Was a one bedroom apartment in the international dorm at
University of Arkansas. She was the GA there.
I was doing campus ministry with international students.
It was the perfect combo. Such a sweet setup.
We had a little kitchen, living room, one bedroom.
Regularly we'd have students knocking on our door from all
over the world looking for food. Often, sometimes fellowship,
great gospel opportunities. I missed that place, to be
honest. We're only there three months.
Our second home was easily a drastic downgrade right off the
university campus. But we didn't know when we got
the place that we had roommates. Cockroaches, to be specific.
I mean, they were everywhere. We'd come home squash 20
cockroaches on the wall. We'd be having people over for
dinner. It'd be hard to have a
conversation when we were watching the cockroaches crawled
behind them. Yeah.
How are you doing? Horrible.
Our last place we lived in Dubai.
It was a villa right next to our other churches.
Pastors, little walk down the canal right by us.
The beach was a few minutes away, You know, no surfing
there, but you could just lounge at the beach.
And we had this great big front yard.
We'd host church events there. It was the perfect place.
Other than our landlord, they were renovating the villa next
to us. It's kind of like townhouses,
villas side by side, shared wall in between.
But in Dubai, everything's concrete.
If you want to renovate concrete, you need jackhammers,
and they jackhammered that place all day, sometimes in the middle
of the night. Sometimes they would jackhammer
through the shared wall into our wall.
As our kids were playing. We pleaded with them to stop
jackhammering at 6:00 AM in the morning.
We did not appreciate that wake up call.
You know, right before we moved in the last year we were living
there, I got an e-mail from our landlord.
Rent increase, you know, no surprise, it happens in Dubai of
150%. Basically they were telling us
get on out of here. But the joke was on them because
we're already planning to move here to plant this church.
You know, when we pulled into our neighborhood in Durham,
which is right across the street, my son Shepherd said,
Dad, do we live in a forest? You can tell the boy grew up in
the desert and we have loved our place.
There's been so many added bonuses.
We didn't know the hostage over here would become our neighbors.
We didn't know that we'd be walking to church right across
the street. But it's not perfect, you know,
Hannah would like a chicken coop someday, and I don't think our
HOA would allow that. It'd be great if our yard was a
little better, you know, a little bit bigger, a little more
space for the kids. It's not our forever home, you
could say. What about you?
Are you living in your forever home now?
If you're a Christian, you know the truth is your forever home
doesn't exist on this earth. When we try to make our home on
this earth, friends will always be disappointed.
We are, biblically speaking, strangeners, strangers, and
sojourners here. Meaning, we're not home yet, but
as we've been singing so wonderfully this morning, we
will soon be. How do we get there?
In other words, how do we strangers and sojourners make it
to the Promised land? Turn to Numbers 26 through 30 in
your Bibles today. If you don't have a Bible, raise
your hand. Somebody will be glad to bring
you a Bible. One here in the back.
Somebody would be glad we don't have any Bibles.
Sorry there are no extra Bibles, but I bet you someone sitting
around you has a Bible so just lean over.
Look at their Bible numbers chapter 26.
We've been considering the book of Numbers.
I think this is the 7th of 8th sermons throughout the year.
After the Lord delivered the Israelites from Egypt, he
prepared to lead them to the Promised Land, but they had to
go through the wilderness. It should have taken a few
weeks, but it took 40 years because the first generation
refused God's rest. They didn't believe in Him.
And so Numbers is the story of how the Lord led his people to
the Promised Land despite their rebellious refusal to enter.
The book spans 40 years. If you remember, the coverage is
uneven. Chapters one through 10, just 50
days, Chapters 11 to 2540 years. And today, chapter 26 all the
way to the end. Chapter 36 covers the last of
that 40 years. It could even just be the last
few months as they prepare to enter the promised land.
So chapter 26 here marks a significant structural shift in
the book. In fact, we've been in chapters
11 through 25, and as you've noticed in the sermons, there's
been complaining, rebellion, death, judgement.
There is no more of that in the rest of the book.
It's all contained in those middle chapters.
Here's the argument. As we think about these five
chapters of Numbers, we'll make it to the Promised land.
