Turn to Numbers chapter 17. And I hope you do not have stuck
in your mind the song Tomorrow Tomorrow. Numbers chapter 17. It is fairly short. Let me read
the chapter. But before I do, remember what
has just taken place. At least, there was more than
this. It's a plus number. But there
are at least 14,953 people God has just killed. Some
in a pit, some by fire, and some by plague. 14,953 plus. This is what's just
happened. Now we move on in chapter 17. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel, and take every one of them a
rod according to the house of their fathers, of all their princes
according to the house of their fathers, 12 rods, write thou
every man's name upon his rod." So 12 rods and the head of each
tribe wrote his name, engraved his name in some way upon this,
what we will see as an almond rod. It's just, Mason, I guess
just an almond stick. That's what it was, almond rod.
And thou shalt write Aaron's name upon the rod of Levi. For
one rod shall be for the head of the house of their fathers,
and thou shalt lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation
before the testimony, this is the Ark of the Covenant, this
is in the Holy of Holies, where I will meet with you. Later we
will read that the almond rod of Aaron was put inside the Ark
of the Covenant under the mercy seat, with the pot of manna and
with the tables of stone that had the unbroken Ten Commandments. Broken by being, yes, but unbroken
because they had been rewritten again and the whole law Not just
W-H-O-L-E, but whole, in the sense of kept, is placed in there
with this rod. But anyway, let me move up. They
shall lay them up, verse four, up in the tabernacle of the congregation
before the testimony where I will meet with you. And it shall come
to pass that the man's rod, whom I shall choose, shall blossom. And I will make to cease from
me the murmurings of the children of Israel, whereby they murmur
against you. Moses spake unto the children
of Israel, and every one of their princes gave him a rod apiece,
for each prince won according to their father's houses, even
12 rods, and the rod of Aaron was among their rods. Remember,
they each have Aaron or Reuben, or not Reuben, but the tribe
of Reuben, whoever the prince was, the top man in that tribe,
his name was engraved on that rod. Verse seven. And Moses laid
up the rods before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness. This
is another way of saying the holy of holies, where the ark
of the covenant is at. That's where God met with the
people of Israel. And it came to pass that on the
morrow, Moses went into the tabernacle of witness. And behold, the rod
of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded and brought forth
buds. Now that's one thing. But remember,
this is also just overnight. This is just overnight. It budded
and brought forth buds and bloomed blossoms and yielded almonds. Just like that overnight. This
one stick had all of this life manifested in it, did it not?
All this life manifested. Verse nine, Moses brought out
all the rods from before the Lord unto the children of Israel,
and they looked and took every man his rod. And I can only imagine
what that was like. Them 12, 11 guys were handed
back their rod, and it's just another stick. It's the same
old stick that they gave Moses to start with. And they're probably
sitting there, look at that. Don't you think people, hey,
guess what I see? Did you see, well I didn't see,
what was, Moses, I mean Aaron's rod, it budded, it blossomed,
it had full grown almonds on it. Don't you think people were
doing that? Again, verse nine, and Moses
brought out all the rods from before the Lord unto the children
of Israel, and they looked and took every man his rod. The Lord said unto Moses, bring
Aaron's rod again before the testimony to be kept for a token
against the rebels. Do you see that? And thou shalt
quit, take away their murmurings from me that they die not. This is a merciful thing. Do
you hear me this is a merciful statement Now God's done told
him everybody. What is it 20 plus in the wilderness? You're going to die He's just
killed 14,000 953 plus and he says you see this Take it up
there and put it before me in this special place that they
die not I Look at what it says, and Moses did so, as the Lord
commanded him, so he did. So did he. You would think that
the congregation of Israel, after all they've just been through,
would say, thanks be unto God. Wouldn't ya? Wouldn't ya? Now look, and the
children of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, behold, we die.
We perish. We all perish. Folks, that's
unbelief. You see it? Now, yeah, they can
say, well, God said we're gonna die. God said that they die not. God is not contradicting himself.
