Now if you'll open your Bibles
to the 16th chapter of Numbers, before I get into the heart of
the message and the application of the text, I'd like to make
two or three observations. First of all, a man named Cola
and his followers about 250 men, had rejected the leadership of
Moses. They had rejected the authority
and leadership of Aaron. In Numbers 16, verse 2, it says,
And they rose up before Moses with certain of the children
of Israel, 250 princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation,
men of renown. and they gathered themselves
together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, You
take too much upon you, seeing that all the congregation are
holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Wherefore
then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord.
Now Moses defended his position. He said in verse 4, And when
Moses heard it, he fell on his face, and he spake unto Korah,
and to all his companies, and said, Even to-morrow the Lord
will show who are his, and who is holy, and will cause him to
come near unto him, even him whom he hath chosen. will he
cause to come near unto him. God had selected a high priest. God had selected a prophet. And the high priest and the prophet
represented God to the people and represented the people to
God. And this high priest, Abram,
was a type of Christ. Christ is our high priest. Christ
is the only one through whom we can come to the Father. There
is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And Aaron was a type of Christ.
Aaron was a picture of Christ. And all of the priests of the
Old Testament were types and pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ. And these people, when they rejected
Aaron, were rejecting not only Aaron, but they were rejecting
the very idea of a priest. and consequently were rejecting
the Lord Jesus Christ. They were rejecting the way of
blood. They were rejecting the way of
sacrifice. They were rejecting the way of
representation. They were rejecting substitution. That's what they were doing.
That's the heart of this matter. They were saying, we'll come
ourselves before God. We don't need a high priest.
We don't need a mediator. We don't need an advocate. We
don't need anyone to go to God for us, we'll come ourselves.
That's what they were saying. And verse 28, if you'll turn
over there with me, and Moses said, in verse 28, "...hereby
ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all these works. For I have not done them of mine
own mind, in my own hand." This is not my idea. No man takes
this position upon himself. No man says, now I'll be the
prophet. God says who will be the prophet.
No man says, now I'll be the priest. God says who will be
the priest. Not even Christ took this honor
upon himself, but the Father sent him. The Father anointed
him. The Father appointed him. The
Father selected him to be the priest. And the Father selected
Ava, and the Father selected Moses. And Moses said, we haven't
done this of our own mind, and we're going to prove it to you.
If these men, talking about Korah and these 250 men of renown,
famous men, but rebellious men, if these men die an ordinary
death, if these men die an ordinary death, then God did not send
me and did not send Abraham. If the Lord make a new and unusual
thing, and an earthquake come and open, divide the earth, and
these men fall in, and the earth swallow them up, Then God is
speaking and saying that Moses is my representative. Well, that's
exactly what happened. The earth opened up and Korah
and his family and all of the other men and their families
and all pertaining to them went down alive into the pit. Now, you'd think You'd think
that this experience would have a lasting effect upon the people.
They stood there and saw this. They saw this. They heard Moses'
message in preceding years. Moses said to the people, Now
Aaron is the priest, and Aaron will come to the tabernacle.
And Aaron will offer the sacrifice, and Aaron will burn the incense,
and Aaron and the priest will represent the people. And these
men came and said, Now we are all holy before the Lord, we
reject the ministry of Aaron, we reject the priesthood of Aaron,
we'll all burn incense, we'll all offer sacrifices, we'll all
come before the Lord. And God spoke in anger and destroyed
every one of them. and told the high priest, said,
melt their censers down and mold it into a covering for the altar,
and when the people see that melted, molded covering for the
altar, they'll remember the rebellion of these men, the rejection of
these men, and they'll fear. But that's not the case. The
very next day, in verse 41, the very next day, this same crowd
this same crowd. They're the ones that saw the
plagues in Egypt. They're the ones that saw the
parting of the sea. They're the ones that saw the
manna fall from heaven. They're the ones that saw the
water from the smitten rock. They're the ones that saw the
cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. They're the ones
that saw the earth open up and swallow up Korah and all his
followings. The very next day, these people
who had seen the fear of God, and the wrath of God, and the
judgment of God. The very next day, these same
people were murmuring again against Moses and against Abram. It says, the people, verse 41,
the congregation murmured against Moses and against Abram, and
they said, you kill these men, Korah and these 250 men of renown,
you kill them!" And it came to pass, verse 42, that when this
congregation had gathered in anger and wrath, a mob, and they
were men who were looking for Moses' blood, I'm sure, and they
gathered against Moses and against Avon. And Moses and Avon looked
toward the tabernacle that stood in the midst of the camp. The
tents were all around the tabernacle. Here the tabernacle of God was
in the midst of the camp. They looked toward the tabernacle,
and there was the cloud that led Israel. There was the cloud
that represented the presence of God. There was the cloud,
and the glory of God appeared over the tabernacle. And God
spake in verse 45, and He said, Separate yourself from the congregation. I'm going to destroy every one
of them." The people had rebelled again, and God was angry. And
God was going to send a plague among the people, and He did.
