If you would turn with me again
tonight to Numbers chapter 16. It was a couple of weeks ago
that we began this chapter. And as you remember, a man named
Korah, along with two other men, Dathan and Abiram, rose up before
Moses along with 250 princes who are called men of renown.
And we see that in verses one and two of chapter 16. And what
did these men do? Verse two tells us that they
gathered themselves against Moses and Aaron. Verse three, and what
did they say? They said there in verse three,
you take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy,
every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Then they asked
this question, wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the
congregation of the Lord? In other words, do you think
that you're special? Do you think that you're more
holy than the rest of us? Is that why Moses, you made Aaron
your brother, the high priest? You know, we too are the sons
of Levi, just like you and Aaron. Verse four, and when Moses heard
it, he fell upon his face. You see, Moses was shamed by
their accusations. He was embarrassed by their sin.
He feared the Lord's divine displeasure upon them. Many times, In the
book of Exodus and Numbers, we see Moses interceding on the
behalf of God's people. No doubt he loved them. They
exposed their opposition to God's will and God's purpose. Moses
was God's prophet. Aaron was God's high priest. It was God who did the appointing
of both. Both of them picture Christ.
And in rejecting Moses and Aaron, they were rejecting Christ. They
were rejecting substitution. That's what the high priesthood
is all about. What they were saying was that
they could come to God themselves without a high priest. You can't. They were saying that they didn't
need anyone else to come to God. They were saying that they would
sacrifice unto God for themselves. They would be their own high
priest. Boy, that's dangerous, dangerous ground. Look down at
verse 28. And Moses said, 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. This isn't my doing. The Lord called me to do this.
The Lord called Aaron to be the high priest. Moses tells them
that he didn't take this responsibility upon himself. He didn't ask for
this position. Matter of fact, he tried to discourage
God from appointing him. In Exodus chapter four, verse
10, you remember that Moses said unto the Lord, oh my Lord, I
am not eloquent, a man of words, but I am slow of speech and slow
of tongue. And do you remember how the Lord
responded? He said, who hath made man's
mouth? Who maketh the dumb, or deaf,
or the seen, or the blind. Have not I the Lord? Now therefore
go, and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what to say."
You know, I've often thought about those words myself. We
stand up here to try to speak for God. And I'm telling you,
sometimes the words just don't come out like we'd like for them
to. But thank God He takes these words and makes them effectual
to sinners' hearts. We plant, we water, but it's
God that gives the increase. And aren't we glad? We're so
glad. We do all we can to prepare our
hearts, but only God can make his word effectual to them. We
ought to come prepared, seeking God, asking God to reveal his
word to us, to make it effectual. God has sent Christ to do all
these works, the work of substitution, the work of deliverance, the
work of salvation and redemption. And one day, very soon, all men
and women are going to know that God sent His beloved Son to do
these works that are unattainable by us. Yet there are many today
who, like Korah and his followers, insist on doing this work for
themselves and by themselves. And that's the lesson I believe
of this chapter. And just as God opened the earth
and swallowed these men, God will this time open up hell and
swallow up all who have attempted to reconcile themselves by their
own imagined holiness, righteousness, and doing. You would think that
having witnessed the justice of God against such presumptuous
sin would have had some lasting effect upon the people in Israel
who saw these things, but it didn't. It didn't. Look at verse
41. But on the morrow, all the congregation
of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron
saying, you have killed the people of the Lord. The very next day,
these same people were murmuring again against Moses and Aaron. And sadly, men and women don't
learn lessons from being judged and they don't turn after being
punished. Fear never brings about repentance. It's the goodness of God that
does. Korah and his cohorts believed themselves to be entitled to
the office of priest. They believed that they were
entitled to have a part in the matters of sacrifice before God,
but to do so is to intrude upon the work of Christ, and it only
brings fire from the Lord, verse 35, as we saw. And when God got
through with this group of men, All that was left was the brazen
censors that they had brought with them. And more than likely,
before God established the priesthood of Aaron and his sons, every
head of each family had their own censors to offer incense
and to the Lord, but these men still had theirs. And they had
an agenda. And they said, we're as holy
as you are. We're as special as you are.
