Go to Numbers chapter 6 with
me now, Numbers chapter 6. I looked back through my records,
my notes, and I cannot find where I preached from this for quite
some time. It seems like I remember doing
so, certainly on the radio, but at any rate, Number six, verse 22. Let's read
these verses, 22 through 27. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this
wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them,
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee. The Lord make his face
shine upon them. and be gracious unto them. 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." Now this is both
a prayer and a pronouncement by our Lord. And the title I've
given it is very simply, The Blessing. The Lord said, this
is The Blessing. I want to be a blessing. I want
to be blessed. I want you to be blessed. Well,
the Lord has made it easy for me. He's told me what to say,
and He said it will be a blessing. This is The Blessing. Now there are many things that
we call blessings. And that they are the blessings
of this life. God giveth us all things richly
to enjoy. We call them blessings. They
are blessings from the Lord. Now this is written to the children
of Israel. Did you notice that? Say to the
children of Israel, I will bless them. The things, everything
in this life, the good things, so to speak, are not necessarily
a blessing to the people of this world. Riches, things like that,
can be a curse. Scripture says that they will
rise up in a judgment against some people. But God's people
who know who they're from and give Him the glory for them,
And know that they're unworthy of them. And thank Him for all
of them. That makes them a blessing then.
But even the, what we can think of as bad things, are blessings. You know that? Trials. You remember
Psalm 91, where Moses said, Make us glad according to the days
wherein thou hast afflicted us. The years wherein we have seen
evil. Because trials are a gift from
the Lord. They really are. But this is talking about the
one thing needful, the blessing. Many things we call blessings,
but this is the great and true blessing of the Lord. The one
thing needful. David said that in Psalm 27,
didn't he? He said, One thing is needful,
one thing, that I have desire of the Lord, and that will I
seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord forever,
and behold the beauty of the Lord, and inquire into his temple.
Is that your desire? Is that what you want tonight?
This is the house of the Lord. Oh, may we behold the beauty
of the Lord here tonight. The blessing that God is pronouncing
upon his people is the blessing of salvation. That's what this
is all about. The blessing of salvation. Psalm
3 verse 8 says, salvation belongeth unto the Lord and thy blessing
is upon thy people. So this is the greatest blessing.
All of God's people realize that. In these verses, all these verses
speak of the blessing of salvation. There's not one material thing
mentioned in these verses. Not one earthly material thing
is mentioned in these verses. Like Ephesians 1, when Paul said,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ according
to us. He has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in Christ Jesus. And it goes on to name the blessings. And not one material thing is
mentioned. Not one. It talks about the grace or gift
of election. The coordinates of chosenness
in Christ. Predestination. Redemption. Forgiveness of sin. Adoption. Gathering grace. Revealing grace. Sealing grace. And on and on again. That's salvation. So this is the blessing, the
blessing of salvation that he tells the preacher to tell the
people. Do you need a blessing? May God
give you ears to hear. And this is how it begins. Verse
22, The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and
unto his sons, and tell them to speak to the people. The greatest blessing, the blessing
of salvation begins when God speaks to you through His Word. The greatest blessing is to hear
His voice, to hear His Word. He said, my sheep hear my voice. The truth. The first book of
God's Word, Genesis. Life began when God spoke. In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth, and God said, let there be light. That's
how eternal life begins. When God speaks, when God says,
let there be light. The light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
last book in the Bible is Revelation. It begins this way. The Revelation
of Jesus Christ. The blessing of blessing is to
have God reveal to you, the Spirit of God reveal to you, who Jesus
Christ is. This is life eternal, he said
in John 17, verse 3, that they might know thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath seen. Because no man knoweth
the Father but the Son, neither knoweth any man the Son but the
Father. The Son must reveal the Father to them. So, life began
with God speaking and life, spiritual life begins. And in the last
book of Revelation, it begins by saying, blessed is he that
readeth the words of this book. Blessed. We're so blessed to
have this book. We're so blessed to read it.
