Gospel According to Numbers,
and we're going to be in chapter 18. So good to be here with you. Glad for those who have joined
us by Zoom, and we look forward to those who will join us by
sermon audio. Remember one another in prayer.
We pray that you would also remember our summer camp, that you would
mark that on your calendar. The Book of Numbers, chapter
18, verse 1. And the Lord said unto Aaron,
thou and thy sons and thy father's house with thee shall bear the
iniquity of the sanctuary. Thou and thy sons with thee shall
bear the iniquity of your priesthood. In other words, he is relating
to them that you are responsible for any offenses that take place
around the sanctuary or in the priesthood. You have a responsibility
placed upon you. And thy brethren, verse two,
also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou
with thee that they may be joined unto thee and minister unto thee,
but thou and thy sons with thee shall minister before the tabernacle
of witness. And they shall keep thy charge,
and the charge of all the tabernacle, only they shall not come, nigh
the vessels of the sanctuary, and the altar, that neither they
nor ye also die. Did you notice that last part?
Only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary
and the altar that neither they nor ye also die. I want to read down through verse
seven. And they shall be joined unto
thee and keep the charge of the tabernacle of the congregation
for all the service of the tabernacle. And a stranger shall not come
nigh unto you. And ye shall keep the charge
of the sanctuary and the charge of the altar, that there be no
wrath any more upon the children of Israel. And I behold, I even,
I have taken your brethren, the Levites, from among the children
of Israel to you. They are given as a gift for
the Lord to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. Therefore thou and thy sons with
thee shall keep your priest's office everything of the altar,
and within the veil ye shall serve. I have given your priest's
office unto you as a service of gift. The stranger that cometh
nigh shall be put to death. This passage of scripture shares
with us that there is no flexibility with the law of God. We find
in this passage of scripture, as we will in the book of Deuteronomy
four times, Matthew, Mark, and Luke bring this up, that there
is such a stringent requirement placed upon humanity with regard
to the law. There is no flexibility in it.
The law is so harsh and so hard. And yet we find that there is
one that took upon all of the law and all of those things against
us and put them on himself. Now read with me if you would
over in the book of Mark chapter 12 for just a moment. Mark chapter
12. This First commandment that the Lord
shares with us, God demands absolute righteousness. And there is no
such thing of being all most righteous. Did you notice over
there in verse three, that if they make an infraction here,
they are to die. And if a stranger comes near,
they are to die. There is no room here for making
a mistake. We live by that, but when it
comes to the law of God, there is no room for a mistake. Here
in the book of Mark chapter 12, we find the Lord speaking about
this to somebody that brought this up. Mark chapter 12 beginning
with verse 29. Mark chapter 12 and verse 29,
Jesus answered him. Someone's brought a question
up. Please take the time to read that. But this is of the first
of all commandments. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one Lord. And one more time, that's a quote
from the Old Testament. Verse 30, thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like namely
this, thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other
commandment greater than these. Now this is the sum and substance
of the Old Testament law. And if you'll notice here with
me, that there is no room for variation. You are going to do
all or it's not going to work. You must love the Lord thy God
with everything. Now, when I was in religion,
I used to look those words up because I found myself not being
able to keep them. And this is 24-7, 365. There's no time left out not
to be able to do this. We don't have any time off from
this. If this is the standard we're
going to live by, there's no time off. There's no room for
any variance from right hander to left hand. There's nothing
here, just as we find there in the book of Numbers chapter 18
in verse 3 and in verse 7, that if there is an infraction, you're
going to die. Well, we find that the Lord brings
this up constantly throughout the scriptures because we are
unable to keep the law. Because the carnal mind, the
fallen mind, the mind that we inherited because of Adam, and
Adam's fault, and because of our own sin, that mind is enmity
against God and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. We have a problem. Here's the
standard. Complete and absolute and total
righteousness is required and we have a problem because we're
broken. We cannot meet that standard.
