Go ahead, if you would, and turn
with me again to Numbers chapter six. Be looking at verses 22
through 27. I have told you before that oftentimes
when I corresponded with Brother Mahan by letter, that he would
write this particular scripture at the bottom of the letter,
these verses. One of the young ladies that
stayed with us this weekend left us a card that had this passage
written at the bottom of it. Verse 22, number six. And the
Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speaking to Aaron and to his
son, saying, on this wise, you shall bless the children of Israel,
saying unto them, the Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord
make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The
Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon
the children of Israel and I will bless them." Oh, it would probably
do us good to often read those verses and to try to fathom that
that's what our great and gracious God says for us, it's a commandment. Now, first thing I want you to
see is that it is God who speaks the blessing. We're told here
that the Lord speaks to Moses and then Moses speaks to Aaron,
the high priest and his sons, the priest. And then Aaron speaks
these words to the people. Aaron speaks the blessing. If I was going to title this
message, that's what I'd title it, the blessing, the blessing. It's a blessing from the Lord. The word is the Lord bless thee,
not the Pope, not a priest, not a preacher, not a man, but the
Lord, the Lord. He's the only one that can. Ephesians
1.3, verse your very familiar with says, blessed be the God
and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who had blessed us with
all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ. That's the only. that the Lord
blesses his people is in Christ. And Paul is saying here that
we bless God because God has first blessed us, just as we
love God because he first loved us. And same principle always. God is the first cause of everything. Well, what did God bless us with?
Well, he blessed us with all spiritual blessings as we just
read in Ephesians 1. and that in heavenly places in
Christ." Now, in the verses before us tonight, there's no mention
here of any natural, physical, or material blessings, only some
spiritual. The blessing that the Lord gives
the people of Israel, His chosen nation, is not conditioned upon
anything done by them. We know that, that's what makes
grace, grace. merited favor. And it's the same
with the blessings of God to the church. They're unconditional
blessings. They're not conditioned upon
anything that they do or any worth that they have. Unconditional
blessings. God has blessed us. with all
spiritual blessings. And he's done so in Christ. Therefore, all our blessings
are conditioned upon Christ and his work for us. And that is
such a wonderful, wonderful thing because it's not an offer that's
dependent on whether or not we do something or don't do something.
It's a declaration of God's of God graciously blessing us in
Christ in spite of us. And we have to add that because
we deserve none of his blessings. He blesses us regardless and
in spite of us. My, what a blessing that is. He blesses us for Christ's sake. I wish every sinner could understand
that. The blessing of God is a revelation
of God's heart toward his people. The blessing of God comes through
the spoken or preached word of God. That's just the ordained
means that God uses. The blessing of God is a revelation. Look at verse 22, it tells us.
That very plainly, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying, speak
unto Aaron and unto his son saying on this wise, you shall bless
the children of Israel saying unto them. As I said in the beginning,
the Lord spoke to Moses, Moses spoke to Aaron, Aaron spoke to
the people. That's a picture of preaching.
A preacher is nothing but a messenger, just a voice crying in the wilderness. to prepare you the way of the
Lord. How blessed we are to have God's word. Have you ever really
thought about that? Do you know how many people,
men, women too, maybe, that have laid down their lives for us
to have this book? Burned at the stake, many beheaded. What a privilege it is to have
the word of God. Now, the word bless here, or
blessing, means to stoop. It actually means benda, to bend
the knee. The Lord stooped. He bent his
knee, so to speak, and he reached down his hand for me, as John
Davis sung for us Sunday. He bended his knee to bless us. God became a man. What a stoop
that was. God was made to be sin. What
a greater stoop that was. God, in the flesh, fulfilled
his own law. He satisfied his own justice. He paid the wages of sin, which
was death, so that his chosen people might live. God could
stoop no further than that. My, my, the Lord has blessed
us, has he not? And it's worthy of notice here
that the word Jehovah is put in our English translation in
capital letters, L-O-R-D. This is speaking of the all sufficient
one, the ever existed one, the one who knew no beginning, the
one that has no end, none other than God himself. Alpha and Omega,
the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the Lord, Jehovah,
the one true God. It's He that has blessed us. My, my. The name Lord is used
that way four times here in the verses before us. It says, the
Lord spoke unto Moses saying, this is the Lord speaking. The
Lord bless thee and keep thee. It's the Lord that blesses us.
