Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Numbers. Numbers. The book of Numbers. We'll be
in Chapter 1 at first, and then we're going to go to Chapter
6. Numbers. The book of Numbers. We'll look
at the first three verses in Chapter 1. The name of the message
is, He blesses and keeps. He blesses and keeps. Numbers, Chapter 1, verses 1
to 3. The scriptures declare, And the Lord, that's Jehovah
in the Hebrew, spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in
the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second
month, in the second year after they were come out of the land
of Egypt, saying, Take ye the sum of all the congregation of
the children of Israel, after their families, by the house
of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by
their poles. From 20 years old and upward,
all that were able to go forth to war in Israel, thou and Aaron
shall number them by their armies." So we see here in chapter 1 of
Numbers, it opens one year and one month after the children
of Israel had come out of Egypt. One month after the tabernacle
was erected, And the book received its name because the people are
numbered twice, chapter 1 and chapter 26. And the census mentioned
here is not the same as the one recorded in Exodus chapter 30,
verses 11 to 16. They were taken at different
times for different reasons. The second census, numbers 1
here, was probably based on the earlier census, and hence there's
similar totals among them. The people of Israel were soon
to begin their journey from Mount Sinai to the Promised Land. And
it was essential that they be arranged orderly, because they
would be marching through the wilderness. So it was essential
that they would be arranged orderly, and that the men from 20 years
and up would be armed. They will be the army of Israel,
the men from 20 years and up. And this census, again, would
include all men 20 years and above who were able to go to
war. And I wanted us to see that in
Chapter 1 to give us a basis of what this book's written about. Let's go now to Numbers, Chapter
6. Numbers, Chapter 6. Numbers, Chapter 6, verses 22
to 27. Verse 22, it says, And the Lord
spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his son,
saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel,
saying unto them. So God was telling Moses that
Aaron was to speak this blessing upon God's people. Numbers chapter
6, starting in verse 24 now, let's
see this blessing. The Lord, Jehovah, bless thee
and keep thee. The Lord, Jehovah, make his face
shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord, Jehovah,
lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace, peace. They shall put my name upon the
children of Israel, and I will bless them." My, what a joy for
the believer to know that we are under divine blessing. We are right now, as God's people,
right now under divine blessing. And does not this make our trials
a little easier? Does not this make our tribulations
a little easier? If we are blessed by God, then
we are blessed no matter what situation we find ourselves in,
no matter what, beloved, whether it be good times or bad times.
In our minds, we are blessed. We are blessed by God. As one
old preacher proclaimed of old, he says, even in our losses in
our cross, and even in our difficulties, the believer in Christ is blessed. Blessed. No matter what situation
you find yourself in, Even if we throw our hands up and say,
Lord, what is happening? We are still blessed above all
other people. A man's blessing may end in words. Man can bless us, but it just
ends in words, doesn't it? But the blessing of the Lord
is rich. It's eternal. It's unchanging, just like Him. It's continuous for the believer
because it's in Christ. It's in Christ. And what a delightful
truth for we who are the people of God. What a delightful truth
for us to know that we are kept by God. Kept by the strong and mighty
one. Kept by him. Kept near him. And the believer is in Christ,
kept in him. My. Is it any wonder the Lord
said that no man can pluck you out of my hand if you're one
of his people? And he said, I'll never cast
you away, never, never. Now, that's good news for sinners,
isn't it? That's good news for this sinner. I'm a safe sinner,
but I'm still a sinner. That's good news. That's wonderful
news. Brother Marcus and I were talking
about that, just how blessed we are that our salvation is
not dependent upon us. But it's all dependent upon the
things in the Lord. Jesus Christ, our Lord. And so
this is a delightful truth. And those who are kept by God
are kept indeed. They are kept indeed. Those who
God preserves and keeps from evil, they are reserved unto
boundless happiness and glory. Sinners, sinners, we are oh and God keeps going with his
blessings doesn't he they don't stop for the believer we experience
them all through this life And it's his blessing. He's established
it. And since God's established that his people will be blessed
in Christ, it will endure forever. It will endure forever. It's
unchanging. And so consider the wonder here
when the Lord says, When it says here in Numbers 24, the Lord
bless thee. Jehovah bless thee. That's a
promise, beloved. That's an eternal promise from
God. And he says it to his people.
