Well, I want to continue the
theme that we've been looking at the last few weeks we've been
together, which is about blessing, about the Lord's blessing and
the nature of true blessing. True blessing, we've seen, true
blessing is in hearing the Word of God. You say, oh, lots of
people can hear the Word of God. hearing it, because the Holy
Spirit has opened and given that manner of entry that Paul said
to the Thessalonians. Hearing it in that way, hearing
it as if it is God, as it is, truly speaking in your heart.
Hearing the Word of God and keeping it, that's true blessing. True
blessing. Hearing and heeding that one
sign that is given, which is the sign of Jonah, which is the
gospel of sovereign grace and particular redemption, set forth
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Hearing and believing that one
sign, that is true blessing, to hear and to know that. But
we've seen that there are some things which hinder blessing. There's the leaven of the Pharisees.
Jesus says, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. What's the
leaven of the Pharisees? You know, leaven is yeast. It's
the thing that gets in and multiplies and spreads, and before long,
you put a tiny pinch in a bowl of flour and water, and before
too long, the yeast is everywhere. You microscopically examine it,
and there's not a place where it hasn't gone. It goes like
yeast through everything. And he said, beware of the Pharisees'
leaven. What's that? It's hypocrisy.
It's self-righteousness. It's legalistic dead religion,
which is everywhere. Beware of it in the flesh, because
your flesh is prone to it. Your flesh is so keen to have
something to do. It's that thing which makes,
as we saw in the study earlier, it's that thing which makes the
preaching of the cross a stumbling block to the religious folks.
Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. It's legalistic dead religion. And then he also warned his disciples
to beware of covetousness and to beware of worldly concern,
but rather put in place of those things seeking the kingdom of
God. Seeking the salvation of God. Seeking the assurance of the
gospel of redemption in Christ. Seek that kingdom. Seek it. Seek
it as if you must have it. Seek it, he says. Seek first
the kingdom of God, and he says in Matthew, and his righteousness
and all these other things that the world and the Gentiles and
the religious folks worry about, all these things will be added
to you. And he says, fear not. little
flock. Oh, you are a little flock. Fear
not, little flock, of his sheep, because this kingdom that you're
seeking, this kingdom, this kind of holy grail that you're trying
to get to and grasp after, he says, fear not, little flock,
because it is your heavenly father, the sovereign of the universe,
it is his good pleasure to give you that kingdom. Fear not, little
flock. They're blessings. And blessings
are pronounced on Israel, and so where I wanted to bring you
next was to the Old Testament, to the book of Numbers, and the
sixth chapter, and the blessing that is pronounced on Israel.
I've entitled this message, The Lord's Blessings on Israel, and
it's at the end of chapter six of Numbers. Numbers chapter six,
and verse twenty-two. most of chapter six is about
the law of the Nazarite and what somebody needed to do if he was
committing himself to the Lord and you know about not cutting
his hair and about not drinking wine and all that sort of thing
as a vow for a while so that's the law of the Nazarite and then
at the end of chapter six in verse twenty-two we have this
and the Lord spake unto Moses saying Speak unto Aaron and unto
his sons. Why Aaron and his sons? They
were the priests. They were the properly appointed
priests. Nobody else could do it. They were the priests. Speak
to Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the
children of Israel, saying unto them, Now, I'm sure you know
these words. I'm sure you've heard these words
before. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his
face to 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. Are these just cliches? You know,
you've heard them so many times. Are these just cliches? The Lord
bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee. Are they just cliches like
any other form of words? Are they just sound bites? Or
are they reality in your soul? That really speak deep down in
your soul? That when you read them, you
know that God is saying to you, the Lord bless thee, I've blessed
you. I will make my face to shine upon you. I will lift up my countenance
upon you and give you peace. Are these real things in your
soul? Blessing Israel and blessing
you individually. God speaks via his priest. speak to Aaron and his sons.
They were the ones that were committed to do this. God speaks
via his priest, via his intercessor, via his mediator. You know, a
mediator goes between two parties that are separated. A mediator,
you would have two countries and their governments are at
loggerheads, but you'd have a mediator go between them. You would have
a union and the employers and they would be at loggerheads,
but you would have a mediator go between them, and mediate
between them. What about man, us, sinners,
and God, who is holy? There is one mediator. There
is one between God and man. There is only one mediator between
God and man. There is absolutely no other.
