
are blessed when we don't. We are blessed when others curse
us. We are blessed when others reject
us. We are blessed when others seek
to harm us. We are blessed when we think
ill of ourselves at any time. When we look to the flesh of
ourselves and we look to the flesh of others, we are blessed
by a God who loves with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving
kindness, he draws thee, blessed and kept. I will never leave
thee nor forsake thee, says our Savior. blessed by God the Father. The second blessing is this blessing
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Earlier on in that passage at
Malachi, the play quoted from, it talks about
the son of righteousness arising with healing in his wings. Listen to this blessing. The
Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. On that Mount of Transfiguration,
his face shone like the sun. To shine is to be light, it means. I love that first word of God
in the scriptures. the power and the omnipotence
of our great and sovereign God. In the Hebrew it reads in Genesis
1, light be and light was. That's the power of our God,
to be light. It means to shine with benevolence
and favor. For God, these verses you know
so well, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. You must look
to Christ. To see God apart from Jesus Christ
is to follow an idol. We cannot have any communion
and we cannot allow our great God and our great Saviour to
be dishonoured by this nonsense that's around the world. The
most famous preacher in Australia said just a little while ago
that Allah is exactly the same God as our God. We should be
shocked and horrified by such blasphemy. Our God, our God is
not to be likened, is not to be likened to the wicked, idolatrous
efforts of wicked and sinful man to create gods in their own
image. This blessing, this blessing
is a remarkable blessing It just comes by divine operation, doesn't
it? God, this is how it's done, isn't
it? God, who commanded that light,
he has shined in our hearts. And it's the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is the blessing, isn't it? This face shines upon his people. It's a great blessing of acceptance,
a blessing of approval, accepted in the blood, washed spotless,
washed perfectly clean in the blood, redeemed, rescued, ransomed,
justified, by the righteousness of God in Christ. We keep saying
it's just what the Bible says. Our sins are taken away as far
as the east is from the west. In those days, at that time,
says Jeremiah, says the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall
be sought for, and there shall be none. The sins of Judah, and
they shall not be found. For I will pardon them whom I
reserve. God sees no sin in Jacob, neither
does he behold iniquity in Israel. What grace. What a wonderful
word grace is. What a wonderful description
of God's abundant mercy to his people. What a blessing. Perfectly suited, isn't it? The
work of the Saviour is perfectly suited to sinful wretches like
us. Grace. Eternal, sovereign grace. From His fullness have we all
received grace for grace. How full? What fullness is there
in the Lord Jesus Christ? What fullness is there in God?
Infinity, I don't know much about math, but infinity is an extraordinary
term because God can give all of his fullness to you, Eric,
and still have all of his fullness to give to you, Chris, and still
have all of his fullness to give to you, Ravi. and still have
all of His fullness to give to each and every one of His people.
He's not a miserly giver. He's infinite. He's infinite
from His fullness. This divine grace is the sovereign
and saving favor of God exercised in the bestowing of blessings
upon those who have no merit in themselves, no positive merits. You cannot be a recipient of
grace if you have anything to offer in any way at all. The recipients of grace are ill-deserving
and hell-deserving, and grace comes when there is no compensation
demanded from them. It's entirely unmerited. It's
entirely unsought. It's entirely unattracted by
anything in or from or by the objects. It cannot be bought. It cannot be earned. It cannot
be won by the creature. It's a blessing from God. Grace means the recipient has
no claim upon it and it cannot be due to anything in him. It comes as pure charity, unasked
for, undeserved and like Saul and me and you who have been
saved by grace undesired, we were running from God and God
arrested us. It's 100% opposed to works. 100%
opposed to works before, during and after conversion. Romans 11.6 presents that description,
doesn't it? That clear distinction. If it's
grace, it cannot be works. Cannot be works. And so many
preachers that I sat under would preach a sermon where they would
expound the scriptures in truthfulness. They would preach 70%, 80%, 90%,
and then they would present and take away
from the glory of my Saviour by saying, if you now do, they'd
get out the whip and they yoke and they flog. But in doing so,
they take all of the glory away from the triune God. And men are left deceived, looking
to themselves, no longer seeing that saviour that they spoke
of. They used his words. Saul was a preacher. Saul talked
