All right brother Henry Mahan
told me one time if they won't laugh with you. They won't cry
with you a lot of truth in that So thank you for laughing Join
me in the book of Numbers chapter 10 this morning, the book of
Numbers chapter 10, as we look at an ongoing study of the book
of Numbers. These books of the Old Testament
used to be flyover books for me. I've had several people here
tell me that they were flyover books, and by that I meant when
it came time to read through those on your daily Bible reading,
they were a quick skim, because what is here? Many years ago, a passage of
scripture was brought to my attention from the book of Luke that the
Lord declared unto his disciples, those two on the road to Emmaus,
all the things concerning himself in the law of Moses, in the Psalms,
and in the prophets. Did you know that that's what
the Old Testament is about? And there were people there that
understood when they read the Old Testament what that was about.
I believe Moses understood what he was writing about to a degree.
He had no faith, no hope, no trust in the law that was given
from Mount Sinai because the Lord had already worked the work
of grace in his heart. We find over there in the book
of Hebrews that by faith he left the king of Egypt and would not
come under the rule of the king of Egypt because he would rather
suffer indignities for the love of Christ than to be rich all
the rest of his life. Faith did that. And whose faith?
Well, we read one of the first verses that my wife taught me
after I was married. I didn't even know it was there.
Galatians. It says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I
live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the faith that I now have,
oh, before I get that all messed up. I used to be able to quote
that. Galatians chapter 5, would you turn there with me? Verse 20. Maybe it's 2 in verse
20. Go on. Yes, 2 and verse 20. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. That's the new
birth. Christ liveth in me. He never cleaned us up and made
us a better person. He left us as he found us in
that sense, but he gave us Christ and that makes all the difference
in the world. My goodness, when we spend time
trying to clean ourselves up through progressive sanctification,
all we're doing is working our way into a corner that we cannot
get out of. We must be given the truth that
Christ is our sanctification, that he is all and in all. Goes on to say here, and the
life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of
the Son of God. Now, that's Moses. He lived by
faith, but it was the faith of the Son of God. Now, he may have
termed him as the Messiah. That doesn't matter. We use the
same word today when we use the word Christ. One is Hebrew, one
is Greek. Messiah, the anointed one, the
promised one, is Christ, the anointed one, the promised one.
Well, let's go over here now into the book of Hebrews, chapter
10, excuse me, the book of Numbers chapter 10. I only made mistakes
like this 47 times while I was on my trip. Numbers chapter 10, verse 33.
We're going to read the last few verses of this chapter. We
remember last time that we were together. We looked at this passage
of scripture about the children of Israel leaving the Mount Sinai. And there was a cloud. that rested
upon the tabernacle by day and fire by night. And as soon as
that cloud or that fire moved, it was a sign to the children
of Israel that it was time to move. He did not leave the decision
up to the people. He took care of that for us.
And I find no greater peace in this world. no greater rest in
this world than to rest in Christ who is going to make those decisions
for me. I don't have to wonder what to
do, the word is going to tell me what to do. So if it is, a
friend of mine said, I've been asked to go over here in Lakeview,
Oregon to preach the gospel. He says, it's never wrong to
go preach the gospel. Now, if he hinders you, that's
different, but it's never wrong. It says they departed from the
mount of the Lord three days journey and the ark of the covenant
of the Lord went before them in the three days journey to
search out a resting place for them. That thought struck me
as I was going through this passage of scripture. I was almost ready
to go on to the next chapter when this passage struck me and
then the next two verses struck me. So I hope we can get through
these three verses of scripture today because in that passage
of scripture, verse 33, it says to search out a resting place
for them. to search out a resting place. Now this rest, Brother Craig
brought a message this last week about real rest. The real Sabbath. I'm not a day
observer. I'm not a Sabbatarian. I don't
worship a day. I worship a Savior. And that
Savior has declared himself as my rest. rest in Him. He is all our rest. He is truly what all the scriptures
in the Old Testament shared with regards to a Sabbath. Rest. What did the Lord do? What did
God do on the seventh day when He finished the work of creation? He rested. And He says to us
in the New Testament that we're going to do the same thing when
He saves us by His grace. We're going to rest in Him. from our labors. Now in religion,
we just can't get enough done. But the Lord said when he saves
us, he's taken care of all of the work. It is finished. Redemption
is complete. Blood has been shed and applied.
