Would you join me this morning
in the book of Numbers? Numbers chapter 3. There are
three families mentioned here in the book of Numbers chapter
3 that we want to spend a little time on today. They are the sons
of Levi and their families. I have learned never to say that
any book in the Old Testament is a flyover book. I'm ashamed of how I used to
read the Scriptures with no eye towards Christ. And
even in my ministry, I could find very little there until
that day the Lord said to His disciples, He showed all the
things in the Old Testament concerning Himself. And that was a day of
awakening. The lights came on. Not that
I knew very much about it, but I was going to find out more
than I knew. And the Lord has been gracious. Here in the book
of Numbers, chapter 3, Verse 17, Numbers chapter 3 and verse
17. The Holy Spirit inspired Moses
to write just like the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write. And the words that we have written
here are just as valuable. as the words that the Holy Spirit
gave Paul to write. Everything redounds to the glory
of God Almighty. Here in Numbers chapter 3, by
the providence of God, a man born before the children of Israel
were taken down to Egypt a man, a son of Jacob by the name of
Levi, God purposed, prospered him to have these three sons. Now, I don't believe that Levi
understood the implications of having these three sons like
we're able to reflect on them today. But God determined that
these three sons would have a very, very special responsibility when
it came time to build a tabernacle and for the children of Israel
to wander through the wilderness. God knew all along, God purposed
all along, that the children of Israel would wander 40 years.
He let them express themselves when they came up to Kadesh Barnea
and show to us, to themselves, that natural man does not understand
the things of God. and he purposed to have that
whole generation pass away. Now, in that, there are three
families that have a continuous responsibility to carry out. I appreciated the lesson last
week about Martha and Mary, and in one of the verses, and we'll
get there, look at that, there's two words used that come to us
from the word we have for deacon. And I looked at this passage
of scripture and it says, I want to follow these deacons, these
servants. That's what the word really means.
All right. Numbers chapter three, verse 17, the scripture says, And these are the sons of Levi
by their names, Gershon, Kohath, and Mariah. Those are the sons. Now they're
gonna play a very important role when it comes to the movement
of this tabernacle through 40 years in the wilderness. If you'll
turn with me to verse 23 of this chapter three. Verse 23, it says, the families of the Gersonites
shall pitch toward the tabernacle westward. Now there's a print
back there, and it is as good as I can find, and it shares
with us where these different families camped around the tabernacle. The 12 tribes were around them.
And it says the Gershonites shall pitch toward the westward. And
then if you'll look with me in verse 25, it says the charge
of the sons of Gershon in the tabernacle of the congregation
shall be the tabernacle and the tent, the coverings thereof,
and the hanging for the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,
and the hangings of the court, and the curtains for the door
of the court, which is by the tabernacle, and by the altar
round about, and the cords of it, and all the service thereof."
Now this was their responsibility, and there's some of it I don't
understand, because I don't understand all there is to know about that
tabernacle. But I do know this, that when it came time to move,
this family had this responsibility. And they were to perform that
task. They were the Lord's servants
at that time in this task. And it did not blend over to
the next family. Now I want to say this, these
families, these three families, were not voted into this place. Nobody had an election about
where they would serve or what families would serve. There was
no voting about where the tribes of Israel would camp around the
tabernacle, and there was no election about where these different
families of Levi would camp around the tabernacle. They had been
determined by Almighty God before the foundation of the world and
here the only way you could be in this particular service is
you must be born into that service. You had to be a member of the
family of the Gershonites or you were not going to be there.
It didn't matter. Anything else, you had to be
born into this family in order to do this task. Well, let's
just follow this out just a little bit further and it tells us in
verse 29 of this chapter, It says in verse 29, the families
of the sons of Kohath shall pitch on the side of the tabernacle
southward. Now, they didn't go through an
election and say, I want to camp over here, or draw straws, or
I watched my granddaughter going, rock, paper, scissors the other
day. She's practicing. They didn't do that. God assigned that to them. God
says, you're going to camp here, and this is the family. Now notice
here in verse 30 and 31, their responsibility, the Kohathites.