By faith in our faithful God, we'll make it to the Promised
Land. By faith in our faithful God.
There's four points. Here's the 1st. 1.1 Believe
God's promises. That's going to be chapter 26
all the way to chapter 27, verse 11.
Believe God's promises in .1. There's an encouragement that
we'll consider. There's an exhortation and then
there's also an example. The encouragement is that God is
faithful to His promises. Look at Numbers 26 verses one to
four. Look down there in your Bibles.
After the plague, the Lord said to Moses and to Eleazar the son
of Aaron the priest. Take a census of all the
congregation of the people of Israel from 20 years old and
upward by their father's houses, all in Israel who are able to go
to war. And Moses and Eleazar the priest
spoke with them in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho,
saying, take a census of the people from 20 years old and
upward as the Lord commanded Moses.
The people who came out of the land of Egypt were and we'll
pause there. So we begin with a census.
Numbers get the same from this census.
But as you know, numbers has two censuses or sense I I guess
because numbers is the story of two generations.
The first generation was numbered in chapter 1.
They died. Now the second generation rises.
There was death. Now Israel in a sense is
resurrected. And notice where the census
takes place, verse one after the plague, the one in chapter 25
that wiped out 24,000 Israelites that we considered last week.
Why did that happen? Because Israel broke her vows
with the Lord and bowed down to Baal.
But there are no more plagues in numbers.
The judgement is complete. And notice also where they
can't. Verse 3, Israel camps in the
plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
They're on the border of the promised land.
You could say they're on Jordan's stormy banks, they're
so close. But as you remember, they've
been here before. The 1st generation was also on
the door to the promised land, and the first generation didn't
believe God. They refused enter.
They looked at their enemies within.
They were scared for their children.
They told the Lord in chapter 14, our little ones will become
prey. And because they didn't believe
God, God judged them. He said your little ones, who
you said would become a prey, I will bring in.
But As for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.
About a decade ago, Hannah and I were in the Sinai desert.
We were there in the wilderness. There was an unreached people
group we were working to reach. And I was struck by how truly
there is nothing in this wilderness.
No vegetation, I mean, maybe like a tree here and there.
Sand everywhere. I remember racing up one of the
sand dunes with my old pastor Brad, and probably for four days
we were just getting sand out of everything we owned.
Nothing there. But is there's a beauty, a
ruggedness to this wilderness? You know the stars there because
there's no light pollution in the surrounding area.
Man, amazing. And yet with the beauty, there's
a frightening reality of this wilderness.
Like this wilderness could kill me.
Can you imagine 40 years through the wilderness?
Do you think you would have survived?
The only way to survive it would have been trusting God.
Trusting that God would keep his promises.
He promised Abraham the land. He promised the second
generation entrance. He's always faithful to his
promises. You can see his faithfulness in
verse 51. Look at verse 51.
The second census total 601,730. You might not remember the
previous census total back in chapter 1.
It was 606 hundred 3550, a less than .3% difference.
The point is, God's faithful to his promises.
He's kept his people, brothers and sisters.
I wonder if you find yourself in the wilderness today, you look
around your life, it's a wasteland.
Maybe you're tempted to wonder, is God strong enough to carry
me? Is he wise enough to plan my
route? Can He really bring me home?
Brothers and sisters, let these numbers remind you He's working
in your desert. He's faithful to His promises.
He's made promises to you, and He intends to keep them.
And all his promises in Christ find their Yes, He will be
faithful to you. He'll bring you safely home.
These numbers are for our encouragement.
And as we just read in Revelation 7, one day soon we
will again be numbered, but it will be a number that no one
could count. All evidence that God's faithful
to his promises. Friends, the census is for our
encouragement. There's also an exhortation,
though. Here's the exhortation.
Don't fall because of unbelief. Moses gives these implicit
warnings throughout the census. It's as if he walks us up to
Israel's graveyard. He stops by a couple tombstones.
He reads the epitaphs. Look at verses 9 and 10.
These are the Dathan and Abiram chosen from the congregation who
contended against Moses and Aaron in the company of Korra
when they contended against the Lord.
And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, together
with Korra when that company died, when the fire devoured 250
men, and they became a warning. And look at the end of chapter
26, the final warning, verses 64 and 65.