The Eternal One's saying this. The Ancient of Days is saying
this. Jehovah bless you. Oh, my. And it's spoken again
by the One who lives outside of time and space. It's spoken
by the Immutable One. He's unchanging. So this blessing will never change
for God's people. It's spoken again by the Eternal
One. And there can be no, think of this too, there can be no
limit to the goodwill of God for His people, can there? You
know why? Because he's the infinite one. He's the infinite one. You cannot
plumb the depths if you're blessed by God. We cannot plumb the depths
of our blessing that we have in God. Scripture says that all
spiritual blessings for us are in Christ, in Christ, in Christ
alone. Beloved, we can't plumb the depths
of that. That's an ocean with no depth. That's an ocean with no depth. They've started looking at the
universe. And they start looking out. And they're starting to
realize that there's even more behind what we know. And they
can't even grasp it. That's how the blessings and
mercy of God is for his people in Christ, beloved. That's how
it is. You can't measure it. You can't
measure it. Oh, my. And these wonderful promises.
We're going to see those wonderful promises here for the people
of God in these verses. Just wonderful. And it comes
in very striking expressions. Let's look at these words again.
Look at verse 24. The Lord bless thee. 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. Turn to the New Testament, if
you would. 2 Corinthians chapter 13. Now we see there the Lord
mentioned three times in verses 24, 25, and 26. And this represents the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, beloved. Look over here in 2
Corinthians chapter 13. Paul writes this again by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God. And these words by Paul are only
different methods of expressing the same as what we see over
there in Numbers chapter 6. Look at this. 2 Corinthians chapter
13, verse 14. The grace of the Lord, Jesus
Christ. There's the Son. In the love
of God, there's the Father. In the communion of the Holy
Ghost be with you all, amen. There's the Holy Spirit. Right there before us. God is
gracious to the believer. Let's go back to our text again.
Look what it says here. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. Now we're gonna see the Lord is gracious to his people
too. He's gracious to his people. He's gracious to us in Christ.
And you know he lifts up his countenance to us in Christ?
You know what that means when it says lift up your countenance?
We're going to look at that later. You know what that means? God
smiles upon us. Tim James brought that out. The
Hebrew says it means God smiles upon us. My. We who are sinners, saved by
the grace of God. Say, wonder of wonders. Brother Marcus and I were talking,
it's hard for us to even grasp these precious, precious truths. My. And God is gracious to the
believer. And we have peace with God through
Christ and Him alone. Only through Him. Through the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know that Ephesians says
we're sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise? That means to put
a mark upon us. It's like when they, I've mentioned
this before when we were going through Ephesians chapter 1,
it's like when people used to send shipping crates back in
the ancient days. So then the one who was unloading
the ship at that time would know which merchant it goes to. That's
what that means in Ephesians when it says we're sealed by
the Holy Spirit. My, isn't that wonderful? And we see there in Numbers 6,
27, and they shall put my name upon the children of Israel.
There it is. There it is. God knows His people.
