You want to turn with me as I
read my text, you'll find it in Numbers chapter 6. I want to begin reading in verse
22. Numbers chapter 6 and verse 22. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speaking to Aaron, and to his sons, saying, On this
wise you shall bless the children of Israel. Saying unto them,
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee. The Lord make his face
shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his
countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put
my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them."
I want to look at this thought this morning with you. The Lord
bless thee. The Lord bless thee. It is often said in the Scriptures
that we bless the Lord, and we do. Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits. He healeth all your diseases
and forgives all your iniquities. We bless him. But our blessings
add nothing to him. Our blessing him simply means
we praise him. His blessings to us add everything. When we bless Him, we just return
to Him that which He's worthy of. Thanksgiving for what we've
received. We give unto Him the glory that's
due His name. But when He blesses us, He gives
us out of His riches what we don't possess and what we don't
earn. We add nothing to Him. We simply
praise Him. What could we add to the eternal
throne of God? If I was hungry, I wouldn't ask
you. The cattle on a thousand hills is mine. God does not worship
with men's hands as though He needed anything. God needs nothing. We have nothing to give Him,
but our praises, our thanksgiving. But out of His abundant riches,
He blesses us. He adds to us. The Lord bless
thee. And He's so rich, He can bless
us all, and all His riches not be exhausted. He knows how to
bless a man. He's wise in blessing a man. And He's rich in mercy. He's
rich in mercy. He blesses all of us with His
temporal blessings. There's not a person here this
morning that God hasn't blessed. He's blessed us all with His
carnal blessings. The blessings of this life. God's
mercies are over all His works. And He's blessed a bunch of us
with His heavenly blessings, His spiritual blessings. But
everything that comes from God is a blessing. Isn't it a blessing
to have a family? Our family may be like David's
family. It may be a mess. But I tell you, it's a blessing
to have a family. It's a blessing to have children,
is it not? Blessed is the man that has his
quiver full of them. But if it's a blessing to be
in a natural family, how much more to be in the family of God? To be here among the brothers
and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ. I think it's good to have food
to eat, and we'll see that in a few minutes. It's good to be
hungry. It's good to have a digestive
system. Good when God gives us our daily
bread. What a blessing that is. But
what a blessing it is for God to give us His bread from heaven. I am the true bread of God, which
cometh down from heaven. You eat of this bread, you'll
live forever. What a blessing God has given us. Isn't it wonderful
to have a house to go to? There's a lot of people. I preached
to several people a few days ago, men and women, that had
no house to go to. Isn't it wonderful to have a
house? When you leave here to go to
your house, to go to your home, you can go home when you can't
go anyplace else. There's no place like home. Isn't it wonderful to have a
Father's house? In my father's house. Oh, I'm
blessed with a nice house, a comfortable house, but I'm blessed with my
father's house too. Isn't it wonderful to have a
bed just to lay down and rest? There's a lot of people who work
all day and can't sleep all night. They can't rest. They have no
rest. Isn't it wonderful to go home and you're so tired? And you just lay your weary body
down on your bed and rest. And you say, what a blessing.
Isn't it wonderful to have a Savior? You can take your weary, heavy
soul, too, and rest in Him. What a blessing. What a blessing. He has blessed us with His carnal
blessings, His temporal blessings, And so many of us, he's blessed
with his heavenly blessings, his spiritual blessings. It's
good to have a little something to leave your kids, to have an
inheritance. My dad left me a little money.
I spent it all, but it was good money. And it thrilled him to
leave me and my sisters and my brothers an inheritance. It was
such a blessing. We bury people all the time that
don't have enough money. to bury himself. Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it
a blessing to have that inheritance that's incorruptible, undefiled,
and that fades not away, reserved in heaven before you? The Lord
has blessed us, has He not? He's blessed us in so many ways,
carnally and spiritually. And is any of us worthy of it? Are we worthy of any of His blessings?
