Gooding, David: 11 - Fifth Rebellion? - Part 1

This is the last of our small series of studies in the Book of Numbers. And because it is the last hook or by crook, we must try to understand the main import of the last section of the book. Like all those in the, uh, book from chapter eleven onwards, we begin with what seemed to Moses another serious rebellion. It wasn't, in fact, a rebellion, though if it had have been, it would indeed have been exceedingly serious. When Moses first heard of it, he thought it was a repetition of the rebellion that happened, uh, in here in chapters eleven to, uh, fourteen, a refusal to enter into the land. It wasn't such, and the two and a half tribes who had made to him the suggestion that led him to think that they were rebelling, were allowed to explain themselves, what their real motivation was. What had happened was this, that before the Israelites entered Canaan, they came up the east of Jordan, and under Moses' captaincy, God gave them victory against enemies that there attacked them. And the victory involved not only the destruction of the enemy, but the taking over of the cities in which the enemy had thus far lived. Moreover, the country east of Jordan in those parts is very good cattle ground, it's beautiful grassland, and two and a half tribes, therefore, asked Moses that because they had much cattle, Moses would allow them to take this part east of Jordan as their inheritance. Moses thought that they were thereby proposing that they should forthwith be allowed to settle east of Jordan and not go over Jordan to the war along with the rest of the tribes. They protested, of course, that they had no such intention, that they were quite prepared to go over Jordan in the vanguard of the army and to fight with their fellow Israelites until the land of Canaan was subdued and possessed. And only then would they come back east over Jordan and, uh, settle there as their inheritance. Now, we need to be clear about one geo- uh, geographical fact, that according to the inheritance God promised and delineated to Abraham in Genesis fifteen, the territory east of Jordan was part of the inheritance, and therefore Israel had a right to it. In asking to settle there, they were not going against the promises made to Abraham. But Moses, when he understood the situation, laid down very strict condition. Yes, they could be allowed to settle east of Jordan, if, and only if, they were prepared first to go across the Jordan with the rest of the tribes and fight so that the nation as a whole should possess the land of Canaan. If they were prepared to do that, then they could go back and enjoy east of Jordan as their inheritance. But, if they were not prepared to go across the Jordan west with the rest of the nation and fight with the nation for inheritance that side, then they would not be allowed to come back east of Jordan. They would have no inheritance east of Jordan, unless they were prepared to go over with the rest into west of Jordan. The matter is a little complicated, isn't it? So I'm going to get someone with a stentorian voice to read for me the passage. It is a longish passage, but we need to get the facts in front of our minds. This is, therefore, Numbers thirty two, and we'll read from verses one to verse twenty seven. Somebody with a suitable stentorian voice that is prepared to read clearly, uh, please arise and, uh, perform. Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle, and when they saw the land of, oh dear, Jasmir and the land of Gilead, that behold, the place was a place of cat- for cattle, the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses and to Eleazar the- Eleazar the priest, and unto the princes of the congregation, saying, can't read it. Atakok and Debbon and Jazer and Nimrah and Heshbon and Eleazar and Shebam and Nebo and Beon, even the country which the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle. Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan. And Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here? And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from the going over into the land which the Lord hath given them? Thus did your fathers when I went- sent them from Kadesh Bania to see the land. For when they went up onto the valley of Ishmael and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel that they should not go into the land which the Lord had given them. And the Lord's anger was kindled the same time, and he swore, saying, Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt from twenty years old and upwards shall see the land which I swear unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, because they have not wholly followed me, save Caleb and the son of Jephunneh and Keziah, and Joshua the son of Nun, an easy one, for they have wholly followed the Lord. And the Lord's anger was kindled- kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years until the generation that have come down, come, not done evil in the sight of the Lord was consumed. And behold, ye are risen up with your fathers' dead, an increase of sinful men to augment yet the fierce anger of the Lord towards Israel. For if you turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness, and ye shall destroy all this people. And they came near, near unto him and said, we will build sheepfolds here for our cattle and cities for our little ones, but we ourselves will go readily armed before the children of Israel until we have brought them into their place, and our little ones shall dwell in the fenced cities because of the inhabitants of the land. We shall not return onto our houses until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance, for