Now, turn to my text, which is
Numbers chapter 7. As most of you are already aware,
I gave you a very lengthy text to read for this Sunday morning.
Numbers chapter 7, verses 1 all the way through chapter 10, verse
36. Aren't you glad I'm not going
to read that before I preach? Again, I welcome those who may
be with us on the live cast. Numbers begins and the Lord spake unto Moses. It begins with this phrase, not
necessarily right in the first verse, but as a matter of fact,
it may. Yeah, and the Lord spake unto Moses and the wilderness
did. Numbers begins, chapter one, and the Lord spake unto
Moses. This phrase or something very similar to it. Chapter one,
it's mentioned twice. Chapter two, it's mentioned once.
Chapter three, it's mentioned six times. Chapter four, it's
mentioned three times. Chapter five, it's mentioned
three times. Chapter six, it's mentioned two
times for a total of 17, and forgive me if I missed one and
you find the 18th one. You can say the preacher was
wrong. I'll tell it next week. I'll put it on there. So and
so proved the preacher was wrong. But now we read in our text,
and it came to pass. That's the first time this is
mentioned. It will be mentioned again. And it came to pass. Now if you are like me, and I
know we are all very alike in some respects, we read these
things and it's almost like filler. You know what I mean? Just some
style of writing. I hope I'm making a point where
I'm getting rather the point across. You see, the Spirit of
God moved Moses to write these very words. We're given all of
this history, chapter one, numbering, and all of this history to chapter
seven now, and we read, It came to pass something Taken back
there something's about to happen in this Something's coming down
the pike as we say and it came to pass Something is now happening
These people have been camped here for Around Sinai for around
two years give or take a few months two years We have come
through that it's been about that long for us But think about
it that one and only gospel is now about ready to break forth
and with particular typical detail. God is going to show us in these
next chapters that worship and walk, and I will then add, that's
my title, worship and walk, that's my subject, but I will add all
worship and all walk, if it be that which honors God, is centralized. Worship is. And it came to pass
on the day that Moses had fully set up the tabernacle, and had
anointed it, and sanctified it, and all the instruments thereof,
both the altar and all the vessels thereof, and had anointed them
and sanctified them, that the princes of Israel, heads of the
house of their fathers, who were the princes of the tribes, and
were over them that were numbered, offered And they brought their
offerings before the Lord. Worship was centralized. It was
not until the tabernacle was erected and sanctified. But not only that. Walk was also
centralized around her. Walk. Let me just read it. I'm gonna state that wrong. Chapter
10 and verse 11. Says these words and it came
to pass on the 20th day of the second month in the second year
that the cloud was taken up from off the tabernacle of the testimony
and the children of Israel took their journeys. They did not
move from Sinai, not one step, until first God moved in front
of them. That's it. So again, I say worship and walk
is centralized. The gospel of Christ cross work. Cross work is central to all
worship and all walks. Someone will say well preacher
isn't worship and walk separate no No No Salvation that is Justification
Reconciliation and peace is separate from walk That is you don't get
one by the other You're not justified Reconciled and have peace by
your walk But worship and walk go hand in hand. I will present
to you five observations from these chapters. Now there's much
more here, I understand that. There's much more than I have
time to deal with this morning, and there is much more than what
I am capable of dealing with this morning. Some men God has
given marvelous gift in looking at these symbols, these types
of these figures. do not have that. But first of
all, first of number of five things, Christ's cross work is
the central object. Chapter seven, verse 88, the
last phrase. Chapter seven, verse 88, last
phrase of the verse. This, all of this information
you've read in this quite long chapter, it's broken down for
us in what, 89 verses, right? That's a long one. Look at what
it says chapter 7 verse 88 this was the dedication of the altar
You see it the altar after that it was anointed First Corinthians
chapter 1 and verse 17 the Apostle Paul makes it quite clear Christ
didn't even send me to baptize. He was not against baptism But
Christ didn't send me to baptize, but to do what? To preach the
gospel. And if you look at the context,
he is clear as to what the gospel is. The crosswork. It is the crosswork of Jesus
Christ. I'm saying again and again, Christ's
crosswork is the central object. Galatians 6 verse 14 the Apostle
Paul makes it clear God forbid that I should glory Save in one
thing. What is it? One thing the cross
and he's not talking about that peace that Roman piece of wood
that piece of execution Roman execution they hung on he's talking
about his sufferings and that which he accomplished in his
sufferings on that Roman piece of wood, that piece of execution.