Verse 30, and the chief of the house of the father of the family
of the Kohathites shall be Elizaphan and the son
of Uziel, and their charge shall be the ark, the table of shewbread,
the candlestick, the altars, and the vessels of the sanctuary
wherewith they minister, and the hanging, and all the service
thereof. Now, they have a specific task
to perform. Now, we're going to read here
about one of the families that has a responsibility. They get
to use some carts to take care of it. But when it came to this
altar, and it came to the table of showbread, and it came to
these things that were inside the Holy of Holies, they were
on a shoulder. They were carried from place
to place on a shoulder. They were not to be given over
to a cart. They were not to be given over
to a draft animal. They were to be carried, and
that was their responsibility. Now, I might say one more time
that these folks that were in this family, the only way you
could get where they were is you had to be born there. You
had to have a descendant from the family of the Kohathites.
And everyone that was born into that family had a responsibility
at the proper time, at the proper age, they had a responsibility
to fulfill when it came time to set up this tabernacle or
take it down and move it. They had this specific responsibility. Now there's one other son of
Levi and his name is Mariah. And he shall pitch on the north
side, verse 35 of this chapter, it says, and the chief of the
father of the house of the father of the families of Mary, I was
zero, the son of Abba, Abba Hale. And they shall pitch on the side
of the tabernacle northward and under the custody and charge
of the sons of Mary shall be the boards of the tabernacle
and the bars thereof and the pillars thereof and the sockets
thereof and all the vessels thereof. and all that serveth thereto,
and the pillars of the court round about, and their sockets,
and their pins, and their cords. They have a tremendous responsibility
to move these boards that make up the sides of the tabernacle.
And outside of the boards, there was a fence put up that protected
you and I from looking in there or going in there that was a
warning to anybody else besides the Levites to go there. They
had a responsibility with these boards. Now, the tabernacle itself
was smaller than probably that side of the building. 15 feet
by 45 feet by 15 feet high. And inside of that is all the
stuff that we read about and all the symbolism that we read
about that points us to the person Christ Jesus and his sacrifice
on the cross. And outside of that, we find
that there was a place that stood up. A fence that was placed up there
was a guardian fence that was placed up there. It was a privacy
fence that was put up there. It was 50 cubits wide and 100
cubits long and five cubits tall. Approximately 75 feet by 150
feet by seven and a half feet tall. This responsibility to
move all of this material was placed upon one family, this
family. Now we have three sons of Levi,
and through their genealogies, moving down through the service
that they performed in Egypt, and the freedom that they received
as the Passover took place, and they're moving out into the desert
there, these three families had a responsibility assigned to
them by Almighty God and no one else, and they had a responsibility
to fulfill that, and the only way that you could get into this
was to be born there. You could not go from family
to family. You couldn't go from responsibility
to responsibility. You were assigned it by birth. The three families all related,
all born in their families, all had their duties. These duties
were distributed among the whole. No family was exempt. There was work for all and for
everyone. Now this leads us to a wonderful
thought about how God does his business with the church. This is a wonderful picture of
the church and how God does his business. We find in the New
Testament that there is twice or three times a word used that
is transliterated That means they didn't translate it. They
just took the original word and anglicized it. They've done that
a number of times in scripture. And this word translated deacon
several times is that Greek word. Dikinos or dikino depending on
whether it's plural or not. Now, there's a few times it's
transliterated but most of the time it is translated and there's
much to be said about the translation of that word because in order
to be a servant of the Lord in its purest sense you must be
born into the family. No one is given an assignment
that is not born into the family. And if people take it upon themselves
to do an assignment that are not born into the family, it
doesn't count. And people who do that want it
to count greatly. And people who are born into
the family and are called upon God to do specific things, they
don't count it. It's not something that they
keep track of. It is not an assignment that
God has given to them to keep up with. Now when those three
families went out and Moses said, time to move, well how did he
know that? There was a pillar of fire or
a cloud begin to move and the Call was made, it's time to move. Now I'm probably adding right
there, everybody probably knew what was going on when that cloud
moved or that pillar of fire moved, that they began to move,
then these three families and no one else was called on by
God to do the assignments that they were given and not one of
them was paid for it. They were born into duty. They were born into service.