But God is manifesting the rebellion of the unregenerate heart. We
all perish. Whosoever cometh anything near
unto the tabernacle of the Lord shall die. Shall we be consumed
with dying? this religious world. And I'm
sure some of you have probably heard this from some, maybe even
on TV, that the coronavirus is the judgment of God. And I would
have to say I agree with that. Some are, not all, but some are,
that this is the judgment of God. And then they begin to talk
as though God, may it be that God uses this to bring men and
women to seek him. And I'm just telling you, it
ain't so. It ain't so. Any seeking that
men and women have been moved to do because of this present
virus has driven them right back into their previous idolatry
to which they hailed to start with. God does not convert by
calamity. He converts by the preaching
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If a calamity can convert you
today, another calamity can drive you away tomorrow. And yet this
religious world is eat up. Well, if God just did things
now like he did back then, men would be different. No men would
not. Look what these people had presented
to them on a daily basis. Manna. Six days a week Mason
is on the ground. Their clothes are not wearing
out under their feet. God meets with them on a mountain
and they see it. God meets with them at the tent
of meeting and they see the cloud. God has brought them through
the Red Sea. And yet now, just a few days
earlier, he's killed 14,953 plus. And all they can think about
is the death. You know why? Because really
by nature, we know we deserve to die. We know we deserve to
die. So again, human depravity is
so deep. It is so total. Human depravity
is so enslaving that mankind cannot recover themselves from
the fall's grip, no matter what. If God only does something for
me out here, God has never done anything for me in here. in here. God must begin the work in here
before anything out here will be of any spiritual value to
me. As a matter of fact, if God only
does things out here and does not do something in here, it
will only drive me to further rebellion against God. Now, God manifests a great miracle,
establishing the messianic preeminence of Christ, the high priest in
a symbol. And we read it, verses six, seven,
and eight. Here is this rod. Lay them all
12 up. And nobody was going into that
room. 14,953 plus of them just died. In the end, you see, they
said, whoever even goes near that place is a dead man. And
yet, Moses brings out these 12 rods, and here's one that had
Aaron's name inscribed on it, and it's plumbed full of life. Plumbed full of life. And all
the people can think about, though, is what? Death. Death. Death. God has established
his messianic preeminence. My high priest will be honored. or else. You hear me? My high priest will be honored
or else. And this miracle could not be
refuted. It could not be negated by any
complaint. And he says this clearly in verse
five. And it shall come to pass that the man's rod whom I shall
choose and as soon as God or anyone else ever talks about
God choosing the human mind in its unregenerate state begins
to turn off. turn off toward God and turn
on toward self. As I said last week, men don't
mind election as long as God chose me for something I am. They love election if you brag
about them and say you deserve to be chosen. As I said last
week, there's only one man that ever deserved to be chosen, that's
Jesus Christ the man. Jesus Christ, and it shall come
to pass that the man's rod, whom I shall choose, shall blossom,
and I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the children
of Israel, whereby they murmur against you. And when I read
that, I thought, what? Mason, I've read the whole book.
I've read the whole book more than once. My mind kind of went
into a tailspin. Did yours? Did yours? It declared life to the people.
Verse 10. And the Lord said unto Moses,
bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony to be kept for
a token against the rebels. That's true, but look, but look
what it says. And thou shalt quit, take away
their murmurings from me that they die not. And did the people rejoice in
this? No. No. Man is so depraved. Somebody said, preacher, I get
tired of hearing you say that. Then just quit listening. You hear what I just said? Then
just quit listening. Because by God's grace, I'm going to
keep saying this until the day I die and he takes the last breath
from me. We had one individual here, her
husband didn't like to hear preachers because they talked about sin.
You'll go to hell then. Did you hear what I just said?
You'll go to hell then because God tells us what we really are.
This book is full from Genesis about chapter, what is it, three?
All the way to Revelation, what is it, chapter 22? Only a couple
chapters left out, Joe. That's Genesis one and two, where
goodness is talked about. And once you hit chapter three,
there is nothing but human depravity all the way to the end of the
book. Man is so depraved that he points
a finger at God, even now, and supposes God must have failed,
rather than men and women are corrupt. And that's what my evil
mind I told you about was doing that dreaming last night. That's
what my mind was thinking when I read that right there. Did God fail? When you read it, you think,
wait a minute now. They belly ached. Chapter 18, chapter 19,
well, maybe not 18. They belly ached and the belly
ached. God sent fiery serpent, belly ached, the belly ached.
This didn't stop it, did it? Hold on, hold on. No, it did
not in the rebels. No, it did not in the rebels.
Now, let me try to explain to you this. You see, God, listen
to me, God has never failed. God has never failed. Fallen
man always does. That's what this is all about. And I've got scripture for that.