We can offer our own sacrifices unto the Lord, but that's not
God's ordained means. God requires a high priest. And
Aaron was that high priest. And what a pitcher he is of the
Lord Jesus Christ. So God had Eliezer, the son of
Aaron, to gather all these censers and make broad plates for the
covering of the altar. And those broad plates and the
covering of the altar was to be a sign unto the children of
Israel. according to verse 38, and look at verse 40. It says,
to be a memorial unto the children of Israel. Now look at this,
that no stranger, which is not of the seed of Aaron, come near
to offer incense before the Lord, that he be not as Korah and his
company, as the Lord said to him by the hand of Moses. You see, no sinner has a right
to intrude in this matter of sacrifice and salvation, yet
men and women in religion today, once did I. They do just that
by claiming to offer a work by their own hands as a sacrifice
unto God, much like the manner of Cain. You know, God will not
accept the work of man's hands, nor the fruit of man's doings.
God will only accept the blood wrought offering of Christ, the
Lamb of God. Hebrews 11, four says, by faith
Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,
by which he obtained witness that he was righteous. God testifying
of his gifts and by it, he being dead yet speaking. And then John
the beloved said this, for this is the message that you heard
from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain,
who was of that wicked one and slew his brother and wherefore
slew he him because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous. To attempt To provide a sacrifice
by and from our own hands is an evil work. That's how serious
this is. It's an evil work. That's what
the Holy Spirit calls it in the scriptures. But to trust in the
blood and the sacrifice of Christ is a righteous work. You know,
we live in a day where men and women seek recognition and glory
in the matters of grace and salvation. But if salvation is by grace,
and it is, then the sinner that exalts himself, the scripture
says, shall be abased. And he that humbles himself shall
be exalted. Oh, may God enable us to humble
ourselves before the mighty hand of God. God will not share his
glory with another. How insane is unbelief? Did you
notice that verse 41 there begins with that word, but, and this
word, is used by Moses in opposition to what the reaction of the people
should have been to this memorial. It should have reminded them
that their salvation depended totally upon the priest to deal
with God for their sin. This was something that only
the high priests could do. And as we well know from our
study here in Numbers and also in Hebrews, that this was the
work that only the high priest could do. And it was pointing
to our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, who himself
offered that sacrifice, went into heaven itself and offered
God the sacrifice of himself. He's the high priest, he's the
sacrifice, he's the altar, he's all of it. That's why salvation's
of the Lord. But not a week later, Not a month
later, not a year later, but the very next day, the people
begin to murmur against Moses and Aaron, and there are many
who do the same with Christ. Unbelief can never believe. You
know, you think about this. With the smell of burnt human
flesh still in the air, those who fled in fear for their lives
just a day before now begin to murmur once again about the same
thing. Not just the families of the
ones that were deceased, not just the loved ones of those
whom the earth swallowed, but we're told the whole congregation. It says all the congregation,
every single one. In verse 41, we again see the
accusation against Moses and Aaron. You've killed the people
of the Lord. You've killed some fine folks.
They were good, God-fearing people. I can just hear them, can't you?
Isn't that what men say about other men? Oh, so-and-so, he's
a good man. He's a good man. He's a God-fearing
man. When they die, men say, oh, he
was a fine, fine Christian man. God says there's none good. No,
not one. There's none righteous, not a
single one. There are religious people in
the world today who, when compared to us, they might seem good.
