Numbers chapter 16. We looked at this chapter last
week concerning Korah and the other men with
him trying to overthrow Moses and Aaron's priesthood. I want
to go back one more time and look at it. Something else we
see here. I want to begin reading in Numbers
chapter 16 and in verse 29. Let's just look at some more
things concerning this chapter. This is where Korah and two more
men of the tribe of, I can't think of his name, his name skipped
me, but he was the oldest son of Jacob, Reuben was his name. And they had gotten together
and Moses confronted them about their rebellion. And here he
tells of the judgment that's going to come upon them in verse
29. And these men, if these men die
the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the
visitation of all men, then the Lord has not sent me. But if
the Lord make some new thing, a new thing, and the earth opened
her mouth and swallowed them up with all that appertains unto
them, and they go down alive into the pit, then ye shall understand
that these men have provoked the Lord. And it came to pass,
as he made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground
clave asunder that was under them, and the earth opened her
mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses and all the
men that appertained to Corey, and all their goods. They and
all that appertained to them went down alive unto the pit,
and the earth closed upon them, and they perished from among
the congregation. And all Israel that were round
about them fled at the cry of them, for they said, Lest the
earth swallow us up also. And there came out a fire from
the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered
incense." I want us to go on in a minute, but I want us to
stop here and see some things in this particular passage of
Scripture. And I think it reminds us again
why the Old Testament incidents that took place like this and
other places is so important to us, because it shows us a
living reality of things. For instance, it shows us the
terribleness and the exceeding sinfulness of sin against God. How dangerous it is to sin against
God. It shows us the judgment of God,
doesn't it? The earth opening up and swallowing
these men up. And this is why this helps us.
You and I live in a time and in a day. Most of the time since
the New Testament has been this way. We seldom, if ever, see
the judgment of God openly manifested. We see people come and go. We
see them live and die. We see diseases. We see floods. We see earthquakes. We see tsunamis. Sometimes we see thousands of
people killed. That's the righteous being taken
away with the unrighteous. And sometimes we can't discern
the judgment of God in that. It's not open like it was here.
It's not so evidently manifest as it is here. And sometimes
because we can't see this, a fallen humanity, they have a tendency
to think that God is not angry with sin. What kind of God is
God? Does He really hate sin? Does
He even care? Is He really holy? Is He a God
of judgment? And the reason they say that,
there's just not much evidence to prove God's hatred of sin. I'm talking about open evidence.
I know what's in the Bible. I know what's in our conscience.
We're convinced of it. But society's not. And therefore,
society is apt to say and do what the Bible says they do.
Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily
and openly, the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them
to do evil. But here, when we look at these
incidents like this, like Sodom and Gomorrah, and the fire falling
from heaven and consuming them, like the old world that was destroyed. Those were open judgments of
God. And we don't see this today.
But as we go back here and as we look at these incidents, what
do we say? Well, we say God hates sin. God
hates sin. He is indeed a God of judgment. And if He doesn't bring judgment
now like He did then, that's no sign that He does not hate
sin. And that's no sign that He will
not judge sin. He has a purpose, doesn't He?
He's a long-suffering God. But you know, just as the pit
opened up and swallowed these people, there is another pit. There is a pit of hell. Unbelievers die, and when they
die, that pit opens its mouth, and they go down into that pit. And somebody says, is God not
a God of love? Is He not a God of mercy? Is
He not good? Could He possibly do this? Well,
all we have to do is look at this incident, and we say, yes,
there He is. There He is. He's a God that
truly takes sin. And verse 38 tells us, here,
look at verse 38. This is not only revealing to
us the holiness of God and the hatred of God against sin, that
He will punish it. But look here in verse 38, and
here's what makes the judgment of God so just. Look what he
says in verse 38. He told them to go take up these
censers of these sinners against their own souls. It's a just judgment because
they deserved it. The fire came out and destroyed
them, devoured them. And he said, this is the reason
the judgment came. They were sinners against their
own souls. I tell you, to be damned is the
most dreadful thing that one could think about. But it is
the most agonizing thing a person can think about because his damnation
is of himself. Men in hell under God's judgment
will be holden by the cords of their own sin. Be sinners against
their own souls. Here is something else we see
in this passage. The man here that began this rebellion's name
was Korah. Here in verse 32 and verse 33,
it seems to indicate that everything and everybody that pertained
to his house, his wife, his children, and all that he had, went down
alive unto this pit. That would have been a just judgment
if that had happened. But look over here in chapter
26 of Numbers. This shows us something else
that often happens in the very midst of wrath. There is mercy. There is mercy. Look at what
he says in chapter 26 of Numbers and look in verse 10. He is speaking
of this very incident. And the earth opened her mouth
and swallowed them up together with Korah. When that company
died, what time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men, And
they became a sign. But look in verse 11. Notwithstanding,
the children of Korah died not. Now, isn't that mercy? At one
place, we were just certain that his wife and his children, and
maybe many of his relatives, went down into this pit with
him. But here, in the time of God's wrath, the children were
spared. His sons and his daughters. How
many men in this world have been wicked men. And the wrath of
God came and tucked them away. But then the Lord turned in mercy
to that man's children and saved them. And I'll tell you something
else about Korah's family. As you read the Psalms, you often
in the heading of the Psalm, you will see a Psalm of David
to the sons of Korah. And read some of those Psalms.