much about God, talked much about God's Messiah, talked much about
God's electing love. He talked about so much and he
didn't have a clue who God was. Such are so many of the preachers
that surround us. Grace comes. Grace comes as a
blessing straight from the hand of a sovereign God. There is
no boasting. Grace is eternal. We read it
in 1 Timothy 1.9. Grace is free. Grace is sovereign. Grace is proclaimed as the gospel. It's the gospel of grace. Grace
is the only hope for sinners. The only hope for sinners who've
been brought by God to see what they really are. Kept by the Father. A blessing of keeping. shining face of a gracious son
the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace in the previous verse we have
the blessings the blessings of grace and that God bestows on
his people because we're reconciled to him, accomplished at Calvary,
presented right now in heaven. Here is the blessing of the Lord
to make us to know that reconciliation, for it to be something that is
ours, isn't it? Faith is a gift from God, and
then the scriptures describe it as your faith. Why? Because when God gives, you get
the gift. That's how big our God is, and
that's how sovereign He is. This countenance is the expression
of the faith. It's the revelation, the revealing
of the heart. So Abel's face was described
as a Cain's face, was a fallen face in Genesis 4 because he
was angry. He was angry because Abel brought
to God the Lord Jesus Christ. His own heart was wicked. A hidden
face is a face that's withholding support and favour, but a lifted
countenance speaks of acceptance, peace, prosperity, delight. It's a declaration that he is
well pleased with them. as well pleased with these objects of blessing
as he is well pleased with his son. It's the sovereign work
of the blessed Holy Spirit to make those things a living reality
in the hearts of God's chosen people. I love those verses in
John 16. Turn there just briefly. The Lord Jesus speaking in the
upper room, comforting his people, comforting those 11 who would
fall in the most extraordinary ways, boasting, boasting before
the Lord of their I wills, I wills, I wills. Peter boasting that
even at those 10, I know about those 10, but I'm going to be
right with you. Everywhere I think we read in
the scriptures of the boasting of men, we're about to see the
fall of men. These men fell, and there's the
Lord Jesus promising these remarkable blessings that would flow to
them by grace because of what he would do that next morning
on that cross. And the Holy Spirit is promised
to come as a comforter, as an enlightener. And what does he
do? Verse 14 of John 16. He shall glorify me. He shall glorify the Lord Jesus
Christ for he shall receive of mine and show it unto you all
things that the father hath are mine therefore said I that he
shall take of mine and show it unto you he'll take of mine he'll
take the glory of God's darling precious son crucified, risen,
glorified. He'll take all of that and show
it unto you. What a blessing, what a great
blessing to be shown God the Son by God the Holy Spirit. He shows us the remarkable blessings
of being the elect children of God. How many spiritual blessings
did we have in eternity? He has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in Christ before the worlds were formed, none missing,
none lacking in any way perfect and complete. and the Holy Spirit glorifies
the Son by taking the things of the Son and revealing them
to His elect. We see, as this verse says, that
promise of peace, that promise of peace with God. The Lord will lift up His countenance
upon thee and give thee peace. It's a remarkable word. So few
have it. So few that you meet in religion. I was with a young lady on the
way from Los Angeles, San Francisco over here just a few days ago
and immediately we sat down and she talked to me about how much
she loved the Lord Jesus. how much she and her husband
were working to evangelise people in this region. And we opened
up the scriptures and I talked to her about the Lord Jesus Christ,
just reading scriptures. All of what she had was peace,
was gone. And she in tears, and I pray
that they're tears of repentance from God, within 15 minutes said,
I think I'm lost. I don't know him. I don't know
the gospel. Brothers and sisters, I meet
so many people in religion whose peace can be taken away from
them by holding up the Lord Jesus in His glory before them. This
is a peace, brothers and sisters, that comes from a revelation
of the true God, and the more we see of Him, the more peace
we have. a peace that stabilizes us, a
peace that causes us to rest in Him, a peace that we have
by looking away from ourselves, looking away from our experiences,
looking away from our attainments, a peace that we have by looking
to Him. and seeing him high and lifted
up, seeing him absolutely sovereign, seeing him a successful saviour,
seeing him a great high priest, seeing him taking his own people
into the very holy of holies, into the very presence of God
by his own works and merits and shed blood. Micah 5 says, He
shall be their peace. If this God that Clay and I and
others describe is not your peace, then you will have no peace.
