Let's turn tonight to the book
of Numbers. Book of Numbers. As our Lord
Jesus concluded his earthly life, the very last recorded act we
have performed by him is found in Luke 24. And this is how Luke
describes it. He led his disciples out as far
as to Bethany. And he lifted up his hands and
blessed them. And it came to pass while he
blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up to heaven. Because this is our last public
meeting, and probably the last time I will see most of you before
the year is done, I thought it would be good to conclude this
year and look to the next if God is pleased to give us another
day or two on this earth in much the same way. Now the passage
I read in Luke is but the fulfillment of the type that is given back
here in Numbers chapter 6 in verses 22 through 27. Now before
we read our text, let me give you the context. This word from God is given just
after God had given Moses commandment concerning the law of the Nazarite. Once the Nazarite, the Nazarite
being a man who has taken a vow to God, and now he's fulfilled
his vow, his time of separation is completed. His time when he
is specifically consecrated to God is completed. The Nazarite
vow, of course, was purely an Old Testament Levitical ceremonial
thing, never to be done in this day. There's no implications
at all in this day, except typically. It represents a man consecrated
to God. And above all men consecrated
to God, the Lord Jesus Christ is the Nazarite. He has accomplished
his work for us, being God's consecrated servant. But at the
end of the Nazarite vow, once everything was fulfilled, the
Nazarite was to come to Aaron or to his sons after him, bringing
sacrifices for sin offering and for burnt offering. And Aaron
would receive the sacrifices. And after he had received and
accepted the sacrifices, he would stand up in a prominent place
before the children of Israel at the door of the tabernacle,
and he would lift the sacrifices to God. wave the sacrifices before
the Lord, declaring that God has accepted the Nazarite, accepted
his sacrifice, and accepted his servant. Now, all of this was
typical of Christ, our great sacrifice. And then the Lord
commanded Aaron to give a blessing. Look at it, beginning at verse
22. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, speak unto Aaron, and unto his sons saying unto them,
or 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 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." How blessed the
days yet before us will be if God, by His grace, will enable
us to grasp and live in the light of these declared blessings pronounced
upon us in Christ, our great Redeemer our great high priest,
our great sacrifice. Now, this benediction pronounced
on the children of Israel at the close of the tabernacle service,
when the people were about to separate from one another for
a while, was pronounced, we're told by the Jewish rabbis, whether
they knew or not, I don't know, but they said it was pronounced
only after the morning sacrifice, not after the evening sacrifice.
Because the evening sacrifice pointed more specifically to
Christ, that is, to the Messiah, who would come in the evening
of time, who would come and his salvation come with him and his
reward with him. Whether that's true or whether
it's not, this I know. Christ Jesus came in the evening
of time. and He brought God's salvation,
for He is God's salvation, and bringing God's salvation, He
has brought all blessedness to us. The blessing pronounced here
is distinctly the blessing of the Lord, the blessing of Jehovah. You look at this blessing as
it's given in verses 23, 24, 25, and 26, and you'll notice
that the word Lord The word translated Lord, the
word Jehovah is used three times. That's not accidental. It is
used three times. And in each case, the same word
is translated Lord, but the word slightly different because it
has just a slightly different accent mark. Now, there's a reason
for that. There are no accidents in this
book, no accidents in this world. These things are written for
a purpose and written as they are for a purpose. They wouldn't
be recorded as they are were there not an intent for it. I
am certain that God the Holy Spirit here declares to us that
we are blessed of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Lord our God is one Lord. And yet he is three distinct
persons. And so as he's spoken of here,
blessing us, the triune God blessing us, very important. Don't forget
that. Our salvation is the work and
the blessing of all God's being brought to us in the person of
his dear son and brought to us completely in the person of his
dear son. But it is the blessing of the
father, the blessing of the son, and the blessing of the Holy
