Please email. Whenever you see the Lord in
all caps in the scripture, that's a reference to Jehovah. every
time. The translators didn't feel comfortable
using his name. They felt like his name was too
holy to be translated. I like that spirit. I don't know
if that's what they should do, though. His name is Jehovah.
Jehovah has something to do with him being the Savior and his
salvation. Jehovah. Now, in this passage
of Scripture, Jehovah, the Lord, spake unto Moses, saying, Speak
unto Aaron, and unto his sons, saying, On this wise you shall
bless the children of Israel." Now, here is the one who truly
has the power to bless. You know, people say sometimes,
I don't know if anybody in here does it, but people say sometimes,
bless you. bless you. And I know people
mean well when they say that. They're wishing you the best.
But there's only one who has power to bless. Remember when Balak asked Balaam
to curse Israel, and he replied, I cannot curse whom God hath
blessed. What an awesome thing to be blessed
of God. This is the infinite, eternal,
all-powerful, all-wise, absolutely sovereign. Oh, what power He
has to bless. If He blesses me, if He blesses
you, how we are blessed. Now this blessing was not to
be pronounced on all the peoples of the earth, but the children
of Israel. That's who he said to bless,
the children of Israel. Now you know where the name Israel
came from. It came when God changed Jacob's
name from Jacob, heel, supplanter, cheat, deceiver and that's what
he was. If you read the history of this
man, he had no honorable character, but God changed his name to Israel. And one thing that I would like
to say about Jacob, there's a lot of things we could say about
his character, but for me to be an Israel, I'm going to have
to have the character of Jacob in this sentence. Do you remember
when Jacob wrestled with the Lord and the Lord took his thigh out of joint.
I can't imagine how painful that was. He walked with a limp for
the rest of his life, but even in the midst of that pain, and
he was wrestling with the Lord. It's not like he had a chance
of victory, but he said, I will not let thee go except thou bless
me. Now this I know of all Jacobs,
they must have God's blessing. They must have God's blessing. It's not just something they
hope they have, they must have God's blessing. And in this passage
of scripture, it's the blessing of the Trinity. Now notice in
verse 24, the Lord bless thee, Jehovah
bless thee. Verse 25, the Lord bless thee,
Jehovah bless thee, make his face to shine upon me. Verse
26, the Lord Jehovah lift up his countenance upon me. Now
all three times it said Jehovah, but in the original there is
a different accent over each Jehovah, which lets us know that
this has something to do with Jehovah the Father, Jehovah the
Son, and Jehovah the Spirit. This is speaking of the blessing
of the Trinity. Think of 1 Corinthians 4, 7.
I refer to this a lot. Who makes thee to differ? What
do you have that you didn't receive? Now, I can tell you really easily
who made you to differ. God the Father in eternal election,
God the Son in effectual redemption, and God the Holy Spirit in regeneration. He made you to differ. You know
that, don't you? He made you to differ. You didn't make yourself
to differ. He did it. And it's a blessing that's mediated
through the priest. And this is why we get this blessing.
You think, well, why would the Lord ever bless me? Would He
ever reason to ever bless me? Well, He does through the priest.
Speak unto Aaron, who picks his our great high priest, the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's who he typifies. There
could be no blessing, there could only be a curse, if not for the
priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to the scripture
from Hebrews. Every priest standeth daily. They don't sit down. The
work's never over. They stand daily, offering oftentimes
the same sacrifices. One thing these same sacrifices
have in common, they can never take away sin. He said, which
could never take away sin. But this man, and I think it's
interesting if you look at this in man's italics, it's almost
like he didn't have a word to describe the Lord Jesus Christ,
this priest, this God, this man. After he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool, for by one
offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Now, this is why God can bless
me, because of my priest. Not because I earn these blessings
or achieve these blessings, but because of my great high priest. And that's why the blessing is
sure and certain, because it comes through him who has removed
my sin and open the door wide for God to bless me." Now, if
you want to know why God blesses you, it's for Christ's sake.
You don't have to have any other reason. Isn't that encouraging?
It's for Christ's sake. I have to have no other reason
for God to pour His blessing on me. And this blessing is authoritative. It's the Son, the Father's who
says to his father, the Lord bless thee, the Lord keep thee. I love the way our Lord said
in John chapter 17, father, I will. I think this, I do believe this
is, to me, this might be the most powerful passage of scripture
in all the word of God regarding the glory of the person of Christ.