It is the man, Christ Jesus, the God-man. He who is the Word,
in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God, He who is the word speaks by his word, this
book, the printed page that we have, to his people. And he speaks
words of blessing. He speaks words of divine favor. This is what blessing is. Words
of divine favor. God speaks to his people. Words
of divine favor. And they're not just platitudes,
or cliches, or soundbites. because they come from the mouth
of the sovereign, omnipotent God of the universe. He's sovereign
over all things and he can do all things. If he says it, it
is accomplished. Nobody, nothing, no thing at
all can thwart his pronounced will and purposes. He will accomplish
all of his purposes. Blessed are they that hear his
word, that hear his promises, that keep them. that rest upon
them, that take comfort from them. Israel, Israel was the
object of this blessing then. He said, you speak to the children
of Israel. It was Israel that was, particularly
of all the nations on the earth that there were then, it was
Israel to which these words were to be spoken. The Hebrew nation
then. It's symbolical. The Hebrew nation,
the Jews, the Israelites then, were the symbolical people of
the people of God in all ages, Jews and Gentiles. The Israel
of God, as Paul writes to the Galatians, chapter 6 and verse
16, the Israel of God, the people of God. Those who have been made
princes with God, because that's what Israel is. Jacob, the sinner,
the cheat, the swindler, was turned into Israel, a prince
with God. this is the elect of God that
he's speaking to these blessings are for God's elect and God's
elect alone that multitude which no man can number yet nevertheless
every one of them is there by the sovereign purpose and will
of the eternal God they're not necessarily attractive as men
and women count attractiveness like the Shulamite in the Song
of Solomon was scarred with the marks of hard labor in the fields
and the sun beating down upon her. And yet, she was loved with
a particular, peculiar love by Solomon, by the beloved. The Shulamite and Solomon's a
picture of it. These are objects of sovereign
grace. Israel, the elect of God, the
people of God, objects of sovereign grace. wedded to Christ before
time began. You know, we've been thinking
a lot recently about Romans 8, 29. Called, then he also called. He called in eternity with the
name of his Son, wedded to Christ before time began, redeemed by
blood, not generally, Not everybody, and left open as an option, but
particularly these people, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, paying
the price of the sins of those people, in a way I don't understand,
but absolutely, effectually, accomplishing the job. And these
people, this Israel, upon whom blessings are pronounced, is
the Church. It's also called the church.
It's the church of the living God. It's the church of the true
people of God. The church of the people who
have heard the word of God, the gospel of his grace, and believed
it. And this blessing, in number
six, is paralleled by that best-known blessing in the New Testament,
at the end of 2 Corinthians, chapter 13 and verse 14. It's
the one that's most commonly used in pronouncing blessings
at the end of services. where the person leading the
service will say, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the
love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you
all. Amen. It's parallel. Did you
notice that in this blessing in numbers, three times we hear
the Lord bless, the Lord make, the Lord lift up. Speaks of the
Trinity. The blessing in the New Testament,
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. The love of God the Father, the
communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen. The Trinity
is there in this blessing. The Triune God in all of his
offices is there in this blessing. Blessings on the people of God.
But it's also addressed to each believer individually. God is
commanding his spokesman, Aaron and his sons, the priest, his
spokesman, to pronounce his most sublime divine favor on each
believing child of his. This isn't just Israel corporately,
it is, but it isn't just that, it's What does he say? Say to
them this, the Lord bless thee, the Lord bless thee, the Lord
make his face to shine upon thee, the Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee. It's very personal, it's felt
very personally. You know this very, very personally.
Bless thee, keep thee, upon thee, gracious unto thee. Be with you
all, individually. Amen. This pronouncement is the
Lord's blessing. The Lord bless thee. Aaron was
to give it. His spokesman was to give it.
His sons were to give the blessing out to those people individually. But note it's the Lord's blessing.
It isn't Aaron's blessing. It's not Aaron say, I bless you.
It's the Lord bless you. we don't have blessings by popes
and priests as so many put their trust in, they don't have blessings
by saints and other catholic superstitions and let's not just
stick to catholicism and all of its superstitions There's
an equivalent amount in what you might regard as orthodox,
reformed evangelical Christianity, where people have put pastors
in the place of popes, and elders have been elevated to the place
of priests, and churches have got that position in people's
minds. No, this is the Lord's blessing.
