The Book of Numbers and we're
going to be in chapter 16. Chapter 16 of the Book of Numbers
today. We're going to be all over the
place too. It'll probably be just more of
an overview of this chapter and bringing in a few other verses
of scripture that complement this chapter. But for the last
three chapters of the Book of Numbers, we've noticed in chapter
13 and 14, man's way. God said, go into
the land and I'll be with you. They came back with a report
that was negatory. Good buddy. And then they said,
we'll go in anyway, whether God's with us or not. That's just man's
way. So contrary to God. And then in chapter 15, we read
about God's way. God's way is a way of sacrifice. God's way is a way of blood.
God's way is a way of his righteousness. God's way is a way of rest and
peace in him. And then we come to chapter 16
and one more time God illustrates to us man's way. Now, many will
say when reading these chapters, if I were there, I would have
done better. I would have done different.
I'm smarter than that. And yet the church will say,
except for the grace of God, there go I. If it wasn't for
intervening grace, if it wasn't for God stepping in our way,
if it wasn't for God coming and calling us out of darkness to
his marvelous light, we would be in the same path that we read
about here in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament.
The Apostle Paul was used of the Holy Spirit to write about
man's natural condition and it is not good. But there is goodness
in Christ to redeem a people for himself, that he would come
and be the sacrifice, he would come and be the rest, and he
would come and be the righteousness for all his people without any
work on their part. Well, naturally, we are interested
in doing work on our part, but God has to change us so that
we stop that. He's the one that causes us to
rest in his work. In chapter 16, there is again
an account of sedition and treason. A man by the name of Korah is
mentioned in this chapter several times. Korah is related to Moses. They are cousins of sort. They both come from the same
leader, Levi. And there are several generations
down here. I believe Levi was Korah's great-grandfather. We have him coming up in this
chapter with a lot of other, there's at least 250 other men
of renowned among Israel. They are leaders among the people,
and yet Korah is able to talk them into going up against Moses
and challenging Moses. I could just fit right into this
because when I heard the gospel for the first time, I wanted
to challenge him. In fact, I did exactly what Cora
did, except I didn't go up and challenge him to the face. I
just went home and says, I hate that man. You know what, really?
That's what Cora is saying about Moses, the appointed leader.
Moses is going to tell us in this chapter, I didn't choose
this position. I didn't have a vote. You didn't vote on me
being the leader of Israel. It was imposed on me. I am the
one that said, I can't talk. I'm the one that says, I can't
go. I'm the one that said all of that. And yet God moved on
him to do what he wanted him to do. And that's the way it
is throughout the scriptures. You know, I'm amazed as churches
sometimes are without pastors, the process that they go through
and you know, Becoming a pastor is not like putting in an application
to be someone in business or school teaching or whatever.
That's altogether different. God may move and open doors for
us to do that, but when it comes to being a pastor, I just don't
find in the scripture that anybody put in an application. They didn't
brag on themselves. In fact, we find we must remember
that we are or we have this glorious, wonderful gift in earthen vessels. We're earthen vessels, and it's
only the inside that has any benefit at all, or good, because
he does not do anything with our flesh. Well, we notice here,
just reading down here, and we're going to skim through this quite
rapidly, but we'll come back over time and look at this chapter
more in depth. But in that first verse, now
Korah, and it gives us his lineage, and we find this with a lot of
people in the scriptures that there's a lineage. Now, when
we read about this with saved people, we find out that God
only saves people that are direct descendants of Adam, and we can
trace that lineage right back there. He saves sinners, that's
all he saves. And here he's directing us back
to, it doesn't matter your lineage, when it comes to your heart,
you're going to challenge God. Even though he's a Levite, and
even though he has been put into a position of doing work around
the tabernacle and preparing for the moves and all of that
stuff, he comes up and tells us there in verse 2, and they
rose up before Moses with a certain children of Israel, 250 princes.
of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown. Now we're going to follow this
through and we're going to find out that these people wanted
to make a name for themselves. They wanted a following. I am
so impressed with John when he had preached the gospel and certain
were saved by the grace of God. When he saw the Lord Jesus Christ,
he said, go follow that one. He didn't want to make a name
for himself. He didn't want a following. He
wanted people to follow Christ. And I hope and pray that that
is our ministry here, is that we're pointing people to the
Lord Jesus Christ, and we're not interested in a following.
I'll never forget being down at my dad's place one time, and
the preacher showed up. Now, I had moved away. I was
pastoring a religious church at the time, and I was home visiting. The pastor showed up with somebody
else, and my dad says, ''Brother Frank, what are you doing?''