But among these there was not one of those listed by Moses and
Aaron the priest, who had listed the people of Israel in the
wilderness of Sinai. For the Lord had said of them,
They shall die in the wilderness.
Not one of them was left, except Caleb the son of Gefuna, and
Joshua the son of Nun. Why does Moses take us on this
tour? Why should we remember the names
of Dathan, Abiram, Cora? What should we learn from the
entire first generation? About 12 years ago, I entered
into pastoral ministry. I was reading a book called
Dangerous Calling by Paltry, but it just come out and in trips on
words. He says he wrote the book to
confront the often unhealthy shape of pastoral care and to
put on the table the temptations that are either unique or
intensified by pastoral ministry.
You know, each chapter starts kind of with the story of a
fallen minister, To be honest, 12 years ago, I read it, and I
was like, wow, this is pretty serious.
And really, I mean, there's so many stories like that.
That was 12 years ago. 12 years later, the endorsements on the
back cover of the book actually serve their own warning.
Five men endorsed that book. Three of the five men have
fallen in ministry. The longer you're a Christian,
the more people you'll know. The more names, the more friends
you'll have that once professed faith.
But no longer. Pray for them, plead with them,
but don't follow them. The Puritan Thomas Brooks says
one of the main reasons God records the falls of those
who've gone before us is that their falls may be as landmarks
to warn others that stand to take heed lest they fall.
Church, we must heed the warnings.
We must look at those landmarks and learn our lessons.
We must, as the author of Hebrews says, exhort one another
every day, as long as it is called today, that we may not be
hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
How are you tempted towards unbelief and who have you
invited to exhort you to remain faithful friends?
Those would be good questions to discuss later today over lunch.
We're encouraging the census. We're exhorted.
We're also given an example. The example is believe God's
promises like the daughters of Zawiwahat.
Look at the purpose before we get to chapter 27.
The purpose of the census in verses 50, take two through 5652
to 56. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
among these the land shall be divided for inheritance
according to the number of names.
To a large tribe you shall give a large inheritance, and to a
small tribe you shall give a small inheritance.
Every tribe shall be given its inheritance in proportion to its
list. But the land shall be divided by
lot according to the names of the tribes of their fathers.
They shall inherit. Their inheritance shall be
divided according to lot between the larger and the smaller.
So here's the purpose of this census.
It's to determine the distribution of the promised
land. It's going to be divided by lot,
and it's going to be determined according to the number of
names, which leads to a problem in chapter 27.
Look at chapter 27, verses 1:00 to 11:00.
Then drew near the daughters of Zelophahad, the son of Heifer,
son of Gilead, son of Machar, son of Manasseh, from the clans
of Manasseh, the son of Joseph. The names of his daughters were
Mala, Noah, Hogla, Milka, and Terza, and they stood before
Moses, and before Eliezer the priest, and before the chiefs,
and all the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting,
saying, Our Father died in the wilderness.
He was not among the company of those who gathered themselves
together against the Lord and the company of Korra, but died
for his own sin, and he had no sons.
Why should the name of our father be taken away from his
clan because he had no son? Give to us a possession among
our father's brothers. Moses brought their case before
the Lord, and the Lord said to Moses, The daughters of
Zolopahad are right. You shall give them possession
of an inheritance among their father's brothers.
And transfer the inheritance of their father to them.
And you shall speak to the people of Israel, saying, If a
man dies and has no son, then you shall transfer his
inheritance to his daughter. And if he has no daughter, then
you shall give him his inheritance to his brothers.
And if he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance
to his father's brothers. And if his father has no
brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to the nearest
kinsman of his clan, and he shall possess it, and it shall
be for the people of Israel a statute and rule, as the Lord
commanded Moses. Now who are the daughters of
Zelo Fahad? What's their problem?
How are they an example to us? Who are they?
Well, their father was Zelo Fahad, and they're part of
Joseph's tribe. They're mentioned five times in
the Old Testament. Numbers 26.
Numbers 27. Numbers 36, Joshua 17, First
Chronicles 7. Four of the five times they're
mentioned, all five of the daughters are listed.
