I'll turn again in your Bibles, please, Numbers chapter 16, Numbers 16. In all of the changes, I forgot the announcements. So simply to welcome you, you are welcome in the Lord's house today. And I do trust some will be able to join us on the webcast. We welcome you in the Lord's name. We do miss the fellowship of God's people in all of the decisions we're making at this point. We do. It certainly struck me this morning how much we missed the opportunity to smile and say hello to some of you. If you can't be here today, we trust that you're well. Please do keep in touch. We don't know how things will develop in the coming weeks. Please do send the odd email around, call one another and seek to just keep that connection in the things of God at this time. I mentioned already this morning that we do trust to use Skype to conduct our prayer meeting on Wednesday evening. So there'll be no prayer meeting in the building here. I'll send out an email tomorrow. If you want to be involved in that Skype call, please let me know. I can make sure we add you to that conversation. That'll be seven o'clock as usual on Wednesday evening. I think this should work smoothly. But of course, technology, whoever knows for definite, but I think it should be possible. So please let me know. We can seek to add you to that Skype call. Please also keep watch upon your emails and upon Facebook. and we will see how things go forward and we'll keep you informed regarding next Lord's Day and trust that with the help of God we can meet in the house of God here. But tonight we're in Numbers 16. We're in the word of the Lord, Numbers chapter 16. And the verse number 46 in the part B is really upon my heart. For there is wrath gone out from the Lord. The plague has begun. And with those words And upon our hearts, let's bow together, please, in a word of prayer. Eternal God, our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thou art the majestic, all-glorious God, and we bow humbly in thy presence. Dear Father, we pray that in these days, our nation, and indeed this wider world, we come to realize that they are not God. They are but dust, and thou alone art God. Dear Father, we are being brought to realize our weakness, our impotence, to control our own affairs. And thus, dear Father, we come humbly before thy word, the word that speaks to our hearts. And we ask, O Lord, that as we would consider this portion, We would see things in picture form, in type form, and I would communicate the gospel to us afresh today, and that we would know how to think and live in days of challenge and confusion. And so bless the word to every heart, for those in the building and those watching remotely, we pray the word of God would be fresh and living in their souls, and even unto life for some, that they would come to know and love the Savior. Bless the word we pray in Jesus name. Amen and amen. The word that is used in verse number 46 is very, very striking. It is of course the word wrath. It is that God possesses wrath. That the God of heaven, old and new testament revelations show us to be a God who is angry with the wicked every day. God who is disposed in wrath towards those who rebel and reject his ways. Wrath is mentioned here in connection with the matter of plague. Verse 46, there is wrath gone out, the plague is begun. I've said on several occasions now, in various formats, that this present coronavirus outbreak is a message from God. Now I hesitate, and I've said that a number of times also, I hesitate to give an infallible assertion as to what God is saying. outside the fact that I believe we can say with absolute certainty that times of pestilence are God pointing people to the reality of Christ's returning judgment. The Ovid discourse makes that clear. Earthquakes, famines and wars, pestilences, they are all the beginning of sorrows and they all point people to the fact that Christ is certainly going to return. That day is of course known as the day of God's wrath. It is the day of the Lord, but it is also the day of judgment. It is the day of God's wrath. And so we're seeing that in the beginning of sorrows, there is a pointing forward to wrath and to judgment. And it is interesting that in the word of God, references to plagues and pestilences consistently come in light of judgment against sin. Let me turn to Deuteronomy chapter 28. Deuteronomy 28, I turned your attention here on Wednesday evening. It is in the context of the covenant promises to the people of God, but those promises that also came with covenant warnings. In verse number 21, one of the warnings that God gives his people if they sin, the Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he hath consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it. It's just one example again of pestilence or plague being used as a mark of God's judgment in his wrath. If you're in Numbers though, turn back to Numbers chapter 11. I'll show you one more example of this and then we'll move into the text itself for tonight. The Numbers chapter 11. Here once more we find the people and they are sinning against the Lord in their unbelief and in the discontentedness with God's provision of the manna. And they ask for meat and God gives them the quail. And then verse 33, while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people. and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague. You see it again, the word wrath used in direct connection with God smiting the people with a great plague. Pestilence warns us of God's wrath. Thus, I think it is appropriate to consider a little bit of what this portion, Numbers chapter 16, would teach us