He sent a great plague, and right there, that very day, 14,700 hundred, half the population
of the city of Ashland, died. God said, get away from them,
separate yourself from these rebels, I'm going to destroy
them, I'm going to consume them in a moment. But Moses, now watch
this, verse 46, Moses cried to Aaron, the high priest, and he
said, Aaron, take a censer, get fire from the altar and put it
in the censer. and put on incense, and run quickly,
and make an atonement for the people. For the wrath of God,
the wrath of God is come. The plague is begun. And Aaron,
one hundred years old, that's how old he was, you get some
idea of how this man appeared. This man Aaron, God's high priest,
the representative of Christ. Moses said, Aaron, run quick
and get a censer, and run, get some fire, and take some incense,
and run out there. The fire of God, the plague of
God, the wrath of God is falling upon the people. Run, Aaron,
and make an atonement for them. And Aaron, one hundred years
old, ran quickly with the incense. He had the incense in his hand,
and he had the censer in the other hand. with the fire in
it. He'd gone up to the tabernacle, and he got the proper fire and
the proper incense and the proper censer, and he came running down
between the Lord and the people who were falling like flies. They were falling like a fire
sweeping through a field of dead grass. And Avon went running
out there, and he took that censer of fire, and he put the incense
on it, and he began to wave that atonement, that incense before
God. between God and the people, and
the scripture says he stopped the plague. He stopped the plague. Now, my friends, there is something
like 50 verses of scripture that have
to do with one incident in 40 years of wilderness wanderings. Now if this is only an account
of a plague, why did God spend so much space, use so much space
in his word just to tell us about a plague? There were many plagues. There were hundreds and thousands
of plagues. And I say that there's no use
to preserve this story. It's of no value whatsoever if
it's just a story of another plague. It's of no value at all,
if that's all it is. And secondly, if this is only
an historical account of a large number of people perishing under
the judgment of God, it is of no real value in that case either. Because look at Sodom. More than
14,000 died there. Look at Gomorrah. Look at the
Tower of Babel. Look at the flood. Look at all
of the time, look at Jerusalem, when the blood was up to the
horse's bottle. It's of no value at all. If it's
just the story of a lot of people dying, it's of no value at all. There's no reason to use all
this space in God's Word. If it's just a miracle, if it's
no more than a miracle, then I don't see any value in it.
And it's no more than just God Almighty exerting His power and
authority. There's no value there either,
because the creation of a world is a greater wonder than this. But this story is more. It's more than just the story
of a plague. It's more than just the story
of a lot of people perishing. It's more than just God dealing
with Israel. It is the way God dealt with
them. Aaron is a picture of Christ. Aaron the high priest is a picture
of Christ, and the rebelling people a picture of you and me. Now let me show you that. I want
to present Aaron, first of all, in a five-fold character, and
see if you can see what God is teaching us in this scripture. First of all, look at Aaron the
lover. Here the wrath of God had fallen
upon the people. God's judgment. And the people
were dying. Fourteen thousand seven hundred
of them had died. And this old man Avon, the people
didn't love him. This is the second time in two
days that they've tried to fire him. This is the second time
in two days that they had organized a plot against him. This is the
second time in two days that the people had wanted to strip
him of his power, and strip him of his office, and even take
his life. They didn't love him. You'd think that when Moses hollered,
Aaron, Aaron, Aaron's a hundred years old, Aaron's seen a lot
of this. And the people said, we don't want Aaron. We reject
Avon, we reject the priesthood, we've got to go before our God
ourselves. It looks like Avon would have
said, all right, let them try it. They've tried it before and
they've died, let them try it again. But he didn't. When Moses
said, Avon, run get a censer, run get some incense, and run
down among the people, Avon loved them. Avon the lover. Aaron ran down among them, a
hundred years old. He went running up to the tabernacle,
and he got the censer, and he got the fire, and he got the
incense, and he went running down, right down into the midst
of the plague, right into the midst of God's wrath, right into
the midst of the people. He ran right down there among
them because he loved them. Because he loved them. The people
had cried, Is not this the cry in Eden's
garden when mankind rejected God's authority and rejected
God's sovereignty and rejected God's rule? Is not this the cry
in Eden's garden? Is not this the plan of Babel's
