Would you join me this morning
in the book of Numbers? The book of Numbers, and I need
to go back to the chapter 2 this morning for just a few moments.
Another nugget that we would like to spend a little time on.
The book of Numbers chapter 2, and I want to read verses 1,
2, and 17 out of this. In this wonderful chapter of
the book of Numbers, we have some things said about where
the placement of the tabernacle was. Now we said a few things
about it when we went through here before, but I would just
like to reemphasize that. And it tells us here in the book
of Numbers chapter two, and the Lord spake unto Moses and unto
Aaron saying, Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch
by his own standard with the ensign of their father's house
far off about the tabernacle of the congregation shall they
pitch. In other words, the tabernacle
was to be in the middle of all of these tribes, and it's there
on purpose. And then if you'll notice with
me in verse 17 of that same chapter, then the tabernacle of the congregation
shall set forward with the camp of the Levites in the midst of
the camp. As they encamp, so shall they set forward every
man in his place by their standards. Now it gives the order by which
they are to depart their camp, but yet it shares with us that
in the middle of all of these 12 tribes, and in the middle
of Moses and the Levites, and all of the tribe, or the members
of the tribe of Levi, are camped about the tabernacle. It is in
the middle of everything. The Lord, I'm sure, is pointing
out something for them as well as it is pointing out something
for us. And that is, as we find over in the book of Matthew chapter
18, would you join me over there? The tabernacle was in the middle
of the camp in the midst, and this is a wonderful picture of
where our Lord Jesus Christ is to the church. The Church of
the Living God has a firm belief in this very thing that the middle
of everything is Christ. The middle of every doctrine
is Christ. The middle of every illustration
is Christ. If we look over there in the Old Testament, we find
that the sacrifices took place in the middle of the camp. And
our Savior is the sacrifice of our Savior. Christ and the crucifixion
and the blood is in the middle of everything to the church.
It is central. The church is Christ-centric. Here in the book of Matthew Chapter
18, we have these words as the Lord Jesus Christ shares about
the church himself, where two or three are gathered together. Matthew Chapter 18 and verse
20, the Lord shares this. Matthew Chapter 18 and verse
20, where for where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them. I am the center if they're gathered
in my name. I'm going to be the center of
it. I'll be the main position of it. I'll be the main spokesman
of it. I'll be the main theme of it.
And as was brought out earlier in the prayer, the main thing
is the main thing. He is the center. He is and everything
else revolves around this. We don't make the ordinances
primary. They are secondary. But Christ
is the center. He is the middle. And just as
the children of Israel were gathered in a very concise order by Almighty
God, so we find that the church is gathered around the Lord Jesus
Christ and he is the center. And you know what? Everybody
gets to see his face. In any direction that we look,
we get to see him in his face. All right, join me if you would.
With any spiritual issue, we'll find out just like it's found
in the book of Luke chapter two. Now, Jesus is 12 years old here,
and we find him in a position in the middle. In Luke chapter
two, verse 46, the Lord Jesus, you know, a lot of moms and dads
would say, wow, Three days missing from our household. Yesterday we got a picture of
Sam. He was about three blocks or four blocks away from his
home on his tricycle. And people were concerned. Well,
Mary was concerned, and she finds her son Notice here in the book
of Luke chapter 2 and verse 46, it says, and it came to pass
that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in
the midst of the doctors. Now, they're the lawyers. They're
the people who know the law, both hearing them and asking
them questions. Now, he's not asking them, what
does these verses mean? That is not what he's doing here.
He is speaking from authority because he is the Word of God.
