Alive & Almost In (Numbers 26-30)

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.

Numbers 26 · chapter mention

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.