tower The Tower of Babel, when the people said, why, we don't
need God, we'll build a tower up to heaven, and we'll inhabit
heaven ourselves. Is not this the cry at Calvary's
cross? When the people said, we'll not
have this man to reign over us. Crucify him! Is not this even
the attitude of every heart? And yet Jesus Christ our Lord,
like Avon, loved us. In 1 John 4, verse 10, it says
here in his love, not that we loved God, but he loved us, and
sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sin. In the book of Ephesians,
in chapter 2, beginning with verse 1, it says, And you hath
he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin. In times
past you walked according to the course of this world, according
to the prince of the pile of air, the spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich
in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us." Alan, they don't
love you, I know that. Alan, they don't want you, I
know that. Alan, they want to murder you,
I know that. But Alan loved them, and he ran
right down the middle of them. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
right down here into the middle of this earth. The people did
not love him. They despised him. They rejected
him. They cried, we will not have
this man reign over us. But Christ Jesus came down here
and identified himself with us. Somebody said, well, Alan, if
you run down there in the middle of the people, the plague will
follow you. When you become identified with
them, God told you to separate yourself from them, but here
you are going down among them. Turn to Isaiah 53. Listen to
this, Isaiah 53, verse 12. Therefore, talking about Christ,
will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide
the small with the strong? because he had poured out his
soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors. Christ
Jesus, our Lord, took our flesh upon himself. He was numbered
with us. He became one with us. He identified himself with us. Turn to Hebrews 2. In Hebrews
2, verse 11 through 14, for both he that sanctified, and they
who are sanctified, are all of one. For which cause he is not
ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name
among my brethren. In the midst of the church will
I sing praise unto thee. and again I will put my trust
in him, and again behold I and the children which God hath given
me, forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself. Likewise took part of the same
flesh and blood, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is, the devil. Alan loved the
people, and he revealed that love by identifying himself with
them. He took that censer and the fire
and the incense, and without any regard for his personal safety,
he ran down among the The Lord Jesus Christ loved us so much
that he came down here among us and was numbered with us and
took part of flesh and blood with us, identified himself with
us as our representative, and stood among us who hated him,
despised him, and rejected him. Now secondly, talking about Avon. Now look at Avon, not only the
lover, but Avon the high priest. Now, my friends, the wrath of
God against sin was fallen upon Israel. These people had rebelled
and God's wrath had fallen upon them. They were guilty, the law
condemned them, and the judgment of God was falling upon them.
There was no way for that judgment and that wrath and that offended
law to be reconciled without a suitable atonement. So Aaron
didn't run down there empty-handed. Avon didn't run down there and
just plead with God. He would have been destroyed
and so would they. Avon didn't run down there in the hopes that
he could use his influence to stop the plague. But Avon ran
down there with a censer and the incense. He carried the incense
and he carried the censer. And there before God, he took
that incense and laid it on that fire. And then when he waved
that incense before the Lord, that incense which is a picture
of Christ's death, that incense which is a picture of Christ's
blood, that incense which is a picture of Christ's intercession,
when he waved that incense, that atonement, before the presence
of the Heavenly Father, it stopped the plague. It was not anyone
who stopped it, it was the atonement that stopped it. It was not Aaron
that stopped it, it was the blood of Christ that stopped it. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
came down here to the earth, when God's wrath was upon us,
and when God's judgment was upon us, And when condemnation was
upon us, Christ came, but He didn't come empty-handed, and
He didn't stand before the Father empty-handed. He came down here
in the flesh, and as our High Priest, He offered an atonement
to the Father, which was His own blood. Without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission for sin. There are two necessary
things to satisfying justice and appeasing justice. and honoring
the law, two necessary things. What are they? The right high
priest and the right sacrifice. and Aaron was the right priest.
