is wonderful, isn't it? He is
all that a sinner needs, the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn, if you
would, to Numbers, the book of Numbers. The name of the message
is God's Sovereign Grace. In light of the passage which
we looked at this morning, and how the Lord bought forth the
things concerning himself from the Old Testament, I thought
it would be a blessing for us to look in the Old Testament.
Look at a couple portions here in Numbers chapter 3, which bring
forth God's sovereign grace, but also bring forth the atonement
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Numbers chapter 3 will be our
first section that we'll look at. We'll read verses 5 to 8,
and we see here in this first God's sovereign grace at work,
we see God's sovereign grace separating and setting apart
the Levites for the work of the priesthood from Israel. And they
are set apart to serve him as priests. Numbers chapter three,
verses five to eight. And the Lord spake unto Moses
saying, bring the tribe of Levi near and present them before
Aaron the priest that they may minister unto him. See, there's
a separation here. And they shall keep his charge
and the charge of the whole congregation before the tabernacle of the
congregation to do the service of the tabernacle. So there to
be servants within the tabernacle, servants of the Most High God.
And they shall keep all the instruments of the tabernacle of the congregation
in the charge of the children of Israel to do the service of
the tabernacle. Now I want us to keep your finger
in numbers there, but just quickly turn to 1 Peter 2. Now keep in mind too, as we turn
there, but again keep your finger in numbers, keep in mind beloved
of God that we were separated by our great God. We who are
the people of God were separated by our great God from the rest
of humanity to serve him as spiritual priests. Every believer is set
aside by God to serve him as a spiritual priest. We are a
chosen people by God from all the generations of the world.
And this choice was made in eternity, beloved, praise his mighty name.
It was made in eternity. Look at this in 1 Peter 2, and
listen to these words in verses 9 and 10. But ye, that's being
God's elect, that's who the letter's written to, are a chosen generation. So each of God's people are chosen
out of the generation by God the Father in eternity to be
his people. We're called his elect, and that
choosing by God is in Christ, we know from Ephesians 1-4. But
ye, God's people, are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
look at that, a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people,
that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called
you, God did this, God's called us, what? Out of darkness into
his marvelous light. It's God who's done the separating,
isn't it? Which in times past, now that's speaking of our natural
state, we were always the children of God, but this is our natural
state he's bringing forth here. Which in times past were not
a people, again, speaking of our natural state, but are now
the people of God, and how? All by God's amazing grace, right?
All by God's amazing grace, which had not obtained mercy, but now
have obtained mercy. And again, that's speaking of
our natural state. Now let's go back to Numbers.
And turn, if you would, this time to Numbers chapter 8. And
we'll read verses 5 to 7. Numbers chapter 8, verses 5 to
7. Keep in mind, again, God's sovereign
grace. God's sovereign grace. Numbers
chapter 8, verses 5 to 8. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Take the Levites from among the children of Israel
and cleanse them. And thus shalt thou do unto them
to cleanse them, sprinkle water of purifying upon them, and let
them shave all their flesh, and let them wash their clothes,
and so make themselves clean. Then let them take a young bullock
with his meat offering, even fine flour mingled with oil,
and another young bullock shalt thou take for a sin offering. So now let us never forget that
as we read the Old Testament scriptures, the accounts of the
Old Testament and all these things that happened, again, happened
to them for our learning, to show types and shadows. 1 Corinthians,
turn if you would there, but keep your fingers in numbers
eight, because we'll be going back there. 1 Corinthians chapter
10. This is clearly about fourth in 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
We'll read verses one to 12. Moreover, brethren, I would not
that ye should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under
the cloud and all passed through the sea. Now this is speaking
of Israel, right, going through the Red Sea. And all were baptized
unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did eat the same
spiritual meat. They all ate manna from heaven. They all ate whatever God provided.
