From Valley Money in Conteantrum we present Let the Bible Speak. It's good to have you with us today as we spend fifteen minutes around the Word of God, preaching Christ in all His fullness. the thanks you get. Ever heard that? Ever said it? You do something that really costs you for someone and they throw it straight back in your face. Moses and Aaron in the Old Testament could have identified with that. Between them they had done some really wonderful things for the children of Israel and yet the people full of ingratitude had accused him of doing terrible things to them. We'll be investigating that subject today but before we get into it Let's hear some music from Legacy 5, ever since Jesus came. My life was in shackles, my spirit broken down. The dreams that once soared had come crashing to the ground. But when the Savior came knocking and when I let Him in, He picked up the pieces, made me over again. I'm not the same, no I've been born again I'll tell the world of peace and love I've found And sing of true joy that abounds ever since He came His hands made the heavens, His word made the seas. His voice sets the compass on the face of the deep. But when I knelt at the altar, and from sadness I cried, His hand gently wiped every tear from my eye. Ever since He came, He even came and pardoned every sin. I'm not the same, no, I've been born again. I'll tell the world of peace and love I've found, And sing of true joy that abounds ever since He came. Since Jesus came and pardoned every sin, I'm not the same, no, I've been born again. I'll tell the world of peace and love I've found, and the single true joy that I've found, since He came, since the Savior came. Good morning. It's Ian Brown, and I'm delighted to have your company today. Israel had been guilty of an awful and aggravated rebellion. They had seen the judgment of God that fell upon Dathan and Abiram. They knew how Korah and his company of rebels had been consumed with fire from the Lord. And yet, the very next day, they murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, Ye have killed the people of the Lord. It was incredible. It was outrageous, too. You could write over their actions the word ingratitude. for it was only because of the prompt and the earnest prayer of Moses and Aaron that the hand of the Lord was held back from destroying these people as well. As they say, the thanks you get. A plague was sent out from God's presence to punish these rebels and then, amazingly, Moses and Aaron stood before God and acted on the behalf of the people yet again. Numbers chapter 16 verses 46 to 48 gives us the essence of the story. And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them. For there is wrath gone out from the Lord, the plague is begun. And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation, and behold, the plague was begun among the people, and he put on incense, and made an atonement for the people. and he stood between the dead and the living and the plague was dead I want to use this momentous incident in the history of God's people Israel to picture what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for guilty sinners and believe me there are some astounding parallels between the two notice in the first place about Aaron the unselfish affection that he evidenced the people had rebelled against him they were acting in open hostility to him. They were treating him, their friend, as an enemy. Yet with generous love he ran into the middle of them to save them from the plague. What a wonderful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ that is! Sin is rebellion. We're all guilty of it. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's the inescapable verdict of Romans 3 in verse 23 and it's written large against all of our names. And yet for us sinners, and to save us from the eternal death and torments of hell, Jesus came. Romans 5, verses 6 and 8 declare it, for when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. What a wonderful message the gospel is! An old Indian chief constantly spoke of the Lord Jesus and what he meant to him. "'Why do you talk so much about Jesus?' a friend asked. The old chief didn't reply, but slowly, deliberately, he gathered some sticks and bits of grass. He made a circle out of them. In the circle he placed a caterpillar. Still silent, he struck a match and lit the sticks and bits of grass. They watched the caterpillar. As the fire caught the circle, the trapped caterpillar began to crawl around quickly, looking for a way to escape. As the fire advanced, the helpless caterpillar raised its head as high as it could. If that creature could have spoken, it would have said, My help can only come from above. Then the old chief stooped down. He reached out his finger to the caterpillar. The caterpillar crawled up his finger to safety. That, said the old chief glowingly, was what the Lord Jesus did for me. I was lost in sin. My condition was hopeless. I was trapped. Then the Lord Jesus stooped down, and in love and mercy He drew me out of a horrible pit of sin and shame. How can I help but love Him and talk of His wondrous love and care? Jesus to Calvary did go. His love for sinners to show, what He did there brought hope from despair. Oh, how He loves you and me! What love Christ has displayed for