God knows His sheep. He knows every single one of
them, every one of them. Let's read that text again. We're
going to be reading number six here quite a bit. Number six,
verses 24 to 27 again. 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. Peace. And they shall put my
name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them. Now the
gospel preacher's charged in the book of Isaiah to comfort
God's people. Now there's no way for me physically
or me to comfort you by my own words. Because if my words are
the only words you hear, like Scott used to say, if my words
are the only words you hear, it's not going to profit you
nothing. But the gospel preachers charge to comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, in Isaiah chapter 40, verse 1. And how do we do
that? How do we do that? Well, the scripture goes on to
say, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry out to her
that her warfare is accomplished. We've laid down our arms. And then it says, that
her iniquity is pardoned. Well, that's preaching the gospel,
right? That's the only way you can be
comforted, just like the only way I can be comforted is when
I listen to my brothers preach the gospel to me. That's how
we're comforted, by the preaching of the gospel. Listen, that iniquity
is pardoned, for she hath received the Lord's hand double for all
our sins. So how comforting then, how comforting then, for God's
people, are these words in Numbers chapter 6, that we're looking
at today. Because these blessings are proclaimed
here before us, they come to the believer in Christ. They
come to us in Christ, beloved. Again, all spiritual blessings
for the believer is in Christ. And Paul penned that in the first
book of Ephesians. He told us plainly that all spiritual
blessings are found in Christ. And he also said to the Corinthians
that in Christ, all the promises of God are yea and amen. They're
all finished in Him, all of them. So again, let's consider these
wonderful blessings proclaimed here to Israel. And we know Israel
is a picture of the church, right? We know that. Israel is a picture
of the church. So you who are born again, blood-washed believer,
know that all these things we're going to read, and we're going
to read it again, Numbers chapter 6, verses 24 to 27. Know that
all these things that are proclaimed here for us are fulfilled in
Christ. The Lord bless thee. Oh, how
we've been blessed in Christ. Beyond measure, beloved. Again,
you can't plumb the blessings that we have in Christ. You just
can't even, you'd spend a lifetime plumbing and you'd never come
to the end. Oh my. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. Scripture says that we are kept
by the power of God. Lord, make his face shine upon
thee. He smiles upon us because we're
clothed in the spotless righteousness of Christ. And give thee peace. Now, we're
going to break all these down later. Look at that. Give thee
peace. Who do we have peace with God in? The Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we have peace with
God, in Christ, in Christ alone. Nowhere else. Nowhere else. And
I and they shall put my name upon the children of Israel,
sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, beloved. Remember the
Lord says in Isaiah, thou art mine. Oh. Hey, it doesn't get
any better than that. God's saying to his people, thou
art mine. You're mine by creation, and
you're mine by purchase. Because Christ purchased us.
Who is God incarnate in the flesh? He purchased us with his own
precious blood. My, I remember an old preacher
saying, we're his twice. We're his twice, by creation
and by purchase. My, it's wonderful. Absolutely
wonderful. My. And again, what we looked
at in 2 Corinthians 13, verses 14, the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ and the love of God, the communion of the Holy Ghost be
with you all. Amen. That's the whole trinity in action
right there, beloved. The whole trinity is in action
in our salvation. We're born again by the power
and might of the Holy Spirit of God. And does not God keep
us? How many times have we fell?
How many times have I fell? Oh, my. Lord just picked me up, put
me right back on His feet, my feet. How many times have I doubted
the Lord? My. Yet His love for me is unchanging. And He keeps us, doesn't He?
My. Think upon this, you who are
the elect of God. Has not God blessed us with salvation
in Christ? When it says there, the Lord
blessed thee in verse 24, have we not been blessed by God with
salvation in Christ? We have been, haven't we? Oh my. Then look at verse 27
here. The Lord make his face shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee. Again, has he not done
this for us in Christ? Oh, he's been so gracious to
us. Undeserving, unmerited salvation, and how
God's face and favor and grace has been shown to sinners saved
by the grace of God. Can we not proclaim who are the
people of God? Can we not proclaim that God
has been gracious to us in Christ? How can we not? How can we not but proclaim how
gracious, Lord? How can we not be in awe of what
God's done for us? How can we not? And oh, how God's face in favor
and grace has been shown to us time and time and time again,
continuously. When I'm weak, and that's all
the time for me, when I'm weak, he is strong. He is strong. Luke verse 27 proclaims here
too, the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. We have peace with God, beloved,
in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 26, we have peace with
God through Christ. He saw us in our natural dead
state when we were dead spiritually, coming to this world dead in
trespasses and sins. And yet His love is set upon
us. My, in all my sin and rebellion. And He saw it from that state.
He knew us in that state. And we who are the board again,
chairman of the board. And I know that for a fact. I know how I am in my natural
state. And I know it's so for you. I once had someone tell me, well,
I was never an enemy with God. What? That's what the Scripture
says. That's not the preacher's words.