God forbid that I should glory save one place that is in the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. For by it, I'm crucified to the
world. And the world's crucified to
me. Think of it, Israel very greatly.
Look at chapter seven. You remember reading it? After
a while, your eyes gloss over. And it's prince after prince
after prince. And they offer the same thing. Did you read it? And after a
while, I thought, why didn't Moses just write, and so-and-so
a prince, and so-and-so a prince, and so-and-so a prince, name
all the princes, gave so-and-so, and so-and-so, and such and such?
Right? He'd have still said the same
thing. Right? Well, I guess the Bible had to
be so long, didn't it? It had to be so many words. No
God has a lesson here the people vary greatly Didn't it? Their numbers varied we seen
that in chapter 1 some of them very Mason greatly Some of them
had a lot of people some of them had smaller groups of people
there their numbers been varied The princes varied. Their service
varied. You can see that clearly in the
Levites, chapter 1, 47 through 58. And in our text, chapter
8, verses 5 through 26, the Levites were not numbered with the rest
of the people. And they were given specific
service. Now, everyone was to serve God,
right? But not everyone served God in
the tabernacle. So they varied greatly. They had different standards
or flags, if I could maybe simplify it. But I don't know what that
standard was. And I don't know if it's a flag
as we think of. It could have been a big piece of wood. I don't
know what it was. But there were standards. And each tribe had
its own standard. And you moved with your what?
When the tabernacle moved, when God moved, you moved. You didn't
say, well, I'm heading out now. You stayed with your standard.
With your group. And you moved with them according
to God's holy command. So Israel varied. The princes
varied. Their people under them varied. But the offering on the altar
was the same. Do you see that? And he goes
through each one in this redundancy to say this, if Jesus Christ
saves one sinner or a billion sinners, he's got to do and be
all that he did and all that he is. We're not all guilty of the same
sins overtly, are we? Some of us have more trouble
with some things than others have trouble with. Some of us
may not have trouble hardly at all with overt, outward things
of this type or that type, and others do. But Jesus Christ still
had to shed every drop of blood, Mac, that he did shed, no matter
what. no matter what. But the altar
was the central thing, was it not? The altar was the central
thing. Here's number two. There, that is at the altar,
the cross work, there the altar was dedicated and then and then
only did God speak. Did you note that? Chapter eight,
last part, this was the dedication of the altar After that, it was
anointed, and when Moses was gone into the tabernacle of the
congregation to speak with him, that is, to speak with God, not
the last prince that it mentioned, to speak with him, then he heard
the voice of one speaking unto him from off the mercy seat that
was upon the ark of the testimony from between the two cherubims,
and he spake unto him. But the altar had to be dedicated
what? First. My mind has trouble wrapping
itself around these things, because I would think, I would think
in my thinking, that the exaltation of Jesus Christ would be paramount,
right? God's very presence, isn't that
what the mercy seat was? That's where God was, inside
that inner holy of holies. And I would think, there is where
Jesus Christ is now, right? In the presence of God, seated
at the right hand of God. And don't misunderstand me, I'm
not saying that's not vital. His exaltation is vital. Men ought to preach about it,
because most are not. And we probably all ought to
preach or witness more of it. And Paul is clear in one epistle,
one letter. Yes, Jesus Christ has been given
a name, a high name, above every name. At the name of Jesus, every
tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is what? Lord to the glory
of God the Father. Correct? But what's that based
upon? His being obedient unto death. even the death of the cross,
wherefore God has highly exalted him. And if you don't see the
Christ of the cross, you ain't gonna ever see the exalted Lord
Jesus Christ. Again, I say there, the crosswork
dedicated. Then is when God spoke, and then
is when light comes. Then you have, of course, chapter
eight, see it? And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speaking
to Aaron, and saying to him, when thou lightest the lamps.
I'm not even gonna take time. Now you see the lamps mentioned,
right? Now, there was a, you read through these, what, seven,
eight, nine, seven, eight, nine, 10, right? It's four chapters.
