Let's read the text. Numbers chapter 6. Numbers chapter
6. This is a very familiar passage
to many of you. In fact, I received a card once
from one of you ladies and you had this scripture at the end
of that card. Numbers chapter 6 verses 22 And
the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou, 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
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, that is Aaron and his
son, shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will
bless them." Let's bow for prayer. Our God and our Father, in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we come tonight. We come as we always want to
come. We come in praise and worship of your holy
name. We come to give thanks. We come to hear Your Word read,
to look into Thy holy Word. We come to hear the Word proclaimed. We come to call upon You to make our request known unto Thee,
our God. We are thankful that we can call
You our Father through the Lord Jesus Christ, the firstborn among
many brethren, who said we can come to Thee and call You Father. Hallowed and holy is Thy name.
Lord, we thank You for Your Word, for the gospel of Your Kingdom.
We pray that it would come, that You would send it, that you would
send it into this place and establish it here. We believe you have.
We ask that you would cause it to grow. That which you have
begun, we pray, we ask that you would perfect it until the day
of Christ Jesus. Cause us all, all whom you have
builded on Christ the Rock, to be built up that we come to the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And we might
edify one another in this most holy faith, comfort one another,
exhort one another, and so much more as we see the day, thy day,
approaching. And surely that day is near.
And we say, even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. And you have come
many of your saints. We are as grass that withereth
and fadeth away. And Lord, the righteous perish
and none take it to heart. Merciful men are taken away from the evil days to come. We
thank You for our brother, Brother Scott, Thank you for all that
you did for him and did for us through him. Thank you for your gospel that saved his soul
and which you taught him and gave him the ability to preach
throughout the churches. And we thank you for him. I ask
your blessings upon That church there, Brother Marvin, as he
prepares to speak, and the family, and all who will sorely miss
Brother Scott. We mourn with them, but we do
rejoice in our brother's homecoming. Lord, be with us tonight. We
ask that You would bless Your Word. This is the blessing. If you're pleased, we will be
blessed. So open our hearts. Open our
ears. Dig our ears. Let these sayings
sink down deep in our ears and write them on the tables of our
hearts, we pray. We ask the same blessings upon
your people that meet in every church throughout this land and
others. Blessed preacher and hearer alike, Lord, send Your
Spirit to give us of our sins It's in Christ's name we have
met here and ask these things. Amen. Let's read verses 22 and 23 again. Number 6. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise, In
this way ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them."
The Lord commands these men to bless the people. Now who He
is blessing is God's people. The last verse says, the children
of Israel. Psalm 3, verse 8, salvation belongeth
unto the Lord. and thy blessing shall be upon
thy people." The Lord blesses His people, and this is the way
in which He blesses them, through His Word. The blessing of the
Lord is from the preached Word. How often do we pray just that? Lord, bless Your Word. And if
the Lord does, if He blesses His Word to our hearts, then
we are truly blessed. We are blessed people. And the
plain, simple declaration of God's Word, what He tells the
preacher to bless the people with, and us to bless one another
with. Remember, Paul wrote, comfort
one another with these words. And the plain, simple declaration
of God's Word, the Word of Truth, the Gospel of our salvation,
is what the Lord uses to truly bless His people. Now, you see
many imposters out there, don't you, who stand up with all this
ecclesiastical garb on and are muttering some kind of undiscernible
language that no one knows, Latin or something, and waved their
hand over the people, pretending to bless the people. Those men are impostors, and
that is not the blessing of the Lord, but this is. Here's what
the Lord told us to bless you with and bless one another with.
Verse 24. Here it is. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. The Lord, the Lord God, bless
thee. The Lord from whom all blessings
flow. All our springs are in thee,
David said. All blessing. David wrote, Bless
the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his
holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all His blessing. The Lord bless thee. Now, the
word bless actually means kneel to. To kneel down to. Now, we are told to bless the
Lord, meaning we bow our knee to Him. And we bless Him. We bow our knee to Him. The way
in which the Lord blesses us is by bending His knee, by stooping
down to us, condescending to us. That's how He blesses us. The blessing of blessings is
for the Lord to think on us. Psalm 8 verse 4 says, What is
man that thou art mindful of him? What is man that God would
even think on him, let alone visit him? And the Lord did. The Lord God of heaven, blessing
of all blessings, the Lord God was manifest in the flesh. Came down. The Lord stooped very
low to be with us, to visit us, to speak to us. Turn to Genesis
28 with me. The Lord came down from His throne,
left His throne of glory to dwell among worms. Worms. That's the God of Jacob. In Genesis 28, Jacob in this
story is running from his brother Esau. You know the story. And
he's running from him. He has lied. He has cheated. He has sinned
against his father, against God. He has sinned against his brother. And he is running scared. And Jacob laid down this night
and took some stones for his pillow. He didn't sleep too well,
I know. But he took some stones for his
pillow and he laid down and it says, the Lord appeared to him. Look at verse 12. He dreamed.