Spirit. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. That I take to be
the blessing of God the Father upon his people. He who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
blessed us with his electing love, blessed us adopting us
into his family, blessed us in justifying us, making us righteous
before him, blessed us having accepted us in the beloved before
ever the world was. The Lord make his face to shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee. That's distinctly the blessing
of God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He has blessed us with
redemption, righteousness, and reconciliation, so that in him,
God, in all the totality of his being, smiles upon us. May God make you to know that
smile and make you to know that smile continually. And then the
Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. That's distinctly the blessing
of God the Holy Spirit who conveys to us all the blessedness that
is ours in Christ Jesus. No wonder our Lord speaks of
him as our comforter. And he comforts us by taking
the things of Christ, these blessings, these boundless blessings of
grace, and showing them to us. These threefold blessings, then,
are intended to direct our hearts to God, our Father, God, our
Savior, and God, our Comforter. Let's look at them in a little
more detail. We have first the blessing of
God our Father in these words, the Lord bless thee and keep
thee. We are called upon by the Apostle
Paul and throughout the Psalms to bless God and we bless him. But when we bless God, we really
do nothing for him and nothing to him. We contribute nothing
to him. God Almighty is infinite, incomprehensible, self-sufficient,
and complete in himself. He needs nothing from us and
receives nothing from us, nothing that adds to him. David said,
my righteousness extendeth not unto thee. Men may look at what
I do and say, that's good. It doesn't extend to God. And
our blessings do not in any way improve God's state of happiness
and blessedness and satisfaction in himself. He is the eternal
incomprehensible God. So when we bless Him, we simply
speak with gratitude and with praise, ascribing to Him the
blessedness that He is and delighting that the blessedness is His.
When we bless God, we're simply expressing our thanks to Him,
paying our vows to Him with reverence, with love, with gratitude, and
with praise. and let us forever do so. You
turn one more time to that passage in Ephesians 1. Hold your hands
here at number 6 and listen to me as I read some of the words
that are found in the Psalms with regard to blessing God.
What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward
me? What am I going to give God for
what He's given me? How shall I ever pay Him for
what He's given me. How shall I ever bestow anything
upon Him to make any kind of an acknowledgement of my gratitude
for what He's done for me in His boundless mercy? The greatest
way that a sinful man upon this earth can praise and adore and
extol and magnify God is this. I will take the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord as long as I live. I'll believe
God. I'll believe him. I will pay my vows unto the Lord
now in the presence of all his people. Blessed be the Lord because
he hath heard the voice of my supplications. Blessed be the
Lord, for he has showed me his marvelous kindness in a strong
city. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be the Lord who daily
loatheth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Blessed
be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. Bless Him because He is the only
one who does wondrous things. And bless Him because everything
He does is wondrous. Everything He does. Blessed be
the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. And let the people
say, Amen. Praise ye the Lord. Blessed be
the name of the Lord from this time forth. and even forever
more. Look here at Ephesians 1 now.
Here's how Paul urges us to bless him. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The word is eulogized. Speak
well of God. Say something good about God. And all we can do is say something
good about Him. But when God eulogized us, When
God said something well about us, before the world began, what
He said there was done. Look at this. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now give praise
to Him, because He has done wondrous things for us. Back here in our
text. Bless the Lord. Let us indeed
bless him because the Lord has blessed us. The Lord bless thee. When God blesses us, he actually
does something. He performs the blessedness pronounced. He blesses us in our very creation
and much more in our new creation. Oh, it is blessed to be born.