He says to the father, father, I will. Can you imagine saying that to
God? Lord, I will that you do this. Why, we cringe to even
think of something like that. But he could say, Father, I will
that they whom you have given me be with me where I am, that
they may behold my glory. For thou lovest me from the foundation
of the world. Now, in this blessing, this great
benediction that the high priest was to pronounce on Israel, There
are seven blessings, seven, the number of perfection, ending
up with the certainty of this benediction, I will bless them. Now, let's think about, first
of all, this thing of the Lord blessing. He says, the Lord bless
thee. I love to think about the Lord
saying, come ye blessed of my Father. inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. Now, let's look at
a passage of scripture, a very familiar passage of scripture
regarding the Lord's blessing. Ephesians chapter one. Now, when we think or when men
think of the Lord's blessing, they usually think of material
blessing or circumstantial blessing, everything being easy. And I'd
rather have it that way. Would you? I'd rather have it
easy than having a bunch of trials and tribulations. I'd rather
have health. I'd rather everything go well in my family life. And
Paul prayed that the Lord would give him a prosperous journey
to Rome, so there's nothing wrong with us desiring these material
and blessings of God, but what are they in comparison to spiritual
blessings? They're nothing. You see, we're
all gonna be dead pretty soon, and the Lord's gonna burn this
place up. All that will count is if I have
these spiritual blessings. Look in Ephesians 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings. Now notice the word hath doesn't
say he will bless us. It says he hath blessed us. Child of God, you have, present
tense, every blessing God has to give. You believe that passage of scripture
I just read? He's given us these spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And he goes
on to enumerate them. Verse four, according as he hath
chosen us. Isn't that a great blessing to
be chosen of God? Chosen by God. Why? Why would he choose me? Simply because he would. He's
so glorious. according as he hath chosen us
in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy." Now what a blessing that is, to be holy. You know, I was listening to
a preacher just today, listening to what he was saying, and he
was saying, oh, I want to be holy, or don't you want to be holy,
or make us more holy? And it was such a comforting
thought, you can't get more holy. Holiness is not something that
you increase in. That destroys the meaning. You
mean you were less holy? What's that mean? Now you're
more holy? No, no, we grow in grace. Don't get me wrong. We
grow in grace in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. We grow in the fruit of the Spirit. We grow. If we
don't grow, we don't live. But as far as becoming more holy,
well, that's a denial of what it means in the first place.
As a matter of fact, the only time holier is mentioned in the
scriptures is when the Lord speaks of those who are holier than
thou. That's where that term came from. And he says, there
is smoke in my nose. They're an offense to me. But
what a blessing to be holy. That's to have the very nature
of God, partakers of the divine nature, having a spiritual nature
regenerated. And then the next blessing he
mentions is being without blame. Without blame. That's justification.
What a blessing that is. To be without blame. There's
nothing to blame me for. There's nothing to accuse me
for. I didn't do anything wrong. I've always done that which is
right. That's what it is to be without blame. That's what it
is to be justified. I don't have anything to feel guilty about.
Well, how come you feel guilty all the time? I do. I do. It's over my head all the time
as long as I have this flesh. But I don't have anything to
feel guilty about because I'm justified. I stand without blame
before God. You know those folks who believe
that somehow believer sins are going to be brought up on judgment
day and they're going to be rewarded some kind of special place in
heaven if they were obedient or they'll have to get some kind
of lower place if they're disobedient. That's foolishness. That's not
sin being put away. That's offensive. I remember
hearing preachers say, well, it won't bother you then, you
know, even if your sins are brought up. I thought it'd bother me.
No doubt about it, it would bother me. But thank God every believer
is without blame. What a blessing that is. Look
in verse 5. Or verse 4, without blame, before
him in love, having the love of God. What a blessing that
is, having God love you. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself. What a blessing
that is! To have it all mapped out. It's
already determined. I've been predestinated to be
just like the Lord Jesus Christ. Perfectly conformed to His image. According to the good pleasure
of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein
He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. What a blessing. I'm accepted. God accepts me. And this acceptance is in the
Beloved. As I'm in Christ, I'm accepted
by God. He sees me as beautiful, as perfect,
as without fault, His Holy Bride. Verse 7. In whom we have redemption
through His blood. What a blessing that is to have
my sins paid for. the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath abounded toward us in
all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery
of His will, the blessing of revelation." I understand the
gospel. I understand how God saves sinners. It's because He's
made known to me the mystery of His will. I'd never understand
it without revelation. according to his good pleasure
which he purposed himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness
of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven and which are on earth, what a glorious
future we have, in whom also We have obtained an inheritance.
