Numbers chapter 6, reiterated
time and time again, this is used by pastors at the end of
the message of benediction. They do this and that, and I
got to looking at it and looking at what Philpott said about each
individual one and put them into bulletins. And I thought, you
know, this would be good to preach. each section. And today we're
going to look at verse 25, the last section. 25b, the Lord be
gracious unto thee. The Lord be gracious unto thee. That's what we're going to be
looking at. And I introduce this thought
regarding this section of Scripture If Christ be the cornerstone
or the headstone of the church, surely grace is the linchpin
within that cornerstone. If Christ is the cornerstone,
and He is, if He's the headstone, and He is, grace is the linchpin. Grace is the linchpin. John Newton
said, amazing grace, how sweet the sound. that saved a wretch
like me. Turn to Zechariah 4. We'll see
Christ here. In Zechariah 4, verse 7, He says, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel,
thou shalt become a plain, and He shall bring forth the headstone
thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it." Christ is our cornerstone, and
here in that passage, He's our headstone. Wherever you see Christ,
You'll see grace. As a matter of fact, grace is
so intertwined with the Gospel declaration that if you remove
grace, you have no Gospel. You have no Gospel. We heard
that this morning in Bible class. If you remove grace from what
you're saying is the Gospel, you have no Gospel. I've got
three simple points. To whom comes this grace? Well, look in our text. And the
Lord be gracious unto thee. Whom is He gracious to? Well,
let's look at a few examples that we know either picture salvation
or is salvation. Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15. We'll start in verse 11. Luke 15 verse
11. To whom is this grace, does it
come to? And Christ said, a certain man
had two sons. The younger of them said unto
his father, give me my portion of goods that falls to me. And
he divided it unto them in his living. And not many days after,
the younger son gathered all together and took his journey
to a far country and wasted his substance with riotous living.
And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that
land, and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself
to a citizen of that country and sent him into his fields
to feed swine. And he would fain have filled
his belly with the husk that the swine did eat, and no man
gave unto him. And when he came to himself,"
that would be a Holy Spirit conviction, he said, "'How many hired servants
of my father's have bread enough to spare, and I perish with hunger,
I will arise and go to my Father, and will say unto Him, Father,
I have sinned against Heaven and before Thee, and am no more
worthy." And remember that, no more worthy to be called by son.
Make me as one of your higher servants. And he arose, came
to his Father, but when he was yet a great way off, His father
saw him in covenant love and graciousness and had compassion and ran and
fell on his neck and kissed him. And his son said unto him, Father,
I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight. And am no more
worthy to be called thy son. But the father said unto his
servants, Bring forth the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and shoes
on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it,
and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead, and
is alive again, was lost, and is found, and they began to be
merry. The Lord be gracious unto thee."
Now I was speaking to Melinda about this, and I said, well
this is obviously salvation, and I've always looked at this
as salvation. But it also occurred to me that this is what the scene in
heaven is going to be like, or this is the believer's walk,
or a person whom the Lord has chosen on this earth. And this
earth is a swine. It's a pigsty. That's this world. And we get our feet wet, our
feet dirty, muddy. Christ says, wash one another's
feet. We do that. But He's going to bring us home.
We're going to come home. This is the picture of us in
this earth. He's going to bring us home. And we're going to be... clothed us with His righteous
robe, put His ring on. I'm not sure what that means,
but that's a good thing. Gonna kill the fatty calf. But
this is His taking care of us right now. Oh, we don't like
to think that we... and we do join ourselves oftentimes
to a citizen of that country. We shouldn't. We're not of this
world, but we do. We intermingle far more than
we should. Nobody here to help. That's obvious. You try to talk to people about
the gospel, they don't want to talk to you. But we're going
to make it home. He's going to bring us home.
But this passage is first and foremost a picture of salvation. It's His grace. The Lord is gracious
to us. Stay in Luke and go to Luke chapter
23. Luke chapter 23. Verse 39, and one of the malefactors,
which was hanged, railed on him, saying, If thou be the Christ,
save thyself and us. But the other, answering, rebuked
him, saying, Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same
condition? And we indeed justly. There is
self-condemnation. For we receive the due reward
of our deeds. But this man had done nothing
amiss. And that one, That one thief on the cross said unto
Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt
thou be with me in paradise. Today. There's no waiting. There's no waiting. There's no
purgatory. There's none of that nonsense.
And Christ is Christ regardless. Humanly speaking, physically
speaking, is perhaps the lowest and weakest point. And still,
He saved a sinner. He saved one of two. He selected
one of two. That's the Lord being gracious. Esther. Esther chapter 5. Esther Chapter 5. Esther is not supposed to go
in to the king without being appointed to do so. You just
don't walk in to the king. But the matter was urgent. Mordecai
had spoken with her and said, we, the Jews, are in danger of
being wiped out. You've got to go in or the Lord
is going to raise somebody else to do it. Esther 5 verse 1. Now it came to pass on the third
day that Esther put on her royal apparel and stood in the inner
court of the king's house over against the king's house and
the king sat upon his royal throne on the royal house over against
the gate of the house. And it was so when the king saw
Esther the queen standing in the court that she obtained favor. obtained favor in his sight,
and the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in
his hand. So Esther drew near and touched
the top of the scepter. Oh, to grace, how great a debtor
daily I am constrained to be, says the writer of Come Thou
Fount. Ted did not have an appointment,
but the need was great. And this king, she found, obtained favor in
his sight. What did she do? Nothing. Nothing. The Lord be gracious unto thee.
