If you would go ahead and turn
with me to Numbers chapter 15. As you know by now, the book
of Numbers depicts and typifies the people of God, the church
of God. The people of God are called
the church of God. They typify the people of God
in this world. And it also is about the grace
of God that fulfills His purpose and His promise of redemption
and deliverance and bringing His people into a promised land. We're just sojourning through
this life. This is not our home. We're just
passing through. We're sojourners. This is not
where we live. This is not where we will forever
reside, speaking of the people of God. And I'm thankful for
that. What mercy and grace is seen
in the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ, in spite of Israel's
disobedience, and in spite of their murmuring, and in spite
of their fear and unbelief, in spite of all these things, God
always abides faithful to those that he loved and chose and called
and saved. He cannot deny himself what he's
promised that he will do. The scripture says he is faithful,
that promise, and we should find such great comfort in that that
the God with whom we have to do loved us and gave himself
for us and promised to bring us home to him where we'll ever
forever be with the Lord Jesus. Now looking at verse one here,
it says, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, speaking to the
children of Israel and saying to them, when ye be come into
the land of your habitation, speaking of the land of promise,
the land of Canaan, he said, which I give unto you. Now that
phrase there, when you come into the land of your habitations,
which I give unto you, it carries with it a plain and evident token
of mercy. As we saw last time in chapter
14, God was angry because of Israel's unbelief and those who
murmured suffered. But in spite of that, there were
some who were the Lord's people. They too were murmurers. They
too complained. They too doubted God. After all, all of us are sinners. fallen sinner. There's none that
doeth good, not a one. There's none righteous, not a
single one. There's none that seeks after
God, not a single solitary person by nature. Paul asked this question
in Romans chapter 11, he said, has God cast away his people?
Then in the very next breath, Paul immediately answers his
own question and he says, God hath not cast away his people,
which he foreknew. Those whom God foreknew, he chose. Those whom God chose, he called. Those whom God called, he justified. And that word justified means
justly saved. He justly saved them. All those
whom God justified, he will one day soon glorify them. No, God has not cast away his
people. Paul goes on there in Romans
11 to quote the words of Elijah the prophet who Jezebel sought
his life. You remember that story. And
Elijah said, Lord, they've killed your prophets. They've tore down
your altars. They've dug up your altars. And
I am left alone. I'm the only one left that believes
you. I'm the only one left that trusts
you and they seek my life. We feel that way sometimes, don't
we? We talk to people every day that we know, some of our own
family, some that we love, and they don't hold dear the same
things that we do. And sometimes we wonder, are
we the only ones? Matter of fact, Paul said it
this way, and what sayeth the answer of God unto him? God said,
I have reserved to myself 7,000 men who have not bowed their
knee nor their heart, I might add, to the image of Baal. God
has reserved to Himself. Even so, at this present time,
in the time of Paul, and even so at this present time, in our
day and in our time, there is a remnant according to the election
of grace. Now, you know and I know that
remnant is just a small portion, a small part of the whole. There
are some who believe God, and there are some who trust in Christ. And the reason that there is
is because God has reserved them unto Himself. No other reason. Entering into the land of promise
by the Israelites of old and the entering into the glory of
heaven today is according to God's mercy and is according
to God's grace and the covenant of redemption founded upon the
love of Jehovah, which is secured and certain by Christ's faithfulness. Now, I want to detour you just
for a moment, but I want you to see this. Turn with me to
Psalm chapter 89, if you would. Hold your place in Numbers 15.
But I want you to look here at Psalms 89 at verse 27. These verses very well say what
I'm endeavoring to say. And as I read these verses again
today, I found such great comfort and confidence in knowing that
these things are so. Look at verse 27, speaking of
Christ. This is God speaking. God says,
I will make him my firstborn. God the son became a man. He said, I'll make him my firstborn
higher than the kings of the earth. And he most certainly
did. He's the king of kings and he's the Lord of lords. And then
in verse 28, God says, my mercy will I keep for him forevermore. That's my hope right there, that's
my confidence, is that God will keep mercy for him forevermore. And he said, and my covenant
shall stand fast with him. God's covenant of mercy is found
in Christ, kept in Christ, and it stands fast in Christ. There is no love, there's no
mercy, there's no grace, there's no forgiveness given to the sinner
apart from the Lord Jesus. It's all found in God the Son.