I have given myself for a people that whose names were written
down in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the
world and the son of God promised to come and die on the cross
for he called him his sheep the good shepherd layeth giveth his
life for the sheep and the holy spirit has promised in the covenant
of grace to go out and find every one of those lost sheep and bring
them the gospel now he may bring them to the gospel or he may
bring Someone to them but they're going to bring the gospel and
God is going to save every one of his lost sheep for his glory
for his great promise of grace and he will give them rest. He
settles them on this very thing, that all my salvation is in Christ. He never called on me to do one
work to earn it, and if I do, if I'm saying that I am earning
part of my salvation by my works, he said, you do not have any
salvation. That's what they will say on
the left-hand side. When did we not do all these
things? Those on the right-hand side
who are called righteous said, when did we do these things?
So God works everything out for his glory, for the purpose of
the church, and he is determined from the foundation of the world
before the foundation of the world to save them all. In saving
them, he gives them the most perfect rest. He gives them himself. He is at rest with the Father,
He is at rest with the covenant of grace, and He gives us that
great rest that all our sins were taken care of at the cross,
paid for in full, rest in Him. Now here we find some people
that are searching out a resting place. Now we can see that three
days traveling, I don't know if I've ever, maybe I have when
I was first married, would travel for three days straight without
spending some time in a motel because probably I didn't have
any money to do it. These people are looking for the place that
they would rest. But I would like to read a few
places in the scriptures. that share with us the same word
for rest. And one of them was read for
us this morning in the 23rd Psalm. He leadeth me beside the still
waters is the same place, same word. There is a place of rest. He leads me beside the restful
waters. They're no longer boisterous. They're no longer overwhelming. There's no longer religion telling
us that we have to meet this standard. We find that we're
completely at rest because God, He leads us to that rest. He puts us in that rest. He lets
us lounge on Him, if you please, as John did. He lounged on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and all of the saints get to lounge upon
him, rest upon him in his finished work. When he cried, it is finished,
he really intended for that to be heard by all the church. It
is finished. All the work is done. But would
you turn with me to the book of 1 Kings, 1 Kings chapter 8. In 1 Kings 8, we have these words
said, 1 Kings 8, beginning with verse 54. 1 Kings 8, verse 54,
as we think about all of these Israelites looking for that rest. Now, there were some that never,
ever found it. We're going to read a passage
of scripture that the Lord himself said, I swore they would not
enter into rest. Why would he say that? Why would
an all loving God say that? Well, God loved Jacob. And he promised rest to Jacob
and his descendants, spiritually speaking. But he said something
about his brother that has jarred the teeth of natural man ever
since and caused them to grate their teeth at the declaration
of God. And when we grate our teeth against
God's declaration, it is not a good sign. Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. Now we have all kind of euphemisms
about that. We order meatloaf and we get
spam. You know, people have said that
means he didn't love him as much. The word is throughout the scriptures
the same word that you and I use when we say I hate spinach. It is an internal feeling about
something and God had this feeling towards Esau. He had this feeling
towards this one that he never saw in grace. The only reason
people go to hell is their sins were not paid for. They are sinners
and they go through this life and their sin is caught up with
them. Well here we have in the book
of First Kings chapter 8 beginning with verse 54. that we have these
words shared about rest. And it was so that when Solomon
had made an end of praying all this prayer, it's a dedication
of the temple. This is a pretty long prayer.