There are a lot of things that are not mentioned. Right? Table
of showbread's not mentioned. I don't remember seeing that,
do you? They weren't mentioned. Well, what's mentioned? The altar's
mentioned. The lamps are mentioned. The
mercy seat's mentioned. And some trumpets are mentioned. But these things are mentioned
in a particular order. When God speaks, God gives light. You hear what I'm saying? God
must speak To give that light They got light light then and
then only is there light you know the passage But I want to
read it to you and make a comment or two and then move on 2nd Timothy
chapter 1 2nd Timothy chapter 1 The Apostle Paul writing to Timothy
speaking, it says this, verse 10, but is now made manifest. That is what? This eternal purpose
of God. This thing of where God actually
gave some people grace and mercy before the world began. But is
now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ,
who hath abolished death. I'm not gonna try to explain
that. Some here this morning, two weeks
ago, actually 15 days ago, witnessed death. Witnessed death. Death laid in
the home for a few hours before that death was removed out of
the home. But I believe God. And I believe
my Lord abolished death. No matter what I see with these,
Mason. Now, I could go on and give you some theological thing,
but did he abolish death or not? He abolished death, did he not?
Who hath abolished, abolished. That's the word he uses. Yet
we see it all around us, right? But he abolished it. Abolish
death and hath brought life. and immortality to light through
the gospel. Now life and immortality must
come from him directly who is life and who is immortality. But he never manifests that life
and that immortality apart from the gospel. The life and immortality
must come first. but you ain't ever gonna know
it's there until the gospel's there with it. And that's just
a fact. Well, so-and-so just has, they
seem so interested. It don't mean squat, so is Simon
the sorcerer. He was very interested. He was
more faithful than many who've made professions here. Hadn't
it been for Peter coming along, stirring up the pot, he would've
hung around for a long time. Peter showed up and throwed a
monkey wrench in the whole nine yards. Now did he not? I'm telling you the life and
immortality comes from God only. It don't come from gospel preaching.
Can I make it any more clearer? But it ain't never made manifest
until the gospel's preached. So don't come to me, oh I believe
so and so regenerated for years and he finally heard the gospel.
You've got no reason to believe that. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God Then you could say life and immortality
is there and it may have been there for a hundred years. I
don't know That's God's business. Is it not when do we know? Did
God do this gospel thing for his benefit? No, that's for the
person. He's doing it to benefit and
others who are around that get to see it and I'm just saying,
folks, that the preaching of Jesus Christ is central to all
worship and walk. And if you go down one path,
it might be a true path, but if you leave the crosswork of
Christ preached, you've left the truth. You'll end up down
here in La La Land somewhere thinking, well, God's got thousands
of elect, never hear the gospel, just wake up in heaven one day.
And it don't work that day, that way. And you say, well, that
don't really happen. That does really happen. It's
sad, but it does really happen. Number four, move on. No, I can't
move on, I gotta give you. Here is where and when, yes,
I know it's centered around a who, but here's, it's gospel preaching.
See, I'm not Jesus Christ. This leather and paper is not
Jesus Christ. The ink that make up these words
is not Jesus Christ. But these words are Jesus Christ. Do you hear what I'm saying?
These words are Jesus Christ. Now, I could read this and the
Lord spake unto Moses, saying, that is just as much Jesus Christ
speaking as if someone would have had a cassette recorder,
or maybe a CD now would be more up to date, and had a recorder
and recorded his voice back, and I could play it for you here
this morning. Did you know that? It's no different. It's all the voice of a, it's
all what you're hearing is a medium, a means. And I get tickled to
this. People say, well, I don't have
to go to church to hear the gospel. I got stuff like this. I got
CDs, DVDs, I can look at it on my TV, I can hear it on my radio,
I can get on my phone. I could get on my phone right
now and watch preaching. I could get on my phone and watch
myself preaching right now. But if you know God, it ain't
the same. It ain't the same. Israel was
together in the wilderness, reprobate and elect. Israel was the same,
and together, and they were the same. A very real sense in which
they were all the same by nature. And Israel was the same, and
together, all the way through the 40 years of the wilderness.
