Turn with me to Numbers chapter
6. And I want you to remember that
verse of Scripture we opened with, that He hath blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
And this passage of Scripture is going to tell us something
about what those blessings are that every believer possesses. Now read with me beginning in
verse 22. I've entitled this message, The
True Benediction. And a benediction is a pronouncement
of blessing. Verse 22, And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto Aaron, and unto his son, saying, On this
wise you shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them 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. Now this blessing that I just
read of is for all of the Lord's people. and only for the Lord's
people. This is where he says, I will
be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. Don't you want the Lord's blessing?
His blessing is given through the priest, Aaron, representing
the great high priest, our Lord Jesus Christ. Our blessing comes
in, by, through and because of our great High Priest, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And this blessing is authoritative. Notice he says, say, the Lord
bless thee. Not, I hope you'll get a blessing. Not, you'll get a blessing if,
but the Lord bless thee. This is the Lord Jesus speaking,
the Lord bless thee. He said, Father, I will, the
day whom you give it me. Be with me where I am. He speaks
as equal to the Father. So this is an authoritative blessing.
There's nothing uncertain about it. And this blessing is sure. Look in verse 27. Once again,
the last phrase, and I will bless them. When he says, I will, it's already
been done. It's absolutely done. Remember that when He says, I
will, it becomes past tense before it takes place. We have these
blessings. May God give us grace to enter
into what these blessings actually are. Now, in this benediction,
you'll notice the Lord's name is mentioned three times, Jehovah.
Look in verse 24. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. Verse 25, the Lord make his face
shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. Verse 26, the Lord
lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. Now,
why three times? The people who know Hebrew tell
me, I read, that while Jehovah is the name mentioned, there's
a different accent over each time, giving us some idea of
the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. God the Father bless thee and
keep thee. God the Son make his face shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee. God the Spirit lift up
his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. The New Testament
benediction reads like this, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with your
spirit. Now, the Lord bless thee. You know, God is never neutral
toward anybody. I either have his blessing or
I am under his curse. There's no in-between. I'm either
under his blessing, I either have all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, or I am under the curse
of God. Now let's look at the Law of
First Mention where this word bless is used. Would you turn
with me to Genesis chapter 12? The Lord bless thee. I want the Lord to bless me. Verse 1, Genesis chapter 12.
Now, the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country,
and from thy kindred, from thy father's house, unto a land that
I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great
nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great. And
here we are talking about 3,000 years later, however long it
is. Truly his name is great, but that's really not the name
he's referring to. He's talking about the one who came through
his loins, through his seed, the Lord Jesus Christ, his great
name. He says, I will make of thee a great nation, and I will
bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.
And I'll bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse
thee. And in thee shall all the families
of the earth be blessed, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's
power to bless. God is all-powerful. God is good,
God is gracious, God is merciful, and God's power to bless. Don't
you want the blessing of the Lord upon you? He says, I will
bless thee. Now, there are His spiritual
blessings. Remember, we read, He has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, and they're enumerated in Ephesians chapter 1, but these
right here are spiritual blessings. But He talked about election,
being chosen of the Father. He talked about adoption, predestination. being made holy and unblameable
in his sight, the forgiveness of sins, those spiritual blessings.
Oh, I want every one of them, don't you? And there's every
other kind of blessing. I want him to bless me in my
home. I want him to bless me as a husband.
I want him to bless me as a parent. I want him to bless me as a friend. I want to be a blessing. He said
to Abraham, you'll be a blessing. Oh, the blessings of the Lord. Now, turn to Numbers chapter
22. We can learn something about the Lord's blessing from this
passage of scripture. Numbers chapter 22, verse 1. And the children of Israel set
forward and pitched in the plains of Moab on this side of Jordan
by Jericho. And Balak the son of Zippor saw
all that Israel had done to the Amorites. And Moab was sore afraid
of the people, because there were many, and Moab was distressed
because of the children of Israel. And Moab said unto the elders
of Midian, Now shall this company lick up all that are round about
us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field. And Balaam
the son of Zipporah was king of the Moabites at that time,
and he sent messengers therefore unto Balaam. the son of Beor
to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the children of
his people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come
out from Egypt. Behold, they cover the face of
the earth, and they abide over against me. Come now, therefore,
I pray thee, curse me this people, for they are too mighty for me.
Peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that
I may drive them out of the land. For I want that he whom thou
blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed. So Balaam asked the Lord what
to do about this. So let's go on reading, verse
7. And the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed
with the rewards of divination in their hand. They were going
to give Balaam a lot of money if he blessed them. And they
came unto Balaam, and spake unto him the words of Balak. And he
said unto them, Lawd, hear this night, and I bring you word again,
as the Lord spake unto me. And the princes of Moab abode
with Balaam. And God said unto Balaam, And said, God came unto
Balaam and said, What men are these with thee? And Balaam said
unto God, Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, hath sent unto
me, saying, Behold, there is a people come out of Egypt, which
covereth the face of the earth. Come now, curse me them, for
adventure I shall be able to overcome them, and drive them
out. And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them,
thou shalt not curse the people, for they are blessed. Balaam asks him again. He wouldn't take no for an answer.
He comes with more money, thinking he could win over Balaam at this
time. And he ended up winning him over.
I think this is mysterious. Balaam is a false prophet. Yet
God speaks through him at this time. I don't understand all
that, but here it is. Balaam is the arch-false prophet.
He's mentioned three different times in the New Testament as
the arch-false prophet. The doctrine of Balaam, which
God hates, and he was a compromiser. And you'll notice that when Balaam
made these overtures to him and these offerings, God said, don't
go with him. And he'd say, well, I'll go and
see what else God has to say. He couldn't really take no for
an answer. But they ask him again. Let's begin reading in chapter
23, verse 5. But the Lord, Balak, had come
again, saying, Curse these people. And the Lord put a word in Balaam's
mouth, and said, Return unto Balak, and thus shalt thou speak.
And he returned unto him, and, lo, he stood by his burnt sacrifice,
and all the princes of Moab. And he took up his parable, and
said, Balak, the king of Moab, hath brought thee from Aram out
of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me, Jacob,
come, and defy Israel. And look what he says, How shall
I curse whom God hath not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom the
Lord hath not defied? For from the top of the rocks
I see him, and from the hills I behold him low. The people
shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.
Who can count the dust of Jacob and the number of the fourth
part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let
my end be like his. And Balaam said unto Balaam,
What hast thou done unto me? I took to curse mine enemies,
and behold, thou hast blessed them all together. And he answered
and said, Not take heed to speak that which the Lord hath put
in my mouth. And Balak said unto him, Come, I pray thee, with
me to another place from whence thou mayest see them, that thou
shalt be the utmost part of them, and shalt not see them all. And
curse me for them. He kept asking him to curse him.
Now pick up reading in verse 18 of this same chapter. And
he took up his parable and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear, hearken
unto me, thou son of Zippor. God is not a man that he should
lie. Neither the Son of Man that he should repent, hath he said,
and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall
it not be good? Behold, I have received commandment to bless,
and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it." Now here's this
blessing. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob. Neither hath
he seen perverseness in Israel. The Lord his God is with him,
and the shout of a king is among them. God brought them out of
Egypt, and he hath, as it were, the strength of a unicorn. Surely
there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination
against Israel. According to this time, it shall
be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought?" What
has God done? You see, this blessing No perverseness,
no iniquity in Israel. It cannot be reversed. Now this
is blessing, isn't it? I'm thankful for any material
blessing. I'm thankful for health. But
I don't have to have those things. But I do have to have this. I
have to have this mercy where God sees me the way He describes
these people. Look in chapter 24. And when
Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he went
not, as at other times, to seek for enchantments, but he set
his face toward the wilderness. And look what he ends up saying
to Balaam. Look in verse 9. He's speaking of Israel. And he says,
he couched, he lay down as a lion, and as a great lion, who shall
stir him up? Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is
he that curses thee. Look down in verse 18. This is what he says to Balaam
at the end. And Edom shall be a possession,
Seir shall be a possession for its enemies, and Israel shall
do valiantly. Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion,
and shall destroy him that remaineth in the city." And when he looked
on, well, you can go on reading about Amalek, what was going
to happen to him and so on, but the point is, if God blesses you,
you're blessed. It can't be reversed, it's real.
