You can go ahead and turn with
me to Numbers chapter 14, if you would. One thing that has
become increasingly clear to me, especially as we go through
the books of Numbers on Wednesday evening and the book of Hebrews
on Sunday morning, is the necessity to believe and trust the salvation
of our souls to the finished work and the eternal accomplishment
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's really the only way we're
to ever find any rest. When I speak of the finished
work of the Lord Jesus, I speak of the finished work of putting
my sin away. That work's finished. Christ
finished it when he died in my room instead on the cross. Christ
finished it when he rose from the dead and he ascended on high
and he's sitting at the right hand of God pleading the believer's
cause. That work's finished. And that's
where I can rest. I have great confidence in what
he has accomplished for me. And I've come to know for certain
that as long as we look to ourselves, as long as we look within, we'll
never have any peace or rest. We'll never find any acceptance
with God, any approval with God, and we'll never find any rest
or peace for our souls. Eternal rest, rest now and rest
forever can be found only in Christ, the perfect substitute
the sacrifice for sinners and the savior of those whom God
gave him before the foundation of the world. And if my salvation
has nothing to do with what I do and everything to do with what
Christ has done for me, then I have every reason to rest and
be assured that his eternal security is mine. I hope you see that. And I hope God enables you and
me both to rest in that blessed truth. The Lord Jesus said, my
sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I
give them eternal life. It's what it is, it's life eternal. This is life eternal that they
might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ and thou
is seen. You won't find any salvation
in any other. He said, I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. You see, the child of God, the
one who trusts in Christ is eternally secure. My father which gave
them me is greater than all. No man is able to pluck them
out of my father's hand, kept by the sovereign hand of God.
Well, that's a good place to be. That's a place where you
can rest. I love to think about this. Redemption
is not gained by anything I do, and my salvation cannot be lost
by anything that I do. And people say, oh, brother,
be careful in preaching that because you'll give folks a license
to sin. Not a believer you won't. Christ's
sacrificial work as a lamb slain before the foundation of the
world was and is and will always be accepted by God the Father. And I could just rest right there. Now that does not mean that a
believer will continue in sin willfully so that grace may abound. Paul said, God forbid. What shall
we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid. You know, that's
an expression that Paul used very often to express shock and
abhorrence of something. It's shocking that men and women
think that where sin abounds and grace much more abounds means
that they can continue in sin. Well, we can just live like hell.
We can just live like we want to because God, after all, is
a God of grace and he forgives sin where sin abound and grace
much more abounds. God forbid. God forbid. God's love, mercy, and grace
to us doesn't give us a license to sin. How shall we that are
dead to sin live any longer therein? And I love to think about that,
dead to sin. We're not dead to sin's influence. We're reminded of that every
minute of every day, aren't we? We're not dead to sin's presence. It's ever before us, Paul said.
We're not dead to sin's effects, but we are dead to sin's penalty. We're dead to sin's guilt. Sin
can no longer condemn us. And it's all because of what
Christ did for us. And there I can rest. Child of
God, rest. Rest in Christ, finish work. Now, let me ask you a biblical
question. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Paul follows that question up
by a statement and he says, it's God that justifies. If it's God
that justifies, if it's God that justly put my sin away, no one
can condemn me, no one can condemn you. God's law has to be kept. God's holy and strict justice
has to be satisfied. God has to justly pardon to justly
save a chosen sin. God can't just say, oh, okay,
well, you know, I know you're not perfect, but we'll let that
slide. No, sin's gotta be dealt with.
Either you've got to deal with it, or Christ, your substitute,
if he is your substitute, will deal with it. I'm gonna rest
in him dealing with it, because I can't. I can't. It has to be
perfect to be accepted. I've never done one thing perfect. Everything that I've ever done,
every thought I've ever thought, every message I've ever preached,
every prayer that I've ever prayed, full of sin. The older I get,
the more that's a realization to me. The clearer I think I
see my sin and thankfully my need. Oh, I need my sin to be
put away and there's only one who can put it away. God can
justly put away sin by the substitution of His self. You see, God and
the person of His Son came into the world, became flesh and blood,
dwelt among us, took the form of a servant, made Himself of
no reputation. Boy, that's something when you're
God. Well, we find it difficult, if not impossible, to make ourselves
of no reputation, and we're nothing and no one. But God? God took
on the form of a servant. God made himself of no reputation. God humbled himself unto death,
even the death of the cross, so that God might be both just
and justifier of them who believe in Christ. And that's where the
believer's confidence lies. That's where our hope was found.