That's pretty significant. Mala, Noah, Hogla, Milka and
Terza. Think about all the famous women
in the Bible who we do not know the name of.
The woman at the well, nobody knows her name, even know his
wife. This is pretty significant.
So who are they? What's their problem?
Well, their problem is their dad had no sons.
Five daughters, no sons. And the law in Israel at the
time was this. No sons, no heirs, no land.
No land leads to another problem.
If they have no land, the name of their father would be
forgotten. Now, before we think about how
they're an example, you need to understand the importance of
land allotments here. And I know what you're thinking.
I can read it. Land allotments.
Very exciting. Think about it this way.
Chapel Hill, you know, the city of Chapel makes an announcement.
We are giving land allotments to churches based on their
membership size. Your ears perk up, huh.
We've got 62 members. How many acres does that mean we
get? They say, well, you get 6 acres.
Now you're looking at a map. Where on the map?
What's the boundary lines? Where are we going to be?
This is very interesting to you. Well, that would be the case of
an Israelite, except the land allotments are being made and
the daughters of Zalofahad are told, yes, we're all going to
the promised land. Sorry, there's no land for you.
How do they respond? How are they an example?
They appeal. They appeal to Moses, Eleazar,
the chiefs, all the congregation at the tent of meeting.
In other words, they appeal to Israel's Supreme Court.
You can see them standing on the steps of the Supreme Court, the
nations gathered around them to hear their case and the Lord,
the judge. Verse 7 says they're right.
They're right. They get a piece of the promised
Land too. Friends like the Daughters of
Zalofa Hat we must long for the Promised land.
They are presented as a contrast between them and the 10 spies
who went before them. Those 10 spies before them in
chapter 13 despise the land, didn't want anything to do with
it, wanted to go back to Egypt. The daughters of Zelofah had
desire it. They're bold, they're gutsy,
they're strong women. But it's not self-confidence,
it's strong confidence in God and His promises, and they set
the tone for us of longing for our promised land.
My non Christian friend, don't you long for something more,
something this world can't seem to satisfy?
Here's how the church Father Agustin put it.
He said God made you for himself.
Your heart will be restless until it finds its rest in him.
Or CS Lewis puts it this way. If you find in yourself a desire
which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most
probable explanation is that you were made for another world.
Or, as our own Bobby Jamieson says, everything is never
enough. Learning that truth keeps you
from trying to make anything in this life enough to fill your
heart, and it aims your heart at the God who alone is enough and
more than enough to satisfy you forever, friend, Your
restlessness, your lack of satisfaction, the void in your
heart, they're all evidence pointing to the truth that you
were created by God, created for God.
This world is not your home. And brothers and sisters, does
your heartbeat for your heavenly home, or do you feel that you're
at the mercy of your present circumstances?
Do you feel like your joy is tied, anchored to life, working
out in the way you imagined? Brothers and sisters, we need to
serve one another. We need to help one another by
getting our conversations in heaven more.
You know, as we were singing earlier today, we were singing
Jordan, Stormy Banks. My son, Shepherd leans up, pulls
my leg. Dad, why is everyone singing so
loud? Son, there's a reason for that.
When we sing about heaven, our hearts sing because we know this
world is not what we were made for.
We need to encourage one another with that.
We need to talk about heaven more.
We need to look forward to heaven together.
Parents, talk about heaven with your children.
Kids, ask your parents about heaven after the service later
today, Encourage one another with our heavenly hope.
The daughters are models for us to believe God's promises.
That's .1. It's also the longest point.
Point 2.2. Follow God's shepherds.
Chapter 27, verses 12 to 23 follow God's shepherds.
Israel's preparing to enter the Promised Land.
There's another problem. If you remember back to chapter
20, Moses, their leader, was barred from the Promised Land.
How can they enter the Promised land without a leader?
Moses prays for a leader, and the Lord provides. 1 And
brothers and sisters, God's provided us a leader, Jesus
Christ, the chief shepherd. And Christ has been generous to
send us elders so that we can walk faithfully to the Promised
Land. Look at verses 12 to 23, chapter
27. The Lord said to Moses, Go up
into this mountain of Abiram and see the land that I've given to
the people of Israel. When you've seen it, you also
shall be gathered to your people as your brother Aaron was,
because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zen,
when the congregation quarrelled, failing to uphold me
as holy at the waters before their eyes.