regarding the wrath of God in connection with the plague that is mentioned in verse number 46. There is wrath gone out from before the Lord. The plague is begun. And I want to begin by thinking about how God's wrath was provoked here. What is it in the context that provokes the wrath of God described in verse number 46? Well, God's wrath is provoked here by the state of the people's hearts and minds. All we have in terms of their action are words that are given in verse number 41. They murmur against Moses and Aaron, and they say, ye have killed the people of the Lord. The context, I read a little bit about in the past, it deals with the sin of Corda and Daphne and Abiram, They have sought to usurp the position that God gave to Moses and Aaron. They offer the incense. All these things are revealed in the previous chapter and that brings in the judgment of God. We read the words there in verse number 31 through 35. The ground opens, the people are swallowed and there's a fire from the Lord. There's a sense of God's judgments in the previous part of the chapter. And the people have watched this, they've witnessed this, and rather than confessing their sins, they have complained against the Lord's people. They were slow to learn, and they say, Moses and Aaron, you're guilty of killing the people of the Lord. It's hard to know, did they believe that Moses and Aaron could have done something to prevent God's judgment? Or do they say that really the cause of the trouble was that Moses and Aaron did not submit to the rebels, but rather opposed the rebels? We can't be certain. But whatever it is, we do know that people are complaining and showing their heart. I think it's an interesting view. Turn to Luke chapter 6. Luke chapter 6, we know the reference in Luke 6 regarding the matters of judgment and hypocrisy. Look at chapter 6, there is in verse 41 the teaching of Christ regarding the mote and the beam, the nature of the hypocrite that will not deal with their own sin but deal with the sins of others. And in that context, you have then in verse number 45, a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil, for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. And so what we hear in number 16 is what is in the heart. And out of the heart comes this mouth that is speaking, speaking foolishness. And I think it's significant they're accusing Moses and Aaron of sin when they themselves were in guilt of sin. And so you find people bringing judgment when in reality God's judgment was upon them. And that is what begins to provoke God's wrath. Let me give you two particular words you can cling upon in terms of understanding this. There is a spirit of resentment here. They resent the ways of God. This is one of the texts that should warn people when they speak evil of God. I don't think it'd be long before the atheists begin to rise and say to Christians, Why didn't your God stop this plague? Is your God not able to prevent coronavirus? Why is God allowing this suffering? And what you get there is a spirit amongst people that says, well, actually, we would do it differently to God. If I was God, I wouldn't be this way. And that spirit is a spirit that says, I know better than God. And that's often manifested in the question, why does God do this or that or the other thing? And such a spirit is incredibly dangerous, because it illustrates that in our hearts, we place ourselves above God. Such is dangerous. Such is foolish. And such is indication of the heart of the unbeliever. Resentment. I think it's also significant that there is a high degree of confusion here. Note the words they use in verse 41. Ye have killed the people of the Lord. They're calling evil good and good evil, aren't they? This is confusion. They've got things all wrong. The Lord's people, that's Moses and Aaron. Not the rebels here against God. They've got all things confused. You go back to Numbers chapter 16 and those opening verses, and you have the account of what happens here. These people, these prominent men, men of renown, men of esteem, pride has crept into their souls. And as they are pride in their hearts, they then begin to say, Moses and Aaron, you have no rights to be what you are. We're all holy. All of us have equal rights to the roles that you're taking. And therefore they challenge the authority of Moses and Aaron. And yet when the people see judgment fall upon these rebels, the people say they were the people of the Lord. Isn't that amazing, the foolishness of man's natural heart? Isn't it incredible how far they will go in their unbelief? You see, this murmuring demonstrates their hearts were not right with God. I should pause for a moment. God's wrath here is not provoked by a riotous living, by carousing, and revelry, and immorality, and adulteries. God's wrath here is not provoked by gross immorality and gross sin. God's wrath is provoked here by people accusing God of wrongdoing. God's not fair. His providential dealings are wrong. I've been indoors, knocking doors in the past, and you get people saying, why am I in this rotten existence? God's not fair to me. My life has not been fair. My family, my work station, whatever it might be, I'm a spirit against God in their hearts. God's not fair, and what you see in this portion is indication that people are saying God's order is wrong. God's order of the world is wrong. What you're seeing here ultimately, both in the rebels and in those who support the rebels, is an anti-authoritarian spirit. That God established order for his good pleasure and for the people's good, and the people say, we will not submit to God's order. It's interesting