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We're going to be in Numbers chapter number one this evening. And then the Book of Galatians is the book that we'll be starting on Wednesday night, a verse by verse study through the Book of Galatians. So all brand new series, all different Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. This makes me feel like when I first started the church, because when I first started the church, I began a topical series on Sunday morning, an Old Testament book on Sunday night, and a New Testament book on Wednesday night. So we're back into that groove, and I think it'll be good. I hope you like it. Men's Preaching and Pizza Night is this Friday, April 21st at 7 p.m. All the men are invited to an evening of preaching, pizza, and fellowship. If you would like to sign up to preach, then there's some rules there for you to be able to do so. Make sure you read those and you are familiar with that. And you do not have to preach to come at the men's preaching night. You can just come. We'll have six, seven, eight guys preach for about 10 minutes each. They always do a good job. And then afterwards we'll have a time of fellowship with pizza, and it's a good time, so please make sure you come to that. And then all the ladies are invited to the ladies' tea on Saturday, May 13th at 3 p.m. If you've not yet signed up, you can sign up on your communication card. And then Mother's Day is the next day, Sunday, May 14th. We'll have the children's choir singing in honor of Mother's Day, and we'll have a t-shirt for all of the ladies and girls in attendance on that day. I want you to notice there that we've got some announcements for the choir. First of all, there is a recording, a VBC choir recording that we'd like you to be aware of. And we'd like to do three 30-minute special recordings of the VBC choir on Sunday night after the evening service. And the dates for the recordings are next Sunday, April 23rd, the Sunday night after that, April 30th, and then the Sunday night after that, May 7th. So there's going to be a quick informational meeting tonight in the break room. I think I said fellowship hall this morning, but it says break room, so I think that'll be over there. But it's 10 minutes after the evening service. If you have any questions, brother RJ's leading that for us, and you can ask him. But there'll be an informational meeting tonight, so if you're part of the choir, if you can head over to the informational meeting about 10 minutes after the service, we'd appreciate that. That way you can get the information you need. You'll actually get a handout with QR codes to the recordings that you need so that you can practice, and then we'll have the recordings over the next three Sunday nights. So the children's choir began today. They practiced at 515, ages 4 to 12 years old, and they of course are practicing for Mother's Day. Other things there for you to look at, please don't forget to turn your cell phones off or place them on silent during the service so that they're not a distraction to anybody. If you look at the back of the bulletin, birthdays and anniversaries for the month of April. This week we have one birthday, Miss April Villa, on April 22nd. Praise Report, Money Matters, all of those things are there for you to look at, and I think that's it for all of the announcements. We're going to go ahead and sing the chorus of the week, and we're going to sing holy, holy, holy as we prepare to receive the offering tonight. And like we said this morning, you've got to sing this song with some passion, all right? So go ahead and sing it out on the first. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee. First the poor and mighty, God in three, first the poor and mighty, blessed is He. Good, sing it out on the second. We're going to sing it out on the third. Let's just slow it down just a hair if you're an instrumentalist. Can you help me with that? Let's slow it down. Sing it with purpose. Sing it with passion on the third. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee. Good, sing it out. Thou art holy, there is none beside Thee. Perfect and holy, loving God Almighty. Good, sing it out on the last. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, all Thy works shall praise Thy name in earth and sky and sea. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three, first the Lord, blessed is He. Amen. Good singing. We'll have the guys come up and help us with the offering at this time. And let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do thank you for allowing us to gather together tonight. Lord, we pray you bless the offering, the gift and the giver. We ask that you meet with us as we open up your words, study a chapter of the Bible together. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Please open up to Numbers chapter one. Numbers chapter number one, if you need a Bible you can put your hand up and I know she might bring you a Bible. Numbers chapter number one, if you need a Bible keep your hand up and she will come by. Numbers chapter one, we read the entire chapter as our custom. Numbers one being in verse number one. From 20 years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel. Thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies. And with you there shall be a man of every tribe, everyone head of the house of his fathers. And these are the names of the men that shall stand with you. Of the tribe of Reuben, Elijah the son of Shaddiur. Of Simeon, Shalumiel the son of Zerushariah. Of Judah, Nahshin the son of Amenadab. Of Issachar, Netheniel the son of Zuhar. Of Zebulun, Eli the son of Helan. Of the children of Joseph of Ephraim, Elishama the son of Amahud. Of Manasseh, Gamaliel the son of Perazor. Of Benjamin, Abidah the son of Gideoni. Of Dan, Ahizer the son of Amishariah. Of Asher, Pegiel the son of Ochran. Of Gad, Elisaph the son of Deo. Of Naphtali, Ahira the son of Enon. These are the renowned of the congregation. Princes of the tribes of their fathers. Heads of thousands in Israel. And Moses and Aaron took these men which were expressed by their names. And they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month. And they declared their pedigrees after their families. By the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names. From twenty years old and upward by their poles. As the Lord commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai. And the children of Reuben, Israel's eldest son. By their generations after their families. By the house of their fathers. According to the number of the names by their poles. Every male from twenty years old and upward. All that were able to go forth to war. Those that were numbered of them. Even of the tribe of Reuben were forty and six thousand and five hundred. The children of Simei. By their generations. After their families. By the house of their fathers. Those that were numbered of them. According to the number of the names by their poles. Every male from twenty years old and upward. All that were able to go forth to war. Those that were numbered of them. Even of the tribe of Simeon were fifty and nine thousand and three hundred. Of the children of Gad. By their generations. After their families. By the house of their fathers. According to the number of the names. From twenty years old and upward. All that were able to go forth to war. Those that were numbered of them. Even of the tribe of Gad. Were forty and six thousand six hundred and fifty. Of the children of Judah. By their generations. After their families. By the house of their fathers. According to the number of the names from twenty years old and upward. All that were able to go forth to war. Those that were numbered of them. Even of the tribe of Judah. Were three score and fourteen thousand and six hundred. Of the children of Issachar. By their generations. After their families. By the house of their fathers. According to the number of the names from twenty years old and upward. All that were able to go forth to war. Those that were numbered of them. Even of the tribe of Issachar. Were fifty and four thousand and four hundred. Of the children of Zebulun. By their generations. After their families. By the house of their fathers. According to the number of their names. From twenty years old and upward. All that were able to go forth to war. Those that were numbered of them. Even of the tribe of Zebulun. Were fifty and seven thousand and four hundred. Of the children of Joseph. Namely the children of Ephraim. By their generations. After their families. By the house of their fathers. According to the number of the names from twenty years old and upward. All that were able to go forth to war. Those that were numbered of them. Even of the tribe of Ephraim. Were forty thousand and five hundred. Of the children of Manasseh. By their generations. After their families. By the house of their fathers. According to the number of their names. From twenty years old and upward. All that were able to go forth to war. Those that were numbered of them. Even of the tribe of Manasseh. Were thirty and two thousand and two hundred. Of the children of Benjamin. By their generations. After their families. By the house of their fathers. According to the number of the names. From twenty years old and upward. All that were able to go forth to war. Those