We cannot approach that standard. We don't have the ability of
reaching that standard. And if we don't keep that standard,
The Bible tells us in Romans chapter 6 and verse 23, for the
wages of sin is death. Now that's the same standard
that he brought up to Moses to share with Aaron and those Levites. If you don't keep this standard,
the penalty is this. and it's a serious penalty. It
is death. Now, the death that comes as
a result of sinning against God, if it is not taken care of, the
penalty of that death is not only physical but spiritual death
for eternity. It is a serious place that we're
put in by the relationship that we have with our father Adam.
We are unable to keep it and yet the standard is there. This is the standard 100% righteousness. 100% this must be kept or you
don't have any life in you. Well, the justice of God demands full
payment. And we find ourselves unable
to pay. How can I keep all of that which
the Lord just brought up in two verses? Bad enough to love my
neighbors myself. Now I like good neighbors and
I respect my good neighbors. But you know, it's a trial at
times to love them as ourself. But to go ahead and love the
Lord with all of those four capacities, body, mind, soul, and spirit,
all our strength, and if we don't keep that standard, we have this
penalty hanging over us. The need for divine pardon is
absolute. The question is how God is going
to be able to remain just. We can't just keep part of the
law. That's not just. God has said the most minor infraction
is going to require this. That to break the law in one
point is to be guilty of all the law, and the justice must
be served. The divine pardon is necessary,
but how can God grant a pardon without taking care of the sin?
Well, turn with me if you would in the book of Romans chapter
3. Romans chapter 3, we read these
words about this subject, Romans chapter 3 and verse 26. What
a blessed verse of scripture we have here because God declares
through his minister of the gospel through the apostle Paul. Paul
is the secretary. Paul is writing what he's been
instructed to write because this is an important message from
God. Romans chapter three and verse
26, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that
he might be just. Now God must remain just. He cannot put away sin because
he loves us. it's that's not a good enough
it doesn't take care of his justness or justice the soul that sinneth
it must die you come up against the altar he told the children
of levi that place was there and it was required to be approached
by aaron and his sons the The altar. Those Levites were not
to enter into the holy place. They were not to enter into the
holy of holies. They had other service to perform. But if they got inquisitive,
if they got curious, if they came up and approached the altar
of burnt offering or the altar of incense, instantly God was
going to demand their death. If they came and looked upon
the articles that were in the Holy of Holies or the Holy Place,
if they peeked at them, if they stared at them, if they came
upon them and did not have them covered, God was going to demand
instant death. And if a stranger approached
them, they were to die instantly. God was going to require that.
Well, we find that when Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, ordained,
but in the Aaronic priesthood came and offered incense with
strange fire and instant death was it prescribed and God gave
it to him. That is how serious this is.
We cannot approach the altar. We cannot approach the articles
in the holy place or the holy of holies. It is not our place
to come into that place. We have a high priest that has
been appointed to do that for us. Well, here in the book of
Romans chapter three and verse 26, it says that he might be
just. And he is just. He was just when
he took Nadab and Abihu. They broke the law. And he would
be just if he took everyone that had ever sinned and sent them
to a devil's hell. He would be just. But notice
what we find in the rest of this verse of scripture. It says,
an justifier. of him that believeth in Jesus. Now God has in his marvelous
wisdom, in his glorious wisdom, in his ability to deal with a
serious problem, has been able to take care and keep himself
just, but also justifier. And how does he do that? There
is someone that stepped in the gap. There's someone that stepped
in our place, there's someone that represents us well, and
God is able by his mercy and grace to deliver his people from
their sins and to pardon them because he placed on this one,
the great high priest, the true prophet, the great king of glory,
he placed on him the sins of his people. He was placed on
Him our sins. And then God bore out His justice
and He died. Now there can be absolute and
complete and free pardon of sin without us ever being involved. As one preacher said, the only
thing that we bring to salvation is our sin. And that sin must
be paid for or we will face justice. What a glorious thing. Christ
frees his people not by changing the rules. I was asked to do that many times
when I was teaching. Just change the rules for me.