Have you ever earned a blessing from God? His blessings are so
free. His blessings come from His own
riches, undeserved. He simply blesses us because
of who He is. He's God. He's God. Jacob said, Lord, I'm not worthy
of the least of your mercies." They'll stand here and say, Lord,
I'm not worthy that you should come under my house. And when
you and I think about being blessed of the Lord, we're unworthy. We're unworthy. And I'm telling
you, the only thing any of us can do is just say, Lord, we
praise you. Thank you. Thank you. The Lord bless thee. The Lord
bless thee. My first point this afternoon,
this morning, is this, and I want you to think of this. God is
able to bless a man. The Lord blessed thee. And you know, this is not something
that Moses thought up in his head. He wasn't out thinking
one day, what can I get to preach on? I think I'll come up with
this. The Lord bless you. That didn't
come from his heart. This came from the Lord. This
originated with the Lord's heart. And He said, you go tell Heaven
to tell them this, I can bless them. I'm able to bless them. Brothers and sisters, the Lord
knows how to bless you. He's not only rich enough to
bless you, He knows how to bless you. And that being so, shouldn't
we seek His blessing? Far better than nothing, he has
blessings to seek. Jacob saw his blessing, and Jacob
said, I'm not going to let you go until you bless me. I know
you can bless me, and I'm going to hang on until you do it. Jabez,
that honorable man, he went and sought God. And he said, Lord,
bless me. Bless me. Enlarge my borders. Keep me from
sin, from evil. Don't grieve me." And you know what the Scripture
says? The Lord granted him his request. The Lord bless you. And if the Lord is willing to
bless, the Lord is able to bless, then I think I would be correct
this morning in telling us we should seek His blessings. And you know something about
the blessings of the Lord? When He blesses you, nobody can
reverse it. We've been studying about Balaam
in our Bible study. And one thing that false prophet
knew, he knew this, when God blessed, nobody can reverse it. He blesses you, and He adds no
burden with it. There's burdens, It comes from
our unbelief, it comes from flesh, it comes from the world, but
the burdens of the Lord makes rich. He has no burdens with
those blessings. The Lord is able to bless you. I've often thought of those little
children that disciples brought to Christ. The mothers brought
them to Christ and He took them up in His arms. I've often thought
when He blessed those children, Wouldn't you love to follow those
children as they came into teenage years and grew into adults? Wouldn't you love to just follow
them? Because you know something? Those children were blessed.
He touched them in His arms and He blessed them. And I bet you
each one of those children could have wrote a book about it. Here's
where He blessed me. That wasn't just some ritual
he went through. You may come up here, you may
bring your children up to me and say, Bruce, would you put
your hands on my children and pronounce a blessing? That wouldn't
do those children a bit of good. I may bless them and pray over
them and they may turn out to be devils. But you know something? You take your child to the Lord
and let Him pronounce a blessing upon that child, that child shall
be blessed. The Lord bless you. The Lord
bless you. I just love to think about that.
The Lord bless you. Let's look at these blessings.
I think it's very telling, the first blessing that they were
to pronounce. Here in verse 24, it's very telling. The Lord bless
thee and keep thee. Well, I think it's very telling
that the first blessing, the Lord keep thee. All the blessings He could bless
us with, I would say would mean very little if He don't keep
us. Those angels in heaven, my, look
how high they were. Look how holy they were. Look
how happy they were. But they failed. And let's be
honest about it. When did they fall? When he removed
his hand. Our first parents there in the
garden. Look at all the benefits that they enjoyed. They fell. When did they fall? When he removed his hand. The first lesson was pronounced
like this, the Lord keep thee. We can't keep ourselves, can
we? We're told to keep ourselves, keep ourselves in the love of
God. We're told to use every means that God has made available
to us, and God helps us to do it. But means will mean nothing
unless He keeps us, unless He uses the means. He said, keep
yourselves in the love of God, and then turn right around and
make this statement. God who is able to keep you from
falling. Oh, that's a blessed name. God
keep you from what? From falling? Oh, how many have
we seen fall? Don't our hearts think about
it and break? Oh, we've seen false professors fall. and finally
reveal what they were. But we've seen believers fall.
We've fallen. Have you ever fell in your heart?