They were born into this job that God had assigned. Now how
wonderful that is when we get into the scriptures to find out
that God does the very same thing today. He has a church. It is pictured in many ways by
the tabernacle and by the fence and all of that stuff. All of
it pictures Christ and Christ and his church are so synonymous. They are so put together in such
a capacity that the church cannot survive without Christ and Christ
is not fulfilled without the church. He has promised to redeem
his people from their sins, and his ultimate fulfillment will
be to have all of his church gathered with him. Now, at this
present moment, we have to know that there are parts of his church
in fulfillment that is not gathered into the body yet. They have
not been born into the service of the Most High God. They're
still in service of their own. trying to get some reputation
or trying to get some thought from God or some wave of hand
to God that he's pleased with it, which he is not because he
has never been pleased with the service of those who are not
born into the family. He is only pleased by the service
of those that he has born into the family and they're not expecting
pay and they're not expecting a reward for it. They're just
serving the Lord. serving him in their direct assignment
that God has given to them. Now, we're going to find out
just as he did with those three families in the book of Numbers,
and it's also brought out in the book of Leviticus. These
three families were given assignment by God, by his sovereign purpose
and will. And we will find out that God
gives every one of his elect children a responsibility by
his sovereign grace and elective purpose. They have been given
this assignment. And you know what? They are about
doing it. As we move through this life,
the children of God have been given a sovereign assignment
and they are about doing it. Now it's better off to say, I
don't know what it is and be doing it than I know what it
is and not to do it. Most of God's people say, I'm just a sinner saved by grace
and God is working his purpose out in us just according to his
divine purpose. Now, turn with me, if you would,
over to the book of Matthew chapter 8. As we look at these servants
in the Old Testament, these families in the Old Testament, their responsibilities
in the Old Testament, in the book of Numbers, they were assigned
a responsibility by God, and the only way you could actually
do that service was to be born into that family. So here, in
the book of Matthew chapter eight, we run into that word which is
translated servant in the New Testament three or four times
to satisfy a religious organization. It was translated deacon or deacons
because they already had the office when this was translated
and we can't do away with that. We have, you know, I grew up
in a church that just had to have an elected deacon and then
you had to go through an ordination service and all this stuff. And
you know what most people believed? That if we do this, it will make
these guys faithful. That's what most deacons are
done that for. To make them faithful. You can't
make anybody faithful. God alone can do that. God alone
moves in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. We're
stubborn, but God can unstubborn us and cause us to serve. We'll
be willing to pick up those boards that make up the tabernacle. We'll be willing to carry on
our shoulders the mercy seat. We'll be willing to pull down
and fold up all of those pieces of fabric that make up that fence
out there. I can just see them folding it.
When I was in grammar school, I was taught exactly how to fold
the American flag. If it wasn't folded properly,
you did it again. I can just see those people out
there with all of that linen cloth that made up that fence,
very carefully folding it up and putting it in a place where
it could be taken carefully. Then at the next place that was
time to set it up, they could put it up and it would be in
order. God is a God of order, and he established that order
with these three families, and each one of those families had
children born to them, and as they grew up, their responsibility
was given to them by God Almighty, and mom and dad helped them with
it. Well, here in the book of Matthew chapter 8, we have that
word, Matthew chapter 8 and verse 15. It's mentioned in part of
a miracle. We have someone that is serious.
There's a problem here. And in Matthew chapter 8 and
verse 15, the scriptures share this, and he touched her hand
and the fever left her and she arose and deaconed them. That's what that word ministered
unto them. She was a servant. She was a minister. You know,
that's what God's people do when God touches them, relieves them
of their sickness, of their fever, of their sin, of their self-righteousness,
of their pride. What is the first thing that
God calls on his people to do when he does a miracle of grace
to them? He says, minister unto me. But what does that mean? We heard
some about that this morning. Recognize God is almighty. Only he could do that to me. I was in great fever of sin and
he came along and touched me and brought me out of it. Now
if we could have done that ourselves. We would, but we can't because
we don't have the formula to take care of the fever of sin. Let's move just a little further
here in the book of Matthew chapter 27 and verse 55. There are a number, and I brought
out some verses that mentioned the ladies because, you know,
some places you just cannot have deaconesses, but in the church
of the living God, every born again lady is a deaconess. And in that sense, she's a minister.