You have no right to claim peace in this world, and you'll have
none in eternity. And He will still be God, giving
peace to His own and still be glorious. He shall be their peace. As he said to those apostles
that night, my peace I give unto you. That's peace, brothers and
sisters. That's peace. And after the resurrection, there
was the apostle Thomas who'd had those promises. And for a
remarkable week, despite the testimonies of Mary despite the
testimonies of 10 reliable men and many others who walked with
Jesus and talked with the Lord Jesus said no unless I see I
will not believe what does God say to them when he meets them
in that room he says peace be with you A shocking thing to
be in unbelief. A glorious thing to have the
Prince of Peace come and give you peace. So often when I'm
talking to people, they want people like us and Clay. They want us to give them peace. we must refuse to. If they have
peace, this peace that we're talking about, the peace of God
that comes by our countenance lifted up upon thee by God the
Holy Spirit showing us the Lord Jesus, you don't need peace from
a man. If you get peace from a man,
another man will come and take that peace away. This is real
peace. He himself is our peace. The God of peace be with you. This peace, this peace again
is just the wonderful outflowing of the glorious finished work
of our Lord Jesus. Romans 4 And five, talk about
our justification. And Romans 5 begins with those
words you know well. Therefore being justified, being
justified freely, being justified freely by His grace, by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a
peace which God alone bestows. It's a peace remarkably that
passes all understanding. When God's peace comes to his
people, it comes in the most remarkable ways and in the most
remarkable places. It is astounding to read the
testimonies of those men who under those bloody persecutions
in England years ago died, tied to a stake, mocked by religion. They preached sermons while they
burnt God's saints. And it's remarkable to hear the
testimonies of those people who sang praises to God and had
peace in a place where there is no human reason to have peace. a peace with God, God's holy
law perfectly satisfied, taken away, taken away, erased for the people
of God, a peace, a peace for those whom
God sees no sin in, there is now no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus. A peace which comes from a lifted
up countenance. A peace, a peace, a precious
peace that God has promised. And in the last verse in our
reading, we have another remarkable blessing Another remarkable blessing,
let's just look at it briefly. And they, Aaron and his sons,
shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them. His name. What a remarkable thing. Children, by natural birth, have their
father's name. Spiritual children by sovereign
divine birthing and adoption, we bear our father's name. A wife in honor to her husband
and in recognition of that marriage from before the foundation of
that world, bears her husband's name. I've been studying Song
of Solomon at home and it's wonderful that Solomon, Solomon is that
great name the Lord gave to his son, that son, that son who came
after that appalling wickedness, the great Solomon. But he's bride,
his spouse, the Shulamite. Her name is the feminine of Solomon,
Solomar. You know those verses, I'm sure
well. What will his name be? In Jeremiah 30, 23, verse 6, In his days, Judah shall be saved
and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his name whereby
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness." That is his name. And then wonderfully and remarkably
and blessedly in Jeremiah 33 verse 16, in those days Judah shall be
saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely and this is
the name whereby she shall be called the Lord our righteousness
we bear his name we bear the name of the father in adoption
we bear the name of the son in marriage we bear his name but
it comes from God isn't it and they shall put my name upon the
children of Israel I love the promise we have in first
John chapter 3 the blessing of the love of the
Father. Behold what manner of love the
Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God. And here's a comforting word,
brothers and sisters. Therefore, therefore the world
knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now we are
the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall
be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like
him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that has
this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure. sons of God the bride of the
Lord Jesus Christ which is why the family of God come together
and they speak much we want to talk about He who married us
He who is so married to us that we are one with Him flesh of
His flesh and bone of His bones It's right that we bear his name. But before I finish, there is
a word that's mentioned six times here. 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. See, God speaks personally. Our Trinitarian God blesses individuals,
individually, specifically purposefully. I will bless them. I will bless them. Our great desire is to see our
Saviour lifted up upon the throne of this universe, glorious, glorious
in majesty glorious in his sovereignty, and to see and to talk much with
each other about that Son of God who came and blessed us individually
and purposefully. How did Paul describe it? The Son of God loved me and gave
himself for me. What a Saviour, kept by God the
Father, graciously blessed by the perfect and finished work
of God the Son, brought to peace, reconciled, brought to know that,
to have His name upon us. to have him declare his ownership
of us. Jewels, he says, precious, precious
jewels. Moses finished his life by declaring, the eternal God
is thy refuge. And underneath are everlasting
arms. And he shall thrust out the enemy
before thee and shall say, destroy them. What a picture. Everlasting arms underneath us. never let us to fall out of his
love and his favour and his grace everlasting underneath arms underneath
to lift us up. May God bless you all. Amen.