This ain't my opinion because I'm a free grace man. Turn to
Romans chapter 3. Listen to what Paul says. Romans three, what advantage
then hath the Jew? In other words, in chapter one
he proved Jews and Gentiles are sinful. That's what he showed. And he goes on to say that down
here in verse nine, we've proved before. He means in chapter one,
chapter two, what we call chapter one, chapter two, they're all
under sin. But then, of course, since they're all sinners, what
advantage then hath the Jew? Is there any advantage to being
a Jew? Or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way. But he said, but chiefly, chiefly,
I want to deal with this one main thing. But chiefly, because
that unto them were committed the oracles of God. And what
is that? That's not some mystical, spooky
thing you see floating around in some movie. That's this right
here. And at that time, it was mainly
the Old Testament. Look. For what if some did not
believe? Shall their unbelief make the
faith, and some say you could actually translate that faithfulness,
and it's okay, but faith is faithful. That's why it's called faith.
That's like calling water wet. Wet water's wet. Sure it is,
it's water. When it ceases to be wet, it's usually probably
ice, or it's gold. For what if some did not believe?
Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
God forbid. And then he comes up with this
good zinger. Yea, let God be true, but every
man a liar. Why? Because God's gonna be justified
when God speaks. And what God meant by this and
meant to prove by this actually came to pass. And the children
of Israel spake unto Moses, saying, Behold, we die, we perish, we
all perish. Poor, pitiful us. It's a pity
party. This ain't a repentant confession.
It's a pity party. And they've just seen 14,953
plus of their loved ones slaughtered. Do you hear what I said? Slaughtered
by God. Is that true or not? God slaughtered these people. Ah, but it's more than just that.
Let me show you this one. Romans chapter nine. Of course,
you knew I had to go there. I'm stuck on Romans nine. Romans
nine, just one verse. Verse six, not as though the
word of God hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel. This thing proved the rebels
to be what? Rebels. Couldn't quit, can't
stop, belly aching rebels. And men like Joshua and Caleb
said, this is God's doing. We best bow down to God. Even
if I have to march with these rebels for 40 years in this wilderness,
right? Joshua and Caleb, you find nowhere
in this book that they say to Moses, well, let's just, let's
do it. You see, only one almond rod
has life. And only one almond rod ever
has life. And that's the rod of Aaron,
the high priest. It wasn't even Levi that was
wrote on it. Right? It wasn't even Levi. It was A-A-R-O-N. That's the high priest. And men
either bow to God's high priest, or they are in rebellion against
God's high priest, and that is Jesus Christ the Lord, and there
is no gray areas. Only one almond rod has life,
yet fallen humanity is so corrupt, so self-centered, so self-righteous,
and so self-willed that they will not bow down to God's Christ. And that's what the exact same
thing Paul said about the people he cared about, the people he
wanted to see God save. He says it in Romans 10, one
through four. He says they have a zeal of God, I bear them record.
They're zealous, they're religious folk, and I bear record to the
folk around me. They're religious folk. All of
us love God, don't you know? But we will not submit ourselves
to God's righteousness. To submit means to what? Bow
down. You submit to someone that is
superior to you. And men do not want to confess. Yea, they cannot confess with
no fiber of their being if they are unregenerate. They cannot
confess that Jesus Christ, a man, is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. But one day all men will. And one day all women will. They will bow to Jesus Christ. Not just to God. but to Jesus
Christ, not just to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And
note he's not called the God of Abraham and Ishmael, though
he was the God over Ishmael. But he is called the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. But remember that when Peter,
remember he said some guys there, and I think he was blind, I think
it's what he had, he wanted to receive his sight, something,
he wanted money. That's what it was, he wanted
money, he was begging at the temple. And Peter said, silver
and gold have I none, but such as I do have it, have I such
give unto thee, what, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Now had he said, I give this
to you, what I do have, I want to give this to you in the name
of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, those Jews wouldn't
have had a problem with any of that. No, would they? But because
he said in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, that set
them on edge. Because Jesus Christ, men know
he was a man. Josephus, an unbelieving Jew,
a confessed unbelieving Jew, testifies that Jesus of Nazareth
really walked on this earth. And I'm telling everyone here
and everyone who ever hears me, if they ever hear me again, that
Jesus Christ of Nazareth is God Almighty, manifest in the flesh,
and you will bow to his authority, and life will come from him,
or you don't have life. And this is a sad note. Either
he will give you life so that you could hear the gospel, or
you will never hear the gospel. And it's only in that order.