The Lord's blessing. Not your church situation that
will bless you, the Lord will bless you. The Lord bless you
and keep you. So let's look at the components
of these blessings and apply them to our experience. First
of all, the Lord bless thee and keep thee, in verse 24. The Lord
bless thee and keep thee. The whole of the scripture is
quite clear that the source, that the root of all divine blessing
is our Heavenly Father, is God the Father and His love. The
love of God. This is what Paul writes to the
Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 13, 14. The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the love of God. That's the love of God the Father.
How can I substantiate this? Let me read out something of
what we read earlier on in the service. Ephesians 1, verses
3 to 6. be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us, the Lord bless thee, who
has blessed us in Christ, that's the only place he blesses us,
in Christ, with every, oh, people who say, oh, the Lord blesses
me, I'm leaving it in the Lord, no, the Lord doesn't bless outside
of Christ, only in Christ does he bless, he's blessed us in
Christ, with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places,
even as He chose us in Him. How is He not going to bless
us? If He's chosen us in Him before the foundation of the
world that we should be holy and blameless before Him, that
He should make us holy and blameless in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
how is He not going to bless us? In love He predestined us
for adoption. How is He not going to bless
us? has sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his
will, which cannot be thwarted, to the praise of his glorious
grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved. The Lord,
God the Father, bless you and keep you. Do you see Thee individually? As a church? As a church worldwide? In all times? Yes, but individually? You? Me? The Lord bless Thee. He's blessed us in the Beloved. He's blessed us. 1 Peter chapter
1 and verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Exactly the same form of words
as in Ephesians. which according to his abundant
mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. We've got a solid basis for a
hope of eternity. Christ is risen. He's risen from
the dead. He's the first fruits. His people
are going to be raised in Him and taken to glory. That's a
lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
And we're going to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled. Every earthly inheritance is
corruptible and defiled and fades away, but this one doesn't fade
away. It's reserved in the heaven for
you who are kept by the power of God through faith. Kept by
the power of God. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. He will keep you Jesus said that
his sheep will be kept. Not one of them will be lost.
He will keep every single one of them. They will all be taken
to glory. This is the Father's will, that
of all He has given Him, I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up at the last day. Nothing, no one can pluck the
sheep of God out of the Father's hands. Nobody can do that. My
Father is greater than all. He's blessed us. He will keep
us by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to
be revealed in the last time. John 17, verse 11. the man, Christ
Jesus, our great intercessor, our glorious Savior, praying
as a man to His Father before He goes to the cross, praying
for His people, praying for the accomplishment of that for which
He came. Holy Father, He prays. the Son,
the second person, praying to the Father, the first person,
Holy Father, keep through thine own name, through your own characteristics,
through your own purposes, keep through thine own name those
whom thou hast given me. He prays that his people will
be kept. This is the Father's blessing.
It all springs from His love and from His grace in eternity.
It doesn't spring from any merit in the objects of His grace,
it springs entirely from His absolutely unmerited love and
grace. It's sovereign. It's particular
for a particular people. Why? I don't know. But God has
chosen it this way. to choose to save some, to choose
to redeem some, to choose to satisfy His justice for some
in His own Son. It's effectual, it isn't general,
and that's how it gets the job done, and that's how it pays
the sin debt of His people. This is why our Lord Jesus Christ
said to His disciples when things were happening and they were
going out two by two and they were finding that the devils
were subject to them and all sorts of things like that and
he said to them rejoice not that these things are happening but
be glad in this, rejoice in this that your names are written in
heaven. Ah, because if your names are
written in heaven everything else is sorted, everything else
is not an issue, not a problem. If God has written your name
in the Lamb's Book of Life then he will accomplish every purpose
he has, every blessing he has for you. But how does the father's
blessing and keeping manifest itself? I wonder, you know, think
of this in your experience. How does his blessing manifest
itself? I mean, does he pour out upon
you more material blessing than he does on other men and women?