And God's covenant, the promise of God stands fast and secure
and certain in Christ and nowhere else. Verse 29, his seed also
will I make to endure forever and his throne is the days of
heaven. Now look at this, if His children
forsake my law and walk not in my judgment, if they break my
statues and keep not my commandments, then will I visit their transgression
with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Let me remind you
that the Lord chastened those whom He loved. God deals with
His people as we do with our children. And then he says in
verse 33, nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take
from him. From who? Christ. Nor suffer
my faithfulness to fail. And again, we see that God is
merciful and gracious to his people because of his loving
kindness for his beloved son. While our Lord was obeying and
suffering and dying, we were loved and chosen in Him. And because of Christ's obedience
and finished work, we're the sons and the daughters, the children
of God. Oh, I wish I could believe that
like all to believe. God is faithful to us as we are
in Christ. Now look at verse 34. My covenant
will I not break, not alter the thing that has gone out of my
lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie
unto David. His seed shall endure forever
and his throne is the sun before me and it shall be established
forever as the moon. and as a faithful witness in
heaven, Selah. You stop and you think about
that. Now last study, we saw that because of unbelief, those
over the age of 20 years old were to die in the wilderness.
Time and time again in chapter 14, it said their carcasses shall
fall in the wilderness. They would never see the land
of milk and honey, yet those under the age of 20 would, and
it was for one reason that they would enter, because God is gracious
and faithful to his word. And again, I tell you, there
was no difference between those who were over the age of 20 and
those who were under the age of 20. The only difference was
the difference that God made. They all murmured. None of them
believed. They were all sinners. The difference
between the two was the difference that God made. That's always
the case. Now in verses 3 through 15, the
Lord instructs those here under at the age of 20, those who would
enter into Canaan, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, concerning
the meat and drink offering. He'd instruct them concerning
the quantities and the specifics, and God instructs them in the
burn offerings and the peace offerings that they should give
as a vow of thanksgiving and to make a sweet savor unto the
Lord. And of course, we know that all
the offerings and sacrifices picture Christ, our substitute
and our sacrifice and our offering for sin. We covered this pretty
extensively in our study of Exodus. But for the sake of tonight's
study, I want us to just simply remember that Christ has fulfilled
the Old Covenant in every way. Christ is himself a new and a
better covenant with better promises and a better sacrifice offered
by an eternal high priest, which is so much better as we've seen
in our study of Hebrews. And God's condemnation of those
over 20 and his mercy to those under 20 sets forth God as a
just God and a savior. God cannot save apart from justice. God cannot be a savior if he's
not just. And that's why Christ died. It
was the only way that our sin could be justly paid for, and
sin's wages must be paid. God's justice will not allow
him to turn his back on our sin. The soul that sins, it shall
surely die. That's what the justice of God
demands. God's justice cannot be compromised,
and God remained just. So God himself paid the sin debt
of his people. He's the only one who could in
a just way. God in the person of Christ is
the only one who could perfectly keep the law of God and perfectly
satisfy God's justice. Now, I know you've heard me say
that a thousand times. It's true. He's a just God and
a savior. He cannot save any sinner apart
from his holy and strict justice. He must act justly to be a savior. And that's what we see throughout
the scriptures, is it not? In the garden, when our first
parents, Adam and Eve, sinned against God, did he kill them?
No, that's what they deserve. The soul that sins, it shall
die. That's what God said. But God
said, all souls are mine. The soul of the father and the
soul of the son, they all belong to God and God has the right
to do what he will with his own. He could have sent them to hell
and been just in doing so. But did God kill Adam and Eve?