That's what the Scripture proclaims. My. But now, now, the Scripture
also declares we have peace with God in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Peace! Peace with Jehovah! Peace with Elohim! Peace with the one who's our
shepherd. Peace with God in and through,
always in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Outside of Christ,
there is no peace with God. But in Christ, oh, what great
peace we have. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
has cleansed us from all sin. And what can we say but hallelujah?
Praise his mighty name. So we see here in Numbers chapter
6 that these blessings come from the same Godhead mentioned 2
Corinthians chapter 13, verse 24. The Father, the Son, and
the Spirit. And what mercy has been manifested
to the people of God from our great God. Let's read verse 24 again. And
we see clearly here that the first clause of the high priest's
benediction is a promise. It's a promise. That blessing
which our great high priest pronounces upon us, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is sure to come. Now look at this. The Lord bless
thee and keep thee. Again, what a joy can come to
the believer, knowing that we have been blessed by God in Christ,
and knowing, because we're frail, aren't we? We falter. We struggle with unbelief. I
do. You know, I never heard a preacher
ever say that until I met a grace preacher. Dottie Bell was preaching
one time at Rescue. And he said, I'm such a sinner. And I turned to Vicki. I said,
I never heard that from a preacher. Because most preachers, they
don't admit they're sinners. But you know what we grace preachers?
We are sinners saved by the grace of God in Christ, period. And again. I was talking to Brother
Gary Shepard about what Scott said. The ground at the foot
of the cross is level. And Brother Gary goes, oh, what
a blessing that is, isn't it? There's no little preacher hump.
There's no little theologian hump. It's absolutely level ground.
Sinners saved by the grace of God in Christ, period. So what mercy we've received.
And how this verse can comfort the believer in all times of
our lives. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. In times of joy, in times of sorrow, in times of loss,
in times of heartache, we can rest upon this divine promise
right here. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. And he will. He has blessed us abundantly
in Christ. And I know you've seen this in your
life, too. He's kept us, hasn't he? He's kept us. Because I've seen it in mine,
too. He keeps his people. He keeps us. And remember, too,
even in our losses, in our disappointments, in our sorrow, in our heartache,
we are still blessed in Christ Jesus our Lord. And God's blessing
is deep. It's empathetic. It's effectual.
A man's blessing, again, may begin and end in his words. But
the blessing of the Lord, the blessing of the Lord is eternal.
It's unchanging. It does not change, beloved.
It's unchanging. And it brings great joy to the
saved sinner. And the blessing we receive from
God, putting this together, this just struck me so much. The blessing
that we receive from God is not conditioned upon what we do. It's not conditioned upon what
we do in any way. We are blessed with all spiritual
blessings in Christ, period. And all the blessings of God
are conditioned upon Christ's finished work. That's good news,
isn't it? That's good news for sinners.
Good news for this old sinner. Oh my, it's not based upon me? No. In religion, everything was
based upon me, what I did. And then I found out the truth.
Like Brother Neil was saying, it's all about believing on Christ,
trusting Him, listening to Him for everything, and just looking
to Him. Whether we're struggling, whether
we're not, we just keep looking to Him. And all the blessings of Christ,
again, are conditioned upon Christ's finished work, the work of salvation,
which He did to redeem our eternal souls. And this blessing is not
presented as an offer. It's not presented as an offer.
No. It's declared to be so. It's a declaration of what's
so. The Lord blesses his people. The Lord keeps his people. Ain't
that wonderful? Oh. No wonder the psalmist cries
out, bless the Lord, O my soul, in all that is within me, bless
his holy name. No wonder he'd done this. My. And this blessing comes to us
through the word of God, the spoken or preached word. We are
told that Christ died for sinners. We are told that Christ died
for sinners. that He died a substitutionary
death for them on the cross, that He poured out His lifeblood,
and His blood has ransomed our eternal souls. And those who
are made willing by the Holy Spirit of God, granted faith
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, oh, how this truth fills
us with joy, fills our hearts with joy, doesn't it? And we
never grow tired of hearing about it. Never. And the Lord blesses His people. Turn, if you would, to Jude.