What an inheritance we have, being predestinated according
to the purpose in who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory
who first trusted in Christ, in whom you also trusted after
that you heard the word of truth. the gospel of your salvation,
in whom after that you believed, or having believed, you were
sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest
of our inheritance into the redemption of the purchased possession,
under the praise of His glory." What blessing! Now, is this blessing
for me? Well, are you one of those people
who describe blessing to the poor in spirit? You don't have
anything? then this is for you. Are you
one of those people who are described as blessed? Are they that mourn?
Go on through the Beatitudes. They describe who God has blessed. They're given this certain character.
And you can know if you're somebody that God has blessed. Now, the
second blessing is the Lord keep thee. Go back to our text in
Numbers. The Lord keep thee. To be kept is to be preserved.
It's to be enabled to persevere, it's to be caused to continue
in the faith, it's to be caused to continue to see your need
of Christ. Do you still see your need of Christ just as much as
you ever did? Do you actually need Him more? That's because
God is preserving you. That's because you're persevering
in the faith. The scripture says, we're kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Now unto him
that's able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before his throne. Holy Father, keep through thine
own name those whom you have given me, oh, to be kept by God. And what a wondrous thing it
is to be kept. I love thinking about this. What if it was up to me to keep any little part of my salvation? What if it was dependent upon
me? What would happen? I know what would happen. I'd be lost.
I'm sure if I had to keep one thing, but I love what Paul said,
I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. I've committed to Him. Here's
what this means. I mean, people look at that verse
of Scripture and they think, well, that means you've got to be really committed and
so on. Well, you ought to be committed. But what that means is, if He
doesn't do it all, I won't be saved. I have committed the entire
scope of my salvation, every aspect of it to Him. If He doesn't
do it all, if He didn't do it all, I won't be saved. Now, to
believe in works in any way is a failure to commit. I want to be kept, don't you?
What a blessing that is. Isn't it amazing right now that
you've been kept up to this point if you know anything about yourself?
You say, praise God for whom all blessings flow that He's
kept me by His grace. I would fall away so quick if
He didn't keep me. And you know this is an eternal
keeping. He that keeps thee will neither slumber nor sleep, the
scripture says in Psalm 121. He's always watching you. You're
always, when you're aware of it, when you're not aware of
it, the hand of his grace is keeping you. Isn't it wonderful
to be kept? The Lord keep thee. The next thing he says, and this
great benediction in verse 25 is Jehovah, the Lord, make his
face shine upon thee. The face of God. Now if you go
on reading in this passage of scripture where it says the Lord
lift up the light of his countenance, the Lord lift up his countenance
on you. It's actually the same word in the Hebrew. the face
of God, the countenance of God. He speaks of the face of God
shining. Now what in the world does that
mean, the face of God shining? Well, the first time we read
of a countenance, we read of Cain's countenance falling when
God rejected his works. His countenance was fallen and
he was very angry. I've watched fallen countenances
many times when I've preached. I know what it's like to look
at someone whose countenance is fallen. They're very displeased
with what they're hearing. But a shining countenance is
a fully reconciled countenance. where God is fully reconciled
to me. He's not mad. He doesn't have
a reason to be mad. He is fully reconciled. Psalm 31-16, the psalmist said,
Make thy face to shine upon thy servant. Save me for thy mercy's
sake. Psalm 67-1 says, God be merciful
to us and cause His face to shine on us. Psalm 80 verse 3 says,
Turn us again, O Lord of hosts, cause thy face to shine. and
will be saved. Psalm 119, 135 says, make thy
face to shine on thy servant. Don't you want the Lord to look
on you with a fully reconciled face? Not mad, not angry. Daniel said, cause thy face to
shine on thy sanctuary, which is desolate for the Lord's sake.
Now I can tell you what God's shining face is. 2 Corinthians
4, 6. says, but 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. Now there's God's shining face,
fully reconciled through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Romans chapter 5 verse 10
says, for if when we were enemies, listen to the wording, If when
we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. When were you reconciled? When
was God reconciled to you? Number one, when I was an enemy,
And number two, when Christ died. When Christ died, God was fully
reconciled to me. His face shines toward every
believer. And don't you want to have God's
fully shining face looking upon you, saying, I'm pleased. I'm pleased. This is my beloved
Son in whom I'm well pleased. And being in Christ, He's well
pleased with me. And then He says, in verse 25,
and the Lord be gracious unto thee. The Lord be gracious unto
thee. Lord, don't you want the Lord
to be gracious to you? Don't you want the Lord's grace?