I will be the first to admit it to my own shame that there
are folks that morally are much superior than I am. But there's
none good when compared to God. God is holy. God is just. God is righteous. And we all
fall short of the glory of God, do we not? The Bible's clear,
unbelief, yours and mine included, deserves the wrath of a just
and righteous God. The soul that sins, it shall
die. And God says, all souls belong to me. The soul of the
father, the soul of the son, they're all mine. And God has
the right to do what he will with his own. And we can't charge
God with sending people to hell. Men do that perfectly fine on
their own. God just lets men and women have
their way. That's why we often pray, Lord,
don't let me have my way. Don't let me have my way. Look
at verse 42, and it came to pass when the congregation was gathered
against Moses and against Aaron, that they looked toward the tabernacle
of the congregation and behold, the cloud covered it and the
glory of the Lord appeared. That's what that cloud represents,
the glory, the presence of God. And Moses and Aaron came before
the tabernacle of the congregation. And the Lord spake unto Moses
saying, get you up from among this congregation that I may
consume them in a moment." Moses, get away from them. And they,
speaking of Moses and Aaron, fell upon their faces. They fell on their faces in prayer
for the people. And again, we see their love
for God's people. So is there any hope for these
unbelieving rebels? There's only one hope for any
rebellious sinners. Look at verse 46, and Moses said
unto Aaron, now look at this, take a censer and put fire therein
from off the altar and put on incense and go quickly unto the
congregation and make an atonement for them for there is wrath gone
out from the Lord and the plague is begun. And Aaron took 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." And look at verse 48.
Boy, this is the gospel. And he, God's high priest Aaron,
stood between the dead and the living and the plague was stayed. The only hope for fallen sinners
is their high priest. Aaron takes the censer, which
held the fire, which came from off the brazen altar, as only
he is the high priest is allowed to do. Aaron takes the incense
in his other hand, and he puts it on the coals held within the
censer. And Aaron stands between the
dead and the living. He stands between God's wrath
and the hell deserving sinner, picturing the elect of God in
the plague this day. It's called substitution. No
doubt that Aaron pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. The fire pictures
the wrath and the judgment of God. The incense represents Christ's
substitutionary and intercessory work. And we're told that the
plague was stayed. The plague of our sin has been
stayed, friends, by Christ, our great high priest, who stood
as our one mediator between God and man. Isn't that what it says?
He stands between the wrath of God and us by becoming sin for
us. Now for a few minutes with the
time we have remaining, I want us to consider Aaron as a type
of Christ. He's so well pictured. Five things
here I'll give you quickly. I won't keep you long. First,
Aaron is a type of Christ, is the lover of the people. Now these people didn't love
him, but he loved them. For the second time in just two
days, they desired to kill him. They didn't want Aaron as their
high priest. They wanted to be their own high
priest. And it's the same today. Men hate Christ. Scripture says
without a cause. There's no reason for any to
hate him, but they do. They will not have Christ to
rule and reign over them. They do not desire his sacrifice
and offering. They say, I can take care of
it myself. by a work of righteousness, by
a sacrifice of my own hands, I can make atonement for my sin,
but they can't. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and he sent his son to be a propitiation
for our sins. That's God's ordained means of
putting away our sin and sin has to be put away, it just can't
be covered. We've talked about this many
times, to just cover your sin, doesn't put it away, it's still
there, it's just covered up. You sweep something under a rug,
some dirt under a rug, oh, it may look like the dirt's gone,
but it's still there, it's just covered. But sin's gotta be put
away, gotta be put away. And it can only be put away one
way, and that's by the sacrifice of our great high priest. That's
by the shared blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Aaron is now a
man of a hundred years old, and he runs as if he's a youth. He
feels his sensor and he begins to swing it toward heaven, causing
death to cease. 14,700 people had already died. You see that in verse 49. You
see, unbelief makes a quick work of death. And to put that somewhat
in perspective, I think the census says that the number of folks
in Madisonville, not counting the surrounding counties, is
only a little over 18,000. There in just a matter of a short
time, almost as many people that live in this city died because
of this plague. And what a picture this plague
is of our plague called sin. Aaron deserves to be highly praised
for his affection for these stiff-necked rebels. But he too was hated
without a cause. And how he pictures the Lord