It's the Lord that keeps us. The Lord make his face shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee and give thee peace. Yes, this is the blessing from
the Lord, L-O-R-D. Now in verse 23, God said on
this wise, ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto
them. Now, I know I don't have to tell
you this, but here we see again that God did not speak a blessing
on everyone in the world. Only on the children of Israel,
it says. Isn't that what it says? Not
the Canaanites, not the Hittites, not the Amorites, the Perizzites,
the Habites, or the Jebusites, none of the sites. Not on the world. but on the
children of Israel, the people of God. God said on this wise,
you shall bless them. And this is not a desire. This
is not a wish. This is not a hope. This is a
command. God says, you shall bless them
with these words. The Lord shall bless them. Now
the world confuses the blessings of God with material things. You know that, and I know that.
We've all been guilty of it. A man has a big house, a fine
expensive car, maybe a yacht and land and big bank account. And the world says, my, he really
is blessed. The Lord has really blessed. The Lord has surely blessed him.
Well, has he? Has he? Many times those things
are a curse. Most of the time, a man that
has everything doesn't need God. It's just a fact. He's doing
all right on his own account. And it could be that removing
these things that men and women have is the real blessing. Those things that rust and corrupt
and that are stolen, removing those things may be the real
blessing. So many times I, over the years, prayed for things
that God didn't give me. And you know something now, by
His grace, years later, I am convinced that they would have
been a curse and not a blessing. The Lord knows what's best for
us. Thank God, it's the Lord that blesses us. Most people have no idea what
a real blessing is. Job lost everything he had except
for a faithless wife and three judging friends. And as he set
out on that dung heap, or whatever you want to call it, and scraped
the boils with potsherd, pieces of clay, he sat down among the
ashes, but he sat there content. Can you imagine? Lost all 10
of his children, all of his wealth. His wife said, why don't you
just curse God and die? His friends came to him and began
to say, you know, you had to have done something now, Joe.
God doesn't do this just because he wants to. There's a reason
for it. His friends had lost nothing,
but who is the one who was blessed? It was the one who said the Lord
gave and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
The child of God doesn't hold on too tightly to anything in
this world because that's not where our hearts are. Our hearts
are with Christ in heaven. For what shall it profit a man
if he gain the whole world and lose? His own soul, Matthew 8,
36. True blessings are not physical
blessings. They're not material blessings.
They're spiritual blessings and they're eternal blessings. And
they're found in one place and in one place only in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And you'll never see him and
never trust him if the Lord doesn't bless you. How did the Lord bless
his disciples? Did he bless Peter and Andrew
and James and John with new fishing boats? You know, not long ago,
I happened to run up on an interview with two very popular TV evangelists,
and they were talking about how the Lord had blessed them with
a big, fine airplane. The Lord blessed me with a jet.
They said, did he? Did he? Did the Lord do that?