O beloved, we all feast, every one of us who's born again, we
feast on the heavenly manna, the Lord Jesus Christ. And did
all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that
spiritual rock that followed them. And look at this, this
is speaking of the Old Testament. And that rock was Christ. Beloved
to all his people, Old and New Testament, right? He is the water
of life. He is the water of life. And
look at that, that rock was Christ. Christ is all through the Old
Testament, isn't he? It testifies of him like we saw this morning.
But with many of them, God was not well pleased, for they were
overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things are, look at
verse six here. Now these things were our examples.
to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as
they also lusted, neither be idolaters as some of them. As it is written, the people
sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither let
us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in
one day three and 20,000. Neither let us tempt Christ,
as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed as serpents.
Neither murmur, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed
as destroyers. Now all these happened unto them
for examples, for our learning, and they are written for our
admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Let him
that thinketh he standeth take heed, lest he fall. My, oh my. So the Old Testament, beloved
God, the Old Testament teaches, teaches the Lord Jesus Christ
in type, in shadow, and it teaches his wonderful work. We'll see
that in Numbers 8 tonight. We'll see that the scriptures,
the Old Testament scriptures teach of his wondrous work, of
what he's done. In these two passages of the
book of Numbers, we have a picture of the sovereign grace of God.
in the salvation of the elect. As the tribe of Levi is a type
of the elect, both in nature and in grace, they are a priesthood
set apart by God. They're a priesthood set apart
by God for that purpose, to be priests unto our Lord. And again,
they picture the elect of God, whom Christ made righteous, and
as we saw in 1 Peter, we're a royal priesthood, aren't we? We're
a royal priesthood, beloved, all by the grace of God, the
sovereign grace of God. And we are predestined, of course,
to be conformed to the image of the Son, aren't we? That's
what the Scriptures declare. We're being conformed to the
image of the Son, who is the King of kings and our high priest,
and he's also the Lord our righteousness. And these priests, they're chosen
from the midst of Israel and set apart for the priesthood.
These Levites, they're set apart for the priesthood. set apart
for the priesthood of God. And we who are the born-again,
blood-washed saints of God again are called a royal priesthood.
So think upon this. When we look at God's dealing
with Levi, we are seeing God dealing with the sinner saved
by grace. and appointed to the lofty place of service unto our
God. We don't deserve that, do we?
It's all by God's grace and mercy. All by God's grace and mercy.
And remember, the only one who has made the tribe of Levi, we
see in the text here, who's the only one who made the tribe of
Levi to differ? God. God did that. Look what he says there, and
turn, if you would, again, to Numbers 3. Look what he says.
Bring the tribe of Levi near, in verse 6. This is God's command. It's God who's separating them
from the rest of Israel. It's God who's doing that. And
present them before Aaron, the priest, that they may minister
unto him. It's God who's done this separation. And the first
thing we must see is Levi in nature. Turn, if you would, to
Genesis chapter 49. Now, let's see Levi in nature, in his natural
state. In doing so, we will see the
kind of people who make up God's elect, who make up the priesthood
of God. And we're gonna see ourselves.
We're gonna see ourselves, beloved. Genesis chapter 49. We see the
characterization of Levi and his brother in here in Genesis
chapter 49, verses five to seven. Simeon and Levi are brethren.
Instruments of cruelty are they in their habitations. This is
what Jacob is saying about them. Now Jacob here is referring to
the deceitful and murderous act that Levi took against Shechem
the son of Hamor in Genesis chapter 34. Turn if you would to Genesis
chapter 34. Shechem the son of Hamor had
defiled Dinah, Jacob's daughter, defiled her. And Simeon and Levi,
that was their sister. And these two brothers, after
they had struck a deal with Shechem and Hamer that all the men in
their city would be circumcised, went in after that and murdered
them all. So that's what Jacob's talking
about over there in Genesis 49 that we just read about. And
he says, my honor won't be united with that, what they did. And
think of these men, they made a deal with them to do that.
And that's a painful thing. And they were paying these men,
recovering. And look what the scriptures
say in verses 25 and 26. Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren,
took each man his sword and came upon the city boldly and slew
all the males. No mercy. That's what Jacob's
saying. They did that in their self-will.