That's the riches of God's glory in a mystery that Paul talked
about in Colossians 1. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. There's no hope anywhere apart
from him. Now we know that Israel did not
believe when God said that he had accomplished all things necessary
for what he had promised them. God said, I'm gonna give you
a land that flows with milk and honey. I'm gonna drive out all
your enemies. It's as good as done if God says
it. Now, if I tell you something, you might take it with a grain
of salt, because even though I may have good intention, good
intentions pave the road to hell, I always heard. Good intentions
won't save you, but the sovereign purpose of God and the salvation
of sinners in Christ will. The finished work of the Lord
Jesus will. Israel didn't believe and when
God said that he had accomplished all things necessary, they doubted
and they didn't believe God. What did God promise them? Complete
deliverance, complete deliverance. God promised to give them a land.
He promised to do away with their enemies. God always does what
he promises. Did you hear me? God always does
what he promises. what he promises, in hope of
eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the
world began. Two weeks ago, we considered
here in Numbers chapter 14, verse 11, in which God asked two questions. The first was, how long will
this people provoke me? And the second question was,
how long will it be ere or before they believe me? And then the
Lord added these words there in verse 11. He said, for all
the signs which I have showed among them. You know, the 10
plagues that God did in Egypt were signs. They were signs. All the signs I showed among
them. One Hebrew man says to another, did you hear about the
Nile River? Why? It's been turned into blood. But that's not all, every well,
every fountain, every water pot in Egypt is now turned in the
blood. Well, how's your water? It's
perfectly fine. And yours, it's fine too. You
see, the water in Goshen is as refreshing as ever. This was
a sign from God. A young Hebrew boy says to another,
did you hear that noise last night? Well, it kept me up all
night. The boy said, yeah, it did me
too. What was that? And he said, my dad said it was
frogs. You know, he works over in Egypt
at the brick factory and he said that frogs were everywhere. Frogs in the palace, frogs in
the houses, frogs in the bedroom, frogs in the bed, frogs in the
cupboard, frogs in the oven, frogs, frogs, everywhere frogs. Wherever you looked, wherever
you reached, there was a frog. And the young boy asked the other,
have you seen any frogs? And he said, I ain't seen no
one. They must all be in Egypt. "'cause there's not one frog
in the land of Goshen." And God said, signs, signs, everywhere
signs. Here comes the lice, it's a sign
from God. Here comes the flies, God said
he'd send them. Pestilence, sick animals, Egypt's
cattle are dying, but not one cow or calf died in the land
of Goshen. It's a sign, I'm telling you.
God does what he says he'll do. Bulls on the body, storms in
the air, lightning on the ground, locusts in the field, three days
of darkness, but there was light in Goshen, and there's still
light in Goshen. God promised it all, and God
brought it all to pass, and God said, they're all signs that
I've shown. The Lord of hosts has sworn,
saying, surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass, and
as I have purposed, so shall it stand. I wonder sometimes
if I really believe that. Lord help thou my unbelief. Then
the Lord sent the 10th sign and it was death. It was a plague
to Egypt, but it was a sign to Israel. And after all God did
for these helpless slaves in Egypt, and they would not believe
that the Lord that began that work of redemption and deliverance
could or would also finish and complete it. How evil is unbelief? Paul said, being confident of
this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you
will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. And maybe this
will help us to understand better. That which is essential to God,
now listen, that which is essential to God is his glory. He's jealous
of it. He's jealous for it. He won't
share it with another. He won't give it to another.
And unbelief questions the word and the truth of God. Not believing
that God is able to deliver his people completely from the bondage
and the slavery of their sin is worthy of the wrath of God.