that one of the sins mentioned in Romans chapter 1 when a nation is going against God is that people are disobedient to their parents. Authority is turned around. There is a decision. We will not have government rule over us. We won't have God's appointed government rule over us. We won't have families ordered by God, parents over children. We won't have churches over members. Everything, we are all holy. We all have our rights and authority is turned upside down. That's provoking God's wrath here. And is it incredible that in the day of rampant individualism, we are seeing God's wrath being manifested. because people are saying we will not submit to God's order of authority. What is tremendously challenging is that God's wrath is provoked by people who had the privilege of experiencing first-hand God's judgment on sin. The people who are mentioned in verse number 41 are the same people who are in view in verse number 34. And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them, for they said, lest the earth swallow us up also. This is a fearful type of hell. The ground opening, people going down alive into the pit, and the earth closing upon them. And as the earth closes upon them, their cry can be heard. And that cry is of such a horrible nature that the people flee from the cry. They don't want to hear the cry. And they are fearful lest God's wrath also swallow them up. What a scene it must have been. We can't even begin to imagine. We can't imagine what's happening before their eyes. As houses and families are consumed by the ground and they cry from the pits. Oh, we don't hear the cry from the pit. But here are people who saw the wrath of God. And yet incredibly, verse number 41, it says, but on the morrow. But on the morrow, those who have witnessed firsthand God's wrath, on the very next day, they murmured against God. Why can it be? There were those You're describing Matthew 27 and sitting down. They watched him there. There were those who surrounded the cross of our savior. And on that cross, they saw firsthand the wrath of God. And yet they did not cry out to God for mercy. Oh, the faith in the cross. He did the centurion confess. Sure. This is the son of God, but it seemed to be the multitude dispersed without their hearts being moved. It is a fearful thing for someone to see the wrath of God firsthand and yet turn their hearts away from God. Many, many experience a sense of God's judgment on a Sunday. You see, when God's people meet together in God's house, God is here. and the unbeliever will come into God's house, and they will feel uncomfortable, and they'll have that abiding sense of God's holiness, and they're confronted with the word of God, and they hear the hymns that sing about God's power and glory, and they feel something in their soul of God's wrath. But come Monday morning, on the morrow, those thoughts are all put away. We must be careful that we do not lightly view God's wrath that we will continue in our sins. It is fearful that people will live through this COVID-19 situation and they will ignore the signs of God's wrath. They'll see it firsthand. They're experiencing it firsthand at this present time. And yet they will not understand and they will not turn from God. We ought to be thankful that we have a holy fear of God. Now, of course, the fear of God is not the same as fear. You can have fear of God but not believe in Christ. Don't presume that your fear of God means that you're a believer. Don't presume because you are scared of God's wrath that therefore you've come to Christ. But at the same time, be thankful for a holy reverence of God. Not that you stay in that fear, but through that fear you would get to Christ, the only answer to the fear that you feel in your soul. So God's wrath is provoked in this really incredible way. In the second place then, note how God's wrath is revealed. It's revealed in verse 42, initially, as God comes down. God comes down in His glory. The cloud covers a tabernacle. The cloud in the wilderness. The cloud, the succine glory. The presence of God in the cloud. Verse 42, and the glory of the Lord appeared. God does not treat the sins of the heart lightly. We do, and we shouldn't. We treat so lightly a murmuring and a complaining spirit. We treat so lightly when we kick against authority. These are trifling sins in our eyes, but in God's eyes, they cause God to come down. And God came down upon the tabernacle and his glory appeared. God in his mercy. He gives a warning through Moses, get you up from among this congregation, verse 45, that I may consume them as in a moment. God is warning the people. And then verse 46, his wrath is poured out, the plague has begun. This word plague is a fascinating word in itself. It's usually translated with this word plague, it describes some form of illness. Other times it's used in three other places with the word slaughter in terms of battle. And the idea here is that a plague is unto death, a fateful plague. When it's used, it is always used as something that is sent by God and is always used in the sense of a response from God towards sin, always. sent by God in response to man's sin. Let me show you that in a couple of places. 1 Chronicles chapter 21. 