It's unmerited. We can't earn it. We can't work
for it. It is. It is. Matthew chapter
8. And we could go on and on, but
this will be the last one. I thought these were good. Matthew chapter 8 and verse 8. Starting in Matthew 8, verse
5, And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto
him a centurion beseeching him, saying, Lord, my servant lieth
at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus said unto
him, I will come and heal him. And the centurion answered and
said, Lord, I am not worthy. Seems like we've heard that before.
that thou should come under my roof, but speak the word only,
and my servant shall be healed. I am a man under authority, having
soldiers under me, and say unto this man, Go, and he goeth. And
unto another, come, and he cometh. And to my servant, do this, and
he doeth it. And Jesus heard it. He marvels unto them that
follow. Verily I say unto you, I have
not found so great faith. No, not in Israel. And I say
unto you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall
sit down with Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and the kingdom of heaven.
But the children of kingdom shall be cast out of the outer darkness,
where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus
said unto the centurion, Go thy way, as thou hast believed, so
it be done unto thee. And his servant was healed the
selfsame hour. The Lord be gracious unto thee. He didn't have to do this, but
on the other hand, he did because the man had faith, and that faith
is God-given. The Lord be gracious unto you,
unto me. These so-called Mephibosheths,
these examples that we've seen, the prodigal, and Esther, and
the thief, and the centurion, I call them Mephibosheths, they're
recipients of the grace of God. They all were unworthy, and they
all knew they were unworthy. And they acknowledged their unworthiness. They understood they could not
earn respect, they could not earn an audience. I ask us, do
we acknowledge this this morning? Do we acknowledge, you know,
we're here, we're church, we're churchy, we're all these things
that the world looks upon us. Do we acknowledge from the heart,
I am not worthy to come unto you. I'm not worthy. and look to Him and say, Lord,
be gracious unto Thee, to me. The second point is, how does
grace come? How does grace come? Well, John
chapter 1 and verse 17 said the law was Moses, but grace and
truth came by, came, came by Jesus Christ. It comes through
Christ. Ephesians 2, and we're familiar
with this passage of Scripture, but let's look at it once more. Ephesians 2, verses 4-10. But God, who is rich in mercy
for His great love, wherewith He loved us even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
are you saved. And hath raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ. that in the
ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace
in His kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. By grace that you
say through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift
of God, not of works, lest any should boast. For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. In Christ,
in Christ, God's grace, in Christ. They're inseparable. So how does
grace come? How does it be gracious to us?
Through Christ. It comes secondly, sovereignly.
Romans 9. Romans 9. Verse 15. It comes sovereignly. For God
said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and
I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then
it is not of him that willeth. or of him that runneth. But of
God that shows mercy. It comes through Christ. It comes
sovereignly. And Bruce read this morning Romans
chapter 11 verse 5 and 6, Even so, then at this present time
there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And
if by grace, then it's no more works. Otherwise, grace is no
more grace. But if it be of works, then it
is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.
That used to confuse me until the Lord opened my understanding. My understanding of my mind and
my heart. And I said, it's all of grace. All of grace from stem to stern,
alpha to omega, from beginning to end. I'm just a recipient. I didn't do anything for it. And thirdly, how does this grace
come? It comes through Christ. It comes sovereignly. and it
comes purposefully. starting in verse 14. And Boaz,
which is a type of Christ, said unto her, to Ruth at mealtime,
Come thou hither and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in
the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers,
and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat. and was sufficed
and left. And when she is risen up again,
Boaz commanded his young men saying, let her glean even among
the sheaves and reproach her not. And let fall of some of
handfuls of purpose for her and leave them that she may glean
them and rebuke her not. It's on purpose. It's on purpose. He told his man, when you're
gleaning, and that was his livelihood. He was going to make money on
this. He says, leave some in the field on purpose. I'm commanding you. I'm telling
you to leave some. And can we not look at our own
life, steeped probably most of us in false religion, and then
one day, You heard the truth of the gospel. He didn't hear
a false gospel. He doesn't use a lie. These were
handfuls of purpose. To snatch us as it were, as he
says, a brand plucked from the fire. Plucked from the fire. So how does this grace come?
It comes through Christ, it comes sovereignly, and it comes on
purpose. Be gracious unto me by the preaching of the cross
through faith. And he says his word will not come back void.
Second Corinthians 2, it's either life unto life or death unto
death. Every time the gospel is preached, it has an effect.
It has an effect. Now this third point, I looked
at this and I thought, well, We just preached the sovereign
grace of God. Look at our text. Let's go back
to our text in Numbers. The Lord, verse 25, this is the
second half, and the Lord be gracious unto thee. If God is
declared to be gracious unto thee, and listen to me, why not
Me. Every church is made up of believers
and unbelievers. It's just the way it is. Why not me? Now hold on. Hold on. I'm not inviting anybody to come
and do anything. It's like Scott Richardson would
say, believe on Christ and don't move a muscle. The Lord be gracious
unto thee. Am I unworthy? Am I born a rascal? May not have done anything, but
it's not what you do, it's what you are. It's who we are. We're
sinners, defiled, outside of the grace of God. It's like whosoever calls on
the name of the Lord shall be saved. This is not universal.
I can't give a particular call, but I certainly can give a general
call. I get texts every Sunday morning
from two preachers, and we always ask that the Lord
bless us. And I thought, I texted him this
morning, I said, maybe today is the day of salvation for some
poor sinner. Somebody listening? Listening
on the phone? Somebody here? It doesn't matter.
As other unworthy wretches once cried, remember me, Lord. Lord, save me ere I perish. Lord, help me. Did God have mercy
on me, a sinner? Abraham's plea for Lot, his brother,
he wrestled in prayer with the Lord for his brother. So I disclose
that the Lord would hear our petition and show Himself gracious
to all of us today. May the Lord be honored and praised
for His truth The Lord be gracious unto thee. Bruce, would you close
this?