And I, here's my reaction to this, when I think of God's blessing.
I think of when Jacob was wrestling with the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Lord Jesus initiated this wrestling match. He was going to get something
out of Jacob. But during that wrestling match,
you know the Lord could have easily blotted him out, but he
didn't. But Jacob wouldn't let go, and
he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. I won't let you go. I've got
to have your blessing. I've got to have your blessing.
You know, Esau, his brother, you remember what he did? For
one morsel of meat, he sold his birthright. He sold the blessing.
It wasn't important to him. He wasn't so concerned about
having the blessing of Jehovah, but Jacob had to have it. I will not let thee go except
thou bless me. Back to our text in Numbers 6. Verse 24, the Lord bless thee
and keep thee. Now the word keep means to put
a hedge about, to preserve. And you know, we're taught to
pray every day. Lord, lead us not into temptation. I know that if I'm tempted, I
know what will happen. Don't even let me be tempted,
but deliver me from evil, I need to be kept. You see, if he doesn't
keep me, I will fall. There's no question in my mind
about it. And I tell you what, the fact that I haven't up to
this point, the fact that I've been preserved, that's a testament
to the mighty power of God. Only the power of God can keep
me from falling away. Oh, keep me. Keep me up. I like what the Lord said to
Bimlech. I'm praying for the same thing
for myself. He said, I withheld you from sinning against me.
And I'm saying, Lord, withhold me from sinning against you.
Keep me. Preserve me. Now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling. and to present you faultless
before his presence with exceeding joy to the only wise God our
Savior, be honor and glory forever. Amen. Now this keeping, turn
with me to 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3. Or 1 Peter chapter
1, I'm sorry. Verse 3. 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,
and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you who, you who
are captive. by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed at that last time. Paul said
in 2 Timothy 1, 12, I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded
that he's able to keep that which I've committed to him against
that day. Now, I want to ask you a question. What if your
salvation was dependent upon you keeping something and not
losing it? Would you have any peace? I'd be scared to death. I know I'd lose it. If it was
given to me to keep, I'd lose it. But what if your salvation
was given to the Lord Jesus Christ to keep it? Isn't that a lot
better? I know He's able to keep that
which I've committed to Him. My hands are off. I've committed
the salvation of my soul to Him, and He's able to keep that which
I've committed to Him against that day. What a blessing to
be kept. I'm looking at some people who
are miracles of the mighty power of God. The fact that you've
been kept up to this point, that's the power of God that's kept
you. And you know that, don't you?
You know there's no other way you would have been preserved.