These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of
Zen. Moses spoke to the Lord, saying,
Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a
man over the congregation, who shall go out before them and
come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in,
that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that
have no shepherd. So the Lord said to Moses, Take
Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your
hand on him. Make him stand before Eleazar
the priest and all the congregation, and you shall
Commission him in their sight. You shall invest in with.
You shall invest him with some of your authority, that all the
congregation of the people of Israel may obey.
And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall
inquire for him by the judgement of the Urim before the Lord.
At His word they shall go out, and at His word they shall come
in, both he and all the people of Israel with him the whole
congregation. And Moses did as the Lord
commanded him. He took Joshua and made him
stand before Eleazar the priest, and the whole congregation.
And he laid his hands on him and commissioned him as the Lord
directed Moses. The Lord sends Moses up on the
mountain to see the Promised Land.
Even though he sinned, he sinned.
God graciously gives him sight. Still, he's not going to make it
to the Promised land. But verse 13, like Aaron, he
will be gathered to his people. Meaning Moses was a Sinner, but
he was saved. He believed God's promises and
God would bring him safely home. Moses here, then, is on his
final lap. It's at the end of his race here
where we even see his faith shine brighter.
Look at what he prays in verses 16 and 17.
He's prays specifically for his replacement for a man who shall
go out before the people and come in before them, who shall
lead them out and bring them in. Moses prays that the Lord would
provide a shepherd for the sheep and the Lord immediately answers
his prayer in verse 18. Joshua has been Moses assistant
since he was his youth. He was one of the 12 who was
sent out to spy the land. He was one of only two who is
faith filled who wanted to take the promised land.
And is there a greater commendation for Joshua than
verse 18? A man in whom is the Spirit.
So the Lord tells Moses, Commission Joshua, Joshua takes
Moses, or Moses takes Joshua stands in before Eliezer, the
priest, and the whole congregation, and he lays his
hands on him. Moses prayed for a leader who
would go out and come in. That becomes the paradigm for
Israel's kings. So Joshua is a prefigure of
that, going out, coming in. That's the imagery of a
shepherd. The kings of Israel were to be
shepherds for their sheep. First.
First Samuel 18 says King Saul went out and came in before the
people. Second Chronicles says King
Solomon prays for wisdom to go out and come in before the
people. The kings were to be shepherds.
They were to dedicate their lives to care for the sheep,
providing for them, caring for them.
If you know Israel's history at all, you would know most of them
did a poor job. Most of them failed.
The Lord would answer Moses's prayer a second time with Jesus.
Over 1000 years later. The Lord fully answered Moses's
prayer. Jesus is the Greek name for
Joshua. Jesus was moved with compassion
over God's people, he said, because they were as sheep
without a shepherd. And of course, he said, I am the
Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep.
It's fitting that Peter calls him the chief shepherd, and it's
gracious that this chief shepherd would care for his
flocks today by graciously sending them shepherds.
Ephesians 411. You know, last month, Bobby and
I laid hands on Ashok Nachnani and Brandon Haas, and they took
vows before this congregation, and we installed them as elders.
Seven months ago, Bobby and I at the Sheraton Hotel made vows
before this congregation. You know, the members also made
vows to us. The members stood.
They were asked 2 questions. The first one was, do you, the
members of Trinity Baptist Church, acknowledge and publicly
receive these men as elders as gifts of Christ to His church?
That's always a sweet moment when the congregation's
standing, the elders are there, and the congregation loudly,
with enthusiasm, says, we do. Brothers and sisters, members of
Trinity Baptist Church, what should you expect from these men
that you call your elders? 3 things from the life of Moses.
First, expect your elders to show concern for the church.
Moses is at the end of his race, but instead of being concerned
for himself, he's concerned about the congregation finishing
their race. Second, expect your elders to
share authority. Moses prays his replacement will
have the authority to lead them out and bring them in.
Expect your elders to spend their time and their efforts to
raise up more elders, to be discipling men in the
congregation, to be training up others to teach God's Word.
Third, expect your elders to grow in grace.