Is that how the Lord blesses? Well, I think that's how the
Lord curses myself. How did the Lord bless Peter
and Andrew? How did the Lord bless James
and John? How did the Lord bless all his
disciples? He chose them and he taught them
and he saved them and he made them fishers of men. Our Lord said, who do you say
that I am? And Peter said, thou art the
Christ, the son of the living God. And the Lord Jesus said,
blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah for flesh and blood didn't reveal
this to you. As Christ revealed himself to
you, blessed you are, blessed you are. So we must conclude that it's
the Lord that speaks and gives the blessing. Secondly, the blessing
is given through the high priest. The giving of the blessing was
given through Aaron, the high priest. And Aaron, as we know,
is a type and a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Aaron, the
high priest, offered sacrifice for the people. It was he, the
high priest, that went into the holiest of holies and sprinkled
the blood upon the mercy seat. to bless the tribes. Those hands
that were stained with the blood of the sacrifice were the very
hands that reached out to bless God's people. Oh, is that not
a picture of our Lord and Savior? There's no blessing from God
for a sinner, except through our great high priest, the Lord
Jesus Christ. No blessing from God, but through
the priesthood of Christ. There must be a sacrifice. There
must be a sprinkling of the blood of an innocent lamb. And we see
here that Aaron and his duties as high priest are but a picture
of our Lord Jesus Christ and what he's done for us. Once a
year, year after year after year, Aaron did that for Israel, but
our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ has offered one sacrifice for
sins forever. And he sat down on the right
hand of God. And Lou, he's there right now
making intercession for you. He's pleading your cause. Everything's
going to be all right. Oh, the Lord has blessed his
people. You're a blessed people if you
belong to Christ. Christ is our high priest. God bestows all spiritual blessings
upon us in and through him who died for us and was ordained
to be the one mediator between God and man. He's the great high
priest who offered himself without spot to God. And he's the only
sacrifice that God will accept. My, my. He's the divine channel
of God's blessings to us. They're all gonna go through
him to us. Thirdly, the blessing of God
is personal. This is personal. The Lord bless
thee. The Lord keep thee. The Lord
make his face shine upon you. The Lord be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee. The Lord give you peace. This
is personal. That's so personal, isn't it? Oh, and I thank God for it. You
know, it's wonderful. that he blesses his people, but
what a great mercy that he blesses me, huh? My, my, what a blessing
that Christ died for sinners, but I find great blessings in
that he died for me. How do we know that he did die?
Well, I'll tell you how, for me and for you. He'll be gracious
to you and he'll give you peace. If you can put all your hope
and all your confidence in Christ, then he's already been gracious
to you. And he's already given you peace. Life has already been given to
you. That's the way it works. We're
dead in trespasses and sin. We don't believe and then we're
saved. We don't believe and then we're given life. We have to
be given life before we can believe because we're dead in trespasses
and sin. Well, that's a place we can rest
in Christ. According to numbers here, chapter
six, verses 24 through 27, this blessing from God, this blessing
through our great high priest, this blessing so personal and
so effectual is sevenfold. Seven things the Lord gives us
here. And as you know, seven being
the number of completion and the number of perfection. This
is a perfect, complete blessing. In Christ it is. It must be because
it comes from one who's perfect. And it comes by one who is perfect. And it comes now to those who
are perfect, perfect in Christ. And I know that's so uncomfortable
when we live with ourselves. My, my, nobody knows my wretchedness
more than I do. Teresa a close second, but you
know, nobody knows more than I. And the Lord every now and
then, he gives us a whiff of ourself, doesn't he? He lets
us smell what we are. But this is a perfect, complete
blessing. We walk through this wilderness
of a world just like Israel walked through the wilderness. And it's
given to us to believe, no doubt, but it's also given to us to
suffer. It's going to be through much
tribulation that we enter the kingdom of heaven. It just is. That's the way God ordained it.
God is going to wean his people from this world. He's done a good job with me. I'm telling you, there's not
much this world has to offer that interests me anymore. And
every day, little by little, I'm more ready to leave this
God-forsaken world in which we live. We walk through this wilderness
and we suffer. We face the cruelty of the world.
We face the weakness of our flesh. We face the constant battle with
the old man. There's a war that rages within
us. But the Lord has said to our great high priest on this
wise, you shall bless my people. And this is what you're to say
to them. Verse 24, the Lord bless thee. It's the Lord that blesses you.
