Numbers 6:22-27

The Lord Bless Thee !!!

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REPENT!  REBUKE!   RENOUNCE!   

A)These are words that people often associate in a NEGATIVE way with preachers, pastors and servants of God

 

B)Yet, in our text this morning we read that the appointed servants of God (the Priest ) were to speak BLESSINGS to the people of God

1) The Lord commanded His priests to BLESS and not BLAST

 

B) There are those servants of God who have been terribly guilty of  MISREPRESENTING

1) Who have too often portrayed God as angry & vindictive and uptight and disappointed with His people

 

C) Been said that God has been the Victim of a lot of Bad PR – Most of it has come from his friends

     1) God has really gotten a bum rap with His people because He has been poorly represented by His servants

 

EVEN MOSES

A)Moses was a man who LOVED God and was USED by God

    But Moses was a man who was guilty of MISREPRESENTING God

 

B) NUMBERS 20 -As the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness they became extremely thirsty... And so they began to murmur & complain

1)   And Moses was just plain burned out at the peoples complaining and murmuring...

 

C) Yet he went to God again and told God that the people were again murmuring

1) God instructed Moses to go to the rock and SPEAK to the     rock and that water would come forth from it!!!!!

 

Moses, whom the Bible calls the meekest of men, went from the presence of God and really laid it on the people

Num. 20:10   10And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?”

             

A)But that wasn't all Moses did - 11Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.

 

B) All of his words and his actions immediately followed the     time he had spent in the presence of God

1) The words and actions of Moses MISREPRESENTED God

    God was NOT angry... / God was NOT uptight

 

C) But the people would have never known it- God called Moses on the carpet

Num. 20: 12Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”

 

D) God understood the people's condition

1) But because Moses MISREPRESENTED God, he was not allowed to enter the promised land { Leaders stricter Judgment

 

E) How important is it to God that He be rightly represented?- One of Jesus’ Problems w/ the Pharisees

1) Greg Opean wanted to Kick some kid out of the Youth group

 

Because prophets and preachers and ministers are prone to MISREPRESENT God, God sent a PERFECT SERVANT

A) The Bible tells us that God sent a GREAT HIGH PRIEST, a prophet GREATER THAN MOSES, in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ.

 

B)Jesus was the PERFECT representative of the Father

John 1:18  No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

A)Rev. 3:14   the faithful and true witness

 

B) How FAITHFUL and how TRUE was Jesus in representing the      Father?

 

John 14:8-9   Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”

9Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

    

C) NOTE: Anything that I want to know about the NATURE and CHARACTER of God can be discovered by studying the life of Jesus

 

You will NOT find out about God by studying man

 A)Man always seems to obstruct our vision of God

 

B) But in Jesus we see God going out of His way to show mankind what God is really like

Mark 12:37   And the common people heard him gladly.

              Luke 4:22   And all bore him witness, and wondered at the

                                 gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.

 

C) Those written off by man loved to draw near to Jesus- WHY?

    Because  gracious words.... proceeded out of his mouth.

 

D) Jesus didn't BLAST the people... He BLESSED them

 

 

Now The priesthood in the Old Testament had a two-fold function

A) INTERCESSION and BENEDICTION - They were to stand before God on the behalf of the people / Where They offered sacrifices for the people

 

B) They were to leave that place of INTERCESSION before God & come before the people on the behalf of God

 1) There they were to BLESS the people in the Name of the Lord

 

C) EXAMPLE of this two-fold ministry

Lev. 9:23   And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out, and blessed the people: and the    glory of the LORD appeared unto all the people.

 

D) NOTE: God desires His glory to be seen and His blessing to be released upon His people

 

Note Num. 6:27 again  And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them.

A)The Name of the LORD is yhwh  which means I am that I am

 

B) In this blessing the Lord's name is used THREE times

     v. 24   The LORD bless You and keep You

     V.25 The LORD make his face shine upon  You, & be gracious unto You,

      V. 26   The LORD lift up his countenance upon You,& give You, peace.

 

C) The name of the Lord is placed upon His people THREE times because He is a TRIUNE God

 1) God the Father.... God the Son... God the Holy Spirit

 

D) In this blessing we see the heart of the Father, the grace of the Son and the peace of the Holy Spirit all being placed upon the     people

1) Lets consider how

 

V.24   The LORD bless You, and keep You

A)The word bless  means to confer happiness or prosperity   upon an individual

 

B) God desires to give to you TRUE happiness A happiness that is NOT rooted in happenings, But happiness that is rooted in Him & His love for you

C) THAT is the HEART of the Father towards you today

1) THAT is why Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount with the words Blessed are the poor in Spirit... Blessed are those who      mourn... Blessed are the meek

 

D) THAT is why the Scriptures declare  Ps. 144:15   Happy is that people...... whose God is the LORD.