I don't know how many kids would say towards the end, is there
any makeup work that I can do? I said, how can you expect to
do makeup work when you won't do the real work? How can I expect you to be righteous
if you will not bow your knee to Christ? How? We notice back
there in the reading of Numbers chapter 18 and verse 3 that even
the Levites and the priests, if they disobeyed, they would
surely die. And we have exercise of that
found in the scriptures. And the stranger shall not come
nigh. Aaron, your sons and your relatives
have some responsibility here, as we found in verse one. And
all the Levites were to help, but they had some responsibilities
they were not to take part in. They shall oversee, but they
shall not take part of, and they shall not come. Notice, go back
with me to the book of Numbers chapter 18, and there in verse
three, and we find in that passage of scripture, there's some things
that these Levites were not to participate in. Numbers chapter
18 and verse three, it says there, and this shall be the priest
do from the people. Excuse me, I'm in Deuteronomy.
I'll get to numbers. So far I have the sense to know
sometimes when I'm in the wrong place. All right, Numbers chapter
18. They shall keep thy charge in
the charge of the tabernacle, only they shall not come nigh
the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar. They shall not
come near them. They shall not come near the
altar. What went on there? This is where
the priest took the sacrifice, placed it on the altar, and fire
from heaven fell and consumed the sacrifice. This has to do
with everything from God's point of view. This is required for
us to be able to say He's just and justifier. Here's the only
means by which He can forgive us our sins. There is going to
be the reality, the fulfillment of these animal sacrifices in
the Lamb of God. We are restricted from approaching
some things that God has ordained. We cannot approach this altar. We cannot interfere with this
altar. We cannot prescribe differences
for this altar. And the same goes true with the
articles that were in the Holy of Holies, the mercy seat. We
cannot go in there and splatter blood. That's required by the
priest to do. We cannot go in there and offer
incense, that's for the priest to do. We cannot go in there
and take the showbread, that's for the priest to do. We have
certain things given and delegated to certain people and the rest
of us cannot go there and approach that. What is that telling us
about today? How can we apply that to us today? there are some things we are
not to do even in our worship. And there are some things to
do that we're not to do, some places we can't go even
in our worship. You know, one man put it this
way, we cannot do the right thing in a wrong way. And another man
said, you can't, Uncle Moe's said, you cannot fire God's cannon
with the devil's gunpowder. Well, as I was searching, I said,
what does that mean for us? Not being able to approach that
altar, I thought that was our right and privilege. It is our
right and privilege to approach Christ through his own blood,
but we have no participation in what he was about to do. We
cannot go in there. We can't even slay that sacrifice. That must be done by another.
We must stay out of the placing of that sacrifice. That's given
to another. We must stay away from the lighting
of that sacrifice. That's given to another. We must
stay out of the Holy of Holies. That's given to another. What
is our part? Wait, I say on the Lord. In the book of Numbers, Chapter
3. Would you turn there with me?
Numbers chapter 3. Now this is mentioned in the
book of Exodus, but since we're in the book of Numbers, back
up with me just a bit. We mentioned this, but we want
to bring it out because here is a very powerful couple. Two. They're priests. They have all of the finery,
the robes, the miter. They're not high priests, but
they are priests, and they are required to do certain things.
Now, what got into these two boys, I cannot understand except
they're just natural men and they had never ever saw the grace
of God. They're just playing. They're
just playing religion. They're just playing church.