us, I hope we all appreciate it. Notice in the second place from her text the unbounded ardour that Aaron expended. Number 16 verse 47 tells me, And Aaron ran into the midst of the congregation. Here was a man who couldn't be faulted for entering into the project half-heartedly. His whole soul and heart and body were in the work. Now Aaron was over a hundred years of age at the time, but he forgot his age in this burst of sheer earnestness. But going into the middle of that plague-stricken and maddened people would mean danger to himself. What if the plague should attach itself to him? What if the people should stone him in their madness? All thought of those dangers was swallowed up in his earnestness. He runs into the middle of the crowd. But what was Aaron compared with Jesus? He left the splendor of heaven. Knowing his destiny, t'was the lonely hill of Golgotha there to suffer and die for me, or, as another poet has put it, down from the shining seats above, with joyful haste he ran. Christ's whole heart and soul were focused on the one issue, that of our salvation. Listen to his own words. In Psalm 40 verses 7 and 8 he says, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is within my heart. In Luke 12 and verse 50 he says, I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I scratent till it be accomplished. The anguish of soul, the agony of body, the fierce assaults by the tempter, the pains of hell, he gauged our peril. He measured the pain, yet he went on into the garden, on to the hall of judgment, on to the cross, on to the grave for us. We have thought about the unselfish affection that Aaron evidenced, the unbounded ardor that he expended. Think thirdly of the unique activity he engaged in. Aaron was God's anointed priest. No one else could do what he did that day. Moses didn't have the authority to do it. Only Aaron, with his holy garments on and with a censer of incense in his hand, could make atonement for the people before God. In Numbers 16, verse 48, we're told that he stood between the dead and the living. Right in the center of the path of God's vengeance between the people and the plague, he took up his position. The result, we're told in God's Word, and the plague was stead. Aaron, in effect, saved the people. Now that was Aaron. Think of Jesus. God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power to be our Saviour. And we're told in Acts 4 in verse 12, neither is there salvation in any other. Only Jesus could make atonement for us to God. We could do nothing for ourselves but Christ's positive obedience to every demand of the law of God on our behalf. the giving of His life upon the cross at Calvary, that's the atonement, that's the covering, that's the pardon that our souls were crying out for. Jesus put Himself between us sinners and God's righteous wrath. In Isaiah 53 and verse 5 I read, But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. As in Aaron's day, when he made atonement for the people, the plague was stead, so with Jesus. Salvation, because of his cross, is won. It's ready, it's offered, it's full, it's free. Any poor sinner who will may have it at once and for nothing. A man who was a well-sinker by trade had led a wild and God-disowning life for seventy years. In that dangerous occupation of his he had many amazing escapes, but the only effect these had on him was to harden him. But one day he heard for the first time of God's love for sinners. Strange thoughts were stirred in his old mind. But he tried to dismiss them with the words, I'm no scholar, it's no manner of use, I don't know how to make a prayer. A few days later he was sinking a well 120 feet deep. His fellow workmen had left him alone to finish that dangerous job. Suddenly all his sinful life came before and over him. He knelt down, put his rough, steely hands together, and with great tears, screaming down his rugged face, he cried, O Lord, I am the biggest of sinners, but You are a bigger Saviour! O Lord, save poor old Tom from his sins and give him a new heart, for Jesus Christ's sake! At the bottom of that well, one hundred and twenty feet below the surface of the earth, the great Saviour and the great sinner met together. And when that old man was pulled up to the surface, he was a new creature in Christ, forgiven, accepted on his way to heaven. Christ will do the same for every sinner who calls upon Him for mercy. He will save to the uttermost all who call unto God by Him. Why not prove that yourself? Come to Him in repentance and in faith today, only a step to Jesus. Then why not take it now? Come, and thy sin confessing, thou shalt receive a blessing. Do not reject the mercy he freely offers thee. You've been listening to Let the Bible Speak, coming from Ballymoney, County Antrim. We count it a privilege to bring the gospel of Christ to you in all its biblical fullness, and I trust that you've enjoyed today's program. If you've been challenged, encouraged, or helped in any way, we'd like to hear from you. Our mailing address is Let the Bible Speak, Ballymoney, County Antrim, BT 53 6PE. Let the Bible Speak, Ballymoney, County Antrim, BT 53 6PE. Thank you for listening today. We're on the air here on Gospel AM each morning, Monday to Friday at 9.30. So do remember to join us at this time as we let the Bible speak.