Jude. We see in this verse that the
Lord blesses His people, but He also keeps His people. So
if we look a little more in-depth into that, look at this. And
what a delight it is for the saved sinner who struggles every
single day, every single day. Spurgeon said, he sinned enough
going from his bed to his breakfast table to damn 1,000 souls. And
every one of us say, amen. Right? But what a delight it
is for us to know, the saved sinner, the child of God, to
know that we are kept by the power of God. We are kept by
the very one who holds the kept. Who, by all things, consists.
Everything consists by him. That's who keeps us. Look what
it says in Jude here, verses 1 and 2. Jude, the servant of
Jesus Christ. That's what we are. God's people
are servants of Christ. And brother of James, to them
that are sanctified by God the Father and what? Preserved. That means kept. Kept. Preserved in Jesus Christ and
called. That means kept. So we see the
blessing of the people of God being kept in the Old Testament.
And here we see the blessing of God's people being kept in
Christ. It says, and preserved in Jesus
Christ, in Him, and called. Then it says, mercy unto you,
and peace and love be multiplied. My, oh my. So what a delight
it is, again, for the saved sinner to know that we're kept by God.
We're kept by Him. We're kept by His almighty power. What a difference than religion,
eh? It tells you you've got to do this and got to do that to
be kept. Scripture says God keeps us. Hallelujah. That's what praise
you to the Lord means in the Hebrew. Hallelujah. That's not
a word we shouldn't say. That's a word we should say.
Hallelujah. Praise your name, Lord. Praise
your name. Wonder of wonders, the born-again,
blood-washed child of God. is blessed by God, Jehovah, and
kept by God in Christ. And again, we are just filled
with awe, just filled with awe. None can pluck us out of God's
hands, and he's promised to never cast us away, never, no matter
what, never. And God keeps going with his
blessing to establish it, and he causes it to endure. The Eternal
One causes these blessings to endure, because they come from
Him, who is eternal. And notice the sevenfold blessings
here in these verses. Let's look at them again. There
are seven blessings pronounced here. Look at this. The Lord
bless thee. That's number one. And keep thee. Number two. The Lord make His
face shine upon thee. Number three. And be gracious
unto thee. Four. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee. There's a fifth one. And give
thee peace. And number six. And seven. And they shall put my name upon
the children of Israel, and I will bless them. Number of perfection
in the scriptures is seven. My, oh my. Sevenfold blessing
right here before us. And it's a perfect and complete
blessing. because it comes from God. That's
why it's perfect. And that's why it's complete.
Because it comes from Him. It comes from He who is perfect,
holy, and righteous. And the language which we see
in our text brings forth the blessings of the gospel. Again,
because all things declared in these verses we're looking at
are found in the gospel. Are found in the gospel. Now
this word, came from God to the Israelites when they were in
the wilderness. What does that picture? Well, that pictures
us going through this world of woe, doesn't it? We're in the
wilderness right now, beloved. We're on our way to glory, to
the eternal city. And when it's our time, the Lord
just take us right out. And to be absent from the body,
to be present with the Lord. Oh, my. These Israelites were tried and
tested, just as God's people are tried and tested today. We're
tried and tested today in this world. And this is a way of life
for the believer. It's a way of life for the believer.