that were numbered of them. Even of the tribe of Benjamin. Were thirty and five thousand and four hundred. Of the children of Dan. By their generations. After their families. By the house of their fathers. According to the number of the names. From twenty years old and upward. All that were able to go forth to war. Those that were numbered of them. Even of the tribe of Dan. Were threescore and two thousand and seven hundred. Of the children of Asher. By their generations. After their families. By the house of their fathers. According to the number of the names. From twenty years old and upward. All that were able to go forth to war. Those that were numbered of them. Even of the tribe of Asher. Were forty and one thousand and five hundred. Of the children of Naphtali. Throughout their generations. After their families. By the house of their fathers. According to the number of the names. From twenty years old and upward. All that were able to go forth to war. Those that were numbered of them. Even of the tribe of Naphtali. Were fifty and three thousand and four hundred. These are those that were numbered. Which Moses and Aaron numbered. And the princes of Israel. Being twelve men. Each one was for the house of his fathers. So were all those that were numbered of the children of Israel. By the house of their fathers. From twenty years old and upward. All that were able to go forth to war in Israel. Even all they that were numbered were six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty. But the Levites after the tribe of Israel. The Levites after the tribe of their fathers. Were not numbered among them. For the Lord had spoken unto Moses saying. Only thou shall not number the tribe of Levi. Neither take the sum of them among the children of Israel. But thou shall appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of testimony. And over all the vessels thereof. And over all things that belong to it. They shall bear the tabernacle and all the vessels thereof. And they shall minister unto it. And shall encamp round about the tabernacle. When the tabernacle set it forward. The Levite shall take it down. And when the tabernacle is to be pitched. The Levite shall set it up. And the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death. And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents. Every man by his own camp. And every man by his own standard. Throughout their hosts. But the Levites shall pitch round about the tabernacle of testimony. That there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel. And the Levites shall keep the charge of the tabernacle of testimony. And the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses. So did they. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening. God, I thank you for your word. For our church. For everyone that's here. And I just thank you for the book of Numbers, Lord. As you meet with us tonight, God, please be with our pastor. Just strengthen him. And from the Holy Spirit. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, we're there in Numbers chapter number 1. And of course tonight we are starting a brand new Bible study in the book of Numbers. And we are going to be doing a chapter by chapter study in the book of Numbers. And we're calling this series Wilderness Wanderings. And tonight I'm going to preach to you out of Numbers chapter number 1. But tonight will kind of serve as an introduction to the book of Numbers as well. And I ask that you would please pray for me. Of course these types of studies are not new to us. We've done big books in the past, difficult books like Ezekiel and Isaiah. But of course these are the books of the Bible where I have to work maybe a little extra hard to make it fresh and make it interesting and make it applicable for you. I know this, that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and it's profitable. And so I hope that you will be with us over the next many weeks as we study through the book of Numbers. And I don't know, I should have probably said this this morning, but if I were you, if I were a member at Verity Baptist Church, and sometimes my wife and I wish we could just be members at Verity Baptist Church because this is the church that we dreamt of being a part of. And unfortunately we can't, we don't get to enjoy it, but we work at it. But if I were you, what I would do is I would go buy a 99 cent notebook and I would write on the cover of it the book of Numbers and I would have a notebook to take notes over the next several, many weeks on Sunday nights. You say it's already too late for that, please don't go to Dollar General, alright. But maybe you can get a notebook before Wednesday night and write on the cover of it the book of Galatians and we can study the Bible together. Of course on the back of the course of the week there's a place for you to take notes as well. What I'm going to do tonight is I'm going to walk you through Numbers chapter number one. I'm going to just give you a lot of information and statements and things of that nature and I'll make applications as we go along, but I'll honestly make most of my applications at the end of the sermon. But if you are looking for an outline, then I'll give you some different terms that maybe you could hang your outline on. The first is the term, the background. And if you're taking notes or if you want to outline it, maybe you can put number one, the background. Let me begin by giving you a little bit of the background here of the book of Numbers and of course if you notice there in Numbers chapter one and verse one, the Bible says and the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai. In the wilderness of Sinai. I want you to understand that the book of Numbers is a book that documents the wanderings of the children of Israel in the wilderness and the book of Numbers is actually a book that has a lot of interesting stories. Probably all of the famous stories that you know about the children of Israel in the wilderness are in the book of Numbers. Now between that we've got a lot of chapters like the one tonight where there's maybe not narratives and not a lot of stories but there are some interesting things in the story in the book of Numbers. In the book of Numbers, I think it gets a little bit of a bad rap because of the name because it's called the book of Numbers. People often assume that just every chapter, chapter after chapter is just, you know, senses after senses and that's actually not true. In fact, there are really only two senses in the book of Numbers. The first one is what we read tonight in chapter one and then there is another one that comes towards the end of the book and because of those numberings, this book is called the book of Numbers but it's really about the wanderings of the children of Israel in the wilderness. In fact, the book of Numbers could be outlined by the traveling of the children of Israel in the wilderness before they enter the promised land and really it could be outlined by their wandering or traveling through three different wilderness areas. Let me just kind of give that to you as a little bit of a breakdown so you can understand the book of Numbers. I think sometimes when people read the Bible, they just read it and read it and they don't really stop to kind of understand what's going on. And if you notice there in verse one, I pointed it out to you, the Bible says, And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai. And the children of Israel will actually travel over the next 40 years through three different wilderness areas that will be covered in the book of Numbers and the book of Numbers can actually be outlined through those areas. So if you want to jot this down just for your own information, chapters one through ten and in fact specifically chapters one through chapter ten and verse ten cover the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. Now I'm going to explain to you how they got there and what they're doing there in Sinai here in a minute but maybe you can just jot this down. From chapter one to chapter ten and verse ten, we have the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. From chapter ten and verse eleven to chapter twelve, we have the children of Israel traveling from the wilderness of Sinai to the wilderness of Paran. So they travel to the wilderness of Paran and they are traveling from the wilderness of Sinai to the wilderness of Paran. Just to help you kind of understand this. As they travel through the wilderness, they're making their way to the Promised Land. Mount Sinai is where Moses went up and spent 40 days and 40 nights, two different times he did that. He received the law of God and he comes down. I'm going to talk about that here in a minute. But in Sinai what they are doing is they are preparing themselves to cross the wilderness and to enter into the Promised Land. When they get to the wilderness of Paran, so you've got chapters one through ten, it's all preparation for them to leave and to begin this journey towards the Promised Land. Chapters one to chapter ten, verse ten. Chapter ten, verse eleven to chapter twelve, they're actually traveling to the wilderness of Paran. Now here's one thing you need to understand about the book of Numbers is that it's a very negative book. The children of Israel have a bad trip on this wilderness. It