He is telling them what the Word of God means. And they're astonished
that a 12-year-old would be able to do this. So we find here that
the Lord Jesus is in the midst of them. He is in the midst of
the law. He is in the midst of the ordinances,
he is in the midst of everything, and he has his salvation priority
one for every one of his children. We find here that the Lord Jesus
is sharing with us even at this young age when he is the picture of what God is going to do that
he's in the midst of them. Turn with me, if you would, to
another place here in the Old Testament, excuse me, New Testament
in John chapter 19 and verse 18. Now, we find in this passage
of scripture that Jesus Christ is in the midst of sinners and
safe sinners. He is the one that is going to
be between them all. In the book of John chapter 19
and verse 18, the Lord Jesus Christ is crucified and notice
the position that he holds while in this position in crucifixion. He is in the midst of them. He
is the center of them. He's the one that is mocked by
both. And then he's the one that is
honored by one. And that's what he does in this
world. He is in the midst, he is that, uh uh to the saving
of the soul he is to the to healing in one direction and he is the
curse in another direction and he illustrates this very well
here in the book of john chapter 19 and verse 18 it says these
words and where they crucified him the two other with him on
either side of of the one and jesus in the midst and he's the
one the line of demarcation in christ out of christ saved There
is no other position that any person is ever in. They're not
in middle ground. He holds the middle ground. He
is in the midst. We're either for him or against
him, he says. We're either honoring him or
dishonoring him. That's what he says. So he is
in the very middle. And then one other place that
we want to look. as we see the illustration of the tabernacle
there in the midst of all the children of Israel, here again
in the book of John chapter 20. John chapter 20 and verses 19
and 26. John chapter 20 verses 19 and
26. While you're turning there, I'm hoping to get this started
again. John chapter 19, excuse me, chapter 20, verse 19. John chapter 20, verse 19, the
scripture says, then the same day at evening, being the first
day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples
were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in
the midst and said unto them, peace be unto you. What a glorious
event happened to them. Every one of those disciples
had ran away from him. Everyone had departed from him.
We always look at Peter because he was so outstanding and so
blatant about it, but the rest of them, every one of them departed
from the Lord Jesus Christ at the time of his crucifixion.
Nobody stood by him and it was on purpose. He would do this
alone. No one would be there to help
him. It's so illustrative of the point. We cannot help him
with our salvation. He must take care of it all.
So he is in the midst of them when he comes in, and when he
comes in, he shares with them, peace be unto you. Now, how glorious is that? Then
there was one person that wasn't present. I used to hear all the
preaching about Thomas being, oh, what a reckless guy. He wasn't
in church that Sunday. You know where he was? He was
being blessed somewhere else, but he was going to be blessed
doubly this time when he comes in and tells us in the very same
chapter, verse 26, the same chapter in verse 26. And it says here,
and after eight days, again, his disciples were within and
Thomas was with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being
shut. You know, that's how he enters
here. You don't have to come through a door. His spirit is
everywhere. His spirit is omnipresent, omniscient,
and omnipotent. And He comes in where we're gathered,
and sometimes we're gathered out of fear. And yet, He came
and stood in the midst and said, now where the Lord is, there's
peace. Where the Lord is, there's liberty. Where the Lord is, there's
no oppression. Where the Lord is, there is glory. He came and stood in the midst
of them and said, peace be unto you. So I just want to think
about that position that the tabernacle had in the middle
of all of those citizens of Israel, all the 12 tribes, and even among
the Levites. You know, when a group of pastors
get together where Christ should be in the midst, that should