Aaron was the right one, and he had in his hand the right
atonement. He had fire from off the altar,
and he had incense that God Almighty himself had chosen, and that
stopped the plague. And when Jesus Christ came, he
is the high priest, the one God chosen, mine anointed, and he
has his own blood which is sufficient to put away all condemnation. Now look at verse 48. We look
at Aaron not only the lover and Aaron the high priest, but let's
look at Aaron the mediator. And Aaron stood between the dead
and the living, and the plague was staged. This
awful plague was destroying the people as fire would cut down
a field of dried grass. and Aaron stepped between the
people and the wrath of God, and waved this incense as much
as to say, Death, in order to get to the people, you've got
to march over me and my atonement. Judgment, in order to get to
the people, you've got to march over God's high priest. judgment
and death in order to destroy the people, you must empty my
censer." Get the picture now. Here are
the people behind him. Here is Almighty God, God's holy
throne, God's holy law, God's holy justice, God's holy God's
justifiable wrath against the sins of Israel. But Avon steps
out between the people and God, and he holds that censer with
the fire and the incense in front of all those things I have named. And this is what he says, "'Lord
God, I know you are holy, but Lord God, you are not holier
than my sacrifice.'" Justice of God, you're righteous, but
you're not more righteous than my sacrifice. In order to get
to the people condemnation, you've got to destroy God's high priest,
you've got to destroy God's holiness, you've got to destroy God's substitute,
you've got to destroy God's atonement. And the Lord Jesus Christ, when
he stands for a sinner, he stands between the law that's ready
to smite. He stands between justice that's
ready to claim our souls and bodies. He stands between eternal
death that's ready to reach out and damn us. But Christ stands
forth as the mediator, and he says, Law, you have no claim
on these people, because I've met you, Law, and I've satisfied
you, and I've honored you, and I've kept you to every jot and
tittle. justice, you can lay nothing
to their charge, because I've satisfied you fully. Death, you
can't touch them, for death you have slain me, and I've satisfied
you completely, and you can come no further." Now, my friends,
what will you trust? Here you are in judgment, condemnation,
guilt, There God's holiness and law and justice is descending
in wrath. What will you put between you
and that awful law and that awful justice and that awful wrath?
Will you put your church membership? Perhaps you will put your baptism.
Perhaps you will offer, Here, law, here is my work. Here, justice,
here is my merit. Here is my good deed. Will not
these things stay the wrath of God? Then we look at Aaron the Savior,
verse 48. The plague was stayed. Aaron
and his atonement stopped the plague. Because of Aaron, the
people lived. Because of Aaron and his atonement,
death stopped. Because of Aaron and his atonement,
the Father was reconciled. Christ is the only Savior because
of Christ, and only because of Christ we live. He said, Because
I live, ye shall live also. Aaron was the unaided Savior.
Aaron stood alone. Turn to Isaiah 63. I'm going
to preach on this tonight. I turned over here to this scripture
to make a reference in the message this morning, and I thought,
My, this is such a beautiful scripture. And I'm going to bring
a message from this verse, Isaiah 63, verse 3, tonight. Avon stood
out there alone, all alone. No one was with him. And Jesus
Christ the Lord says in Isaiah 63 verse 3, I have trodden the
winepress, and the winepress is a symbol of God's wrath, all
alone. And of the people there was none
with me. Christ suffered alone. He prayed alone. He went to the
judgment alone. He hung on the cross alone. He bore our sins alone. He died alone. He went to the
grave alone. He ascended to the presence of
the Heavenly Father alone. He is the unaided Savior. The royal bath in which black
souls are washed white was drawn from the veins of Jesus Christ
alone, and he was the sufficient Savior. The people were dying. The plague was sweeping through
the camp. God was angry. Aaron ran down between God and
the people, and he waved that And death came to Aaron's feet,
judgment came to Aaron's feet, condemnation came to Aaron's
feet, and it stopped right there. Now, it had conquered the mighty.
Korah was mighty. And the men with him, the men
of renown, and the men of fame, and the men of valor, it conquered
all of them. It had conquered the religious.
There were a lot of religious leaders where those people and
death had swept down upon them and devoured them in their religion
and in their piety and in their morality. It had conquered the
mighty, it had conquered the religious, it had conquered the
moralist, it had conquered all of these socially. But when it
came to the atonement, it stopped. When it came to the atonement,
death had conquered all these others. Death had conquered the
moralist, death had conquered the religious, death had conquered
the strong, death had conquered the mighty. But when the death,
which is because of sin and guilt, when the law, when God's justice
came to Aaron, who was God's priest, when it came to Aaron,
who had God's atonement, When it came to Aaron, who had God's
proper sacrifice, it stopped. It stopped dead still. And nobody
else died. And nobody else died. Numbers 16, verse 48, And he
stood between the dead and the living. The last thing I see,
I see Aaron the divider. Aaron the divider. There are
two sorts of people, the dead and the living. There are two sorts of people,
the saved and the lost. There are two sorts of people,
the believer and the unbeliever. There are two sorts of people,
the objects of God's grace and the objects of God's wrath. There
are two sorts of people, those who stand and those who fall.