His unmerited favor? What is God's grace? We'll turn
back to Exodus 32. And when the people saw that
Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered
themselves together, and to Aaron said unto him, Up, make us gods,
which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man
that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what's
become of him. He'd been gone forty days, receiving
the law. And Aaron said unto them, Break
off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives,
of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all
the people break the golden earrings which were in their ears and
brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand
and fashioned it with a graving tool after he had made it a molten
calf. And they said, These be thy gods,
O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron
made a proclamation and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord
and Jehovah. And he's saying these golden
calves represent Jehovah. These are the ones who brought
us out. And they rose up early on the morning and offered burnt
offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat
and to drink and rose up to play. Now, after all the Lord had done
for them, look what they did. And if anybody is wondering,
how could they be that bad? Look within and you'll know the
answer. I hope you believe that. You know the story. Moses comes
down in anger. He throws the law down. He melts
the gold and straws it in the water. He makes everybody drink
it. He's mad. And now he's going to pray. And we read in verse 11, Moses is interceding for the
children of Israel. And the Lord spake unto Moses
face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend, And he turned
again into the camp. But his servant Joshua, with
the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.
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
also hast found grace in my sight. Now therefore I pray thee, if
I have found grace in your sight, show me now thy way, that I may
know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider that
this nation is thy people. And he said, My presence shall
go with thee, and I will give thee rest. I'm going to go with
this bunch. And he saith unto him, If thy
presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein
shall it be known here that I am thy people, that thou hast grace
in thy sight? Is it not that thou goest with us? So shall
we be separated, I am thy people, from all the people that are
upon the face of the earth. And the Lord said unto Moses, I'll
do this thing also that thou spoken, for thou has found grace
in my sight, and I know thee by name. Boy, that's a glorious thought
to think of, isn't it? Finding grace in his sight, him
knowing your name. And he said, Moses said, I beseech
thee, show me thy glory. Now, what a question. Moses had
seen the 10 plagues. He'd seen the parting of the
Red Sea. He'd seen the manna come down from heaven. He'd seen
water come from the rock. He was even given the law. And
he says, I haven't seen your glory yet. I beseech you, show
me your glory. And how does he answer? Verse
19, I make all my goodness pass before thee. God's goodness is
his capacity to save people that we just read about and people
like me and you. God's good. God delights in saving
sinners. And then he says, I proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee. The name of the Lord's who he
is. his attributes, and he said, I will be gracious. There's the word. I will be gracious. That's God's glory. Now, I'll be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. His grace is sovereign grace.
He gives it to whom he will. But he said, I will be gracious. And because He said, I will be
gracious, He says to us, by grace are you saved. Isn't that a sweet
word? I mean, we love the Lord's name,
but our second favorite word, I reckon, is grace. The grace
of God that bringeth salvation. Oh, I love every aspect of His
graces, electing graces, calling grace, His redeeming grace, His
justifying grace, His life-giving grace, His preserving grace,
His glorifying grace. Grace. Grace. I will be gracious
to thee. Now turn back to our text in
Numbers. He says in verse 26, the Lord
lift up His countenance upon thee. What's the difference between
this and his face shining? Because it's saying pretty close to the
same thing. What's the difference? Well, when God's face shines
toward me, that means he's reconciled toward me. But you know, he may
be reconciled to me, and I don't know it. I might be scared to
death, think he's mad at me, think he's going to wipe me out.
But when I have him lifting up his countenance upon me. That means I see that he's reconciled
to me. I see for myself. Now that word
lift up is the word that is generally translated forgiven. If you look
that up in the Hebrew concordance, you're always going to find that
word used for forgiven or forgive when the Lord forgives sin. Now, when I see that His countenance
is reconciled toward me, it's because I see that through the
gospel, my sins are forgiven. And the only way I'm to look
at my sins that are ever before me, that grieve me so much that
I can't wait to where I never sin again, and I don't want to
sin anymore, But I'm only allowed to look at my sins in this light. They're forgiven sins. And God is reconciled to me through
his blessed son. And I see the one reason I'm
experiencing his favor is my sin was lifted off of me and
placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And I see His countenance upon
me, that means I can see that He's reconciled to me. And what
a blessing that is. You know what this is more than
anything else? It's assurance of salvation. Now, if you struggle
with assurance, let me tell you why. If you struggle with your
assurance of your personal salvation, there's only one reason. It's
because you're looking within. That's it. If you look within,
you ought to struggle with your assurance, because there's nothing
there to give you any assurance about. Look to Christ. his reconciled
face through the gospel and you will have the assurance that
he accepts you. He says in verse 26, the Lord
lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. Now the only peace I'm interested
in is the peace he gives. I don't want to have a false
peace. I don't want to have a man-made peace. I don't want to convince
myself of something. The only peace that I'm interested in
It's the peace that He gives, the Lord give thee peace. Now, do you know when you don't
have peace? It's when you do not see that
the sin issue has been dealt with. If you think that there's
something you need to do or achieve to have this peace, you don't
have any peace. You see, now listen to me carefully.