be the message, Christ in the midst. And when we get churches
gathered together, Christ in the midst, and that's it. Eschatology is fine as long as
it follows the scriptures, he'll be in the midst. Any other teaching,
he'll be in the midst, he'll be fine. All right. Now, if you'd go back with me
to the book of Numbers chapter 3. Let's look at Numbers chapter
3 this morning for just a moment. Numbers chapter 3. Numbers chapter
3 verses 44 through 51. There's some glorious statements
made in this passage of scripture. Glorious in the sense that we
have the Lord spoken of about the firstborn and redemption. It has bothered me for years. Why would silver coins be spoken
of as price of redemption. What is there? Well, this last
week we had the wonderful blessing of seeing a couple things about
this that I want to share with you. In Numbers chapter three, verse
44. Numbers chapter three, verse
44. The scriptures share this. And
Moses spake, excuse me, and the Lord spake unto Moses saying,
this is the words of the Lord to Moses. Take the Levites instead of all
the firstborn among the children of Israel and the cattle of the
Levites instead of their cattle, and the Levites shall be mine,
I am the Lord. And for those that are to be
redeemed of the two hundred and threescore and thirteen of the
children of Israel, which are more than the Levites, Thou shalt
even take five shekels apiece by the pole. Now it's interesting
that that word pole is Golgotha, by their head. And we find that
word used over in the New Testament as the place where Christ was
crucified. After the shekel of the sanctuary shalt thou take
them. The shekel is 20 garrars. And
thou shalt give the money wherewith the odd number of them is to
be redeemed unto Aaron and to his sons. And Moses took the
redemption money of them that were over and above them that
were redeemed by the Levites." All right, we have 200, excuse
me, we have 22,000 Levites. We have 22,273 firstborn among
the tribes of Israel. A Levite can be in the place
of the firstborn of Israel, but only one on one. One Levite for
one Israelite. Well, after they got through
counting, they found out that there's 273 more Israelite firstborn
than there were Levites. Now, what are we going to do
with them? Well, the Lord gives exactness about what to do with
them. They are to be redeemed with
five shekels of silver, given to the priest, given to Moses,
to be taken. We have 273 that need to be redeemed,
and there's five shekels apiece, and that makes 1,365 shekels
that needed to be collected. And I thought, what in the world
are you sharing with us, Lord, with regard to this? How can
we have redemption through silver coins? Well, I looked up the
value of these silver coins. Now in their day, we may think
they weren't worth much, but if we find out what they paid
and it's relative to our time today, we might think of it differently. Nathan and I were looking at
the price of an object in 1933 and what it would be today, and
it's astronomical what inflation has done to our dollar over time. Now, it's not necessarily all
bad, that's just the way things work. But if we look at this
one coin, one of these shekels, If we looked at one of them,
we would find out in today's money is worth $320. If you had
to pay five of them for your firstborn son, you're paying
$1,600. Now, I don't know about you,
but to me, that is a pretty hefty amount, $1,600. That's some time
of work. The Lord, I believe, is sharing
at least this amount. There's much more here, but the
Lord is sharing with us this amount that redemption is costly. It is going to cost you. It's going to cost these Israelites
who have their firstborn son redeemed. It is going to cost
them a lot to do that. Now, I can't think of anybody
that wouldn't want to do that because this is my firstborn
son and I do want him redeemed, but it's not going to be just
an easy task. It is going to be costly and
it was illustrated. Now, silver is used throughout
the Old Testament many ways to illustrate the point of redemption.
It is a silver coin. There are five of them and they're
handed over to the priest and then the Israelite boy, firstborn
boy, goes away and he is redeemed. Well, we find out that the Lord
never intended for us to be redeemed by a physical means. We're not
redeemed by works. We're not redeemed by money.