And you know who's the difference, who's the great divider, who's
standing between the two? God's high priest, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the difference. He will
be the great divider at the judgment. The redeemed of all ages will
say unto him who loved us and washed us from our sin in his
own blood, to him be the glory both now and forever, unto him
who delivered us, who redeemed us, who hath made us kings and
priests of God, unto him be the glory. And those who fall, and
those who perish, and those who sink in everlasting condemnation
will cry to the rocks and mountains, fall on us and deliver us from
the face of him. He is the issue. He is the divider. It's Jesus Christ. All who are
redeemed say, Unto Him be glory. All who are lost say, Fall on
us and deliver us from the face of Him. We don't want to see
Him. We don't want to face Him. We
don't want to do business with Him. Deliver us from Him. He
is the issue. A group of people came to the
Lord Jesus Christ one day. And they said, Which is the greatest
commandment? And he said to them, I shall
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbors
thyself. On these two hang all the law and the prophet. And
then they said to him, they said, Well, is it lawful to pay tribute
to Caesar? He said, You've got a coin? One
of them said, Yes. He said, Whose picture's on the
coin? They said, Caesar's. He said, Well, you render to
Caesar the things that belong to Caesar and to God the things
that belong to God. Another one said to him, Well,
Lord, Master, suppose that a woman is married and her husband dies,
and she marries again, and that husband dies, and she marries
again, and that husband dies, and she's had five, six, or seven
husbands, Who's going to be her husband in the resurrection?
And the Lord Jesus Christ said, You do err, not knowing the scriptures
nor the power of God. In the resurrection they are
as the angels. They neither marry nor are given
in marriage. And he put to silence the lawyers and the scribes and
the Sadducees. And they turned to walk off.
And the Master said, I have a question for you. Now we've been talking about
all these other matters, the matters of which is the most
important law, and whether or not it's lawful for a Christian
to pay taxes, or a person in the kingdom of God to submit
to the kingdoms of men. And you've talked about the resurrection
and the things that are going to be hereafter. Here is the
question that I have for you. What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? And my friends,
that was the issue then, and that's the issue today. Now you
can argue and divide and split over all of these other sciences
so-called, and issues of men, and traditions of men, and doctrines
of men, and denominations, and catechisms, and creeds, and dogmas,
and all of these other things. But it's going to boil down when
God's wrath is descending upon this world in eternal judgment,
the issue is going to be Jesus Christ. Just like the issue here
in Numbers 16 with one man, Abram. Here was God and his wrath. Here were the people and they
were perishing. Judgment had fallen upon them. There was the rich and the poor,
there was the old and the young, there was the wise and the unwise,
there was the moralist and the immoral, there was the pious
and the And those that weren't pious, there were all these people,
and there was one issue, judgment. Life had fallen, and they were
perishing. And here an old man by the name
of Aaron came running out between God and these people when God
was dealing with them in wrath and dealing with them in judgment
and dealing with them in condemnation. And he stood out there in front
of them, and before the presence of the Lord, he waved a censer
full of burning incense. And just like that, the plague
stopped. It wasn't their might that stopped
it, it was that atonement. It wasn't their prayers that
stopped it, it was the atonement. It wasn't their promises to do
better, oh, we'll do better next time. I know what you'll do next
time, same thing you're doing this time. It wasn't that, it
was the atonement. Atonement. And that represents
the Lord Jesus Christ, who offered a sufficient atonement for the
sins of all who believe on him. And I want to find my place hiding
behind the atonement of Christ. I want to get behind Abraham.
I want to get behind Christ. I want to get behind the blood.
I want to get behind the cross. And I want that cross in between
me and the Father. I want that cross between me
and the law. I want that cross between me
and judgment. I want that cross between me
and justice. Because I know him who died on
that cross will say, law of God, you can't touch him, you've already
touched me. Justice, you can't touch him,
you've already touched me. That's the only hope we have. That's what that's saying. That's
what that's saying. That's reason, that's fair. It's
not just another plague. It's not just another miracle.
It's not just an historical account of something that happened in
the life of Israel. And that's the reason I say in
these Old Testament studies and these Old Testament applications,
Christ is all the way through that book. Christ in his atonement,
in his blood. To him give all the prophets
witness. And God's saying something to
you and me there. God's saying you've offended
me. You've stirred up my wrath, you've broken my law, and I'm
coming in judgment!" You'd better get behind Christ and let him
be your refuge. Our Father in Heaven, anoint
this message with the power of the Holy Spirit and give understanding
to these hearts of ours. Let us rest in Christ and depend
upon Christ. and hide behind Christ and look
to Christ alone, be sufficient to put away all the wrath and
the condemnation. Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? Who is he that condemns? Christ
has died. Yea, rather, is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. And he is able to save to the
uttermost them that come to God by him. Speak through thy word,
by the power of thy spirit, and strengthen the faith of thy people. But chiefly and most of all,
let that faith be in one object, the Lord Jesus Christ. In his
name we pray, amen.