Have you ever fell into unbelief? What a blessing it is in which
God pronounces a blessing like this, the Lord keep you from
falling, from falling into temptations, from falling into sins. of falling
and bringing shame on His name, reproach on His people. The Lord
keep you from falling. Oh, I tell you, if you and I
could see in the air, if the Lord would open our hearts, our
eyes, and let us see as He did Elijah's sermon, what was in
the air, we'd see these elect angels flying everywhere, protecting,
guarding the Lord's people. But we see more than that. We
see demons filling the air. And they're laying stumbling
blocks. They're digging pits, pushing
souls over the edge of cliffs. We see that with them. And all
we cry out, Lord, keep me. Keep me. I tell you, there are some wonderful
statements, and you know them. You can think of them yourself
about being careful. Except the Lord keep the city.
Oh, except the Lord keep the heart. The watchman wake but
in vain. The peace of God that passes
all understanding shall keep your heart and your mind. I tell you, as I grow older in
the Lord, one thing I desire above everything else, and that's
peace. I tell you, I don't rejoice,
I'll be honest with you, this is just me, I don't rejoice much
anymore. I mean, you won't come and follow
me up on the clouds shouting, Sitting up there, looking down,
shouting away, but you just won't find me doing that. I used to
do a lot of that. You know what I desire more than
anything else now? The peace of God to keep my heart. I tell you sometimes, and you
feel this same way, you're just that close to insanity. Sometimes
the burdens, the weights of this life, the trials, you have to
struggle just to breathe. And it's not rejoicing you feel
like you want. It's not being up in the clouds
you think will keep your mind and heart, but the peace of God. And boy, when the peace of God
keeps your mind, you're just on one steady level. You see
the young converts and bless their hearts, they're just rejoicing
and they're happy, but you're just right there. Next time you
see them, they're down and wondering and doubtful and fearful, but
you're right there. And what's going on? The Lord
has blessed you. He's keeping you. The Lord keep
you. The Lord keep you. The Lord keep
us when we're here worshiping. The Lord keep us when we leave
here and go to our homes. The Lord keep us when we're on
our jobs. The Lord keeps us when we're
on vacation. The Lord bless us and keep us. Look at the second blessing he
pronounces in verse 25. The Lord make his face to shine
upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. We often, especially preachers,
we often say this to each other. I wonder how much we know about
even what this means. The Lord make his face to shine
upon thee. You know what this means. You
ever wonder about what this means, the Lord makes his face to shine
upon you? You know what that means? That
means he opens up your heart, your dark heart, and he shines
the gospel of his grace into it. That's what that means. We know that from the New Testament.
God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness. Remember
that when the earth lay void, darkness was upon the face of
the deep. Such darkness that you could
feel it. He was so thick. But God said,
let there be light. And there was light. Paul says,
there's the gospel. God who commanded the light to
shine out in the beginning. He shines, word, in your heart,
in your dark heart, to give the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God, word, in the face, in the face of Jesus Christ. You remember it well, don't you?
You just think back to it. I've been on the way for quite
some time. I haven't forgot the darkness that I was in. Oh, it
was dark there. It was so dark I couldn't see.
I really basically had just sat down. I had been feeling my way
trying to get out of the darkness. I couldn't. The darkness was
too thick. Remember that? Oh, you're here this morning,
dear soul, and you're lost. I know where you're at. You're
in darkness. You don't even see yourself.