''We are on a church member drive.'' We're never. in Christ on a church
member drive because it is He that adds daily to the church. It is His additions. All right,
now notice here in verse three, they gathered themselves together
against Moses. They're challenging him and against
Aaron and said, you take too much upon you. Seeing all the
congregation are holy, even every one of them and the Lord is among
them. Wherefore, then lift you up yourselves above the congregation
of the Lord. What a challenge Korah makes
here with these 250 people. They gathered against Moses.
And then in verse five of this, and then spake and he spake,
Moses spake unto Coran and to all his company saying, even
tomorrow, the Lord will show who are his and who is holy and
will cause him to come near unto him. Even him who hath he chosen
with will he cause to come near unto him. And then in verse 9,
the scriptures say, Seemeth it but a small thing unto you that
the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of
Israel, to bring you near to himself, and do service of the
tabernacle of the Lord. You already have a business.
You already have service to the tabernacle. God's appointed that
to you. And stand here before the congregation
to minister unto them. And then it tells us in verse
11, excuse me verse 10 and he hath brought thee near to him
and all the brethren of the sons of levi to thee to seek ye the
priesthood also God has appointed you a place, and now you're seeking
the priesthood also. You know, they had no understanding
about how God works. They had challenged the sovereign
grace of God. They had challenged God's sovereign
work and God's sovereign power to appoint over his people whomsoever
he will. And we'll look at a verse about
that in just a few minutes. In verse... Verse 11, for which
cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together against
the Lord. And what is Aaron that ye murmur against him? You have
gathered yourselves against the Lord. They hadn't recognized
that. And by nature, we cannot recognize that. It's a gift of
God. It's the grace of God that allows
us to see, except for the grace of God, there go I. I would be
in the same boat doing the same thing. In fact, I did the same
thing. I challenged God. In our religion,
we do challenge God. It's just as good as anything
else. And then as we follow down through here in verse 12 through
27, we start, the Lord will show his will. And that's gonna be
done in this passage of scripture. The Lord will show his will.
And in verse 28, if you'll drop down to verse 28, we find here,
Moses said, hereby ye shall know that the Lord has sent me to
do all these works, for I have not done them in my own mind. I didn't volunteer for this. I didn't advertise for this.
I didn't send you my resume. I didn't ask for a vote. God
has appointed this and you know Moses recognized that fact that
God has appointed this. Now many years ago there was
a man that challenged the scriptures in a Bible study. He read a passage
of scripture, and we were in the old building at the time,
and he read a passage of scripture and he said, you know, on this
point, God is not sovereign. And I said, God is sovereign
in everything. And he got upset and left and
told the congregation there to his wife, you come with me because
it's evident there's no safe people in this church. In a couple of days, I called
one of the men and I said, I need to meet with you. And that man
told me later, I knew you were going to resign. And I told him,
I found out through this, I'm pastor of this church. It's my
responsibility. Well, the man quit and never
came back and started sending out trash because that's all
he knew. Here we find that the Lord told
Moses, you're my appointed vessel, you're the one that's going to
be here. And in verses 29 through 33, Moses said, now if you die,
Korah, in a natural way, then I'm not a spokesman for God.
But if you die in a new way, then I'm speaking for God. And
at that moment, Moses told a bunch of people, separate yourself
from this group. And the earth opened up and swallowed
them. And they went down, as the scriptures
tell us, into the pit alive. Now that's a new thing. And then, if you'll notice with
me, in verse 41, but on the morrow, can you imagine
after seeing that happen? On the morrow. All the children, all the congregation
of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron,
saying, ye have killed the people of the Lord. And you know, people say, I'd
have been smarter than that. I'd have done different than
that. Except for the grace of God, there go I. It's only God's
grace, His mercy, His blood, His righteousness that separate
us from anything. And because of that, we do not
boast in ourselves. We don't boast in our stand,
we boast in Christ. Well, it tells us here in verses
46 and 47 of that chapter, and Moses said unto Aaron, take a
censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on
incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an
atonement for them. Sin must be paid for, make an
atonement for them. And then for there is wrath gone
out from the Lord. The plague is begun. And Aaron
took as Moses commanded and ran into the midst of the congregation.