It really is. Whether Then or now, God is worthy
to be believed, is he not? Unbelief is to distrust God,
distrusting his word, his son, his power, his willingness, his
faithful promises, his ability to perform them, just the same
as calling God a liar. He that believeth not hath made
him God, a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave
of his son. To not rest and to trust in the
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ is nothing short of unbelief,
and it's nothing short of telling God, I don't believe you, you're
a liar. To question God's power and ability to secure our complete
deliverance is an ultimate insult to a sovereign who does what
he wills in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. And I suppose unbelief is the
worst of all sin, unbelief's the mother of all sin, and God
won't tolerate it. Look at verse 12. God said, I
will smite them with a pestilence. God said, I'll disinherit them,
and I'll make of thee, Moses, a greater nation, mightier than
they. Now, for God to disinherit insinuates
much, much more than just someone writing someone out of a last
will and testament. You know, we've all heard stories
about wealthy men and women get sideways with one of their children.
I'm gonna write him out of the will. That simply means I'm not
gonna leave him any inheritance of possessions. It means a whole,
whole, whole lot more when God disinherits someone. It means
to be cast out. That's what the word means, cast
out of God's good graces. It means to be ruined and forever
lost. It means to be impoverished.
That's what we are in our sin. God said, I'll make you, Moses,
a greater nation, and I'll make a nation more mighty, numerous,
stronger, greater, more powerful. You know, after the fall of Adam,
man quickly lost sight of God's sovereign power, his authority,
and his greatness. And ever since the fall of man,
mankind has endeavored to bring God down to man's level. God
speaking to every fallen son and daughter of Adam says through
the Psalmist, you thought, that's our problem. It's not what we
think, it's what God says. You thought that I was altogether
such a one as you, but you were wrong, you were wrong. And I'll
reprove you, I'll correct you, I'll set things in order. God
always sets things in order. If God can't do what he says
he can, then we all have reason to worry. But if he can, then
we have no reason to worry. Our salvation depends wholly
and completely on what God himself has done for us. Will you be
an awful repetitious? Thank you. I intend to be. Oh,
I wish I could get this through my thick skull and down into
my heart, but I can't do it. God's got to do it for me. Boy,
it takes the sovereign hand of God to get it 18 inches from
here to here. Only God can do it. God did just
what he said he'd do, and the punishment was severe. Every
Israelite who was over the age of 20 years old that joined in
this blatant rebellion and unbelief would die in the wilderness and
never possess the land of promise. But that's not the gospel. The
story doesn't end there. The gospel is about how God saves
sinners. And in a few verses here, we
see the heart of a man named Moses who wanted more than anything
else to see his God glorified. He wanted more than anything
else for God's glory to be displayed and God's glory to be declared
and God's glory to be clearly seen. God said, I'm gonna wipe
them out. He said, Moses, I'm gonna start
over with you. That's what God said. Those who
rebelled against me, those who distrusted me, who willfully
disobeyed me, their carcasses shall fall in the wilderness.
And they did. And some will say, we'll see
their preacher, a sinner has no eternal security. A sinner
is not once saved, always saved. Every person over 20 died in
the wilderness. but we've got to remember. And
that's why I said in the beginning that I'm thankful that we're
studying these two books because man, they just shed so much light
on one another, don't they? We're studying in Hebrews about
that old covenant. As in all the Old Testament scriptures,
God is dealing with Israel under a conditional covenant. It was
conditioned on their obedience. It was conditioned on their faithfulness. It was conditioned on their disobedience. You see, a conditional covenant
requires reaction from God. God dealt with Israel according
to their obedience. God dealt with them according
to their disobedience. God reacted to their unbelief. An unconditional covenant only
requires action. And that's what I want you to
see. were saved by the action of another. God saves his people
unconditionally. It was conditioned on Christ's
finished work. And this is why the believer's
salvation is forever and it never changes. It's conditioned and
it's accepted on the perfect righteousness and holy action
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm perfectly holy. I'm perfectly
just and righteous before God. not by works of righteousness
that I've done, but according to His riches and mercy in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Because of Christ's finished
work, God now sees me so. Christ, my substitute, finished
keeping every law that I couldn't keep, and that was all of them.
Not only was I to keep them all, but I had to keep them all perfectly.