 

NOTE: The whole world is looking for happiness

A)In things, activities, relationships But happiness is NEVER found in DOING... It is found in BEING

 

B) Being the child of God and being the recipient of His love

1) The Psalmist said: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want

 

STORY: There was a couple with a 2 1/2 yr. old daughter

They taught her to memorize Scripture One day the mom was working all day helping her daughter to memorize these words from the 23rd Psalm

                      The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want

 

When the father pulled into the driveway, the mother said: Go tell your daddy the verse that you memorized

The little girl ran up to her daddy and proudly said

 

Daddy, The Lord is my shepherd and I don't want Him

 

C) THAT is NOT what the verse is saying

     1) Yet, the confusion in the mind of that little 2 1/2 year old girl is still in the minds of people who are 20 or 40 or 60 years old

 

D) We are not quite sure that we want the Lord to be our shepherd

 1) We're afraid that the Lord will take things away.... We're afraid that He'll beat us or bludgeon us into submission

 

E) When the Lord is your shepherd you SHALL NOT LACK...

That is the heart of the Lord towards YOU – Bless You

He blesses us in our very creation, and much more in our new creation. It

is a blessed thing to be born, but a much more blessed thing to be born

again. He blesses us in our food, and much more in giving us Christ, who is

the bread to keep alive and nourish our soul’s best life. We are blessed in

being clothed, but infinitely more blessed in being wrapped about in the

righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a blessing to be a member of a

kind, loving, happy family; but it is an unspeakable blessing to be a member

of the family of Christ, and adopted into the family of God.

 

Now, while the blessing is pronounced, “The Lord bless thee,” let your reply be,“The Lord has blessed me,” and this will encourage you to expect that he

will continue to do the same. And what blessings, my dear friends, may we

hope will be in store for us during the coming year? Many troubles, I have

no doubt, are in store for us. If we were to have a telescope and we could look through it and see the future, see trials & trouble but The future, though it may possibly have trial and trouble, will still be blessed if you are God’s servant.

 

So First The Lord Bless You 2nd NOTICE: The LOrd Keep You

A)I have met people whose lives were being truly blessed by the Lord, yet they wonder if they will be able to keep on with the Lord

 

B) Let's look at one of the Psalms that describes the Keeping  power of God

 

Ps. 121:1- 1    I will lift up my eyes to the hills— From whence comes my help? 2My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. 3He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. 4Behold, He who keeps Israel  Shall neither slumber nor sleep.

5The LORD is your keeper;   The LORD is your shade at your right hand.

 

C) Now Why does it say that the Lord will be a shield upon your right hand

 1) In battle you held your sword in your right hand & your shield in your left hand

 

D) Which meant that Your left side is covered but your right side is EXPOSED and VULNERABLE

 1) The Lord is saying that HE will be your shield in those areas where you are MOST vulnerable and exposed

 

Ps. 121:6   The sun shall not strike you by day,

A)You're not going to get roasted

 

Ps. 121:6   nor the moon by night.

 

B) This is interesting in light of the culture of that time and place

1) They believed that if while you were sleeping the moon was to rise and shine upon you that you would go crazy

 

C) That's how we get the word LUNATIC (Lunar = Moon/ TIC = struck.... Struck by the moon)

         

D) The Lord is saying here that even when you are asleep and you're going to be attacked by things that you don't under-stand,

1) that He will be a shield to you He will keep you

 

E) You're NOT going to go crazy You might think you're losing it

      But the Lord will KEEP YOU

 

Perhaps, during the past year, some of you have been kept when in storms at sea, or when you have been upon a railway, or when you have passed through places infected with

disease. It is no small privilege to hear the Lord say “he will give his angels

charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways: they shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy look against a stone.” The Lord has blessed us and kept us in that sense during the past year. Oh! brethren, what a privilege to be kept from falling into sin! 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 to be his shield on his right hand, his glory,

and his defense.

Ps. 121:7 -8  The LORD shall preserve you from all evil;

He shall preserve your soul. The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in   From this time forth, and even forevermore.      

 

A)Take heart - The heart of the Lord is to bless you  and to keep you

 

         

Num. 6:25   The LORD make his face shine upon YOU and be gracious unto YOU:

A)We are told in the Book of Hebrws12:29 For our God is a consuming fire

 

B) Because of that, we might be prone to think "Lord, don't shine on me"

"Because of the things that I have done, I am ashamed and embarrassed... "

  1) "Lord, don't shine on me lest I be burned up"

 

C) NOTE: The Lord does NOT shine on you to BURN you up

      1) He shines on you to WARM you up

 

D) THAT is why the text says: The LORD make his face shine upon You, and be gracious unto You:

 

What is grace? Undeserved... Unmerited favor

A)You might have broken the Law of God... But the Word of God says:

 

John 1:14; 17   And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth..... For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth        came by Jesus Christ.