Behold, a ladder set up on the earth. The top of it reached
to heaven. Behold, the angels of God ascending
and descending on it. You remember our Lord used this very verse, didn't
He? to the Pharisees. He said, you shall see the angels. We're talking about Himself.
He is that ladder. He is the One who came from heaven
and touched the earth. Who condescended from heaven
to the earth. Verse 13, Behold, the Lord stood
above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father and
the God of Isaac. Down in verse 15, I am with thee,
behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither
thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land. For I will
not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee."
The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord be with thee. Verse 18, Jacob arose early.
and realized, he said, the Lord was in this place. In verse 19,
he called it Bethel, the house of the Lord, and he vowed, verse
20, if God will be with me, if God will be with me, bless me
with His presence, and will keep me in this way that I go and
give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, and I come again to
my Father's house in peace, then the Lord, it's a fact, He is
my God. So this is the blessing of all
blessings, that the Lord says to our soul, I am thy salvation. The Lord comes to us and blesses
us and says, I am with thee. I am thy God. And I will keep thee. Look at
this in our text. He said, bless them this way. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. Now, two ways to look at this.
Keep thee. The word keep means either to keep in the way of never getting
rid of, never casting out, never do away with. And keep also means
to protect, to watch over, to guard. Okay? The Lord bless thee
and the Lord keep thee. May the Lord... I said I wasn't
going to say that. He doesn't say that. He says
this in a very emphatic way. In a statement. The Lord keep
thee. And He will. We shall see. The Lord keep thee. The Lord
never cast thee out. David wrote in that psalm that's
a favorite of every sinner. Psalm 51. David, a son of Jacob. David, a sinner. David, who said
to his father, Against thee and thee only have I sinned, David
said, Cast me not away from thy presence. And that's what every
sinner fears and what every sinner cries unto his God, Cast me not
away. Lord, don't cast me out. Don't
cast me out. Only to hear the blessed God
of Jacob say, Fear not, thou worm, Jacob, I will keep thee. in all places whither you go. The Lord says to all His sinful
sons whom He calls sons of Jacob, fear not, I am with thee. I will
keep thee. The Lord says, all that the Father
giveth to me shall come to me and, can you quote the rest of
it? Him that cometh to me, whoever
it may be, no matter how sinful, whenever, whenever, In the end,
after they've been gone a while, after they've played the prodigal,
after they've fallen to what? Him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise, under no circumstances, for any reason whatsoever, cast
them out. The Lord keep thee. He said this. He said, your father and your
mother may forsake you, But I won't." Your husband or wife may, he
says, but where is the bill of divorcement that I have given
you? Though you played the harlot just like Gomer. Remember Hosea's
Gomer? The Lord sent him to love a harlot.
Hosea, who is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, sent him to love
a harlot, a forlorn woman, whom he did, and made something of
her. What did she do? She fell again. What did Hosea do? He kept her. He didn't leave
her. The Lord says, I'll keep you.
When you think of who the Lord came to save, you'll know His
intent to keep them. Not many wise men of the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called or saved. God came.
This is a faithful saving. We quote that. I quote that probably
more than any verse I know of because it gives me great comfort.
It was Paul's comfort, wasn't it? This is a faithful saying. God said it. And worthy of all
acceptation. You can believe this. God said
it. That Christ Jesus came into the world to save, not the righteous,
not the godly, sinners. And Paul said, even the chiefs.
So if He came to save such as that, He intends to keep them. They were nothing when He found
them. And they really won't be much
until they get, you know, do away with this body of death
and go to be with Him in glory. And He intends to keep them.