And behold, the plague was begun among the people. And he put
an incense and made an atonement for the people. Now notice verse
48. There's something here that we
want to look at. And he stood between the dead
and the living, and the plague was stayed. What an Old Testament
statement with regards to our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He alone can make an atonement, and he is the only one that stands
between the living and the dead. He's the only one that makes
a difference. And then it tells us here, and
now verse 49, and they that died in the plague were 14,700. The 250, we didn't read about
that, but the 250 that came with Korah and challenged God and
challenged Moses, Moses were consumed on sight. Korah and
his group went down into the pit alive and 14,700 that said,
Moses, you killed innocent people yesterday. And God recognized
that challenge and it broke out, a plague broke out. You know,
it's just so reminiscent of Old Testament statements about the
fall, about Adam, about sin, about how it's affected us. And
there is only one remedy for that affection that we have,
and that is the blood of Christ. There is a wonderful statement
made in the book of Numbers chapter 26. Would you jump over there
with me? In Numbers chapter 26, it's 10
chapters away. In the book of Numbers, Korah
is brought up again. in a very small verse that I
have passed over. I do not know how many times
I've passed over this verse of scripture. and I've made misnomers
about Korah and his family. But here in the book of Numbers
chapter 26 and verse 9, 10, and 11, it says, and the sons of
Eliab, Nimiel, and Dothan, and Abram, this is that Dothan and
Abram which were famous in the congregation who strove against
Moses and against Aaron in the company of Korah. When they strove
against the Lord, The earth opened her mouth and swallowed them
up together with Korah when the company died. What time the fire
devoured 250 men and they became a sign. Notice verse 11, notwithstanding
the children of Korah died not. What? a statement about the grace
of God. The children of Cora, he was
a rascal. He was treasonous. He was so
in the wrong about Moses and Aaron and about God. And even
though the Lord took him in such a dynamic way, his children stood
on the side And we are thankful. We don't
know what happened to them. We don't know whether the Lord
dealt with them in his mercy or let them live and they just
died a natural death. We do not know that. But we find
many things out about Korah. Now, in the book of Jude, would
you travel with me to the book of Jude? I mentioned this is
just going to be more of an introduction than anything. But in the book
of Jude, we have three people mentioned in verses 10 and 11.
Korah is one of them. In the book of Jude, one chapter,
verses 10 and 11. Now Jude has a lot to say about
those who are in opposition against grace, those who are in opposition
against God, those who are in opposition against mercy, the
atonement, free grace, whatever. He brings up this. And here in
Jude, Verse 10, it says, but these speak evil of those things
which they know not. But what they know naturally
as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Now
notice verse 11. Woe unto them, for they have
gone the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the heir of Balaam,
for reward and perished in the gainsane of Korah. Now three
really infamous people in the Old Testament scriptures are
brought up in this one verse of scripture and when it comes
to Cain, they have gone in the way of Cain. And with regard
to Balaam, they ran greedily after the heir of Balaam. And
with regard to Korah, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah. Now, Cain presumed that God had
no right to require blood for sin and proved it by bringing
what? Fruits and vegetables. God does
not have a right to claim this, and he demonstrated it by what
he brought. Now his brother did not do this
because he's better, smarter, more intelligent, more studied,
or anything else. He brought it because of the
grace of God. Except for the grace of God,
Abel would have done exactly what his brother Cain did. But
God's grace had intervened. His mercy had intervened. The
gospel had come to him. God had worked a work of grace
in him. And he saw the absolute desperate need of a blood sacrifice. This animal that he offered was
not going to take care of his sin, but it represented the blood
of the Lamb of God. Who would take care of sin? The
Lord Jesus Christ would take care of it. And for every intended
purpose, it was taking care of able sin there before the cross. He was justified. He was, we
find even in the book of Romans chapter 8, he was also glorified.
He was sanctified. God did a work for him and gave
him every good gift and every perfect gift that God ever gives
from the Father of lights. We also find in there, there's
a man by the name of Balaam. Now, Balaam presumed to speak
for God or say right things about God while at the same time encouraging
or having a Duke's mixture of pagan religion with him. We hear
this very same thing today, pretending to have some truth and hanging
on to lies about God. Many years ago, I was asked,
why don't I go back to that camp that I used to go to? I said,
I'm sick and tired of hearing lies about God. You cannot have
grace given to you and lie about sovereignty. You cannot have
grace revealed to you and lie about sin. You cannot have grace
revealed to you and lie about God's people. It is a necessity
that God gives to us and we cannot go back to that stuff. Well,
here we have Balaam and it's quite an account there we find
about Balaam. He's hired to curse Israel and
he finds out that God intervened and would not allow him. He was
pretending to speak for the truth and at the same time hanging
on to those old pagan religious thoughts. In the bulletin today,
there's an article by Gary Shepard that brings this up. He says,
my little children, don't go after idols. Now we think idols
often are just things, objects, you know, this religion has it,
that religion has it. No, we get around certain people,
their object is free will, their idol is free will. Their idol
is so apparent, comes out right away. There's always something
that people have that is much more valuable than the gospel.