There are more Bibles now than ever, probably, but fewer people
that read them. Oh, how blessed we are if we
read it. And he went on to say, blessed are they that hear the
words of this book. We cannot understand what we
read unless someone tells us, unless the Word of God is preached
to us. What the world calls foolishness, we know is the blessing of God. We hear the word preached. How often you read something
and then you come in here and we look at it together and the
Lord really blesses His attendant. That's the way He does it. And
blessed are they that keep, that lay hold of these words. Now everyone is born deaf. Everyone. Cannot hear. Our Lord said there
in John 8, He said, why is it you cannot, you do not understand
my speech? It's because you cannot hear
my word. But God, who made the ear and made the eye to see,
gives ears to hear them, to hear the blessed voice of the Son
of God, to hear the blessed Word of God. And He does so through
a preacher. And God told Moses in the beginning,
spoke to the prophets. God at sundry times in diverse
manners spoke unto the fathers by the prophets. Moses was one
such prophet. God told Moses to speak to Aaron
and his sons. He told Aaron and his sons, the
Levites, he represents preachers, told them to speak. Preach the
Word, didn't he? Preach the Word. When Christ
ascended on high in Ephesians 4, it says, He gave gifts unto
them. The greatest gift that he can give people is a preacher
of the gospel. Do you believe that? That's what
he said. When he ascended on high, he
gave gifts unto men. He gave some prophets, some apostles,
some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the perfect
and the same. Edify them. How shall they hear
without a preacher? Romans 10. How beautiful are
the feet of them that bring glad tidings. Oh, how blessed to be
sent a preacher. Ask the eunuch what he thinks
of Philip. Ask Cornelius what he thinks
of Simon Peter. Ask me what I think of Henry
Mahan. You know, many of you send cards
to people and, This is another reason I wanted to deal with
this. Someone put this number 622 on a card. Some of you have sent me cards
in the past. The first time I dealt with it,
Tammy, you sent me a card with that on it, and I preached from
it the next Sunday. Well, recently, a sister sitting
in this room sent me this card, and she was thanking the Lord for everything, and
she was thanking whoever it was that gave a gift for us to have
this piano. She was thanking them. But the
first thing that she said in this card to me was this, My heart is so full of praise
and thanksgiving to our wonderful Lord, especially that he has
given us a pastor who preaches Christ. That is a blessing to me. Woe is unto me if I don't. Necessity
is laid upon me. Woe is unto me if I don't preach
the gospel. I want to be like Paul, the apostle,
who said, I'm determined not to know anything among you, save
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So he says, speak, Moses, speak,
Aaron and his son, speak. Verse 23, on this wise, this
way, this is the way you're going to bless my people. This is it.
This is the way, no other way that you shall bless them. Speak
to them. Speak my word to them. Preach
my word. Tell them what I have said. That's what Paul told young Timothy
did. He said, I charge you, the second Timothy, the fourth. He
said, I charge you, Timothy, before the Lord. He said, preach
the Word, Timothy, in season or out of season. It's coming
a time when they'll turn away their ears from the truth. But
not God's people. They won't turn their ears away.
Oh, they'll return their ears to work. One thing is needful and one
thing will bless, and that's the preaching of God's Word.
It's the Gospel. One thing we do. That's the one
thing we do here. Because that's the one thing
he told us to do. Preach the Word. Preach the Gospel.
There's nothing else. In other words, we don't deal
with social issues, political issues, and civic issues. We
don't have fun and games here. We preach the Word. Well, is the gospel in these
verses? Oh, my! The gospel is in every line of
every book of all of God's book. And I think you'll see it with
him. Now, who is this to? I've already told you. He read
it with me. Say unto the children of Israel. Bless the children of Israel.
Who is that? That's God's elect. They represent God's elect. All Israel that are of Israel,
you know that, Romans 2. He is not a Jew which is one
outwit. Children of the flesh are not the children of God.
Children are from Gilead, God's chosen people. His sheep, he
calls them. They're sheep and they're goats.