Moses once raised his hand in rebellion against God, against
God's people. Here he has repented.
He places that hand on his protege, and he prays for God's
people. The only perfect shepherd is
Jesus. Your pastors aren't perfect.
If you've not realized that yet, seven months in, it's true.
Ask our wives. We're sinners, but we must be
men of character who fit the qualifications of First Timothy
3 and Titus 1. You should expect that when your
elders sin, they ask for forgiveness.
They repent. What about for those of you who
aren't shepherds? Your elders are imperfectly
imitating the chief shepherd, and the author of Hebrews calls
you to imitate your elders. I wonder, as you followed your
elders these past few months, do you find yourself less concerned
with yourself and more concerned with the lives of others?
Do you find yourself discipling others and seeing spiritual
fruit as you put spiritual input into their lives?
Do you find yourself humbly responding to correction and
regularly repenting when you sin?
Your elders job is to care for your souls.
Your elders will give an account to Christ on the last day for
their care of you member of the church.
If there's anything you need, any questions you have, please
reach out to one of your elders. We'd be glad to give you time to
spend together so that you can grow spiritually friends.
For those of you who don't have shepherds, if you're a follower
of Christ, He's commanded you to gather with a flock and to
submit to elders. Every sheep needs a fold.
Every sheep needs shepherds as we recite in our church
covenant, because no one can faithfully follow Jesus alone.
Our faithful God provided Joshua for the people to follow into
the Promised Land. He's provided Jesus to us who's
gone into heaven as a forerunner on our behalf.
And Jesus has given us shepherds to follow on the way.
Point 3.3. Worship according to God's
Rules. Chapters 28 and 29 Worship
according to God's rules. We're shifting here.
We've been a narrative. We're shifting to law.
Chapters 28 and 29 are laws about offerings.
You might be wondering, why are the laws placed here?
Because God gave Israel the Promised Land so that they could
worship Him. That was the whole point.
Today God's ordered all of our lives to worship Him all the
time. He's also set aside for us a
specific day of the week for corporate worship.
Look at chapter 28. We'll just read verses one
through 8. The Lord spoke to Moses saying,
Command the people of Israel and say to them, My offering my food
for my food offerings, my pleasing aroma, you shall be
careful to offer me at its appointed time.
You shall say to them, This is the food offering that you shall
offer to the Lord. 2 male lambs a year old without blemish, day
by day as a regular offering. The one lamb you shall offer in
the morning and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight.
Also 1/10 of an epaph of fine flour for a grain offering mixed
with a quarter of a hen of beaten oil.
It is a regular burnt offering. Which was ordained at Mount
Sinai for a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord.
It's drink offering shall be 1/4 of hen.
For each lamb in the holy place, you shall pour out a drink
offering of strong drink to the Lord.
The other lamb you shall offer at twilight like the grain
offering of the morning. And like it's drink offering,
you shall offer it as a food offering with a pleasing aroma
to the Lord. We've just read about the Lord's
commands to Israel to present Him daily offerings in verses 9
through 10, their weekly offerings in verses 11 through
15, monthly in verse 16, all the way to chapter 29, verse 38.
There's yearly offerings, daily, monthly, yearly, all continual
reminders that all of life was to be lived Coram deo before the
face of God. Now consider the abundance
required, abundance that could only be achieved if they were in
the promised land. 2 lambs every day, two lambs every week on the
Sabbath, 2 bulls, 1 ram and seven lambs each month.
Dozens of bulls and lambs for the annual celebrations like the
Passover, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day
of Atonement, the Feast of Booths.
The costly sacrifices conveyed the majesty and the splendor and
the worth of the God that they were serving.
They also demonstrated the centrality of sacrifice for the
life of Israel and their relationship with God.
But the goal of the sacrifices is often missed.
Look at chapters 28 and 29. What do the offerings produce?
Scan the passage. You'll see a phrase repeated 11
times. They produce a pleasing aroma to
the Lord. This morning I made coffee, and
as I made my coffee before I drank it, I just took one sniff.
Pleasing aroma. It's kind of a picture here.