We're not redeemed by any of those things. We're not redeemed
by our righteousness. There is no redemptive price
that will pay what is required to deal with sin. Turn with me
to a wonderful passage of scripture over in the book of the Psalm,
Psalm 49, if you would, as we think about the costliness of
redemption, the costliness of redemption of every one of the
elect of God. It is a costly activity to redeem
someone from their sin. It may be costly to redeem someone
out of jail. It may be costly to redeem someone
out of this issue or that issue, but nothing can compare to the
costliness of the redemption of someone from sin. Here in
the book of the Psalms, Psalm 49, if you would, beginning with
verse... 6, Psalm 49 and verse 6. Remember, as they came through,
we have all of these, 22,000 taken care of. There's still
some that are more than, what do we do with them? You know
what it said? If you had a donkey and you could
redeem it with the lamb, but if you didn't redeem it, break
its neck. Well, I'm not sure what would
have happened. Maybe there's word about it in the scriptures,
but I'm not sure what would happen if someone says, I'm not paying
that amount. I'm not going to pay $1,600 for the redemption
of my son. I can only think of every parent
saying, go to the bag and get that money out because this is
our firstborn son. Well, here in the Psalm, Psalm
49, notice here in Psalm 49 in verse six, In Psalm 49 verse
6 the scriptures share this, They that trust in their wealth,
and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, none of them
can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for
him. For the redemption of their soul
is precious, and it ceases forever. Now, one translation put that
this way says, for the redemption of their life is costly and no
payment is ever enough. It is a costly price to redeem
someone. And here, in fact, we find in
the Psalms that the subject is brought up here and none, none
by any means can redeem his brother. Now, the problem with sin redemption
is different than any other kind. But sin redemption is that it's
our nature to sin. And even after we're saved, we
sin. And if we were required to pay for all that after we
made a profession of faith, we'd never get it done. We'd never
pay the price. We'd never have it taken care
of. So we're in dire straits to have someone take care of
the problem because we'll never get that price paid. It's too
costly. Our works will never take care
of it. Our self-righteousness will never take care of it. Our
interest, our dedication, whatever it is, will never take care of
the costliness of redeeming a soul from sin. Well, we find there
is one that has. There is one that could and did. And would you turn with me over
to the book of first Peter chapter one. We heard this read this
morning, but there's two verses in that reading that I want to
spend a little time on this morning, where it tells us or ties us
in to the Book of Numbers and the redemptive price that was
paid for those several 273. And if you'll notice, it was
an odd number. The Lord is very exact. His number
is an exact number. It's just not rounded up or down.
Sometimes when I'm adding numbers, I round them up. It's easier
to do. Round them down. It's easier to do. God never
does that. He has an exact number. And He deals with exactness.
And so the exactness of our redemption, there were five shekels paid. Not four. not six but five five
shekels paid five shekels all right here in the book of first
peter chapter one we have this going back reaching back to the
old testament in first peter chapter one verse 18 The word says, for as much as
ye know that ye were not redeemed. Now, it's interesting that these
words are coupled there with corruptible things as silver
and gold. Have you ever seen rust on silver
or rust on gold? I know silver will tarnish, oxidizes. But my goodness, I've got a few
silver coins and I can look at them yesterday and in 10 years
I can look at them and they're still about the same. I have
a little bitty piece of gold and I looked at it the other
day and it looks just like I got it. We don't see how it rusts
or is corruptible. We can't watch it. It's too slow. But it tells us that we're not
redeemed here in 1 Peter 1, verse 18. We're not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers. Can you imagine as Peter grew
up, as the rest of the disciples that were Jews grew up, if they
were the firstborn, how their parents took them down to the
temple and says, we want to redeem this one, here's five shekels.
When they were 30 days old, they were taken down, and the mother
had to say some things, and the father had to say some things.
This is my firstborn. There's never been a miscarriage.
We never lost a child. This is our firstborn. All right.