And the price, when you think about the price that He paid,
you think of how far He came. That's what you prayed in your
prayer tonight. When you think of how far He
came to save such lowly ones as this, and the price that He
paid, He gave Himself, His own precious blood, to save them,
that means He fully intends and purposed to keep them. And what
if they sin again? They have, they do, and they
shall. But He said, I'll keep you. You're mine. You're mine. And I'm going to keep you. What
a blessing. Happy is he that the God of Jacob. The story of
Jacob should be every son of Jacob's favorite story. My, my. What a blessing. And you remember
Annie, the black dog that I went to the pound to save, to give
to Abner. Do you remember that? Sure you
do. I've told it a hundred times.
But we still have her. We still have her. And she really,
she's pretty much the same dog as the one I saved from being
euthanized the next day. My, my. She's a grateful dog.
She's a loving dog. And she still acts like a dog,
but we still have her. We intend to keep her, don't
we? The Lord bless thee. The Lord keep thee. And the word
keep turned to Psalm 121. You knew that was going there,
didn't you? Psalm 121. The Lord keep thee.
The Lord watch over thee. The Lord protect thee. Now, the first time the word
bless is used in the Scripture. is when the Lord called Abraham,
Abram, in Genesis 12. And He said, Abram, I am thy
shield. I am thy shield. Thy exceeding great reward. You
see, the Lord, and we're talking about the Lord God, we're talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord is He that keepeth Israel. He that saved His people, He
that keeps them for all time, and He that watches over and
protects them in all their ways, all their days. Psalm 121, look
how many times He says this in verse 3, He will not suffer thy
foot to be moved. Oh my, aren't you glad? Lord, I'm ready to halt. That's what the psalmist said.
I'm ready to halt. I'm ready to quit. I'm ready
to go back. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved. Read on. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. It means his eye is always open. He will not take his eye off
of you. While your children, Hannah,
are out and so forth, do you ever take your eye off of them?
Not while they're a little, anyway. Not the first one, anyway. Man's not a good example, actually. We try to keep our eye. But the
Lord, His eye is always upon His people. He doth not slumber. He, verse 4, that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber, that means His eyes are not heavy, they
do not grow tired, nor sleep. Do you remember the Lord in that
ship asleep in the hindered part of the ship? Was He really? Well, yes and no. This is the
mystery, isn't it? He was, but now this is the same
Lord that does not sleep. This is the God-man. God who
does not sleep. Man who must sleep. What a mystery
that is. But while even asleep, He was
still watching over them. And behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper." That's
his name, the Lord. So he says, bless the people
in this way. Tell them the Lord bless thee
and the Lord keep thee. Now notice with me as we go on,
that there's no mention whatsoever of anything material. Not one single thing is mentioned
in all of these verses about the blessing of the Lord. He
said, you pronounce, you declare the blessing, singular, of the
Lord upon My people. And it has nothing to do with
material things. All those things are blessings. The Lord does bless us. Forget
not all his benefits, who daily loatheth thee with benefits,
and so forth. But that's not the blessing.
When David said that in Psalm 103, what's the first thing he
said? Bless the Lord, forget not all
his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquity. Now, the blessing of the Lord,
the true blessing of the Lord is spiritual. This is why Paul
wrote, Bless God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Where are they? In Christ. Heavenly, spiritual blessings.
These are the true blessings and they all go together to make
up the blessing that is salvation. What we are doing right now is
the greatest blessing, the true blessing from the Lord. And if
you count this the greatest blessing, if you count this a blessing,
you're blessed. The Lord has indeed blessed you
and will keep you. If you count this a blessing.
Back in our text, Numbers chapter 6. Now, the Lord blessed it. This is what I am told. This
is what you are told. What we are told. and to tell
one another, the Lord blessed them. We won't be blessed unless
the Lord does it. And if the Lord does, this is
what we're going to hear. This is the blessing. We're going
to hear His Word. We're going to hear of Him who is the Lord.