And think of Korah's children, the singers, They became the
singers in Israel. And when David wrote those psalms,
he would send them to Korah's children, his sons, and they
would put the tune to them and sing them. And some of those
psalms are amazing. You want to turn to just one
with me? Over in Psalms chapter 46. And
what makes this amazing, you realize who it is that is singing
these psalms first. Look in Psalms chapter 46. This psalm here in the heading
to the chief musician for the sons of Korah. And look here
what he says in chapter 46, verse 1, God is our refuge and God
is our strength, a very present help in trouble. Boy, can you imagine his children
singing that from their hearts? His descendants? That whole family
could have been wiped out. He could have had no descendants.
But here they are saying, therefore will not we fear, though the
earth be removed, and boy they could have put in there though
the earth open her mouth, yet will not we fear. Therefore will
not we fear, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of
the sea, and though the waters thereof roar and be troubled,
though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof, there is
a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God,
and the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the
midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall
help her." And that is right. And if you read these psalms
where they are written to the Children of Korah, what a blessing they
are. In the time of wrath, the prophet said, remember mercy. And God often does, doesn't He?
Oh, He can make a poor man. Oh, but He seldom does that.
He seldom does that. Look here back in our text in
chapter 14, and look in verse 41 and verse 45. Here's something
else we can see in this chapter. I'm working my way down slowly
to verse Look here in chapter 16, verse
41. This was after the earth had
swallowed them up. We looked at this last week and
saw how amazing this was. On the morrow, all the congregation
of the children of Israel murmured against Moses, and against Aaron,
saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord, And it come to pass,
when the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron,
that they looked towards the tabernacle of the congregation,
and, behold, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord
appeared. And Moses of Aaron came before
the tabernacle of the congregation, and the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Get you up from among this congregation, that I may
consume them in a moment. And they fell upon their faces. Now here's something that is
repeated so many times in these first five books of the Bible,
especially these four that we've been looking at. Exodus is the
first place this phrase here is mentioned. Let me alone that
I may consume them in a moment. The Lord often threatened this,
and every time Moses made intercessions for them. Sometimes he would
fall upon his face and make intercessions for them. But the first time
this is ever written is found in Exodus chapter 32 and verse
9 and 10. And let me read the first time
this is recorded. The Lord said unto Moses, I have
seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.
Now let me alone, that my wrath may wax hard against them, that
I may consume them. And I will make of thee a great
nation." Now, I don't know if Lotus was tempted by that or
not. I probably would be. They give
this meek man more trouble than he gave himself. And the Lord
said, Moses, let me alone. I'll consume them, and I will
make of you a great nation. My goodness. But you know what
Moses said? No. No, Lord. If you consume them, if you block
their names out, block mine too. Oh, he loved them, didn't he?
He loved them. What kind of a nation would the Lord have made if He
consumed the children of Israel? Of course, He wasn't about to
do that. He was setting forth Moses to plead for them. That's
why God did that. You know, you wonder sometimes
when humanity fail, fail by sin and our rebellion, And especially
as you go on in the old world and it comes a time when God
said, it repenteth me that I've made them, and it's grieved me
at my heart. Did you ever wonder if he could
have said to his son, my son, I'm going to consume humanity
and I'm going to make of you a great nation. He could have
said that, couldn't he? I mean, he could have made posterity,
he could have made a nation of spirits, he could have created
a heaven of holy, pure, obedient spirits, conformed to the very
image of his own Son, and this white-fallen, rebellious humanity
off of the face of the earth. Could he have not done that?
Or he could have did this. He could have said, I've seen
them, how stiff-necked they are, how rebellious they are. They
won't listen to my word. They won't believe my prophets.