We're either in trouble, going into trouble, or coming out of
trouble. It's just how we are. But we know God keeps us, don't
we? We know he keeps us. Paul wrote these words to the
Philippian believers He wrote, for unto you it is given in the
behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer
for his sake. Philippians chapter 1, verse
29. We've been given faith to believe on Christ. And we suffer.
We suffer. But it's nothing compared to
what our Lord suffered for us. Nothing. Our afflictions, even
though they don't seem like this, do they? They're called light
afflictions. It don't feel like that, does
it? Right? When we're going through afflictions,
they don't feel light at all. But in comparison to what Christ
went through for us, what Christ, He endured to the death, the
sinless, spotless Lamb of God dying for His people, what He
endured for us, our afflictions are light then. They're light. But that in no way lessens our
afflictions that we go through. because they're for our good,
even though they don't always feel that way, right? But they're
for our good, and they're for His glory. And I'll tell you
why. Everything I went through since
the Lord saved me, I can look back now. At the time, I didn't
see it. At the time, I sometimes cried
out, Lord, why has this come? Broken down in tears, we've all
experienced that. But then looking back, I see
the wisdom of God in why I went through that situation. And you
know what happens when we go through those situations? And
I know what's happened for us, too, recently. It draws us closer
to the Savior, beloved. It draws us closer to Him. My. So the believer in Christ will
face the cruelty of this world. You know, never forget we have
three enemies, right? The world, the flesh, and the
devil. And personally, the middle one's the worst for me, the flesh. I'm my own worst enemy. But praise
be to God, there is therefore now no condemnation to those
in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the
spirit. Remember these promises that
we looked at, looking at today. They are not conditioned upon
anything that you do or I do. How we feel, they're not conditioned
on how we feel. We are blessed even when we don't
feel like we're blessed. The Lord smiles upon us in Christ
even when we do not feel like his smile is upon us. It is. It is. And they are not conditioned
upon our intellect. It's not conditioned upon our
strength. No, this is a promise from Jehovah.
These are promises from Jehovah right here before us. These are
promises from the self-existent one. He has promised to never
leave you nor forsake you if you're his people. Bless his
holy name. Bless his holy name. And remember also that the blessings
here pronounced upon God's people is ours by divine grace. They're
ours by divine grace, by divine favor. We can't earn them. We
don't seek them. We don't even merit it. What
do we deserve? Hell. If we got what we deserve,
we deserve to be in hell. God's people don't get what we
deserve. These promises come to us by divine favor. How that'll
put a spring in our step, right? Because all the glory goes to
Him. He gets all the glory, all the praise. So let these truths
be comfort to you this week. Let them comfort your souls.
Let them comfort your souls. All who put their trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ, these truths are for us. These promises are
for us. And now when we remember these
truths, it's a blessing to our souls. I ask you, did you know
these truths before the Lord saved you? No, we didn't, did
we? We had no idea. Even before we
were saved, we were blessed by God. We didn't know. We're His
lost sheep running around this world doing whatever we thought
was right. But His eye was ever upon us. He preserved us even
then. watched over us, kept us even
then. My. Can we not say that we're a very
blessed people then, when we look at that? My, we're so blessed. We're so blessed, beloved. We're
so blessed. Oh, my. So when we go through
a day, never forget the blessings. I know we get busy in our day.
We all do. We get busy in our day. We get tied up with things.
But pause for a moment in your day to think of how blessed you
are in Christ, if you're a believer. Just pause. And then just thank
Him. Just thank Him. Verse 25, it says, the Lord make
His face shine upon you. Again, that's smile upon you.
Tim James, by the way, that's the Lord smiling upon his people. Now think of this, too. Think of this, how the Lord was
ever with his people. Again, this is a reference to
the blessing of God's continued presence with us. This one here,
make his face shine bright. It's a reference to his continued
blessing to us. Remember, he was with the Israelites
during the day. He came as a cloud. And then
he was with them as a pillar of fire. He never left them,
did He? That's how He is with us. He's
ever with us. Ever with us. His countenance
is always shining upon thee. Always. Turn, if you would, to
Psalm 139. Psalm 139. We'll see this blessed truth
brought forth here. Psalm 139, verses 7 to 18. I'm going to
read a large portion here, but this will bring forth this truth
here. of the Lord's continued presence
with his people. He's ever with us. He's ever
with us. Psalm 139, verses 7 to 18. Whither
shall I go from thy spirit? Where will we go? Where will
we go where the Lord's not? Or whither shall I flee from
thy presence? There's nowhere you can go where God's not there. If I ascend up into heaven, thou
art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts
of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right
hand shall hold me." Look at that. That's Christ. The right hand of God is Christ.