It's only that order. God Almighty will give you life
by sovereign fiat, not by the preaching of the gospel. Because
it's the preaching of the gospels, the one thing, by nature, we
cannot believe and hold to. And there are those who mock
me and others who teach that. And there are others who think
that maybe I've abandoned that. You can't win for losing. You
can't win for losing. But let me tell you, the almond
tree, the almond rod, there's only one almond rod that has
life and that life will come from Him, Jesus Christ. But that life will go back to
its source. Jesus Christ. God don't give
you life just for heaven's sake. He gives you life so that you
will bow in submission to Jesus Christ the Lord under the preaching
of the gospel of that same Jesus Christ the Lord. You see, when
life intrinsic is preached to fallen men and women, if submission
to Christ is clearly included, they revolt. Now don't they? If submission is included, they
revolt. We revolt by nature. Rebels indeed. Rebels indeed. Men's total depravity
is most clearly seen not in their immoral acts. Do not misunderstand
me. I am not saying that man's immorality
does not show his depravity. I am not saying that. But I am
saying this. I've never had a drunk tell me
my drunkenness will get me the glory. You ever had one do that? I've never had, now I ain't sayin'
there ain't one out there somewhere that might be so drunk he thinks
his drunkenness gonna get him to glory. Do you know any old
whore that tells you, well my whorin's gonna get me into God's
presence? Huh? I don't know, I've never met
one yet, Mac, have you? But I've met many a righteous
man that thought his righteousness gonna get him to glory. Hmm? So don't misunderstand what I'm
saying here, but I do want you to understand what I'm saying
here. Man's total depravity is most clearly seen, not in their
immoral acts, but in their self-willed revolt against the superiority
and lordship of Jesus Christ, God's high priest. Give men and women a begging
weak Jesus, and they'll exude with pity for him and you both.
But one of these days I might just join up with you. Boy, ain't
he just a loving preacher, ain't he? He just loves, loves, yeah,
he loves chocolate milk. And if you think somebody's great
because they love you like they love chocolate milk, you are
in la-la land in your mind. Again, I say give men and women
a begging weak Jesus and they'll exude with pity for Jesus and
for you But if you press upon men and women the claims of King
Jesus, they will revolt apart from the grace of God They will
revolt That's what a rebel does turn on your TV and look at it.
I I'm not gonna get into politics, but you turn on your TV and you
look at it. Our country is full of men and women who are revolting
against King Jesus. Because King Jesus put those
who are in authority in authority. And to revolt against those God
has established is to revolt against God's high priest. Go
back and read Numbers chapter one through chapter 17. Well,
we're not rebelling against Moses and Aaron. Yes, you are. But in rebelling against them,
you are rebelling against God. I will conclude with these three
points. There's only one miracle that God's ever used to convert
a rebel. Only one miracle. That's Christ Jesus preached.
And you say, that's not a miracle. I'll beg your pardon. No, I don't
beg your pardon. Turn to Matthew chapter 11. This
is not my opinion. You hold the gospel of Christ
and Christ's personal work in way too high regard. No, I do
not hold it in high enough regard. I don't hold it in high enough
regard. Look at what it says, Matthew 11. Again I say, the
only miracle God ever uses to convert a rebel is Christ Jesus
preached. And it came to pass, when Jesus
had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed
thence to teach and to preach in their cities. Now when John
had heard in the prison the works of Christ, that is, not Christ's
works in the prison, but John was in prison and he heard about
the works of Christ, because that's where John was now, John
the Baptist, he sent two of his disciples and said unto him,
art thou he that should come or do we look for another? And
I'm not here to talk about that. Jesus, excuse me, Jesus answered
and said unto them, go and show John again those things which
you do hear and see. So this is firsthand account,
right? First hand account, you go tell
them what you hear and what you see. The blind receive their
sight. Now if I seen a man do that,
Mason, I'd say that's a miracle. If I really seen that. That blind
man you talked about, blind man you talked about. That's a miracle,
right? The blind receive their sight.
And the lame walk. If I could do that, it wouldn't
one of my loved ones ever be lame. People I care about, if
I had that power, Ellen, wouldn't none of you have to worry about
ever getting hauled up? That's a miracle, is it not?
The lame walk, the lepers, lepers are cleansed. Cleansed! And the deaf hear, oh here's
one. And the dead are raised up. Now you know the common the common
out most religious hucksters use. Well, I've got the power
to heal. I can do these. I can give people their sight. I can make people walk or lame.