And he goes down through how glorious God has been to the
church. How he displayed that glory in
the glory of the temple. Now, we're not to worship that
temple. That temple is Christ. That rock is Christ. That water
is Christ. That hope is Christ. That brazen
serpent is Christ. All of those things point to
us, point to Christ. He said here, after praying and
the supplication unto the Lord, he arose from before the altar
of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread
to heaven, and he stood up and blessed the congregation of Israel
with a loud saying, blessed be the Lord. Blessed be Jehovah. Oh, what a word it is to hear
this man say blessed, but how greater it is to hear the Lord
say blessed as we read in the Beatitudes. Those are not works
that we can accomplish. Those are works that God has
already accomplished on our behalf. Blessed is the peacemaker. My
goodness, who's the true peacemaker? The one that gave us peace with
the Father. There is peace now with the Father. Blood of Jesus Christ has purchased
peace with the Father. He's the true peacemaker. Now,
we may exercise that in our life and we are to in our Christian
walk is to exercise peace. But notice here it goes on, the
Lord, blessed be the Lord that hath given us rest. He hath given
rest unto his people Israel. When they entered in and Solomon
came to the throne, The reason his dad was mentioned, the reason
his dad could not build that is he was a man of war. Now there
needs to be those guys. But we also see that in that
son, he brought peace and the enemies did not come up against
them and every man was at rest under their vine. And he recognized
where that rest came from. Oh, to know where our rest comes
from, that it's not by our efforts and it's not by our works of
righteousness, but our peace comes, our rest comes from God
Almighty. He's the one that settles the
water. He's the one that puts us at peace. He's the one that
deals with us in righteousness. He's the one that deals with
us in all of those things. He's the one that brings us to
rest with Jesus Christ. and to rest with God the Father
and at rest with the Holy Spirit. He's the one, as he goes on to
say here, blessed be the God that hath given rest unto his
people Israel according to all that he promised. You know, the
covenant of grace has many promises in it, and every one is for the
church. Though we may not understand them, and though we may not have
personally claimed all of them, they are given to us nonetheless.
They are our inheritance. And as time goes on and he opens
the word up to us, we see more and more of those great promises,
and more and more we are at rest with God for a finished work.
We don't have to go around trying to get something done. Now, the
people that are serving God because of love is much different than
serving God out of law. To serve God out of love, out
of respect, out of honor. I heard while I was gone, someone
had said, This man said to his mother-in-law,
I serve God out of love, and he says, how can you do that? I'm serving him out of, for rewards.
I know, I've been there. That's the wrong motive. There hath not failed, One word
of all the good promise which he promised by the hand of Moses
his servant You know what one thing he promised to national
Israel that you will get all of the land and here Joshua twice
Solomon twice brings this up that he gave them everything
he promised and man comes along and says no he didn't and I'm
going to take God's side. I'll just believe God when He
said He gave them all. All the promises He gave. Now
when it comes to spiritual things, He gave us all the promises of
the covenant of grace. We may not comprehend them all.
We don't understand them all. But they are all ours by inheritance. The Lord our God be with us as
he was with our fathers. Let him not leave us nor forsake
us. He cannot leave his people nor
forsake them. National Israel he could, but
his church he cannot. He has much on the line with
this. Now, remember what we read over
there in the psalm, Psalm 23, he leadeth me beside the restful
waters, the still waters. That's where God leads his people,
even in perilous, troublous times. You know, I had to apologize
to Brother Mike this morning. I sent a text during his message.
A lady called me yesterday and she is in Her son has been diagnosed again
with some problems. He's 16 or 17 years old. He was 4 years old diagnosed.
He's 16 or 18 now. Lots of trouble going on. I sent
her that passage of Scripture over there in the book of John
where the disciples said, who did sin? Him or his parents? You know
what Jesus said? This is all manifest. that the works of God might be
worked. We don't know why things happen
to us, but I know this, for the church, they work out before
the manifestation of the work of God. Sit down, be at rest. He's at the helm. In the book
of the Psalms, Psalm 95, as we think of the children of Israel
looking for a place of rest, God would soon give them a place.