but indescribably more blessed to be born again. It is blessed,
blessed indeed to have our daily bread, but indescribably more
blessed to have the bread of life by whom our souls are nourished
continually. It is blessed, a blessed thing
to have clothes on our backs, but oh, how blessed. How blessed
indeed it is to be robed in the garments of salvation, to have
Christ's perfect righteousness upon our souls and made to be
ours. We are blessed, blessed in being
members of happy, loving, kind families. Oh, what a blessing. I think sometimes And no one
really has any appreciation for what it is to be a part of a
family of kindness and love and care who's been a part of some
other kind. Nobody else really understands. Well, that's blessing. But oh, how blessed to be adopted
of God as his sons and daughters. made to be members of that family
whose names are written in heaven, the family of God, heirs of God
and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, member of the family, constantly cared for, intended,
and provided for, and embraced and protected and led and fed
by God Almighty. The Lord bless thee. The Lord
bless thee. Try, if you can, to calculate
to the best of your ability the blessedness with which the God
of glory has blessed us and is blessing us. and shall bless
us all the days of our lives, and then bless us. All things are yours, for you
are Christ, and Christ is God's. All things. What a blessing to
have sin pardoned. What a blessing to be made the
righteousness of God in Christ. What a blessing to be sanctified
by God the Father. What a blessing to enjoy all
the privileges and all the benefits of covenant grace, as Paul described
for us in Ephesians 1. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He has
chosen us in Him. before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him,
in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved. Blessed of God! He has often blessed us in the
days of our lives, more often when we were totally
unaware of it than when we've been aware of it. His unknown blessings, I have
no question, are indescribably greater than the blessings known
to us. Indescribably greater. Turn to
Lamentations chapter 3 for a moment. Somebody said many of our Father's
mercies come in by the back door. We don't see them. And when we
do, we are far too often ungrateful for them and quickly forget them. What blessings we've received
in trouble when we thought it was all trouble. What blessings
we've received in temptation and trial in deliverance, what
blessings we've received in God sustaining us in the midst of
it all, what remarkable blessings we've had. Lamentations 3, 21,
this I recall to my mind. Therefore, have I hope. It is
of the Lord's mercies and only of the Lord's mercies that we
are not consumed because His compassions fail not. They are
new every morning. Oh, oh my God, how great is Thy faithfulness. There was a time when I could
expound that pretty well. I understood it real good, and
I could give it to you in real accurate doctrine. Now I've experienced it with
knowledge for 37 years, and I realize I haven't a clue what His great
faithfulness is. But I'm here to tell you Great
is His faithfulness. Let others talk about your faithfulness. Let others talk about their faithfulness. If we would bless God, we will
speak of His faithfulness. Great is Thy faithfulness. Surely
the blessings we've had All the days of our lives are but tokens
of blessings yet to come. This will set my heart at rest
when what my God appoints is best. Did you hear me? This will set
my heart at rest. what my God appoints is best,
whatever it may be. The future will be marked by
temptations and trials and troubles and marked by God's blessedness. He has said, I will never leave
thee nor forsake thee. He declares, as thy days, so
shall thy strength be. Thy bread shall be given thee,
thy water shall be sure. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall
not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. You have God's word for it. So
he says, fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for
I am thy God. If during the next year it is
appointed unto you to leave this world or to me, and I'm pretty
sure that for some of us it is so appointed, yet you may confidently
sing, my brother, my sister, yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou
art with Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. He who has blessed
us will bless us. The Lord bless thee. As I say
that to every believing sinner here, knowing that God will bless
you, I pray that your soul may look forward with no dread to
that which God has appointed, but with hope. But the blessing
of God doesn't end there. The text says, the Lord bless
thee and keep thee. Looks to me like the intent is
that we read it like this. The Lord bless thee. He'll sure
keep you. He'll sure keep you. If He blesses
you, this is what flows from it. He'll keep you. He'll keep
you. No matter what. He'll keep you. I have no question
at all. Trouble will come, heartache
will come, but the Lord will keep you. Temptations
will come and falls will come, but the Lord will keep you. Spurgeon
said, he is ill kept who is his own keeper. He is worse kept
who has his brother for his keeper, but he is splendidly kept who
has God for his shield on his right hand, his glory, and his
defense. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. All right, let's look at the
next line. Here is our Savior's blessing, the blessing of God
the Son, our Redeemer. The Lord make his face to shine
upon thee. and be gracious unto thee." What's that talking about? It's
talking about reconciliation. Not just reconciliation, but
assured reconciliation. The Lord make His face to beam
and shine with smile upon you. declaring himself reconciled
to you. The Lord makes his face to shine
upon thee as one who delights in you all the time, as one fully
satisfied, absolutely content with you. Can that be so? Can that be so? Oh, yes. We who by nature are utterly
repugnant to God. Like you, I've seen the news
from Indonesia this morning. One of the news reporters was
walking along the beach in Thailand and they ran across one of those
bodies that had been there for two days now. And as they got
within about 30 feet, this reporter who was trying to be tender and
sympathetic, she said, that's disgusting. not nearly so disgusting as you
are to God. Dead in trespasses and sins.