I can cleanse lepers and the deaf, but they gotta have the
faith. Well, a dead man got no faith. Now we might say, okay,
here's a blind man and he has faith to be healed by Christ.
Ain't nothing wrong with that. The scripture talks about cases
like that. where people believe and they
receive their sight. A dead man got none of that.
Do you see? This shows us that God works
in many different avenues. You see what I'm saying? And
the dead are raised up. That's a miracle, is it not?
That's a miracle. If you seen that going on every
day today, you would be in awe and so would I too, right? But look at the last one. and
the poor have the gospel preached unto them. Do you understand
what a miracle it is for this piece of clay pot, this fallen
sinner, to be standing, and you've already had two others before
me, to stand before you and declare the glories of God in Christ?
You've heard more gospel in these past two and a half hours than
most people get to hear in a lifetime. A miracle! And the poor have
the gospel preached unto them. And then look at the next one.
And blessed is he whosoever was dead and now lives. Is that what
he says? No. Blessed is he who is blind and
now has sight. That is a blessing. Now don't get me wrong. But here's
his crescendo. What's his crescendo? Blessed
is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. Has God bowed you down to his
high priest? All the other stuff, Jack Mattis,
don't matter. I can sweat that. Huh? I can
sweat that. If I lose, listen, I don't want
to lose my sight. Lord knows I'm not trying to tempt God.
But if I lose my sight, that's not the end of everything. You
understand that? Folks, if God kills me today,
that ain't the end of everything. That's just the beginning of
the real. All these people are professed
to be Christians and a loved one who dies who professed to
be Christians and they're tore all to pieces about it. Now I
understand when you love somebody you grieve. I'm not saying you
don't grieve, but all of our grief must be for us. It can't
be for them if we really believe God. And that's why I don't want
you to sorrow as others are, that have no hope. You're gonna
sorrow, but if you gotta have it for yourself, because God
left you here. He took them on out of this mess.
They're done with it. And I say, give men and women
a begging, weak, sissified Jesus, and boy, they just love him.
And they'll love you too. because every man likes to think
he's got God Almighty over a barrel. And the preachers in this day
and age, men and women preachers, have made it so. It's the kind
of weak, effeminate God they preach. But I tell you this,
you press upon men and women the claims of King Jesus, only
one of two things will happen. They will bow down in the dust
and adore him, or they will revolt. They will revolt. Can I say,
the only miracle God ever uses to convert a rebel is Jesus Christ
preached. He may use a virus to set you
down and shut you up. But he only uses that so while
you're shut up, he'll send somebody to preach you the gospel. Second
Corinthians 10, one through six, I'm not gonna read it, but it
says that God, Paul puts it this way. God Almighty's gonna conquer
you. If you're to be saved at all.
He gonna knock down your castle walls. He gonna march you in
as King Jesus. And he gonna put his foot on
your neck and bow you down. And then he'll take his foot
off, and you know what? You'll stay right there. Willingly,
lovingly, knowingly. And Jack Meadows, you'll get
a hold of his feet and say, please don't leave, King Jesus. Please
don't leave. You ever been conquered? That's
what I want to know. I'm asking if you believe in, predestination,
election, total depravity. I mean, if you don't believe
in total depravity, you're in la-la land. You're under some spiritual
deception, but I'm asking you, have you ever been conquered
by King Jesus? Listen to this song. This song,
we just sang it. Some who were with us maybe live
streaming, maybe heard us sing it. Maybe sang along with us,
I hope they did. But you're not gonna hear this song sung in
most so-called churches today, are ya? That is 307 in this old
school hymnal. Thy way, not mine, O Lord, however
dark it be. O lead me by thy own right hand,
choose thou the path for me. Smooth let it be, or rough, it
still will be the best. Winding or straight, it matters
not, it leads me to thy rest. I dare not choose my lot, I would
not if I might, but choose thou for me, O my Lord, so shall I
walk aright. The kingdom that I seek is thine,
so let the way that leads to it, O Lord, be thine, else I
must surely stray. Not mine, not mine, the choice. If things be great or small,
be thou my guide, my guard, my strength, my wisdom, and my all. Not everybody's like that, are
they? And the old nature in me ain't like that. But I thank
God there is a part of me that loves that. That loves that. Mason, would you?