They're God's children and children of the evil one. And they hear
His voice, and God will bless His people with the Word of truth
and His salvation. Look at Ezekiel 34. I read that
to you, one verse anyway, before we sang that hymn, Showers of
Blessing. Ezekiel 34. Oh, this is wonderful. About the great shepherd. Ezekiel
34. This is the Word of the Lord,
the promise of the Lord, of what all He Will do, and hath done,
will do, shall do for his people. The Lord our Shepherd, verse
11. You have it? Ezekiel 34, 11. Thus saith the Lord God, Behold,
I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. Who is the Lord God? Who's this
talking about? Jesus Christ. Isn't he the good
shepherd? Didn't he say that? I've come
to seek and to save that which is lost. He's the one shepherd
that the Lord has sent. Look at verse 15. I will feed
my flock. I will cause them to lie down,
saith the Lord God. Verse 16. I will seek that which
is lost. Will he find them? He sure will.
It'll bring again that which was driven away, bind up that
which was broken, strengthen that which was sick. Verse 22,
I, therefore will I save my flock. No doubt about it. Call His name
Jesus. Why? For He shall save. Who? His people. From what? Their sin. Verse 22, I will save
my flock. They shall no more be a prey.
Verse 25, I will make with them a covenant of peace and will
cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land. And they shall
dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the wood. And I
will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing.
And I will cause the shower to come down in his season. There
shall be showers of blessing. Tell the people, The Lord God
said, I will bless them. You shall bless the children
of Israel. Say it. Now go back to the text. Numbers
chapter 6, verse 24. Here's what you say. First thing,
the Lord blessed them. The Lord blessed them. The Lord. The Lord God. When Moses said
to the Lord, asked the Lord, to show him his glory, he said,
I'll make all my goodness pass before you. What is that? That's Christ. He said, I'll
proclaim the name of the Lord for you. The Lord, the Lord God,
merciful and gracious, long-suffering. This is who has pronounced this
blessing. You see, there's an imposter
over in Rome with a fish on his head, and he pretends to bless
so many people. He can't bless anybody. In fact,
everyone's cursed that looks to him for a blessing. No one
can bless anyone except the Lord. The Lord blesses. If you know
that, you're blessed. If you know that it's only Him
that can confer any blessing upon us, you know you are blessed.
The Lord bless thee. The Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long-suffering, abundant in grace and truth, keeping mercy for
thousands. Does this sound good to you? Forgiving and equity. What iniquity? All manner of sin. The Lord. The Lord God, our Savior. The
Lord God Omnipotent, who reigneth. The Lord God, our Creator. The
Lord God, our Father. Our Mediator. Our Substitute. Our Prophet. Our Priest. Our
King. The Lord Jesus Christ. Bless Thee. The Lord God of heaven
was manifest in the flesh. He came, He chose, He called
His disciples and He sat down one day and He said, come to
me. And they came and they sat down and He said, bless you.
First word, blessed are they that are poor in spirit. Blessed
are they that mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed
are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. Is that
you? Just a poor sinner and nothing at all? But Jesus Christ is your
all in all? You're blessed. The Lord said
so. The Lord Jesus Christ blessed
you. The Lord called His disciples one day and He said, Blessed
are your ears, they hear. Your eyes, they see. Blessed. The Lord God bless thee. Look
at the next thing. And keep thee. The Lord bless
thee and keep thee. Now keep means several things,
but principally it means to retain, not throw away. It means to protect. It means to provide. The Lord
retain thee, the Lord keep thee, not throw you away, not cast
you out. You know he's going to. He's
going to fold this thing up like a vesture and throw it away. There are many he's going to
cast out of his presence someday. But some are kept. How? Peter said it. Simon Peter wrote
it. He didn't write many words until
he couldn't contain it any longer. He said, elect according to the
foreknowledge of God who are kept by the power of God. Kept. Some are kept, reserved for himself. Our Lord said to Elijah, who
was bemoaning the fact that he was the only one, he said, I've
reserved for myself 7,000 that have not bowed the knee to me.