we shall not inherit with them on yonder side Jordan or forward, because our inheritance is fallen to us on this side of the Jordan eastward. And Moses said unto them, if you will do this thing, if you will go armed before the Lord to war, and will go, all of you armed over Jordan before the Lord, until he until he hath driven out his enemies from before him, and the land be subdued before the Lord, then afterwards ye shall return and be guiltless before the Lord and before Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the Lord. But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sins will find you out. Build your cities for your little ones and folds for your sheep, and do that which hath proceeded out of your mouth. And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben spake unto Moses, saying, Thy servants will do as thy Lord com- as my Lord commandeth. Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our cattle shall be there in the city of G- city of Gililad, but thy servants will pass over, every man armed for war before the Lord to battle, as my Lord saith. Thank you very much. If Moses had been right in the, in what he drew from the suggestion of the two and a half tribes, namely that the two and a half tribes were really unwilling to go over with the rest of the nation into the full inheritance that God was offering them. If Moses had been right in that presupposition, the situation would have been serious indeed. So that this passage, without further ado, brings us an exceedingly practical lesson tonight. The lesson is about the danger of slacking. The danger of settling down because we have assurance of salvation, and not pushing onward into the full inheritance that Christ has made available for. You'll see, as Moses pointed out to the two and a half tribes, if the two and a half tribes started to slack and didn't go across with the rest, they not only did damage to themselves, they did damage to the others. And of course, that applies to us as well, doesn't it? If I am not following the Lord and going on as best I can into the full inheritance that Christ has made available for us, I not only damage myself, I damage you. And if any of you, God forbid it, but if it should be that any of you are slacking, you not only do damage to yourself, you do damage to the people of God. That, of course, to be seen in practical matters, isn't it? If you don't turn up to the meetings of the church, you very obviously dis- discourage the rest of the church, isn't that so? Hence, therefore, the importance of not giving way to slacking, but positively going ahead into the enjoyment of the full inheritance that Christ has made available. The classic pace- place in the New Testament that urges this attitude upon us is, of course, Philippians chapter three, where first of all, Paul makes it very clear that justification is altogether by faith and not by our religious exercises. In Judaism, he had been full of effort to obtain acceptance with God by his religious exercises. Through Christ, he learned better, and all his attainments on that score he counted but refuge, so that he should be found simply in Christ, not having a righteousness which was of his own devising or achievement, but the righteousness which is of faith, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. But now assured of salvation. He didn't just sit down and take it easy for the rest of his existence. Some of the strongest language he ever used is used in this passage to describe his attitude, ver- from verse ten onwards. That I may know him that is Christ, the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death, if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not that I have already obtained or am already made perfect, but I press on. If so be that I may apprehend that for which also I was apprehended of Christ Jesus. In passing, let us notice the delicacy of that phrase. He doesn't say I apprehended Christ Jesus, you know, and got out of him all I need. No, it's the other way around. He says, Christ apprehended me. And what did he apprehend Paul for? Oh, Paul, uh, Christ had a, a future of immeasurable glory for Paul. And Paul, now being assured of salvation, is pressing on to apprehend himself. What Christ, the purpose for which Christ apprehended him. Brethren, I count not myself yet to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded, and if anything you are otherwise minded, even this shall God reveal to you. Only whereunto we have already attained, by that same rule, let us walk. The need, therefore, as Christian men and women, not only to rest in the assurance of salvation, but to expend every ounce of energy we have in pressing on, that we might grow in the likeness of Christ and enter the full inheritance that he has for us. The danger of slacking, therefore. Now do be careful. Be very careful as you go out tonight. For if you see some elderly gentleman out there, looking extraordinarily old. You say might even be a hundred and twenty, And he were to grab you and say, my dear, I hear you're slacking. Of course, you would say, no, I'm not. But suppose he were to say, well, now give me some evidence that you're not slacking. What kind of evidence would you give him? Because it, it, you never know, it might be Moses himself. And he would want some positive evidence that you are not slacking, but deliberately pressing on towards the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. So that our lesson has an immediate practical implication for us all. But tonight I want to spend most of my time putting this incident into its historical conte- context. What