How He has blessed us with all spiritual blessing. How He purposed
to save us and to keep us for all eternity and keep us in all
Our way. The Lord, verse 25, make His
face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto them. I already
see your faces shining. When you just read that, you
know what a blessed people we are. You know what that's talking
about, don't you? The revealed things belonging
to us and our children. You know exactly what this means
when he says, the Lord make His face shine upon them and be gracious
unto them. Do you know how many times it
says this in the Scripture? The Lord make His face shine
upon you. Many, many times. And what this
is, the truest, greatest blessing conferred by God upon man is
when God Almighty reveals The glory of God. The knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Where
is that? 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians
4. That's the second verse quoted
most often. 2 Corinthians 4. And you need
to commit this to memory because this whole chapter is nothing
greater in God's Word than this 2 Corinthians chapter. But in
verse 6, he says, God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
the God who created all things, the Creator, who spoke and said,
let there be light, did the same thing in your heart. One day, you who were in darkness,
even as others, one day, sitting under the light of the knowledge
of God Almighty, no less than Saul of Tarsus, He calls the
light to shine round about you and in you. Shine in our hearts, because out of the heart are
the issues of life. The heart with the heart, man,
believe Him. Not the head, but the heart. He has shined in our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. The Lord make His face shine
upon you. The blessing of God is when the
day star arises in your heart. The blessing of God is when the
sun of righteousness arises with healing, saving in His wing. When Christ the light, oh yes,
the people that sat in darkness have seen a great light. Christ
the light shines on them and in them. In thy light we see
life, the light of the knowledge, the glory of God. Salvation is
to the praise of the glory. What's the glory of God? His
grace. Where is His grace seen? In Christ. In Christ. The light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. And the gospel
of Christ is called good news. Good news to sinners. And in
spite of our sins, sins which cast a dark cloud over our heads,
don't they? Sins which leave darkness in
our bosom. When the gospel is preached,
and only really when the gospel is preached, will we lighten
up. Will our burden be lifted? He
lifts the dark cloud of despair. Read on here in 2 Corinthians
4. Do you still have it? It says
down in verse 8, We are troubled on every side, but not distressed. Why? This gospel. We hear the
gospel. We're perplexed. I don't understand. But we're not in despair. We're
persecuted. That's what Brother Gabe preached
on, didn't he? By the world we're persecuted.
Forsaken even, but not by the Lord. He said, I'll never leave
you nor forsake you. We are cast down. David said,
why art thou cast down within me, O my soul? Hope thou in God. We're not destroyed. As Brother
Joe Terrell said, yes, we deserve to be in hell, but we're not,
are we? And we hear this Gospel preached,
the good news. You wouldn't hear it. You wouldn't
rejoice in it if it wasn't for you. And the Gospel of God is
this. Thy God reigneth. Thy God reigneth. And in the midst of a dark and
fearful world where all you hear is dark tales and dark stories, the darkness of this world is
what this place is called. This Gospel enlightens us doesn't
it? J. C. Philpott, I remember that
he in his book, Through Bacchus' Veil, wrote on this. And I searched
for it. And it was back in January. And
he took a day for each verse. I remember being greatly blessed.
I went back and read it again. Well, he talked about the Lord making
His face shine upon us, that when we hear all of the dark,
But the bad news, like Brother Scott said, I've not heard any
real bad news since I've heard the good news. When we hear all
of these horrible things going on, it dispels our darkness,
he said. It lightens our mood. When we
hear that our God reigns, in spite of sin and the world and
Satan, in spite of that, our God reigns. Lord over all. When we hear of
covenant mercies, covenant mercy, that everything about us is ordered
and sure. This is our salvation. Ordered
and sure. When we hear of there's a place
prepared for us, when we hear the Lord say, in the world you
shall have tribulation, there'll be a good year. I've
overcome the world. And David said, we watch for
that, we look for that, look forward to it more than they
that watch for the morning. And the Gospel, when we hear
it, is like the sun coming up after a long time of clouds,
isn't it? We've gone through many days
of clouds, and it's just human to get a little bit depressed,
isn't it? Well, when the sun comes out,
it can just come out briefly, and it lightens your mood. Oh
my, when you come in and hear the gospel, just hear a word,
in season, it enlightens you. It lightens your burden. Like when the sun comes on after
a cold winter day. It could be the middle of the
winter, and cold as ice, and you're out there working hard,
and you're cold. Let the sun come out just for
a little while. And you feel its warmth. And everything's
good again in them. That's His gospel. Oh, may the
Lord, not may, the Lord will, the Lord make His face shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee. That's the grace of God.
