Numbers chapter 6, verses 22-27.
We're looking at verse 24, the second phrase we looked at last
week, the Lord bless thee. And then today we're going to
look at, and the Lord keep thee. The Lord keep thee. Now, this benediction, as it's
used, or decree of Jehovah God, this declaration to usward, His
feeble sheep, the Lord keep thee. When I read that, to me it presupposes
that we need to be kept. But why would He say that? If
we had all this awesome free will power and this awesome strength
and we were so strong in faith. No, to me it presupposes we need
to be kept. Secondly, it presupposes we are
incapable of keeping ourselves. No matter how good we think we
are, or how young, or how industrious, or smart, or ever-present our
mind may be, we are incapable. We're incapable. We're going
to get older. The body breaks down. The mind
breaks down. Everything breaks down. And we
return, the scripture says, to dust. And thirdly, I think just
the fact that the Lord keep thee presupposes, I think, perhaps
our greatest need. Perhaps our greatest need. We talked about it. morning,
talked about it back there, you look around and there's not too
many people here. Comparative to Cape County, compared
to the city of Jackson, there's a lot of churches and they're
filled. They don't have to worry about
being kept because God does his share, you do yours, the cooperative
effort between man and God, that's not what we believe. We believe
God is all-sufficient, He's God of all grace, and this perhaps
is our greatest need. If God, through Christ, enabled
by the Holy Spirit of grace, does not keep us, we will walk
the way of apostasy. We've seen that in our midst.
We've seen people come for years, not even maybe two or three Sundays,
they don't like what they hear, they can go to somewhere else
and they can hear what their itching ears are to be scratched. But we know that if God does
not keep us, the Lord, the Lord Jehovah, bless Thee, the Lord
Jehovah, keep Thee, if He doesn't keep us, we'll walk away. There's too many enticements
in this country, in this world, there's too many things that
occupy our time, We'll just walk away. Now we may remain religious,
and a lot of people do, but I don't want to be religious. I want
to know Christ. I want to know whom I believe,
and I want to be persuaded that He is able to keep that which
I've committed unto Him against that day. He will. He certainly
will. So the first point is, we must be kept. Turn to 1 Peter
chapter 1. We must be kept. The Lord keep
thee. 1 Peter 1 3-5 1 Peter 1 3-5 Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. which, according to His abundant
mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled, that fades not away, reserved in heaven for
you, you, us, as it is in numbers, who are kept by the power of
God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. Not only do we have a place in
glory, an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, reserved, that's reservation. It's not if we make it, we will
make it because we are kept through faith. We are kept through faith. This grace declared and this
grace given is necessary for us daily. Why? Well, I kind of stated it. I
call it the trinity of evil. I borrowed that phrase from somebody. Satan, the world, and our flesh
is ever-present. It's ever-present. That's why
we need to be kept. This should be a constant prayer,
morning prayer, of ours. Lord, keep me today. Lord, keep
me tonight. Lord, keep me in your truth. Lord, keep my family. Lord, keep the church. Lord,
keep me in providence, in your fear. Keep me safe, whether I'm
at home or I'm abroad. Keep me according to your precious
promises. Keep me, as David said, as the
apple of his eye. Psalms chapter 17 verse 8, keep
me as the apple of your eye. Secondly, surely he will keep. We need to be kept. But if we're
his, if we're his lambs, if we're his sheep, remnant, chosen, the
elect, we shall be kept. I have questions, several questions. Did God send his son to die for
us? Historically, yes. Biblically,
yes. Really, truly, yes. Secondly,
did the Son fulfill all righteousness for us? Scripturally, yes. Did the Holy Spirit convince
us of sin, righteousness, and judgment? Is not God's decree
irreversible? It cannot be changed. It's gone
forth. It's greater than the kings of
the Medes and Persians. It's greater than Nebuchadnezzar.
His decrees cannot be reversed. Is not God the Father, and God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, supreme and sovereign in all
things? Yes, yes, and yes. Shall any
one thing fail that God has set in order? No. We will be kept. We will be kept. Then we shall
be kept or else God has failed and He cannot be God as made
known to us in the Scriptures. The Scriptures, basically what
I'm saying is the Scripture knows nothing of an unsuccessful Redeemer
or an unsuccessful Keeper of the sheep. They're saved. Now,
He may allow us to wander, You have to come and get us and throw
us over a shoulder or break a leg. That's afflictions. That's trials. That's tribulations. But He will
not forsake. He must find the wandering sheep. Turn with me to 1 Samuel 2. 1
Samuel 2. The Lord, O my soul, and all
that is within me." 1 Samuel 2, and the first part of verse 9. He, that is God, will keep the
feet of His saints. Do you believe the Lord Jesus
Christ? Do you believe the record that
the Father gave of His Son? It's a declaration like in Numbers. It's not if, and, or, maybe.
He will keep the feet of His saints. Psalms 121. Psalms 121. If we say we're not going to
be kept, then comes into question our understanding of His existence
and attributes. God is God. As Bruce read in
Isaiah, He's the only One. He's the Great I Am. There's
Him and none else. Psalms 121 and verse 3, He will
not suffer Thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth Thee will not
slumber. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber." So when we're sleeping, when we're not worried about
bombs falling on our head, or disease at the front door, or
the back door, we're not worried about neighbors coming in and
stealing anything, He never slumbers nor sleeps. He's awake all the
time. The Lord blessed thee in Christ. If He's blessed thee in Christ,
which we looked at last week, He's going to keep you. He's
going to keep you. There's no way our God can fail. As mentioned so many times from
this pulpit before, if your God is like the God of modern religion,
we're in trouble. We're in trouble. He does not
try to accomplish anything. He spoke, and the world's were. He touched, and the people were
healed. He said, Come unto Me, all you
that labor, and those who have come, He will keep. He will keep. Thirdly, therefore, let us rest
in Him and His keeping mercy. It's not up to us. Let us just
rest. Let us lay down our tools for
working. Let us lay down our self-righteousness. Let us lay down our haughtiness.