should have been something that would have taken somebody to journey this about two weeks to do. God is specifically having them do it slower because he's trying to prepare them and help them, but they end up turning this trip into a 40 year wandering because of their rebellion. And when they leave Sinai towards Paran, things already begin to fall apart. And we're going to see the stories of Aaron and he's rebelling against Moses, of course, and speaking ill of him. We're going to see all sorts of just rebellion. The children of Israel are complaining and there's all sorts of things that happen. God sends serpent, God sends all sorts of different things to judge the people. Now when they get to chapter thirteen, at this time they are in the wilderness of Paran. And the wilderness of Paran and their journeyings here are covered from chapter thirteen to chapter nineteen. Now Paran is about halfway between Sinai and the Promised Land. Paran is when they send the twelve spies. Remember they send the twelve spies into Canaan land. Twelve spies went to Canaan land, ten were bad and two were good. They came back with an evil report and all of that mess. And Paran is where that happens. And because of the children of Israel, because ten spies come back with an evil report and they cause the children of Israel to rebel and to not want to go into the Promised Land, God ends up punishing them and he tells them that they're not going to enter the Promised Land and he's going to basically have them wander in the wilderness so that generation dies up and then it is their children that will actually enter into the Promised Land. All of this happens in that wilderness of Paran and it's covered in chapters thirteen through nineteen. Then chapters twenty to twenty-one, we have the children of Israel leaving the wilderness of Paran and they're traveling to the plains of Moab. They are traveling to the wilderness of Moab or to the plains of Moab. Chapters twenty-two to thirty-six cover the time that they had in the plains of Moab. If you remember the stories, of course, in the plains of Moab they actually win some battles. They actually begin to take some of the land on this side of Jordan that they're going to have as part of their Promised Land. Of course, this is where Moses dies and the children of Israel after that enter into the Promised Land. So I want you to understand that this book really is about the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel. Chapters one through ten cover the wilderness of Sinai. Chapters ten through twelve cover the travel from Sinai to Paran. Chapters thirteen through nineteen cover the wilderness of Paran. Chapters twenty to twenty-one cover the traveling from Paran to the plains of Moab. And chapters twenty-two to thirty-six cover the events that take place in the plains of Moab. Let me help you understand a little bit of just kind of the context and the background of the book and the timing of the book. If you'll notice there again in verse number one and verse one. And I apologize, this might feel more like a college lecture. And that's okay, it's good for you to learn the Bible and I'll bill you your tuition. And you can pay me and I'll give you the answers to the midterm, alright? In verse one the Bible says, And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation. Now I want you to notice this, okay? Notice this phrase. On the first day of the second month in the second year. On the first day of the second month in the second year. Here's what I want you to understand. The book of Numbers begins in the first year and first month after the children of Israel have left the land of Egypt, alright? We're in the second month of the second year. So they've had a year and one month pass since they left Egypt. And we are, just so you understand the context of where we are right at the beginning of the book of Numbers, we are one year and one month into their journey in the wilderness. It's the second, they're in the second year, they're in the first month of the second year. Now let me just give you some of this information just so you can kind of understand and have some context, alright? The book of Genesis, so the first books of the Bible, often referred to as the law, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, also known as the Pentateuch, are all books given to us by Moses, written by Moses. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ said. He referenced these books as the books of Moses. The book of Genesis takes us from obviously the creation of the universe to right before the family of Israel, and I use that term family, and I'm talking about the actual family, the twelve literal sons of Jacob, of Israel, and their wives and their children. The Bible tells us seventy souls. The book of Genesis takes us from the beginning of the universe to right before, or right as the family of Israel, those seventy souls, entered into Egypt, alright? And obviously there's a lot that happens there in Genesis. The first twelve chapters deal with the origins of man. We've got creation, we've got the flood, we've got the Tower of Babel, of course we have the fall of man, Adam and Eve, all that. We've got the Tower of Babel. Once we've dealt with those first twelve chapters that deal with the origins of man and kind of how man came to be, then we begin to focus on one man by the name of Abraham in Genesis chapter 12. Of course if you follow the book of Genesis, you have the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and it ends with highlighting the life of a very exceptional young man by the name of Joseph. When the book of Genesis ends, the family of Joseph is entering into Egypt, and it's just a family, about seventy souls. The book of Exodus takes us from the enslavement and the growth of the children of Israel, they grow in Egypt from a family to a nation. They multiply and they are persecuted. They are put into slavery, and the book of Exodus covers that growth, that enslavement, the enslavement of the children of Israel in Egypt, and the book of Exodus takes us to one year after the deliverance of Egypt by Moses. So when we end the book of Exodus, we have now been out, the children of Israel have been out of Egypt for about one year. And then the book of Leviticus, and let me just kind of show this to you. Go to Exodus chapter 40 just real quickly. Exodus chapter 40, you've got Genesis and the book of Exodus. So Genesis takes us from creation to right before the family of Israel enters Egypt. Exodus takes us from that family multiplying into a nation, being enslaved, and then being delivered by Moses, and of course this happened over many, many years. And the book of Exodus ends about one year after the children of Israel have been delivered out of the land of Egypt. The book of Leviticus covers pretty much one month. The book of Leviticus picks up right where the book of Exodus ended. The book of Exodus ends one year after the deliverance. So they come out of Egypt one year later where the book of Exodus ends. The book of Leviticus begins one year after they've left the children of Israel, and it covers one month. Exodus chapter 40, look at verse 17. And it came to pass, notice it, in the first month, in the second year. Do you see that? So we're one year into this thing. They're in their second year, but it's the first month of the second year on the first day of the month that the tabernacle was reared up. Because if you remember our study in the book of Leviticus, the book of Leviticus is pretty much just a manual for the Levites and for the priests where it explains to them, it's like a job manual. It explains to them how to do the sacrifices, how to do certain things, things that they were responsible for. And of course during that time is when the tabernacle was being built. So Exodus ends one year after the children of Israel come out of Egypt. Leviticus covers pretty much one month. We're told here the first month and the second year on the first day of the month that the tabernacle was reared up. Now compare that to Numbers chapter 1. Numbers chapter 1 verse 17, we're told, And it came to pass in the first month of the second year. Do you see that? First month of the second year. Numbers chapter 1 and verse 1, we're told, On the first day of the second month of the second year. So notice we're just one year, one month, excuse me. Between Exodus and Numbers is the book of Leviticus and one month has gone by. So Genesis covers creation to before the family of Israel enters Egypt. Exodus covers the children of Israel, the family of Israel in Egypt, becomes a nation, gets enslaved, and it takes us one year after they've came out of Egypt. Leviticus covers one month between the first year, the second year and the first month, one year complete, and then the first month of the second year and the second month is where the book of Numbers takes us. And then the book of Numbers takes us from year 2 and one month to year 40. So the book of Numbers covers a big part of the history of the children of Israel. Exodus covers one year, Leviticus covers one month. When we begin the book of Numbers, we are one year and one month into their wilderness wanderings, and then Numbers takes us all the way through to 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. And then the book of Deuteronomy, just