He holds us. If I say, surely the darkness
shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea,
the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as
the day. The darkness and the light are
both alike to thee. He's the same, whether it be
night or day. He's the same. For thou has possessed my reins.
Thou has covered me in my mother's womb. He knew us. Oh, my. He knew us in our mother's
wombs. I will praise thee, for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, and
that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from
thee. He knew us. He knew us in conception. He knew us in our mother's womb.
Beloved, he's known us from eternity." Look at that. When I was made in secret and
curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, thine eyes
did see my substance, yet being unperfect. And in thy book all
my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned,
when as yet there was none of them. Chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world, before we even were. Oh my, how precious also are
thy thoughts unto me. Look at that. Oh God, how great
is the sum of them. How precious are his thoughts
of us. We're the bride of Christ by God's choosing. So how precious
are his thoughts of us? He's blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in Christ. Will someone say, well, when
did that start? In eternity. If I should count them, if we
should try to count the blessings of God, if we should try to count the
thoughts of God towards us, If I should count them, they
are more in number than the sand. You ever been to the ocean? You
ever been to the Great Lake? Great Lakes here. You ever been
to the Great Lake? More than the sand. I'll talk about sand.
Go to the desert out in the Middle East, all that sand. My buddy was stationed in Qatar.
Jake, you guys know Jacob. He was stationed in Qatar for
six months. And I said, what's it like over
there? He goes, there's a lot of sand. That's what he told
me. There's a lot of sand. But it says here that God's thoughts
towards his people are more in number than the sand. When I
awake, I am still with thee. He's ever with us. He's ever
with us. And then it says, the Lord make
His face to shine upon me. Again, Brother Tim James brings
out that has to do with God's continual enlightenment. He said,
the word shine alludes to dawn when the sun breaks forth. This
is the language of the word shine. This is the language of God,
he says. It is the effect of the word of God on the hearts
of His people. In their greatest hour of darkness, the word of
God breaks the horizon. So in the midst of our greatest
darkness, the word of God breaks the horizon, son, bursts forth. Oh, my. And listen to this. Actually, let's turn there. 2 Corinthians chapter 2. Let's look there quick. Listen
to these wonderful words of Paul, written by inspiration of the
Holy Spirit of God. It says here in 2 Corinthians
chapter 4 verses 3 to 6. But if our gospel be hid, now
there was a time for the people of God when the gospel of Christ
was hid from us. It was hid. We didn't know Christ.
We had no care for him or his gospel or his word. No care. No care for the people
of God either. We didn't want to be around them,
right? Everything's changed though, hasn't it? Everything's changed
for the child of God. Look at this. But if our gospel
be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. The gospel is hid to
them that are lost. In whom the God of this world,
that's Satan, hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine upon them. For we preach not ourselves.
God's preachers, we don't preach ourselves. We preach Christ and
Him crucified. It says here. For we preach not
ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants
for Jesus' sake. God's preachers are servants
to the body. For Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. For God, look
at this. This is wonderful. We were in
darkness. We were groping around in the
dark in our natural state. We had no, look at this. For
God, who commanded the light, God commanded the light to shine
in our hearts, beloved. He commanded it. Why? Because
we're his people chosen in Christ. We're his people whom Christ
has redeemed with his precious, precious blood on Calvary's cross.
It says here, for God who commanded the light to shine out of the
darkness. And oh, what great was the darkness we were in.
You know, we were in the prison house of sin. And you know what
the lock was on the prison cell? Gary Shepard told me this yesterday.