was about to happen here in the final section of the book, Israel had come, uh, uh, up to the Jordan and west of Jordan. There they had fought and won many battles. Do you see? They had done all that under Moses. But now the chief objective lay ahead. That was crossing Jordan into all the benefits, as well as the fighting, of course, on the west of Jordan, the land that God had promised to them. And for that part, they were no longer to be under Moses. He would go home to glory, dear old soul, and, uh, you'll see now they were to be under a different leader. His name was Joshua, or to put it into Greek, Iesus, or to put it into English, Jesus, of course. It was going to be a different experience for some of them. Leaving Moses behind and under Joshua's command and direction, going over into the promised land and the full enjoyment of the full inheritance that God had promised them. That being the historical setting, it immediately becomes a prototype of later Judean history. Because, of course, the Jews lived under Moses, didn't they? All down the centuries, even after they got into Palestine, they lived under Moses until Christ came. And Christ lived and died and was buried and rose again and ascended into heaven. And if you listen to Paul in his epistles, he would tell you that as a result, those who put their faith in Christ are no longer under law, they are under grace. And all the benefits that people never knew under Moses. The New Testament epistles are full of them, aren't they? Justification by faith spelled out, though it was an Old Testament doctrine. More wonderfully, the fullness of the sacrifice of Christ, unlike those sacrifices under Moses' dispensation and the Old Covenant, where you had constantly to offer sacrifice on the altar, to keep right with God and to keep on getting forgiveness of sins. That finished because of the one great sacrifice for sin offered by our blessed Lord at Calvary. And then, of course, uh, our Lord's resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. So now it's not a question of our trying to keep the law for salvation. That's gone by the board. But now, in order to please the Lord, we must do his commandments, but not left to our own effort to do it. By the, but by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit come down from heaven. Glorious gospel. You say to me, I suspect the Jews, when they heard of this and saw the superiority of Jesus to Moses, they said, marvelous Lord, we're now going in for it head over heel. No, they didn't. Indeed, some who profess to believe that Jesus was the Messiah when he lived, and also profess to believe, after he rose from the dead, that he was Messiah. Eventually, well, at first sight, they'd seem they were slacking, but that raised very serious problems. In fact, it raised the question whether they had ever been true believers at all. And there is a whole epistle in the New Testament written over this very point. So we're going to use it, this last so-called rebellion that wasn't a rebellion, we're going to use it by looking at the New Testament that, um, deals with this problem. Jews to start with, who professed to believe in Christ but were not prepared to move on. So let's start by reading Hebrews chapter ten. Hebrews chapter ten. Hmm. And at verses nineteen onwards of Hebrews chapter ten, Paul is, uh, describing the delightful benefits that come through the sacrifice of Christ. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place, that's the holiest of all, by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us a new and a living way through the veil, that is to say his flesh. And having a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our body washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession and hope, uh, our confession, uh, the confession of our hope that it waver not, for he is faithful that promised. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as you see the day drawing near. Why make that fuss? The custom of some now was to forsake the assembling of themselves together with the Christians. Why was that serious for them? Because these were Jews that had professed faith in Christ, and as the epistle shows us, were originally, some of them, persecuted severely by their families and by others for professing faith in Christ. And at the start, they endured the persecution. But now some of them were slacking off. And if they were not coming to meet with the Christians, it raised the question, where were they going? Why weren't they coming to meet with the Christians? They weren't going back to Judaism, were they? For if they were seriously going back to Judaism, the writer now warns them what's involved. If now they go back to Judaism, formally and officially, they are trampling underfoot the Son of God. No less than that. Notice the terminology. Not merely trampling underfoot Jesus, but trampling underfoot the Son of God. To this present day, if you would become a member of the Jewish synagogue, you must renounce your faith in Jesus as the Son of God. For that Judaism will not have. That was one of the reasons why they crucified Jesus. I have a friend in Belfast, he's a business friend. He's a Jew. He married a girl from a Presbyterian church. She was required, even by liberal Judaism, to admit that Jesus is not the only savior. And she did it to marry him. We're going back to Judaism, says the writer. You trample underfoot the Son of God. You must deny his deity. You count the blood of the covenant common. That follows logically. If Jesus isn't the Son of God, his blood is no more valuable than yours in your veins. His blood is the blood of an ordinary man. His blood, therefore, is common. It follows logically. If he's not the Son of God, his blood is common, and the new covenant signed in his blood, isn't worth the paper it's written on. That's serious stuff, isn't it? But this is New Testament. And somebody who does what the writer here warns them not to do is doing despite to the spirit of grace. Notice the term. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth. He's the spirit of God. He's the Spirit of Jesus. Here is described as a Spirit of grace. Marvelous grace indeed. For when God sent his dearly beloved Son, he sent him to his own things, to his own people, and they that were his own rejected him and persuaded the Romans to crucify him. And when they'd done it, when God raised him from the dead, the Holy Spirit came down from heaven with a message for these very same people. And what was that message? Well, now, gentlemen, God's going to give you one more attempt, just one more. You don't deserve any. One more attempt to earn your way into God's favor. You'll have to work jolly hard now. Ha. No, indeed not. The extraordinary thing to those that had murdered Jesus Christ was the message of the Holy Spirit. They could, if they repented and received the Savior, be saved by grace alone, through faith in our blessed Lord Jesus. Did you ever hear such a message of grace? But to reject Christ, to deny his deity, to count his blood common, is to throw back in the face of the spirit of grace, salvation by grace. That was a serious thing to do, wasn't it? And that's why the writer of this epistle is getting concerned for these dear folks who had once made profession of faith in Christ. So let's turn to another passage where he exhorts them, and this time it's chapter six. Chapter six, verse one: Wherefore, let us cease to speak of the first principles of the Messiah and press on unto perfection, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the teaching of baptisms and of laying on of hands, and of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do, that is, we will press on, if God permit. Now you'll notice language that might immediately provoke in your mind memories of what Moses was saying. He said to the two and a half tribes, what do you really mean, gentlemen? Are you suggesting that you be allowed to stay east here in Jordan and enjoy the nice grass with your cattle, do you see? And you're not prepared to press on over Jordan into the inheritance that God has given you? Is that what you're saying? Well, if you do that, says Moses, I tell you what, I tell you straight, if you're not prepared to press ahead across Jordan into the inheritance that God has given under Joshua, then you won't have inheritance this side either. If you are prepared to press on under Joshua west of Jordan, then you can come back and enjoy your her- inheritance east of Jordan. And if that sounds complicated, so it is, I do see. But, uh, anyway, we'll explain it in a moment or two. Not laying again the foundation. Now, if you notice the things that are in the foundation, let's read them again. The first principles of the Messiah. Not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God. That is good Judaism. Repentance from dead works and faith in God. Good Judaism. Mm-hmm. Teaching of baptisms. Well, Judaism had a whole array of baptisms and mikve, Jews say mikvoth, that is, uh, ceremonial baths and bathings. Jewish families still keep it up. And of laying on of hands. And of the resurrection of the dead. Well, Orthodox Jews, and Pharisees in particular, believed in the resurrection of the dead. There were some sects in Judaism, like Sadducees, that didn't believe in the resurrection. The majority of Jews in our Lord's day did believe in the resurrection of the dead. And of eternal judgment. Yes, they believed in the judgment after death, did Orthodox Jews. They still do. And that isn't enough? Believing all that? No. No. Not now it isn't. What we have to do is not just going over those basic principles, but press on unto perfection. Now, that is a difficult word, isn't it? I remember writing a little book, do you see? And, uh, the some Polish believers asked if they might translate this book into Polish some years ago. So they translated it into Polish, you'll see, and it dealt with some of these verses here, you'll see. So I went over, you'll see, to meet the translators, you'll see, before they put the thing in print, and they went through the translation, and they had no difficulties, and uh, all was well. So then I said, uh, now tell me straight, uh, the translation's okay, but are there some points of doctrine in this that you find difficult? I said, I'm thick-skinned, I don't mind what you say. Well, they said, if you insist, uh, yeah, we do find one bit difficult. Well, they said, tell me what is that is. Well, we're surprised that you believe in sinless perfection. I said, so am I. I don't believe in sinless perfection. Oh, but you do, you say it here. Let us pass on to perfection. Trouble was that the Polish word for perfection in their lingo meant sinless perfection. What a mercy we'd gone to discuss it with him. Otherwise, the book would have been printed and have been ruined by that one mistake, of course. And, uh, we had to spend the morning discussing together what Hebrews mean by the term perfection. We better know, hadn't we? Because we're supposed to be pressing on, yeah, to perfection. But what perfection? Well, let us look how it is used, you see. We can't read in chapter seven uh, about the priesthood of Aaron and so forth under the old covenant. Verse sixteen: uh, uh, uh, verse seven— for verse eighteen. There is a disannulling of the foregoing commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness. That ancient Jewish priesthood descended from Aaron, ultimately weak and therefore unprofitable. And he adds in verse nineteen, for the law made nothing perfect. In what sense was it that the law made nothing perfect? Well, let's pass on to chapter ten, and we'll come across another use of this word perfect, and we shall see, I think, at once what the man is talking about. It says in chapter ten and verse one, for the law having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, they can never, with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect them that draw nigh. Notice the term? Those ancient sacrifices couldn't make perfect those that draw nigh. Else would they have not ceased to be offered, because the worshippers, having been once cleansed, would have had no more conscience or sins. But in those sacrifices, there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. So now it's becoming a bit clearer, isn't it, what he means by perfection? And he's urging his Jewish readers who professed faith in Christ to notice the difference between those sacrifices and that priesthood and that temple under Moses, which couldn't make you perfect according to the conscience. The difference between that and the sacrifice of Christ that can make you perfect, uh, as to the conscience. And you say, uh, isn't he being rather severe in his criticism of the Jewish system and says it couldn't make them perfect? No, he's not. Because he puts the, the puts the point, doesn't he? If their conscience had once been made perfect by those animal sacrifices, they wouldn't have offered them again, would they? They would have ceased. Yes, it's like the mortgage. Don't know how many of you are paying a mortgage, mortgage, you see, but it's desperate, isn't it? Raking the money together every month, you'll see. Who skimping here and skimping on the chocolate bar there and skimping somewhere else to see to get the money for the mortgage at the end of the month, when it's paid at the end of the month. What a marvelous relief, and now you're gonna have two bars of chocolate the next week. But, but then, of course, next month, same old process. Yeah, can go on, you know, for thirty five years and more. Wow, what a burden. Would you just imagine the point when she and he, uh, uh, go and pay the last contribution to the mortgage? Marvelous, hey, what relief. Phew, we're free of that. And then the next month comes round, and the wifey says to the husband, I- I think, uh, hadn't we better go and pay another contribution? What were before? Well, just to make sure, you see. Well, of course not. Once the thing has been paid, they don't make any more contributions. The conscience is cleared. That's the magnificent thing that Christ does. For whereas, you'll see, uh, every Jewish priest, as chapter ten points out, every priest, verse verse eleven of chapter ten, indeed standeth day by day, ministering oftentimes the same sacrifices, the which can never take away sins. But he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made the footstool of his feet. For, now look at verse fourteen— for by one offering he has perfected forever them that are being sanctified. And if we weren't so well behaved, you would shout at that point, hallelujah, do you see? Perfect. As to the conscience, doesn't mean that in all that we do, we're morally perfect. We have a long way to go, but this is the perfection of conscience into which Christ brings us through his sacrifice on our behalf. And you can tell if anybody has been made perfect in that sense, according to the conscience. You say, how would you tell it? Well, they would never, after this, offer anything as a sacrifice for their sins. Would they? Find me a man or a woman who feels obliged to offer something to God, even what is said to be the sacrifice of Christ, to offer it constantly and join in offering it on the altar as a sacrifice to God to get forgiveness of sins. That person shows by her act or his act that he doesn't have a conscience made perfect. And now we're dealing with the absolute basis of salvation, are we not? Why is this very important? Well, one, to see somebody burdened with the notion that they have to keep sacrificing and offering offerings for sin in order to keep saved. It's a lovely thing to be able to come alongside and point out what the New Testament says, doesn't it, in Christ? It's a marvelous gospel, you'll see. And it's more important. Let's go back to these Jews of the New Testament. And when, uh, the writer points out this about the sacrifice of Christ, because of its utter s- utter sufficiency, and Christ, having offered it, has sat down. He's not offering a sacrifice in heaven at this moment. Christ is not offering a sacrifice in heaven at this moment. He has sat down. And because he's offered the perfect sacrifice, all the sacrifices of the Old Testament are cancelled. They're no good anymore. Suppose a Jew says to this writer, now look here, uh, uh, you're being too severe, you see. Um, I don't think I, I, I, I, I, I agree with you that, um, Christ has offered, uh, this sacrifice once and for all, and I can be absolutely clear and certain in my mind that I'm right with God. So I'm, I'm going back and continuing the sacrifices of the Old Testament. What would you say to him? You'd say, ah well, yes, they, God instituted them in the Old Testament, so well, if you prefer that, carry on with that. Would you? You wouldn't. Because the perfect sacrifice of Christ has made the whole lot obsolete. If you won't have Christ's sacrifice, you can't have the Old Testament sacrifices either. If you