Not necessarily. Not necessarily, not at all,
no. But he might give you a godly fear. He starts by giving you
a godly fear. Am I saying that fear is a blessing
from God? Godly fear is a blessing from
God. When men and women all around
have no thought for the things of eternity, that he gives some
a godly fear. that He gives some a sense of
eternity, that He gives some a sense of being at odds with
the justice of God, with a debt that they cannot pay, that needs
to be paid. Oh, a godly fear is a blessing
from God, to know who God is, to know something of who He is,
to know something. We read in the Scriptures that
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, the beginning of
wisdom. Has he given you that blessing to make you fear his
name? To bring you to know that reverential
fear of what he truly is? What a blessing to be given faith
in your heart, because we know it's not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. But has
He blessed you with that gift? Has He blessed you with faith,
true faith, to believe Him? When the world all around and
people all around us have no faith, Jesus said, when the Son
of Man comes, shall He find faith on earth? True faith is a rare
thing. It's a rare thing. Especially
in the day in which we live, true faith is a rare thing. Has
He blessed you opposed to other men and women around us with
the gift of faith. Has he given you hope in your
heart when others have no hope? Has he given you love? Has he
shown something of his love for a sinner like me? Has he given
you that blessing to tell you about his love and for you to
feel it in your heart that the Son of God loved me and gave
himself for me? What a distinctive, separating
blessing that is, that the Son of God loved me, me, and gave
himself for me. God commends his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the
ungodly. Has he shown you that blessing?
Has he given you the blessing of patience? You say, this is
not what the world counts blessing. No, it isn't, is it? But what
a blessing it is to have this blessing bestowed upon you that
God gives you patience to wait for him. Patience to wait for
him to work out his purposes. Patience to truly, truly learn
The meaning, as we were thinking a few weeks ago, of that disciple's
prayer where the line is, thy will be done. That's patience. That's a blessing from God to
be able to say, Lord, whatever you have for me, thy will be
done. Because if I'm in your will,
and if I'm in the place where you have ordained, that's the
best place to be for me at this moment. Has he given you the
experience of mercy and grace in your soul and in your emotions
so that you know it and you feel it? This is a blessing from God.
Ah, here's one that the world wouldn't count. The rod of correction
of which the scriptures speak much. Has he given you that?
The rod of trials and of tribulations and of problems and of anguish
in whatever form it might come. Do you know its purpose? Do you
know what its purpose is? In the flesh we have a fleshly
grip on the world and the things of the world and the things all
around us and the things of our families and possessions and
everything else, but he brings the rod of correction as a blessing
to his people to loosen our fleshly grip on the things of this world,
on the things of the flesh. That's why he does it. And you
can hear it academically But there's nothing like actually
going through it to learn what it is, to loosen your grip on
the things of this world. These are blessings that come
from God, all blessings that come from God. They're hard to
take in the flesh, but in the spirit, the Lord bless thee and
keep thee. This is all part of the Father's
will for his people. of his eternal purposes of good. Jesus prayed again in that same
prayer, verse 15, John 17, verse 15. I pray not that thou shouldst
take them out of the world. Oh, you know, the old Star Trek,
beam me up, Scotty. No, Jesus doesn't pray that his
people, the moment they believe, will be beamed up to glory. No,
I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world. He
puts them with his church in the wilderness, Revelation 12,
the woman goes, representing the church, goes into the wilderness
where God has a place for her, in the wilderness of this world.
God has a place for his people there to feed her, to protect
her and feed her in a barren, hostile environment. God has
a place for her to keep her there. He says, I pray not that you
should take them out of the world, but thou should keep them from
the evil. Keep them. whilst they walk through
this world, whilst they go through these blessings which are trials
in many ways, whilst they go through all of these things,
keep them from the evil. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. Keep you excuse me, keep you
from error. How does he keep his people from
error? By the ministry gifts, Ephesians 4, that he's given
to his church. He's given gifts to his church.