so you understand, the book of Deuteronomy, the word Deuteronomy means the giving of the second law. It means when the law was given again. And the book of Deuteronomy is pretty much just a speech or a sermon. You know, if you complain about the length of my sermons, the book of Deuteronomy is a sermon that Moses gave to the children of Israel right before he died where he basically re-taught them all the laws and he went through the history and it's just kind of his final words of wisdom before he dies. And all of that happens, of course, right before he goes out to Mount Pisgah and he dies and God buries him and the children of Israel enter into the Promised Land. So the book of Deuteronomy really just covers, the book of Deuteronomy starts right where the book of Numbers ends and it's just a transcription of Moses giving a final speech before he dies and then the children of Israel enter the Promised Land and then, of course, we have the book of Joshua. So I hope that makes sense and I hope you kind of understand because I want you to just get your mind around kind of where we're at. We're one year into this thing, one year and one month. They have already built the tabernacle and they've been given the book of Leviticus and they've been given all the instructions for the priesthood but now we're going to spend the first ten chapters of Numbers preparing to enter, to cross the wilderness and to enter into the Promised Land. So number one, I said I wanted to give you the background and we kind of covered that using there verse number one. The second heading that you could use for the outline tonight is the census. I want you to notice that in verses two and three. So in verse one we covered the background and in verses two and three we'll cover the census. I've already spoken about this but this is where the book of Numbers gets its name. Numbers chapter one verse two. Take ye the sum, the word sum means the total number of all the congregation of the children of Israel after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their poles. Now I want you to notice here in verse three that this was not a census or a numbering or a taking of the sum of all of the children of Israel but it was a military census. Notice verse three. From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel, thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies. So the book of Numbers, like I've already stated, is called Numbers because there is a census that takes place at the beginning of the book. We see it here in chapter one. And then we see another census that happens towards the end of the book, specifically in chapter twenty-six. Now if you're wondering why there are two census that are taken, you've got to keep in mind that the book covers forty years. And in chapter one we have the children of Israel who literally came out of Egypt and have been out of Egypt for one year and God is wanting them to enter into the Promised Land so he takes the census of how many men are able and available to go to war. I've already kind of spoiled the plot for you but when they get to Paran, if you didn't know it, the children of Israel rebel against God and they choose not to go into the Promised Land. They're afraid of the Anakins and they're afraid of the Giants and they're afraid of all the things that are scary over in the Promised Land and as a result, God punishes them and God tells them that they will wander in the wilderness for forty years and he's going to kill off that generation and it will be the next generation that enters into the Promised Land. So when we get to Numbers twenty-six, that first generation has already died off. And when we're at the Plains of Moab, we're actually dealing with the second generation. The people that were children in chapter one and chapter twenty-six, now they are adults and that's why we now take a second census in the book of Numbers because that's right before, that's the actual people that actually entered the Promised Land that actually went in to fight the wars with Joshua so a second census is taken about thirty-eight years later. So we see these census and this is where the book gets its name, the book of Numbers and this is why a lot of times people are kind of afraid of this book because they think that they're just going to be reading all these chronologies but there's really not that many of them. It's called the book of Numbers because of the census two that are taken in chapter one and in chapter twenty-six and they are divided by probably about thirty-eight years. The census is a military census in which the men who can go to war are counted, you'll notice there in verse three it says, from twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel, thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies. Let me just go ahead and highlight this because it's going to come up over and over and over again and I want you to notice it, this idea from twenty years old and upward. You're going to see that phrase over and over and over again in this chapter because they're counting the men who are able to go to war from twenty years old and upward, twenty years old and upward, twenty years old and upward. So let me just go ahead and kind of highlight that and make an application here that in the Bible you were considered an adult when you were twenty years old and upward. And doesn't that kind of make sense? Because, you know, in the United States of America you're an adult when you're eighteen. But here's the thing, eighteen still has this word in it, teen. And nineteen still has this word in it, teen. But twenty doesn't have that word in it anymore. So, you know, God is always better and logical and smarter and it just kind of makes more sense than instead of saying like, well, when you're twelve you're a child, which you are, and thirteen you're a child and fourteen you're a child and fifteen you're a child and we know that obviously you're becoming a young person, a young adult, but you're still not an adult at thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen. The U.S. says eighteen, now you're an adult, now you can smoke, now you can go to war, whatever. But God says, no, no, you're an adult when you're twenty years old. And obviously that's not a law in our country, it's just an observation to make. And obviously legally speaking eighteen year olds are adults in this country. But in the Bible God defines you as an adult at twenty years old. This is one of the reasons why I do not advise that people get married until they are twenty years old. Now, look, my wife and I got married when we were eighteen and I got married like two weeks after I graduated high school and I'm thankful for that and it worked out great for us, but I got married when I was eighteen and now the thirty-seven year old version of me tells eighteen year olds, wait, okay. Now it worked out great for me, but I've seen it work out not very great for a lot of people. In fact, I would say that the vast majority of people that get married young, they have a rough go at it. Now it worked out great for us, but we were the exception, not the rule. So I don't advise that children get married when they're teenagers still. Now I'll do it and I've done it because they're legally allowed to in this country, but whenever I do it, I always tell them I don't advise it, I don't think it's a good idea, and eventually they all agree. Once they're twenty, they all realize, oh, I see what you meant, and that's just how it goes. So we see the background, verse one. We see the senses, verses two and three, and then verses four through sixteen. Now some of you are worried because I'm twenty-four minutes into this thing and we've only made it to verse three. But this chapter is about to speed up here in a minute, okay. In verses four through sixteen, we see the leaders. The leaders. Notice the breakdown of the leadership of the children of Israel. Numbers chapter one, verse four. And with you there shall be a man of every tribe, every one head of the house of his fathers. And these are the names of the men that shall stand with you. I love that phrase. This is God speaking to Moses, and he's telling Moses, you need men that will stand with you. You know, the ministry is not a one-man show. It's not this one-man circus. The ministry requires any ministry, whether it's Moses' ministry leading all of these people through the wilderness, or whether it's Verity Baptist Church with about two hundred people in it, every leader needs men that will stand with him. And here we're told that these men shall stand with you. Notice of the tribe of Reuben Eliezer, the son of Shaddiweir. Now he's going to begin to actually give us the names of the twelve men, and these twelve men were the heads of their tribe. Now Moses was the leader of the whole nation, but you can kind of think of these twelve tribes like states. These would be like the governors of the individual tribes or states, and then Moses is the one in charge. He's the chief executive officer. And here we're told about these twelve men. These are the names of the men that shall stand with you. Notice of the tribe of Reuben Eliezer, the son of Shaddiweir. Of Simeon Shalumiel, the son of Zeroshadai. Of Judah, I want you to notice here in verse seven, Nahshon, the son of Amenadab. Now there are some, and I'm