are not prepared to cross the inheritance, cross the Jordan into the inheritance, then you can't keep hold of your inheritance east of Jordan either. To put it slightly more plainly, if you're not prepared to follow Joshua into the inheritance that he leads you in, you can't have the inheritance under Moses either. Do you see that? Now don't let me not overemphasize it, but do let me point out the implication for the Christian gospel. The Christian gospel has been sadly distorted by those who've tried to mix it with the Old Testament sacrifices. And like old Jerome, great scholar was Jerome, wasn't he? Do you like Jerome? You say, Jerome who? Well, n- never mind. Don't be bothered too much, but he translated the Vulgate, did Jerome, you see. Marvellous translator he was, except in certain circumstances. And when he got to this verse, uh, this man, after he had offered one sacrifice or sin forever, sat down. He translated into Latin, this man sits in heaven offering a sacrifice. Which, of course, is the direct opposite of what the Greek is saying, and has serious implications. You know, some people argue that because Christ offered himself through the eternal spirit to God, his sacrifice is of eternal significance. Absolutely true. Absolutely true. His sacrifice is, is of eternal significance. We can all agree on that. But some of them add, and because it's eternal, in heaven he is eternally offering a sacrifice for sin. No, he is not. That is a grotesque idea. Will you remember what and how and what happened when at Calvary he offered a sacrifice for sin? The very sun was darkened, and God forsook him. And according to Isaiah uh fifty three, he was wounded for our transgression, bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. It was God's decided purpose, pleased the Lord, to bruise him, to crush him. He has put him to grief. That's what happened at Calvary, as he offered himself a sacrifice for sin and bore our sin in his body on the tree. Now in heaven? Is he offering the sacrifice now in heaven for sins? And being bruised by God, and God abandoning him? And being smitten and afflicted for us eternally? Oh, that's blasphemous to begin to think of it that way. We're here with a very basic gospel urged upon the Hebrew Christ people that had professed to put their faith in Christ. And it runs, just to repeat it. Yes, the Old Testament sacrifices look forward to the coming of Christ. The blood of bulls and goats and all that didn't put away sin. They were only symbols. Christ came and fulfilled what they promised, offered the complete sacrifice, and God has accepted it. He's raised in now in heaven. You receive Christ in true repentance and faith, and you may have a conscience perfected and never attempt again to offer anything, not even the blood and body of Christ, to offer it to God as a means of getting forgiveness. If you don't accept the sacrifice of Christ, it's no good saying, well, I'll carry on with the old system. It's no longer valid. And that was what Moses, in his prototypical language, was saying to these tribes. Okay, if you're prepared to go across under Jesus, under Joshua, into the full inheritance that God has promised. If you're prepared for that, then you may be allowed to come back, uh, east of Jordan to what you gained under Moses. But if you're not prepared to go across with Joshua, then you may not inherit anything under Moses whatsoever. And it was Moses that was saying so. So let me just explain that bit of the prototype, and then we can take our coffee. You like the Old Testament? It's okay. He thinks it's okay. Don't say, yeah, a lot of folks say they go to the stake in their belief that the thing's inspired, but they wouldn't read it too often. Well, there'd be little bits of the Old Testament, aren't there? I'll tell you one, and even he will have to agree. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. What marvelous things in the Old Testament. What a glorious inheritance, so much so that I, an old Gentile who never was a Jew and never tried to be one, I can enjoy, forgive the term, the inheritance east of Jordan under Moses. What about that then? I can enjoy that. And Isaiah, for that matter, and a good deal of Jeremiah, if only I understood it, and and and things of that order, you see. And the story of Abraham, you see, and the Exodus, for that matter, even the book of Numbers. Uh, Joe say. Chronicles. Yes, Chronicles, my boy, as well. Chronicles. Glorious stuff. But, but, but. Yes, I can enjoy it and profit from it because, by God's grace, to use the language of the picture, I've crossed Jordan, westward, under Joshua, under Jesus, and entered into the great inheritance into which Christ brings us. Is that the point? Got the point? It is not abstruse theology. You will know friends. And they're not yet saved. And they think they're doing well in offering God regularly a sacrifice for sin, the body and blood of Christ, to get forgiveness. And you will find they have no conscience made perfect. How could they have? If they are found constantly offering a sacrifice for sin, they haven't a conscience made perfect. Once the conscience was made perfect, they would cease offering anything at all in order to get salvation. Let us therefore go on to perfection in this sense, the perfection that comes through Jesus Christ our Lord and the wonderful perfection of his sacrifice for us at Calvary, and his risen again and into heaven, and the coming of the Holy Spirit for us. Let's leave it there for a moment to have our coffee. I should like you back at about five and twenty to ten just for ten minutes more to think of one or two other things. Thank you very much.