And every male is a deacon, a minister, a servant. And God requires it
because that's what he gives us by birth. Just as you're required
of Kohath and Gershon and the families there, this is your
requirement. And I expect you. And yet, he
gave them the grace and the ability to do the very request that he
made of them. And I don't find anywhere in
the scriptures that they grumbled about what they had to do. Now,
natural man probably did in his mind, but we don't have that
in the scriptures. We have this, they did their
responsibility. All right, here in the book of
Matthew chapter 27 and verse 55, we have a number of ladies
that were traveling with the Lord, observing him. It says
here in Matthew 27 verse 55, and many women were there beholding
afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto
him. They were deaconesses. They served
him, probably prepared food, all of the things. How do we
serve God? As he requests us to. That's
how we do it. Well, in the book of Romans,
there's a lady by the name of Phoebe, our sister, which is
a servant of the church, which is in Santeria. Romans chapter
16 and verse 1, Phoebe, a woman, is a servant of the church. Well,
in the book of Matthew that we're in, chapter 20, let's look here
in Matthew chapter 20 and verse 26. These are all born into positions. I was told one time I could never
get into the plumber's union because I was not born into it.
I can never get into the carpenter's union because I was not born
into it. There is one thing about God's grace to the church. When
we're born into it, He gives us servants. A servant's heart. A desire to serve the Most High
God. Here in the book of Matthew chapter
20 and verse 26, the scriptures say, but it shall not be so among
you, but whosoever will be the greatest among you, let him be
your minister. I had a person some, oh, it's
been many, many years ago. When were we in the other building?
23 years ago. He said, Norm, I'd like to help.
I says, you know what? I really could use someone to
help mother-in-law. Oh, no, no, no. I mean in the pulpit. You
know, most people that have no God-given birth aspire to the
greatness. Oh, that's where I could be the
best. You know, when God saves us, where he puts us is what
we're going to be doing. And God says, I am thankful and
we're thankful. All right, so he that is the
greatest among you, let him be your minister. What did Jesus
say about himself? He came not to be ministered
unto or deaconed unto, but to be the deacon of the church.
He came to be the servant. He came to be, and we aspire
to be like him. In the book of Luke, would you
turn there with me? The book of Luke. Luke chapter 10 verse 40, this
all comes as a result of a birth. What birth? The new birth. We cannot overemphasize it because
the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to a great man in Israel, a person
that had much more physical education about the Bible than Jesus had.
Who taught you letters? That's what the Pharisees said.
Who taught you letters? Well, we know who he is and we
know that he had all knowledge and he had all understanding.
But when the Pharisees looked at him, because he had not studied
at one of their colleges or schools of divinity, he was a nobody. But this guy was a somebody. And his name was Nicodemus. And
he was a somebody in his own mind. And he was a somebody in
other people's mind. But when Jesus spoke to him about
spiritual things, he said, you must be born again. And you know how that hit him.
How is that possible? That's a wonderful comment about
the new birth. Because from a physical standpoint,
it is impossible. How is that? Do I enter my mother's
womb the second time and be born? Jesus has brought up the comment
again. Unless you're born again, you'll not see the kingdom of
heaven. You'll not even see it. The new birth. And by the new
birth, we're given a privilege as family status. Born into the
family of God. Born into the church. Born into
his position that he gives us. We're given the blessing of service
to the Most High God. And it is not It is so pleasant to serve this
God. Luke chapter 10, Luke chapter
10, and there in verse 40. Luke chapter 10, we had this
last week in the Bible class. Martha and Mary, and she brings
up this word twice in one verse, verse 10, or verse 40 of that
chapter. She says this, but Martha was
cumbered about much serving. That's the word right there.