 

B) It is the GRACE of God that ALLOWS me to walk in the LIGHT of Jesus Christ without being consumed

It is the GRACE of God that allows me to stand in the presence of my heavenly Father who is HOLY and RIGHTEOUS

 

Col. 2:6As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk  in him:

We received Jesus in GRACE and we can not walk with Him on a different basis than the way we received him

BECAUSE Jesus died for my sins, the Lord can now SHINE UPON   ME and be GRACIOUS unto me

 

As they would say in the Hebrew, a man’s face frowned, his countenance fell, when he was at enmity or anger with another; but when he was his friend, and genial

towards him, then his face revealed it, it began to beam or shine. Now, this

is the blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is through him that God’s face is

made to shine upon us.

 

But when the sinner is washed in the blood of Christ, when the sinner is

justified through the righteousness of Jesus, then the Lord looks upon him

with pleasure. That very man who was an heir of wrath becomes a child of

love; and he who must have been driven from God’s presence with “Depart, ye cursed,” is established in Christ’s heart with “Come, ye blessed.”

 

Don’t you feel that you have tonight to look up to God, and do not feel any fear? You know that he is not frowning upon you. He is reconciled unto you; you are reconciled unto him.

 

Well now, as it has been, so it shall be; for if God once makes his face to shine in the sense of his favor, he never takes that favor away. You may not see it; you may think he is angry with you, and in another sense he may be; but legally, and so far as concerns the law and its power of condemnation, there is not a single thought of anger in the mind, or feeling of displeasure in the heart, of God towards any one of those who rest in Jesus.

 

Because God is thus favorable towards us through his dear Son, grace comes to us. And what a great, all-comprehending word is that! Grace! It has many meanings, and includes a whole universe of blessing. Grace: it is the free and undeserved favor of God; grace: it is the mighty operation of that favor, effectually working in them that believe; grace: it is that which enlightens us to see our lost estate: that which leads us to see the all-sufficiency of Christ; grace: this works faith in us, gives us love to God: this creates our hope, this

carries on the work within our souls, and this completes it, too. Grace: it is

a term so comprehensive that I should need the whole of this evening, aye,

and longer too, to enumerate the mighty catalogue comprised and packed,

as it were, in this golden casket of the word grace. “The Lord be gracious

unto thee.” Well, now, beloved, he has been gracious to us in the past. Oh!

the grace of God to me!

 

So we have declared to us the HEART of the Father and the GRACE of the Son

Num. 6:26 The LORD lift up his countenance upon YOU,& give YOU peace.

 

A)Here we come to the PEACE of the Holy Spirit - What does it mean to have a countenance that is lifted up?

 

B)  Most of us know what it means to have a countenance that is down

      A sad face

 

C) When we are in that state we very often look to people or situations to LIFT up our countenance

   1) And when we do we most often find frustration

 

D) BUT - When we finally get past the inability of PEOPLE and CIRCUMSTANCES to lift our countenances we turn to the Lord

 

E) And when we do He looks upon us and we receive PEACE

     A peace that passes  understanding

    1) NOTE: Not a peace that comes from   understanding – Guards our

         Hearts & Minds { PTL for how He guards our Hearts & Minds

 

 

 

 

 

The Holy Spirit begins to minister peace to us

A)In fact, we are told that the Fruit of the Spirit (The result of the Holy Spirit working in us) is Love, joy, peace

 

B) THAT is what the Spirit wants to produce in YOU

 1) God does NOT enjoy seeing His children depressed or weighed down

 

Jesus said:  Matt. 11:28-29   Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my                        yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

 

Real peace comes when we turn and look into the face of God

When we embrace the Holy Spirit and yield to His working in our lives

It is then that we find His countenance to be the source of our peace

 

In this beautiful benediction we see the HEART of the Father and the GRACE of the Son and the PEACE of the Spirit      

 

Paul picks up this blessing in his closing words to the Corinthians

 

2Cor. 13:14   Finally, brethren,.  The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be w/ you all. Amen.

 

THAT is the heart of God towards you TODAY

He desires to place His name upon YOU

 

Not to BLAST you - But to BLESS you and BUILD you

 

The GOSPEL is all about NUMBERS 6:22-27

 

ANY concept of God that is contrary to that is a LIE from the pit of hell to keep you from God

Satan seeks to BLIND men to that reality

 

2Cor. 4:6   For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the      knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

 

Satan wants to blind us to that truth