They're kept from idolatry. They're kept. Oh my, what a blessing
to be chosen. That means he's going to keep
us. He's going to keep us. Turn to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians
1. We've got some fishermen in here.
And you know when you go fishing, you catch some little ones and
you throw them back, don't you? Don't you? And you catch some
big ones and you say, that's what he said. That's a keeper. That's not the way the Lord does
it. In fact, it's the opposite. It's the exact opposite. You
know, if we catch a big one, we automatically send a picture
to our fisherman. You don't have to ask a fisherman
if he's caught anything. If he has, he'll send you a picture
real quick. He'll let you know. And it'll be a big one. Kelly,
you've never sent me a picture holding up a little bluegill. But do you see your calling,
brethren? You know, the Lord only keeps little ones. Nothing. Nobody. Those that think
there's something, nothing. They have no need of Him. He
has no need of them. They won't give Him the glory.
That's the reason God saves, is for His glory. And here's
what he says in 1 Corinthians 1. You see, you're calling, brethren,
verse 26, not many wise men at the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called, but God hath chosen a foolish thing.
You should consider yourself a fool or a wise man. I hope
you think you're a fool. Fools are taught. Fools are bought. Fools are brought. God hath chosen
the weak things of the world. Do you consider yourself strong
or weak? Confound the things which are
mighty. Base things. Things which are despised. Do
you despise yourself? That's who God has chosen. Things
which are not. That means nothing. There's John
Newton, I believe, who's Matthew Henry. Matthew Henry said, God
made everything out of nothing. If He's going to use you, you've
got to be a nothing. That's who He chooses. So the
Lord keeps this. If you're little in your own
eyes, if you consider yourself, your
only greatness is you're a great sinner, That's who God is. That's who God keeps. The word
keep means protect. It means to watch over. It means
to keep from harm. It means to defend. It means
to save. Psalm 121, you know this, Brother
Gabe sings it to us. The Lord is our keeper. The government's
not our keeper. Science is not our keeper. Medicine
is not our keeper. No one is our keeper but the
Lord. He says this, that he that keepeth Israel shall neither
slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The
Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in. How long?
From this time forth and even forevermore. The Lord keep thee,
preserve thee, protect thee, defend thee. And then keep means
to provide for. It means to take care of, to
keep. The Lord is our keeper. He takes
care of us. We say this of animals sometimes,
like horses or cows. He's an easy keeper. No. Well, that's not said of us.
We are high maintenance. We need everything from our Lord. Without Him, we can do nothing.
He has to provide everything for us. Well, He's promised to
do so. Oh, bless the Lord. We read that. Bless the Lord,
O my soul. Forget not all His benefits. And then He goes on
to say all those things. And the number one thing was
what? Forgiveth all iniquity. That's the number one thing.
He hadn't dealt with us yet. The Lord is our shepherd, our
keeper. We shall not want for anything. He shall provide everything
we need. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
redemption, food, raiment, salvation. His name, you remember when Abraham
and Isaac were walking up that mountain? And Isaac said unto
the father, here's the wood, and here's the fire, where's
the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said this, my son,
God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And he
called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh, meaning the Lord
will provide. So the Lord will provide. He will keep thee. He will keep
thee. Keep also means to do. To do. Keep. Well, we're saved by the
doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not by our doings,
but His. Now we'll go back to the text. Number six, so he says, the Lord,
pronounce this, tell the people this, the Lord bless thee, the
Lord keep thee. Verse 25, the Lord make his face
to shine upon them. The Lord make His face to shine
upon thee. Now, if I would ask someone where
you think I'm going to turn in reference to this, I'd get twelve
right answers, I'm certain of it. 2 Corinthians, go over there.
2 Corinthians 3, go over there first. The Lord make His face
to shine upon thee. Now, no man hath seen God at
any time. Isn't that what John 1 says? But, that says the only begotten
Son. It's in the bosom of the Father.