sure someone's going to come up with some other ones that I probably missed and that's okay, but there are some names that I just want to highlight for you that are kind of not well known, but just kind of interesting figures that you should be aware of. The first one is here in verse seven of Judah. So he already told us the leader of the tribe of Reuben is that guy named Eliezer. Then in verse six of the tribe of Simeon is Shalumiel. But in verse seven we're told of Judah, Nahshon, the son of Amenadab. Now let's run a verse real quick just to kind of show you something about this Nahshon. Keep your finger there in Numbers chapter one and go with me to the book of Matthew in the New Testament. Matthew chapter number one. Now if you're familiar with the book of Matthew, you know that we're going to the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this genealogy goes from Christ all the way back to the characters of the Old Testament, all the way back to Abraham, then of course Luke takes us all the way back to Adam. In Matthew chapter one and verse four, the Bible says, And Aram begat Amenadab, and Amenadab begat Nahshon. We read in Numbers one seven of Judah, Nahshon, the son of Amenadab. Here in Matthew chapter one and verse four, we're told about the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ, that Aram begat Amenadab, and Amenadab begat Nahshon. In Matthew one and verse four, that Amenadab that begat Nahshon is the Nahshon, the son of Amenadab, in Numbers chapter one verse seven. And that kind of makes sense because Jesus was born of the tribe of Judah. So he's a descendant of Judah. But I want you to notice who he's related to. Matthew one four. And Aram begat Amenadab, and Amenadab begat Nahshon, and Nahshon begat Solomon, and Solomon begat Boaz of Rakab. These names should start sounding familiar to you if you've read the Bible. And Boaz begat Obed of Ruth, and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David the king. So this Nahshon, the son of Amenadab, is the great, great, great grandfather of David, of King David, and of course he's in the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ. So just interesting, I want you to notice that these leaders, they are no joke. They weren't just these puppets that were put up. No, these were godly men. I mean this Nahshon, the son of Amenadab, is the great, great, great grandfather of David. Obviously he's the grandfather, and he is a grandfather in the lineage of these great men. Boaz was a great man in his right, David a great man. Solomon will follow, and then of course this lineage goes all the way to the Lord Jesus Christ. Go back to Numbers chapter 1, and it's kind of what we talked about this morning, about the fact that we should not waste our opportunity when it comes to raising our children. I think sometimes adults, we as adults, especially men, because men tend to have some drive and have some ambition, at least they should. Some men don't, and unfortunately in our society it's becoming more and more that we have these beta males who want to sit around and play video games all day and do nothing with their lives, and not have any drive and not have any initiative and not have anything, and I don't know what to tell you. You should probably go get a testosterone shot or something. But men are supposed to want to fight. They're supposed to want to build. They're supposed to want to accomplish something, win something, conquer something, be great at something, and these men. But here's what I would say to you. What if the greatest thing you did was not something you did, but someone you raised? Because I think sometimes men can get distracted with all their exploits and forget that God has given them children to raise. What if the greatest thing that you could do, the greatest thing that you could do, is not some business you built or some hobby you were great at, but like this man, Amenadab, the son of Nahasan, we don't know anything about him 4,000 years later, thousands and thousands of years later. We don't know anything about him. We have a name on a list in the book of Numbers and in the book of Matthew, but we know this. He's a great, great, great grandfather of David. He's a great, great grandfather of Boaz. He's in the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ, and one of the greatest things that he did was he picked up a baton and he carried it. We see him serving in his lifetime as a leader of the children of Judah, and then he passed it on to the next generation. And that's a great thing to do with your life. Go back to Numbers chapter 1, look at verse 8. Numbers chapter 1 verse 8, And I want you to notice here, of the children of Joseph, the Bible tells us, And I realize that some of you know this, but let me just explain it for those of you that don't. Oftentimes, people get confused with the Bible. The Bible tells us of Ephraim, Elishama, the son of Amahud, of Manasseh, Gamaliel, the son of Patazur. And I realize that some of you know this, but let me just explain it for those of you that don't. Oftentimes, people get confused with the numberings here. Because we end up having 12 tribes, but we actually have 13. Because at the end of the book, God is going to tell us, Don't count the children of Levi, the descendants of Levi and the tribe of Levi. What happens is that in order to have 12 tribes, 12 is a big number throughout the Bible. You have the 12 sons of Israel and the 12 tribes of Israel. In order to have 12 tribes with 12 different locations, but you really have 13 tribes, because you have one tribe, the tribe of Levi, that doesn't get a location. What happens is that the tribe of Joseph, because remember Joseph was a son of Israel. There is no tribe of Joseph, right? There's the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Issachar. There's no tribe of Joseph because of the fact that Joseph as a tribe is divided into two. He had two sons in Egypt, one by the name of Manasseh and one by the name of Ephraim. And these two tribes are the tribes that enter into the 12 tribe system, and there's the two sons of Joseph. Let me just quickly explain this. I'm not going to have you run to any verses. You can do this on your own. In the Bible, the eldest son was supposed to receive a double portion. So if you had 12 sons, what you were supposed to do at your death is divide all of your goods into 13. And 11 of your sons got 11 portions, and then the firstborn got a double portion. He got twice as much as everyone else. The Bible tells us that Reuben was the firstborn of Jacob, of Israel. And if you remember from the book of Genesis, Reuben kind of pissed off his dad and disqualified himself. When the Bible says that actually Jacob said that he went us up to thy father's bed. And if you remember, Reuben had a physical relationship, not with his mother, but with one of his father's wives. And as a result, Jacob did not give him a double portion. And what ended up happening was Joseph got the double portion that Reuben was supposed to get. But instead of Joseph getting the double portion, just one portion went to one of his sons, Manasseh. The other portion went to another of his sons, Ephraim, which is why you have the 12 tribes of Israel. You don't see a tribe of Joseph, but you see the tribes of Ephraim and you see the tribes of Manasseh. Notice there in verse 10, of the children of Joseph, of Ephraim, Elishama, the son of Amahud, of Manasseh, Gamaliel, the son of Patazor. Now, let me just highlight this. Notice there in verse 10, Elishama, the son of Amahud. Here we have another kind of well-known, famous character in this lineup. Go to 1 Chronicles, if you would. 1 Chronicles, chapter number 7. You have Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 1 Kings, 1 Chronicles. 1 Chronicles, chapter 7. Now, Elishama, the son of Amahud, is of what tribe? Of Ephraim, right? Of Ephraim, Elishama, the son of Amahud. So who's this guy related to? A famous character from Ephraim. 1 Chronicles, chapter 7, verse 26. Laid and his son, Amahud his son, Elishama his son. So notice in 1 Chronicles 7, 26, we have Elishama, the son of Amahud. This is who's talked about in Numbers, chapter 1 and verse 10. 