They're just playing about what they're doing because they do
not take what God requires seriously. God required absolute perfection
and they didn't take him serious. They did not care. They could
trace their line right back to Esau. They could trace their
line right back to Cain. Cain didn't care what God had
to say. Cain didn't care the requirements
that were imposed. Cain could care less. And so
it is with Nadab and Abihu here in Numbers chapter 3 and verse
4. And Nadab and Abihu died before the Lord when they offered strange
fire before the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai. And they had no children,
and Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest's office in the
sight of Aaron their father. They offered strange fire. You
know, I am so thankful for the mercy and grace of God because
in religion, I did exactly what Nadab and Abihu did. I preached
a God that was not able to save people unless they consented
to it. And you know, God had every right
to send down fire and consume me. You know the only difference
there was? God had written my name in the
Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world and he
had already prepared to forgive me and had forgiven me in Christ
Jesus the Lord. And he was just in the process
of getting me to the right time when I could hear something that
actually was the gospel and saved me by his grace. And then I was
so ashamed of what I had to say about God in my religion. Well,
Nadab and Abihu are illustrating a point that God never knew them,
and when they offered strange fire, he had every right in the
world to consume them, and they will stand on the left-hand side.
Turn with me, if you would, to 1 Samuel chapter six and verse
19. 1 Samuel chapter six. You know, people have strange
things about religion. In 1 Samuel chapter, I did, did
you? Yeah, we had strange things in
religion. It all boils down to one thing.
We were working our way to heaven. And in the book of 1 Samuel chapter
6, we have another strange event happen, and this is in Israel.
You think if anybody knew anything, it would be Israel. God treated
them better than he did any other nation. He did not send a priest
to the Hivites. He didn't send a priest to the
Egyptians. He didn't send a priest. He had Egypt, excuse me, Israel
set aside in Abraham. I asked that young man last Wednesday,
do you believe that God chose Israel out of all the nations
of the world? Oh, yeah. Well, why can't he choose people
then? Oh, that's not fair. God chose Israel to demonstrate
to them even if he did everything possible, gave them food and
water, crossed the Red Sea, escaped them out of Egypt with 10 miracles,
brought them across, brought them in, he did not change their
heart. They had no more love for him
than they had for anybody else. And they demonstrated that. And
here in the book of 1 Samuel 6 and verse 19, we have these
words recorded, And they smote the men of Bethshemesh. He smote the men of Bethshemesh
because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. Aban, he smote the people 50,070. Now in reading commentaries,
they make all kinds of, you know, it's kind of like talking to
somebody that believes they know when the Lord's coming back.
We got this date with this angle of the sun multiplied by this,
the number of people. It doesn't make any sense. Can't
figure it out. Well, there is no figuring out
the coming of Christ. This is what God said in his
word. There was 50,070 people died
as a result of looking. How do you say? Wouldn't you
want to look in there? Curiosity. You know, they're
just demonstrating that they have no regard for Almighty God. and 50,070 people died because
the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.
Now, turn with me just a little further, if you would, in the
book of 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel. You would think if
you're helping move the ark of God and a cow stumbles and that
cart starts rocking around, you would think you'd be rewarded.
Well, let's just go over here and read this. 2 Samuel chapter
6, and there in verse 6 and 7, we have a man by the name of
Uzzah. Uzzah? And when they came to Nahcon's
threshing floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, took
hold of it for the oxen shook it. And that's another word for
stumbled. And it starts to rock around.
You would think he would be rewarded for taking care of this business. Oh, surely all of this that's
going on has been going on. God won't shake his hand too,
because they're sincere about it. They're doing the best they
know. And yet we find that Uzzah put
forth his hand to steady the ark. And what's the next verse?
And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah and God
spoke him there for his error and there he died by the ark
of God. The law must be obeyed. Now I'm not a legalist. I'm not
a law keeper. because I know my inability,
but I know there is one that kept it, the righteous one. He
kept it completely and totally. He kept it from eternity. He
was pleased to honor his father. He kept the law. I had a person
that several people have shared with me that the Lord, when he
came down to this earth, he could have sinned. He could have sinned,
but he just chose not to. No, no, no, no. He's God, he
couldn't sin. He came down to take care of
sin. You know, as we look into the scriptures, it has been so
interpreted in every age without any disregard for God, the God
of heaven. It's just been brought on. He
has spoken, yet the commandment continues to be unheard. And only after God truly saves
someone from their sin, Do they realize what they were doing
with the Word of God? We heard read this morning over
there in the book of the Psalms, Psalm 3, verse 8. The last verse
of that Psalm, Psalm 3 and verse 8, it says, salvation belongeth
unto the Lord. Now, I'm bringing this around
to where we're not permitted to come up to the altar We're
not permitted to interfere with the altar. We're not permitted
to put things on the altar. We're not permitted to light
the fire of the altar. We're not permitted to do that.