He had declared Him. Christ said to His disciples
one time, He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father. Didn't
Job say, I shall see God? Who's He going to see? Jesus
Christ. Second, He's the Son of Righteousness
that came. Everyone, He said, that seeth
the Son, And believeth on him, he says, I'll raise him up at
the last day. We'll look at 2 Corinthians 3.
Moses saw the Lord on the mountain, didn't he? He did. Moses saw
the Lord in the burning bush, didn't he? That's Christ crucified. You've seen that. You've seen
it. Moses saw the Lord in the cleft
of the rock. His back part. Well, that rock
is Christ. So we've seen him too. And it
says his face shone. Moses' face shone. When he came
down from that mountain, his face shone, because he was in
the presence of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at 2
Corinthians 3, it says in verse 7, the ministration of death,
that's the law. The letter, the law, killeth.
The law says guilt is written in graven and stone, but it was
glorious, received of the law, so much so that the children
of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for
the glory of his countenance, which glory was done away. He taketh away the first, establishes
the second. And he says, he goes on to say,
verse 9, the ministration of condemnation be glory. How much
more the ministration of righteousness, that's Christ, exceeding glory. Go down to verse 18. He says,
or verse 13, Moses put a veil over his face. Verse 13, the
children of Israel could not look upon his face because he
was, his face was shining. He came down. We'll look at verse
18. But we all, with open face, beholding
as in a glass, that's what you're looking at right now, the looking
glass of His Word, the glory of the Lord. And we're changed
into the same glory, same image, from glory to glory by the Spirit
of the Lord. Now go on down to chapter 4. It says, verse 6,
4, God. who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God, where? In the face of
Jesus Christ. The light of the knowledge. The
Lord make his face to shine upon them. If he does, He's going
to reveal Christ to you and in you. And you know what's going
to happen to you? Your face is going to glow. Like Moses. I've seen it. I've seen the light
come on in faces. I've preached and preached and
preached and faced dark countenances. No light. It was the old saying,
the light's on, but nobody's on. Well, there wasn't even light
on. Dead. Sleeping. Sleep of death. Dead. Dead. Dead. That was me. That was me. Dead, dead, dead. And then one day, God said, let
there be light. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth his Son through the preaching of the gospel. You
didn't come to the light, the light shone on you. You were
apprehended by the light. Paul didn't see the light, the
light saw him. The light surrounded him. The
gospel's called a net. It apprehends you. A light that
shone around about you. blinds you, like it did Saul
of Tarsus, blinds you to your own goodness, blinds you to everything
and everyone but the glory of God in Christ Jesus. Paul said,
God forbid that I should glorify the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ.
The light of the knowledge of the glory of God is seen in the
face, the person, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you
ever do see Him, your eyes will shine, your face will shine.
It's like looking at the sun. Have you ever looked at the sun?
You can't look at it long enough. Sure you have. Don't shake your
head. Sure you have. Didn't mean to. But you look at the sun.
What do you see after you look at the sun? Spots. Sunspots. Everywhere you look.
Everywhere you look. If you ever see Christ as all
in all, if you ever really see Christ as the reason, the purpose
for all things, you'll see Christ in everything. If you ever see
Christ in God's Word, you'll see Him everywhere. You'll see
Him everywhere. God lifted up His countenance
upon you. Look at verse 26 in our text.
The Lord make His face shine upon you and lift up His countenance. Oh, go back. Oh, my. Go pass it. Verse 25. The Lord be gracious unto thee.
The Lord be gracious unto thee. By grace are you saved. You know,
you can substitute Christ's name for grace. By grace, do you say? By Christ, do you say? He is
the grace of God. By grace, do you say? Grace means
gift, doesn't it? Grace is not an offer of God.