It's obviously attributing human attributes to God, but the
purpose was that the smoke would rise up in the land and that the
Lord, in a sense, would breathe it in, and that his wrath would
be propitiated for the people, that he'd be satisfied that they
could actually live with him. Friends, all these sacrifices,
all these festivals, they are, as Colossians says, a shadow of
the things to come, the substance, the reality that they
point to Jesus Christ. He's our Passover lamb,
innocently slain so that when death passes our door, we'd walk
away unscathed. His sacrificial death fulfills
the whole sacrificial system. He offered himself once for all
time a single sacrifice to God for sins.
His death propitiated God's wrath for sinners.
As Paul says, Christ loved us and gave himself for us a
fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Christ himself fulfills the Sabbath.
He rose from the grave and is our rest.
If you've trusted in Him, He gives you a foretaste of that
heavenly rest that awaits you today.
If you're not a Christian, you cannot be home with God unless
His wrath towards you is satisfied In His Son.
Jesus Christ must be your sacrifice.
He must stand in your place, you must turn from your sin and
trust Him and believe in Him. And if you do, He will forgive
you of your sin and grant you a home in heaven with Him for
eternity. Brothers and sisters, praise the
Lord that Christ fulfilled all these sacrifices.
How should we worship the Lord today?
Earlier this week, Hannah and I were assembling some IKEA
furniture. We put together a product called
Hemness, which I'm assuming is Swedish for day bed.
I'm not sure the description of the product says brighten up
your home. Hemness Day Bed in warm yellow
creates an inviting feel and is a smart choice when space is
limited. It's a sofa, single bed, double
bed and storage in one piece of furniture.
I know you're interested in getting one yourself.
Now, before you brighten up your home, this is my disclaimer.
You have to grab a hammer, 2 screwdrivers and set aside 4
hours for assembly. Then you have to meticulously
follow 30 pages of instructions. You know, we finished late
Tuesday night. We only had one screwdriver.
We had to call our neighbor and see if they had another spare
one. The next day we realized the
drawers didn't fit back on page 11.
It appears we put the tracks on the wrong way.
Think about how many pages we're going to have to work through.
We've not yet finished our day bed.
What was the problem? The problem was not the
instructions. The problem was what you'd like
to call user error. It was predominantly me.
I was the problem. I did not read the instructions
carefully. As God left us without
instructions to worship Him today, many Christians today
assume He's done just that. They assume that God just
intends for us to worship Him in whatever way feels right to us.
As long as we have good intentions, he's fine with it.
But brothers and sisters, he's given us the New Testament.
He's given us clear instructions.
And one of those is to worship him regularly, weekly on the
first day of the week, the Lord's Day.
As our statement of faith says on our article On the Lord's
Day, it's a Christian institution for regular
observance. It commemorates the resurrection
of Christ from the dead and points to the rest that awaits
God's people. And it should include exercises
of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and
private. Now, for 2000 years, Christians
have gathered into churches weekly and worship the Lord
together, a taste of that heavenly rest that awaits.
Recently, many Christians don't gather with other Christians.
They're missing out on what the Lord's ordained instructions
are. Sundays are a day of rest.
We gather together and we think about that spiritual rest that
awaits us, and we taste it today.
Sundays are for corporate worship, both public and
private. I've been so encouraged by how
so many of you have been gathering every Sunday morning
and then you come back Sunday evening and we pray together.
We bring our request to the Lord.
Exercising those spiritual muscles is difficult, but it's
worth it. What about private devotions on
Sunday? I was struck as I was thinking
about this. In what way are your Sunday
devotions privately any different from Monday through
Saturday? Be a good thing to think about
later tonight. Today's day and age is a day
where many Christians center their lives around their jobs or
their kids sports or whatever leisure activities occupy them.
Christians are called to center their lives around the local
church life together with the body.
For however long you're a member of Trinity Baptist Church, let
me encourage you. Centre your life around the
local church. If you ever move from this
place, maybe you decide to join another church across the
street. Centre your life around that
local church. Prioritize, even if you move,
finding a healthy church first before you decide to move
somewhere. Christ has ordered our worship
and as we look towards the promised land, let's worship
according to His rules. 4th and finally 4th point, chapter 30.
Reflect God's faithfulness. Reflect God's faithfulness in
chapter 30. The laws concern vows.