Those who had nothing but unbelief, and those who had belief and
unbelief. You see it? You see, you don't
get to stay at Sinai. When they got to the promised
land, or at least the brink of it, right at the border of it,
and God sent them back into the wilderness for 40 years, the
really faithful didn't get to hang out for 40 years until everybody
else went through the trouble. Did they? If you're one of God's,
you will go through this journey with God's people, or you ain't
one of God's. Now I can say it no plainer than
that. Somebody says, what about? Stop
the what abouts. I don't have a place to go. Leave
town. Move somewhere else. Find another
job. Do you hear me? Christ said this, you lose your
life for my sake, you'll gain it. Now that's as true as Ephesians
chapter one verses three through six. And there's number three. I didn't even finish what I was
gonna say. Here is where and when worship begins and then
and then only can walk commence. It's when you see that building
right there, it's got an altar in it. Or not building, that
big fence, white fence around that thing. That thing's got
an altar in it and realize, The common everyday Israelite never
seen anything else but the white fence and that altar outside.
You remember that? And you generally, unless you
was up on a hill, you couldn't look down in it. If you was down
at it, Mason, that fence was pretty tall. You had to enter
in at the one gate. And the everyday common person
only seen what? The altar. They didn't get to
go on the inside, did they? They couldn't even go into the
holy place. Let alone the holy of holies But bless God now we
in Christ enter right into the holy place Here is where and
when worship begins, and then only can walk commence. Number
three, but life and light, yea, worship and walk, have personal
partaking of Christ as essential components for all who will worship
and walk. What am I talking about? Chapter
nine, and I'm not gonna take time to read it, it is already
25 minutes to one. Passover. Now, I don't mean to
throw, yeah I do, that'd be a lie. I will throw you a curveball,
maybe. Maybe you've seen this curveball
before. If not, maybe I can make it a grenade and pop the pin
and throw it at you. See whether you scatter or you
hang it out. God did not tell them ever, ever again after the
first time, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Now Joe
preached on this a while back. There was one Passover. All the
others are called memorials. God was not passing through every,
this happened once a year, Passover, right? God was not passing through
every year, killing the firstborn, was he? That happened in Egypt,
in Egypt only. But there was still a Passover.
What's the main emphasis here? And you remember, read the context,
some people have been defiled. Can we take it? Some were strangers. We met this group of folk and
they said, we will worship that God with you. But Mason, they
weren't Israelites. But we want to hang out with
you. Come on. What about them? This is talking about what? Partaking
of the Passover. This is talking about having
the roasted lamb and the bitter herbs. And you partake of it
together. How many of you go home and decide
you're gonna get you a little taste of wine and some unleavered
bread and you're gonna take the Lord's table by yourself? You ever done that? If you have,
don't tell anybody. Don't fess up to it. Fess up
to it to God, but don't fess up to it. That's for the family. You don't do it by yourself.
And let me tell you something, there is a real sense in which,
remember two sides of the coin, there's a real sense in which
you do not worship and walk in Christ apart from doing so with
other people who worship and walk in Christ. I know some people
are in a hard spot, they're in a hard place. but I'd cry out
to God, get me out of this hard place. We got people who won't
even attend the worship of the assembly, and yet they say they
believe free, sovereign grace. They believe Jesus Christ, and
they won't come to this place to worship because of a virus. A virus is gonna keep you from
God's people? choose you this day who you will
serve. And you know what man does? Paul preached a message
on that this morning. We choose ourselves. Well I've
got to be safe. He that will lose his life for
my sake shall find it. Either Christ and his cross work
is central to you or it means nothing to you. There is no middle
ground. There is no middle ground. I
gotta move on. Four, gospel preaching is paramount
to all facets of worship and walk. Think about it. You can
go back and read it. Chapter 10, verses one through
10, it mentions all these things, gathering, alarm, war, gladness,
and solemnity. Huh? All of that is around what? These two trumpets made out of
one piece. Mason, I'm sure there's some
pictures of people that can understand the Hebrew better than I, maybe
drawn a picture. I don't, it's one piece, but
there's two actual horns. And there were different sounds
for different things. But the horns were blown by the
priest at the tabernacle. whether it was, again let me
find it, whether it was gathering together, whether it was an alarm,
whether it was war, whether it was gladness, or whether it was
something very solemn. The sound of the gospel is what
draws God's people together. Now I guarantee you. We got two TV broadcasts, we're
online, and live web, I guarantee you, if Paul and Joe and myself
decide we're gonna have a prophecy conference, I bet you eventually,
we held it for about a month, I bet you people start coming.