The word blessed suggests that the Lord gives and does us good
that we do not deserve. That's right. We don't. Blessings
are things of grace and grace is a deliberate intentional act
from God to us. The Lord said, I will not turn
away from them to do them good. Oh, isn't that good news? Do
I deserve that? No. Nevertheless, he will not turn
away from me to do me good, Jeremiah 32, 40. You know, in a day where
everyone blesses and everyone is blessed, few are blessed to
think they are. But if someone is truly blessed,
you can count on this, it's gonna be the Lord God that blessed
them, and he'll bless them in one way and in one way only,
and that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. Any other things that
are said to be blessings are not blessings at all. Psalm 75,
I believe it is, says that we are blessed in Him. We brought a message on that. Live in a world where everyone's
blessed. Have a blessed day. The Lord
doesn't bless days. The Lord blesses sinners in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that right? Doesn't bless
days, no sir. People sneeze and kazoom-tide
or God bless you. God doesn't bless our sneezing. And then the second thing also
from verse 24, the Lord keep thee. Oh, I tell you what, other
than the token of God saving us by his grace, the Lord keeping
us is one of the greatest tokens of his mercy to us. We're kept
by the power of God. Not only does he save me, but
he keeps me. There's none that can pluck me
from his hand. He's God almighty. None can snatch
me. None can take me away. Oh my,
he's put me in the cleft of the rock and he put his hand in front
of me and none can take me from him. The Lord keep thee. That word keep means to hedge,
to guard, to attend to. It means to preserve and persevere. God preserves and the chosen
sinner perseveres. You know, a lot of times, The
P in the word tulip, which is the acronym for the five points
of Calvinism. The P, oftentimes, people said
the perseverance of the saints, and that almost kinda gives the
impression that it's because of our persevering, but it's
because the Lord preserves us. The only reason that we persevere
is because the Lord preserves us. So again, he gets all the
glory for that. Now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling. That's the Lord preserving us.
That's not us persevering. Oh, he's able to present you
faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Bruce Crabtree made up a new
word and I really like it. He calls it perseverance. It's the Lord preserving and
us persevering. Perseverance, I like that. The
real blessing of God is Christ who keeps us. If we have Christ,
the Lord has blessed us. He is the blessing. All that
the father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out." That's where our security is,
it's in Christ. I kept them in thy name, those
that thou gavest me, I have kept. Oh my, none of them is lost but
the son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled,
John 17, 12. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. We just read that before the
service. The Lord is thy keeper. Aren't you glad the Lord is your
keeper? I am. Then the third thing we have
here in verse 25, the Lord make, that word means cause, the Lord
cause his face shine upon thee. Christ, the son of righteousness,
shines His face upon us to give us spiritual life and light. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4,
for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has
shined in our hearts. Isn't that what the Lord did
for you, child of God? He shined in your heart to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, where? In the
face. of Jesus Christ. The Lord caused
his face to shine upon them. Ah, my. David said, oh God, cause
thy face to shine and we shall be saved. The light of the sun
of our solar system, it gives us life, it gives us light, it
gives us heat, it gives us beauty, it gives us power, and it gives
us joy. But friends, Son of righteousness,
the Lord Jesus Christ gives us everything we need and everything
that God requires. Lord, the entrance of thy words
giveth light, it giveth understanding to the simple. Aren't you glad
that the Lord gives understanding to the simple? I am. Jesus Christ is the light of
the world, but this is the condemnation that light, that Christ has come
into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their
deeds were evil. Fourth thing, also verse 25,
the Lord be gracious to thee. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that's not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not by works,
lest any man should boast. We quote that, we stand on that,
but it really is so. The Lord is gracious to us. The Lord is gracious. Again,
grace is receiving from God in abundance what could never be