There is going to be a price of redemption, and that is five
shekels. And they paid the price, and their boy was redeemed. Well,
here we find out it's not that way when it comes to spiritual
matters. Sin is not taken care of with
silver or gold. Sin is not taken care of by works. It's not taken care of by righteousness,
our righteousness. It's not taken care of by baptism. It's not taken care of by the
Lord's Supper. It's not taken care of by church membership. It is far greater value than
that. Anybody can be baptized. Anybody
can take the Lord's Supper. Anybody can join a church. But
it's not that way. We're not redeemed by corruptible
things such as silver and gold, by your vain conversation or
manner of life. What's that mean? I'll do it
my way. I'll redeem myself my way. Well, it goes on to say,
but there, here is the crux of the matter. This is how precious
redemption of God's children is but with the precious blood
of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot how
precious this is that redemptive price is absolutely the most
costly thing in all creation in in heaven and on earth the
redemption of God's people is more costly than anything else
that has ever been paid no millionaire billionaire and probably some
soon to be trillionaires could redeem themselves not alone someone
else before God it's not going to be that easy it must be the
precious blood of Christ. It is far more valuable than
those five shekels, even though it may have been hard for some
of those parents to come up with five shekels to redeem their
son, they did that very thing. It may be easy for us to do this
or that, but it is not easy for us to be redeemed on our own
because it takes the precious Blood of Christ, the Son of God,
God the Son, to redeem us. And that's the only thing that
can. It is so costly. Turn with me, if you would, back
to the book of 1 Timothy chapter 2. 1 Timothy chapter 2, as we
look at the costliness. Those parents. I wonder how many
said, well, there was a Levite for that guy. Why didn't you
save yourself for me? 200 and plus said, Moses said, you're
going to have to pay five shekels a piece for the redemption of
your firstborn. And they said, okay. And Moses took it. And he never
said, well, in your case I'll take four, or three, or two,
or one. You're really poor. It was the
same for everybody. And when it comes to the salvation
of God's people, it is the same for everybody. There is no bargain
price. It is full value, and that is
the blood of Christ. That is Him who saves His people
from their sin. Well here in the book of 1 Timothy
chapter 2 and verse 5. 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse
5. We have these words. For there is one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave
himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. He gave his life a ransom. He gave his blood a ransom price,
a price to buy the firstborn. This is the required payment
that God has is the blood of Christ and nothing else will
substitute. And look at with me back a little
bit more to the book of Colossians. Colossians chapter 1 verse 12. Colossians chapter 1 and verse
12. We have these words as it shares with us the immense value
that is required to redeem a people from their sins. Sin is so costly
upon us. Have you ever thought about that,
how costly sin is on us? It's our health. It's our life. It's the end of our life. It's
costly. Every day is costly upon us because
of sin. What Adam brought us under sin,
it costs us every day. Aches and pains, aging, sickness,
our health. It just keeps requiring. And nothing that anybody does
can eliminate that costliness. Now what does it cost to redeem
someone from that sinful condition? The blood of Christ. Nothing
else will do. There is no other way but that
way. Here in the book of Colossians
chapter 1 and there in verse 12, Paul again writes on this
subject. Colossians chapter 1 verse 12
giving thanks unto the father which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated
us into the kingdom of his dear son in whom we have redemption
through his blood even the forgiveness of sins. We have redemption through
his blood. We've been bought, purchased,
and only this will do. A type is in the Old Testament
with silver coins, five very valuable coins to them and to
us now, $1,600 to redeem them, and we might be off by $500. But it couldn't redeem them for
eternity. It only redeemed them in type
and shadow and picture. Here we have the redemption through
his blood, And that redemption is so grand that it means the
forgiveness of sin. Total forgiveness by God for
our nature and our acts. The book of Hebrews chapter 9
only In Christ, do we have eternal redemption? In the book of Hebrews,
chapter 9, verse 12, we read these wonderful words about the
Lord and his all-sufficient salvation. The costliness, it's prohibitive
for any of us. We can never reach it. Have you
ever, have you gone out recently and priced the price of a brand
new vehicle? My dad paid $100 for the vehicle
that my twin brother and I drove to the bus stop. $100 for a 1950
Chevrolet. If I had that car today, it'd
be worth $16,000 or $18,000 if it was in good shape. Go look
at the price of a vehicle. Not $20,000, not $30,000, but
$70,000 and $80,000. How does anybody ever pay that off? It's prohibitive for most of
us isn't it? Well we think about that's prohibitive.