Christ put away every sin I ever committed or will commit, and
God said concerning me, saved to the uttermost. Saved to the
uttermost. That sinner is saved to the uttermost. Christ said, it's finished. God
said, I'm satisfied. Christ's work of righteousness
was perfect, and it remains forever so. I can rest right there. I can rest there. Now, a sinner
will either be saved and delivered from sin by Christ's one offering
for sin, the sacrifice of himself, or they'll be forever damned. And either way, God is glorified
in mercy or in judgment. God is glorified in grace or
in wrath. God is just and his glory is
magnified in his justice. Oh yeah, that's right. In the
substitution of Christ, God's justice is not compromised. In
Christ, God can justify the ungodly and remain perfectly just. How? Because Christ paid the
penalty in my sin. What's the wages of sin? It's
a debt. Christ paid those wages by his
own debt. The soul that sins, it shall
die. And Christ died to pay my sin debt. And when he did, his
perfect righteousness was imputed to me. It was charged to my account.
Like that man that went down to Jericho and fell among thieves
and left for dead. Christ says, take care of him,
whatever he owes, I'll pay it. And he did. And he did. It's
not conditioned on me. Not conditioned on what I do,
not conditioned on what I am. It's unconditional as far as
I'm concerned. It's not accomplished by anything
I do. It's conditioned on all that
Christ has already done. Finished, what a wonderful word
that is. And that's the only way in which God can justly save
or justify a sinner. Sin has to be dealt with, not
by us. We can't deal with it. It was
dealt with in the death and burial and resurrection of Christ. The
words of Moses here are the words of that new covenant that we've
been studying about in the book of Hebrews. That new covenant,
that better covenant with a better priesthood and better promises. You see, it was an unconditional
covenant. It was an unconditional promise.
Had nothing to do with me. Moses speaks to the honor and
the glory and the sovereignty and the reputation of God. In
other words, Moses is jealous for God's glory. And we see it
so clearly in these verses. Look at verse 13. And Moses said
unto the Lord, Lord, if you're gonna wipe them out, if you're
gonna start all over again with me, he said, then the Egyptians
shall hear it. For thou broughtest up this people
in thy might from among them. They're watching, Lord. "'And
they'll tell it to the inhabitants of this land, "'for they have
heard that the Lord art among his people, "'this people, that
thou, Lord, art seen face to face, "'and that thy clouds standeth
over them, "'and that thou goest before them by daytime "'in a
pillar of a cloud and in a pillar of fire by night.'" Words are
gonna get around, Lord. Now if thou shalt kill all this
people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of
you will speak saying, because the Lord," look at this, because
the Lord was not able, not able to bring this people into the
land, which he swear unto them. Therefore he had slain them in
the wilderness. They're gonna portray you as
a frustrated God who couldn't have his will and couldn't have
his way and just got frustrated and fed up and killed him. Verse
17, and now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great. according as thou has spoken
saying the Lord is long suffering and of great mercy forgiving
iniquity and transgression and by no means clearing the guilty,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and
to the third and fourth generation. I know Lord that you're holy
and you're righteous and you do what's right. But verse 19,
pardon. Pardon, I beseech thee, iniquity of this people according
unto the greatness of thy mercy. Moses here pleads with God on
the basis of his own mercy. Boy, that's a good place to plead
with God. Lord have mercy on me for Christ's
sake. For Christ's sake. I don't deserve
it. But Christ died for my sin. He shed his blood to wash my
sin away. Do it for his sake, that it might
give you the glory. If God wiped them out and started
over, the enemies of God would say that God was not able to
finish or perform what He had promised. It'd bring reproach
to God's power. It would bring criticism to God's
ability. It'd bring shame to God's long-suffering. It would bring disgrace to God's
mercy. It'd bring dishonor to God's
forgiveness. And it's the same thing with
the gospel that we preach. If all for whom Christ died are
not kept by the power of God and eternally saved by the finished
work of Christ, then the enemies of the gospel would have reason
to say that God was not able to perform that which he had
promised and started within us. They'd say God couldn't finish
what he started. The enemies of the true gospel
would then have the right to mock and to deny the efficacious
work of Christ's redeeming power. But God is able to finish what
He started. And God did finish what He started. And being jealous for the glory
of God is being jealous for the ability of God. Did you hear
me? I hate to hear people make God
out to be a helpless beggar. That's what they do. You know,
things like God needs you and don't tie God's hands, let go
and let God, making God out to be a beggar. God loves everybody,
won't somebody just love him back? That's not the God of the
Bible. That's not the God here in Numbers
chapter 14. No, sir. We're the beggars, not
God. I have no confidence at all in
my ability to save myself or to work of righteousness by my
own obedience. I mean none. If that was my hope
of being saved, I'd have no hope. And it would be a sad existence. I think about folks that don't
have this hope of redemption in Christ. And I think to myself,
what a sad existence. It's sad, it's a sad existence.