You know what the lock was? Our pride. Our pride was a lock
on the doors, beloved. And the Lord has smashed open,
released the shackles of sin that were upon us, and set us
free, beloved. He commanded the light to shine
in the darkness, and he has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Praise be to God. That's what he's done for his
people. Let's go back to our text. It says here in number
625, the Lord be gracious to thee. Has not God been gracious
to us in Christ? He has. Oh, he has. How gracious God has been to
his born-again, blood-washed people. Again, we do not get
what we deserve. We receive numberless blessings
instead in Christ, numberless blessings. And they come to us
abundantly from the God of all mercy and the Father of all mercies. They come to us in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, we have no merit in ourselves,
nothing at all. God is gracious to us because
he chooses to be gracious to us. In the born again, blood-washed
believer in Christ is blessed with grace. established by the
grace of God, and it flows to us in and through Christ in Him
alone. No other way. There's no other conduit for
the grace of God except through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's
look at verse 26 here. The Lord lift up His countenance
upon thee and give thee peace. Again, what a sweet, sweet blessing
it is here before us. We who are the people of God,
the threat of the law has been taken away. The threat of God's
law says the soul that sins must die. The threat of that law has
been taken away, because Christ died in our place. The justice
of God, which had a rightful claim upon thee, right? Blotting
out the handwriting of the Lord. Gone. Gone. Those ordinances that were against
us are gone by the Lord Jesus Christ. And from pole to pole,
salvation is by grace alone. From pole to pole is grace alone. And a born-again, blood-washed
believer in Christ is blessed with grace and established by
grace. And again, it flows to us from the Father through Christ
Jesus our Lord. And it says, the Lord lift up
his countenance upon thee. Again, what a sweet blessing here before
God's people. What a sweet blessing. Now we
don't fear our God with a slavish fear. Now we fear
him with a reverent fear, in awe of who he really is, because
he's revealed himself to us. And how precious is the promise
here before us, A lifted up countenance simply means a smiling face,
Brother Tim James was saying. A smiling face. God smiles upon
his people in Christ. Isn't that wonderful? No frowning face, a smiling face. When you see someone smile, it
brightens your day, doesn't it? Someone smiles at you, especially
someone you love, they smile at you, it brightens your day. God looks upon us with a smiling
face. So marvel at this, you who are
the elect of God. God has lifted up his countenance
upon you, and you found grace in his eyes, and you are righteous
in his sight, and all your sin is forgiven, all of it, washed
clean by the precious blood of Christ, and he will remember
them no more. No more. And now he smiles upon
you in Christ. My, we are blessed people. We are a blessed people. Praise
be to God, He set us free. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We rejoice
in our great God. We rejoice in Him. And what can
we say? Hallelujah, praise His name.
Praise His mighty name. He's amazing. Our God is truly
amazing. And God has given his people
a great peace. And the believer in Christ knows
that our Lord holds the reins of this universe in his breath.
By him, all things can exist. And the believer knows that no
weapon can break him. But the sweetest knowledge of
the believer is to know that they have made perfect peace
with God for us." Perfect peace with God for us. Every obstacle that was before
us to have peace with God has been removed by the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Him dying on Calvary's cross
in the room and place of His people. Every obstacle. He's done it all. He cried, it
is finished. In Greek, that means it's perfect.
Perfect. You cannot add to perfection. My. Numbers 627. We're closed with this. And they
shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.
Let us remember we who are the people of God, we are sealed
by the Holy Spirit of promise. And that's putting a mark on
us. Sealed. Sealed by the Holy Spirit of
God. Christ has so satisfied the justice of God and so consumed
the wrath of God that was against us, that all that is left is
God with a smiling face looking upon His people who are clothed
in His perfect righteousness. It does not get any better than
that, does it? My, but it will when we're in
glory with Him, eh? Oh, my. One day we'll be seeing
the one who's clothed us. We'll be seeing the one who's
redeemed us, the one who saved us. So God has bought you if
you're a believer with a price. You're a vessel of mercy. And
he has shown mercy to you. And all we can say is bless his
holy name. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for allowing us to gather together and be here and to worship you,
Lord. Oh, what a great blessing it is for us. You have gathered
us together here. You have called us out of the
world of sin. Though we are still sinners,
Lord, oh, but we're saved sinners, we who are your people. And you've
given us an understanding. You revealed yourself to us,
granted us faith to believe after we're regenerated by the Holy
Spirit of God. And all we can say is Heavenly
Father, praise your name. Lord Jesus, praise your name.
In Holy Spirit, praise your name too. Glory to you and honor and
praise for what you've done for your people. We will be forever
grateful, and we pray in Jesus' name, amen.