What is really prohibitive is that none of us can pay our redemptive
price. If we had eighty thousand dollars
it still wouldn't do it. If we had a million dollars it
still would not even make a dent in it. If we had the whole world
it wouldn't make a dent in it. Here we have these precious words
from and about our Savior in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 12 the
scriptures share this Neither by the blood of goats and calves,
but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place having
obtained eternal redemption for us For if the blood of bulls
and of goats and ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctified
to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God. And as he goes on, and for this
cause, he is the mediator of the new covenant, New Testament, that by means
of death, for redemption of the transgressors that were under
the first testament, they were called, might receive the promise
of eternal inheritance. Eternal, eternal, and eternal. In verse 12, it says, neither
by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. Even those boys that were the
firstborn, and they were redeemed by five shekels, you know what
happened to them? We find the record of every one
of them, and he died. Didn't redeem them. for eternal. It was a temporary picture of
what is required. Now one other verse or passage
I'd like to look at and that's found in the book of 1st John
chapter 2. 1st John chapter 2. 1st John
chapter 2 and there in verse 1. 1st John chapter 2 and verse
1. My little children, these things
I write unto you. that you sin not. Now, the first
thing that we notice, he's writing to the church, he's writing to
believers. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Now, sin
was taken care of at the cross. Our past sins, our present sins,
and our future sins. It's interesting that when God,
through Christ, saved his people, paid their sin debt from the
Old Testament side, it was all in the past. He saved his people
in the future, all from their future sins. And here it says,
and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins
only, but for the sins of the whole world. Now, I've had friends
bring that up to me and say, look at that, Jesus died for
everybody. Well, let's look at the word propitiation for just
a moment. The word propitiation. It's a
word that, well, I had to look it up this morning. I've read
it many times, but it's not a word that goes through our vocabulary
very often. Propitiation. The benefit of
Christ's blood for the sinner in the acceptance by the Father.
This is what Christ did. He's our propitiation. He is
the one that put away sin. He made us accepted in the beloved. Now, He made whoever He made
accepted in the beloved has eternal life. Now, I have friends that
have told me that that world means everybody. Well, if that
world means everybody, then everybody has their propitiation taken
care of and they're saved. And there's nobody that will
ever go to hell. Well, we know that that world
is not right. It's for his church. He made a propitiation, or he
paid the price, the redemptive price. He put away sin on the
behalf of his people. Now, he did that completely.
It is over. Sin is taken care of. Redemption
has been had. We are enjoying it at this present
time, and God has put in his ledger book, before the foundation
of the world, paid in full. Right there by our name. Paid
in full. Christ has paid in full. No longer
will we have the law hanging over us. No longer will we have
sin hanging over us. It breaks our heart, if you please,
every day when we do sin. But we can go to bed at night
saying, thank God he paid for it. He said, we have an advocate. Take it to him. Lord, help me
out of this mess I'm in. But he never says, I'm going
to punish you for that, because the father punished the son. And he has redeemed us with greater
than five shekels, greater than silver or gold. But by his precious
blood, he has redeemed us to himself. He made reconciliation
for the sins of the people. The Lord Jesus is declaring here
that He, through the sacrifice of Himself, will be the means
of the removal of sins. And do we need that? The removal
of sins. God took care of it on the cross,
in His Son, Jesus Christ, and He didn't pay a shekel. He gave
His blood. All of it. on the behalf of the
church. Now if he had intended to only
save you, out of all the hosts of the world, how much blood
would he have had to give? All of it. He couldn't stop with
a cup, or a quart, or five quarts, or however much he had. He couldn't
stop there. He had to give it all. He had
to die. And that is redemption. And that
is real redemption. And that is redemption we can
carry to the bank and we can say, Lord, thank you. I'm redeemed
because of the blood of Christ. Now, I know those boys when they
grew up and they heard the story about being redeemed, they'd
say, Mom, Dad, thank you so much for doing that. But the church
says, thank you, Lord, for doing that, because that silver wouldn't
take care of the problem. But the blood of Christ has for
the church, and they will sing through eternity, worthy is the
Lamb that was slain. Brother Mike, if you'll come.