Now back to our text. He says, the Lord bless thee
and keep thee. And he says in verse 25, the
Lord make his face Shine upon thee. I want to look at some other
scriptures where this is used. Several in the Psalms. Would
you turn to Psalm 31? The Lord make His face to shine
upon thee. Psalm 31, verse 15, David said,
My times are in thy hand. Isn't that great? My times are in thy hand. Deliver me from the hand of mine
enemies and from them that persecute me. Make thy face to shine upon
thy servant. Save me for thy mercy's sake. Psalm 67. Verse 1, God be merciful unto us and bless
us and cause His face to shine upon us. Psalm 80. Verse 3, Turn us again, O God, and cause
thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. Verse 7, Turn us again,
O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be
saved. Verse 18, So will we not go back
from thee? Quicken us, and we'll call upon
thy name. Turn us again, O Lord God of
hosts. Cause thy face to shine, and
we shall be saved. Now what is this about this shining
face? Well, do you remember in Revelation
chapter 6 verse 16 where there were a bunch of people who started
calling upon the mountains and hills to fall on them? And they
said, Hide us! from the face of him that sitteth
upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb." Now that's
a face I don't want to see. I want to see His reconciled
face. And this is what this is talking
about, this shining. God who commanded the light to
shine out of the darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. I want to see his reconciled
face where he's not mad at me because there's no reason for
him to be mad at me. He's completely reconciled to me. Turn me. Oh, I, I, turn me and cause thy
face to shine toward me. Be reconciled through the death
of your son. Now, how's he reconciled? How can God be reconciled toward
me? If, when we were enemies, we
were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. That's how
I see His shining face. And look what He says next in
our text. Numbers. He says, The Lord make His face
shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. Now how can he be
reconciled toward us like that? Here's how. The Lord be gracious
to thee. Now what does this word gracious
mean? The Lord be gracious to thee. The Lord has delivered the children
of Israel from Egyptian bondage with a high hand. He's brought
them out, parted the Red Sea. They've seen manna come down
from heaven. They've seen water come out of the rock. The Lord
has blessed them in such an unusual way. And this has just been just
a few weeks ago. Fresh on their memory. They ain't
manna that day. Moses goes up into Mount Sinai
to receive the law of the Lord. He's gone 40 days. Now during that 40-day period,
they end up having a drunken party. And they throw their gold
in a fire. And they say, These be that golden
calf Aaron makes. And they bow before that golden
calf. And they say, These be thy gods, O Israel, that brought
thee up out of the land of Egypt. Was there ever a more wicked
time than that? I mean, you think about all the
Lord had done for them, all they'd seen, and how quickly they departed. As for this Moses, we don't know
what happened to him. quickly departed and Moses scared
and he wants the Lord to do something for him and he goes and and he
prays for these people that the Lord would have mercy on him
and during the course of that prayer he said I beseech thee
show me thy glory and the Lord said I'll make all my goodness
pass before thee and I'll proclaim my name before thee and I will
be gracious If there was ever a group of
people that demerited God's grace, it was that group. Like me and
you. And yet he said, I will be gracious. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. It's sovereign grace. He gives
grace to whom he will be gracious. But thank God he said, I will
be gracious. What a glorious thing. I will
show favor toward people who absolutely do not deserve it. There hasn't been anything worse
than what the children of Israel did at this time, and yet God
said, I will be gracious. Now, God being gracious is salvation. Grace isn't something God offers
somebody. It's up to you to accept it or reject it. Not at all.
Grace saves. You don't use grace. Grace uses
you. Grace does something for you.
God's grace actually saves. I will be gracious. By grace
you are saved. And every aspect of salvation
from the beginning to the end is all of the free unmerited
saving grace of God. He says, I will be gracious. And you may have sin on your
heart, sin on your mind and you feel so far away and yet he says
I will be gracious you know he must be gracious because he is
gracious that's his nature to be gracious God delights in mercy
he says to all of his people I will be gracious and then it
says in verse 26 of our text The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee. Now what's this all about? The
Lord lift up his countenance upon thee. Well turn with me
to Exodus 33. I've quoted from that, but look here in Exodus
33. Verse 12. And Moses said unto the Lord,
See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people, and thou hast
not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said,
I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight.