Let us lay down our previous religious experience. Let us
lay it all at the feet of the cross, submit to Him, and let
us rest in Him. We looked at Abraham this morning.
How did Abraham endure? How did he endure? He didn't
have electricity. He didn't have running water.
He didn't have refrigeration. I've got to think about that. Something happens, we lose power.
We're probably in trouble in maybe a week, depending on what
we've got. But this society, we're so reliant
on electricity, so reliant on all these things. How did Abraham
endure? By faith. What about David? What about Jeremiah, the weeping
prophet? Peter, John, or any of God's chosen elect remnant?
All the saints, and that's who he's addressing in Numbers 6,
and no others, all the saints throughout all time will be kept. It doesn't matter the society
they live in. We could be captive. The big
scare is China's going to come. If they come, we will be kept. If things aren't going to be
the same, we'll be kept. We'll be kept. All the same,
it doesn't matter. Young, old, weak, frail. As this
generation, as past generations, the just shall live by faith.
That's it. That's it. Now I know we get
modernized, and science, and medicine, and all these different
things. I understand it. And the Lord uses these things
to help us. But they never, ever should take
the place of faith. It doesn't matter what society,
what time you live in, It doesn't matter about that.
Surgeries and medications and all these different things. Yes,
the Lord uses those to help us. But you strip all that off, and
I still stand on what the Word of God says, that just shall
live by faith. Not faith and technology. Not faith in my wallet. Not faith
in Believe me, every morning I wake
up, the pills, gotta take these pills. Now that's keeping me
alive. Whoa, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not keeping me
alive. Christ is using that. I don't have any problems. But
what if something happens, you know, like I read something the
other day, some prescriptions maybe get, oh, what's gonna happen? The just shall live by faith. Well, you may not live as long.
Excuse me. It's given unto man once to die.
It's an appointed time. We're not going to live any longer,
any shorter. I know somebody said, well, I
want to live healthier. Careful. Careful. Your days are
numbered. You're going to live as you're
supposed to live. Now, again, There's presuming
on His grace. Well, if God's sovereign, then
I don't need to pay my bills. No. We talk about that in James. You're going to do what you're
supposed to do. You're going to submit to the authority. But when it
goes against God, my point is, we who have so little faith,
I could never encourage myself through the Word. I could never
encourage you enough to live by faith. Too many examples. You of little faith. We will
go get something, pull our pocketbook, all these different things. The
just shall live by faith. Why? Because the Lord blessed
us. And secondly, the Lord was going
to keep us. He's going to keep us. Why? Because we're wiser? We're more studious? Are we living
today's society? No. We will be kept simply because
Turn to Luke chapter 12. We will be kept because Luke chapter 12 and verse
32 says, Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good
pleasure to give you the kingdom. You know, there's something so relaxing, there's something
so peaceful about simply leaning and laying and resting upon the
Word of God. You know, Eli, his sons were
wicked. He didn't do a good job of raising
them. They died and he said, it's the Lord's will, let him
do what... And then David, that's that example. There's examples throughout all
the Scripture. David's getting tossed. The guy's throwing rocks
at him. He said, let him alone. Let him
alone. The Lord told him to do that.
In Romans, we're going to be getting to Abraham believed in
hope against hope. You get all this good advice,
you've got to do this, you've got to do that. How about just hoping
in God? He's blessed us. He's going to
keep us. He truly will. It's the Lord's good pleasure
to give us the kingdom. And we know in John 1 it's not by might,
by will, but it's by His grace. We know in Ephesians 2, 8 and
9, for by grace are you saved. This grace is tied in with blessing. This grace is tied in with keeping.
Turn to Zechariah chapter 4. Zechariah chapter 4. Verse 6, "...then he answered
and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto
Zerubbabel, saying, Not by your might or your power, but by my
Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." That's how we're kept. That's
how we're blessed. That's how the Lord's face is
going to shine upon us. And be gracious, and we'll look
at these, Lord willing, in weeks to come. Turn to Jeremiah chapter
9. It's Jeremiah chapter 9 and verse
23 and 24. Again, how are we kept? Why are
we kept? Thus saith the Lord, let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory
in his might. Let not the rich man glory in his riches. And
these are things that we tend to do. That's why He's saying
it. But, let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understands
and knows Me. How is that? Because we've been
blessed of God. But I am the Lord which exercised loving kindness,
judgment, righteousness in the earth. For in these things I
delight, saith the Lord." And if He delights in these things,
He's going to delight in keeping His people. Jeremiah 32. All hail the King of kings and
Lord of lords who delights to show mercy. He exalts the humble,
but He resists the proud. If you resist Him, He will surely
resist you. What a blessing to be kept by
our gracious, majestic Lord and Savior. And I close with this. How are we kept? Jeremiah 32 and verse 27. Behold,
I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. It really comes down to
this. Is there anything too hard for
me? Is there anything too hard for
our God? Is it too hard for Him to save
our children? How about our mother and father?
How about our neighbors? How about our grandchildren? No. No. I've got it circled in my Bible. Is there anything too hard for
me? Well, if I didn't have this extra
money, no. If I didn't have this, oh, there's
a new drug coming out, that's my answer. Oh, I can't wait until Kate gets
this surgical procedure. Then I'll be like I was at 25. No, you won't. No, you won't. You'll be what you're supposed
to be. A child, a servant of the Most High God. Because He's
blessed us. And the Lord keepeth thee, thee, me. Take it as a promise and run
with it. The Lord bless us indeed. Bruce,
would you close us?