1 Chronicles 21. So we're just going to show you here that this plague that begun is the revelation of God's wrath sent by God in response to man's sin. 1 Chronicles 21. Going to look at verse 17 in number 2, but I want to remind you of the context here. David has sinned by numbering the people. It was a sin. God did not ask him to number the people, and it would seem that David was acting out of a proud heart. And the Lord comes and gives David some choices. Verse number 12, you have them there. Three years' famine, three months of your enemies against you, or three days of pestilence. Verse 13, David says, I am in a great strait, let me now fall into the hand of the Lord, for very great are his mercies, but let me not fall into the hand of man. He's asking for, according to verse number 12, the pestilence. The pestilence. But that illness is then described in verse 17 by David, as he prays for God's mercy on the people, he says, but not on my people, that they should be plagued. So I'm showing you here, the word plagued indicates God's judgment by way of pestilence upon sin. You do the same thing over in Psalm 106. Turn there please. Psalm 106. Psalm 106. And the verse number 28. Describing the rebellion here, they joined themselves also unto Baal Peor, and at the sacrifice of the dead, thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions, and the plague break in upon them. And then you have the account of Finlay as he comes and stays to play. But note again what we're having here. The plague is in response to sin as they provoke God to his anger. There's whoredom, there's sin, religious compromise, and wrath falls from the Lord. But what I want you to appreciate, when you think of all of these references, both those we've seen at the start and these references in this section of the sermon, you see the same thing. And that is this. God's wrath is more than a disposition against sin. God's wrath actually comes out in acts of judgment, and not just in hell. God's wrath upon sin is revealed in this earth by acts of judgment against sin. We may not always see it, we may not always discern it, but we see here clear examples in the word of God. It says in Numbers 16, verse 46, the plague is begun. Some people think, if you mention God's wrath on the street, they say, hmm, so what? It's no big deal. My life goes on. I'm suffering no consequence, no changes in my life. I go day by day about my business. Why does it matter if God's angry with my sin? Here we're seeing that God's wrath is not only a future prospect, but it is a present revelation. And we know it's true both here in this chapter, and also in New Testament time, because Romans chapter one, verse 18, the wrath of God is presently being revealed, it's a paraphrase. There's a present revelation of God's wrath, and it's revealed as God abandons the society to the recklessness of their sin. And as sin rampantly spreads in society, so that is God's wrath being revealed. And so we should see in these days, that as a nation and nations turn their back against God, God is pleased in his mercy to send a pestilence, in his mercy I say, that people would turn back to God. They think Christ is coming. that the church would rise up and tell people, this is wrath from God, Christ is coming, repent, it'll be too late. See God's wrath is being revealed. And we must, we must have the sense to see that and turn from our sin to Christ. But in the final place, in this chapter, we see God's wrath being restrained. I think that restrained is the right word to use. Verse number 48, and the plague was staged. That word means to stop or to restrain. The picture here is hard to be certain, but it seems to be that the people are camped around the tabernacle. We studied this in our tabernacle studies. The cloud is over the tabernacle. The tabernacle's in the middle of the camp. And it would seem to be the case that Moses and Aaron are at the tabernacle. And what's happening is that the plague is spreading from the outside of the camp towards the center. Simply what's happening here. And as the plague spreads from the outside, so panic spreads. You can picture it, can't you, today? the spreading of the pestilence. And it's happening. And so as they go along from tribe to tribe and camp to camp and tent to tent, the news is spreading. There's a plague spreading. People are falling before the Lord. And Moses comes and brings a word to Aaron. And I believe in Moses' case here in verse number 46, we see Moses acting as the mouthpiece of God. God revealing through Moses what must happen for the plague to be stopped. In simple term, the plague is stopped by the interposition of the high priest. It is the high priest and his work that stays the plague. His office, he is the high priest. This chapter has been about how Aaron has been ordained of God to his office. It points our mind, of course, forward to Christ. Christ, who has been ordained of God to his office. This is in the words of Hebrews chapter three. Hebrews chapter three and the verse number two. He was faithful to him that appointed him. Christ Jesus, the high priest of our possession, profession, sorry, verse one of Hebrews chapter three. Here is the high priest appointed of God. Note his office, high priest. Note his obedience. He obeys God, he obeys Moses, who I say is speaking for the Lord. Moses said, take a censer, and Aaron took, as Moses commanded, verse number 47. Moses is God's prophet, and thus Moses brings the word of God to Aaron, and Moses says, take a censer, and go and make an atonement. Here we see a foreshadow of Christ. He was obedient unto death. Christ. Philippians chapter two. Taking our nature and he came and was obedient unto death. Look what it says in verse number 47. And Aaron took as Moses commanded and ran. He ran into the midst of the congregation. I think of David of old. I think of David. David running into the valley. David running towards the enemy. First sign of seventeen. He hasted and ran toward the army. David coming as a conquering king, coming