No, he killed animals to cover them. I'm convinced that it was
lambs. He shed innocent blood to give
them a covering. That's what God does for His
people. Christ died, He shed His blood
to provide us with a righteous covering, a covering that is
perfect, perfectly righteous. because man's heart was only
evil continually. God destroyed the world with
the exception of eight souls. Of all the people at that time
that lived on the earth, only eight souls, only eight people
were saved. Was there anything good with
the eight that caused God to be mindful of them? No. Well,
then why? Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. If you and I are to escape the
wrath, judgment, and condemnation of God, we're gonna have to find
grace in the eyes of the Lord. God, for no reason outside of
Himself, determined to show Noah mercy and grace and spare him
and his family from the wrath and condemnation of God in the
destroying of the world. And those eight people represent
the elect of God, who for no reason other than it pleased
God to make them His people, who are put and shut up in that
ark, which pictures Christ, our refuge and safety. in the destruction
of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot was spared and brought out
with a sovereign hand, wasn't he? God sent angels to take him
out of that city. Why? Was there anything in Lot
that made him special? Why, he was a hard-headed fool
most of his life. It was God who is faithful and
it's God who is gracious. God is faithful and gracious
because of the sacrifice of Christ. It's clearly revealed in the
offering shown and revealed in the first part of this chapter.
And we must understand that the Old Testament sacrifices point
to Christ alone. I hope we've learned that. So
what we see in the remainder of chapter 15, back in Numbers,
back in chapter 15, this is what we see. The kindness of God is
revealed in the sacrifices that God commanded concerning Israel's
sins. Their sins were sins worthy of
death, but God graciously accepted the death of a substitute. a
sin offering, a burn offering instead, and they were a sweet
savor unto him. Paul wrote this in Ephesians
5. He said, and walk in love as
Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an
offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. Oh, I tell you, those sacrifices
of old may have been sweet-smelling unto the Lord, but not like the
sacrifice of His Son. I'm so thankful that God knows
our frame. He said that He did. He knows
our frame. I'm so thankful that God remembers
that we're dust. The gospel is that God justly
provided for us what we could not provide for ourselves. And
God provided for His people the only sacrifice and the only substitute
that He could accept without compromising His holy law and
strict justice. Only one way to be justly saved. Only one way for God to be a
just God and a Savior, and that is for God Himself to die in
our room instead. God provided the perfection that
He required, and that's what makes Him a just God and a Savior. Now, I want you to look down
at verse 22, and I want to spend the rest of our time on the last
part of this chapter. I think it's very instructive,
and I think it'll be very helpful to us, the Lord pleased to give
us understanding. But in verse 22, it says, and
if ye have erred and not observed all these commandments, which
the Lord has spoken unto Moses, "'Even all that the Lord hath
commanded you "'by the hand of Moses, "'from the day that the
Lord commanded Moses "'and henceforward among your generations, "'then
it shall be, if ought be committed by ignorant, "'without the knowledge
of the congregation, "'that all the congregation shall offer
one young bullock "'for a burnt offering, for a sweet savor unto
the Lord, "'with his meat offering and his drink offering, "'according
to the manner, "'and one kid of the goats for a sin offering.
and the priest shall make an atonement for the congregation
of the children of Israel and it shall be forgiven them for
it is ignorance and they shall bring their offering as a sacrifice
made by fire into the Lord and their sin offering before the
Lord for their ignorance and it shall be forgiven." "'All
the congregation of the children of Israel "'and the stranger
that sojourneth among them, "'seeing all the people were in ignorance. "'And if any soul sin through
ignorance, "'then he shall bring a she-goat of the first year
"'for a sin offering.'" Now though our sin for the most part, friends,
is willful, and it is. There are many sins that are
committed through ignorance and omission. And that's what the
Lord is talking about here. But in tender mercy, God provides
a sacrifice, and He provides a substitute and an offering
for sin for that ignorance. Whether a lamb, a kid, or a bullock,
or a she-goat, God accepts those sacrifices, all which picture
Christ, our substitute, and they provide forgiveness, or they
did temporarily anyway, for the children of Israel who had sinned,
but they're all pointing to Christ. And I see the gospel so clearly
in verse 28, look at it, it says, and the priest shall make an
atonement for the soul that sinned ignorantly. "'when he sinneth
by ignorance before the Lord "'to make an atonement for him,
"'and it shall be forgiven him.'" Oh, our great high priest, the
Lord Jesus, he offered the sacrifice of his own body and his own blood
in our room instead, and God forgives us in him. What a comfort
to know that God has mercy and provides forgiveness for even
the sins that we ignorantly and unconsciously commit. But look
at verse 30. but the soul that doeth presumptuously."