They did that. They just went there in a murderous
rage. And they slew Hamor and Shechem with his son with the
edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem's house and went
out. So there's a picture of Levi in his natural state. And
Jacob proclaimed, as we saw in Genesis 49, that these two men,
his sons, were wicked, cruel, deceitful, full of self-will. And Jacob said again that his
honor could not unite with them. Remember, we read that over in
Genesis 49. could not unite with them, nor would he enter into
their secret. Brother Tim James brings forth
that this is a picture of the relationship of the holy God
with sinful man. His eyes are too pure to behold
evil, and he will in no wise clear the guilty. Now, beloved,
there was another man known to the early church. There was another
man known to the early church who wasted it and caused havoc
wherever he went to the church of God. Went to the homes of
believers and dragged them out of their house and cast them
into prison. This man made havoc of the church
and wasted the church of God. And he was even present when
they stoned Stephen. And he gave consent to them stoning
him. Beloved, Saul sought to rid the
world of Christ. Saul sought to rid the world
of Christ, if he could, of the name of Christ. That man's name
was Saul of Taurus. And after the grace of God came
upon him, after he's born again by the Holy Spirit of God, he
pens these words. This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into this world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. In another place he wrote,
unto me, who am less than the least of saints, is this grace
given, that I should preach among the Gentiles, the unsearchable
riches of Christ. Now Paul, Saul, and Levi were
the same in their natural state, weren't they? They were the same
in their natural state, beloved. Both of them are examples of
what it takes to save cruel, fierce, wicked men. What is that,
one may ask? What does it take to save such
cruel, fierce, wicked men? Beloved of God, only the sovereign,
majestic, free, and sovereign grace of God will suffice. Only
the grace of God can turn such men into trophies of God's grace.
And that's all in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And we
who believe know that to be true. Because that same power, that
same grace, that same savior they had is the one who saved
us by his grace and by his mercy. By nature, every one of us, every
one of us by nature in our natural state has been weighed in the
balances and found wanting. Every one of us. Weighed in the
balances and found wanting. balances of God's justice, and
yet God's chosen people, his blood-washed saints, the purchased
ones of the Lord Jesus Christ, have been declared in Christ,
they've been declared to be righteous priests. Righteous priests, made
fit for the service of God. That's God's amazing sovereign
grace at work. That's God's amazing sovereign
grace at work, beloved. Truly, this is sovereign grace
and mercy on display, as we are all by nature vile sinners and
God-hating rebels. That's our natural state, beloved. And how is natural man described
in the Scriptures? Well, destruction and misery
are in their ways, and with their mouth they have used deceit,
the poison of asps is under their tongue. Natural man's also said
to never seek God, and that there's none righteous, no, not one.
Weighed in the balances and found one. This was Paul and Levi's
natural state, and it was the natural state of every born-again,
blood-washed believer. That's where the Lord found us.
But praise be to God, it doesn't end there for us. We're not left
in that situation, are we? Just as God separated Levi from
the rest of Israel, God's people are separated from the world,
set apart to be priests and kings for the Lord. And this is true
of every child of God. At the appointed time, God visits
us what? In mercy, doesn't he? The day
you heard the gospel, beloved, the day you first heard the gospel
in power by the power of the Holy Spirit of God being born
again by his Spirit, God visited you in mercy. And you know what? He keeps visiting us in mercy,
doesn't he? We who are his people. He keeps
visiting us in mercy, beloved. Oh, it's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. So think upon this. We see the
glory of the sovereign grace of God as we see the difference
between the description of Levi, remember, in his natural state,
right? Going there and murdering all
them people. Now let's go back to Numbers
chapter 3. Look at the difference here of Levi's position in nature
in Genesis 34 and his position in grace in Numbers 3. So his
position in Genesis 34 was his position in nature. Now, look
at his position in grace here, beloved. Look at this, Numbers
3, verses 5 to 8. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Bring the tribe of Levi in here. Again, he commanded
that. And present them before Aaron the priest, that they may
minister unto him. And they shall keep his charge,
and the charge of the whole congregation, before the tabernacle of the
congregation. to do the service of the tabernacle.