You don't see the way of salvation. You don't see the necessity of
salvation. You don't even know who God saved
or how He saved or why He saved. This darkness has blinded your
mind. And you know what you need? For
the Lord to bless you. Lord, bless me. And what does
he do? He sends this light. Those who
sat in darkness saw a great light. And boy, when you see a light,
you say, man, how great that is. How great that is. The Lord calls His face to shine
upon thee. It's been a cloudy spring up
on. Somebody just mentioned a few minutes ago, said, I've been
watching the weather. Brother David said, I've been watching
the weather in Indiana. He said, boy, it's going to be
a cloudy, wet spring up there, ain't it? It has. It has. And you know I hate that. Boy,
I get to feeling so depressed. We went through a bad winter,
just snowed, and it was cold, and it never did warm up. Every
day these old clouds and it raining. You know the sun's there. It
just ain't shining through the clouds. Oh, Lord, ain't that the way
we are? Even as believers, our days get so cloudy. And here's
the blessing. Oh, Lord, cause Your face to
shine. Shine in my heart. Dispel this
mist. Burn this fog away. And let me
see Christ, my Savior. Let me see His face. And oh,
what a thrill to see His face. I heard Brother Scott Richardson
standing right in this pulpit. One of the first times I ever
heard him preach, and he preached out of Revelations 22, they shall
see His face. And if it's wondrous, if it's
a blessing to see His face here in His gospel, how much more
will it be to see His face? Oh, the Lord bless you. calls
His face, makes His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto
you. And in verse 26, here's the third
one, look at this, the Lord lift up the light of His countenance
upon thee and give thee peace. His countenance, now what's that
about? What's it meant by countenance anyway? Well, countenance, when you see
somebody's countenance, it really tells you how they feel about
you at that moment. Have you ever went into a church
and you haven't seen some folks for a while, and they look at
you and turn away, then they do a double take, and their face
lights up, and they smile? What does that do to you? What
does that tell you? Oh, my, he loves me. Oh, He hasn't forgotten me. Look
at His face. Look at His countenance. That's
what it is. What is this countenance the
Lord making to rise upon you? It's His favor. When He lets
you know that you have obtained favor in His eyes. Old Jacob saw Laban's face. Laban
was so mad at him. And he went home and told his
wife, he said, Well, we're in trouble. How do you know he's
manicured? Did he say anything? No, he didn't have to. I saw
his countenance. I saw his countenance. That tells
everything, doesn't it? Listen to what David said. They'd
gotten off the land of possession by their own sword. Neither did
their own arms save them, but your right hand saved them. Thine arms saved them, and the
light of thy countenance, the cause, Thou hast a favor unto
them. That's what the countenance shows,
a favor. What would it mean, dear soul,
this morning, if you could leave here? I mean, you saw God's frowning
face. You saw His countenance. And
it's made you afraid. What would it mean if you left
here this morning? And his countenance was shining.
And you can leave here knowing without a shadow of a doubt,
because he showed you that he wasn't angry with you anymore. That you have obtained favor
in his sight. Wouldn't that be a blessing?
See what he said? The Lord blessed you. The Lord
showed you that you obtained favor with Him. All your sins
are forgiven. All guilt is gone. All judgment. All wrath. Look at His face. See His face. I can't reveal
His face to you. I can't reveal His countenance
to you. I long to see it myself. He has to do that. But He can. I want you to look. I want you
to hold my text, but I want you to look right quickly in Psalms
42, just for a minute. We go to the nursing home, Hal
for years. Many of the folks there at the
church, the congregation go with us. There's a lady there. She's been
there for the last three or four times we've been there. And while I was preaching about
three months ago or so, I saw her. I noticed she pushed her
wheelchair out in the hallway there before she could hear me.
And she was talking with one of the ladies in the church after
the service. And the lady come and told me,
she said, I've never seen a lady in such a sad state of mind.
And a couple of days later or so, I went back and talked to
her. She said, nobody knows how bad
I am. She said, nobody knows what I've
done. I'm only against people, but against God. And I've never
in my life seen anybody's countenance so fallen. Her eyes were bloodshot,
her lips were quivering, eyes, tears, filled her eyes running
down her cheeks. I sat for quite some time and
tried to explain unto her the way God saves sinners, and how
pitiful and how condescending and how willing our Lord Jesus
Christ was to never turn a want away that comes to Him. But the devil has so convinced
that woman that she is so bad, that she has so sinned against
God, that now He won't save her. And I said, Are you praying?
Are you seeking Him? And she said, Not anymore. You know what she needs? There
is but one thing that will do that poor woman any good. for
God and Jesus Christ to let her know that He's not angry with
her anymore. For the mere sake of His dear
and darling son, she has obtained favor in His sight. But to convince her of that,
He's going to have to break through all of the darkness of her mind.