Now therefore I pray thee, if I found grace in thy sight, show
me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I might find grace
in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people. And
he said, My presence. shall go with thee. And that
word presence is the same word translated countenance. My countenance,
my presence shall go with thee and I'll give thee rest. And
he said unto him, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not
up hence. The presence of the Lord. Now here, what kind of blessing
this is to have the Lord's presence. If I have His presence, I have
everything. If I ever have everything else
and have His presence, I have nothing. The presence of the
Lord, His presence is salvation. John Newton put it this way,
when blessed with a sense of His love, a palace, a toy would
appear, and prisons would palaces prove if Jesus would dwell with
me there. If I have His presence, what
do you want in a worship service? You want the presence of the
Lord, don't you? That's what you want. If He's here, does
it matter if there's only one or two people here? Doesn't make
any difference, does it? If He's here, it doesn't matter if there's
one or 1,000. If He's here, that's all we want, His presence. I
need His presence before the Father for me. Oh, His presence
is salvation, Him being before the Father. Oh, I need His presence
in my heart. Oh, I need His presence. And this is a blessing that every
believer has. You have his presence. Whether you feel it or not, you
have it. This is what our great high priest
gives us. The light of his countenance,
his presence. And then he says in our text,
in Numbers, verse 26, The Lord lift up his
countenance upon thee. Oh, having his presence. I don't care how miserable the
circumstance is. If you have his presence, everything's
wonderful. It's great. It doesn't matter what's going
on. If you have his presence, it doesn't matter what's going
on. Now, he says, I'll give you my
presence. the light of my countenance and
then he says I'll give you peace. Peace. The absence of turmoil. Peace. We read in the scriptures
of the joy and the peace of believing. Here's the scriptural order Grace
to you and peace. You see, salvation is all of
grace. I have peace. Now this is an
objective peace. It's a peace that I have, whether
I feel peace or not, if I'm a believer. You see, Christ worked out my
peace. And God is at peace with me because
everything He requires of me, He looks to His blessed Son for.
Everything. Everything He requires, He looks
to Christ for. And there's my peace. Having
His righteousness, I have peace. Having His grace, I have peace. Being justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And what a
blessed peace this is. It's an objective peace. I've
got the peace whether I feel it or not, but I'll tell you
what, when God gives me the grace to see that Christ is all of
my salvation, I feel peace. I feel a blessed peace, the peace
of knowing that He's everything in my salvation, the peace of
knowing all my sins put away, the peace of knowing that I'm
actually righteous before God because Christ's righteousness
is my righteousness, the peace of knowing that everything is
working together for my good. and His glory, that He is in
control of everything. The peace of knowing that I'm
going to be accepted on Judgment Day and spend eternity with Him.
Peace. Peace. And I'm at peace with my brethren.
I'm at peace with them. You know, when people fight,
it's because they are competing. We're not competing. We're members
of the same family. If you're advanced, I'm advanced.
I'm one with you. If you hurt, I hurt. We have
peace one with another. And we want this world to know
this peace, don't we? We want them to hear of the peace
that's in Christ Jesus. And in that sense, now I know
the world is the enemy of the Lord and the gospel and so on,
but there's a very real sense in which we're at peace with
the world. We're enemies of the world in the gospel, we believe.
I realize that. We're strangers and pilgrims
here, but we're at peace in this sense. Why do people fight? Because
they're wanting to take something from somebody else. Nations fight
other nations because they've got something they want and they
want to claim it for themselves. This world has got nothing I
want. I'm at peace in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I'm not going to be fighting
you for the stuff that you want, world. I don't want it. I'm plum
happy the way things are in the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I'll
give you peace. And look what he says next in
verse 27. And they shall put my name upon the children of
Israel. I have the name of the Lord placed
upon me. That's what every believer has.
Jehovah Sidkenu. This is the name wherewith she
shall be called the Lord our righteousness. I have his blessed
name. That's my name. That's my name. Christ's name is my name. I'm
saved for his sake. And he says, I will bless them. Now this blessing is the possession
of every child of God. I'll bless them. I'll keep them. I'll cause my face to shine toward
them. I'll be gracious to them. They have my presence. They have
my peace. And they have my name. He hath blessed us. He hath blessed
us. You know, like I said, pretend
like you've never heard this before tonight. He hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. Let's pray.