They're servants of the Most High, beloved, just like every
believer. And they shall keep all the instruments of the tabernacle
of the congregation in the charge of the children of Israel to
do the service of the tabernacle. So I ask you this, who made the
difference? Who made the difference between
all the other tribes of Israel and the tribe of Levi? Who made
the difference? God made the difference. We know
it wasn't Levi. He had no power to do that. He
was commanded to come forth in his tribe. So we see that God
brings sinners from the dunghill to be seated among princes, doesn't
he? That's what he does. That's what he does. Now let's
go over to Numbers chapter eight, and we'll read verses five to
eight again. Keep this in mind that it's only
God's sovereign grace that has made us to differ. Only God's
sovereign grace. Numbers chapter 8 verses 5 to
8, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the Levites from
among the children of Israel, and cleanse them. And thus shalt
thou do unto them, to cleanse them, sprinkle water of purifying
upon them, and let them shave all their flesh, and let them
wash their clothes, and so make themselves clean. Then let them
take a young bullock with his meat offering, even fine flour
mingled with oil, and another young bullock shall thou take
for a sin offering. So that first offering, the young
bullock with his meat offering, is the burnt offering. And then
the other one is the sin offering. Now on what ground can God, who
is just, be holy and bring such a one as Levi to be his honored
priest and his family? On what ground can God, who is
holy and just, bring us, who are his people, to be his honored
priests? But we know that Levi didn't
volunteer for the job, did he? We know that from the scriptures,
he didn't volunteer for the job. He didn't say, well Lord, I'm
making a decision out of all the tribes here, I'm going to be
that priest. No, he didn't. No. It's God who made the difference,
isn't it? It's God who made the difference.
He didn't make a move toward God, and in our natural state,
And in his natural state, he probably wanted to be as far
away from God as possible. Even though he'd been raised
in a family, knowing about who God was and all that, we saw
that he was a murderous man in his natural state. But beloved,
he was chosen by God. He was a chosen vessel. And so
were all those of his tribe. All the men were chosen to be
priests by God. My oh my, we're chosen people,
beloved. We're chosen by God to be a royal
priesthood, like we saw over there in 1 Peter 2. Beloved, he, like us, is a chosen
vessel in Christ before the foundation of the world. He is part of the
royal priesthood of God, as the scripture declares, blessed.
is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee.
Again, blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach
unto thee. Thy people shall be made willing
in the day of thy power. We are blessed people. We are
blessed because we're chosen by God and we're blessed because
he's caused us to approach him. Remember, there's none that seeketh
after God. So that would seem like an impossible
state for man, wouldn't it? But with God, all things are
possible, our Savior said. Thy people, God's people, shall
be made willing in a day of His, God's power. Oh, it's wonderful. It's wonderful. Wonderful. Look at Numbers chapter 8 there
in verse 7. We see a clear picture of the
principle of divine cleansing here. Numbers chapter 8 verse
7, And thus shalt thou do unto them, to cleanse them, sprinkle
water of purifying upon them, and let them shave all their
flesh, and let them wash their clothes, and so make themselves
clean. Now two things are brought forth
here very clearly before us about God's people, and these two things
represent what Christ has done for us by His death on Calvary's
cross as our substitute. Purifying and washing And we
see shaving, picture the work of Christ in cleansing the sinner.
Picture the work of Christ in cleansing the sinner. Work cleansed
by His precious blood. Work cleansed by the water of
His Word, beloved. And the shaving pictures that
which is cut off that by nature grows naturally. And these are
wonderful truths before us. And how wonderful is the Word
of God. We are cleansed again by the
washing of the Word, by the power of the Holy Spirit of God, And
the Spirit of God has dominion over our nature, over our old
nature. We're born again, beloved. We
have a new nature. And the shaving of hair, Brother
Tim James brought forth this, the shaving of hair so accurately
depicts man's nature, even as he has been saved by grace, it
still grows back. Remember what I said this morning?