1 Chronicles 7, 26, Laid and his son, Amahud his son, Elishama his son. Then notice, verse 27, Nun his son, Jehoshua his son. Who is this referring to? This Jehoshua, the son of Nun, is what we would know as Joshua, the son of Nun, who was of the tribe of Ephraim. So this Elishama, the son of Amahud, in Numbers 1 and verse 10, is the grandfather of Jehoshua, the son of Nun. And it's interesting, because here we have Elishama, the son of Amahud, in Numbers, chapter 1 and verse 10, who is a leader of the tribe of Ephraim, and he has a grandson by the name of Jehoshua, who at the end of this book will become the leader of the children of Israel. Again, an emphasis on parenting and on making sure that we give the next generation. You've heard me say it before, but there is no success without succession. We've got to make sure we raise the next generation and these kids coming up behind us, that we prepare them and get them ready to be the leaders who will take over when we are gone. So we see this Elishama, the son of Amahud, is the leader of the tribe of Ephraim. He is the grandfather of Jehoshua, the son of Nun. We saw that Naishon, the son of Amminadab, is the leader of the tribe of Judah, and he is the great-great-great-grandfather of David. Go back to Numbers, chapter 1, look at verse 11. Of Benjamin Abidim, the son of Gedioni. Of Dan Ahizer, the son of Amishadai. Of Asher, Pagiel, the son of Aquaran. Of Gad, Elisa, the son of Deol. Of Naphtali, Ahira, the son of Enon. And then in verse 16, we see a description of the leaders. Now verses 14 through 15 gave us a breakdown of the leaders. In verse 16, we see a description of all these leaders. And this is what I mean by these leaders, they are no joke. I mean, we don't know a lot about them, but we know this, they are godly men. Godly men. Numbers 1, 16, these were the renowned men, renowned of the congregation. You see that word renowned, it means well-known or famous. They were the renowned of the congregation princes, which that word prince is not what you and I think. We think of a prince like the son of a king, but the word prince in the Bible simply means a leader or the first. It's what we get in Ephesians, we're talking about principalities. They were princes, they were leaders of the tribe, of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel. They were the head of their tribe and they were heads of thousands in Israel. So in verses 4 through 16, we see the leaders of the children of Israel. Then in verses 17 through 46, we see the totals of this sum. We see the totals of the census, notice it. Verse 17, And then we get a breakdown of the totals. We already read it, but let's look at it real quickly. First we have the tribe of Reuben, which is of course the firstborn son of Jacob, and we get the total of the tribe. Verse 20, So the tribe of Reuben is 46,500. Now when we get to numbers 26, 25 weeks from now, you won't remember this, but when we get there, we'll compare the two census, 38 years after, and we'll see how the numbers change. But here we have the tribe of Reuben, 46,500. Then in verses 22 and 23, we have the tribe of Simeon. Verse 22, Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Simeon, were 50 and 9,300. So we have the tribe of Simeon, 59,300. Of the children of Gad, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names from 20 years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war, those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Gad, were 40 and 5,650. So 45,650. Now it's interesting, just so you know, little FYI, all of these numbers are obviously being rounded to the closest hundred. You have 46,500, 59,300. All of them except for the tribe of Gad. For some reason, the tribe of Gad is not rounded to the closest hundred. The number we're given is 45,650. Why that is, I don't know, and you don't know either, so don't tell me. But if I had to guess, I would say that maybe the reason why it's not rounded to the nearest hundred, maybe it just literally, they just actually counted 45,650. And then they were just like, well, let's just go with that number. You know, I don't know. But that's the number. Then we have the tribe of Judah. Verse 26, of the children of Judah, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names from 20 years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war, all that were numbered of them, even the tribe of Judah, were three score and 14,600. So three score, remember Abraham Lincoln? Four score and seven years ago. A score is 20. These are three score, meaning 60, and 14,000. So that's 74,600. So 74,600. The ends there are not used in the same way that you were taught in your middle school math class. It's just dividing the numbers. It doesn't stand for a decimal or anything like that. Verse 28, and some of you don't even know what I'm talking about, but that's fine. Of the children of Issachar, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names from 20 years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war, those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Issachar, were 54,400. So 54,400. Of the tribe of Zebulun, this is tribe number six. Of the children of Zebulun, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names from 20 years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war, those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Zebulun, were 57,400. 57,400. You say, why are you reading all this? Because about 10 years from now, I want to be able to say that I preach through every verse of this Bible. So just bear with me. We'll just get through this. Of the children of Joseph, namely, of the children of Ephraim, by their generation, because remember, Joseph is divided into two. Of the children of Ephraim, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names from 20 years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war, those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Ephraim, were 40,500. Of the tribe of the children of Manasseh, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of their names from 20 years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war, those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Manasseh, were 32,200. So 32,200. Of the tribe of Benjamin, excuse me, of the children of Benjamin, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of their names, from tens of years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war, those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Benjamin, were 30 and 5,400. So that's 35,400. And the tribe of the children of Dan, of the children of Dan, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of their names, from tens of years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war, those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Dan, were 3 score and 2,700. That's 62,700 of the children of Asher, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of their names, from tens of years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war, those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Asher, were 40 and 1,500. 41,500 of the children of Natali, throughout their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from tens of years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war, all those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Natali, were 50 and 3,400, 53,400. And then we get the grand total, numbers 144. These are those that were numbered, which Moses and Aaron numbered, and the Prince of Israel, being 12 men, each one was of the house of his fathers, so were all these that were numbered of the children of Israel, by the house of their fathers, from tens of years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war in Israel, even all they that were numbered, 600,000 and 3,500, and thanks to God, 50. 603,550 men able to go to war, 20 years old and upward. And I just want to say this, and I hope you will agree with this, I just want you to notice the emphasis that God puts on attention to detail. God wants things done well. He wants things done right. And I realize that I sometimes have an extreme with this. On Easter I had maybe two different of our guests say to me and express to me how they were impressed, how well our church was organized, and it ran well. I would say that one of the compliments that I probably get for our church as I travel this country and preach in different places, people often bring up to me how well organized this ministry is and how it runs well and all those things, and it's one of my pet peeves and attention to detail. But let me tell you something, this is something that God cares about. He didn't just want this mob in the wilderness. He wanted them numbered, He wanted them organized. Next week in chapter 2, we're going to see how He divided the camp. He wanted them organized and ready to go. And let me tell you something, the Bible says that, Whatsoever thy hand finds to do, do it with thy might. If you're going to do something, you're going to do it for God, why don't you do it right, why don't you take your time, why don't you make sure it's done well, and quit being sloppy, and quit having bad attention to detail. You know, and look, I get it, I'm a freak of nature when it comes to it, and I'm the type of person, it's a curse, I walk into a room and I just see everything that's wrong with everything, and nobody else sees it, I get that. But you're not me, but try to be better. I mean, I don't know how many times I have walked into this church building, I'm talking about this church building, I've walked into that foyer, and I walk in and the lights are off. And I realize it's daytime, and I realize the sun's coming through the window, and I realize that it's not dark because it's daytime, but I think to myself, there's no way, I mean there's no way, out of all the people that have walked through this foyer today, there's no way that I'm the only one that notices that the lights are off, right? But I don't say that, I just go turn the lights on and go to my office. The point that I'm making is this, attention to detail. If you're going to do something for God, do it right. If you're going to do something for God, make sure it's good, make sure it looks good, make sure you're doing it right, make sure you're paying attention, number them. You said there's like 600,000 of them, take your time and number them. We see God's attention to detail, He likes things done well, ran well, and organized. Then in verses 47 through 