earned and what could never be deserved. We have no merit, yet
God gives us unmerited favor. We have no righteousness, yet
Christ gives us His perfect righteousness. God's grace flows freely to us
because Christ made an end of the law for righteousness to
everyone that believeth. What great news that is. Our
righteousness could never come by the law. Why? Because we couldn't
keep the law. Couldn't keep one precept. Not
one out of the 10 commandments can we keep. We have no righteousness. We have no holiness. Yet Christ
gives us his, which is perfect. Perfect righteousness and perfect
holiness. Our righteousness. The law was
weak through the flesh, our flesh, but God sending his own son in
the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. That's fine. Whose sin? Your sin and my sin,
all our sin, past, present, and future, all of it, and for sin. Condemned sin in the flesh. Man,
that makes my teeth white. That makes me smile. Fifth thing, verse 26. The Lord
lift up his countenance upon thee. Now that word lift there
means actually to turn. The word countenance means face. It's almost a repeat of the previous
verse. The Lord turns his face upon
sinners one of two ways. He either turns his face upon
sinners in anger, wrath, condemnation, in judgment, or in mercy, grace,
and acceptance. One of two ways. When a sinner
is washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and justified
through his perfect righteousness, the Lord turns his face. He turns his countenance upon
that sinner with pleasure. He who was angry with the wicked
every day is no longer angry with those that are trusting
in his beloved son. And it's then that a wretched
sinner can look upon God without fear. In Christ, we know that
he's not frowning upon us. We've been reconciled to God.
Everything is all right now between us and God. We've been reconciled. God is now out to do us good. The Lord turns his countenance
upon us because Christ is favorable. Because in Christ, we are favorable,
made favorable. In Christ, we have the unmerited
favor of God. And we did nothing to earn or
deserve this favor. Therefore, we can't do anything
to lose it. Did you hear that? Now, there are some people tell
you that they might call you an antinomian. Well, I've been
called worse than that. Well, you antinomian. Well, let
me tell you something. If that's what an antinomian
is, then I'll take it. You can call me that if you want
to. I sing, oh, to grace, how great a debtor daily I'm constrained
to be. I can't do anything to merit
salvation. Christ merited it for me. And
I can't do anything to lose it because he did it perfectly. He fulfilled God's law perfectly. He satisfied God's justice fully. And now when God looks at me,
he sees his, it's called substitution. It's called mediation. 1 Timothy
1, verse 11, that word blessed means happy. We preach the glorious
gospel of a happy God. You know, God is happy with himself. God is happy with his son. And
because of Christ's substitutionary sacrifice, dear child of God,
God is happy with you. Happy with his people. It's not
a conditional blessing. It's an intentional, continual
blessing. And God has lifted up his countenance
on you. We found grace in the eyes of
the Lord. We're perfectly righteous in
his sight and our sin and our iniquity, he remembers no more. Now you take that home with you
and rejoice. That certainly makes me happy.
How about you? You know, I used to ask people
in an effort, to show them how ridiculous the belief of universal
redemption was by asking, do you think that on the back of
Noah's Ark that there was a bumper sticker that said, smile, God
loves you? I mean, I did that to challenge
them to think about how ridiculous it was to think that God loved
those who perished. That'd be a strange kind of love,
wouldn't it? But it's not ridiculous at all
to think that there may have been such a sign or a sticker
or something of that sort on the inside of the ark. Smile,
God loves you. If you're on the inside of the
ark, that is so, that is so. If you're in Christ, the ark
of God, smile. God loves you. Again, verse 26,
the Lord give you peace. Boy, that's something there's
very little love in this world anymore, peace. People trying
to find peace so many ways. Looking for peace here, looking
for rest there. It's found right here in Christ. The Lord give you peace. That peace that passes all understanding,
that peace that keeps our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. Lord, the Lord give you peace. We live in a mad and crazy world,
don't we? It's becoming more evident every
single day. But we have the peace that passes
understanding. Why? Because our Lord holds the
reins of this universe firmly in his hands. Well, what about
global warning? God's hand is on the thermostat.