By those ministry gifts, by the presence of the Holy Spirit,
by the fellowship of like minds, having the mind of Christ, he
keeps his people from delusion by the Word of God, rightly divided. There's an awful lot of use of
the Word of God which is incorrectly divided, which is falsely divided,
but his sheep, his true sheep, hear the true shepherd's voice,
as his servants preach, and they hear, and they follow, and he
keeps us from error. The Lord bless thee, and keep
thee. These are real, tangible things. You know, I mean, you can get
hold of these. You can go into this coming week getting hold
of these things. This is how, when the psalmist
says, he delivered me from all my fears, He delivered me from
all my fears. This is how? By giving you something
tangible to get hold of. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. Then secondly, the Lord make
his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. Blessing
to Israel, His church as a whole, but to individuals. The Lord,
make His face to shine upon thee. The generality of mankind lives
in spiritual darkness, doesn't it? All around. The people that
walked in darkness. Oh, what darkness. Oh, what terrible
darkness they walk in. They live their lives in. so many live their lives and
it's not much different from from pigs wallowing in the pig
pen and and delighting in in that which is muck amongst the
pig swill in the trough you know that's how so many people live
their lives with such a low low horizon And even those that are
philosophically and academically elevated, they're deluded by
what we were thinking of just before, science falsely so-called,
to give them an excuse to not have God in their knowledge.
Man did not like to retain God in his knowledge. They walk in
darkness. They're driven and motivated
by worldly philosophy. They're constantly trying to
get themselves something that will give them satisfaction and
a buzz in this life. They hew, as Jeremiah says, they
hew out for themselves cisterns, troughs, to hold the water of
life that will give them a buzz. But every time they try and carve
out a cistern, then you know what it's like whenever you've,
I remember once, I was trying to make a table lamp out of a
very elaborate wine bottle. It was a beautiful wine bottle.
For several days, with a hand drill and a particular bit, I
drilled a way at the bottom of this to drill a hole through
it, and I got about 99% of the way through it, and the final
little twist of the drill, the whole thing shattered. That's
what happens to those systems. People hew out for themselves
cisterns, but they're broken cisterns. And once they're broken,
they can hold no water. I tried the broken cisterns,
Lord, you know it, I won't quote it again. This is what they do,
people walking in darkness, living without Christ. Ephesians 2,
verse 12, Paul reminding them what they were like before they
believed the gospel. At that time, you were without Christ,
having no hope and without God in the world, but the Lord made
his face to shine. No man has seen God at any time. How does he make his face shine?
How? Through Christ. It's Christ. God, 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6. The God who said at the beginning,
in the beginning he said, let there be light, and there was
light. The God who caused light to shine out of darkness in creation
has shined into our darkened hearts. If you're a believer,
God has shined into your darkened heart, the pitched spiritual
black darkness of your heart, to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God. That's what it is, to know the
glory of God, to know the purposes of God, to know the eternal purposes
of God, to give you some knowledge of those things. He's shined
his light. And where's he shined it from? In the face of Jesus
Christ. and in seeing it in the face
of Jesus Christ. How do I know God? I know Him
in Christ. This is how I know these blessings,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Go back a chapter in, well to
the end of the previous chapter in 2 Corinthians, chapter 3 verse
18. But we all, with open face, Beholding
as in a glass, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord in the
face of Jesus Christ are changed into the same image from glory
to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. God is manifested
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, the Lord show you his Christ. The Lord bless you and keep you,
but the Lord show you his Christ. Because it's in Christ that all
of the blessings of salvation come and are accomplished. The
Lord show you his Christ. The word that is the voice of
God is the manifestation of the mind of God. The word that is
Christ that was in the beginning with God. That word became flesh,
says John, and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. The
glory of this man, as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth. No man, verse 18 of John 1, verse
18 says, no man has seen God, the Father, the essence, at any
time. but the only begotten son who
is in the bosom of the father he has made him known he has
declared him he has manifested him Philip said show us the father
and that will suffice us and Jesus said to him John 14 about
verse 5 or 6 or thereabouts Jesus said to him Philip have I been
so long with you and yet you have not known me he that has
seen me has seen the father The glory of God shine in the face
of Jesus Christ. The Lord make His face to shine
on you and be gracious to you. This is the blessing of knowing
God in Christ, of knowing all things in Him. We didn't get
time to look in the study at 1 Corinthians 1.30, but in Him,
the wisdom of God is revealed. For in Him are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. In Him, the righteousness of
God is made over to us. And this is our confidence, isn't
it? I can lay me down and sleep in peace for you make me to know
these things. God shows you that in Christ
you're made the righteousness of God in Him. And sanctification,
He shows you the way that from eternity He has set you apart
in the Lord Jesus Christ and how in time He came to pay the
price that was necessary to pay the sin debt, to pay the price
of redemption in his precious blood. He is my answer to the
law. He, specifically, is my answer,
particularly, and all of his people, particularly. He is my
answer to the law. The law has demands, he has satisfied. He has paid in full everything
the law demands. The law demands righteousness.