But we'd have to lie to get them here, and lie to keep them here,
because the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, therefore
if you're going to preach about prophecy, you can't leave the
Lord Jesus out of it. Can you but most people do? Most people like prophecy and
they like to hear what's gonna happen to me Right or to somebody
that's left after me when I'm raptured up now. I'm not Mocking
that there's gonna be a rapture folks I don't I don't steer away
from that because it's a based on a Latin word and a bunch of
Armenians believe in the rapture Well bless God's God's gonna
catch some of his people up. I And I stand for that truth
because it's thus saith the Lord. But if you preach that apart
from Jesus Christ is the Lord that's returning to do that,
you ain't got nothing. And people don't want to hear
about that. I can read that. Tell me the stuff you can't really
read. Well, you don't need nothing unless you're reading this book. All things work together for
good to them that love God. him the call according to his
purpose. But that does not mean the same thing as what most mean
today when they say indiscriminately to anyone and everyone, God's
got a wonderful plan for your life. Now isn't that what most
people mean when they quote Romans 8 28? I don't care if you're
the worst reprobate drunk Hormonging child molesting piece of work
if you just give you a heart to Jesus God's got a wonderful
plan for your life That's not what that teaches you look at
the next few verses He does not separate all things work together
for good from the what? He who delivered up his own son
for us, that particular group of people, for us all. I'm saying the altar, the crosswork
of Jesus Christ, is central to all worship and walk. You wanna know how to walk right?
Look at Jesus Christ. Now I can hammer on you on what
movies you ought to go to and ought not go to, but I might
miss one. I might miscategorize one, right? And just because it talks about
the Bible don't mean it's true. That movie that the one Hollywood
guy put out about Jesus Christ recently ain't true. It's got
lies in it, Mason. Now it may be very entertaining,
but it ain't true. One of the worst movies ever
made was The Ten Commandments, even though I do like Charlton
Heston. And that's probably more not the movie. That's because
he said, you ain't gonna take away my gun until you pry it
out of my cold, dead fingers. I'd probably like him more for
that than anything else. But The Ten Commandments is basically
a bunch of lies. Noah's Ark, the recent one with
Russell Crowe, it's a bunch of lies. It was very entertaining,
but it wasn't true. I'm saying gospel preaching is
preaching the crosswork of Jesus Christ. And there is no true
worship or walk apart from that. Number five. Worship and walk
go hand in hand. How do I know that? And I'm not
gonna read it, but you can read it later. Nine, chapter nine,
verses 15 through 23. Chapter 10, we've already read
that, 11, 12, and 13. Chapter 10, 33 through 36, and
I will read, let me see if that was the one. Yes. Anyway, go to chapter 10. Let
me say it. Worship and walk go hand in hand.
Why? Because the people of Israel
did not go anywhere without God going first in the tabernacle.
Of course, he specifically, as some call it, the Shekinah glory.
Job, it was right there where that ark was. It was right there
where that arc was. Think about this. When the arc
stopped, the people stopped, and the people camped. If it
camped for a day, or for a month, or two months, right? You remember
reading all that? I mean, if it was, you think,
here they moved into a spot. They moved for a day, all of
a sudden the cloud stops. If it's daytime, or that big
pillar of fire stops, if it was nighttime. And when it stopped,
Excuse me, the priest had to get to work. Re-erecting the
tabernacle, right? And I mean this thing had intricate
parts of silver and cloth. And Mason had to erect all of
this. So here they commence with the
sacrifices. And the next evening, starting
to get dark, the fire rises up and starts to move out. Pack
it all up, folks. Pack it all up. but it's just
been a pack it all up. Move out, but you move out according
to your standard. See, worshiping won't go hand
in hand. This is exactly what Paul says. He says there's one
Lord, one faith, one baptism. You don't pick and choose what
you want to believe, who you want to believe. You either believe
the truth of God concerning the person and work of his Christ,
or you don't believe God at all. And then he said, this I say
therefore, testifying the Lord, that you walk not as other Gentiles
walk. Doesn't he say that? Somebody says, walk don't matter.