It's an act of God. He says, the Lord be gracious
unto you, then. Not offer you. He doesn't say,
the Lord offer you grace. No. The Lord be gracious unto
you. Give grace, bestow grace, like
mercy, like love. The Lord bestows it. The Lord
is merciful and shows mercy. He said, I will show mercy. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. If you hear, believe, and see
Christ crucified, the Lord has been gracious to you. The Lord
has blessed you with this unspeakable gift, which is Christ. Christ crucified. So, by grace
are you saved, grace bestowed upon you. Noah found grace in
the eyes of the Lord. And it goes on to say in verse
26, the Lord lift up his countenance upon them. That seems to imply the Lord
smile upon you. Lift up his countenance. You
know, when your countenance is downcast, you're frowning, aren't
you? When your countenance is down,
you're frowning. When it's up, you're smiling.
So it says the Lord lift up his countenance upon you. The Lord
smile upon you. Now the Lord God does not smile
upon this present evil world, unlike these false preachers
say. God is angry with the wicked every day. When you're angry
with someone, I just said it, and what happened to my brow?
When you're angry with someone, you don't smile at them. You
don't smile. The wrath of God, John 3, verse
36 says, abides on them that don't live. The wrath of God,
not the love of God. Anger of God. When you see evil,
when you see wickedness, when you see injustice, when you see
God's people hurt, when you see these things, do you smile? It
makes you angry, doesn't it? It makes you mad, you frown.
Not only grieves you, but it makes you angry. When God looked
down upon this world before the flood, he saw the wickedness
of man was only evil continual. He wasn't smiling. And God looked
beside him, he was not smiling with him. He said, I'm going
to destroy man who I created. And he said he's going to do
it again. But God. But Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. How? God told Noah to prepare
an ark. And he said, Come thou and thy
house into the ark. Come into the ark, Noah. And
everyone in that ark, God was smiling on them. I say this all the time. It would
have been mockery if God, if Noah had put a bumper sticker
on the outside of that ark. Smile, God loves you. But I tell you what, it was on
the inside. Because they were brought in,
they were chosen, they found grace, they were brought into
that ark, they were shut up, sealed, they were pitched. Pitched,
they couldn't get out. Nobody can get to Him. Smile. If you're in Christ, that's
why Paul said, I want to be found in Him. That's what it meant. Smile if you are, because God
loves you. Oh, the Lord lift up His countenance
upon thee and give thee peace, verse 26. Give thee peace. Peace with God is a gift. It
comes from God. We don't make our peace with
God. That's blasphemy. God must confer that. God must
pronounce that peace. And the only way we have peace
with an offended God is one way. Somebody tell me how. Christ. He is our peace. He made peace
by the blood of His cross. By His stripes we are healed. The chastisement of our peace
was laid on Him. He made peace. Now let me smile
when I say that. He made peace for us. He said
that in John 14, 27. He said, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Accepted in the beloved. Not
as the world giveth unto you. False peace. And there is no
peace. But peace by Christ. Peace by
His blood. There is no other peace. There's
no other peace of mind. There's no other peace of conscience
except the law fulfilled by Christ. See, the law convicts us. If we see the law fulfilled by
Christ, the law has no more claim over us. Have peace. How do you feel when a policeman
is in your rearview mirror? Tell me. You can be doing the
speed limit, and you think, he's going to find something. That's
the law. That's the law. Because what
things the law saith that saith unto them that every mount may
be stopped, and all the world become what? Guilty. You know
what Christ said? There was a woman that came in,
caught in the act of adultery, and the law said stone her. And
they said, what do you say? He said, I say, not guilty. How can you say that? Because
Christ is going to the cross shortly after it, and He's going
to pay for every one of her sins. He's going to justify her completely
from all her sin by the blood of His cross. He's going to pay
for every sin. And He told her, Thy sins are
forgiven thee. That's a blessing. And then lastly, can it get better? He said in
verse 27, And they shall put my name upon the children of
Israel. Put my name. John wrote, Behold, what manner
of love that the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should
be called the sons of God. Quite often I feel like a son
of Belial, don't you? Tell me, don't you? Can I be
a son of God? He said so. There was a time when I brought
great reproach on my father's name. That is, my earthly father,
Henry Mahan. I brought shame upon him, this
prodigal son. I'm thankful now that he was
my father. Thankful. I had a good father.