Now that word ought there is italicized, meaning it was added. But the soul that doeth presumptuously,
whether he be born in the land or a stranger, the same reproaching,
that's a strong word. It means reviles, it means blasphemes. the Lord. The same reproacheth
the Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Because he hath despised the
word of the Lord, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall
utterly be cut off, his iniquity shall be upon him." For those
who sin presumptuously, meaning haughtily, meaning in a self-exalting
way, proudly and arrogantly. The justice of God is revealed
without mercy. The presumptuous sin is revealed
as a reproach to God, as we saw there in verse 30. It's revealed
as blasphemy. Those who sin presumptuously,
we're told in verse 31, despise the word of the Lord. They've
broken God's commandment and they shall be utterly cut off
and they'll die in their sin. Their iniquity will remain upon
them. Now that's a death sentence.
Unless the Lord is pleased to put our sin away, we're gonna
die. Why? Because the wages of sin
is death. The soul that sins, it shall
die. And what a great sin to presume to know better than God. What a great sin to presume to
know better than Christ. To do so is a reproach. It's
to revile. It's to angrily criticize. That's
what the word revile means. It's to angrily criticize and
blaspheme God. It's to despise His Word. It's
to break His commandment on purpose. It's to say, we will not have
this God to reign over us. Now in the matter of the, sin
of presumption, no specific error is mentioned in these verses.
We're told for the sin of presumption there's no offering and therefore
the punishment is dead, cut off. We're given one example. It has
to do with the attitude, now listen, it has to do with the
attitude that one has toward the authority and government
of God. It's basically an opposition
of the authority and government of Christ. Upon His shoulder,
the government of God rests. and it's on Him who has all authority
given to Him. So I want you to listen to me
on this. It's no small thing, no small
thing at all, not to give Christ all the glory in the matter of
salvation. To think that we somehow had
to make a choice in the matter, that we had to lend our will
to God to save us, that we had to give our hearts to the Lord
Jesus, it strips Christ of the authority and the power that
God gave him to save whom he will. Man's free will is, it's
no small infraction or violation. And if you insist that you have
a choice in the matter of being saved, I'm afraid you'll perish
in your sin. It's no light matter. Am I saying
that God saves you against your will? No, I'm not saying that
at all. I'm saying that God makes you willing in the day of His
power. He makes you willing to take
sides with Him against yourself, and He makes you willing to trust
alone in Christ's accomplished work. That's what God's done
for all of His people. Christ plus anything is nothing
but death. Adding anything to the work of
Christ, even if it's a decision, is being presumptuous. It's a
serious, serious matter. God does not love any who reject
the authority of His Son. God will not accept any who do
not trust in Christ's finished work. It's here that we see the
seriousness of this presumption. Look at verse 32. And while the
children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man
that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day. And they that found
him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron and
to all the congregation and they put him in ward because it was
not declared what should be done to him." At this point, it wasn't
clear what the penalty for doing this on the Sabbath was. And
the Lord said unto Moses, verse 35, the man shall be surely put
to death. "'All the congregations shall
stone him with stones "'without the camp.'" For picking up sticks
on Sunday? Yes. "'And all the congregation,'
verse 36, "'brought him without the camp "'and stoned him with
stones, "'and he died as the Lord commanded Moses.'" Now,
we have the benefit of the whole word of God, and we see the penalty
here of such presumption. But I'm telling you, to add anything
to Christ's work that brings rest, His finished work's the
only thing that brings rest. We must cease from our works
and rest. Why? Because the work's finished.