Walk don't matter if worship don't matter. Walk don't matter if worship
don't matter. And most people don't think worship really matters.
That's why walk don't matter. It says, he that endureth unto
the end, what, worshiping and walking? Worshiping and walking. He that endureth unto the end,
the same shall be saved. I have a couple examples. Briefly,
what did Ruth say? Naomi told her, go back to your
people and go back to your gods. Right? She told Ruth and her
sister-in-law that, right? Her sister-in-law was sad, but
what'd she do? Orpha went back, didn't she?
Ruth said, I will not do it. I'm not doing it. I'm going to
go where you go. I'm going to live where you live.
Your people's going to be my people. Your God's going to be
my God. I'll die where you die. Why? Because she was under that
standard. Well, I don't have to come here,
Paul, Joe and Walter preach. No, you don't. No, you don't. But you're not worshiping, and
you're not walking. It's just the way it is. Think
of Saul of Tarsus. He joined himself up with some
folk, and people got so stirred up and mad, they had to sneak
him out of town and let him down over a wall in a basket. Remember
that one? But then you'll read right after
that in Acts chapter nine, verses 26, 27, 28. He didn't say, well,
all right, now that's, there's a virus in town. I best not go
to church. I better stay home, keep myself
safe. He has said to join himself to the disciples right after
that, did he not? Now isn't that the one place
you probably ought not be if they're looking for your head? and he had such a reputation
for what he was before God saved him, the people of God said,
oh, we don't know if we want him around or not. Right, you remember that? You can go back and read it,
Acts 9, 26, 27, 28. But then Barnabas comes along and says, it's all
right, folks. He's the real thing. I'm ad-libbing. But Mason didn't know what he
says. Barnabas said, it's all right, folks. This man preaches
Christ. No, he didn't run away because
he was scared, folks. They let him down and he ran
off because there was more for him to do. If he'd have stayed
there, Mason, they'd have killed him. Mack, they'd have killed him.
But it wasn't his time. But he didn't shy away from being
with God's people, did he? This is what concerns me about
this virus thing. Not that the virus ain't real.
And I'll put this online. Not that there ought not be precautions
made. but don't you let some virus
keep you from the worship and walk in Jesus Christ the Lord,
you may rue the day that you put that first and not Jesus
Christ. Look at it, this is where I and
you, at this small place, this is where we worship and walk,
like this roof and like this salt tarses, isn't it? Folks,
if we could be together more, we'd be together more. If I thought
we could all move into the same community and live around one
another, we'd do that, but we'd get on one another's nerves.
No, wouldn't we? Yeah, the Moravians have tried,
a lot of folks have tried it. They tried it in Jerusalem, didn't
work, did it? It's like this, come hell or
high water, thick or thin, I'm with God's people. Yeah, precautions
need to be taken. Yeah. But a thicker thing. Now hear me now. Think about
it. Think about it. I told you this
before. I think it was last Sunday. Joshua and Caleb were two faithful
men. These men were ready for battle.
When they first come up to the land, and God sent them across
that Jordan, and they went in with the other 10 guys, and they
spied out the land, these men were ready to go to war. They
believed God. Didn't they? And I can't imagine,
Mason, what it was like when they heard God say, I'm turning
you folks around. Remember, Israel said, we can't
go in. God said, well, we'll drive you
off in the wilderness and kill most of you. Oh, yeah, we will
go in. Remember, that's exactly what
they did. Oh, we'll do it then, Lord. That's the way most people
respond. That's what most revival meetings are about now. God's
gonna put you in hell if you don't do something. Well, I better
go down to the altar and do something. Huh? No. You can't go in. Israel said, well, we'll go in.
But God turns them around. Said, no, you won't. You're going
to die in the wilderness. Turns them back around. Joshua and Caleb had to go into
that same wilderness for that same 40 years. Why? Because you are in this
thing of worship and walk with God's people or you're not in
the worship and walk of Jesus Christ. It is that simple. And yet that
profound and difficult for a fallen, self-centered, egotistical, proud
person like me to lovingly do, Joe. to lovingly do. Father, bless these words. Use
them for your honor and glory. In Christ's name, amen.