May God give me the grace to say this the way it ought to
be said. The only well-grounded peace,
and there are all kinds of peace. People have false peace. I said this recently, I remember
looking at a bunch of cows right before they were getting ready
to slaughter. They had such a peaceful countenance. They were getting
ready to be put to death and butchered, but they looked so
peaceful. Everything was fine. I don't
want to have that kind of peace, do you? I want that peace the
Lord gives, and the only peace that's a well-grounded peace
is 100% what the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished. Let me show
you that in the scripture. Turn with me to Colossians 1. Verse 20. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross. Have you made your peace with
God? No. He made my peace with God. Having made peace through the
blood of His cross by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself.
By Him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in
heaven. And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body
of His flesh through death to present you holy. Unblameable. and unreprovable
in His sight. And let me repeat this. If I'm
holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight, it's because I
really am holy and unblameable and unreprovable. That is what
the gospel of Christ does. And you know what that gives
me? Peace. Peace. All the pressure's off. I'm holy. There's nothing to blame me for.
I mean, you can reprove me all you want, but God's not going
to reprove me. I'm un-reprovable in His sight. That is the possession
of every child of God, and peace comes from that, having been
justified. Romans 4.25, He was delivered
for our offenses, raised again for our justification. Having
been justified by faith, we have peace with God. Not by works
we have peace with God, but by faith. You see, the Lord said,
these things have I spoken unto you, that in me, in me you might
have peace. In the world, you'll have tribulation,
but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. He is our peace. And you know, we have peace with
each other, don't we? We're not in competition. You're the only
people that, where there's strife, they're competing, one trying
to get what somebody else has, but no, we're not in competition. We already got everything we
have, all we need, because we're complete in Him. There's nothing
to compete for. I don't have to compete for my
Father's favor. I've got it. I don't have to
compete to try. I'm afraid He's showing you too
much. No. We're all equal. We're all one
in Christ Jesus. And there is peace. What a blessing. And finally, He says in verse 27, this is
the seventh blessing. And they shall put my name upon
the children of Israel, and I will bless them. Now, I'm right fond
of my name. I am. I'm right fond of my name,
and you are, too. Everybody's favorite name is
their own. That's why you ought to try to practice on remembering
people's names when you meet them, because your remembering
a name is awfully important to them, you know? And so that's
a good thing. I mean, I fail at it miserably,
but I know I ought to, because everybody, I'm fond of my name. I'm me. Do you know what? There's
a name I'd rather have than Todd Nybert. You know what that is? Jehovah Sidkenu. This is the name wherewith she
shall be called the Lord Jehovah, our righteousness. What is your
name? Jehovah, our righteousness. Is that presumption or is that
faith? It's faith. Now, these blessings,
aren't they glorious? The Lord bless thee, the Lord
keep thee, the Lord preserve thee. The Lord may his face shine
upon thee in full reconciliation and be gracious toward thee.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and the Lord give thee
peace and let the Lord's name be upon you. Is there any greater blessing
than that? May God cause this to be the blessing each person
in this room experiences, if it pleases Him. I hope and pray
it does please Him to do that. Let's pray together. Lord, we must have your blessing. Oh, Lord, we must have your blessing. And Lord, give us the faith of
Jacob. Cause us to say, I will not let
thee go, except thou bless me. Lord, we need your blessing. We need you to keep us. We need you to be reconciled
toward us through thy blessed son. We need you to be gracious
toward us. And oh Lord, we need you to lift
your countenance upon us and give us your peace and give us
your name. Now bless this message for the
Lord's sake. In his name we pray. Amen. What
do you got, Dwayne? 318. 318. We'll stand and sing
together. I need thee.