In fact, I think it's the 31st chapter of the book of Numbers,
or Deuteronomy, we're gonna read all of the places that they sat
down and spent some time as they got over to Paddan Aram. But
in the book of the Psalms, Psalm 95, would you turn there with
me for just a short reading? In the book of Psalms, Psalm
95, We have here some glorious words that the Lord had shared
with his people, his church, all through time. From the time
this was written, God's people have been comforted by it. And
before, the principle comforted them. There was a man, the first
man that we read of, that entered into glory, able by name, was
comforted by the same God that you and I are comforted, and
by the same word that we're comforted by, even though it wasn't written
down. He put it on his heart, just like he promised everyone.
I'll put my word in your heart. I will comfort you there. In
Psalm 95, O come, let us sing unto the Lord. Let us make a
joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before
his presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto
him with psalms. What's that mean? God loves to
hear his word. He loves us to use his psalms.
For the Lord is a great God. the great king above all gods. And in his hand are the deep
places of the earth. The strength of the hills is
his also. The sea is his. He made it all. His hands formed the dry land."
You know, so many people will agree with these words when it
comes to the natural things, the natural creation. But let's
turn this around for just a moment and see if you understand what
it means to be spiritually created by the same hands of God. It
must be His creation. We cannot create ourselves. No
more than we can create a grain of salt. No more than we can
create an atom of oxygen. We are unable just because of
our nature to do anything like that, but this God is able to
do that. And beside that, when it comes
to spiritual things, the natural man receiveth not the things
of God. He will not believe God. He will
not trust God until God gives him the grace to do that. So
we are at his mercy. Come let us worship and bow down
let us kneel before the God our maker For he is our God and we
are the people of his pasture the sheep of his hand Today if
he will if you will hear his voice Harden not your heart as
in the provocation. He's going back over just a little
bit of Israeli history I took them through that land and they
are The very next chapter of the
book of Numbers, they complained. The very next chapter, the very
first verse of the next chapter, they complained. There were some
that didn't. Some trusted the Lord with all
their salvation. Harden not your heart, as in
the provocation, or as in the day of temptation in the wilderness,
when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved
with this generation, and said, it is a people that do err in
their heart, and they have not known my ways. What a description
about these people that were in the most favored nation status
of anybody that has ever been on this earth. You and I, as
a country, never saw water come from a rock. You and I, as a
country, never saw manna fall from the skies. You and I, never,
as a country, were blessed with all of the quail we could consume. You and I were never blessed,
as a country, like these people were, and yet we see, after all
of that, they still did not see God. Forty years long was I grieved
with this nation. He tells us in the book of Deuteronomy,
I did not give you a heart to believe. That makes all the difference
in the world. If God gives us a heart to believe,
we will. If he doesn't, we won't. He said
in verse 11, unto whom I swear in my wrath that they should
not enter into my rest. What did he say there? Without
me, you'll never go to heaven. Without me, you'll never be in
glory. Without me, doing all the work,
you'll never see God. Without me, I will not let you
enter into my rest on your own righteousness. Turn, if you would,
over to the book of Isaiah chapter 10. To enter into this rest,
Isaiah chapter 10, if you'd join me there, Isaiah chapter 10.
Excuse me, chapter 11, verse 10. And in that day there shall be
a root of Jesse. Who's that? Who's the root of Jesse? Who
is that root out of dry ground that Isaiah mentions? Isaiah
mentioned in that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall
stand for an instant of the people. What's that mean? He's our flag. He's the one we gather around.
He's the one we come to. To it shall the Gentiles seek,
and his rest shall be glorious. No longer Odin. That's what the
Gentiles worship. No longer Saturn. No longer moon,
the moon. No longer Thor's day. Most of our names of our months
and the names of our days of the week are all pagan gods.