This is God's work and creation was finished. God didn't rest
because he needed to get his second wind. No, he created the
heavens and the earth and man and beast and everything in the
world in six days and he rested because his work was finished.
So what does this teach us? Well, it teaches us that every
Sabbath day has something to do with the finished work of
Christ. And it has to do with resting
from all our labor because there's nothing left for us to do. Now
that's what I wish we could really get a hold of. We are to rest
because Christ has finished the work. There's nothing for us
to do. Why do we insist on adding something to that finished work
that God has already accepted? And this also teaches us that
the work, when you're commanded to rest in that finished work,
is the actual heart and nature and revelation of what presumption
really is. presuming that your work may
and must be added to that of Christ's work will in the end
bring your eternal demise." It really will. God gets all the
glory for everything, but especially in the matter of salvation. Would
you agree? God will not share His glory
with another. Attempting to add to the work
God did for us is an attempt on our part to rob God of His
glory. And then lastly, the Lord gives
the children here a way to remind themselves to obey his commandments. Sad that he has to do that. Under
the old covenant, everything had to do with sight. Look at
verse 37. And the Lord spake unto Moses
saying, speaking to the children of Israel and bid them that they
make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout
their generations. and that they put upon the fringe
of the borders a ribband of blue. And it shall be unto you for
a fringe that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments
of the Lord, and do them, and that ye seek not after your own
heart and your own eyes, after which you use to go a whoring."
that ye may remember and do all my commandments and be holy unto
your God. Now here the Lord tells the people
to sew a blue ribbon on the fringe of their garments. And these
fringes were some sort of loop and the rib band was a plated
or a braided cord that went through the loops and served as to draw
the garment like a drawstring. These fringes were there for
the specific purpose of showing that the commandments of God
were from heaven. which were represented by the
color blue, and that they were to keep the Word of God. By wearing
these blue ribbons, they were to constantly see and constantly
be reminded that their walk and their work and their raiment
was all about eternity, about God and where He is. And these
ribbons would remind them that they were to be separated unto
God who delivered them out of Egypt. This was another token
of God's mercy and grace. But as all things that men can
see, these fringes ultimately became the only thing that self-righteous
men wanted you to see. By the time we reached the days
of our Lord, this kind and gracious reminder that God had given us
as a means became a means, I should say, of man's self-righteous
display. The Pharisees in our Lord's day
had made this reminder not to remind themselves, but to remind
others of just how well they kept the law. Our Lord said in
Matthew chapter 23, verse five, but all their works they do for
to be seen of men. They make broad their phylacteries
and enlarge the borders of their garments. The Pharisees made
their phylacteries bigger and better and the size of their
blue ribbon was proof that their holiness and sanctification and
their love for the law. Oh, look at the Pharisee. Look
how much they love God. Look how holy they are. Beloved,
if it can be seen, it will be made an object of self-righteousness. It's the same today with those
who wear these priestly robes. I still haven't figured that
out. It's nothing but a show of imagined righteousness. It's
an attempt by man to be holier than thou. Our Lord Jesus didn't
wear that religious garment, did he? No, he dressed like every
man did. There was nothing in him that
we'd see the spiritual beauty of him. My, what a beautiful
soul he was. The child of God walks by faith
and not by sight, and the true believer disowns and disallows
and shuns anything that the world and religion considers to be
evidence of salvation. For we're saved by hope, but
hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth
he yet hope for it? It's Christ in you that's the
hope of glory. Dear Lord, don't let me presume.
Let me rest in Christ. Let all my hope be in Him and
the work that He finished. I pray that for you and me both.
All that we may rest in what Christ has done for us. That's
the only place true rest is found. That's what you're resting in,
isn't it? His work, His finished work for you. Let all my hope
be in Him. and His perfect righteousness.
Let me rest in Christ, who is my Sabbath. Amen. Amen.