That's our nature. But now, God Almighty, having
redeemed us by the blood of His darling Son, having justified
us freely by His grace, having robed us in the righteousness
of Christ and made His righteousness our righteousness, having put
away all our sins, smiles on us and embraces us in complete,
irreversible reconciliation. So that while in His providence
He frowns upon that we do that displeases Him, yet in His goodness
and grace in His Son, He smiles upon us, looking on us in His
Son, in whom He is well pleased. He's well pleased with you all
the time. All the time. well-pleased. The Lord make his
face to smile upon thee, to shine upon thee, and give thee peace. I am to be gracious unto thee,
excuse me, getting ahead of myself. Because the Lord God smiles on
us. having accepted us in the Beloved,
because He has redeemed us, because He has put away our sins, because
He hath not beheld sin in Jacob, nor iniquity in Israel. Because
we are accepted in Christ, He will be gracious unto thee. I have, over the years, thought
at times, before God saved me, I was convinced at times, the
man talking to you now was reprobate and damned, and there was no
possibility of grace for such a man. And since God saved me at times,
I've thought the same, in my utter unbelief. But God Almighty who smiled upon
me before ever the world was, whose delights were with me in
His Son, who declares me as one holy and accepted and beloved
in Him. He smiles upon me to this day
and is gracious to me." And you know what? He's going to be. Tomorrow, and the next day, and
the next, as long as my days on this earth shall be, He will
be gracious to me. And then, glory. He will give grace as long as
grace is needed. And when He has given all His
grace, all the grace you need, all the days of your life, He
will give glory to you. The Lord giveth grace and glory. All right? Now, look at the Spirit's
blessing. The Lord lift up His countenance
upon thee, and give thee peace. That is, the Lord give you a
conscious, delightful sense of his gracious favor. The blessing
of verse 25 is the blessing of God being reconciled to us in
his son. That was accomplished at Calvary.
Indeed, that was accomplished in Christ, the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world, so that God Almighty has ever
looked upon us in His Son, accepted in the Beloved. But the blessing
here in verse 26, this is the blessing of known reconciliation. This is the blessing that is
conveyed to us only by God the Holy Spirit, who is our Comforter,
who takes the things of Christ and shows them to us, conveying
to us the blessings that are ours in Christ. We are always
reconciled to God, but we didn't always know it.
We weren't always aware of it. It is not always sunshine in
the believer's soul. We do have our nights of darkness,
don't we? We don't ever say like David
did, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Not with these
lips. No. How we do cry in our souls,
how long wilt thou be angry with us forever? Because God wisely sends clouds
and darkness and storms by which he will break off all confidence
in self. and drive us to lean hard upon
his mighty arm. We're always reconciled to God,
but we're not always aware of it. In the creation, we read
the evening and the morning were the first day. And let me tell
you something about your day on this earth. you're going to
have your evening and your morning. There's no day without both.
There's no day without both. When God the Holy Spirit comes
and shows us the darkness of our souls, and spreads over us
the thick cloud of justice and wrath, convincing us of our sin,
What a blessing then when He comes and causes the Son of Righteousness
to rise over our souls with healing in His wings. When He makes us
to know there is forgiveness with Thee that Thou mayest be
feared. When He comes and declares Himself faithful and just to
forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And then we fall. Through neglect, through
despising His goodness, despising His Word, turning from Him again
and again, our souls are brought into utter darkness. And again,
we reel to and fro as a drunken man until at last God graciously
forces us to cry unto Him, as David did. He craved restoring
to me the joy of thy salvation. And you know what he got? He
got what he craved. The Lord came and spoke peace
again to his soul. We have our night seasons of
trouble and heartache and trial. And then He comes and speaks
peace. We hear the thunder roll that
seems to make the earthquake beneath our feet. The lightnings
seem to split the heavens, and we think there's nothing but
darkness and blackness forever. And then our Master steps out,
as it were, on the bow of the ship and says, peace, be still.