appointed of God, coming to defeat Goliath and the people joined in the victory. He ran, and so we see Aaron running here. Despite his age, he runs into the midst of the people, Christ or mediator. He runs into history to save his people from their sins. I delight to do thy will. Oh my God, Psalm 40, we see our Messiah running into this world to save us from our sins. What a picture it is! No hesitation, no thought for his own safety, but sacrificing himself for the well-being of others. You see, what you see here in Aaron is an act of bravery. He places himself into the midst of the mob that raged against him. They were murmuring against him, and he runs into their midst. What a picture it is of the love of Christ. bravely entering into a sin-cursed world. Oh, the prophets of old, they've been slain one after the other. And last of all, God sends his son, and his son runs. Where others have died, the son runs into the battle, facing those who hate him. Oh, we love because he first loved us. God's love is manifested in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He came out of love for those who were unlovely. He came out of love for those who hated him. And so Christ came to save his enemies. Jesus, lover of my soul. Jesus, what a friend of sinners. We see his obedience and we see his offering, don't we? We see what happens here at this time. His work was to make an atonement. Verse 47, he put on incense and made an atonement for the people. He was to provide a covering, that's the words. The word atonement speaks of covering for sin. Aaron's actions were to cover the people's sin from God's sight. That's the only way the wrath could be stopped. That's the only way the plague could be staged. It was a covering for their sins. And in his offering, he acts as the high priest, the proper high priest, the appointed high priest, not a servant, not a pretender, but the one appointed of God. And he runs into the midst of the congregation. The censer speaks of the fire pan of Exodus chapter 38. The fire is the fire of the altar of the burnt offering. The brazen altar, the place of sacrifice. That altar where the fire was never put out. The altar of God's wrath, where sacrifice is offered. Sacrifice for people's sins. He goes and takes the fire. He takes the censer and he takes the incense. The incense that continue in the Bible speaks of prayer. Psalm 141, verse number two, let my prayer be, sorry, let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense. Our revelation in chapter eight in the verse number three, the incense that he should offer with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar before the throne, incense prayer. What you're seeing here, of course, is a beautiful picture of Christ's work, atonement. through intercession and sacrifice. Covering as the great high priest intercedes on the basis of atonement. We've seen it in our Sunday school class, haven't we? Our great high priest, he pleads or calls in glory as he intercedes upon the basis of fire and blood sacrifice. That's Christ's work. So Christ, Hebrews chapter nine, verse 11. Christ being come on high, priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is saying none of this building, neither by the blood of goats and cows, but by his own blood. He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Christ entered in and pleads for us, intercedes for us. He intercedes on the base of an ever-living priesthood. He rose again, will never die. He is our great high priest, continues to plead his blood on our behalf, whereby the plague has stayed. God, through Christ, saves souls, because Christ is able to save the most seeing ever lives to make a procession for us. And the plague has stayed. Leaders were killed as God's wrath fell. the people were spared. Initially, the leaders, those who raised the rebellion were killed and the people were spared. But the goodness of God did not lead those people to repentance. Despite seeing God's wrath, they continued in their rebellion and on the morrow they continued to protest against Moses. So you read in verse 49, Those that died in the plague were 14,700. 14,700. There were those who, in God's grace, found themselves on the right side of the high priest. You've gotta be on the right side of the high priest. He stands between the living and the dead, verse number 48. When the plague reached the high priest, there it stopped. Dear sinner, get behind the high priest tonight. Make sure you find yourself, by God's grace, at the place where the plague has stayed. Calvary, where a great high priest, bleeding for sinners, so that we would never have to suffer the wrath of God. Pestilence is a vivid picture of God's wrath against sin. May God be pleased to hear our prayers today, that this nation, indeed this world, will turn from their sin to Christ, before Christ comes. Let's pray together, please, in prayer. Eternal God and our Father in heaven, we thank you, Lord, for the word that shows us in these picture forms your willingness to deal with man's sin in judgment and also in mercy. Now, dear Father, it is in your good pleasure to bring wrath and judgment upon the ungodly. And yet, dear Father, it is your good pleasure to show mercy to those who find themselves in Christ Jesus. May we be clear in our minds regarding the reality of holiness and also in your good mercies. Help us in these days to continue to put our trust in Christ. That we would live by faith in the Son of God. He loved me and gave himself for me. Grant us grace. Help us to be a light in a dark time. And that we would show your mercy towards sinners. We pray in Christ's name, amen.