We are to stand back and see the salvation of the Lord. We're
not permitted to go into the holy place. We're not permitted
to go into the holy of holies. Guess what? Someone has done
that for us. Someone has done that for us.
Christ has already entered. He is the high priest. He's already
in it. And he gives us all the glory
of the table of the showbread. He gives us all the glory of
that altar of incense. He gives us all the glory of
the mercy seat. He gives us all the glory of
protecting us from all our rebellion. All that blood that he shed was
for us. and put on the altar, put on
the mercy seat. And so he has given us the benefits,
but we have not the participation in it. He said, you cannot come
and hang yourself on the cross. Those two men on one side or
the other side of me hanging on the cross were not dying for
their sins. I am the altar. I died for one of their sins.
I didn't die for both of them. I died for one of them. He didn't
try to approach the altar. He knew, Lord, I'm a sinner. That's all I am. Remember me. Faith had been given to him that
he was going to his kingdom. And so when we come to this thing
about approaching the altar, about approaching those things,
and death is upon us if we do, we find out, as the Lord saves
his people, Who did the Lord charge for your
salvation? Now, I find the psalmist David
wrote there in the Psalm, Psalm 8, salvation belongeth unto the
Lord. You know what Jonah said from
that great fish's belly? That was a life changer for me.
After the Lord saved me, and one day driving down the freeway
here in the Dalles, it struck me Hallelujah. Salvation is of the Lord. I knew
it. Now I really knew it. And it
was not my responsibility to go up to the altar and try to
get somebody else to believe. I couldn't do it. It's an impossibility. Who is in charge of your salvation? Well, the scripture says God
is. If you're really saved, God is in charge of your salvation.
He didn't leave it up to someone else and he didn't leave it up
to me. He didn't leave it up to you. What were you? You know, everybody
that approached that altar and God spoke, what were they? Sinners. What about the ones that stood
back and obeyed and didn't get burned up? What are they? Sinners.
That's all we are, sinners by nature, sinners by practice,
and sinners by choice. Thanks be unto God, he restrains
us from doing that when he has in his purpose to save his people
from their sins. We are not permitted to commit
a sin that will kill us before we're taken out of this world,
or before we're saved. God prevents that. Well, here
we find that the Lord himself said, I come to seek and to save that
which is lost. That's what he said. He came
to save sinners. He came to die for sinners. The
whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. He came to
die for sinners. So what were we? What are we? What will we be for the rest
of our life? Sinners? I like what that one
preacher wrote after his name, though, because he was made fun
of. He didn't have any college education. He didn't have his
M.A. He didn't have his D.D. So he started putting S.S. Someone said, what's that mean?
He said, safe center. Safe center. The rest of that's nonsense anyway. Republican said God be merciful
to me a sinner You know what the Lord said about that man.