And the sun shines through the dark clouds as they dissipate
away. And everything calm and quiet. And we see his smiling face through
the rainbow he sets in the sky. Peace. My peace give I unto you. Nobody can explain it. It's called peace that passeth
understanding. and nobody can get a clue as
to what it is except they experience it. Peace. We read of our Lord
who spoke and there was a great calm. He made the storm a calm
and made the storm quiet. Sometimes he does that by taking
away the storm. More often than not, he doesn't
take away the storm until he's made it quiet and calm in your
soul. And then it doesn't matter whether
he takes it away or not. He makes it quiet and calm. this peace that passeth understanding,
God give it to you and to me, incessantly, like a glorious
river flowing to us from our great God who makes his face
to shine upon us and lifts up his countenance upon us, make
his peace like a mighty deep sea, altogether calm. And yet this peace that follows
and flows from the peace of pardon and forgiveness is a peace God
assures us of a piece of his assured favor that's found only
as we come again and again and again to Christ our Redeemer. Hold your hands here and turn
with me to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew 11. The master speaks here in verse
28. He says, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.
Come unto me. Whatever it is that causes your
heart to labor. Whatever the weight is on your
soul, He says, come to Me. And just as sure as you come
to Him, He says, I'll give you rest. Now, you who have come, come
again. Come again. And take My yoke
upon you. Just slip under the yoke. Slip under the yoke willingly,
willingly, like a well-trained ox accustomed to the yoke. Slip
under the yoke. Don't kick. Long as you fight
and kick and fuss and argue with God, you're not going to find
what he's talking about. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. And just as sure as
you take my yoke upon you, you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden
is light. Now this is what Aaron says.
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. That's what Christ,
our Aaron says, but it's not over yet. Look at verse 27. The Lord God in the fullness
of his triune being says, amen to the whole thing. Okay. And
they shall put my name upon the children of Israel. Hear me, you who believe on the
Son of God. The Lord Jesus, God's priest
and yours, has put God's name on you. His name is called Jehovah
Zekinu, the Lord our righteousness. And this is the name wherewith
He calls you, Jehovah Zekinu, the Lord our righteousness. What?
David Peterson, can it be that we are truly one with Him who
is God our Savior? With His holy garments on, I
am as holy as God's own Son, because I'm one with God's Son.
Near, so very near to God, nearer I cannot be, for in the person
of His Son I'm as near as He, and dearer Dear, so very dear
to God, dearer I cannot be. For in the person of God's own
Son, I am as dear as He. Now watch this. Put my name on
them, and I will bless them. God says, I want to do what I
told you to tell them. You want me to do? I will bless
them. I will bless them. Oh, they'll
have their troubles, but I'll bless them through their troubles.
They'll have their heartaches, but I'll bless them in their
heartaches. They'll have their weaknesses, but I'll bless them
in spite of their weaknesses, in their weaknesses, and even
by their weaknesses. They'll have their bereavements,
but I'll bless them in their bereavements. The world may curse
them. But I'll bless them, and none
can curse where I have blessed. They may die, but I'll bless
them in death. And when everything is done that
must be done, I will bless them forever. Oh, then we will be blessed. We say it all the time. God make
us to know it. For the believer, leaving this world is blessedness. He that liveth and believeth
on me, our Savior said, shall never die. I have no intention
of dying. No intention of dying. I'm not
going to die. Not going to happen. I'm just
going to drop a cumbersome, heavy, heavy load. And then I shall
be satisfied when I awake in Thy likeness. And satisfaction
means blessed, blessed forever. Amen. Then you come and listen
to Him.