Oh, the flesh, the flesh, the flesh. That battle will go on
until the day we go home to be with the Lord, beloved. And again
he says this, the shaving of the hair teaches us that our
nature, our old nature, is never involved in the service of God.
It also teaches that it cannot be reformed because it keeps
growing back. We battle the flesh, don't we? We battle the flesh.
Oh my. It must be cut off, and that
by the razor of the spirit, the double-edged sword of the Lord.
which pierces even to the dividing sunder of soul and spirit and
to the joints and marrow and is discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. This flesh will never, never,
never improve. It'll be a constant thorn to
us until we go home to be with the Lord. Again, what's the three
enemies we have? The world, the flesh, and the
devil. Those are our three enemies. Oh my. But beloved, the razor
keeps it in check, doesn't it? preaching of the finished work
of Christ. Oh, and the believer rejoicing
in that precious truth. Oh, the razor will keep it in
check. Sin shall no longer have dominion over God's people, and
it doesn't now. We're still plagued by it, but
it does not have the dominion that it once had over us. Again,
I was talking to Brother Donnie this week, and he brought out
that statement. You've heard me say it many times,
talking with him. He said, he said, Wayne, do you sin more
than you want? Oh, absolutely, brother. Is it so for you? Do you sin more than you want?
Every believer will say, yeah, I sin way more than I want to.
Well, one day when we're delivered from this body of flesh, it'll
be gone. It'll be gone. That'll be a glorious
day, won't it? Oh, that'll be a glorious day.
That'll be a day of great rejoicing. Not just because we're delivered
from the body of flesh, but more importantly, because we'll see
our Savior face to face. Oh my. Sin shall no longer have
dominion over you because you are not under the law, but under
grace. Under grace. So one of the first lessons we
are taught by the Holy Spirit of God is that our old nature
is judged, condemned, and sentenced to death. We still battle with
it, but as far as the condemnation of our sin, it's gone. Christ
paid for it all. Christ paid for it all. And we
are taught that whatever is produced by nature is condemned by God
and will never be used in the service of the priesthood. But
rejoice, beloved of God, rejoice! We are purified by the blood
of Christ. We are made righteous by the
divine act of imputation. Declared righteous. Made righteous
by being clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And we also see the
washing of the clothes Beloved of God, this is representative
of the self-judgment of the condemnation of our nature from our own hearts.
A new heart. A new heart which hungers and
thirsts after righteousness. And we have a new garment, don't
we, that we now wear. I just mentioned it, the righteousness
of Christ. We didn't put it on ourselves,
God put it on us, beloved. Just like the prodigal that comes
home, right? Father says, bring forth the
best robe. The best robe represents the
righteousness of Christ. And who puts it on that prodigal?
The Father puts it on the prodigal. We are clothed by our great God
with the righteousness of Christ, beloved. It's marvelous. It's
wonderful. So rejoice, beloved of God. We
are purified by the blood of Christ, made righteous by a divine
act of imputation. And we again have a new garment
that we wear. It's been given to us by the
grace of God, and it's the righteousness of Christ. And we are made clean
in God's eyes by the blood of Christ and the righteousness
of Christ. And what do we say? Praise His mighty name. What
a great God we have. Now let's look at verse 8, Numbers
8, 8. Then let them take a young bullock
with his meat offering, even fine flour mingled with oil.