Why vows here? Because God's been faithful to
His promises, and so Israel must be faithful to theirs.
Chapter 30. I'll read verses 1 to 5.
Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the people of Israel,
saying, This is what the Lord has commanded.
If a man vows A vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind
himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word.
He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
If a woman vows the vow to the Lord, and binds herself by a
pledge while within her father's house in her youth, and her
father hears of her vow and of her pledge by which she has
bound herself, and says nothing to her, then all her vow shall
stand, and every pledge by which she has bound herself shall
stand. But if her father opposes her on
the day that he hears of it, no vow of hers, no pledge by which
she has bound herself shall stand, and the Lord will forgive
her because her father opposes her.
If you read this earlier in the week, you might be wondering
what is going on in this passage.
Well, for the men it's pretty simple.
If a man vows A vow, he must do it.
A man must be a man of his word. That's verse 2.
The rest of the chapter considers laws.
For women, it's a little different. 3 scenarios are
presented. We just read the first one.
The first scenario is there in verses 3 to 5.
If a woman makes a vow while under her father's authority,
she must keep it, with one exception.
If her father opposes her about the vow the day that he hears of
it, the vows, no, the Lord will forgive her.
The second scenario, in verses 6 to 8, very similar, same thing
but with her husband. If he hears of it and he opposes
it on the day he hears it, the vows void.
The Lord will forgive her. The last scenario, verses 9 to
12, deals with a divorced woman or a widow.
If the late or previous husband kept silent, the vow stands, but
if he annulled it, it's void. The Lord will forgive her.
And verses 13 to 15 establish a principle for husbands and
wives. A husband is accountable for his
wife's vows. Verse 16 summarizes the whole
chapter. The point of this is to define
relationships in the covenant community.
Notice how this passage protects women.
The father and husband have authority over the woman.
They must steward that authority to protect her from making
foolish vows. They're accountable to the Lord
for that responsibility if they're passive.
Notice the phrase if he says nothing.
Verse 4, verse 7, verse 11. If If he's passive and says
nothing, he's culpable. Now think about how these laws
should have been applied in Israel's life after they make it
into the promised land. In the book of Judges.
In Judges 11, there's a mighty warrior, Jephthah.
He vows to the Lord, if we defeat the Ammonites, I will
sacrifice the next thing that walks through that door.
They defeat the Ammonites. His daughter walks through the
door. He offers her as a burnt
offering to the Lord. Someone in authority should have
protected that girl and protected Jephta from himself
and stepped in and said, Jephta, we don't make those vows here in
Israel yet. Judges 17.
Six. In those days there was no king
in Israel. Everyone did what was right in
his own eyes. Think of how the Lord himself
takes the role of the husband in the Book of Numbers.
Israel's the Lord's bride. He's their husband.
She broke her vows in chapter 25.
The story of the Old Testament again and again is that she
breaks her vows over and over again, but the Lord is her
covenant head. He steps in, He frees her from
her folly. He himself bears the guilt, and
he continues to faithfully fulfil every one of his promises
to his bride to Israel. So the point of this passage
here for us is we're called to follow the Lord in his
faithfulness. As we reflect on the Lord
keeping his promises that should fuel our faithfulness in our
word to one another. As we meditate on how God always
does what he says, it reminds us to be people of integrity,
people of our word, even as we consider how he himself bears
the guilt. It encourages us to forgive
others when they don't keep our word or keep theirs.
God's faithful to His promises. Let's be faithful to ours.
Brothers and sisters, the Apostle Paul tells us these
things took place as examples for us.
We're walking through the wilderness.
We're on Jordan, stormy banks. We're peering into the promised
land. We can almost see it.
But we're not home yet. The Lord will make sure, though,
that we get there. He will bring us home.
We'll make it by faith in our faithful God.
Let's pray. Father, we are amazed at how you
keep your promises to your people.
We're unworthy. We're undeserving.
We so often break our own promises.
We need Christ. Give us faith in Him.
Give us faith that you do keep your promises.
Give us faith that's seen in our longing for eternity with you.
Give us faith that's evident in our hopes, which are not found
on this earth in any home here, but only in our home in heaven.
We pray in Jesus name, Amen.