It's the gospel of the grace of God, the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the person, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you really see Christ
as all, and all else is vanity, and you really believe this Gospel
is the greatest blessing of all, then the Lord has shined upon
you. And I look at faces quite often. And you know, when Moses
went into the presence of God, What happened to him? His face
shone. And the same thing. We all behold
Him as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, and are changed
in the same image. Face answers the face and the
water. So the heart of man to the heart of man. And I see your
face shining at times when this Gospel is preached. Verse 26,
and the Lord has been gracious to you Be your case. Verse 26, The Lord lift up His
countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. The Lord lift up
His countenance upon thee. Now the Scriptures says that
God is angry with the wicked every day. And when you're angry,
how do you look? Like I look right now, huh? Burrowed
brow. When you're angry, your brow
is wrinkled and furrowed. When you're angry, your countenance
falls, doesn't it? Your countenance is stern. You're
frowning. You're fearful looking. I remember
my father, you know, the times when I displeased him. I remember
his countenance frightened me more than anything, didn't it,
Rob? Countenance just... Your dad, didn't it, Steve? Oh,
man, just when Dad was frowning. Oh, my. Scripture says the Lord
is angry with the wicked every day. Psalm 14 says, look down
upon the children of men and see if there were any that didn't
understand and seek God. And he said, they're all gone
aside. They're all together. Every one of them has become
filthy. There's none that doeth good. No, not one. In fact, he
said, the fool hath said, there is no God. The God who says,
I have clothed you, I have fed you, I have clothed you, though
you have not known me. The ox knows his owner. The ass knows his master's crib.
But my people does not know or consider. And all the while,
he's frowning. It's not smile, God loves you. You don't smile when you're angry,
do you? God is not smiling upon this
world. He's angry. And Romans 1 clearly
says that. The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven. The destruction and the pestilence
and the famine and all that is not the love of God. It's the
anger of God. It's the wrath of God. You know
that, don't you? Now God does smile. Where is
the smile of God? Upon whom is the smile of God?
He said, Thy people. Israel. Well, why is that? Are they any better than Egypt?
Are they any better than the world? Are they more holy than
the world? No. Romans 8, verse 39 says,
The love of God is in Jesus Christ. the smile of God, we are accepted
in the Beloved. And we've said this so many times,
but in the ark, you'll find the love of God. You'll find eight
souls upon which God will smile at. Outside, God is a consuming
fire. God is angry. And that was clear.
The wrath of God fell on them. Like the Israelites in Egypt,
the plagues fell upon The Egyptians. All the plague. There was not
a house in which there was not somebody touched by the plague.
But there was not one house of all the Israelites touched by
one plague. And he said, they're all coming
out. Every one of them. There won't be a hoof or a hair
left behind. I'm keeping them all. From the
lowest to the highest. to the strong, male or female.
Keep them up. They're all coming out. That's
who He saved. And He lifts up His countenance.
The Lord smiles. The Lord smiles upon His people
because why? Well, you look at it in our text.
He says, The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and give
thee peace. Why does the Lord smile? because
someone has made peace with him. Someone has reconciled us to
God. God is not angry with us, though
we feel wicked, though we are sinful, though we are no better,
no holier than anyone else in and of ourselves. But someone
has come down and appeased the wrath of God. Someone has come
down and God poured out on him his wrath. Someone came down
a substitute. And God laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. And God spared not. God forsook Him. We're talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who God frowned upon,
whom God poured out His anger and His wrath upon in our stead,
like Judah said. And because of that, smile. God loves you. God loves you. And the mystery, too, is that
God puts a new creature just like Christ in you, created in
His image, an image of Christ, one that you can't really see.
Others see something of Him, but not fully. But there is a new man. His seed
remaineth in you that God loves, created in His image. A new birth,
that's what that's called. So, the Lord give us peace. The Lord give us peace and make
His countenance shine upon us. And once again, only under the
gospel will you find this peace. Only under the gospel will you
feel the smiles of God. In the darkest of times, you'll
see light. In the saddest of times, you'll
rejoice. That's right, only under the
gospel. Under the greatest sense of guilt, you'll experience mercy. In your worst of fears, you'll
find peace, the passive understanding. After your lowest point, He'll
lift you up. The Lord lifts up His countenance
upon you and He does that through the preaching of the gospel and
gives you peace. Now, here's the final word to
tell the people. And they, that is the preacher,
shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them."
And as you know, Aaron represents our great high priesthood, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he hath made us kings and
free. And the Lord is the one who puts
God's name upon us, who said to us, we can call Him Father.