And another young bullock shall I take for a sin offering. Here
we see before us, in our text, both a burnt offering and a sin
offering. And both of them symbolize the
life of the priest. Let's read verses 10-12 of the
same chapter. Let's go down a little bit. Numbers
8, verses 10-12. And now shall bring the Levites
before the Lord, and the children of Israel shall put their hands
upon the Levites, and Aaron shall offer the Levites before the
Lord, Aaron being the high priest, for an offering of the children
of Israel, that they may execute the service of the Lord. And
the Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the Bolochs,
and thou shalt offer the one for a sin offering and the other
for a burnt offering unto the Lord, to make an atonement for
the Levites. Both of these offerings represented
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, and yet each
had a different distinction as to the believer's confession
of faith. The burnt offering pictured Christ fulfilling the
will of God in the voluntary sacrifice for His people. He voluntarily sacrificed Himself
for His people. It showed that Christ's work,
when our sins were imputed to Him, His death as the sinless,
spotless Lamb of God, accomplished God's will in the salvation of
His elect. And this work was between God
and his son. And it resulted in the full acceptance
of Christ's sacrifice to the full satisfaction of God. And
we are in Christ. Therefore, we are accepted in
the beloved, aren't we? We're accepted in the beloved.
Fully accepted by God. And the fire, actually this too,
this was bought out. The fire represented justice
satisfied. It burned up the sacrifice. It
represented justice satisfied, and then it's extinguished. Well,
the justice of God against us is being extinguished, beloved.
All the wrath that was due us fell upon our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And Christ being accepted, it
fall that all who were in Him were accepted by God also. And
this offering pictured acceptance before God. That which Christ
did was wholly accomplished by Him and Him alone. We are accepted
in another. We are accepted in Christ. Those
Levites, they put their hands on that sacrifice, and that sacrifice
pictured Christ, beloved. We are, oh beloved, we are accepted
in Christ, in Him alone. By the work that He wholly accomplished,
all by Himself, all by Himself. So we see in the burnt offering
a picture of His sacrifice. Now the next, the sin offering,
the priest placed his hands on the head of the offering, but
did not confess his sin. The act of placing his hands
on the head of the sacrifice was identifying with the accomplishment
or the acceptance of Christ. He was saying that the merits
of the sacrifice were transferred to him. The merits of the sacrifice
were transferred to him. And he was by this act saying
he was accepted before God. He was confessing that he was
accepted. And he's only accepted based upon the sacrifice. based
upon the sacrifice. The sin offering also represented
the death of Christ but differed in that it represented the sins
of the believer being put away by the sacrifice of Christ. Put
away. The sin offering was a confession
of sin with the knowledge that God was just to forgive because
he had already accepted the burnt offering and them in it. What
a picture of Christ. You see how tonight we're looking
at one of those pictures that are in the Old Testament of what
Christ has done. And the sin offering was for
those who were already accepted through the merits of the burnt
offering. The burnt offering was first. And the sin offering
was for those who were already accepted through the merits of
the burnt offering. It was exclusive. Only those who are trusting in
the merits of Christ, believing that they are accepted wholly
upon His merits, are qualified to confess their sin to God.
who is just to forgive them. And that's why we say to Christ,
that's why Christ said, look unto me and live. He's pictured
in those sacrifices, beloved. And the only way the Israelites
were accepted, well, we know that those could never take away
sin, but it pictured the one sacrifice, the one true sacrifice,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who takes away the sins of his people.
We are accepted in him. We are accepted in our sacrifice,
the one who willingly Offer Himself up as our sacrifice, the Lord
Jesus Christ. My, oh, my. And look in chapter
8 there, in verse 12. Chapter 8, verse 12. And the
Levites shall lay their hands upon the heads of the bullock,
and thou shalt offer the one for sin offering and the other
for a burnt offering unto the Lord to make an atonement for
the Levites. Well, here the sin offering is
first mentioned and then the burnt offering. This is a sweet
reminder that all of salvation was accomplished by Christ alone.
Beloved of God, our sins were imputed to Christ. They were
imputed to Christ. And His righteousness was imputed
to us. And He died the sinless, spotless Lamb of God in our place. So ye sons of Levi, rejoice! Christ has accomplished our salvation.
And you know why? Because it was all by God's sovereign
grace and mercy to His people in Christ. Praises my name.