I must fully rest and lean completely in the ability of Him who satisfied
the law and justice of God in my room instead. So I can't look
to David. You can't look to yourself. I
can't look within and find any hope. I can only look to Christ
who is in me, the hope of glory. And that's where God looks. When
he looks at me, he sees my beloved mediator. Moses cries for the
Lord to be just and justify here, to do only what he is God can
do. By the blood and righteousness
of Christ, God forgives the iniquity while in no wise clearing the
guilty. That's the way we had to be saved.
God can't sweep our sin under a rug. It's gotta be dealt with.
God punishes the guilty and he forgives the sinner in the substitute. And Christ is made guilty because
my sins put on him. In David Edmondson, the sinner
is forgiven because Christ being made guilty, paid for my sin
in full. I was going through some old
paperwork, some old loan papers and stuff. I didn't realize how
many loans I had in the past. Oh, thankful don't have that
bondage anymore. And I was going through these
things and shredding them and I found one stamped in red ink,
paid in full. And you know, my mind went back
to that loan and the bondage it brought every month. Make
that payment, make that payment. Then one day they said, no more
payment need be made, it's paid in full. Christ paid it in full
with the red stamp of his blood. God punishes the guilty and forgives
the sinner in Christ. Do you desire to glorify God?
Are you and I jealous for his glory like Moses was? Does God
pardon? Will God pardon? Yes, yes, yes. He'll glorify himself in the
salvation of sinners by the substitutionary and finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Do you see that the work's finished?
Can you rest in Christ's finished work? It's the only place you
can rest. it's there that God gets all
the glory. God will not share His glory
with another. Look at verse 21. God says, but
as truly as I live all the earth shall be filled with the glory
of the Lord because all those men which have seen my glory
and my miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and
have tempted me now these 10 times and have not hearkened
to my voice, surely they shall not see the land which I swear
unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoke me see
it." As I said a moment ago, God is glorified in mercy or
in wrath. God is glorified in salvation
or in judgment. God's gonna be glorified. I want
God to be glorified. All the earth shall be filled
with his glory. So I'm gonna trust by God's mercy
and grace, I'm gonna trust in Christ's righteous work. You
know why? First and foremost, because Christ
is God and the work that he did for me is perfect. And secondly,
I'm gonna trust in Christ's righteous work because it's a finished
work. I'm gonna trust in Christ's righteous
work. I believe that Christ kept the
law for me. I trust that God is now satisfied. His strict justice is satisfied
because Christ died in my place. I've seen the glory and the miracle
that Lord has done for me and in me. Oh, I haven't arrived. Sure not saying that. But by
his grace, I wanna hearken to his voice. That doesn't give
me any reason to glory. If I do all these things, I am
yet but an unprofitable servant doing only what is expected of
me. I'm made God's servant because
of what Christ has done for me. And truly it was God who did
it. Look at verse 24 and I'll finish. But my servant Caleb,
faithful dog, Faithful dog. God's people were like that Syrophoenician
woman say, yay, Lord. A dog's what I am. Just give
me some crumbs from the table. Give me some crumbs from the
table. Give this dog just a few of the children's crumbs and
it'll be all right. My servant Caleb, because he
had another spirit within him and hath followed me fully, him
will I bring into the land where into he went and his seed shall
possess it. You see, brothers and sisters,
our only confidence is found in the following of our good
shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep. Our only hope
of redemption is that God might be pleased to make us new creatures
in Christ, put within us a new spirit, put within us a new heart,
one that believes and pants after God for righteousness. Our only
confidence is found in Him. who is a God like unto thee that
pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant
of his heritage. He retaineth not his anger forever
because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he'll have
compassion on us. He will subdue our iniquities
and thou will cast all their sin. How many of them? All of
them. How many of them? Every single
one. And he cast them all into the
depths of the sea. Thou will perform the truth to
Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, which thou has sworn unto our
fathers from the days of old. God will perform. He'll finish
what he started. He has. May God be pleased to
make it so for Christ's sake.