Jesus, the presumptuous sin of Korah was against the priesthood,
and now God uses Aaron's priesthood, the very thing that they despised,
to save them. Isn't that amazing? Every man
and woman by nature are against the substitution of the Lord
Jesus Christ and his priesthood, but that's the very thing that
God uses to save us from our sin. Secondly, Aaron pictures
Christ, the great propitiator and high priest of God's people. The wrath of God had gone out
from the Lord, verse 46. The plague had begun and God's
wrath fell upon the people. And Aaron runs into the midst
of the people while the plague was upon them without any concern
at all for himself. Aaron ran with urgency carrying
that censer and the incense. And he laid that incense on the
fire which is a picture of Christ's sacrifice. Under the fire of
God's wrath, he offered himself as a sacrifice for sin. The incense
is a picture of Christ's blood that was shed, was a sweet-smelling
savor unto God. God smelt that precious blood,
and he goes, oh, sweet savor of life unto life. And Aaron
didn't stop the plague. It wasn't Aaron's doing here
that stopped the plague. The sacrifice of Christ stopped
it. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. Without the shedding of God's
blood, there's no forgiveness. Not just any blood could be shed,
the blood of God was shed. And there's two things necessary
to stop the plague of death. First of all, the right high
priest. And secondly, the right sacrifice,
and Christ is both. He is the faithful high priest
in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins
of the people, Hebrews 2.17. His blood is the sufficient sacrifice. Nothing else would suffice, only
his blood. The blood of bulls and goats
never could put away sin, but the blood of Christ put it away
forever. His blood is sufficient. He's
by his own blood entered in once into the holy place, having obtained. having obtained eternal redemption
for us. Daddy, that means it's finished.
That means there's nothing left for you to do. There's nothing
left for me to do. Christ has already done it. And then thirdly,
as a type of Christ, Aaron was the people's mediator. Now judgment
and justice must pass through God's mediator before it can
smite his people. And that's our comfort and assurance.
Aaron put himself in the pathway of the plague. He stood between
the dead and those that were still alive. And our Lord Jesus
stood in the place for us as our substitute and our sacrifice
for sin. The judgment of God has no claim
upon God's elect since God's judgment fell on Christ. And
God's law cannot extract justice from the people of God when it
was extracted the full recompense of sin's wages from the Lord
Himself. Sin's wages, which is death,
no longer has any claim on the chosen sinner when Christ Himself
died the just for the unjust. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Paul said, it's God to justify. Nobody's going to. Who is he
that condemneth? It's Christ that died. It's God
that died in the room instead of his people. Rather, that is
risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who also maketh
intercession for us. Do you know who that man is sitting
next to God? It's the God-man. Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Nothing shall be able to separate
us for God's love to and for his people is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. What are you and I going to offer
God? Our works? They're filthy rags. Our will? We will not come to
him that we might have life. What about our worth? We're worthless.
Our giving? Our righteousness? Anything that
we would dare to offer God must be perfect to be accepted. And
the only thing that I have that is perfect is Christ, my substitute. Therefore, he is all that I have
to offer my God. I can't offer him my heart. It's
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. But I can
offer up his son and I can be assured that he will always accept
him. Now God's wrath can never reach
me. Spiritual death cannot destroy
me. Physical death can, but that's
just a promotion. That's just a departure. That's
a good thing. Death is to die as gain. Hell can never consume me. Christ stood between the dead
and the living and the plague of sin was stayed. Christ is
sufficient. Christ is enough. Our great high
priest stands between our souls and the judgment of God. And
as Brother Montgomery used to always say, everything's gonna
be all right. Everything's good. Everything's
perfect. Fourthly, Aaron pictures and
typifies Christ, our great and marvelous Savior. Christ stood
alone in Gethsemane's garden. You know, that's where sin was
committed in a garden. The only right that Christ stood
in Gethsemane's garden, taking our sin upon himself. And as
it was, he sweat great drops of blood because of it. Christ
went to the cross alone. When those soldiers came and
they said, we're looking for Jesus Christ, he said, I am he,
but the word he there is italicized. And what the Lord said was, I'm
God, I am. And then he said, let these go
their way." That's salvation, isn't it? Christ suffered alone. Christ died alone. Christ was
unaided in all that he did. He did it all alone. Aaron didn't get any help from
Moses here. And it was the same with Christ.
He cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Aaron
stood alone with that censer And Christ shed his blood alone
on the cross. And the plague had begun its
dreadful work, and only Aaron could stay it. There was nothing
in their character that would cause Aaron to stand in their
room instead. And there's nothing in ours that
would cause Christ to do so. There was nothing in their ill
treatment of God's high priest that would cause him to stand
graciously in the gap or in the breach and save them from God's
devouring judgment. Why it was nothing but grace,
nothing but sovereign grace at the command of God that caused
Aaron to do this. And that's the way the Lord Jesus
saves his people. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that's not of yourself. It's a gift of God. And the only
difference between those glorified in heaven and those that are
doomed in hell is the difference that God made by His own sovereign
love, mercy, and grace. You can't take any credit for
it, neither can I. It would cease to be grace. It
would cease to be mercy. Redemption is by no merit of
ours. Jesus Christ is a most gracious
Savior and High Priest. Our Lord said this, He said,
I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there
was none with me. None. And it's not our prayers,
and it's not our tears, and it's certainly not our good works.
Found in the censer of God's high priest? No. It's the sweet-smelling
savor of Christ that satisfies God. Nothing else. Christ came
not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. He's able
to save to the uttermost those that come to God by Him. We don't
come of our own free will. He makes us willing in the day
of His power. And Christ is our all-sufficient
Savior. He's able to save. You can't
save yourself, but He can save you. All sin and blasphemy shall
be forgiven unto men. It doesn't matter how base in
value you may have been. If you believe and trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. Oh, but I'm too big
a sinner. No, you're not. No, you're not.
The only thing that'll keep you out of glory, out of forever
being with Christ, is unbelief. And then lastly, as a picture
and type of Christ, Aaron was the great divider. You know,
there are two types of people in this world. The dead and the
living. The saved and the lost. Believers
and unbelievers. Objects of grace and objects
of wrath. And the one great division between
those who are God's people and those who are not God's people
is Christ Himself. What think ye of Christ? He that
hath the Son has life. He that hath not the Son doesn't
have life. He's the great divider. A man
outside of Christ is dead and trespasses in sin, but a man
or woman found in Christ is a Christian. Oh, that's a term that gets thrown
around pretty loosely anymore. But it means something to the
one who trusts in Christ. To be Christ-like. A follower
of Christ. That's what a believer is. He
that believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is saved. He that believes
not is lost. Are you Christ's friend? Or are
you His enemy? Well, he's the great divider.
He's the great divider now, and he'll be the great divider in
the day of judgment. Christ shall divide them one
from the other. It says, as the shepherd divided
the sheep from the goat. And in these verses, we see God
glorified as the just God and Savior. He's revealed as our
substitute. He's revealed as our sacrifice,
our intercessor, our redeemer from the plague. He's our effectual
great high priest. and justice and grace and intercession
and mercy and love were all displayed for those here who hated him
without a cause. Isn't that amazing? What mercy,
what grace. I read these accounts and I know
that there is hope for me. I'm just like them. and yet he
had mercy on them. Oh, it's easy for us to love
those who love us, isn't it? But you try to love someone that
hates you, and someone who wishes you were dead. That's what Aaron
did here, and that's what Christ did. You and I are in this wilderness,
we're strangers, we're pilgrims, we're sojourners, but thank God
for our great high priest who intercedes for us. Sin so easily
besets us. Sin is something that we deal
with, and we will deal with it as long as we're in these bodies
of flesh. Paul said, oh, wretched man,
that I am, not that I was. But glory be to God that he intercedes
on our behalf. He's at the right hand of God
now, forever making intercession for us. Father, I died for him. I died for him. I died for her.
My, my, what intercession that is. Even when we don't believe,
yet He abideth faithful. He cannot deny Himself. And that's
why we have such comfort. It's not what we do or not what
we've done, but it's what Christ has done for us. And therefore,
He cannot deny Himself. Oh, may God be pleased to reveal
Christ, our high priest, to us afresh every day. And may He
do so for His glory, our good, and for Christ's sake.