I'm going to consume them in a moment, and I'm going to redeem
the fallen angels. He could have done that, couldn't
he? I believe that would have been much easier to redeem than
you and I. I'll tell you one thing, the
Son of God would have never had to take human flesh to Himself,
would He? He would have never had to suffer
and die to redeem them. They would have been much easier to
redeem. And don't you think they would have appreciated it a lot
more? Those black, fallen angels? For the Lord to turn to them
and say, I'm going to redeem you, I'm going to restore you
to My favor? I'm going to make you holy again?
Why, every angel would have fled to Him and bowed before Him in
holy reverence. But you know something? God didn't tell His Son that.
And God never made an offering for those fallen angels. And
Jesus Christ never took upon Him the nature of these fallen
angels. But whose nature did He take? Ours. Ours. All He could have. God could
have made a holy nation. Spiritual beings. But He chose,
didn't He? rebellious, ungodly, wicked sinners
to redeem you and to redeem me. He took on Him, took on Himself
the form of a servant. Now let's look here at verse
46 through 50 in our text. And Moses said unto Aaron, now
this is amazing. You've got to get a picture of
this in your mind. Use your imagination. This really happened. Remember
this. This really happened. And it
happened for our learning. We learn things by seeing the
reality of what happened here. And here we see the reality and
something of the power of Aaron's priesthood. Hear what he said
in verse 46. Moses said unto Aaron, Take a
censer. That's those little cup-like
things, you know, that help ashes. And put fire therein from off
the altar, and put on incense. and go quickly into the congregation
and make an atonement for them, for there is wrath gone out from
the Lord. The plague is begun. And Aaron
took as Moses commanded and ran into the midst of the congregation,
and behold, the plague was begun among the people. And he put
on incense and made an atonement for the people, and he stood
between the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed. Now
they that died in the plague were fourteen thousand and seven
hundred besides them that died about the matter of Corinth.
And Aaron returned unto Moses unto the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation, and the plague was stayed." Now, what
do we see in this old man? And some suggest that he could
have been well over 100 years old. He was 123 when he died. He was probably around 100 years
old at this time. Moses speaks to him and says,
Aaron, grab your censer. Hurry. Fill it full of coals
from off the altar. Take your handful of incense
and run in among the people and put that incense on the hot coals
and hold it up for God to smell it, to make an atonement for
the people. Now what do we see in this old
man but love? I mean, he loved these people. How do we know that? They were
just trying to kill him. The whole congregation was gathered
together against him and Moses. They were trying to strip him
of his priesthood. You know what? If the Lord's
glory hadn't appeared in the tabernacle, I'd just about bet
you anything they'd have stoned Moses and Aaron both. Or cut
them to pieces. and tore them to pieces. They
hated him, didn't they? But what did he do? Boy, he gets
his censer. And I tell you, he makes haste.
And the Scripture says he runs. Can you see this old man? And
he's somewhat bent over and a little bit feeble. And he grabs his
censer without any regard to his own safety. not considering
his own life, and he runs right in the midst of the congregation
that had just tried to kill him? He holds his censer up and he
stands right between the dead and the living with absolute
disregard for his own life. That's love, isn't it? That's
love. Isn't that what we see in Jesus
Christ? Isn't He a beautiful picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ? I tell you, He came to this earth
in our humanity, and when He came, I'm telling you, brothers
and sisters, He didn't come among friends. He came unto His own,
and His own received Him not. Not only did they not receive
Him, not only were they not just indifferent to Him, but the Scripture
says He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrow. And the Scriptures tell us that
he disregarded his own life, that he denied himself, that
he became a servant, that everything he did, he did for others. Nothing was for himself. And
in his death, they turned on him. Jews and Gentiles and the
rulers, they took him outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem
And they killed Him. They slew the Lord of glory. And why did He do that? He knew
it was coming, didn't He? And yet, like Aaron, He made
haste. There was no drawback to what
He did. He came with a full heart and
full attention. He was running, was He not? When
he was 12 years old, he said, don't you know I must be about
my father's business? Lord, but your ministry won't
start until you're 30. But at 12, why was he doing that? Oh, he had saw the multitudes
and the multitudes that the plague, the wrath of God had piled up.