54, we see the exemption. So we saw the background in verse 1, the sentences in verses 2 to 3, the leaders in verses 4 through 16, the totals in verses 17 through 46, and then the exemption, verses 47 to 54, numbers 1 and verse 47. But the Levites, after the tribe of their fathers, were not numbered among them. Notice there's an exemption to this. The Levites were not numbered, for the Lord had spoken unto Moses, saying, Only thou shalt not number the tribe of Levi, neither take the sum of them among the children of Israel, but thou shalt appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony. And over all the vessels thereof, and over all the things that belong to it, they shall bear the tabernacle, and all the vessels thereof, and they shall minister unto it, and shall encamp round about the tabernacle. We're going to talk about this next week, how the children of Israel were to encamp round about the tabernacle, and the rest of the tribes were arranged around the tabernacle. We won't spend time on that now. Verse 51, And when the tabernacle seteth forward, the Levites shall take it down. This was the job of the Levites. They were to take down and to put up the tabernacle. If you remember, the tabernacle was their holy place, but it was also a tent that needed to be taken down. When the tabernacle seteth forward, the Levites shall take it down, and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up. Remember, God is organizing them to go, to move. They're going to travel through the wilderness, and they're supposed to go into the Promised Land. The Levites shall set it up, and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death. Verse 52, And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp. This is going to be emphasized in chapter 2, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it, but I just want you to notice that we're seeing God's organization. He is organized. Because remember, these were slaves. Now they've been out of Egypt, and they've already messed up. They've already worshiped the golden calf, and they've already kind of been scattered around at the foot of Mount Sinai, and God is saying, Hey, we're getting ready to go, but let's get things organized. I want you to start by counting everyone. And then he's going to start organizing them and putting them into different areas. Verse 52, And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard, throughout their host. But the Levites shall pitch round about the tabernacle of the testimony, that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel, and the Levites keep the charge of the tabernacle of the testimony, and the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses. That's a great statement. It's going to go downhill real fast, but that's a great statement. So did they. And that is the end of chapter 1. Now let me just real quickly give you some takeaways, some applications, because I need to give you some takeaways. Go to Luke. Matthew, Mark, Luke. Is that okay? I know we spent a lot of time in Luke already, but let me just give you some real quick applications. Some takeaways from Numbers chapter 1. All right, some things that you can learn. I hope you've learned some things from Numbers chapter 1 already. And I hope you've learned some things about the book of Numbers and all that. But real quickly, let me just give you some applications, some takeaways. The first thing we see, and I've already talked about it, but I just want to say it again. We see in Numbers chapter 1, and we'll see throughout the book of Numbers, the importance of preparation. Notice that God doesn't, we're going to spend the first 10 chapters. It's not till chapter 10 and verse 11 that they actually begin to wander in the wilderness, or to travel in the wilderness. God is going to spend 10 chapters with these people, organizing them, and preparing them to go to battle in the promised land. Now, unfortunately, they're not going to make it, and they're not going to do it, but not because God did not get them ready, and not because God did not prepare them. We see the importance of preparation. Are we there in Luke 14? Look at verse 31. I've just missed Luke already. I've got to go back to it. Luke chapter 14 and verse 31. Luke 14, 31. Or what king, Jesus said, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first and consulteth, that word means to seek advice or information, consulteth whether he be able with 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000. I mean, before you go to war, you might want to number how many soldiers you have. Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth in a message and desires conditions of peace. So we see the importance of preparation. I said it this morning. Success is when preparation meets opportunity. But you need to make sure that you are prepared and ready for the opportunities that God is going to bring you. This is why we see the importance of preparation. This morning I was reminded of another Jack House quote that goes like this, There is a prepared place for a prepared man. And we see the importance of preparation. Here God is numbering the people, tracking the people, organizing the people, getting them ready. Let me tell you something. Nothing happens by accident. You don't build great works. You don't fight great battles just by mistake. You've got to be ready. You've got to prepare. You've got to think. You've got to organize. And here in this book, we see the importance of preparation. Look, you've got to be prepared. You say, I want to read the Bible cover to cover this year. Well, you've got to prepare. It's not just going to happen by mistake. You're not just going to go about your day. I just went about my day doing nothing every day, 365 days. And then I read the entire Bible. Look, there's no way. The reason some of you are thinking to yourself, I never knew Numbers chapter 1 had that much information. It's because you haven't purposed to read and to study yet. You have the same Holy Spirit I have. Look, I'm not picking on you. I'm your pastor, and it's my job to help you learn the Bible. But here's all I'm saying is, you want to read the Bible? You've got to prepare for it. You need a plan. You need a purpose. You need to get ready. You need to get your Bible. You need to get a chart. You need to choose a place. You need to choose a time. You need to get up, get up, go to your chair, open up your Bible, grab a cup of coffee, and read. You want to have a good marriage? You've got to work at it. You want to raise good children? You've got to work at it. People are often, it's funny to me, and I'm going to say this, and I'm probably going to regret it, because some of you have probably said this to me, and I honestly don't remember that. If you said this to me, I can't remember you saying this. But people will say this to me. And whenever people say this to me, I think to myself, yeah, that's because you're a bad parent. But they'll say to me like, oh, you just happen to have children that are just by nature good. And what they're saying is, God gave you good children and obedient children, and mine are a mess. Look, yours are a mess because you're a mess. And mine are good because we've worked at it. And I'm not saying that arrogantly. I hope you understand my heart. But I'm just telling you, you don't have well-behaved children by accident. You don't build a church just by accident. I don't just get up on Monday and ask myself, what am I going to do today? Maybe I should go golfing. We have plans. We have purposes. We have to-do lists. We have things that we're trying to accomplish. In your life, you need to be the same way. The importance of preparation is something that just, to me, just jumps off the page as I read the book of Numbers. But let me say this as well. Go to Acts chapter 7, Luke, John, Acts, Acts chapter 7. We see the importance of preparation in the book of Numbers. But we also see how to properly determine the strength of an organization in the book of Numbers. In fact, in Numbers chapter 1. And this is a point that I'm stealing from Brother Stuckey. Because Brother Stuckey actually preached this years and years ago when he was here at our church. And I thought it was a great point. You know, the congregation of the children of Israel is likened unto a church in the New Testament. Remember, we saw Numbers chapter 1. The congregation of the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. We're going to see them in the wilderness of Paran. We're going to see them in the plains of Moab. Acts chapter 7, verse 38. Notice what the New Testament says. This is he, this is he, referring to Moses, that was, notice what they're called in the New Testament. In the church in the wilderness. In the church in the wilderness. They're called a church in the wilderness. So in some ways, they can be likened unto a church. And they really are a church because they're congregating. They're literally a called out assembly of believers in the wilderness. Which is why they're called a church in the wilderness. They've got their pastor Moses. But what's interesting to me is that the way that God determines the strength of the congregation is he determines it by the number of soldiers ready to fight. He said, I want you to count. What do you want us to count? You want us to count everyone? No, no, no. Just