We find it translated deacon. Covered by much serving, and
came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister
hath left me to deacon alone, serve alone? Bid her therefore
that she help me. Now she was doing her service,
and her sister couldn't see that she was doing her service. She
was doing what the Holy Spirit had called on her to do. She
was doing what God asked us to do. Now not one of those that
are born into the family of God ever put away this great privilege
of worshiping and listening to the Holy God, the Lord Jesus
Christ. That is our bread and butter.
That is our manna. That is our water of life. That
is it. To be there and to take and be
ministered to by the Lord and his word. She had chosen a better
partner. Reminds me of what Peter said when the Lord asked him
three times, do you love me? And his comment about it, oh,
he looked over here and saw John. He says, what will you have this
man to do? What service will you get out
of him? Well, that's not what God intends for us to do, is
to pick out what other people should be doing, but doing what
he has called on us to do. His mother, when Jesus came and
was asked, the wine's all gone. The wine's gone at the wedding. What does that have to do with
me? And you know, his mom said, whatever he asks. He told the
servants. His mother saith unto the servants,
do whatever he asks. And he took care of the wine
problem. Just as the members of the families
of the several around the tabernacle of old were all born into the
service, so we find that every true servant of God is born into
his service. You cannot vote people into this
service. I remember a preacher coming
down to my dad's house one time and dad said, ''What are you
doing?'' He says, ''We're going out trying to get some church
members.'' You can't vote them into this service. They will
fail miserably hoping that they'll get some righteousness out of
it. Faithful service is not difficult when God gives us the new birth. And we have been born servants. There is no substitute for God-given
faithfulness. Oh, will he find faith? He said, will I find faith when
I come back? Yes, he will. A small amount
at least. There will be a small amount. Those who are on the left-hand
side are going to say Matthew 25. Would you go back there to
Matthew 25? In Matthew chapter 25, as we
think about those three families that served around the tabernacle,
they were there for a couple of purposes. One is to keep everybody
else out, and secondly, they were to help move the tabernacle
wherever the Lord moved it. Wherever the church goes, there's
going to be those servants there to take care of it. In Matthew
chapter 25 and verse 44, those on the left-hand side, then shall
they also answer him saying, Lord, when saw we thee hungered
and athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison,
and did not minister unto thee? When did we do that? What did
the others say? When did we do that? When did
we serve? Oh, our service in our eyes is
about like what we find about our prayer life. Everything spiritual
in the eyes of a believer is so insignificant. I'm not getting anything done
and I can't even pray and I don't even know how to get up in the
morning and be a servant. And yet the Lord, when he gives
us the new birth, he works that out for his glory. He causes
his people to serve him. Doors are open and it's so much
easier to go through an open door than try to open a door
that you can't go through. He opens doors for us to go through
and serve him. He gives us those places to be
to serve him. He gives us those places to be
to pray to him. He gives us all of those things
and we cannot create them on our own. Over in the book, The
book of 1st Corinthians chapter 12 brother Mike alluded to this.
I thought he's gonna read it. All right. I don't know how people
here Know interchange our information and don't even know about it
It has to be of the Lord here in the book of 1st Corinthians
chapter 12 verse 11 Would you notice their 1st Corinthians
chapter 12 and verse 11 the Holy Spirit and the church at Corinth
is had a lot of error in it. But we find that the Apostle
Paul through the leadership of the Holy Spirit called him brethren.
The problem that they were having is Christ was not the one being
served. Now there may have been some
people come in that didn't know what it was to serve God because
they'd never been born into the family. They were trying to do
things that were unscriptural. And here we have a few there
that the Apostle Paul is going to instruct. And apparently there
were some people here that thought service was assigned. That service
was someone else told you what to do. Well, here we find in
1 Corinthians 12 and verse 11, that the Holy Spirit is in charge
of that business. He's the one that makes the assignment.