He went down to his house justified God had taken care of that's
the only way he could confess that the other man We don't know
if he ever made that confession, but he didn't go down to his
house justified that day at least Salvation you know what this
is Who do we see when God saves us I Who do we see when God saves
us? Turn with me, if you would, over
to the book of 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians. I don't know how
many times I've said this. When God saved me, the Bible
became a new book. God became a new God. Sin became
oh so much. all the sight that God gives
us. Now, look here in the book of
2 Corinthians 4, would you? 2 Corinthians 4, verse 5. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord. In other words, we're not approaching
the altar. We're not approaching the holy
place. We're not approaching the holy of holy place, trying
to see what's going on there. Here, he says, we preach Christ,
we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves. and ourselves, your servants
for Jesus' sake. Notice verse six now. But God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, just like he
did when he created light in the beginning, what power it
took for him to create the light in the beginning, without the
sun or the moon or the stars, has shined in our hearts to give
the light, now notice this with me, Notice this with me, to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Oh, you know,
that's a radical change over our natural state. The reality
that we face in our natural state is we cannot see God in his glory. Maybe we're Calvinists and we
consent to his sovereignty, but we don't know the first thing
about it. When God saves us and we see the glory of God, we see
that He is in absolute charge of our salvation, that He died
for us because of His grace and not for anything that we did.
We find, it's the glory of God I get to see. And then it goes
on to tell us the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
What do you think of Christ? What do you think of Jesus? Whose
son is he? The heart, the Christ, the son
of the living God, with emphasis, not just saying a few trite words. And I might say, as we come to
a close of this, about approaching that altar and all those things
that they were told not to do, and if they did, they were to
die. Who is your king? We hear much about it. Church
I was raised in. You can have Jesus as your savior
and then sometime later down the road, you might accept him
as your Lord. Hogwash. He is called Lord. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody has ever been saved just
because they got saved, and then later they said, well, I'll take
him as my king now. No, no, no, let's not. Turn with
me, if you would, to the book of Colossians. Colossians chapter
one. This is what God does for us,
and in so doing, he declares himself as our king. Colossians
chapter one and verse 13. Colossians chapter one and verse
13. We can't approach the altar. It's not our business. So what
does God do for us? Well, here's the part we want
to look at. Colossians 1, verse 13. Who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness. That's what God does. He delivers us from the power
of darkness. The power of sin, the power of
death. the power of darkness, and hath
translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. Now when God
does that and translates us into the kingdom of his dear Son,
there's automatically a king. The Lord does not have a kingdom
and not be in charge of it. He is king, king of kings and
Lord of lords. He never saves anybody and leaves
them out of this glorious part, translated us into the kingdom
of his dear son. And then if you look with me
in the book of John chapter 13, John chapter 13 and verse 13,
we read these words. You call me Master, John chapter
13 and verse 13. You call me Master and Lord,
and ye say, well, for so I am. You say, you're telling me the
truth. You're sharing the truth. You're
putting it right back on me. So I am. If I then, your Lord
and Master, have washed your feet You also ought to wash one
another's feet. Now he's not talking about foot
washing, because if that had been one of the things that he
wanted us to do, he'd have gone on and instructed us more about
it, just like he did baptism in the Lord's Supper. But he's
saying, be ye kind one to another. Bury each other's burdens. But you call me master, you do
well. And so, as we find here, As we are prevented of taking care of our own salvation,
we find out that the Lord is in charge of our salvation.
Salvation's of the Lord. We find out what we were, sinners
through and through. God be merciful to me, the sinner. We find out we get to see differently,
the Lord of glory. He is who he is, what he's had
all written about him, all through the scriptures. He's in charge,
he's master, creator, savior, king, holy one, and he is king. Now let me ask you this. If one
of your children wandered out in a busy street and death was
certain, would you stand by and beg them to come out of the traffic? Or would you instantly go out
and retrieve that child not caring whether they would wanted it
to stay or not? I've been approached a number
of times that we can resist God to the very end and I keep asking,
why would I want to? Why would I want to? When God
brings me out from the brink and saves me by his grace, why
would I have ever wanted to resist him till I died? What a foolish
statement. I'm thankful for God's great
grace where he pulled me out of a horrible pit and set me
on a solid rock, Christ, and established my goings and put
a new song in my heart. I appreciate that so much. God's doing his business. And he says, I will do my business. You stay out of my business.
And then as we heard this morning, we are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which he hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. End of story. Brother Mike, if
you'll come.