But I've got a better father than that. A heavenly father. And he says that I bear his name.
Son of God. My, my. What a blessing. Isn't
that the greatest blessing, Lord? To be called the Son of God?
It says in Jeremiah 23, verse 6, what does it say, John? It says, This is the name that
he shall be called. Jehovah Sidkenu. Right? What's that mean? The Lord our
what? Righteousness. Jehovah Sidkenu. That's His name.
He is made unto us. Righteousness. Righteousness. Well, over in Jeremiah 33, verse
16, it says this is Her name. His bride, his wife, this is
her name, this is what you're going to call her. What? Jehovah. Sit good there. She bears his
name. As he is, so is she. So are we. In this world, righteous,
holy, unblameable, unapprovable in God's sight. Who said so? He did. The Lamb's wife. The Lamb. I hope my wife is glad and feels
blessed to be my bride. I hope that. I think she does.
But I tell you, if you're the bride, the wife of the Lord Jesus
Christ, you know how blessed you are. And you know the only
women that he marries, don't you? Four-lorn ones. Like Homer. Are you a gomer? That's who He came to save. That's
who He came to mirror. I don't much like weddings. I certainly don't like performing
them, unless it's two believers. If it's a believer and unbeliever,
or two unbelievers, I don't do it, really. I don't do it. My
dad one time said, when he's saying the vows, you know, when
they're saying the vows, he said he always wanted to say, alright
now, how long is this going to last? Six months? But now, when the Lord marries
his bride, how long is it? How long is it going to last?
Forever. What God has joined together,
no man can put asunder. And marriage, Paul said in Ephesians
5, that I speak of Christ in this church. He said, you may
file for a divorce, but I'm not going to give it to you. Isn't that what he said? You
may run from me, but I'll find you. You may be unfaithful to
me. This is a blessing, people. Isn't
this a blessing? You may be unfaithful to me,
but I'll never be unfaithful to you. And that love is what wins that
backsliding wife and bride of his back, like Hosea had done. But this one thing I do love,
and if I marry two believers, and I married John and Irene,
I can't remember if I married anybody else in here, I don't
know, but John and Irene anyway. That was a blessing, wasn't it?
You remember that? Andy, wasn't that a great blessing? They stood
before me. Both of them know the Lord, love
the Lord. The Lord loves them, knows them.
And they stood there and I preached the gospel. And they were listening
intently. And these vows. John, do you
take this woman? Irene, do you take this man? And they meant it before God. Before these women. Didn't you?
That was a blessing. They're still together after
all these years. That's a blessing. And this is
what I started doing years ago. At the end of that, at the end
of the ceremony and all, I have the bride and the groom turn
around and face everybody and I say, brothers and sisters,
ladies and gentlemen, I now present to you, Mr. and Mrs. John Davis. I love that. I love doing that. See, that woman is never that
before. For how many years you were not Mrs. John Davis? You
are now. And how many years you did not
belong to Christ? Well, you did, and you didn't
know it. But one day, the pronouncement comes, I presented to you the
Bride of Christ, John Shuster, Mike Anderson. Oh, blessed are they that are
called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he ends this
by saying, I will bless them. Tell them, I will bless them. You know, God does all things
after the counsel of His will. No one has free will but God. He worketh all things after the
counsel of His will. When God says, I will, He shall. God says, I will work, and who
shall let me? Who shall prevent it? He says,
I will bless them. When old Esau wanted to undo
the blessing of Jacob, remember that? Isaac blessed Jacob in
Esau's place, and Esau said, change it. He said, I can't. He said, I blessed him, and he
shall be blessed. I cannot do it. When old Balaam, they tried to
pay him to curse Israel. Remember that? Curse him. He
said, I can't. Because if God blesses them,
they're blessed. So this is the blessing. Did
this bless you? This is what I'm told to tell you from the
Lord. If you believe Him, if you trust Christ, if you look
to Him, He said He'll bless you, and He has. And He says He will
always bless you, and He will. Blessed be His name. Stand with
Him.