souls and bodies dying and dying and dying. And he saw that it
was coming to his own people. And what does he do? He comes
here and runs and sets his face like a flint to go to Jerusalem. Why? To die. To die. And this plague that came up
to Aaron and stopped and stayed, I tell you, when it first came
to our Master, It didn't stop, did it? It consumed him. But with no
regard to his life and for his well-being, he gave himself over
unto the will of his enemy. And the Scripture says he died
for who? The ungodly. When we were enemies,
when we were enemies to God, enemies of Christ, and old Scott
Richardson used to say, If an unregenerate man could get to
God, if he had a ladder long enough to reach up behind the
Son of God, what would he do? He'd stab him to death. That's
the enmity that was in our hearts. But did that stop the Lord Jesus
from coming and giving Himself for us? And why would He do that? Greater love hath no man than
this, but a man lay down his life. God commendeth His love
toward us. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. He loved me and gave himself
for me. What does the love of Jesus Christ
have to do with your salvation? What does it have to do with
your personal salvation? Everything. Everything. Doesn't it? Everything. Oh, love. Love. Just like Aaron. Just like Aaron. Notice some
things here in verse 46 and verse 47 about this atonement. This is so important. And what
makes this so wonderful, Aaron is just a beautiful, beautiful
picture of our dear Savior. But here in verse 46 and verse
47, it's very important who made this atonement. Who was it that
was accepted of God? That's very important, isn't
it? And the reason I say this is important is because there
was other men who offered incense. We're told that here in verse
35. There came fire out from the
Lord and consumed the 250 men that offered incense. They went
and offered incense. But the fire came out and consumed
them. Why did it consume them and why
was it accepted at Aaron's hand? Because Aaron was the priest
of God. He was the chosen one of God.
He was ordained of God. Nobody else could do what this
man could do. The Scripture says in Hebrews
chapter 5 concerning the priesthood of Christ and Aaron, no man takes
this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God. So Christ glorified not himself
to be made a priest, but God made him a priest. God said to
him, My son, this day have I begun you. It is not just the offering,
is it? It is who offers. It's who offers. You know, this is the great sin
of Catholicism. That they have invented a priesthood
that the Bible knows absolutely nothing about. And in inventing
them a priesthood, they have tried. And I know they've done
it in their ignorance. But they've done it anyway. They
have tried to undermine the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
for a man to call himself a priest, I know we're priests. I know
if you're a believer, Jesus Christ has made you a priest unto God.
But I'm not talking about the priesthood of the believer. I'm
talking about Catholicism setting itself up between God and man. to minister on men's behalf before
God. That priesthood belongs to one
person. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's one high priest, Glenn. And when a man tries to put himself
into the priesthood, he needs to learn. That's blasphemy. That may sound cruel, but this
sounded cruel here too, didn't it? But who did God accept? And nobody else. Nobody else. Those people there that were
dying and screaming the plague, they didn't run and fill a censer
full of ashes and put incense on them. Why? God wouldn't have
accepted it. There's one person that He will
accept an offering from, and that's His high priest. That's
Jesus Christ. And God made Him a high priest
with an oath. That's the first thing we see
about this. Who offered it? Aaron. Aaron. You know Moses didn't even do
it, did he? He told Aaron. He spoke specifically to Aaron.
He said, Aaron, you get a censure. You run in among the people.
You're the one that God's chosen. I can't do it. You've got to
do it. The second thing about this offering is this. What did
he fill this censure with? He told him to fill it with fire.
from off the altar and take him incense." They used to give a
big hand of incense and put on these hot coals. Here is the sacrifice. Because
these ashes, they were hot coals from off the altar. And you and
I have looked at that altar before. That's where they burnt the sacrifices
for sin. So this is the sacrifice. This
is the hot coals. The offering had been burned. It had undergone the awful fire. And now he gets these hot ashes
and he takes these sweet incense and puts on. Now this speaks
unto us two things. It speaks unto us of the sacrifice
of Christ. That was the ashes, the sacrifice. And it speaks to us of God's
estimation of that sacrifice. The sacrifice is Christ Himself. He offered Himself with that
spot to God. A sacrifice. And that sacrifice
was so full of merit, it was so full of worth, that it completely
satisfied God the Father. The death of Jesus Christ was
a sweet savor to God because it is the only sacrifice that
has ever atoned and satisfied for sin. Now, there is a rich
man in hell. Hell is enlarged itself. But
we know there is a rich man there. Luke 16 tells us that he has
been there now for quite some time. At least 2,000 years that
man has been in hell. But you know something? Justice
is no more satisfying for that man's sins than when he first
began to suffer hell's fire. Because the sufferings of mere
sinners cannot satisfy the judgment of God for sin. That's why the
Scripture says God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Because
their death cannot satisfy His wrath, His justice. But when
the Lord Jesus Christ lifted up Himself, His body and His
soul, as an offering for sin, what did God say? I'm satisfied. God saw the travail of His soul
and said, I'm satisfied. The three hours of his suffering
upon the cross has more merit in it than the sinner suffering
eternally for his own sin. And you know how God hates sin?