And I don't use those pagan gods to worship. That's just what
we live by, isn't it? But I don't worship those folks.
I get to worship the King of Glory. I get to rest in the King
of Glory because He came and gave me the new birth. You know,
as we look back over there to the book of Numbers, chapter
10, there's many other verses in the scripture that share about
rest, but I want to go back to the book of Numbers, chapter
10, and notice there what Moses did. The last words of that chapter. Now, I realize that chapter divisions
were provided for us, and it makes it much easier than if
we didn't have them. Verse divisions were put there
by man. Chapter divisions were put there
by man, except for the Psalms. I'm thankful they're there. It
makes it much easier to find the place, doesn't it? Well,
here in the book of Numbers, chapter 10, verse 35 and 36,
we read these words. And it came to pass, when the
ark set forward, that Moses said, rise up, Lord, and let thy enemies
be scattered, and let them that hate thee flee before thee. And when it rested, he said,
return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel. Now that's
a prayer. Moses prayed. He prayed this. Now he prayed this knowing the
God that he prayed to. We could go over to the book
of Hebrews chapter 11 and read about, by faith, Moses, what
he did. And we can go to the book of
Galatians, as we just did, and read about, I am crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. This is the one that Moses was
in tune with that came while Moses was somewhere in his life.
And the gospel came to him somewhere in his life. And God regenerated
him sometime in his life. And it wasn't a time that we
ever find record of because that is not the necessary part, is
to remember a day. It is required of us to remember
a person. Who saved you? Who saved you? If Christ saved you, we don't
need a day. If we need a day, we probably
don't know Christ. Hear Moses' prayer. You know,
I read somewhere that there are about 650 recorded prayers in
the Bible. 650 times someone raised their
voice to God. The longest prayer is recorded
in the book of Nehemiah. It's 1,213 words long. And the longest prayer the Lord
ever prayed, recorded prayer, takes three minutes to read. John chapter 17. His great high priestly prayer
can be read in three minutes. And everything in there takes
centuries to describe. We can't come to the end of it.
Talking about his great work of grace, The sheep that He came
to die for, the ones that the Father gave Him, those I come
to save, on and on it goes down through there. What a blessing
it is that we can read in that passage of Scripture about the
great works of God. Peter prayed a prayer one time
that's three words long. Lord, save me. Three words. How did the Lord respond? Saved
him. Lifted him out of the water You
know prayer is given to us by God. We cannot create it. I was talking to that same lady
last night, and I said We know not how to pray as we ought We
don't know how to pray. We don't know how to pray about
a situation We don't know how God would lead us to pray about
a situation, but there is one that knows how and We know not
how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit, the Spirit maketh
intercession for us. You know, you just think that
praying to God, talking to God would be the easiest thing that
we could possibly do, but even in that, we are necessarily dependent
upon the Spirit for our presentation of our prayers. We can't even
pray properly. We can't do anything. Our sin
is so overwhelming that where it's necessary when we are going
to have a prayer brought to the very throne room of God, it is
brought by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit makes groanings which
cannot be uttered and presents them. Now, that does not mean
gibberish speech. That means there's conversation
between the Holy Spirit and the Father on my behalf. Blood of
Christ covers them. Sinners they be, but he makes
intercession for us. You know, there's another short
prayer in the scriptures just as powerful as that one that
Moses prayed. It was prayed by a publican.
It's very short too. God be merciful to me, a sinner. And you know what the response
by the Lord to that was? That man went down to his house
justified. What's that mean? He was just
before God. Sin had been put away. He couldn't
pray that prayer unless that had happened. And you know his
counterpart just across the aisle there in the temple or the outside
of the temple there when he prayed? Lord, I thank you that I'm not
like other men are. Did he go down to his house justified?