And you know what? In the church, when the Holy
Spirit makes the assignment, it's just like God's saving somebody. We don't say, well, I wish he'd
have taken care of that person in my family. We rejoice that
he saved that person. And here it is with regard to
the ministry of these three families over in the Old Testament with
regard to the tabernacle. In the New Testament, when it
comes to his servants, we find out that the service has been
ordained of God. First Corinthians chapter 12
and verse 11 it says, but all these worketh the one and self
same spirit dividing to every man severally as he will. Well that word severally means
to separately or privately or particularly or individually. One translation put it, dividing
to each one individually as he pleases, as he desires and wills. So the assignment that is given
when we're born again, the assignment that he gives is sovereignly
given. It is God's gift to us and God's
gift to the church. We read in this wonderful chapter,
As it begins in verse 1, now concerning spiritual. Notice
the word gifts is in italics. It was never in the original.
It's the spiritual. But there are spiritual gifts
that God gives, and one of them is the new birth. And as a result
of that, we become servants of the Most High God. This very
blessed chapter, from beginning to end, is directed to one and
the same subject. That is, it describes the oneness
between Christ and His church. I have chosen my people and I
have chosen to give them the service that they will perform
and it's of me and I give them both the will and the power to
do of my good pleasure. This union with Christ is so
precious and as the apostle shows that all the spiritual gifts
and graces which Christ members enjoy flow from the head. It's not top down to up. It's
not down top from down to up. It's from up to down to us. The gifts. All the gifts. Have no idea in them of merit. It's of grace. There is a part
of this that I want to read, 1 Corinthians, verse 13. For by one spirit are we all
baptized into one body. Now before we jump and say, oh,
oh, I didn't do that for the right reason. No, this is another
word for the new birth. Baptized by one spirit into one
body. Whether we be Jews or Gentiles,
whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink of
one spirit, for the body is not one member, but many. If the
foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the
body, is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall
say, because I am not the eye, am I not of the body? There seems
to have been some in the church at Corinth that said, you know,
you're just not very special. You're not very important. And
the Lord had the Apostle Paul instruct the church, all my sheep
are important. And I have severely given them,
particularly individually given them the gift and the responsibility
of service. If the whole body were an eye,
where were the hearing? If the whole hearing were, where's
the smelling? But now hath God set the members,
every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. When we look at those three families
camped around the tabernacle in the Old Testament, they camped
as it pleased Him. Their service was as it pleased
Him. And they died as it pleased Him. And that's the joyous, blessed
responsibility and privilege of every born-again believer
is to serve the Most High God. And we cannot do it. We cannot
do it aright. if we're not born into the family. We must be born into the family
of God in order to do this work that God has called us. Otherwise,
we're doing it out of merit. We want merit. We want pay out
of it. Notice over here in the book of 1 Corinthians chapter
12, And then in verse 26, and whether one member suffer, all
members suffer with it. Or one member be honored, all
the members rejoice with it. Have you ever hit your thumb
hard and your toes hurt? He's given us an illustration.
When one member hurts, the whole body hurts. Bear ye, I can just think of
it, he says, those families were loading up those boards that
made up the walls of the tabernacle. They could sing this song, bear
ye one another's burden. Bear ye one another's burden.
You get on one end, I'll get on the other end, and we'll put
it on the cart. Bear ye one another's burden.
Well, as these three families pointed out, share with us. Before
any of them were ever born, we had three sons born outside of
being down in Egypt. They went down through Egypt,
spent 400 years there, came out because of the Passover. They
were set free. They went into the wilderness.
Here, by the grace of God, he had them gather around a little
tent in the wilderness and said, ''This is your assignment. When we move, this is yours,
this is yours, and this is yours.'' To the church from the very beginning,
The assignments have been given. What was the assignment given
to Abel? To offer a sacrifice more acceptable, blood sacrifice,
than his brother. What was he gave to Abraham?
He was more faithful than all the rest because he would offer
up his son. How did he do that? Because of the new birth. No other reason could be given
because of the new birth. So as these families represented
the church, They all had their job to perform, born into the
service, and when their service was ended, they died in their
service. Just as God's people today, it's
not laborious, it's not overbearing, it's not burdensome, and not
expected for pay or for merit, is Lord God, thank you, I can
serve the most high God. God bless you.