Her soul is the stronghold of Satan himself, and only the Lord
can bless her and prove it to her that he's sacred. David was in trouble here in
Psalms chapter 42. Look at it in verse 3. My tears have been my meat day
and night. they continually saying to me,
where is your God? If you have a God, where is He?
Why ain't He happy? Why is He forsaken? Look here in verse 6. Oh my God, my soul is cast down
within me, therefore will I remember Thee from the land of Jordan.
Look in verse 7. Call upon the at the noise of
thy waterspouts. All thy waves and thy billows
have gone over me. Look in verse 9. I say unto God,
my rock, why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning because
of the oppression of the enemy? As with a sword in my bones,
my enemies reproach me, for they say, Dalien, to me, where is
thy God? David found one help and one
hope. Look in verse 6. Look in verse 5. Why art thou
cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within
me? Hold thou in God, for I shall
yet praise him for the help of his countenance. David had lost the sense of the
Lord's favor. Don't we do that sometimes? We
go grope and we get depressed. Why? He's hit his countenance. His countenance is not rising
upon us. What does he need to do? He needs
to bless us. And when his countenance rises
upon us, look what happens in verse 11. Why art thou cast down,
O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him who is the help
of my countenance and my God." He's not only the help, but He's
the help. I tell you, if I went down there
to see that woman next week, and the Lord had caused His countenance
to rise upon her, I'd see it in her countenance. His show has done it. Moses was speaking for the world,
I think, in Psalms chapter 90. Don't turn there, but I think
he was speaking for the world. Listen to what he said. We are
consumed by thine anger, by your wrath with trouble. You have
set our sins before thee, our secret sins, in the light of
your countenance. All our days are passed away
in wrath. We spend our years as a tale
told." I tell you, God's countenance
can cause a man to rejoice and give him peace. Our God's countenance
will be the most tormenting thing anybody ever sees. Why would
men cry for rocks and mountains to fall on them? I've never heard
of such a thing. Have you? That's silly. Mountains fall on me. Rocks crush
me. Hide me. From what? His face. But get this, the face of the
Lamb. Why, that's the face you and
I want to see, is it not? Because here, when the face of
Jesus Christ rises upon us now, it shows us favor, it shows us
grace and mercy and salvation and delight. You won't be so
young for the wicked and for the unbelievers. It's almost unimaginable that
the Lamb of God, who is so tender, who is so meek and lowly in His
heart, so gentle, that He could turn and show the wrath of His
anger. The wrath of the Lamb has come. How do you know? Look at His
face. Look at His face. The whole Lord bless us. Bless
us. Cause your countenance to rise
upon us. Show us your faith. Look in verse 27 right quickly.
I'm almost finished. Numbers chapter 6, and look quickly
in verse 27. This is an amazing thing. In
verse 27, And they shall put my name upon the children of
Israel, and I will bless them. They shall put my name. They
shall put my name upon them, and I will bless them. Ain't that amazing? Because my
name is upon them. They're blessed. Mindy Mayhap. She's always been
Mindy, but she ain't always been Mindy Mayhap. When did she become
Mindy Mayhap? when Paul may have put his name
on her. I don't know how many doors that's
open for you, Mindy. I have no idea. You can tell us sometime when
we have time to go into it. Don't know how much you've gained
from that financially or whatever. I don't know. I know what my
wife says about this. But it's not so when the Lord
puts his name on her. Whatever was yours became hers.
I know that much. You identify with her now. She
identifies with you, Paul, because her name is on you. Whatever
is yours is hers. You can't even consider yourself,
can you, apart from her? Because her name is upon you.