We just saw an illustration of it, didn't we? He hates it so
bad that He opened up the earth and sent man down into it alive.
That's how He hates sin. He hates iniquity and He loves
righteousness. How pleased he must be when this
sin is put away. When this sin is so punished
that it's gone. It is no more. And that's the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That's what His sufferings and
death upon the cross did. It satisfied God. He smells the
sweet-smelling Savior. The third thing about this sacrifice
was this. When Aaron went in to the mist,
and he stood there with his censer full of hot coals and sweet incense
upon it and made an atonement, it was said here, therefore the
plague was stayed. The plague was stayed. Here Aaron stands. You can get
a picture of this. And he has this censure in his
hand. On his left hand there is heaps and heaps and heaps
of dead bodies. 14,700. On his right side is
all the living. All the living. And what was it made the distinction
between the dead and the living? Aaron standing there making an
atonement for them. The plague could come no farther
than the atonement. For him to get to those on his
right hand, the plague had to go through him. And it could
not do it. Why? Because that was an atonement
that satisfied justice. That's the way it is with the
Son of God, isn't it? You're here tonight and you're in Jesus
Christ. The faith of your heart is in
Him. You trust Him. You've been brought to trust
Him. He's yours and you're His. You know where you stand? You
stand on His right side. On the Day of Judgment, that's
where you'll stand. He'll say to them on His right hand, Come
ye blessed of My Father. That's the living. That's His
sheep. But there are those also on His
left hand. Who are they? They are the dead.
Those who are spiritually dead and will never live for all eternity. Those are the ghosts. And between
the ghosts, the dead, and the sheep that live in, the Son of
God stands. And if you are here tonight and
you are in Christ, and Christ is in you, that plague will never
come from this side to this side. It will never come through Him.
and touch you. It's impossible. God cannot payment
twice demand. First at your bleeding, sure
as His hand, and then again at yours, and then again at mine.
He cannot. He will not. The question you
and I have to ask ourselves tonight, am I in Christ? That's the question,
isn't it? Am I on His right hand? Has He
set me there? Has He granted me faith in Himself?
Is He my salvation? Is He my God? Is He my sacrifice? Is He my all in all? Lastly, consider this, and we'll
close. There in verse 48, And He stood, and He stood between
the dead and the living. He stood. What determined where he stood? Did you ever think of that? What
was it in Aaron that determined when he would get there and where
he stopped, where he stood? He stood. Here you've got people
falling. Then people are falling every
place, and Moses saw it, and Aaron sees it. He saw it when
he was running in there. He saw them falling. Here was
a woman with her child, and down they went. Here was a dad clutching
his young children to himself, and down they went. The plague
consumed them. Here was a hearer of the wood.
He would have been hearing the wood for them to burn the sacrifices.
Down he went. They were falling. Falling like
flies, we say. Here was a mighty prince. One
of the princes in Israel. Surely not him. Down he goes. And here you've got some soldiers.
And they've got their swords drawn, but they're fighting against
an invisible enemy. And the plague comes up to them
and they scream and try to flee. But down they go. And Aaron,
Aaron runs and he stops. But isn't it amazing where he
stopped? Make this personal to yourself.
Can you see this lady? And there she stands. And she
has this fearful countenance. She says, my life is gone. Her
neighbor falls at her feet. And she knows herself to be the
next one. But what happens? Suddenly, from
nowhere, Aaron steps between her and the dead. Now imagine
that's you. Imagine that's you. Everybody's falling around you.
And there you stand. And when you think, my life is
gone, the plague has slew me. There is no way to escape. Suddenly,
to the joy of your heart, somebody steps between you and the plague,
and it stayed. Why did He step there in front
of you? Can you see peculiar grace in
that? I tell you, if it's happened to you, you do. That wasn't by
accident, was it? He stood. Aaron, why did you
stand there? Why did you step in front of
that particular person? Those particular people. I've had four friends that I
went to school with that have died violent deaths. Three of
them. a handgun to their brain and
shot themselves to death. One of them was killed in a violent
car accident after a night out carousing. And here I am. And what made the distinction?
Amazing grace. That's it. Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, said to the plague, The other two shall you come,
but no father. You'll come to mind, and he's
a rebel, and he's in his sins, and he deserves to die. But he's
not going to die. And the Son of God steps in,
and the plague is stayed. Bless His holy name. You feel
it, don't you? You know it. You know it. God
bless His Word.