That's right. Someone asked me not long ago,
well, do you deny, do you believe, don't believe, do you not believe
in global warning for me? And I said, I, it could very
well be. The Lord said that he was gonna
destroy this world with fervent heat. That may be how he does
it. But I'm telling you, his hand is on the thermostat and
he's gonna do what he wills in all things. What about a falling
meteorite? The balance of this universe
is in his hands, friends. I'm not gonna worry about it.
No weapon formed against him shall prosper. No weapon, nothing. Therefore, no weapon formed against
us will either. Our Lord works all things together. Therefore, he's able to work
all things together for good. What peace we have in knowing
that it's the Lord that blesses us and keeps us and makes his
face shine upon us and is gracious to us. How wonderful it is that
he makes his countenance to drive away all slavish fear and enables
our hearts to trust him as a small child, trust his father. I'm
beginning to trust the Lord. I think I'm beginning to trust
the Lord. Verse 27, and they shall put
my name upon the children of Israel and I will bless them. God has put his name upon his
people. They're the people of God. The
sovereign potter has formed you into a vessel of honor. You know,
the sovereign potter can take the same lump of clay and make
one vessel into honor and another into dishonor, but the Lord,
that has blessed you, the Lord that keeps you, the Lord that
causes His face to shine upon you, and the Lord that's gracious
to you, the Lord that makes His countenance to shine upon you,
His presence to shine upon you. has made you his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. He's adopted us as his
children and given us his name. And I've told you that when I
was adopted, my adopted parents couldn't, at that time, I don't
know how it is now or how it works now, but my adopted parents
could not carry me out of the hospital. My birth mother had
to. It seems they had legally had
no claim upon me until my birth mother carried me out and handed
me to them. When I was in the hospital, I
was referred to as baby whales, W-E-L-L-S, not W-H-A-L-E-S. I may have looked like a baby
whale, but I wasn't one. But that was my birth mother's
last name, and I was simply, they had a little makeshift birth
certificate that the hospital made up, and it said Baby Wales. But the minute, the minute that
my mother handed me to my adopted parents, I was David Edmondson,
son of Sally and Leo Edmondson. Oh my. Their name became my name,
and it's the same with our heavenly Father. Our names went from dying
Adam to living Christians. Named after Christ our Savior.
Our names went from ungodly sinners to the sons and daughters of
God. Our names went from unloved to
beloved. Our names went from sinners to
saints. God put His name on us, and that's
not all. It says, He will bless us. Hadn't
He already told us that? Yes. But He tells us again, because
His blessings keep coming. They're new every morning. He
keeps blessing us, and He keeps blessing us, and He keeps blessing
us. In spite of us, undeserving of His blessings, He keeps blessing
us. He keeps causing His face to shine upon us. My, my. God put his name upon us. Blessed
are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Always remember we're blessed
in him, blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
In whom are we blessed? In Christ. Where are we blessed? In Him. How are we blessed? By grace through faith, and that's
not of ourselves, it's the gift of God. When were we blessed? Before the foundation of the
world, and daily. Blessed daily. Why were we blessed? It pleased
God. Pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. It pleased God to make
you his people. Not because you were more in
number or that you were more spiritual or whatever. No, it
just simply pleased the Lord. And he has the right, it's lawful
for him to do what he will with his own. He blessed us. Aren't you glad? He didn't have
to. Dear believer, God charges me to proclaim to you who trust
in Christ to bless you again with these words. I leave them
with you. Look at them often. Don't take
them lightly. This is the blessing of God to
his people. In Christ, the Lord will bless
you and keep you. No ifs, ands, and buts. He will. The Lord bless you and keep you.
He promised that he would. The Lord make his face shine
upon you. The Lord be gracious to you,
and he already has, and he'll continue to be. The Lord will
cause his presence to be with you, his countenance. The Lord
will give you peace, rest, and assurance. The Lord shall put
his name upon you. While he's redeemed you, he's
called you by name. God says, thou art mine. I am His and He is mine. And
God will continue and continue to bless you. Amen.