Your name is upon her. That's a wonderful thought, isn't
it? The Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, the triune God,
never considers Himself apart from His church. He refuses to
be called full without her. She is the fullness of Him that
filleth all in all. Everything that is His is now
hers because His name is upon her. The Lord our Righteousness. Oh,
that's a beautiful phrase. That's our Master. No, that's
His bride. This is the name for which she
shall be called. The Lord our Righteousness. If His name is the Lord our Righteousness
and He puts His name upon her, then her name is the same as
His. What great love the Father has
bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of That's
His name. And it's upon us. And everything
that belongs to Him belongs to us. Heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ. Oh, the Lord put His name on
you. The Lord put His name on you. Two more things. You find this
twice here in verse 23 and verse 27. Who are these blessings for? Look in verse 23. Speaking to
Aaron and to his sons, saying, On this wise you shall bless,
who? The Moabites. The Ammonites. The Canaanites. No. Let's be
honest about this now. Let's read our Bibles and confront
the facts. And who are these blessings to?
The covenant people. The children of Israel. I will make your name great.
That's what the Lord told Abraham. I'm going to bless you as the
stars of heaven. For your sake, I'm going to bless
your descendants. And here they are. And what does
he do? He pronounces his blessing on
them. He's blessed the name for everybody.
I'm just sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm not
here to offend anybody. I'm not here to argue. But I'm
just here to be honest when I read God's Word. Say to the children
of Israel, the Lord bless thee. Abraham's seed. And if you're
Christ, then are you Abraham's seed. If you're a believer in
the Lord Jesus Christ, you're a child of Abraham. And you're
blessed. Everybody ain't blessed with
these blessings. Wouldn't it be silly if I wrote my wife a
letter? I was gone for a few days. And I wrote her a letter
and said, my dearest darling. And she started running around
all over the neighborhood, gathering all the women up. We got a letter. We've got a letter coming, let's
read it. And here they come, little ones
and big ones, old and young ones, all the women in the neighborhood. And she sits down and reads it.
My dearest darling. Now, wife, wait a minute. Wait
a minute. Read on. My dearest darling,
Joe, that's with a J-O, or J-O-E now. My dearest old man, Joe. Does
that tell who I'm writing to? And yet, isn't this sad? All
out in the society. Isn't it sad that when people
read the Bible, they say it's for everybody?
They open their Bible to the epistles, to you that be it known,
beloved of God, called to be saints. No. Are you in Christ? Are you in Jesus Christ this
morning? Have you found yourself accepted in Him? Then these are
blessings to you. But don't make them to everybody.
It's in Christ. It's in Christ. Lastly, and I'll close on this,
who pronounced these blessings? Not even Moses pronounced this
blessing, did he? The Lord was very, very careful
who he let pronounce these blessings on the children of Israel. He
said, you tell Aaron. and his servants." Who were they?
The high priest? The blessing comes from the mouth
of the high priest. That tells us something, doesn't
it? That tells us that every blessing
that God has for us is not only through the Lord Jesus Christ,
our high priest, but they're pronounced upon us by Him. The words that I speak unto you,
I don't speak of myself. I don't come making these words
up just because I love you. My Father, He's the one that's
speaking these words through me. Brother Donnie reminded me
this morning, when the Lord took His disciples out on the Mount
of Olives just before He ascended to heaven, remember what He did?
He lifted up His hands. Can't you see, Aaron? as he came
out of the holiest of holies, making the atonement for the
children of Israel. And there they are in the big
circles around the tabernacle. And he comes out and he lifts
those holy hands up and he says, God bless you and keep you. And he pronounces all these blessings. And here, 2,500 years or so later,
is Jesus Christ, God's high priest, standing on the Mount of Olives,
holding his hands over his disciples, and what does the Bible say he's
doing? He's blessing them. And while he blessed them, he
was taken up in heaven. And you know what he's still
doing now? He's still blessing them. God sent His Son to bless
you. God's rich in His blessings,
and they come through His Son. Boy, you wait until the last
day, when the nations have been assembled, and the skies roll
back, and everybody stands before the throne of the Son of God
in His presence and at His feet, and listen to Him speak. Come,
ye blessed of my Father. There it is. My Father has sent me to bless
you. And you're blessed, and nobody
can reverse it. So come, ye blessed of my Father,
and hurry the kingdom prepared for you. The Lord bless you.