count the people that can fight. And it's funny to me because when it comes to church, and obviously I'm a pastor, I live in church world. But in church world, I often hear pastors and they want to boast of their numbers. Right? We run 400. We run 500. We run 600. Literally, I know of churches that will say they run 700. And then you show up there on Sunday night, there's 30 people there. And then you ask, I mean, there are churches with hundreds and hundreds of members. And then you show up to their soul winning time and virtually no one's there. Well, you know what? I mean, if you want to know our numbers, I mean, I don't know. We had 200 people in church this morning. We had 100. I think we have 188 or something here tonight. Do you know the number I'm concerned with? That soul winning number. That's the number that's going to tell me the strength of this church. When the staff guys get their status report ready, the first thing I want to look at is how many soul winners this week? Because when I read 126 soul winners this week, you know what that tells me? I want to know how many do we have that can fight? How many do we have that can pick up the sword of the word of God and get out there and do battle with Satan? Hey, God was interested in knowing how many soldiers you got. He said, look, just tell me how many soldiers we have. If you tell me how many soldiers we have, that tells me everything I need to know about everything else. That'll tell me the strength of the organization and the strength of Verity Baptist Church. It's found in how many people we have ready to go to war. Now, for those of you that don't go soul winning, I'm not mad at you, but I'm trying to get you to become a soul winner. Because the strength of this church is found and the strength of their congregation is found in how many people were able to pick up a sword and fight. Now, obviously theirs was literally physical, so it was men 20 years old and upward. But in our fight, everyone can be involved. So though I'm excited sometimes about the number that shows up on Sunday mornings and I'm excited about the number that shows up on Sunday night and Wednesday night, I'm most excited about the number of soul winners. That's the true strength of a church. Then real quickly, let me finish with one more application. Let me flip back to Acts chapter 6. In the book of Numbers, we see the importance of preparation. We see how to properly determine the strength of a congregation. And then lastly tonight, just by way of application, we see the need for layers of leadership. I mean, we saw it in the book of Numbers. It wasn't just Moses and it wasn't just Aaron. It was the 12 men who headed up those tribes. And I'm sure under those 12 men, there were probably systems in place to help them lead those tribes. This is something that is also taught in the New Testament for the New Testament church. Acts chapter 6, verse 1. And in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there was a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily administration. Then the 12 called a multitude of the disciples unto them and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, looking out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, who we may appoint over this business, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And here we see that the 12 disciples said, look, they said it is no reason that we should leave the word of God to serve tables. And when you read that in our modern vernacular, it kind of sounds rude, but I want you to understand it's a very practical thought. What the disciples are saying is, look, we got to study and be ready to preach God's word. We can't just go and serve tables. And what he's talking about is just work that needs to get done, but work that anybody can do. And honestly, I don't mean this in a rude way. I hope you understand my heart. At this church, we've got men that work here and they literally help around here serving tables. You could call. I'll be honest with you, our church, by God's grace, our church has men that has helped many of you, multiple of you, helped you guys move, helped you guys when you had issues in your house and you needed someone to go and move something or build something or put something together or help you move from one house to another or people move to our church and they're there to help. Hey, praise the Lord for it. But you know, honestly, and I hope you don't take this the wrong way, I don't show up to that. You say, why? Because I've got to figure out what Numbers Chapter 1 is about. And it is no reason that we should leave the Word of God to serve tables. And I hope you understand the spirit in which I'm saying that, but what I'm saying is this. If our church has grown and if it continues to grow, it'll grow because of the layers of leadership, because of people that step up and help. I learned a long time ago, and I'm actually going to talk about this in our series on potential, but if our church is going to take the next step to fulfill its potential, I can't do this. I can't preach and run the orchestra and run the choir and run the safety team and run the ushers. I mean, nobody can run the ushers, but the bloody tribes, but they're crazy. I'm kidding. And help with the mailers and help with this. Do you understand what I'm saying? The only way that we can fulfill our potential here is if men and women step up and say, how can I help? Where can I lead? What can I do? We see the importance of the layers of leadership. It's not a one man's show. It's not a one man and his wife's show. It's a congregation of believers coming together saying, I can help here. I can take this on. I can take this off your shoulders. I can help serve. I can help get this done. And we all strive together for the faith of the gospel. Let's bow our heads in our word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you for the book of Numbers. We've officially made it through chapter one. Lord, I pray you'd help us to learn it, study it, understand it, be moved by it, be encouraged by it, be rebuked by it. Help us to learn the word of God together. In the matchless name of Christ, we pray. Amen. We have Brother RJ coming to lead us in a final song. Just want to give you a couple of final reminders. First of all, don't forget, if you're part of the choir, ten minutes after the service ends, in the break room, Brother RJ's going to hold a meeting there and he's going to let you know and give you some handouts and things that you need for the recordings the next three weeks. So please make sure you make your way there in about ten minutes. If you could help us with that, we would appreciate it. And if you could just help us kind of look around your area there, you could put the hymn books back. Remember attention to detail? Put them right side up in the center where you see the name of the church, Verity Baptist Church. I'm just saying, you know, I don't know. Attention to detail. If you can't, that's fine. Don't worry about it. But if you could help us with that, we'd appreciate it. Kind of look around, pick up the mess that your kids made, all that. We would appreciate your help with that. It helps the cleaners next week. If there's anything we can do for you, please let us know. I want to encourage you, go out tomorrow, get yourself a 99-cent notebook and be back on Wednesday night ready to study the book of Galatians together. Galatians chapter one, verse by verse. We won't go through the whole chapter. We'll go through about half of it, verse by verse. We'll study the Word of God together. All scripture is given by inspiration from God and it's profitable. So we hope to see you here. If there's anything we can do for you, please let us know. My brother RJ, come up and lead us in a final song. Amen. Let's grab our songs and turn to page number 19. This is song number 19. And we will sing, there is a fountain filled with blood, song number 19 on the first. There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from man's graves. And sinners watch beneath the flood, lose all their guilty stains. Lose all their guilty stains. Lose all their guilty stains. And sinners watch beneath the flood, lose all their guilty stains. Song number 19 on the second. The dying king, rejoices he, the fountain of his day. And there they are, no balance. Wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. And there they are, no balance. Wash all my sins away. The dying one, thy basher's flood, shall never have lost his power. Till all the bad sons judge abide, he is saved to stand no more. He is saved to stand no more. He is saved to stand no more. Till all the bad sons judge abide, he is saved to stand no more. Ere sins by faith I saw the street, thy clothing was supplied. Between me come, has been mine. You can show me till I die. Between me come, has been mine. You can show me till I die. Between me come, has been mine. When I die, until I die, I'll see it out unto last. Then in a no worse, sweeter song, I'll sing the power to stay. When this, oh, this, big, sand rings up, lie silent in the grave. Lie silent in the grave. Lie silent in the grave. When this, oh, this, big, sand rings up, lie silent in the grave. Brother Nate, would you dismiss us with a word of prayer? In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Amen.