It's been 10 years, and there was a couple right over here
against this wall were telling me how they've just discovered
the wonderful benefits of tithing. That if they tithe, God has promised
to give it back. And I just read this comment,
God loveth a cheerful giver. And they left, and never. That's what the Bible says. God
loves a cheerful giver. Under the everlasting covenant,
this is not a requirement. That's why I don't ever, ever,
have I ever preached on giving. God takes care of that for us.
He's the one that touches hearts. Just like He does in every other
thing that we need to do. Well, and then there's one other
person here, Korah. The gainsaying of Korah, meaning
rebellion. or contradiction or opposition
and speaking out against. Korah indeed spoke out against
Moses, but his hatred was for God. His rebellion was against
God. And so we have three infamous
people brought up in this one verse of scripture, and one of
them has to do with this 16th chapter of the book of Numbers
that we'll be going through. Now that chapter of the book
of Numbers reminded me of a passage of scripture in the book of 2nd,
2nd Corinthians, 1st Corinthians, excuse me, 1st Corinthians. Would
you turn there with me? 1st Corinthians, and this only
works with saved people. Have you ever been in a business
meeting and things went awry? You got people in the back going, I hate business meetings. I've
got so I despise them. Brother Henry shared with me,
when you take a vote, you have a split. So we don't vote. If it's not good to be done,
we won't do it. If it's good to be done, everybody's
gonna be happy about it. All right, here in the book of
1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12, it
starts with this. Now why in the world our translators
put the word gifts in this verse of scripture is beyond me unless
they had something that they were tied to when they translated
it. Remember the translators of our
this version were Anglicans and they already had some deep-seated
prejudice about the word of God and what it meant. Well anyway
take that word gifts right out of there because most people
apply that to things that are unscriptural. It says, now concerning
spiritual, brethren, I would not have you be ignorant. With
regard to spiritual things, I don't want you ignorant. You know,
we read over there in the book of John chapter 3, except you're
born again, you cannot see or hear or be part of spiritual
things. So this is to spiritual. And
he goes on, ye know that ye were Gentiles carried away unto those
dumb idols even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you to understand
that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed. You know what the worst accursed
thing can be said about the Lord Jesus Christ? He didn't know
who he died for or He died for people that have
gone to hell. Now, that's accursed. If you
have that idea about an almighty, all sovereign God, that he's
a failure, that is accursed. He isn't going to stand for it.
Either he's going to make us to see and understand the grace
of God, or he is going to say enough. No man speaking by the Spirit
of God calleth Jesus accursed. Whatever he said he will do,
we're going to say yes and amen. We heard that read in the sixth
chapter of the book of John this morning. All that the Father
giveth me shall come unto me, and he that cometh unto me I
will in no wise cast out. You know the worst thing we can
say about that? Is that he didn't know what he's
talking about. And I've had preachers tell me that. goes on to tell
us here, now there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit.
The Holy Spirit is never going to reveal different things to
people that are contrary to the truth. Now he may reveal parts
of Exodus to you and parts of John to you and parts of of God. over this person. He said it's
going to be unanimously my word. All right. There are diversities
of gifts, but the same spirit, and there are differences of
administration, but the same Lord. Just keep this in mind.
The same spirit, the same Lord, and in verse 6, and there are
diversities of operations, but the same God. What do we have?
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They are the same, they are one,
and they will not lead contrary to each other. Now, as we drop
down through here, Look with me at verse 18. But now, now just think of Israel. Israel is the type of the church.
Think of Israel here. But now hath God set the members,
every one of them, in the body, what? As it hath pleased Him. That's something that Korah didn't
understand. And only by the grace of God
can we understand. The scriptures share with us
that, you know, the body is many pieces. We got the eye, the ear,
the mouth, the hands, the fingers, the trunk, the legs, the feet,
the whole thing. And God says, You know, I put
it together in such a marvelous way. I used to wonder, why is there
extra skin right here? Well, you find out when you go
like that. It has to be. Not too long ago, I saw a special
on one of the nature films, and the guy's talking about the difference
in hair. And he says, wouldn't it be interesting
if our hair all over our body grew like our hair on our head?