He has made me righteous. The law demands that sin should
be punished. He has borne the punishment of
my sin in his own body on the tree. He is my answer to the
law. He is my answer to the Sabbath
law, because He is my rest. I rest in Him. I don't rest in
a day, as such, I rest in Him. He is my prophet. He is the one
who speaks the truth of God to my soul. He is the one who is
the great shepherd of the sheep, who speaks to me. He is my priest,
who stands between me and God. He is the one who goes into the
holiest of all, in the heavens. Not with the blood of animals
as the priests did in the Levitical order. He is the one who went
into the Holy of Holies with his own blood. With his own blood
to pay that perfect price. He is my king. He is my benign
dictator. There is no better form of government
than benign dictatorship. Everything else is shot through.
The only reason why we say democracy is the best is because it's the
least bad of all the rest. But the very best is benign dictatorship. And oh, what a benign, benign
king is our Lord Jesus Christ. He's my substitute, my surety,
my mediator. He is truly, as that hymn says,
the lover of my soul. In all things, he has the preeminence. And in Christ, We see and feel
that grace experimentally, experientially. Galatians 2 verse 20, Paul writes
to the Galatians, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live,
yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. It's experiential. The
Lord make his face to shine upon you. This is the blessing of
the Lord making his face to shine in Christ. And you know, the
sad thing is that in churches up and down this land, Orthodox
evangelical reformed churches there are thousands and thousands
of people in those churches who know nothing nothing of this
blessing of the Lord making his face to shine because they're
just under the bondage of the law and that's where they're
kept but he when he was born and taken to the temple For the
rites, you read about it in Luke 1, the end of it, I can't remember
whether it was Simeon or Anna, but one of them said, this is
the day spring from on high. This is the rising of the sun.
This is the shining of the sun in the morning from on high who
has visited us. The Lord make his face to shine
on you. His shining His shining face
makes our face shine. You know, as when Moses went
up the mountain and he came down, they said, put a veil over your
face, because we can't look. Romans 5. And not only so, but
we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know
anything of this joy that arises from the blessing of God? The
Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The
New Testament blessing says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. be with you all. The grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ. The law came by Moses, but grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ. Then thirdly, and quickly, the
Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
This is the third one. The Lord lift up his countenance.
This is God the Spirit, comforting his people with the light of
his countenance. This is personal care and attention. This is him looking on you particularly. This isn't a very good illustration,
but you know when they have an investiture at Buckingham Palace
of those that have been knighted or awarded an OBE or one of the
other honours of the realm, and they go before the monarch, and
I'm not talking about the Queen in her humanity, but in her role
as the head of state. and all that that represents,
a symbolical representation of everything that goes with the
state. And some honour is being put by the nation upon a group
of people who are there to be invested into their honour, their
knighthood or whatever it might be. And they look upon the shining
face of the monarchy. You know, I know it breaks down,
I know it's not a very good illustration, but try and stick with me. But
then when each one of them comes up, she lifts up her countenance
upon them. And so Andy Murray comes up as
he did to get his honor the other day, and I know it was Prince
William who did it, but never mind, the same thing applies. But he
lifts up the countenance of the monarchy on that individual. This blessing is the Holy Spirit
lift up his countenance upon you individually and give you
peace in your soul. God the Spirit comforting his
people with the light of his countenance. John 14 verse 26
says this, Jesus is saying to his disciples, he's promising,
the comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send
in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things
to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I
leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth,
give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon you and give you that peace of knowing, the fellowship of
the Holy Ghost. Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God, and the fellowship, the communion of the Holy Ghost
be with you all. Amen. He communicates the reality
of the Father and Son to the soul. He brings the blessings
of salvation to our minds and to our experience. He brings
the comfort and hope of eternity and freedom from condemnation
to us. And all of that gives us peace. The Lord lift up his
countenance upon you and give you peace. This is Paul's prayer,
Romans 15 verse 13, and we'll close with this. Now the God
of hope fill you, now the God of hope fill you, all of you,
individually, me, with all joy and peace in believing that you
may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost This
is vibrant, experienced blessing from God's promises, not platitudes,
not soundbites. This is reality. These are things
you can get hold of. These are things that you can
hang your life upon and take comfort from. Amen.