Absolutely not. He went down being recognized
by his fellow man as a man that could pray a good prayer. But
that publican recognized his position before God and we cannot
and we will not recognize our position before God unless it's
revealed to us. in regeneration, then he shall
let us know. He will give us a new heart,
then we shall know where we stand before God. Would you turn over
to the book of Second Chronicles? Second Chronicles. There's a
man, a king is in a great deal of trouble. Second Chronicles. He's in a great deal of trouble
because there's some enemies of the church have come up against
him. Enemies of Israel have come up against him. Now, every enemy
that ever came up against the church was taken care of at the
cross, not with our help. I've had people say, I'm in a
warfare against the devil. What? Only one has ever been
in warfare against the devil in one. And it's recorded in
the book of Revelation, they overcame him by the blood of
the lamb. That's our only, I plead the
blood. Accuse me all you want. He is
the accuser of the brethren, but I plead the blood of Christ.
And you know what? I have someone sitting at the
right hand of the Father making intercession for me. In the book
of 2 Chronicles chapter 14 and verse 11, we have these words.
By a king, Asa, cried unto the Lord, his God. Look at that. His God. He had some knowledge
about this God. He had some understanding about
this God. He had some understanding that
this God is almighty and great. He cried unto the Lord his God
and said, Lord, that's Jehovah, it is nothing for thee to help,
whether with many or with them that have no power. Help us,
O Lord, our God. For we rest on thee, and in thy
name we go against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God. Let
no man prevail against thee. Did you notice that? Let no man
prevail against me? No, against thee. Let no man prevail against thee. Now he recognized the being that
no man prevailed against. The great God of heaven. So the
Lord, look at the next verse. So the Lord smote the Ethiopians
before Asa and before Judah, and they fled. Prayer, the answer to prayer,
and resting in God. What a promise. In Elisha's prayer,
turn with me to the first Kings if you would. First Kings chapter
18. 1 Kings chapter 18 verse 36. We have these words that Elijah
prayed at that great, we call it the test with the prophets
of Baal. It's no test. Never was a test. They're a bunch
of ne'er-do-wells coming up against an almighty God. Religion is
not in a contest with God. I remember Brother Wayne sharing
with me, and I did the same thing. God's voting for you. The devil's
voting against you. Now it's up to you to make your
own mind up. No lie greater ever been created
by religion. Because we find right here that
this is God demonstrating His power. The others, there was
no power. They had nothing. It came to
pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that
Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God, O the covenant
God, the one that reaches back to the covenant of grace, the
one that reaches to eternity, the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel,
and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things
at thy word. I didn't create this. This is
what you told me. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that
this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou
hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord
fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and
the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was
in the trench. You know when that happened spiritually? On
the cross. Everything. God consumed everything
to put away our sin. There's nothing down in the trenches,
nothing soaked into the ground, nothing around, no sin to be
hidden, nothing put off in a corner somewhere. They were completely
consumed as Jesus Christ was consumed on the cross by the
wrath of God. And the people said, Amen. John's
prayer in Revelation chapter 22 and verse 20. It is five words
long. The church all through the ages
have had this prayer, Even so come quickly, Lord Jesus. Even so come, Lord Jesus. It was written in the prophets
Turn with me in closing to John chapter 6 and verse 45. John chapter 6 and verse 45. How did Moses pray the prayer
that he did? How was it written that they're
looking for rest and then we find there's rest in Christ?
Verse 45 of John chapter 6, it is written in the prophets that
they shall be taught of God Every man therefore that hath heard
and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Who unclogs the spiritual ear? Let's just put it this way, it's
not unclogging, who is creating the spiritual ear? And who teaches
a mind that's been dead in trespasses and sin? Every man that, therefore,
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh to me."
There is some education to be given. We cannot come up with
it on our own. And Moses, as he prayed there
at the close of that chapter, said, Lord, scatter all the enemies
and settle us down when we get to our camping place. The Lord
has scattered all our enemies, put them to death. and makes
us to rest at our camping ground. Brother Mike.