We'd have to have... I never thought about it. You
know, the body is wonderfully made. Fearfully and wonderfully
made. And the same is true about the
body of Christ, the church. It is fearfully and wonderfully
made. And every person that God saves
has a very special place in that body. You know, this is the first
group I've ever been in. that when something needs to
be done, it's just taken care of. I'll come through the kitchen
and find the trash is all dumped. Now, that's a menial thing. I
realize that. But when it comes to spiritual
things, the same thing is true. When I first came here, I said,
don't you ever ask me to pray for anything that you haven't
prayed about. I'm not a priest. Most people think a preacher
is a priest and he has more say and more ability to pray than
anybody else. Are you kidding me? We're the
worst. I am the very worst. God's people have their own priesthood. We are all kings and priests
of a thrice holy God. And we have the same privilege
before the throne of grace as anybody else. And we'll never
go to someone else and say, you have more influence with God
than I do. So I want you to pray this prayer.
No way. We have equality at the cross. We are equal in Christ. There's no big I's and little
u's. And we see what happened when this man thought he was
a big I, and looked at Moses as a little u. And Moses said,
I did not take this responsibility on myself. I didn't volunteer
for this. And God puts you in a place,
and you should stay there. Go down through here, it says,
In verse 19, and if they were all one member, where were the
body? But now are ye many members,
yet but one body. The eye cannot stand to the hand,
I have no need of thee, nor again the head to the feet, I have
no need of thee. Nay, much more, those members of the body which
seem to be more feeble are necessary. Hallelujah. Even in my feebility,
I am necessary. I love it. In the book of Luke
chapter 14, would you turn there with me? Luke chapter 14. The Lord spends so much time
instructing his disciples. Sometimes it's just overheard
by his disciples. Sometimes it is directed to him.
But I'm thankful that the word of God is still as powerful and
quick as it was when it was given. On those first writings, first
letters, first things, the Holy Spirit stands behind it. He's
the one that gave it. He's the one that reveals it.
He's the one that empowers his people to understand it. And
here in the book of Luke chapter 14, we have mention of a wedding
beast. Hasn't been that long ago. Brother
Mike was right here. But here it tells us in the 14th
chapter of the book of Luke, verse seven, and he put forth
a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they
chose out the chief rooms, saying unto them, when you are bidden
of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room,
lest a more honorable man than thou be bidden to him. You know
who gets mad at this? Four times in the Gospels, I
believe, the Lord tells a bunch of Pharisees, you always want
the highest seat. You always want the best street
corner. You always want where the most
people are so you can brag about what you're doing. And now he's
teaching the church, he says, when you're going to a the house
of the Lord. When you're going before people,
whenever you're active, he says there, don't choose the highest
room, less a more honorable man than thou bidden of him. The
head of the feast comes to say, I'm sorry, I made a mistake one
time of sitting down at the head table of a wedding. You know
what I was asked to do? Could you move? Yes, I'm sorry. Yes, I will move. Well, he goes
on to say here, and he that bade thee and him come and say to
thee, give this man place, and thou begin with shame to take
the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go
and sit down in the lowest room, that when he that bade thee cometh,
he may say to thee, friend, go up higher. Then shalt thou have
worship in the presence of them that sit at the meet with thee.
For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that
humbleth himself shall be exalted. What encouraging words. That's
what the Lord starts us with. Just remember Moses. Just remember Aaron. Just remember
David. Just remember Noah. Just remember
Samson. Just remember Solomon. You have
this treasure in earthen vessels. You have nothing of your own.
Now, we're going to look at a man who thought he had something.
He wanted to be somebody. He wanted a following. He wanted
to challenge God. He wanted to challenge God on
his men. He wanted to challenge God on
his ways. He wanted to challenge God on grace. He wanted to challenge
God on many things, on many levels, among many people. And here we
have it played out just as God in his sovereign plan has laid
it out. I have chosen this man. Now the earth is going to open
for you. You know, in that day, and it may be this year, that
day when the Lord shall come, we don't know. But in that day,
there shall be a great separation. And you know what? On the right
hand side, all of those are going to say, when did we do that? And those on the left hand side
said, when didn't we do that? We've done everything. You know,
the Lord gave great power to 12 men when they went out one
day. He sent them out to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel, gave them great power. And they
came back and said, Lord, let me tell you what I did for you
today. We had such a wonderful time out there. We had power
over this, and we had power over that, and we had power over this.
And you know what the Lord said to them? Don't boast in that. Be thankful that your names are
written in heaven. We are. We have clay. Thank God for that wonderful
gift of Christ in us, the hope of glory. And as we go through
the 16th chapter of the book of Numbers, I have no axe to
grind. We're right here, at this time,
going through a book that very few people have ever gone through,
and I've looked over so much. I'm thankful for that verse of
scripture that the Lord showed me. The children of Korah did
not die. Grace, grace, grace alone. Brother Mark.