But here it is when he puts when he puts his name upon the children
of Israel. Remember, he said, now, I've
never been known by this name by anyone except you. You're
going to be my people, and you're going to know me by this name,
Jehovah. Jehovah. The Lord. That's whenever you see the word
capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D throughout the Old
Testament, that's Jehovah. That's Jehovah. We fear that
name. We don't say Hallelujah, except
it be in reverence and worship. Hallelujah. That's praise the
Lord, praise Jehovah. God said, I will not hold them
guiltless who take My name in that. But My people shall know
Me by this name, Jehovah. That means the unchanging, eternal
I Am. Who shall I say has sent Me,
Lord? Moses said, tell them, I am that
I am. Tell my people, I am. Are what? That I am. All that they need,
I am. All that they cannot do, I am. I am that I am. I am the Lord. I am the Lord God. I am the Lord merciful, gracious,
Long-suffering. Put my name upon it. Put my name
on it. Long-suffering. Abundant in goodness. Abundant. You remember that?
I can't even remember the title. It was something about His goodness.
He'll perfect that goodness concerning us. Abundant in goodness and
truth. The truth. The Lord will remember
His mercy and His truth. The Lord will be merciful. How? Tell us the truth. He won't quit
telling us the truth as it is in Christ, which is mercy. Mercy and truth. Mercy and truth. Abundant in goodness and truth.
Keeping mercy for thousands. Forgiving iniquity. That's His
name. Tell them, put my name upon them,
tell them I am Jehovah Sidkeno. Now you remember that? Remember
where that's found, Ron? Jeremiah 23.6. The reason I say
that is because I messed it up last time. Jeremiah 23.6 and
33.16. In 23.6 he said, I am Jehovah
Sidkenu, the Lord your Righteousness. And he says to Christ, put my
name on them. Make them righteous before me.
Give them, impute, impart your righteousness to them. Make them
righteous. He is made unto us. His name
is put upon us. The Lord, our righteousness.
And over in Jeremiah 33, it says, they shall be called. This is
their name. Her name. The church. The Lord, our righteousness. Put my name on them. And He tells
Christ, do this. He tells His preachers, tell
them. The Lord is their righteousness.
Tell them. Put my name on them. Tell them I'm their prophet.
As Brother Greg preached, consider the apostle and high priest of
our profession. He's our apostle, our prophet
of whom we hear Moses preached of. The priest. We have a high
priest. We have a high priest. We have
a high priest that we confess to all the time. He goes straight
to God. We have a king. The world has a king, call him
Caesar. That's not my king. We're like Machiel, I forgot, Hananiah,
Machiel, and Azariah. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
We're like those three, aren't we? We'll not bow to that king,
no sir. Well, we'll put you in the furnace.
It doesn't matter. Lord be with us. He's our King
whom we bow to. He's our mediator. Oh my, we
have an advocate with the Father. Put my name on it. Tell them
I'm their substitute. I'm their advocate. I'm their
surety. Tell them that the Lion of the
tribe of Judah is their surety and has charged
himself with their safekeeping to bring them home to the Father
and be punished in their stead. Tell them, I'm their father,
I'm their husband, I'm their friend. Tell them, I am their
God. And I will in no wise cast them
out. I'll still give the aid. I'll
never fail you or leave you or forsake you. Tell them, put my
name upon the children of Israel. Look at verse 27. And he closes
by saying, And I will, bless them. Will he do that? I will, bless them. Make no doubt
about it. We doubt ourselves. We don't
trust ourselves. We put no confidence into play.
But folks, you can put all your confidence on the sure mercies
of our Lord, of David, the Son of David. Cast all your care
upon Him. Trust the Lord with all your
heart because He cares for you. That's the blessing. Alright.
Stand with me. Our Lord, we bless You for this
Word. And truly, Your Word is the blessing
of all blessings. For in it, we have seen Thy face
shine upon us and You've been gracious to us. Lord, we've seen
how You have blessed us with all spiritual blessings, and
have kept Your sheep. Not one of them is lost, nor
ever shall be. Lord, we see from Your Word that
You have spoken to us how that You smile upon Your people, and
You love Your sons as You love Christ, and we have peace with
Thee through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank You
for Your Word, Lord. Keep us under the sound of it. Keep us, make us keep ourselves
under the love of God, under the gospel of the Son of Thy
love that will give us peace and lighten our burden. It's
in Christ's name we meet here tonight and give thanks. Amen.